Final Fantasy Hacktics

Modifying abilities is really nice because anytime you have a broken ability, it can easily be changed to be less broken (usually by adding an MP cost, or outright reducing the damage). But as of yet, there are no tools that deal with passives and reactions. Truth be told, except for Turbo MP, I don't think any of them are broken, HOWEVER, the computer AI cannot dynamically interact with these passives and reactions, making them very broken in the process.

Which is to say, if a unit has Reflex, and the enemy just uses regular attack and misses. Sometimes, it will keep doing regular attack to that same unit. Sometimes multiple enemies will keep doing regular attack on him. This is not good as enemies are using up their crucial turns doing nothing.

Does anyone know any way to change or modify these types of things? I'm willing to learn, I just have no clue where to look.

If there is no way at the moment, then the only recourse is to simply remove the broken passives and reactions. The ones I'm looking at:
- Turbo MP (way too absurd in a game that starts with max MP, BUT it's fun to give this to enemies every now and then).
- Halve MP (this isn't broken until we get to the big boy spells like Ultima, Hastega, etc. One way to deal is to simply increase the MP cost of most spells and better abilities, but at the same time, doing so pressures characters to basically all have Halve MP as their passive as a lot of passives aren't amazing as they are).
- Strike Back
- Magick Evade (what were they thinking)
- Reflex (might keep this one, but I don't know)

Some thoughts on this would be like:
- What if Reflex just rose evasion by an extra 10 points?
- What if Magick Evade rose evasion from magick attacks by 20?
- I don't think you can really balance Turbo MP
- Halve MP is not egregious, but in a game where almost every move costs a significant amount of MP, it feels extremely good.

Other thoughts:
- Counter Magick is problematic as you use full MP cost to activate this, despite only targeting one person. This can be a problem as what if that MP cost is so high that you are unable to perform wanted actions in the next turn? My idea is to either reduce MP cost to half or completely remove MP cost but reduce damage by 1/2.
- One of the problems with removing these abilities is that the game already feels very strapped for unique and interest passives and reactions. Removing these abilities will continue to exasperate that feeling. Counter is the most perfect idea of a reaction ability of all time, however, the game would be boring and stale if every enemy had it.

Being able to making new Action ability effects and parameters, Reactions, and Passives would be a goal but not completely necessary.

Other abilities:
- Doublehand and Charged Attacks are way too weak (+8 ATK)
- Concentrate only boosts accuracy by 5%. This is an overcorrection as in FFTA, it boosts by 20%. I think 10% is a very good compromise.

Clan Privileges:
- I actually don't know too many clan privileges but there is a clan privilege that halves MP, which stacks with Halve MP. Naturally, the only recourse I can think of is to get rid of that privilege.

Does anyone know how I can do that? Keep that privilege from being available to players.

- Bonus AP privileges are really good, however, I've found that I basically do not use any privilege but this one. In a game where privileges are basically required to use, I feel like being very pressured into basically only using these privileges is bad design. So I'm strongly considering getting rid of these abilities.
- It's with that in mind, that I would like to know, is there any way to modify the amount of AP received in a normal mission success? I know it's 80 per story mission, and 30 for anything else. Can I make it 100/50 instead?

If not, that's fine. I can simply adjust the AP needed for every action ability (not passive or reaction abilities though, as I don't know how to modify them, but those don't really need to be changed at all).

EXP Gain:

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but I wanted to know if there was a way to reduce the max amount of EXP gained per mission. I know it's 60+bonus EXP, I wanted to reduce it to either 35 or 40 per mission as I decided I wanted to reduce the level cap to 50 (or 51).

Ultima:

Ultima moves are really broken, so I think removing them is a good option.

Alternatively, right now, it's power 95 with 3x damage output (this means that it's generally doing 200 damage with a character with low Magick stat).
I was thinking that power 50 with 2x damage and 2x accuracy is a good compromise. Shouldn't 1-shot everything in sight, but still very good. Should probably have some other drawbacks as well.

So yeah, lots of questions, not all are technical or hacking, just what are your thoughts on some of these topics? Is Halve MP not completely OP? Is Ultima worth keeping? Do you think Bonus AP is bad game design?

I recall that there was a tool for modifying animations but I had no idea how to use it. Does anyone know where to find it and any specifics that can help? I already have a text editor so I can use that for the text, I just would like to know how to make new moves for unique classes instead of simply giving classes moves that other classes/races have.

