Final Fantasy Hacktics

So this is a bare bones post as I start adding things into the game and get my ideas out of my head and become responsible to the community for implementing them.

Goals. 1. Produce The Lions' War Revisited. This is a vanilla edit. In the sense that the story is mostly unchanged, scenes will be added, but less then a half dozen or so. However, certain characters will have changed plots and events will be expanded to make a clear story. This will mostly be a balancing patch and a space to create my unique, balanced, job overhaul. The job overhaul will focus more on physical classes, with magic getting mostly repackaged. (This is both easy to do from a change perspective and it makes more sense from a reference material perspective.) (The Lions' War being The War of the Roses and the Fifty Years War being the directly preceding Hundred Years War.)

2. Produce The Fifty Years War. As above, I have the Hundred Years War as primary reference material on top of all the material given in the Vanilla and WotL games. This will be scratch built, with a new map, new unique jobs and covering multiple side story lines as well as Barbaneth's story.

Jobs Section: So far.


Character's that interest me: So far.


Things I wish to include: To be continued.
Xilfanie's Synthesis Shop. - This will be your primary source of consumables and base accessories via poach/ top tier gear that's normally only move-find, and all complex accessories. (Most Accessories in 9 were synthed so, this only seems fair. Also, you'll hopefully have to pick and choose.)
Xilfanie's Soldier Shop Hack - This will let you choose which starting class your soldier is. (And if I recall, you can pay a premium for levels too? I need to play around with the hack)

This section is my musings, and current projects, in the patch. If those observing have a quick answer, feel free to let me know. If not, no worries, I will find a solution.
EDIT:(6/28/15)

There's not really any distinction from positive and negative when it comes to inflicting status, you can inflict anything you desire.

Changing the Healing portion of the formula to Damage is possible, but it's ASM.

Thanks WKW. I'll head over to the ASM section tonight or tomorrow and see what I can find.

I figured that changing the Afflict from Cancle to regular would be enough, but good to know I don't have to patch it just to check it.

Everyone: I'm coming fresh into patching anything beyond other people's fixes, so just bare with me My sole coding experiance was a high school Java course. (I made a snowman, and a working 21 game... So, nothing much.) Hopefully I'll show growth as we get on with this.
I'm hoping to get something done daily.

A thought struck me as I was replaying through Vanilla.

Why does Ramza keep his squad from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2? These are all Knight Cadets, of rich nobles, serving Duke Larg... Why the heck would they all turn Mercenary, with Ramza, when they have stable jobs, in the employ of the Nobility.

Answer: (At least for my patch) They wouldn't.
To implement this, I'm thinking of giving the player, four squad members that they can see in the formation screen. They are the player's B-team, they will be level 5 at the Start of the game, kitted with basic gear. These guys are there to handle a random battle if it pops up, but I'll have them removed after Zeikden. This will include locking out the soldier shop til Chapter 2.

The A-Team, will be set for each battle, growing in level and skill. This is just til Zeikden. So, I might find a way to shorten this section, or make it awesome. (In a game full of choices, it will be hard to take away your options and set up a static squad. Hopefully this A-Team, which will have the same names, as B-Team, will have a story for you to get into.) Also, I'll hopefully create battles that have several solutions. (But not easy ones.)

What this will mean, post Zeikden. Rad, Alice and Lavian, are your three squad members. They will have some nice progression into the skill sets. The next thing then would be taking away the Soldier shop in Chapter 3... After Ramza is declared a Heretic... When the Glabados Church is the only religion, the kind of people that would accept a heretic's coin are... Well, their the social dregs in a society already fret with war.

So, the question would be. Do I have the soldier shop? Do I have it for just a chapter, or the whole time and anyone hired is left in the party if it is done before Zeikden? Do I just give Ramza a moderate hit rate Invite instead?(This is an option I've played with until I saw the Soldier Shop Hack...)

Anyway, an Update for the end of the Month.
Almost done with my first round of item changes to create a fresher battle experience.

