Custom jobs and save files in WotL

[bane]

First I'll say...yes, this is my first post, I'm new to the community and have only been poking around the boards for a couple weeks (finally hacked my PSP).

That said, I wanted to jump right into game modifications, and have a few questions.  I already searched the forum a few times (manually and using search) to try to find these answers and came up dry.

1. Is it possible to create custom jobs in WotL?  I've found a couple guides on how to do it for FFT Vanilla, but FFTTacText doesn't seem to play nice with WotL, and a couple of the files don't exist anymore (event.out and attack.out, iirc).
(examples: New "Creating Custom Characters" Tutorial / Making Your Own Unique Character in 15 Steps!)

2. How can I adjust the save data block being used for each 'hacked' version?  One of the first things I did was load up FFT1.3, and I've discovered that save games go to the same place as the non-hacked iso.  I'd rather not mix these together...

Thanks in advance for any help offered.  I'm sure I'll have follow-up questions (I'm curious about Hex editing and ASM hacking, but I want to start simple for now) later.

[ffta707]

Yep, you can edit jobs in WOTL. As far as I know.

[bane]

Yep, you can edit jobs in WOTL. As far as I know.

I've been able to edit jobs, add abilities, etc. using FFTPatcher, that's not a problem.  Trying to add custom jobs, character names, and sprites is what's causing a problem.

Any idea about the savegame files?

[ffta707]

Not sure about save game files.

Did you extend the ISO?

[bane]

Not sure about save game files.

Did you extend the ISO?

I can honestly say that I didn't see a guide or notes on how to do that (or why you should do that) for the PSP version.  I'll poke around to see if there's always a resource up on it, but if you have a link ready I'd certainly appreciate the time-saver!

[ffta707]

http://www.ffhacktics.com/downloads.php?id=31

The new shishi's does it for you. I'm not sure if WOTL needs it. I can't remember.

[thisisstupid999]

The new shishi's does it for you. I'm not sure if WOTL needs it. I can't remember.

The new Shishi does not extend PSP ISO's, and there's no need to extend the ISO. If you want to create custom jobs, you use FFTacText and FFTPatcher to create them. I've done this on several occasions before. Need help with it, ask me.

[ffta707]

The new shishi's does it for you. I'm not sure if WOTL needs it. I can't remember.

The new Shishi does not extend PSP ISO's, and there's no need to extend the ISO. If you want to create custom jobs, you use FFTacText and FFTPatcher to create them. I've done this on several occasions before. Need help with it, ask me.

I think we have a firm grasp of the obvious. He means adding extra sprites I'd assume, since I posted just what you said above, and he said he knows how to do that. All you do is edit them in patcher if you want to do that, then in tactext. It's the same as the PSX version.

[thisisstupid999]

1. Is it possible to create custom jobs in WotL?  I've found a couple guides on how to do it for FFT Vanilla, but FFTTacText doesn't seem to play nice with WotL, and a couple of the files don't exist anymore (event.out and attack.out, iirc).

The most common problem with TacText on the PSP version is an in game glitch where during a battle a character dies and then turns into a crystal. Right before the crystal appears, the game freezes for 10 seconds, then shuts down the entire system. However, there is an easy way around that. With TacText, all you have to do is navigate through the application then find the battle messages, then delete all the text that should say something like "Helios died and left a crystal behind" and replace it with "...". Oddly, this fixes the glitch.

[thisisstupid999]

The new shishi's does it for you. I'm not sure if WOTL needs it. I can't remember.

The new Shishi does not extend PSP ISO's, and there's no need to extend the ISO. If you want to create custom jobs, you use FFTacText and FFTPatcher to create them. I've done this on several occasions before. Need help with it, ask me.

I think we have a firm grasp of the obvious. He means adding extra sprites I'd assume, since I posted just what you said above, and he said he knows how to do that. All you do is edit them in patcher if you want to do that, then in tactext. It's the same as the PSX version.

Whatever, just trying to help. You don't need to be rude.

[ffta707]

Whatever, just trying to help. You don't need to be rude.

What I was trying to say was, I'm sure he knows how to edit patcher and Tactext. PSX and PSP are virtually the same thing when it comes to that. I was very rude, and I apologize.

[thisisstupid999]

Whatever, just trying to help. You don't need to be rude.

What I was trying to say was, I'm sure he knows how to edit patcher and Tactext. PSX and PSP are virtually the same thing when it comes to that. I was very rude, and I apologize.

  That's ok, I just kind of figured he didn't know much yet since, as he said, he's new. I know that when I was new to this whole hacking thing, I didn't have a clue what to do. My first look at FFTPatcher made me gasp....

[ffta707]

Whatever, just trying to help. You don't need to be rude.

What I was trying to say was, I'm sure he knows how to edit patcher and Tactext. PSX and PSP are virtually the same thing when it comes to that. I was very rude, and I apologize.

  That's ok, I just kind of figured he didn't know much yet since, as he said, he's new. I know that when I was new to this whole hacking thing, I didn't have a clue what to do. My first look at FFTPatcher made me gasp....

Well, since we are being honest. The first Tactext related question I asked was, "Were do I find the story line text in Tactext?" lol.

