Timers and Status Durations

I was assigning the negative statuses to equipment via the Item editor (in the adv tab) to try to quickly inflict my characters with effects. It seems like the second row of statuses (Condemned, Image, Mute, Berserk, Muddle, Sleep, etc) cannot be applied to weapons, but will work when checked on anything else (Shields, Armor, Helmets, Relics). I didn't try them all out, but the first row of statuses seem to work on weapons. For example, I checked off Stop on a weapon and the character equipping it started with Stop in a battle.

In the In-battle character properties initialization routine, the two status bytes (16 status) are treated the same way regardless of the item type. They are later used to apply status to the character, which means both status bytes should work with weapons and armors/relics.

Code:

Prior in the function, there is no branching on the item type...
$3C6C and $3C6D are later used to apply status to a monster or characters (monsters share those bytes too).

C2/28BF: A5 BC        LDA $BC ($11BC)
C2/28C1: 9D 6C 3C     STA $3C6C,X      (Equipment status byte 2) <-- "status 1" in FF3usME
C2/28C4: A5 D4        LDA $D4 ($11D4)
C2/28C6: 9D 6D 3C     STA $3C6D,X      (Equipment status byte 3) <-- "status 2" in FF3usME

Also, is it possible to make a character start with one of those statuses innately without the use of equipable items? For example, making a character start with Condemned status every battle. I searched around a bit and it sounds like things like Dog Block and Magi-Tek can be applied through events but I couldn't find anything for certain statuses such as Condemned.

Yes, you can apply outside battle status throught events. There are 3 event commands for this:

Code:

88 : 4    : Remove actor A's statuses B. B is a 16-bit bitfield of statuses, where a clear bit means to remove it (set bit means ignore it).
89 : 4    : Inflict actor A with statuses B. B is a 16-bit bitfield of statuses, where a set bit means to inflcit it (clear bit means ignore it).
8A : 4    : Toggle actor A's statuses B. B is a 16-bit bitfield of statuses, where a set bit means to flip it (clear bit means ignore it).

The possible status to apply are those:

Code:

Status byte 1                        
bit 0: Blind
bit 1: Zombie
bit 2: Poison
bit 3: magitek
bit 4: Vanish
bit 5: Imp
bit 6: Petrify
bit 7: Wounded

Status byte 4
bit 0: Rage
bit 1: Freeze
bit 2: Life 3
bit 3: Morph
bit 4: Spell
bit 5: Hide
bit 6: Interceptor
bit 7: Float

So, as an example:

89 01 03 80: Apply Blind, zombie and Float to character 01
88 01 00 80: Remove all status from character 01 except float (will remain if already applied)
8A 01 FF 00: Toogle all character 01 status on status byte 1

Frankly, I think some status on byte 4 might not work because they are in battle status only...

Hope it helps!