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Library of the Ancients => Final Fantasy IV Research & Development => Topic started by: Deathlike2 on May 05, 2008, 01:11:57 PM

Title: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 05, 2008, 01:11:57 PM
I was interested in a Gamefaqs post about a "problem" with hitting Cagnazzo. It made me look further into its battle script..

It's not too difficult a script, but the monster has multiple stages... note, I will not add in the "do nothings", because it's irrelevent to my point.

Initial Mode:
Cagnazzo attacks characters once  - (not useful)
Change into "Water Form"

While in "Water Form":
Display message == "Water is gathering" or whatever
Change weakness to Lightning (while under this state)
Cast Wave on enemy (1/25 of Caster's HP)
Cast Haste on self
Repeat "Water Form" script
If hit by a Lightning magic attack while under "Water Mode", goto Initial Mode
Also Display message == "Lightning neutralizes water" or whatever

At any time, current HP < 700 (not sure if that's an exact number) Always Change To "Shell Mode":
Display message = "Monster hides in shell" or whatever
Set Defense to 3 (while under this state) - Edit: Yes, that's really 3, which is not a significant increase.
Cast Remedy/Heal/Restore (different names for the same spell) - (heals 1/10 of Caster's Max HP)
Repeat script while current HP < 700
Else Change Into "Water Form"

This defense change never occurs... it seems like the FF4A Euro version has this fixed. It may be worth looking into further.
Title: Re: Old Battle Engine Bug...
Post by: Cleteromagos on May 06, 2008, 01:50:33 AM
Are there any other instances of battle scripts altering enemy stats during a battle …?

Having said that, Protes and Shell work perfectly fine, so you’d think this would too.

It probably matters little in the scheme of things, anyway, since Caggy has multi-Boast’d Thundara to deal with by this point. :omghax:
Title: Re: Old Battle Engine Bug...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 06, 2008, 12:06:55 PM
Quote from: Cleteromagos on May 06, 2008, 01:50:33 AM
Are there any other instances of battle scripts altering enemy stats during a battle …?

Many.. I'll post them later when I get the chance.

The best representation of it is the Octomammoth. For every 1/8 of its HP lost, its Agility changes (and slows the monster down as a result).

Barbariccia's original spin form (in the Tower of Zot) makes herself immune to any magic, which would have made "the old man" useless anyways.

Quote
Having said that, Protes and Shell work perfectly fine, so you’d think this would too.

Dude, this is the same game that took until the Euro version to fix the Yang HP growth bug or the Poison resistance bug.

Quote
It probably matters little in the scheme of things, anyway, since Caggy has multi-Boast’d Thundara to deal with by this point. :omghax:

Believe it or not, Tellah's Thundaga is far stronger than Palom's maxed out Thundara. A maxed out Palom with Quake would do better.

Palom with Thundara:

(64 (base magic damage) * 2 (weakness multiplier) - 48 (magic defense)) * 25 (spell multiplier) = 2000 damage minimum

Tellah with Thundaga (using Change Rod and Wizard's Hat from Mysidia):

(256 (base magic damage) * 2 (weakness multiplier) - 48 (magic defense)) * 7 (spell multiplier) = 3248 damage minimum

Even if you use Tellah's default equipment (with no stat boosts), it is still better than Palom's best...

(256 (base magic damage) * 2 (weakness multiplier) - 48 (magic defense)) * 5 (spell multiplier) = 2320 damage minimum

Edit: It's not a battle engine bug, but apparently I forgot that the game uses tables for pretty much everything (attack, defense, magic defense, and agility) except monster Magic Power.
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 06, 2008, 01:48:36 PM
Ah... now I understand it better.

In normal battles, the game totally ignores the defense and magic defense multipliers of the monsters.

If a boss battle sets the defense or magic defense of the monster, the multipliers+evade or magic evade of the stats are adhered to.

Consider Barbariccia...

In her normal form, her defense is 0x 0, 0%. She simply can't evade a thing.

