Modding new characters

[DERIDEX120]

I like alot of the custom sprites listed here. I have a couple of questions before I actually begin integrating them.

1. Will the game accept new characters from scratch or do you have to change perameters of existing characters? (I once tried making a new skillset and the text editor wasnt having it.)

2. What tools do you use to make custom sprites? I want to make sprites of characters from other games and drop them throughout the storyline to join party. I see the image needs to be a specific filetype, My fiddlings in mspaint had odd turnouts.

[advfox]

There are several free job slots you can use in the vanilla game. Some are guest/enemy duplicate slots for special characters which you can use if you make the corresponding changes to ENTD. If you want to create new skills then you can use the few free ability slots in vanilla; if those aren't enough then you have to do some consolidating of existing abilities or something

From what I've read, most spriters use/used GraphicsGale and ShiShi (useful not only for importing but for previewing animation frames). Portraits are 16-color 32x48 BMPs, sprites are paletted 256-color BMPs (16 palettes, half of them used for portraits). If you're making unique characters then you probably only need a single palette each for the sprite/portrait. I never used MSPaint for sprites so I can't say if it's a viable option or not, but I would avoid it

[DERIDEX120]

I had been using the blank spaces toward the bottom of the job list. (92-9F) for jobs. looks good in the patcher, but either text editor wont write over blank slots or I'm just using the wrong ones. wasnt sure about those 4 squires in slots 01-04. I didnt know if they are actually used in game or not. The event list in ENTD kind of confuses me though, I can't seem to locate some particular events.

[Nyzer]

IIRC, if the new jobs are below the Generic jobs, they won't function correctly as party members. They're vaguely hardcoded as Monster jobs.

[DERIDEX120]

IIRC, if the new jobs are below the Generic jobs, they won't function correctly as party members. They're vaguely hardcoded as Monster jobs.

That narrows it down to 2 blank slots and the 4 squires. What are these duplicates for? are they used in-game?
Shishi sprite editor also lists several duplicate squires. does the game use all these duplicates or are they just "extra?"

EDIT:  Ive got the skillset / text editor issues corrected. As I'm fiddling with new sprites I'm noticing some anomalies. looking into it, I think I need to do something with WLDFCE and UNIT.BIN to complete the character. I guess I'll look into tutorials in the morning on how to tidy that up. Thanks for the clarification on the job slots, very helpful.