Final Fantasy Hacktics

To be blunt, this is kind of why the old guard around here are jaded about people saying they really want to contribute. Within a few posts, you've gone from saying "in time, I'll prove my words" to "really don't know what to do next..."

If projects like Jot5 were easy, simple, or quick, there'd be more of them, and Jot5 itself would have been completed a long time ago.

Now, if all you want to do is just make up your own simple vanilla mod and see what you can do with it, there's certainly nothing wrong with that. It's how I got started. Simple stuff like that is probably how most people started modding games.

But there's a world of difference between doing that and making big contributions to major projects.

You'd have to in order to do anything really groundbreaking or unique with WotL - even the PSP version, which is the most moddable of the set.

With the limited tools available for the PSP game, it's nearly impossible to make anything other than a vanilla mod - changing stats, encounters, skillsets, etc. in a way you see fit. I mean, the game's obviously imbalanced in a lot of ways, but there are already lots of (half-completed, if that) vanilla mods lying around, for either PSX or PSP. Another one added to the heap isn't going to do much.

And even a well-done, major vanilla mod just won't be as impressive as something with a greater scope. There's a reason AM2R popped up on my radar, but I couldn't name a single Super Metroid mod if I tried.

You can't do much in the way of drastically changing the game if you don't use the PSX version or aren't ridiculously good with ASM - and even if you were, you'd probably be better served working with the PSX version as it's more well-known and a lot less likely to spontaneously combust. Of course, if you could find a way to beat the PSP version into submission so it stops being so nightmarish to work with, no one would turn that down!

A lot of people would want to replace the PSP script immediately, though.

Hmm, well, Jot5 will never be compatible with WotL, if that's what you mean.

Quote from: Dido on January 28, 2017, 01:19:19 pm
Hello, remembering here that I do not speak English nor can I conjugate your language, (I use Google translator) to send messages!

I wanted to say that the JOT5 project is incredible and that I am looking forward to Ch. 2. Here in Brazil using the term "Fuck" is to say that you are above average is that the free translation hampers the context, the JOT5 project is Wonderful and I know it is hard work but, worth the wait.

A hug.

Probably the closest comparable English phrase is "you're the shit". Just in case it ever comes up again for you

You can even emulate PSX or PSP games on your smartphone or tablet - much more accessible than dragging your old PSP out of mothballs, IMO.

I played Jot5 entirely on my Galaxy Mega.

Well, two issues I can imagine with that suggestion would be the difficulty of implementation and how it might affect the game balance.

I don't think changing the evasion mechanic into a damage reduction effect is an ASM mod that already exists, so it'd have to be built from scratch. Which would be a major time investment.

And a big part of the difficulty in any of the 1-enemy boss battles of Chapter 1 is how evasive they are. A 50% damage reduction isn't as potent as a 50% chance to miss, if you ask me. Consider how much damage can be done to the final boss with Light Arrow, if it hits. If Light Arrow is part of your strategy there, it makes you really, really want Link to get behind the boss, instead of just giving him the highest ground you can and leaving him there, which would make it harder/less likely for the boss to go after him.

If the boss' facing only affected damage reduction, it would be less appealing to sacrifice Link's high ground.

There are also several abilities available that can't be evaded. Changing the way evasion works would take away some of the utility of moves like Omnislash or Ultima.

I think I've heard of issues with using the slowdown patch on an EUR Iso. Try a USA one.

You're using the first palette for the portrait when the portrait uses the ninth palette in FFT.

Also, Type2 can be wonky on PSP. Only put T2 sprites in previously established T2 slots.

There's a few things off with your portrait.

Your picture is fine when it uses the first palette - and so it looks fine just glancing at the base image in the file - but FFT uses the ninth palette for portraits. The portrait is also one pixel too far to the right. And there's no white to the eye, and the beard mixes dedicated skin colors with hair colors, making it look ... off. The trim on the armor and the edges of the beard also aren't consistent.

Finally, a little bit of advice - I'm not at all a pro spriter, but your Ramza portrait has multiple unused colors and a lot of area on the armor where it's just one completely separate color with no shading. Just adding in a bit of shading can go a long way when it comes to that.



I'm sure it's nowhere near perfect, but it definitely looks a lot better like this, I think. I just wanted to quickly put something out there to give you an idea of what improvements can be made.

Here's what the file looks like with the portrait palette separated properly (and it's got my edited version of the portrait in case you want to use that as a base going forward). Open it in GraphicsGale and you'll see that there's just two rows of palettes - the one in the ninth slot is what the portrait uses for the colors, which is why it looks so weird in the default palette.

I'm still fairly green at event editing, but as far as I can tell, the duplicate dialog across all related events is just a redundancy, probably from when the game was in its super early stages and they weren't yet 100% sure on what they'd end up doing for their event structure.

