Topic: Chillyfeez's Mods, hacks, research notes, etc.

[chillyfeez]

Well, I've re-worked my ATB counter so that it registers as a percentage of wait time (starts at 0 and reads 100 when you're ready to act).

It works perfectly. The slightly weird thing, which one will never experience under normal circumstances, is that if your wait time is over 255 (or FF), the ATB counter will simply read 0 until wait time gets to 255. I can't force this to happen on its own unless a character's AGI is 1.

I am much happier with this than I was yesterday, but there are still some cleanup tasks before I can post the patch. I'm off work tomorrow, so will likely finish then.

[Grimoire LD]

Whoa ho! I leave for a couple of days and several new hacks show up? Wow, these are fantastic Chillyfeez! While yes, they still have a few bugs here and there the idea of putting these into FFIV is absolutely wonderful!

[chillyfeez]

Glad you like.

Yeah, the running with L is definitely not as cool as I'd hoped it would be. I'm still gonna fix the fact that running gets zeroed out when you change maps, but there's still a clear feeling that you're making the game behave in a way it wasn't meant to.

I'm pretty proud of Skip with X. That one came out about as well as I could have hoped.

The ATB counter really will be the crown jewel of this set. I'm pretty sure I can have it done by tomorrow, but I don't wanna rush it.

THEN maybe I can get back to my hack. All of the stuff I've been putting out lately has primarily been the byproduct of my procrastination of setting up NPCs and events in the next town. On the bright side, I've been able to take some of what I've been doing and modify it for some unique features in my own game. I've got encounter sets that are determined by terrain - so within the same section of the world map, you face different enemies depending on if you're on desert, dark grass, light grass (and beach), or in forest. I also spun the chocobo encounters in a new direction - the Fat Chocobo resides in Eblan Castle and asks for your help in finding and taming his kin. If you catch 100 chocobos, you get a special prize. Chocobos will show up anywhere on the world map, but are more plentiful in the forest, and they travel with terrain-appropriate monsters. When you catch them, they have the ability to walk a bit further out on beaches, giving them access to some places that would be inaccessible on foot (as in, secret treasure caves).
Anyway, it's all very cool and exciting if you're me, but I've got a lot of balls in the air right now and I have to stop coming up with new ideas that I want to try. Yeah, we'll see how that goes...

[chillyfeez]

Here it is!
I can't put up any disassembly because I don't even remember everything I had to edit to make this work, but it works!
I'm not 100% positive it will patch cleanly with the previous two patches, but it should be fine with, say something that's been edited with FF4kster.

To see what it does, go into Custom in the menu.
You'll see that "Sound Stereo Mono" has changed to "Show MaxHP ATB."
Select ATB and give it a whirl!

[Pinkpuff]

I patched it to a clean rom and it works perfectly!

When I patched it to the rom I had with the other two already applied, the game bugged out and froze during battle. Not sure which it's conflicting with, but I would assume it's the X button defer turn patch since it also has to do with battle while the L button dash patch doesn't. A shame too, because those two would have synergy together. Knowing the ATB situation makes turn deferring a more useful ability; likewise, being able to defer turns makes the ATB information more useful.

[chillyfeez]

I'd wager you're right, Pinkpuff.
The empty bank I used for x-deferring is probably among the several banks used for ATB.
It should be easy enough to write a patch that combines the two. Looks like I used a long jump in x-def, so I can point to pretty much anywhere.

[chillyfeez]

Here we are.
"Enhanced ATB" combines the functionality of X-Def and ATB Meters. Seems to work flawlessly.

[chillyfeez]

"User Options" incorporates the three patches:
-Push L to toggle running*
-Push X in battle to defer your turn
-Choose between viewing Max HP and ATB meter in battle (from the Custom menu)

*I also worked in a fix so the game doesn't cancel running when you enter a new map (but still resets the speed when you enter a forest on a black chocobo, which is the only reason I can think of for that instruction having existed in the first place)

Onward and upward...

 
The link on this site was broken and has been removed, but the full (and more recently updated) User Options patch is now hosted on romhacking.net.
Click Here to Download!

  2
I've developed a patch to make User Options compatible with my Shadow Party mod. go here for the patch and instructions.

[Grimoire LD]

Three-in-one, eh? It sounds like something like this would become staples in any future hacking endeavors! Incredible work Chillyfeez!

EDIT: All three in one are positively amazing. Apart, they were good, but all three together just feels so natural and intended!

[Grimoire LD]

Hmm, I noticed a gamecrashing bug that happens when you combine the Monster LevelUp Patch and your Cache patch, when you go into battle the fat chocobo screen comes up or the game just crashes and once you leave the menu the game just crashes anyhow.

I wonder if it's something dealing with overlapping hacking code?

[chillyfeez]

Bummer.

