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Pandora's Box / Ho, there 2016
« on: January 08, 2016, 11:21:38 PM »
To anyone still reading here: Happy new year!
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Pandora's Box / Re: Suggestions
« on: April 24, 2015, 02:17:52 AM »Peace Ring should protect vs. Seizures, too, as it seems to have the whole "Calm" vibe.
I'm pretty sure in FF6 seizure refers to being physically seized, not epileptic seizure.
Nope. Caused by Thornlet and drains HP in the normal game. Now, if they just rename the status to "Bleeding" or even "Sap" (as banal as that would be), the suggestion is also handled.Oh, I've got just the name: Twerking
Speaking of: I could totally see Cyan getting addicted to wearing a Peace Ring.
(Personally, I'd find it amusing if the Peace ring also causes Sleep, prevents Undead Status and also blocks Life effects. Sadly, that would be largely a waste of an item... unless some enemies existed to make that useful. Wrexsoul seems an interesting place to play around with that.) But I digress...
Anyhow, you could scope out:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sap_(Status)
FF6 Status Effects
...
An idea I had recently which would only fit an ambitious FF6 hack, which PB certainly is, though perhaps not PB:
Recreate Atma Weapon to better fit the description it's given. (It grows with the wielder and turns the wielder's spirit into a weapon and such like comments)
One approach I rather like is to have wielding an Atma/Atamos/Ultima weapon shunt any received experience point gains to a "character" representing the weapon. That "character" would have terrible attributes and development, but apply these attributes as bonuses to its wielder. (or bonuses calculated from these attributes)
Esper bonuses of the character granting the experience apply to the sword. One really odd option would be to apply the bonuses to the sword and the wielder whenever the sword levels up.
Anyhow, I was thinking that the damage should strike a target's MP and HP, and only deal with the target's magical evasion and defenses. Figure the MP would be a straight "spell" using pure magical damage calculations, while the physical uses a weird calculation where the magical attributes and physical both apply, thus generating a larger number.
(I'm updating OSes, right now, so I figured I'd toss this here in case things go sideways.)
Oh, also: Applying the target character's Stamina along with the spell power and caster's magical power in Cure-sequence spells makes a lot of sense. The high-stamina characters would be easier to heal and the low would be harder. For balance reasons, dropping the power a lot (yeah, even to the point of being a penalty for Cure) would be in order. It would also make sense to include Stamina in a few things like Poison and Seizure damage calculations. I'm not sure what changes were done with it, but these make a lot of sense.
In that vein: Hit % and Evasion % should be affected by Speed. I expect you already added something like that.
3
Final Fantasy V Research & Development / Re: An idea for Job expansion (Meta-Jobs)
« on: October 15, 2014, 05:33:45 PM »
Don't know how tricky certain things are in the FF5 engine, but some thoughts occurred:
(Yeah, I'm late to the party. I normally just read the Pandora Box thread.)
Let "Cast" be a command that loads all spells you have active access to.
If no access active, grey it out or even blank it.
If we can assume it can never be manually inserted, we would only need to grey it out when muted or prevented from magic.
This !Cast command could simply be loaded into the character's command menu at the position of the first spell access passive that is equipped.
i.e. Instead of "!White" you equip "White" in the job menu.
When the battle command menu is loaded, that "White" tells the parser to load "Cast" into the menu and look up its pointer, and it keeps going. Any further casting types are left blank as any other passive would be. This is true for whichever valid casting type is first encountered.
RAM for a flag--(when found: test fReplaced; if not true, swap out and set fReplaced=True; else skip to the next one)
ROM for a jmp to switch modes--(One loop always swaps out any passive casting slot it hits but then immediately switches to loop 2 which always treats them as passive. Completion of either leads to the same code block.)
Neither--It swaps out all valid casting types, but that would look ugly.
(Other options exist, too)
The character's equipped Job skills would need to be unchanged and accessible by the Cast routine for this to work. This might be a RAM issue, but, even assuming you can't simply use the actual character data, to use the Reset data, you just make sure it runs the above replacement after it loads it. Then you make sure the command gets its equipped spell access data from that stash, and handles the command menu as normal.
