Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hi, I started a game on The Lion War 2.0 (I think it was 2.0 at least) and just created a new iso with the newest 2.03 patch. Problem is : I can't load my previous save file anymore. I even loaded a previous savestate to make a new regular save, hoping it would fix it, but no, I have the same error. Are patch versions really incompatible with each other? Would something nasty like an unavoidable crash or a softlock occur if I kept playing from my savestate and now only saved the game with savestates (I bet it would, but I still gotta ask)? I don't feel like restarting the game from the beginning, at least for now...

Alternatively I could go back to the older version but I read that it fixes a RDV mission being "uncompleteable", and I would like to complete them all being the completionist I am... Is it really un-winable in its previous state?

Thanks in advance!

Seeing what some of you guys are capable of (this is incredible, can't thank you enough for making the game even better after all these years), I was wondering if those ideas I have would be doable (well, I guess almost everything is doable given enough knowledge/know-how, time and will, but you probably see what I mean) so here goes.

1) I played the PSP version of Tactics Ogre recently (I started with Reborn but it was more like Advance Wars than FFT so I changed midway through), and there is something that I really liked : new, more powerful versions of abilities you already have that you can buy with your skill points, and I was wondering if the same thing could be done with abilities you learn with JP in FFT. Imagine if that Squire ability that boosts your PA by 1, "Focus" (or Accumulate on the PS1), was instead called "Focus I", and once you learn it you wouldn't get a "Learned" indication in place of where the JP cost was, but the whole ability would instead be replaced with "Focus II", with perhaps a higher JP cost. That ability would do the same thing as "Focus I" but would also have a small added bonus (like it would also restore 10HP or something). Then after learning it, not only would it replace the "Focus I" you already learned, but you would also be able to learn "Focus III", "(and afterwards Focus IV", etc). Each would only be a small improvement over the previous one so they wouldn't break the game, but they would still be upgrades that you would want, and that would allow the players who choose to do so to really focus on certain jobs and keep upgrading them. Not only would it add more choices to the game (currently almost everyone cross classes), but I've also always thought that it's sad that when you learn all skills for a job, you're kinda done with that job's progression. Spending JP to learn abilities is very fun, and it's always a bit sad when you're done (the same thing happens in FFXII about the licenses by the way, you usually learn them all halfway through the game and you're only left with the search for abilities and equipment and the basic and boring 1 to 99 level-ups to improve your characters. Why did you take the license boards away from me so soon, game? No fun allowed?).

I guess this would require heavy coding to expand the number of abilities available in the game, as well as the number of abilities any job can learn... "Thundaga II" could perhaps have a slightly reduced MP cost compared to "Thundaga I", same with "Thundaga III", "Steal Weapon II" would have a higher chance of success compared to "Steal Weapon I", "Stasis Sword II" would have a higher range than "Stasis Sword I" (at least a higher vertical tolerance), etc... Actually if replacing the abilities isn't possible or too hard to do, just multiplying the number of abilities by at least 4 and making the ability lists of each job much longer would be enough (that would increase the time you spend in the menus to scroll to the ability you want, but who cares about that).

2) I'm currently replaying the game, reached end-game, and thought about all the content I didn't experience because they are random battles. I could now go to each green point, one at a time and from different directions, but it doesn't sound very fun and compelling - more like a chore -, so I was wondering if random battles could be implemented in the story somehow, to increase the length of a playthrough / make it meatier. Even better if they could also provide the player with another sense of progression. This idea comes from playing a season in Diablo 3. In D3, in your power-leveling journey, called "adventure mode", the game gives you a list of tasks : you have to level up your artisans to level 10, level up your character to level 50, craft a weapon, kill a certain boss, etc. and I was thinking that something like that, tied to story progression, would be interesting in FFT (meaning you wouldn't be able to access the next story battle until you'd complete a task - ideally randomized). Completing these tasks would make the path to the next area appear (instead of it appearing automatically as soon as you complete a story event or battle, like in vanilla) or it could turn the area red so the story battle/event can trigger. Tasks could be :

**examples of early-game ones**
- unlock the White Mage class on 3 units
- have someone learn the Knight's "Weapon Break" ability
- kill 2 goblins
- collect a treasure chest
- collect a crystal
- have Ramza reach level 4
- have 7 units in your roster
- win a battle in the Zeklaus Desert by attacking from the north

** example of late-game ones**
- recruit a panther (you would be free to fire the creature afterwards)
- steal an accessory
- have someone unlock the Bard job
- ...

Basically these tasks would force you to play at least 1 random battle before the next story mission, otherwise you wouldn't be able to continue with the game at all. Alternatively it would be cool if the Brave Story menu kept track of random battles you completed, area by area. I imagine a list like : 
- Sweegy Woods
   West entrance
Rare Battle
Battle1
???????
Battle3
???????
   East entrance
???????
Battle2
...

and the "?????" would turn into "Battle[ID]" once you beat that battle once.

