Messages

2656

Gaming Discussion / Re: Convince Me To Play Your Hack

« on: March 29, 2008, 03:36:41 PM »

Sadly, I haven't played FF2 NES, so it's a tough sell at the moment.

2657

Gaming Discussion / Convince Me To Play Your Hack

« on: March 29, 2008, 03:24:10 PM »

I'm currently at a lull here as I have currently nothing on the plate... other than remembering the occasional FF4 detail to test, I am currently undecided as to what hack to play next.

I am a little biased as to what I will play... only because of the entertainment value that I need... (it's fair warning, but a bored person will do anything to not be bored...)

So, plead your case if you wish.

2658

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

« on: March 29, 2008, 12:53:50 PM »

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

I've given this command consideration because I'm changing all the characters in my hack, and wanted to get rid of all the useless commands. Also, I've looked at the Pray subroutine, and will post my findings as soon as I have time.

I didn't say the Medicine command couldn't be improved.. but I've never thought it that useful since it doesn't scale (unless you didn't want it to scale). At least it is an improvement over the near-useless original...

2659

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Attack and Magic Algos To Be Redone

« on: March 28, 2008, 05:36:51 PM »

Both attack and magic algos are going to be redone.

I spent some time thinking about how HP based attacks were supposed to operate... and some of that does actually translate into the original algo.

So sometime this weekend, they will be redone... and they will make a lot more sense than before... hopefully.

2660

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 Equipment Rebalancing?

« on: March 28, 2008, 12:54:25 PM »

It's easier to use hindsight when you look at the distribution of weapons to the enemies that are in the game... though sometimes I wonder if the monster creators and balance testing were on different planes of existance.

For Hammers...

Charged Hammer, 45 attack power, 75% hit rate, +3 Agi, +3 Vit, casts Lit2 when used as an item with a spell multiplier of 4, Lightning elemental, effective vs Reptiles and Mechs
Holy Hammer, 55 attack power, 75% hit rate, +3 Str, +3 Agi, +3 Vit, casts Holy when used as an item with a spell multiplier of 1, Holy elemental, effective vs Undead and Mechs
Pudding Hammer, 65 attack power, 75% hit rate, +5 Str, +5 Agi, +5 Vit, +5 Wis, +5 Will, casts Quake when used as an item with a spell multiplier of 1, effective vs Pudding/Flan and Mechs

The whole idea on rebalancing some of the 2 handed weaponry is to find a way to compensate for the defense (and its multiplier) of the shields.. which happens to be Vitality.. and primarily Agility. If you've ever played Phantasy Star 3 or 4 on the Genesis, a two handed weapon was generally superior to the one handed weapon, because for the Swords, they gave you additional defense, which was effectively better than a dagger-shield setup. It's not really viable in FF2/4 by design, but you can get close to it.

2661

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 Equipment Rebalancing?

« on: March 28, 2008, 11:17:55 AM »

I actually have some decent ideas for the axes...

Avenger Sword, 100 attack power, 95% hit rate, +10 Str, +10 Agi, +10 Vit, -10 Wis, -10 Will (tweak based off of FF4ET's version)
Dwarf Axe, 62 attack power, 69% hit rate, +5 Str, +5 Vit, -5 Agi, -5 Wis, -5 Will, effective vs Mages (this is based off of FF4ET's version)
Master Axe, 120 attack power, 69% hit rate, 2 handed, casts Shell when used as an item with a spell multiplier of 1, +10 Agi, +10 Wis, +10 Vit, effective vs Mages and Mechs, inflicts Silence (this is a replacement for the Rune Axe)
Beast/Beastkiller Axe, 160 attack power, 69% hit rate, 2 handed, casts Hold when used as an item with a spell multiplier of 1, +15 Agi, +15 Wis, +15 Vit, effective vs Dragons and Giants, inflicts Poison (this is a replacement for the Poison Axe)
Dragon Claw, 0 attack power, 75% hit rate, +10 Str, +10 Will, Holy elemental, effective vs Dragons, inflicts Poison (idea based off of FF4A's Dragon Claw... not too useful for Yang, but a lot more beneficial to Edge)
Cat Claw, 0 attack power, 99% hit rate, +5 Str, +5 Agi, +5 Vit, +5 Will, +5 Wis,  inflicts Sleep (tweaks to improve the claw for late game, moreso than early game...)

Both heavily reworked axes should be usable by all... even if that's not too great, they are much better than they were before.

Edit: Fixed Dragon Claw properties (forgot it was Holy elemental)

2662

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 Equipment Rebalancing?

« on: March 28, 2008, 10:10:49 AM »

Retweaked Yoichi's Bow, Genji armor set, Ninja Robe, Holy Spear, and a few others in this list.

I'm currently pondering what to do with the Axes...

2663

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF2/4 Rosa's Best Armor->Weapon Combo

« on: March 28, 2008, 08:39:22 AM »

Might as well put this up for a reference point when I've discussed how bad Rosa is late game...

Rosa in FF2:


Equipment:
Life Staff
Silver Shield (shield trick)
Ribbon
Heroine Robe
Protect Ring

Rosa in FF4:


Equipment:
Artemis Bow + Artemis Arrows
Ribbon
White Robe
Protect Ring

Rosa in FF4ET:


Equipment:
Artemis Bow + Yoichi/Samurai Arrows (add 25 to attack power if Artemis Arrows are in use)
Ribbon (which has elemental absorb to the basic elementals)
Heroine Robe (which has bonuses of +10 STR, AGI, VIT instead)
Crystal Ring

FF4ET has the right idea as to what needed tweaking... Rosa is too weak/slow in comparison to the other characters...

