FAQ discussion

I'm going to build up a FAQ page for new people. I already have an idea of what I'll put there but I wanted to have ideas of question that new people ask a lot to restrain redundancy in threads.

here's quickly some topics I wanted to cover:

- headers
- FF6SE requiring a headered ROM to work
- Hex editors
- patches/how to apply them
- FF3usME (overview)
- disassemblies (explanation and where to get them)
- events (quick overview with links, not a tutorial)
- ASM (quick overview with links, not a tutorial)

Anything I'm missing?

Maybe a link to ROM/RAM mapping for a basic overview of how stuff is laid out?

Maybe a link to ROM/RAM mapping for a basic overview of how stuff is laid out?

This is a FAQ. I could point to a ROM map link in a single sentence but nothing very technical will be discussed on this page. I get your point though. Thanks!

I got into modding via Neverwinter Nights and The Elder Scrolls, so I had a bit of understanding and experience getting into the modding tools for FF6, but even so sometimes the older guides or url links are dead or missing info and explanations.

The only comment and observations I can give though is I've found that those who are audio-visual learners could look at a text guide and not understand some of the things being talked about, but if you show them a screenshot or two of what you're talking about, it's like suddenly everything clicks into place and they figure out and understand how to do things.

But still, an FAQ like you're talking about would be very useful for most of those new to modding in FF6 (I know I'll be looking through it once it is up to see if there's something new for me to learn). ^_^

Neverwinter, Elder Scrolls (Morrowind FTW), and Fallout3 (only because its the same as Elder Scroll modding) is a whole different galaxy of hacking/modding.

My point, not sure how that experiance (other than the flexing of that brain muscle) while very fun stuff, will carry over into FF6 very far. Well, I guess Neverwinter editors had a little in common with FF6 as far as stats and skills went... sorta, kinda, not really. So the point is, be ready to learn new stuff, its good for ya!

As for dead links, yeah it happens over time. The FF6hacking game has been around for awhile. You'll find tue same thing if you go back and try to hack the old Neverwinter 1 and Morrowind, people come and go, hosting sites expire, videos get deleted (one of many reasons I perfer text documents). Hell try hacking FF7 PC version sometime, good stuff to do, pain to find it all.

THAT being said, one of the reasons this site and its people ROCK is because they hoard all that good stuff. Meaning if you come across dead links or missing datastuff, just ask. Someone around here has it, knows where it is at, or can help you find it.

Lastly, the way I understand it, this project was going to be a true FAQ, to get you pointed it the right dirrection to what you want to learn, not really a howto. I could be mistaken but thats what I read and would probably server a better purpose as a road map rather than a tutorial of sorts. But again, thats just the impression I got.

Regardless, welcome to the club, and good luck on your endevors, whatever they may be.

Indeed. Heh, I remember figuring out how to make original items in NeverWinter1 via the Leto 1.69 tool, which was great for allowing me to insert item flavortext and renaming things in a way which looked natural. Granted, there were some easier modules for adding various item properties and whatnot, but it still required you to be able to figure out what things did and how to apply them right to make things.

In that regard, I've found most of the various FF6 tools to be easy enough to understand and figure out and make work. Still reading up on things. I do know what I want to try on my own coding-wise after I learn up on things though*.

The only game I absolutely hated trying to do any modding on was Dungeon Keeper 2. Mainly because all the coding options and in-game triggers were undocumented, and even the one DK2 community I found that talked about hacking in that game didn't really explain what tools you had to use to do things. That was an utter nightmare to deal with when trying to create pet dungeons. >_<


But yes, I'm happy to be here, and appreciate the welcome. ^_^


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Spoiler (Click to View)

Incase you're wondering, one of the things I am going to use as my 'skill-test' to see if I understand the coding aspects right is to insert a playable Kappa character during one of the auctions. Basically one of the "Imp Robot" scenes being an actual Kappa mistaken for one of the toys and the recruitment for that character being through the auction. If I can do that without crashing the game, then I'll know I have enough understanding to mess with other things. Plus I haven't heard of someone trying to do something like that, and I know it'll involve messing with the auction codes, character introduction codes, character codes, and battle/spriting/item codes (as I'll need to ensure the character doesn't crash the game during battle, as well as remains a "Kappa" permanently, which I think would be easiest served by messing with the code of an equipable item).

That goal might be a little far to go if you are thinking about flat out adding a character. It's probably a realistic first goal if you imagine replacing a character though. I won't elaborate any more about this in the FAQ thread, however.

Already did the whole 'replacing' a character bit though (Terra and Locke were great for that, but I did try that out with some of the later characters as well). That was "Easy". Tedious at some points (especially when the sprites didn't work perfectly and I had to manually tweak things with the various tools and then test things out to make sure they worked), but really kind of easy.

Actually, I did that with the imp at the auction (on Poco's idea) not to long ago. Well sort of. There are plenty of threads regarding issues with truely adding a new character (however you can do some searching on "the 15th man" project and the "guest adder" patch and you'll see why Lockirby said what he said.

However, as he also said, it is to far off this topic to go into detail here.

*EDIT*
Please don't take this statement as a negative. It is ment as a heads up of what your getting into, and if you get stuck I can probably remember enough about doing it to offer advice/help if you hit a road block. Just wanted to clarify in case it came out wrong.