Problems adding a character (Solved)

[Gamesoul Master]

I'd like to start by expressing how terrible I feel for having to ask this after all this time. I feel like I've done this before without problems, but now I'm not so sure.

Simply put, I'm trying to add Balmafula (default settings except for a modified "23 Magic" skillset, which has worked out perfectly well for me) to my team as a regular member (*not* a guest) during the first battle (Magic City Gariland). No matter what combination of things I try, I can only get her to either join as a guest, or not at all. I've tried this by modifying all three events in the ENTD editor that revolve around this battle (102, 184, and 188), using different combinations of Join After Event, Load Formation, Save Formation, and Control.

I've done a ton of searches on the forums for over an hour now, but all of the results were either irrelevant or very unhelpful. I couldn't even find a reference to a problem like this that seemed applicable to my situation.

I just want to know... out of all the people here, there *has* to be at least a few people who have added customized characters to their team on the first battle. Can anybody tell me which of the three events she actually needs to be in to join, and what special settings are supposed to be set for her to join? On event 188, I tried making her settings the same as the other starting characters that join the team before the battle, but she doesn't show up in the list when I get to set up before battle.

I'm just really hoping that she isn't somehow forced to be a guest. I was pretty damn sure that I added her before without any problems though... :/

[Zenko]

Make sure you're editing the right event, and that only Join After Event and that the unit is on the blue team. Adding Save Formation would  make it join as a guest while Load Formation shouls fuck up the stats if you don,t already have one.

[Zozma]

the unit doesn't have to be on the blue team. i know that for certain

[Gamesoul Master]

So even in that first battle that has three events for it, I should make sure that the character I want to add is only in *one* of them with Join After Event set? I'm pretty sure that in at least one of my tests, I had none of them set with Save/Load Formation, and she still joined as a Guest. Do you think maybe something I did in the events conflicted and caused it to happen anyway?

I will see if maybe I missed something, and will see about making sure that she's only in one event at a time when I'm testing it out again. And someone here a while ago posted that editing a character into the event for the actual battle didn't seem to work, but... well, I guess the replies so far mean I have to run another batch of tests to figure things out... lol.

Thanks for the pointers so far though. I'm sort-of hoping I had just been overlooking something simple. If not, I'll let you know...

[LastingDawn]

Actually... there's a good possibility that she was Only meant to join as a guest, try it with any other unit, and see if it work fine?

[Gamesoul Master]

I'm pretty sure she was never meant to join at all... lol. Her completely blank skillset (I should say, *lack* of a skillset, since "00 (blank)" is a pretty crappy skillset... XD.

I see your point either way. I could've swore I had her on my team *not* as a guest though... :/ I haven't gotten around to testing it anymore today yet, but I'll do that soon.

[Zozma]

no, i really think she was meant to be a guest once, the fact that she has a menu sprite is proof of that. plus its simple to give any job 00 as a skillset its only a matter of changing a byte.

[Gamesoul Master]

Well yeah... I was referring to the fact that her *default* skillset is 00, to mean that there isn't even a skillset for her to equip. So I figure that even with her nice sprite set and all, they must not have considered her to be in any way playable for very long, otherwise they would've gotten around to creating a skillset for her. And if they made one and went through the trouble of removing it, I would imagine that they would've removed the excess sprites too. So any plan for her to be playable must've been extremely short-lived.

And my first sentence about her not being meant to join... I'm sorry, because I don't know why I phrased it like that. I really hadn't meant that there were *never* plans in the works for her to be playable. I guess I just meant it like, in her current state, there's really nothing playable about her (besides a solid sprite set). Sorry for the confusion... :/

[LastingDawn]

Well, while your theory is certainly interesting, anyone with a menu sprite had at least one time in the plans to be guests, or in the least, units to join you for an amount of time. Balmafula and Olan fall into this line. Balmafula is... a very mysterious character in our FFT, her role is Very small, and in the end only serves to show Delita in a more sympathetic light, though her class and affiliation says a few other things in regards. She also has a menu sprite, of all of the important NPC's in the game, she would be given a menu sprite only because they had eventual plans for her. As it stands those plans were not fulfilled. Balmafula is a sprite Fully ready for battle, unlike many others. She has a Menu Quote, which I don't even think Olan has. And to top it off, you have been saying you're having problems getting her to join as anything but a guest, this is true for all temporary party members, which her plans seem to show, she once was for.

[Zozma]

Simon is just like balmafula too. perfectly battle ready sprite, no quote tho but still

[Gamesoul Master]

Well I guess I'm just frustrated... lol. All that work they put into her, and absolutely no skillset. And I'm bugged because I really could've swore I got her to join as a regular instead of a guest.

Thanks for the mini-lesson, though I've played the game enough to know it... LOL. Honestly though, just seeing you say that has motivated me to game a full vanilla run through the game again. Been a while since I've played while being able to give my full attention to the storyline (from the first time I played FFT so many years ago, I instantly loved the storyline ^^).

Then after that, I'll be modifying my patch to give her a somewhat more solid spot in the story. Thank you for that motivation, LD...


Edit: Nice, posting while I was typing *my* post... LOL. Simon... for some reason, he never really caught my attention. But somehow, Balmafula completely fascinated me from my first playthrough to this day. This thread is starting to give me the feeling that I need to take a nice, deep look into what characters are capable of what, gameplay-wise. With all the scattered knowledge scattered across the boards here, it seems pretty possible to create a whole different cast of characters if desired (special characters I mean, not generics).

[Zozma]

yeah for my own patch too, im making balmafula join where orlandu would.

im also making full use of another battle ready sprite tho i have to create a menu sprite for him. Larg

[Gamesoul Master]

It worked! I finally figured out what I did last time to make her join normally. Shame on whoever was recently saying that the "join up" screen only shows up on battles that are coded for it... XP

Event "184 Magic City Gariland" is the true event for adding characters to the first battle (and where I put her that finally worked). I made sure to remove the other instances I had for her to join the team so that it was that one alone. I left the formation options unchecked of course, and made sure that her presence looked as legit to the game as possible (as if she was meant to be there, with the proper Unit ID and such). After the battle, the screen came up asking to add her to the party, and after doing so, all the changes I made to her job (including the new skillset) stuck.

Basically, everything worked as it should be now. I'm guessing that trying to make her "Join After Event" in multiple events was causing some kind of conflict. Thanks to all of you for helping me make sure to do everything right... ^^