blitz, swordtech, and other battle animations

I was thinking about changing the intro animation for "black" magic spells, but this brings up a major problem: in the encounter between Kefka and Emperor Gestahl on the floating continent, Gestahl uses a similar animation, but it is not affected by changing the black magic intro animation in FF3usME, nor does information pertaining to this encounter seem available on that utility. Does anyone know where in the ROM this information is, and how one would change Gestahl's casting animation?

You might want to check the All about battle events thread which provides the information you are looking for.

The Black Magic Spell animation is done via a battle event; the event code for such a special animation is

Code:

0D XX 00 01

I am a little bit rusty, but I believe the battle event for Kefka vs. Gestahl in the floating continent is located here:

Code:

D0/983C: 38 C8       (D0/C838)   Kefka vs. Gestahl, Floating Continent

Also, regarding Magic intros, there are of course two: one for white magic, and one for black. How does one go about changing which spells use which intro? Also, is it possible to create a third magic intro? In my hack, I separate magic into three classes with eighteen spells each: Black, Time and White. Most of the major problems in this endeavor (proper menu display, using spells outside of battle, and the functionality of Imp, Condemned, Banon's Health, Roulette, etc.) are solved and, happily, no longer an issue.

BUT, currently, the first 24 spells utilize the "black" magic animation, meaning the first six "Time" magic spells do as well. Ideally, each of the three classes would have separate animations, but I'm leaning towards either changing the pointers to refer only to the first eighteen spells, or (my last option) simply changing the white magic animation, to be identical to the black magic animation.

I have been wanting to tackle this for some time now, but I believe some code needs to be changed in C2 to change the number of black, white and gray spells. Wish I could help more XD

Also, regarding Magic intros, there are of course two: one for white magic, and one for black. How does one go about changing which spells use which intro? Also, is it possible to create a third magic intro? In my hack, I separate magic into three classes with eighteen spells each: Black, Time and White. Most of the major problems in this endeavor (proper menu display, using spells outside of battle, and the functionality of Imp, Condemned, Banon's Health, Roulette, etc.) are solved and, happily, no longer an issue.

BUT, currently, the first 24 spells utilize the "black" magic animation, meaning the first six "Time" magic spells do as well. Ideally, each of the three classes would have separate animations, but I'm leaning towards either changing the pointers to refer only to the first eighteen spells, or (my last option) simply changing the white magic animation, to be identical to the black magic animation.

I have been wanting to tackle this for some time now, but I believe some code needs to be changed in C2 to change the number of black, white and gray spells. Wish I could help more XD

I found this at one point, but I don't think I made notation of it at the time cause it wasn't what I was looking for. There is somewhere that defines how far each set of abilities goes and jumps to the appropriate ability type. I don't remember if it was in C1 or C2 tho, probably both >_<. I believe it was a type of data table. Sorry, I'm really rusty, been a few months since I did hacking... It starts high and works its way down so that Black magic is the default if no other path is taken. That's all I can remember at the moment.

Try searching C1 for the addresses found in FF3MDE for the intro animations. If you are able to find them, look around for conditions for which is selected. If its not all calculated right there, keep your eyes open for a LDA that pulls from something in the C2 bank where a data table might be. If you find the data table, it should be as simple as renumbering each cut off...

That being said: If you extend or shorten a list, they still need to be consecutive, You can't just add the black magic animation to Goner or anything like that. What you would need to do is completely reorder the list so that Goner was at the end of the Black Magic list, then alter the number so that Black magic extends one spell ID further. It would be a tedious task for sure, espectially since you would then need to make sure every spell you changed got their ID fixed in each of the monster scripts that use them.

On the plus side, it would be an excellent exercise in learning how abilities work and how they game interacts and deals with those things.

Hope this helps.