Troubleshooting FFTPatcher! (Post all FFTPatcher questions here!)

[nitwit]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to flag bombs as items for chemist throw item use?

I was messing around with FFTPatcher and can't seem to get it to work.

I've tried

Abilities -> 0189 Bomb -> Item
Items -> 7D/7E/7F Flameburst / Snowmelt / Spark Bombs -> Item Type -> None or Bomb
Skill Sets -> 06 Items -> 0189 Bomb in one of the empty slots
Jobs -> 4B Chemist -> Innate -> 0189 Bomb

I'm beginning to think its not possible.

Items and Throw are hardcoded to use their respective items and item types (or perhaps item ID ranges). You need to find where they're hardcoded. If anyone knows it will be on the wiki, search "item hardcoding" and "throw hardcoding".

I do know that in the lower portion of the ability tab in FFTPatcher, every ability from 0x170 Potion on down is part of the same table. You can see this by editing Phoenix Down "Item Use" and Shuriken "Throwing" in the Abilities tab of FFTPatcher, then looking at the gameshark code tab. The addresses of the gameshark codes (which are just RAM addresses with a prefix) are almost right next to each other... almost, because there are two unused entries in that table for Items 0xFE and 0xFF.

While every item from 0x170 Potion on down is part of the same table, the number of bits per entry and of course the programmed context of each entry varies. You need to find the code that determines the context and modify it

Alternatively does anyone know how I can convert one of the lesser used items into a bomb-like item and keep remedies as all-purposes status cure.

You could try giving items different formulas and see what happens with different Z values. If that doesn't work, then you can change items to inflict statuses rather than cure them in the Items tab, then change the animation effect in the Abilities tab. Mosfungus bomb inflicts poison and so on.

If you do this, let us know what works and what doesn't.

[Isilud]

Hello all,

I am very new to using these tools and I just have a few questions regarding .fftpatch file created using FFTPatcher. I am modding the War of the Lions version.

1. Is it possible to convert the .fftpatch file created to a .ppf file and if so how?
2. Can I merge .ppf and .fftpatch files together. I want to use a .ppf slowdown removal patch and combine it with my edits in my .fftpatch file.
3. To use the CWCheats section of FFTPatcher do I need to do any thing special or can I just add in the cheats and all will be applied to my saved .fftpatch file?

I should mention that nitwit helped me a bit in another thread I created, but I realized some things after that discussion and figured this may be a better place to ask these questions.

What I have been doing so far is applying the .ppf slowdown removal patch to a fresh .iso, then apply my .fftpatch to that .iso and I would like to just add that slowdown patch into my .fftpatch file to kind of streamline my testing a bit more.

Sorry if these questions have been asked elsewhere, but I was unable to find them if so.

Thanks for hearing me out regardless.

(My mods are mainly convenience, QoL, and personal tweaks I have always wanted to see. At some point I want to mod Rad/Ladd and make him the ultimate character since he is kinda just there and should have been cooler since he stays with Ramza and does not leave when Gaffy does)

[nitwit]

Hello all,

I am very new to using these tools and I just have a few questions regarding .fftpatch file created using FFTPatcher. I am modding the War of the Lions version.

1. Is it possible to convert the .fftpatch file created to a .ppf file and if so how?
2. Can I merge .ppf and .fftpatch files together. I want to use a .ppf slowdown removal patch and combine it with my edits in my .fftpatch file.

A FFTPatch is a collection of tables (a bunch of bytes in various files), and I'm pretty sure that whatever values in those tables overwrite existing tables in the game whenever you patch. This occurs whether you change anything or not.

On the other hand, I think a PPF is sort of like a binary diff file. A PPF creator compares the original file and the modified file, notes differences between them, what those differences are, where they are located, and it stores this info in the PPF file.

Then the PPF applier reads the PPF, navigates to the locations where changes are to be made, makes the changes, and that's it.

So while a FFTPatch is more exhaustive where it does patch, it's limited in what it can patch; whereas a PPF has no limits but it only patches what you changed between the original and the modified version, and ignores all other addresses in the file.

If you want to recover your changes from your patch that was garbled, your best bet is to just upload it along with your version of FFTPatcher, and pray that someone can figure out what went wrong with it.

Otherwise you're stuck trying to apply your changes by copying all the table files in the *.fftpatch file to various game files using a hex editor, then importing them back into the game. And that's on the PS1 version, where we have CD Mage and other tools to import/export game files from a disc image. I don't know what you'd use on a PSP rom, maybe you could try CD Mage.

