Newbie here...

Sorry; I know this is a FFVI (III) forum, but I couldn't resist using that line from FFX.

Anyway, hello! I actually AM quite a newbie in the hacking department; I have nearly zero experience with hex editors and the like, but I'm a pretty quick study.

FFVI is my second-favorite FF game (next to IV), and as such, I'd like to just put my own personal stamp on a game I love so very much.

I'm wanting to start out simple, though: a simple sprite swap between Cyan and Leo, with maybe swapping out Shock with SwdTech.

Anything you guys could do to point me in the right direction would be greatly helpful. I've combed the site but haven't found anything relevant to my specific situation.

Anyway, glad to be here!

Welcome!

The sprite swapping and command swapping can be done with FF3usME available in the Tools section of the site or here. You can edit and import sprites in the bitmap editor and you can change an actor's commands in the actor editor.

Thank you so much!

Right now, the only problem I'm having is actually running FF3usME. I can open and expand the ROM, but when I try to save it, I get an error message that says, "Seek failed on (location)." I've tried changing the ROM's location, but I get the same error message.

Any advice on how to fix that?

I never got that problem. Actually you don't need to expand the ROM to make the changes you want. Try to save after making a change without expanding the ROM.
I doubt it but maybe there is a problem with you file, try with the FF3us ROM available here

Yeah, that was exactly the problem. Thanks for the link!

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How do I alter menu screen portraits? I figured it'd be under the sprite editor but I'm not seeing it.

Capt. Catchphrase I have two things to say:

1. Welcome to FF6hacking, we are happy to have another addition to our community!

2. Please read the rules on the Announcements sub-forum; for a smooth transition and to better serve you we ask that you make thread titles which are relevant to the information you need.

Welcome to the forum, nice to meet you. As per a full answer to what you want to do, it is and it isn't very difficult. You just may run into a few discouraging little snags along the way...

The good news is that some the stuff you are planning on doing is pretty straightforward. You can easily do a swap of the sprites using FF3usME or FF3se (the sprite editor with the atma weapon icon). Lord Sutebenu made an amazingly helpful guide for using FF3se, found here: https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/showth...hp?tid=667
I recommend FF3usME for switching these sprites because it doesn't seem to muck about with your palettes when you import things.

However, here's the bad news, you will run into some issues with palettes when you switch these characters. A character not only has a sprite, but also has a palette which assigns the correct colours to that character. Cyan uses palette 04 and Leo uses palette 00, which are very different colour combinations, and their respective sprites are pretty incompatible with these palettes in my opinion. That is to say, they look kind of tacky and bad with each others' palettes. So when you switch out these characters you will probably want to also swap their palettes, which means doing a little bit of hex editing. Again, we have a really great thread that can tell you much about what you need to know about this, by Poco Loco (https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/showth...hp?tid=730.)

Things get a little more frustrating too that when you are altering an NPC's palette you can't just alter the information given in Poco Loco's thread, you will also have to alter the map data for each instance this character appears as an NPC in the game. So for Leo you will need to manually change his palette at the Imperial Camp, Vector, Tzen, the boat ride, and Thamasa, and any other place he appears. I know, frustrating right? But doable. You will need a different program for this, and that is FF6LE (FF6 Level Editor.) Also don't alter the same rom using FF6usME and FF6LE as it will corrupt your data, you will need to make a patch for the map changes and the other changes and apply them to the same rom.

If you want to avoid all that palette trouble I strongly recommend trying to swap Leo with a different character who uses the same palette as him, such as Edgar, Sabin, or Celes. This way you can avoid a lot of the messy details of switching palettes and all of that, but this can be a good learning experience for altering characters and a little introductory hex editing. If you need any help with this I'd be happy to answer whatever questions I can.

As for the other details like changing SwdTech with Shock, that is a cakewalk. You can do that with FF3usME very easily through the "actor editor" tab. FF3usME is a very powerful tool and can also allow you to change character names, equipment lists, stats, abilities. If you are feeling bold you could even keep Leo with SwdTech and alter the abilities themselves to give him a totally new skillset.

I hope this was helpful to you. Please ask questions if you need clarification, I feel like I dumped a lot of info on you here.

Yeah, I ran into quite a bit of trouble when running into Cyan and Leo's non-battle sprites. Changing those palettes was easy; trying to change the others will be quite hard. But I'll make those changes when I get a little more familiar with patching and hex editing.

Thanks for linking that guide. It was a big help.

My ultimate goal is to create a brand-new version of FF6. Custom monsters, characters, sprites, etc. But, I'm still new. At least it's fun learning. Thanks again!