FF6 party system

[TheEntity]

Currently I am perfectly happy with the way that game looks and plays. I have nostalgia for the original graphics of the game, so I have no need to change them.  Graphics are not really that important to me in a game anyway, what's important to me are the characters and the gameplay involved with them.

What I really want is a mod to allow removing cloud from the party, as well as change the field character to whoever is at the top of the list, just like in Final Fantasy 6.

If such a mod exists, is there a way to implement it without the bootleg thing?

[nfitc1]

What I really want is a mod to allow removing cloud from the party, as well as change the field character to whoever is at the top of the list, just like in Final Fantasy 6.

This has been asked many a time. The answer is yes to the first, no to the second and it just shouldn't be done. Not because it wouldn't be pleasing to see Barret lumbar his way through the forests of Mideel, but because there aren't world models for all the characters. Only Cloud, Tifa, and Cid have world map models. As to why it shouldn't be done, lots of scripts in the game's fields require Cloud to be the initiator of events or the holder of scripts before beginning some conversations. The game isn't designed to just let anyone be a leader whenever they want. There SHOULD be a point where Cloud is no longer necessary, but because lots of the side quests are still available right before the final Point of No Return then he has to remain on the field.
However, it IS possible to remove him from the active party with the right mod. I have done it, but never made it into a mod. The answer is probably floating around these boards somewhere.

[Sega Chief]

This has been done (to an extent) in the NT mod; after visiting the bottom of the North Crater, an option unlocks (triggered through an NPC in the Highwind's Operation Room) to swap party leader to either Tifa or Cid. I had to add a lot of field code so that the game could handle them being party leader, and some were quite tough like the Gold Saucer, Great Glacier, and Wall Market due to all the script shuffling that needed doing.

It'd be nice to do it a) with all the characters, and b) from earlier in the game but the work involved would likely require that each scene be re-constructed from the ground up so that scripts don't clash when someone is party leader as opposed to just being a party member. Also, the World Map is a major sticking point like NFITC1 said; but there's also another potential problem with the way it has a priority system for who is displayed on the world map; if a higher priority character is swapped out/in vis PHS and the game is then saved, closed, and loaded (without closing the menu), the player will find themselves marooned at coordinates 0,0.

And finally, animations are a blocking point. The Gold Saucer was a bit scrappy for me because there's a lot of unique animations there and Tifa's skeleton is different (Cid can use Cloud's animations to an extent, but his feet snap up at a 90' angle). Beyond that, characters like Red XIII, Vincent, Yuffie, and Cait Sith would likely struggle with basics like climbing ladders, going through crawl-spaces, and other basics.

[TheEntity]

I'd be happy with just having tifa leader instead.  Is it possible to just switch field models or something, so that cosmetically it looks like it's been changed without actually having to change any scripts? Would that cause two tifas to appear in scenes where both cloud and tifa are present?

Which mods allow switching cloud out of the battle party? I'd settle with that if field models are too difficult; it's better than nothing.

[Sega Chief]

It's the animations that are tricky, you see. The field model can be swapped, but every single field screen will load animations that were designed for Cloud's skeleton. These can be changed easily enough with a field editor like Makou, but there's like 700+ fields and you need to know the context of each animation, have a suitable replacement at hand (not possible for unique/intricate ones like Cloud jumping off the train at the start), and the tenacity to change them all. A work-around to avoid that is to place Tifa's parts onto Cloud's skeleton. It would look like her, but it would move like Cloud which isn't ideal. Another one would be to replace all of Cloud's animations with Tifa's directly in the char.lgp...but then most NPCs that try to use these animations will become broken tangles of limbs.

As for battle party, I think at present only the New Threat mod allows for that in-game that I know of (without needing save edits, etc) and it handles the field/world map too. Problem is, all that is tied into NT's other scripts so they'd be difficult/time-consuming to separate that feature out for use with the default game as a stand-alone mod. UltimaEspio worked on something relating to changing party leader, but it was more a proof of concept when I saw it.

[TheEntity]

Does such a mod exist for final fantasy 8? I imagine the animations wouldn't be a problem since everyone has a field model and skeleton.