Final Fantasy Hacktics

The face is lifted from the knight, and then adjusted a bit.

Hmm. I was referencing 4 or 5 of them while I worked on it, and I actually picked one to grab the pose from.

What do you think is off?

There wasn't much I could use for goatee examples.

I made myself a portrait.

I endorse this idea.

I know this thread is dead, but I have a thought to put forward, which may be of value to others attempting these kinds of things in the future.

I think a toolkit is a hard sell on Kickstarter, and I think there would have been much more luck if someone was making an actual game via kickstarter, and had "Polished Editor" as a stretch goal.

Ah. I see. They're all saving over the same locations,  aren't they.

This is going to be a bit more involved than I originally thought then. Hmm.

Any advice on a good hex editor that will show me the MIPS  assembly in text form while I edit it?

So I tried them out, and the only one that's showing up selectable is Jump. My Customized Item, Charge, and Throw don't.

Here are the individual patches. Did I screw something up?

Quote<Patch name="Support Equip Throw">
    <Description>Support skill below Equip Change gives access to skillset x39</Description>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="F762C">
     E8FFBD27
     1000BFAF
     92004392
     00000000
     10006330
     03006010
     21302002
     7E69060C
     39000534
     12004392
     1000BF8F
     1800BD27
     0800E003
     00000000
     92006590
     00000000
     0200A230
     04004010
     00000000
     34000234
     000002A2
     01001026
     FF000234
     000002A2
     0800E003
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11A4F0">
     9979050C
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="13347C">
     8B79050C
   </Location>
  </Patch>
 
  <Patch name="Support Equip Charge">
    <Description>Support skill above Move+1 gives access to skillset x9c</Description>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="F762C">
     E8FFBD27
     1000BFAF
     92004392
     00000000
     01006330
     03006010
     21302002
     7E69060C
     9c000534
     12004392
     1000BF8F
     1800BD27
     0800E003
     00000000
     92006590
     00000000
     0200A230
     04004010
     00000000
     34000234
     000002A2
     01001026
     FF000234
     000002A2
     0800E003
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11A4F0">
     9979050C
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="13347C">
     8B79050C
   </Location>
  </Patch>
 
  <Patch name="Support Equip Item">
    <Description>Maintenance instead gives access to skillset xa1</Description>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="F762C">
     E8FFBD27
     1000BFAF
     91004392
     00000000
     04006330
     03006010
     21302002
     7E69060C
     a1000534
     12004392
     1000BF8F
     1800BD27
     0800E003
     00000000
     92006590
     00000000
     0200A230
     04004010
     00000000
     34000234
     000002A2
     01001026
     FF000234
     000002A2
     0800E003
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11A4F0">
     9979050C
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="13347C">
     8B79050C
   </Location>
  </Patch>

@Pride: Thanks, for the heads up. I knew about that particular limitation. I don't think that will be a large concern for me, though I may yank a few of the less necessary skills to make sure that doesn't happen. There aren't that many skillsets with more than 8 or 9 abilities, and I imagine I could trim down some of the ones that have more than that to cut out some of the nonessentials.

@Choto: Thanks Choto, I hadn't seen that page before. That's going to make this pretty straightforward.

Pride: If I were to change the value of x91/x04 (Maintenance) to give me a skillset, would it cease doing Maintenance? (I'm hoping for a yes)
Would it cause major problems? (hoping for a no)

I'm also cool with replacing Monster Skill, if that would work better.

Basically I need just one more slot of "Support Skill" than is empty, and I'm hoping to take a slot from one of those two. (I will go test them out now, but if you know of any hiccups it may cause that I might miss, I would appreciate the heads up.)

[Sorry about the doublepost. I Fixed it]

So I'm looking for some assistance.

Earlier today I was pointed in the direction of this thread:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10132.0

Here's the most relevant bit:

Quote from: Pride on December 08, 2013, 04:12:00 am
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Patches> 
<Patch name="Support Equip Jump">
    <Description>Support skill below Non-Charge gives access to skillset x34</Description>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="F762C">
      E8FFBD27
     1000BFAF
     92004392
     00000000
     02006330
     03006010
     21302002
     7E69060C
     34000534
     12004392
     1000BF8F
     1800BD27
     0800E003
     00000000
     92006590
     00000000
     0200A230
     04004010
     00000000
     34000234
     000002A2
     01001026
     FF000234
     000002A2
     0800E003
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11A4F0">
     9979050C
     00000000
   </Location>
   <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="13347C">
     8B79050C
   </Location>
  </Patch>
</Patches>

x92 is the support set, x02 is the specific support skill in the set, and x34 is the skillset.

