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Gameplay / (Final Fantasy IX-Steam) Story and Character Modding
« on: 2017-08-18 22:02:20 »
As I understand it, the Steam version allows for the story of the Final Fantasy IX to be altered somewhat, as evidenced by Tirlititi's Alternate Fantasy mod.
My question however is this:
What do I need in order to do something similar? I want to add Beatrix into more scenes starting with the Outer Continent and eventually make her a straight up playable character and automatically recruited as part of the party. I would love to learn what I need to do in order to make this happen so any pointers to where I can begin would be greatly appreciated.
My second goal in lieu of the first is to essentially swap Amarant and Blank. The reason I wish to do this is because frankly Amarant doesn't ever impact the story in any significant way beyond a single scene in Ipsen's Castle that is negligible at best. Blank however was noted to be the closest member to Zidane in Tantalus and after his depetrification, doesn't really do much. I feel like Blank would be a much more interesting addition to the party as he was a pretty grounded, rational, and yet somehow selfless character.
As I see it, I can accomplish this story-wise without much difficulty (not modding wise, I'm sure), for Blank was noted to being able to make antidotes and love potions for Zidane, he could rejoin the party when you go on the potion quest to revert Cid back to a human which (obviously) fails. Even so, you could gather the three potions and Blank could be the one to mix them, thus giving him a reason to be back in the picture at this point.
So my two major goals are:
1. Learn how to script fully functional scenes and make what Tirlititi did with Beatrix mandatory instead of optional.
2. Learn how to switch Amarant for Blank.
Already in this mod of mine, I have begun work on changing the characters to fit certain archetypes.
For Example:
Steiner has been altered and all of his abilities have been altered to reflect that of a Dark Knight. He gains shadow elemental attacks, and his main gimmick is that he destroys the health, soul, mind, and strength of his enemies and takes it as his own. He will be strong, but will take time to become a full fledged and powerful Dark Knight.
Beatrix has been upgraded slightly to being a full out Paladin. I changed out her redundant life spell and gave her Dispel. I also changed a couple abilities to be exclusively hers, such as Shock. Her ultimate weapon happens to be the Excalibur II which has a few Paladin-esque abilities tied to it that she cannot learn but can use so long as she has that weapon equipped.
Garnet has been upgraded to being mainly a summoner. She can eventually gain access to every eidolon, including their different forms such as the different carbuncles and the two forms of Fenrir. However her white magic abilities have been drastically reduced to only 8 spells total. She has access to Cura, Curaga, Blind, Mini, Float, Berserk, Confuse, and Silence. Her abilities names have been changed from Summon to Evocation, and from Wht Magic to Gray Magic. Due to Garnet being of age as a summoner she has access to Boost which allows her to summon the most powerful version of her eidolon's attacks.
Eiko has remained mostly the same as she was originally. She has access to the same four eidolons but being too young and not meant to be summoning lore wise, she cannot summon every eidolon as she pleases. Her Fenrir will randomly change as it usually does, and her Carbuncles can only be changed when she is focusing on a crystal in hand (just like in vanilla). Maduin (Madeen) and Phoenix are still a part of her as well but unlike Garnet, Eiko cannot learn the Boost skill. Therefore all her eidolons will randomly be chosen between long and short animations. However what makes Eiko great is that she is the only party member to have full access to the white magic. She is also only one of two people who can use resurrection spells/abilities. The other being Beatrix.
=====================================
So as you can see, I'm very much dedicated to seeing this project through. Any pointers and tips would be greatly appreciated!
My question however is this:
What do I need in order to do something similar? I want to add Beatrix into more scenes starting with the Outer Continent and eventually make her a straight up playable character and automatically recruited as part of the party. I would love to learn what I need to do in order to make this happen so any pointers to where I can begin would be greatly appreciated.
My second goal in lieu of the first is to essentially swap Amarant and Blank. The reason I wish to do this is because frankly Amarant doesn't ever impact the story in any significant way beyond a single scene in Ipsen's Castle that is negligible at best. Blank however was noted to be the closest member to Zidane in Tantalus and after his depetrification, doesn't really do much. I feel like Blank would be a much more interesting addition to the party as he was a pretty grounded, rational, and yet somehow selfless character.
As I see it, I can accomplish this story-wise without much difficulty (not modding wise, I'm sure), for Blank was noted to being able to make antidotes and love potions for Zidane, he could rejoin the party when you go on the potion quest to revert Cid back to a human which (obviously) fails. Even so, you could gather the three potions and Blank could be the one to mix them, thus giving him a reason to be back in the picture at this point.
So my two major goals are:
1. Learn how to script fully functional scenes and make what Tirlititi did with Beatrix mandatory instead of optional.
2. Learn how to switch Amarant for Blank.
Already in this mod of mine, I have begun work on changing the characters to fit certain archetypes.
For Example:
Steiner has been altered and all of his abilities have been altered to reflect that of a Dark Knight. He gains shadow elemental attacks, and his main gimmick is that he destroys the health, soul, mind, and strength of his enemies and takes it as his own. He will be strong, but will take time to become a full fledged and powerful Dark Knight.
Beatrix has been upgraded slightly to being a full out Paladin. I changed out her redundant life spell and gave her Dispel. I also changed a couple abilities to be exclusively hers, such as Shock. Her ultimate weapon happens to be the Excalibur II which has a few Paladin-esque abilities tied to it that she cannot learn but can use so long as she has that weapon equipped.
Garnet has been upgraded to being mainly a summoner. She can eventually gain access to every eidolon, including their different forms such as the different carbuncles and the two forms of Fenrir. However her white magic abilities have been drastically reduced to only 8 spells total. She has access to Cura, Curaga, Blind, Mini, Float, Berserk, Confuse, and Silence. Her abilities names have been changed from Summon to Evocation, and from Wht Magic to Gray Magic. Due to Garnet being of age as a summoner she has access to Boost which allows her to summon the most powerful version of her eidolon's attacks.
Eiko has remained mostly the same as she was originally. She has access to the same four eidolons but being too young and not meant to be summoning lore wise, she cannot summon every eidolon as she pleases. Her Fenrir will randomly change as it usually does, and her Carbuncles can only be changed when she is focusing on a crystal in hand (just like in vanilla). Maduin (Madeen) and Phoenix are still a part of her as well but unlike Garnet, Eiko cannot learn the Boost skill. Therefore all her eidolons will randomly be chosen between long and short animations. However what makes Eiko great is that she is the only party member to have full access to the white magic. She is also only one of two people who can use resurrection spells/abilities. The other being Beatrix.
=====================================
So as you can see, I'm very much dedicated to seeing this project through. Any pointers and tips would be greatly appreciated!