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Messages - Deathlike2

466
In my recent round of hack testing, I have found that monsters that would have been normally been immune to Quake (weak vs Wind/Air elemental) like Arachne, Clapper, or RockMoth are not immune to Quake when they are summoned. There is obviously something going on that prevents the code that gives them immunity to not work. Affects all SNES versions of FF4 and doesn't affect FF4A at all.

467
Game Modification Station / Re: New FF4 Hack Announcement
« on: March 01, 2012, 11:01:23 AM »
 :bump:
I swear I could've done more by now... but at least now there are outside factors influencing this.

I've had a few revelations.. the most important is that I've gotten counters to Sneak/Steal and Dart/Throw working as far as I can tell. I will most likely release a demo of it in action. I'll probably end up uploading this stuff on Youtube when it is all said and done. A patch will follow, with some updated documentation to Phoenix's work on the data involved (no ETA, it's up to me to actually do it).

There have been more tweaks to equipment and I'm unsure if anyone is willing to answer the following question:
What would it take to balance two katanas, the Long Katana and the Ninja Katana?
Here's some context... the Long Katana can be bought @ the Land of Summoned Monsters and you get a pair of them for free in the Sealed Cave.
Ninja Katana is obtained in the Land of Summoned Monsters.
The Long Katana isn't really that special... usually surpassed by the FullMoon boomerang for versatility (Wind/Air elemental weakness exposure).

Ninja Katana doesn't really compete with any available weapon at the time you obtain it. It is a prime weapon of the duplication trick for that reason.

Long Katana competes with the following weapons: Mute Knife (Mage mashing), FullMoon boomerang (Wind/Air elemental)

Default stats of listed weapons:
Ninja Katana: 48 attack power, 90 acc, throwable, +5 STR
Long Katana: 40 attack power, 90 acc
Mute Knife: 35 attack power, 75 acc, +5 WIS
FullMoon Boomerang: 40 attack power, 85 acc

Proposed stats of listed weapons:
Ninja (Sharp) Katana: 48 attack power, 90 acc, +5 STR, VIT, WILL (maybe WIS instead?)
Long Katana: 40 attack power, 90 acc, throwable, +3 AGI, VIT, WIS, WILL
Mute (Magemash) Knife: 35 attack power, 75 acc, +5 WIS, WILL
FullMoon Boomerang: 40 attack power, 85 acc, +5 AGI

Here's some reasoning behind it:
The Boomerangs are to get an AGI bonus... they are supposed to be nifty when you get them but are not that useful once you get on the moon (the Grenade monster is the only one that comes to mind where it would be useful to have this).
The Magemash Knife got a WILL boost for no particular reason... I dunno.. it would be a more defensive weapon against Mages (it's already a powerhouse against them).
The Ninja Katana is still meant to be a stronger weapon, but the other bonuses are just there for slightly added value. I was considering to boost WIS instead of WILL there but that would increase the chances of duplication, which is undesired.
The Long Katana is a bit more compelling to use I think. It has a key AGI bonus to supplant the FullMoon later on, where the elemental aspect is a lot less useful. This competes somewhat(?) reasonably well with the Ninja Katana with the rest of its bonus stats as it was also to somewhat replace the Magemash Knife. I had originally thought of giving the Long Katana a STR bonus, but that would increase the chances of duplicating the Long Katana (bonuses add up).

Ideally, I want to have both weapons in use on Edge when he gets to the Moon...and have relatively "equal" value. The Ninja Katana is still stronger, but the Long Katana would just be a tad more useful than its original incarnation. It would replace the Fullmoon, but not as much as the Mute Knife. I don't want it to be duplicated as much while equipped (it's a legal option either way, plus it does doubles as a thrown weapon in my hack). I don't really want either weapon to be duplicated because it would be the ultimate best option only at the time... I am thinking of making the Long Katana not throwable though...

Tell me what you think.

