War of the Lions Tweak v2.52

[Nyzer]

1 re: Agrias leaving the party - It's intentional that she stays on the formation screen because one of my other fixes (Guest characters are no longer "reset" when they join you for real) caused a new problem: If you left Agrias with subpar equipment (or nothing), then you may not be able to win the battle when she returns (since you fail if she's KO'd). Keeping her on the formation screen allows you to tweak her equipment if you encounter this situation (this is also why I keep Rapha on the screen before her rooftop battle).

Not sure if you have her flagged as Missing during this portion (or whatever WotL shows when a unit's Proposition byte is set to any value higher than 0x01), but if you're interested, you could do so and allow Missing units to have their loadouts changed. The PSX routine is here, and I just finished some code that would accomplish the effect:

spoiler

Code Select Expand

<Patch name="Change equipment and abilities of Missing units">
 <Description>Allows the player to adjust the equipment and abilities of Missing units, preventing gear from being locked while a unit is on the roster but generally unavailable. Abilities being unlocked is just a byproduct of unlocking the equipment.</Description>

 <Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="125564" offsetMode="RAM" mode="ASM">
 lbu r2,0x011f(r3) # r2 = unit's Proposition byte
 lh r1,0x003e(r3) # r1 = unit's skillset
 sltiu r4,r2,0x0002 # r4 = 1 if r2 = 0, not gone, or 1, dispatched on a Prop
 beq r4,r0,@skip_proposition_check # if r4 has a value, skip the Prop byte check
 lh r4,0x0024(r3) # r4 = unit's Job
 bne r2,r0,0x001255d0 # branch if Proposition byte has a value
 addiu r2,r0,0xfffe # Locks ability screen, and item except for "List"
 @skip_proposition_check:
 bne r1,r0,0x001255d0 # Branch if using a monster skillset
 addiu r2,r0,0xfffd # Locks ability screen, and item except for "List"
 </Location>
 </Patch>

[IcePenguin]

Great minds think alike my friend - I've already done some of these suggestions. Per-suggestion replies below:

1 re: Agrias - Ah I see! I actually wish I would've noticed this, because Rapha had no gear during my rooftop fight and she would get killed in one hit, haha. Somehow I found a way to distract Elmdore and the assassins so Rapha could flee. (and I still got the Ribbon!)

2 re: Dragoon - With the changes you made, does that mean if you equip "Ignore Elevation" then the "Jump" action will have infinite vertical range, as well? I thought the changes you made to Dragoon were perfect, with "Enhanced Horizontal" and "Enhanced Vertical", but that could be interesting. What skills would you learn as Dragoon? Just the "Enhanced Horizontal"?

3 re: Moving Soulbind to Dark Knight - Your nerf would still make sense for Dark Knight. Dealing damage based on how much HP is lost. I suggest you keep the nerf, then move it to Dark Knight. :p I agree the skill is overpowered, so having it on Dark Knight is another reason it'd be good to move it, since Dark Knight is somewhat harder to unlock than Arithmetician.

4 re: Only Elixirs at the bottom of Midlight's Deep - If there was a Ribbon there, I would've been happy with that. Definitely! Anything but Elixirs, haha.

5 re: Genji Gear as a sidequest reward - I kinda thought you might have done that to prevent missable gear. That's a good change, because missable stuff sucks.

7 re: Orlandeau nerfs - Would he keep the same partial skill set? For me that was what felt lacking.

8 re: Optional patch for changing treasure hunter tiles - No worries. Sounds like a nightmare to maintain. :p

9 re: Optional patch to remove monster breeding - Excellent! The breeding is the worst, not to mention it comes with a minor bug relating to Unit Number position. If you empty a reserved slot for a new recruit, and an egg happens to form when you enter the battle, the unit is assigned to the number after the highest numbered unit. I had to restart several battles because of that.

10 re: "Hunts" - I can only imagine the coding behemoth that kind of thing would be. I'm glad you're interested, at least! If I could help, I totally would, but I haven't a clue about PSP ASM. Looks intense from some snippets of code I've seen. Regardless if you ever get around to it or not, the mod is great. Something like Hunts would be truly remarkable, but without them you've still made something special.

[Tzepish]

Re: "Missing" - that's a really good idea, I'll look into that!

