øAslickproductions.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=5f0fck550j2m4m2fpbtkj2vkm1&action=profile;area=showposts;u=173e:/My Web Sites/Slick Productions - FFIV Message Board/slickproductions.org/forum/index664e-2.htmlslickproductions.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=5f0fck550j2m4m2fpbtkj2vkm1&action=profile;u=173e:/My Web Sites/Slick Productions - FFIV Message Board/slickproductions.org/forum/index664e-2.html.zxüsh^ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÈ °VyÅOKtext/htmlISO-8859-1gzip8:ÖyÅÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿWed, 11 Mar 2020 05:32:04 GMT0ó°° ®0®P®€§²ð®ûsh^ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ|6yÅ Show Posts - Djibriel

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Messages - Djibriel

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1
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Info request
« on: April 04, 2015, 11:05:36 AM »
Since y'all stepped up your game, I was wondering if you had the answer to two of my FFV questions from way back:

What are the odds of 'chest' encounters? Most chests with guardians have two possible monster formations guarding the item, and I can't recall anyone stating what the odds were. They seem 75% / 25%. Flying Ronka cannons seem to use the same technique. Definitive tables on monster formations tied to chests/event encounters would be highly appreciated since it's one of the remaining bits of information in my walkthrough that's from playtesting only.

Also, these encounters seem very static. When loading an emulator save, it's often stuck on one of two encounters, and I never did figure out what governs it. What RNG table governs the encounter choice, and how is this RNG table influenced?




2
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: FF5 Bugs & Glitches
« on: April 04, 2015, 10:59:57 AM »
Zombies are immune to Darkness, Poison, Float, Mini and Toad, but characters with those status ailments are not immune to Zombie. Having Zombie remove those statuses would have been an understandable design choice, but they didn't make it.

I seem to remember that eyes turn fully white when turned into a Zombie, so a Frog under the effects of Zombie is distinguishable from a 'normal' Frog. It's kind of hard to see in the video since there's no normal frog pose to compare it to.

3
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: FF5 Bugs & Glitches
« on: April 02, 2015, 01:49:35 PM »
Seems like Zombie is set. Zombie Breath sets Zombie if it kills. Butz has 0 HP and moves to attack his own party/himself. I see nothing wrong here (except for the Undead).

If there is a bug here, it's the oversight that a full party, or at least all considered alive, can be Hidden in a boss fight simultaneously. Also, the 00 Doom counter on the Zombie should be removed. Or maybe it triggers as soon as you cure Zombie?


4
Gaming Discussion / Re: Dispel removing Slow and Stop in FF5 and FF6
« on: March 27, 2015, 04:42:34 AM »
 :bump:

Quote from: assassin on December 11, 2012, 02:46:53 PM
(yes, i'm sure there are a few situations where they can help you, but that's getting a bit contrived).

Not at all! It's the best way to stop the Condemned status.

I feel the issue is more the Remedy spell than the Dispel spell.

Remedy item: Lifts Dark, Poison, Imp, Petrify, Mute, Seizure  (Note that Imp is cured with the item but not the spell. )

Remedy spell: Lifts Dark, Poison, Petrify, Mute, Muddled, Seizure, Sleep, Slow, Stop (Cures Muddled, Sleep, Slow, Stop, unlike the item.)

Dispel spell: Lifts Clear, Image, Berserk, Regen, Slow, Haste, Stop, Shell, Safe, Reflect, Life 3, Float

It feels like the Remedy item cures all physical ailments and Dispel the magical ones. It's de-spell, it removes spell-induced effects. FF6 just ran with !Special attacks, making lowly scorpions set Stop and all. Anyway, there is no overlap, and the only statuses they don't cure between them are Muddle and Sleep, both cured by the physical strike instead (also Zombie and KO). The Remedy spell just does whatever. Why doesn't it cure Imp? Why does it cure Slow and Stop? Why cure Muddle, but not Berserk? I'd just make it simulate the Remedy item, possibly curing Muddled and Sleep as well.

Also, what's the point of using Dispel outside of battle? In that situation, it can only remove Clear and Float.

I'd propose a fix, but how do you remedy Remedy? An impossible, self-defeating concept.

