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16
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Event Flag log
« on: April 04, 2014, 01:29:00 PM »
this is a log I made for my own purposes. Mostly I wanted to avoid setting flags in my hack that would have unexpected effects, like changing the landscape or adding the drill to the Falcon.
Code: [Select]
FLAG (Dec) SET FIRST (w/hex event #) CLEAR SET SECOND
---- ------------------- ------------------- -----------
00 10 Opening events
01 12 Speaking to Kain in Baron
02 51 Rosa getting captured
03 11 Cid greeting cecil
04 15 Cecil sleeping, prologue
05 21 Cecil/Yang fight
06 1B Cagnazzo battle, losing twins
07 8C Meeting Giott, Calbrena Battle, Rydia Rejoins
08 19 Odin battle
09 1A Baigan Battle
10 96 Jump from Bab-il, airship escape 95 Yang Destroys Super Cannon
11 62 Becoming Paladin, Tellah remembers
12 82 Kain regaining his senses
13 2F Mist Dragon Battle
14 30 Mist Events
15 39 Kaipo events, Y Rydia Joining
16 43 Tellah fights Edward, leaves, Edward Joins
17 3A Curing Rosa
18 45 Antlion battle
19 3D Octomamm battle
20 42 Redwings bomb Damcyan
21 46 Rydia melts Hobbs ice, learns Fire
22 47 Yang joins, Mombomb battle
23 31 Watery Cave camping
24 83 Depart Fabul, Leviatan attack
25 95 Yang destroys Super Cannon F7 Speaking to sylph before Yang Awakes
26 (nothing)
27 48 Fabul battle
28 5E Talking with Elder, Twins join
29 5F Palom puts out Ordeals fire
30 60 Meeting Tellah on Mt. Ordeals
31 61 Milon battle
32 63 Milon Z. battle
33 64 Talking to Elder after becoming paladin
34 14 Rosa greeting Cecil
35 74 Obtaining Earth Crystal
36 71 Meeting Edward in Toroia, receiving TwinHarp
37 72 Speaking with Edward in Toroia after Dark Elf
38 66 Entering Tower of Zot first time
39 43 Tellah fights Edward, leaves, Edward Joins
40 18 Finding Odin before Feymarch
41 (nothing)
42 79 Magus Sisters battle
43 7C Valvalis battle
44 52 Discussion about rescuing Rosa
45 7F Entering Cave Magnes
46 73 Dark Elf 'me attack you' battle
47 7A Top of Zot events C6 Drilling to the surface
48 84 Usinhg Magma Key
49 4A Toroia clerics after Earth Crystal
50 8B First visit to Underworld, Enterprise crash
51 94 Lugae battles
52 9A Edge joins, Rubicant battle
53 (nothing)
54 0E Rubicant main battle 1D Attaching Enterprise hook
55 A5 Finding the Falcon
56 A7 Heat shielding the Falcon
57 A6 Obtaining Luca Key
58 B6 Kain stealing dark crystal and leaving
59 A8 Opening the Sealed Cave
60 C5 Attaching airship drill
61 (nothing)
62 A9 Feymarch entrance
63 AF Obtaining Dark Crystal
64 AA Demon Wall battle
65 B6 Kain stealing Dark Crystal and leaving
66 9E Lunar Whale surfacing
67 C9 Asura battle
68 CA Leviatan battle
69 CF Bahamut battle
70 D0 meeting FuSoYa and having him join
71 E6 Giant of Bab-il CPU battle
72 ED Four Fiends battle
73 E2 trading rat tail for adamant
74 EE Giving Adamant and Legend to Kokkol
75 E1 Obtaining Excalibur
76 (nothing)
77 09 Receiving the Pan E5 Using the Pan and learning Sylph
78 F9 Trading Pan for Spoon
79 F3 Behemoth battle 50
80 (nothing)
81 04 Behemoth battle 51
82 A1 Fighting Edge's parents 05 Behemoth battle 52
83 (nothing)
84 08 Rydia learning Sylph FC Obtaining Ribbon
85 (nothing)
86 F2 Exiting Watery Pass - North
(then nothing, until...)
225 73 Dark Elf 'Me attack you' battle

There are some curiosities here, some that seem to indicate that I've missed something. Certain flags get set twice without ever being cleared. Or cleared without ever being set. I'll make edits if I find anything I've missed.
Do you suppose it's possible some flags get set or cleared by other means besides events?

I may, at some point, look into figuring out how the landscape and vehicles are changed by flags. Those findings would be posted here as well.

