Final Fantasy Hacktics

I want to know how to make monsters cast spells or how to skip ahead of that animation. For example, Backdraft is an unarmed punch with fire, yet the Bomb monster won't do it.

FFTA has many name-only monsters called that appear as "Foreign Fiends" and "Falgabirds". I was a kid and was hoping for a super boss and all I got was the same old monster, not even a recolor. Leonarth pointed out that there were many skill-set-only job slots, so I added Yellow sprites and gave them better stats (think elite monsters). It'd be nice to make them do something more.


If the above is not possible, then I'll just resort to adding target-only specials. For example:
   Dragon Force = Raise target stats + Quicken (monster only)
   Bad Breath = Multiple status effects (non-monster) + Haste (monster only) + Re-raise (monster only)
This way Blue Mage won't get these benefits.

1. MP Generation
I want to set starting MP to be 25% of max. bcrobert's minor hacks.txt suggests the following but it did not work for me

QuoteTo set MP generation on unit placement to a hard number:
Change the 2 bytes at 0xc98f2 to ??20, where ?? is the desired result.

To set MP generation on unit placement to a percentage:
Change the byte at 0xc98f2 to 40 for 50% MP on unit placement, 80 for 25%, and C0 for 12.5%.

Even the MP Generation hack in the AIO (sets to zero) did not work.
Has anyone been able to get it work?


2. Status effect double/triple chance?
The AIO allows 3 effects for any given skill. If we put 3 different status effects, they all have an individual chance to happen. If we repeat the same status effect, does it check multiple times thereby doubling/tripling effect chance?

Is there a way to confirm this, or has anyone done so?

Only 4 of a job's action abilities are generally good/useful. The others are/become redundant as the player gets to the end game. If all the abilities were good, then the job is too powerful/overused.
So, I had this idea tried to reduce the abilities to 4 per job (a few got 5) to make each job unique. Although it can be even more fine-tuned, I'm quite happy with my test and here is a spreadsheet. Even the three black/white mages are different now.

There is another advantage. The game has many unused slots, which we can now be used for custom classes with a few custom skills.

The tab is named "Less Skills".
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MjqOJdqyY_1azzn9dQikp5GXCB3QTM0INVOgfDwc8ro/edit?usp=sharing]

If I find some time, I'll make a patch for this. Please let me know your thoughts.

The AIO shows all the possible classes and there are some blank ones as well. The enemy only classes like Biskmater, Hermatic, and Runeseeker do not have any sprite set and use the sprite given by a "special character". Special characters seem to have their sprites set and do not depend on the class' sprite. This means that a special character like Montblanc can be a Nu Mou or even a Totema.

---Question 1---
I wanted to add some extra bosses and so I gave these name-only classes some sprites and it worked fine with no bugs. What I want to know is, can we do this to the blank slots as well?
Also, going by the logic above, the classes used in the snowball fight can also, probably, be used with custom sprites because all them are "special characters".
I am not very sure, but I vaguely remember someone saying that these blank slots are used for some background checks. Is this correct? Because some the slots are not using any unknowns.
If these are just plain empty slots then we can use them to add custom classes, like the yellow monsters?

---Question 2---
There are 5 slots with the name "Totema" and I gave each of them a different sprite. When I try to assign these classes to a mission it looks fine, but all of them default to the first Totema when I hit SAVE.

Note: The game somehow cannot handle all 3 totema on a given map. This is probably why we have the "Deph" variety of Totemas. If you want to know what I mean, then add all the 3 "special character" totema to the same battle. You'll either see a blue Adremmelech or a green Famfirt/Mateus (all very cool). To switch palettes just view the info screen of any totema and their palette will be applied to the other two.

In case you found this interesting and wanted the sprite and portrait addresses, Fallujah documented a nice spreadsheet here

I've used the popular MGBA and VBAM, and my system slows down on prolonged usage. So, I always find myself going back to the "outdated" VBA 1.7.2 because it's very light on resources.

MGBA - I like the color filter the emulates an actual LCD

VBAM - The xBrz filter is interesting

VBA has an option for gameboy colors, but it never works.
Is there any way to get LCD colors to work on VBA?
Or is there any other emulator that is both light on resources and has the LCD color filter?

