Final Fantasy Hacktics

Quote from: Tzepish on October 29, 2023, 05:29:15 pmRe: Orlandeau nerfs, no I'm pretty happy with his reduced skill list. That's the main thing that makes Agrias and Meliadoul *not* obsolete. Orlandeau has all their skills except for the best ones, which are exclusive to those characters (Divine Ruination for Agrias, Crush Weapon for Meliadoul).

This is something I really liked about your mod. I always use Agrias and Meliadoul, so making them more unique was great to see. I should explain myself a bit better in regard to Orlandeau feeling lacking. I'm not suggesting restoring his old skill set, but perhaps giving him something that is unique to only him. On a similar note to what Sharp said, he is a master swordsman, surely he must know something others do not. Maybe you could give him something to help him live up to his name "Thunder God".  Just a thought.

As he is now, he gives off similar vibes that original Luso did - copy/paste Ramza.


Moving on to your dazzling Dragoon preview, that is truly awesome! Reminds me of Freya in a way. Dragoons are my favorite job, so seeing this new Dragoon you've created is very exciting! I really want to play it, haha. These abilities you've listed, are they active abilities, or passive abilities that modify the main Jump ability? Lancet especially seems like its own skill. If "Jump" itself is now a skill set, like Knight's "Arts of War", that would be... Wow! I can only dream. I'll refrain from getting excited too much, until I hear it from you. :p I may be over-analyzing it, but seeing these changes makes my imagination stir.

Quote from: Tzepish on October 27, 2023, 05:27:44 pmGreat minds think alike my friend - I've already done some of these suggestions. Per-suggestion replies below:

1 re: Agrias - Ah I see! I actually wish I would've noticed this, because Rapha had no gear during my rooftop fight and she would get killed in one hit, haha. Somehow I found a way to distract Elmdore and the assassins so Rapha could flee. (and I still got the Ribbon!)

2 re: Dragoon - With the changes you made, does that mean if you equip "Ignore Elevation" then the "Jump" action will have infinite vertical range, as well? I thought the changes you made to Dragoon were perfect, with "Enhanced Horizontal" and "Enhanced Vertical", but that could be interesting. What skills would you learn as Dragoon? Just the "Enhanced Horizontal"?

3 re: Moving Soulbind to Dark Knight - Your nerf would still make sense for Dark Knight. Dealing damage based on how much HP is lost. I suggest you keep the nerf, then move it to Dark Knight. :p I agree the skill is overpowered, so having it on Dark Knight is another reason it'd be good to move it, since Dark Knight is somewhat harder to unlock than Arithmetician.

4 re: Only Elixirs at the bottom of Midlight's Deep - If there was a Ribbon there, I would've been happy with that. Definitely! Anything but Elixirs, haha.

5 re: Genji Gear as a sidequest reward - I kinda thought you might have done that to prevent missable gear. That's a good change, because missable stuff sucks.

7 re: Orlandeau nerfs - Would he keep the same partial skill set? For me that was what felt lacking.

8 re: Optional patch for changing treasure hunter tiles - No worries. Sounds like a nightmare to maintain. :p

9 re: Optional patch to remove monster breeding - Excellent! The breeding is the worst, not to mention it comes with a minor bug relating to Unit Number position. If you empty a reserved slot for a new recruit, and an egg happens to form when you enter the battle, the unit is assigned to the number after the highest numbered unit. I had to restart several battles because of that.

10 re: "Hunts" - I can only imagine the coding behemoth that kind of thing would be. I'm glad you're interested, at least! If I could help, I totally would, but I haven't a clue about PSP ASM. Looks intense from some snippets of code I've seen. Regardless if you ever get around to it or not, the mod is great. Something like Hunts would be truly remarkable, but without them you've still made something special.

I finished the game! Took about 47 hours. Overall, it was a huge improvement to the original game, and this will definitely be my go-to version in future. Excellent work you've done!   

I'm gonna talk about a few things in the mod, things that stood out (good or bad), because I loved the mod so much I just want to talk about it, haha. There are a few things throughout the game that I feel could be improved. Nothing too serious, though. It's a short list, as nearly everything you have done was perfect! This mod breathed new life into the game, while staying faithful to the original game.

Excellent:

• I love all the changes you've made to the jobs/requirements/skills. Combining a lot of the passive skills was a great idea, and it made me use them more often! (e.g. Armor + Shield and Bow + Crossbow)
• Reducing the grinding was a big improvement. Especially for Chemist! Also, I feel enemies used items a whole lot more during the game as a result. Very cool!
• Ramza's default job being renamed was a nice touch. Good choice and job descriptions!
• Discovering that Ribbon on the rooftop was brilliant! I got a good rush from that, and it took me quite a while to complete the battle while successfully collecting it. Good times!

