Creating a Dark Knight Ramza

[Crossplay]

So...  Guild Wars 2 dropped an expansion and I pretty much neglected this place.  I spent way too much time, energy and effort on that game.  Now I'm back and trying to pick up where I left off.

For starters, I'm keeping the Dark Knight name because I don't feel like changing several squire entries and praying that I happen to change the right one to Ebon Knight.  That's too much work for too little pay off.  On that same line of thought, so it trying to program the skills for War of the Lions into the PSX version.  Instead, I settled on creating new ones.

* Vengeance: Single target attack that does damage depending on missing HP.
  - A very high risk, high reward skill and non-elemental.

* Ebon Veil: PBAoE that turns nearby allies Invisible. Cost MP.
   - This will allow hit and run tactics.  It has a MP cost to keep it in balance and make Dark Sword worth using.

* Shadowfall: Line attack that may inflict Darkness.  Cost MP.
   - This has the longest reach but all it does is damage.  Again, MP cost to keep it balanced.

* Knightfall: Powerful PBAoE that may inflict Death Sentence.  Cost MP.
   - Very powerful attack but need to be surrounded for the best usage.  Very high MP cost.

I'm still ironing out a few minor quirks.  For instance, in the prelude battle, Ramza has Night Sword learned but, in Chapter 1, he has Knightfall learned instead.  I'm hoping that pasting the Chapter 2/3 version of Ramza over Chapter 1 will fix this.  If not, I'll need alternatives.  I don't want to use "Wish" as mentioned earlier in this thread as Delita uses it.  I'm trying to avoid spreadsheets too as I don't have Excel.

For Ebon Veil, I'm using the formula for applying minor boons [Hit_F(MA+X)%, NE] but it doesn't work 100% on party members, even though I've set X to 200.  I'm not sure if I should let that slide or use a different formula.  Any tips on this?

[Jumza]

For starters, I'm keeping the Dark Knight name because I don't feel like changing several squire entries and praying that I happen to change the right one to Ebon Knight.

If you're only changing Ramza the first 3 jobs (all named Squire) are him. (ch1 / ch2 and 3 / ch4)

I'm still ironing out a few minor quirks.  For instance, in the prelude battle, Ramza has Night Sword learned but, in Chapter 1, he has Knightfall learned instead.  I'm hoping that pasting the Chapter 2/3 version of Ramza over Chapter 1 will fix this.  If not, I'll need alternatives.  I don't want to use "Wish" as mentioned earlier in this thread as Delita uses it.  I'm trying to avoid spreadsheets too as I don't have Excel.

You might be out of luck, as I recall Ramza is hardcoded to learn Wish at the beginning of the game (if it's in his skillset), there is an excel sheet that you can use to edit that but... You said you don't have excel I think that putting the ability you want him to know on the slot that wish was in before should work? I'm not sure. You should try it!

[Crossplay]

If you're only changing Ramza the first 3 jobs (all named Squire) are him. (ch1 / ch2 and 3 / ch4)

The problem is the name and description fields don't follow a specific order.  In fact I found that, in battle, Ramza's job description is still that of a Squire, even though I've changed 4 entries to match the Dark Knight description.  I'm at a loss as to which squire field I need to adjust now.

You might be out of luck, as I recall Ramza is hardcoded to learn Wish at the beginning of the game (if it's in his skillset), there is an excel sheet that you can use to edit that but... You said you don't have excel I think that putting the ability you want him to know on the slot that wish was in before should work? I'm not sure. You should try it!

I really can't change Wish because Delita uses it.  I double checked just to be sure and found that he uses it as a Holy Knight as well as a Squire.  I guess there's no avoiding Excel.  I'll see if I have any old copies hanging around from college days or something.  Any chance you know which specific spreadsheet I need to adjust?  I've seen a lot floating around and none mentioning anything remotely close to what I want to do.

1st Edit: I've taken a look at a spreadsheet which I think may allow me to do what I'm looking for and... yeah... Suddenly giving Delita Night Sword doesn't sound like a bad idea.  Better yet, I'll find a different skill to replace it with.  As for Knightfall, a simple solution hit me.  I can remove it from Ramza's Chapter 1 skillset.  It didn't show up in his skillset for the prelude so I doubt it'll show up learned for chapter 2 and 3.  By chapter 4, any player should have more than enough JP to learn it.  Hopefully all of this will work out okay.

2nd Edit:  Replaced Wish with Night Sword For Ramza and it didn't change anything.  It's still not available in the first chapter 1 battle.  Ironically, I replaced Wish with Chakra in Delita's skillset and he has it learned.  I ran the battle twice and he had it learned both times.  It's like this game is mocking me.

3rd Edit:  I think I've figured it out.  It appears that whatever skill is in the 6th position for Ramza is unlocked, regardless of what it is.  For Delita, his 2nd and 5th skill are always unlocked.  Now that I know how this is hard-coded, how do I go about fixing it?

[Jumza]

The problem is the name and description fields don't follow a specific order.  In fact I found that, in battle, Ramza's job description is still that of a Squire, even though I've changed 4 entries to match the Dark Knight description.  I'm at a loss as to which squire field I need to adjust now.

It does! If you're using TacText make sure that you're editing all the relavent fields by using the QuickEdit function. It is the first 3. The 4th one is Delita in chapter 1.

The other part, yeah I was pretty sure that it was just the slot that gets the skill learned 100% at that point in the game but I wasn't completely sure. Why not just give Ramza those unique abilities instead of Delita? They don't share a skillset

[Crossplay]

It does! If you're using TacText make sure that you're editing all the relavent fields by using the QuickEdit function. It is the first 3. The 4th one is Delita in chapter 1.

