FFt patching and game freezing

[Wasabi]

I've been messing with FFTPatcher v0.457 for some time now, and I've finally managed to finish a patch that pleases me. I've even spent a day or two with FFTactext to accomodate these changes. But, as I go and patch my ISO (FFT:WotL; PSP), I get a message like this:

"Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Value of '102' is not valid for 'Value.' 'Value' should be between 'minimum' and 'maximum.'
Parameter name: Value"

At first, I didn't think much of it and clicked continue, but as I go to play the game I've noticed some weird bugs in Chapter One, such as Zalbag's sword swing on a Corpse Brigade sprite glitching in the slash animation (you baraely even see the sword), or the game freezing if I prolong a battle for far too long. I had wait a minute or so before I could hard reset for Mileuda 1 and Fort Zeakden. What could the problem be exactly? Is there anything that I did wrong in my patch to cause this?

[Wasabi]

Maybe it's due to the fact that I messed with the ENTD a little? Straight from Vanilla, I modified some random battles to accomodate undead units, and I used the sprites and classes from the Yuguewood, Lake Poescas and Zalera battle to make these changes. Long story short, I changed knights, black mages, time mages, summoners and oracles into their undead counterparts. Do they each count as their own separate sprites instead of "generic male/female"?

So, for example, say that I'm using the undead knight sprite and class from the Zalera battle, and put that on a generic female knight in a random battle. Would that compromise anything in a bad way?

And also, what's the maximum cap of sprites usable per map? I've always wondered what the guidelines were for this matter.

[Wasabi]

Well, I took a look around the forums, and it's 9 sprites maximum per map.

Maybe I modified the ENTD to the point that it's making my patched ISO crash, and that's why I'm getting that warning as I patch my ISO? I mean for Mileuda 1 & 2, and with Algus at Fort Ziekden, I left Algus and Mileuda in their base classes, but changed their skillsets (Mileuda had Holy Sword as her primary, Algus had Aimed shot as a secondary). I can imagine Mileuda 1 & 2 battles having a tendency to crash (the AI works just right), but I wouldn't expect Ziekden to crash as well.

Would messing around the ENTD for random battles be the cause? Like, does each individual storyline undead unit count as its own sprite (and gender), and does changing their gender make a difference (ie. Zalera battle with the undead knights and making said knights into males instead of monsters)? I want to fight undead units in random battles, but I don't want to simply modify their equipment setup to be - for example - Cursed Ring/Maintenance, but units that have an immunity to the Traitor status.  

I know I'm asking a lot in this topic, but I could really use some help here. I really want to create a patch that consists of no foreseeable errors, and not have it randomly crash my game.

[Wasabi]

If it helps any, I don't mind uploading my patch for the viewing public, so that they can review it to see if there are any flaws in whatever I've changed from the vanilla setups. It's a personal patch that I've been working on in my spare time.

If anyone can offer me tips on what I should do, and what to do better, that would be great and I would gladly accept any constructive criticism through this topic or by PM.

[philsov]

Narrowing things down...

if you don't go after the text edits (delete this iso, copy a blank one a try again) and just patch with the patcher file, do you still get Zalbag's sword glitch + game crashing?

(wish I could help more, I'm a psx-only kinda guy :p)

[Wasabi]

Well, I still get the very same error message I quoted on my first post before patching so yeah, I'm betting that I'll still get Zalbag glitch and game crashing.

I think there was one time where I was working on my patcher file, that I extracted the same patch off of a patched ISO. I didn't think much of it, but I'm assuming a step like that would inherently make my patch file "dirty." Maybe that's where the error is coming from? I had an issue like that when I extracted a patched ISO with text edits, and couldn't for some reason patch those edits onto a clean ISO.

It probably won't be hard to duplicate my patch file again. It's just a lot of time wasted, but luckily (unlike in FFTactext) there are [asterisk] notifiers and blue markers that show where you've made the changes. I'll just have to redo everything over the weekend if it comes to that. And I hope to input proper uninviteable undead units into random battles, so it won't glitch the game.

[Wasabi]

Just a heads up on this situation, for further reference in case someone else encounters this very same problem like I did.

I've found out what the problem was with Voldemort's help. For some reason, with FFTPatcher v1.0.0.457, there is an error when applying a patch for the PSP version, WotL. The green loading bar that shows when you're applying a patch onto an ISO usually goes to 100% and stop, but in the case of version 457 it goes to 100, then 101 and finally going to 102 percent, which forces the Patcher notice this as an error and thus presents you with "Value '102' is not valid for 'Value'."

I'm not sure if the overlap is causing my game to crash and burn after patching, but it's safe to say that if you're planning to patch an ISO for the PSP version of FFT, it's best to downgrade to an older version of FFTPatcher. I'll see if my patch works with an earlier version and will reedit this post to let you all know how my progress goes.

[Wasabi]

Well... back to square one, actually. The problem has nothing to do with how the patch processes onto the ISO and the effects of the crash are not localized based on version of FFTPatcher (I tried v.457 and an older version and still experienced crashes). The problem is in the patch itself, I believe. I'm doing all I can to find out why my game crashes midway into battle.

Also, I've found a glitch in my patch: whenever I complete propositions/errands, the reward money and artefact/wonder discovery sometimes doesn't display above the units' JP gains. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. This might have something to do with FFTactext, but I honestly never touched that portion in the text patch. The error might be influenced by the game patch.

And... Zalbaag's sword is displayed appropriately in the Teta abduction scene in Chapter 1. I might have shortsighted myself there, as I play-tested that scene over and over again to see that there's nothing wrong with it.

There's nothing wrong with my ISO since (when played as vanilla) I can grind endlessly in any sort of battle without the game crashing, as is or under a save file.

Anyway, I'm going to repost my patch file (under Patcher v.457) in this topic so that people can have an open look as to what I've modified in it. At first I thought it could be the ENTD, but as much as I like to think there's something wrong in my edits under that tab, I can't seem to pinpoint what it is. Maybe sharing Item Attributes could be the cause (ie. Wizard's staff and Materia Blade have the same item attribute numeral [(Mag.) +2])? Would modifying an ability's initial "effect" to something else cause some alarm, especially if the Animations tab remains untouched?

You'll be the judge. I can really use some help for this, because I'm truly at my wit's end here :

[Wasabi]

Assumption on what the problem might be, and a quick solution for it posted here:

http://www.ffhacktics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3971&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=