Sorta newbie, re-introducing myself...

[Robrain]

Around the beginning of 2009, I came across this site shortly after arriving back home after finishing my enlistment.  With my newfound free time, I was ecstatic that there was such a dedicated following (this site) to pretty much my favorite video game of all time.

There was a lot of information even back then, and I dove right in trying to take it all in.  However, due to my time spent in the military the previous 4 years, some computer skills that I otherwise already would have had, I did not have at that point in time.

When I first got to these forums, I set about on a small personal project that I was hoping would also be useful to the rest of you:

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=2609.0

The idea was to record a video of every single spell / ability / item animation, and upload them in an organized manner to Youtube, for reference use.  That way, if you wanted to see what a spell/ability's animation looked like, you didn't have to boot up the game, get into a random battle and cast the spell / use the ability.  You could simply jump on over to my list, click the one you wanted to see, and instantly watch it.

However, I was totally learning all the necessary computer skills/tools/programs on the fly at that point in time, meaning I ended up re-doing a lot of the work multiple times over.  It was a very inefficient (and extra time-consuming) process because of that, and I was also having problems with Youtube decreasing the quality after I uploaded the video files (turns out the main issue there was that Youtube doesn't work well with video resolutions that aren't typical).

Anyway, to make matters worse, a severe lightning storm (I hate Florida weather...) shortly after my last response in that thread absolutely NUKED the new quad-core / nicely spec'ed computer I'd just bought after finishing my enlistment.  Unfortunately, ensuing financial problems regarding my parents meant I was unable to allocate the necessary money to replace it at that time.  In short, life reared it's ugly head in a most devilish way.

Now things have settled back down for me somewhat, and I'm very interested in getting back into the swing of things here.  At first glance, it seems that the available knowledge has increased on an order of magnitude since I was last here, and that makes it even more appealing to me.

After much thought during the past four years, I think I've mostly decided on what I want to use my G.I. Bill (military college scholarship) on as far as field of study - I'm pretty positive I want to go into the videogame industry as a career.

-------------------------

I obviously need to re-familiarize myself with the available tools before even considering a cool patch of any decent scope.

To start my own smaller project first, I think I'd want to learn how to do the following (seemingly basic) things:

1) Create new job classes
2) Create custom ability lists / tweak those abilities.
3) Import sprites (I was just going to use the ones already publicly available here: http://ffhacktics.com/sprites.php - this wouldn't be for a public release, just a small quick personal project to get my feet wet so I know what I'm doing going forward)
4) Create new items (especially editing the name of the items / attributes / and defining the color palette of the item as shown on this chart: http://ffhacktics.com/items.php )

Basically this was my simple goal:

You know how when you start a new game in Final Fantasy Tactics, you start out with a bunch of generic squires/chemists?  I wanted to create a customized party to replace those generics (keeping Ramza, as last I recall playing around with him comes with a few catches that can cause game bugs).

Each of those characters I'd be creating would be similar to Mustadio, Beowulf, Agrias, etc.  I forget what the term is without looking it up (non-generics?), but basically they'd have their own unique job class, along with a unique skillset to go with it, and a customized sprite/avatar (which I would simply get from the list provided above, until I learn the finer points of creating a customized sprite from scratch).

Lastly, I'd want to be able to create custom equipment / items for them.

I feel this would be a good starting point that doesn't seem like anything too difficult.  I definitely realize that actual projects can take a great deal of time, so I'm not expecting to snap my fingers and have this completed overnight.

If someone can jumpstart me by letting me know which programs/tools I need to accomplish the above requirements, that would be most helpful and I'd be completely appreciative.

I'm going to start reading up on everything now.  I'm extremely stoked about finally getting to come back to this!

[RavenOfRazgriz]

You'll be glad to hear your old "record all the effects" was finished by R999.  You'll also be glad to hear this game is our bitch and we can do anything we want to it.

You can do all the stuff you want here by simply poking around in the FFTPatcher Suite, which you can find most versions of on the front page.  The most recent version is .482, but I noticed a small error when using its FFTacText, so if your text patches weird, downgrade to .457 and re-apply the same text file and everything will be fine.  A lot of the site was cleaned up recently so finding Tutorials/etc. should be pretty easy if anything in the FFTP Suite seems confusing.

[Jon]

After much thought during the past four years, I think I've mostly decided on what I want to use my G.I. Bill (military college scholarship) on as far as field of study - I'm pretty positive I want to go into the videogame industry as a career.