Oh, since this would allow for more spell lists to be combined, theoretically, than the game engine presently permits, there is also a chance that there simply wouldn't be enough RAM for the entire concatenated spell list. Someone with more knowledge can answer that chestnut.
edit: Let me clarify something: When I say "Command" I refer to the command that is run when the command is selected in the Battle menu AND the string that labels the option. The Command string tables reduce by switching to a single Cast/Magic command. The command routines also can reduce, opening up pointers for fun & profit.
If you don't also add a "!Cast" selectable Job trait, that string list won't need to change. (Using "Red" for Sage is tolerable) These lists are distinct, as I understand it. The selected trait is indexed on a separate list from the pointer to the command routine and these can differ from the list selected in the Job menu. They may all normally map, though I doubt it, but the distinction and context shift lets us play the game I describe.
Why would you want to, other than to prove you could?
With those changes, Sage is simple a matter of defining a class that has access for multiple magic types, however that is encoded. That, of course, still requires finding the space to store the class and the codes to access, and so on... I'd need more details than I have to be any help, there, though.
(I'd suggest the Sage class set !Fight, !Dualcast, !Cast, and probably !Item. (leaving one slot open)
Some ideas for Sagey Job level bonuses:
Arcane Needle : Reduces target's Def./M.Def./Ignore Reflect
Riddle: Target has a chance to become confused; Sage gains Image
Unravel: Target loses some stage of resistance; all beneficial spells have a chance to dispel; chance to remove status immunity
Sagesight Peep/Scan, but removes Image (and maybe Clear) from target. Maybe also grants a bonus to hit rates in general )
The ability to make magic a list to opt-in in blocks makes several magic related concepts easier to manipulate as a group. Want to turn off magic in a tower, say? Simply make sure !Cast is disabled (the script would merely need to set fReplaced= true or start loop 2 for all characters, or it could ban the command itself.)
If you want flags that can prevent casting of all or specific magic, well, that's the only place you'd need to test for them. (well, Battle and in the Menu, but the routine could be common. Need to be careful with that discrepancy.)
A character could be banned from White magic due to some dark pact or whatever. This could be a status bit on the character, if general, that is tested here, or it could be a test for the character directly, if specific.
The code for each of the command forms could be consolidated into a few loops and a single command. (routines shared with x-magic?)
The equipable Job skill list would actually not need to grow, though it probably ought to, while the battle command list would actually shrink.
(If it doesn't grow, however, Sage would need to include one of the spell access slots from another caster type. Red would look the least strange, methinks.)
(Yeah, I'm late to the party. I normally just read the Pandora Box thread.)
Let "Cast" be a command that loads all spells you have active access to.
If no access active, grey it out or even blank it.
If we can assume it can never be manually inserted, we would only need to grey it out when muted or prevented from magic.
This !Cast command could simply be loaded into the character's command menu at the position of the first spell access passive that is equipped.
i.e. Instead of "!White" you equip "White" in the job menu.
When the battle command menu is loaded, that "White" tells the parser to load "Cast" into the menu and look up its pointer, and it keeps going. Any further casting types are left blank as any other passive would be. This is true for whichever valid casting type is first encountered.
RAM for a flag--(when found: test fReplaced; if not true, swap out and set fReplaced=True; else skip to the next one)
ROM for a jmp to switch modes--(One loop always swaps out any passive casting slot it hits but then immediately switches to loop 2 which always treats them as passive. Completion of either leads to the same code block.)
Neither--It swaps out all valid casting types, but that would look ugly.
(Other options exist, too)
The character's equipped Job skills would need to be unchanged and accessible by the Cast routine for this to work. This might be a RAM issue, but, even assuming you can't simply use the actual character data, to use the Reset data, you just make sure it runs the above replacement after it loads it. Then you make sure the command gets its equipped spell access data from that stash, and handles the command menu as normal.