Edit: The topic is solved, but the icon isn't showing.
Edit2 : Its still a bit jittery.
Edit3 : Bangaa spell Holy no longer lags in the latest version of mGBA 0.9.1

I understand the damage formula for FFTA from this guide

Caster's Weapon Att - [Target's Weapon Def / 2]'   for physical attacks
Caster's Magic Pow  - [Target's Magic Res  / 2]'   for magical attacks

This base will then be multiplied by 'Power / 100', usually, where Power is
the strength of the ability.  For weapon-based abilities, this will be the
EqAtt bonus your equipment (minus Secondary Weapon) gives you, while for
other abilities, this will be the Power stat of the ability itself.

According the above formula the damage of skills like body slam are independent of wpn atk, but I find that wpn atk has some influence. Take a look at this image:

Note:
estreledge atk = 77
hanya helm atk = 5
maximillian atk = 5
genji glove atk = 20

• Here the warrior's body slam and fight damage is changing differently when a weapon is equipped/un-equipped with other equipment and without other equipment


• From the first two sets of images, the normal attack damage is less than body slam when only weapon is equipped/un-equipped and character has no other attack increasing equipment.


• From the last two sets of images, the normal attack damage is more than body slam when only weapon is equipped/un-equipped and character has some other attack increasing equipment.


• I have also tested with different classes as they have different un-armed attack values. The monk has higher un-armed attack value than warrior and this also changed body slam damage by a small amount.
  The monk's damage is, fight = 44 as opposed to the warrior's 31 and body slam = 232 as opposed to the warrior's 228

From this I understand that skill power is influenced by equipment, but not as much as fight damage.
If anyone can clarify this it would be helpful. Also, happy new year :)

I want to make random clan battles give two pieces of equipment as rewards . Any kind of help on this would be appreciated.

I have been able to change the AP rewards and equipment rewards for missions using the mission-data.nmm nightmare module, but I could not find the missions which are linked to the random clan battles.
There are a few unknown missions in there but I don't think that they are the clan battles because they give 20AP and no equipment whereas random clans give 50AP and 1 equipment.

I am looking for a GBA pokemon hack which does the following:
-Be a hack of fire red or ruby
-Have tyranitar and aggron (me and my brother dont like difficult mods that require you to use competative pokemon tactics, we just like to use our favourite pokemon and beat the crap out of the game)
-Arcues would be preferable
-More pokemon = good
-More dragons = good

I saw screenshots for the following games:
-Dark rising 1 has dieno,gible
-Dark rising 2 has goomy
-Light Platinum has Arceus and other legendary like Palkia, Dialga, Giratina, etc.

Suggest any game which is good, easy, less bugs, dont care much for storyline, just more pokemon.

I want a few things changed about FFTA

-1-Can doublehand be increased from 20% to 40% (I am assuming its only a byte change, but where)
-2-Can we have directional damage in FFTA similar to that of FFTA2? Less damage from front more damage from back (similar to the way evasion is directional)
-3-Can a Mag.RES+ be coded akin to Wpn.DEF+

Text editing to add custom skill names and change AP costs in FFTA.

The tools needed are:
-1- A hex editor that supports table files (ffta707 recommends windhex and it is used here)
-2- ffta707's table file found here Job name Editor the application didn't work for me but the included table file is what we want.
-3- Darthatron's A.I.O (ver 0.7.7.1 is used here)
If you just want to re-assign skill names and/or edit AP costs then skip to step 3.

---Step 1---
-Open the hex editor (windhex) and then open the ROM file in it.
-Next load ffta707's table file into it.
-You will now see a screen like this where I changed Dummy to Steel-Stance.


---Step 2---
-Although we can edit the old skill names its better to enter new ones as there is some empty space in the vanilla ROM.
-Hit Ctrl+G (goto) and enter 00556030.
-This shows a lot of text as #D#u#m#m#y, all we have to do now is enter the new skill name in hex format.
-The #R#e#d alphabets are coded in hex as:
capital alphabets A to Z ---> B1 to CA
small alphabets a to z ---> CB to E4
space is 00
hyphen is FF

-I observed that the text-strings always end with bytes 00 and 01, if you want end a string just add 00's and finally 01.

