Final Fantasy Hacktics

How much free space do the various engine hacks take? And is there a limit to it? If say I want to install all of them, where should I put the free space start for the next one?

If you are going to include most of the minor ones in the JP system, you might want to also include the Manual Sort in it as well. Are you planning to have it be a master hack that allows you to toggle each of the parts in the options file? That would work pretty well.

Marche with rapier! Huzzah!

I am definitely looking forward to the job/ability one, I do think that you should separate out the tiny patches, like the steal shoes one they are good enough to be on their own. Especially the mighty morphin morphers, and the tutorial skip.

How much work would it be to make all classes able to use any weapon type? Oh, also is the update for Skill Purchase now compatible with Manual Sorting? And/or do I need to change the offset in the build file for that or something? I know last time when I just tested the UPSes together they resulted in a reliable crash.

I have been keeping an as up to date an index of many of your patches as I am aware of, you can check the FFT/TO flavor patch list pinned topic for some of them, so no need to worry about that for now.

That would be pretty awesome, and honestly would make a lot of thematic sense even if it remained a prison.

Okay, thanks.

Do not worry, I think alot of us are looking for information, and an estimate of feasibility/difficulty, we do not expect you to do all of it yourself, certainly not anytime soon, as awesome for everyone else as that would be.

Edit: Bad news, the most recent version of the JP Skill Purchase, and Manual Sorting, do not appear to be compatible.

That wheels switching looks awesome.

Do you plan to incorporate customizable Innate abilities to your ability overhaul? That would be pretty great.

What emulator do you use for testing? I have been mostly using RetroArch and an android emulator for playtesting, but I do not think either of those lets you monitor addresses with much ease.

When the recruit menu pops up in Vanilla, how does it generate the units? Are they randomly generated, or are they pulled from somewhere? It would be pretty awesome if we could get a TO style recruit option in cities. (picking race and level, and paying a price based on that.)

I would also be interested in cannabilizing the clan skill system for saved space.

I feel like we are derailing your topic, we might want to start a separate one to cover some of these questions.

Having them join mid battle would work pretty well too I think.

So would we be able to add an arbitrary ability to a job? That would be a huge improvement. I also like the idea of custom requirements, such as how KoL disabled the priest job if you killed too many people, but unlocked the dark knight job.

I would probably use unlocked to mean that the job is in the list of jobs you have acquired, and available to mean the selected character can currently use that job.

I think it would be really interesting to have the wheels grouped by types, such as Tank, Healer, Offensive Magic, Utility, Mixed Classes, etcetera. I think that your just numbering of them and incrementing upward would work fine though, especially if you made it so only available jobs were shown. It might be interesting to make it also show the next tier of jobs, but that sounds like it would take far too much work to bother implementing checks for.

If you mean sprites from other games then Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis uses a nearly identical visual style if I recall, and should have most, if not all of the sprites necessary, I do not think downed sprites are commonly used in the game, but I am pretty sure that all of the classes have them. As a pie in the sky side note, it would be amazing to have the KoL classes in FFTA as an expansion to the Hume race, and a new race for the female human classes from KoL. I know the main character's sheet at least is available at the Spriter's Resource.

Yeah, I agree it can get kind of overbearing in TO

Manual sorting is the sort of quality of life thing that is not necessary if it does not exist, but is totally required if it does exist. It also gets me hopeful for an invite/diplomacy function for recruiting enemies. Has anyone tried forcing the recruitment dialogue to appear after a mission? If we could copy enemy data there that would be awesome, especially if you could queue a few at once like in Tactics.

Do not worry about delays, we understand this is a hobby in your spare time, something nobody has much of.

I definitely like the multiple bits for sex idea, but also agree that it would be superfluous without a dramatic quantity of additional content.

Having each unit have a modifier applied to their job's aggressiveness and their perceived HP, MP, etcetera would be a really satisfying way to add personality types in my opinion.  Especially if we can have a morale/terror system that adjusts those modifiers.
That would also be very useful if we could have an auto-battle system. Are we able to flip the guest bit mid combat?

I really like the badge system in KoL, and would prefer to have something like it to learn skills and unlock classes, but I think it falls in the same category as sex, interesting, but not worth adding unless a much more drastic overhaul is planned.

Just having items available for use without costing an action ability slot would be pretty good, are we able to add abilities to the list? Like drop weaon? Thereby allowing some of the uses of equip change.

I definitely prefer movement abilities over combos, especially since most of the combo abilities were just copy pastes of eachother. I really like the idea of combos, but they need a significant overhaul and should be divorced from the JP system.