Oh, since this would allow for more spell lists to be combined, theoretically, than the game engine presently permits, there is also a chance that there simply wouldn't be enough RAM for the entire concatenated spell list. Someone with more knowledge can answer that chestnut.
edit: Let me clarify something: When I say "Command" I refer to the command that is run when the command is selected in the Battle menu AND the string that labels the option. The Command string tables reduce by switching to a single Cast/Magic command. The command routines also can reduce, opening up pointers for fun & profit.
If you don't also add a "!Cast" selectable Job trait, that string list won't need to change. (Using "Red" for Sage is tolerable) These lists are distinct, as I understand it. The selected trait is indexed on a separate list from the pointer to the command routine and these can differ from the list selected in the Job menu. They may all normally map, though I doubt it, but the distinction and context shift lets us play the game I describe.
Why would you want to, other than to prove you could?
With those changes, Sage is simple a matter of defining a class that has access for multiple magic types, however that is encoded. That, of course, still requires finding the space to store the class and the codes to access, and so on... I'd need more details than I have to be any help, there, though.
(I'd suggest the Sage class set !Fight, !Dualcast, !Cast, and probably !Item. (leaving one slot open)
Some ideas for Sagey Job level bonuses:
Arcane Needle : Reduces target's Def./M.Def./Ignore Reflect
Riddle: Target has a chance to become confused; Sage gains Image
Unravel: Target loses some stage of resistance; all beneficial spells have a chance to dispel; chance to remove status immunity
Sagesight Peep/Scan, but removes Image (and maybe Clear) from target. Maybe also grants a bonus to hit rates in general )
The ability to make magic a list to opt-in in blocks makes several magic related concepts easier to manipulate as a group. Want to turn off magic in a tower, say? Simply make sure !Cast is disabled (the script would merely need to set fReplaced= true or start loop 2 for all characters, or it could ban the command itself.)
If you want flags that can prevent casting of all or specific magic, well, that's the only place you'd need to test for them. (well, Battle and in the Menu, but the routine could be common. Need to be careful with that discrepancy.)
A character could be banned from White magic due to some dark pact or whatever. This could be a status bit on the character, if general, that is tested here, or it could be a test for the character directly, if specific.
The code for each of the command forms could be consolidated into a few loops and a single command. (routines shared with x-magic?)
The equipable Job skill list would actually not need to grow, though it probably ought to, while the battle command list would actually shrink.
(If it doesn't grow, however, Sage would need to include one of the spell access slots from another caster type. Red would look the least strange, methinks.)
4
Pandora's Box / Thoughts and bugbears
« on: October 07, 2014, 10:04:46 PM »
My $.02 on the autosplit spells:
I'd go with Fire 1 being a single target spell that can't be spread and Fire 2 as the spread-only tier. With Fire 3, give the option.
(Reasons in brevis: 1=Too small to reach many, 2=Too big to control, and 3=both finesse and power in exchange for plenty of MP. For Fire, the culmination of the logic is Merton for sheer power and Flare for ultimate magical focus and control.)
Some general notions:
Thereis was at least one bit of advice in the Narshe School that sounds like the choice of spreading effects is the default, but that was fixed twixt 3.0 and 3.1.
If flawless victory is considered a significant part of strategy, it warrants some deeper consideration. (As a neat little Easter egg or proof-of-concept, it's fine.) Sure, it's harder to code, but basing the flag on whether or not any party member got hit, not on damage taken or on the execution of something targeting them, would be an improvement. (Actually, though, getting hit by something that heals you really doesn't sound like a flaw in execution of strategy, so, yeah, actually basing it on damage or negative status change sounds likely optimal.) Dodging attacks to get a flawless victory really just feels better...(ed. Some experimenting later,& I see that is essentially how it works. It's just Runic & effects like Cure that spoof it. What's feasibility of making specific commands or effects flip the twiddle bit? Cure seems like it should be a part of this well-balanced "Flawless Victory," as does Drawing every single magical attack. It's hard to argue that letting yourself get struck by an attack that has no possibility of harming you is a flaw. Immunity to damage is easier to defend than absorbed ones, though.)
