ARH: Ability Requirements Hack

[Celdia]

Beautiful. Works like a charm. Thank you, pokeytax!

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Now he just needs to remember to update his downloads in the OP with these fixes and all will be right in the world.

[pokeytax]

Quick bugfix in the OP to stop bugging up some Item abilities, which was messing up CCP.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

My computer won't load the "Data" section of the ARH spreadsheet.  I think my computer is too slow.  Could you break that portion of the spreadsheet into two or more sheets/pages?  And this is for all versions of ARH.

[Celdia]

Hey pokeytax. I just tried making use of the ARH 1.2 you've got attached to the first post here and I ran into a snag where it wasn't working. I checked things against the old 1.1 and found an error in your XML output. You have it writing to 0x04C36C in the SCUS when it should be writing to 0x04CE6C. Also, you might wanna go in and wipe out my data for CCP in that since its far and away from default values.

[Atma]

just found this.  super awesome!  I've been wracking my brain trying to find a work around to make more 'requires x' skills.  I've wanted to do requires guns and didn't wanna lose requires sword and didn't wanna limit myself to only using a single weapon (materia blade) for a whole skillset.
However... i'm trying to figure out how to use this and it's eluding me.  How do i choose which skill to edit the requirements of?
I'm assuming i can add the abilities i want to add the requirement to in the data tab... but how?

[Xifanie]

If no ability is linked to the requirement slot, it will display #N/A in the First Matching Ability column on the Data sheet. If so you can use that slot for a new set of skills. Let's say your free slot is 07 and you want to have multiple abilities require an axe to be used, set the axe requirement in the 07 row in the Data sheet and set all abilities you want that axe requirement for to 07 in the Table sheet (the yellow column).

[Atma]

I think I understood that.  I'll try it out tomorrow.  Thanks for the reply and for making this.  This is gonna play a huge part in my patch.
(edit):
Tried it.  Makes sense, now. <3

[pokeytax]

This is a WIP new ARH version.  Along with fixing console compatibility, it attempts to implement Xif's idea for arbitrary unit data checks:

If [Chocobo Riding] != 0x00 (meaning, the unit IS riding something)
return TRUE

If [HP] / [Max HP] < 10%
AND
If [HP] > 0
Return TRUE

What it probably does is make your entire party sterile and initiate an infinite Quick loop, because it's an ambitious hack that I haven't thoroughly tested.  But, better to post it for the adventurous than let it rot on my hard drive.  And of course, thanks again Xif, for making a hack so good it's mandatory.

[Choto]

Looks fantastic =) you could come up with some funny requirements (Only usable after you have acted!). Couple questions:

How exactly would you do mathematics like "HP / Max HP"?

and the much more important question,

Do you know why the old ARH was causing JoT5 to crash on console? I want to get working on console-fixed hacks for it, but I never knew what exception was causing the crash on there

[pokeytax]

1)

2) Nope.  My best guess is that it was not just the unaligned loads but also the jump on the AI side.  To make this version work, I had to move that to the Materia Blade check, and go dig the no longer available unit ID out of a technically unallocated part of the stack.

But... personally, I have encountered some really resilient bugs on PSX, more so than on other consoles.  Whether it's some undocumented PSX register protocol, some sloppiness I keep overlooking, or magic, who knows, but sometimes, it's easier to rewrite code that doesn't work than debug it.

[Choto]

Ah, didn't see that extra operation column there Thanks!

I'll keep that in mind when going through the hacks. It's important to Elric so I'll give it a shot and see how the landscape looks. If the ARH is fixed for console.. that'll be a HUGE start lol

[Kaedre]

Is possible to make that ARH works with skill sets instead of abilities?

I actually want an ASM that add an innate (EXTRA) skill set to an specified job. Example:
thiefs with innate throw, but conserves steal; knights with innate charge, but conserves battle skill, etc.

If ARH could make that skill sets have a job requirement, we can achieve this using hacks like "throw innate all" and then adding to throw "requires Job = thief"
ALMA also can add innates skill sets to all jobs, i only need a requirement hack for them so i can decide which job allows which skill set.

Like i don't know a thing about hacking stuff, maybe all this can be harder than i think.
If this is the case, i only want that somebody tells me, so i can remove this idea from my mind.

[Xifanie]

Sadly I was told any given unit can only have access to 34 skills at a time (2 full skillsets + defend + I forgot what other skill), so I'm not even sure how possible it would be even if you restricted all skillsets to a smaller amount of skills. To say the least, ARH doesn't support this function.

[Kaedre]

Thanks for the quick response, Tiffany.

I was guessing that ARH could be changed to allow these skill sets requirements. But i wasn't thinking in the skill number limitation per unit.
I believe it may still be possible with a limited number of skills as you said. (about 10 per skill set) So 3 skill sets = 30 skills (+move, attack, etc)
Or maybe i misunderstand you, and can't be possible to have 3 skill sets at a time on a unit?   ¿(o.0)?

The thing is i thought (in my ignorance about hackings) that this addition (skill set requirements) can be applied to ARH without a lot of work.

P.S: ((((Excuse me for the abuse of parenthesis in my posts))))    (o_o)

EDIT: i forgot some very important. I have to say: Thanks for ARH !!!
The fact that i am here annoying people with this questions, doesn't means i am not appreciating the big work thats makes ARH one of the most useful tools for adding creativity to skills customizations. So don't blame me, please!
( "...blame yourself or god..." )   (^_^)

[nitwit]

How would I make certain samurai skills require that you have a certain katana in inventory and that you have a katana equipped, without breaking katanas when the abilities are used?

[Rufio]

Hmm..  at first i thought you wanted just to make each ability require holding a different katana (which gives me an idea for a weaponmaster class) but I see you mean holding any katana AND have the right katana in your inventory.

If I'm right, all you should have to do (assuming you are using the original katana slots and haven't changed the draw out action menu), is set them all to require katana in the ARH and shove in this ASM i just wrote up.

WARNING:  I AM VERY NEW TO ASM AND AM NOT SURE THIS WILL DO WHAT I THINK IT WILL DO!

spoiler

<Patch name="Katanas don't break.">
<Description>Removes Random Break from Katana Formulas</Description>
<Location offset="120988" file="BATTLE_BIN">
00000000
00000000
</Patch>

I haven't messed around with the katana ability slots that much yet because I'm afraid of the hardcoding, but if this doesn't work then you would have to do some ASM around the the Katana Inventory action menu, which is well beyond me.

[Choto]

I think that will work to prevent katana breaking (although it could be done in a simpler place of the routine), but he would still have to make a check for "is X katana in inventory? If so - work, if not - don't work". I'm not sure where you would put it though in vanilla code. Worst comes to worst you could put the check at the beginning of the formula those abilities use.

That aside, nice to see somebody take a stab at a hack. Nice work

[Rufio]

my logic here is that draw out will still call your katana inventory, then im hoping something in the katana inventory draw out menu will pick up the arh hack requirement for having a katana equipped.  the it will cast the spell as normal and not break the sword you had in the inventory to select the spelk in the first place.

[Pride]

So you want Draw Out to only be able to use the ability on the equipped katana?