General hacking questions

[Krakistophales]

So it seems to me that in order to truly get deeply hacking in this game you have to play it on the computer, since gameshark allows you to modify only so much, right? Well, how do you play this game on the computer, and what programs do you all use besides FFTpatcher to modify this game to your liking?

Secondly, I remember I once tried to make the knight break techniques be from 2 squares away and do damage while also breaking equipment, and it didn't seem to work, but that was on codebreaker. Does anyone know if there's a way to do that just using fftpatcher and gameshark?

Thirdly, I was looking at razele's list of hacks and I'm having trouble understanding the mighty sword modifications, so it bypasses equipment presence and can hit monsters/etc. Is there a way to put in that code onto gameshark or is that something you can do only on the computer?

If I wanted to make the game a bit more challenging, is it easier/faster to nerf yourself or buff enemies? Thanks in advance for any info.

[Yuri Otani]

epsxe is a good emulator for PC (at least it was a year ago when I last used one), but I just use a program to convert my altered ISO to a PSP file and play it on a hacked PSP. a little more work, but I like it better.

[SilvasRuin]

Secondly, I remember I once tried to make the knight break techniques be from 2 squares away and do damage while also breaking equipment, and it didn't seem to work, but that was on codebreaker. Does anyone know if there's a way to do that just using fftpatcher and gameshark?

FFTPatcher can do that with ease, I believe.  Take a look around the ability tab and a way to do that should be apparent.

If I wanted to make the game a bit more challenging, is it easier/faster to nerf yourself or buff enemies? Thanks in advance for any info.

Both.  Certain things are just too broken to keep as is if you don't want the player to be unstoppable.  That said, buffing enemies is probably the preferable route as a human player will always be able to think outside of the box while the computer opponents tend to have random setups and somewhat limited AI.  Making sure their setups always or almost always are potent should be the second step in making a balanced hack, in my opinion.  Taming or removing Blade Grasp and hindering the Move-MP Up and MP Shield combo would be the first step.

[philsov]

Well, how do you play this game on the computer, and what programs do you all use besides FFTpatcher to modify this game to your liking?

Playstation emulator cheater

It's how I did special character SSC/SSCC playthroughs.

Is there a way to put in that code onto gameshark or is that something you can do only on the computer?

Computer.

[Krakistophales]

So on a playstation emulator you would put in the game disc into your computer and run it on that, and play it with mouse/keyboard?

Does the emulator have a gameshark and other cheat options built in, or do I have to get things like text editors, hex editors, etc?

[philsov]

yup.  I prefer to burn the image of the CD onto my computer and play off the harddrive [or if you're inept at that procedure piracy suddenly becomes an option].  Else there's some minor lag and soundskipping on some abilities.  But that's purely preferential.  I use a gamepad (used Gravis for the looongest time, but then they stopped showing up in stores and now it's logitech), but keyboards work just as well.

I use epsxe and the third party playstation emulator cheater -- but things like the text editor and hex editing are WAY beyond the scope of a gameshark, but you'd need them on your computer regardless of what platform you're trying this out in on, if you're trying some serious hacking out.

Edit:  Regarding allies/enemies, you get more gain per effort via enemies. Patches 1.1 and 1.2 did a decent job at rebalancing the classes and such, but the game was still balls easy until the ENTD stuff got tinkered with.

[Krakistophales]

Okay, so with just the gameshark I won't be able to do much more than what FFTpatcher will allow, huh?

So it's impossible to use the codes that razele posted for modifying mighty sword without using computer programs, right?

I recall a faq on gamefaqs that had a gameshark cheating guide for this game, and there was something about how you could use gameshark to change the names of people, or character classes, but I don't know if it's gone so far as to change the names of abilities and stuff like that.

BTW, can you make a class that requires swords to cast magic spells, like a magus knight skillset? So that everytime they cast a spell from their skillset they have to do the swordswing? Is that possible with FFTpatcher or is that a computer only hack as well?

[philsov]

you need a computer

it's called the gameshark handbook

you can flag abilities to require a sword equipped.