FFT: Emergence (PSP)

[Sieghart Wirsing]

Yes, I did switch the Crossbow and Knightslayer names for aesthetic purposes. Everything else about the two stayed the same. I'll look into the blind thing.

EDIT: I checked into the blind bug, and you're definitely on to something, but it's not caused by the Emergence patch. I loaded the same save file between Vanilla and Emergence, and the blind status worked the same way in both.

Huh... Was this status behaving the same on the PSX original? Could anyone here confirm?

Another small oddity that I found. On Chapter 2, at the batte at Zeirchele Falls (where Gaffgarion turns cloak and you've to rescue both Delita and the princess), one of the enemy units is an Archer equipped with a Longsword, and no Equip Swords in sight. He ends up being quite useless for the enemy squad, unable to do much more than spamming Focus and being one of the first preys to Agrias' long-range I'd hardly call that a disadvantage for me, but yannow~♫

[Nyzer]

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Blind_(status)#Final_Fantasy_Tactics

For physical attacks executed by a unit with Darkness, all targets' evade percentages are doubled. Blind lasts until the end of battle, or until cured.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/937312-final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions/43555229#5

Blind only works when you could evade anyway. You can't evade from the side or back unless you have a shield, mantle, or are using the Parry reaction. Also doesn't work if the attack ignores evade anyway. Pretty pointless in this game due to that.

It becomes more useful in PSX patches that make W-EV automatic instead of wasting a reaction slot on them. Otherwise, it's not that great.

[BleuVII]

Another small oddity that I found. On Chapter 2, at the batte at Zeirchele Falls (where Gaffgarion turns cloak and you've to rescue both Delita and the princess), one of the enemy units is an Archer equipped with a Longsword, and no Equip Swords in sight. He ends up being quite useless for the enemy squad, unable to do much more than spamming Focus and being one of the first preys to Agrias' long-range I'd hardly call that a disadvantage for me, but yannow~♫

*expletive*

Well, thank you for reporting it, but I'm probably not going to release a 1.1.2 for a single unit.

Nyzer, thank you for confirming the blind status thing.

[Sieghart Wirsing]

It becomes more useful in PSX patches that make W-EV automatic instead of wasting a reaction slot on them. Otherwise, it's not that great.

Stuff like this are what makes me believe in that "l i t t l e m o n e y" theory from the original release No bugfixes, only a passable translation, because they weren't being paid enough to care. Lest of all with the PSP remake, which compensate the polished script with that annoying slowdown. If it wasn't for this community, eh?

[Nyzer]

no bugfixes

Except this really isn't a bug. This is a design flaw. Best case scenario, it came about because of some late-stage changes to the way the various kinds of evasion work.
But both Blind and Evasion work as intended. The intention is just... crappy.

[BleuVII]

I think the WotL translation is stylized and beautiful, fitting Matsuno's style really well. I think the FMV cutscenes are gorgeous. I think the extra story sequences with Delita, Beowulf, & Argath alone are worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, on the back end, the coding was really slapdash, which makes WotL extremely hard to work with from a hacking standpoint. But I'm proud to have completed this patch, and I'm glad people are enjoying it.

[Glain]

Unfortunately, on the back end, the coding was really slapdash, which makes WotL extremely hard to work with from a hacking standpoint.

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the coding...  if anything, some of the limitations are removed -- code isn't scattered across multiple files, no load delay hazard, etc.  I'm unsure about free space, but there seem to be large gaps (of nops) between some of the routines in the main executable.  It's just... nobody's really bothered to document much of the PSP code, or make hacks for it.  The same goes for some of the modding tools.

[BleuVII]

OK, so the number of text errors in the FAQ grew to the point where I had to take another pass at FFTactext. However, that allows me to make other changes.
1. I removed all innate reaction abilities and replaced them with support/movement abilities. Nyzer finally convinced me on it. However, I don't know what to do for Archers. Their only support/movement abilities are Concentration (don't want this to be innate), Move+1, and Jump+1.

2. I moved "Master Teleport" off of the Magus. Instead, I figured out how to make it an innate ability for Master Onion Knights. It cannot be used with other classes.

3. This is what I need feedback on. I might be changing Luso around. Right now, Luso is a direct copy of Meliadoul, so that you can get the Crush abilities BEFORE Orlandeau joins your party. However, that means you end up with 3 characters on your team able to use these abilities by the end of the game. So, I'm considering making Luso into an Astrologer, with the same abilities as Orran, plus a few more. His skillset would be:
* Montblanc (aka Moogle Summon)
* Quick - CT100
* Stall - CT0
* Celestial Stasis - random between slow, stop, immobilize, disable
* Astral Light - random positive status effect
* Grand Cross - random negative status effect
* Meteor - ultimate non-elemental magick

Quick and Stall would remain with the Squires, but Celestial Stasis, Astral Light, Grand Cross, and Meteor would be removed from the Magus skillset.

