Changing initial party at start(2 soldiers and Terra)

[CrumpledMedal]

Can you change the initial party for instance putting another character in place of Biggs or Wedge in the Magitek Armor event in Narshe.

[Subtraction]

Depends what exactly you want to do. If you just want to make one of them a different guest character, that's pretty easy.

This is the part of the event script that sets up Wedge.

Code:

CA/5E49: 7F    Change character $0E's name to $20 (WEDGE )
CA/5E4C: 40    Assign properties $20 to character $0E (Actor in stot 14)
CA/5E4F: 3D    Create object $0E
CA/5E51: 3F    Assign character $0E (Actor in stot 14) to party 1
CA/5E54: 37    Assign graphics $0E to object $0E (Actor in stot 14)
CA/5E57: 43    Assign palette $01 to character $0E (Actor in stot 14)

If you want to, e.g., make Wedge look like Kefka, you just need to hex-edit it to use name $29, graphics $15 and palette $03. Then you have a character named KEFKA that looks like Kefka but with Wedge's stats. Change the properties to $29 as well and it'll have Kefka's stats from the Imperial Camp.
If you want to make it an actual party member, that gets a little weird because they'll be overwritten by the moogles later. But if you don't care about extreme cases where you get that back character at a lower level than when they left because you leveled up a lot in Narshe and then get as little XP as possible after, you can just fake it the same way.

If you want to change the size of the starting party, you'll also have to edit some of the other events in town and the in-battle events with Whelk and Tritoch.

[CrumpledMedal]

Depends what exactly you want to do. If you just want to make one of them a different guest character, that's pretty easy.

This is the part of the event script that sets up Wedge.

Code:

CA/5E49: 7F    Change character $0E's name to $20 (WEDGE )
CA/5E4C: 40    Assign properties $20 to character $0E (Actor in stot 14)
CA/5E4F: 3D    Create object $0E
CA/5E51: 3F    Assign character $0E (Actor in stot 14) to party 1
CA/5E54: 37    Assign graphics $0E to object $0E (Actor in stot 14)
CA/5E57: 43    Assign palette $01 to character $0E (Actor in stot 14)

If you want to, e.g., make Wedge look like Kefka, you just need to hex-edit it to use name $29, graphics $15 and palette $03. Then you have a character named KEFKA that looks like Kefka but with Wedge's stats. Change the properties to $29 as well and it'll have Kefka's stats from the Imperial Camp.
If you want to make it an actual party member, that gets a little weird because they'll be overwritten by the moogles later. But if you don't care about extreme cases where you get that back character at a lower level than when they left because you leveled up a lot in Narshe and then get as little XP as possible after, you can just fake it the same way.

If you want to change the size of the starting party, you'll also have to edit some of the other events in town and the in-battle events with Whelk and Tritoch.

I got you there, this character in question isn't going to be permanent(in fact, this character is the main bad guy) the girl character I have replacing Kekfa will leave after the boss fight, so it will be a guest character. My only concern is that I don't want to have a bunch of soldier sprites looking like the girl that I have replacing Kefka later in the game.

[PowerPanda]

I got you there, this character in question isn't going to be permanent(in fact, this character is the main bad guy) the girl character I have replacing Kekfa will leave after the boss fight, so it will be a guest character. My only concern is that I don't want to have a bunch of soldier sprites looking like the girl that I have replacing Kefka later in the game.

These are writing to character slots $0E and $0F, so as long as you keep the event where those 2 characters are removed, you're fine. When you assign graphics to a character, you aren't changing the graphics for any NPCs. You are only affecting a single character slot.

Note that other than the main characters, only a handful of spritesheets have battle sprites, and the vast majority of those lack character portraits and/or the ability to ride chocobos and magitek:
Soldier - has portrait AND riding sprites
Imp - has portrait AND riding sprites

Banon - has portrait, but no riding sprites
Leo - has portrait, but no riding sprites
Ghost - has portrait, but no riding sprites

Merchant - no portrait or riding sprites
Esper Terra - no portrait or riding sprites
Kefka - no portrait or riding sprites

My patch "Everybody Gets a Chocobo" gives riding sprites to everyone except Kefka. I have not made a patch that adds portraits as of yet.

[CrumpledMedal]

Thanks Mr. Panda. I shall try this out and see what I can do.

[PowerPanda]

Allow me to make a small correction on the portraits. The 3 I listed do not have UNIQUE portraits.

Merchant - reuses soldier portrait
Esper Terra - reuses Terra's portrait
Kefka - reuses Terra's portrait

As you can probably tell, Terra's portrait is the default value. The GBA version has portraits for Esper Terra and Kefka. There is also Amano art for the merchant. If someone wanted to take on the task of turning the merchant art into a useable portrait, I could probably be persuaded to update my patch to include Kefka riding sprites and portraits for all playable characters.

[CrumpledMedal]

Allow me to make a small correction on the portraits. The 3 I listed do not have UNIQUE portraits.

Merchant - reuses soldier portrait
Esper Terra - reuses Terra's portrait
Kefka - reuses Terra's portrait

As you can probably tell, Terra's portrait is the default value. The GBA version has portraits for Esper Terra and Kefka. There is also Amano art for the merchant. If someone wanted to take on the task of turning the merchant art into a useable portrait, I could probably be persuaded to update my patch to include Kefka riding sprites and portraits for all playable characters.

It worked, I was able to get Kefka in as a temporary party member replacing Wedge. Vicks is still there though and everything plays out as normal. Question is, how can I make a patch of this modification so I can share it?

[PowerPanda]

Use Lunar IPS, and follow the steps for creating a patch.