5
Gaming Discussion / Re: Possible new project - AI script discussion
« on: June 26, 2011, 06:50:08 AM »
Master Pug:

Master Pug will use WallChange every 15 global battle timer intervals, then use an attack linked to its weakness. However, after fighting Master Pug a few times to verify behavior, I've noticed that there is somewhat of a delay. From the (possible) document:

There is a footnote though: there is somewhat of a delayed reaction. After the
WallChange, Master Pug's elemental reaction appears to immediately kick in.
However, Master Pug is somewhat slow to adapt on the offense; for a small moment,
it will still work with the elemental properties from before the WallChange.
In Master Pug's turn comes up during this small period, it'll display 'wrong'
behavior and will either inflict a physical strike (after the very first
WallChange) or perform an attack linked to the previously owned weakness.

Also, Master Pug will take a stop towards the party every WallChange, and execute the following AI script (copy/paste from Lord J:)

 (WallChange and step)
1 added to VAR003
If variable VAR003 is greater than or equal to 7
Set VAR003 to 0
Targetting: random ally
Lore: !Cleaver

This would indicate that after 7 WallChange attacks, he'll use !Cleaver and retreat again. In practive, however, I've consistently counted 8 WallChange attacks. After messing a bit, I've noticed that the FC 0D command that Lord J translates with 'greater than or equal to' functions like 'greater than'. In this instance anyway. Both bover and myself have taken this information for gospel, but this is clearly not the case.

 :edit: During the FlameEater battle, the FC 0D command does appear to work as an "equal to". More testing is obviously required.

Areneid:

Areneid will check Terra's level; if it's sitting at 7 or higher, it will include !Numb in its AI script. They will also exclusively focus on Terra, though. Lord J's wording doesn't imply that they should, nor do I think that they should. My theory is that they'll mistakingly remember Terra as a target. Also note that Lord J includes the fact that if Terra isn't present any random character's level can be checked; without Terra though, they'll never use !Numb.

M-TekArmor:

There's a script in the M-TekArmor bit that counters any Magic spell that strikes an M-TekArmor to cause the M-M-M-Magic cutscene (but only one time). However, starting the first battle with M-TekArmors, this scene will play in any battle (Leaver, Bleary, Hornet, what have you) and it's triggered by any casting of Magic, be it offensive or curative (though the cutscene leans towards Terra performing some destructive act). So this is just a bit of useless AI script...?

6
Gaming Discussion / Possible new project - AI script discussion
« on: June 26, 2011, 06:44:11 AM »
Figured I'd make a new topic

For those of you that are late to the party, I've been pondering the potential value of a new AI script document. Readability for the Amish and in-practice departures from what the AI script would have you believe would be the selling points over bover's (fine) document.

http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/final_fantasy_iii_ai_1_0.txt

Assassin asked:
Quote
Djibriel said: I would like to avoid words like 'variable', 'set', 'clear' and 'increment' as much as possible.

why?  they're direct, and not really that esoteric.  it's not like it's "bytes" or "caches" or "floating point units" or "gigawatts".

some questions:
- what does "(loop)" mean, particularly when it's before an "(end if)"?  such ordering makes me think that the IF block will never terminate.
- it seems you use "PLUS" to indicate an additional command in a block being executed, but later in FlameEater's script, you seem to use "AND" in its place.

The mentioning of 'variable' is, I think, suboptimal since when you start reading an AI script, you don't know what the variable governs. You don't know when it's incremented, set or cleared, you only know (if you're reading top to bottom) which behavior it toggles. Especially where there are multiple variables, it gets confusing. Giving the variables names will immediately inform a reader what the purpose of that variable is. If the name is clear enough, anyway.

I've only seen set/clear in the context of technical discussions about SNES games' behavior, so I didn't think they'd be general knowledge. In addition, 'set' and 'clear' only have a meaning in relation to what sets and clears the variable, so "If Var036 is clear, do..." has no inherent meaning. "If 'Bomblet is set to go' is active, do..." however, does.

(loop) should be taken as (end turn, loop to start of AI script). Looking back, I think it's best to precede every turn with an "-" and conditions and additional actions lacking any symbol.

There were some mix-ups with PLUS and AND, but the distinction I think would be good to make is that AND means an additional condition, and that PLUS means an additional actions. As you can see, this was a rough first draft; should it really become a project, I'll need to think a lot about the clearest wording. Ideally, it would no explanation beyond the AI script itself.