Some fiddling with Noiseblaster could be interesting. A chance for enemies to run away if affected is cool. Increased chance to flee, possibly even being stunned, if hit before their first action could be neat.A reducing effect for each use in a single conflict seems fair. (Getting used to all the racket) The thing dealing some sonic damage from the hideous noise also works for me. One advantage of giving it a small damage is that could wake up sleepyheads.
Kirk is funny, but the quest is tedious.
Peace Ring should protect vs. Seizures, too, as it seems to have the whole "Calm" vibe.
BTW, so far Seizure is at least as common as Poison. Was playing that up that much intentional?
Hermes' Sandals were named Telaria.
Other notes:
I get significant graphic breakup when fighting certain formations. (As noted below, this is far reduced in 3.1 vs. 3.0. Still present for many formations, especially if there are multiple in a horizontal row.)
Seizures are hard to distinguish from stop until the damage pops up. The colors are not clearly distinct.
Opera house borked. I used a purported pb 3 patch. Dunno. One of the rages uses a comma and a single line still so maybe it isn't the latest that it claimed. (I DLed latest patch I could find (3.1) and, yep, different version. Yep, works fine in 3.1.)
Blizzard cast onto an enemy that then gains allies remains single targeted. I only noticed this fighting Dadaluma. (3.0) It doesn't always happen, so bug.
Auction House works better than in the original. Still not a huge fan, but it's actually an auction, now. I do miss the airship model a little.
Most extreme Steals so far:
Safest: Living Dead and TrialRider (Is that the spelling actually intended, btw?)
Most frustrating: Spectre (Box on train)
(also one of the most important)
Most tedious was also TrialRider. (For whatever reason, after stealing two things, which took quite several apiece, it stopped succeeding for 35-45 attempts. It did eventually work, so patience is key. So is not injuring that stupid thing.)
Guardian is certainly nasty. Those double taps mean it's literally impossible to beat him at the point I am at the game. This, it manages without being arbitrarily dubbed invincible: a dramatic improvement. Bravi.
PB3.1 Errors/bugs spotted (as I go.)
Bugbears:
I cannot find any way in which Bandanna is superior to Headband and several in which it's worse, yet it's preferred by optimize.
Less graphical squirreliness so far. That's nice. Still present. BioBlaster on Phantom Train, for example, would always have a few lines flake out. Certain potion animations mixed with multi-column formations often knock chunks apart. (Almost exclusive to the new formations.)
Shadow's TwoSwd status is flaky. So far, the only times I've seen the bug are when I'm trying out different weapons for a given hand. When it happens, it'll blur/refuse like it's supposed to if you try to equip impossible EQ and then anything that refreshes the display will turn all the weapons grey. Backing out to the root of the equipment menu usually resets it. (Once, it just refreshed the display to what it should be if he had no dual wielding capacity.) Backing out to the main menu and coming back has never failed to reset this.
Phantom Train: Engine Room - The event where you can read the note about the switches can be accessed on the bottom and second-to-bottom row of the screen, but doing so triggers a freeze.
A poisoned Ghost loses HP per step even though they absorb the element. I'm going to suggest this probably means neither appropriate immunities nor vulnerabilities are observed by step events, beyond step-event specific things like Float. Hunch says that it's not even elemental damage that Poison status triggers.
Delirious Soldier: "I wanna see Loooola..." Dude gives you a "Cat's Bell" which is actually a "Ring of Fire". Kinda seems like a joke I'm missing. Fridge Logic Smash: The letters from Lola are the only thing keeping him going, yet if you complete the quest, they stop... The party killed the guy!!
Preemptive attack on a single abolisher: Locke Steal, Sabin Aurabolt, Edgar Noiseblaster, Celes Runic; Abolisher used Beak on itself and then Aurabolt killed it. Single round victory with all laughs but not Flawless. No one was ever even targeted, so I can only imagine that Beak or Runic were at fault. Either way, a bug is around here somewhere.
