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Aspiring Modder

Started by JesusJoodus, August 01, 2019, 05:51:27 pm

JesusJoodus

August 01, 2019, 05:51:27 pm Last Edit: August 01, 2019, 09:54:01 pm by JesusJoodus
To anyone in the void who might hear me...

Ive been at this now about 3 weeks. Starting with spriting, got my way through most of that (frankenspriting, using the myriad of programs available from this site and following tutorials). I have zero art skills so making my own hasnt happened lol. The rest though,  I've got down to an easy science.

Ive recently begun the dive into event editing, though I confess I have little to no understanding of Coding.

What ive been doing is messing with things in FFTPATCHER and EasyVenteditor 2.0 (along with fftegrp, cdmage, ect). I greatly prefer reading/watching tutorials, and experimenting with things on my own (kinetic learning or some such). This has been slightly problematic as it seems the current model of the FFTPATCHER Suite and a good portion of the tutorials here seem to be out of whack...i.e. a lot of the tutorials seem to have taken place before/during the creation of the suite in it's individual pieces. Now it's all one deal, and finding a simple to follow tutorial has been rough going (Ive been here daily as a guest reading, so if i missed it my apologies). Despite that, ive learned (what i feel) is quite a bit in a short period of time considering ive never even attempted anything like this before. At least, ive tried too because that's what just about every thread topic states as im cruising around looking for answers (Check tutorials....have you read tutorials? you fucking newbs and not reading tutorials!)

Well, I hit a wall today. Every question I've had up this point google + ffhacktics could/has answered until now.

So, with all of that out of the way....

Ive figured how to replace Simon/Balmafuda with unique sprites, assign them jobs, and all that good jazz. I can patch them into the game, recruit them, no issues or problems on that front thus far.

Today i decided to mess with some of the none used jobs (3A/3B). Via EasyVent/FFTP combo, i replaced Rad and Gafgarion (for learning purposes in the orbonne prayers scene) with two unique sprites: One that uses Balmafuda as it's base (x21) to replace gafgarion, and one to replace Rad that has a blank spot for it's sprite (3A).

Gafgarion worked perfectly. This i had no problems with.

But rad....rad doesnt show up? Ive replaced every instance in EasyVent for the Orbonne Prayer of x83 with x3A, and did the same in FFTpatcher under the ENDT tab for the Prayer and BS (replacing Rad's sprit, 7A, with a blank 3A)

When i load up the game and start that scene, only my unique (in place of gaf) and Ramza enter the scene. I tried this with a few other scenes just to see, and it always happens Whether i use 3a or 3b.

As ive looked through the site, i did notice a thread about using xml to point jobs 3a/b to 08/09, which came with a download (UWentries). This has me super lost. In the sense that im not quite sure what numbers correspond to what jobs in the xml tab of UWentries (with the yellow highlighted section).

Any help would be appreciated on this front. Again I have been trying my damndest to learn on my own without bothering any of you, as Ive seen a great deal of sillyness from not reading through tutorials or outright laziness. Hope this is concise enough.

Also this is my very first post. Id like to say thank you to everyone of you who made this site, and the tools herein accessible. FFT is my favorite game of all time, beat it 20x or more in various ways just because I enjoy it that much. So thank you. All of you. You're my heroes.

Update: I answered my own question. Thank you to everyone who at least took the time to read the post.
  • Modding version: PSX & WotL

Nyzer

I know you mention you've figured it out, but I'm guessing it was that you changed his sprite, not his unit ID, in the ENTD, yet changed the event commands for him?
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

JesusJoodus

Naw, im just kinda all over the place at the moment and missed 2 of the x83 entries in the code in EV. Still working around it, slow going and just trying to learn my way around. I really didnt want to ask, but i was lost for like 7 hours today until I went back over the ENTIRE code and noticed it. A lot to keep up with for a green noob. My apologies.
  • Modding version: PSX & WotL

JesusJoodus

August 01, 2019, 11:25:16 pm #3 Last Edit: August 01, 2019, 11:41:24 pm by JesusJoodus
On another note: With the most everything seemingly condensed into FFTP and EV, do you still have to use Winhex for animation changes?

Specifically the animation of the ability, not the initiating animation (i.e. 007 for sword attacks, this looks to be covered under the animation tab in FFTP. But ive yet to see anything for flat out changing the ability animation itself....for instance, switching Stasis Sword with say, Shellbust stab animations without using Winhex, which i may be wrong about too. Again, my apologies for wasting what is likely valuable time).

  • Modding version: PSX & WotL

Nyzer

Avoid double posting. Use the Edit buttons instead if your posts are just a few minutes apart.

Under the Ability tab in the Patcher, you can see the Effect dropdown menu for each ability. That's the spell effect. The Animation tab covers the character animation.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Nyzer

QuoteFigured id just send this question in a pm since you seem to be one of the people still active answering questions.

Screwing around replacing characters in the vanilla story in an attempt to teach myself how this all works. I was making progress but it seems ive run into a similar problem to the one i posted about the other day concerning missing characters.

My process currently is just replacing sprites with unique sprites in FFTP and EV (i.e. if i want Unit 21 in a scene, i replace all instances of the base characters ID x00 with x21). This works...most of the time....but with issues.

Ive replaced Rad in the opening Orbonne Prayer scene/Battle scene in both the FFTPatcher and EV (both most current versions) with a unique sprite. In most cases things seems to work (character uses ID21 (Balm). I have it and Simon (13) replaced with unique sprites.)

In the Prayer scene, Rad/Unique does not load, Simon works perfectly (ive also replaced the unique animations via Shishi and GG). In the military academy scene, i replaced two of the cadets with these same sprites. In this scene, the sprites function properly (i.e. animations, appearance, use of text) but the problem is the Knight in this scene skips an entire block of text.

This is all just fumbling currently, and I do greatly apologize if im wasting your time or I am not exactly coherent in my question. If you need further information, ill be happy to provide it as best i can.

-Joodus


We tend to prefer questions being asked in topics rather than PMs since it helps ensure others can see the questions, allowing them to potentially find the same answers in the future. Also, I missed this for the last two days because I was checking unread topics and not paying attention to My Messages.

On the topic of missing units, have you hit the sprite limit? There's a maximum of 9 different sprite files (not counting palette swaps like various color chocobos) at once. There's also the obvious concern that you've missed changing a Draw() or AddUnit() somewhere, and they still reference a now-nonexistent ID. Hard to say without any screenshots of the FFTP changes or the command text up to that point from your event.

As for the missing text block, that shouldn't have happened if you didn't change anything related to it. What changed?
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Hyppocritamus

The easiest units to replace are the two assassins (they have 2 unit IDs each; set them to their alternates, and use the good ones), Alma 13 (used in one cutscene, easily replaceable with battle Alma), Simon, and Balmafuma, IIRC. You can even use Dead Malak, in a pinch (though I'd suggest setting something aside to be always:dead and equipped to him for the relevant battle)

Go through the ENTD, and make sure to fix all the cutscene errors that would occur as a result, and you should be fine
  • Modding version: PSX