Expanding FF7/FF8

[Dark_Ansem]

I know FF8 is not expandable at all these days, so I'll focus on FF7.
thanks to the amazing effort of the author of WalMarket and Proud Cloud we have new insight for battle.
but still, is it not possible to implement new damage formulas? not possible to create entirely new VFXs/ recolor existing ones (Black Ultima, for example)? neither to create new limit breaks, or severely modifying enemy attacks/using their visual. not even to mention creating new scenes in order to obtain entirely new materia (if doable) I take it?

in short, I'm asking how limited we are in modding a game that continues to amaze years after its release

[Kudistos Megistos]

is it not possible to implement new damage formulas?

No. You'd have to debug the game yourself in order to find out how to change the forumlas. This stuff is in the .exe

If you manage it, do tell us. I've been wanting to change those as well, since physical attacks become too powerful towards the end of the game.

not possible to create entirely new VFXs/ recolor existing ones (Black Ultima, for example)?

It can be done without too much trouble. Team Avalanche has done it.

neither to create new limit breaks, or severely modifying enemy attacks/using their visual

In theory. I don't think anyone has ever successfully made a new attack animation, however. There's quite a lot you'd have to do.

not even to mention creating new scenes in order to obtain entirely new materia (if doable) I take it?

Again, it would involve a lot of work.

The game also doesn't play very nicely with new materia (i.e. it sometimes doesn't recognise spells and such).

However, you don't need to create a new scene just to add materia; there's nothing stopping you from putting materia into a scene that already exists.

[Dark_Ansem]

new damage formulas: not possible with WallMarket/ProudCloud I take it? what about the author of FF7 rebirth?

new/recolor vfx: can you post the link?

new limit break: for characters animation, yes, but otherwise I simply mean changing vfx/color of enemy attacks

new materia/spells: so if I want to create a new spell I have to junction it to an existing materia? EDIT: no "new attack" button in wallMarket, what am I doing wrong?

adding the fabled lvl 100?

adding entirely new tunes to be usable at one's own whim?

I have a bug (?) with Hojo: enemy stats can't go over 255. how can Safer sephiroth have stats over 300?

[Kudistos Megistos]

new damage formulas: not possible with WallMarket/ProudCloud I take it? what about the author of FF7 rebirth?

No, certainly not doable in Wallmarket or Proud Clod. These programs can be used to change which damage formula an attack uses, but they can't edit the formulas themselves.

The author of FF7 Rebirth (Bosola) can't change them either (I think), but he might be able to give you more pointers on where to start than I can.

new/recolor vfx: can you post the link?

Somewhere in the original TA thread (I'm too lazy to read the whole thing). sl1982/Timu/I can't actually remember who gave new textures to the spells and summons, although he didn't change the colours because the intent was to simply upgrade the original textures.

new materia/spells: so if I want to create a new spell I have to junction it to an existing materia?

That's probably the safest way to do it. Be aware that there is also a limit on how many spells can be displayed in the battle menu. The best thing is really to replace existing spells and existing materia. Think of some spells you don't need and get rid of them (I personally think spells like "remove" and "escape" are useless).

EDIT: no "new attack" button in wallMarket, what am I doing wrong?

What? Is there meant to be one?

adding the fabled lvl 100?

Very doubtful.

adding entirely new tunes to be usable at one's own whim?

Again, very doubtful.

I have a bug (?) with Hojo: enemy stats can't go over 255. how can Safer sephiroth have stats over 300?

They aren't meant to go over 255.

I can't remember exactly how Safer works, but I do remember that he has an AI script that raises certain stats when certain conditions are met, which is what makes him different from other enemies. He starts the battle with all of his stats at 255 or lower.

[sl1982]

I did redo some of the effects for spells and most of the effects for summons. Take a look at the Team Avalanche work for ideas. I believe kela51 also did some texture work on limits.

[Dark_Ansem]

any suggestion on how to start debugging? wallmarket, proud cloud and hojo all show some "unused" voices that could be used for custom damage formulas....

upgrade = make it look better? I know that someone changed the limit break texture to be blue (AC related) but I wondered if it's like in modern games, where you can actually set the color.

that would involve some heavy rebalance. is there a limit for enemy attacks too?

to create new spells/enemy skills I thought there was supposed to be a "new" button....

lvl100 issue: just being spoiled by ffviii LOL

entirely new music issue: I thought as much.

safer sephiroth stats: yes, for every lvl99 char and if Knights of the Round was used against JENOVA*Synthesis

EDIT: what about new sound effects and entirely new monsters with some custom skills (and I already have a headache for the AI)?
or an item ability that cuts MP consumption by a certain percentage...

