Final Fantasy Hacktics

Ah.  I have that program too, that I used for sprite editing.  I didn't realize that they accomplished the same things.  That's fine, I was being overly stubborn with my WotL modding, it's time to throw that towel in and go for the PSX version.  I've accomplished a lot of the game play balancing issues I wanted to approach already, so I can focus on the flavor mods now.

Thanks for the help, guys!

Alright, thanks!  Believe it's time to swap over to PSX modding and make things easier on myself.

I've been following the Event Editing tutorial, trying to get a start on this concept and I've already run into an issue with opening the Image file in CD Mage B5.  If I open the PSX .bin file for it, it works just like in the tutorial, but opening the "FFT Image" as stated in the tutorial for a WotL file gets an error saying that file length doesn't match sector boundary when I attempt to open it in M2/2352 as stated.  I've tried it with all the alternative tracks, and only M1/2048 works, but it's got a completely different listing of files.  I found fftpack.bin in there, but again, couldn't do anything with it.

My question is, is it possible to open up a WotL file using the same methods and programs listed in Elric's tutorial here:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8229.0

Or will I have to move to PSX modding to accomplish event editing?
I apologize if this is answered elsewhere; I looked around the forums a bit, but I didn't quite bring out the fine-toothed comb.
Thanks for taking the time to address my question!

Oh wow, that will make the whole thing so much easier!  Does that take an app or anything or will the PSP literally run a PSX iso?  Funny, the one thing I know the LEAST about when it comes to this seems to be the PSP's supported options.

Currently I'm not planning for it, the last one I tried to fix was changing Meliadoul's to hoodless Meliadoul, aaaand that didn't work in the battle formation or party screen sprites, maybe because of what you just mentioned?  Ultimately I'm trying to get a bug-free way of accessing Ovelia full-time and making an alternate reality "ending" where Gafgarion dies early and Ramza joins the Knights Templar along with Ovelia and Agrias.  I've done a little bit of story-line on it, but if I can't get things like the event editing done then I'm not going to go much further with an idea that I can't see come to fruition, you know?

I realize that ultimately it'll probably have to be a PSX Patch, but I enjoy bringing my PSP to work for play testing, so I'm sticking with the WotL version until I literally can't do that any further.

Okay, I apologize for the confusion in what must have amounted to a retarded post.  Thank you Xifanie, I'll take a look into Event Editing and see if that gets the results that I am after.

Quote from: Elric on February 23, 2016, 08:46:33 pm
What? I don't even understand this one...

The best example I can give you here is just using FFTPatcher to drop Celia or Lettie into your party on ENTD event 188.  In the party screen and in every battle formation screen, they look like Chapter 1 Ramza.  I am ultimately aiming for consistent sprites.  The 0C and the 2C sprites for Ovelia and Alma are perfect across all screens, but they will be removed at their respective events, which is why I was aiming for the Event Modification now that Xifanie brought it up.

Quote from: Elric on February 23, 2016, 08:46:33 pm
The main issue is going to be continuity. Unless you intend to heavily edit the scenes where these characters leave as guests from your party, it's gonna be kinda weird. Since Ovelia is with Delita for about 50% of the story, and Ramza is trying to get Alma back for the latter part of the game. Having both with you will be a bit off... Normally I wouldnt mention this, but you've already mentioned a few things you wanted to not happen that would make it look derpy, so I'm assuming you are trying to do this in a professional manner, which I personally cannot see happening unless you intend to remake ~50% of the story, up to and including the final boss of the game.

Yeah, and those are things I can aim for later on down the road, because they're mostly late-game fixes and I'm just trying to get the basic feel for Chapter 1 and 2 that I was aiming for, so that after I get the 'balance' aspect worked out I can move forward with the next part of the plan, which would be answering those continuity issues.  I feel like once I get a solid grasp on the how of the matter, the what of the matter is a lot easier to approach.  I do appreciate the logical guidance, though, because it does bring up a lot of the issues that come with any 'simple' changes like the ones I've aimed for and reminds me that those are issues that must be resolved, but at the moment, I'm just trying to stay bug-free and 'clean' in my changes.  Efficient coding, so to speak.

Ah.. while I remember certain aspects of assembly and hex, I have a feeling this is going to be quite a bit more complicated than I was hoping!  I'll take a look through the tutorials here and see if I can't figure it out over the next little while.  May have to postpone any other 'projects' until I can.

Thanks for your help, Xifanie!

[Edit] --
Actually, while I'm thinking about it, I just read through a part of the event editing tutorial and just wanted to ask a logistics question.  If I find the specific line where the events remove Ovelia and Alma, is it just as simple as removing those lines, or will I need to be a bit more careful?

Hey guys, I've come to a crossroads with a singular aspect of my project and I'm curious what would be the cleanest, most thorough fix to the issue while still remaining possible.

Basically all I'm trying to do is get to where I can use Alma's and Ovelia's sprites (I don't particularly care about their base jobs) without having the following issues:

• The sprites cannot change between jobs, I want them to remain like unique character sprites.


• The sprites cannot be removed at key points in the game's script, leaving the actual Alma and Ovelia behind as permanent guests.


• I do not want sprites that are consistently swapping to random sprites between screens, such as appearing like Ramza in the battle formation screen.

One option I've boiled this down to is having Ovelia and Alma's sprites pasted over the top of rare characters like Celia/Lettie or Valmafra.  Ones that won't ruin the entire game - at least in my opinion - to have them showing up as Ovelia and Alma instead.

