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2761

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Spell ASM Finds

« on: March 19, 2008, 11:15:35 PM »

I checked FF4 and it has the same code there, so I must have made a mistake. Some time I'll go back and figure out what it really is, but right now I'm still searching for Asura's code. That mysterious woman, she's so good at keeping her secrets . . .
 

She's only cute when she casts uber "Cure4" on you. 

Ok.. testing was done.. it seemed to affect Odin significantly, but not in the method you described. Yes, his hit rate is 0, but if your hit rate bonus is true, then this code was intended to reduce the hit rate of the caster.

This is done to prevent insta-death killing sprees for easy EXP. Remember that the first character to go is in the one in the middle, if all ATB were the same.

This may also explain why the Evilmask has trouble casting multi-targeted Reflect on your guys.

2762

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Spell ASM Finds

« on: March 19, 2008, 10:57:33 PM »

Yes, slot 1 is the middle slot. The slot bonus took me a while to figure out, simply because I couldn't believe that a bonus would be given to an individual slot. But I worked through it a few times and came out with the same result, so that seems to be what it is. I might still be wrong though, so if it doesn't pan out let me know.

I'm starting to think positioning has a "starting" ATB bonus of sorts.. I have some older thread documenting the order characters go in a preemptive attack.

Blind does seem to be underrated and underused, especially since there's no spell that characters have access to that inflicts this status (right?). It'd be nice to have a blindness-inducing spell, although frankly I don't use status spells that often. Just doesn't seem worth the time . . . but maybe that's because the FF2us version is so easy.

The notable monsters that inflict it are those butterfly/moth monsters and the Marlboro's (spelled Molbol in FF2US) Breath attack. I don't know of any monster that inflicts that status attack normally as part of their physical attack.

Also.. this may or may not be important. I did my testing of the magnetic status in FF4, not FF2. It may be worthwhile to check if your "magnetic" finding in FF2US correlates with FF4's spell code.

2763

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

« on: March 19, 2008, 10:43:23 PM »

Blind does seem to be quite detrimental. It looks like it cuts all % in half (hit rate, evade, magic hit rate, magic evade), which is a large penalty for one status.

Actually.. in my algo, I only thought it was hit rate and spell hit rate. It's much harder to test evade and magic evade since enemies have 0 of them.

I'm not sure what's going on with status attacks yet. I'll look at the code some time, but it might refigure the multiplier after the point at which I've looked at it.

Well, please check against the level based attacks that I've documented so far (I don't think there are many more, but that's just a list of the obvious ones). There should definately be a section where the level is compared for a small number of spells.

http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=358.0

Make sure to reference against my spell algo, since that has an almost clear cut algo on how things are dealt... some details such as order have not be verified by anyone (not that order matters too much, but in some cases, it does).

2764

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Spell ASM Finds

« on: March 19, 2008, 10:39:24 PM »

I found the code that specifies the spell multiplier (which we knew to be [wisdom/will] / 4 + 1). Within this block of code is a section that says if the spell has the status-spell bit set in the effect data, then this multiplier is set to 1. So far, this bit doesn't seem to have any other uses besides this.

I've replied to that thread, and I believe that sounds about right.

Deathlike2, I think you'll be particularly interested in this. I think I found the algorithm that calculates the spell hit rate. It uses the base hit rate of the spell and the modified wisdom/will of the character (modified meaning after equipment bonuses). The modified hit rate is the spell's base hit rate + (modified wisdom/will)/2. Furthermore, if the caster is blind, this modified hit rate is cut in half. Also, it appears to do a check to see whether the caster is in the first slot (character or enemy), and gives a 25% bonus to the hit rate if so. Here's some code to make it a little more readable:

Code: [Select]

modified hit rate = (spell's base hit rate) + (modified wisdom/will)/2
divide by 2 if Blind
multiply by 5/4 if in slot 1
Let me know if I'm wrong on this and tests don't support it. That block of code was a little complicated so I might have missed something. I think the next block of code balances this against the target's magic defense %, but I'm not going to look at that part yet because it's a little too much right now.

I'll have to look into the slot 1 issue (does this mean the center position for the characters?). I find that a little fascinating.. I'll end up testing with Rydia+Piggy because that spell needs massive help for success. Assuming it is the center position, it implies that a 2-fighter, 3 back-row character is intended to favor spellcasters even more (more than I originally though).

If what you saying is true about hit rate being boosted by Wisdom+Will (which is more logical than my level based reasoning, but I still think I'm right on that), that would explain better the hit rate for particular spells.

Blind apparently affects more than I thought (I thought it was a hit rate reduction of 1/4, but 1/2 is truly significant). This is a relatively underrated status effect that gets very underused AFAIK.

2765

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

« on: March 19, 2008, 10:24:04 PM »

I've confirmed that this bit denotes a status-type attack within the spell subroutine code. More precisely, it sets the spell multiplier to 1 if this bit is set, otherwise it sets it to the usual (wisdom/will) / 4 + 1. I don't know if it has other uses -- I haven't run across them yet, but I'll keep my eyes open for it.

