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Print Page - Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
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Library of the Ancients => Final Fantasy IV Research & Development => Topic started by: Pinkpuff on June 22, 2015, 08:03:23 AM
Title: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on June 22, 2015, 08:03:23 AM
At long last, my masterpiece is complete. A few minor things slipped by, and I'm sure there are more bugs just waiting to be found but I decided it's in a good enough state to release a 1.0 version to the world at least.
Thank you so much to everyone who helped with this, especially Grimoire LD and Chillyfeez. You guys are the best.
With that, I feel like it's time to move on to something a little different as my main project. I'm going to try my hand at NES homebrew assembly programming. This means I will probably not be making many more updates to FF4kster. I'll still be hanging around these forums, and I will be happy to fix any bugs as they come up, especially if they are easy to fix or if they are particularly severe in nature. I will probably make one more update to the RHDN version in the near future to keep it up to speed, and then that will probably be it for a while. If there is any demand for it, I will be glad to release the source code; however, it's (a) a horrible, poorly-commented mess, and (b) written in FreeBASIC, not a very mainstream language.
When I got the idea to start making FF4kster back in late 2011, I never expected it would come this far or be anywhere near as expansive and as popular as it is, and I have you guys to thank for a large part of that.
Cheers, and enjoy the hack!
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2461/
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Madsiur on June 22, 2015, 09:11:23 AM
Congratz :happy:
I'll check out this hack when I have time.
Also for the FF4kser source code, I'd like to take a look at it and it might be useful for me in a near future for my FF4 monster graphic editor, which I haven't gave up the idea but right now I'm focusing on a expanded monster editor for my FF6 hack.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on June 22, 2015, 10:44:19 AM
Congratulations, Pinkpuf!
It was my pleasure to have been of assistance whenever I could.
Out of curiosity, do you have a particular plan for a NES project?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on June 22, 2015, 11:41:19 AM
At long last, my masterpiece is complete. A few minor things slipped by, and I'm sure there are more bugs just waiting to be found but I decided it's in a good enough state to release a 1.0 version to the world at least.
Thank you so much to everyone who helped with this, especially Grimoire LD and Chillyfeez. You guys are the best.
With that, I feel like it's time to move on to something a little different as my main project. I'm going to try my hand at NES homebrew assembly programming. This means I will probably not be making many more updates to FF4kster. I'll still be hanging around these forums, and I will be happy to fix any bugs as they come up, especially if they are easy to fix or if they are particularly severe in nature. I will probably make one more update to the RHDN version in the near future to keep it up to speed, and then that will probably be it for a while. If there is any demand for it, I will be glad to release the source code; however, it's (a) a horrible, poorly-commented mess, and (b) written in FreeBASIC, not a very mainstream language.
When I got the idea to start making FF4kster back in late 2011, I never expected it would come this far or be anywhere near as expansive and as popular as it is, and I have you guys to thank for a large part of that.
Cheers, and enjoy the hack!
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2461/
I am glad to see the project is finally released! I am surprised to see you didn't open a news bulletin for it though on RHDN. This is The Most extensive FFIV hack out there and definitely deserves exposure through a bulletin.
It is sad to see that you'll be moving away from this direction considering you were the foremost cause of any revolution in FFIV hacking by replacing old and buggy tools with an all-in-one, bug quashing megatool. I know a bit about Freebasic and it is amazing to hear that you made FF4kster through that! To my knowledge there was one issue that was never fixed, I could be wrong, but were Lunar Bosses ever corrected to show their appropriate AI and not the normal AI?
In any case I wish you the best of luck in your next hacking venture, heaven knows what you've done here is near beyond the scope of any other game hacking tool out there.
In the coming days I will be replaying your mod with the Paladin path to see what changes and commenting in the main topic.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on June 22, 2015, 12:03:32 PM
Like I said, I'll still be around! I might even get around to making the odd fix or feature here and there. I'm just a little FF4-ed out at the moment, so it won't be my main focus anymore.
I'll post the code tonight if I remember or tomorrow.
I might make a news bulletin. Thanks for the comments. Feel free to leave a review on the page, though I recommend playing the finished version first. As I recall, you didn't even get to see the full ending of the path you did take. Also some NPC visibility fixes were made and Tellah's MP growth was modified a fair bit since you played last so just be aware of that if you decide to pick up your old save.
I do have a plan for NES development. First, of course, I need to figure out the dirt basic things like controller input, graphics display, palettes, music, getting functions going for all those kinds of things. But ultimately what I'd like to accomplish is to create ports of various modern board games such as Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Puerto Rico, etc., ideally implementing the Fourscore/multitap to get four players on the go. First of course, it will be simple things like Stock Ticker and Risk.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Bahamut ZERO on June 22, 2015, 12:11:24 PM
:cookie:Congrats on the release of UC1.0! :cookie:
And thank you for creating FF4kster. You've created an editing tool that just about anyone with the free time and motivation could create a completely new game. Without your hard work (and everyone else's who were involved in the process) I doubt I would be working on my project, know the great people here, know the joy of sprite editing, or have been able to help anyone in any constructive way outside of beta testing. A million "Thank yous" wouldn't begin to scratch the surface of how much I appreciate that. :happy:
So good luck on your NES homebrew project! I have a feeling you might play around with FF4kster again at some point down the line, if anything to blow off some steam. See ya around!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on June 22, 2015, 12:43:10 PM
Like I said, I'll still be around! I might even get around to making the odd fix or feature here and there. I'm just a little FF4-ed out at the moment, so it won't be my main focus anymore.
I'll post the code tonight if I remember or tomorrow.
I might make a news bulletin. Thanks for the comments. Feel free to leave a review on the page, though I recommend playing the finished version first. As I recall, you didn't even get to see the full ending of the path you did take. Also some NPC visibility fixes were made and Tellah's MP growth was modified a fair bit since you played last so just be aware of that if you decide to pick up your old save.
Yes, I can imagine that after completing such a large and in-depth project it would drain anyone's batteries. Well, you've always done really good work with whatever you've put your hand to so I imagine that your next venture will not be the exception to that.
I will start a new game though, you are right. The ending did just stop for me, as it wasn't finished yet.
If you do have the time though I'd love to know what was added in 1.0 so I can be on the lookout to compare and contrast.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lenophis on June 22, 2015, 07:46:08 PM
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Gedankenschild on June 23, 2015, 11:08:00 AM
Looks really interesting! Congrats on finishing the project and its release! I'm looking forward to trying it out... :happy:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: JCE3000GT on June 23, 2015, 07:59:25 PM
Looks great! It was fun contributing what I could to the editor. :) Good luck with the NES programming!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on June 25, 2015, 12:22:55 AM
Pinkpuff, do you think you will write a bulletin on RHDN for it? If not, would you be opposed to one of us writing one? I mean, that hypothetical "one of us" could even run it by you first before posting it if you'd prefer. It just kinda seems a shame for something that took this much work and is this extensive to be left to The Fates to control who happens to stumble upon it on RHDN.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Gedankenschild on June 25, 2015, 03:46:17 AM
Agreed. There's quite a few really nice hacks that escaped my attention for some time because they didn't get a deserved bulletin... :sad:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on June 25, 2015, 05:02:48 AM
Sure. You guys will probably sell it better than me anyways ^_^
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on June 25, 2015, 11:53:17 AM
For my part I am back up to the Baron Waterway, making pretty good progress, found out a few tricks I could use to gain more Exp such as leaving Tellah for dead so Rydia can almost certainly have the crucial Summons when she needs them in comparison to "just in time" or "too late", leaving Rosa dead would garner a bit more Exp as well since her part in the first part of the game is rather small with only one dungeon and a boss she isn't too effective against.
I would love to help write the article once I finish with this particular playthrough.
I'm also looking forward to take a look at FF4kster's source code and see if I can't do anything with it in particular.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on June 25, 2015, 04:06:15 PM
OMG I totally forgot to upload the code! Here it is:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Bahamut ZERO on June 26, 2015, 12:17:46 PM
Here are my thoughts on UC so far (up to Baron Waterway with DK Cecil, Yang, Rydia, Edward, and Cid)
1:I like how closely it sticks to the vanilla, but still with some chngews here and there in the first few areas
2:I love how characters are switched up command/spellwise. You've managed to make me not hate Edward, which I can't believe I'm saying seeing as he still autohides (which I've always hated with a passion). DK Knight Cecil has a great spellbook as well, and I'm interested in how Rosa will develop later on.
3:Any text edits I've seen so far fit with the original FFIIUS script nicely.
Though I do have one question:
How did you pull off having the scene where you talk to King Fabul in his bed lead directly into the scene where they leave the harbor? That was really cool, plus saved me having to sit through that random chat at Fabul Inn haha.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on June 26, 2015, 02:22:51 PM
I just pasted the code for the second part onto the end of the first. You should be able to achieve this in FF4kster by pressing shift-enter on the second event, then insert on the first.
If you hate autohide, you'll love Edward 2.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on June 27, 2015, 10:25:20 AM
I think I can understand a good deal of what's going on here and adding new functionality may not be as difficult as it looks... For a test I would try and implement Critical Hit Rate and Critical Hit Bonuses as they would apply innately to Characters. (then x2 from weapons, or x4 if wielding a Bow and Arrow).
But I can't quite figure out how to Compile the Source I have Freebasic now and FBIde to do so with, but I can't make out how to compile the folder into a .bas file for compiling to create an FF4kster.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on June 27, 2015, 10:41:05 AM
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on June 27, 2015, 02:33:03 PM
Hmm, I added the definition of critical_hit_rate and critical_hit_bonus to three separate files, character.bas, characterstartingmenu.bas, along with the latter file in the methods folder.
Unfortunately it had no effect. Ah well, it was worth a shot anyhow.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 01, 2015, 06:18:14 AM
Ok I gave in and made a news article. Should be up in the next day or two, just waiting for approval.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 04, 2015, 01:27:40 AM
Some slight suggestions, it seems that I wasn't the only one to feel a little lost once I got the Black Chocobo, I think some text is in order once the Earth Crystal is retrieved maybe something like...
Rydia: We have three of the crystals, now what do we do? Cecil: We can't put Baron at risk... Yang: And Fabul is in no condition to keep them... Cid: What about the Ninjas? Yang: Of course! The people of Eblan should be able to help us! Cecil: Then we head for Eblan.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 04, 2015, 08:11:53 AM
Their main goal at this point is rescuing rosa, and secondary goal to get back the other two crystals. Maybe something like:
"Now that Toroia is safe we can go get Rosa back." "Not to mention the other two crystals." "They're all probably being held in Golbez's base of operations: The Tower of Babil" "How do we get in?" "Perhaps someone in the neighbouring kingdom of Eblan can help us"
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 04, 2015, 09:05:25 AM
Their main goal at this point is rescuing rosa, and secondary goal to get back the other two crystals. Maybe something like:
"Now that Toroia is safe we can go get Rosa back." "Not to mention the other two crystals." "They're all probably being held in Golbez's base of operations: The Tower of Babil" "How do we get in?" "Perhaps someone in the neighbouring kingdom of Eblan can help us"
Much better! It was rather late when I wrote that, must have confused the two scenarios, yes. At this point Air is held by Barabariccia. Sort of forgot about that.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 06, 2015, 05:04:51 PM
People do have a point on the Damage Tiles, it seems a common complaint and it is a bit time consuming I would suggest a truce in the matter.
What about a Drop Item that enemy's in the Underworld can commonly drop that casts a Single Target Float and an Uncommon enemy item that casts Float on the Party only in-battle (which is then carried out of battle). Since you have all of these dummied status healing items, it would be a simple matter to change... say the Antidote to a (Float symbol)Feather and the uncommon item changed from Eggtimer as (Float Symbol) Graceful. This would accomplish two things. It would provide a use for Steal, I've noticed it's not that useful in this mod, it coincides with Edge's time of prominence as well, and it would provide a purpose to fighting other than just Exp. and Gil. Normal players may have... 5 or 10 by the time they reach the dungeons whereas a more observant player through liberal use of Steal can prepare themselves adequately. There would be no room for complaints as there is a way and the player will know this way by the time they reach the dungeons.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 06, 2015, 05:18:25 PM
I posted an idea of my own for a compromise on the main news thread on RHDN. Your idea is interesting too though. Maybe I can implement both. Maybe the butterfly creatures can provide them via common/steal drop.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 06, 2015, 08:36:14 PM
I posted an idea of my own for a compromise on the main news thread on RHDN. Your idea is interesting too though. Maybe I can implement both. Maybe the butterfly creatures can provide them via common/steal drop.
I like the idea you propose and if you wanted to make it only available as a Steal/Drop from the RockMoth I would suggest changing a Dwarf (probably in Tomra since it's where most of the text has already been changed) somewhere to say something like...
"Followers of Bahamut often take the wings of RockMoths to float over the poison in the Lagoon."
That way the observant player would be able to realize they can get these from RockMoths in one way or another, if you wanted it only on RockMoths.
There is also the option to change the damage or the damage formula that the damage tiles do. I found that data some time ago.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 07, 2015, 04:14:50 AM
I like that idea. I'll probably leave the damage amount alone; don't want to go too far in the other direction.
RockMoth, GlomWing (which will be a common encounter in the ice cave), and the eye type enemies will drop them. It's usable in battle only but remains after and targets all allies.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 07, 2015, 09:48:52 AM
I like that idea. I'll probably leave the damage amount alone; don't want to go too far in the other direction.
RockMoth, GlomWing (which will be a common encounter in the ice cave), and the eye type enemies will drop them. It's usable in battle only but remains after and targets all allies.
That all sounds like a good use of the system then!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 07, 2015, 02:01:13 PM
I just noticed a glitch which is a bit humorous. You can run from the Zombies in Cecil's Paladin Trial. Talk about losing the entire meaning of the event, haha!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 07, 2015, 02:16:23 PM
Haha wat!? I'm so embarrassed! The thought of fleeing never even entered my mind. I'll just make that formation unfleeable.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 07, 2015, 02:48:50 PM
So I got Rydia and I Love what you did for her scenario! Also how you put the view of Mist burning from her side was probably some of the finest writing in this hack and explains why she reacts to Cecil and Kain in the way she does it is all quite emotional and you did this very well. The tie into Zeromus was also unexpected. Am I to assume then that Zeromus was trying to control (or possibly weaken her to keep her in that state) Rydia by playing on her own regrets and fears and failed to do so, inadvertently revealing part of his plan?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 07, 2015, 03:58:31 PM
Thanks! If you notice, the dialogue she hears in the dream are all snippets from the actual text, verbatim, just taken out of context in such a way that it makes Cecil and Kain sound deliberately evil.
I like your thought about Zeromus. I never had that specifically in mind but it certainly fits! Also with Rydia it's more fear than regret. She's afraid of the knights attack, the attack on Mist, summoning the bomb, Scarmiglione knocking her off the mountain, etc
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 07, 2015, 04:12:15 PM
Thanks! If you notice, the dialogue she hears in the dream are all snippets from the actual text, verbatim, just taken out of context in such a way that it makes Cecil and Kain sound deliberately evil.
I like your thought about Zeromus. I never had that specifically in mind but it certainly fits! Also with Rydia it's more fear than regret. She's afraid of the knights attack, the attack on Mist, summoning the bomb, Scarmiglione knocking her off the mountain, etc
Yes I did catch that they were all parts of the actual conversation which is what Completely makes the scene because these were all things that were actually said and so it is easy to see how she got the wrong idea.
Ah, I did not realize that was meant to be Scarmiglione, it makes sense as per the area.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 07, 2015, 05:22:11 PM
Ok someone left a review on the hack page pointing out a bug with the Big Chocobo. I have not experienced this, anyone else?
Quote
A bigger bug I found had to do with the Big Chocobo. I usually stash cool weapons when I play RPGs, but when I first got the Big Whale, I went to the Big One onboard, deposited a couple new things and when I went to take a look at what he was holding, everything was all messed up. Things I deposited changed into other items and in large random quantities. For example there were 4 Megalixirs, even though I never found one. I had 2 Murasames, 52 Wooden Staves, 50 knives (forget which one), 30 Wooden Spears, 10 Dummys and all sorts of other random things. Strange.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 07, 2015, 09:54:54 PM
I stored things in that manner in the beta versions of the mod and it worked fine, let me see if it's still working fine...
No, still works for me. It's a rather strange glitch that would occur and it would mean something is accidentally writing into the Big Chocobo storing in RAM. But... I can't get anything strange to occur.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 07, 2015, 10:47:13 PM
I stored several things as well(Beta & 1.0) and I haven't had any problems.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 07, 2015, 11:20:36 PM
No, still works for me. It's a rather strange glitch that would occur and it would mean something is accidentally writing into the Big Chocobo storing in RAM. But... I can't get anything strange to occur.
Or, it could mean that somehow, when running the Big Chocobo storing, reading or retrieval routine, the x index got offset by 1, thus the item ID was read as a quantity, and the quantity was read as the next item's item ID. Still odd that it can't be reproduced, but more feasible than something storing new data by accident into the Big Chocobo inventory's portion of RAM.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 05:16:06 AM
Ok, well until we can replicate the error, I'll leave it on the back burner for now.
I had some ideas for how to make Cid and Kain less vanilla / more interesting but it involves some command coding. If someone is interested in helping me make these, it would be greatly appreciated; otherwise I'll just leave them as they are. Here are my ideas:
Cid: I want to give him a command "Tackle" (or I guess "Tackl") which is much like Umaro's attack in FF6 where he rams himself into the enemy. It would deal Cid's current HP in damage to a single target enemy, but since this is (usually) way more than he would normally deal attacking, the drawback is that he KO's himself in the process. In an ideal world I would love to see him actually physically run up to the enemy and jump back like Umaro does, but if that's not possible or easily doable then I would be quite happy to rename the command "Xplod" or "Bomb" or something and have it use the bomb explosion graphics.
Kain: I want to give him "Lancet" (or I guess "Lance" or "Lncet" or something) where he deals a physical attack that drains HP. To make his regular attack still viable I would say the damage should be somewhat less than what his attack would deal (half, 2/3, even 3/4 might be ok). Maybe it can use the Dark Wave / Kick mechanic in some manner? Or maybe it can use the fight routine but modify his attack properties first (and then fix them afterwards). Anyway, anything remotely like this would be acceptable. If possible, I would also like to restrict the command such that he needs a spear equipped; again, if that's not feasible, it's not a big deal.
Currently unused commands in Unprecedented Crisis: Cry, Peep, Crash.
:edit: Lancet could even be like FF5's Red Feast which always drains half of what the caster is missing in HP.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 08, 2015, 08:23:18 AM
Lancet should be easy enough.
Tackle, well... The damage calculations would definitely be easy enough. The visuals (I'm thinking tackle visuals) would require some research and some... Jiggering. It would be a project I'd enjoy working on, but I can't divide my romhacking attention at this very moment. When I finally finish this Chocobo racing thing I'm working on,that would probably be a good time for me to take a break from my own hack to, uh, tackle this one. I'm thinking that studying the visuals from Kick and Jump (or more appropriately, "Land") would be a good start.
