Messages

2776

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Darkness/Holy elemental attacks

« on: March 19, 2008, 01:59:44 AM »

Refer to this thread for the basis of what I'm going to say: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=401.0

If the armor bit is set to have protection vs holy, you are weak against the Darkness elemental. If the armor bit is set to have protection vs Darkness, you are weak against Holy.

This new info explains why both bits are set in this instance.

This info will explain why the game engine isn't using this bit... enemies were meant to have elemental attacks. The problem with it was that if you were able to protection to both stats for magical reasons, it would hurt you for physical attacks, just like Ice+Fire equipment.

The entire Dark Knight's equipment was most likely meant to be resistant to Holy (this means he was weak vs Darkness), which also means extra pain vs Zombies (they were to attack with the Darkness elemental).. and that also probably meant that the Paladin's initial equipment was meant to be resistant to Darkness (which means weak vs Holy), making Cecil very resistant vs all of the undead at Mt. Ordeals, although all of the equipment has resistance vs Undead, so it's almost irrelevent. Then again, Holy attacks/spells would rape the Paladin...

It is the same logic that the Fire Shield has you weak vs Fire and resistant to Ice and the Ice Shield has you weak vs Ice and resistant to Fire.

This behavior is probably completely fixed in FF4A.

2777

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Elemental Reference Guide

« on: March 19, 2008, 01:51:02 AM »

New info will be posted in this thread: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=259.0

2778

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Dark Wave Command

« on: March 19, 2008, 01:45:38 AM »

Command is disabled when fists are used. It doesn't matter what weapon is equipped. That's the only major check done for this command (since Dark Knight Cecil has a 3 weapon list, they were lazy to code this better). This becomes readily apparent in Paladin's hack.

2779

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

« on: March 19, 2008, 01:43:08 AM »

Stupid question, but what is the Adamant Armor bug? >.>

http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=230.0

I'm not surprised this game is in need of a bug fix patch. FF games are usually broken and/or incomplete.

FF5 is the least buggy game AFAIK. There are a few bugs.. some kinda gamebreaking (one Chemist's mix ignores Berserk status)... others kinda annoying silly (probably wasn't fixed in FF5A but eh Knives and Whips meant to use the Agility stat to increase damage).

Wasn't the developer's room removed in the original US version as well? Or am I "misremembering" again?

Yes. That and FF4ET.

Edit:

When the Adamant Armor is equipped, then deequiped on any member of the party, the character becomes weak against every basic elemental (Fire, Ice, Lightning) unless there are other elemental protection available.

It seems that there is a bit(s) that is forgotten to be turned off when the Adamant Armor is deequipped, and the characters end up being severly weakened.

You can also transfer this to a new game after resetting the game and the character that was equipped with the Adamant Armor previously will be weak.

I'm not sure if this applies to FF4A though.

This does not apply to the Glass Helmet since the Immune attribute does not even work with this piece of equipment.

I'm still shocked by that.

Shocked by what? Btw, I did make an error in the Glass Helmet.. the Immune attribute at least increases evade to 99%... and it doesn't create the negative effect that the Adamant Armor does, which is good.

2780

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

« on: March 19, 2008, 12:39:12 AM »

There seems to be a number of things to this game that needs some fixing.. and it may be worthwhile to do..

1) Add unused dialog to proper parts of the game. There is some dialog that you would think would be shown, but never shown because the game was most likely unfinished.
2) Fix the duplication bug (use FF4ET as a base).
3) Allow FF2US to use the FF4 Active option.
4) Add back in dummied weapons... perhaps adding a new script to trigger them.. like a script to check if all the vehicles surround Mysidia or Baron that some guy gives you the Assassin Knife... or adding the Hand Axe to a shop the town of Silveria/Mythril or to Cid's daughter as a gift or something.
5) Fix the Adamant Armor bug. 
6) Apply fix for Stop status in FF2 v1.0 that was applied to FF2 v1.1.
7) Readd all dummied commands...?
8) Fix one dummied command not ever enabled in FF4.
9) Fix back row bit bug.

A more radical hack though is modifying the battle system to take advantage of the other defensive stats (evade and magic evade)... which would make for battles where Cecil can actually miss...

Another radical hack would perhaps add something like FF4A's character switching system, since in theory it should work the same way... not required but a cool idea perhaps.