Anybody happen to know where in RAM the flags are actually stored? It must be a 0x20 byte block, likely somewhere in the 1000-17FF range (because that's apparently what is saved in save data). I can go searching for it, but I don't want to bother if it's already known.

17
Well, at long last, here it is!
This is the playable preview for my hack, Final Fantasy IV: A Threat from Within.
Not much explanation is needed for the story, because the preview has a lot of exposition.
Apply the linked patch to a clean, headered FF2US v 1.1 ROM and have fun!
FFII: A Threat from Within
(btw - I've never shared a file using Google Drive, but the patch is too big to post here. Did this link work?)

Now, even this preview is not a completely finished product. Every time I would fix one little thing, something else cropped up that I wanted to fix, so it sort of turned into a neverending spiral. Eventually, I had to get to a point where I was at least satisfied enough that I could let other people test it out.
That being said, here are a list of known issues with the preview, separated into two categories: Things that NEED to be fixed eventually, and Things I am not convinced I'm fully satisfied with...

NEEDS to be fixed:
-The Title Screen - I don't really know how/if it's possible to change this fully. I want to keep the "Final Fantasy II" Logo, but I want to add words beneath. My assumption is that much of the black screen is the same tile repeated over and over again. Anybody have any thoughts/knowledge about this?

-The revolving earth in the intro - somehow, the earth got screwed up. It's been like this as long as I can remember, and I've never touched it (not on purpose anyway). It's not a big deal, but it's a very noticeable cosmetic issue that occurs, literally, in the first minute of the game. And again, I don't know how to fix this.

-If you use ZSNES, like I do, for your recreational (read: non-hacking) emulation, don't create a save (.srm) file. For some reason, ZSNES freezes if there is a saved game. Save states seem to work fine. Also, SNES9X works fine with regular save files. Weird.

-Learning Ninja spells at level-up: In order to accommodate the different types of magic in the game, I had to change "Call" into "Jutsu" (Ninja magic), so that "Ninja" could be "Beast." As a result, Ninja spells don't seem to be appearing in their spell sets when learned at level-up. It doesn't affect gameplay in the preview much... Ninja spells kinda suck anyway, but it's definitely something that must be fixed eventually. Grimoire LD, didn't you find something recently that regulates how the game knows where to put learned spells, and more importantly how to turn that off?

-Mog's (The Mime, or "CopyCat" in this game) "Copy" ability (not to be confused with Mime) produces some strange results when used on a party member. It's intended to be used only on enemies, so eventually, I plan to rewrite the command to simply return a "Nothing Happened" if used on allies. Just haven't gotten to it yet.

-Kunai: I rewrote the "Dart" command to account for weapon elements (more on this later), specifically so that I could introduce a new throwing weapon, the elemental Kunai. One problem - when they're thrown, they look like fists. Anyone have any insight on how to change the look of a thrown weapon?

-Jinn: The boss at the end of the first (and only, here) chapter, Jinn, is not a final product. I created him before I learned how to manipulate "Special" sizes, and as such he does not change form during the battle. It'll be pretty obvious at which point this will eventually happen. Again, just haven't gotten to it yet.

-Twin: Rydia and Blank (the hired ninja) use FuSoYa and Golbez's character slots, respectively. As such, they are drawn into the Twin command if they're in the party. For Rydia, it's not a big deal because in the real game she'll never be in the party with Palom and Porom, but Blank is another story. Here's one for you again, Grimoire. I tried to look at your disassembly and notes for Twin, but there's so much! do you recall if you found out where the game defaults to Golbez and FuSoYa for Twin casting? I'd love to just shut that off completely. An eventual rewrite is also planned (I have a vague theory) that will incorporate a white magic-style Twin spell in the mix, but first I have to fix the real buggy issue...

Not as Important:
-Saved game files (using SNES9X) don't properly display the character's HP. This is bizarre, and does not affect the actual game at all, but I have no idea why it's happening.

-Not all of Kella's (the Blue Mage) Beast skills are available in the preview, partly because not all of them are finished products. There will eventually be 18 (... I think). In the preview, she starts with 9 and can learn 5 (... I think) more.

-There's no Shadow party in the preview, so stats will be reset when you switch out a party member. In the real game, Palom, Porom, Usrula, Kella and Mog will all have shadow slots (and Ceodore will use Mog's once or twice before Mog becomes available).

-Regarding the rewritten Dart command... The elemental part was necessary, mostly because of how I plan for it to trigger enemy reactions (you'll see some of that in the preview), but I'm not sure I'm 100% satisfied with it. I think it might be too weak. I haven't decided yet. What do you think?