Suggestions:

• After Agrias and Ovelia leave the party at Lionel Castle in Ch2, Agrias remains in party as a guest. (she should be with Ovelia)
• Dragoon should have innate Ignore Elevation. The essential nature of a Dragoon is to ignore it.
• Arithmetician's Soulbind should be a Dark Knight ability, it just makes more sense that way.
• In Terminus (Midlight's Deep), it was quite disappointing to find only Elixirs. The whole dungeon was such a thrill finding all this incredible new loot, just to flatline at the very end. Maybe put 4 of the best items from lower sections of Midlight's Deep in Terminus? Stuff like: Dhanusha, Ribbon, Chaos Blade, Zodiac Spear? I was hoping for a 3rd Ribbon, heh. :p
• I like that you moved Genji Gear. Stealing from Elmdore was too soon for such good equipment. However, I didn't like that it was just free as a battle reward during the Aliste sidequest. Perhaps make us steal it from Aliste now? It took effort to steal it from Elmdore, but it felt very satisfying!
• Orlandeau was nerfed a little too much. I see what you were going for, so other characters didn't become obsolete, but I feel he was lacking too much. Not really sure how you could improve it, though. Maybe add a couple of the Dark Knight abilities?
• Honestly, that's all for suggestions. Everything else felt natural and much improved over the original!

Request:

• Would you be willing to add an optional patch that changes all Treasure Find locations in every map? This is more a personal request as the original locations are just too well known. Being able to hunt for them without any idea where they are would be super fun and definitely more exciting!
• Optional patch to remove monster breeding, and add breed-only monsters to rare random encounters.

Thanks again, Tzepish! Let me know what you think.

Quote from: Tzepish on October 22, 2023, 08:58:20 pmI've gone back and forth on Boco being controlled. It always felt weird to me when I had it turned on. I think because he's a monster, and he feels more like a "third faction" at that point, that it feels more appropriate to me that he's still AI controlled.

I realize there are similar arguments for Argath's first fight, but my fear was players would think the feature wasn't working if he wasn't controllable.

I would love to do this, and in fact Valhalla comes with a script that does this, but it's buggy. I've been slowly making my way through the Valhalla ASM to decipher it so I can write my own versions or fix them, so this is on my list, but not for the near future.

Your logic is sound in regard to Boco. A human unit makes sense to be player-controlled with monster units still acting on their own. The fact that you put thought into it makes me appreciate it more. This gives me an interesting idea. Orators being able to give player control for monsters.  :p

I'm glad the manual "sort unit" is something you are interested in. When it happens, it happens. It's no trouble. At least someone has started it despite it being buggy. That's great news! Hopefully, disassembling their code goes smoothly and it's not too complex. It does seem like it would be a huge undertaking, though, so if you do ever get around to it I wish you luck!

Quote from: Tzepish on October 22, 2023, 08:59:15 pmI have no plans for changing those battles, but heck, you never know. I might get bored some day (or someone may give me a compelling reason to make changes there?)

Maybe hunts? This would only be compelling depending on how much you yourself enjoyed hunts in other Ivalice based FF games. Quick, single player missions where you hunt a specific monster (powered up version) in a specific location. As for rewards, maybe a 100% chance to get the rare poached item for that monster. When I first played War of the Lions back on PSP, my first thought when I saw "Start a Mission" and "View Available Missions" in the Tavern was hunts. I was so excited and then immediately disappointed by it being locked behind multiplayer. Haha.

It doesn't need to be complicated. Something to do besides the main story would be a welcomed addition in my opinion. Helping out the local villages of Ivalice with their monster problems sounds like the perfect task for Ramza and friends.

That's great to hear, let's hope! What plans do you have for the next update? Since playing further, I have a question and some thoughts for you about a few things. The experience has been great so far, all the changes are welcomed improvements!

I'm currently at the battle when the party saves Boco in the woods. Is it intended that Boco can't be controlled? It's not a huge deal, but just curious about it since guest characters are player-controlled now.

This next one is a big request, but it's something I've always felt would improve party management. Have you thought about implementing a manual "sort unit" feature? (being able to change unit number) Having a way to sort them manually, without having to hire generics to reserve specific numbered positions, would be incredible! What do you think? I just had to get the idea out there, and to see what you think about it. I'll accept either way.  :p

Thank you again, Tzepish!

Hello Tzepish,

I recently discovered your mod and love what you've done with it. Very much so! I'll be playing this version from now on, haha. All the changes feel natural, it's fantastic! You are amazing for the years of hard work you put into making this. Thank you thank you!

There's a small bug I'd like to report, but not sure if it's unique to me since I haven't seen any reports about it. The iso I'm using matches the checksums you recommended, and I'm using the latest ppsspp on windows.  In that regard, everything is up-to-date.  Is this perhaps a known bug or something wrong on my end?

It's a minor graphical bug during combat but regularly occurring. The dark backdrop behind character profile pictures, HP MP CT, predicted damage and % chance, etc., quickly flashes on the screen after the ability animation finishes. Only the dark backdrop flashes, and it seems to only happen after using abilities that were affected by the PSP slowdown.

I did some experimenting with it. Applying the slowdown fix using FFTorgASM (v.497) on your patched iso fixes it, but I have no idea if it conflicts with anything else from your mod.

Anyway, that's all from me! I hope the information is helpful towards understand the bug.

