Final Fantasy Hacktics

I'm experiencing a problem with the .jar files provided in Lennart's thread at http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9486.0

when I try to open the .jar file in java I get a message stating "data/ability.txt (the system cannot find the path specified)"

the data folder is there, and the .txt files are in it. I've taken care to make sure the text files aren't set to read only, and that they're unblocked in my system as far as security scrutiny goes. tried everything I can think of.

does anyone know if this is a problem in windows 10, or if there's a version of java that may be the problem. or if an old version of the editor exists that might work? any and all help would be very very appreciated.

is there a patch or anything to allow a player to access those? I saw a thread posted about it with a negative response, but that was more than three years ago, perhaps some progress has been made?

any other theatre geeks here? actors, technitions, directors, writers. whatever you do in theatre I'm interested to hear about it.

lately I'm doing light board operation for a local production of rocky horror show, and I've done sound design and operation for cyrano de bergerac in town here. I've also had one play I wrote produced at a local theatre, and done a fair amount of acting as well.

really the only thing I can't get into is directing and stage managing. too much to think about all at once in those jobs. I much prefer being given a deadline to setting one.

I've been poking around in FFTpatcher looking at various things and there are a few things that I would like to be able to do that I can't. I'll describe the effect I'm looking for, the method I tried and the result I got. if anyone can give me some pointers I'd be most gracious.

I want to have an ability that can inflict crystal status on multiple targets at once. in FFTpatcher I made an ability that inflicts crystal status that works fine, but whenever I make it area of effect it crashes when I use it.

I also would like to have a malboro spore/mold ball virus spell that effects multiple targets. I used FFTpatcher for this, but even in the formula it says that it only effects one target and when I made it AoE just to try anyway it only effected the target nearest the caster.

I would also like a malboro spore / mold ball virus that effects unique units. this I have no idea how to go about doing, so I haven't tried anything yet.

I would also like to have an ability that effects multiple targets and activates the poach/secret hunt support skill. I've tried all kinds of combinations of the various ability flags in FFTpatcher, and tried modifying weapons too, but I can't find a combination that works.

and finally a way to modify the malboro spore ability so that it transforms the target into something else instead of a malboro, for example a zodiac monster, or a generic human, or even a unique human. this is another one that is too deep in th code for me to know how to do so I haven't tried anything yet.

I know these are silly and over powered abilitys that take the fun out of the game if a person is doing a serious play through, but I want them just for the sake of screwing around and because if I learn how to do that it will open the door to learning how to do other edits later.

so after a little investigation into how to do it, I've started filling out the palettes for hero units so they can be loaded as generic units without being a big black block. I don't know if anyone's done this before (more than just as needed) and wonder if the community would like me to share these once I've finished them.

also I'm wondering about how people feel about me doing this for some of the custom made sprites in the download section like vincent or crono or the full version of teitra. I know they're made by members of the community so I want to make sure I'm not violating unspoken (or spoken) rules by doing that.

so far I've done agrais and dycedarg, agrias turned out good, and dycedarg came out looking like he was wearing neon boxing gloves, so I'm gonna tweak the shading on the alternate colors of him before I share him. but I'll put agrais up as a BMP, she'll look just normal till you load her into shishisprite editor (or the game itself) and check out the alternate palettes.

that said I'll be working on more tomorrow it's late late here and I have a set to help build at a local theatre in the morning.

hey, I'm new. I'm not really working on a major hack, most of what I like is graphical hacks. just for the fun of it, I don't

I started an FF6 hack once, but got bogged down when I couldn't get a giant green bunny sprite to replace Kefka with. (long story for why that was going to happen. if involves 5 syllable words starting with I and lightening.)

the multitudes of custom sprites for FFT available here have made me happy, and got me interested in making my own or editing some cannon sprites for some edits.

mostly I don't take it as seriously as I could, I just do it for fun.

EDIT: fixed my typos. the ones I noticed anyway. sorry.