So anyway, there you go!
Help on any of the above issues would be appreciated (and will earn a special place in the credits, of course).
Let me know if you discover any bugs/issues not listed here.
Suggestions will be considered. Of course, feasibility with my plot outline and whether something can actually be done are factors there.
 :edit: New version linked above 3/4/12

18
Ok, in the interest of appeasing the programminatrix  ;)
We can use this thread for stuff that isn't really big enough for its own thread.

19
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Whose turn is it?
« on: October 30, 2013, 09:55:27 AM »
Does anybody have any insight into how the game determines when a character's turn comes up in battle?
I imagine it makes calculations based on the Relative Speed values, but based on the fact that there will be times in battle when nobody is doing anything, it can't just be a turn queue (like in FFX or FFT).

So I imagine there must be timers counting down to each character's turn... anybody know where in RAM those are? Or have an idea about how to start looking for them?

Or maybe I'm totally off base and turns are determined some other way?

20
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Fun with Summons
« on: October 08, 2013, 10:14:14 PM »
I'm going to post the full how-to on this thread for ease of understanding (instead of making you read back through multiple posts in the Summons and Graphics topics), but It'll take a while to write the darn thing because the processes are a bit complicated to explain (though, once you get the hang of it, not so hard to do).

So what you have here is an ips patch and a save file.
 :edit: Save file link is broken, and I do not currently have a backup. I will restore this at some point. Sorry for the inconvenience. IPS file still works, though, but you'll have to hack in an appropriate save state.
Apply the ips to a clean FF2US v1.1 ROM and rename it to match the save file. Load the saved game (don't start a new game - I cannibalized some of the basic enemy fight routines and accidentally made it so Cecil's maid never moves away from the hallway she's blocking).
You'll start in the Baron region with Cecil, Kain and young Rydia. They all have better than normal starting levels and equipment, and Rydia has "Shadw" in her Summon list. This is a fully-working Shadow Dragon summon. It costs 99 MP and destroys one enemy 100% of the time. It replaces Imp.

Try it out. Walk around and get into a fight. You'll notice that Baron is populated with some new enemies: namely, Shiva, Indra and Jinn. Each of them will change their spriting, cast the "1" spell of their respective element, then change back.

Obviously, the purpose of this little hack is to demonstrate the applications of what I've discovered about changing "special" monster images and changing summoned monsters. I'll be posting the step-by-step how-to for all of this here over the coming week or so.

21
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Monster Attacks/Spells
« 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?

22
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Hacking the Music
« on: January 16, 2013, 11:48:42 PM »
Hey y'all

I've spent the better part of the last month researching and experimenting with FFIV music hacking.
I don't know absolutely everything, but I certainly know enough.
I'm attaching a copy of the complete guide, but I'll paste the list of in-sequence commands below for easy access.
The song sequences begin at 3790E (ROM with header), and each song has an eighteen byte header preceding the command sequence.

Code: [Select]
Every command is listed below, in order, from 00 to FF. Commands have no parameters unless otherwise indicated.

Some commands have parameters, but no discernable effect (as far as I can tell). If a command is not listed
(such as E3), then it has no effect and no parameters.

In general, tracks also start off with their own header, which indicates information such as the relative
volume of the track, which instrument to use, how much reverb, etc. These track headers are commands that the
game treats no differently than notes and rests, and therefore the commands typically located in the track's
header can also be placed within the track to change effects mid-track. SPC data is read quickly enough that
the game will execute in-track commands without the music stopping or slowing down, so have fun!

TABLE OF NOTES, RESTS AND TIES

Commands 00 through D1 each represent a note, a rest, or an extension of a previous note or rest (a tie). When
deciding to use a tie, bear in mind that game music does not need to fit into a specific time signature, so
whereas a piece of sheet music may tie an eighth note at the end of one measure to an eighth note at the
beginning of the next measure, you can save one byte of space by simply using a quarter note. This is also the
practical application of the 3/4, 3/8 and 3/16 notes (which do not exist in standard music notation). Other
odd-fraction note durations (1/3, 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, 1/48) can be used when you want to play triplets. It takes a
bit of mathematical thinking. Three triplet quarter notes have the same duration as two regular quarter notes
(or one half note), so in order to play three triplet quarter notes, play three 1/6 notes.
(1/6 + 1/6 + 1/6 = 3/6, or 1/2)

