Topics

26

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7: Visual Effect for Shield

« on: 2015-12-14 15:44:21 »

Just a quick question; is it possible to give Shield a visual effect like Regen and Peerless has? How/where is this handled in the .EXE? I'd like to try and copy it over onto Shield so that it's easier to keep track of.

27

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Recurring Mystery Ninja Encounter

« on: 2015-12-06 01:49:25 »

So after testing, I've confirmed something that was worrying me for a while; the Mystery Ninja encounter in NT still loads even after a) Yuffie is recruited into the party, and b) a new 'mini-boss' encounter is used to replace it.

Just to clarify, in NT Yuffie is recruited from Kalm to prevent a soft-lock when fighting a forced three-party Bizarro. But this caused a problem earlier on where the Mystery Ninja battle would still load in forests so I set up a replacement for it where a mini-boss replaces these formations, with field script on the yougan2 field organised to give the player a one-off Materia and some text before pitching them back to the World Map. Problem solved, or so I thought.

I made sure to check anything in battle AI and the field script, but it still loads those encounters afterwards. I would have said it's something to do with the world map script, but that should be doing whatever it's doing as normal; only the enemy IDs used in the battle were changed. I looked over the field scripts again as well; not really turning up anything that could be considered a suspect.

I've also checked through a few different tables where vars and their functions are listed but I've not turned up anything that wouldn't (or rather shouldn't) have been handled by what I've put in. I hate to say it, but I'm at a loss with this one.

Any ideas? Info on all the known conditions and/or when and where these get flipped for the mystery ninja battle would be helpful, including anything about the increasing chance for those battles to be loaded so I can at least start planning out some kind of work-around if I can't sort this out.

Edit: I think I figured it out. Mythril Mines turns on the bit for [3][133] which is turned off when Yuffie is recruited. Seeing as the event was moved to before the Mines for NT, I'm hoping this is the cause. It's tough to confirm it because the battle can be quite rare, but if anyone could let me know if [3][133] is the mystery ninja battle trigger then I'd appreciate it. I'll kick myself if it is, but at least it'll be sorted.

28

General Discussion / FF7/FF8 Steam Newegg Sale ($3.60)

« on: 2015-11-28 22:13:27 »

If anyone was looking into picking up the Steam version of FF7 then NewEgg seems to have a Black Friday deal going on that's dirt cheap, should be there for the weekend. FF8 seems to be going for the same price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832166150

Edit: Okay, seems to have ran out of stock for the UK but could be still there for other places.

29

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 - Battle Variables AI Help

« on: 2015-11-08 01:52:22 »

Hey all,

We discussed this before a way back, but I've been having trouble getting a value to write to a variable within battle for use on a field screen. I took Barret's old Battle Date variable from the default Kernel AI script and put it into an enemy's death counter script to try it out. Would appreciate if someone who knows the AI stuff better than I do could look at this real quick:

Code: [Select]

11 0000
60 50
90
60 00
01 0000
95
11 2018
01 2010
90
11 2010
01 2010
60 01
30
90

0x000LocalVar:0000 <- 80
0x006TempGlobal <- &GlobalVar(0000)
0x00CUnknown(2018) <- GlobalAddress
0x013GlobalAddress <- GlobalAddress + 1
0x01DSCRIPT END

Have I made a mistake here? It (supposedly) works in the kernel AI for cloud's Physical Counter group but maybe it needs to be handled differently in an enemy's death script?

30

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 - Reducing Movement Speed

« on: 2015-10-02 02:50:46 »

Hey all,

I was wondering if it was possible to reduce the movement speed of the player-controlled group by about 50%; I tried using the flevel script command to set it's movement speed that way but I think this only affects scripted movement rather than player-controlled movement. I checked certain fields like gaia_32 where Cloud seems to move slower than normal but couldn't spot anything. Any ideas? Is it handled by the .exe or is there something in the flevel I've missed?

31

Troubleshooting / FF7 1998 Problem - New Graphics Card?

« on: 2015-09-12 16:04:09 »

Hey all, so I encountered a problem where FF7 1998 (converted with 7H & using Aali's 8.1 driver) will close down on start-up with no error message. In the past this has happened due to a file being misnamed somewhere but this time everything's got the correct name so I'm at a bit of a loss.

I recently installed a new graphics card though, an Nvidia GTX970, and I remember there being trouble of some kind with certain brands of card when running FF7 a while ago; could it be related to that? It's the only thing I've really changed in the PC since I last played it. Any help/info/ideas about what the problem is would be appreciated.

Edit: The Steam version seems to work fine, and I tried replacing the 1998 files that I usually mod with default ones in case one had been corrupted but same thing; closes down before the Eidos movie can play.

32

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Mystery Ninja Encounters - Triggers

« on: 2015-06-20 16:11:46 »

Hey all,

I was wondering what the triggers were for the game to load a Mystery Ninja encounter? I got a bug report on a different forum where someone managed to get one of these encounters despite having Yuffie already recruited. In NT, the event where she's recruited was modified and the battle is triggered from the field screen instead of the world map (it was to make her a mandatory party member to deal with the three-party Bizarro fight at the end of the game + deal with a common complaint where players had trouble finding her in Junon's forests).

Thing is, I made sure to keep all the variable switches in both the field script and the in-battle AI. So I'm wondering if there's another trigger somewhere? Is something flipped when the normal Mystery Ninja battles are activated from the World Map?