I'm trying to determine if this is doable for other skillsets, and in other locations.

Ideally, I would like to do this 3 more times. Once for Charge, once for Throw, and once for Item; then I can focus on giving those jobs more interesting skill lists.

changing the x34 to x39(throw), x9c(charge), and xa1(item) is straightforward.

I'm not clear on how I come up with the appropriate numbers to replace the x92 and the x02. Can someone give me a hand figuring that out? I was thinking I would use x01e5, x01e1, and if possible x01bb (which I no longer need since I have removed all of the item break skills). Can someone help me figure out how to get the "support set" and "support skill" within the set?

Alrighty.

So, I've just downloaded the newest source code, 0.483RC2, which was posted recently in the thread. Up until now I've been working with the 0.478 with WoTL names copy, which I'm not entirely sure where I downloaded.

I find myself wanting to familiarize myself with the project and get involved. I've got a BSC in Computer Science, and I've been working in the industry for 2 years, during which experience my has been largely in PHP, C#, and Java.

I've been an infrequent user of this forum, but I have contributed a few things here and there.

• I helped debug a couple ASM features (and helped come up with the concept for one) specifically regarding random gear assignment for NPCs.


• I did some searching and determined the WoTL slowdown was an intentional frame rate limitation, which I believe led to people hunting down the frame rate limitation and turning it off.


• And I contributed a couple of portraits.

That said:
Can I get a bit of a summary of how FFTPatcher works? I know you have indexed much of FFT, and that FFTPatcher makes ASM changes to the program.

• How does it find the specific parts to change? Are they just hardcoded hex address locations, or does it find key parts of the code to use as reference points?


• If they are just hardcoded locations, how is FFTPatcher able to handle more than one ISO Rip?


• Is FFTPatcher able to make use of any of the extra space people have figured out how to free up in FFT?
  I know people have repurposed Kanji tables that were left in the game, and I recall hearing something about freeing up a bunch of space in Events because Squaresoft had it set up with a bunch of redundancy that can be taken out for other things.

That said, I'm also looking for a to-do-list for FFTPatcher. Does one exist?

• Bugs/missing essential features list


• A proposed features list


• A list of features which can currently be done in a non-user-friendly manner using spreadsheets


• A List of Potential GUI Improvements (I can think of a few things that would make the GUI more manageable, off the top of my head)

I have some ideas of things that I think could make FFTPatcher better, but depending on the current to do list, they may not be what I would want to work on first.

Do you have a functional code library that can do gets and pulls? like an SVN or Github type of setup?
@Glain: Actually, I would love to sit down and talk to you about some of this stuff in a quicker fashion than on the forum. Could you PM me an alternate means of contact? Skype would be good. I can also do SMS (I use an Android Phone with DeskSMS installed, so I can send texts from my PC).

Okay, with some hunting, I found the workbook that has the generic skillset fix page in it.

I opened it up, and I'm a little confused.

How do I go about applying the fix, and what exactly does it do?

Lmao.

Alright. I'll make an unreasonable request then.

One of you guys should import all of the monsters from Disgaea into FFT, and give them FFT appropriate stats.

I was definitely thinking RAD was my only option to "replace" them. I figured The approach I'd need to take would be:
1. Make replacement jobs in empty slots.
2. Make them dependent on the original versions of the class, and give them the same sprite, in RAD.
3. Change the Job requirements of the original version to be unattainable (somehow), and change the Job Requirements of the new jobs I've made to be the same as the old ones.
4. Either go through and swap all instances of chemists, ninja, etc for the new versions, or just accept that NPCs will continue to use the old versions.

Can I use ARH to approach this in a better way?
(So far as I can tell, its only used if you want to add conditions you need to meet to be able to use an ability)

Is there a better way you can think of to approach replacing one or more of these classes than using RAD and setting up the one I want to replace to be unattainable?

A9 Innate: So if I'm okay with only having the players use item (for instance) That won't be a problem, otherwise, I need to consider reducing the total number of usable item skills and/or the total number of other usable skills per job?

This is something I thought of that would be kindof neat, and as far as ASM hacks go, seems simple enough.

Increase the damage on rear and flank attacks, to something more similar to what's found in FFTA, and perhaps also an option to half way between the two.

In FFTA If I recall correctly, it's much more worthwhile to attack the enemy from the rear than it is in FFT. I think it would be neat if you could get more benefit out of better positioning.

