Topic: Enemy Special/Magic Attacks

[Deathlike2]

There's a few attacks that I'm not too keen on.. personally I think it may be worth diving/looking into.

Bluster: Probability of Paralysis or Death to occur

How does the game check resistance with that attack? Resistance to Paralysis or Death or both to negate?
This is one of the few attacks that is actually random in result...

Status resistance in this game generally says that if you resist one of those attributes, you resist them all....

Mind you that Bluster in FF4A is screwed up since the visual occurs regardless of failure...

Slap: Probability of Paralysis or Silence or Curse to occur

Same questions for Bluster applies here...

Counter/Needle: What defense is applied here? Defense or Magic Damage? It's a strange hybrid of an attack. As far as I can tell, it seems to use the base of the enemy's normal attack (which is known), and tries to apply it against your magic defense/evade.. which would make sense since a counter script could easily be a regular/normal attack. Confirmation would be appreciated for this.

I can't think of anything else off the top off my head though.

[Deathlike2]

This needs a little bumping.. since I'm doing some analysis on enemy magic attacks.

Spell #97: Glance/Gaze
From testing, it seems to randomly afflict 3 statuses: Charm, Sleep, Paralysis
My current guess is that the distribution is 50% Charm, 25% Sleep, 25% Paralysis.
The monster that uses this is the Red Eye/Bloody Eye.

Spell #98: Blaster/Bluster
It is known that it afflicts Paralysis or Death randomly.
My current guess is that the distribution is 75% Death, 25% Paralysis.
Those Panther/Caitsith type monsters (BlackCat/Coeurl and Coeurl Regina) use this attack.

Spell #99: Slap
It is known that it afflicts Silence, Paralysis, or Curse randomly.
My current guess is that the distribution is 40% Silence, 40% Curse, 20% Paralysis.
The Lilith and one of the FF4 dev monsters use this attack.

Feel free to confirm any info I put out as I will edit this thread in time.

[Phoenix]

BSiron's guide says Slap "randomly charm, curse, mute,or cause darkness in a single target". Is this wrong?

[Deathlike2]

Well, that's what I'm asking you to look into the routine. 

I've yet to see Blind status inflicted in it (tested in FF4, not FF2 though, but I doubt the routine has changed).

[Phoenix]

I had looked into the subroutine before, but it was a little confusing, so I skipped it. You piqued my curiousity, though, so I checked the three spells you mentioned and took the time to figure them out.

You're right on the statuses for all three spells. The distribution is even, however. They all calculate a random number, and use that to determine the status infliction. That means that Gaze has a 1/3 chance of Charm/Sleep/Paralysis each, Bluster has a 1/2 chance of Paralysis/Death each, and Slap has a 1/3 chance of Silence/Paralysis/Curse each.

In reference to your question about resistances, since the status to inflict is chosen randomly first, the only resistance applicable is resistance to the status chosen.

[Deathlike2]

I had looked into the subroutine before, but it was a little confusing, so I skipped it. You piqued my curiousity, though, so I checked the three spells you mentioned and took the time to figure them out.

You're right on the statuses for all three spells. The distribution is even, however. They all calculate a random number, and use that to determine the status infliction. That means that Gaze has a 1/3 chance of Charm/Sleep/Paralysis each, Bluster has a 1/2 chance of Paralysis/Death each, and Slap has a 1/3 chance of Silence/Paralysis/Curse each.

So it's actually a fair calculated 1/3? Hmm... While you're at it, find the Twin command spell+Wisdom selection won't ya?  if you do that!

In reference to your question about resistances, since the status to inflict is chosen randomly first, the only resistance applicable is resistance to the status chosen.

I did actually figure that out eventually (since I had to test it for the spell doc). The different generally revolves around how it is applied (well, Blaster) for FF4A.. I hate how FF4A does the visual even if it doesn't succeed on afflicting a status.

[Phoenix]

The Twin command is one of the more complex ones, so there's a lot I don't understand about it. I do know in general how it works, though. When Twin is chosen, it checks to make sure both twins can cast, then sets their status to "twin casting" and sets their next battle command to a command for casting a twin spell. When their next turn comes up, the spell is chosen and the spell subroutine is called.

I couldn't find any references to the wisdom values in the Twin subroutine. However, it references the RAM locations for the caster, which means that one of the twins is chosen as the caster. My pretty confident guess is that it's whichever ATB gauge fills up first, since that twin would be executing the next battle command for casting a twin spell. They would be the caster, and therefore their wisdom would be used.

[Deathlike2]

The Twin command is one of the more complex ones, so there's a lot I don't understand about it. I do know in general how it works, though. When Twin is chosen, it checks to make sure both twins can cast, then sets their status to "twin casting" and sets their next battle command to a command for casting a twin spell. When their next turn comes up, the spell is chosen and the spell subroutine is called.

I couldn't find any references to the wisdom values in the Twin subroutine. However, it references the RAM locations for the caster, which means that one of the twins is chosen as the caster. My pretty confident guess is that it's whichever ATB gauge fills up first, since that twin would be executing the next battle command for casting a twin spell. They would be the caster, and therefore their wisdom would be used.

Please look more in depth, it would be helpful anyways. Now only if I could find someone to look into FF4A's Twin version...

The worst part of what you said is it being ATB/Agility based, because if that is the case, Porom goes first more often than not unless you give Palom Haste.
This is sounding terrible by the minute.

I also wanted to know the spell randomness as well (the probability of spell selection, which is "supposedly" 75%/25% for Flare/Comet).

[Phoenix]

I looked more in depth, but there's nothing there about a wisdom value. I'm pretty sure about my earlier assertion.

I did find that if the character ids of the casters are FuSoYa and Golbez, it chooses W.Meteo as the spell. As for the percentage chance, it generates a random number between 0x00 and 0xFF, and if the value is below 0x40, the spell is Comet; otherwise the spell is Flare.

However, if the value is 0xFF, then the command fails. So it appears that there's a 25% of Comet, a 74.6% chance of Flare, and a 0.4% chance of failure.

[Deathlike2]

That is stupidly insane. Do you know what/which message comes up on failure? My guess is the message when one of them is prevented from casting the spell.

  for you.

Now if you could solve the Steal rate mystery and behavior and my level check theory on certain spells (Odin, Weak, Sleep, and Holy).. then 

[Phoenix]

Message 0x11: "Failed."

[Deathlike2]

 

Why do we need a 1/256 chance of failure? Who's dumb idea is this?

Anyways, when you have the time, please look into the Steal/Sneak info and my crazy magic-level theory.

What enemy uses Spell #115 (Disrupt in FF2US)? I honestly cannot recall what enemy uses this.

[Phoenix]

Zeromus uses this Disrupt before you use the Crystal on him. It does a full dispel (Black Hole type) on all targets. The name doesn't show up, which is why you probably don't remember it. This information is in the Tower of Bab-il document on Spell Data. You should take a look at it; it has some good information.

[Deathlike2]

I tried to recall stuff off the top of my head, but that fails when it is  time.

[Deathlike2]

Hmm.. spell #143 seems to be for Zeromus.. but I have no idea what it does...