As far as the ability's effect... Personally, I don't think I'd ever use it the way you're envisioning it. I tend to avoid "explode" blue magics like the plague. Typically, allowing a character to die isn't worth an attack that deals damage equal to their HP, because then you take the attacker out of the picture and you have to spend (if you're lucky) at least one round of another character's turns (if you have Life2) getting things back to normal. Typically, if you're resorting to an attack like this, you need that healer to focus on other tasks for the party's survival. The only situation in which this isn't true is when the attack actually ends the battle, in which case the one who ended the battle doesn't get to reap the benefits. A suggestion: make the attack deal damage to user and target equal to the user's HP minus one. That way, at least Cid can spend his own turns healing himself (or he can continue to attack while the party's healer heals him). You could maybe couple this with a decreased accuracy if you'd like, or a longer charge time, or even a longer recovery time (amount of time until Cid's next turn - which I don't think has ever been done, but I don't see why it couldn't be).
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 08:33:03 AM
I love it! Good points all around. And if he doesn't physically tackle the monster visually, that's no big deal, though it would be awesome and also hilarious to see.
I'm indifferent to Lancet's visuals. It can just be an attack animation as far as I'm concerned.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 08, 2015, 09:45:09 AM
I've made Lancet for Combat Boost where Kain recovers 1/2 HP to the damage caused, it is a normal attack property though but it costs MP as it counts as a spell (I even gave it the Drain graphic). Chillyfeez should be able to cook something up easily.
Bomb is a much, Much easier set up. You still have Peep and Crash free after all. Peep, I will tell you is the Biggest waste of code in FFIV. It is literally all of the same code that is used for the Scan spell without the graphic. That's it and it is one extensive routine. Changing it to cast a spell (in this case Explode) is a more than simple task. I even have an example of how to change the egregious Peep routine to cast a spell (in that case it was Peep, but that hex number can be easily changed to Explode's own)
You know... since you did away with all of the spirit fade-ins in the Zeromus fight you have freed up a Lot of spell slots. Would you perhaps like a Bomb of varying intensity? Here is what I'm thinking...
1/4 - Explode (Kills caster dealing HP damage to enemy) 1/2 - AirRaid (Deals Strong Fire Elemental Damage to all enemies) (Has to be Really strong considering that Cid has no Wisdom) 1/4 - SleepGas (Puts all enemies to sleep)
I can't see people jumping to use it knowing it will only kill Cid, but the other options of what it can do could be a worthy risk.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 10:33:02 AM
I like the idea of Cid going to 1HP instead of KO-ing given the available options.
Lancet I think if possible, my preference is for it to deal (and heal) half the amount of HP Kain is missing.
Thanks for looking into this guys.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 08, 2015, 12:08:00 PM
Alright, now we can go about this in one of two ways...
1. Write an Explode routine into the Scan Routine section itself, this could be a bit tricky as damage and effects are being dealt without the ordinary accompanying spell set-up the commands often use.
2. Rewrite the original Explode routine to check if a Character is using it and if so to lower HP to 1 rather than KO the caster. I can replace the unused "Is the Caster over 9999 HP? Then deal 9999 damage." that is put there for safety purposes, but no enemy in this mod self-destructs at above 9999 HP I can change that to "Is the Caster a player? If so Load 0001 into A. Store A in HP. End Routine". This would allow maybe a 12 byte "Bomb" command and the rest of that space can go to making Lancet as exact as possible.
Which would you prefer?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 12:11:18 PM
Can it use the usual explode routine and then just heal him for 1 after?
:edit: I guess either way #2 is the better approach
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 08, 2015, 12:14:35 PM
Can it use the usual explode routine and then just heal him for 1 after?
...Maybe. The normal Explode routine doesn't actually lower HP but just kills the character outright (Sets Death). It would require just a few more bytes in the new Bomb routine to remove that Dead bit and set the Caster's HP to 0001. It's untested but it is worth a shot.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 12:16:42 PM
I don't really know enough about the details of the inner workings of the game to have a meaningful opinion so whatever you think is best works for me.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 08, 2015, 01:00:51 PM
Well that was a little trickier than I expected and a little more expensive, but there should still be ample room for Lancet...
$03/E153A6 A6LDX $A6 [$00:00A6]A:0003X:0028Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Load Character ID into X. $03/E155DA PHXA:0003X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdiZc - Push X (to retrieve later) $03/E156A9 A0LDA #$A0A:0003X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdiZc - Load Explode into A. $03/E1588D D2 26STA $26D2 [$7E:26D2]A:00A0X:0000Y:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Store A in Next Action to take. $03/E15BA9 32LDA #$32A:00A0X:0000Y:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Load Bomb (Summon) Graphic into A. $03/E15D8D C5 33STA $33C5 [$7E:33C5]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Store A in Audiovisual. $03/E16020 44 CDJSR $CD44 [$03:CD44]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Jump to after the Audiovisual check has been looked at in the Spell Routine. $03/E163FA PLXA:0080X:0680Y:001AP:eNvMxdizC - Pull X. $03/E164BD 03 20LDA $2003,x[$7E:2003]A:0080X:0000Y:001AP:envMxdiZC - Load Character's Status Byte 1 into A. $03/E16729 7FAND #$7FA:0080X:0000Y:001AP:eNvMxdizC - Get rid of 80 (Death) $03/E1699D 03 20STA $2003,x[$7E:2003]A:0000X:0000Y:001AP:envMxdiZC - Store Character's Status Byte 1. $03/E16CC2 20REP #$20A:0000X:0000Y:001AP:envMxdiZC - Reset Processor Status (Allows for 2 byte dealings for A.) $03/E16EA9 01 00LDA #$0001A:0000X:0000Y:001AP:envmxdiZC - Load 0001 into A. $03/E1719D 07 20STA $2007,x[$7E:2007]A:0001X:0000Y:001AP:envmxdizC - Store A in Character's HP. $03/E174E2 20SEP #$20A:0001X:0000Y:001AP:envmxdizC - Set Processor Status (Back to 8 bit) $03/E176A9 01LDA #$01A:0001X:0000Y:001AP:envMxdizC - Load 01 into A. (Critical) $03/E1789D 06 20STA $2006,x[$7E:2006]A:0001X:0000Y:001AP:envMxdizC - Store Critical in Status Byte 4. $03/E17B60 RTSA:0001X:0000Y:001AP:envMxdizC - Return
And that's that! it works perfectly! Cid explodes, drops to 1 HP with the Critical Status.
Lancet will be coming a little later today then.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 01:03:38 PM
Thanks! I take it then that getting him to visually tackle the monster is out of the question given the lack of space?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 08, 2015, 01:10:31 PM
Thanks! I take it then that getting him to visually tackle the monster is out of the question given the lack of space?
Well... Cid has no graphics for tackling, his special stance is now unused though so if you ever wanted to replace it with a new sprite (not my area) I could give that a shot, but I should note that character movement during battle is a large unknown, hence why Chillyfeez said focusing on Kain's Jump would probably be the best idea for us hackers to understand why the characters move as they do. Kain's Jump is unique as it is the only command in FFIV that actually touches the enemy (or character's) sprite. Kick has a preset pattern of movement from one side of the screen to the other. When it has come to figuring out the movement of sprites and graphics Chillyfeez has always been ahead of me in that regard.
If we do get the information ideally, then it would just be a matter of changing the graphic set from Bomb (Summon) (32) to Peep's command number +C0.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 08, 2015, 01:13:49 PM
Ok well let's leave it as a bomb and if Chillyfeez or anyone else feels inclined to research the character movement we can figure out how to splice that in on top of what you have done here.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 08, 2015, 03:09:49 PM
Actually, I think the normal explode routine doesn't deal HP damage to the user, it just adds death. So adding one HP after the normal explode routine would be a much trickier prospect than it sounds. Far easier to just: Load current HP Subtract 1 Store that value in damage to target Store that value in damage to caster That whole thing would be twelve bytes by my count.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 08, 2015, 03:44:37 PM
You have a good point Chillyfeez, but since this is a Command and not a Spell I am out of my element, I couldn't quite figure out how to properly display damage (also the problem I'm having with the prescribed Lancet to display damage and healing) if you know how it is done outside of spells then it would probably be best for you to handle this one.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 08, 2015, 08:54:22 PM
Sorry, when I wrote that I didn't see that there was all that other conversation after Pinkpuff asked about "bomb + 1HP."
You have a good point Chillyfeez, but since this is a Command and not a Spell I am out of my element, I couldn't quite figure out how to properly display damage (also the problem I'm having with the prescribed Lancet to display damage and healing) if you know how it is done outside of spells then it would probably be best for you to handle this one.
Did you try having the routine put the damage into 00A2-A3 (for the target) and 00A4-A5 (for the attacker)? That's always the last place the numbers end up before actually being subtracted from (or added to) the proper parties. That's in the Bab-il docs, in the "spell effect subroutines" document, but it applies to commands, too. I don't know whether the numbers will show , but they will certainly apply. Certain flags (somewhat unexplored) may need to be set for the numbers to show for both user and target...
Ok well let's leave it as a bomb and if Chillyfeez or anyone else feels inclined to research the character movement we can figure out how to splice that in on top of what you have done here.
I definitely will once I get this chocobo thing down... I'm getting there. Haven't had a whole lotta free time lately, sorry.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 10, 2015, 05:55:13 AM
Did anything happen with Lancet after? Don't mean to seem greedy or impatient, just want to make sure it didn't get forgotten in all the bomb and tackle conversation.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 10, 2015, 10:37:57 AM
Did anything happen with Lancet after? Don't mean to seem greedy or impatient, just want to make sure it didn't get forgotten in all the bomb and tackle conversation.
As per your instructions with the space left to me and Chillyfeez's suggestion I still could not get the game to display the damage done since this is a Command and not a Spell I cannot get it to read matters properly. Every attempt to display damage has failed.
Something I might be able to do is change Kain's temporal stats around. For instance having his Attack Power become his Strength and Will put together and use that for the single power of the Drain Attack. Or if you had any other ideas for what you want done with it because outside of Spells the game doesn't really have that much in place to display damage in an easy manner (Kick and Dark Wave are the only exception)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 10, 2015, 10:46:47 AM
Ok so the issue is with specific damage amounts. If we use the regular attack routine it's doable?
Maybe it can be a straight up drain attack at half power? Would that work? Are other fractions possible? And can we restrict it to having a spear equipped?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 10, 2015, 11:04:12 AM
The problem, if I remember right, is that the game sees, "oh, we're using the Peep command" and so it doesn't set the internal flag to display damage to the target and user because, well, Peep doesn't deal damage (nor does it heal), so no need to run that subroutine. As we've done in the past with "cheating in" command stances/poses (before we knew how to change them at the source), we just need to find this bit of RAM and make sure that the Lancet command's routine involves turning it on. I promise I will help with this eventually... If you're feeling industrious, Grimoire, I think I've seen this stuff before... Run a bunch of commands (ones that show and don't show damage), set a breakpoint to the beginning of the command, then "Step Out" at the break and observe which subroutines run after the command subroutine, and which RAM flags determine whether or not they do run. Somewhere in there is bound to be the determination to run or not run the damage display subroutine.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 10, 2015, 11:19:02 AM
Ok so the issue is with specific damage amounts. If we use the regular attack routine it's doable?
Maybe it can be a straight up drain attack at half power? Would that work? Are other fractions possible? And can we restrict it to having a spear equipped?
That would not be a difficult scenario. Creating a weapon tied skill shouldn't be difficult just as long as all of the Spears are sequentially placed which they are in Unprecedented Crisis.
It can easily be a drain at 1/2 power (just dividing Attack Power by 2 and applying the Drain Elemental to Kain) and we could also use other fractions such as 2/3, 1/4 etc.
The problem, if I remember right, is that the game sees, "oh, we're using the Peep command" and so it doesn't set the internal flag to display damage to the target and user because, well, Peep doesn't deal damage (nor does it heal), so no need to run that subroutine. As we've done in the past with "cheating in" command stances/poses (before we knew how to change them at the source), we just need to find this bit of RAM and make sure that the Lancet command's routine involves turning it on. I promise I will help with this eventually... If you're feeling industrious, Grimoire, I think I've seen this stuff before... Run a bunch of commands (ones that show and don't show damage), set a breakpoint to the beginning of the command, then "Step Out" at the break and observe which subroutines run after the command subroutine, and which RAM flags determine whether or not they do run. Somewhere in there is bound to be the determination to run or not run the damage display subroutine.
I believe it deals something with F8 04 when placed in the AV Code, and I have been poring over the Dark Wave/Kick routine and despite everything I tried to do I couldn't get any damage to display, but I am working with limited space and I can't expend too much space on that regard for this or else there won't be room for the actual routine. If it takes 10-16 bytes just to display damage properly it doesn't really seem worth it for this scenario. That said I will take a closer look into Kick and see if I can't pinpoint what matters go into a successful damage generator.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 10, 2015, 11:22:42 AM
Cry is also unused if that helps
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 10, 2015, 11:31:04 AM
I should have been clearer... I meant for it to take a new routine and make it display damage, doesn't seem worth it. As it stands if I tie it into Fight there will be no difficulties in displaying the correct amount of damage and healing done.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 10, 2015, 03:46:53 PM
Yay! Thanks so much!
So the hack has been out for a few weeks now and I've gotten lots of reactions! Time for my reaction to the reaction:
Edward: I think the most surprising thing I've found is the sheer amount of feedback (all positive) with regards to Edward. I didn't think it was anything special in relation to what I did with the rest of the cast, but everyone seems to love my version of him for some reason.
Float: I was not at all expecting this to be a thing whatsoever. The thought that people would have problems with my leaving the damage floors completely alone never even entered my mind.
Eblan: And I guess, to a certain degree, the Floater. When people played the original FF4, did they get frustrated trying to figure out what to do with the magma key? I knew it wasn't totally obvious where to go, but I didn't think it would be as hard to find as it turned out to be. Have we just all been spoiled by games handholding us and walkthroughs being so readily available on the internet that we've lost our patience for exploration?
Difficulty: I remember getting feedback from FF -1 being too easy. Perhaps I overcompensated? Perhaps the FF4 playerbase is less interested in increased challenge? Perhaps it just comes down to lack of availability of information on what the different equipment does? Anyway I knew f.ex. Ciriatto would be hard but I didn't expect the degree of backlash that I got. Likewise for Scarmiglione. I knew I ramped him up but I guess I thought since he was such a chump originally that the change would be welcome. And honestly, I thought Malacoda and/or the 8-fiend battle would generate more complaints than those.
Santos: I was wary of including this whole thing entirely; I thought people would find the idea of what is essentially Santa Claus being a serious character in a Final Fantasy game corny/lame enough to be worth mentioning. Apparently (thankfully!) I was wrong! No one has mentioned him so far so I guess they either like him or are fine with him. Likewise for the other meta references (wonder twins, captain planet, etc.); I was afraid I might get some negative comments, but so far I've had the odd positive comment, but no negative ones on that so far.
The last line: At the very end of the ending, there's a line (I won't quote it here since I don't think Grimoire LD has seen it yet) which I'm surprised no one has made a comment on either way. You'll see what I mean when you see it.
Anyway, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and most of the complaints are minor and/or fixable. I'm glad so many people were able to enjoy my creation. And you guys deserve at least some of the credit too! It would not have been possible without your help.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 10, 2015, 04:25:27 PM
Edward's praise is not surprising considering that he was such a weakling in the original. Your Edward is probably the best bard in FF because his songs are similiar to FFV's but without freezing him, Salve is useful during the entire time you have him initially due to it being your primary healing, he loses hide upon rejoining and his harps actually do enough dmg to be viable.
Float's been addressed and you already have a great workaround.
I actually didn't think I could enter Elban because the short coastal area there gives the impression that you can't cross also there's no hint that there's something odd about Elban at the time.
I've always seen FF4 as the easiest of the snes FFs, and most of 4's boss fights were easy compared to 5 & 6's mid-late game bosses. Scarmiglione is such a shock because he's always a chump no matter when you fight him but, his 2nd form now is able to kill off the party pretty quick. Malacoda is a little difficult until it becomes clear that her main dmg comes from Bolt 3 but, everybody but Edge has access to equipment that resists bolt and then it becomes just a battle of attrition. The 8-fiend battle is a little difficult however none of the fiends are much harder than their original versions.
I actually don't remember the last line so I can't comment on that.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 10, 2015, 11:55:00 PM
So the hack has been out for a few weeks now and I've gotten lots of reactions! Time for my reaction to the reaction:
Edward: I think the most surprising thing I've found is the sheer amount of feedback (all positive) with regards to Edward. I didn't think it was anything special in relation to what I did with the rest of the cast, but everyone seems to love my version of him for some reason.
Float: I was not at all expecting this to be a thing whatsoever. The thought that people would have problems with my leaving the damage floors completely alone never even entered my mind.
Eblan: And I guess, to a certain degree, the Floater. When people played the original FF4, did they get frustrated trying to figure out what to do with the magma key? I knew it wasn't totally obvious where to go, but I didn't think it would be as hard to find as it turned out to be. Have we just all been spoiled by games handholding us and walkthroughs being so readily available on the internet that we've lost our patience for exploration?
Difficulty: I remember getting feedback from FF -1 being too easy. Perhaps I overcompensated? Perhaps the FF4 playerbase is less interested in increased challenge? Perhaps it just comes down to lack of availability of information on what the different equipment does? Anyway I knew f.ex. Ciriatto would be hard but I didn't expect the degree of backlash that I got. Likewise for Scarmiglione. I knew I ramped him up but I guess I thought since he was such a chump originally that the change would be welcome. And honestly, I thought Malacoda and/or the 8-fiend battle would generate more complaints than those.
Santos: I was wary of including this whole thing entirely; I thought people would find the idea of what is essentially Santa Claus being a serious character in a Final Fantasy game corny/lame enough to be worth mentioning. Apparently (thankfully!) I was wrong! No one has mentioned him so far so I guess they either like him or are fine with him. Likewise for the other meta references (wonder twins, captain planet, etc.); I was afraid I might get some negative comments, but so far I've had the odd positive comment, but no negative ones on that so far.
The last line: At the very end of the ending, there's a line (I won't quote it here since I don't think Grimoire LD has seen it yet) which I'm surprised no one has made a comment on either way. You'll see what I mean when you see it.
Anyway, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and most of the complaints are minor and/or fixable. I'm glad so many people were able to enjoy my creation. And you guys deserve at least some of the credit too! It would not have been possible without your help.
Edward is Amazing probably one of the best party member choices due to his songs, his weapons, and his equipment pool not to mention what he has when he returns makes him a reliable healer.
Float was always going to be an issue I'd imagine. Float is learned at Level 40 in the normal game, but by then you're pretty much that level anyhow. The issue with it I find is that the characters you have when you go in there have about half the HP of a normal run. Especially a basic Palom and Porom with only 450 HP each they can only take 7 steps before they're down to 1 HP. It does admittedly get monotonous to continue to heal them every few steps and as mentioned it makes fighting battles in those areas less than desirable.