This is happening to all the equipment that give skills to special classes, they just show up as "Soldier" even though the skillset hex number should be correct, and they do all properly have those skills in the skillset, and the race AP hex value needed to learn it as well.

I do have a workaround for it, but I would like for them to work as normal. Does anyone have any idea why this might happen? This has happened to me before when using the Nightmare editor in the past, but I don't remember how I handled it then.

I don't know if this is happening specifically because of my computer/OS or whatever, but any time I try to do anything regarding the Warrior's skillset called "Arts of War", it will instantly and immediately go back to the Soldier's skillset of the same name. This means I cannot make any changes to Warrior skills or even add those skills to a random unit in the formations tab.

What should I do?

Lennart found the offsets to modify to make it so that, like in FFTA, you start with Max MP instead of with 0 MP here:

https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=12414.msg227596#msg227596

There are many pros and cons between the two different MP systems. The one in FFTA made MP growth an incredibly important stat. Whereas the one in FFTA2 made MP growth almost useless past the first few levels, as no mage would ever need to have more than ~40 to ~60 current MP at a given time. And even when you have excess MP, it is very difficult to use it all up, even if you wanted to.

I was wondering if there was a way to instead of starting a battle with Max MP, you would instead start with 1/2 or even 1/4 of your Max MP and recover ~5 MP per turn - making a system that has aspects of both FFTA and FFTA2. You can start the battle with some stronger spells, won't be able to simply spam Ultima 3 turns in a row (provided you adjust the MP growth and MP costs of the classes/skills), and still have some MP to gain should you choose not to cast any spell for a few turns.

If anyone could help, or provide some input on this idea, that would be greatly appreciated!

Protect and Shell (and Defend!) are extremely weak in FFTA2. Does anyone know how to modify their values? Or really, what the address is to modify said buffs?

Blind is way too powerful imo. -50% Accuracy is a bit ridiculous. -20% Evasion is pretty bad too.
Is there a way I can modify it so that it's just either -35% or -40% Accuracy, and -10% Evasion?

And on that note, does anyone know how to nerf Concentrate similarly?

There is a certain set of bytes that allows one move to repeat animations for every person that it effects (ex:  Fire, Cure, etc.).  The problem for me is, there are certain spells/skills that target only one person in the game.  When I change the target range to allow more than one person to be hit by the specific move, the animation does not appear for all who get it - only one - but the effects still happen to each of them, regardless of the animation appearing.

I'm planning to make the Ninjutsu to be Earth Render type spells, and I want the animation to appear in each.  Another thing, I also want to be able to show how much damage it deals to the other people, but I have no idea for this too - other than in this case, it doesn't really bother me that much.

Does anyone know how to change skill names.  Honestly, it's not really a big deal for me, except that I definitely need to revamp/modify the Thiefs' skillset (replacing Steal Armor, Weapon, and Ability for other effects).

Anyone know how to edit skill/spell damage of abilities?

I'm trying to edit Mp Cost for most spells.  And some other things like I want Ninjas' spells to not be absurdly useless, or change how Unicorn is every way better than Esuna.

I heard a while back that Darthratron said we could possibly add few other jobs into this game.  While I haven't a clear idea yet.  Since it'll be taking a while for me to work out the job and monster stats, I want to take the time to talk about job reformations.

First one I decided on is:  (big surprise)  Gadgeteer, or I like to call it Tinker.

Since Moogles are supposed to be the master of support in the games, I decided that the best way of fixing Tinkers without having too much work hacking is to edit their skill set to match that of a Summoner's.

Skill                 Range, Area, Height, Effect, Ap Cost

*Red Spring:     04, 03, 03, Slow (20 Mp), 300 (200)
Silver Disc:       04, 03, 03, Blind (20 Mp), 300 (200)
Green Gear:      04, 03, 03, Poison (12 Mp), 250 (200)
Blue Screw:      04, 03, 03, Dispel (12 Mp), 250 (200)
*Gold Battery:   04, 03, 03, Berserk (18 Mp), 300 (200)
Chroma Gem:     04, 03, 03, Sleep (24 Mp), 400 (200)
Yellow Spring:   04, 03, 03, Protect + Shell (16 Mp), 300 (200)
Black Ingot:      04, 03, 03, Doom (32 Mp), 450 (200)

Of course, this would mean a great shift in their stats:  decreased Atk, Def while increased Mag, and Mp.  Note: Gold Battery was changed to Berserk instead of healing since Unicorn already heals.  And Red Spring doesn't do Haste, it does Slow because a 3 by 3 radius Haste would be broken.