Armors are now weak to Lightning, Helmets protect from Darkness and Confusion, in at higher tiers.
Most Robes are now weak to Fire, and Hats either boost PA, MA or Spd.
Clothing was, mostly unchanged

All Accessories, will start with the most basic item. Each one must be poached and provides a bonus that all other accessories in the same family. Then you take a few consumables and your base accessory to the synth shops and make the new accessory. Sometimes, you'll need a synthed accessory to hit the next tier. Still working that out on paper first before I implement the rest.
Boots - Battle Boots (Move +1)
Armguards - Power Wrist (Cancel: Don't Act)
Rings - Protect Ring (MA+1)
Armlets - Diamond Bracelet (PA+1)
Cloaks - Small Mantle (Cancel: Poison)
Perfume - Cherche (Permanent: Regen or Start: Haste)

Consumables. All consumables will need to be poached, including the potions... Now, this might seem a bit extreme, I'm buffing the items to compensate. All non-healing items are going to inflict statuses instead, and either hit at a high rate or be automatic infliction. (I haven't decided what I like better).

Weapons are still in progress. (Most things will see Pwr Reworks.)
Knives +1 Spd, Swords can't be dual wielded, and Coral Sword is Water-based. Knight Sword's can't be dual wielded, Ninja Blades are mostly untouched. Katanas are now Two-Handed only. They will probably get a group of elemental assignments. To match the new Draw Outs.
Axes may get a PA boost in-exchange for not being able to cast Sword Skills. (Which, two-three classes will use.)
Most Rods will protect vs. Silence.
Staves will boost MA as well as benefit from a Pwr increase.
I left off here as I closed the Patcher tonight.

I understand that item changes are the easiest to do and balance. However, putting up the progress helps me stay at a healthy pace.

The nineteen classes I want to create have been put to pen and paper. Now I have to code them. You can see their one-two line descriptions in the OP and their Equipment limitations.

Monday Update.

Balance Testing has begun. So I've got all the skill sets I want minus Archer/Hunter. Once I get that one together, I'll be moving forward to changing the ability graphics and start text editing abilities.

Once I have a full overhaul. Abilities, gear and text/graphics, I'll release the patch for better balance testing. From there I'll edit the script and start eventing.

A side note. It helps to have the most up-to-date version of FFTPatcher.

Current question. How do I add the Innate Weapon guard without overriding the Reaction Ability? (Yes I know it's a ASM, and one that has been published. So I need to look up the raw ASM tutorial. Just wishing we had a global ASM section of FFTpatcher that we could checkbox.)

Quote from: gatebuster202 on July 06, 2015, 05:23:54 pm
Current question. How do I add the Innate Weapon guard without overriding the Reaction Ability? (Yes I know it's a ASM, and one that has been published. So I need to look up the raw ASM tutorial. Just wishing we had a global ASM section of FFTpatcher that we could checkbox.)

You've checked out FFTorgASM right? It has the hack that gives weapon guard innate to all, you just check a box and apply the patch.

The xml containing this comes with orgASM. You could also remove all the xmls from the folder and this will come up in the default list of hacks that come with orgASM.

(We use the innate weapon guard all in Jot5)

I haven't had enough time to pour over Raven's FFT resources. (They weren't as straight forward.)
Once I take a look at those, I'll post some more questions. You guys are great!

Awesome though that I have it. While the Jot5 guys are here, would you guys mind sharing your Marks changes with us? I wondered, what limitations the marks had, and if I could tell sequential stories without coding Beowolf level sidequests.

Give select characters sidequests. (I want to remove Agrias, Worker 8, Cloud and Orlandu, from the party, but tell stories with them that make sense.) I also want to add a awesome Bard in chapter 3. A Beastmaster, to go with a monster rework, later on and one cool dude we saw very little of.

I'm also reading over old mercenaries posts and was wondering how much people still wanted to see Gaffgarion and Ramza travel together. Maybe a handful of battles (four before Orborne and one optional Mark in Dortor that turns Arguay into a much harder flashback?) and a dozen scenes or less. (I'm trying to figure out if I want to go for crazy in my final release of Revisited, or just let the party continue on with Ramza.)

I should also mention, I had a way better day with the NEWEST version of patcher. (I downloaded the .2xx version without knowing it initially.)

They are just as easy/hard to setup as a beowulf subquest lol. Which is just lines of hex in the worldmap and attack.out spreadsheets.