Note Length C   C#  D   D#  E   F   F#  G   G#  A   A#  B   REST  TIE
----------- --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  ----  ---
1/1 00  0F  1E  2D  3C  4B  5A  69  78  87  96  A5  B4    C3
3/4 01  10  1F  2E  3D  4C  5B  6A  79  88  97  A6  B5    C4
1/2 02  11  20  2F  3E  4D  5C  6B  7A  89  98  A7  B6    C5
3/8 03  12  21  30  3F  4E  5D  6C  7B  8A  99  A8  B7    C6
1/3 04  13  22  31  40  4F  5E  6D  7C  8B  9A  A9  B8    C7
1/4 05  14  23  32  41  50  5F  6E  7D  8C  9B  AA  B9    C8
3/16 06  15  24  33  42  51  60  6F  7E  8D  9C  AB  BA    C9
1/6 07  16  25  34  43  52  61  70  7F  8E  9D  AC  BB    CA
1/8 08  17  26  35  44  53  62  71  80  8F  9E  AD  BC    CB
1/12 09  18  27  36  45  54  63  72  81  90  9F  AE  BD    CC
1/16 0A  19  28  37  46  55  64  73  82  91  A0  AF  BE    CD
1/24 0B  1A  29  38  47  56  65  74  83  92  A1  B0  BF    CE
1/32 0C  1B  2A  39  48  57  66  75  84  93  A2  B1  C0    CF
1/48 0D  1C  2B  3A  49  58  67  76  85  94  A3  B2  C1    D0
1/64 0E  1D  2C  3B  4A  59  68  77  86  95  A4  B3  C2    D1

THE REST OF THE COMMANDS

D2: (+ 3 parameters, XX YY ZZ) Fade in tempo, where XX YY is the rate of fade, and ZZ is the tempo. Higher ZZ =
quicker tempo. XX YY are in reverse byte order, and higher value = slower fade. You will rarely if ever need to
set YY higher than 00.

D3: (+ 3 parameters) No discernable effect.

D4: (+ 1 parameter) Sets the "multiple voice" effect of a track, for lack of a better term. The higher the
value, the more it will seem like each note is being played on several keys (or instruments) simultaneously.
The effect is most significant with the organ, creating a difference between what sounds like an electric organ
(think "Come On, Baby Light My Fire" by The Doors), and a pipe organ (think church).

D5: (+ 2 parameters, XX YY) Reverb. The first parameter sets the reverb level (higher value = more echo). The
second parameter seems to set the reverb of the reverb. Be careful with this. Set a high YY in combination with
a high XX, and a single note will quickly turn into that sound the alien makes when the scientists try to
dissect it in Independence Day.

D6: (+ 3 parameters) A very funky reverb effect. Not very useful for composing music per se, but maybe useful
for implementing sound effects within music. The three parameters seem to work independently of one another
(they are three separate parameters, and not one or two multiple byte parameters). The higher their value, the
funkier the effect, but there seems to be a ceiling. I know, for example, that "35" has an effect, but "AA"
does not. "D6 0F 0F 0F" Has a fun, but again not really useful, effect. More experimentation is needed here,
but I don't really have the motivation to do so.

D7: (+ 3 parameters) No discernable effect.

D8: (+ 3 parameters) No discernable effect.

D9: (+ 3 parameters) No discernable effect.

DA: (+ 1 parameter) Set octave. 00 is the lowest.  I don't know how high it can go, but can't imagine you'd
need to go higher than 07 or 08.

DB: (+ 1 parameter) Set instrument, where "40" is the first instrument assigned to the song (in the index at
2420F), "41" is the second, and so on. Some weird stuff happens if you set an unassigned instrument. One higher
in value than the last instrument seems to be a quieter version of that instrument, two higher even quieter
than before, and so on in that fashion until you cannot hear the music at all. Several values lower than 40 (I
couldn't bear to experiment with exactly how many) will result in something that sounds like a buzzsaw playing
the notes you've written. Very grating and not recommended.

DC, DD: (+ 1 parameter each) I can't figure out what these do. According to jce3000gt, they are "set transpose"
and "increment transpose," respectively. In this particular instance I don't know what that means, and in my
experimentation, changing the value of these parameters has no effect.

DE: (+1 parameter) Set track volume. Near as I can tell, this is a RELATIVE volume value. If there is only one
track in the song, changing this value has no effect.

DF: (+ 1 parameter) No discernable effect.

E0/F0: Loop Start/End. E0 is inserted before the section to loop, with one parameter indicating the number of
times to loop. F0 is inserted at the end of the section to loop (no parameter). Interesting note - without an
"E0" at the beginning, F0 will simply play a sustained C (or, lowest note on the scale).

E1: Next octave up. All subsequent notes will be played in the octave above those preceding this command.

E2: Next octave down. All subsequent notes will be played in the octave below those preceding this command.

EB: Negates reverb setting for all subsequent notes.

EC: Makes all subsequent notes sound like static instead of notes.

F0: (SEE E0)

F1: Stops the music.