I think Astrologer definitely makes Luso unique, but I'm worried about those powers being handed to the players in Ch.3. Any thoughts?

[Sieghart Wirsing]

1) Move+1 would be the obvious choice, but if you wanna remain with an innocuous choice, Jump+1 would be the most balanced option. Since most of the maps have plenty of ledges for even  an unit with 2 Jump and maxed Move to remain mobile, and Jump not really being a necessity until the endgame portions (all the castle sieges, Nelveska, Deeplight's shortcuts etc.), Jump+1 could be better considering how early is the Archer class available.

2) Ah well, I can see why such a choice but I'll still miss it.

3a) Wouldn't that make the Magus class not worth the trouble, however? Making these three skills exclusive would make Luso more interesting, true, but... Or do you plan to add three other enemy-exclusive skills to the Magus class, for compensation? The three Bios, for instance would be a great replacement, what with each of them inflicting different debuffs in this game.

3b) On the flipside, by making Orran's skill exclusive to Luso, you could set them up with a forbiddingly high JP cost (3k or higher per each of those skills), which, assuming it'll be yet another "Squire Class Custom" like the other unique classes, will make all that spill JP from Agrias and co. contribute to Luso's progress in the long run.

And if I may make a suggestion. Given that the PSP multiplayer is pretty much forgotten nowadays, would it be possible to open up the Melee and Rendezvous modes for single player, with a generic, randomized NPC team filling in for Player 2, picked from the same pool of those human NPCs from the random encounters? Of course, they'd be considered the same kind of "rental" filler from other games, with purposefully underwhelming skills, levels, and gear. And maybe introduce reward tiers to these missions hinging not only on completing the mission, but on having these NPCs survive the ordeal as well. That... would be a hell of a lot to work with, but it would be a good way to try out these underrated modes nowadays.

[BleuVII]

That's a good idea on the Bio line. I'll think on it. I decided yesterday that if I do this, I'll leave Meteor on the Magus class. With that, Luso wouldn't be overpowered too early. The Magus class, in turn, would be dedicated to the 5 ultimate spells, and nothing else.

What I'm favoring though is to actually make this a second version of the hack, with a ppf included. That way, people can play how they want to.

Also, I'd love to hack in the psp exclusive content, but to put it simply, I don't know how. Your suggestion would probably take me as long as the rest of the hack combined.

EDIT: Sieghart, I added the Bio line to the Magus, and it works perfectly. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Sieghart Wirsing]

Eh I was half-expecting the multiplayer suggestion to be shot down. So I was thinking, would it be difficult to add the enemy teams used in these modes into the random encounter pool?

Main reason I keep suggesting this: I heard one of these teams is a flock of aggressive chocobo led by a black one named Teioh, as a reference to the same chocobo that was your biggest rival in the races from FF7's Gold Saucer. I wanna clobber him. I wanna have payback for all the frustration over the years losing to that freaking cheater specced with (player chocobo status)+20%, even when trespassing the max limit!

Also hey, glad my suggestion worked so well! Got an ETA for that new version? Would the changes be too invasive to use on an ongoing save?

[3lric]

Japanese version of PSX FFT actually references FF7 quite a bit as well. In the sound novel 'Diary of Nanai', you meet Don Corneo, a chocobo named Sephiroth, chocobo rider Joe, and a few others.

M-Fiction Novel and Diary of Nanai also both have references to Materia, and the former also has reference to The Promised Land.

[BleuVII]

Eh I was half-expecting the multiplayer suggestion to be shot down. So I was thinking, would it be difficult to add the enemy teams used in these modes into the random encounter pool?

Main reason I keep suggesting this: I heard one of these teams is a flock of aggressive chocobo led by a black one named Teioh, as a reference to the same chocobo that was your biggest rival in the races from FF7's Gold Saucer. I wanna clobber him. I wanna have payback for all the frustration over the years losing to that freaking cheater specced with (player chocobo status)+20%, even when trespassing the max limit!

Also hey, glad my suggestion worked so well! Got an ETA for that new version? Would the changes be too invasive to use on an ongoing save?

I can definitely add in a Chocobo-only encounter with a black Teioh. Where do you want it? I'm thinking either Mandalia Plains or Finaith Creek.

