Library of the Ancients => Final Fantasy IV Research & Development => Topic started by: chillyfeez on January 23, 2013, 08:39:37 AM
Title: Monster Attacks/Spells
Post by: chillyfeez on January 23, 2013, 08:39:37 AM
I'm trying to make a Blue Mage, but I'm having trouble with the 6/8 character monster spell name issue.
on this thread: http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=1713.60 Dragonsbrethren suggested shortening the names to six letters, then making a separate 8-letter name list to show up in the top-right when the spell is cast. As it turns out, there is just about exactly enough blank space after the end of the spell name bank to do all of this, but I don't know how to change the spell routine to start reading at a different spot. I figure there must be a pointer (or set of pointers?) somewhere, but I can't find that info documented anywhere.
Alternate, acceptable solutions I have thought of (but also can't figure out how to implement) would be:
-Make the spell name that shows up when the spell is cast 6 letters instead of 8
-make the spell name not show up at all when the spell is cast (which happens for some - but not all - by default. this is my least favorite solution)
Any thoughts/ideas/info?
Title: Re: Monster Attacks/Spells
Post by: JCE3000GT on January 23, 2013, 12:05:01 PM
Didn't J2e relocate the spell (and item) names elsewhere then repointed the data?
I would love to relocate and use linger magic spell names as well...
Title: Re: Monster Attacks/Spells
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on January 23, 2013, 01:06:19 PM
The menu code is fine. Leave the six character spells where they currently are and redo all of the enemy spells you want to be six characters. For the name display in battle, you're in luck since the game actually has two different loading routines, so it's pretty painless to do this hack.
$02/CBAF BF B0 8A 0F LDA $0F8AB0,x This is the code loading the eight character names. The offset is in SNES LoROM SlowROM format (WindHex can show offsets as this, there's Lunar Address, probably other programs to convert if you're not familiar with it). All you need to do is change that to another offset where you've placed the eight character names and you're good to go.
JCE, this isn't going to be as extensive as what J2e did. If you want the text window changes and ridiculously long names, you're on your own. This'll give normal spells eight characters when cast; they'll still use six in the menu.
$02/CB9F 38 SEC $02/CBA0 E9 48 SBC #$48 This is subtracting $48 from the spell value. This is because they started the eight character names at index 0 to save ROM space. NOP it out as well. Conveniently, the previous code runs directly into this, so you're basically going to 2/CB9B and typing $EA seven times.
$02/CBAF BF B0 8A 0F LDA $0F8AB0,x Same as chilly's example, except you've got to have all of the spell names at the new offset.
:edit:
Remember that the spells start with a blank entry. Doesn't matter for chilly's hack (because everything was already set up to handle it properly), but JCE, you're starting with a blank eight character entry, not <white>Hold.
Title: Re: Monster Attacks/Spells
Post by: JCE3000GT on January 23, 2013, 02:27:19 PM
Cool, this is excellent! Thanks man. This should prove useful for my hack.
Title: Re: Monster Attacks/Spells
Post by: chillyfeez on January 23, 2013, 02:38:09 PM
Thanks! You don't even want to know the ridiculous and time-consuming workaround I was going to try if this didn't surface...
:edit:Works like a charm (but don't worry, I'm attacking my friends). Thanks! Plus I learned about LoROM SloROM offsets, which will probably also prove useful, so thanks for that, too.