Enforced Generic Class Challenge

[formerdeathcorps]

Patch Instructions: Unzip the .rar file and patch the enclosed .ppf file to a clean vanilla ISO.  I did not do any sprite edits, so your ISO does not need to be pre-expanded with ShiShi .457.  I also attached my orgASM .XML file so you all can see what I've been up to.

This is my attempt to make a hard patch, but one that still feels like vanilla.

spoiler: Changes

1) Gear that adds transparent have been removed.  Gear that adds initial haste have been converted into +SPD.  No buyable gear adds Always: Protect/Shell and nothing adds Always: Re-Raise.  You can't use Equip Change because you can exploit the game (by manipulating Initial: Status).
2) The best gear of any type in terms of HP/WP never adds anything else.
3) You can only steal shields and accessories.  Thief skillset was reworked.
4) You cannot farm the game.  This means no spillover JP, no bar props, no DD, no random battles, no treasure boxes, level/JP gain is now fixed after completing missions (so you can't spam frog + heal for JP).  Similarly, this means no Secret Hunt or Steal Gil/Persuade/Shine Lover/Gilgame Heart.  Items sell for 0 Gil.  Your units start with 40/55 stats and bad compat (with poor compatibility against future bosses).  Soldier's Office recruits now cost 5000 gil.
5) The AI is now harder to exploit.  Golem/Hamedo were removed.  DS overrides re-raise.  It also works even if you're immune to dead, and the undead cannot be DS'd.  However, you cannot DS your own units.  Transparent ends at the end of your turn, even if you don't take any actions.  Confuse status has been totally removed from the game.
6) AI units will use previously "rare" flagged items, including ones you'll likely never get.  More previously "rare" gear is now buyable, but the timing is slightly different.
7) Special classes will no longer join you, nor should you expect special class guests to give you above average items.  Nor can you invite anyone, but it is possible for monsters to join your squad.  All monsters now can use their "beastmaster" skill.
8) Obviously, glitches like JP Scroll Glitch and item duplication glitch have been deleted.  Oil also works now.
9) Calculator still exists, but most spells aren't calculable.  To stop exploitation, CT and 3 were removed, and maximum level is 49.
10) White Mage spells were slightly redone so the AI actually uses protect/shell.  To encourage player use (and to compensate for lower SPD totals), all positive status effects except Haste/Wall had their CTs doubled.  However, most negative status effects (which the players tend to use better than the AI) had their Y values reduced by 25-45%.  No spell or archer charge will cost more than 8 CTR.  Reflect no longer blocks defensive magic.
11) Accumulative tactics were deleted.  This means no more Speed Save/A Save/MA Save/Accumulate/Yell/most Songs/most Dances/Stat Breaks.  The Lucavi are stronger in that they all have Initial: Wall (24 CT) and all of them have HP Restore, except Altima II (who has Innate: Regen instead).  % HP spells, however, will deal no more than specified % * 1000.  Otherwise, except for Calculator SPD and Bard stats, you should not see any significant change in multipliers.  Bard/Dancer now have the same multipliers, with equal access to the remaining songs and dances.
12) Most weapons are either 2H or 2S, but not both.  Many are neither, while a few still require 2 hands to use.  Longbows have 6 range.  Samurai got 2H innate for parity reasons (with ninja).  This being said, the pool of player reactions was tightened significantly.
13) Blind sets maximum accuracy to 50%, including gunshots, overriding concentrate and transparent.  Abandon and defend each do something similar, but do not override the above.  Performing units lost the right to evade or react, while charging units may do both (but still can be hit for 1.5x above normal).  All projectile weapons have 25% less accuracy at night or in storms (but this is overridden by Any Weather).
14) Any consecutive series of battles no longer loads the formation menu in between battles.  This means that whatever stat changes you sustain will transfer into the next battle.  You must save Algus and Musty.  Also, you must inflict a KO status to obtain a unit's drop (so you can't just beat Zalmo and get the drops of all his subordinates).
15) It now costs more JP to gain job levels.  As a hint, it's what 1.3 did to job levels (+1 to job level prerequisites) combined with WoTL's job level requirements (so more JP is required to gain each job level).  This is mostly so the AI can use more skills.

spoiler: Coming Soon

1) A reopened Beowulf sidequest/DD (once I figure out how to make the DD once-only).  Colliery is expected to be at level 70; DD will be at level 99.

