Final Fantasy Hacktics

Quote from: Ansehelm on June 12, 2020, 07:47:44 pmIt does, IIRC it takes place after the events of FFT with Ramza as a bearded Duke and some other characters. Definitely worth checking out if you're not familiar with it, and it's easily the most intensively modded project that's ever been made with FFT.

Also, to shamelessly promote my hack, the Beta of which should be out within a couple weeks - I'm making a vanilla mod, which, among many other things, makes changes to monster classes along the lines you've described here.  For example, I've increased the move stats of the Chocobo line, made mountable mini-dragons, given regular dragons defense up, and generally made monsters more viable across the board.  The Monster skill ability is also removed, so all monsters have access to all their skills from the outset. Obviously they'll never be as flexible as generic units, but they generally act as more specialized, but more powerful units. Keep an eye out for it, it'll be called FFT Expansion.

Wow it sounds alot like Tactics Ogre: One vision, I'd love to try your hack!

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 07:00:21 pmIn case you don't yet know this, I'm not making a romhack here, I'm making tools people can use to make their romhacks, you can take my stuff and go make your own thing if you want the features you are suggesting.

Sure, I'm going to download your tools and see what I can do.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 07:00:21 pmHowever, if all the Floateye types have the same palette regardless of side, you can easily have at least 6 different types of them. This doesn't make an impact on playable jobs becuase each one has different graphics anyway, but for recolored monsters it can be pretty important.

I think I'd like to see the monster variant classes all streamlined into a singular class. Like instead of Firewyrm, Icedrake and Thundrakes, it'd simply be one Drake class that could learn all abilities via accessory equipment just like the main classes.

In this idea, I think it'd be good if monster classes scaled not via more powerful variants but simply later monsters having more skills like the mainline classes. There wouldn't be any monsters with flatly terrible stats like goblin.

All that being said, I'm new to modding FFTA, so I'll start small.

Thank you for lending me your time to explain palettes in the FFTA engine.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 11:16:13 amIf you change the graphics for the Floateye, the graphics for the Ahriman also get changed, they are literally the same graphics, they just have different palettes applied to them.

Thats what I thought.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 11:16:13 amI already explained the palette slots are taken. You can't do that. A palette is not just the colors a sprite uses, it's a set of 16 colors in a specific order which are applied to indexed graphics, you can't apply the palettes in a different way, if you want a green Floateye or a purple Ahriman or an emerald one, you need new graphics. You could have a yellow one with no new graphics, though.

But what if Ahriman was removed as an individual class and its abilities were given to the regular floateye.

Would it then be possible to have player Floateyes be the regular blue and enemy Floateye be Ahriman red?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 11:16:13 amIn short, what you are asking for is having different graphics, not just palettes, based on side.

How do the player class palettes work?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 11:16:13 amIt would be possible, but it would mean you would need two versions for every monster, which I really don't like the sound of, this cuts on the available color variations you could otherwise use in your hack and doesn't really add anything, in my opinion.

What do you mean by cuts on the available color variations?

I know Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis is a different game, but that has for example: Player Ninjas(Green), Enemy Ninjas(Red) and Predator Class(Purple).

Quote from: Leonarth on June 10, 2020, 11:16:13 amAlso monsters changing colors when recruited sounds plain weird to me for some reason.

It happens in the Tactics Ogre series with humanoid monsters and humans. Like a red Lizardman will instantly turn green as soon as he's persuaded onto your side.

Large Monsters, which don't use weapons, such as Griffons, only possess one palette used for both ally and enemy units, however. The only exception being Giants.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amKeep in mind that even if you can't make a new palette, you CAN make monsters of "new" colors, making a green Flan is as easy as grabbing the already existing one and changing the index of the colors it uses. In vanilla all the recolored enemies use the exact same graphics as their other versions, but there is nothing forcing it to be that way.

You can specify which monster the Morpher morphs into in the morphedTable in morphingMorphersMorph.event.

It's a bit hard to read, but it's just a list of the job ids the Morphers transform into for each of their abilities.

Thank you for the information, I wasn't aware of that and assumed like for the Floateye, the regular blue Floateye animation would be used for all animations, even when using Ahriman abilities.