The difference here is that the original game has hints on where to go if they took a tour around the world before and talked to Agart's citizens it was pretty clear that they were intended to point out the location of the Ancient Well. There's nothing like that in Unprecedented Crisis, the party in FFIV is purposely confused when it came to the Magma Stone. The party in Unprecedented Crisis just shrugs their shoulders after you get the Earth Crystal and don't provide any meaningful backdrop to the next location. The Floater is a case where I think the Elder could say something constructive, hinting about FFI, maybe something like "In an older legend the Floater was close to a volcano near a crescent moon. I'm sorry I don't recall anything more." Also to change the Dwarf's text so they mention that Santos has a gift would also help. (Unless that was already done)
I think once people know what armors will do, the difficulty will be a complaint of the past. It did feel a little cheap to not know what some armor did though. Sure the original FFIV didn't tell us, but that didn't mean it was good design, heh. The difficulty of Unprecedented Crisis I find to be just perfect. It's not crazy difficult, nor is it a cakewalk. The only issue as I've said is the amount of mandatory damage taken through the Feymarch and Sylph's Cave.
Secret of Mana literally has Santa Claus so the reference that another Square RPG has Santa Claus is probably welcomed as it tugs at nostalgia.
I will comment on the last line when I get to it, hehe.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 11, 2015, 09:53:43 AM
Well, this took a bit less space than I thought it would but I have it working to your desired projections. I am sorry this took so long, I think I got a bit distracted I meant to have this done yesterday but I wasn't feeling up to it.
Crash into Lancet
First thing is first! Go to 1B3A6 and change 0000 to 7CE1 this is the Pointer for Crash and why the game... well crashes, there is no pointer assigned to the Command, changing this to 7CE1 will give it the custom pointer starting at 03E17C which is where the Lancet routine begins.
$03/E17CAD B5 26LDA $26B5 [$7E:26B5]A:0003X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizc - Load Caster's Weapon into A. $03/E17FF0 04BEQ $04 [$E185]A:0025X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizc - If it is Unarmed branch. $03/E181C9 2ACMP #$2AA:0025X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizcis - Is it above Dragon Spear? $03/E18390 06BCC $06 [$E18B]A:0025X:002AY:0000P:eNvMxdizc - If not, branch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $03/E185A9 C1LDA #$C1A:0000X:002AY:0000P:envMxdiZc - Load Item Animation (literally just hand raising) (Failed Branch) $03/E1878D C4 33STA $33C4 [$7E:33C4]A:00C1X:002AY:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Store A in AV Code. $03/E18A60 RTSA:00C1X:002AY:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Return ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ $03/E18BAD 9D 26LDA $269D [$7E:269D]A:0025X:002AY:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Load Caster's Physical Attack Base $03/E18E4A LSR AA:004DX:002AY:0000P:envMxdizc - /2 $03/E18F8D 9D 26STA $269D [$7E:269D]A:0026X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Store A in Caster's Physical Attack Base. $03/E192AD 99 26LDA $2699 [$7E:2699]A:0026X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Load Caster's Elemental. $03/E19509 40ORA #$40A:0024X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Add 40 (Drain) if applicable. $03/E1978D 99 26STA $2699 [$7E:2699]A:0064X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Store A in Caster's Elemental $03/E19AA9 C0LDA #$C0A:0064X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Load Normal Attack Animation into A. $03/E19C8D C4 33STA $33C4 [$7E:33C4]A:00C0X:002AY:0000P:eNvMxdizC - Store A in AV Code. $03/E19FA9 40LDA #$40A:00C0X:002AY:0000P:eNvMxdizC - Load Drain Graphic into A. $03/E1A18D C5 33STA $33C5 [$7E:33C5]A:0040X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Store A in second AV Code byte. $03/E1A420 99 C4JSR $C499 [$03:C499]A:0040X:002AY:0000P:envMxdizC - Jump to Fight Routine $03/E1A760 RTSA:0000X:0680Y:001AP:envMxdiZC - Return
And there you have it! A Command which adds Drain to a Spear at 1/2 power and because this is all done in the mirror data nothing is taken back to the real character battle data.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 11, 2015, 11:22:07 AM
This is so awesome, Grimoire! Thanks so much! It works perfectly as far as I can tell, and it even does both the attack animation and the drain animation! For the "wait" stance I gave it Kain's unused casting/chanting. It looks pretty cool IMO.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 11, 2015, 11:29:34 AM
Haha! In my testing I did the same thing since it is sort of a combination of magic after all. I am glad to see it is working well on your side as well. Was there anything else ASMwise you wanted done for Unprecedented Crisis?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 11, 2015, 11:32:04 AM
Besides the Cid Tackle animation, I think that's pretty much it.
:edit: There's no way to throw a "failure" message in there, is there? Right now the command doesn't grey out when he has f.ex. an axe. He just raises his hand and the unknowing player might get confused.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 11, 2015, 11:58:00 AM
Besides the Cid Tackle animation, I think that's pretty much it.
:edit: There's no way to throw a "failure" message in there, is there? Right now the command doesn't grey out when he has f.ex. an axe. He just raises his hand and the unknowing player might get confused.
Displaying messages takes several more bytes... but I think I left *just* enough room for there to be one. At the time I wasn't sure if I would have enough so I decided to play it safe.
I did. This does mean I had to rewrite the routine for this though...
(No commentary on the older things this time because it's the same meaning as they had before)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 11, 2015, 12:13:47 PM
Yay! Thanks so much, once again!
One more thing I did think of: The EvilWall seems to start in the middle of the screen instead of way over to the side. I copied the formation data exactly as far as I can tell. Any ideas?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 11, 2015, 12:18:13 PM
One more thing I did think of: The EvilWall seems to start in the middle of the screen instead of way over to the side. I copied the formation data exactly as far as I can tell. Any ideas?
That's a new one... I honestly thought he started there to get him closer to Crushing the player. I can't think of a reason why that would be. I'll compare the two battle formations later on and see if anything is amiss.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 11, 2015, 02:25:24 PM
Has anybody ever researched why/how the evilwall moves? Eventually, I'll be making a Tonberry, for which I'll wanna know that...
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 11, 2015, 03:03:38 PM
Has anybody ever researched why/how the evilwall moves? Eventually, I'll be making a Tonberry, for which I'll wanna know that...
It's a spell they have, I labeled it "WallMove" so I remember which one it is. I am not sure if it works with other enemies, but I can't see why it wouldn't... but this is FFIV. Haha!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 11, 2015, 09:25:44 PM
So I think I'm ready to look into this tackle thing... In order to make the integration as ssmooth as possible, which command are we replacing with tackle?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 11, 2015, 09:32:22 PM
So I think I'm ready to look into this tackle thing... In order to make the integration as ssmooth as possible, which command are we replacing with tackle?
It would replace what is currently Peep.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 12, 2015, 04:28:57 AM
Cry is also unused if you need some extra bytes. Only thing is, it has a default message, so FF4kster will mess with 2 or 3 of those bytes when saving.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 12, 2015, 05:15:08 AM
1) so does Peep...don't know if Grimoire's work takes this into account? Are we concerned about this?
2) the AV assembly is in the 02 block anyway, so I won't be using any of that space. I have about 0x40 bytes to work with, which will hopefully be enough. I can't rewrite anything because Cry and Peep both use an AV routine used by other commands. So I'm going to have to write a modified version of "Land's" routine, I think, that fits into that empty space. What's nice is that the advance needs to be modified, but the jump back into place can use the same assembly as "Land," most likely. I don't wanna sound too confident, but this doesn't seem like it should be very difficult, as long as I have the room...
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 12, 2015, 05:18:46 AM
You're right; Peep has a message, but its message pointer is not modified by FF4kster.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 12, 2015, 09:52:27 AM
1) so does Peep...don't know if Grimoire's work takes this into account? Are we concerned about this?
2) the AV assembly is in the 02 block anyway, so I won't be using any of that space. I have about 0x40 bytes to work with, which will hopefully be enough. I can't rewrite anything because Cry and Peep both use an AV routine used by other commands. So I'm going to have to write a modified version of "Land's" routine, I think, that fits into that empty space. What's nice is that the advance needs to be modified, but the jump back into place can use the same assembly as "Land," most likely. I don't wanna sound too confident, but this doesn't seem like it should be very difficult, as long as I have the room...
This will be the first step to creating FFIV:TAY like special moves Chillyfeez! I am looking forward to seeing what you find out in this regard!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 12, 2015, 11:31:05 AM
1) so does Peep...don't know if Grimoire's work takes this into account? Are we concerned about this?
2) the AV assembly is in the 02 block anyway, so I won't be using any of that space. I have about 0x40 bytes to work with, which will hopefully be enough. I can't rewrite anything because Cry and Peep both use an AV routine used by other commands. So I'm going to have to write a modified version of "Land's" routine, I think, that fits into that empty space. What's nice is that the advance needs to be modified, but the jump back into place can use the same assembly as "Land," most likely. I don't wanna sound too confident, but this doesn't seem like it should be very difficult, as long as I have the room...
This will be the first step to creating FFIV:TAY like special moves Chillyfeez! I am looking forward to seeing what you find out in this regard!
Using my findings about poses as a jumping off point, I was able pretty easily to find the pointers for each command's AV routine. When this thing is over (or maybe somewhere along the way) I'll post that info. Not a whole lot of use for it in FF4kster, though you could, in theory, assign a different AV routine to a command... That is, you could make Edward jump into the air to Hide, and land when he Shows. From an assembly hacking standpoint it could be useful, though... You could make commands that look, for all intents and purposes, like an attack... Or using that small bit of space at the end of the 02 block, you could make an attack that looks like several attacks (still only one damage count, though). Or... X-magic, maybe?! Well, anyway, lemme focus on the task at hand...
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 13, 2015, 01:22:12 PM
Hey, Grimoire, do you think you could write a "fail if attempted on ally" into your tackle routine? I have the visuals working fine, but if you try to use the command on an ally, the visuals make it look like it's being used on the corresponding enemy instead (that is, if you tackle the ally in party slot 02, it will look like you attack the enemy in slot 2). Easiest solution is just to make it impossible to use on an ally...
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 13, 2015, 03:32:08 PM
Hey, Grimoire, do you think you could write a "fail if attempted on ally" into your tackle routine? I have the visuals working fine, but if you try to use the command on an ally, the visuals make it look like it's being used on the corresponding enemy instead (that is, if you tackle the ally in party slot 02, it will look like you attack the enemy in slot 2). Easiest solution is just to make it impossible to use on an ally...
That could be tricky...
I had only two bytes left when I finished filling out Lancet, which is directly after the Bomb/Tackle (Bomb Tackle?) routine.
To do a check of Enemy/Ally takes four bytes. I can take out the Critical Status application in the original routine since it happens after Cid's turn ends anyhow. I just wanted it to look natural, but it shouldn't be a big deal. You're right that being able to target ally's with it could cause oddities.
So you can overwrite...
$03/E176 A9 01 LDA #$01 A:0001 X:0000 Y:001A P:envMxdizC - Load 01 into A. (Critical) $03/E178 9D 06 20 STA $2006,x[$7E:2006] A:0001 X:0000 Y:001A P:envMxdizC - Store Critical in Status Byte 4.
And place this at the start of the routine...
$03/E153 A5 CE LDA $CE [$00:00CE] A:0000 X:000C Y:0000 P:envMxdiZc - Load Target's ID into A $03/E155 30 0D BPL $25 [$E17A] A:0083 X:000C Y:0000 P:eNvMxdizc - Branch if Positive (If tackling an Ally, not Enemy)
I hope this makes a deal of sense? If not I'll rebuild the routine for easier reasoning.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 13, 2015, 06:18:55 PM
Actually... I/we might have to rework the routine altogether... I wrote it into the ROM I'm working with and the results are... Less than perfect. Cid charges at the target, hits it, jumps back, then explodes. I EA'ed out the
$03/E15D8D C5 33STA $33C5 [$7E:33C5]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Store A in Audiovisual. $03/E16020 44 CDJSR $CD44 [$03:CD44]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Jump to after the Audiovisual check has been looked at in the Spell Routine. And that makes the explosion go away, but it still says "explode" at the top of the screen. Also, when Cid is critical, for some reason he stays crouching instead of "walking" when he charges at the target, so I might have to make it so it fails automatically if he's critical, too.
Also, my routine is long. One byte shorter than the AV routine for Land. That makes sense, since it's based off of the same routine, but it's longer than the amount of empty space in the 02 block, so I had to use some of the empty space in the 03 block, too (the empty space at the end, not any part of Peep or Cry).
Anyway, I think I have to stop for the day.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 13, 2015, 09:03:37 PM
Actually... I/we might have to rework the routine altogether... I wrote it into the ROM I'm working with and the results are... Less than perfect. Cid charges at the target, hits it, jumps back, then explodes. I EA'ed out the
$03/E15D8D C5 33STA $33C5 [$7E:33C5]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Store A in Audiovisual. $03/E16020 44 CDJSR $CD44 [$03:CD44]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Jump to after the Audiovisual check has been looked at in the Spell Routine. And that makes the explosion go away, but it still says "explode" at the top of the screen. Also, when Cid is critical, for some reason he stays crouching instead of "walking" when he charges at the target, so I might have to make it so it fails automatically if he's critical, too.
Also, my routine is long. One byte shorter than the AV routine for Land. That makes sense, since it's based off of the same routine, but it's longer than the amount of empty space in the 02 block, so I had to use some of the empty space in the 03 block, too (the empty space at the end, not any part of Peep or Cry).
Anyway, I think I have to stop for the day.
Hmm, I'm not sure of a way to repress the name of the spell used. I know there are some spells which are set not to display their name. DullSong, the Vanishes, Monster Command, and other event ones do not display their names for instance. We could work on this together, yeah. I am glad to see you have a working model though! I suspect you may want to look at the notes on Charm I have on characters walking independently of their status...
$02/DBE7 FA PLX A:0000 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIZc - Pull X. $02/DBE8 BD CE EF LDA $EFCE,x[$7E:EFCE] A:0000 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIZc - Load A from 7EEFCE. $02/DBEB 29 0F AND #$0F A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzc - Get rid of Bits. $02/DBED 9D CE EF STA $EFCE,x[$7E:EFCE] A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzc - Store A in 7EEFCE. $02/DBF0 BD C5 EF LDA $EFC5,x[$7E:EFC5] A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzc - Load A from 7EEFC5. $02/DBF3 C9 B0 CMP #$B0 A:00B0 X:0000 Y:0000 P:eNvMxdIzc - It is B0? (When set to other values will be closer or further away when they move to join the enemy) $02/DBF5 F0 4F BEQ $4F [$DC46] A:00B0 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIZC - Branch if so. ---------------------
------------------------ $02/DC46 BD CE EF LDA $EFCE,x[$7E:EFCE] A:00B0 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIZC - Load A from 7EEFCE $02/DC49 09 01 ORA #$01 A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzC - Get rid of Bits. (When set to 02 Character will face enemies) $02/DC4B 9D CE EF STA $EFCE,x[$7E:EFCE] A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzC - Store A in 7EEFCE $02/DC4E 60 RTS A:0001 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzC - Return
It is all somewhere in there, likely dealing with th 7E:EFCE sequence of bytes, as that is also pose. You may just plain be able to manipulate his pose with ...
$02/DF71 A9 04 LDA #$04 A:0010 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzc - Load Crouching into A. $02/DF73 9D D0 EF STA $EFD0,x[$7E:EFD0] A:0004 X:0000 Y:0000 P:envMxdIzc - Store A in Pose Byte
If your AV routine is using X as the character's placement ID this should do the trick.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 14, 2015, 04:08:39 AM
The routine actually involves several manipulations of the pose, but for some reason the critical crouch takes precedence over anything else... I'll post a commented disassembly of my routine when I can (gonna be a busy couple of days, so maybe not til Thursday, my next day off) so you can see what I'm working with (and see it in action).
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 14, 2015, 05:38:51 AM
Suppressing the spell name: We could use one of the already name-suppressed spells and turn it into "Tackle", damage based on caster's HP. The command handles setting his HP afterwards anyway right?
Critical: In the regular command information, there are two "disable if" bytes; one for permanent statutes and one for temporary. Currently, the only one using the temporary status byte is Kick,which is disabled under Float. Would it be possible (or feasible) to change it so that it checks the category of statuses that Critical falls under? If so, it would then be a simple matter of setting the corresponding flag in FF4kster.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 14, 2015, 07:54:00 AM
Suppressing the spell name: We could use one of the already name-suppressed spells and turn it into "Tackle", damage based on caster's HP. The command handles setting his HP afterwards anyway right?
Critical: In the regular command information, there are two "disable if" bytes; one for permanent statutes and one for temporary. Currently, the only one using the temporary status byte is Kick,which is disabled under Float. Would it be possible (or feasible) to change it so that it checks the category of statuses that Critical falls under? If so, it would then be a simple matter of setting the corresponding flag in FF4kster.
Indeed, while it would be interesting to see why a spelll's name is suppressed I've never really come across that info and haven't been pointed in any direction on why that may be. It may be something I'm missing, but you still have unused spells (Golbez vs. Rydia comes to mind as a couple of spots.) and plenty of still unused spots.
You present an interesting hypothesis. That should not be a very difficult change. All that is doing is looking at the 2004 byte, rather than the 2006 byte of status. Since we know where the first is located breakpointing a Read on it should reveal its inner workings. (it would mean... you can use Kick while Floating! Oh no!!)
Critical: In the regular command information, there are two "disable if" bytes; one for permanent statutes and one for temporary. Currently, the only one using the temporary status byte is Kick,which is disabled under Float. Would it be possible (or feasible) to change it so that it checks the category of statuses that Critical falls under? If so, it would then be a simple matter of setting the corresponding flag in FF4kster.
That's a good idea... Question, though: I know that only two of the four status bytes can be used in "disable if." Anybody know which of those bytes are eligible? Critical is part of the fourth status byte...
Re: name-suppressed spells. Is there one in particular you're not using, or by your count can be easily eliminated from Unprecedented Crisis?
If these two things work like you're thinking, I think that would solve all of pur problems!
:edit: Oops, Grimoire beat me to the punch here. Just need to know which spell to replace with a copy of Explode, then. This afternoon or tomorrow morning I should have enough time to put this all together.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 14, 2015, 08:03:36 AM
Heh, looks like we posted around roughly the time there. That issue is solved.
As for the name suppressed spells according to FF4kster there's at least 10 or so that go unused because of the changes in plot so there's Plenty of room. That should solve everything!
Feel free to change either of the Rydia vs. Golbez designated spells since nothing exists in Unprecedented Crisis using them.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 14, 2015, 08:54:16 AM
Which index spells would those be?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 14, 2015, 09:03:58 AM
176 is the "Summon Adult Rydia" spell, 177 is the special-Mist Dragon Display and 188 is the special-Mist Dragon damage.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 14, 2015, 06:15:09 PM
I found this via Twitch, while streaming and watching Zelda Randomizer runs. Been enjoying my playthrough so far. :) I'm in the Eblan Cave now, being hassled by constant surprise- and back-attacks from 6 bats. The darn things take a dozen actions before I can take one.
I was really confused in Troia. There weren't any plot clues, so I went to the magnetic cave, thinking something might happen. The game wouldn't let me in, saying the magnetic field made all my gear heavy, so I unequipped everything I thought was metal... same message. I went through this process several times, finally just unequipping everything (which required going back to town to sell some stuff and free up space), and it still wouldn't let me in. :wtf: Anyway, I obviously did figure it out eventually.
