Update !
I wondered whether I should call it v0.36 or not, because there is some cool new stuff. But I finally opted for 0.35c (that gives an excuse for not working on backgrounds... plus 0.36 would make it sound as if I was almost over with it).
So:
- You can now choose the Battle Scene of battles for the Steam version (it was already available for PSX),
- Changed the way you add a new spell to enemies : you can now copy an attack from any battle and add it somewhere else,
- You can now add new enemies (not new battles) : with the same copy/paste principle, you can make battles with any combination of enemies,
- Improved a bit the attack sequencing for enemy attacks (all the codes have a name and a description of what it does now),
- Fixed the stats panel bug, making battles unplayable if you modified in for the Steam version,
- Fixed the UI text bug (in particular with the cutscene skip), the UI texts are still quite unpleasant to modify though...
- Found the meaning of a flag for spells (it became rare enough to mention it).
So, about adding enemies, there are a few constraints and some step-by-step method to follow:
1) Copy the enemy you want to add (right-click), then go to the battle where you want to add him and paste.
2) Copy some attacks for that enemy: it is advised to copy/paste attacks from its original battle since then the sequencing and animations will match. You can get any other spell as well though (but then you need to modify the spell sequence or the animations will look weird).
3) Select those new attacks you copied and change their field "Animations" -> select the new enemy.
4) Similarly, select the new enemy and change its "Default Attack" to one of those you added (it's only used for Berserk/Confuse),
5) Modify at least one of the enemy Groups to include the new enemy in it.
6) Click on "Edit Entries", select the last entry named "Object" in the list, Add one entry (it will pop between that Object and Zidane's entry) and change the entry type to 2,
7) Modify the AI script to include an AI for your enemy. You might copy/paste the AI of the original battle sometimes (for regular enemies mainly) but you can also use a very basic AI:
7-a) Function Main_Init
Add a line "InitObject" with the new enemy's entry for the first argument and 128, 129, 130 or 131 for the second (one that is not taken already). If you added more than once of the new enemy inside the enemy group, add more lines like these.
Example: I added 2 Abominations in a battle with 1 Adamantoise and so I added the two last "InitObject" lines
Function Main_Init
InitObject( 1, 128 )
InitObject( 2, 129 )
InitObject( 2, 130 )
return
7-b) Add a function of type 0 (Main) for your enemy's entry (right-click on the function list for that). Nothing absolutly required there so you can just write a single "return" and parse.
Example: I let this example so you don't forget to add a main function nor a "return" line.
Function Abomination_Init
return
7-c) Add a function of type 5 (ATB).
You're not forced to make an AI as complicated as the ones the game has. You can go with something as simple as a "GetRandom" for selecting the attack and basic SV_Target selection.
Example: My Abomination has two different attacks: Silent Slap which is single-target and Fira which is Multi-target. I make it so Silent Slap is used 2/3 of the time and Fira the remaining third.
Function Abomination_ATB
if ( GetRandom % 3 ) {
set SV_Target = RandomInTeam(SV_PlayerTeam)
Attack( 4 )
return
}
set SV_Target = SV_PlayerTeam
Attack( 5 )
return
7-d) Counter, CounterEx, Loop and Death functions are optionnal.
Lastly, you may customize the enemy's attacks/stats.
Important things to note:
- There seems to be a limit to how many different enemy datas can be in a single battle. You can have up to 3 different enemies in the Enemy List (otherwise, the game softlock when the battle starts). You can have up to 4 enemies in total in one battle anyway, counting duplicates.
- Same thing for enemy attacks : you can have up to 18 different attacks. I have no idea why there is this limit...
- When you are done with adding enemies/attacks, you should always have the list of attacks used by the first enemy followed with the list of attacks used by the 2nd enemy, etc... I'll try to remove that condition in the future but for now, it's better to respect it.
I also made a more extensive example of what can be done with this feature. And a video out of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODoALz8p_KwYou can download the mod there (both .hws to see how I did and Steam files to play that battle) :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0a2ct2r7r4i92wy/PC_PandeMadness.zip?dl=1You can see that cameras can't be customized very well ^^"
I'll be off for work next week ; when I return, I'll see what can be done about field backgrounds.