Thoughts, other ideas, and random objections?

2781

Gaming Discussion / Trading Defense For Stat Bonuses...

« on: March 18, 2008, 08:36:27 PM »

I've been an advocate of trading defense for stat boosts and evade as evidenced by these threads:
http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=354.0
http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=429.0

There are some obvious reasoning for that.

The values for each significant stat (attack power, defense, and magic defense) are important (though the magic defense stat is almost insignificant, followed by the defense stat to an extent), but multiplies have a greater influence since their impact determines the most to damage output.

Vitality in relation to every other stat is actually weak.. whereas all the other stats have some influence against the multipliers. Someone such as Yang would greatly benefit from a Headband+Karate/Kenpogi combo since that directly influences his attack multiplier stat. For someone such as Cid, sometimes it is a difficult decision, given that the multiplier barely moves for him since his Agility growth looks bad (but actually it is comparable to Yangs, except that Yang gets Agility boosting claws). If one were to expose this behavior in FF4A late game, it isn't as bad.. but early game, you may prefer to simply take less damage. It's an interesting decision to say the least, and one worth exploring if you have nothing better to do.

Late game, particularly if you plan to stat max past level 70), the emphasis on stats is reduced (pretty much all the final characters in FF4 can max the Agility stat, except for Rosa). Evade and Magic Evade (via the stat multipliers) becomes much more significant in reducing damage. These cause monsters such as the Behemoth or Red Dragon to simply miss you more often than not... and make the EvilMask look silly when Holy or Flare fail to hit you. It has a greater significance vs magic simply because magic defense is not that high, but if you were to evade some of the enemy's spell multiplier, you can easily lose 340-1200 points of damage vs Flare/Holy/Meteo attacks.. something that a slight magic defense bump doesn't magically fix.

Anyways, here's some other interesting examples of equipment choice:
Light (Paladin) Helmet vs Triangle (Gaea) Hat for Cecil..

Light Helmet stats:
7 defense, 0 evade, 2 magic defense, 1 magic evade, +3 Will, undead resistance

Triangle Hat stats:
3 defense, 7 evade, 5 magic defense, 5 magic evade, +3 Will, +3 Wis

It almost seems that a 4 defense difference is a lot... which is partially true. For the majority of time it is relavent, it's not a significant concern. The rest of the Paladin's initial equipment already covers undead resistance, and the Triangle Hat boosts a number of other things.. which allows Cecil during the "weakened" Dark Elf have a greater chance to completely avoiding his magic (he has a 1x spell multiplier in this state IIRC).

Here's another look at another equipment comparison...
Mithril (Silver) Helmet vs Priest (Wizard) Hat

Mithril Helmet:
8 defense, 0 evade, 2 magic defense, 2 magic evade, spirit resistance

Priest Hat:
5 defense, 8 evade, 7 magic defense, 7 magic evade, +5 Will, undead resistance

3 defense doesn't seem like that much, and that's true. However, the Priest Hat benefits Cecil is even greater this time around. Spirit resistance at the point of the game you can buy the equipment is practically irrelevent.. plus most likely Cecil has moved on from most of his Paladin equipment so the undead resistance will prove useful when it matters (not as significant, but there are a number of places where you have undead). Cecil at least becomes a semi-competant healing at this point.. so it's not that much of a hinderance.

Well.. here's a more compelling argument+comparison...

Diamond Armor vs Light (Sorceror) Robe

Diamond Armor:
19 defense, 0 evade, 4 magic defense, 2 magic evade, lightning resistance

Light Robe:
12 defense, 10 evade, 9 magic defense, 9 magic evade, +5 Wisdom, +5 Will, lightning resistance, undead resistance

7 defense is "probably" significant again, but the Light Robe has far more application.. since at this point of the game, those extra stat boosts would have boosted Cecil's magic defense multiplier a notch, plus given him some extra defense vs undead (then again, if you have the Priest Hat, it won't matter as much). These choices always become tougher, but the reality is what you prefer. The stat boosts are generally better at this point of the game, but you may have some difficulty measuring the difference.. so here's a very interesting argument...

When Kain leaves for the final time and comes back.. he comes with the Genji (Samurai) armor set. That set is realtively inferior IMO, for many reasons. The best armor equipment set IMO is the following:
Aegis Shield
Green Beret (Bandanna)
Diamond Armor
Power Wrist/Armlet (Strength Ring) / Giant (Zeus) Gloves is preferable...