Rydia in FF2/4:


Equipment:
Dragon Whip
Silver Shield (Shield Trick)
Ribbon
Sorceror/Light Robe
Protect Ring

See, even by Rydia's standards, Rosa barely keeps up with Rydia's attack power because she must rely on getting the Artemis Bow.. which is very important to consider. Factor that the Artemis Bow is a rare drop, makes this a pain in the ass.

Edge in FF2/4:


Equipment:
Masamune
Murasame
Ribbon
Ninja Robe/Dark Gear
Protect Ring

It is arguable that Edge is supposed to have the worst magic defense (he does for a long time anyways). However, by comparison, he's actually on par, if not better than Rosa in these regards. His limited (and nonexistant) gain in Will Power limits his magic defense severely (like resistance to Sleep with the Ninja Hat will help him)

Edge in FF4ET:


Equipment:
Masamune
Murasame
Ribbon (elemental absorb ftw)
Ninja Robe/Dark Gear (+5 Agi instead of the usual +3 Agi)
Crystal Ring

Edge isn't losing too much in the magic defense department, but still just as good magic defensively.

Anyways, Rosa is the worst character in the group, and by a good margin. Anything less than an Artemis Bow or a Life or Silence Staff/Heroine Robe will prevent Rosa from reaching a 6x magic defense multiplier... that's not even factoring her less that desirable stat growth for Will Power.

Rosa has always been the best candidate for the Adamant Armor, and there's the proof as to why.

Edit: Here's another setup I've just considered...

Rosa:


Equipment:
Elven Bow + Artemis Arrows
Tiara (this means no status protection, but you have resistance vs Dragons)
Heroine Robe (you only get Paralysis protection, which is very useful)
Protect Ring

You get the magic multiplier... have much less status protection (which may not really matter at this point) and pretty much declare that the Elven Bow is the most useful of the bows if you don't have the Artemis Bow (if Yoichi's Bow had a different stat boost, it would be different).

2664

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

« on: March 28, 2008, 08:04:55 AM »

However I *think* and this is something I'm going to test in the near future unless someone already knows...there are a number of "odd" bytes at the end of each character's level up data that I *think* are the randomly chosen core 5 stat modifiers for levels past 70.  I don't know what else they'd be used for, and there aren't always the same number fore each character. If this is so, then you could rig it so that the core 5 stats are consistent from 70-99...or perhaps that at the very least a mage would max their will or wisdom stat even if they aren't always the same for the other three. Again I emphasize I haven't proven this yet...just a preliminary test seems to indicate that it is possible this is so. If someone knows already how this works...please correct me if I'm wrong.

I think Edea's info covers this nicely... maybe a double check is order?

2665

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Appearance/Sprite ID offset

« on: March 28, 2008, 07:58:11 AM »

Look for what you seek here:
http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=320.0

2666

Game Modification Station / Re: Anchors Aweigh patch (simple) question

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:31:03 PM »

Seeing as though Deathlike2 didn't read the readme () I'll fill you in.

When a target under the influence of Air Anchor experiences a regen, seizure,
or poison "tick" (healing or taking damage) it counts as movement. Sure enough,
the target dies immediately after the damage.

Beware Banon, he's out to get you.

Believe it or not, I actually did. I just cannot recall that info off the top of my head.

It shows you how much I need 

2667

Game Modification Station / Re: Anchors Aweigh patch (simple) question

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:26:46 PM »

IIRC, the Air Anchor fails to deal damage if the target is immune to death status. I believe damage now gets dealt regardless of of death immunity with that patch. It should be semi-obvious from those screenshots.

2668

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

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:24:34 PM »

Well...I'm a little off topic since it seems like your being more hypothetical as to tweaking out and rebalancing FF4A...

Well, some of it is based on FF4A (there are minute differences, but the majority is the same). Based on that and JCE's hack, it becomes much more clear to me, but perhaps I'm overthinking it too much.

My guess is that they didn't put a lot of thought into the Twins since they really didn't ever get used at high level towards the end of the game until FF4A. I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins are exactly the same as they are in the classic game and they just threw in more weapons and equipment for them to use.

I think they did, but Yang would be more of the oversight issue than anything... At this point, it's easier to believe that FF4A was what FF4 meant to be in some ways (well, the multi-character end-game option).

The useless status resistances on some equipment makes it clear they just added crap without thinking about it that much or making them worthwhile to add.

The Ninja Hat and Crystal Armor were never going to be the most innovative pieces of equipment...

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

As in "SoYa" 

Tellah would be better served with a Bow+Arrow like FuSoYa... but then again, there's not much of a multiplier to work with there...

2669

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: HP Damage Algo

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:08:14 PM »

Updated algo to factor in damage randomness.

2670

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

« on: March 27, 2008, 05:29:21 PM »

FF4A allows Porom to use the Assassin's Dagger...

Which is almost certainly a mistake, since Palom can't equip it and Porom can't use any other knives.

Go figure. I don't think any White Wizard were meant to equip them anyways.

However, balance-wise, this is actually the best thing they did. It's hard to say the same for Palom though... Palom needs a bit more than rebalancing... a total makeover is needed.