Re: Orlandeau nerfs, no I'm pretty happy with his reduced skill list. That's the main thing that makes Agrias and Meliadoul *not* obsolete. Orlandeau has all their skills except for the best ones, which are exclusive to those characters (Divine Ruination for Agrias, Crush Weapon for Meliadoul).

Re: Dragoon, Ignore Elevation wouldn't enhance the Dragoon's Jump attacks, only the actual Jump+ abilities and equipment. So if you want the infinite jump (movement height), you'd be making a tradeoff for things that might actually improve your jump (attack).

Here's a preview of the new Dragoon changes (all subject to change as I playtest):

Base Jump attack changes - Jump attacks are nerfed by default:
* The bonus damage for using a spear has been reduced from +50% to +20%.
* The range is now based on your Jump attribute - 1 (so the default range is 3).
* Jump attacks are now slower by default (they cost a turn and a half instead of a turn), but only if you hit (a miss still only costs a turn).
* And the one buff on this list: they now work with damage increasing supports, like Doublehand (+60% damage in WOTL Tweak).

However, the Dragoon's skill list now allows you to increase the potency of jump attacks, up to and surpassing their original level of power:

          Jump Ability:           | Effect:
           - Angon                |  - Increase the Polearm damage bonus by (Jump x 5)%.
           - Lancet               |  - Recover (Jump + Magick)% damage dealt as HP and 1/4th of that as MP.
           - Unbound              |  - Jumping cures you of Poison, Oil, Slow, Immobilize, and Doom.
           - Wyrmkiller           |  - Jump has a chance to inflict Slow, Immobilize, or KO on Dragons/Hydras.
           - Long Jump            |  - Add +2 to Jump's horizontal range.
           - High Jump            |  - Add +2 to Jump's vertical range.
           - Quick Recovery       |  - Add (2 x Jump + Speed) bonus CT after landing (next turn comes sooner).
           - Jump Mastery         |  - A Polearm is no longer required to gain the damage bonus.

So if you buy all the skills and pump your Jump attribute up to the (new) maximum of 9 (instead of 7) your jump attack will be an absolute beast.

[Sharp]

Re: Orlandeau nerfs, no I'm pretty happy with his reduced skill list. That's the main thing that makes Agrias and Meliadoul *not* obsolete. Orlandeau has all their skills except for the best ones, which are exclusive to those characters (Divine Ruination for Agrias, Crush Weapon for Meliadoul).

This makes thematic sense for Orlandeau. He is getting on in years, and while he's been everywhere, seen everything, and knows how to do way more things than those younger than him he's also starting to forget the details of some things. But that's just me speaking from the perspective of someone approaching 40.

Re: Dragoon, Ignore Elevation wouldn't enhance the Dragoon's Jump attacks, only the actual Jump+ abilities and equipment. So if you want the infinite jump (movement height), you'd be making a tradeoff for things that might actually improve your jump (attack).

Here's a preview of the new Dragoon changes (all subject to change as I playtest):

Base Jump attack changes - Jump attacks are nerfed by default:
* The bonus damage for using a spear has been reduced from +50% to +20%.
* The range is now based on your Jump attribute - 1 (so the default range is 3).
* Jump attacks are now slower by default (they cost a turn and a half instead of a turn), but only if you hit (a miss still only costs a turn).
* And the one buff on this list: they now work with damage increasing supports, like Doublehand (+60% damage in WOTL Tweak).

However, the Dragoon's skill list now allows you to increase the potency of jump attacks, up to and surpassing their original level of power:

          Jump Ability:           | Effect:
           - Angon                |  - Increase the Polearm damage bonus by (Jump x 5)%.
           - Lancet               |  - Recover (Jump + Magick)% damage dealt as HP and 1/4th of that as MP.
           - Unbound              |  - Jumping cures you of Poison, Oil, Slow, Immobilize, and Doom.
           - Wyrmkiller           |  - Jump has a chance to inflict Slow, Immobilize, or KO on Dragons/Hydras.
           - Long Jump            |  - Add +2 to Jump's horizontal range.
           - High Jump            |  - Add +2 to Jump's vertical range.
           - Quick Recovery       |  - Add (2 x Jump + Speed) bonus CT after landing (next turn comes sooner).
           - Jump Mastery         |  - A Polearm is no longer required to gain the damage bonus.