I plan to make a tutorial on how to use the proposition hack soon. But basically they now use story progress versus shop progress, (both set via event command) this will make them show up in town set via fftp once the story progress (also fftp) that was chosen for that prop is reached. Once you select the proposition/mark it's variable is set to 2. Once beaten it's set to 3 via event code. You can also do checks to make sure a certain proposition variable is set to 3 before allowing it to show, if you wanted to have a sequence of props.

The only reason we do this, of course, is because rather than normal propositions we actually activate battles/events on the worldmap with these

@ Elric
I guessed you guys coded it that way. I was at a loss of how to insert it into the bars without ASMs way beyond my understanding. Anyway, I'll be looking forward to that tutorial and have so many to read through still. (Also, you captured the best gameplay part of FFTA with this system. So now I'll never play FFTA again.)

Once I get my general gameplay set, I'll fine tune things to go with Xif's synth shop.

I think I will follow your patch in turning all my non-healing items into Status Buffs. And up Potions- Xpotion costs and let those be the only shop items. Phoenix downs will be given as war spoils through Ch. 1, After that poach then yellow Chocos.

Guess I'll open up the Synth shop at Dortor and again follow Jot5 and have progression based on story.

Honestly Elric, you guys and your patch (Jot5) raised the bar to unseen heights.

Haha thank you very much. Though the true praise lay with Xif and Pride for the prop hack. I only came up with the idea, which originally came from the Bounty Hunting and Guild Quests from Arc the Lad 2

Arc the Lad looks awesome... Shame of the age, I'll have the hardest time finding a legit copy...

You'll have better luck finding a copy of Arc the Lad collection, but it's sooooo worth it. The 3rd game ain't great, but the first one is amazing and your character data transfers to the second game. There is also a way to get monsters after a certain point in the second game ala a invite type move. These monsters can be used as regular characters and can also be used on Arc Arena (another game in the collection) to battle and upgrade them, and still continue to use them in Arc 2

@Elric I haven't ordered it yet, but found several copies on Amazon. The collection looks awesome, and it's great when a previous game has an impact on sequal.

Update. I love All of the Mod tools. (Since I now have all the up-to-date tools and all in one folder. Organization is Key.)

Design Ideas Implemented
We have 10 Gil per level per battle.
We have global evasion and Weapon Guard as well as overall buff to HP and a slight decrease in WP.
Dual Wield has seen severe limitations.
Each Basic Spell is Unevadable, and Single Target.(Minus Fire.)
Fire has growing AoE's
Lightning is faster but weaker.
Ice is single target til Lv.4 but stronger.
All buffs and debuffs have higher hit rates but are single target. (Few Exceptions.)
Reduced overall power and mp costs to summons. Uniform MP costs. (Summoner are now final tier casters. Requiring near mastery of both Arcane and Divine Magic.)

Magic Oriented Jobs.
Apprentice (Base Job. Casts Tier 1 Magic both black and White, Poison, Protect, Shell, Don't Move, Float(Which now cancels don't move as well.) Blind and Confusion.) Fire/Ice/Lightning are Unevadable.)
Elementalist (Offensive T2-3 Haste/Slow/Reflect/Demi/Frog/Spell Absorb)
Cleric (Armored-Cure 2-3 Regen/Raise/Protect 2/Shell 2/Most Mystic Spells.)
Adept (Offensive 4's Death/Flare/Dark Holy/Haste 2/Slow 2/Demi 2/Quick/Stop)
Preist (Robes again. Cure 4, Raise 2/Wall/Reraise/Esuna/Holy/Petrify/Dispel Magic/Zombie.)
Summoner (Rebalanced but unchanged...)
-Because you have to earn access to top tier and you can't skip around, I am slashing JP costs to reflect this. Top tier classes will still have Nothing you can learn on unlock, the expectation is that you will continue to use the previous class abilities. At increased stats.
Magic Classes have almost uniform stats between the two tiers(None of this Mysitc:Oracle crap)

The same should be said of all classes. You learn your skills you want and move on. No sitting around in Knight, because every other class done something better. Now hit trapper and you might stay for some good PA and Speed Growths, or Ninja for Speed alone, or Divine Knight for Health and PA. Summoner is the top tier magic class, you want MP MA you'll sit their from 30 up.

I've about to start my first full play through, seeing how the new class concepts work together. Only thing I haven't finished is ENTD and Poach list.

I am not overhauling monsters before my first release of the patch. They'll probably die horridly. That's fine for now.

