Newbie Modder With Newbie Questions

[Ceiu]

I've been making some minor changes to FFT over the years for a group of my friends, and have found myself needing to start from scratch to address some balancing issues. Unfortunately, I didn't think to keep an unmodified version of the original ISO/IMG that I had been using so I had to make my own. In itself this isn't a huge deal, as most of the tools in the FFTPatcher suite import from ISOs and can save the changes externally. However, it would appear that the disc I used to make the new image doesn't want to work with some of the ASM patches.

Now, I looked all over, but I didn't see any lists of known versions of the game which are "safe" for modding, so I was under the assumption that any English version of the game would be acceptable. Alternatively, it's possible the "new" ASM hacks are less than perfect (no offense) and aren't working (as intended). That said, is there a list of known/accepted versions? I'm currently working off the English/NTSC Greatest Hits edition (SCUS-94221), but I'm unsure of the the version I was using originally (pretty sure I downloaded it or something).

Secondly, some of the ASM patches are starting to suffer from feature creep (which is kind of silly for such a patch, but yeah), and are beginning to include more changes than I'd like. I've looked at the XML files, but it's just a collection of offsets, values and/or ASM instructions. The ASM ones are easy enough to modify as necessary (once I can dedicate time to learning the PSX instruction set and FFT internals, anyhow), though the others... not so much. Do the original authors of some of these patches still post around here and, if so, how likely would they be to provide minimalistic versions of these patches?

Thanks
-C

[Zenko]

I have never downloaded FFT in my life, I copied my CD, based all the images on my computer on that sole, Greatest Hits NTSC version of the game bought in 1999... The problem might reside in the program you're using to create the image, I'm guessing there can be a different, but still legit structure of the image that can still work in emulators and everything (as if would still respect the standard format), but different enough to make mods not work properly. The issue seems to lie in the program used to create the image.

However, this doesn't seem to be the problem in your case. ASM hacks aren't easy to create and it's hard to evaluate side-effects, or make sure it works under every condition. If ASM hacks don't work, it's likely because they just don't work, it should be reported to the one who created it.

But it makes me think we should have a way to rate ASM hacks and something, still, not much people will bother leaving a feedback and so likely actually use hacks, it makes the whole situation difficult to manage.

[Ceiu]

It would seem we're using the same version of the game as a base, so the image creator might be the culprit, but other patches work fine, so probably not. Though, I might be doing things in the wrong order and that could be hosing things.

Some more details:

 
• I'm basing my mod on the FFT:Complete mod. I'd like to just pull the text, but FFTactext always fails to apply the text to my image (first hint that my image/version isn't good). So, as a fallback, I'm simply using PPFOMatic to apply the FFT:C mod and starting there as my base.

 
• Next, I use ShishiSpriteEditor to change a couple of images (OPENBK1 and SCEAP). This program mentioned something about rearranging the image, so the problem could be occurring here as well, but everything appeared to be in order.

 
• Third, I apply pre-made ASM patches via FFTorgASM. From my changelog, it seems I use the following:
   
  
     
  • JPScroll fix
  
     
  • Secret Hunt/Poach not required for fur shop
  
     
  • Mighty Sword no longer auto-breaks; Probability is set to 60%, but the ability should always damage
  
     
  • Blade Grasp/Shirahadori now only works on the following: <snip>¹
  
     
  • Swordskill abilities no longer inherit elemental attributes of equipped weapon²
  
   
  
    Unfortunately, ¹ doesn't work and ² appears to change too much for my liking in the latest patch/hack collection.
   

 
• Finally, I apply ENTD and job/ability changes via FFTPatcher

With the exceptions of FFTactext and ¹, everything seems to take and play normally. So while there are some issues that suggest my image/process is at fault, the fact that many of the changes do work also implies that the problematic patches/hacks are simply broken. There's so much going on here that it could easily be either, or a combination thereof.

(Also, slightly OT: ² is one of the hacks that I believe still exists, but the documentation/notes changed and it appears to do far more than simply what I've listed above and what I'd like. As such, I'm reluctant to keep including it.)

A rating system would be nice but, as you pointed out, getting feedback would be almost as problematic as displaying the results. You'd have to modify the program and keep the XML files up-to-date for the entire audience to actually see the ratings. Honestly, I would just like some better/more concise details on each change. Some of them are pretty well stated, but others use jargon or otherwise do not clearly state their intention (in my opinion, anyhow).


Update:
After more playtesting, it seems none of the ASM hacks have been applied -- Mighty Sword is still mighty, and Blade Grasp still stops words and bullets.