So if you buy all the skills and pump your Jump attribute up to the (new) maximum of 9 (instead of 7) your jump attack will be an absolute beast.

First, I am very impressed by this. I never would have thought to do it this way. In the ASM Hack Requests thread, I requested that the skillsets above be merged into a single ability slot with their basic effects, and that their advanced effects be gated behind a support skill which would then be inherent to the class or available for learning and equipping on another class. Possibly with some other effect like Equip X or current class stat multiplier bonuses, should the derp AI equip the support but not the skillset to ensure it gains some utility from a subpar choice. I requested this so something like the vanilla skillset exists, but the actual skillsets of these jobs be more complete.

The end result would be a cross between FFT and FFTA.
1. A basic and advanced version of the skills would exist as in FFT.
2. The skillsets themselves would be varied as in FFTA.

In hindsight my idea is probably a waste of time because from what I see in FFTPatcher the ability slots for Chemist, Archer, Lancer, Ninja, and Calculator are limited compared to other ability slots. They may as well be used as passive ability slots. Your idea is better than mine.

Also, it seems that there is a discrepancy in the "passive skills" array or maybe the chemist items. There is a gap of IIRC 2 or 3 items missing, beyond the "empty inventory slot" item.

Second, are you doing something similar with Chemist, Archer, Geomancer, Ninja, or Calculator? If you are, what do you plan to do with each class that is as flavorful and suitable for those jobs as tying things to the Jump stat is for Lancer?

Third, is it possible to affect rates for critical hit, knock back, spell activation, and status affection with passive abilities?

[IcePenguin]

Re: Orlandeau nerfs, no I'm pretty happy with his reduced skill list. That's the main thing that makes Agrias and Meliadoul *not* obsolete. Orlandeau has all their skills except for the best ones, which are exclusive to those characters (Divine Ruination for Agrias, Crush Weapon for Meliadoul).

This is something I really liked about your mod. I always use Agrias and Meliadoul, so making them more unique was great to see. I should explain myself a bit better in regard to Orlandeau feeling lacking. I'm not suggesting restoring his old skill set, but perhaps giving him something that is unique to only him. On a similar note to what Sharp said, he is a master swordsman, surely he must know something others do not. Maybe you could give him something to help him live up to his name "Thunder God".  Just a thought.

As he is now, he gives off similar vibes that original Luso did - copy/paste Ramza.


Moving on to your dazzling Dragoon preview, that is truly awesome! Reminds me of Freya in a way. Dragoons are my favorite job, so seeing this new Dragoon you've created is very exciting! I really want to play it, haha. These abilities you've listed, are they active abilities, or passive abilities that modify the main Jump ability? Lancet especially seems like its own skill. If "Jump" itself is now a skill set, like Knight's "Arts of War", that would be... Wow! I can only dream. I'll refrain from getting excited too much, until I hear it from you. :p I may be over-analyzing it, but seeing these changes makes my imagination stir.

[Cleiton Santos]

 Hello friends from Ivalice,
 Does anyone happen to know how I can increase the Fury and Magick Boost skills to +2 instead of +1?

 I would also like to improve Faith Boost and Bravery Boost

 In the Wotl version of psp. have mercy on this poor modder here

[Nyzer]

Hello friends from Ivalice,
 Does anyone happen to know how I can increase the Fury and Magick Boost skills to +2 instead of +1?

 I would also like to improve Faith Boost and Bravery Boost

 In the Wotl version of psp. have mercy on this poor modder here

That isn't a question that should be asked in a topic about someone's mod.

[Holy2Tack]

I am trying to play this on my Steam Deck with PPSSPP standalone. It crashes on crystalization of an enemy. Testing it on my Windows laptop it doesn't happen.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

[Tzepish]

These abilities you've listed, are they active abilities, or passive abilities that modify the main Jump ability?

They are all passive abilities that enhance Jump (similar to how the range-increasing abilities from vanilla work). So if you buy them all, you will have all the effects on a single jump - increased damage, bonus CT, HP/MP recovery, etc.

my Steam Deck with PPSSPP standalone. It crashes on crystalization of an enemy. Testing it on my Windows laptop it doesn't happen. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

Interesting, I have no idea why it would work in one version of the emulator and not the other. This is probably something different than the famous crystalization crash, because I didn't use FFTacText for this. Maybe check if Debug -> Ignore illegal reads/writes is checked or unchecked on one or the other?

