A Little ASM/Hex Help Needed~

I'm slowly beginning work on my hack again. One of the features I like to do in hacks is to use a "Class" system of sorts, and one of my characters is going to be a Bard. Now, I know this requires some in-depth editing of the game's coding, but one ability I would like to give him is an ability like Edward's Hide command from FF4. I figure the best skill to try and overwrite with this ability would be Morph, because I can use Morph to make him hide off screen and then change Revert to bring the Bard back on the screen in battles.

I saw that Zeemis had planned to this in his (now cancelled) FF4 remake hack, but I wasn't sure if he had figured it out or if anyone else had. If anyone does have any knowledge on how to start getting this done, would they be willing to possibly help me accomplish this?

zeemis is long gone man lol personally i think using something similar to the jump status would be better for the hide command, like hide causes jump2 (hide) status for 2 turns ect or until reveal is used removing status or somethin like that. seems a shame to remove an entire sprite that you could use elsewhere just for a blank space yanno

There are also other factors involved when changing morph, I forget details so I can't attempt to list.

On the other hand, wouldn't be a wasted sprite persay, the "morphed" version could be his quivering in fear hiding pose.

Have to do some looking, I seem to think this has been done somewhere.

*Edit* I don't find anything in a quick look but, something else to consider is you'll either have to do as James said and go with something the hides for X number of turns, OR have two commands (hide/unhide). Having them take the same slot is easy enough (personally a fan of doing rage/leap like that, but would require the two different commands either way.

If I remember what I'm talking about eventually, I'll share the info if you haven't whipped it by then.

hmm one pose though, over what could be used elsewhere lol.. not to forget the fact esper terra is heavily involved in the story.. its always good to have a character that changes during those scenes unless ur going really ambitious with this

Yeah, removing the esper story parts and enabling the Morph skill, also isn't it tied to Terra someother way?

That does sound like the best way to go about making it, using/replacing Morph as a base with a hiding sprite, and marking the character as untargetable until the timer runs out.

Hopefully someone here can whip this skill up for ya.

As stated above, I'd rather use Morph and Revert for this. The losing a sprite thing isn't a huge deal because, A) I only need the one sprite animation most likely, and B) I don't really plan to use the Esper form for ANYTHING in this hack. ;o

I think what James was getting at is that the pose while hiding, is just A (as in one single) pose. Which could be worked into a normal sprite sheet, (seem to recall someone using the normally blank spot with the kanji... symbols... the spot next to the tent... for a custom pose).

Anyway, if the hide pose was added to the normal sheet, the full morphed Terra sprite sheet could be used for, well anything else from a temp character to an npc. (Limited number of sprite sheets, and somebody has been to lazy to finish working in new ones). But that's another subject.

As for the skill morph, you'd also have to remove it's use from the story, or at least do some rewrites, since it is a fairly big story plot. Then you have the timer for being able to stay morphed, and the activation of the skill, recharge time before it can be used again. Maybe I'm getting my thoughts mixed but I recall morph being a whole other complicated monster vs more normal commands. As in, not just a simple rewriten command. But of course it has been awhile.

Sorry for the rambling, it probably don't even make sense but I'd think short and to the point replacing two other commands would be more direct (and versitile and less bs in the way).

As for how, (never tried that kinda thing) would you set status to similar to Jump for hide, then move the sprite to the side (instead of off screen) then set custom pose. Set untargetable, ect. Then another command, set to replace hide command in menu if hidden (think that is easy, know I've done it based on location why not status?) replace sprite graphic in row, set as targetable, autobots go! Well human chicken go!

Either way, the real issue would be how to get them out of hide if only one alive, or auto battle times, basically keep it from locking the battle? Granted the Morph timer would keep you from abusing the hide but would also stop you from using it. Not for some reason like your at full health, could be weak and just not be able to hide because you already burned your hide timer this battle.

Well, if it is simpler the changing two other skills to do this could work. The only two from the original cast that I'm honestly not using on anyone besides Morph is probably Sketch and Control. If it's easier to do with other skills, could these two pull off the Hide/Show?

Other than the scene where Relm paints Ultros (honestly I'm not sure if that is all battle event code or if it actually uses the command sketch?) But, worst case shouldn't be difficult to just skip the entire battle event.

That one scene is the only thing I can think to get in the way unless someone that has boinked Sketch/Control before knows of any issues removing them. The technical type of issues like other code referancing it.

Otherwise, I don't see any issue there.

On a later note, I dug out my old notebook to look at the code I used to make Leap/Rage use the same slot in battle (Leap as his actual command, run check, if not on Veldt replace with Rage). My use was to free up a command slot and give him fight, but Hide/Return would need a similar code else you'll have to auto return or give up two of the PCs four battle commands.

Now, my idiot self didn't comment the code when I wrote it, but some checking here might be an issue (or not).

Leap has a full on check for if it should be in the list or not. (Is on veldt? No? Do not display command) (happens at C2/543E). Simple to cut in on this case and tell it to display a different command instead of a blank slot.

Sketch on the other hand, is in a small list with others that switch based on an item. (One list for what commands, followed by a similar list in the same order with the commands they become if the relic is equipped).

Not sure where/how/when the relic check is made. I think at the start of battle, so forcing it to recheck, and change to "return" durning each turn may be tricky. Or not, Morph/Revert does it so should just have to copy that bit of code and go from there.

Summary of my gibberish and aimless rambling: Yeah should work.