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Library of the Ancients => Final Fantasy IV Research & Development => Topic started by: Deathlike2 on March 08, 2008, 12:41:42 AM
Title: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Deathlike2 on March 08, 2008, 12:41:42 AM
Right now, I'm at the metallic cave and I almost forgot to do some testing before I killed the Dark Elf. Here's some fun facts.
1) Yes, you can use your metallic weapon... but for one measily pathetic attack. Then, you immediately become disabled and useless for the rest of the battle. Whoever wrote that you can use metallic weapons in battle was only half correct.... those douchebags.
2) You cannot use items or item-spells after you swap for a metallic weapon/shield. The item will be used up instead (so be weary of this).
3) Cecil will still auto-cover while under "metallic paralysis". This is the stupidest and strangest thing I've seen happen, but it is what it is.
4) Cecil is still able to cast magic for that turn after swapping for a metallic weapon/shield in battle.
5) It is impossible to get all 4 characters into metallic paralysis during a battle if they were not paralyized at the start of battle. Yang has no metallic claws, so he's the lone savior.
6) Speed up the game by equipping your metallic equipment prior to talking to the Dark Elf. This may be important for those of you doing speed runs of the game.
Edit: I haven't tested this on FF4A, but most of these points should apply.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on March 09, 2008, 04:43:56 AM
I may be wrong on this, no scratch that, there's a 90% chance I'm wrong on this, but I think having a piece of metallic equipment on every character before the battle starts gets you an instant game over regardless if you have the TwinHarp or not. For some reason I remember this happening to me in the past, back when I was first playing the game. There's a good chance, however, that I just didn't have the TwinHarp and forgot.
I'm not sure what triggers the metallic paralysis in that cave but I always thought it would be cool to have another dungeon with that effect. I should look at the map headers and see if there's anything about it in there. I'm betting it's triggered by that event at the start of the cave or it's there from the start and removed by the TwinHarp event.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Deathlike2 on March 09, 2008, 04:49:23 AM
I may be wrong on this, no scratch that, there's a 90% chance I'm wrong on this, but I think having a piece of metallic equipment on every character before the battle starts gets you an instant game over regardless if you have the TwinHarp or not. For some reason I remember this happening to me in the past, back when I was first playing the game. There's a good chance, however, that I just didn't have the TwinHarp and forgot.
The TwinHarp is a trigger for which Dark Elf you encounter. Note the script "YOU FOOLS!" in FF2US.
The insta-lose game is definately occuring for regular battles.. it just so happens that the Dark Elf's battle (when you have the TwinHarp) is scripted to make you lose anyways and continue the story.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Phoenix on March 09, 2008, 06:23:39 AM
I've thought the same thing about creating another metallic area, or changing it to something else (Silence would be cool for a non-magic area). I checked the event script when you enter the Magnus Cave, and there's nothing in there that would create that effect.
However, if you return to the Cave later the magnetized effect is gone. So I checked the Dark Elf battle event script, and it sets one event flag and clears one event flag at the end (there are 256 event flags, oo-FF). The one cleared is E1, which is the only event flag that is set at the beginning of the game. (Event Flags Initially Set are from 97440-9745F, with 1 bit per event flag.) I've been wondering what that one event was, but I think we've found the answer. I tested it, and that event flag determines whether the battles on maps in the Magnus Cave have the magnetic effect.
So, there's some code located somewhere (or perhaps in the location properties data) that says battles are magnetic if E1 is set, and not is E1 is cleared. It's the same thing as the world maps changes -- there's ASM code that says if a certain event flag is set, the map looks one way (like the destroyed Castle of Damcyan) and if it's cleared it looks another way (i.e. the non-destroyed Castle of Damcyan).
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Deathlike2 on March 09, 2008, 06:27:04 AM
I've thought the same thing about creating another metallic area, or changing it to something else (Silence would be cool for a non-magic area). I checked the event script when you enter the Magnus Cave, and there's nothing in there that would create that effect.
However, if you return to the Cave later the magnetized effect is gone. So I checked the Dark Elf battle event script, and it sets one event flag and clears one event flag at the end (there are 256 event flags, oo-FF). The one cleared is E1, which is the only event flag that is set at the beginning of the game. (Event Flags Initially Set are from 97440-9745F, with 1 bit per event flag.) I've been wondering what that one event was, but I think we've found the answer. I tested it, and that event flag determines whether the battles on maps in the Magnus Cave have the magnetic effect.
So, there's some code located somewhere (or perhaps in the location properties data) that says battles are magnetic if E1 is set, and not is E1 is cleared. It's the same thing as the world maps changes -- there's ASM code that says if a certain event flag is set, the map looks one way (like the destroyed Castle of Damcyan) and if it's cleared it looks another way (i.e. the non-destroyed Castle of Damcyan).
Now that sounds like an awesome find.. I'd actually like to revisit the Tower of Zot or the Tower of Babil... and maybe the Giant.
However, if I have to equip RubyRings again for another section of the game. I'll have your head! :banonsmash:
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on March 09, 2008, 06:37:40 AM
Now that sounds like an awesome find.. I'd actually like to revisit the Tower of Zot or the Tower of Babil... and maybe the Giant.
