Hello! I am looking to develop a new save game editor for the War of the Lions that will allow some editing that the Lion Editor does not when it comes to characters. Part of the motivation for me in making a new editor is that I want the ability to be able to realistically level up characters without having to actually grind things out, in order to set up Melee mode matches or to replace a character that crystallizes at level a higher level late in the game. While Lion Editor will let you make a new character, if you change their levels you have to manually set their stats, and you can only mess with the end results, not the raw stats.
I've been able to make a lot of progress by using a hex editor (HxD) and Lion Editor itself to find certain offsets and values for things, as well as the Battle Mechanics Guide over at GameFAQs for some formulas, but now I am stuck on a few items. The editor, for now, is working/being built like a generic enemy generator of sorts, but if completed and provided to the community would be built more like a general save game editor.
If this is the wrong section, mods please feel free to move this. I don't know that my request quite constitutes a whole new project, yet, but it may evolve into that.
What I have so far:
- Load unencrypted FFTA.SYS and read the top save file.
- Generate a new Level 1 character with stats determined as they would be by the game.
- Simulate an action to gain EXP and JP as if the character hit another character at the same level as them.
- When this simulated action levels a character up, proper bonuses to the raw stats are applied (not all jobs implemented yet).
- Randomize skill learning based on total JP values (Skills must be learned in-game) (Not all jobs implemented yet).
- Equipment chosen based on the E.Lvl for each item and the equipable items for classes.
What I'd like to complete:
- Manually edit stats (stats only edited when the character levels up through simulating actions)
- Manually edit equipment.
- Edit skills learned (Auto and manual)
What I'm stuck on and cannot find resources for via google:
- There seems to be a "checksum" of sorts in the save file that changes based on some values. I've identified that jobs and Ramza's level are involved, though the latter being incorrect doesn't prevent the file from loading. I'm not sure how this is generated and cannot find any resources explaining it, so for now, when saved through my application, I need to open the file in Lion Editor and save it again to correct this and "uncorrupt" the save file.
- How the heck skills are saved. I see the space for it and have the offset, but I don't quite grasp how it's done. It looks to be in the same order as JP and JP total, but there's no one to one ration with skills and bytes.
Any help on the areas where I'm stuck would be appreciated, or general interest in an application that lets you get to the raw stats or automates making realistic characters would let me know if I should pursue making a more professional application, or just keep it a quick dirty program for my own uses.[/list]