Many people have said the non-final movement is a key selling point, so having an option to have canceled moves just take back the benefits of the font like abilities might be a good idea, or granting them at the end of the turn. I do have to say though that one of the main appeals of them in FFT was to use them mid turn in order to make other actions possible.

Can we get an option to only get JP as the mission reward instead of also as a duplicate of exp? I am interested in this option for two reasons:
1. I am interested in level flattening, and thus might want to take out exp entirely at some point.
2. I find the fact that I gain more AP for doing an action leads me to act against my units best short term interests for the benefit of their long term interests (ability mastery).
Pretty sure I can do this just by editing the build file, but it would be nice to have it as an option on the front.

Thanks.

I really like the bar, but just because it looks nice and is a faster more clear way to see the AP progression.

Ooo, I really like the dual learning system as it currently is, far more than I expected. However, having the AP reward also grant fungible points would be pretty good.

Custom names sound really good. I think all in all it would be a really beneficial trade off, so I am all for it. I do not think we actually really need job levels, partial mastery does make sense for unlocking more jobs, but having more variable space to work with on units in general would be awesome.

Do enemy units also keep track of AP? Could utilize that same space for them as well.

The main things I want for units that they currently lack:
Gender (at least for Humes), single bit, but unlikely to be useful given the lack of sprite variety.
Factors that affect AI, such as Personality, Morale, Fear, etcetera
Feats/Badges (I really liked how they granted passive bonuses, and unlocked classes in TO:KoL) One bit per feat.

Do you know how many bytes the AP and Combo systems are currently using?

Can we make Items just an available action for everyone? Since you do not have to learn skills in it, it does not make as much sense for it to take up a skill slot. It would be kind of interesting if you could equip usable items for use in battle, like in TO.

I think my ideal skill learning system would work like this:
1. Select skill you want to learn.
2. Skill becomes useable, but has a chance to fail (possibly success = jp/cost)
3. When jp ≥ cost, the cost is subtracted from jp, and the skill is mastered.

Just keeping the JP Purchase as is, delinking it from combos, and cutting out AP to free up more bytes for character data though would be awesome.

The buildfile failed to create a UPS file, I am presuming I am missing some other tool. The FFT_hack file though worked well enough for my purposes at the time.

I am assuming that it is not possible to have both the custom AP display and the fill bar? I tried adjusting it a bit, and found that letting it use any of the old schema at all mostly just lead to it messing up. Possibly as a side effect of the hoops necessary to display all of the abilities at once.

I do want to keep combos as a mechanic, but I think they require a lot of tweaking, and would definitely rather have a movement ability type to equip instead. Especially since there are only two combo abilities really. (100% hit rate combo, or combo that can be activated by someone else while the character is at a distance, both of which are kind of terrible in their own way). And therefore it is a waste of a slot space.

Having a hard time getting into FFTA due to how different is? Maybe you like it already, but want it to be more like War of the Lions, or Tactics Ogre? This is a list of patches that will bring them closer together.

System Changes
╭─────────────────────────────────
Death Systems
   Changed by Leonarth:
   FFT Death and Ironman Mode

Fixes & Quality of Life
╭─────────────────────────────────
Missables
   Fixed by rss_kai:
   Mission Item Fix

Pipeline Optimization
   Implemented by Endrift:
   FFTA Busy Loop Removal

Stealable Shoes
   Implemented by Leonarth:
   FFTA Steal Shoes

Manual Party Sorting
   Implemented by Leonarth:
   FFTA Manual Sorting

Leonarth's Engine Hacks
╭─────────────────────────────────
   Master Installer
   Includes as customizable and toggleable options:
      No Judges _{removes judges and laws from the game}
      JP Skill Purchase _{ability learning system}
      FFT Style Death _{upon being defeated units bleed out over the course of 3 turns, undead have a chance of reviving}
      Ironman Death _{when a battle concludes any defeated units die}
      Movement Abilities _{replaces the Combo ability slot with Movement abilities}
      Movement Confirmation _{removes the ability to undo movement}
      Manual Sorting _{allows free reorganization of the formation/party order}
      Job and Race Customization _{Alternative ability assignment system that allows jobs to have noncontiguous abilities, and many other features}
      Universal Animation _{cross compatible attack and skill animations for all playable jobs and races}
      Quick Start _{skips the tutorials and opening cinematics}
      Steal Shoes _{allows shoes to be stolen as accessories}
      Morphing Morphers Morph _{changes the morpher skills into a much more robust transformation system}
      No Stat Variance _{makes stat growth deterministic}
      1Bit Abilities _{removes the AP ability learning system, and frees save space for other things}

I would want judges to only appear in city encounters, and preferably even then only in missions where it would make sense for law enforcement to be present and not immediately apprehending one of the parties.
I want them to feel like Ministers of the Law, not eccentric omnipresent apathetic arbiters of minor details.