Does anyone happen to know how I can increase the Fury and Magick Boost skills to +2 instead of +1? I would also like to improve Faith Boost and Bravery Boost.

The next version of WOTL Tweak does this, and when I release it, I'll also release this is a standalone hack for FFTorgASM.

...are you doing something similar with Chemist, Archer, Geomancer, Ninja, or Calculator?

Archer is getting a revamp as well. Each Charge+ ability still functions the way it always has, but each is now getting a different secondary effect as well. For example, Charge +2 is now "Blackout +2", which functions as Charge +2 but also inflicts Blind.

I don't have similar plans for those other classes, but I can imagine Ninja working in basically the same way - adding abilities that passively enhance Throw, like increased range/damage, whatever.

Third, is it possible to affect rates for critical hit, knock back, spell activation, and status affection with passive abilities?

This is absolutely possible with ASM, yeah, and I've already done some similar things (affecting critical hit chance with status and with equipment; adding a new Reaction ability that prevents harmful status; increased status effect hit chance by default).

[Sharp]

Archer is getting a revamp as well. Each Charge+ ability still functions the way it always has, but each is now getting a different secondary effect as well. For example, Charge +2 is now "Blackout +2", which functions as Charge +2 but also inflicts Blind.

Charge is its own thing so I imagine it requires more hacking and testing to get the charge amount clicker to work properly, but if you could you could easily fit the vanilla Charge effects in 4 bit flag style passive abilities: Charge + 1, +2, +4, and +8. With the leftover abilities you could increase range, AoE, and various procs.

But again, this hinges on getting the UI working with bit flags.

I don't have similar plans for those other classes, but I can imagine Ninja working in basically the same way - adding abilities that passively enhance Throw, like increased range/damage, whatever.

This is absolutely possible with ASM, yeah, and I've already done some similar things (affecting critical hit chance with status and with equipment; adding a new Reaction ability that prevents harmful status; increased status effect hit chance by default).

Some passive ability ideas for Ninja. These abilities would apply to Chemist and anything else which throws items.

spoiler

1. Throw Range + 1, 2, 4.
2. Splash Damage: throw AoE + 1, applies only on hit not on line of sight.
3. Fastball: Add 1 / n to the XA of throw and chemist HP/MP damage/heal effects. Because the harder you hit someone with a healing item, the gooder the heal.
4. Counterfeiter: stat / 100 chance to not lose inventory from Item, Throw.
5. Throw Status/Skill/Critical/Knockback Procs: Add 1 / n to the respective weapon proc rates. Could be different passive abilities instead of one. Works well with a weapon category focused on status or skill procs.
6. Throw Shuriken. This is here because my idea of a Throw skillset is built around a class that chucks bombs at people and shoots them with guns, as an advanced class that comes from Chemist.
7. Throw Weapons.

This gives me an idea for a use-item branch upgrade which is inverted Chemist, in that their items deal damage and inflict debuffs. Spoiler because off-topic.

spoiler

Chemist: Normal use-item access abilities, but with a different distribution of effects among the items for balance with the Poisoner.
Bomber: The abilities above, which modify Item, Throw, and Invert Item; plus Shuriken and Weapon Throw unlocks. Formerly Ninja.
Poisoner: Use-item access abilities as Chemist, but with effects inverted.

For Geomancer you could have the above upgrades to procs, range, AoE, plus a passive to invert the damage and status inflict if it hits an ally, and a passive to improve the damage formula.

Samurai could use something similar to Geomancer, but with a reduced item break rate passive.

I'm not sure how you'd do that for Geomancer and Samurai, unless there's a flag you can set to make a passive ability not show up in an action ability menu. Maybe you could put those effects on another job like Calculator and have them affect Geomancer, Samurai, and other MA based abilities.

Calculator - while OP - could use more numbers like "2" and "7". Or if you go the Sage route you could replace the Calculator effects with passive bonuses to spells flagged as calculable like reduced MP usage, increase XA or YA, faster charge time, increased AoE, and increased range. If you combine just the vanilla calculable flag spell selection UI minus the Calculate targeting UI/mechanics, then if you adjust the flags then you have a very flexible job, both for players and modders.

This is getting really off topic, let me know if you want to move this discussion elsewhere.

