[PC] Enemy editor - IFRIT (0.11C)

[Jordancyre]

Rez-ing this thread...  So one thing that always bothered me was the fact that you gain no exp from bosses in this game.  I thought it would be cool to gain one level for each boss fight.  So i used Ifrit to edit the bosses' exp to 1000 each boss but it did not reflect in the game.  Am I doing something incorrectly?  There was a little bit of learning curve when it came to this program but overall i think it's way cool!  once i get it to work that is lol

[Shard]

Boss battles have a special set of flags that get set in scripting, and one of those flags is "no XP gain." You'll have to edit all the fields to change it.

I don't know why Square did it that way. It seems better to just set the boss' individual XP to 0.

Since the FF8 voiceover project will be the first major mod to edit events, I can change the bosses in it to allow XP gain to make it compatible with battle/difficulty mods (in addition to the other eventing improvements I'm making).

[Jordancyre]

Nice, So yes it is possible but not currently with this utility?

[bgh251f2]

Someone can tellme how can i open balltle.fs to get .dat files?
The link posted by obesebear doesn't work.

(Sorry for my bad english  )

[Maki]

Someone can tellme how can i open balltle.fs to get .dat files?
The link posted by obesebear doesn't work.

(Sorry for my bad english  )

You could use Deiling. Find it here in TOOLS category.

[gjoerulv]

Someone can tellme how can i open balltle.fs to get .dat files?
The link posted by obesebear doesn't work.

(Sorry for my bad english  )

Actually, you can extract and pack the files with Ifrit.
Extract: Tools -> Extract .... -> *select files/folder.
Pack: Tools -> Pack... -> selectfolder with files -> select dest. folder.

Keep in mind the help file isn't 100% up to date, as it says it needs a 3rd party program.

[bgh251f2]

Thank's for the help and for the programs, i solved my problems.
Now my wish to have ffviii with stronger enemies is become real 

[eXistenZe]

Hey there... Great tool...
Where can I find the ability list for magic/item/custom etc...
Is there a hidden flag for ability order/randomness in battle?

[eXistenZe]

Since this clearly messes up the dat files after a while, I'll have to wait for a new version...

[gjoerulv]

Never seen that happen before. Do you remember what you did? I see the file order is messed up. How you extrect the files?
edit: Do the error persist if you close and re-open the program?

[eXistenZe]

Extracted the files with ifrit.
The errors persist after close re-open.
Here are the files if you want to take a look:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekk80cwsu2f7i6r/extracted.7z?dl=0

I was changing the stats to make a hardcore play. I noticed the error when moving from vysage to bahamut.

[Meltigemini]

Hi everyone!

I had that same issue, some .dat files were damaged when editing. That is why I recommend to do the following (Hope the instr is not too long!)

1. Always keep a backup copy of the original battle.fs/fl files in a separate location!!!
2. When you find out that one of the .dat file is damaged, go to the dir where you have extracted them
3. Delete damaged files
4. Use Ifrit's tools to extract ONLY the removed .dat files from the original back-up battle.fl (select one at a time, in the case before my message, 19.dat 47.dat and 76.dat)
5. Try again, do NOT give up 
6. Now you should be able to edit again without bizarre effects
7. All other edited .dat files have NOT lost  user made modifications, so you "lose" only the damaged files.
+ I found this out when my game crashed when it tried to load Creeps' data, found out the file was damaged (it tried to load Elastoid's data o.o ) Did the delete-extract-replace and now, everything OK!

And to the other message about magic list, I found out the following

Select "MAGIC" from the list, ability # of your choice and Animation should be #11
Use the draw list in the tool! The abilities are in order, example 1. ability is Fire, 11. Aero, 23. Curaga and so on. Make a txt file with the list in order, and number every skill. That way you can modify the magic spells enemies use.
Ability      Anim.
31            11      = Reflect
16            11      = Meteor
Same goes for the items, however I am not 100% sure about Anim number in Items.