Improper Vectors: When you get to the vector palace(?) entry, (farthest north screen pre-banquet; site of 1st possible encounter with Guardian) you are turned back by a guard shooting out from the left. This works fine, but if you immediately try again, he'll shoot out from the middle and end up walking through walls. After this, you get Guardian. Apparently they get mad because you sucker a guard into falling to his death.
Temporal Vectors Akimbo: Reentry to the Devil Labs is possible after the mine cart escape. (btw: like the improved Cid.) Not only does this trap you inside, which is forgivable, it gives you a message from Celes should you try to leave via the front door, which is clearly a bug.
Thamasa's Deception: Thamasa's Elder's house is purported to be a cave on the Veldt. That tricksie elder, misleading everybody.
I'm forgetting the oopsie on entering the Esper world, but there was another erroneous string label, IIRC.
Weirdness: (i.e. Don't know if this was meant to be or not, but I suspect not.)
Cyan stumbles out to face Grunts and an officer... was it intentional that the Grunt be a significantly more dangerous foe? (It is.)
"TrialRider" sounds like it might be a typo on "Trail Rider", though possibly not.
Intangir is vulnerable to imp (which seems reasonable) but can cast Holy, which seems off. Also, and this is clearly intentional, but REGEN!? Yoy.
Thamasa's Weapon, Armor, and Item shops say the line about foreigners and then let you shop at what I'm guessing are elevated prices, but the Relic shop does not. As no dialog differs, can't tell if this is intended.
Knight Armor is a fine helm, by stats and icon, but the name, description, and actual equipment slot is body armor. This makes it sort weirdly, suck noodle, and make no sense... but it isn't bugged, per se, so it's here rather than there.
Grammar/Spelling/Typography:
<lf>=linefeed
<ldq> and <rdq> = left and right double quotes
S.Figaro Escape: "Locke<lf><ldq>Can't be caught now, we've come to far.<rdq>" should be "Locke<lf><ldq>Can't be caught now; we've come too far.<rdq>" (comma splice and "to" instead of "too") (sidenote: Since "too far" is a more common phrase than "to far" you might consider a search and check of the phrase.)
Rage: SaladHoppr description = "Attack, Enrage" where the rest would be "Attack<lf>Enrage"
I'd go with Fire 1 being a single target spell that can't be spread and Fire 2 as the spread-only tier. With Fire 3, give the option.
(Reasons in brevis: 1=Too small to reach many, 2=Too big to control, and 3=both finesse and power in exchange for plenty of MP. For Fire, the culmination of the logic is Merton for sheer power and Flare for ultimate magical focus and control.)
Some general notions:
There
If flawless victory is considered a significant part of strategy, it warrants some deeper consideration. (As a neat little Easter egg or proof-of-concept, it's fine.) Sure, it's harder to code, but basing the flag on whether or not any party member got hit, not on damage taken or on the execution of something targeting them, would be an improvement. (Actually, though, getting hit by something that heals you really doesn't sound like a flaw in execution of strategy, so, yeah, actually basing it on damage or negative status change sounds likely optimal.) Dodging attacks to get a flawless victory really just feels better...(ed. Some experimenting later,& I see that is essentially how it works. It's just Runic & effects like Cure that spoof it. What's feasibility of making specific commands or effects flip the twiddle bit? Cure seems like it should be a part of this well-balanced "Flawless Victory," as does Drawing every single magical attack. It's hard to argue that letting yourself get struck by an attack that has no possibility of harming you is a flaw. Immunity to damage is easier to defend than absorbed ones, though.)
Some fiddling with Noiseblaster could be interesting. A chance for enemies to run away if affected is cool. Increased chance to flee, possibly even being stunned, if hit before their first action could be neat.A reducing effect for each use in a single conflict seems fair. (Getting used to all the racket) The thing dealing some sonic damage from the hideous noise also works for me. One advantage of giving it a small damage is that could wake up sleepyheads.
Kirk is funny, but the quest is tedious.