I really liked the little tweaks to the writing at Mt. Hobs and Fabul, and I loved the changes at Baron and the Misty Mountains. Edward is pretty good now, I was actually sad to see him go. :laugh:
The difficulty balance has been okay. Scarmig was hard, but not that hard. The hardest thing has been surviving without any healing and going through potions like candy. I always feel like I'm slightly underleveled, even though I don't run from battles much.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 14, 2015, 11:11:36 PM
I found this via Twitch, while streaming and watching Zelda Randomizer runs. Been enjoying my playthrough so far. :) I'm in the Eblan Cave now, being hassled by constant surprise- and back-attacks from 6 bats. The darn things take a dozen actions before I can take one.
I was really confused in Troia. There weren't any plot clues, so I went to the magnetic cave, thinking something might happen. The game wouldn't let me in, saying the magnetic field made all my gear heavy, so I unequipped everything I thought was metal... same message. I went through this process several times, finally just unequipping everything (which required going back to town to sell some stuff and free up space), and it still wouldn't let me in. :wtf: Anyway, I obviously did figure it out eventually.
I really liked the little tweaks to the writing at Mt. Hobs and Fabul, and I loved the changes at Baron and the Misty Mountains. Edward is pretty good now, I was actually sad to see him go. :laugh:
The difficulty balance has been okay. Scarmig was hard, but not that hard. The hardest thing has been surviving without any healing and going through potions like candy. I always feel like I'm slightly underleveled, even though I don't run from battles much.
Entroper! You were an early champion and pioneer of FFIV hacking and it is always good to see such a face revisit the site! As you can see we have made a ton of progress starting with notes from people such as yourself, so thank you very much for your past efforts!
As for Unprecedented Crisis...
I do hope you didn't save after you sold everything! I agree with your statements though, once you get to Baron the game seems more difficult because you cannot rely on any healer (even though the Mythril Staff is a nice heal) as you would in the normal game which keeps a healer in the party from Mist to the end game. It presents a completely different method of play.
That you feel that you're always "one step behind" is in my opinion one of the strengths of Unprecedented Crisis, the enemy's aren't really that different, but the scenarios they are placed in, the equipment draws, and the spells available always makes the player seem a little more evenly matched with their opponents (past Fabul, of course)
Edward is fantastic and it is troubling when he leaves because there goes a main healer for a rather long stretch of time!
So you saw this on Twitch? That was fast. Was the person playing any good? I noticed that a lot of Twitch players... are not the best people to watch, mainly because of their personalities as they play through.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 01:10:36 AM
I don't think I sold anything I can't easily buy back. :)
I played a lot tonight, defeated all the fiends. The game is really pretty great. It gets back to basics for a while with Palom and Porom, and I like that you also have Rosa as a Time Mage of sorts who can also do some good damage with various elements of arrows, plus the rune bow. I must admit, when I first got P&P, I was very frustrated. All the places you can go were just ruthlessly kicking my ass. So, I downloaded ff4kster and hacked the hack. :omghax: I made dark imps worth a ton of exp and gold, and gained 10 levels with P&P (and maybe 5-6 for everyone else) From then on, the game seemed balanced. It was still challenging, but I wasn't getting back-attacked every single time. I had access to Cure3 and some other good magic. Ciriatto was a tough challenge, but I did barely make it through. Honestly, the new fiends are a blast.
So... I've noticed with the progression of items... I feel like I wasn't supposed to have Thor's Hammer for most of the game. I'm pretty sure I got it in Baron straight away, and it was just waaaaaaay OP compared to every other hammer so far. Cid was using it the entire time I had him.
I LOVED the ice cave. Very nicely done. I hear a lot of people complained about the damage floors... there really aren't many of them in the ice cave. They were maybe a little overdone in the Sylvan Cave, but I muttered though using about 60-70 HiPotions. The Feymarch seemed okay.
The person I was watching seemed pretty decent, but he had only just gotten to the Misty Mountains. He died a few times at Scarmiglione's second form, and decided to grind for a bit, so I stopped watching. He wasn't bad, just not used to maximizing all of his abilities at once, which the fiends seem to require. :)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 15, 2015, 04:59:48 AM
I found this via Twitch, while streaming and watching Zelda Randomizer runs. Been enjoying my playthrough so far. :) I'm in the Eblan Cave now, being hassled by constant surprise- and back-attacks from 6 bats. The darn things take a dozen actions before I can take one.
In the next version, they'll be tamed a little by popular request.
I was really confused in Troia. There weren't any plot clues, so I went to the magnetic cave, thinking something might happen. The game wouldn't let me in, saying the magnetic field made all my gear heavy, so I unequipped everything I thought was metal... same message. I went through this process several times, finally just unequipping everything (which required going back to town to sell some stuff and free up space), and it still wouldn't let me in. :wtf: Anyway, I obviously did figure it out eventually.
Glad you figured it out! I got a lot of questions about that one. Again, next version will have some dialogue when you take the crystal, and also a reminder message in Cave Magnes. "Cecil: We have no reason to be here. We should head to Eblan as soon as possible" or something like that.
I really liked the little tweaks to the writing at Mt. Hobs and Fabul, and I loved the changes at Baron and the Misty Mountains. Edward is pretty good now, I was actually sad to see him go. :laugh:
I've also gotten a lot of comments about Edward. It really surprised me how fond people are of him in this.
The difficulty balance has been okay. Scarmig was hard, but not that hard. The hardest thing has been surviving without any healing and going through potions like candy. I always feel like I'm slightly underleveled, even though I don't run from battles much.
As Grimoire mentioned, this is where I was aiming for in terms of difficulty. Able to be done without grinding with enough skill and luck but a little grinding goes a long way. I may have missed the mark a little in the underworld and made things a little too difficult, but again I'm aiming to have that fixed for the next version.
I played a lot tonight, defeated all the fiends. The game is really pretty great. It gets back to basics for a while with Palom and Porom, and I like that you also have Rosa as a Time Mage of sorts who can also do some good damage with various elements of arrows, plus the rune bow. I must admit, when I first got P&P, I was very frustrated. All the places you can go were just ruthlessly kicking my ass. So, I downloaded ff4kster and hacked the hack. :omghax: I made dark imps worth a ton of exp and gold, and gained 10 levels with P&P (and maybe 5-6 for everyone else) From then on, the game seemed balanced.
Again, this should be fixed in the next version, but I have to say I like your solution. :celosa: In the meantime, I found that they don't have too much trouble living in the Ice Cave, and Porom starts with Warp, so you can always go a little bit, warp out, go a little bit further, warp out, etc. Also getting the Bahamut's Lagoon top floor treasure (Sylvan Cave) helps a lot. There will be fewer damage floors and more secret passages in both that dungeon and the Feymarch in the next version.
It was still challenging, but I wasn't getting back-attacked every single time. I had access to Cure3 and some other good magic. Ciriatto was a tough challenge, but I did barely make it through. Honestly, the new fiends are a blast.
Thanks! I think the general consensus is that they're a little too hard though so I'm going to tone down at least Ciriatto and somewhat Draghinazzo as well and make it so that tackling them "out of order", while challenging, will nevertheless be doable, unlike it is now.
So... I've noticed with the progression of items... I feel like I wasn't supposed to have Thor's Hammer for most of the game. I'm pretty sure I got it in Baron straight away, and it was just waaaaaaay OP compared to every other hammer so far. Cid was using it the entire time I had him.
You're definitely not supposed to! How did you get it? Was it a monster rare drop maybe? Or did you get it from a chest or pot or something? (If it's the latter, that's a bug. If it's the former, well, I guess you just got super lucky).
I LOVED the ice cave. Very nicely done. I hear a lot of people complained about the damage floors... there really aren't many of them in the ice cave. They were maybe a little overdone in the Sylvan Cave, but I muttered though using about 60-70 HiPotions. The Feymarch seemed okay.
Thank FF1 for the Ice Cave. ^_^ What I'm impressed by is that no one seems to have any problems with Santa Claus being in the game. I was afraid I would get some negative response to that.
The person I was watching seemed pretty decent, but he had only just gotten to the Misty Mountains. He died a few times at Scarmiglione's second form, and decided to grind for a bit, so I stopped watching. He wasn't bad, just not used to maximizing all of his abilities at once, which the fiends seem to require. :)
Can we have a link? I loved reading Grimoire's text-based "let's play" on here, but I've been itching to watch someone play it on video.
Anyway, thanks for your feedback! It's great to hear from you again!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 15, 2015, 09:31:23 AM
Hey, Grimoire - do you think the key to displaying damage might be running the subroutine at $03/CA7E? I've been looking over your command disassembly notes. It seems this subroutine runs for every damaging command except Magic (which, IIRC, deals damage differently than everything else anyway), including (and this is the intriguing part) Steal only if the failed steal deals damage. Even if that's not it, I'm thinking the key must be embedded in the commands' routines. It's certainly not set before the command runs, and the only stuff that seems to run differently after the command runs depends on things that happen when the command runs... :hmm:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 10:00:52 AM
I've also gotten a lot of comments about Edward. It really surprised me how fond people are of him in this.
It may be that Edward just sucks so much in the original, that he's awesome by comparison. :) But he really is useful, the Split and Sing commands work very well.
Thanks! I think the general consensus is that they're a little too hard though so I'm going to tone down at least Ciriatto and somewhat Draghinazzo as well and make it so that tackling them "out of order", while challenging, will nevertheless be doable, unlike it is now.
Ciriatto was awesome. I wouldn't touch his script at all, just maybe make him a tad slower so you can recover from Fallen Angel before getting wrecked.
You're definitely not supposed to! How did you get it? Was it a monster rare drop maybe? Or did you get it from a chest or pot or something? (If it's the latter, that's a bug. If it's the former, well, I guess you just got super lucky).
Haha, I thought not. The hammer is in the leftmost chest in Baron Castle, on the main floor. So, it was one of the very first things I found.
That's interesting to know, because Cid really carried the Rubicante fight -- raging out with 4x151 damage. Maybe that's part of why I felt behind when I got to the underground, I don't think I was quite ready to go through Eblan, level-wise, but the hammer made it doable.
Hey, Grimoire - do you think the key to displaying damage might be running the subroutine at $03/CA7E? I've been looking over your command disassembly notes. It seems this subroutine runs for every damaging command except Magic (which, IIRC, deals damage differently than everything else anyway), including (and this is the intriguing part) Steal only if the failed steal deals damage. Even if that's not it, I'm thinking the key must be embedded in the commands' routines. It's certainly not set before the command runs, and the only stuff that seems to run differently after the command runs depends on things that happen when the command runs... :hmm:
You are exactly right Chillyfeez, you may have missed my newest post in my thread, but aside from targeting this is the Ultimate Basic Setup for skills to deal and display the damage done.
I'll have to watch some of this! But Thor's Hammer in the rightmost Chest of Baron? That... doesn't sound right.
I exported my streams to YouTube this morning, so that they wouldn't age out on Twitch. I haven't cleaned them up yet, so this link will become dead later, but here's Thor's Hammer, 3 minutes into the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmjmzv_inpI#t=2m55s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmjmzv_inpI#t=2m55s)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 15, 2015, 11:23:54 AM
I'm at work; can anyone else confirm whether this is happening on their copy of the game?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 15, 2015, 11:51:01 AM
Just downloaded a fresh file from Romhacking.net and no. The chests were 300 GP, Potion, and Tent. Something going awry in the patching process, maybe? I thought maybe the 300 GP would turn into Thor's Hammer if it were transferred into an Item, but that turns into the Kotetsu, so I have no idea what could have caused that.
I will have to watch the rest of your video later (likely during meal time, Entroper) but it looks like it will be quite a bit of fun.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 15, 2015, 12:22:11 PM
Heh... Sorry, I did see that post, but at the time I didn't really know what you were talking about.
Anyway, I pretty !such have this thing working, but I ran out of time and had to get to work. I'm off tomorrow and will post everything.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 15, 2015, 12:27:05 PM
Glad to know I'm not going crazy. Entroper, are you 100% sure the rom you used was V1.1 and unheadered?
So was the damage display the only barrier to having Lancet deal half of Kain's missing HP?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 12:36:38 PM
The file I downloaded was called "Final Fantasy II (1.1)", and was unheadered, 1 MiB exactly. I have 3 versions of the ROM, one headered, two unheadered. I tried patching the other unheadered one first, and the game just crashed as soon as Cecil entered battle during the intro, so I downloaded the ROM I ended up using. I guess it's possible there is more than one 1.1, or that someone tweaked mine.
It would be great if the patching tools used a checksum. :)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 15, 2015, 12:38:44 PM
There should be a checksum on the RHDN page though. Does it match up with that?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 05:37:41 PM
There should be a checksum on the RHDN page though. Does it match up with that?
I just checked it, and it does not. The filename is exact, too. Someone must have messed with this one, or just labeled it wrong. :bah: :lame:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 05:51:24 PM
I just checked the source of my download link. It was jce3000gt.com. :laugh: I'm intensely curious what's in that chest now, in the unmodified ROM. Going to play for 3 minutes and find out. :)
EDIT: Yup! The RuneAxe was in that chest! Someone's been messing in my ROM. :finger:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 15, 2015, 06:18:42 PM
I just checked the source of my download link. It was jce3000gt.com. :laugh: I'm intensely curious what's in that chest now, in the unmodified ROM. Going to play for 3 minutes and find out. :)
EDIT: Yup! The RuneAxe was in that chest! Someone's been messing in my ROM. :finger:
Is that a joke... or did that actually happen...? If so I had no idea there were so many bad dumps of FFIV out there. There's only supposed to be 300 GP in the chest.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 07:45:14 PM
Is that a joke... or did that actually happen...? If so I had no idea there were so many bad dumps of FFIV out there. There's only supposed to be 300 GP in the chest.
It definitely happened. I'm sure JCE was in the ROM at some point and just didn't realize that he had edited that version. Funny coincidence that it ended up giving me Thor's Hammer after applying a hack patch.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 08:06:07 PM
I'm uploading my streamed videos directly to YouTube now, as they retain much better quality than when you archive them from Twitch. I'll start streaming again in a few minutes, while I wait. :)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 15, 2015, 08:29:54 PM
I'm uploading my streamed videos directly to YouTube now, as they retain much better quality than when you archive them from Twitch. I'll start streaming again in a few minutes, while I wait. :)
Looking forward to it, From what I've seen of your video thus far it seems it will be an enjoyable watch.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Entroper on July 15, 2015, 10:55:22 PM
Here are the higher-quality videos so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SrxGYVk_L4&list=PLUwKxgjMsXaYtTAcrr6Ayc3FURUHFmdM9
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 16, 2015, 10:56:29 AM
Okay, Cid's Tackle is ready to go! Couple of things to note:
The command is still called "Peep." I figured Pinkpuff should get to rename it to whatever she feels is appropriate
The spell I replaced was "Something happens to Adult Rydia," A.K.A. "y ."
I made the command unperformable when critical, and thus had to make it so Kick can be executed when floating
The attached patch should be applied to an Unheadered ROM
For those of you interested in what's going on under the hood...
$02/FFBE 22 18 FF 03 JSL $03FF18[$03:FF18];Jump to Failure/Success (depending on whether targeting ally/enemy) subrtouine ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ $03/FF18 AD D3 26 LDA $26D3 [$7E:26D3];Load "Next Action Enemy Target" byte $03/FF1B F0 01 BEQ $01 [$FF1E] ;If zero (because you've targeted an ally), jump ahead $03/FF1D 6B RTL ;If enemy is targeted, return to routine $03/FF1E FA PLX ; $03/FF1F A2 EE C7 LDX #$C7EE ; $03/FF22 DA PHX ;Basically, this manipulates the stack, so that the RTL will return to a different routine instead of the one it jumped out of - namely, the routine for Sneak/Pray/Cover (character steps forward, strikes a pose, then steps back) $03/FF23 6B RTL ;"Return," as discussed above ------------------------------------------ $02/FFC2 EA NOP $02/FFC3 EA NOP ;unused remnants of old code that would take a long time to eliminate $02/FFC4 20 8B C2 JSR $C28B [$02:C28B];not quite sure - it's used in the "Land" routine, I think to set some variables... $02/FFC7 22 E3 FE 03 JSL $03FEE3[$03:FEE3];Jump to subroutine (this is done to conserve valuable space in the 02 block) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ $03/FEE3 A5 49 LDA $49 [$00:0049];Load slot # of targeted enemy $03/FEE5 0A ASL A ;multiply by 2 $03/FEE6 AA TAX ;transfer A to X $03/FEE7 BD 5D F0 LDA $F05D,x[$7E:F061];Load targeted enemy's x-position $03/FEEA 29 F8 AND #$F8 ;Eliminate (relatively insignificant and potentially bothersome) lower 7 bits $03/FEEC 85 00 STA $00 [$00:0000];store result in 00 (custom routine won't use this, but it's done by "Land," and since we're still using a piece of that routine, best to just keep doing this) $03/FEEE 8D 33 F1 STA $F133 [$7E:F133];store result in 7EF133 $03/FEF1 BD 5E F0 LDA $F05E,x[$7E:F062];Load targeted enemy's y-position $03/FEF4 38 SEC ; $03/FEF5 E9 18 SBC #$18 ;Subtract 18 (because the y-position here represents the top row of sprites, and things will look better if we reference a space 0x18 pixels down from there) $03/FEF7 29 F8 AND #$F8 ;Get rid of those insignificant and potentially bothersome lower 7 bits $03/FEF9 8D 34 F1 STA $F134 [$7E:F134];Store result in 7EF134 $03/FEFC 85 01 STA $01 [$00:0001];Store result in 01 (see note above about 00) $03/FEFE 6B RTL ;Return ------------------------------------------ $02/FFCB 20 B6 C5 JSR $C5B6 [$02:C5B6]; $02/FFCE 90 03 BCC $03 [$FFD3] ; $02/FFD0 20 AC C2 JSR $C2AC [$02:C2AC];not quite sure - it's used in the "Land" routine, I think to set some variables... $02/FFD3 A9 03 LDA #$03 ;Load "walking animation" into A $02/FFD5 20 F7 C7 JSR $C7F7 [$02:C7F7];Jump to subroutine that stores the specified stance into the rpoper location in RAM $02/FFD8 20 13 85 JSR $8513 [$02:8513];Jump to subroutine that writes all the changes we've made so far to the PPU $02/FFDB 20 B6 C5 JSR $C5B6 [$02:C5B6];not quite sure - it's used in the "Land" routine, I think to set some variables... $02/FFDE BD C5 EF LDA $EFC5,x[$7E:F194];Load current x-position $02/FFE1 38 SEC ; $02/FFE2 E9 06 SBC #$06 ;Subtract 6 $02/FFE4 9D C5 EF STA $EFC5,x[$7E:F194];Store in current x-position $02/FFE7 90 03 BCC $03 [$FFEC] ; $02/FFE9 20 AC C2 JSR $C2AC [$02:C2AC];not quite sure - it's used in the "Land" routine, I think to set some variables... $02/FFEC 22 FF FE 03 JSL $03FEFF[$03:FEFF];Jump to subroutine (again, to conserve space in the 02 block) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ $03/FEFF BD C6 EF LDA $EFC6,x[$7E:F195];Load current y-position $03/FF02 CD 34 F1 CMP $F134 [$7E:F134];Compare with target's y-position (minus 18, as discussed above) $03/FF05 F0 0D BEQ $0D [$FF14] ;If equal, skip ahead (and make no changes) $03/FF07 90 05 BCC $05 [$FF0E] ;If current y-position is less than target's, skip ahead $03/FF09 38 SEC ; $03/FF0A E9 04 SBC #$04 ; $03/FF0C 80 03 BRA $03 [$FF11] ;If current y-position is greater than target's then subtract 4 from current y-position $03/FF0E 18 CLC ; $03/FF0F 69 04 ADC #$04 ;If current y-position is less than target's then add 4 to current y-position $03/FF11 9D C6 EF STA $EFC6,x[$7E:F195];store (added or subtracted) result in current y-position $03/FF14 AD 33 F1 LDA $F133 [$7E:F133];Load target's x-position into A $03/FF17 6B RTL ;Return ------------------------------------------ $02/FFF0 DD C5 EF CMP $EFC5,x[$7E:F194];Compare Target's x-position with current x-position $02/FFF3 90 E3 BCC $E3 [$FFD8] ;If target's x-position is lower (further left), then jump back up to pass through all the position adjustments again $02/FFF5 A9 0C LDA #$0C ;If currentx-positon matches target's x-position (and thus the "advance" portion is done), load 0C ("Casting" pose) $02/FFF7 DA PHX ; $02/FFF8 20 F7 C7 JSR $C7F7 [$02:C7F7]; $02/FFFB FA PLX ;Store pose in appropriate place in RAM $02/FFFC 4C F9 C4 JMP $C4F9 [$02:C4F9];Jump to the "Jump Back" portion of the "Land" routine :edit: Just for fun... I was playing around with some of those subroutines that I don't really know what they do. When you EA out the one at $02/FFC4, this is the result: TackLOL (https://youtu.be/TRVeoPxF9DQ) :laugh:
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 16, 2015, 12:16:45 PM
Wow, that looked fantastic! (Aside from the running in circles for ever) I have to wonder why FFIV kept it so basic. That idea has so much potential! Granted it wasn't until FFVI where Square really started experimenting with battle animations and all of that.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 16, 2015, 12:21:18 PM
If you watch that video closely, Cid also runs backwards. That doesn't happen in the actual animation.
