Final Fantasy Hacktics

Nice, thanks! Insofar as what I'm envisioning, if I can get a standalone version of the FFT combat system to run, complete with editable teams, maps, jobs, we can just run the battles through that by hand according to the player's tactics, video capture it, and post it on the forum instead of the huge [Ramza uses Yell! Success! +1 Speed!] text posts that we've been doing.

I'll be looking into Ganesha here shortly, see if it can be made to work for something like this.

Haha. So maybe I missed it being stated, but where are these map editors? I assume there are topics for each here on the forums somewhere, but my searches on 'Map Editor' turned up some really weird results, and I assume didn't encompass all of the editors.

Dude, thank you so much. This is all magnificent advice all around. When I was at my height as Head Admin at HoI, I was working 16-hour days on my days off for it (And usually 4-8 on days when I worked / went to school), so yeah. I'm certain prioritizing is gonna make a world of difference.

Considering that I've been doing this on and off for nine-and-a-half years already, I think we're good on the motivation front. Also considering that for the vast majority of that time, the game has actually been running (And quite well for the most part), this is not a worry. I'm not much of a coder, so learning an entirely new system for this may be a bit rough, but eh. What else am I gonna do with my life?

So, FF Arena may just work, can the AI be edited at all? Currently, when we run battles by hand, players write a series of tactics (Basically, complex if-then statements) for each turn {For instance, If Enemy Squire moves within Melee range, use  I think it might add kind of a neat flare to our game that you go into battle, and you prepare as best you can, and then you let chance and fate take it from there. I like this a lot, actually.

As for the rest - That's actually exponentially better news than I had ever imagined. I would love to work with some of you guys over the coming weeks / months as the project re-tools and progresses, and if it turns out that we can run the entirety of our combat system through something like this, then I'd be a very, very happy camper (Like I said, this would cut out a full 80% of our workload, especially if we can backload the classes and abilities as we wish).

Elric: That's stupendous news, actually. I wouldn't imagine the map editors would be anything stupendously special, but this is better than what we have currently, by far. I'm gonna be doing some research on the things you suggested over the coming days (I'm getting married this month, so life is a bit hectic at the moment), and then I'll go from there. Thank you guys so much for your support!

Hey, all. I'm Blizz. I've got a bit of a project I'm working on. I don't know if any of you have ever seen us, but I used to be Head Administrator at Heroes of Ivalice, a forum-based game using part of the FFT rules set. For the past ten years, it's been 100% forum-based, and made using a very limited template of some similar forum-based games, heavy on RP, and very, very hard to run by hand. Any skirmish would take between 2-4 hours of real time to update, type out, roll calculations, and the like. Not to mention Kingdom mechanics, Propositions, player purchases, wars, and movement.

I just stumbled across this site about a week ago after rejoining the team, and we're re-building the entire system from the ground-up. So, I need some help, and I hope you guys can provide me with at least some suggestions as to what to do. What I need is fourfold:

1) First, I would want our battle-system to have a GUI mimicking the original FFT. I've seen a lot of projects over the last week that have come from here, and it looks like the things that you can create with the original engine are magnificent. Kudos to everyone who's undertaken a project like this. So, I need to know if there is potentially a way to modify the engine to allow for real-time, editable, player-vs-player combat. What I mean by this is thus: We would need a tool to create the map, the conditions of the skirmish, edit levels, abilities, edit the CT system, overhaul the Job System, and be able to enable each individual combat accessible via independent server to everyone involved, including spectators, if they so desire it. Each player would control their character, and act in-turn, playing out the skirmish in multi-player. Rewards built-in would be a bonus. This would also likely require custom sprites if available. It would also be nice to have a lobby system and dedicated server acting as a hub for players to go each day to chat and enjoy, and perhaps duel one another. Ideally, a replay / record system so that we could keep a running record of these combats (And perhaps showcase some of our classes / skills to increase traffic and playerbase) would also be neat.

Now, I recognize that this is an unbelievably ambitious project, but what I want to know is this; Is it technically possible? I understand the potential speed bumps in the way of this, but if we can overcome those, I think a visual representation of these things (instead of text as we're doing now) would be preferable.

And if not technically possible for a multiplayer version, would it be possible in single-player as a tool for us to run skirmishes through this system, without the networking capabilities? I'm certain one would likely have to overhaul the entire engine, allow for editable maps, and create a local database of classes, skills, visual representations, and the like, but if this is possible, this could also work. We could then record the skirmishes as they're being run independent of the players involved, and then post the video results on the forum in place of the text results that we otherwise would.

2) Whether for the above or not, I would love to be able to have a visual representation of some of the game's more important sequences - cutscenes using the game engine, where we can edit the map, the characters, names, and dialogue, record them, and upload them to move the storyline along. Thusfar, all of this has been done entirely through roleplay, and it gets brutal, and dry. If not this, perhaps some of you folks are talented in the way of Cinematics, or could otherwise work with us to create opening sequences / engine-run cutscenes

3) If not any of the above, a map editor using the FFT engine that we could use to represent some of the places people will fight - Without giving too much away, we're also looking to add a bit of interesting headcanon to the Ivalice Alliance (Which we've already done a ton of, but we'll be doing quite a bit more). In this fashion, we can stop using third-party map editors to visually represent our places.

4) And if nothing else, I would love to have passionate folks provide some advice and input on development, if any of you so desire. I'm a huge fan of FFT (And I'm sure you guys are also), and I want to do justice to the original while fixing some of the awful mechanics, expanding upon the universe (While staying true to Final Fantasy, of course), and perhaps someday, turn this into something big. What we started nearly a decade ago has grown to be amazing, but I'm always looking for more fine folks to help. Some of our best ideas have started with a simple, single-sentence suggestion.

Beyond this, I'd love to hear from you all on possibilities here. I'll be floating around here to answer questions and respond if you guys need. Not gonna advertise the site, because that's not what I'm here for, I'm mostly here to get some ideas on whether this is possible or not. Thank you all, and keep up the amazing work!