[Holy2Tack]

I managed to figure it out be disabling one of the ram emulation settings.

In Chapter 4 now and loving the boss battle balance. It's actually hard now.


I have one request to help with grinding. When on auto-battle, if an enemy has been inflicted with doom, every one ignores it. Is there a way via ASM to make it so doomed targets are not ignored?

[Nyzer]

There's a checkbox in the Patcher labeled "Lower Target Priority?" for the Doom entry in the Status Effects tab. That'd probably do it.

[Stephen]

Started replaying the game and got up to Lionel Castle at end of chapter 2 and said this is way too easy.  It was tainting the nostalgia.  I'm going to start over and try your patch.  I really like what I've read about your tweaks so far.

[Holy2Tack]

There's a checkbox in the Patcher labeled "Lower Target Priority?" for the Doom entry in the Status Effects tab. That'd probably do it.

I see. Good idea. Would have to rebuild from source files in the zip, as using the patcher directly on this after the PPF has been applied garbles all the text and menus because of all the ASM additions. I'll see if I can get that working.

[Stephen]

Has any consideration been given already to making Rush/Dash knockback more consistently?   I feel like it would have more tactical use then.   Knocking enemies off high spots is fun. ☺️.  But i can also see using it to knock an ally out of range of a charged attack or jump or other attack if the rush damage is low enough to justify.  It would be cool to have one unit knock an ally out of range of a spell (if not the targeted unit).  Especially if they had low faith and could take the hit better.   Let's be honest nobody ever uses Rush/Dash for the damage

[Stephen]

Is this compatible with the "Final Fantasy Tactics: Alternate Map Pack"?  Or any map packs?   Thanks for the great mod

[Tzepish]

This is getting really off topic, let me know if you want to move this discussion elsewhere.

Lots of cool ideas that I've jotted down for the further future!

Started replaying the game and got up to Lionel Castle at end of chapter 2 and said this is way too easy.  It was tainting the nostalgia.  I'm going to start over and try your patch.  I really like what I've read about your tweaks so far.

Thanks, and good luck! Note though that WOTL Tweak is actually a bit _easier_ in the early game than vanilla, but much harder in the later game.

Would have to rebuild from source files in the zip, as using the patcher directly on this after the PPF has been applied garbles all the text and menus because of all the ASM additions. I'll see if I can get that working.

Check the "modding readme" inside the "Source" folder in the archive for step by step instructions. But yeah, if you're modding WOTL Tweak, you'll need to first make the FFTPatcher edits, then run it through Valhalla to apply the ASM changes. If you go in the other order, you'll get bugs.

Has any consideration been given already to making Rush/Dash knockback more consistently

Yes, next edition they will have 100% knockback chance by default. If your target is a large creature or a boss creature, that drops to 50%, and if your target is defending, 0%.

Is this compatible with the "Final Fantasy Tactics: Alternate Map Pack"?  Or any map packs?

I have no idea, I've never used map packs before so I don't know what using them entails or how it might interact poorly with the mod. The only thing I can think of for sure is WOTL Tweak changes all the treasure hunter items (but does not relocate the tiles), so maybe it's fine?

[RetroTypes]

Is this compatible with the "Final Fantasy Tactics: Alternate Map Pack"?  Or any map packs?   Thanks for the great mod

The Alternate Map Pack is a mod for the PSX version of FFT, it will not work if applied to the PSP version of the game. I'm not sure exactly how much has been attempted/completed when it comes to getting file replacements working for PSP, but if you were going to do this at all, you'd have to replace the individual map files within the PSP fftpack, assuming they didnt add more hardcoding to that stuff. For now, I'd consider them not compatible.

[Pop]

Thank you for making this tweak (I appreciate how clear and helpful the readmes are)

I've just started playing but i had a small thought about knight swords:

As is, the Durandal is kinda just a better version of Save the Queen and Ragnarok
I think it might be neat to mess around with a new attribute eg
Durandal - Regen (general tankiness, give it to Agrias  )
Valhalla - Initial Reraise (So you can die in battle)

Just so it has it's own personality; maybe make it a weapon for hybrids via MA boost or Faith status

[MiniEquine]

Yes, next edition they will have 100% knockback chance by default. If your target is a large creature or a boss creature, that drops to 50%, and if your target is defending, 0%.

Since it sounds like you're working on the new version, do you know when that would come out?