Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hello all!

Thanks to the lovely new editor from Rurusachi, I have started to attempt to hack FFTA2.

I have tested with making Ezel playable first as a unit and then a special job for him. So far I have movement, his portrait, his name and casting available but due to limitations in accessible animations he crashes the game when attacking. He also blurs between colours when enemies move and when he casts he briefly goes invisible but no crashes.

Does anyone have resources for characters like Ezel? I am able to upload say the Blue variant of Alchemist animations to use as I have him as such in the top menu sprite but I'd like a more proper model.

I know Rurusachi included an all animations patch for usable jobs but sadly again Ezel lacks the animation in his custom sprite.

On another note...

Is there anyway to add characters after a mission such as Montblanc and Al-Cid? I'd like to expedite their recruitment to early as possible within the story and I'd also like to add characters like Ezel after specific missions.

Thank you all! I look forward to hacking with you all!

Ps. some images for reference of Ezel.

The Ezel sprites in the game are only intended for cutscenes so it doesn't have all the sprites and animations needed for battle. There's currently no way to add new animations and sprites to a unit. Instead you should copy one of the Nu Mou units' sprites. That way you retain all of the Nu Mou animations and can replace the individual sprites with Ezel sprites.

To make a new special character you should do the following:

• (If you want unique sprites) Go to Sprites and copy an existing unit's sprites (If you copy Top Screen make sure to apply the patch for it). You can replace the sprites in the copied version with new ones for your character. IMPORTANT: When replacing a unit sprite make sure the new sprite has the same pose, otherwise animations will look weird.
• Go to Characters and create a new Character. Set the sprites to the newly created/copied ones. Set Dialogue role to the next unused number (vanilla highest used is Frimelda at 30, so 31). Set Name, Gender, and Default Job to whatever you want.
• Go to Text, select "28: Ally death text?", and add a new string. Input whatever you want you character to say when they die in battle. Make sure to end it with "\var2:00\\end\" like all the other entries.
• Go to Text, select "33: Opportunity text?", and add 2 new strings. The first will show up when the character starts an opportunity turn and the second will show up when they end an opportunity turn. Make sure they both end with "\var2:00\\end\" like all the other entries

If you want to make a special job for the character you can follow the "How to make a new playable Job" guide on the Github page for the editor .
If it's a special job only for the new character you can skip the step for the job's sprites. When you create the Job Requirement, set "Character 1" to the character you just created so only they can use it.

QuoteIs there anyway to add characters after a mission such as Montblanc and Al-Cid? I'd like to expedite their recruitment to early as possible within the story and I'd also like to add characters like Ezel after specific missions.

There's currently no way to do this. It requires editing events which are not understood well enough yet.
You can set any character as a starting character though. Formation 0 contains all the recruitable characters including starting characters. Any character in Formation 0 that has "Faction" set to 8 will start in the clan.

You know your stuff!

Thanks for the advice, I had assumed I'd have to replace a certain Nu Mou Job/palette to make a functional Ezel.

It also makes sense for adding a new character rather than editing the existing Ezel.

So the only members that are functionally editable would be the Warrior, Archer and Thief from formation 0 as well as any Clan Wanted member that appear on certain months I'd assume? I know from formation 0 that the Black Mage is harder to change, name changes are easy but the tutorial requires fire from a Black Mage Nu Mou sadly.

I appreciate the in-depth descriptions and applaud your work my guy!

Edit: I made a casting sprite for Ezel but alas the sprite uploads fully black.

I just saw your edit. The sprite looks good, the issue is the palette. The palette needs to have 256 colors, but only the last 32 colors can be used, and the first color is transparent. I've attached images to show the difference between your palette and what it should look like. I would suggest exporting one of Ezel's sprites with the editor and using its palette. Idk what program you use but Aseprite can easily copy the palette to another sprite and remap the colors correctly.

Thanks for the advice!

The Alchemist palette I was trying to replace wasn't 1 for 1 with Ezel's colour palette. It does make a nice new grey palette which I'll probably stick with.

I definetly see the issue, pretty sure I had to save my sprite not indexed and rather as a RGB mode of some sort. But that program you use is much easier to traverse than what I used, made things easier. Thanks again for the assist!

Attached is Ezel's direct palette swap with an Alchemist.

Edit: Made a purple sprite for Alchemist compatible with Ezel's unique sprites.

Quote from: undefinedI definetly see the issue, pretty sure I had to save my sprite not indexed and rather as a RGB mode of some sort.

No it has to be saved as indexed. The editor can't import a sprite that doesn't use indexed color mode. It's just that the game uses 256 color palettes, but only a few units (mainly large ones like Klesta) use the first 128 colors. The rest only use the last 32 colors.

The only exceptions are that the first color is always used as transparency, and that the in-water sprites also use at least one color outside the last 32 (for the water I think?), but those are not saved as part of the sprite's palette.