Author Topic: Need help. New to modding.  (Read 8752 times)

g0rg0n

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Need help. New to modding.
« on: 2017-01-27 11:09:02 »
With Proud Clod and Mako Reactor, i'm trying to make a Rude and Elena fight in the Mythril Mine when you encounter them.

I copied Rude from Gongaga and copied Elena from Midgar, altered their stats etc. and got rid of Elena's AI to end the battle when she dies if Rude is still alive. She'll just use "Report" and leave the battle.

Making a formation was a nightmare though, I got Mythril Mine and copied everything else from the Gongaga fight so the camera has a side view of both parties and placed Rude and Elena where Rude and Reno would be etc.

But I keep getting an unhandled exception error and all my camera and formation values are reset to FFFF. So to clarify, I have no idea what i'm doing, if someone knows how to do this sort of stuff I would appreciate help.  :-[ :-[

Sega Chief

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #1 on: 2017-01-27 20:25:04 »
It might be that the version of PrC you're using has the issue where it can't edit enemy formation data. Try using the latest one, 1.5.0; it should be able to edit formation data correctly now.

g0rg0n

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #2 on: 2017-01-28 04:04:07 »
I've definetely got 1.5.0. Is anything out of place in this screenshot? Also I don't know what it means by 'Next Arenas' I just copied that from the Gongaga fight but maybe that has relevance?
https://gyazo.com/1d75db4b5486fb97c802b4a8c03d7fe2

Kefka

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #3 on: 2017-01-28 06:22:44 »
I've definetely got 1.5.0. Is anything out of place in this screenshot? Also I don't know what it means by 'Next Arenas' I just copied that from the Gongaga fight but maybe that has relevance?
https://gyazo.com/1d75db4b5486fb97c802b4a8c03d7fe2

Hello and welcome to the forums. The "Next Arena" data is only important for the battle square in the Gold Saucer, the game randomly chooses the next battle formation that you fight from one of those 4 that are listed there. But I'm unsure about your error message, the new formations that I've been creating worked so far.

Sega Chief

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #4 on: 2017-01-28 06:24:51 »
If 1.5.0 isn't allowing for formation data editing (I tried it out but it seems to be working correctly; maybe it needs to be run as admin + unblocked in properties or something?) then try the Alpha version in this folder: http://www.mediafire.com/file/6bl2eh8zosg7owl/Proud_Clods.7z

But just a word of warning, the Alpha version should never be used to edit enemy item drops/steals as there's a small chance it can corrupt them. It's otherwise completely safe to use, I generally swap to it specifically for formation editing, but avoid anything to do with enemy items to be safe and use 1.5.0/Final for everything else.

g0rg0n

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #5 on: 2017-01-28 07:25:48 »
If 1.5.0 isn't allowing for formation data editing (I tried it out but it seems to be working correctly; maybe it needs to be run as admin + unblocked in properties or something?) then try the Alpha version in this folder: http://www.mediafire.com/file/6bl2eh8zosg7owl/Proud_Clods.7z

But just a word of warning, the Alpha version should never be used to edit enemy item drops/steals as there's a small chance it can corrupt them. It's otherwise completely safe to use, I generally swap to it specifically for formation editing, but avoid anything to do with enemy items to be safe and use 1.5.0/Final for everything else.

Yes! using alpha worked, so ill use that for formations only. Just one question though, I kill Elena, she uses Report but that locks the camera in a peculiar position. The battle keeps going and the camera switches for spells and limits but other than that it locks looking at the side of Rude..?

nfitc1

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #6 on: 2017-01-28 13:04:47 »
Wait....1.5.0 isn't allowing formation editing? I'll need to look at it.

Report isn't returning the camera? Are you removing Elena properly? There are at least three flags that need to be un/set for the game to consider her defeated. You copied the AI from an existing battle, correct? Did you check all the counter scripts to make sure you found all the flags?

Sega Chief

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #7 on: 2017-01-28 16:00:23 »
I tried 1.5.0 (downloaded the other day from the link) but it seems to save formation changes correctly with no error.