The patch actually can be applied to any ROM (as long as you don't plan on running the "Adult Rydia Returns" battle, of course), if you wanna see the real command in action.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 16, 2015, 12:43:08 PM
I can't wait to try it out! Thank you so, so much for doing this for me, Chillyfeez!
And just in case it got lost in the discussion, was the damage display the only obstacle to having Lancet deal half of Kain's missing HP? Or was space an issue as well?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 16, 2015, 01:22:05 PM
In Lancet's case it would turn out to be space. A simplified routine of giving Kain Drain and dividing his attack by 2 and jumping to the Fight routine wasn't so bad but adding a failure message took up a fair amount of remaining space.
The way that hypothetical would be drawn up is tricky
It would require basically writing the Remedy/Absorb routine and then having that deal damage at the end of it. Quite a few bytes really.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 16, 2015, 01:26:08 PM
Oh ok no problem as it is, just wanted to check ^_^
Thank you both for this. The plain fighters should be considerably more interesting in the next version.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 17, 2015, 08:58:10 PM
Hey, Pinkpuff, Am I correct in assuming because you haven't said anything else that the tackle command is working as planned?
... I have to wonder why FFIV kept it so basic. That idea has so much potential! Granted it wasn't until FFVI where Square really started experimenting with battle animations and all of that.
My guess would be that the pretty much just ran out of room. Vanilla FFIV only has about four lines of empty space in the 02 block, and that seems to be where every single bit of visual assembly is for battle (as well as some other situations). Command visuals are actually pretty simple - it's just making adjustments to x-position, y-position and pose sprite - but it can take quite a bit of coding space to do anything interesting, as I learned firsthand with this tackle command. If I had to guess, I'd say that's exactly why they nixed whatever plans they had for Cid's "crash" command.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 17, 2015, 09:00:53 PM
Actually I've been super busy. I promise I'll try it out tomorrow morning and let you know either way.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 17, 2015, 10:26:43 PM
Okay, that's cool. Just checking in.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 18, 2015, 05:25:30 AM
I applied the patch and went to try it out. I didn't have a save with Cid already in the party, so I loaded up a just-after-floater save and tried to ditch the twins. The serpent road map was messed up and the event it triggered was likewise messed up and didn't let me ditch them so I can't test it.
I think this may be because I've made changes to things like maps and events and such on my base rom that aren't on yours, so I'm going to try typing in the code changes manually rather than applying the patch and see if that matters.
:edit: Applying the patch manually gets rid of those bugs but now when I try the command, Cid just advances, grins, then retreats. Nothing is messed up but he isn't tackling. He wasn't critical when I tried this either, so it couldn't be that.
:edit: 2 Also the command isn't greyed out when Cid is critical.
:edit: 3 Here's a patch that turns an unmodified FF2 1.1 unheadered into the current version 2 beta of Unprecedented Crisis (without the tackle modifications) in case that helps: http://timecave.net/ff4kster/crisis/crisis2.ips
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 18, 2015, 11:17:30 AM
That's... A lot more going wrong than I would have predicted. I'll take a look into it (using your ROM instead of vanilla) this afternoon or tomorrow. I'm sure the fix will be simple enough, but there's too much for me to guess what might be happening there.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 18, 2015, 03:34:42 PM
I just realized something... The patch was made in part using FF4kster (to change the "disable if"), but used Vanilla as the base, so yeah, it's therefore pretty easy to see how this would mess up an already modified ROM...
And I don't think I ever posted the information about the pointer that actually calls the routine, so if you tried to punch it in by hand, Cid would still be running the animation for Peep.
So, lemme see what I can do here. Shouldn't be too difficult, though may take a couple hours (which translates into "tomorrow" if my wife gets home from work soon - I try not to get too involved in stuff that keeps my back to the world when she's home).
:edit: Actually, that ended up being super-easy. It was just a matter of knowing exactly what needed to be written in (which I inadvertently withheld earlier). As far as I can tell, this works perfectly!
:edit: 2 Oh - apply that to the ROM that spawned the patch you posted (not vanilla).
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 20, 2015, 11:13:38 AM
In case it went unnoticed, see the addenda to the post above, including updated patch.
Also, there was something weird going on with Grimoire's custom Tackle/Charge command in that particular version of Crisis that I had to fix. The first 5-10 bytes of assembly were all wrong, which leads me to believe that FF4kster may not play nicely with that command, so just watch out for that going forward.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 20, 2015, 02:15:51 PM
Oh wow yeah I absolutely missed those!
I will be downloading that the moment I get home but just a couple of questions to clarify:
Does this patch play nicely with FF4kster, or will I have to apply all my FF4kster changes first and apply the patch last? Or will that just break it entirely?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 20, 2015, 03:20:58 PM
By my figuring it should play nice with ff4kster inasmuch as Grimoire's command plays nice with ff4kster, which as mentioned above it may not. Actually, come to think of it, applying the patch after making ff4kster changes will fix anything that ff4kster does to break Grimoire's command, since I fixed the broken part before I made the patch.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 20, 2015, 06:49:16 PM
Ok, so, I should always apply the patch again after making changes with FF4kster?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 20, 2015, 07:11:26 PM
Maybe. I don't really know for sure. What I would do: 1) apply the patch to your ROM and test the command to make sure it works 2) open and save in FFF4kster (without editing) 3) test the command again If it still works, you're golden. If it does not work (in my experience with the patch you provided, Cid just freezes for the rest of the battle, but the rest of the battle continues as normal), then you know you'll have to apply the patch every time you save with FF4kster.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 21, 2015, 04:53:35 AM
Tested on both unmodified and modified by FF4kster ROMs. Works like a charm in both instances! Thank you so, so much, Chillyfeez! In version 2, you and Grimoire will be professors in the training room. Though, just in case I do run into trouble down the road, what are the trouble bytes in question and what should their values be?
On that note, I made a bunch of changes last night (I had been writing them down and saving them up for after I confirmed the Dash patch would work correctly). I'm linking the current version here first, just in case anyone wants to help me playtest through it and discovers any bugs/imbalances along the way.
I didn't exhaustively keep track of the changes, but the highlights are:
* Angel wings! They float the party in battle (it sticks around after til you change floor) and can be stolen/dropped from underworld flying enemies, as well as bought for 5000 apiece in Tomra (I guess the Dwarves use them to float over the lava in the bottom floor of the ice cave). * Bahamut's Lagoon has far fewer damage floors on the "treasure route"; also, secret passages in the Feymarch allow you to take a much more roundabout but much less damage-floor route through the dungeon. It just means you'll fight more enemies instead. Which brings me to.,.. * Underworld enemies are both easier (slower / hit less hard) and give more EXP. Ciriatto has been slowed down; Draghinazzo has also been slowed slightly and has less attack power. As a side effect from something else, Alichino's healing has increased. Hopefully this will make the underworld transition a little smoother and make it more reasonable to do the fiends "out of order". * HP-Apples exist and a couple can be found in the Dwarf castle treasures. Once again, this is intended to help smooth the difficulty transition of the underworld a little. The twins might survive a hit or two and get some EXP. Either way, it's not a very high-HP party you have down there to begin with, so they probably won't go wrong no matter who gets them. * The training room in Baron now has explanations of many of the changes and/or things that aren't quite obvious to casual players about FF4. * There is now a trap set for speedrunners who try to cheat their way past certain early game towns. * Kain and Cid's new commands (many thanks, once again) * Chakra heals more (but the idea is still the same) * Edge gives you a parting gift that is yet another nod to something external to the game. * The game tracks your party size via flags; no more "Do you wish to wreck your game? Yes/No". If you have room, they will be added. If you don't, they won't. If you don't like the result, reset. * Chaos blade is stronger, Blood sword is weaker (a little), also Sleep blade is stronger. * Daggers have been majorly reworked * Mythril staff has been renamed "Healing staff" and heals for a little more. * Float spell is learned earlier by both Porom and Rosa (but not a lot earlier; you probably will still have beaten those dungeons the first time already) * You have a starting inventory, and the inventory begins with -sort- and trashcan at the top instead of the bottom. The starting inventory also has two empty spots next to the Ice-Ball, giving the impression that Cecil also started with a Lit-Bolt and a FireBomb but used them in the cutscene. * The Frost Dragon palette looks WAY better * There is now a Mindflayer in the ice cave instead of Tarantula, in further nod to FF1.
Anyway I think those are the biggies. Enjoy! Let me know if you find anything noteworthy. Otherwise, I will upload it to RHDN once I finish my own test playthrough if I don't find anything myself.
http://timecave.net/ff4kster/crisis/crisis.ips
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 21, 2015, 08:20:29 AM
Sweet, I'm a video game character! I'm gonna celebrate by carrying around a hammer all day to BONK people who upset me!
Anyway, here's what Grimoire wrote originally: (LoROM - subtract 20000 to arrive at offset in ROM without header)
$03/E153A6 A6LDX $A6 [$00:00A6]A:0003X:0028Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Load Character ID into X. $03/E155DA PHXA:0003X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdiZc - Push X (to retrieve later) $03/E156A9 A0LDA #$A0A:0003X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdiZc - Load Explode into A. $03/E1588D D2 26STA $26D2 [$7E:26D2]A:00A0X:0000Y:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Store A in Next Action to take. $03/E15BA9 32LDA #$32A:00A0X:0000Y:0000P:eNvMxdizc - Load Bomb (Summon) Graphic into A. $03/E15D8D C5 33STA $33C5 [$7E:33C5]A:0032X:0000Y:0000P:envMxdizc - Store A in Audiovi Here's what's in the ROM (patch) you provided (note only the first five bytes are different, but it sets off a chain reaction of wrong ops):
Here's what the final product looks like after my patch is applied (this version replaces the portion of Grimoire's code that loads the "Explode" graphic with a "fail if used on ally" check):
So, if Dash starts malfunctioning, you can check those thirteen bytes to see if they've been corrupted. It will work properly if you match them to the third example above.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 21, 2015, 10:03:25 AM
Wow, I like the sound of a lot of those changes! I think it should ease the player into the Underworld at a much steadier pace than the previous one and I love your compromise for the Feymarch with the longer path being the one relatively harm-free and the idea to sell the AngelWings is also well proposed. Most importantly though is the Full Party mechanic and as mentioned before I would love to see the code used for that since it would definitely have use for other free-form party mods.
I am also glad to see you've recognized the abusive power of the Blood Sword, yes that did need weakened if it was going to keep the x4 damage to Giants and Slimes (mostly Giants though)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 21, 2015, 10:31:49 AM
Thanks! Yeah this game seems to have an abundance of anti-giant weapons. I might take that off and just have it anti-slime. For now it's the same but a little less attack.
Will you be playing through this one before I post it? If so I'm eager to hear your feedback, especially regarding the knives. I tried to make them all useful and all a viable option for all the characters that can use them. I'd love to see Edge's stats in a dagger build.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 21, 2015, 11:05:10 AM
Thanks! Yeah this game seems to have an abundance of anti-giant weapons. I might take that off and just have it anti-slime. For now it's the same but a little less attack.
Will you be playing through this one before I post it? If so I'm eager to hear your feedback, especially regarding the knives. I tried to make them all useful and all a viable option for all the characters that can use them. I'd love to see Edge's stats in a dagger build.
Certainly, I have a bit of free time and since I've played through it three times now I should be able to spot noticeable changes.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 21, 2015, 05:46:12 PM
I also have some free time so I'll give it a shot. I gave the changed equipment a quick lookover before starting and I can see Edge sporting a dagger build once I get a hold of the later daggers however the murasame & masamune could give something because their atk is 48/52 compared to the last 3 daggers being 36/42/48 plus giving several bonuses.
The updated training room comes off nicely and it serves it's purpose of explaining the various new changes. If I read the discussion on Lancet correctly, it's basically a 1/2 dmg "fight" that steals HP so theoretically it can still crit. I'm just trying to clarify because I've seen it deal equal to Kain's regular dmg twice and I'm assuming Lancet is doing a critical hit.
I'm assuming Edward's songs are white magic running off of will because why else would you have wil+ on the new daggers. I just got to Kaipo so I might reach the underworld by morning.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 21, 2015, 05:54:14 PM
Edward has exactly one song that cares about any of his stats and that's Magic Song which is based on will.
You could go for an all out Agi super speed Edge and see how many turns he gets to Cid's 1.
I believe Lancet can crit. Grimiore?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 21, 2015, 06:03:46 PM
Edward has exactly one song that cares about any of his stats and that's Magic Song which is based on will.
You could go for an all out Agi super speed Edge and see how many turns he gets to Cid's 1.
I believe Lancet can crit. Grimiore?
Lancet has no reason it can't crit, but I should note that it's not a straight 1/2 damage slice either. It slices his normal attack power while leaving his multipliers alone. So if he had 120 Attack * 10 Multiplier it would become 60 * 10, early in game there may not even be that much of a difference if his attack is low enough.
Also this is available for download already...?
Oh geez! It was there all along. I'll get right to it.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 21, 2015, 08:54:55 PM
I just finished Troia and the Elban line worked perfectly. Cid's dash is pretty good compared to his regular attack however the drop to 1 hp may be a little steep. I'll be using Cid & Edge on the moon so I may revise my statement depending on how it scales later on. Also the early bosses could use some buffs(Octo & Mombomb especially) because they fall so quickly and deal little damage overall.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 21, 2015, 11:01:59 PM
Looks like in this version you start with a pretty stacked inventory! An interesting choice.
Uh... two Angel Feathers from the first FloatEyes I fight on the field.
...And they sell for 2500 GP a piece. I cannot imagine that was intended. Likely a carryover from changing the Item Tables of Underground foes which share the same table as the FloatEyes.
I see you added the Bestiary! This is actually important since the spell Scan/Peep/Libra is nowhere present in this.
Made it to the new Training Room, let's see here...
Chakra now heals half of Yang's current HP? That is very powerful indeed!
Twincast now damages depending on the HP of the caster? While it would keep it's damage increasing as the game goes on, it will very quickly lose out to Palom's Black Magic.
Nice tip with the Wooden Staff!
Bonk's explanation is rather cute.
"damage yourself in the process!" seems a bit of an understatement for Dash, heh.
Aww, I love my avatar! I especially like that he's given a hint in which I believe I was the first to really take into account. Fantastic work.
Haha! I like the Black Mage calling out cheaters (I mean really, why cheat in a mod? That sort of defeats the purpose.)
No idea that Awake also cured Berserk, that is good to know.
I am curious to see the trap mentioned for those who skip plot scenes (I imagine the Mist Skip is being referred to here) but I'll pass for now.
Haha! That man upselling Shurikens speaks the truth!
Love the hint on Bestiary, the original FFIV could have used a hint like that saying that it works against bosses.
That hint about the Megalixir... I wonder what it could be referring to. I still have never found it!
The Angel Wings are fantastically explained by Chillyfeez's avatar.
All in all I love the new Training Room!
Bah, I had hoped I'd have more time, but these things happen. Sorry PinkPuff I'll be back on Friday though and then I should be able to give a more detailed analysis of the new version...
But yes, those FloatEyes need looked at ASAP.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 22, 2015, 01:34:07 AM
Just got the twins in the underworld and it's nice that most encounters are giving at least 1000 exp so there's no rush to enter the Ice cave to level up. Big Problem:Angel Wings are not for sale in Tomra which means you have to get them from flying monsters. Are there any other HP Apples in the game or did you only place these four? I did a quick glance in Bahamut's Lagoon and the reduced amount of damage tiles along the treasure route will help preserve resources and cut down on the complaints.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 22, 2015, 04:35:56 AM
Just got the twins in the underworld and it's nice that most encounters are giving at least 1000 exp so there's no rush to enter the Ice cave to level up. Big Problem:Angel Wings are not for sale in Tomra which means you have to get them from flying monsters.
Thanks for pointing this out! Turns out my config file had the shop mislabeled!! It should be fixed now.
Are there any other HP Apples in the game or did you only place these four?
Only those four. No need to go overboard. Just need to make the party (particularly the twins) a little less squishy to assist with levelling naturally.
I did a quick glance in Bahamut's Lagoon and the reduced amount of damage tiles along the treasure route will help preserve resources and cut down on the complaints.
Looks like in this version you start with a pretty stacked inventory! An interesting choice.
Once again I took a page from FFTactics' book and started the player with one of each standard recovery item. I didn't give a tent and a cabin because I figured the Red Wings probably weren't expecting an overnight expedition; they can just sleep in the airships.
Uh... two Angel Feathers from the first FloatEyes I fight on the field.
...And they sell for 2500 GP a piece. I cannot imagine that was intended. Likely a carryover from changing the Item Tables of Underground foes which share the same table as the FloatEyes.
Well, it was semi-intended. I do have angel feathers on other enemies. However, I have now changed the FloatEyes to have the drop table that has it as the uncommon drop instead of every drop.
I see you added the Bestiary! This is actually important since the spell Scan/Peep/Libra is nowhere present in this.
The lack of a scan effect was brought to my attention by an IRL friend of mine who isn't quite as familiar with FF4 as we are and it occurred to me that of course other people will need access to this kind of effect, especially if I'm adding new monsters... like bosses...