Here's the benefits over the entire Genji Set
1) Resistance vs Mages
2) Resistance vs Petrify - useful vs Kary/Selene Guardian/Moon Goddess
3) Resistance vs Lightning
4) Lots of power boosts, useful for killing normal enemies and bosses
5) Massive evade boost

The Genji Set has only the defense and magic defense benefits.. but that's it. There's nothing amazing except that defense vs Behemoths is nice, but then again why would this matter if you don't use Blink to your advantage?

In sum, the tradeoffs listed here are worthy of note, and something to think about when playing the game (and hacks).

2782

General Discussion / Re: Paladin...

« on: March 18, 2008, 07:07:23 PM »

I'm slightly disappointed that you can't buy Charm (and to a lesser extent, Samurai/Yoichi's Arrows) in the hack.

The biggest plus is selling the Glass Helmet.. making Edge take far less damage in the Giant.

2783

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 - Top Annoying Monsters

« on: March 18, 2008, 06:41:46 PM »

2. King Ryu - Thanks to these guys Edge ALWAYS dies first with Blitz. 

A Diamond Ring is your best friend here. When I think about it, the pair of Protect Rings you get.. one of them should go to Edge (the other goes to Rydia regardless if you equip the Minerva Robe). Rosa is supposed to not get the other one since she has equipment that increases her magic defense.

2784

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Spell ASM Finds

« on: March 18, 2008, 06:36:35 PM »

3. The ASM for reflected spells does a check on whether party slots are viable (i.e. not empty, or have a character with swoon/stone/jump/hide/magnetized status). If I'm reading the code right, this means that magnetized characters can't have spells reflected onto them. Can anyone confirm this? I tried doing a test but I didn't have enough time to find out if it worked.

Magnetized characters can have spells hurt them when reflected. Sorry.

Nice finds. Is there anything in Life's subroutine that checks for Asura's life spell? Still wondering why that one can hit dead characters when multi targeted and the normal ones can't.

Probably, but it's supposed to avoid the standard multitargeting check for targeting dead/live characters in regards to status afflications (Life is reversing Death status)

2785

Gaming Discussion / FF4 - Top Annoying Monsters

« on: March 18, 2008, 02:24:52 PM »

I felt bored, but I have some ideas for actual articles soon (regarding stat boosts and another on ideas to weapon rebalancing...)

Here's my list of most annoying monsters, in order of greatest annoyance, given location and current party you first encounter this monster...

1) Mechanical Dragon - strongest monster in the Giant that doesn't hesitate to rape you outright, especially when you have at most one character at this point that can have fire protection
2) Chimera (Manticore being a related monster, but not the same of course) - basic elemental absorb and a nasty Ice attack when left alone is annoying as hell
3) Green Dragon - high HP and status resistances make it difficult to kill easily, plus you only have one character that has a Thunder resistance piece of equipment...
4) Bomb/Greybomb - way too much attack power this early in the game, plus no Bomb magic drops
5) Zemus's Mind - multitargeted Charm = good chance of Rydia annihilating your party with Meteo
6) Tinymage - paralysis vs physical attacks and Psych vs magical attacks is not my idea of fun
7) Blue Dragon - this target has elemental absorbs up the ass, to the point where the Dragon's Whisker is stronger than the Wyvern (Dragoon) Lance

2786

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

« on: March 18, 2008, 08:13:28 AM »

Included info about the Immunity bit for the SNES version of the game.

2787

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

« on: March 17, 2008, 10:57:37 PM »

Info updated with hit rate status probability, which is based on level.

2788

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

« on: March 17, 2008, 10:52:59 PM »

Updated thread to factor in Shields for Edge and criticial hit rate. I am pondering rewriting the attack multiplier section to show which is applied first... as the critical hit factor seems to be applied first.

2789

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Regen/Spirit Wave Command

« on: March 17, 2008, 10:51:41 PM »

Yay signed numbers.

Only causes more confusion at times...

2790

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Regen/Spirit Wave Command

« on: March 17, 2008, 10:15:14 PM »

Linking old thread: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=118.0
Different related thread: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=425.0

I'm trying to avoid discussing the ATB too much, but I'm working on updating some of the info.