spoiler: Unsure

1) Reintroduce all the broken R/S/M that were removed.  I wrote ASMs to balance most of them, but I kind of like the idea of boss-only reactions.
2) More player accessible monster classes/gil/JP?  The current implementation may be too hard.

spoiler: Wishlist

1) A fixed version of equip change so it correctly deletes the initial status of the removed item and adds the initial status of the stone gun only.  This way, I can actually give battle rewards/move-finds in the last sequence of battles.
2) AI hacking.  May introduce Golem or more reactions if I can get the AI to understand what they do properly.

spoiler: Borderline

1) PSP "generic" classes?  I think I may be able to hack at least one of them in, but they are all OP.  Similarly, I can add PSP exclusive items by deleting some of the redundant, lower-level items (the way I did in my story-patch), but a lot of them already overlap, if not exceed, the function of existing items.

spoiler: Bugs

1) The original posted version caused guns to freeze the game when fired because of a typo (which overrode the stack pointer, r29).  This has been fixed.
2) The "all monsters use their Monster Skill enabled ability hack" only works for the player.  I am working on this.  This has been fixed.
3) The ASM that lets the AI learn skills scaled to level was removed because it freezes the game.  I'm working on this.  I have fixed this; this ASM means there should be no more knights knowing throw stone late game.
4) "Little money" slowdown.  I may or may not fix this since it's overall unimportant.
5) Custom formulas weren't working because they were pointing to the wrong addresses (off by 0x1000).  I fixed this and restored the wrongly modified areas.
6) The formula for Steal Woe had multiple errors.  I fixed them all.
7) Fixed 2 routines which would not run on the real machine due to load delay errors.  Yes, even I make them.
8) Bar propositions were still possible, even though you couldn't select any characters.
9) Protect and Shell did not have parity due to an oversight.

[3lric]

looking forward to giving this a shot

[Eternal]

Observations thus far:

-Gaffy/Agrias come with no gear at Orbonne.

-Potion's description mentions it as being the strongest, yet only recovering 30 HP. X-Potion and Potion need to be swapped on the item list.

-At the end of Gariland, my units had exactly 99 EXP- was I supposed to get a level up? Further, it only appears as though Ramza got JP. Going into the second battle, it appears none of my units have kept their 99 EXP.

[formerdeathcorps]

-Gaffy/Agrias come with no gear at Orbonne.

This is intentional.  That way, beating Orbonne isn't so easy any more.

-Potion's description mentions it as being the strongest, yet only recovering 30 HP. X-Potion and Potion need to be swapped on the item list.

This is also intended.  In my case, this is the no-ASM way of having the AI use Auto-Potion for X-Potions (don't worry, it doesn't unlock early).  The only thing that might be bugged is if you start with any amount of X-Potions in your inventory, or if the item titled "Potion" has the effect of X-Potion and vice-versa.

-At the end of Gariland, my units had exactly 99 EXP- was I supposed to get a level up? Further, it only appears as though Ramza got JP. Going into the second battle, it appears none of my units have kept their 99 EXP.

This is a rather interesting bug tied to how my level up system works, but it shouldn't be more than graphical.  The EXP of the units who beat a mission is set to 100, but it rewards the EXP at the end of the level (at the same time as it rewards battle drops).  The simplest version of my level up hack does not force you to auto-level up there (because to call that routine in REQUIRE.OUT would require me creating a stack pointer in Kanji space...essentially a table that holds 0x20 * 0x04 = 0x80 space just to store register values).  Hence, the formation screen will display 99 EXP.  The next time you enter a battle, the graphical display is reset to 0 EXP for any unit with 99 EXP, but if anything happens to your unit (attacks someone, is attacked), the stats automatically recalculate, forcing the level up.  Since JP gain is tied to level ups now, you should also gain JP while leveling up.
Are you saying that Ramza is somehow gaining JP after the Gariland Mission but before the Mandalia Mission?  THAT would be a bug, though I'd need someone to reproduce it so I can see what exactly might be wrong.

[pokeytax]

A big thumbs up for providing the .xml and clearly labelling your hacks, that is very useful.

[Timbo]

1) PSP "generic" classes?  I think I may be able to hack at least one of them in, but they are all OP.  Similarly, I can add PSP exclusive items by deleting some of the redundant, lower-level items (the way I did in my story-patch), but a lot of them already overlap, if not exceed, the function of existing items.