@sl1982: checked the project section and contacted the leader but no answer yet

[Tenko Kuugen]

To create new spells in wallmarket, you have to use an existing attack. there are 127 attacks, and they're all being used.
There is no 'new' button. This isn't pokemon game hacking.

sound effects probably the same as new music. unlikely.
new monsters ( recolors ) with custom attacks has already been done. check gjoerluvs hardcore mod for that
as for an item that influences MP consumation: as doubtful as new music

[Dark_Ansem]

I was thinking more of my beloved RPGMaker than pokemon besides WallMarket author said he could implement that feature, just not to hold our breath.

all 127 attacks are used? then how can Bosola have created brand new enemy skills?

replacing sound effects unlikely? even that awful machinegun sound?

item for mp consumption=read that as item property (like "cursed" or "set up barrier and mbarrier")

about damage formulas: think it'd be more feasible to actually allow enemy damage formulas criteria rather than making up new ones? unless they are already possible...

how about unlimited summon/support materia use once the materia has been mastered? having the mp of course.

[sl1982]

Funny, I have not received any messages. And I am the leader of TA...

[Tenko Kuugen]

enemy skills =/= player skills
Most monster attacks are in scene.bin while player attacks are in kernel.bin
I can create new mob attacks in PrC pretty easily, but ADDITIONAL player skills are impossible. you can only rework the existing ones.

and no, there is no 'state' that cuts MP consumption like FF10's MP1 or MP50%
thus, you cannot give ANYTHING such an ability

And I am pretty sure the function for unlimited summon is directly related to having ALL summons i.e. master summon but others might know more about that

damage formulas are universal. there is no clear "only for enemies" and "only for player"


this isn't RPGmaker. stop trying to make it into one.

[Dark_Ansem]

@sl1982 can I send it again?

@ku
I know enemy skills are in scene.bin. but player-usable enemy skills are in kernel.

about the mp reduction state: I meant creating a new one. or again not possible to expand anything in addition to the game limits?

well, I cannot recreate Super Nova damage formula for Demi, for example. so some are different.

[nfitc1]

To create new spells in wallmarket, you have to use an existing attack. there are 127 attacks, and they're all being used.

No, there's about five or six that aren't used. They ARE worthless though since no accessible menu can access them.

sound effects probably the same as new music. unlikely.

New SFX/music should be easy in theory. I don't think anyone has really figured out the sounds in this game yet so it hasn't been done (to my knowledge).

[sl1982]

Go ahead.

[Armorvil]

To create new spells in wallmarket, you have to use an existing attack. there are 127 attacks, and they're all being used.

No, there's about five or six that aren't used. They ARE worthless though since no accessible menu can access them.

They can still be used as enemy-only abilities, though. And if you rearrange the spell order, you can make it so the two spells just below Shield appear in your magic menu. It doesn't change the fact that I *think* they'd have to take the place of another spell. I can't remember if the menu is completely full, when you equip the Master Magic materia.

sound effects probably the same as new music. unlikely.

New SFX/music should be easy in theory. I don't think anyone has really figured out the sounds in this game yet so it hasn't been done (to my knowledge).

I made this thread a while back. I discontinued work on it for now, but it works... ...The only thing is, I think my game crashed when trying to access the snoring & applaudes sounds, if they're edited (when entering the Mythril Cave or at the beginning of the play in the Gold Saucer dating sequence, I got the "oops something very bad happened"). My changes to the other sfx worked though (like the in-battle sfx).

EDIT:

I have a bug (?) with Hojo: enemy stats can't go over 255. how can Safer sephiroth have stats over 300?

They aren't meant to go over 255.

I can't remember exactly how Safer works, but I do remember that he has an AI script that raises certain stats when certain conditions are met, which is what makes him different from other enemies. He starts the battle with all of his stats at 255 or lower.

Just to make it clear : the stats for enemies are actually doubled in-game. For example, if you see in Hojo that an enemy has 255 Def, it will actually have 510 def in-game, almost nullifying physical damage. So, if you want to make an enemy halve physical attacks, you'd have to give him 128 def (because 128 x 2 = 256 = damage halved). Not 255.