The other option, which is more complicated for me, is to get an ASM hack where the game does NOT try to remove Ovelia and Alma from your party in Chapter 2, Lionel Castle, and Chapter 3, Monastery respectively.

Either option comes up with its own unique problems, without taking the long-term approach to completely hack the game, but I feel that the issue of either Ovelia and Alma showing up on top of Riovantes, or having two copies of the respective characters in my party, is something I can ignore for the moment.

Ultimately, I'm just trying to get an assessment on how simple it will be to get the ASM hack done versus the potential issues of copy/pasting sprites over other characters.  Any insight into the best and cleanest method and tips towards getting it done would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

I will try it again this weekend, then and hope to fix it quickly.  There probably is something I'm missing, but I read over that guide enough times to have figured it all out, I'd have thought. 

Thanks for the advice, it should be helpful to know more of the debugging procedure.

I'm pretty sure I just failed to list it; I went through the process from memory.

I was playing around with some new concepts today and I decided to try changing Meliadoul's sprite for the hood-less variation found in the Downloads section.  After a bit of reading, I managed to get it to work, but it only shows up in combat.  I figured maybe after changing screens a few times it might kick in, but it has not.  Have I done something wrong, or is their a separate process that I'm not seeing in order to change the character sprites in the party screen and battle formation screen?

I went and read through the tutorial and all the help guides I could find on sprite mods and I haven't seen anything different than the steps I took on the original tutorial to input the sprite:

• Open the ISO in shishi and input the modded sprite.


• Extract fftpack.bin.


• Input UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN into FFTEVGRP, extract to .bmp.


• Open new sprite in shishi and print screen.


• Open to Graphics Gale and paste to window.


• Open UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN as new windows in Graphics Gale


• Copy over the palettes and the sprites, save.


• Recompile fftpack.bin


• Extract ISO image to empty folder.


• Open ISO in UMDGen, extract image to empty folder.


• Copy over recompiled fftpack.bin, recompile UMD.

I received no error messages throughout the process and as I stated earlier, the process worked, insofar as getting the sprite to show up in combat.  I did get a little confused on the final steps as to why you open the ISO up twice, once in UMDGen and once not, so it's possible that I missed something, but on the off chance it's something else, I figured I'd ask for clarification here.

Thank you for your time and assistance!

Okay, I'll take a look into that and see what I can get done.

As far as the concept for my own mod, I'll take the time to flesh out what exactly I want to do and get changed so I can more effectively ask for pointers.  Already, I know that I want to make the enemies myself so that they are customized to a certain difficulty and more varied, instead of the hijinks that tend to arise from randomized enemies.  In the first Dorter map, a knight with monk abilities and wizards with heals would be a prime example.  May have to raise the amount of JP available to them, but I'll figure that out as I go.  Other than that, just having a story that follows the Shrine Knights will probably involve needing to edit all the battles and cutscenes.  I'm sure that will be involved, if not outright impossible.

But yeah, once I have a more solid concept, I'll know where to get started and ask for more specific pointers as I run into problems.

Thanks again for all of your help.

Thank you for the detailed response!  I apologize for mine being a bit succinct as I'm replying on my phone from work, but I think I'll avoid using that website as I have not fleshed out nearly enough of what needs to be changed in order to pull my mod off.  At this point I'm just learning the methods used to achieve it by playing with FFTPatcher and other tools.  I like to learn the science before I appy it, if that makes sense.

However, I completely understand the logic behind using the PSX version now that you mention it.  Most of the threads I read mentioned that they used the PSX version, but I did not know why the preference until now.  I'll continue working with what I'm learning and simply apply it on the easier option.

Once again, my apologies for the hasty response, but phone posting isn't as convenient!  I'll play with your suggestions later.  To completely replace Ramza on the PSX version, is the hex editing required or can I hold off on teaching myself to do that?

So I actually JUST got my PSP usb cord and CFW installed today, all because I found this website a little over a week ago while looking to see if PSP cheat codes were a thing.  I'd always wanted to add to or modify the original game, ever since I beat the original and found out that was all there was, but I never knew it was actually possible without a game development crew and a ton of money.  Needless to say, I'm excited by what I've seen on FFHacktics.

I've been reading through the forums and tutorials on the website trying to piece together ideas and figure out the basics of tweaking the game, but I've run into a bit of a wall with the main thing I wanted to accomplish first.  My idea for a FFTactics mod has always revolved around playing the game from the perspective of the Shrine Knights/Knights Templar, since I thought it was a shame that Ramza didn't actually have the option to join them after all their begging    With that said, I wanted to start off by making a 'simple' mod where Ramza was replaced by Ovelia - in sprite, name, class, etc.  I found out how to mod the Princess class to my liking, so that it was able to cast a few white mage spells, but after a few attempts and reading through some threads on the forums here, I've found that it's not possible to completely replace him without some hex editing?  All of the discussions I'd seen were a few years old and not definitively answered at the time, so I'm not sure if it's a common trick these days.

Ultimately I intend to delve into the more complex facets of modding the game as I push to bring life to the story adaptation I'd been holding onto all these years and would greatly appreciate any pointers or even just advice on which aspect of modding I should focus on first, but I'd really like some help with my first project: kick Ramza out of my mod and put Ovelia in his place!

Thanks for taking the time to read this; I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone and gain some momentum with this project!