I'm all for a Dark Knight hack, especially if you release it outside of this patch. Even if you only hack the skillset formulas, you'll be doing a really cool thing. Adding it to the job wheel or god forbid creating that cone shape would be crazy.

[Pride]

Just started playing since I need a break from hacking to actually playing the game I hack. Looking forward to a fun experience ^_^'

[formerdeathcorps]

Potion's description mentions it as being the strongest, yet only recovering 30 HP. X-Potion and Potion need to be swapped on the item list.

I fixed this.  The first post will be updated with the latest version.

You kept the "little money" glitch?

I don't think it quite matters either way.  The only things I fixed in terms of aesthetics were outright errors ("bad bracelet").

Further, it appears only Ramza got JP.

Checked my code again and I changed it so JP/Gil are rewarded after  beating a mission but level ups only occur on the next mission.  Otherwise, Dorter I would be too hard.

[formerdeathcorps]

 <Patch name="AI Skills are scaled to enemy level (v2)">
 <Description>AI units will learn more advanced skills as their level rises. (You shouldn't see knights in Chapter 4 using throw stone.)</Description>
 <Location file="SCUS_942_21" offset="4D7DC">01001234 E9400508 22000191</Location>
 <Location file="SCUS_942_21" offset="4D820">12740108 01001234 3378010C 00000000 FA730108 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000</Location>
 <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="E93A4">1200A010 32000434 1000A410 64000434 0E00A410 3200A42C 07008014 2A20A100 03008014 00000000 BC430508 2328A100 BC430508 00000534 2128A100 6400A42C 02008014 00000000 64000534 0A740108 64000434</Location>
 </Patch>

I'm not sure what's wrong with this ASM, and I've looked at it long enough.  If you insert this ASM into vanilla, it'll freeze pSXfin.  Can someone else please take a crack at it?

[DarkShade]

the hack is recoding the game and psxfin cant read it if you used epsxe or maybe psxEVEN it my work.

[formerdeathcorps]

Except I have neither of those emulators.  Can someone please tell me if the above hack also crashes ePSXe?

[DarkShade]

It shouldn't, epsxe is able to run fft mods and psxfin can't, i think it may work with psxEVEN since it can run fft mods.

[Lydyn]

It shouldn't, epsxe is able to run fft mods and psxfin can't, i think it may work with psxEVEN since it can run fft mods.

It crashes on ePSXe too.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

It shouldn't, epsxe is able to run fft mods and psxfin can't, i think it may work with psxEVEN since it can run fft mods.

Any emulator can run "FFT mods."  -_-

pSXfin has trouble running some of the current mods because most people are utilizing older versions of ALMA, which has no real acknowledgement of Load Delay and makes pSXfin kill itself.  Mods like 1.3, 1.3EasyType, and and basically anything not using ALMA3 should work on any emulator.  Not sure if ALMA4 plays well with pSXfin or not yet.

[pokeytax]

I'm not sure what's wrong with this ASM, and I've looked at it long enough.  If you insert this ASM into vanilla, it'll freeze pSXfin.  Can someone else please take a crack at it?

I'm assuming that when you step through this code line by line with F7, it works as intended. Also try setting a breakpoint elsewhere in code (in freespace, for example) to see if that makes it suddenly behave.

Just eyeballing it, is it possible that you intended to jump to 0x001503F0 instead of 0x00150EF0?

Not sure if ALMA4 plays well with pSXfin or not yet.

All versions of ALMA 3 & 4 in use ought to work fine on pSX (it's my testing emulator). The ARH is often used with ALMA and does not respect load delay, so that may be a source of confusion.

[formerdeathcorps]

Yup, that's exactly it.  I always confuse 3 with E and 8 for B.  I also make stupid shorthand typos like jr # instead of jr r#.

[formerdeathcorps]

OK, updated the original post with the latest version of the patch, which now contains the AI scaled learning hack (which should make the game harder in Chapter 4).

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Yup, that's exactly it.  I always confuse 3 with E and 8 for B.

Yeah, i do that all the time.

[formerdeathcorps]

Fixed two bugs concerning load delay.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Fixed two bugs concerning load delay.

How much do you know about the PS1?  Could you perhaps contribute some documentation to MESS/MAME, Mednafen, or PCSX-R, if it's not a hassle?