Twincast now damages depending on the HP of the caster? While it would keep it's damage increasing as the game goes on, it will very quickly lose out to Palom's Black Magic.
In terms of damage, undeniably. However, in terms of the ratio of damage:time:MP, Twin just keeps getting better. HP-Apples should help a lot with that too. ^_^
I've seen people going into the Scarmiglione fight going "Oh I need tons of remedys" and that's certainly viable if you want Rydia to, you know, Ifrit or Help!, but it's good to know your options.
Haha! I like the Black Mage calling out cheaters (I mean really, why cheat in a mod? That sort of defeats the purpose.)
If I could, I would just fix the bug, but short of that, I would love to at least have a way to detect if someone duplicated an item and then punish them for it via the game. Like some kind of end-battle check to see if you have something in hand in multiples that isn't an arrow.
I am curious to see the trap mentioned for those who skip plot scenes (I imagine the Mist Skip is being referred to here) but I'll pass for now.
I witnessed someone do this in my hack to skip mist and get access to the Mist item store before progressing the plot. If you're able to do that trick, you should save outside mist and just try it to see. Skip Mist and then go to either Mist via its back door, Misty Mountains via Mist's back door, or Kaipo. You'll want to reload your save after though!
That hint about the Megalixir... I wonder what it could be referring to. I still have never found it!
I'll change my tagline once someone does find one. Using FF4kster to find it is cheating and doesn't count. Neither does glitching out the game, like the person that accidentally got them via Fat Chocobo.
Incidentally, there are other rare things to find in this game too, including a cursed ring and a hero ring.
Bah, I had hoped I'd have more time, but these things happen. Sorry PinkPuff I'll be back on Friday though and then I should be able to give a more detailed analysis of the new version...
Well now there's a newer version. The good news is it adds a way cool thing which I had been hoping to accomplish a long time ago but only now have actually gotten working (I hope). The bad news is, it messes with overworld treasures and so if you want to try it out, your current save will not be able to carry over effectively. From what it sounds like, Grimoire won't have lost much progress to speak of, but Lumiere will. Sorry about that.
Re-download if you wish to try it out: http://timecave.net/ff4kster/crisis/crisis.ips
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 22, 2015, 01:07:00 PM
I decided to try the new patch and I just got to Tellah. Enemies seem to drop items more often but, I could be having better luck than normal. Also I loaded my old save to see if Tomra was fixed and... it wasn't. Before continuing on my new file, I'll make some more observations on the underworld
The HP apples give the twins enough hp to survive most battles while leveling up and the boost to "Twin" is much appreciated. Though I think it could get pretty abusive when paired with the DK's Dark(Deathbringer) especially with it's low delay. The Feymarch's shortcuts were a good compromise, a quick route to town while avoiding most of the chests and with the addition of angel wings the damage tiles & quake spamming enemies are no longer a major threat. Also "Dash" worked well in the tower of babil especially once I was able to buy Hi Potions to bring Cid back from the brink(1000+ dmg vs most foes except Rubricante:~400 dmg).
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 22, 2015, 02:06:12 PM
Really? It's still not in the shop? Huh. I traced it back starting with the NPC that was in that map through the event it called through the shop launched by the event. Maybe I forgot to save that particular change? I was certain I did but it will have to wait until I get home before I can check.
I don't see how HP-Apples would affect Dark Wave. Or is that not what you meant?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 22, 2015, 03:58:04 PM
With the addition of 200 HP per twin(2 apples each), around lv30 they're doing 1000+ dmg per twin and while that's low compared to stuff like Quake, with the right equipment setup Palom's as fast or faster than Edge at times resulting in big damage during random battles for little mp. Ignore my remark about Dark Wave, I forgot that by the time you get Deathbringer most enemies have several thousand hp meaning "twin" + "dark" isn't enough damage.
The Ice Cave seems to have new enemies and the fact that they give better exp than the world map is good. I liked that status effects were used instead of just boosting damage. The Vamplady + Bat encounter dealt less damage with RedFeast but, it's difficult enough if you don't drop the bats quickly enough. The float effect persists after death?, I guess I forgot about that. The Frost Dragon now looks like it's alive unlike the original which made it look like a ghost.
Edit:Just finished Baron again and I noticed that the Mage rooms in the castle were gone. I checked my previous versions and both of your new patches remove the rooms so I'm guessing I have a couple new places to investigate later... Also the elemental items i.e. Firebomb, Ice-Ball, & Lit-Bolt don't run off wis or wil correct?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 23, 2015, 06:01:08 PM
If you re-download the patch, Tomra's store should be fixed now. Not sure what happened earlier, I must have made the change and neglected/forgot to save it. Anyway, it worked when I tested it just now.
With the addition of 200 HP per twin(2 apples each), around lv30 they're doing 1000+ dmg per twin and while that's low compared to stuff like Quake, with the right equipment setup Palom's as fast or faster than Edge at times resulting in big damage during random battles for little mp. Ignore my remark about Dark Wave, I forgot that by the time you get Deathbringer most enemies have several thousand hp meaning "twin" + "dark" isn't enough damage.
I see what you mean now. Incidentally, if you're going for maximum Twin damage, feed all the apples to one twin and put that twin in the center position.
The Ice Cave seems to have new enemies and the fact that they give better exp than the world map is good. I liked that status effects were used instead of just boosting damage. The Vamplady + Bat encounter dealt less damage with RedFeast but, it's difficult enough if you don't drop the bats quickly enough. The float effect persists after death?, I guess I forgot about that. The Frost Dragon now looks like it's alive unlike the original which made it look like a ghost.
IIRC, float persists on a raised character if they are raised during battle, but not in the regular menu.
Edit:Just finished Baron again and I noticed that the Mage rooms in the castle were gone. I checked my previous versions and both of your new patches remove the rooms so I'm guessing I have a couple new places to investigate later... Also the elemental items i.e. Firebomb, Ice-Ball, & Lit-Bolt don't run off wis or wil correct?
There is a sort of new place. You'll see what I mean when you get there. I could have used another map, but I also wanted to remove the Baron wizard schools mainly for flavor reasons. Baron is a place for knight/fighter types more so than mages. Even Rosa in this is an Archer first and Time Mage second.
The "bomb" items you mention indeed do not care about your magic stats, just your HP and the monsters' weaknesses. In that sense, they're actually more efficient when used by tank characters than squishy ones. But that's ok because usually the squishy characters have more effective ways of dealing magic damage and/or more interesting and useful things to do with their turns anyways.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 23, 2015, 06:22:29 PM
I just got past the mountains and I liked what you did with the mist cave, it certainly fits considering Rydia's mother probably killed most of the "new" monsters before they even got to Mist much less the cave. The new treasures were a little odd considering they're in the same place which makes you think somebody came in and refilled the chests but, I did like the touch with the Battle Axe because I know Grimoire said that he missed Mythril and that's where the Battle Axe & Viking Helm are sold.
I found a glitch concerning the dancer hall in Troia, when you try to enter the dressing room you are teleported to the top left of baron behind Cid's house & the trees with no way out. I always though the Cid's backyard was useless(there are treasures there in vanilla!) considering you can't get there.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 23, 2015, 07:27:44 PM
Yeah, the thing with the chests is a little odd, but I think it's a fair compromise. What I'd love to have it do ideally is something like the Figaro Cave in FF6 where whatever chests you got the first time stay open but if you wait and open them later you get the better item. However, I don't think that's in the cards; certainly not for this version.
Thanks for reminding me about the dancers' stage. I needed to hijack another overworld trigger and meant to go back and seal that place off but I forgot.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 23, 2015, 09:32:55 PM
No problem about the dancer's stage, also I found a chocobo forest east of Troia on an island that is completely useless(good place for an optional dungeon on later versions!). I like how Yang is the one who informs the party about Elban considering he's the one who leads Elban's troops when you infiltrate Babil.
The chests in the mist cave worked out and I like your idea about "evolving" chests but, what you have works. You could probably do the same thing with the 2 chests in Bahamut's lagoon(the house) if people still complain about Rosa's lack of equipment however if the boss drops a piece of her gear I don't think you'll need it.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 24, 2015, 11:31:19 AM
Hmm... to get this new treasure you were talking about a started a new game and everything was going fine... until I tried to leave the first room you have control of Cecil in. Going to leave the room to the main lobby sent him to the top corner of Town of Baron and going up lead him to the moat. At first I thought I may have made my Rom unclean somehow, but I tested it again with a fully clean rom, just unheadered and it happened again. Any thoughts on what might be causing this?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 24, 2015, 02:14:46 PM
No clue. I'm on my way home so I should be able to double check soon.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 24, 2015, 02:44:17 PM
My ROM is functioning correctly. Is anyone else able to duplicate this problem?
Maybe try a page from Entroper's book and double-check the checksum?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 24, 2015, 03:10:20 PM
I don't have any problems.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 24, 2015, 04:08:22 PM
Hmm... I thought this was a clean rom... I guess not? Oh well, looks like I just needed to get an actual clean ROM. It is currently working fine thus far.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 24, 2015, 04:23:40 PM
I just started a new game last night and Baron Castle was fine for me.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 24, 2015, 06:39:35 PM
I killed Scarmiglione 2 with Dash and he died a normal monster death. He turned all dark and dissipated instead of slowly disintegrating from the top down like a boss. The formation has the "Boss Death" flag enabled.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 24, 2015, 06:58:27 PM
I killed him with Ifrit and he died like a boss would normally die so I'm guessing it's an issue with "Dash"
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on July 24, 2015, 07:14:25 PM
Weird... Could it be its use of one of the special Rydia spells, I wonder? After all, you get normal monster deaths with the Golbez/Shadow fight. I imagine they have the boss death bit turned off, but maybe before they devised that system they built non boss death into the Rydia spell... I mean, that seems silly, but you know... We are talking about ffiv's developers here.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 25, 2015, 05:39:16 AM
It doesn't mess anything up so I'm not that concerned. Just thought I'd point it out in case it does affect other battles (I'm looking at you, 8-fiend-rematch)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 25, 2015, 06:38:36 PM
I just got finished with the 3 underworld bosses and here's my take on them & their dungeons
Ice Cave:Aside from the new enemy formation, it hasn't changed that much. It's still the easiest of the 3 unless you encounter the new group a lot while underleveled. Alichino falls very quickly if properly equipped and fire attacks are used. I can't comment on his healing because I killed him before he could. I was overleveled due to grabbing treasures in each dungeon first. Blizzard was odd though, it only did 2-5 damage to each character and I thought it did a lot more.
Feymarch:With the addition of shortcuts and angel wings it's worth fighting here. The battles theme here is high damage resulting in blind and mute getting a lot of mileage. I think the exp could be lowered a little on the warrior + fiend fights because the 2 warrior + 4 fiend fight gave around 9000exp which was a little much. Ciriatto 1 and his zombies are pretty easy as long as he doesn't cast Stop on each character(a high Wil Porom can keep the party healed with Cure 2 I think). Ciriatto 2 is still the hardest boss due to his unique abilities and he felt faster to me(Twins L30 & L33+ for Cecil, Edge, Rosa). I think people will always complain about Ciriatto because of how much damage he does however he fits the Feymarch's "theme"
Bahamut's Lagoon:Aside from the removal of the damage tiles along the treasure route, it hasn't changed. Draghinazzo is a little slower however like Alichino he's all about having the right tools for the job. His weakness is pretty exploitable(only Porom can't inflict dark damage) and he only has two things to worry about(Blink & Comet). Thankfully blink goes away after a few hits and Comet's damage isn't too bad.
Overall the battles are just about right but, Ciriatto 2 is still going to cause complaints. Part of the problem is that you only have 2 characters who can inflict holy damage(Edge w/ Ashura and Rosa w/ Holy) compared to the other two(Fire:Flame Sword, Fire 2, Fire Arrows)(Dark:Cecil's Darkswords, Kotetsu, Bio, Dark Arrows) I wasn't high enough for Bio but, I'm sure some people will level the twins to 33.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 25, 2015, 06:45:04 PM
Thanks for the feedback!
A high enough level Porom can cast Harm on Ciriatto 2.
Blizzard is HP-based, so if he was close to dead when he casted it, it will do pathetic damage. What order did you do the dungeons in?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 25, 2015, 06:58:00 PM
Ice Cave->Feymarch->Bahamut's Lagoon for treasure and for boss fights. I only had to grind when I first got the twins to get them to 22. I had forgotten about Harm, then again I didn't need it but, at least it's an option. Aside from Ciriatto, I probably could have killed Alichino & Draghinazzo before the twins hit 25 as long as I had the right weapons. You do need a good darksword and/or Kotetsu to do a lot of damage to Draghinazzo before Comet hits and of course berserk helps.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 25, 2015, 07:39:34 PM
Just took on Ciriatto first. Fought all the regular battles on the way but didn't grind, got all the treasures on the way, didn't warp out along the way / single pass, bought some stuff in the store, but otherwise took on Ciriatto both forms first thing and won. It was tough, but I did it. Twins L.25, Others L.29-33. Didn't even have Cure 3. So I think it should be ok difficulty-wise now.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 25, 2015, 07:58:06 PM
Now that I think about it, I could see Cure 2 being enough as long as Porom's outfitted for healing. I have to say Cure 3's probably needed for Malacoda though I may be wrong.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 25, 2015, 08:39:13 PM
In theory, Kain in the back row with Diamond gear should be able to solo her as long as you don't mis-time your jumps and get hit with Magnet. But I'm not that far yet so we'll see.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 26, 2015, 01:14:39 PM
I finally got the team I'm going to use for my 1st run:DK,Cid,Edge,Tellah,Edward
Lugae(2nd fight):Is he supposed to die like a regular monster? I thought he was a boss albeit a quirky boss.
Edge(Dagger build):If you gear him as a fighter, he's pretty similar to Cecil & Edward with their blood weapons. Like Edward, Edge lacks the HP & Def to stay in the front row resulting in big hits vs racial/elemental weaknesses but small hits vs others. If you treat Dagger Edge as a mage, he's the fastest mage in the game. Currently at L50 w/ Triton-Gladius Hairpin-Black Robe-Armlet with 56 agi & 65 wis. Aside from his low mp & lack of spells, he usually uses Quake and kills most enemies before anything but Edward gets a turn(Hi Agi Edward has 43 agi at L50). He's reminding me of Paladin Cecil(All out physical,All out magic or Hybrid).
Edward:Before he was pretty good due to him working well with everybody but, due to Edge being a mage Ed gets the Blk Cowl + Ninja Garb & Mage Masher allowing him to keep up and support the party better.
Bahamut after dropping Kain is working correctly with Kain remaining there and blocking access to Bahamut. The twin petrify event still doesn't feel right(Cecil yells no then hangs his head before leaving), perhaps he could say something before you regain control of him?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 26, 2015, 02:33:17 PM
So, I am back up to Baron Revisited and I see you put the Blind Dagger in Baron's shop, though it looks as if it has the same attack power as the old Mythril Knife did, no matter. This run was to see how effective Edward could be with Daggers and I think he's doing pretty fine thus far.
Oh? You changed up the Mist Cave return trip? How interesting! It makes it a lot better than just running from every low-level foe.
It is nice to see the Mysidia foes here, it gives a sense of internal consistency and the new treasures are a nice touch as well! Was this the new addition you were referring to? Did you just use a copy of the Mist Cave map, or did you hack someway to load a different encounter table?
Ah, the Battle Axe? That is really, really good for it to be free! Are you sure that's such a good idea though?
I half expected another boss there at the end of it! I recall you mentioning a while back that you wanted the Roc to be turned into a boss like foe, with the abundance of Ravens and Cockatrices I'm a little surprised the Roc wasn't at the end of it.
Hmm, Roc Baby's in the Misty Mountains still have less than 60 HP it seems.
Haha! Just like the first time I fought Scarmiglione 2 in this mod, Leviathan to the rescue, Edward was dead, Cecil was hurting, Cid and Yang were Cursed but a lucky "Help!" again got me Leviathan.
"being posessed by a monster!" Possessed is still spelled wrong.
I really like the new Chakra, it is very useful without being overpowered.
Oh boy... tell me there's nothing wrong with my ROM this time... So I decided to see if anything was changed with the King SALOON, didn't appear so, but as I walked to make my way to the back room I was immediately warped to the traditional default map warp.
Thankfully I had saved before going into Troia.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 26, 2015, 03:09:47 PM
It's not your rom, Pinkpuff used the trigger for something else and forgot about it.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 26, 2015, 04:22:25 PM
So, I am back up to Baron Revisited and I see you put the Blind Dagger in Baron's shop, though it looks as if it has the same attack power as the old Mythril Knife did, no matter. This run was to see how effective Edward could be with Daggers and I think he's doing pretty fine thus far.
How does it stand up to the harp build? Does the extra speed from the knife and the extra defense from the ring make a significant difference? Should I drop the price of the blind knife a little?
Oh? You changed up the Mist Cave return trip? How interesting! It makes it a lot better than just running from every low-level foe.
It is nice to see the Mysidia foes here, it gives a sense of internal consistency and the new treasures are a nice touch as well! Was this the new addition you were referring to? Did you just use a copy of the Mist Cave map, or did you hack someway to load a different encounter table?
Yup! That was the big reveal. It's a different map, but with the same grid index as the first Mist Cave.
Ah, the Battle Axe? That is really, really good for it to be free! Are you sure that's such a good idea though?
Well, when I made the treasures, I wasn't sure how the game would handle the chests where it shared a map index with the original Mist Cave. I was hoping it would work like the South Figaro cave in FF6, but it doesn't. I might scale back the treasures.
I half expected another boss there at the end of it! I recall you mentioning a while back that you wanted the Roc to be turned into a boss like foe, with the abundance of Ravens and Cockatrices I'm a little surprised the Roc wasn't at the end of it.
I think the Roc is guarding a chest in Cave Magnes.
Oh boy... tell me there's nothing wrong with my ROM this time... So I decided to see if anything was changed with the King SALOON, didn't appear so, but as I walked to make my way to the back room I was immediately warped to the traditional default map warp.
Thankfully I had saved before going into Troia.
Lumiere is correct. That's been fixed on mine.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 26, 2015, 04:40:32 PM
The Roc is in Cave Magnes, I ran into it when I was in there. I feel the early harps are like Edge's late katanas, decent damage but lacking something. Even in the back Edward deals decent damage early on with Daggers and the Iron Ring boosts his def enough that he can sit in the front starting at Mt Hobs and ending when you get Cid.
Edit:Decided to take a break from a full party run and try out a solo run. Got rid of everybody(nice item from Edge but, it's labeled DoNotUse as an item and it casts Ramuh and seemingly vanishes) and decided to level grind because I knew anything below 50 is suicide. I tried it at 60 but, Golbez's Darkholy dealt 5500 dmg so I had to level up to 70 in order to not be one-shot. At 70 I barely made it, thank god for the Blood Sword + Berserk and then I proceeded down to Zeromus. I stopped by the Deathbringer and Ribbons(after I fought I realized it didn't need the ribbons or deathbringer) and fled every encounter. The message before fighting Zemus was nice and Zeromus was a long fight because Blood only does so much damage and Black Hole removes Berserk reducing Cecil's damage. I did kill him but, it took 15-20 minutes( Kain's ending is bugged, there are 2 Kains one acting normally and one just standing in front of Bahamut). Paladin Cecil probably can finish the game at an earlier level because he has Holy resistance though many Elixirs will be required.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 26, 2015, 08:45:40 PM
How does it stand up to the harp build? Does the extra speed from the knife and the extra defense from the ring make a significant difference? Should I drop the price of the blind knife a little?