I work in the game industry, what field you trying for? I didn't have to spend any money studying anything and got a job as Quality Assurance which in a nutshell is game testing, which isn't playing video games for money but rather looking for bugs and writing in depth bug reports. If you want to be a coder, you don't necessarily have to go to college or uni, you just gotta sit there and teach it to yourself for years, that's what all the best coders have told me. To become a game designer you might have to go to some game academy, which may or may not be bullshit, so look carefully into any schools you find before investing money. In theory you don't have to if game design is your thing, just create tons of (google this stuff if you don't know what I'm talking about) high concepts and game play/level design documents of made up games. For each game you will need those three, all in great detail. Usually in these you don't have to create any new graphics, just use existing stuff from existing games that are similar to your idea. For level design you could simply use pen and paper to make levels or worlds or whatever and scan and upload them. You should probably make these documents simply with Google docs. That's my two cents on that.

1) Create new job classes
2) Create custom ability lists / tweak those abilities.
3) Import sprites (I was just going to use the ones already publicly available here: http://ffhacktics.com/sprites.php - this wouldn't be for a public release, just a small quick personal project to get my feet wet so I know what I'm doing going forward)
4) Create new items (especially editing the name of the items / attributes / and defining the color palette of the item as shown on this chart: http://ffhacktics.com/items.php )

Doing all of the listed stuff is really easy. You could probably learn how to do this and get it down in under a week. Everything is here, just devote some time everyday to a certain thing and you should learn it quickly http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?board=43.0
If you want to create brand new events, it can be tricky at first but this tutorial by Elric is excellent, and thanks to it I pretty much learned to event edit some really simple stuff in as little as a few hours, trickier stuff could take months. http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8229.0
You're gonna most likely wanna use the guy's "piece of art" who posted before me, Raven's EasyVent Editor Super Perfect v1.91, just click on that link in his signature. Its a lot more fun creating brand new events instead of just changing sprites, names and items. The EasyVent really makes the process so much easier and while reading Elric's stuff, it makes it possible for people like me who panic when looking at code. Hope all this rambling helps!

[Glain]

Just wanted to note that creating new things means editing things that already exist.  You can't, for example, straight-up add an item to the list of items. With that said, there are often unused or unneeded entries that can be edited.

By the way, the R999 video thread is here: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=4830

[Robrain]

Question, what format does the FFT ROM need to be in?

Mine's a .IMG file - do I need to somehow convert that to a .ISO before working with it?

[Robrain]

Okay, I've gone ahead and converted/duplicated the .IMG file (FFT PSX ROM) to both a .ISO and a .BIN/.CUE file.  I seem to remember needing the .BIN for something last time...

Any suggestion which one I should be using for this?

[Robrain]

Okay, I'm toying around in FFTPatcher and FFTactext, and I'm slightly confused.

I believe these are meant to be used hand-in-hand, but for example, if I change the name of a Job Class in FFTactext, that change will not be reflected in FFTPatcher, so I just have to remember/manually keep track of (example, in a Notepad file) the exact slot that of the Job Class that I renamed?

Also, the "blank" Job Classes, is there going to be any problem using them / renaming them?

[Jon]

Yes, it won't be reflected in FFTPatcher. You have to keep track of everything. And what do you mean blank job classes? Like there are unnamed special jobs, I don't think renaming them and assigning them a skillset will cause any problems. They will be special jobs, not generic, just letting you know. So if you change one of those and import a certain sprite, that's what the sprite will always remain as in game. I would advise against using the unnamed ones if you want them on the player's side, but for making more unique enemies that's fine.

[Robrain]

Besides the workflow questions, I'm also a little confused because I'm not really finding a tutorial anywhere on here that explains pretty much the most basic thing most people that are new to this would want to do - customize Job Classes / Abilities!

I mean, obviously you can do it using the Tools, but...unless I'm overlooking it, a nice, friendly guide on how to use the Tools would be most helpful.  If one doesn't exist already, I'll be more than happy to write one myself...just as soon as I figure out how.

Like, I figured someone would have written a tutorial that's clearly labeled something like "Create A New Job Class", and then a simple walkthrough of how to do exactly that.

