Why you should mod the PSX version and not WotL

[Xifanie]

NOTE: THERE IS NOT A SINGLE TOOL TO MOD WAR OF THE LIONS ANDROID/IOS

This topic will be updated when I can think of something to add

War of the Lions Inherent Limitations:

• All the new items cannot be made available outside of Multiplayer in any fashion. (Balthier's equipment was hardcoded, you will not be able to reproduce it)


• The ability/spell quotes cannot be re-enabled


• Even with the slowdown fix, the abilities' audio is distorted


• Inability to remove the Onion Knight/Dark Knight special requirements (jobs mastered & kill count)

PSX	WotL	Hacking Feature
	x	Acceptable amounts of community support
		Can edit job/ability/item flags
		Can edit skillsets/poaching/move-find items/propositions
		Can edit the game's text
	x	Has tool(s) to make editing text a lot easier
		Can edit existing cutscenes (events)
	x	Can write a new story (Missing tools for WotL)
		Can change Spritesheets and their SHP/SEQ
	x	Can import new Spritesheets larger than the original's size (The bottom portion of spritesheets is always compressed... This is a big deal.)
		Can import new formation sprites
	x	Can re-link formation sprites to other slots (Missing tools for WotL)
		Can edit existing maps
	x	Can increase the filesizes of maps
		Can edit ability animations (Effects)
	x	Can create, move and resize files around the ISO
	x	Can use PSX compatible ASM hacks (99.9% of ASM hacks; i.e. all the cool features)
	x	ASM code documentation (extensive, even)
	x	ASM: New/Altered ability formulas
	x	ASM: Soldier Office Upgrade
	x	ASM: Make Charge, Elemental, Jump skillsets act as regular skillsets
	x	ASM: Synthesis Shop
	x	ASM: Different requirements than "sword is equipped"
	x	ASM: Only get randoms when you desire them

[Emmy]

Feel free to add to your list code documentation (wiki).  For those looking to write their own asm hacks or alter other people's hacks to suit their own needs, it's MUCH easier to do this when documentation of the code exists and is quite extensive.  To my knowledge nothing like the wiki exists for wotl code.

[Argy]

Brilliant work Xif. You should probably sticky this as well.

[Timbo]

Well said.

[BleuVII]

Yep, totally agree with this. Take it from someone who has spent the last 2 months on WotL: If you do not have a defined project plan from the very beginning, or if your project requires anything beyond what the most basic tools can do, stay away and plunk around on the PSX version.

If you DO have a defined project plan, and a good reason to go for WotL, it takes some finesse and compromise, but it is possible to do quite a lot with the tools that are readily available. Just get ready to curse out FFTactText on a regular basis. 

My patch is 95% done, and I'm in the middle of test playing it, but I've seriously wondered if the extra classes, characters, and abilities are worth the headaches. When this is done, and I port my changes over to PSX, I have a feeling like I'm going to belly laugh with relief at how easy it is.

[Nyzer]

Only reason I ever modded WotL was for the multiplayer. And it barely ever seems to work anyway if you're emulating it at all... which is the most efficient way to play PSP WotL these days, considering the fact that PSP-2000s aren't being sold anymore.

If you've got a functional way to play multiplayer, people to play it with, and only want to change a few small things? Then WotL is for you. If you want to do literally anything else, save yourself a massive headache and go straight to the PSX version.

[Guru]

You should add the lack of community support, knowledge, etc. It is pretty much implied with the lack of documentation, but still would help get the point across, you are pretty much on your own if you decide to mod wotl.

I love the title and that it's in the wotl hacking section lol

[Xifanie]

Very good point; added. At the top at that, because that's a pretty big deal.
I wasn't quite sure what to call it, but that's what I went with. ¯\(°_o)/¯

[Ildon]

...

[Nyzer]

So it boils down to if you want to create a story mod or a combat rebalance mod.

Well, no. Don't forget that one of Xifanie's points was "Can write a new story (Missing tools for WotL)".

Event editing, like the Patcher/Tactext/Shishi work, is actually fairly comparable between the two versions. However, you're still generally more limited when working with the PSP version instead of the PSX one. I'd say that you're less limited when it comes to story mods vs combat rebalance mods in WotL, but you're still limited for it.

As for how useful "enemy variance" is... well... the ability to use multiple palettes of the same sprite and to apply custom secondaries & RSM greatly makes up for that issue. Fighting a bunch of Dragoons might be boring, but you can color-code those Dragoons and set up their skillsets so that the red one is the melee attacker, the blue one is the tankier type, the yellow one is the healer, the green one the mage, the black one the bard. You can even make them recurring enemies, and despite being palette-swapped generics, the player will still easily recognize them, individually, the moment the event loads.

Let's not even get into the casual dismissal of "ASM Hacks" as simple "combat rebalancing", when they offer so much more.

WotL is adequate for smaller projects or if you're absolutely dead-set on the max character limit of 24 (which, personally, I think is absurd considering the fact that WotL is nowhere near a big enough game for the player to get good use out of all those characters). Even if your focus is purely on a story mod within the WotL limits, I'd still rather see things like being able to put elements on all skills, keeping Guests playable in random battles (can you imagine how much potential this would have for a Ch. 1 story mod?), the expanded  Soldier Office, and so on.

However, these advantages are not comparable to what the PSX version has to offer, especially when the PSX has simple workarounds for half of them.

And I'm saying this as someone who has only modded WotL for his personal projects. I've never played the PSX version of FFT. But I am keenly aware of what limits the PSP version has compared to its predecessor on FFH, and the few, minor advantages are not worth it.

If your project is so big as to take advantage of the expanded 16 sprite/24 formation limits, it's big enough to feel the loss of what could have been done on the PSX version instead.

[Ildon]

...

[Tony75]

How can you edit effects in war of the lions ?

[Xifanie]

How can you edit effects in war of the lions ?

Just as you would on the PSX version. Extract, edit, reimport.
Just replace the cdmage/cdprog portion of my tutorial with whatever you need to do to extract/import files with WotL: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=11353.0

[Tony75]

Wow thanks !!

[Pedro Henrike]

Hello everyone, I'm from Brazil, and I recently started working with these programs. I do not understand English very well, so I'm having a hard time creating my own mod. I can not open using WotL ISO (PSP). So I would like to know if you can add the Onion Knight and Dark Knight classes to the PSX ISO?

[Nyzer]

A hack has been developed to allow adding one more generic job in on the PSX version, using the unused Bard/Dancer slots for the opposite sexes. It'll be included with The Lion War when it releases, and the default job will indeed be a Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight is a worthwhile enough job (just with horrendously stupid requirements) but the Onion Knight is pretty awful all around. You'll at least be able to get DK in once we've had a chance to test and release that new job hack.

[Pedro Henrike]

I'll wait until the tool is ready then. However, I will continue to try to learn to use the ones I already have, if only to do something very simple since I can not change the history of the game. Thx

[LV99 Vivi]

what about 16:9 widescreen ratio

[Abashi76]

Hopefully that will change someday. Are there any romhacks for FFTWoTL?

[nitwit]

Hopefully that will change someday. Are there any romhacks for FFTWoTL?

FFT: Emergence is pretty good.

https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=11613.0