I hope this helps, I am very new to this forum, and so far I have only modded FF9.
English is not my native, greetings from frozen Finland <3

[eXistenZe]

Thank your for your feedback...
I'll try again one enemy at a time.
A list for magic/item/custom would be really nice...

[Kefka]

I played around with exchanging attacks for certain enemies a while ago, and so far this is the attack ID list I found out so far (it's far from complete, though):

Spell IDs:

1: Fire
2: Fira
3: Firaga
4: Blizzard
5: Blizzara
6: Blizzaga
7: Thunder
8: Thundara
9: Thundaga
10: Water
11: Aero
12: Bio
13: Demi
14: Holy
15: Flare
16: Meteor
17: Quake
18: Tornado
19: Ultima
20: Apocalypse
21: Cure
22: Cura
23: Curaga
24: Life
25: Full-Life
26: Regen
27: Esuna
28: Dispel
29: Protect
30: Shell
31: Reflect
32: Aura
33: Douple
34: Triple
35: Haste
36: Slow
37: Stop
38: Blind
39: Confuse
40: Sleep
41: Silence
42: Break
43: Death
44: Drain
45: Pain
46: Berserk
47: Float
48: Zombie
49: Meltdown
50: Scan
51: Full Cure
52: Wall
53: Rapture
54: Percent (Dummy)
55: Catastrophe (Dummy)
56: The End

Enemy Ability IDs:

2: physical attack
308: Light Pillar
309: Gravija
378: Ultima (enemy version)
380: Quake(enemy version)

I haven't looked into all enemy abilities that thouroughly yet. Note that there are secondary "enemy only" versions of the Ultima and Quake spells which are more powerful than the regular versions that are available to the player. Certain bosses like Adel, Ultima Weapon or Omega Weapon use those instead of their regular version.

Also keep in mind that currently there is no way to change the target of a magic, for instance, if you replace a single-target attack like Fire with a multi-target one like Ultima, it would still only hit one single target. This is because the targetting for each attack is located in the enemy's AI script, and currently there's no way to edit that. But perhaps a future version of Ifrit will be able to? I'd be looking forward to it.

[eXistenZe]

Nice... Thanks...
Interesting fact... You can change the monster dat and repack the file while the game is loaded without the need to restart the game... Very usefull to test some changes within seconds (and in areas where load is not available).
Maybe (just maybe) the corruption I got was from changing the monster's name (I put an * to mark the monster I was on the list). I now know that it corrupts my files nearly 50% of the attempts.

Right now is there a way to change when an attack is used (counter, ordered, random, etc)?

Fighting a 2000hp very fast and very resilient bite bug in the beginning is fun (for 3 times the exp, of course, since it takes a lot of time)... Also makes me check and memorize the magic vulnerabilities, instead of mass X for attack...

[Kefka]

Right now is there a way to change when an attack is used (counter, ordered, random, etc)?

If FF8 is anything like the other FFs, then this should all be in the enemy's AI script, too. I know it is that way for FF4, FF5, FF6, FF7 and FF9. Right now, Ifrit only allows you to change the attack list, but not when the enemy uses it. Hopefully a future version of Ifrit will allow us to edit enemy AI, this is something I'm wishing to do, too.

[gjoerulv]

There is obviously something wrong somewhere though. I did test the program quite extensively before v0.10 (when I added ability editing etc.). However changing enemy names could be tested more (i.e. naming an enemy "♂↓ù╚" would probably not work).

The abilities that are from kernel magic probably has the same order as, for example, draw order. 1 = fire etc. (as kefka posted).
The reason there is no dropdown here is that I don't know the custom ability names.

Raw AI editing shouldn't be too hard to add.

Edit: The problem with those "bad files" is that they get too small; chopped down somehow.
Edit2: Or maybe not... The error is thrown because the pointer value to the data gets a too high value somehow.

Edit3(lol): @eXistenZe
It looks like when you edited Sacred and Fujin it went bad. Do you remember anything you did to those files (63 and 119)?
See 1st post for a new version. It does not fix the potential saving issue, but it does prevent bad files messing up further process.

