Messages

2671

Game Modification Station / Re: Create a Bugfix Patch/Hack for All FF4 Versions?

« on: March 27, 2008, 03:45:41 PM »

Ah...I see...

Well...you could swap Porom's stats for Rosa and replace Porom's with Rosa's...

Well, I forgot to mention about the Hero Shield. Rosa doesn't have a viable weapon equivalent (unless you consider the Life/Sage Staff or Silence Staff)... That in itself is enough to boost Porom to insane Agi levels.

But I think it's unfortunate that there aren't set stats past LV. 70...I mean ok...every time you play it's slightly different...but there's enough "randomizing" in the HP and MP for my taste on that aspect...

For HP/MP, I don't think the differences are drastic.. one of the linked docs somewhere deep in the forum plots max HP/MP growth.. it's not that drastic by any means, but I like it the way it is. Fixed HP/MP feels more like FF5/6, which feels like meh. Oh well.

Otherwise, giving Rosa (and Porom too) access to better weapons in the classic SNES game is just a Byte change. In fact I was noticing that white mages in FF4 classic can only use staves and bows (except little Rydia but she's special). Even Tellah and Fu are exempt from daggers. That's a change worth making. As we discussed elsewhere, giving Rosa access to some select swords isn't an altogether outrageous idea either. I have a mind to create Rosa a special sword just for her that will be a rare random drop in the Lunar Subterrane which will give a good stat bonus.

Fu? I think I took some of that idea and tweaked it in my post.

But in your example I assume you mean the "uber" assassin dagger in FF4A, which for the classic game is just a matter of making an uber assassin dagger in the FF4A mould out of the existing unused one and making it available to her. Or I guess one could make the Artemis bow better to keep (Rosa or a white mage with the AIM command) aiming and firing...?

I guess the unused weapon could be accessible somehow.. but that's not the point. I'm trying to compare the discrepencies between the two characters. Rosa's HP growth is needed because her max magic defense multiplier stays at 5 unless you use a Sage/Silence + Minerva Robe combo or get a friggen lucky Artemis Bow drop to go with the White Robe/Dress. Rosa needs that HP growth in FF4A, Porom doesn't. In FF4, only Rosa needs minor bonus tweaks to Agi (or slight stat growth changes)... Porom needs the overhaul... that's just my view on the matter. Then again... Porom's Cry command needs to drastically be more useful... though I have a crazy idea. Give her Palom's Boast command and rework Twin (when she's alone) to cast some of Palom's spell set (I forgot to write this idea earlier)...

All level 3 elementals,
Bio/Virus,
Quake,
Break,
Death,
Weak/Tornado

Same idea as Palom.. just rework Tellah's "Recall" command to a different spell set with greater success.

2672

Game Modification Station / Re: Create a Bugfix Patch/Hack for All FF4 Versions?

« on: March 27, 2008, 02:33:31 PM »

Well, there's a difference from making them distinct and making them the exact same. 

Porom's equipment choice in FF4A is much better than FF4. FF4A allows Porom to use the Assassin's Dagger plus a number of better options for Agility increases.

They both start with almost the same Agility at level 70 (Porom has 33, Rosa has 22) with Rosa having better overall stats.. though Porom having a bit more Will (Porom 75, Rosa 71).

Porom's weaponry can increase Agility, in the form of the Assassin Dagger (+15 Agi), where Rosa's only option to increase Agility via weaponry is the Artemis Bow (+10 Agi). They both have similar armor sets that increase Agi equally there. The Agi is critical for me though...

If you were to use FF4's equipment data, Porom literally has the same equipment set Rosa has (I could be wrong, but I believe this is the case). This factored with Porom having weaker starting level 70 stats by comparison.. it becomes apparent that some equipment (and preferably stats) have to be heavily tweaked.

I hadn't really noticed the level up data to be that significant before.. but maybe I'm underestimating Square when they did them since they are done pretty well and scale correctly until post level 70 (where there's almost no guarentee that Rosa has 99 Will Power via random chance).

2673

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: "Heal/Medicine" Command

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:51:45 AM »

I'm not even sure why this command gets attention, when Pray could be beefed up to use Cure2/Cure3 instead (the Cure3 version to have an increased hit/success rate and used later). Replace Sing with this and Edward sucks less (his Will Power sucks early game to be viable, but can be maxed out late game).

Also, if you still plan on wanting Edward, why not evict Tellah from this Shadow RAM? It's not like him gaining levels dramatically improves him at any point of the game... so creating a new instance of the character might not be so bad.

2674

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Immunity, Darkness Elemental, and Critical Hits

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:48:33 AM »

Yang and fists in general..

Base Attack Power += Base Attack Power * 3/2

2675

General Discussion / Re: Paladin...

« on: March 26, 2008, 07:06:14 PM »

I finished this hack... too bad not much of significance was changed overall.

The graphics do look occasionally strange in battle, which is the only common bug.

2676

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4A question.

« on: March 26, 2008, 05:20:04 PM »

I'm not sure if the emu is the problem with my testing, but the reaction to input when the battle speed is maxed in active mode is reduced a bit.

A bit, but it's still pretty slow compared to the SNES version. I knew about the problem for years, early on playing FF2us I realized that if I had Kain jump and just sit at the next character's command window he'd come down a lot faster.

I hadn't really noticed that too much.. I generally noticed the result of the effect which was inputting more commands and slowing down the timers for some (like Jump, Build Up, Reflect and Count status).

I'm guessing this same problem is what makes the Avenger and berserk status so useless in the GBA version compared to the original.