In her twisty hair form, her defense becomes 4x 4, 45%. She actually does evade a number of attacks (very noticable when you reach that point normally). Although Aim sets her evade to 0... which technically gives Rosa an edge... but a useless one at that.
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Cleteromagos on May 09, 2008, 06:32:20 AM
So monsters do have multipliers and evasion stats that are normally ignored, or …?

On the note regarding Palom and Tella: is the intelligence stat really that inconsequential in magic damage? It’s FF1 all over again …  :lame:
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 09, 2008, 12:29:23 PM
Quote from: Cleteromagos on May 09, 2008, 06:32:20 AM
So monsters do have multipliers and evasion stats that are normally ignored, or …?

Mostly for evasion and magic evasion.

Quote
On the note regarding Palom and Tella: is the intelligence stat really that inconsequential in magic damage? It’s FF1 all over again …  :lame:

It's significant, but for magic, the power of the spell and magic defense has a greater impact. Meteor has full reign of it, but it takes too damn long to cast, so the Flare (but moreso Mega Flare) option is still pretty reliable. However, this will never cause consistant 9999 damage on Behemoths.
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Phoenix on May 24, 2008, 09:21:05 AM
I'm just curious, how did you write the attack sequence out? Did you look at the internal data? Or did you just fight through the battle?
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 24, 2008, 01:49:46 PM
Quote from: Phoenix on May 24, 2008, 09:21:05 AM
I'm just curious, how did you write the attack sequence out? Did you look at the internal data? Or did you just fight through the battle?

I got the internal data "spelled out for me" by zrothgar's editor. Some of this is known by behavior, but specifics like how much HP required to switch into a different mode.. I personally don't know if that's the exact value tested (I don't quite know how HP testing is done, but it seems like a 1/16 fractional thing than a fixed HP thing... I cite the Octomammoth as a reference.)

Observation+testing got most of this stuff verified anyways, and note that this is not the exact order that the internal stuff is executed (the attack sequence generally is though).
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Phoenix on May 24, 2008, 08:20:18 PM
The version of Zyrthofar's editor that I have doesn't seem to be reading the attack sequences correctly. Do you have a newer version?
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 24, 2008, 08:32:25 PM
Yes, but it's not quite complete either..

Here's a copy+paste version of the script that perhaps you may want to make heads or tails of...

Battle script (0x9D):
Code: [Select]
( $2 $0 $0 $2 )
    Target Enemies in Current Group
    Cast Remedy ($84)
    (End of Turn)
    Defense $7A
    $F3 to $F8 -  $81
    Do Nothing
( $2 $0 $0 $1 )
    Start Attack Chain
    $F3 to $F8 -  $81
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Battle Message $46
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Graphics $13
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Elemental Weakness $4
    Do Nothing
    End Attack Chain
    (End of Turn)
    Cast Wave ($9D)
    (End of Turn)
    Target Enemies in Current Group
    Cast Fast
Always
    Fight
    $F3 to $F8 -  $81
Counter script (0x9E):
Code: [Select]
If Self has less than 700 HP
If Receives a Damage Counter
    Start Attack Chain
    $F3 to $F8 -  $82
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    $F3 to $F8 -  $80
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Graphics $14
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Elemental Weakness $2
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Battle Message $47
    Do Nothing
    End Attack Chain
( $2 $0 $1 $1 )
If Casted on by Character with Lightning
    Start Attack Chain
    $F3 to $F8 -  $80
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    $F3 to $F8 -  $80
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Graphics $12
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Elemental Weakness $2
    Do Nothing
    Chain with
    Battle Message $74
    Do Nothing
    End Attack Chain
I often wonder if the guy even reads these forums.
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Phoenix on May 24, 2008, 08:48:40 PM
Thanks -- I'm actually looking into all the enemy scripts, so do you think you could post or send me the newer version? I got it working through emulation, and I'd like to see if it can help me in figuring out the conditions and scripts.
Title: Re: A Look Into Cagnazzo...
Post by: Deathlike2 on May 24, 2008, 08:58:34 PM
I'd say you should pm Dragonsbrethren.

Most of the battle logic has been decyphered, but the "parsing" done to produce the script isn't quite perfect yet, so I couldn't determine some of the final spells. Most of the last unnamed spells are primarily boss-scripted events.