7
General Discussion / Re: A pillar doth crumble
« on: June 26, 2011, 05:40:45 AM »
 :edit: New topic created

8
General Discussion / Re: A pillar doth crumble
« on: June 26, 2011, 04:01:46 AM »
Seeing the lack of interest about the project is by itself answer enough, though I wanted to bump this topic one last time, just in case it slipped by you all unnoticed.

9
General Discussion / Re: A pillar doth crumble
« on: June 22, 2011, 04:25:48 AM »
I see! I was stuck on the nomenclature of 'AI script', so I must've missed it all these years.

What do you guys think about the quality of bover?s document? Last night I was thinking about maybe doing an AI script document of my own. Now I know the information is already accessible, but I'm still excited about the project... I don't think the current document looks as nice as it could be looking, and I'm also not sure that the wording of Lord J's AI 'translation' is optimal. I mean, for the editor it's good, but in a docume nt, you can be more specific about what it means, and thus clearer. Here?s bover?s text file:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/554041-final-fantasy-iii/faqs/51984

Also, I could be doing a sort of commentary on AI scripts that, due to a bug or something else, requires some footnotes. Repo Man's !Wrench from the grave attacks the party, not itself. Certain situation-specific counters become omni-counters. The PSX version checks for the wrong statuses when determining AI script (I think Magic Urn tries to cast Life/Life 2 on Reflective targets rather than Dead targets in the PSX game). Certain bits of the AI script are never called at all (FlameEater's counter to Demi spells, for instance). Stuff like that.

I think I'd like to make this document, but only if there's something significant to bring to the table that's not already there.

 :edit: This is what I was thinking about. I would like to avoid words like 'variable', 'set', 'clear' and 'increment' as much as possible. Though the best approach is probably debatable (and I'd love some input on what's clearest), the goal I'd set for myself is to make the document readable by even the most dim-witted reader. My write-up of FlameEater serves as a good example, since it's quite a complex battle as it features the summoning of different monsters at set tracked intervals. I hope what I have now is clear enough; clearer at least, then a FF3usME text dump. I'd love some input!

http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/final_fantasy_iii_ai_1_0.txt

10
General Discussion / A pillar doth crumble
« on: June 20, 2011, 05:40:20 AM »
Do my eyes deceive me, or did Terii miss a payment on his website? www.rpglegion.com

As far as I know, it was the only source of FFIII monster's AI script on the web (not to mention a Doom Gaze locat0r :p) so that kind of blows.

11
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: FF5 Bugs & Glitches
« on: March 16, 2011, 05:40:35 AM »
I pictured a somewhat closed wiki that only the active posters in this thread could access; if one of us goofed, the others could simply overrule him or her.

In other news, Judgment Staff/Staff of Light also deals double damage with !Jump and gets no damage penalty from !Rapid Fire :p

I fooled around with weapon-related oddities yesterday. I was most surprisd that the Twin Lance dealt double damage with !Jump it's a lance, it makes sense, but it's otherwise such a unique weapon I hadn't expected it to work LIKE a Lance with !Jump. It useless since !Jump removes it's double damage feature so you don't win any damage with !Jump, but still fun.

The Blood Sword is such a strange weapon. It's a magic spell through the !Fight command; it's power isn't reduced by !Rapid Fire, nor is it increased by Sword Dance or !Focus. I half-expected the Blood Sword to share the Staves affinity for double-damage sources (since they are both magical damage routines), but 'tis not the case.

12
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: FF5 Bugs & Glitches
« on: March 14, 2011, 02:51:28 PM »
- I guess it's important to note that the Pantera battle works fine in the SFamicom game

- I agree the Wonder Wand is an oft-overlooked feature, but since it's there it should work.

- When one or more character(s) Hide(s) and the remaining party is a Zombie, the entire battlefield is unable to fight. It's not like !Jump where the character comes down regardless, a character can remain !Hidden for as long as he or she wants. In FFVI, there are no free run-aways; when one character is gone (via Sneeze/Snort or the like) and the rest is a Zombie, it's Game Over. So I still say bug.

Whenever someone here says; I've seen this bug, let's roll, I take that as a confirmed. We're not in this business to lie. We're in this business for the ladiez. I mean the truth. If a video is found that'd be nice, but I'd still try to reproduce it myself.