You could tell me :"hey, if you want to fight random battles before each story point, why not just do it by yourself? Why do you need the game to hold your hand / force you into them?" but here is the thing : when you play a random battle when you don't really need it, it's a bit aggravating / annoying. You keep telling yourself the whole battle "why am I spending 10 or 15 minutes fighting those monsters again? I should have continued with the story instead" So, if it wasn't possible to progress without doing them, then I wouldn't have those annoying thoughts anymore because they would become part of the normal progress through the game. Even better if you have specific goals during those fights.

3) the ability to replay any story battle in the end-game through a menu. Some battles can be very brutal and you might have had to rush the boss target or even cheese them to complete them. So it would be fun to try the Belial battle again for example, but this time by trying to complete it "correctly" by eliminating all Ultima Daemons before killing the boss, keeping all your characters on their feet, etc.

That's it! Thanks for reading 

Hi guys!

I noticed that Nirek released map files to turn on the DD lights for the PSX version, in this thread. My question is, is it possible to do the same for the PSP version ? Are these files (such as MAP105.6) compatible ?...

I tried to open my FFT:WotL iso with the CDMage utility, and I don't see those map files. My guess is, they're certainly compressed inside another file (DATA.BIN, I bet). Anyone know what kind of compression it uses ? And if I managed to uncompress it, would I find MAP105.6, etc. ?

Thanks in advance to whoever can shed some light on this matter

In my own patch, I turned Potions into X-Potions, and X-Potions into Potions. I did this, so enemies would really benefit from Auto Potion (because now, Auto-Potion always uses the best available potion).
Of course, high Brave enemies with Auto-Potion can be a pain to defeat though.

No way that I know of.

Er... ...Yes, they are  
Will we see a "Move-Find items" tab in FFTPatcher's next version, Melonhead ?

Quote from: "Voldemort7"Blade Grasp Flag = Counter = HP Restore = Dragon Spirit = a bunch of other physical responses

That was why one of the solutions to Blade Grasp wasn't simply un-checking the box. That flag alows Counter and a ton of other R's to fire too.

Oooh, I didn't know that. Thank you very much for the info

Ha, you already can, with a hex editor
Sorry, I should have given this explanation earlier.

Each map is comprised of 16 bytes. These 16 bytes are divided in 4 bytes, for all 4 Move-Find items.
The first of those 4 bytes, is the item's X and Y coordinates. According to Zodiac, the second one indeed is the type of trap. What you want to change though, are the third and fourth bytes. They are the rare and the common items respectively. After those 4 bytes, the next 12 bytes are a repeat of that same pattern for that same map's three other Move-Find items.

Use the list of items Lydyn made in the Item rewards digit codes thread to enter the value of the desired item in the third and/or fourth byte, and you're done !

And yeah, it took me some time. Especially to find out which map those Elixirs x 4 were refering to, as many end-game maps hold 4 Elixirs.

Quote from: "Voldemort7"25. Sword Skills now trigger Counter / Counter Flood properly.

26. Monk physical skills now trigger Counter / Counter Flood properly.

33. Steal [Item] skills now trigger Counter / Counter Flood.

34. All Break [Item] and Break [Stat] skills now trigger Counter / Counter Flood.

I'm curious. There is no "Counter" checkbox in FFTPatcher AFAIK, so how did you manage to make those skills counter-able ? Will checking the "Normal Attack ?" box achieve this result ?

Thanks, LD !

I hope this helps anyone who wants to edit the Move-Find items (turning the common item into the rare item would be a good move in my book, for instance).

Thanks to Zodiac in the MAPS topic :

Quote from: "Zodiac"Move find items are in BATTLE.BIN
Offset: 0x8EE74

...and thanks to Gomtuu's intervention :

Quote from: "gomtuu"

Code Select Expand

008f3c4: 0010 01f0 4410 13f1 4c10 33f6 8610 3bf7  ....D...L.3...;.
         ABCC DDEE ABCC DDEE ABCC DDEE ABCC DDEE
Looks like A and B are coordinates and D and E are the common and rare item... Is C the type of trap?

...I went and created a list of offset for each battle map - so one can edit the Move-Find items in these more easily. Here is the list :