ETA is whenever I'm comfortable with it. You will be able to use your old saves, but you may have a wasted JP here and there. The way FFT stores abilities learned is by their slot. So if you learned slot 3 on one save file, you'll have slot 3 regardless of which ability it is. The major changes will be to the following:
Squires > Adding in the Vanish Spell, which shifts all of the Animas down one slot. They all cost 200JP though, so there is no JP loss.
Enchanters > The Vanish slot will become Dispel, and the Dispel slot will become Dispelga. Dispel costs only 100JP now, but only hits 1 square. Dispelga is 400JP, and hits a radius of 2 squares (total of 12 squares targeted).
Maguses > Celestial Statis, Astral Light, and Grand Cross are replaced with Bio, Biora, and Bioga. The bio line costs 730JP compared to 900JP for the Astral Magicks, so there is a net loss of 170JP if you've already learned them.
Luso > Completely changed.

The other main change is that all of the Squires you get at the beginning of the game have fixed names. Boys are Biggs, Wedge, and Dak (this is the name of an important NPC soldier from my ongoing FF6 hack). Girls are Jessie (FF7), Ashley (a nod to Ashley Riot), and Sarah (FF1 + a dozen cameos, one of the main characters from FF Dimensions).

[Sieghart Wirsing]

I can definitely add in a Chocobo-only encounter with a black Teioh. Where do you want it? I'm thinking either Mandalia Plains or Finaith Creek. (...)

Finaith sounds peachy. Make it challenging enough, like two yellow for support and two red for offense. I wanna savor the moment...

Oh yeah, something I forgot to ask before. This game doesn't have an ice-variant for Hydra, right? Or a "Tri-Ice" of sorts that Reis can learn?

[BleuVII]

Finaith sounds peachy. Make it challenging enough, like two yellow for support and two red for offense. I wanna savor the moment...

Oh yeah, something I forgot to ask before. This game doesn't have an ice-variant for Hydra, right? Or a "Tri-Ice" of sorts that Reis can learn?

I forgot about this until I went in to look at my hack, but I have "ultimate" encounters in Midlight Deep 10 - Terminus. You can randomly get a battle with 7 monsters (all 3 types of 1 family) and 1 NPC with ??? stats. I've updated them to the following:
1. Dragons and Reis
2. Behemoths and Beowulf
3. Hydras and Valmafra. Valmafra has Cletienne's Magick set of Holy, Darkness, Luminaire, Flare, and Arise, with the Squire's "Red Magicks" as a secondary skillset.
4. Chocobos and Cloud. This has 1 black Chocobo named "Teioh" (party level +5) with 3 Yellow and 3 Red Chocobos for backup. Cloud cheats and uses the Onion Arts skillset as his secondary skill (Barrage and Moogle Charm).

[Touchet]

Hello Bleu! Thanks for the awesome mod. I had one tiny issue with the job tree. I was trying to unlock mime and your jobtree.jpg wasn't correct. It took me a little while but I found that lvl5 Lancer was still a requirement.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Thanks again!

[BleuVII]

Hello Bleu! Thanks for the awesome mod. I had one tiny issue with the job tree. I was trying to unlock mime and your jobtree.jpg wasn't correct. It took me a little while but I found that lvl5 Lancer was still a requirement.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Thanks again!

Thanks Touchet. You are correct. I had flipped the job level requirements for Lancer/Thief and Samurai/Ninja. That has been corrected both in the patch and on the jobtree.jpg.

Anyway, Version 1.2 has been completed, and has been added to the first post. The high-level changes are:
*All known textual errors corrected
*All innate reaction abilities have been removed, due to popular demand
*A few abilities have been shuffled around between classes, and 4 more abilities have been added
And, the biggest change...
*Luso has been given a unique class based on the guest character Orran's "Astrology" abilities

Detailed changes:

spoiler

-=-=SYSTEM=-=-
*ISO has been rebuilt from scratch to correct all known item, tech, and help text errors.
*Text for PSP-only Rendesvous Reward items has been updated and corrected.
- Important Note: all of these items are dummied out in FFT: Emergence. The only way to gain them is to load a save file from another version of the game or hack your save file.
- Bags have replaced the items that replace them in Emergence (Fell Swords and Pistols).
- Should Bags be hacked into your game, they can only be equipped by Chemists, Orators, and Onion Knights.
- All other items have updated names and help text.

-=-=CLASSES=-=-
=SQUIRE=
- 'Vanish' ability added.
- 'Float' upped to 150 JP.