About the overworld in-and-out menu trick to keep away the random encounters: I wouldn't call it a bug, but it's certainly sloppy RNG coding that the player can exploit. It's not like FFVI's Slot command, where the player needs in-depth knowledge available only through direct code viewing to work the system; any fool can observe that Quicksaving leads to a fixed random monster encounter appearance.

A similair thing is how monsters will never appear when you've just entered a room in a dungeon. I don't know how FFV works out when a battle is triggered, but it seems to be (partly) based on how many steps you've taken in a certain room. You could tackle 500 small rooms in a row and never get a random encounter just because you're entering and exiting all the time.

Another form of sloppy coding that's not really a bug but still has major effects on the battlefield is that FFV loves to start at static ATB values. When you set Berserk or Confuse in-battle, the ATB is reset to that character's start value. This is also why you can fight such as fights as Archeoaevis and the Pages in the Library and never have them use any move; every time they call a new monster, that monster starts with a fresh ATB bar that has the entire way to go. Since you're already half-way with most characters, you'll always outspeed them and can destroy that form before it takes a move. The next creature befalls the same fate. Stuff like that isn't a bug, I think, when looking at the definition of the world, but it's certainly poorly executed.

I'm a big fan of dropping the semantic nonsense about 'bug' and 'glitch' and just talk about intended behavior and unintended behavior. The Quicksave "feature" has no faulty coding and isn't a bug, but since it allows the player to seek out certain very rare monster formations every other fight, I'd say it's unintended behavior and thus worthy of being listed.

As for the document itself, I feel a good example of how it (hopefully) can turn out is like Master ZED's Bugs 'nd Glitches guide for FFVI. It became a fairly big document, and the weigth of it eventually discouraged ZED from updating the thing when that faithful One-Hundred-Something Bugs topic was posted on mnrogar's forum back in the day.
With that document I mind, I think it's best that we set up some sort of WIP document that Jorgur initiated in the first post of the forum (good idea!). Seeing the size of ZED's document however, I think it's suboptimal to embed it in the first post of this topic. I'd personally rather see a quick free wiki we all have access to, or a Google document or something. Since I've never done anything like that, any input or experience on the subject is welcome.

Here's ZED's example:
http://masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com/GameDocs/ff3bug.txt

Jorgur asks about the scope of the document, let me post my thoughts:
Bugs and stuff is fun for a tremendous amount of players. Some can be used for gain (Vampire bug, item duplication, stuff like that), others are better avoided (game freezing bugs, for instance) and most others deal with tremendously niche scenarios that are just fun to read about. While the majority of the posters on this forum are code monkeys, not everybody is. I think that showing were the code makes a mistake and listing possible patches or CodeBreaker fixes will alienate a large catagory of casual readers. Again, I think ZED's got a good vibe going on when he describes the cause in such a way my friends would understand the problem and its cause.

13
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: FF5 Bugs & Glitches
« on: March 14, 2011, 07:05:42 AM »
- (Much) more info on all of ebmid's listed bugs can be found in his walkthrough I linked.

- Dunno about Panthera in the EU release. I have no info on the Euro version whatsoever, that may be a fun game to pick up when the 1.1 battle strategy guide is done and the bugs 'nd glitches project is a little more advanced.

- Since Odin normally won't appear unless all available targets are affected, the programmers were free to implement a full-screen effect to display the slicing and dicing. With the Magic Lamp however, you can summon Odin versus a screen full of Heavy targets (he won't appear) and a mix of Heavy and non-Heavy targets. An example is Neo Exdeath, whose bottom-left target is a lightweight. Odin comes to kill that target only, but because the animation calls for a full-screen effect, it will seem that all targets are killed even though they return a second later. The mistake here is one of combination. They should either have left Odin out of the Magic Lamp, have him perform Gungnir only or they should've coded a sprite-by-sprite animation for Zantetsuken.

- Bah, I still say the Rune Chime needs its own formula, but lumping together of stuff can hardly be called a bug. It's just so widely illogical, I'm tempted to include a chapter "Batshit insane" in the Bugs 'nd Glitches document just to list those things we can't in good conscious call a bug, but want to anyway :p

- I see your point about the Cursed Shld and the Wonder Wand, but there is an important difference. In a normal game, you can obtain one Cursed Shld maximum. But since the Wonder Wand can be stolen from Exdeath and equipped mid-battle, you can obtain two (in the SFamicom and PSX games) or 99 (in the GBA games). Either limit the Wonder Wand to a single weapon, or somehow keep track of the maximum of 8 Wonder Wands in use.