---Step 3---
-Open the A.I.O and load your ROM. Now open the job editor.
-Select the second tab and hit the pencil icon which allows editing of skill-sets.
-Choose the ability you want to rename (here first aid) and click on the name dialogue box. This should show a list of all names in an alphabetical order.


Search for your new skill name and save it. Edit the AP costs if you want to.
The advantage to using job editor is that these changes are properly being reflected in the equipment that teach these skills along with the AP costs.
-I also observed that if different AP values are given for the same ability in the job-editor and the a-ability editor then the value set from the job-editor takes precedence, so edit AP costs in the job-editor
-The A.I.O will re-assign the pointers and it will look like this:

I was experimenting with Nightmare2 to change the animations to see what pallete changing actually means, I didn't change anything to my ROM. Later while backing up to an ips patch, Lunar IPS said that I had modified the bytes after the 16MB mark and only changes upto the 16MB mark will be saved.

The rom size increased by 1KB i.e 16,384KB to 16,385KB.
Is this a threat? What consequences can this have?

I am currently editing animations so that soldiers/warriors aren't using the blue magic initiation, if that helps. Should I stop editing animations? Are they bugged? I did test a few pallete changes and they worked fine.

---Purpose---
-Removes most surplus quest items so as to allow 100% mission completion (300).
-Missable equipment like rubber suit, gastra bow, galmia shoes, zeus mace, materia blade and iceprism were added as rewards.
-Recruitment items are still present. Elda's cup, Wyrm stone...etc.
-Most every mission now gives two rewards (while you can't get 99, you do get a handful).
-Story battles reward more AP.
-Added a Thundrake in Roda Dragons clan battle.
-Added a Goblin in Antlions clan battle.
-Treasure hunts also changed to not give mission items.

I originally wanted this for my other mod but then figured it might be useful to others as well.

Apply it to a US FFTA rom using the included NUPS patcher made by Nintenlord.
Report if you find any bugs.
Enjoy

---Motivation---
-1-My first FFTA playthrough where I got stuck at 294 missions cause I threw away clock gear or clock post.
-2-FFT: Vanilla plus.
-3-Darthatron and bcrobert for rom data and nightmare modules

---Credits---
-bcrobert for the nightmare modules
-Darthatron for the AIO

--Q5--
I changed Mindbreak to Mana-Seep which drains MP which is cool but doesnt really do much. So here are two alternatives

Gladiator skill -> Bloodlust = drains target's HP to user's MP (I find draining HP to be powerful, damage and heal in the same turn)
Templar skill -> Mana-Seep = drains target's MP to user's HP (helps in tanking and makes damaging MP more rewarding)
scrapped because skill descriptions cannot be changed

--Q4--
Status effects are broken

petrify, KO, toad are totally ruin the idea of strategy so I intend to remove them from player base and replace them with a combination of status effects.
For example I replaced Break = Petrify with Immobilize+Disable. I like this not only because immobilize+disable does nearly the same thing as petrify but also because its temporary, I want to give players the option to choose their play style, do you want to buff/debuff? or deal/tank damge? having the option is important.
dont ask about Bad Breath...its just bad
All status effects are back without any accuracy nerfs. Default status evasion increased to 60% and reduced concentrate to 30% normal and 10%status

--Q3--
Equipment changes. Weapons now boost multiple stats, for example sabers and instruments now increase both ATK and MAG, what to do with these:

1H swords - ATK + speed boost(slightly)?
Rapier - ATK + evade?
Greatswords - what to with these? ATK + RES? (Broadswords are ATK+DEF, Knightswords come in both ATK+DEF/ATK+RES variants)
Blades - just more ATK?
equipment changes are done

--Q2--
this was a serendipity

I changed first-aid/nurse to "physical" healing so as to increase the amount of HP being healed, thus is it can now be boosted to heal double the amount

--Q1--
I am pretty happy with the way this is, but just wanted to hear the community's opinion
Paladin skill -> Holy Blade = Dispels target's positive buffs and deals holy damage, 100% accurate
its just add holy elemental now

When editing the blue mages skill set in the A.I.O ver0.7.7.1 job editor it shows Knife and Limit glove as learnable skills in the clean ROM?
asfaik they can't learn those skills, so why are they there in the AIO?