Events with the command DisplayMessage are the ones that actually use the dialog. Those should be the only ones you need to edit.

Hopefully that answers your question?

Finally got around to adding in Twin's portrait (albeit very slightly edited) instead of my hunched over look. Probably should have done that quite a while ago.

>_>

QuoteI'm going too fast with things, I need to breath, sit... relax, and go modding part-to-part.

Yep. Once you get past Patcher/Tactext modding, you start to hit a steep upward curve in terms of the time it takes to learn and do everything you're thinking of doing.

The very first thing you should do is get into the Patcher, check out all the tabs, and plan out all the changes you'd like to implement from there, doing searches for pre-existing topics whenever you have a specific question. We do have some rather useful link topics here.
And like I said, you can change a lot with the Patcher alone. For your first time modding FFT, hammering out what you'd like to do with just the Patcher can be something you'd spend months on.

QuoteWhat was happening is that I was lost in a lot of info and was not getting the right way of using it.

Not just that. You were asking about essentially changing every facet of the game. A project that covers the full scope of what you were asking about would be something like Journey of the Five, and it's taken years for a team to build it up as far as it's gotten. We don't even have the Ch. 1 re-release out yet.

The dedication it'd take to do something that robust is incredibly rare. I'm sure Elric, Xifanie, and Angel have many stories about trying to help a brand new forumgoer learn how to sink their teeth into everything, only to have them go "whoa this is just too much, see ya".

QuoteThe worst problem with my project is that I'm alone doing it all. I'm trying to teach my brother how to do it and so it'll be a project of two people.

Yeah, but everyone's project starts off that way. Not that I'm gonna say that people will just outright join your project, but if you show that you're dedicated to getting it done, people will occasionally help you out. For example:

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10967.0

I was just trying to cook up a Mystic Knight sprite, and I ended up having several people give me advice. In the end, Twinees even outright made the portrait for me, and I've been using it as my avatar for a while (yet I apparently never actually put it in the topic because I'm a forgetful idiot?!? Gotta fix that up).

But all that help probably wouldn't have been provided if I'd just opened up with a list of questions about spriting, instead of cracking open the tools that were there and giving it a serious try before I ever made a topic about the sprite. It also helps that the people advising me were able to mention specific things instead of addressing broad, general questions. (You'll notice a lot of my answers from your last topic say things like "depends".)

QuoteAnyway, can I go and ask my questions just in a topic?
What's better, asking in main post or posting my questions?

Since you already had a pre-existing topic, it would have been best to keep asking questions in it, unless of course one of the admins went "hey, you're posting in the wrong subforum, don't be a butt" or something. Making a new topic doesn't help with the impression that you only skimmed my answers, and for anyone who comes in later to do a topic search for answers to their own questions, it's easier if all the answers for you are up in the one topic.

Just post new messages in your same topic. It'll bump the topic, and any regular forum-goers who're logged in will see the (New) notification next to the topic to boot.

Your questions cover a massive range of topics. Everything from Patcher edits to spriting to eventing to changing battle graphics to ASM (the big one).

One of the answers I gave you in your previous topic was to start your modding adventure by opening FFTPatcher and tinkering with it. You can do a lot of editing with just the Patcher alone (followed by Tactext to change names and descriptions).

Add in everything else you're asking about, and whatever you're planning changes from a couple-month project to a several-year one.

You can't just dive into all of this. Take it slow, start with the easier tools, and learn what reasonable expectations are for a mod project.

And if you had been tinkering with the Patcher and testing things out like I suggested, you'd have several of these questions answered already. Such as: "How do innate abilities work". You slap on the Support/Movement passives as job innate abilities and then that job has them forever. You could have figured out that much in a couple minutes of patching and testing, plus whatever time you spend on any more specific questions on that subject. It's honestly taking me just as much time simply to type that to you as it would for you to have tested it already.
Then I see the question "Can I edit how items get equipped? Example: making one-hand weapons forced to be two-handed?" and I just think... did you even look at the Item tab in the Patcher?

Then you ask something like "Can I create new [abilities]?" and I'm thinking, man, did you even look at the multiple responses I gave you in the last topic?

You've missed some of the answers I've already given. You don't seem to be taking a serious look at the Patcher and giving it a spin, like you should be. And you have no idea what's realistically feasible for your mod. Adding new chapters? Coding? New CG scenes? Holy crap, dude. Learn to crawl before you walk, let alone try to pilot a spaceship.

... I used to not even patch directly to the PSP, but to the ISO on the PC, then move every patched ISO to the PSP, for testing.

I don't know why I did that.