Oh. Last note, haven't installed Synth shop yet. Need to put the Fur Shop into Chapter 1 progression and do that.

Summoner Overhaul... In progress. We are switching over to Magicite people.

So Katana's in name are gone and we have ten summons and 16 free ability slots.

Aiolon provided the idea and helped me mentally organize my thoughts.

QuoteThese are all Knight Cadets, of rich nobles, serving Duke Larg... Why the heck would they all turn Mercenary, with Ramza, when they have stable jobs, in the employ of the Nobility.

I always just saw it as that Ramza and Delita filled their group with like-minded people who respected Delita as an equal despite his birth, and they were just as disgusted by the actions at Ziekden. But honestly, without any special-job characters to voice this opinion on behalf of the generics, that's a stretch, and I definitely prefer your way. Even a rotating squad of people would be pretty neat: one set for the Gariland battle, one set for the trip to Eagrose, Zalbaag and maybe some Knight for the trip to the Dorter Slums to check up on his spy, said spy and some other generic guests for the rest of the chapter? Hell, make the spy Balmafra and that could justify her sprite for once.

Quote from: nyzer on July 22, 2015, 11:14:30 am
I always just saw it as that Ramza and Delita filled their group with like-minded people who respected Delita as an equal despite his birth, and they were just as disgusted by the actions at Ziekden. But honestly, without any special-job characters to voice this opinion on behalf of the generics, that's a stretch, and I definitely prefer your way. Even a rotating squad of people would be pretty neat: one set for the Gariland battle, one set for the trip to Eagrose, Zalbaag and maybe some Knight for the trip to the Dorter Slums to check up on his spy, said spy and some other generic guests for the rest of the chapter? Hell, make the spy Balmafra and that could justify her sprite for once.

Balmafra has full animations if I recall. And hell, she's a devout Church spy. Zalbaag is nearing Inquistior/Confessor status himself. Them having a relationship and deeping the Church's role in the conflict... I like this line of thought.

Currently I am just play testing all my changes and trying to balance the job system. Once I'm done, put all the correct animations in place, I'll work on implementing new and reviewed events and story.

Special Characters in Revisited, that I will focus on. Algus/Tetra (Chapter 1), Mustadio (Chapter 2), Olan, and Alma (Chapter 3) Agrias, Orlandu, Meliadoul + Mystery Character(Chapter 4)

Current Work. (For Revisited.)
Patcher:Consolodating Inflict and Item Attributes to make more, unique Items an abilities.
Spriting: Locating Sprites with good looking animations in battle to add to the game.
Eventing: (Still in Infancy) - Consolidating Events. (Once I do this, adding events is then doable. From there I just keep gaining skills.)
Plot: Character's Storylines written. Special Character skillsets in progress. Removed Agrias, Rafa, Malak, Orlandu, Cloud, Worker 8, Beowulf, Reis from permajoining.

Special Characters Joining. Mustadio and Meliadoul are the only returning characters with expanded/altered kits. + 3 other characters.

No adding generics. You get Rad/Alice/Lavian/+2 more. You are free to recruit monsters via Tame or Enemies via Ramza, (he gains Invite Ch. 2.)

Percent Complete. 12% of Beta. Roughly 60% of Patcher before ENTD and same for TacText.
Any assistance on locating and converting sprites to save me time there, would be welcome. Mostly the portrait and formation screen. Shishi's is of course, simple enough.
ETA... Christmas? Or Valentine's Day.

Beta Goals.
Balanced Combat System.
Synth Shop (Whatever the current version will be.)
Full main story (Including almost thirty planned events.) with Vanilla subplots left intact. (Without the characters joining.)

Full project goals.
"Marks" ala Jot5 to help tell a larger story of the Lion War and the Durai Herasy. Basically, when I release the Beta, I will have everything done, for the main story, and each side character will have marks released, probably in three seperate waves. While I'm doing that, EVERYTHING will be polished and perfected.

Final Release of my Vanilla Expansion, Winter 2016: Predicted.
Then the combat system and work will move to the Fifty Year War!

You have a lot of work ahead of you but I'm very interested to see how this progresses. You have my support man!

You dream big. I like that. I can't believe you're willing to tackle all of this (mostly) without help. Best of luck either way.