Hey, so I'm trying to create a new ability in FFTpatcher that uses the swordskill formula that damages and breaks a piece of equipment, but when I clone the skill, the clone invariably has a 0% chance of working in all situations. Anybody know what's up?
The break/steal formulas, as they are in vanilla, are heavily hardcoded. Item broken by a break ability is hardcoded to the skill slot. If you try moving it to another skill slot, the code won't recognize the new skill slot, and the ability will fail. Here is the relevant hardcoding routine:
http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Steal/Break/Might_Sword_Hard_Coding
A fix for this has been written, if you'd like to make different break/steal skills or move them:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10107.msg193559#msg193559
If you are hacking the PSP version, the hardcoding conveniently exists on all of Balthier's Plunder abilities. So if you want to create "Rend Accessory" or a new swordskill that breaks the shield, you simply have to apply the formula of choice to the Plunder ability. If you change the Plunders to any other formula, the skill will simply ignore its original hardcoding. It's quite convenient. :)
If you check Ansehelm's profile, it says PSX.