I'm not sure what you mean by QuickEdit function.  Please don't tell me there's an easier way of doing what I've been doing for the past few days.  If so, these programs need some serious documentation.

The other part, yeah I was pretty sure that it was just the slot that gets the skill learned 100% at that point in the game but I wasn't completely sure. Why not just give Ramza those unique abilities instead of Delita? They don't share a skillset

The problem is, they share the skill, "Wish".  If I change Wish, I'll change it for everyone that uses Wish.  Strangely enough, I found that Ovelia has it in her skillset too but it doesn't appear in the game.  It may be possible to use it on her and have her learn it.

[3lric]

I'm not sure what you mean by QuickEdit function.  Please don't tell me there's an easier way of doing what I've been doing for the past few days.  If so, these programs need some serious documentation.

Couple things, uh, first, you are ALREADY doing it the hardest way possible by refusing to use a spreadsheet, as the FFT TextEditor sheet is waaaaay better than the shit that is Tactext. Second, the documentation already exists, you just haven't read any of it, the quickedit tab isn't exactly hidden in tactext.

[Nyzer]

I was pretty sure that it was just the slot that gets the skill learned 100% at that point in the game but I wasn't completely sure.

Well, the Patcher shows that it's got a cost of 0 with a 100% learn chance, which means the character is guaranteed to learn it no matter the circumstances. I... don't know if there's other hardcoding involved. I mean, there could be - something left over from early development before they established the rest of their auto skill learning behavior, or maybe Wish had an actual JP cost at some point but they still wanted Ramza to have it from the start?

Couple things, uh, first, you are ALREADY doing it the hardest way possible by refusing to use a spreadsheet, as the FFT TextEditor sheet is waaaaay better than the shit that is Tactext

Yeah, it's worth getting Excel just for this. The TextEditor is fucking amazing. You should be able to get a free trial of it for a set number of uses, at the very least. And you can subscribe to Microsoft Office for some low price per month, essentially "renting" it at a rate of $8/mo. or something.

Second, the documentation already exists, you just haven't read any of it, the quickedit tab isn't exactly hidden in tactext.

Yeah, I didn't know about that change myself (I was either first using it before the option or maybe I had a crappy version of it back then) but I still found it easily enough. It's really nothing more than an option in Tactext's dropdown menu, and it worked fine for me.

[Jumza]

I'm not sure what you mean by QuickEdit function.

An option in the editor. Not too hard to find. Elric and Nyzer are right though, the spreadsheet is so much better. (I should've recommended that in the first place)

The problem is, they share the skill, "Wish".  If I change Wish, I'll change it for everyone that uses Wish.

You can edit skillsets! Add in abilities that you only want Ramza to have to his skillset, and not to Delita's.

[Crossplay]

I feel like I'm blind.  It took hours for me to finally find the thread for the FFTText Editor. One reason is because I searched for "FFT TextEditor" and "TextEditor" and only got 3 thread hits.  One of which happens to be this one.  I had forgotten how precise computers love to be.  This reminds me of my college days when a single, misplaced period caused 16 syntax errors.   Ahhh, memories...

Had to search manually.  When I finally found it, I felt even dumber because I had come across said thread several times beforehand and thought nothing of it due to looking for something else at the time.  Ran across some great tutorials about customizing sprites though!  Let's see how long it takes me to find those when I need them later!

As for quickedit, the reason I couldn't find it is because I was looking for a separate program feature with its own form, not a checked item on a list.  Turns out I was already using it.

I downloaded what I needed and added Xifanie's post to my favorites.  I'll see if Open Office can read spreadsheets tomorrow.  It's so late now, it could be considered early.

One question though.  Will this spreadsheet help me fix the issue of Ramza not having Night Blade learned in the first chapter 1 battle?  If not, just point me in the right direction, slap me on the butt and wish me luck!  I'm at the point where I've put so much time into this that anything less than perfection won't do!

[Xifanie]

Don't even bother trying; it uses VBA. And in my experience, stuff that takes 0.2sec to calculate in Microsoft Office takes 3 minutes in Open Office, Libre Office and variants. I wish I could say I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. Not to mention all the formatting broken and everything.

I mean, there's a reason the topic says "Excel 2007 or higher (with macros enabled)"

But I might be wrong, maybe Open Office has done something about that over the years... the damn thing never exactly impressed me though.

[Nyzer]

If Night Blade is not at the top of Ramza's list and he doesn't have the JP to learn everything that's above it AND Night Blade itself, he simply doesn't have the JP to learn it when his auto learn AI gets to it. Put Night Blade at the top of the list, set it to a 100% learn rate, and make sure his initial JP is high enough to learn it.

[Jumza]

I don't think it works like that for chapter 1 Ramza though, I tried it ages ago and Ramza's starting stats, items, abilities learned and set and stuff are all hardcoded. I'm pretty sure there's a spreadsheet for it though, probably in Raven's collection of spreadsheets.

[3lric]

It's in Ravens Workbooks

[Crossplay]

I've checked Raven's Spreadsheets and, as far as I can ascertain, you can change Ramza's skills, stats, equipment, level, zodiac sign, gender and even his stat growth but I didn't see anything about which skills he has already learned for the first battle.  Considering how much time I've already spent on looking for something trivial, I've decided to let it slide and use a ghetto fix instead.  I just hope I don't run into any other issues like this with the rest of the game.

[3lric]

considering this is some of the easiest stuff, I won't suggest looking at it that way.