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Tutorial hierarchy help. What tutorial should i start reading first?

Started by zitimotley, October 10, 2013, 12:44:27 am

zitimotley

Hi all,

I've been playing FFT for more than a decade and is quite happy to discover this site. Now i don't plan on doing some hardcore hacking ( event editing, changing movesets etc..)  or anything like that but i just want to have Ch 2 Delita in my party with all the proper formation sprite, pre battle sprite and portrait. I'm using Lion editor on my PSP and i have zero knowledge of how to do the patching and all that. Please tell me the tutorials that i need to check on ( in order ) so i can become more like the advance players here. I did use the search function to look for a similar topic but im getting a bunch of threads with lots of Jargons and as a newbie i dunno how to interpret all of them ( ASM, bins, Celdia's..). I just want to understand how do i go about correcting the sprites of some characters like Delita so they can properly appear on my formation screen. I know that we have alot of tutorials on board but i need to know which one of them would apply to what i need.

Again i have a PSP with a lion editor hooked up to it. I already played around with it so i already have things that i should not have ( Master teleportation, subdual arts, Sorceror commands etc..)

Thank you guys and more power to you all.

Angel

The battle sprite and portrait will always be correct when you pick the sprite appearance, so you'll be covered there regardless. I'm not sure if the formation sprite would be correct for Chapter 2 Delita automatically, and if it's not, I'm not sure it can be fixed in WotL. Most things that are possible on the PlayStation version just aren't possible yet in WotL.

There are two ways to go about putting a non-standard character in your party that I know to work in WotL - overwriting a character already in your party (such as one of the generics the game starts you with), or doing a small edit to an ENTD in Patcher. The former method would be either editing your save or using a cwcheat code to swap the appearance and job bytes of the given unit to the appropriate values (which you can see in Patcher), while the latter is adding Ch. 2 Delita to an ENTD of your choice with the 'join after' box checked. You could also just edit the ENTD of the Zirekile battle where he appears to have him join after, which would be the most sensible, but obviously not ideal if you've passed that point in the story already.

There isn't much in the way of WotL-specific tutorials, and the only formation sprite tutorials I know of are specifically for the PSX version. FFTPatcher is fairly straightforward, though, and while many of the ENTDs are not clearly labeled, a glance at the unit list and their attributes is usually enough to see which scene they pertain to.
  • Modding version: PSX
* Angel should quit being a lazy bitch
<@Elric> I agree to that as well

nyanyame nyanyajuu nyanyado no nyarabide nyakunyaku inyanyaku nyanyahan nyanyadai nyannyaku nyarabete nyaganyagame
At the end of the day, are we not all trapped inside lemons?

zitimotley

Hi Toshiko,

I appreciate the reply. Yes you are correct about portrait and the battle sprite but the problem in general is the pre battle formation screen and the roster screen. If you try editing your saved game through lioneditor or even CWcheat for psp WOTL, the only thing that you can do is have a generic male/female soldier change his job to that of a holy knight. There are codes that are "SUPPOSED" to change their appearance to an NPC like Delita, but for some reasons, CH 1 Ramza is the one that appears on the formation screen although it works fine during the actual battle. The same procedure works for other characters like Gafgarion or even Ovelia but characters like Delita and the templar knights do not appear in the Roster screen. They either appear as Ramza CH 1 or look glitchy. As for your 2nd method, i don't really know how that works. What is ENTD?? I don't know how to patch as well =(

Please note that i'm not looking for an instant remedy here. I'm willing to learn but i just need to know the tutorials that i should be reading.

Also, Can WOTL be patched??
i downloaded a lot of tools here but i don't know how to use them

Angel

FFTPatcher is a tool in the FFTPatcher Suite that works with both the PSX and PSP versions. As for ENTD...

Open FFTPatcher. This is what it looks like on open:


From that screen, just click on 'File' and then 'New PSP patch'. Everything will get filled up with relevant information, all of them the default values for the game untouched.

If we go to the Jobs tab...


You'll see Ch. 2 Delita's job info where it's expected. You can also see the skillset ID in the little dropdown box (1D) so that you can edit abilities for it in the Skill Sets tab should you so desire.

Now, on to the ENTD tab...


We see that 195 is the Zirekile Falls battle where you first see Ch. 2 Delita. You can just tick the little 'join after event' box and you'll be given the option to add him to your party.

When you're done, click on 'PSP' and then 'Patch War of the Lions ISO...' to apply the changes. To keep things as streamlined as possible from this point, for any further changes you make, you can just open your ISO with the existing changes by going to 'PSP' and 'Open patched ISO'. That will do exactly as it says - open your modified ISO with your existing changes intact, so you never have to do them again.