This is the dark backdrop I'm referring to: (screenshot found using google)


 

Alright.  Just to let you know I probably won't get to post back until tomorrow (Monday), or Tuesday.  I'm finishing up a final project for school, then new classes begin.  It's chaos!    

Oh, hmm... I used the two blank slots right after the "Parasite" ability in FFTPatcher.  (#165 and#166)  I guess I'll find out what events they affected eventually as I play, haha.

I'll do some more tests with the hack and take some notes on it.  Then I'll post back later.  Want the savestate to be right before it occurs?

This may have already been created but, how about optional random battles?  If you want to fight on a map, select a "Enter Map" option from the main menu, or by pushing a button, or something... ?

OR, how about a "Flee" ability that you can use to escape from random battles?   

Cool!  I haven't had a chance to work on it yet, but when I finish up my homework (school is crazy right now) and stuff, I'll try out the new one.  Thank you for posting the new one!  I'm excited to try it out.   

Edit:  The new one did not work either, but I'm still trying!  Haha.  I forgot to mention that I am playing on emulator and am using the epsxe emulator.  However, I don't like it very much because it acts weird sometimes.     I will keep at it.  My hack is just about complete, anyway, and I've included a lot of the ASM hacks from around the forums.  Thanks to Rufio, I've used that 2D formula for other abilities which really helped a lot.

Just a quick question, does using the blank ability slots affect anything?

My first attempt failed, unfortunately.  The game crashed when trying to select a target to attack.  I will do some more tests to see if I can get it working properly.

Yay!  When I get home I'm going to try this out.  Thank you very much, Choto!  Also, thanks Rufio, I didn't realize that the formula 2D used weapon power.  When staring at math formulas for too long, my brain... stops being a brain.

When I test out the formula later, I'll post the results.

Hi everyone!

After perusing the site and forums for a specific formula, I need help in the end to find a certain one.  It may already exist, but my math skills aren't the best so I didn't realize if it was already there, when it might be in plain sight.   

Is there a formula that does the same thing as the Archer's "Charge" skills?

In Jot5, it appears they have something like it with Cloud's limit skills Braver and Cross Slash.  While they aren't charge attacks, they are based of damage dealt with a normal attack it seems.

I... did not think of that.  But it worked.  Thank you very much, Xifanie.   

Solved.

Hello!   

I've been using a lot of FFTactext, and it seems to only have the "Formation" (#1-7) tutorials.  What about the "Tips" (#1-41) tutorial text?  Is that possible to edit with FFTactext, and I'm just overlooking it?

My search around the forums helped me discover that the "Battle" tutorial text is a part of the game's script, but is this the case for the Tips?

If hex editing is required, I don't mind doing it that way.  I've done a lot of text editing using table files.

Edit:  Oops!  I thought I was in the "Help" forum.  I hope I don't get in trouble.   

Speaking of Marks, that is such a great addition to the game!  In the original game, that is how I thought Errands were going to be, but ended up being rather lame, and annoying, due to random battles.  I cannot wait to experience the new release of Jot5!     I will take pleasure in destroying all the silly frogs again, in the Warjilis Mark.

Also, about what Jumza said, there is an enemy unit in the Thieves' Fort (on top of the wall) that just stood in one spot for a good amount of the battle.  He didn't move or act until I went on top of the wall to engage him.  It was the Mage.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense!  It honestly wasn't a big issue.  The only real reason why it stood out to me was because it never happened in the original FFT. 

I really look forward to Chapter 2!  However, I read somewhere on the forum that we would have to start an entirely new save file when Chapter 2 is released.  Is this still true?  Just curious.  (or maybe I misread something)   

Thank you for the replies.  I've completed Chapter 1, and the excitement never faded.

It took about 15 hours, and my party levels ranged from 22-28.  Strangely, I never bothered changing jobs for any of the main five.  It just didn't feel right, haha.  So I have no idea if there are any new jobs or what new skills are available.   

The Chapter 1 finale was very difficult.  Thanks to much luck, I was able to win.

A minor critique:

It was a bit odd to view a battle's event scene before being prompted to position party members.  It kinda ruined the flow of the moment.

I downloaded this patch, unaware of what it was about, and honestly, I didn't expect much.  (I didn't even know who the 5 were, or anything)  Anyway, I started a new game and during the first event... my jaw dropped to the floor.  "Is this for REAL?"

Really... I did not believe what I had seen.  That first scene sucker-punched me right in the feels.

Then comes along scene number two.  The Lost Woods?   "Is this the Zelda Lost Woo.... LINK!!!  AAAAAH"

By this point, I'm just completely absorbed into the game, and lose all sense of being.  I would go on about my reactions to Snake and Dante, but my brain literally exploded.  It feels like it was a dream.  These 5 together is the best gaming experience I've had in a long, long time.   Thank you, sincerely, to the development team.

Jot5 is truly inspiring!   


Oh, and a tiny question:  Is it possible to beat the 6-turtle-encounter at Zirekile Falls?  At this early in the game, it's such an overwhelming fight that I end up hitting reset.