Some other changes of note:
Harps can be equipped by other characters such as the Twins, FuSoYa, and older Rydia
Hammers can be equipped by Rosa, as an homage to FF1. Porom doesn't have that opportunity (but she has access to the Cold Whip, so it's not that bad).

I was thinking about allowing the DK's Dark Swords to be equipped by FuSoYa... this does have a realistic chance of happening.
Also, monsters that are summoned will probably get some EXP boost of some sort to reduce the grinding required (in my save, I've accumulated 60 hours and I've only reached the Land of Summoned Monsters).

468
Game Modification Station / Re: Any news on the 24-bit HP patch?
« on: February 20, 2012, 06:57:38 PM »
Doesn't Kefka (final form) use some sort of script to "increase" his actual HP values (script based self-healing to max)? I'm pretty sure that is still a viable option in the event that setting this whole thing up is not working out.

Nope. Kaiser Dragon and Omega Weapon from the GBA release have such a script though.

Is it being done in current hacks though? The most memorable FF3/6 hack I did get to complete was the Eviltype hack or whatever it was called (I'll get a link if you'd like). They had to have made some use of that at some point for the CzarDragon or whatever they ended up doing there.

The point though is that it has been done before, so in the worst case, it would take a bit more effort to get it working, but it wouldn't require that much more magic, outside of getting more battle script space (I don't know how limited it is).

469
Game Modification Station / Re: Any news on the 24-bit HP patch?
« on: February 20, 2012, 03:12:05 PM »
Doesn't Kefka (final form) use some sort of script to "increase" his actual HP values (script based self-healing to max)? I'm pretty sure that is still a viable option in the event that setting this whole thing up is not working out.

470
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Meteo WTF?!
« on: February 18, 2012, 06:14:45 PM »
Worth a nice  :bump:

I did some recent math here... I was exploring a Gamefaq user's thread involving a "bug" for a version of the game that I don't think many has access to...

Anyways, it somehow led to my exploration of Meteor (through bug testing/explanations)

My original math suggests that the since the base spell power of Meteor is 800, it has a spread of 400 (=800 *.5). So, the damage range would be 800 to 1200 times the spell multiplier. This is simply wrong through testing.

Apparently, there is a cap in the spread... and this probably might not shock you. I wrote part of this in my explanation in W. Meteo aka Double Meteor. The damage is always the spell base (1000) plus some random number in the range of 0 to 255 times the spell multiplier. Well, regular Meteor falls into the same category. To put in math terms...

Range = Spell Power * .5
If Range > 255, Range = 255

The spell damage range is literally capped @ 255, so only spells like Meteor and Double Meteor will be capped by it. By extension, a spell that has its power > 510 will have its range capped. I have not done extensive tests on spell power, but in the aspect of coding consistency, this is very likely the case for any customized damage spell that people may create.

Hopefully, this is useful to someone that will play with that aspect.

So, the final and actual range of Meteor is between 800 and 1055 (which is 800+255) or in math terms...
Meteor spell damage = (800 [base spell power] + random (0, 255)) * spell multiplier)

471
Game Modification Station / Re: Any news on the 24-bit HP patch?
« on: February 17, 2012, 11:46:14 AM »
There's something wrong with that mentality.

It's almost like FF1 hacks. The closest comparison is with FFHackster... do you really expect this to work on really massive FF1 hacks?

Editors are built with the original limitations in mind. Unless the editor itself includes the HP expansion code, it will not automagically work the way you want it to.

472
Pandora's Box / Re: Catching cheating?
« on: February 15, 2012, 11:08:44 PM »
I think it's kinda fair to assume that using Game Genie codes would probably fail. Given how the drop system has been reworked, you don't want to imagine the side effects of said changes with such codes.

473
General Discussion & Support / Re: Final Fantasy 1 EasyType
« on: February 15, 2012, 11:05:57 PM »
Sometimes I wonder if it's really that hard to predict the damage you would do minimize such issues. The damage variation in this game is pretty predictable... and yes I know hitting dead targets is annoying, but for some games... the redirected attack targeting can be less predictable...