As for the formation screen sprites... I really have no idea if it's even possible to modify them in WotL. There is no standard tool for it. On PSX, you have to edit WLDFACE.BIN directly from the ISO with the appropriate graphics. If that file exists on the WotL ISO, then you can try your hand at following Celdia's tutorial, but that's all the more I can really say on the matter, since I've never done anything with WotL, myself.
  • Modding version: PSX
* Angel should quit being a lazy bitch
<@Elric> I agree to that as well

nyanyame nyanyajuu nyanyado no nyarabide nyakunyaku inyanyaku nyanyahan nyanyadai nyannyaku nyarabete nyaganyagame
At the end of the day, are we not all trapped inside lemons?

zitimotley

Thank you so much!!

One more thing though the tutorial link that you posted kind of assumes that i have done some preliminary steps. Would you know what Celdia was referring to regarding this:

"Here's the list of programs you'll need for importing new formation sprites: Shishi Sprite Editor, Graphics Gale, FFTEVGRP, CDMage
This tutorial will start by assuming you have already replaced the sprite in your  ISO with Shishi. If you haven't done that already,
do so.

Ready? Okay, good. You made sure to set the new sprite's SHP and SEQ to the proper Type for the new sprite, right? I'll wait."

Angel

Shishi is in the Patcher Suite, and is used for importing custom sprites and extracting existing sprites from either PSX or PSP ISOs. Step one would be extracting Ch. 2 Delita's sprite sheet with Shishi.

Graphics Gale is a free to use image editor that has a super incredibly useful palette editor that is FAR more intuitive than Photoshop's and incredibly valuable to spriters due to its functionality. It's practically necessary to use this for any sprite modifications at some stage or another.

FFTEVGRP is also part of the Patcher Suite, and used for editing UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN directly; it will not open an ISO; you must extract said files from an ISO first.

CDMage is used as directed, but I've honestly never touched it personally.

The line about SHP and SEQ is referring to the sprite and animation type of the sheet in question. In Shishi, you'll notice each sprite is either Type 1, Type 2, MON, ARUTE, or KANZEN. These should be irrelevant to you, since the sprite sheet isn't being modified at all, only the formation sprite (in WLDFACE.BIN). You just need to copy and crop the correct frame from Delita's sheet to create the proper formation sprite.
  • Modding version: PSX
* Angel should quit being a lazy bitch
<@Elric> I agree to that as well

nyanyame nyanyajuu nyanyado no nyarabide nyakunyaku inyanyaku nyanyahan nyanyadai nyannyaku nyarabete nyaganyagame
At the end of the day, are we not all trapped inside lemons?

zitimotley

Hi Toshiko,

I'm trying to extract the UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN files but these are the only folders that are showing up:


Angel

Looking around the WotL hacking section, there is no analog to WotL for these files. Nobody knows where exactly they are buried. This topic seems to have the most relevant information, but still turns up pretty much empty-handed. Sorry to say, but getting the formation sprite corrected is not something that's been sussed out for WotL yet.

Edit:
Also, sorry, I was afk when you joined IRC. Feel free to stop back any time, but some times are certainly busier than others. XD
  • Modding version: PSX
* Angel should quit being a lazy bitch
<@Elric> I agree to that as well

nyanyame nyanyajuu nyanyado no nyarabide nyakunyaku inyanyaku nyanyahan nyanyadai nyannyaku nyarabete nyaganyagame
At the end of the day, are we not all trapped inside lemons?

zitimotley

thank you.. this is a sad day for me.. =(

anyway maybe if you can analyze this youtube video you can shed me some light on the possibilities of hacking WOTL sprites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHiQG4G36xE

This video is definitely a WOTL game.

Glain

It's kind of funny because SilverRegret might well have found the right locations in that thread... he just stopped looking into it right as he found it!
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

zitimotley

Yes i think i know what thread you are referring to. When that thread was originally posted he was like a newbie and he was replying to himself. and then after a few replies his terms all of a sudden became so advance i could not follow. =) .

But i'm pretty sure it can be done based on that youtube video.

zitimotley

Hello,

I'm finally able to resolve my problem. After researching on this site i was able to change chapter 1 delita sprite to that of ch 2 Delita and everything is working perfectly fine now. The problem is now that i'm hooked to this hacking thing, i now want other characters in my roster. =). I found out that it's easier to change the sprites of people who were intended to be in your party but not that of NPC.

BTW i used SilverRegret's guide.