Peace Ring should protect vs. Seizures, too, as it seems to have the whole "Calm" vibe.
BTW, so far Seizure is at least as common as Poison. Was playing that up that much intentional?
Hermes' Sandals were named Telaria.
Other notes:
I get significant graphic breakup when fighting certain formations. (As noted below, this is far reduced in 3.1 vs. 3.0. Still present for many formations, especially if there are multiple in a horizontal row.)
Seizures are hard to distinguish from stop until the damage pops up. The colors are not clearly distinct.
Opera house borked. I used a purported pb 3 patch. Dunno. One of the rages uses a comma and a single line still so maybe it isn't the latest that it claimed. (I DLed latest patch I could find (3.1) and, yep, different version. Yep, works fine in 3.1.)
Blizzard cast onto an enemy that then gains allies remains single targeted. I only noticed this fighting Dadaluma. (3.0) It doesn't always happen, so bug.
Auction House works better than in the original. Still not a huge fan, but it's actually an auction, now. I do miss the airship model a little.
Most extreme Steals so far:
Safest: Living Dead and TrialRider (Is that the spelling actually intended, btw?)
Most frustrating: Spectre (Box on train)
(also one of the most important)
Most tedious was also TrialRider. (For whatever reason, after stealing two things, which took quite several apiece, it stopped succeeding for 35-45 attempts. It did eventually work, so patience is key. So is not injuring that stupid thing.)
Guardian is certainly nasty. Those double taps mean it's literally impossible to beat him at the point I am at the game. This, it manages without being arbitrarily dubbed invincible: a dramatic improvement. Bravi.
PB3.1 Errors/bugs spotted (as I go.)
Bugbears:
I cannot find any way in which Bandanna is superior to Headband and several in which it's worse, yet it's preferred by optimize.
Less graphical squirreliness so far. That's nice. Still present. BioBlaster on Phantom Train, for example, would always have a few lines flake out. Certain potion animations mixed with multi-column formations often knock chunks apart. (Almost exclusive to the new formations.)
Shadow's TwoSwd status is flaky. So far, the only times I've seen the bug are when I'm trying out different weapons for a given hand. When it happens, it'll blur/refuse like it's supposed to if you try to equip impossible EQ and then anything that refreshes the display will turn all the weapons grey. Backing out to the root of the equipment menu usually resets it. (Once, it just refreshed the display to what it should be if he had no dual wielding capacity.) Backing out to the main menu and coming back has never failed to reset this.
Phantom Train: Engine Room - The event where you can read the note about the switches can be accessed on the bottom and second-to-bottom row of the screen, but doing so triggers a freeze.
A poisoned Ghost loses HP per step even though they absorb the element. I'm going to suggest this probably means neither appropriate immunities nor vulnerabilities are observed by step events, beyond step-event specific things like Float. Hunch says that it's not even elemental damage that Poison status triggers.
Delirious Soldier: "I wanna see Loooola..." Dude gives you a "Cat's Bell" which is actually a "Ring of Fire". Kinda seems like a joke I'm missing. Fridge Logic Smash: The letters from Lola are the only thing keeping him going, yet if you complete the quest, they stop... The party killed the guy!!
Preemptive attack on a single abolisher: Locke Steal, Sabin Aurabolt, Edgar Noiseblaster, Celes Runic; Abolisher used Beak on itself and then Aurabolt killed it. Single round victory with all laughs but not Flawless. No one was ever even targeted, so I can only imagine that Beak or Runic were at fault. Either way, a bug is around here somewhere.
Improper Vectors: When you get to the vector palace(?) entry, (farthest north screen pre-banquet; site of 1st possible encounter with Guardian) you are turned back by a guard shooting out from the left. This works fine, but if you immediately try again, he'll shoot out from the middle and end up walking through walls. After this, you get Guardian. Apparently they get mad because you sucker a guard into falling to his death.
Temporal Vectors Akimbo: Reentry to the Devil Labs is possible after the mine cart escape. (btw: like the improved Cid.) Not only does this trap you inside, which is forgivable, it gives you a message from Celes should you try to leave via the front door, which is clearly a bug.
