Old Friends - Guest Recruitment Mod

Please note, that this mod is not FULLY compatible with the new patch (namely the equipment part).

Old Friends - a Guest Recruitment Mod

Certain events in the highest tower on the furthest shore caused space-time to collapse. As a result past, present and future converged in one place - The Sandsea Tavern in Rabanastre. No one knows how nor why did it happen, but the result is rather strange. Your old friends as well as friends you're yet to make have gathered there. What's even more important, they're all eager to lend you a hand. Why won't you pay them a visit?

Basically it allows you to recruit any of the five guests as your party members. It will also allow you to call them off if that's what you wish.

Version 1. 1 added possibility to change guest's equipment and license boards. It has some restrictions, though. Guests have animations only for the weapon types they use. Which means Vossler can use 2H swords, while every other guest uses 1H+shield. There are no restrictions regarding armor, accessories and passive abilities.

In future versions I'll try to add restrictions that will undo the changes if you try to assign anything that a particular guest doesn't support, but for now just keep it in mind.

Note also, that guests have their own gambit actions, which are available in the usual menu. You can set up normal party gambits during equipment change, though, and they will stay on the guest.

Since guests do not gain LP it's tied to Vaans gains (whenever Vaan gets LP, all guests will gain it as well).

The way it's done is basically tricking the game to think it modifies party member. It's not perfect and doesn't look nice, but it works.

Guest equipment change trick

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Version log:

v1. 1b

Minor compatibility and small animation issues fixed.

• [] Guests will now have starting licenses other than "essentials", just as party members. This should fix compatibility issues with mods that remove essentials.

  [] Additional checks for negative and over 99999 LPs for guests. It should fix some rare issues.

  [] Amalia will now properly move her lips and nod when talking with Vaan. Reddas and Basch will turn to face Vossler at the same time.

  v1. 1a

  • [] Fixed starting licenses not showing up if esper licenses were already activated.

    v1. 1

    • [] added workaround for changing guest's equipment and license boards (it's not pretty, but it works)

      [] added optional version that allows to recruit Reks. Be warned, that the game doesn't like 7th party member and will occasionally drop Penelo from party if you change party in main menu (this will need a fix, e.g. leaving one other party member at the tavern)

      [] changed vbf patcher to an older version, because the new one has a bug that can lead to VBF archive corruption in some rare cases.

      v1. 0

      • [] initial release

        Mod in action

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        Installation:

        • []Place the "patch" folder in your game's data directory (where FFXII_TZA.vbf is).

          []You can replace files if you already have a "Generous Montblanc" mod there. Mods are compatible.

          []Run install.bat in "patch" directory. If anything is wrong, it will show an appropriate message.

          Uninstallation:

          • []Just run remove.bat in "patch" directory.

            Compatibility with other mods:

            • []As long as a mod doesn't change the only modified file (rbn_a16.ebp), mods will be compatible.

              []Please note, though, that it's probably best to install this mod last if you want to have multiple active. Many mods replace filesizetable_us.fst file, which will result in my mod to break. On the other hand, my mod doesn't replace the table, it just patches right values in, so previously installed mods shouldn't matter.

              Planned features:

              • []Restrictions to guest's equipment.

                []Possibility to leave party members at the Tavern.