Yeah, that would be really cool. The Tower of Zot is supposed to be floating so you could have it crash somewhere near Troia, that would be a huge map change and you'd probably need new graphics to pull it off realistically, but still, it would be cool. Same thing with the giant, instead of having it explode just have it tip over (This is what FF4 DS does) and have it permanently lay on the ground near the tower. A lot of work but if you were dedicated I don't see any reason why it couldn't be done within the limits of the original game.
However, if I have to equip RubyRings again for another section of the game. I'll have your head! :banonsmash:
Not an issue in my hack, the majority of relics are non-metallic.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Deathlike2 on March 09, 2008, 06:42:59 AM
What's sad about the RubyRings is that the time you deequip them is the time the friggen boss uses a Piggy spell on you. :lame:
The only cool equipment that isn't metallic is Zeus's Gloves.. but that's a friggen rare drop from the Ogres. :bah:
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Phoenix on March 09, 2008, 07:02:23 AM
I'm not sure what you mean by revisiting the Tower of Zot. Do you mean just accessing it again? If so, that's a really easy hack, you can just add a trigger on the World Map (or any location map) that is an event that loads the entrance map you want. I guess if you want the graphics on the world map like you said, then you would need to do an ASM hack. It shouldn't be too hard, though, since we know the location of where the routine that changes overworld maps, and that it uses event flags.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Phoenix on March 09, 2008, 05:48:00 PM
I felt sure I had found the bit that determines whether battles are magnetic, within the location property data. These are 13 bytes each, and the most significant bit of the last byte is only active in the Magnus Cave, the Agart well, and Adamant Grotto (and the very last dummy map). But I changed it, and nothing happened. :bah:
So, the question is, what do these locations have in common? It's the only thing I can think of. The Agart well could be a mistake, since its map number comes right before the Magnus Cave. Adamant Grotto would be a neat place to have a magnetic battle, I think, and perhaps that's what they intended. Except, that bit doesn't appear to be for magnetic battles.
Here's the data, in case anyone is interested (for the Magnus Cave entrance through Adamant Grotto). It starts at AA5A1 (FF2us ROM with header):
00: Map Index 01: Tileset Index 02: Map NPC Layout Index 03: Background Graphic bits 0-6: Background Graphic Index bit 7: ? 04: Map Palette Index 05: NPC Palette Index 06: Music Index 07: Map Layout Index (scrolling tiles?) 08: Background Movement bit 0: Scroll independent of character movement bits 1-3: ? bits 4-5: Direction 00: Up 01: Right 10: Down 11: Left bit 6-7: Speed 00: None 01: Slow 10: Medium 11: Fast 09: ? 80: part of ending / other auto-events? 0A: Map Name Index 0B: Treasure Contents Index 0C: ? bits 0-6: ? bit 7: Battles have Magnetic Effect?
Edit: I tested all of the location properties, and I'm sure the metallic property is not contained within them. That means it's tied directly to the map index, so there's something somewhere else specifying it. Too bad.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Deathlike2 on March 09, 2008, 06:00:31 PM
I'm not sure what you mean by revisiting the Tower of Zot. Do you mean just accessing it again? If so, that's a really easy hack, you can just add a trigger on the World Map (or any location map) that is an event that loads the entrance map you want. I guess if you want the graphics on the world map like you said, then you would need to do an ASM hack. It shouldn't be too hard, though, since we know the location of where the routine that changes overworld maps, and that it uses event flags.
Yes, that's what I meant.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Phoenix on July 07, 2009, 06:45:42 AM
I finally figured out what the deal was with the location properties. It turns out the information provided by Yousei was one byte off -- the location properties start at A8E84, not A9E85. So the bytes I was changing to look at metallic battles weren't for the maps I was testing. I reformatted my data for the Cave Magnes maps like so:
00: Battle Properties bits 0-3: Battle Background bits 4-6: ? bit 7: Battles have Magnetic Effect if event flag E1 is set 01: Map Index 02: Tileset Index 03: NPC Placement Index 04: Border Tile Index bits 0-6: Border Tile Index bit 7: ? 05: Map Palette Index 06: NPC Palette Index bits 0-3: NPC Palette Indices 1 & 2 0000: Palettes 01 & 02 0001: Palettes 03 & 04 etc. bits 4-7: NPC Palette Indices 3 & 4 same as above 07: Music Index 08: Background Index 09: Background Movement bit 0: Background is transparent when walking under (such as lakes) bit 1: Vertical Background Relative Movement bit 2: Horizontal Background Relative Movement bit 3: ? bits 4-5: Direction 00: Up 01: Right 10: Down 11: Left bit 6-7: Speed (Absolute Movement / Relative Movement) 00: None / None 01: Slow / Moves slowly in character's direction 10: Medium / Moves in character's direction 11: Fast / Moves opposite to character's direction 0A: 80 = Load people/objects from Underground/Moon index 0B: Map Name Index 0C: Treasure Contents Index Mystery solved.
Title: Re: Metallic Oddities
Post by: Pinkpuff on January 17, 2013, 09:12:16 AM
the location properties start at A8E84, not A9E85.
Sorry to necro this thread but I just felt the overwhelming need to fix this typo for the record as I just spent a couple of hours trying to track down what the heck was wrong with my reading of map properties and it boiled down to this:
The location properties start at A9E84, not A8E84.