Could the potential Stabilization effect be added to other items too? Like Bandages? What if only stabilized units could be revived? That sounds like an interesting system, where the rush is to stabilize them, and reviving a unit is more costly in the turn economy.

When it comes to them moving bodies I mostly just want them to stop it. I think it does target downed undead units. I want judges to stabilize downed people, only when it is the judges turn, and I want them to never move another body again.

I think my biggest issue with the counters is that they take up a lot of screen real-estate. If we could shrink them or have them be lower down, that would be better, all in all though, they are pretty great as is. I do feel like there should maybe be a bit slower countdown easy mode option perhaps.

If we cannot remove MontBlanc, can we just have the countdown not apply to him? Like the guests in FFT.

I just got an idea that I think would be really awesome. When the countdown reaches the end, it should have a chance to do 1 of 4 things:
1. Unit dies
2. Countdown Starts Over
3. Unit Stabilizes
4. Unit revives in critical condition

It would lend more variability, and tension. The stabilize and revive options could revive and heal undead, maybe even level them up.

Could we get a buildfile release of the FFT one?

Indeed.

Does Montblanc's replacement not join your party?

Yeah, I definitely think a count down is a really good choice, less immersive though.

Is it possible to have the Judges disable the mechanic if present? Or even better be able to revert a bleeding out unit to the old downed state? Can that replace their ability to move bodies? Can we affect the range on that?

Is it possible to change which maps have judges appear?

This patch is nigh mandatory in my opinion, this solves several of my main gripes with the game, both narratively and mechanically. I just tested the FFT style one, and it is pretty much perfect.

Something that I wanted to test to verify since it was not said in the thread yet, is the fact that if you win the battle before an ally's timer has run out, they are stabilized and you do not lose them. I am pleased to report that is indeed the case, and it handily solves the previously mentioned rez everyone before the end balance issue.

In the first fight the numbers tick down very quickly, but that is not nearly as much of an issue in the game proper. In the Muscamaloi fight, only the Fairy who I killed within two turns timed out before the end.

Edit: Be aware that it does not count down to 0 like in FFT, it is 1 then done.

Also, you could probably have it go ahead and not game over if Montblanc dies, if he is removed from the party he still appears in the relevant events for him. I have not tested him not being in the party upon reaching the first Jagd, if he is not, it will probably never register his death. I usually cut Montblanc from my party first thing nowadays. That said, it makes more narrative sense for it to game over if he dies before the first Jagd. Also, does his replacement cause a game over if they die?

How hard would it be to replace the floating numbers with an expanding blood pool under the character?

Enemy present chances can essentially randomize the battles can they not?

I would be very interested in an all Jagd patch.

Would people be interested in a Dark Souls themed patch? What parts would be more interesting, and/or easier to convert? If it was complete, I think I would prefer to play through Dark Souls on the FFT engine rather than its own.

It would probably have to sidestep the world map. I think a lot of the existing battle maps and graphics are highly compatible though.

Are there any efforts currently in the works to bring the older, in my opinion superior, final fantasies into the FFT engine? 1-5 essentially?

A boco is fine too. It is really too bad that there are no other unique non-human characters with the exception of Byblos. Byblos should probably get a romance path as well.

If you are still working on this I would like to throw a hypothetical wrench into the basis of the poll.

The only way a romantic mod would make sense would be to allow the player, Ramza, to pursue a variety of relationships. I am not sure how difficult it would be to check dialogue choices in past events, I know the vanilla game does it at least once, such as when you are introduced to Algus/Argath.

Ramza should be capable of romancing all of the people in the poll, at the same time. It would really help cement his status as a heretic at a time when the church is undergoing their attempt at a monogamist reformation.

Also I have always wanted to be able to talk Miluda down instead of having to kill her.

I do not know how hard this is, probably very, but I think it would be awesome if events could be triggered by using a specific ability on specific characters, such as the Orator's abilities. It would be a good way to allow pursuing romance options at your own pace, and a natural way to try to convince Miluda to stand down.

Sorry to necro, but it was on the first page and I strongly disagree with most of the posts so far, so I wanted to add my two gil.