There are a few details that don't make, not that I don't believe you.

That implies that the majority of the status spells are level based.... if not ALL of them.

Mist and Asura are oddities though (because the multiplier is ignored in the first place), and also this also implies that Blind/Darkness status has a greater impact than I thought.

2766

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Spell ASM Finds

« on: March 19, 2008, 10:01:58 PM »

Some more things I've discovered:

• I looked for a long time a while ago for how to change the black/white/call casting effects for the spells. After I couldn't find them, I thought they were probably hardcoded, which I've confirmed in the generic spell subroutine. It checks for the spell number, and performs the animation based on that. So you could expand the range of black/white/call spells, but you can't pick and choose individual ones.
• Silence only affects spells below 5F (i.e. character spells). Enemy attacks are not affected by this status.

Again, if anyone can confirm these or show them to be false, please do.

I've always thought it was simply cosmetic, but I guess that's only for weapon based spells.

I think what would be more interesting is being able to tweak what the spell uses to power itself (using Wisdom or Will Power, enemies just use their magic power as a universal stat).

Silence's behavior is not surprising, although maybe the exception is the weapon-item special spells and W-Meteo (to an extent).

Weapon/item based spells ignore Silence, so go figure.

I get the feeling some of the Item based spell were meant to be used by Kain, such as Poisona and the Dancing Knife... although Kain does have Spears that cast magic.. though it wouldn't surprise anyone.

It would be nice to know what those weapon-item based spells are powered by (Wisdom or Will... most likely Will Power)

2767

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4 Equipment Rebalancing?

« on: March 19, 2008, 07:47:27 PM »

Weapons in general need to have stat effect tweaks.  Why don't more Rods and Staves give you better +INT/WIS?

I think the impact has more to do with when those weapons are given to you relative to the current progress in question. I think status effects or enemy type/race modifiers would be much more interesting...

I still don't quite understand why there is Charm Rod.. not a Charm Staff instead...

Go figure.

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Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Darkness/Holy elemental attacks

« on: March 19, 2008, 07:40:13 PM »

I agree, and have always thought this behavior strange. I think I'll switch it in my hack, too. It makes sense to me for Dark Knights to be resistant to dark attacks and Paladins to be resistant to holy attacks. Maybe that's just the way my brain works, but I think I'll add that behavior in too (not that it makes that much difference in the overall game, but it's the principle of the thing). 

Agree with who?

This is one of the few games where having a complete set of elemental equipment is detrimental to self while under Charm...

Oh well...

2769

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Darkness/Holy elemental attacks

« on: March 19, 2008, 03:21:46 PM »

Personally, I just live with the fact that the name is what it is, depending on the game and its consistancy. A number of games do something along those lines...

The best alternative would simply just rename the equipment and/or swap the internal bits and item drops.

2770

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Darkness/Holy elemental attacks

« on: March 19, 2008, 02:54:59 PM »

While I don't disagree with the proposal of having Dark Cecil take more damage vs. Undead enemies (with the oddness of his armor being "Holy" resistant)...

To me...the logic of having a Dark Knight take Less damage vs. the Undead/Darkness-Weilding monsters makes sense, and at the same time being weak vs. Holy.

Likewise to have the Paladin weak vs. Darkness and strong vs. Holy...also seems to make sense.

This was the behavior I have written in the TODO for my next hack...

Having it the other way around would make for a more interesting twist...

Yes, but you would have a tough time explaining that Fire Shields being weak vs Fire. The whole design was probably original intended behavior. I know it's totally ironic that "Holy" attacks are favorable my projected Dark Knight's equipment set, but that's how the elemental property on equipment is behaving.

The intention was to make Cecil totally useless vs Undead to a significant degree (even critical hits won't save him).

2771

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Darkness/Holy elemental attacks

« on: March 19, 2008, 02:40:27 PM »

I never knew holy and dark worked like that, it makes sense though. Currently in my hack the dark knight gear resists dark because that just made sense to me, although I can't argue with your reasoning about making him weak to zombie attacks...hmm, his equipment might be getting an overhaul.

Well, both bits are set in FF4A primarily to get in Holy resistance, but Scan would have confused people and give them shock because that message that they are weak vs Darkness would confuse/scare the people (the same people who can't figure out why the Dark Elf hurts them 9999 damage).

2772

Game Modification Station / Re: Create a Bugfix Patch/Hack for All FF4 Versions?

« on: March 19, 2008, 09:06:49 AM »

That isn't as bad, since you can be gaining 10000+ EXP easy and perhaps intending to tweak the stats to the max...

But what good is tons of experience if you lose it all every time you swap the character out of the party?

Well, there's the idea to "make a choice and stick with it".. and/or add something in the routines that take the other characters stats into account.

2773

Gaming Discussion / FF4 Equipment Rebalancing?

