Changing Sprites and Palettes

[Rainflush]

Hello everyone (anyone?), it seems it's time to make another update to my FF3US ROM, and this time I'd like to add a challenging Monster-in-a-Box battle somewhere in World of Balance. To this end, I configured Enemy #1 (Soldier) to also serve the function of Enemy #377 (The Soldiers from Terra's flashback with Kefka), freeing slot #377 for a new encounter. The trouble now is that Terii Senshi's wonderful Sprite Editor no longer recognizes my ROM (nor does it recognize an untouched, unheadered FF3US1.0 ROM, so perhaps this is a header issue?), so I have to find some other way to change the appearance of the sprite from a Soldier to something more suitable. I expect this would be rather straightforward, likely just the adjustment of a couple values, though if anyone could inform me as to where to look or what needs to be done, I would of course be most appreciative.

Thank you!

[Assassin]

if you want to assign an existing sprite and palette to the enemy, try overwriting its entries in the 0x127200 (headered address) table:
http://www.angelfire.com/pq/jumparound/ ... tBmTmp.txt

fun fact: me being too lazy to do this is why i still haven't released a modified version of Djibriel's Pugs Rage patch. (he swaps the foe with Cactrot, and did so by switching the sprite contents rather than the pointers.)

[Rainflush]

Hrm, it seems I've been able to get Terii Senshi's sprite editor working with the ROM by adding a header of 200 bytes with HxD; presumably if I implement the change now and delete the header after I've altered the sprite, the ROM should work as intended? As I recall, I clipped the header as to address the damage overflow bug.

[Assassin]

it probably should, yes.. but it might be overkill that'll needlessly change a ton of data. are you trying to give #377 a different, existing sprite, or are you editing its sprite to something not found in vanilla? if the former, you're better off just changing the values i mentioned.

[Rainflush]

I just want to replace the Soldier sprite with an existing sprite and alter the palette, though yes, I was somewhat concerned about the possible implications of adding a new header to a ROM which has been altered significantly since it was removed. However, unfortunately don't presently know how to locate and change the necessary values, as it's been some time since I've effectively utilized the hex-editor, and I've never been very good at it.

[Rainflush]

In any case, I suppose it's worth a shot, better to try the surgical approach rather than potentially scramble the code. What can you tell me about how this information (Enemy #377, Sprite Image #1, et cetera) is represented in hexadecimal format? Take the Soldier (Enemy #1) for example, in what order is his sprite and palette information designated? I'd like to get a better idea of what I'm looking at here.

[Assassin]

the document i linked explains the data format, and even uses Soldier as an example. to find a monster's address in the block, use 0x127200 + (5 * monster_index).

[Rainflush]

I'm sure it's quite straightforward when you understand the terminology, I'll just need a little while to direct my proper attention thereto. Considering what I want to accomplish, is all the necessary information contained in this document or would I also need access to FF3usTileSetup.txt, FF6pals.txt and SnesTileBm.txt?

[Assassin]

since all you're changing is the palette, you should just be able to copy the 5 bytes from the other monster's template, then modify the 4th one as needed.