[Dark_Ansem]

thanks armorvil. I'll see which abilities are the most useless in any case, before trying to add new ones.

I tried cosmo but it has gone crazy, it will open all windows at the right of the screen and not the main one.

oh? Hojo shows double stats? how come? all enemies are invincible then!

[nfitc1]

To create new spells in wallmarket, you have to use an existing attack. there are 127 attacks, and they're all being used.

No, there's about five or six that aren't used. They ARE worthless though since no accessible menu can access them.

They can still be used as enemy-only abilities, though. And if you rearrange the spell order, you can make it so the two spells just below Shield appear in your magic menu. It doesn't change the fact that I *think* they'd have to take the place of another spell. I can't remember if the menu is completely full, when you equip the Master Magic materia.

Enemy-only abilities would be redundant and worthless. Enemy-only abilities need to stay in the "enemy only action" index range of 100h - 3FFh. I THINK it can go higher than that, but I've yet to try.

Oddly enough with the Master Magic materia, it adds the two attacks between Shield and Choco/Mog as "accessible", but since they aren't in the menu you can't use them. There's only 54 spaces available in the menu and the magic menu table in the KERNEL.BIN ends with the two being placed in "magic limbo". The magic table is now confirmed to ignore the final two bytes (I just now decided to check this for the PC version ). It stops looking at them at index 35h and then the loop "magic category assigning" loop will end.

Code: [Select]

for ( i = 0; i++; i < 36 )
{
   magicassign(magictable[i]);
}Ergo, those attacks CANNOT be placed in the magic menu.

The best way to use those attacks is to link to them via the "use additional attack" effect like Blade Beam or Satan Slam does.

oh? Hojo shows double stats? how come? all enemies are invincible then!

Just the way the game works. The enemies' def is doubled when considering damage. I don't know if that's ALL stats, but I'm fairly certain that works for defense. If you want stats to go higher, you'll have to manipulate them via AI.

[Dark_Ansem]

thanks NFITC1 for the link clarification about spells.

I'm instead a bit worried about stats: so if we want to give a monster a "real" defense (both physical and magical) of 40 we'd have to set it to 20 in Hojo?

[Armorvil]

That's correct. You'd have to put 20 in both the Def and MDef fields.

[Dark_Ansem]

does this work the same way for every enemy stat? including hp?

[Kudistos Megistos]

does this work the same way for every enemy stat? including hp?

No.

[xLostWingx]

That's correct. You'd have to put 20 in both the Def and MDef fields.

How did I not know about this  Off-hand can anyone confirm which stats this actually affects?  The first 5, or first 6, or only Def/Spr?

[Dark_Ansem]

Kudos said up there that this criteria does not affect every stat. I wonder how this works in more detail, tho.

[Kudistos Megistos]

You should read Terence Fergusson's mechanics guides to learn more about how stats work.

Incidentally, player characters get a bonus of 50 to their dexterity stat. That means that an enemy with a dex stat of 150 will only be as fast as a player character with a dex stat of 100.

[Dark_Ansem]

doing that now. It does explain that thing about Dexterity, but it does not mention the fact that enemy stats are halved.

too bad there's not a guide as detailed as this per FFVIII/IX/X

[poofacetherisen]

Enemy-only abilities would be redundant and worthless. Enemy-only abilities need to stay in the "enemy only action" index range of 100h - 3FFh. I THINK it can go higher than that, but I've yet to try.

Oddly enough with the Master Magic materia, it adds the two attacks between Shield and Choco/Mog as "accessible", but since they aren't in the menu you can't use them. There's only 54 spaces available in the menu and the magic menu table in the KERNEL.BIN ends with the two being placed in "magic limbo". The magic table is now confirmed to ignore the final two bytes (I just now decided to check this for the PC version ). It stops looking at them at index 35h and then the loop "magic category assigning" loop will end.

Code: [Select]

for ( i = 0; i++; i < 36 )
{
   magicassign(magictable[i]);
}Ergo, those attacks CANNOT be placed in the magic menu.

The best way to use those attacks is to link to them via the "use additional attack" effect like Blade Beam or Satan Slam does.

Wouldn't it be possible to hack it's value and allow the program to scan 3 more values? With a hook or disassembly.