Going to the Tutorials page:
http://ffhacktics.com/tutorials.php

There are 9 tutorials:

1) Beginner tutorial to ASM hacking *in progress* [since I'm new to this, I have no idea exactly what ASM hacking is, or whether or not that is a requirement for creating a new Job Class]
2) How To Fix Portraits in GraphicsGale [okay, I'm not really making any portraits right now so I don't think this applies]
3) Starting up Lioneditor [I'm not modding the PSP version, I'd assume Lioneditor is some Tool for modding the PSP version]
4) Editing Effect File Graphics [don't think this is part of basic creation of a new Job Class]
5) Inserting custom character animations [this is sort of part of creating a new sprite, not necessary to create the underlying Job Class itself, more of a decorative finishing touch]
6) Handling the camera [not related to creating a new Job Class]
7) Ripping .STR & .XA files to .WAV (movie > music) [music is unrelated to creating a new Job Class]
8) How to Replace In Battle Sprites [seems like it could be related, but you would have to get the underlying skeleton of the Job Class created first]
9) Replacing Sprites in the Formation Screens [likewise, could be related but still doesn't help to get the underlying bones of the Job Class created first]

But wait, there's a different list of tutorials, found in the forum:

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9204.0

These are at least loosely categorized:

ASM Tutorials
Event Editing Tutorials
Graphics Editing Tutorials
Fixing Emulation Errors Tutorials
ISO Patching Tutorials
Miscellaneous Tutorials

All sound very helpful in their own right, but still no simple, straightforward Tutorial titled "How To Create A New Job Class".

I don't want to come off sounding rude, but I thought someone would have written a tutorial like this quite a long time ago.  It seems like an obvious thing that most people would want to do.

I'll happily write it myself, and make it newbie friendly, if someone's willing to guide me on my quest.

Basically, I've got:

Emulator installed + working
FFT ROM in .ISO + .IMG + .BIN/.CUE formats
FFTPatcher Package installed + working

My starting goal right now is to create a single new Job Class.

I believe that's supposed to be able to be accomplished through use of FFTPatcher + FFTactext (besides swapping in a new sprite?).

First, we have to be able to identify/label/name the new Job Class.

Let's try to create a Job Class named "Hunter".

First off, where do we input the name for "Hunter"?  FFTPatcher does not appear to have any place to input/change text, so I jump on over to FFTactext.

I go to the drop down option labeled "Job Names".

There's a long list of Jobs, numbering from 0-154.  0 is left blank.  Is that a usable slot?  There is no entry for name/width/text in that particular one.  Perhaps it's intended to be left blank?  Unknown just from looking at it, seems like you're simply supposed to start guessing.

Scrolling down the list, besides the number in the left column, the "Name" column and the "Text" column appear to match in most cases.

However, when you scroll far enough through the list, you get to something like number 57, where the "Name" column states "Oracle" but the "Width" and "Text" columns are blank.  What does that mean?  Is that a usable slot that I can change to create a new Job Class?  Is that a special off-limits slot that I'm not supposed to touch?

Number 58 and 59 are entirely blank.  Are they usable?  Can I just type whatever I want into the "Text" column for those and create my new Job Class there?

Is there a maximum width I'm not supposed to surpass as far as how many characters I can use for the text name of my new Job Class?

When I get to number 142, just below Tiamat, it has no name, but it does have "None" listed in the "Text" column, as opposed to being blank like the previous ones I noted.  Are those ones with "None" reserved for some special purpose that I'm not supposed to mess with?

Can I go to (for example), number 146 (the one immediately below Steel Giant) and change the text in the "Text" column from "None" to "Hunter"?

If the answer to that question is Yes, how do I figure out where that corresponds in FFTPatcher so that I can link it / further customize my new Job Class?  Do I just find the one immediately below Steel Giant on the list in FFTPatcher, and that's always going to be the same one?

I'm sure the current layout of the Tutorials looks fine for those of you who know what you're doing and need to have the reference stuff handy, my problem is that someone new to hacking FFT doesn't really have a great Tutorial to dive in with.  I'd be happy to create one, with screenshots/images and everything, make it completely newbie friendly.

I'll go look up the IRC channel info so I can jump on and try to get some real-time help with this to speed things along.

[Robrain]

Yes, it won't be reflected in FFTPatcher. You have to keep track of everything. And what do you mean blank job classes? Like there are unnamed special jobs, I don't think renaming them and assigning them a skillset will cause any problems. They will be special jobs, not generic, just letting you know. So if you change one of those and import a certain sprite, that's what the sprite will always remain as in game. I would advise against using the unnamed ones if you want them on the player's side, but for making more unique enemies that's fine.

So, if I wanted to create an actual character (like Mustadio, Agrias, Beowulf, etc.) that keeps the same sprite, then there are certain slots I can only use?  I had thought there was a separate "flag"/"switch" that I could toggle per numbered slot that determined whether or not it was a Generic, Non-Generic, or Monster.  Perhaps that has to do with the Sex of a Character instead?

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Brevity, bro.  Also, as the person who made the Tutorial Index, I asked for all known Tutorials and no one decided to help me find any.  What's there is what I could find.  If it's not there, it's either buried under the Search Function or doesn't exist.  Once upon a time I thought there used to be an "Adding Special Characters" Tutorial, but I couldn't find it.