F2: (+ 3 parameters, XX YY ZZ) Volume. Only ZZ seems to have any effect, and it looks like XX YY is always 00
00 in the game's original programming.

F3: (+3 parameters, XX YY ZZ) I don't know what this does. It must have some effect, because in the original
programming, every song has an F3 command in the beginning. Seems XX and YY have no effect, because they're
always 00 00. ZZ ranges from about 50 to C0, and is most commonly in the 80s.

F4: (+ 2 parameters) This is the "go to" command. Placing this command at the end of every track is how the
game loops music indefinitely. Remember, as before, to start counting with 00 20 (reverse byte order), and to
count from the song's byte #02, not byte #00.

F5: (+ 3 parameters) No discernable effect.

F6 and above: Stops the music.

btw - credit where credit is due: this work was started by jce3000gt and the rest of the contributors on this thread:
http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=163.0

Hope this info helps some of you do some fun stuff!

23
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Need a White Mage Portrait
« on: November 13, 2012, 10:09:47 AM »
Hey all.
Anybody know where I can find a good generic white mage portrait (you know... white hood, red trim, vaguely female)?
It would have to be compatible with the portraits in the menu screen, so 32x32, 3BPP.
I've tried googling for it.  I get sprites, but no portraits... or portraits that are too large with way too many colors (like the one from from FFT).

24
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Decoding World Map Triggers
« on: October 17, 2012, 11:10:37 AM »
I've been working on figuring out the Overworld/Underworld/Moon map triggers.
Most of what follows is interpreted from Yousei's document.  Hopefully this will clarify a bit what took me some experimenting and time to figure out:

The World Map trigger data is located from D0066-D01FF (headered US ROM).  Each trigger is five bytes long.
Byte 0: X-Position
Byte 1: Y-Position
Byte 2: Call to load a new map (or play an event - more on this later)
Byte 3: New map X-Pos
Byte 4: New Map Y-Pos

So, at D0066, we have:
65 9C 24 10 1E
"At 65/9C (NW Corner of Baron Castle), load map 24 (Baron Castle) at position 10/1E."

If Byte 2 = FF, this is an event call.  The game, as programmed, has seven of these - two in the Overworld and five in the Underworld:
Quote
Event Call ID  X-Pos  Y-Pos  Event ID  Description
-------------  -----  -----  --------  -----------
(Overworld)
           10     77     3E        42  Redwings Bombing Damcyan
           2B     DD     38        83  Boarding the ship in Fabul
(Underworld)
           58     30     0F        06  Entering the Tower of Bab-il from the Underworld
           ""     31     0F        ""  ""
           36     37     14        FE  Dwarf tanks shooting tower of Bab-il
           ""     36     11        ""  ""
           ""     33     10        ""  ""

I don't quite understand why the event call IDs do not match the actual event IDs.  Also, I've played around with inserting other values besides the four used, and have not found any others that work (but have not exhausted all 252 possibilities by any stretch).

It's also worth mentioning that, as with location maps, if the position of a trigger is moved, the target location must contain a trigger-friendly tile in order for the trigger to function (such as a town tile, cave, castle, etc.). You can use Yousei's FF4ed to do this (if you change the data first, the editor will blue-in the new trigger location).

Also - I think D0060-D0065 contains the data related to which triggers belong in which World Map, but have not yet experimented with this.

25
Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / NPC Palette Data?
« on: September 30, 2012, 08:55:02 PM »
Hey-
Anybody have any insight about where to find/edit NPC palettes? (I mean the palettes for TRULY non-playable characters)
I know how to tell the ROM which palette to use, but I'm still trying to figure out where the data is stored that determines which colors are in those palettes...

26
Hello, all - longtime reader, first-time poster.

As far as I can see, this hasn't been discovered yet: Anyone have any clue how one could change the effects of the call items? It would be great if we could use the Imp item to actually do something cool, like, say, teach Tellah Nuke or White.  (since Imp is useless, and it would be just as easy to have Rydia start with it)

I've searched the ROM for instances of "04 31" (which would be "Rydia learns Imp" in an event), and there are only 26 of them, so I could try playing with each one to see if there's any worthwhile change, but none of them seem to have "04 32," "04 33" and "04 34" all nearby (Learning Cockatrice, Mage and Bomb), so none of them seem to be likely candidates.  At 463C3, there's 04 31 04 32 04 33 but then no 04 34... not to mention the entire block is full of 04 xx's, so that's probably a red herring...

So it looks like the effect of the call items is dictated some other way.  I'm willing to do some experimentation, but I have no idea where to start.  Any thoughts?
 :hmm:

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