Thamasa's Deception: Thamasa's Elder's house is purported to be a cave on the Veldt. That tricksie elder, misleading everybody.
I'm forgetting the oopsie on entering the Esper world, but there was another erroneous string label, IIRC.
Weirdness: (i.e. Don't know if this was meant to be or not, but I suspect not.)
Cyan stumbles out to face Grunts and an officer... was it intentional that the Grunt be a significantly more dangerous foe? (It is.)
"TrialRider" sounds like it might be a typo on "Trail Rider", though possibly not.
Intangir is vulnerable to imp (which seems reasonable) but can cast Holy, which seems off. Also, and this is clearly intentional, but REGEN!? Yoy.
Thamasa's Weapon, Armor, and Item shops say the line about foreigners and then let you shop at what I'm guessing are elevated prices, but the Relic shop does not. As no dialog differs, can't tell if this is intended.
Knight Armor is a fine helm, by stats and icon, but the name, description, and actual equipment slot is body armor. This makes it sort weirdly, suck noodle, and make no sense... but it isn't bugged, per se, so it's here rather than there.
Grammar/Spelling/Typography:
<lf>=linefeed
<ldq> and <rdq> = left and right double quotes
S.Figaro Escape: "Locke<lf><ldq>Can't be caught now, we've come to far.<rdq>" should be "Locke<lf><ldq>Can't be caught now; we've come too far.<rdq>" (comma splice and "to" instead of "too") (sidenote: Since "too far" is a more common phrase than "to far" you might consider a search and check of the phrase.)
Rage: SaladHoppr description = "Attack, Enrage" where the rest would be "Attack<lf>Enrage"
5
Pandora's Box / Re: Hello 2012!
« on: November 05, 2013, 04:05:01 PM »
And now we shall soon bid adieu to 2013, too...
(hey- at least it saw mark 3)
Time, she marches on.
6
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Developing a comprehensive editor for FF4
« on: February 02, 2013, 02:26:31 PM »
Can dialog script events use arguments? I don't know enough about FF4 internals.
If so, some enterprising hacker could make things far easier for you.
In that vein, how are random encounters stored for a map?
If the map structure stores a spot for encounters unused in non-encounter maps, well, that's something we could reuse. You could make events that use the map encounter formations to set the selection. If this works, it could open up event space as well as make shop dialog options portable without changes, as the map would define what SHOP1 means. (You'd need multiple events (I'm thinking four) but you could get rid of most of the 'call specific shop' events.)
If so, some enterprising hacker could make things far easier for you.
In that vein, how are random encounters stored for a map?
If the map structure stores a spot for encounters unused in non-encounter maps, well, that's something we could reuse. You could make events that use the map encounter formations to set the selection. If this works, it could open up event space as well as make shop dialog options portable without changes, as the map would define what SHOP1 means. (You'd need multiple events (I'm thinking four) but you could get rid of most of the 'call specific shop' events.)
7
Pandora's Box / Re: Hello 2012!
« on: April 26, 2012, 07:56:07 PM »I take a good share of blame for the lack of activity. RL has been tough for most of 2011, but I'm trying to get back into it.
Heh, so when you do get back to RL, hit me up.
8
Pandora's Box / Re: Suggestions
« on: April 26, 2012, 07:49:34 PM »Here's a complicated suggestion, but I think it would be most appropriate given what has been provided before.
If any of you have not played Seiken Densetsu 3, well, you should go play it. One of the more interesting features of SD3 is when you have the God Beasts quest. The bosses and monsters in the areas that they are in to increase in level (with appropriate related stat changes) as soon as a god beast dies.
A similar concept could be accomplished in here... increasing the monster's levels and stats (probably using some sort of multiplier or table) when events are accomplished. These could be in the form or getting another character back or killing a boss, such as the 8 dragons, or even treasure chests like the Gem Box/Soul of Thalmasa. In that way, you can allow for going in any direction you would want to (like in CT... and a CT hack would stand to gain a lot from this concept) w/o forcing a particular/linear route and still manage something useful.
