Topics

241

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.

242

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.

243

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.

244

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

« on: March 05, 2008, 09:04:57 AM »

What the hell is this machine resistant bit? 

I probably will look into this further, but it doesn't really seem to do anything that I can tell.

245

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Immunity, Darkness Elemental, and Critical Hits

« on: March 04, 2008, 02:54:14 PM »

I'm just going to keep a log here about how it works... not sure if there's a legit math algo for this..

Some of the data is based off FF2USHT (thanks JCE for Darkness weaponry being equippable).

These tests are done vs Zombies. They have 2 defense by default.

The number I commonly come up with is 25...

For some reason, those that wield this weapon, when dealing critical or strange normal damage vs Zombie type monsters (they all have immunity).

The algo seems to go like this:

(25 (base attack power) - Immune Target's Defense) * Attack Multiplier (this can be less due to hit rate)

This algo applies to Edge as well when he is using two weapons, one of which is a Darkness elemental weapon.

Edge seems to have his own a special algo when he wields a weapon on one solo hand

((Edge's base attack power+2)/2 - Immune Target's Defense) * Attack Multiplier (this can be less due to hit rate)

This is probably unapplicable for FF4A.

If someone were able to test Immunity for other elementals and see if any of these numbers make sense, it would be appreciated.


Critical Hits seem to add like a 3/2 multiplier in general... not confirmed but testing against Flan monsters would speed this up...

246

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Blind Status

« on: March 03, 2008, 07:25:35 PM »

An overlooked status since it isn't really prevalent... I decided to look into some properties.

I verified BSiron's finding that it reduces hit rate by 1/2.

However, there are more properties to this status than just that.

Spell hit rate is reduced by 1/4. It was noticable when healing didn't adhere to normal behavior.

Also, evade rate drops to 0. This isn't noticable normally since the enemy has 0 evade to begin with.

Quick summary:
Spell Hit Rate = Base Spell Hit Rate * 3/4
Hit Rate = Base Hit Rate/2
Evade Rate = 0

247

Gaming Discussion / A Request for Entroper

« on: March 03, 2008, 05:47:06 PM »

Entroper, any chance of getting a dump of the entire spell list for FF4A?

248

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Silence Status and Commands

« on: March 03, 2008, 05:10:48 PM »

This status disables a number of commands (other than the obvious magic commands):
Recall/Remember
Sing

This status makes the effects of other commands useless/fail:
Pray/Miracle
Endure (it doesn't affect FF4A's Gird)

249

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Peep/Study Command

« on: March 03, 2008, 05:07:24 PM »

This command operates like Peep.. it works only on non-boss enemies. It works 100% of the time.

The command is not disabled while under Silence because the command isn't using the Peep spell,
but something customized.. most notably there is no visual.

250

Gaming Discussion / The State of FF2/4 Walkthroughs/FAQs

« on: March 03, 2008, 03:15:02 AM »

They are simply embarrassing. Nuff said. I'll cite examples later.. but I remember one FAQ saying you should use Holy/White on Zeromus.

That's all one needs to know.

251

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Lesser Known Weapon Magic Info...

« on: March 03, 2008, 02:53:55 AM »

Just for the sake of keeping it interesting, here's some neat info that some of you may not really know.

Rod - casts some sort of magic that always hits the enemy - Spell Base Power = 28, Spell Multiplier = 1, this is better than a Bow+Arrow combo
Staff - heals like the Antidote item, which is totally useless, even when Tellah starts with it
Silver/Mythril Staff - works like the Unicorn Horn item, heals Sleep, Paralyze, Charm, and Berserk, which is relatively useless
Lunar Staff - casts Dispel (spell not available in FF2US), another useless spell
Murasame - casts Protect successfully (spell not available in FF2US)
Masamune  - casts Haste/Fast
Dancing Knife - think Rod, but replace the fists the Rod uses with knives, best item to make Rydia a decent attacker for a while,
it is not a Whip replacement though - Spell Power = 40, Spell Multiplier = 8
Poison Axe - casts Venom... WHY??????
Earth Hammer - casts Quake, rids of those slimes/pudding/flan in the Tower of Zot easily
Elven Bow - casts Shell successfully (spell not available in FF2US)

252

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Spell Hit Rate List Supplement

« on: March 03, 2008, 02:23:35 AM »

To clean up part of the magic algo list... here's a nice supplment of info that some may not know.

Spell Hit Rate:
For most status changing attacks = Whatever is stored internally - 128
List also includes:
Stop
Weak/Tornado (Critical Status)
Peep/Scan/Libra
Cockatrice (it has a higher hit rate than Stone/Break)
Odin (death that check death status immunity)... with a spell hit rate of 0% (which means it is calculated solely against level as I thought)
Mage (it has the strongest Paralysis rate of 100%, assuming no immunity)
Asura (revive)
Big Bang (strange, since it is a multitargeted attack like Virus/Bio.. but it does HP leak...)
Pollen (a pathetic form of Virus)
Globe199 (yes, that should be scary, but 100% hit rate is probably the reason)
Laser (damage based on enemy's HP... but it has a 100% hit rate)
Glare (go figure, 100% hit rate)
Odin (when you attack the summon, that is what he attacks you with... 100% hit rate)
Needle (enemy counterattacks @ 100% hit rate, but it is based on the enemy's attack power, so it is dealt differently...)
Counter (the Antlion's counterattack)

For all other non status changing attacks = Whatever is stored internally
List includes:
Blink/Image (Image has a near-perfect hit rate than Blink...)
Protect
Shell
Slow
Haste/Fast
Exit
Sight (it does nothing, mind you)
Float
Warp (same as Sight)
Disrupt (Trap Door's special attack)
Black Hole (surprising, since it is a multitargeted Dispel... Dispel follows the status changing algo)

253

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Ignoring Split Damage...

« on: March 03, 2008, 02:05:09 AM »

Spells that only target all allies or all enemies are the types that avoid split damage altogether.

Man.. this realization stuff sucks when you can't sleep.

254

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Current List of Level Powered Spells...

« on: March 03, 2008, 12:30:30 AM »

I'm posting this here so I don't forget. There are a number of spells that are literally powered by level.
If they are powered by Wisdom or Will, they are just a bonus check as far as I can tell.

Here's the list:
Sleep (it is most apparent via the Slumber Sword)
Hold
Pin
Weak/Tornado
Odin - only spell to be powered solely by level, since the "Summon" or Wisdom part of the spell has a hit rate of 0%

My only guess is that the enemy's version of Paralyze and Sleep attacks are built on the same principle.
I believe it also includes normal physical enemy attacks that inflict those status... but I could be wrong.

The basic check is like this...

rand (0, Target's Level) < rand (0, Caster's Level)

255

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / The Underrated Sylph

« on: March 03, 2008, 12:22:14 AM »

The only summon that gets the least attention is the Sylph.. and that's only because the SNES version has their MP cost = 0.

The Sylph are significantly more powerful than originally thought..

Spell Power is listed at 15 so they are effectively powered at 60.

Other than the healing property that avoids the Undead check+penalty... there is one other property worth pointing out.

Part of the magic damage algo factors in magic defense... but it cuts the magic defense by a factor of 2!

Yes, I tried to use this summon vs higher magic defense targets... and other than those that have the maximum magic defense to start with (254),
the spell really cuts though the Ging-Ryu (Yellow Dragon in FF4A) and Blue Dragon.

So, to reiterate..

Sylph Spell Power = 60
Target's New Magic Defense = Target's Magic Defense/2