Does anyone think this is good?  Or unfair?  Honestly, outside of Juggler and Gunner (Fusilier), Moogles were never good to begin with.  I think this'll help make them sufficient, if not a little bit.

Also, Darthratron, if you see this, do you think this is "possible" to do?


If you don't want to discuss this right now, we could discuss new jobs all together or the rebalancing of a different job.

This topic is meant for discussing how stat growths of jobs in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance should be modified in an attempt to further balance the game.

Note:  I have no real hacking experience nor do I have any hint of the progress made to re-balance the game.  Because of the that, opinions may vary significantly until a further unified, and general consensus is reached.  Opinions are greatly valued here, please don't hesitate to state your own.

Obviously there are certain factors there have to be examined when one should determine the modified stat growths, they are:
1.  Common Sense - Self-explanatory, this should perhaps have the biggest influence, just underneath #3.  A Time Mage should not be dealing 200 damage by smacking someone with a "wooden stick", nor should a Fighter have the highest defense in the game.
2.  Actual Game Data - Again, simple enough.  The original stat growths SHOULD NOT be drastically changed unless major editing had been/or is needed in order to balance the game out - which leads into the next factor.
3.  Moveset - Another major factor.  A game where there is one job that simply outclasses all the others in terms of great stats AS WELL as a broken moveset is anything but balanced.  Assassin is the most obvious example, if the moveset is not greatly tampered (in this case, nerfed), then a relatively massive drop in stat growths can be justifiable (although I wouldn't be one in support of such.)  Another example is the Gunner, excellent, if not, broken moveset, yet mostly lackluster stats (barring Defense).  Though the stats aren't the best, that doesn't excuse the fact that the class itself is borderline broken (therefore I believe that the moveset of a Gunner should be edited, rather than the stats themselves).

These are some minor factors that may also be considered:
1.  Race - obviously a Hume Black Mage should not be magickally stronger than Nu Mou Black Mage.
2.  Stats from FFTA2 - this is SQNX's attempt to balance out the game.  Quite a few jobs are far more reasonable stat-wise here, however there still are some that aren't quite suitable in this game.
3.  Advancement - to simply put, no starting-class should be the best of any stat except MAYBE Black Mage as in many games, they have the highest Magick stat in the game (in this game, however, they have the 2nd highest Resistance instead).  Though the stats between starting-classes and later classes ought to be present, they should be rather minuscule at best.
4.  Distribution - Balanced job classes seem to have quite significantly higher stats than the others (not counting Paladin) like Blue Mage, Sage, Templar, and Gadgeteer.  Not entirely sure as to why that is so, but I do support following this.  As it usually doesn't not seem to be imbalanced excepted in Sage's case.
In FFTA2, Beastmaster was given greater Atk, which is fine if there is something else to compensate, in this case, it was Def (again, the difference was not major).
5.  Stat/Skill buildup - one of the main problems of jobs that have good (not great) skillsets or stats is that their skills do not carry over to other jobs very well despite being fairly good stand-alone jobs.  A good example would  White Monks, they have relatively good stat growths and an exceptional skillset, but neither of them are too useful when used as a different job.  Fencer is included, good skills but, aren't good for really ANY of the other Viera jobs.
6.  Gimmicks - as it seems in both FFTA and FFTA2, gimmicky jobs have either very good stats, or just awful stats along with a bad moveset.  (Most of these classes are in dire need of skill modification rather than their stats.)  The most prominent examples are:  Gadgeteer, Thief (whom have a very significant/broken role), Animist, Morphor, Beastmaster.  Gadgeteer probably has THE BEST stat total in the game:  7.2 Hp, 8.2 Atk, 9.6 Def, 8.3 Mag, 10.2 Res.  But these in no way excuse their horrid moveset, Gadgeteers, next to Thieves, are in most need of a total moveset change.

Other things to discuss:

Special characters - really something extra and is not needed whatsoever, a trait evident in the original Tactics but not in Advance or in A2.  Main/unique characters should have slightly better growths to further distinguish themselves (at least in their base job, that is).  Like how Marche starts as a Soldier and already on the road to being a Paladin/Fighter with no chance of being a good Mage, whatsoever.  And how Montblanc starts as a Black Mage...A MOOGLE Black Mage to be exact, even Bishops exceed Moogle Mages in terms of practically and especially in versatility.  

These two are characters you have from the beginning and I don't believe should be so deeply pigeon holed from the start.  Marche at least has some lee-way as a Hunter or Ninja, but MontBlanc is just...

Again, opinions are much appreciated.