[FFVII] My first mod, need help/advise/suggestions...

[Satoh]

OK, so, here's what I want to do--

Best case scenerio:

• Replace Tifa's character with Jessie. (I am making the .p models for the battle skeleton)
• Jessie to use  Vincent's battle animations and weapons. (some weapons for Jessie will have customized models as well)
• Jessie to use Tifa's limit animations.
• Jessie will have a custom menu icon.

Acceptable compromises:

• Vincent's animations are preferable, but if absolutely necessary Tifa's will do
• In the event of Vincent not having viable animations, Tifa's weapons will do
• Customized weapon graphics, if problematic can be scrapped

Known issues:

• 3DS to P conversion is giving me trouble
• Converted 3DS models are not displaying proper textures
• My tools and FFVII installation are not on the same computer

Extra info:

• I am using simple models, similar to the defaults of the game(no hirez stuff...for now)
• If this works, I will likely do more underappreciated character conversions
• If I deem this an incredible amount of work with little reward... I may scrap it for other more important projects. (this is at MY discretion, your opinion of the amount of work will only be a suggestion. Please try to give processes as opposed to simply saying "it's too difficult")

Any help will be apprecited, I have used the search button, in case anyone thinks I haven't looked around first.

[JordieBo]

Sounds nice to me 
I'd love to get my hands on it!
Would you change the story to?
Maybe Tifa dies instead of Jessie?
Or not?

[Satoh]

Sounds nice to me 
I'd love to get my hands on it!
Would you change the story to?
Maybe Tifa dies instead of Jessie?
Or not?

Of course, I loathe Tifa. ^^

(I had another mildly funny idea... make Cloud's mother a playable character... using assorted pots pans and knives... and probably Cloud's anims...
but for now I'll stick to this...)

[sword]

Are you planning on doing a swap (Tifa and Jessie roles being exchanged) or change the story so Jessie joins the party? The former is the easist were as the latter is the harder one.

[Destiny]

Remember to take a look on KERNEL.bin file to have Tifa's limit breaks working good. But if you use Vincent animations, is impossible to let your Jessie fight with Tifa's animation during the limit  You can just put his slotmachine but when she attacks i think will be a full throttle glitch

[Satoh]

Are you planning on doing a swap (Tifa and Jessie roles being exchanged) or change the story so Jessie joins the party? The former is the easist were as the latter is the harder one.

Well... Ideally I would change the story... buuuuuut as this is a first attempt, I'm likely to fail many times... and it's already fairly convoluted to be a first mod... so for now I'll just replace Tifa altogether...

So I have to choose whether I prefer Vincent's guns or Tifa's martial arts limits...? I figured that might be the case... bah...

Is there a way to stop Jessie from transforming if she uses Vincent's limit...? (Or for that matter to disable her limit altogether?)

[Destiny]

No isnt possible, that is the limit animation. But you can mask the problem using this trick.
Open up a hex editor, and search for Chaos.Dat i cant remember the other creatures dat names, but is near Chaos.
now if you created jessie in cloud slot, because youre using jessie as main char right? Changing the dat files into cloud.dat
Now when she use the limit, will remain jessie if im not wrong but his hp will rise.
Hope this helps

[Satoh]

No isnt possible, that is the limit animation. But you can mask the problem using this trick.
Open up a hex editor, and search for Chaos.Dat i cant remember the other creatures dat names, but is near Chaos.
now if you created jessie in cloud slot, because youre using jessie as main char right? Changing the dat files into cloud.dat

I'm replacing Tifa.

So, there's no way to overwrite the actual files that are used to show animations...?

Are the battle models limked to a specific file that houses the battle animations AND the limit animations? I was under the impression that limit animations were stored separately from standard battle animations....

under that assumption, provided the bones follow a common naming convention, could I not replace all of Gallian--Chaos' body parts with duplicates of Jessie, and then overwrite the bone rotation sequences with those of Tifa's limits...? Then again... that seems like a lot of work too... it may not even be a correct assumption...

Now when she use the limit, will remain jessie if im not wrong but his hp will rise.
Hope this helps

Why would Cloud's HP change at all?

[Destiny]

The hp will change if you modify the char inside kernel3. The limit animations are stored in something like limcl2 limcl3 hvshot but i cant remember exactly the extension. All this things are keeped inside ff7.exe. Anyway search for hvshot or Blaver.dat and you will have your answer