Final Fantasy Hacktics

Quote from: dck on July 23, 2020, 07:26:45 pmIt's true that sixteen different active abilities per character probably leads to some class overlap no matter how you mod them

16 abilities is a lot of flexibility. More so if we think of the Blue mage. This is what I'm trying to address.

Specials like Cid, Babus, Monsters get 3 or 4 abilities, and Ezel only got 2. Whereas the generics get 8+8. Specials in vanilla FFTA are very lack luster.
So, I gave them broken abilities in the Revisited mod to compensate. For example,
---Babus got Death, Break, and Toad with Concentrate and Reflex
---Ezel is a physical Nu Mou that can Strikeback and Dual wield maces. I also gave him Blank Card.
---Cid got Stillness which stops the judge and all enemies.

I want the reduce the generics to 4+4 and make some specials/semi-generics with 8 abilities, because they cannot change classes. Ritz, Shara, and even the named-generics can now get a custom job variant. They can get the 4 generic abilities and 4 custom abilities (the 4 ability slots that I've left out).

Quote from: dck on July 23, 2020, 07:26:45 pmevery job needed to have strong tools of their own not to feel like a gimped choice compared to others.

true

Quote from: Leonarth on July 23, 2020, 08:37:18 amworry about there is Hume, and that's only if you aren't using 1 bit abilities

So, you can get more then 0xFF abilities per race if you use 1-bit abilities?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 23, 2020, 08:37:18 amNothing preventing you from getting up to 0xFF jobs in there

I will get to this

Quote from: Leonarth on July 23, 2020, 08:37:18 amI personally think there's some jobs that need their abilities, Black Mage, Thief, Morphers and Beastmasters come to mind for me.

Aren't these the redundant ones?
Black mages I understand, but aren't thieves are mostly just to steal weapons and then armor, accessories, and abilities.
All the beastmaster's abilities could be summed into just one.

I thought minimalism would work.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 23, 2020, 08:37:18 amThey just wouldn't be the same with less abilities.

To me this is a Dragoon. Just can't imagine him without the breath abilities, but I removed them because Bangas Cry is superior.

Quote from: chocolatemoose on July 22, 2020, 11:30:30 pmFFTA and A2 have a ton of useless abilities that you would never use

FFTA2 has even more jobs, but the game handles the 4 effects per ability very well. Animations also show the added effects. This leads to many nice ideas.

Quote from: chocolatemoose on July 22, 2020, 11:30:30 pmAnother option is to change the useless abilities to abilities that a player might have a use for.

I did that, and ended up with a lot of jobs that had similarities. This is my attempt at uniqueness.
For example: Soldier, Warrior, Fencer, and Mog knight are nearly similar. So, I removed the common abilities and kept the unique ones.

Only 4 of a job's action abilities are generally good/useful. The others are/become redundant as the player gets to the end game. If all the abilities were good, then the job is too powerful/overused.
So, I had this idea tried to reduce the abilities to 4 per job (a few got 5) to make each job unique. Although it can be even more fine-tuned, I'm quite happy with my test and here is a spreadsheet. Even the three black/white mages are different now.

There is another advantage. The game has many unused slots, which we can now be used for custom classes with a few custom skills.

The tab is named "Less Skills".
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MjqOJdqyY_1azzn9dQikp5GXCB3QTM0INVOgfDwc8ro/edit?usp=sharing]

If I find some time, I'll make a patch for this. Please let me know your thoughts.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 13, 2020, 06:44:35 pmOkay, so first, on repointing:

I understand the concept.
I don't understand the math.
Where can I get the Race IDs?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 13, 2020, 06:44:35 pmAbout the sidenote:This would cause the problem of outright just not working.

Oh right, the race for items was labelled as [ALL] in the AIO. I mistook it for an all purpose class.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 13, 2020, 06:44:35 pmSo tldr: There is no outplaying the races' ability lists short of writing your own code for it. A whole lot of code.

...sigh

Quote from: Leonarth on July 13, 2020, 04:38:28 pmit's included in the engine hacks, unless you go out of your way to remove it.

I've only changed the ROMBuildfile.event. Good to know that it's present.

Quote from: slempi on July 13, 2020, 05:28:50 pmMontblanc has never been one of my strongest characters before... will give some feedback if you want after I've gotten further.

I have tried many classes for Montblanc, the most recent test made him a Nu Mou similar to Cid being a Bangaa in FFTA2. I'm still not sure what's best for him.
Take your time and have fun, report if you find any bugs.

Quote from: PowerOfKaishin on July 13, 2020, 11:23:48 pmI can't find a full changelog though. The google drive only goes back to 1.05.

That's my fault. I deleted the old version of the game two years ago, then redid everything and changed the mod's name.

Quote from: PowerOfKaishin on July 13, 2020, 11:23:48 pmAlso, what if all growths were static and independent of class? That way you don't have to worry about screwing characters up and can play much more freely,

It's bad because all the enemies would be similar. Fighting a White Mage and Fighter would feel the same.