474
Submissions / Re: FF4 Long Range Bit Fix
« on: February 12, 2012, 09:00:38 PM »
Well, the bit gets set during both instances... that's the reason why I mentioned it. They don't get unset in either circumstance....

 :edit:

Fixing the Bow+Arrow circumstance might be complex. Bonuses and properties are set when both bow+arrow are equipped. If either component is removed, these bonuses/properties are removed (except for the long range bit and maybe others, like the Lightning Arrow).

For the ambidextrous situation, it is arguably far more complex... I think it's supposed to be handled like the bow+arrow situation, except you just need to add back the properties of the lone weapon on either hand (bow or arrow solo = 1 attack power).

475
Submissions / Re: FF4 Long Range Bit Fix
« on: February 12, 2012, 05:19:54 PM »
Has this been tested against Bows and Arrows (they operate slightly differently when I did the long range bit testing)?

The other thing that would be a special case is Edge. Putting the boomerang on the left hand has no effect, whereas putting it on the right hand does... AFAIK.

476
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF2/4 Unknown Weapon Bits
« on: February 12, 2012, 04:48:19 PM »
 :bump:
Ya, this is a very old bump, but I think it's worthy of some discussion.

I'm starting to think some of these unknown weapon bits "change" the frequency of the damage distribution. Rather than having an equal chance of targeting any character, it is skewed in some way.

I personally need to test this (although, it would be better if someone found code or find no reference of such code to verify this). Some of the bits are for the Axes.. probably as a "Giant" perfume or something (I can't think of a better word at the moment). Also, Cid's Hammers and the Lightning Arrows apply a similar formula. It may be harder to determine w/o having Cid (since, there are some hints that Cid would come back for the Giant event). I think he would be attracting every machine in an attempt to kick his ass (since, his weapon is designed to smash them).

That is the only logical thing I could come up with. I initially thought it would boost damage in the form of critical hits, but it might just be more obvious that it changes monster targeting... it's hard to test this theory out given some bit changing issues.

Let me know what you guys think.

 :edit:
I do not believe it affects the randomness of magic targeting....

477
General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2011-2012) week 21 (playoffs?!)
« on: February 05, 2012, 10:48:53 AM »
Giants - This is a reverse lock pick. If you pay attention to the media, you would have thought the Pats have no chance. I guess the NY media screams a lot louder... regardless of the story. Don't get me wrong... I want the Pats to win, so my pick be damned. :P

I expect to see a close game.. especially given all the matchups and the scores that come with it. The Pats offense is definitely less like the one that was there in SB42. The Giants defense is still good... but I'm unsure it is anything resembling like the dominator Bears defense a while ago. I expect to see a bit more running of the ball, on both ends. Both secondaries can be taken advantage of... it's truly a matter of who wins the battle of the trenches.

478
General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2011-2012) week 21 (playoffs?!)
« on: January 29, 2012, 07:04:02 PM »
The Pro Bowl is like a prop bet. It's not even a serious game by any means.

479
General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2011-2012) week 21 (playoffs?!)
« on: January 29, 2012, 03:57:22 AM »
My pick for the Pro Bowl:

NFC - They have generally been better this year...

On the other hand, it is the Pro Bowl... one of the most irrelevant games in sports.

480
General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2011-2012) week 21 (playoffs?!)
« on: January 23, 2012, 10:38:55 AM »
Ravens were one of the best defensive teams left, so what happened made some sense (except for the Vegas spread). Brady made some terrible decisions and he wasn't really rushed, which didn't help much. I give credit to the Ravens for doing practically everything to win, but the Pats (specifically the defense) did just enough to stop them from winning.

On the other hand, I'm not sure exactly why Alex Smith looked so bad. Although, both defensive lines owned the line of scrimmage... so it made some sense how that game went. I wonder if it has a lot to do with how the offense runs and/or Alex Smith. You usually don't win games when you don't convert on 3rd down... but the key difference in that game was turnovers.