Can you expand on the point on recolored enemies using the same graphics? Do you mean you could make the Ahmiran use entirely new graphics instead of being a recolor, relatively easily?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amSprites for playable jobs are smaller than sprites for monsters, I think they were concerned a player with 6 Morphers could glitch the game (visually) so they opted for an animation that was the same size as a regular player unit. That's just a guess, though.

That seems reasonable.

I'm guessing the graphical glitches would be flickering or parts of sprites being cut off?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amIt is very much possible, the new dragons wouldn't even need to have any abilities or anything, the would pretty much only use their looks and walking type, I just don't like the idea.

Hearing about how morph graphics work, I see the pointlessness of a morpher Palette, now myself.

That being said, how hard would it be to add player Monster class palettes, just like the main races have player and enemy palettes? Like going with Floateyes again, player Floateyes would have a sea green palette as opposed to the straight up blue palette of the enemy Floateye.

Something like that could be added for the player monsters in Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) and Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis assuming its possible to add faction palettes for them?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amI've been working on the engine hacks for the Minish Cap randomizer, lately I'm focusing on studies though.

That sounds interesting.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amThe question is not "does the engine allow for" or "is this possible", the GBA is a computer, if you program it in, then it will do that, the issue is with the workload that comes with developing new features. I have to want the feature enough that I want to put in the time to develop it.

Makes sense, I am curious about whether something is relatively easy or not?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amWould a persuaded enemy instantly leave the battlefield and join your clan if there's space?

I imagine it could be set like capture works where the enemy instantly leaves and then at the end of the battle asks to join your clan.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amShould there be a prompt at the end to confirm the recruitment?

That would be the most preferable, but it all depends on how hard it would with the FFTA engine?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amShould player units be able to be persuaded?
Can units be persuaded back?

In Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) and even the newest version of Tactics Ogre, enemies never use persuade. So this would be the same.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amwhat determines the persuade chance?

I imagine it'd be similar to capture such as enemy health and status.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amWhich enemies can you persuade?

Ideally it'd be like how boss units are immune to skills like Oust/Parley. Generic non boss units would be persuadable.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 09, 2020, 05:42:21 amAnd many more, there's too many things to decide.

Its just a suggestion I threw out there. For all I know the engine of FFTA could have to be re-assembled to allow this.

Quote from: Nyzer on June 08, 2020, 05:24:38 pmhttps://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?board=66.0

I don't know what Nightmare is, but yes, FFTP is an .exe.

Guess I'll have to use Wine.

Nightmare is an EXE editing program for the Fire Emblem games.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 10:12:51 pmThe Malboro uses the exact same palette as, for example, the Floateye or the Soldier.
There are only 3 palettes normal units use, blue/green, red/purple and yellow/emerald.

Right, so it sounds like you can't do a custom palette. I wasn't aware of that limitation, but it makes sense.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 10:12:51 pmThere are also slots that are reserved for special palettes used in totema battles.

Kinda of like how in alot of beat em up games for the Genesis, enemy change palette by area then?

So when a morpher morphs in your hack does it take the palette of the first monster of that type? Like will a Morpher in Dragonform always be a FireDrake until he uses say ice breath?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 10:12:51 pmIn vanilla, maybe, but people could add them to their hacks, which is what my whole point was.
To do this I would have to make new graphics (not palettes, graphics) for the monsters, which people could then just use in their hacks, defeating the whole point of giving the Morpher those colors in the first place.

How is the Morpher's "Raving/Transformed" state spriteset handled? Is there any reason why the developers went for that when making the game.

Basically my idea was all morphers would use a "Morpher palette." Like all Morphers in Dragonform would be a green dragon. It sounds like it isn't really possible though, unless you like added something like Poisondrakes.

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 10:12:51 pmIt sounds like a good idea, currently I'm not really developing these hacks further though, I'm focusing on other things.

Would it be to ask if you're focused on creating another hack?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 10:12:51 pmNo, this would require an extensive rework of the monster bank as well as the game save data. It is something I would like to do (and I actually have notes on what it would look like) but it's not something you should wait for. Whenever you see a hack that allows you to capture some new monster that just means that it's either not going to be sent to the bank or that it's replacing a previously capturable monster. The monster bank only has so many slots and each slot is specifically reserved for one type of monster, the game doesn't even save the job id of the monster when storing it in the bank, it deduces it entirely from the slot it is saved to.

I think I found the hack trailer(link here), notice the tonberry listed among the morpher skills.