Even if you did, you'd still need to look at the source code of FFTPatcher on github to figure out where in the PSP game files the tables are found. This file seems like it's it, but it would take me a few hours or several cups of coffee and probably 5 minutes of curse words to figure it out.
https://github.com/Glain/FFTPatcher/blob/master/PatcherLib/ISOPatching/PspIso.cs

Given that everyone here has a life, job, and several FFT mods to work on, it's not feasible for us to recover your changes. If we do it once, then we'll have to do it again. Granted, we could make a spreadsheets to recreate FFTPatcher, and python scripts to rip your changes from a *.fftpatch and write them to game files, but I wouldn't hold my breath for someone to do it even though that would automate much of the "you screwed up by not backing up your work, do xyz to recover" heartache fixing.

Remember to back up your work next time, probably at the end of the day and keep 4 to 10 backups that you increment through like auto-saves in Skyrim. Or just zip them up, label them with the date, and delete the oldest one when you do. It's not like terabyte sized hard drives are expensive these days, so you do you.

For now, upload your patch and your version of FFTPatcher and hope for the best. Put them in a folder, right click on that folder, choose to send them to a zip file, give it an appropriate name, and upload it in reply to this post.

3. To use the CWCheats section of FFTPatcher do I need to do any thing special or can I just add in the cheats and all will be applied to my saved .fftpatch file?

These are just the PSP equivalent of gameshark codes. If you want to mess around with gameshark codes for some reason, or you need to debug something (gameshark codes are RAM addresses with some extra stuff tacked on) then they're useful, but they persist only on your system when you enter them in (I hope you aren't entering them manually).

What I have been doing so far is applying the .ppf slowdown removal patch to a fresh .iso, then apply my .fftpatch to that .iso and I would like to just add that slowdown patch into my .fftpatch file to kind of streamline my testing a bit more.

FFTPatcher couldn't integrate the slowdown removal fix, since FFTPatcher edits tables for items and skills and whatnot, while the slowdown removal fix is probably code somewhere else.

Actually, shouldn't the slowdown removal fix be a FFTorgASM hack somewhere? Has anyone ported it over there yet? I think I've seen it in there, but there's less activity on modding the PSP version so maybe not.

Anyways, FFTPatcher allows you to open a patched ISO under the PSX and PSP headers, so you could use an ISO to store your changes instead of a *.fftpatch. You should pick one and use the other as a backup method. This is also best for debugging and testing as there are fewer steps.

Moreover, once you apply the slowdown removal ppf to the ISO, and apply your *.fftpatch, and you're finished with your work, then you just make a PPF with your final version against the vanilla rom/iso and you're good to go.

If you haven't already, you should go through all the menu options in the various tools and see what they do. And on our end someone should write a readme for FFTPatcher and her sister tools.

Sorry if these questions have been asked elsewhere, but I was unable to find them if so.

That indicates an opportunity to improve our documentation, and I speak for everyone when I say thank you for searching first.

[Isilud]

Thank you again nitwit, your responses are very informative and extremely helpful.

I should make clear that I have not screwed anything up in regards to my edits/patches and after working in technical operations for a bit, I have 100% learned a lesson or 2 the hard way about backing up original data (like enabling monitoring on every. single. production. application... smh).

This was me merely trying to understand more about what I can accomplish with these tools and I would never want someone to have to fix my mistakes, because if I fix them myself I can only be teaching myself more.

I was trying to find out if the CWCheats section was editable and could be applied to the patch once saved, mainly for multipliers and testing, but it seems I am unable to edit these and this tab seems too just show my edits in other tables, but I may be way off here.

I will continue to poke around through more of the documentation and try my best to refrain from wasting other's time on questions that have most likely been answered before.

FWIW, I may have only just recently joined as a member of this site, but I have been a big fan of the work done here for quite some time and I can only thank everyone here for breathing new life into my favorite game and making it a constantly evolving experience.

Also, if any can help me find the slowdown removal as a FFTorgASM hack, I would be super grateful. I am likely overlooking its location.

[bee]

Hello! I was wondering if this tool would be usable with a .pbp file, or if I should look elsewhere? I've done modding for old S/NES games before, but I am pretty new to disc-based games, and am still sorting out some stuff that's prolly fundamental to y'all. Thanks for the help.

**Edit** nevermind! i got it sorted out, thanks!

[Galebolg]

FFTPatcher gives me an error that says "The file has been externally altered so the file is no longer valid" when I tried to open it. Deleted the folder and redownloaded it various times and the same error is displayed. What do I do to fix this error?

[Kokojo]

FFTPatcher gives me an error that says "The file has been externally altered so the file is no longer valid" when I tried to open it. Deleted the folder and redownloaded it various times and the same error is displayed. What do I do to fix this error?

What are you trying to open, exactly?

[Galebolg]

What are you trying to open, exactly?

I got the program to open. All good.

[Ramza108]

Hello!  FFT is one of the best games EVER and I'm ecstatic at the thought of playing The Lion War hack with all of its cool features. 

I have a problem though.  I am a mac user and I'm not sure of any legitimate way to patch load this file with the psx copy.  It appears there are few options for patching the file reliably...  Are there any resources that might prove helpful here?  Thanks for all your hard work!