- I seem to remember someone saying FFIII's terrain magic often was non-elemental despite elemental appearance, so through consistency, you could argue it's not a bug. I have no patience for NES games (except Battletoads) so I can't comment.

- Added the !Control + run behavior in the list, unconfirmed as of yet

- A very popular feature is the fact that !Hide + Zombie = win. When one character Hides and the rest is a Zombie, the fight will just go on. This can be used to your advantage via Wall Rings and weapons that randomly cast spells to win all battles. When one characters Hides and the other three are petrified or knocked out, the game will have you escape. I strongly feel that this should have been the case with Zombies as well, since Zombies count as 'dead' just like KO and Stone, and it's a filthy way of winning battles. Thoughts?

-  I'm also including the fact that the quasi-physicals used by Ramuh, Sandworm, Exdeath, etc. do not remove Sleep/Confuse/Singing is a bug. My theory is that they wanted to create a physical attack that did not allow counters, and the rest was just unintended. !Sing is strategically superior versus Exdeath already since he can be so easily walled before he gets into the nasty stuff and the stat boosts carry over to the Neo Exdeath fight. Now, Exdeath is even incapable of smacking a Singing character back to reality like a measly Nut Eater does.

14
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: Wanted: Bounty Hunters
« on: March 13, 2011, 02:01:31 PM »
And you all thought I was crazy!

An off-hand remark on GameFAQs by a guy called HugeBlackDude sent me hunting. He told the board that Ramuh's physicals don't provoke counter-attacks from Monks and those with the support ability set. Seeing this myth debunked only yesterday, I was quick to dismiss the info, until I ran into Ramuh for unrelated reasons. And lo and behold, never did Ramuh provoke counters. At least twenty battles, and no counters whatsoever on a party of four Monks. Then I set Berserk on the guy, and his second physical provoked. How odd...

Long story short, Ramuh doesn't use normal physicals. He uses a pseudo-physical attack that works like a physical attack, but is different in at least four ways; it doesn't provoke Counter-attacks, it doesn't dispel the Singing status, it doesn't remove Sleep and it doesn't remove Confuse. In the AI script, the normal physical is indicated by value #80, the pseudo-physical is indicated by value #DE. Since the Berserk status forces the affected target to use the normal attack, it will make those attacks counterable again.

So I was right, sorta... It also proves that those dingbats at Square knew the possible conflicts with Counter and final bit setting, just look at the list of creatures that always use the pseudo-physical:Ramuh, Catoblepas, Sekhmet, Sandworm, Exdeath. Haven't checked yet for the GBA monsters, will do at a later date.



15
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: InstructrTrepe's docs and patches
« on: March 13, 2011, 10:10:28 AM »
M = (Level*Strength)/256 + (Level*Agility)/256 + 2

This feels like the most elegant fix.

Bells (only two of them, the Diamond Bell and Tinklebell) that follow a similair formula M = (Level*Magic)/128 + (Level*Agility)/128 + 2 are gimped by the fact they have crappy Battle Power and then only use 50% and 100% of that Battle Power, so Bells still come out as weak back-up weapons for a Job that's basically a vehicle for a single action ability.

Throw expands resources, and thus it's quite okay to deal the damage that it does. It does not deal unreasonable amounts of damage IMO; Shuriken, for instance, still don't deal as much damage as a Two-Handed Death Sickle Berserker while beating the MP-driven 1000 Needles. That seems about fair.

The Chicken Knife is the most difficult nut to crack. As it stands, the player is punished for his or her courageous no-run playthrough by what's generally considered the weaker of two weapons. The Brave Blade is compatible with Two-Handed and Goblin Punch, but doesn't deal the raw amount of damage the Chicken Knife produces. All other Knives in the game are basically back-up weapons. While most Jobs can equip them, they're usually inferior to other weapons unless they serve a specific secondary purpose (Thief Knife, Air Knife, Main Gauche come to mind). While a single exception is perfectly viable, the sheer force of the Chicken Knife is exactly that: an exception to the rule. It would seem more fitting to have the Brave Blade the superior weapon as a reward, so I feel the Chicken Knife should fall under the same M formula all other Knives do.

But that's sketchy, since Chicken Knife already has a perfectly decent formula... it just produces questionable output when the other Knives/Whips/Bows formulae are considered.
 

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