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How do I change the game completely(events, map, triggers, code, sprites and molds)?

Could someone show me where to start? Do I need specefic tools like a decompressor? I'd really like to make a new project with the FF6 engine.

Hey silverlance, how did you make that unreleased hack with the new esper system? Could you answer my above questions?

Sounds like you have no idea where to start. If you've never hacked before or have limited experience, forget it. You'll have to invest some time experimenting before working on a real project. And if you intend to make a complete game hack, forget it entirely - you'll never pull it off.

For general hacking, hunt around for documentation. Places like Mnrogar's have good links. You won't need anything more than a hex editor and an emulator to do most things, including writing assembly hacks (expect to spend a few months learning assembly before you can start writing things - maybe less if you have experience programming, it's not THAT hard frankly.) If you can program, you're going to make this a heck of a lot easier on yourself because you can just write dumping utilities now. Chances are no matter how skills a programmer you are, anyhow, you're going to make your actual changes in hex so grab a hex editor either way.

Do NOT ask for a good hex editor. If it can edit hex, it does the job and then some. Use whatever you're comfortable with, not what someone ELSE feels comfortable with. Download a few and see what works for you. Simpler editors are generally better than bloated editors because you can get work done easier.

For actual projects, plan what you want to do ahead of time. You can't afford to add things as you think of them unless you plan things out first. The Esper hack you mentionned took quite a bit of planning to implant - with two dozen empty spell slots and a completely different system, you can't just start adding new things as you thiink them up otherwise your hack will be unbalanced, lame, and will stink of newbism.

For a serious hack, make sure you have a solid grasp of what you're doing. Otherwise stick to tweaks and such.

And if you plan on changing the game engine via assembly, forget about writing anything if you haven't taken the time to poke through the game's code yet. You'll need to know how the things you want to change work. The Job hack I've written for FFV would've failed if I hadn't taken a look at how they're represented in memory first. You'd expect the game to take offsets 7E0841-3 but that's not the case. Instead it builds a strange dynamic-length structure in memory with all the known job IDs. Until figuring this out, the hack would've never been possible.

In short, practice makes perfect. Don't jump into a project until you've gotten really comfortable with working on individual bits and pieces.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."