[thisisstupid999]

I had many noob questions as well...oh well, everyone does. There's a first time for everything and everyone. Now, bane, if you're still here (since you haven't posted back in while), what would you like to know?

[bane]

ffta707/thisisstupid999:
Thanks for the help/offer of help so far.  It's been a busy few days for me so I was unable to really check in on this sooner.

I've tried using FFTacText to patch the default tactics iso that I have, but even if I make 0 changes I get the following error when I issue the patch command:
"DTE for BOOT.BIN 5 failed.  The ISO has NOT been modified."

Moving around abilities was easy enough in FFTPatcher, as was adjusting coefficients, range, etc. of individual spells.  I'd like to go beyond that and make a couple changes that will give the custom iso a little less of a "hacked" feel and more of a "balanced mod" feel.

I'd like to do the following things to start with:
1. Create a custom job using either an existing sprite or (better yet) a custom sprite
2. Change Ramza's sprite so he doesn't look like a blue baboon in act 4, haha...
3. Change the savefile location for the custom ISO so it is not reading/writing to the same place as my non-custom game

I also have a side question...what happens if you do multi-player (versus/coop) using a modified version of the game with someone who is using a standard iso?

[thisisstupid999]

ffta707/thisisstupid999:
Thanks for the help/offer of help so far.  It's been a busy few days for me so I was unable to really check in on this sooner.

I've tried using FFTacText to patch the default tactics iso that I have, but even if I make 0 changes I get the following error when I issue the patch command:
"DTE for BOOT.BIN 5 failed.  The ISO has NOT been modified."

Moving around abilities was easy enough in FFTPatcher, as was adjusting coefficients, range, etc. of individual spells.  I'd like to go beyond that and make a couple changes that will give the custom iso a little less of a "hacked" feel and more of a "balanced mod" feel.

I'd like to do the following things to start with:
1. Create a custom job using either an existing sprite or (better yet) a custom sprite
2. Change Ramza's sprite so he doesn't look like a blue baboon in act 4, haha...
3. Change the savefile location for the custom ISO so it is not reading/writing to the same place as my non-custom game

I also have a side question...what happens if you do multi-player (versus/coop) using a modified version of the game with someone who is using a standard iso?

As I recall, in order to patch the ISO with FFTacText, you needed to go to the location of the of the file on your computer, right click on the file, select properties, and then uncheck the Read-only box.

1 and 2-Sprites? I'm afraid I can't help you with that. The last time I checked, I was told that it's not really possible to put new sprites into the PSP version of WotL.

3-The third thing I'm afraid I've never even tried before....that's not even a hacking matter. That's more of a messing-with-files matter. I would try changing the name of one of the savefile. That MAY work, but don't take my word on it. I'd make a backup befrore you try it.

[bane]

The ISO file was not set to read-only when TacText returned that error :-/

I'm able to load up the sprites from the ISO in ShiShi, and I see that there's an option to import a SPR/BMP, so I'd think that that would do it...I'll give it a try.  Worst case scenario, I hose a copy of an iso!
Edit: Just tried importing an SPR that I downloaded from this site (Ramza HK), and got an error message about the maximum size: "Sprite is 65536, max size is 45056".  Hmph...

[Exaltys]

For your save issue, I was trying to research a way to change the GAMEID on the .iso so that it would save a different file for the edited game. It doesn't seem like changing the GAMEID is possible. Another suggestion would be to use different regions for different saves. For example, use the US .iso for your normal game and then a PAL .iso for editing.

As for custom character creating I have no knowledge and would like to know how. Is it possible to add in new spells/skills, sprites, jobs, etc. into the PSP game?

[bane]

For your save issue, I was trying to research a way to change the GAMEID on the .iso so that it would save a different file for the edited game. It doesn't seem like changing the GAMEID is possible. Another suggestion would be to use different regions for different saves. For example, use the US .iso for your normal game and then a PAL .iso for editing.

As for custom character creating I have no knowledge and would like to know how. Is it possible to add in new spells/skills, sprites, jobs, etc. into the PSP game?

I'm working on trying to edit a couple of the files in the ISO to see if it accomplishes what I need to do with the save games.  I noticed that my savegame file was titled "ULUS10297FFT0000.bin", and if I open UMD_DATA.bin from the root of the ISO, it contains the following text: ULUS-10297|5B5780E5DDA435BA|0001|G             |.  I figure that I'll try to change the ULUS-10297 to ULUS-10298 or something like that and see if that does the trick.  Only issue now is digging up my WinISO product key so that I can edit the file...haven't had any luck finding a Windows-based free ISO editing program.

As far as different regions...wouldn't that involve buying the game again?

I've been able to use FFTPatcher to change spell coefficients, job ability sets, etc., but that's about it.  I was playing around with ShiShi yesterday and it looks like sprite import/export works (haven't tested in-game yet), but only if the sprite that I'm trying to import is 44KB.  The tons of sprites on this site that are 64KB in size are returning an error about being too large.

[Exaltys]

I assumed since you're using a PSP that you have CFW.

:/

Anyway, there is a program called UMDGen. But I can't seem to change the GAMEID with that.