[eXistenZe]

Nothing out of the ordinary... Just changing stats... Those specific files I believe also had changes in abilities (from the boss hardcore patch I manually copied some).

[eXistenZe]

No news from this tool?
FF8 dev scene is kind of stalled in these last months...

[gjoerulv]

Unless there is new documentation in regards of enemies I'm kinda stuck. I have no time investigating myself, sadly.

Why did I not name this program Lunatic Pandora?

Do you still experience bugs eXistenZe?

[eXistenZe]

Nope. I was waiting for new versions of all mods to test FF8 again.
Just a few suggestions for future development:
- Replace id numbers with the actual meaning (spell names, animations, etc)
- Separate the specs tab into multiple tabs (one for str, mag, etc, one for elements and status, etc)
- Some general help info would be nice
- Integrate a graphical curve for stat progression

Also, if I'm not mistaken, you made a bloody good hardcore mod for ff7. Is one for ff8 on the way?

Best regards.
-

[gjoerulv]

Hmmm, stat curve actually sounds fun to make. More userfriendly to boot.

1 tab for each stat... Hmm, sounds kinda redundant to me. Maybe if you could give me a screen sample (made in paint or whatever). If you have any ideas on userfriendly improvement it would be awesome. 
Remember, you can keep the stat progression window open while editing stats. I could make a stat curve window...

General help... I know, the help file is a bit outdated.

[Sysnel]

First of all, awesome tool gjoerulv!

(Sorry for possible spelling mistakes, my native language is spanish)
I've encountered two problems with the editor that I haven't seen mentioned in the thread (or I'm blind  ):

1· In the last version (v0.11b), when I tried to extract .dat from battle.fs, after selecting the file in the Browse section, it throws me this error, although it seems to open the file:



Translated: The value can not be null. Parameter's name: items

And when clicking in extract valid files, it doesn't do anything except that when several seconds passed, the typical .NET Framework error showed (Unhandled exception has occurred in your application...). After that, I reopened the tool and the above error always shows now after selecting 'Tools > Extract File(s) from battle.fs...', without being able to select again battle.fs. And when trying to use older versions of Ifrit (0.10 and 0.11), the same problem happens.

This happened when I was using the battle.fs from the spanish folder, so in another computer (since in the previous computer I can no longer select the file) I used the battle.fs from the english folder but again the same order of errors showed.

I don't know what caused these problems, but in the meantime I've been using Deling to extract .dat files, and I can open them in the program, so the error only happens if I try to extract from your tool.

2· As my language has special characters (Áá Éé Íí Óó Úú Ññ), it seems that some of those doesn't show up correctly inside the editor, showing instead '=\n' or '=n':



Monsters with problems: 'Álagar', 'Mordélago', 'Guésper', 'Túlipo', and others that doesn't appear in the image. But it seems that the 'ó' character appears correctly (green circle). Anyways, I don't have intention of modify monster names, so my question is: If I edit data from the monsters that have this problem, although I won't touch the name, it can corrupt the file?

[eXistenZe]

Hmmm, stat curve actually sounds fun to make. More userfriendly to boot.

1 tab for each stat... Hmm, sounds kinda redundant to me. Maybe if you could give me a screen sample (made in paint or whatever). If you have any ideas on userfriendly improvement it would be awesome. 
Remember, you can keep the stat progression window open while editing stats. I could make a stat curve window...

General help... I know, the help file is a bit outdated.

Sorry... I didn't mean one tab for each stat, but one tab for stats attributes, and one tab for status and elements.
Oh... You really don't wanna see my drawing skills... It would take longer to decode my drawing than to make a whole new FF8 engine.
The help could be in the tab itself (a hidden expandable frame on the bottom, for example).

[gjoerulv]

@Sysnel
Can you send me those battle.fs files? Upload to mediafire or something (zipped) and pm me a link. I just tried on a original and steam version of ff8 and I have no problems. I'm guessing it may have something to do with those special characters.