New Tech Editor

[Dark_Ansem]

everyone's way

[Mauron]

I'm planning to do that once it's finished. I'm sending you an empty version - no actual techs, dummy names, etc, etc, etc. I may bundle this version with my hack as well, eventually.

Make sure to credit me if you release something cool.

[Dark_Ansem]

I'm planning to do that once it's finished. I'm sending you an empty version - no actual techs, dummy names, etc, etc, etc. I may bundle this version with my hack as well, eventually.

Make sure to credit me if you release something cool.

Of course, it's not like mine would be an original idea anyway... everyone wanted them

An outline of what can be achieved by mere exploiting Magus' Fire2\Ice2\Lightning2:

Magus+Chrono
FireSword 2
IceSword 2

Magus+Frog
Spire
Glacier

Magus+Robo
Super Volt

Magus+Lucca
Antipode 2
Antipode 3

Magus+Marle
Antipode 2

Magus+Ayla
Fire Whirl
Blaze Kick
Cube Toss

Magus+Crono+Frog: Arc Impulse
Magus+(2 of Crono, Lucca, Marle): Delta Force
Magus+Frog+(crono or lucca): Delta Storm
Magus+Crono+Robo: Fire Zone

[Mauron]

I just want credit for the coding work. I put a lot of time and effort into that.

Right now I'm trying to get combo tech requirements and performance groups supported.

For Tech requirements, the menu part is easy - I just need two or three tech indexes - one for each required tech.

Then there's battle. I need to set bitflags for each PC used, the first tech index for the group, the total number of techs in the group, and how many techs each PC must have learned to meet the requirements. So for a tech using Crono's Slash and Marle's Aura (Aura Throw?), those values would be 2 and 1.

For Performance groups, battle is easy. They're three bytes each, with the participating PCs' indexes, and FF for a non-participant. For Aura Throw, that would be 00, 01, FF.

Then there's the menu. Each performance group is one byte each, with bitflags for the participating PCs. The data is loaded based on the tech index of of the first tech in a group, and the tech after the last one. Then it overlaps, with the second byte of the previous set being the the first of the new set.

In short, it's confusing.

[Dark_Ansem]

It is, but it seems you apper you know what you're doing...

[Mauron]

Hopefully.

I've got most of the data loaded for US ROMs (JPN and Beta ROMs will crash in the current build - will be fixed by the next beta), so now I need to work with it.

I have a couple ideas on how to handle all the data, but I'll have to do some testing on them.

[Mauron]

I *think* I've gotten both kinds of performance groups working. Planning on doing tech requirements soonish. Right now I've got the flu, which is slowing things down.

[Mauron]

I've got the loading of combo tech requirements down, but I haven't figured out saving just yet.

The basic requirements are easy. First, save the number of techs needed to be known by each PC to learn the tech. This is handled by exporting the selected index + 1 of the tech on the requirement list. Second, save the index of the required tech in the whole list. This is done by multiplying the PC index by eight and adding the previous value.

Then comes the support data. I need bitflags for each PC used in the range of combo techs. (Marle and Crono = 0xC0) Should be simple enough. Then I need the first index of the group range of the combo techs (Aura Whirl = 0x39). Next, I need the total number of techs for the group range (Aura Whirl, Ice Sword, Ice Sword 2 = 3). Finally, I need to calculate the address of the first tech requirement data in the group range.

Plus I need to make sure that users don't accidentally create new group ranges by modifying the performance group data in the control header, or saving will crash.

This is making my head spin, so I'm slowing down on Hi-Tech for a while to work on a few other ongoing projects.

[Mauron]

I'm close to a new version, which will probably be available next week. It will also contain the first version of the readme file.

I need to verify the end of effect headers in the pre-release, and do some testing.

[Mauron]

Hi-Tech Beta 13!

There were a bunch of fixes in this version, but the most notable differences are support for tech requirements, support for any expanded tech project, and significant improvement over the handling of corrupt techs. This will hopefully only occur with older versions and the Flash Screen Color command, which is easily fixable by setting the length properly. A list of techs with invalid command nodes will be in HiTechErrorlog.txt.

There was a glitch with miss animations and expanded techs which required a rewrite of some of the patching code. If you have used Hi-Tech in an actual project, contact me so we can get this repaired. If you've just been testing, I recommend making a new test ROM.

This will hopefully be the second to last beta version. I want to add MP cost editing, and support for extra super commands and item animations.

- switched from static hit effect list to one generated at form load.
- organized code in HiTech.cs
- Relabled Player Attack Graphics Header Unknown 0x05 to Unknown 4
- Relabled Player and enemy Tech graphics Header Unknown 0x05 to Unknown 5
- Relabled Enemy Attack Graphics Header Unknown 0x05 to Unknown 5
- Added editing support for performance groups.
- Added import/export support for performance groups.
- Fixed a bug where enemy attacks would disable editing of targeting until TF was reopened.
- Fixed multiple bugs with expanded techs and miss animations.
- Added some support for pre-release animation saving (for if and when saving pre-release ROMs is added to Temporal Flux).
- Fixed bugs with loading expanded item, enemy attack, and player attack animations.
- Fixed a bug relating to loading item data.
- Added support for first empty item.
- removed support for Dreamstone - no data exists for it and later items.
- Added support for editing performance groups.
- Added support for working with new techs through ini file support.
- Rearranged some menu items.
- Fixed a bug where Hi-Tech would crash if Add Object was clicked before selecting a node.
- Replaced dummy tech creation with "invalid command" node.
- Corrected support for pre-release triple techs.
- Corrected multiple data end points for pre-release.

[sqykly]

I think I just kek'd myself.  We've been doing a lot of the same work.  I'm gonna give this a whirl and see if I can fill in any blanks, but just from reading the revision history, I think that's about all I'll be able to do.  My project started out as an attempt at a mechanics guide, not an editor, so I know stuff like how defense is affected by poison status, but have no clue how the game encodes hit areas, sprite assemblies, or AI conditions; I observe that directly and have no need to decode and re-encode it for the appendix of an FAQ.

[Mauron]

Hi-Tech Beta 14

The biggest change in this release is MP costs. The last feature needed is now Super Command expansion.

Changes:
- Changed default settings of HiTech.ini to correct end points.
- Fixed creation of HiTech.ini spelling
- Fixed issue with saving player attack effect headers
- Added support for editing MP costs. They are loaded in the relevant effect header.

Note that this version will replace any existing HiTech.ini files - if you had modified yours (I don't think anyone has a project that required this functionality), backup your settings first.

[Mauron]

Hi-Tech Beta 15!

- Fixed a bug with saving techs that used an animation index that did not match the tech index
- Fixed a bug with saving techs that were not being relocated.
- Removed some unnecessary and messy code relating to loading techs.
- MP costs now respect the hex mode setting.

[psychedelist]

With this new version, I finally was able to do what I wanted to do for a very long time, Hexagon Mist for Marle! Thank you for all the work you've put into this, it's amazing. And the other plugins, too.

Edit: ideally I'd like the screen to turn dark blue like during Ice2 tech, however I noticed that this effect is part of Layer 3 Packet effects, and since I have to use a different one for my new tech, it appears I have no access to that blue effect. Draw/Hide Shadow commands that appear in some techs don't work either. Do you happen to know if there's any way, or I'm out of luck on this?

[IHBP]

not that theres any real rush but just curious if there are any plans to make it 8thy compatible? and I believe at one time you wanted the option to give Magus some dualtechs