Anyone up for it?

If you don't mindexplaining, I'd also be interested in seeing how you would accomplish such a thing. Figuring out what to change and where is something I don't quite understand.

So... Why isn't everyone editing WotL instead then?
- The slowdown is fixed.
- If you don't like the translation, that's a simple (though kindof time consuming) thing to change.

I'm still just seeing a bunch of extra content that people are just ignoring because... I have absolutely no idea why they're ignoring the new content. New content is nice.

And given that everyone is playing it on a PC, and PCs have widescreen monitors, playing the game in widescreen would seem preferable.

Plus, potentially multiplayer (if the emulator can handle it).

Interesting. What is it that people dislike about the WotL Translation? Just that it's different? I'm pretty nostalgic about FFT too (I've worn out two physical PSX copies, I have a third PSX Copy, I have 2 copies of WotL (that was an accident, but no matter), I've played Roms/ISOs of both and Emulated them, and I'm on this website, but WotL has always seemed to me to be FFT with an expansion pack added in.

WotL's translation seemed pretty good. There weren't so many grievous places of broken english (We found out the treasure!), etc.

But really, I think the translation is rather insignificant. It's the cutscenes, extra content, and widescreen format that WotL has over the original. Plus, if we could get the PSP multiplayer working in an emulator over the internet, that could be a hell of alot of fun for PVP.

If the only part they don't like is the translation, they could make an inverse project of FFT Complete Easily enough, swapping WOTL's translation for the PSX Translation. I suppose they may want to re-dub the cutscenes. If they want to drop the cutscenes, it would probably be pretty easy to just use the PSX Events instead.

WotL Bonuses
- Animated Cutscenes with Voiced Dialogue
- New Jobs, Items, etc.
- New Sidequests.
- New Special Characters
- Widescreen Format
- PVP Multiplayer
- Seems to be more space available for more content to be added. Hardcoded job limits may be increased as well, which would give us much more room to play around comfortably.

It's been a while since I've tried to emulate a PSP game though, so I'm not sure how not-glitchy PSP FFT is in an emulator.

PSX Bonuses
- ASM Hacks devised for PSX don't currently work on WoTL and would have to be converted over.
- Some Tools for PSX could need to be updated for WotL compatibility.

Were I more familiar with ASM hacking (I may be, eventually) I would like to try to convert over some of the FFTorgASM hacks people have made to work with WotL. I'm familiar with higher level programming (its what I do for a living, and it's what I got a degree in) but I've only ever dabbled in ASM.

I just see lots of potential in the WotL version, plus, I like having more content.

I see.

I was thinking filesize was part of the reason we don't see people trying out things like upping the number of playable jobs to 50, or copying all of the job and event data from WotL into the PSX version of the game, or having tiered jobs like in Disgaea.

Hmm.
So the problem isn't the filesizes, it's the memory limits? If you're running it on a PC, don't you have access to a couple gigs of ram?

I've heard people mentioning the limited amount of space available in the files, and people are trying to make use of that space conservatively so as to not run out.

I have to ask: Why does the file size limit still matter?

If you're not going to run it on an actual playstation, shouldn't you be able to expand the file without too much trouble? Is this an issue of the emulator emulating the hardware, and not being able to read/handle a larger file?

I'm just curious.

~DH

Well, I for one am interested in WotL stuff.

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would be butthurt about a bunch of cinematic cutscenesand a bunch of expansion content, including two new base jobs, and two new named characters.

I understood the annoyance with the slowdown. I understand you may not own a PSP (and thus may have a hard time getting PSP games to emulate smoothly.

But the first was fixed a while ago (I provided some info I found, and someone else figured out how to fix it based on said info), and the second is a non-issue if you're trying to import WotL stuff into the PSX Version.


But back to my question: What method did you use for giving everyone the item skill? What did you do with the Chemist afterward? (Did you simply disable it, or did you replace it with something)

That sounds kindof awesome, and I think I'll want to play it when its done.

However, this is on a "We're going to play this over the holidays" sort of timeline, so I ideally want something I can throw together quickly and have ready to go for tomorrow night.

If you could point me in the right direction for thebasic changes (even just the item for everyone + swap chemist for something else), that would be a huge help.

Is that a WotL mod? I thought none of the ASM hacks worked with WotL, and I haven't gotten it to emulate properly (Running it on my PSP doesn't work so well when there's two of us sharing the adventuring party).