However, accomplishing this would most likely expand the monster bits (to either have certain monsters opt in/out of this system or have a degree of scaling from this method). So, it would be possible to run the Tower of Kefka with the bare minimum of 4 characters but also become scale to be harder when the whole complement of characters and other things are accomplished.
Not really sure why or where this would be appropriate, but it seems like this could be handled by a battle script on the affected monsters that bumps the desired attributes based on the chosen variable. This could be overt, and come with the a dialog or animation (say, as with barrier change) or silent, as preferred.
This would remove the need to make a bunch of formations.
If it's something desired in general, the modification script could simply be inserted with an option to turn it off based on formation or event.
I don't like the idea of enemies leveling to match the party, but this could even allow that.
If the Ragnarok Morph transformation data isn't already claimed for something else, that data could be swiped to adjust what changes occur due to level. (e.g. 1=HP modifies, 2=HP modifies faster, 4=Add new HP to current, 8=MP modifies, 16=MP modifies faster, 32=Add new MP to current, 64=Att up, 128=Def up) This level-up data could be used in that script as well as in skills such as Brave or Old, should such be desired.
(Unrelated aside- have you considered consolidating the Mtek bio effect with the Tool Bio-Blaster? They conceptually share visual and in-game effects.
If there's some way that MTek status can simply bump up effective magic power, an increased effect is rather automatic.
I also like the notion of level mattering only little in MTek effects, with magical stats mattering a great deal more. Also like the idea that the MTek effects tend to penetrate magical defenses as a rule. (no reflect, ignores all or half of a target's M. Def) Upshot would be MTek being nasty in the beginning, as intended, while staying useful throughout the game.
A spell/effect that allows resistances to be added up would be welcome. Yes, I realize you're full up.)
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Pandora's Box / Re: Catching cheating?
« on: February 15, 2012, 10:38:44 PM »
Fair enough.
There are always plenty of things that can be done, of course, but the question of how much effort makes sense always remains.
If you care, I'll trickle notions in.
(Unrelated: This is a pretty technically capable formatting system for a forum. It's rather fun. Yes,
)
There are always plenty of things that can be done, of course, but the question of how much effort makes sense always remains.
If you care, I'll trickle notions in.
(Unrelated: This is a pretty technically capable formatting system for a forum. It's rather fun. Yes,
) 10
Pandora's Box / Re: Catching cheating?
« on: February 13, 2012, 07:15:34 PM »
Pfft. 
I was just curious how much effort you guys actually put in and what sorts of punishments you decided on. I got cheats working fine after a false start or two.
I did notice several in-script catches and dead-end loops you guys set up, as well as some locking down on your preferred sequence. A few were clearly intentional. (e.g. Gilgamesh.) The opera house just seemed like buggy event coding. The save blanking seemed more likely to be my doing.
I was curious if I found intentional or unintentional glitches, as well as how much of the cheat protection was familiar.
I will await a more complete version of the hack before restarting it.
I was just curious how much effort you guys actually put in and what sorts of punishments you decided on. I got cheats working fine after a false start or two.I did notice several in-script catches and dead-end loops you guys set up, as well as some locking down on your preferred sequence. A few were clearly intentional. (e.g. Gilgamesh.) The opera house just seemed like buggy event coding. The save blanking seemed more likely to be my doing.
I was curious if I found intentional or unintentional glitches, as well as how much of the cheat protection was familiar.
I will await a more complete version of the hack before restarting it.
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Pandora's Box / Catching cheating?
« on: January 15, 2012, 03:34:19 PM »I WAS just going to run through and enjoy the Pandora's Box, more or less as intended, but you went and threw down ye olde gauntlet in the Training hall...
Now I just gotsta cheat, if only to see what you can catch. It's on your own head, I say!
ed: I've gotta ask: did you actually boobytrap the save games? (I'm pretty sure that was me, but if so- hardcore.)
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