« on: March 19, 2008, 09:05:48 AM »

Although this is strictly my opinion, I hope to give some insight into retweaking aspects of FF4 that seem horribly broken and unbalanced/useless.

I'll focus on specific aspects and work my way to others as I come up with ideas.

Bows+Arrows need the most restructuring.

Bows should focus more on tweaking the attack power.. the Arrows should be used to exploit weaknesses.

I haven't thought too much on the Bows.. but each upgrade should be like this.. a new bow should improve the attack power at least by 10 (internally, 20 points have to be increased) and the hit rate increases by 10% (this should be semi-viable for those not named Rosa).

Arrows need to be retweaked.. something along the lines like this (monsters probably have to be retweaked):
"Cursed" Arrows, 20 attack power, inflicts Curse (a tweak for Iron arrows specifically)
Holy Arrows, 10 attack power, Holy elemental, effective vs Spirits/Ghouls (most spirits are weak vs holy)
Fire Arrows, 10 attack power, Fire elemental, effective vs Undead (it would also work against the Milon Z/elemental version)
Ice Arrows, 10 attack power, Ice elemental, effective vs Insects/Reptiles (this is based on the Ice Rod)
Lightning Arrows, 10 attack power, Lightning elemental, effective vs Mechs
Darkness Arrows, 15 attack power, Darkness elemental, inflicts Darkness (this is part of a greater game tweak that would be necessary)
Mute/Silence Arrows, 15 attack power, effective vs Mages, inflicts Mute/Silence
Charm Arrows, 15 attack power, effective vs Giants, inflicts Charm
Artemis Arrows, 18 attack power, effective vs Dragons, inflicts Poison
Drain Arrows, 15 attack power, Drain elemental, effective vs "Undead" and Flan/Pudding (replacement for Poison Arrows)
Beast/Beastkiller Arrows, 8 attack power, effective vs all races except Flan/Pudding (replacement for Genji/Samurai/Yoichi Arrows)
Medusa arrows, 5 attack power, inflicts Stone

Edit: Arrow values retweaked and posting Bow stats...

Short Bow, 20 attack power (10 effective), 99% hit rate, Air elemental
CrossBow, 40 attack power (20 effective), 50% hit rate, Air elemental
Great Bow, 60 attack power (30 effective), 60% hit rate, Air elemental, +3 Str
Archer/Killer Bow, 90 attack power (45 effective), 65% hit rate, Air elemental, +5 Str
Elven Bow, 130 attack power (65 effective), 75% hit rate, Air elemental, effective vs mages, +5 Wis, +5 Str, casts Shell when used as an item
Samurai/Yoichi Bow, 180 attack power (90 effective), 70% hit rate, Air elemental, +10 Str, +10 Will, effective vs giants
Artemis Bow, 250 attack power (125 effective), 80% hit rate, Air elemental, effective vs dragons, +15 Str, +15 Agi, -15 Vit, +15 Wis, -15 Will

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Another Edit: The focus of the power goes to the bows.. the arrows have a lesser role although they have more impact early on.

The Short Bow is to be used early on.. for characters like Palom+Porom for Mt. Ordeals... while Rosa benefits from the CrossBow early on. The Great Bow will be handy during the Magnetic Cave run.. and the later Bows will become very viable for other characters.. particularly Rydia (and FuSoYa to a lesser extent) so they aren't doing as poorly.

The Artemis Bow gets the greatest boost, and gives Rosa competitive stats so she can keep the White Robe instead of having to use the Minerva Robe to be even remotely speedy.

2774

Game Modification Station / Re: Create a Bugfix Patch/Hack for All FF4 Versions?

« on: March 19, 2008, 08:33:15 AM »

I was fooling around with some event editing, and one of the commands is of course to add character X to your party. I hacked the event where you get the twinharp to also add Edward himself to your party. It worked, but all his stats were reset to their starting values. When I replaced the command from "add Edward" to "add Kain" he still had his levels.

I'm pretty sure the game keeps data for characters who are meant to rejoin you (such as Kain, Rydia, and even FuSoYa), but discards data for ones who are not (such as Edward and the twins).

That isn't as bad, since you can be gaining 10000+ EXP easy and perhaps intending to tweak the stats to the max...

2775

Game Modification Station / Re: Create a Bugfix Patch/Hack for All FF4 Versions?

« on: March 19, 2008, 07:38:29 AM »

That having been said, however, would something like that even be possible? The game only remembers data for certain characters after they leave your party. If you tried to re-add, say, Edward to the party, he'd lose all his levels.

AFAIK, the game continues to keep track of the characters that were introduced/added to the party. That's how FuSoYa's stats change after you met him since.

The game as far as I can tell doesn't do many, if any checks at the end of the game for the characters, other than Cecil (for obvious reasons). I personally have not tried any of the Game Genie codes that modify the character in a specific slot, but there are some that allow you to swap Young Rydia with Older Rydia.. and the game can't seem to tell the difference (FF4A plays a bit on that fact in Rydia's trial).