Messages

2986

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Counter Battle Scripts Failing...

« on: March 07, 2008, 11:13:54 PM »

I could be wrong here (I don't think I am though), but if you have a script that reacts to a particular elemental, and it happens
that the enemy is also weak vs that elemental, that script doesn't always execute. It's peculiar behavior and may need some
further examination.

Case and Point: Consider the Odin battle. Apparently casting lighting is supposed to cause immediate death to Odin, but it doesn't
quite work... and the success rate of triggering the script as far as I can tell at the moment is pitiful. The doll monsters summoned
by the Marions (FF2US name) react to all basic elemental spells (Fire, Ice, and Lightning). Apparently when their weakness is exposed
(which happens to be Fire), they seem to fail to counterattack with Fire.

It is interesting behavior that is worth pointing out.

Note: This isn't true if the battle was scripted.

2987

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Attack of the SwordRats

« on: March 07, 2008, 08:18:03 PM »

Actually, I made a slight error on summon behavior.

According to the game data, group 2 is primarily used for the summoned monster. Whatever is slotted there appears to start with 0 monsters even though
internally 1 monster is declared for that slot.

So, whatever you summon automatically goes to that slot, and it only works properly if nothing is there to begin with. A monster also has to be declared for that slot for it to work.

You know what you could do that might be easier is to leave slot 2 with one monster at all time (it won't show up initially) as I described and have a "universal monster summon" as part of the command or spell list. This requires far less romhacking and sounds very doable. You would have to do with/for every enemy formation and limit some of your options, but that's very doable.

Edit: The enemy formation must have some bit defining that that this group has enemy summons (and perhaps is group definable).

2988

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Attack of the SwordRats

« on: March 07, 2008, 07:44:17 PM »

I honestly can't tell how you fix the invinciblity.. but in theory as part of the summoning, you would have to set the last group's formation (for those that have one active showing group like solo Alerts+Searchers, you probably want to set group 2 to be safe) to the monster in question with 1 spot. You will have to set its positioning coordinates as well.  You may want to do checks to see if that spot is currently filled (with at one monster) to cause the spell to fail. Once you do that, the summon should work as intended w/o the invinciblity.

The only issue with this is that you will most likely override the enemy's monster summon (assuming they are in group 3), but that might be accounted for though if you modify the battle engine... which is far more complicated.

I wouldn't know the complexity of the issue, but you would need to do some real romhacking to make it happen.

2989

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Attack of the SwordRats

« on: March 07, 2008, 07:11:17 PM »

Well, if you were able to do make the unused slot to something more usable (and the summoned monster not be invincible) , it would be the next best thing to have a summon you could harvest EXP and particularly items from (think of the possibilities).

2990

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Attack of the SwordRats

« on: March 07, 2008, 06:52:34 PM »

I've tried killing the monsters off then calling them again, and while it seems to work for up to the number of monsters there originally was, it's still buggy (missing graphics, miscounted enemies, etc.). Only ones called beyond the original number are invincible. I think the "Alert" or "Call" enemy attacks only work in the specific battles that they're used in. Or at least, there's only certain situations when that spell/attack works correctly.

AFAIK, there is a particular behavior that normal enemy summons require. They have a special designated slot (usually Group 3) to be summoned to, even though there is 0 of that monsters slotted in that group. Consider any Searcher grouping and that explains half the deal. Since you do not have an actual group, the creation of the monster becomes unpredictable, slotting them to something that's not defined. Also, you shouldn't be able to summon more monsters than there is slotted, given how the attack scripts for all summoning monsters have them set up. A more complex setup (not sure if it is doable in the game's battle scripting) is to check the number of monsters in "summon group" and continue to summon the monster until it is "full".

Anyways, I'm not entirely surprised at the results.

It sounds more like you are doing the "enemy version" of summoning, which is specific to the enemies involved + monster slottage + number + formuation.. that's what you seem to be tapping in your modification.

Do you know what I mean?

2991

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Attack of the SwordRats

« on: March 07, 2008, 06:04:17 PM »

 

Have you tried directly modifying an existing Call spell instead? It would be a safe place to start...

2992

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Some Useful Info

« on: March 06, 2008, 09:11:31 PM »

Have you tested the unused behavior? It's always worth documenting its complete behavior.

2993

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Some Useful Info

« on: March 06, 2008, 08:56:58 PM »

I can't give you a great answer here, but I would think there is something in common with them.

I'm sure you know how levels past70 behave?

If you take a look at the data in my first post's link, there's just one repeating HP/MP set.. and 8 sets of random possible level up possibilities.

It should match something within the ROM.

Don't be afraid to share location of the level up data.. that's what this place is for.

I'm not sure how the level data is stored, but it would be something among the lines of stats to increase or fixed stats to change to (most likely the former is being employed here).

2994

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: The Boss "Bit"

« on: March 06, 2008, 07:39:55 PM »

It doesn't block against any actual status magic-wise. Physical-wise, any status inflicting attack automatically fails.

The magic versions fail only because of the spell's "boss bit".

2995

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / The Boss "Bit"

« on: March 06, 2008, 07:30:35 PM »

This bit is primarily to prevent certain spells from working.. although it is unclear what stats are actually blocked
and what stats are ignored.

I'll take a look into this further.

2996

General Discussion / Re: Snow...in...Texas?!

« on: March 06, 2008, 05:35:07 PM »

You knew the sky was falling! 

2997

Gaming Discussion / Re: A Request for Entroper

« on: March 06, 2008, 05:28:36 PM »

Is the Double Meteor value a typo? It says 20 for the power... and that doesn't sound right.

2998

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / HP Leak Behavior

« on: March 06, 2008, 07:46:56 AM »

A target with HP leak status will lose 60 HP at maximum unless the battle is immediately over.

A lesser known fact is that Holy/White deals HP leak status, but you normally don't see this occuring.
This is because it is linked to the Holy elemental and if and only if the target is weak vs the elemental
(in this instance, Holy), then the target becomes inflicted with HP leak status.

Note that the HP Leak timer is reset on another attack that includes HP status.

2999

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: What the hell is this bit?

« on: March 06, 2008, 06:18:56 AM »

Ok, this bit seems to denote whether or not it is an attack spell.

When disabled, magic damage is factored against the spell multiplier.

When enabled, magic damage is not factored against the spell multiplier... so it seems to be status inducing/changing specific.

My guess is that it is supposed to work with another bit to denote it is a strictly not a damage inducing spell.
Consider what Poison/Venom and the Cockatrice summon do. Somehow it is tied with another byte.

This byte is useless on the Mist/Bomb summon, given that they use a special damage algo based on the HP.

The other spells are technically unaffected with this byte enabled... it specifically affects damage inducing spells.

3000

Gaming Discussion / Re: A Request for Entroper

« on: March 06, 2008, 05:02:18 AM »

Another request... update the findings against the European version. I wonder if Poison/Venom spell changes... (AFAIK, the poison bug was fixed).

It would be nice to know Yang's HP growth beyond level 60 anyways...