Lacks slight survivability in the front row, but the slightly extra speed does let him Sing a little faster. Honestly they're both viable and for the time you have him one option isn't better than the other.
Quote
Well, when I made the treasures, I wasn't sure how the game would handle the chests where it shared a map index with the original Mist Cave. I was hoping it would work like the South Figaro cave in FF6, but it doesn't. I might scale back the treasures.
Have you tried to make the new Mist Cave share the same NPC Index? If such is done Chests *might* be affected.
Quote
Glad to hear it. How are you finding Dash in terms of usefulness?
As of yet, I haven't used it. There's not been an immediate pressing need so to speak, not to mention since he has such high HP to use it without a Hi-Potion on hand it seems needlessly risky. It will be useful in Tower of Zot/Babil though, I imagine.
Quote
Lumiere is correct. That's been fixed on mine.
Whew, had me scared there!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 27, 2015, 05:35:27 AM
Edit:Decided to take a break from a full party run and try out a solo run. Got rid of everybody(nice item from Edge but, it's labeled DoNotUse as an item and it casts Ramuh and seemingly vanishes)
You got an item called "Do Not Use" and you used it?? Remind me not to take you anywhere with fire alarms ^_^
Anyway, the item you should have gotten is called "TIme-Egg". The patch has been corrected.
and decided to level grind because I knew anything below 50 is suicide. I tried it at 60 but, Golbez's Darkholy dealt 5500 dmg so I had to level up to 70 in order to not be one-shot. At 70 I barely made it, thank god for the Blood Sword + Berserk and then I proceeded down to Zeromus.
I just made the Aegis shield resist Dark, so that should help with this.
I stopped by the Deathbringer and Ribbons(after I fought I realized it didn't need the ribbons or deathbringer) and fled every encounter. The message before fighting Zemus was nice
What message? Do you mean the one before the Golbez fight? I don't remember putting in a special message for Zemus.
and Zeromus was a long fight because Blood only does so much damage and Black Hole removes Berserk reducing Cecil's damage. I did kill him but, it took 15-20 minutes( Kain's ending is bugged, there are 2 Kains one acting normally and one just standing in front of Bahamut).
As of yet, I haven't used it. There's not been an immediate pressing need so to speak, not to mention since he has such high HP to use it without a Hi-Potion on hand it seems needlessly risky. It will be useful in Tower of Zot/Babil though, I imagine.
Would it be too good if it took half his (current) HP in self-damage rather than bringing him to 1? Is that even a possibility, Chillyfeez?
Anyway, the patch has been updated with those fixes: http://timecave.net/ff4kster/crisis/crisis.ips
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 27, 2015, 01:50:06 PM
Would it be too good if it took half his (current) HP in self-damage rather than bringing him to 1? Is that even a possibility, Chillyfeez?
Anyway, the patch has been updated with those fixes: http://timecave.net/ff4kster/crisis/crisis.ips
I don't think it will be a problem later on. You're only bereft of good healing for two dungeons or so (Hi-Potions sold at Eblan will make it more usable). I didn't think the intention was to be using it haphazardly before you had a distinctive means to heal Cid. So I wouldn't touch it, especially if you choose to get him back in your party in the end-game. At Level 50 he'll have around 3975 HP which is a more than respectable attack and it would only take two X-Potions to bring him back up.
As for the Blind Knife, I think the price is fine, as it was its original price, I believe. It's more useful than the Mythril Knife was, but perhaps it could use maybe 5 or 6 more Attack, since it is still hardly an upgrade from the original Knife and it would only really see use in Edward's hands since the Blind Knife's power was decreased to be that of the old Mythril Knife
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 27, 2015, 02:40:20 PM
I used the DoNotUse item just to see if it would crash or it's usable. Edge gave me a "Time Egg" but I got the DoNotUse item. The message before Zemus said Time Egg Shattered(I think).
Aegis resisting Dark makes it perfect for a solo run.
Late game, Dash's 1 HP isn't too bad because you have much better healing and Arise is available at one point or another(L20~,L53,L66) if he dies afterwards.
If Blind is increased to at least 21 it will be similar to Dagger=Dreamer(3 atk difference). Once you get the Fairy Harp, the extra defense doesn't matter vs random encounters(Scarmiglione tells Edward to grab a ring)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 27, 2015, 04:01:59 PM
So I stopped off at Agart and I rather like the new text, the hints to the Floatstone are good and the extra lore bits like the Tower of Babil being built by an ancient civilization that went to the moon is an interesting little plot twist. The Air Knife being sold here now is clearly the replacement for the Blind Knife, which leads me to wonder what replaced the Air Knife and if I will find it...
I did notice the defunct hints to the Magma Key are still all over the Agart Inn though.
Well, I'm doing something different with Edge this time, I'm having him as a Mage rather than a Fighter. rioritizing speed and Throw over his great attack. It should be an interesting experiment.
And made it through Eblan. I'll pick up from here later on.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 27, 2015, 05:44:53 PM
I used the DoNotUse item just to see if it would crash or it's usable. Edge gave me a "Time Egg" but I got the DoNotUse item. The message before Zemus said Time Egg Shattered(I think).
Right. I took that out soon afterwards. It occurred to me that I was checking whether the player received the Time-Egg, not whether they still have it. And as far as I know, there is no way to check for that, so I just have the final battle silently remove the item from your inventory at the beginning.
Late game, Dash's 1 HP isn't too bad because you have much better healing and Arise is available at one point or another(L20~,L53,L66) if he dies afterwards.
If Blind is increased to at least 21 it will be similar to Dagger=Dreamer(3 atk difference). Once you get the Fairy Harp, the extra defense doesn't matter vs random encounters(Scarmiglione tells Edward to grab a ring)
Fixed. I also made the Murakumo Bolt instead of Air now that the Air knife is something you're likely to already have when you get it, so it'll be less redundant.
Well, I'm doing something different with Edge this time, I'm having him as a Mage rather than a Fighter. rioritizing speed and Throw over his great attack. It should be an interesting experiment.
And made it through Eblan. I'll pick up from here later on.
I'm eager to hear how it goes. Eblan gives you a pretty interesting decision in this game. Rydia goes in back of course, but who else? It's up to you! Everyone now has something they can do from the back to varying degrees of effectiveness. Stock up on Phoenix downs and Potions and have Cid turbo Dash everything? Spam Dark Wave and black effects with DK? Kick and Chakra-tank with Yang? Edge still has the most options with Black attacks, Throw, and Steal, but at least other builds are reasonable now. Oh, on that note, I've also swapped Cecil's Drain and Berserk, so he now learns Drain at 24 and Berserk at 30. This is so Drain won't have to compete as much with the Blood Sword.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 27, 2015, 06:09:26 PM
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Quote from: Lumiere77 on Today at 02:40:20 PM
If Blind is increased to at least 21 it will be similar to Dagger=Dreamer(3 atk difference). Once you get the Fairy Harp, the extra defense doesn't matter vs random encounters(Scarmiglione tells Edward to grab a ring)
Fixed. I also made the Murakumo Bolt instead of Air now that the Air knife is something you're likely to already have when you get it, so it'll be less redundant.
Bolt will help more than Air especially if you go to the Elbana Caves afterwards. Also the Muramasa's drain deals between 500~1000 damage with 60 wis vs moon enemies which is pretty good considering Edge's agi & low hp. Cecil's with 23 wis does a little less so I think drain depends on the enemy.
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I've also swapped Cecil's Drain and Berserk, so he now learns Drain at 24 and Berserk at 30
Getting Drain earlier will work out because at that point Cecil can be in the back with some Wis+ gear and use it against enemies if he has nothing else to do. Without a dedicated healer, Berserk isn't something I like to use too much it getting it at 30 feels right.
Edit: Tried Mt Ordeals with the new patch and the rapid-fire Bios were quite a surprise! Good thing the Aegis shld now resists dark or Cecil would have to be in the upper 50s to survive the trip to the top. Are you going to use Cry for anything? I noticed that it's the only ability that isn't used at all
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 28, 2015, 05:30:08 AM
Edit: Tried Mt Ordeals with the new patch and the rapid-fire Bios were quite a surprise! Good thing the Aegis shld now resists dark or Cecil would have to be in the upper 50s to survive the trip to the top. Are you going to use Cry for anything? I noticed that it's the only ability that isn't used at all
Firebombs are the key to the Mt. Ordeals trials. ^_^
I was toying with Cry at one point, but never did anything with it after. Why, did you have any ideas regarding it?
Anyway, patch updated again (should be compatible with your saves): http://timecave.net/ff4kster/crisis/crisis.ips
Agart is now hintsville. You should definitely talk to the well guy now :celosa: As well as everyone in the Inn. Also you should check out the new Agart item shop. Hi-Potions!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 28, 2015, 11:31:43 AM
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Firebombs are the key to the Mt. Ordeals trials. ^_^
I should've thought about them, I wound up using the Flame Sword and a lot of X-potions
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Agart is now hintsville. You should definitely talk to the well guy now :celosa: As well as everyone in the Inn. Also you should check out the new Agart item shop. Hi-Potions!
A device that stops time? - No brainer A way to undo Twin Petrify? - Is this a reference to the ending or is this a new side quest? I'd just hurl my meat cleaver! - I thought the Cleaver was a dummy item like Rydia's summon items... The addition of Hi Potions will help with the higher damage that Elban introduces also it'll suggest using Dash more.
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I was toying with Cry at one point, but never did anything with it after. Why, did you have any ideas regarding it?
I was thinking about a magic defense debuff. Another idea I had was to forget about Cry and give Cecil a way to cast Curse because the Ancient Sword gets outclassed fairly quickly and Curse reduces atk & def by 1/2 when it connects.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 28, 2015, 01:54:22 PM
The twins can't be cured except in the ending. The line references that but in a way that teases the player.
The cleaver is obtainable. It can be thrown for 9999.
Would a magic defense debuff do anything? Who would get it?
Curse would be an interesting black spell but it would have to replace an existing one and I can't think of any good candidates.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 28, 2015, 02:23:04 PM
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The cleaver is obtainable. It can be thrown for 9999.
Interesting, on a lower level run it would be devastating.
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Curse would be an interesting black spell but it would have to replace an existing one and I can't think of any good candidates.
The only spell I can think of is Charm. Thanks to the Chaos Blade being buffed, the Charm spell is redundant(you get it way after the Chaos Blade anyway) and Curse will certainly see use against the optional bosses and a few of the moon bosses.
I'm actually not sure if a magic debuff would anything. I was just thinking of a way for mages to do more than 1 dmg vs bosses with very high magic defense(it would also allow you to raise M def on enemies). I was thinking about DK Cecil as a user as an addition to his debilitating aspect of a DK.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 28, 2015, 04:44:00 PM
Maybe I'll replace Osmose. That's a hard spell to balance and doesn't really need to exist. I'll re-jigger the spell learning lists accordingly. Charm will be learned earlier by both Cecil and Palom so as to conflict less with the Chaos Blade and the Fairy rod. Sleep will be made better; it will work more and be splittable, but will be learned later. Osmose will be replaced by Curse, which will also be splittable and will work on bosses.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 28, 2015, 05:53:53 PM
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Charm will be learned earlier by both Cecil and Palom so as to conflict less with the Chaos Blade and the Fairy rod.
L42(Cecil) and L38(Palom) means Charm is learned around the end of the Tower of Babil/start of the world tour. If it's available earlier it would see more mileage.
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Sleep will be made better; it will work more and be splittable, but will be learned later.
Good, this will put it on par with Poison, Blind and Mute.
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Maybe I'll replace Osmose. That's a hard spell to balance and doesn't really need to exist. Osmose will be replaced by Curse, which will also be splittable and will work on bosses.
A lot of ether-type items are thrown at the party so Osmose isn't needed I guess. Curse will help out a lot when dealing with heavy hitting enemies or if somebody uses a physical heavy party. Will Curse be available at Osmose's levels or will it be learned earlier?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 28, 2015, 05:56:39 PM
Currently I have it at 42 for DK and 50 for Palom
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on July 29, 2015, 11:43:50 AM
To be honest I'm not sure Curse is a good idea. It is a powerful status, I mean Really powerful, it's part of the reason in Combat Boost that utilizing the power of Curse also turns the user into a Zombie, that's how far I went to balance it. But... I do have an idea, that it should be unique to Dark Knight Cecil and should be his reward from defeating Odin because as it stands there is no reward for the Dark Knight (at least the last time I went through) just more encouragement from Odin to become a Paladin, this would balance it out, I feel.
Well, I made it through Eblan by the last time I posted. Cid is King there because of the Gaia Hammer dealing handily with the difficult Stonemen and Stalemen, and the Giant's Gloves you can pick up from Mythril help him and Cecil take these 600 damage attacks as glancing blows.
I do approve of many of the changes that I read about, turning Agart into a hint town was an awesome idea, that you have Hi-Potions there allow you to use Cid to his maximum potential before reaching Eblan's Hideout.
Drain being earlier works out very well, considering that yes the Blood Sword overtakes Drain for the Dark Knight.
So back to the game... 99 Hi-Potions and onto the Tower of Babil!
Drain at Level 24 works so well for Cecil, making him an actually viable force in the back row if need be, the only issue, as I'm learning with Edge, is that his MP pool is too low to make great use of it for casual battles.
The Tower of Zot/Babil wasn't too tricky. I did make sparing use of Dash, but unfortunately Edge's MP was too low to keep consistently using magic, but while it lasts, it works well enough. Dash showed its worth though in the Magus Sisters battle, I feel their HP was a little buffer and Sandy's Comet felt much more powerful. Other than that, not too much to worry about. I do like that Cindy starts to use Death and Bio though, can really throw off the player. So they feel more formidable.
I did notice that you still have Air elemental as "weak against Arrows" with Scan. You may want to change that to be more inclusive.
Barbariccia felt more punishing all in all, but several well timed Dash's, Sylphs, and Jumps won us the day and a thrown Shuriken here and there.
Were the power of Hi-Potions and X-Potions increased? I noticed that Hi Potions looked to be healing for more than 480 and an X-Potion I used on Cid healed him 1900!
Well so far in this no grinding run... I still feel that I'm roughly the same level I normally am. Lots of random encounters though. Cid 29, Cecil 28, Rosa 28, Edge 30 and I just made it to the Dwarf Castle.
One thing I have noticed though is that the Battle Axe sort of pales in comparison to what the Hammers have to offer, and for some reason in the Dwarf Castle there's a Throwing Axe there which is completely outclassed by the time you get any Axe wielder back into the party. Maybe you should keep the Battle Axe in Mist Cave and put the Throwing Axe in Mythril?
There are the two HP Apples! I'll want to save these for the final party... I have an interesting party setup in mind.
Ah, the way to the empty bar is now closed... interesting... Or was that what was used for the Mist Cave copy?
Was not expecting a third HP-Apple!
And a fourth! Looks like Tellah's going to have a bit of HP when he comes back!
Oh, I see the Angel Wings for 5000 GP a piece at the store, a very fair price for such an item I find.
Well, Palom and Porom are equipped so time to loot the towns and try to take on the Fiends in the opposite order (asking for trouble)
Making my way through the Feymarch and I obtained two AngelWings in total, enough to handle at least one of the floors. I find the Feymarch enemies now to be much more reasonable, or maybe that's due to not being at 1 HP for every fight? It's difficult to say, but I think this place is much better balanced now.
Geez, I just got done fighting 2 Warriors and 4 Fiends... that battle cannot be taken lightly, any attack that you do to the Fiends results in Charm and while I would normally complain about the expense taken you get a whopping 9600 Exp for winning this cruel encounter so I have no room to talk, haha!
Haha, I like the new line about the Rainbow Chocobo, that did admittedly catch me off guard when I saw it the first time. I'm not sure how long that line has been there though.
From the changes you've made to the Aegis Shield it is a really tempting purchase now... yeah, why not pick one up?
Well, I have to be headed out and will come back in 2 days to try and take on Ciriatto at fairly low levels, this should be interesting.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 29, 2015, 12:50:24 PM
If it's possible, maybe turn one of Rydia's old summon orbs(Imp,Bomb etc) into an item that teaches Curse and have Odin drop it. Grimoire's right about there being no reward for DK fighting Odin(and the Adamant Cave's boss unless you want Yang).
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One thing I have noticed though is that the Battle Axe sort of pales in comparison to what the Hammers have to offer, and for some reason in the Dwarf Castle there's a Throwing Axe there which is completely outclassed by the time you get any Axe wielder back into the party. Maybe you should keep the Battle Axe in Mist Cave and put the Throwing Axe in Mythril?
The Throwing axe is an oddball because Kain doesn't care about it and it's way too weak for Cid so if it was available earlier it might see some use. Elban's weapon shop would work as well as Mythril because there's still plenty of time to use it.
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From the changes you've made to the Aegis Shield it is a really tempting purchase now... yeah, why not pick one up?
The Aegis shield is worth picking up if you have the money for it. The dark res & status res are quite helpful in keeping Cecil going in some fights(Ciriatto 2 & Golbez as examples)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on July 29, 2015, 06:18:02 PM
To be honest I'm not sure Curse is a good idea. It is a powerful status, I mean Really powerful, it's part of the reason in Combat Boost that utilizing the power of Curse also turns the user into a Zombie, that's how far I went to balance it.
I can't speak to Combat Boost, but certainly an enemy is still better off cursed than... dead. So it stands to reason that Curse should come before Death. It also stands to reason that Death should come before Deathbringer. I'll make bosses immune to it though, and maybe it can have a decent MP cost and casting time.
But... I do have an idea, that it should be unique to Dark Knight Cecil and should be his reward from defeating Odin because as it stands there is no reward for the Dark Knight (at least the last time I went through) just more encouragement from Odin to become a Paladin, this would balance it out, I feel.
The entire first 2/3 or more of the game has nothing but stuff for the Dark Knight. I see nothing wrong with having a relative dry spell for DK during the "World of Ruin". Plus, Deathbringer more than makes up for all that stuff.
Drain being earlier works out very well, considering that yes the Blood Sword overtakes Drain for the Dark Knight.
That was the main motivation. I've totally redone the DK spell progression:
L12: Mute L18: Charm L24: Drain L30: Sleep (better sleep; splittable, works more often) L36: Bio L42: Curse (long-ish casting time, 24 MP, splittable, misses bosses) L48: Death L54: Berserk (seems a little too high to me but don't know where else to put it due to pigeonholing) L60: Dispel L66: Petrify (Splittable, works on undeads and other KO-immune things)
Drain at Level 24 works so well for Cecil, making him an actually viable force in the back row if need be, the only issue, as I'm learning with Edge, is that his MP pool is too low to make great use of it for casual battles.
I'm ok with that. Not sure if you noticed but normal Ethers are cheaper now.
Were the power of Hi-Potions and X-Potions increased? I noticed that Hi Potions looked to be healing for more than 480 and an X-Potion I used on Cid healed him 1900!
They were not touched. I wouldn't even know where to go to change those numbers.