=WIZARD=
- 'Firaja', 'Blizzaja', and 'Thundaja' reduced to 580 JP
- 'Dark' reduced to 600 JP

=ENCHANTER=
- 'Vanish' removed.
- 'Dispel' reduced to 200 JP, targeting limited to 1 tile
- New Ability 'Dispelja' added for 400 JP

=ARCHER=
- Innate ability changed from 'Vigilance' to 'Defense Up'

=THIEF=
- Innate ability 'Reflexes' removed

=MYSTIC=
- Innate ability changed from 'Absorb MP' to 'Manafont'

=ONION KNIGHT=
- 'Master Teleport' added as an Innate ability for Master Onion Knights
- 'Moogle Charm' removed

=MAGUS=
- 'Master Teleport' removed
- 'Celestial Stasis', 'Astral Light', and 'Grand Cross' removed
- New abilities 'Bio', 'Biora', and 'Bioga' added. These previously enemy-only abilities have had their status effects changed to be more fitting for a player character
- Now requires Lv.8 Soldier to unlock, in addition to Master Monk, Master Wizard, & 20 kills

-=-=CHARACTERS=-=-

=STARTING GENERIC CHARACTERS=
- In addition to Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, the other 3 generics have been given the static names of Dak, Sarah, and Ashley.

=LUSO=
- No longer a copy of the Tengille Family's Arcane Knight class (aka Meliadoul's, Isilud's, and Folmarv's class)
- Gains 'Moogle Charm' from the Onion Knights, renamed to 'Montblanc'
- Borrows 'Quick'/'Stall' from the Squires, who retain their use.
- Gains 'Astral Light', 'Celestial Stasis', and 'Grand Cross' from the Maguses.
- All gained abilities have had their JP costs updated.

=AGRIAS, MELIADOUL, FOLMARV, ISILUD, & GAFFGARION=
- All have gained the "Spirit Blade" ability

-=-=BATTLES=-=-
*Ch2 - Zierchele Falls - Archer corrected to be holding a bow.
*Midlight Deep 10 - Terminus - After beating the storyline battle, there are 4 special encounters in Terminus, inspired by the Rendesvous Battles. Each has a copy of a side character with a unique class, plus all 3 variations of the 4 strongest monster classes.
1. Reis and Dragons
2. Beowulf and Behemoths
3. Valmafra and Hydras. Valmafra has Cletienne's Magick set of Holy, Darkness, Luminaire, Flare, and Arise, with the Squire's "Red Magicks" as a secondary skillset.
4. Chocobos and Cloud. This has 1 black Chocobo named "Teioh" (party level +5) with 3 Yellow and 3 Red Chocobos for backup. Cloud cheats and uses the Onion Arts skillset as his secondary skill (Barrage).

===---===Version 1.1.1 to 1.2 Compatibility Notes===---===
Final Fantasy Tactics does not store abilities by their ID number. Rather, it stores them by slot. So, if one version of the game had the spells listed in the order of "Fire, Blizzard, Thunder", and you learned "Fire", the game doesn't actually store that you learned "Fire". It stores that you learned "Slot #1". If the next version had them ordered "Thunder, Fire, Blizzard", and you loaded your save file, you would know "Thunder" instead. This affects a few classes between 1.1.1 and 1.2.
*SQUIRE > Vanish has been added. As a result, all abilities except Chant, Salve, and Oil have been shifted down 1 slot.
* ENCHANTER > the slots for 'Vanish' and 'Dispel' have changed to 'Dispel' and 'Dispelja'.
* MAGUS > the slots for 'Astral Light', 'Celestial Stasis', and 'Grand Cross' have been replaced with 'Bio', 'Biora', and 'Bioga'. Master Teleport has been removed. There is no way to gain back the 3000 JP.
* ONION KNIGHT > 'Moogle Charm' has been removed.
* LUSO > Luso is totally different, but all abilities should map to a rough equivalent in terms of JP.
* AGRIAS, MELIADOUL, GAFFGARION > All abilities have shifted down by 1 slot.

[Hiddenlineage]

So, I joined because of your mod. I'm loving it so far. I had an idea though to make random battles more than just farming or drudgery later on. What about random battles against developed units in later chapters and bosses you've previously beaten? Say a battle against a few soldiers led by a Holy Knight or Dycedarg/Zalbaag? Or even Lucavi? Imagine running into a "ghost" of Gaffgarion randomly in the area around where he died.

[BleuVII]

Go for it Hiddenlineage. You should be able to open up the patched ISO in FFTPatcher. The section you're looking for is the "ENTD" data.

[3lric]

So, I joined because of your mod. I'm loving it so far. I had an idea though to make random battles more than just farming or drudgery later on. What about random battles against developed units in later chapters and bosses you've previously beaten? Say a battle against a few soldiers led by a Holy Knight or Dycedarg/Zalbaag? Or even Lucavi? Imagine running into a "ghost" of Gaffgarion randomly in the area around where he died.

There should be some documentation around here on the forum somewhere, which tells you which battles are more likely to encounter and which ones appear based on which story (or maybe it was shop?) progress.  I believe Xifanie has a beta version of a spreadsheet around here somewhere as well. This way you can try to make sure that you dont encounter defeated bosses and the like, before you actually fight them in the story. Good Luck!