[Jumza]

Hello!  FFT is one of the best games EVER and I'm ecstatic at the thought of playing The Lion War hack with all of its cool features. 

I have a problem though.  I am a mac user and I'm not sure of any legitimate way to patch load this file with the psx copy.  It appears there are few options for patching the file reliably...  Are there any resources that might prove helpful here?  Thanks for all your hard work!

Hey! The Lion War can be applied to a vanilla image of FFT using a program like PPF-O-Matic (not in the FFTPatcher Suite), but I'm not sure it will work on a mac. There are online options though, trying searching for and using Rom Patcher JS. Good luck!

[Ramza108]

Hey! The Lion War can be applied to a vanilla image of FFT using a program like PPF-O-Matic (not in the FFTPatcher Suite), but I'm not sure it will work on a mac. There are online options though, trying searching for and using Rom Patcher JS. Good luck!

Thank you.  My god I got it to work!  Tried a different ppf patcher.  You have no idea how excited i am! 

[Eldrethor]

Hi, first time poster here!

I'm using FFTPatcher 0.494 and FFTactext 0.494 on my PS1 build of TLW v2.021, and I'm trying to change one of the Bio 2 spells (specifically 00CF) into a new sword skill.

I copied and pasted Night Sword's data into that spot, added an Inflict status, JP cost, damage formula 2D (standard sword skill damage formula), and assigned it to Chapter 4 Ramza's skill set. The problem is that while the skill works correctly, it's executing a casting animation (looks like 01-2C-00) instead of a strike, even though it's set to Blastar Punch with default settings 07-00-00, and Weapon Strike is enabled.

I also tried reassigning the animation to Holy Explosion, and tried assigning it the Circle animation (12F) modified to 07-00-00. In both instances, Ramza still executed a casting animation.

I've tried searching the forum for anything related to "Weapon Strike", but I'm coming up empty. Any thoughts?

[Jumza]

Hey Eldrethor, I tried recreating your issue to the best of my ability (though I was not building on a TLW base) but was unable to! Setting 0Cf's animation to 07 00 00 and then having the settings I have in the picture I've attached made my unit do a weapon strike. Maybe try matching some of these flags one at a time on yours until you see what makes the change? Or maybe double check everything you have set, it's possible that you thought you made a change that you didn't actually patch.

[El Piedras]

I'm importing text from a PSX ISO patched with the WotL translation because that's what I want to use as base. I didn't add any text, just changed numbers in item/ability descriptions to match my balance tweaks. I save it as a .ffttext file, import it, and try to patch the ISO (I tried with both a clean one and the one already patched with the WotL script). The patching process takes more than 10 minutes and just gives a DTE error at the end. I'm using FFTactext 0.497.

Edit: Just realized this is a thread for the FFTPatcher program... Sorry, I searched FFTactext help and this thread showed up. There's already a lot of posts with similar problems about FFTactext so I don't know where to ask about this.

[RetroTypes]

I'm importing text from a PSX ISO patched with the WotL translation because that's what I want to use as base. I didn't add any text, just changed numbers in item/ability descriptions to match my balance tweaks. I save it as a .ffttext file, import it, and try to patch the ISO (I tried with both a clean one and the one already patched with the WotL script). The patching process takes more than 10 minutes and just gives a DTE error at the end. I'm using FFTactext 0.497.

Edit: Just realized this is a thread for the FFTPatcher program... Sorry, I searched FFTactext help and this thread showed up. There's already a lot of posts with similar problems about FFTactext so I don't know where to ask about this.

Assuming your ISO isnt on an old HDD or something, tactext taking a long time likely means your ISO is fragmented, you can run a defrag program on it to help with that. As for the DTE error, that means you added too much text to that section, so it cant fit it all into the space allotted. You'll have to cut something out of whatever section it gives that error for.

[Krendall]

I am working on using FFTPatcher on an ISO of War of the Lions. I had previously applied the WotL Tweak patch, primarily to remove the slowdown issues. After applying some of the changes I made with FFTPatcher, I found the slowdown came back. Is there a way I can use FFTPatcher without losing the slowdown fix?

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out. I just have to reapply the slowdown patch with FFTorgASM.

[RetroTypes]

I am working on using FFTPatcher on an ISO of War of the Lions. I had previously applied the WotL Tweak patch, primarily to remove the slowdown issues. After applying some of the changes I made with FFTPatcher, I found the slowdown came back. Is there a way I can use FFTPatcher without losing the slowdown fix?

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out. I just have to reapply the slowdown patch with FFTorgASM.

You can also use the patcher itself to ensure the slowdown patch is applied, it's a checkbox in the "patch wotl iso" popup, in the bottom right above the button to locate the iso you want to patch. Either way works though