That's more of a result of the ATB bug making it useless. It works fine in the Euro version, but the menus become less responsive then too...

2677

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4A question.

« on: March 26, 2008, 06:55:57 AM »

Read: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=455.0

2678

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4A question.

« on: March 25, 2008, 06:36:13 PM »

I'm not sure if the emu is the problem with my testing, but the reaction to input when the battle speed is maxed in active mode is reduced a bit.

2679

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4A question.

« on: March 25, 2008, 06:29:31 PM »

The GBA version does have some pretty bad ATB bugs...

Not in the European version.

The Euro version added/changed one bug of its own unfortunately.

2680

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: The Other Holy Grail - Attack Algo

« on: March 25, 2008, 06:04:30 PM »

Updated hit rate data to support new hit rate findings in this thread: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=455.0

2681

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF2/4 Unknown Weapon Bits

« on: March 25, 2008, 05:48:50 PM »

Here's some related info on the back row bit, written in a separate thread - http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=455.0

2682

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / The Back Row Bugs...

« on: March 25, 2008, 05:32:17 PM »

Ok, apparently the devs have dropped the ball.. multiple times.

SNES version - The back row bug for this version of the game is simple. If you equip a back row compatible weapon on a character, it is not unset when you switch to a non-back row compatible weapon.

This bug is very beneficial except that most of those weapons have the "disable critical bit" enabled which is the tradeoff. This bug occurs for all versions w/o exception.

Note: The "disable critical hit" bit is only available in the SNES version.

Characters that are unaffected are Tellah and Yang, since they do not have a back row compatible weapon.

Characters who are automatically inflicted with this bug include Rosa (initially) and Rydia (when she comes back).

Edge needs both hands to have equipped (at one point or another) a Boomerang weapon to take advantage of this bug.  This also implies that both hands need to be "back row" compatible for the benefits to stick when both hands have a weapon. This is the same reason why bows+arrows have that bit set.

GBA Version - There are two different back row bugs.

GBA US Version (probably includes Jap v1.0) - The back row bit is not adhered to at all, thus making normally back row compatible weapons to decrease hit rate.

GBA Euro Version (probably includes Jap v1.1) - The back row bit is not adhered to at all, thus making the either row deal the same amount of damage. The back row bit is effectively useless in this version.

What I've learned from all of this:

Back row incompatible weapons reduce hit rate by 1/2.

Attacking enemies that are "considered" to be in the back row also reduce hit rate by 1/2. This penalty is stackable with back row incompatible weapons.

Note: There is no front/back rows for enemies in FF4A. (In other words, there is no distinction for enemy location when attacking).

Second Note: Whoever spread the rumors that FF4ET didn't adhere to rows was grossly informed and didn't do any testing. More likely than not, they were experiencing the back row bug.

Back row compatible weapons (and those characters that are affected by the bug) in the SNES version are not affected by either back row penalty.

The GBA versions can't decide between "no back row compatible weapons" (US and Jap v1.0) and "always back row compatible" (Euro and Jap v1.1).

Since I don't have the DS version to test this behavior (I get the feeling a variation of this bug is still lingering somehow), this is pretty sad that these row bugs are still cropping up.

2683

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF2/4 Unknown Weapon Bits

« on: March 25, 2008, 11:25:28 AM »

Never mind, I have an addendum.

Those special bits, other than metallic as far as I can tell are remembered and not unset when the weapon is unequipped.

The "disable critical hit" bit will always be enabled for Rydia since she comes back with a Whip and Rosa will always have back row compatible weaponry for every weapon he had.

In Edge's case, the back row compat bit needs to be applied to both hands in order to remove the hit rate penalty.

2684

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF2/4 Unknown Weapon Bits

« on: March 25, 2008, 08:30:07 AM »

Ok, I found a bug with Bit1.

Apparently the bit doesn't switch off when you have removed that weapon from the character. This implies that every character other than Edge can deal critical hits.

It would be nice if the bug is fixed.

2685

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Completing Weapon-Spell Magic Hacks

« on: March 24, 2008, 08:43:29 PM »

Every weapon that was originally coded to cast a magic spell (whether it works in FF-II or not) has the MSB flipped on the Accuracy byte. (I noticed this because the accuracy shouldn't be over 100%, for example it's $A8 for the Rod.)

The pattern definitely corresponds to weapons that cast magic. No weapons that do not cast magic have the Accuracy MSB flipped, with only one exception. The Samurai/Yoichi bow has it flipped. Making me think that weapon may have originally had a spell associated with it but the developers managed to disable it and leave no trace. The only other bow that has the bit is the Elven Bow, which is supposed to cast Shell.

The only inverse exception is that the Power staff does not have the MSB flipped, even though it was supposed to cast Berserk... Every other spell casting weapon does.

I don't know what this means...and I'm not sure what it does??? I do know it's not required to make a spell work on a weapon as I've set weapons with magic without altering the accuracy value.

My first thought was that perhaps it makes the spell always hit?...I haven't tested exhaustively, but my early opinion is that it doesn't appear to. I have the "Doom" spell set on the Deathbringer sword and it always hits, no matter what, without accuracy's MSB flipped. (I also don't think I'm going to leave that spell on that weapon, it's kind of a big cheat to keep using the spell that way).

The bit is not set for the Slumber Sword's magic, even though Sleep works fine.. although the only conclusion I came up with Sleep is that it is a level based spell.

I have no idea if that bow meant to have a spell... but it beats me as to what it was supposed to cast. It was never used for anything in FF4 anyways.

The Power Staff obviously meant to cast Berserk.

It may be worth checking on what that bit actually does and/or if that byte gets checked at all.