I have two questions in specific, if you answer A then ignore B.

A) How to fix names for the 4 generic characters you get at the beginning of the game? If there is a way to edit names after recruitment then that is also good.

B) If A is not possible (or reproducible), then is it possible to edit the name and class/skills of semi-generic recruitable characters like Eldena, Lini, Cheney, Pallanza and Quin?

*edit*
I tried to hex edit text following the offsets from ffta707's topic but the hex editor shows all text in latin symbols with one or two english alphabets.
An example from ffta707's offsets "00526650 - 00526670: Month's/ Moon Phases? (Look like, S#a#g#e#m#o#o#n#)" but I couldn't find any of those aplhabets nearby.

I also tried his text editor but it gives an error saying "component comdlg32.ocx or one of its dependicies not correctly registered" although the file comdlg32.OCX exists (tried changing capital OCX but didnt work).

*edit 2*
I got the text to display using the table file, but text editing is buggy.

*edit 3*
here is a way to partly edit skill names from the public version of the AIO 0.7.7.1 beta (this is great if you just want to re-assign skills, skill descriptions and skill names but not entirely type whatever you want)

-1-open the ROM in the AIO and go the the second tab in the job-editor
-2-click on the small pencil which says "edit ability data" (fig.1)
-3-reassign skill name and skill to whatever you like (fig.2, note: all sprites may not have the necessary frames for selected skill)
-4-you can also edit the skill descriptions from here (fig.4 shows an example of a skill changed along with its descreption)

-the advantage to this is that these changes are properly being reflected in the equipment that teach these skills along with the AP costs (fig.3)
-if you've been editing AP values in the a-ability editor then they wont reflect on the equipment
-I also observed that if different AP values are given for the same ability in the job-editor and the a-ability editor then the value set from the job-editor takes precedence, so edit AP costs in the job-editor

                 

I have two questions

1)I have posted ideas for a new mod in "New Project Ideas" (The guidelines state any idea that you personally intend to pursue be posted there). Should that topic be moved to "FFTA:Hacking" because its the FFTA board? If yes, how do I do that?

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10601.msg200975#new

2)I was balancing skills and equipment and came across the following scenario and am asking suggestions

---Scenario---
Doublesword and ranged holyblade (seventh heaven is buffed) are powerful and feel like no-brainers.

*edit* the questions blelow are no longer appropriate until negative speed on equipment can be properly displayed (it still works) so answer the new question at the end.

To append this I want to introduce the concept of "weight WT" from tactics ogre. This will be done by adding negative speed to equipment stats. I find that by giving a higher WT to katana/bow/greatbow/knightswords/maybe guns slows down the fast and powerful classes like Ninja/Sniper/Assassin/Hunter/Paladin and makes them glass cannons.
Thieves can totally dualwield daggers as they are small and light.


a)I only want to add WT to weapons just to give double sword/ranged holyblade a minor nerf. This also gives monsters nice little speed advantage.
b)I do not want to add WT to other equipment (like armour,hat,shield,accessories) as it just makes for not only tedious balancing but also makes the morpher even more uber (dont equip anything on him as he uses monster stats). It gives the monsters a greater speed advantage but that be done by raising their speed growth anyway.

I have decided to simply make Katanas much weaker but also boost magicpower and speed slightly. This should make ninjas and assassins less powerful and only be used for their speed. Also helps by allowing mages to be turned into ninjas for the debuffs and magic boost.
Likewise knightswords will be boosting DEF and RES with lowered attack.

Question: Will the above rebalance make double sword/holyblade less powerful?
Start your answer with a "Yes/No/Its not worth the effort" and then state your reasoning from the next line. Anything and everything is appreciated.