Either way, even with a rework you would never get to have all of the types of monsters captured at once, at least not easily and not without a cost, there is only so much save space. The rework would only make it so monster types are not tied to the slot they are stored in, so you could have repeat monsters and whatnot, same total of slots but used in a different way.

I do however have a monster taming hack, which does allow you to capture all common monsters. They are not sent to the bank, though, they are added to your clan.
https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=12212.0
[/quote]

I heard about that and want to try it.

If I can ask another hack question, does the engine of FFTA allow enemy recruitment the way it worked in the original Final Fantasy Tactics as well as the Tactics Ogre Knights of Lodis? Or just a capture for humanoids?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 05:57:06 amThat was available before I even made the post you quoted. It's on GitHub like everything else.

I see

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 05:57:06 amA unique palette for each one? Impossible, there's only so many palettes you can use at once (16) and all the slots are already pretty much taken, and even if they weren't if you wanted a unique palette for each monster you would potentially need a slot for each Morpher you can have in your team, which is unreasonable.

However, if you wanted to have a green or purple version of a monster you wouldn't need a new palette at all, those colors are already available, what you want is new graphics that use those colors. You can do that for your hack, I have no interest in including it. I think it makes no sense to do, a hack can easily include a new monster type that uses those colors anyway which makes it no different compared to just using one of the already existing ones for the Morpher.

Ok, it was just an idea. I don't think any monster in the game uses a green palette, bar the Malboro. So a green morphed monster would look unique for almost any monster class.

Would it be possible to allow morphers to do a basic "fight" command in monster form? That was something I always felt should be in the game for monsters that lack attack moves.

I remember a youtube trailer for a FFTA hack that showed morphing into zombies/vampires, I'll see if I can find it. Do you have an an all common monsters capturable hack?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 08, 2020, 05:57:06 amIf you want to learn more about how the GBA works I recommend reading http://www.coranac.com/tonc/text/

I'll do that, thanks for the link.

Quote from: Nyzer on June 07, 2020, 07:09:37 pmJourney of the Five does this, but of course, it's not a simple FFT mod.

It doesn't take too much to make monsters better, though - just give them a full set of three good abilities each in the Patcher.

Can you tell me more about Journey of Five? Does it have a new story?

Isn't the patcher for Windows only like Nightmare?

Quote from: Leonarth on June 07, 2020, 06:26:11 pmI'm not sure what Morpher thing you are talking about in particular but everything I made is on github.
https://github.com/LeonarthCG/FFTA_Engine_Hacks

This one.

Quote from: Leonarth on December 25, 2018, 11:24:57 amSmall Christmas update, today I decided to make something I always wanted as a kid, as a kind of gift to my child self

When I was a kid I heard from my cousins that morphers could transform into monsters and use their abilities, to me that was the coolest thing I had ever heard about this game so I started training a Nu Mou just to see it, once I had a morpher I found out I also needed a hunter so I had to get one of those too.
When I finally figured out how to capture a monster I was extremely disappointed by the fact that after "transforming" morphers would look like they were late to school, waving their arms and sweating, nothing to do with what I had imagined, they only transformed for abilities and then immediately went back to looking silly.

So here I am, 15 years latter, fixing the issue and making my imagination into reality:



This will be included as an option for the job/ability assignation rework.
In case it's not clear yet, this engine hack makes morphers actually transform into monsters, changing their aspect and their movement types.
Morphers will still use the same palette they were using before morphing so player morphers will always be blue or green.
I call it: Morphing Morphers Morph.

Also, this is just an idea from someone who has never done gamehacking, but what if the Morpher's monster form has a unique palette not used by any monster variants? Like the Floateye is Green, the Dragon is Purple, ETC?

Has there been any progress on the Morpher hack and has the patch been released?

So I'm new to the FFT hacking scene and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good hacks that buff the monster classes to be more in line with the regular classes? Take for example how many monsters have a final variation that doesn't know all of it species moves like how the Sacred, the final Minotaur, doesn't get Feral spin. Or similarly how many monsters have to be one space right next to the mediator to use their hidden skill when thats unnecessarily limiting.

Is there any hack for any versions of FFT that buffs the monsters to be on par with the other classes? I know there is a hack that replaces every playable unit with monster classes, but I'd prefer human classes to still be around, just with the monsters classes improved.

On a similar note, is there any definitive gameplay balancing hack for FFT similar to Tactics Ogre: One Vision?