Replacing those "XTRACHARS" with custom characters

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Is it possible to specify and add as built-in characters to a FFvTTR mod a few extra characters that one normally might have accessed via editing the init.py file of FF1 with the line

Code Select Expand

APP_ENABLE_XTRACHARS = 1


(You know...Iron Ox, Blackbird, and Supercollider? ;))

In other words, if I am doing a mod in which I might like to hide some Easter egg characters for those clever fellows who decide to edit their init.py file, how might I accomplish this for FFvTTR?

Thanks, in advance, for sharing your sage wisdom from the cryptic scriptorium. :)

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

[yell0w_lantern]

Have you considered just making a branching campaign where certain characters are 'unlocked' by completing a non-listed objective or something like that?

[Epimethee]

I thought you could set the "mock" object attribute (which hides character templates) and disable it afterward permanently through datfiles. However, in the words of Aristotle: "Doh." I forgot that while datfiles reads objects.dat (and save games), it doesn't write to it. So that wouldn't work.

Alternatively, you could maybe use hero files (FFvsTTR still support the \mod_name\heroes\ format on XP, right?): add an empty "heroes" subfolder to your mod, add your hero files somewhere else in your mod, giving them different names (say, "not_i_repeat_not_lord_arthur_saville.dds") or even packing them into a zip archive. Use Python to move/rename the files if easter egg found.

The code could be activated either by using an FFX mission plugin with the variable EASTER_EGG = 0; if a user edits the file to set it to 1, the code in the file creates the hero files. You could also have some in-game event hidden in a mission (à la basketball in FF1), which when completed, would run the code in the mission.py itself; this second approach is probably much better. (EDIT: I just realised that's exactly what Yellow Lantern just said.)

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Thanks, gents. :) This is still a bit like Swahili to me, but I grasp your general meaning and will attempt to apply its wisdom to my modding efforts, even if they brush closer to "The Nightingale and The Rose" than "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime." ;)

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

[Epimethee]

Cl-clk, cl-cllk! Clkck-cl-cl-clikclk! as they say in Swahili.

If you ever want help on the Python code for moving/renaming the files (assuming that the method you decide upon), it'll be my pleasure.