Quote from: Bonesy on December 10, 2016, 08:05:25 pm
I found Fi from skyward sword worse lol

Oh, God. I swear, the only reason she was designed that way was specifically to poke people in the eye who'd gotten frustrated with Navi

QuoteIf you can remove a character from a story and have it affect nothing, that character should absolutely not be a focal point.

Exactly.

And that's what Luso is in FFTA2, too. If you remove him and the grimoire, things get a bit different, but not much, and the biggest issue is the removal of the grimoire, not of Luso himself. Even when his actual Clan leader is out of commission, all he does for the main plot as the acting leader is go fetch some herbs to help him heal (which isn't even his idea) and talk to someone about his grimoire in order to learn that he just has to keep farting around and the grimoire will eventually be recharged enough to return him home.

Compare that to TA1. Marche isn't directly responsible for whipping up Pocket Ivalice, and he does also spend a lot of time farting around, but he himself becomes a major catalyst for change in the story. Remove him from the story, and everyone would have just stayed in Pocket Ivalice where they never have to face their problems anymore, and Mewt would have permanently regressed to that toddler-like mentality that Marche had to break him out of. Marche also goes through a lot of character development as a result of his time there, changing from a shy, sort of awkward teenager into someone with enough self-confidence to fight his own friends and family in order to save them from themselves. TA1's story isn't nearly as complex and engaging as FFT's, but considering it was aimed at the younger GBA audience, I think it did very well with what it had.

FFTA2, however... I was expecting much more out of Luso based on his WotL cameo. To say that I was disappointed is to put it mildly.

Quote from: ChaosStar0 on December 07, 2016, 04:39:36 pm
I don't like it when people insult Vaan. The whole point of him is that he's a viewpoint character, FFXII is Ashe's story but we experience it from Vaan's point of view. I also ship Vaan and Ashe.

I'm not familiar with FFXII, but since this is being said in comparison to Luso, and Luso is the viewpoint character of FFTA2, I'll talk about that for a sec.

Using a character who isn't the main protagonist as the main viewpoint character is a risky move. It can work out somewhat well if they're a close confidant and constant companion of the real protagonist, allowing the audience to still see all the main events as they unfold, featuring the important characters those events revolve around.

But then you have to ask yourself - why is that character the viewpoint character, instead of one of those main characters?

In TA2, Luso is the viewpoint character, despite Adelle and Cid clearly being superior choices for that role. Both of them have closer ties to the main antagonist than Luso. Luso just happens to have a similar item to the antagonist. Adelle and Cid also undergo some character development, while Luso does not. Luso sort of has an impact on the plot in that he is opposed to the antagonist, but in no more than a "you're a bad guy, I'm a good guy and I'll stop your evil plans!" capacity.

I know why Luso is the main character as opposed to them - he's supposed to be filling in the role that Marche did in TA1, the mundane-Earth-born human transported to a land of swords and sorcery. It's supposed to make him a little more relatable to the mundane-Earth-born audience.

But not only do they fail to give him any character development or make him feel like he's driving the story in any way as opposed to his party members, but they also fail at making him the successor to the FFTA Earth-born characters. There are almost no references to TA1 throughout the entire story up until the last scene before the credits, and it's just an "oh yeah I guess that happened once" moment. They could have delved into the history of the grimoires, had Luso periodically unlock Mewt Randall's previous journal entries detailing TA1 and the visits to Ivalice that followed, had Luso be one of the TA1 cast's kids or younger cousins or something... like, anything that tied him to the story in a relevant way and gave him an actual point to being there.

Instead, he's just some random kid that pops in and farts around Ivalice for a while, helping out some good guys and beating up some bad guys until he goes home. He's on the fringe of everyone else's actual interesting storyline, but never does anything other than offer some support to those characters.

If you want an example of how to do this sort of viewpoint character properly, Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia is where you want to look. He does grow into the main character role after the visit to the Tower of Salvation, but before that he's just the guy supporting the Chosen One. Despite that, he has a huge impact on the storyline right out of the gate, including character and plot developments that don't directly involve the Chosen One, even before he sets off on the main quest. Hell, he's initially so unimportant to her journey that he's actually left behind and has to go chase her down on the road.

Really? I hate him. Not as a character or anything, but because he's a cookie-cutter protagonist who farts around the entire time and has no character development. He's the dollar store version of Marche.

He would have been fine as a side character, but as a protagonist? Awful choice.

Excellent, I'm already getting the proper response for the "oh god why" version and it's not even anything but an idea yet. Amazing progress!

QuoteNow you've done it, I am going to create the "oh god why" version. Instead of JUST replacing snake though, I am going to replace the entire team .

If you're gonna do that, I recommend replacing Ramza with Luso, Link with his CD-i version, Dante with his DMC version, Cloud with his KH1 version, and Alma with Algus.