008EE94: Back Gate of Lesalia Castle
008EEA4: Hall of St Murond Temple
008EEC4: Roof of Riovanes Castle
008EED4: At the Gate of Riovanes Castle
008EEE4: Inside of Riovanes Castle
008EF14: Inside of Igros Castle
008EF34: At the Gate of Lionel Castle
008EF44: Inside Lionel Castle
008EF74: Inside Limberry Castle
008EF84: Underground Graveyard of Limberry
008EFA4: At the Gate of Limberry Castle
008F004: Yardow Fort City
008F024: Goland Coal City
008F034: Colliery Underground First Floor
008F044: Colliery Underground Second Floor
008F054: Colliery Underground Third Floor
008F064: Dorter Trade City
008F074: Slums in Dorter
008F094: Cellar of Sand Mouse
008F0A4: Zaland Fort City
008F0B4: Zeltennia Castle (church outside the town)
008F0E4: Underground Passage in Goland
008F134: Bervenia Free City
008F164: Zarghidas Trade City
008F184: Fort Zeakden
008F194: St Murond Temple
008F1D4: Lost Sacred Precincts
008F1E4: Graveyard of Airships
008F204: Underground Book Storage First Floor
008F214: Underground Book Storage Second Floor
008F224: Underground Book Storage Third Floor
008F234: Underground Book Storage Fourth Floor
008F244: Underground Book Storage Fifth Floor
008F264: Golgorand Execution Site
008F274: In Front of Bethla Garrison's Sluice
008F294: South Wall of Bethla Garrison
008F2A4: North Wall of Bethla Garrison
008F2C4: Murond Death City
008F2D4: Nelveska Temple
008F2E4: Doldobar Swamp
008F2F4: Fovoham Plains
008F314: Sweegy Woods
008F324: Bervenia Volcano
008F334: Zeklaus Desert
008F344: Lenalia Plateau
008F354: Zigolis Swamp
008F364: Yuguo Woods
008F374: Araguay Woods
008F384: Grog Hill
008F394: Bed Desert
008F3A4: Zirekile Falls
008F3B4: Bariaus Hill
008F3C4: Mandalia Plains
008F3D4: Doguola Pass
008F3E4: Bariaus Valley
008F3F4: Finath River
008F404: Poeskas Lake
008F414: Germinas Peak
008F424: Thieves Fort
008F4E4: Windmill Shed
008F504: TERMINATE
008F514: DELTA
008F524: NOGIAS
008F534: VOYAGE
008F544: BRIDGE
008F554: VALKYRIES
008F564: MLAPAN
008F574: TIGER
008F584: HORROR
008F594: END
There is quite a number of unused space in there. My guess is that the maps in which no battles occur in a normal game are also listed. If you would turn, for example, Besrodio's room into a battlefield, chances are you could add Move-Find items there (that is, if you can find out which bytes point to that particular map, of course )

In the Final Fantasy titles, Dispel has always been a spell that cures Slow and Stop too. In FFX, you can even cast Dispel on your characters to cure Magic Break, Power Break, Armor Break and Mind Break.

It always bothered me that Dispel Magic wouldn't cure Stop, in FFT.

I would suggest adding Dispel Magic to the Red Mage skillset. Dispel being able to cure the status effects Esuna can't (Slow, Stop, etc), it could become a very important spell, IMO.

Quote from: "Lydyn"To be honest, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it just plain pisses me off when people tell me what I'm doing is wrong and there's no argument about it. Asmo sounded like he was saying that and then ontop of that, started to comment about how me being annoyed about it was stupid ...

Maybe you don't understand, but that's who I am. I'll admit I didn't respond in the best way, and I apologize, even though I'm stubborn about those sort of things. I'm not perfect and I'll never claim to be.

I know this might be a little late, but I'm nicely trying to say I'd appreciate those that give me ideas about this - or any other patch - to please try to take into account that even if you think an idea is 'stupid' to remember not everyone is the same, so it might be more enjoyable to others.

Much like the reflect idea. Some of you think it'd fit the patch better, some others probably think it's stupid not to include it, but some of us don't even want to see that in the patch.

Anyways, if I have been a jerk, I'm sorry. I'm just asking everyone to respect my ideas and my choices. I choose to make two seperate ones, for those who're still interested, for those who enjoy the ranged attacks = good, and for those who dislike the idea. Seems like I still need a lot of practice with my social skills. ), and praise the trolls. That is a quite interesting behavior in my book.

Please take note that I'm not looking to make an enemy of anyone here. I'm not judging anyone (only what was written at the time) - I just read the topic and I just don't understand. Why would the actors in this topic would pick on Lydyn, when his only fault was to behave like a normal human in front of people who would keep coming back with their own ideas of "fun", obviously not knowing when to stop ?

I voiced my thoughts, I rest my case now.

Incredible !
I'll play this gem, that's for sure

Quote from: "melonhead"New version:
FFTPatcher - v0.271
Changes since v0.269

•  Fixed bug when loading certain bitmaps in the Sprite Editor (Thanks to Sen and Kourama for reporting the bug)
• Fixed bug where "Team Color" wasn't being properly persisted to .fftpatch files (Thanks to Lydyn for reporting the bug)

You, sir, are a genius

Quote from: "Lydyn"

Quote from: "Armorvil"How did you create that digest file, Voldemort ?  
Thanks Lydyn !

How did you create that digest file, Voldemort ?  
I'll release my own patch sooner or later, and such a dump file being created automatically would help a lot !

The AI does make use of Reflect. In my patch, I witnessed some really interesting actions. Example :

1) a summoner casts Carbunkle on an enemy thief
2) the thief moves next to Agrias
3) a wizard moves next to the thief so that the three of them form a single line, and then casts an elemental spell on the thief (or Agrias).
4) thanks to the fact the spell bounces off from the thief to Agrias, she took two consecutive hits from a single elemental spell - effectively killing her. I was like  

Yup, the AI does cast Silf sometimes.