Elena's Report is special in that it pans the camera after the fleeing Turks and it triggers the Report animation of all three actors simultaneously, probably through some flag in the animation data, and as the fight is always over in that case I don't think it bothers to returns the camera. Reno and Rude have Reports that return the camera for the Gongaga and Gelnika battles (Rude's one for Rocket Town maybe does as well, but not tried it), but the Midgar ones definitely behave differently.

g0rg0n

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #8 on: 2017-02-07 06:57:24 »
Can I get help onto what this means? I get this error when opening WhiteChoco and Kimera.

https://gyazo.com/5febdc6fb28fe5ba55e9814b2eba92cb

Kaldarasha

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #9 on: 2017-02-07 07:08:13 »
You need to google how to install a system .dll. It's easier than it looks (because you have to deal with the cmd).

g0rg0n

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #10 on: 2017-02-10 08:06:11 »
You need to google how to install a system .dll. It's easier than it looks (because you have to deal with the cmd).
White Chocobo is working! Thanks for that.
And I actually messed up big time, it's not the same error for Kimera.
https://gyazo.com/c2b7fbafefa83812a66a3589bc452c45
This is the error despite Mscomct2.ocx already being in the folder O.o

g0rg0n

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #11 on: 2017-02-11 07:14:40 »
A question regarding Wall Market. How do I change the names of Weapons, Accessories, Materia etc.?
I can change stats, effects and slots fine but the names all return to default once you save.

Sega Chief

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #12 on: 2017-02-13 14:32:04 »
There's two parts to the kernel on PC (kernel and kernel2); are you selecting the option to save/create both? One part was text-specific I think.

DLPB_

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #13 on: 2017-02-13 20:13:30 »
A question regarding Wall Market. How do I change the names of Weapons, Accessories, Materia etc.?
I can change stats, effects and slots fine but the names all return to default once you save.

Text is currently broken in wallmarket regardless.  If using PC version, use touphScript (see latest posts of the thread in tools for a link I put up) for text.

g0rg0n

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #14 on: 2017-02-15 06:59:28 »
I'll try both listed above.
On a side note, there isn't a tutorial here that helps with enemy AI is there? I'm trying to understand (Random MOD = 3) etc. how that stuff works, or know how to make a simple 3 turn pattern. Like 1. Bodyblow 2. Confu 3. 50% Bodyblow, 50% Confu etc.
This is difficult  >:(  :'(

Sega Chief

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #15 on: 2017-02-15 17:22:11 »
I'll try both listed above.
On a side note, there isn't a tutorial here that helps with enemy AI is there? I'm trying to understand (Random MOD = 3) etc. how that stuff works, or know how to make a simple 3 turn pattern. Like 1. Bodyblow 2. Confu 3. 50% Bodyblow, 50% Confu etc.
This is difficult  >:(  :'(

The best way to learn AI is with a top-down approach; think of how an enemy behaves/look up a description of their AI pattern on the FF7 Wiki, then look at the AI in the disassembler to try and decipher what's doing what. Then slowly build simple AIs using these before eventually moving onto more complex ones as you get more familiar with it.

Most pattern-based enemies use a LocalVar that increments by 1 each turn, before being reset to 0 when they've completed the cycle. Here's an example:

Code: [Select]
LocalVar:00A0 <- LocalVar:00A0 + 1

If (LocalVar:00A0 == 1)
   {
   TargetMask <- RandomBit(AllOpponentMask)
   Perform("Attack"[0101], EnemyAttack)
   }
   Else
{
}
Else
{
If (LocalVar:00A0 == 2)
{
TargetMask <- RandomBit(AllOpponentMask)
Perform("Attack"[0102], EnemyAttack)
}
Else
{
}
Else
{
If (LocalVar:00A0 == 3)
{
Perform("Fractaliser"[0101], EnemyAttack)
                        LocalVar:00A0 <- 0
}
Else
{

POP(LocalVar:00A0)

SCRIPT END

So this is Main AI which runs when the enemy ATB gauge fills up and it executes a turn. First, a LocalVar is incremented by 1. It then goes through the script until it finds a valid If statement (LocalVar:00A0 = #) and executes any script found within that block. It then runs through the rest of the script executing any other valid commands it finds. In the If (LocalVar:00A0 == 3) block, you'll notice that there's not just an enemy attack but a line that pushes a value of 0 into LocalVar:00A0; this basically resets the whole thing (otherwise the var would be incremented to 4 and beyond on the next turn, meaning none of the If statements are valid and no attacks would be executed).

If you've done some programming in the past, then you might be wondering why there's two Else statements after each If statement. I'm not actually sure myself, but it recurs a lot throughout FF7 enemy AI so watch out for that.

nfitc1

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Re: Need help. New to modding.
« Reply #16 on: 2017-02-15 21:18:54 »
If you've done some programming in the past, then you might be wondering why there's two Else statements after each If statement. I'm not actually sure myself, but it recurs a lot throughout FF7 enemy AI so watch out for that.

It's because the disassembler was written assuming it was compiled with modern methods associated with upper level programming languages, but assembler language can take a lot of "fuzzy shortcuts" to achieve program flow. Don't think too hard about the disassembly. I didn't spend as much time optimizing it as other things.