Adding Additional Characters

Hi, I'm new here (sorta). I have a few hacking questions. My goal is to create a patch that adds Rydia from FF4 to FF6, hopefully with some simple dialog and a working summon command.

1) can you add characters, or do you have to replace existing characters? I know there are 2 empty spots on the party select screen, and I'm sure I remember a hack to put Leo in there. I would rather not replace anyone..

2) I played around with some rom patches a few years ago and I remember some one creating a summon command. Is there a way to make the summon spells work like in FF4? As in having a list of summon spells and a way to add new ones? Optimally I would have the summon from an esper be added to her summon list after she learns all the spells with that esper.

If anyone is interested in helping make this patch, or have some other ideas, I have the sprite work mostly done. Sorry for bein a noob

What you want to do sounds possible, to some degree. But it will require a lot of tweeks around the ROM.


1) In theory you can add characters, but it's very tricky to add data without replacing. For instance adding a portrait and sprites without overwriting existing ones will require more space in the ROM that is already quite packed. I recommend replacing an FF6 character (Gogo for instance) with Rydia, this way you have allocated space for the graphics and data required.

The two empty slots you mentioned can be used and are available in the SRM file. Technically any playable character (guests included) can occupy any slot of the party selection screen, but the issue is more about limited space for graphics then the party selection screen itself.

If you insist on adding the character without replacing anything you should look into expanding the ROM (increasing ROM size) and how to reallocate (move around) data chunks that you need expanded.


2) Apparently the summon command is in the game code but not available during gameplay, take a look at this link: http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/hack/summon.htm

It does not function as you want though but creating a summon command as you describe should be possible through ASM hacking. Creating specific learning mechanics might be quite difficult though.


I hope this gave you some answers, best of luck.

2) I played around with some rom patches a few years ago and I remember some one creating a summon command. Is there a way to make the summon spells work like in FF4? As in having a list of summon spells and a way to add new ones? Optimally I would have the summon from an esper be added to her summon list after she learns all the spells with that esper.

That would probably be me, I created the summon menu a long time ago, as well as the summons that occupy it.
https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/showth...hp?tid=376

Zeemis patch replace the lore command unless I'm mistaken. To create a summon command and keep the lore command, you need to modify the summon command and create a brand new menu through ASM.

The two empty slots you mentioned can be used and are available in the SRM file. Technically any playable character (guests included) can occupy any slot of the party selection screen, but the issue is more about limited space for graphics then the party selection screen itself.

If you insist on adding the character without replacing anything you should look into expanding the ROM (increasing ROM size) and how to reallocate (move around) data chunks that you need expanded.

This statement is right, but up to a certain extent. One of our members was able to expand the rom to add more sprites, and that would give you in theory the possibility of using more than 16 characters.

However, have in mind that the game was coded to have only 14 playable characters. Having more characters breaks the game; if you want to see more, then look at this

.

But I can state some of the many problems that arise from doing so:
(1) Only the main characters are able to equip weapons and relics. You will need to learn ASM and hack the routines in order to equip them. You would also need to edit the routines that show which characters can equip which items in weapon shops and armor shops. Characters after Umaro are not displayed in shops if you have them in your party.


(2) You need to also edit events in order to show more than 14 party members. The routines in the airship, for example, instantly erase and remove characters 15 and 16 from your party if you decide to switch members.

(3) The final battle character alignment needs to be edited in order to add the new characters.

Hello b1llygo4t and welcome to the FF6Hacking community! In order to keep this a nice and pleasant (and hopefully rewarding) experience I ask that you please carefully read the Forum Rules.

For your next thread please keep in mind rule number 6.

I hope your questions will be satisfactorily answered and have a lovely day!

thanks sute you beat me to it

Thanks for the responses!

Sounds complicated, so no one has done that before? Is it even really possible to do it seamlessly?

It would be nice to have a template patch with all of the adjustments needed for an additional character, then people could import their sprites, input the required info and create a recruit event.

@Zeemis: sounds like your patch does exactly what I'm looking for! I'll post in that thread regarding it. the patch mo6 linked to is the one I played around with years ago.

@Lord Sutebenu: sorry for mislabeling the thread. I'll try not to do it again. Can you change the name to "Adding additional character"?

I've considered doing a template patch for adding additional characters, but I haven't had the time to invest into that in the last little while. I know how to do some of it, but I'd need to pour through the dumps to find the rest of it (mostly just need to find the locations for the code.)

The only catch that I can see to doing this is that it may mean having to replace the bytes for the merit award and imp equipment -- if you've ever changed equipment properties in FF3usME you know what I mean -- to make room for lists of usable equipment for these two new characters. Other difficulties will also be placing these characters in the airship (and setting up auto-removal of equipment), in the final scenes, and wherever else you may need/want to put them. I know it seems like such an easy thing to do, but as Angelo essentially pointed out, it quickly starts to spiral out of control with more and more things to fix.

I may try this for myself after I finish the research papers looming over me. I've got a few other patches to release anyways, so maybe I'll send them all out at once.

I think it would be a worthwhile endeavor, it would give this community more building blocks. I'm new and every forum community is different so I don't know how collaborative efforts go here, but maybe the best way to do this would be in a group effort. more people to find all the little discrepancies and we could compile a list to work on. it would also help with documentation which a patch like that would need.

I don't have any experience with assembly but I can learn, I is smarts n stuff