One thing I have noticed though is that the Battle Axe sort of pales in comparison to what the Hammers have to offer, and for some reason in the Dwarf Castle there's a Throwing Axe there which is completely outclassed by the time you get any Axe wielder back into the party. Maybe you should keep the Battle Axe in Mist Cave and put the Throwing Axe in Mythril?
The axes have been pumped up (probably subsequent to the patch you have). The Throwing Axe's 75 attack now competes with the Blizzard Spear's 77; the spear has the advantage of air element and Lance compatibility while the axe has long range. The other issue with the Battle Axe in particular is that the Mythril shield just isn't that great but it's all you get for Cid for some time. My solution to this is to change the Flame and Ice shields to something more interesting, as they're currently just shield versions of the Flame and Ice mails. So what used to be the Flame shield is now the Gold shield, which protects against Petrify and Calcify and is in the Mist cave in place of the lame Mythril shield you could have just bought at Baron or kept from Cecil finding it in the... Watery Pass. Those should allow it to compete with the hammer options a little better IMO. Oh yeah and what used to be the Ice shield is now the Opal shield. Resists Bolt and Mage attacks (e.g. dark trees, fiends). That one doesn't help Cid in particular, but the Gold shield should be great.
Making my way through the Feymarch and I obtained two AngelWings in total, enough to handle at least one of the floors. I find the Feymarch enemies now to be much more reasonable, or maybe that's due to not being at 1 HP for every fight? It's difficult to say, but I think this place is much better balanced now.
Geez, I just got done fighting 2 Warriors and 4 Fiends... that battle cannot be taken lightly, any attack that you do to the Fiends results in Charm and while I would normally complain about the expense taken you get a whopping 9600 Exp for winning this cruel encounter so I have no room to talk, haha!
Opal shield (coming soon) might help with the Fiends a little, as will Better Sleep. Also, to avoid confusion, I'm renaming them Devils.
Haha, I like the new line about the Rainbow Chocobo, that did admittedly catch me off guard when I saw it the first time. I'm not sure how long that line has been there though.
It's quite new. I couldn't find a sensible palette such that everything on that floor looks correct so I settled for a rainbow chocobo.
Well, I have to be headed out and will come back in 2 days to try and take on Ciriatto at fairly low levels, this should be interesting.
I can't wait ^_^
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on July 29, 2015, 07:53:15 PM
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Grimoire: To be honest I'm not sure Curse is a good idea. It is a powerful status, I mean Really powerful, it's part of the reason in Combat Boost that utilizing the power of Curse also turns the user into a Zombie, that's how far I went to balance it.
Pinkpuff: I can't speak to Combat Boost, but certainly an enemy is still better off cursed than... dead. So it stands to reason that Curse should come before Death. It also stands to reason that Death should come before Deathbringer. I'll make bosses immune to it though, and maybe it can have a decent MP cost and casting time.
Making bosses immune to curse is a good idea because Curse can really shorten boss fights(Curse in FF II really breaks bosses). 24 MP means only Palom can spam it and he has a lot more choices than Cecil by the time he'll learn it.
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Pinkpuff: I've totally redone the DK spell progression:
L12: Mute L18: Charm L24: Drain L30: Sleep (better sleep; splittable, works more often) L36: Bio L42: Curse (long-ish casting time, 24 MP, splittable, misses bosses) L48: Death L54: Berserk (seems a little too high to me but don't know where else to put it due to pigeonholing) L60: Dispel L66: Petrify (Splittable, works on undeads and other KO-immune things)
Charm - much earlier and will definitely see use in Baron's waterway, Misty Mountains, and Elban. Drain - Solid back-row spell just in time for Elban Sleep - the underworld is a good point to gain access to sleep considering enemies are starting to hit harder and Blind + Mute isn't always enough Curse - having a long delay works Death - getting death 12 levels earlier means it's no longer a useless late game spell Berserk - L54 is okay because both Palom & Tellah will have it earlier and the girls can use it via the Power Staff Petrify - Still a little late but, it's great for a solo run
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Grimoire: Were the power of Hi-Potions and X-Potions increased? I noticed that Hi Potions looked to be healing for more than 480 and an X-Potion I used on Cid healed him 1900!
Pinkpuff: They were not touched. I wouldn't even know where to go to change those numbers.
random variance is the most likely cause. I've seen ether heal between 23 and 40 mp in battle
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Pinkpuff: The axes have been pumped up (probably subsequent to the patch you have). The Throwing Axe's 75 attack now competes with the Blizzard Spear's 77; the spear has the advantage of air element and Lance compatibility while the axe has long range. The other issue with the Battle Axe in particular is that the Mythril shield just isn't that great but it's all you get for Cid for some time. My solution to this is to change the Flame and Ice shields to something more interesting, as they're currently just shield versions of the Flame and Ice mails. So what used to be the Flame shield is now the Gold shield, which protects against Petrify and Calcify and is in the Mist cave in place of the lame Mythril shield you could have just bought at Baron or kept from Cecil finding it in the... Watery Pass. Those should allow it to compete with the hammer options a little better IMO. Oh yeah and what used to be the Ice shield is now the Opal shield. Resists Bolt and Mage attacks (e.g. dark trees, fiends). That one doesn't help Cid in particular, but the Gold shield should be great.
The only axes I usually use are the Ogre and the Slasher. Usually the corresponding spear/hammer is usually better so any improvement is welcome. The gold shield sounds interesting and it will help during the Scargrimlione 2 battle. An anti-mage shield will bolster Cecil's magic defense also, bolt res will help in the Malacoda battle.
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Grimoire: Well, Palom and Porom are equipped so time to loot the towns and try to take on the Fiends in the opposite order (asking for trouble)
Pinkpuff: Ideally, this should be difficult but not completely unreasonable.
The fiends can be defeated in any order(Pinkpuff has killed Ciriatto 1st and I've kill Draghin 1st) so you shouldn't have any problem.
Also I was wondering how broken Demi would be if it was splittable? It can't be used against bosses and it only has a 60% hit rate. I tried a solo Paladin run and I believe 63 is the minimum without HP Apples. While Golbez requires both def & m def, Zeromus is all magic and I've seen Big Bang deal less than 1000 to Paladin Cecil(Flare ironically does more damage 1200~1500). I haven't tried the DK again but, 60~63 sounds doable(Cecil needs around 4500 hp to clear both fights)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on August 01, 2015, 06:48:10 PM
That was the main motivation. I've totally redone the DK spell progression:
L12: Mute L18: Charm L24: Drain L30: Sleep (better sleep; splittable, works more often) L36: Bio L42: Curse (long-ish casting time, 24 MP, splittable, misses bosses) L48: Death L54: Berserk (seems a little too high to me but don't know where else to put it due to pigeonholing) L60: Dispel L66: Petrify (Splittable, works on undeads and other KO-immune things)
That looks like it really increases Cecil's role as a debuffer, interesting move of Berserk though, Level 54 seems fair enough considering it is a very powerful status and as mentioned Rydia, Rosa, Porom, Tellah, and Palom can each cast it on Cecil anyhow.
Were the power of Hi-Potions and X-Potions increased? I noticed that Hi Potions looked to be healing for more than 480 and an X-Potion I used on Cid healed him 1900!
They were not touched. I wouldn't even know where to go to change those numbers.
Oh it just uses the Spell Power of the potions and x's it by... 12 I think. Or something like that. Just change the spell power and you change the power outside of battle as well.
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The axes have been pumped up (probably subsequent to the patch you have). The Throwing Axe's 75 attack now competes with the Blizzard Spear's 77; the spear has the advantage of air element and Lance compatibility while the axe has long range. The other issue with the Battle Axe in particular is that the Mythril shield just isn't that great but it's all you get for Cid for some time. My solution to this is to change the Flame and Ice shields to something more interesting, as they're currently just shield versions of the Flame and Ice mails. So what used to be the Flame shield is now the Gold shield, which protects against Petrify and Calcify and is in the Mist cave in place of the lame Mythril shield you could have just bought at Baron or kept from Cecil finding it in the... Watery Pass. Those should allow it to compete with the hammer options a little better IMO. Oh yeah and what used to be the Ice shield is now the Opal shield. Resists Bolt and Mage attacks (e.g. dark trees, fiends). That one doesn't help Cid in particular, but the Gold shield should be great.
That is good news, it will make Kain choose rather than just hold onto one. Though I do somewhat feel as if Kain has a little too much survivability... but maybe that's just me. I like the idea of the new shields though! Nice references to FFI.
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Opal shield (coming soon) might help with the Fiends a little, as will Better Sleep. Also, to avoid confusion, I'm renaming them Devils.
That is welcome news, I thought they were vulnerable to Sleep, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.
Well Ciriatto 1 was a ton easier. While RedFeast could still potentially kill, it wasn't as frequent. The Reapers also now seem to have a x4 weakness to Fire and Holy, making the Flame Blade deal upwards to 2500 damage a hit and the Ashura around 2000. Palom dealt 4500 to them surprisingly. Ciriatto's Magic Power seems to have been lowered since Stop didn't hit nearly as much.
Now let's see how we fare against Ciriatto 2...
Levels for dealing with Ciriatto 1 were 25 Palom, 30 Cecil, 25 Porom, 32 Edge, 31 Rosa.
And beaten! Still a rather tricky fight, but with the right starting actions (heal Porom, pray he doesn't use DarkHoly on her, Haste Porom, go from there) it's very survivable, even at these low levels, good work!
Off to Bahamut's Lagoon!
Hmm, the Ghosts don't seem anywhere near as punishing as they used to, I think they used to have 4800 HP, now they only have 1100, makes them fodder for the Ashura though.
I'll have to call it here for now, been a busy couple of days.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on August 01, 2015, 09:05:29 PM
Kain has better back row options than Yang & Cid but, his HP is on par with Cecil's. Both of them can deal better damage than Kain usually but, Kain can have higher magic defense than either of them. His survivability is only high when he rejoins the party in the underworld because his level is 40 while the rest of the party is 30~35. If he rejoined at Level 35, he'd be similar to everybody else(On par for the next dungeon vs his current state)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 02, 2015, 10:06:32 AM
So Sleep seems to just not work for some reason. I gave it a hit rate of 80, and tried it against some monsters that have 0 magic defense and are not sleep-resistant and are not bosses (e.g. ToadLady) but it consistently seems to fail. Any ideas why this might be and/or suggestions as to things to try to fix it?
:edit: I updated the patch to its current state in case that helps (it might mess up your spell progression if you had a save from the older one).
:edit: 2: After some quick research which I probably should have done first, it appears that Sleep's effectiveness Agi-based? Can anyone confirm this, and if it is indeed so, is there an easy way to remove the Agi factor?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on August 02, 2015, 10:26:00 PM
Sleep:I'm not sure if it is affected by agi but, something is dropping sleep's hit% because it usually takes 3-5 castings for it to take effect.
Axes & Hammers: Thanks to the atk increase, Cid now deals better damage and Dash is now reserved for enemies that you want to kill quickly. Axes for Kain now trade Lancet for better damage(before Axes only dealt significantly more dmg vs racial weaknesses). Porom mostly uses Hammers for their item spells/stat boosts(Mystic Hammer) but, her damage is pretty good for a white mage.
Edge: Dagger Edge is basically Mage Edge especially once you get the Gladius & Triton. The racial procs are nice but, the big draw is that Edge can one-turn some enemies once he starts getting Quake and his tier-3 spells. Like before, his biggest disadvantage is his low mp & defense.
Edward: Daggers + Rings allow him to sit on the front lines and his defense gets pretty high(10-12x at level 50-60). His offense isn't that great however, he has a high multiplier(again 10-12x). Harps are the opposite end of the spectrum a.k.a. high offense & low defense. Thank you for lowering Final Song's level requirement, it actually has a chance to see use. It does take a while though I can't complain because it is a free megalixer.
I noticed that bows got a small atk increase and the Yoichi bow gained racial procs vs reptiles and slimes. The atk boost isn't very noticeable however, with the addition of the racial procs Rosa has more procs than Edge(3 not counting Assassin) and less than Cid(5) and Kain(6). This is good because she is dependent on her bows until level 48 when she learns Comet. Also the Blood sword lost it's giant proc which is fine because Cecil isn't a powerhouse , he's a debilitator. May I ask why Assassin is the only ultimate weapon that isn't given via a fight on the moon? Right now it's a super rare drop that most players are unlikely to get and unlike the rare armors it can only be equipped by Edward, Edge and Palom.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 03, 2015, 10:52:01 AM
According to Deathlike2's research from back in the day, sleep's chance of working is affected by Agi (and possibly level as well, I'm not clear on that part). I tried changing it from "add immobilizing status" to "add status to living creatures" and while that got the spell to hit, it came at the much too high cost of freezing the game. For now I will simply change it to Stun, which seems to work a little better. If someone is able to help me find a fix for the sleep routine before I upload it to RHDN again, I will change it back to sleep but otherwise this will have to suffice.
The assassin knife kind of steals Deathbringer's thunder if I make it readily obtainable. The original game had tons of items that you could only get via rare drops, and that had a certain fun element to it as well.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Lumiere77 on August 03, 2015, 07:19:54 PM
After using FF4kster to change Sleep to Stun I have to say it will make battles easier but, are there many enemies that resist Stun vs Sleep? Do you have any more changes in mind before you upload to RHDN? If you do, I'll wait on doing a new playthrough until then.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on August 03, 2015, 08:08:54 PM
According to Deathlike2's research from back in the day, sleep's chance of working is affected by Agi (and possibly level as well, I'm not clear on that part). I tried changing it from "add immobilizing status" to "add status to living creatures" and while that got the spell to hit, it came at the much too high cost of freezing the game. For now I will simply change it to Stun, which seems to work a little better. If someone is able to help me find a fix for the sleep routine before I upload it to RHDN again, I will change it back to sleep but otherwise this will have to suffice.
The assassin knife kind of steals Deathbringer's thunder if I make it readily obtainable. The original game had tons of items that you could only get via rare drops, and that had a certain fun element to it as well.
DeathLike2's amazing research is partially correct, but by that same measure Paralyze should have the same duration as Sleep, therefore one should be just as effective as the other...? You're certain you have Sleep looking nearly exactly as it does in vanilla FFIV?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 04, 2015, 11:48:25 AM
Other than the spell index, mp cost, and delay, I have everything set to their default FF4 values and it still works very seldomly.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on August 04, 2015, 07:46:20 PM
You make a good point, now that I think about it. I recall actually changing it from that to Damage, Immobilizing Status for Combat Boost and that seemed to make it work much more efficiently.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 05, 2015, 08:55:51 AM
Setting the damage flag does seem to increase the chance a little, though still not as much as I would like. Oh well, it will have to do I guess. I will finish my current playthrough, and if nothing goes horribly, horribly wrong, I will then upload this version to RHDN as Version 2.0.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 06, 2015, 04:56:14 AM
And Version 2 is up!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Grimoire LD on August 06, 2015, 03:35:38 PM
I apologize for not being able to finish my playthrough before you put up Version 2, things have been a bit more hectic around here than I anticipated.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 07, 2015, 04:06:22 AM
It's all good! Seems to be fine so far. The only complaints I see yet are people who patched the wrong ROM version.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: dn on August 10, 2015, 12:33:28 AM
I just watched a speedrunner lose his save file entirely on a hardlock at Lugae (as in, it completely deleted the save file.) We're not entirely sure what's causing it.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: RotomPoison on August 10, 2015, 01:25:47 AM
I just watched a speedrunner lose his save file entirely on a hardlock at Lugae (as in, it completely deleted the save file.) We're not entirely sure what's causing it.
That was me, to explain the situation better, I know that the Aegis shield caused a softlock at Golbez right after. Kain did have the shield on in the fight. Twitch doesn't have the video saved yet so I can't check the exact details of the fight, though he had already attacked me a few times, just not been healed by Lugae yet. If you need any more details on the fight or what equipment they had, I'll tell you what I remember or wait for Twitch to save the video.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: chillyfeez on August 10, 2015, 01:34:42 AM
Not that it helps much now, nor does it explain the crash, but when ffiv crashes, it's not uncommon to lose the save in slot 1. Save in slot 2, 3 or 4 to be on the safe side.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 10, 2015, 05:11:18 AM
Lugae never heals you in this. Let me know when the recording is up and where to go to see it and I'll see if I can come up with some possibilities. Right now I've never heard of anything like this, sheild or no shield, so I have no idea.
That said, there is a 2.1 update in the RHDN submission queue that fixes the Aegis shield softlock. It just removes KO immunity from the shield.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: aznblusuazn on August 15, 2015, 06:41:44 PM
A group of FF4 Speedrunners are going to be racing this tonight around 9PM EST on Twitch. Tentatively it is AznBlusuazn (me), Fathlo23, and RotomPoison. Thanks so much for this mod!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 16, 2015, 12:29:07 PM
Just watched the recording. Glad you guys are enjoying it. Version 2.1 is up and there's at least one more update in the works that will add a special treat for beating the game with solo Cecil.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: aznblusuazn on August 17, 2015, 08:29:36 PM
Bug - Post Calbrena/Golbez battle, I casted Exit with Porom and ended up in a weird location north of Dwarf Castle. See around 3:33:20 - http://www.twitch.tv/aznblusuazn/v/11353699 (http://www.twitch.tv/aznblusuazn/v/11353699)
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 18, 2015, 03:23:43 AM
Part of that cutscene puts you on the overworld (underworld) as an airship. Casting Exit takes you to the last location you were on the overworld, in this case, the location of the plot scene. I guess the easiest fix would be to disable Exit in the Dwarf Castle. Thanks for reporting this.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: guitarsolo on August 23, 2015, 06:32:52 PM
I've picked up Tellah after losing the twins and I feel like I've made a huge mistake. Does his MP growth ever improve? He's been gaining 1 MP per level.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on August 23, 2015, 08:01:22 PM
Yup. In fact it will eventually overtake even the other main mages.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: GrayWolf67 on November 19, 2015, 07:20:37 PM
I finished playing through this a few days ago. I found it very well done and had a great time with it. But I wanted to ask... is Dark armor supposed to make the wearer weak to Darkness and resist Holy? It's the same with Holy armor, but in reverse. I noticed you fixed the Fire/Ice resistances being reversed, so this seemed odd to me. I checked a copy of the patched ROM in FF4kster to confirm, and saw that Dark and Holy armors do indeed have their opposite element displayed in the element window.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on November 19, 2015, 07:29:19 PM
I didn't fix the fire/ice thing, and yes holy and dark I'm pretty sure have the same kind of relationship.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the game!
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: GrayWolf67 on November 19, 2015, 07:34:42 PM
I didn't fix the fire/ice thing, and yes holy and dark I'm pretty sure have the same kind of relationship.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the game!
Really? But I remember using a Bestiary on a party member wearing Fire or Ice armor at one point to see, and I'm pretty sure it said that they were weak to the opposite. Then again, my memory isn't exactly perfect... I could be mistaken.
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: Pinkpuff on November 19, 2015, 07:43:58 PM
Ice armor should resist ice (causing fire weakness) and Fire armor should resist fire (causing ice weakness).
That very well may be backwards from the original game; is that what you meant?
Title: Re: Unprecedented Crisis now on RHDN
Post by: GrayWolf67 on November 19, 2015, 07:55:40 PM