Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hey all, new to the board, semi new to the site.
I used the search feature, but couldn't seem to find what I was looking for.

I have been looking for a way to add new chars into FFT. Playing the vanilla game, or an altered version is cool with me, but I'd like new unique chars (Chrono, Getting Cloud from the star, etc).

Are there things like that available on the site? I found sprites, but I'm wondering about fleshed out chars. sprites with special jobs/abilities. Or unlocked main storyline chars with their jobs and abilities. Delita joining group as his end game knight form? Has anyone made anything like that? Is there even a way to?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Oh yeah, there's a way to. You'd have to shuffle around some of the unused data in the game, though. Every sprite slot has its own class and formation slots tied to it, except that not all sprites/classes HAVE a formation slot, so it gets real buggy when you try to add such a character to the party.
Fortunately, vanilla FFT has a handful of unused formation slots (characters that were probably going to join the party during development, but got benched as the story got fleshed out). Unfortunately, most of these slots are tied to characters that still appear in the story regardless, so merely editing over them would cause other errors... you have to take the data for those characters, move them to actual unused sections, and then go into the ENTD of the patcher and make every event they appear in reference their new data location.

A couple topics that go more in-depth about how to do this sort of thing are:

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=4124
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10141.msg193923

Now, if you want to make those custom characters have a story role, you need to learn about event editing, but that's a step up from just using the easy patcher tools. You might just wanna go one step at a time.

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And, of course, that's all without getting into the Tutorial board: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?board=43.0
that has a convenient Link Index topic in it: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9204.0

Ok, I managed to change a few things myself that wouldn't seem to cause any problems (with the little bit I know now)

I had Cloud appear in the battle where you meet Algus and join the party, from what you were saying, will this cause problems when he appears in late game?
Also, chars that died Gafgarion, Wiegraf... if they join the party at their last battle will that circumvent the problems you mentioned?

I figured from what you said that I should stick to chars that are in the party at least as guests at some point. Since I'm guessing Zalbag, Dycedarg, etc would probably cause problems once they appeared in the storyline.

If you still leave Cloud's original join in, all that happens is you'll get two Clouds with their own stats and job progression. There's nothing stopping you from having a party of nothing but Orlandus. For the same reason, nothing screwy happens if you have villains in your party (I say with a save of both Celia and Lede in my party).

Awesome! thanks

On a playthrough now where all dead/defeated unique chars join me once defeated.
The notable exception is Wiegraf, although a broke my rule and had set him to join me after in his last appearance in CH 1, right before Ft. Zeakden.
He never joined, the screen paused for a second after the normal congrats and battle trophies popped up, but after the pause it just went to the next scene, no Wiegraf in sight.

EDIT: I think I might be on to my problem now.

Does a new game have to be started for changes to be put into effect?
It seems the joins I made before starting the play through work normally, but any changes I made afterward are not happening.


EDIT 2: I see that you do, sorry about that Elric.

We have an edit button. Use it next time.

QuoteDoes a new game have to be started for changes to be put into effect?
It seems the joins I made before starting the play through work normally, but any changes I made afterward are not happening.

No. But it won't retroactively apply changes prior to your save; if you save after the battle with Algus, then if you put a custom character in that battle, they obviously won't be part of the party. And changing other stuff like Job skills and stats partway through a playthrough can cause unexpected effects.

However, if you're not loading a save file but a savestate, then, no, it shouldn't apply your changes.