Quote from: PowerOfKaishin on July 13, 2020, 11:23:48 pmespecially with someone like Marche

This is why I've streamlined the base stats and greatly increased the story mission's AP reward. By the time you reach the first boss fight, Marche should be in your desired class. Tell me if this did not happen.
Also, I've not changed how the shop upgrades work. So, if you just participate in 20 battles, you'll have access to the full shop.

Quote from: SqueakyChair on July 13, 2020, 01:19:58 pmIf you got time, can you explain a bit your design philosophies and objectives with this mod as per the latest version?

I have one: To make it better than the base game. Aim is Better, not Different.

Quote from: SqueakyChair on July 13, 2020, 01:19:58 pmpossible for you to create a version of this mod without the Mission Item Fix hardcoded into it?

ItemFix came first and Revisited was built on top. It would take a lot of effort to undo, I do not advise you try the endeavor.

Quote from: SqueakyChair on July 13, 2020, 01:19:58 pmor is it integral to your overall design philosophy

Not really. I just made the ItemFix because I had an issue with the base game's inventory management; it's very easy to mess up. Because ItemFix is an improvement, it stayed.

Quote from: SqueakyChair on July 13, 2020, 01:19:58 pmI also like the increased difficulty

The next update is the one for difficulty and boss fights.

Quote from: SqueakyChair on July 13, 2020, 01:19:58 pmI tweaked it a bit to my tastes. I hope you don't mind 

This is what hacking is all about. Hope you could implement your changes.

Quote from: SqueakyChair on July 13, 2020, 01:19:58 pmFFTA Hacking to Suit My Own Tastes - A To-Do List (1st Jan 2020 update)

1. 1.06 had them; 1.061 removed; they will back with the next update. Leonarth fixed a bug found by Mobo.
2. I advise you to use the latest version. 1.0 is too old and I plant to remove it soon.
3. Too tedious.
4. Again, I advise you not to attempt this endeavor.
5. A Thundrake is in Roda Dragons and a Goblin is in Antlions.
6. They are already twice or more then base game. And they go even higher. You also get 2x insignia, which means 4x AP.
7. Nice suggestion, I do not how to implement it.
8. Level scaling is present as an optional patch.
9. 1.06 had it; 1.061 does not; the next update will have it.
10. Raising level cap only increased the grinding. Instead I chose to increase HP growths.
11. I did not notice improvement. Correct me if it is significant.
12. Famfirt gives you a Cinquedea. Just hold out on the "Wanted! Diaghilev Godeye" mission.

Thanks a lot for playing, your review and your time. Much appreciated

double posted by mistake
Edit: Could a mod please delete this post

Quote from: mobo on July 13, 2020, 01:34:17 ambit curious kai if you can add a feature like in Pokemon where everyone in party earns exp even they didnt went out for battle but instead of exp the feature gives AP for everyone thats if the Individual Missions/Battle/etc succeeded. Thanks in advance for the work.

Leonarth made an experimental hack here and from what I've tested

What it does:
---All party members get mission AP except those who go out on dispatch
---All newly learned abilities are correctly displayed in the mission summary screen
---Cosmetic bug: A generic soldier briefs every mission summary

What it doesn't:
---Dispatch missions only give AP to the dispatched unit
---Clan battles only give AP to participating members

I did not implement this because I could not test it extensively.

Leonarth also made a hack which makes JP be used for abilities instead of AP and it was included with the previous versions. Then I encountered some cases where the hundredth digit of the stored JP would reset. So, I did not include it afterwards.

What my mod already has:
---Reduced ability AP costs
---Story missions give a lot of AP
---You even get 2 insignias as you progress through game. If an insignia is taken to a battle, it doubles your mission AP reward. Two of them means x4 AP for any mission.

Quote from: slempi on July 13, 2020, 04:15:12 amThis mod seems pretty good, it's a real shame I can only use 4 party members in battles. Makes building and grinding your entire party a lot more tedious and slow. I would definitely play this mod, if I could use 6 members instead.

I created FFTA:Revisited after my other mod MissionItemFix, which makes the story missions give awesome rewards. To balance this I make the story missions harder.

I did the same thing to side-missions. The Tourney battles, Shadow clan, and other end game missions are more difficult. I tried to balance the remaining side-missions, but it was taking too long. There just aren't that many unique enemy combinations to spread across 100 or so side-missions, you will see repetitions even if I put a lot of time into it.
So, I took Eternal's idea from FFTA:GG and reduced the party member count. The enemies are easy but you don't have a full party. Difficulty increased moderately and it saved me a lot of time.

If any side mission is a bit difficult, then just try after sometime. The enemy levels do not change.
For example, Prof in Trouble. It was already notorious for being difficult in the base game because:
---Undead with Drain-Touch are quite challenging early game
---On top of that you had keep Auggie alive, else you fail the mission
In this mod, however, Auggie is more than capable of defeating them, it's you who must survive long enough.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 12, 2020, 01:03:44 pmIn "\Engine Hacks\jobAndRaceCustomization\data.event" look for the 0 terminated list under the label "newItemJobs", jobs in that list always have Item. By default the list only contains the ID for the Alchemist.