Okay, here's the list-o-shit you need to remember:

Changes made in FFTacText are not directly reflected in FFTPatcher, but will appear in your ISO.  To edit the text in FFTPatcher, you need to export Resources.zip and edit the XML files inside.  They correspond to the various Name lists such as Job Name, etc.  It's essentially editing everything twice, but this allows you to actually see your changes in FFTPatcher.

Everything you want to add must replace something.  If you want to add a new Generic Job, for example, you must replace an existing Generic Job.  If you want to replace a Special Job, you must replace an existing Special Job.  (Luckily for you, there are Special Jobs you can replace without errors that don't appear in the main game so you can replace things without "losing" anything, but doing this means you need to edit a battle to have this unit join your party.)  Note that some Jobs (Chemist, Archer, Geomancer, Lancer, Ninja, Samurai, Calculator) have skillset-related hardcoding that is sometimes not easy to get around.  Archer and Calculator can be circumvented by merely removing all their original skills from the skillset and setting their Action Menu to <Default>, while the others are more complex and require ASM to edit beyond minor adjustments to the existing skills.

Jobs and Sprites are organized by Job/Sprite ID, and these directly correlate to each other.  If you want to make Gafgarion into a new character, for example, you need to edit 11 Dark Knight and 17 Dark Knight, as well as change the sprites in both the 11 Gafgarion and 17 Gafgarion slots.

If it doesn't already have something in it, until you really know what you're doing, don't bother trying to fuck with it.  You'll make yourself angry and frustrated.  Stuff that has nothing to begin with can be used, but making it work correctly is more complex and shouldn't really be messed with until you can do the basic stuff in your sleep.

[3lric]

Brevity, bro.  Also, as the person who made the Tutorial Index, I asked for all known Tutorials and no one decided to help me find any.  What's there is what I could find.  If it's not there, it's either buried under the Search Function or doesn't exist.  Once upon a time I thought there used to be an "Adding Special Characters" Tutorial, but I couldn't find it.

You couldn't find them because I archived most and removed others, they were all at the least extremely outdated and no longer applied.
Nor did a single one provide anything more then words. That's what the help section is for, we already have full explanations of what nearly
(if not) everything in FFTP does and how it works.

If you have any questions you really can't answer by asking in the help section or searching the forum then maybe I'm wrong, but most things and their
explanations are readily available when it comes to parts of modding FFT. Besides the things that no one has figured out yet, of which there isn't very many.
You just need to know who and where to ask, and generally that is IRC (but be careful, once you get sucked into IRC, you will never get shit done lol)
more then a few people can likely help you or answer most of your questions plus it's always good to see new blood working to accomplish something.

I look forward to seeing some work come from you, and welcome.

P.S. Your Image file can be ISO Bin or img, maybe others as well, but I do use all 3 of those.

[Robrain]

Okay, so I just wanted to note, I jumped on IRC and got some instant help, and that was absolutely awesome.

Took a nap afterwards, just woke up, going to go through some things and read the replies above and then finish what I was doing in FFTPatcher.

[Celdia]

If you have any questions you really can't answer by asking in the help section or searching the forum

I know some of the terms are out of date over there but the FFTP section of the Wiki is also still pretty useful if you're using the version that shares the terms used there. I still occasionally poke in over there for things I can't remember.

[Jon]

I would've just given you the link to a tutorial I made called "New Creating Custom Characters Tutorial" but I think someone erased it for whatever reason. I remember that somehow step 7 of the tutorial got cut out, and then someone locked the thread so I could never just write the step back in. Oh well, I could rewrite a new tutorial with screenshots eventually, unless Celdia made one.

Edit: I found this from Celdia http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6702.0 but I feel its kinda incomplete. All it tells you is how to replace the UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN stuff, which is very helpful but doesn't explain enough to get a 100% new character in game (by renaming jobs, job description, skill sets & their description and renaming unused or useless names like "Dish"). Now while this for many might seem obvious, I can totally understand that for a new member they have no idea where to begin. Here is mine (which I cannot view "The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.") http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=5868.0 but like said a step is missing. Did someone either block me from my own tutorial (I wrote the damn thing!) or delete it? I got tons of PMs of people thanking me that they could create new units in game...

[3lric]

Jon, I explained why it was removed in my above post, it was outdated and a bit of it no longer applied. It also had no pictures or anything but text, which is a no-no for tutorials

It should still be archived somewhere tho.

[Dome]

Jon, you mean your head swapping tutorial, or something else?

[3lric]

Naw, he was talking about the character creation tutorial

[Dome]

Then, I cannot find it
Deleted?

[3lric]

It's somewhere, i will find it later today