Introduction
FFTA: Revisited is an enhancement hack of Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced that aims to capture the spirit of the original with many added improvements and difficulty changes. Most of the improvements are gameplay changes to jobs, skills, stat growths, enemy formations, tougher monsters and bosses. Read the documentation for a full list of changes.
Have fun, report if you find any bugs. All criticism is accepted

Features Overview
Missions
All the 300 missions can be completed much quicker because the mission items that were required are now removed. The player does not need any of them to finish the entire game (some remained because they recruit specific units).  Treasure hunts also changed not to give quest items.
All the story missions are slightly harder. Boss missions are meant to pose a challenge and they give great rewards. Side missions are to be completed with less than 6 party members. Clans have better equipment and abilities. Monsters have better stats and movement.
Rewards
All missions now reward two weapons. Removal of mission items means early access to powerful weapons. Missable equipment like Gastra Bow, Materia Blade, Rubber Suit, Galmia shoes, Zeus mace and Iceprism were added as rewards. All the story missions give much more AP. Goblins and Thundrakes no longer become extinct.
Equipment
Re-balanced nearly every piece of weapon, armor, hat, shoe, gauntlet in the game. Some 1-Handed weapons that were too strong got normalized and 2-Handed weapons got a well deserved power increase. Shields give evasion and defense or resistance. Short Bows add some speed, but are less powerful than Great Bows. Broad Swords add some defense, while Great Swords add status protection. Gauntlets give evasion or magic while, while Shoes give jump and movement or speed.
Jobs
All jobs of a race now share the same base stats. This means a newly recruited Ninja is the same as a Soldier, which makes Marche and Montblanc as good as any other unit. Extensive stat and skill changes to make every job usable and have some niche. Please post your suggestions if you find that any job is inferior/could be improved.

How to apply patch
1-Download the .zip file and extract it.
2-Start the included NUPS.
3-Click "Apply an UPS patch to a file". Another window appears.
4-Select a clean US FFTA rom and the .ups file and then click "Patch". A message appears showing success.

FFTA Revisited Documentation
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MjqOJdqyY_1azzn9dQikp5GXCB3QTM0INVOgfDwc8ro/edit?usp=sharing

Credits
Darthatron
   AIO editor
   Text editor
bcrobert
   Nightmare modules
   FFTA notes
Sephiran
   Shields fix
Leonarth
   Skip intro cutscene and battles
   Missing weaponand skill animations for all playable jobs
   Manual unit sort
   Custom Names
   Morphing changes appearance to monster
   HP and MP go till 4 digits
   Stat variance and fixed level ups
   Steal shoes

Eternal, Darthatron, bcrobert, dck, Leonarth, and the FFH community

Known Bugs
Monsters sprites are invisible in the Monster Bank. This is a visual bug and does not affect anything.

To Do
Change existing abilities
Add some abilities to monsters
Implement zero starting MP and 10% MP regen (stats already adjusted, will be implemented in the next patch once abilities are reworked)
Change law sets
Change story battle rewards and thrown items list
Change clan battles and post-game missions
Remove [Enhance element] from all equipment, move to accessories for better customization
Remove [Absorb and Null element] from weapons, move to shields
Remove [Null multiple status] from anything other than Ribbon, move to shields
Equipment and Skill descriptions (ongoing)
Update tool tips for skill descriptions (ongoing)

Changelog
16 Aug 2021 2.0 Beta - Added extra weapons for all jobs, added new enemy variations, changed all story battles
04 Jul 2020 1.061 - Removed Leoanrth's hacks because of a bug with Feather shoes, Galmia shoes, and Fairy shoes
03 Jul 2020 1.06 - Removed Reflex, Strike back and Shield bearer. Increased difficulty. Improved Support and Reaction abilities for monsters
13 Jun 2020 1.05a - Updated files to fix the Judge Reward, which was previously not working
06 Jun 2020 1.05 - Implemented Leonarth's engine hacks as an option
19 Dec 2018 1.0 - Redid from scratch and renamed mod to FFTA: Revisited

My username is rrs_kai and I like strategy rpg games. I dont know any mod/hack and am fairly new to forums although I read a lot (linux forums).
My first srpg was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (a friend gave it to me). I like this game a lot and have cleared it twice.

On youtube I sutmbled upon FFTA:X and was searching for other mods...and found FFTA: Grim Grimoire.
I am here to contribute to make FFTA:GG, a great game better, and will probably stick as long as its development continues.
I hope you find my suggestions noteworthy

Other srpg games I have are:
Disgaea 2 DHD - The game reverberates 'broken' but is fairly complex and fun.
Tactics Ogre psp - I like the story and intricate battle mechanics in this game.