So, I just add the class BYTEs to the list?

What about hiding?
If I make every class have ITEM, do I just comment out the whole "hiding" portion of the code?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 12, 2020, 01:09:31 pmIf you repoint the lists then you can have 0xFF unique abilities for each race, if you don't then races will be forced to share abilities for no reason.

I will wait for your reply.

Side note:
I have an idea inspired from the Totema's secondary skill set "Magestorm". What if we just create one list and categorize it as [ALL]. We can add this to any class as a secondary skill set. Would this cause any problems?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 12, 2020, 07:17:53 amTo repoint something you want to copy the data for it, place it in freespace and edit the old pointer so that it points to the new location, if you wait a day or two I can get some free time and make an example with actual offsets.

I want to add more monster classes. So, I would need a new pointer for each monster race, correct?
Thanks for looking into this. All your effort could go to waste if I make the monster boring.

The monster pointers end before the special classes. So, I wanted to use special/totema skills for monsters. Only thing I would need to do is to change the addresses.
Also, why should we not use the skills of another race?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 12, 2020, 07:19:35 amWhy do you need them to show up as support abilities?

I misunderstood.
You were speaking of adding an icon to display a name, correct?
I was thinking we could give the item's passive abilities to classes, like you did in the movement abilities.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 12, 2020, 07:19:35 amDunno. I don't use AIO.

Darthatron made the AIO very user-friendly.
You use a modified Event-Assembler, right? How much more complex is it to use?

Another question:
Sephiran found that we can give ITEM to all playable classes and not just the alchemist.
Change the bytes at 0x080C8232 to 2B 28 00 DC
This works on the base game, but not after I apply any of your hacks.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 09, 2020, 08:17:11 amyou could assign these shoes and other items with special "fake" abilities for "fake" jobs, to have their passive effect show up on the ability list.

How do I get them to show up as support abilities in the AIO?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 09, 2020, 08:17:11 amOkay, everything should be fixed now.

Thanks Leonarth.
I like the snowball fight and the intro scene, but Quick Start is so good for testing.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 11, 2020, 07:48:29 pmvieraRedMageAbilities fix.

Oh, you've fixed the cure issue; that's nice.
No matter what ability to gave to the RedMage's first slot from the AIO, Cure would overwrite it in vanilla.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 11, 2020, 07:48:29 pmWhat you want is to extend the original list, so you would repoint it and add new abilities to the end of it.

I understand this.
If I just extend the current list forward, it goes into into the next race's list. How do I re-point?

Quote from: Linkuser on July 11, 2020, 12:59:18 pmhow to actually apply/save the changes once I've made them to the file.

-1- Open Nightmare/Nightmare2
-2- On the File menu, select Open ROM
-3- On the Modules menu, select Load Modules...
-4- Make your changes and hit ENTER. An asterisk(*) appears on the window name indicating that something has changed
-5- On the File menu, select Save ROM or hit Ctrl+S to save your changes

Hope it helped.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 11, 2020, 08:36:51 amThat's a pretty weird quirk... Never would have I expected that.
Glad you found a solution though.

Me too. Biskmatar and Li-Grim's second ability-only class slots can now be used.

Do you how to add abilities?

The abilities for classes are present one after another. Human abilities, then Bangaa, Nu Mou...Monsters and finally specials. But in the AIO the "Start" address restarts at 1 for every new race.

For example, the Official has only one ability picked from address 8D. I wanted more, so I gave a range of 87 to 8D.
After 8E Bangaa abilities start. So, a Human can have bangaa skill added but the Bangaa race restarts at 1. So how does one go back if he wanted human abilities added to a bangaa skill set?
I ask this because I found some good monster sprites and job names, but am unable to add new abilities. Is there a free space that can be used to add new abilities without messing anything else?

Quote from: Leonarth on July 07, 2020, 05:29:49 pmNo it can't? You even showed it in your pictures. Totemas look wrong because there's only one special palette slot.

You're right, the game can only handle one. Tested; each of the totema has a unique palette.

(Maybe I'm just imagining... but the first time I tried a map with Adremmelech and Mateus, the game actually loaded both, this is why I added Famfirt)

Quote from: Leonarth on July 07, 2020, 05:29:49 pmThis doesn't have anything to do with anything.

You're right, the issue is not the game, the AIO seems to default to the first name if it is a name shared by many classes.

The solution was oddly simple:
-1-Make your changes
-2-Move your selection to a class without a shared name
-3-Hit Save.

Quote from: sudir1 on July 10, 2020, 10:05:18 amI'm going to try this...
Thanks for the hard work its_kai !

Thank you!
Have fun playing, report if you find any bugs.

Quote from: Leonarth on July 07, 2020, 05:45:24 pmIf you are curious, Ritz has 0x51 and Shara has 0x55.

Yes I am, thanks for these.