I'm sure that's what it is. Cache was designed to work with User Options, but aside from that it was built intona clean ROM. Funny, because I plan to use it in TfW, which uses Level Up.

I should start keeping a log of all of the empty spaces I invade with my hacks in the interest of keeping them compatible with each other. Or, more appropriately, I should have done that a long time ago.

No matter, Cache is actually a pretty simple hack, so it should be pretty easy to fix.

 
I presume you made this discovery while putting together the base for your Random AI side project.
Assuming all of the other patches play nicely with each other, send me a copy (sans Cache) just before you're ready to put it out and I'll pop Cache in, in a nonconflicting location.

A word or several about the monster level up patch: balancing enemies out can be a little counterintuitive once this patch is applied. That is, if you are noticing the monsters in an are are too easy for a natural-leveled party, lowering the monsters' levels in FF4kster - even by just a couple of levels - can usually fix the problem (because the level up code will make them level up more).

[Grimoire LD]

Bummer.

I'm sure that's what it is. Cache was designed to work with User Options, but aside from that it was built intona clean ROM. Funny, because I plan to use it in TfW, which uses Level Up.

I should start keeping a log of all of the empty spaces I invade with my hacks in the interest of keeping them compatible with each other. Or, more appropriately, I should have done that a long time ago.

No matter, Cache is actually a pretty simple hack, so it should be pretty easy to fix.

 
I presume you made this discovery while putting together the base for your Random AI side project.
Assuming all of the other patches play nicely with each other, send me a copy (sans Cache) just before you're ready to put it out and I'll pop Cache in, in a nonconflicting location.

A word or several about the monster level up patch: balancing enemies out can be a little counterintuitive once this patch is applied. That is, if you are noticing the monsters in an are are too easy for a natural-leveled party, lowering the monsters' levels in FF4kster - even by just a couple of levels - can usually fix the problem (because the level up code will make them level up more).

Yep, that's when I noticed it, it seems as if everything else works great together, I'll send a copy when the time comes then.

FFIV's default levels are pretty low so I don't think I'll need to worry about that too much. It's not until Mt. Hobbs that you even run into Level 10 Monsters, hehe.

[chillyfeez]

Well, as far as I know, monster levels don't really do anything in FFIV, but they're pretty instrumental in my level up hack. They act as the basis for all stat increases.
The game will compare the monster's level against the party's average level, then creates a ratio based on that comparison by which all other stats are adjusted.
So for instance, the following happens to an (unmodified) imp against a level 10 party:
starting stats (some of them, just for example)
Lv: 3
HP: 6
Atk: 13
Atk*: 1

The game will bring the imp's level up to 2/3 the party's level - 6 , since the party is lv 10.
Since 6 is 2x the original level, all of the imp's stats will be doubled...

Lv: 6
HP: 12
Atk: 26
Atk*: 2

Though the imp will still be a wimp, the difference is noticeable. The easiest fix is to just adjust the imp's level up to 6 to begin with. That way, it'll have normal stats at the beginning of the game, and won't be quite such a behemoth when you're at lv 99.

... Did I explain that clearly?

[Grimoire LD]

Well, as far as I know, monster levels don't really do anything in FFIV, but they're pretty instrumental in my level up hack. They act as the basis for all stat increases.
The game will compare the monster's level against the party's average level, then creates a ratio based on that comparison by which all other stats are adjusted.
So for instance, the following happens to an (unmodified) imp against a level 10 party:
starting stats (some of them, just for example)
Lv: 3
HP: 6
Atk: 13
Atk*: 1

The game will bring the imp's level up to 2/3 the party's level - 6 , since the party is lv 10.
Since 6 is 2x the original level, all of the imp's stats will be doubled...

Lv: 6
HP: 12
Atk: 26
Atk*: 2

Though the imp will still be a wimp, the difference is noticeable. The easiest fix is to just adjust the imp's level up to 6 to begin with. That way, it'll have normal stats at the beginning of the game, and won't be quite such a behemoth when you're at lv 99.

... Did I explain that clearly?

Oh! I see what you mean now, yes that is an interesting way to go about it I will try to balance enemy levels so they aren't too insane then. Enemy Level is used... for a really pointless function. "Steal Defense/Status Resistance" Byte (Byte 2F)is Level +10 for all enemies. This is what Cry decreases. Yet due to the length of Status Ailments in the first place they become so worthless so quickly because of this screwed up setup. They are also used in deciding whether the party gets a Pre-emptive Strike, is Ambushed or Back-Attacked.

[chillyfeez]

Ah... I forgot about steal prevention. I think that is among the stats that is adjusted, too, though not by the ratio. The level is adjusted, then 10 is added.
I was not aware of its factor in preemptive/back attack... I wonder what kind of effect that will have when it starts making monsters lv 66...