Edit: I found these in the save map on the Qhimm wiki (copied as-is):
0x0D29   1 Byte   Yuffie can be found in the forests? (LSB only) others used?

0x0D73   1 byte   Yuffie Regulary. Has the character entered the party regulary? For example Yuffie further appears in the forest if this option is off.
0x6E: Yes; 0x6F: No

I cross-referenced it with DLPB's save map database, and it seems that the first one is field script though Makou couldn't find any in the field code (though that's partially the reason the database was made; Makou can't find certain used variables) while the second contains world map triggers like the buggy breaking down, etc.

I'm thinking because of that the second one is more likely to be what I'm looking for. I was going to set up a special dialogue tree to try and find out which of the 8 bits in this variable have been flipped (after teleporting to the Junon area and encountering/recruiting Yuffie from a new game to try and keep any of the other bits from being flipped) but I don't know what that 6E/6F =Yes/No is referring to above (is it the bit address? If so, which one?)

33

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / AI Elemental Flags - Op Codes

« on: 2015-06-03 02:07:47 »

Hey guys,

I'm hunting for the OpCodes that handle the 'Weak to' elemental flags (I've only got Absorb and Null in my notes); has anyone happened to find them or do these flags not exist? The Ops for Auto-Hit & Half Damage ones would be handy too.

34

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Adjusting Cait Sith & Vincent Starting Stats w/ Sources

« on: 2015-05-24 16:23:48 »

I've been trying to set up 'static' character stats that remain the same no matter what level and while I've been able to set up the stat-growth curves to do this, Cait Sith & Vincent's starting stats are very difficult to fine-tune because their initial stats aren't present in the kernel (or at least they're not shown in WallMarket; I think the only way they can actually be changed is in the .exe, but I'd like to avoid coupling the NT Mod with a mandatory .exe patch if possible).

I was wondering though if Sources used on Young Cloud and Sephiroth carry over onto Cait and Vincent? I'd be able to adjust their starting stats this way if that's the case; does anyone know if this happens, or do the sources used on Y. Cloud and Seph vanish when the game overwrites them with Cait & Vince?

35

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 Sound Effects

« on: 2015-05-20 15:31:04 »

I recently found Luksy's sfx tool, and I was interested in finding out about what limitations to keep in mind when replacing sound effects; for instance, is there a limit on how long the sound effect can be, which audio channels it uses, etc? I'm thinking about replacing the uncommon/rare ones for use as Ambient (rain fall, for instance).

36

Troubleshooting / Sephiroth's AI

« on: 2015-05-14 00:21:39 »

I've encountered an unexpected and annoying problem. In NT, there's a cutscene skip for the Nibelheim Flashback but as an easter egg for players who did the flashback anyway, I set up Young Cloud and Sephiroth to be player-controlled with a small arsenal of high-level Materia. It worked fine until what must be very recently.

Young Cloud is still controllable, but Sephiroth seems to have bugged out. His Main AI appears to be active, despite there not being any which results in a 'blank' turn. The flags for both to make them invincible to damage also appear to be non-functional.

Some character AI was added recently to the others; is there a limit to how much AI the kernel can hold? At the moment the total script size is just over 1000; is that above the limit (if there is one)?

37

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Item Sorting

« on: 2015-04-19 15:12:39 »

Hey all,

I had a question about how items are sorted through the inventory using the different categories. I've always used Type as it sorts by their actual item index, but a few people have been asking about the others like sorting for Battle (damage dealing items I imagine) and finding it to be a bit all over the place. Is there a way to change the way these sort categories behave? Or is there info on how they sort items anywhere?

38

Troubleshooting / Running with Intel Integrated

« on: 2015-04-07 23:29:11 »

Hey all,

I upgraded my PC recently and added a graphics card (nothing heavy-duty, just a budget-friendly Asus 6670 HD) but I'm finding FF7 to be a tad choppy now and then in the world map and certain other places. I've been told that it runs a lot better with an integrated 'card' (I used to play it through an Intel integrated on my old PC which was nice and stable); what are the steps to getting a game to run through integrated rather than the dedicated graphics card? This is the first card I've owned, and I'm not sure of the steps. A lot of forums tend to be focused on dealing with the opposite problem of getting games to NOT run on integrated :p

39

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Editing Damage Formulas

« on: 2015-02-21 01:06:09 »

In short, is this possible? I think that a re-balance of FF7's battles needs something to be done with it's formulas. I've done what I can with fine-tuning, cuts, and other tricks but that can only go so far.

What I was specifically interested in was cutting down the Physical formula's dependency on Level, repurposing formulas for pulling other stats for calcs that use VIT or SPR instead of STR or MAG (I saw Stamina being used in a FF6 mod in place of Vigor/Magic for certain attacks and healing spells which created some interesting depth), adjusting the multipliers for Ultimate Weapon formulas, and giving magic attacks a critical hit check. How viable would any of these be?

40

Troubleshooting / Unknown Battle/Scene Problem (Memory issue?)

« on: 2015-02-15 22:17:27 »

I was testing out Midgar for NT 1.3 when I ran into a strange error when trying to fight Air Buster. The game crashed and threw out this error: Instruction at 0x005d9049 referenced at 0x038effff couldn't be written (1998 throws this out, while Steam just reports an unhandled exception).

I've not seen something like that before; can anyone advise on what the potential issue could be? From what I can see, there's nothing visibly wrong with either the enemy or the formation in the editors. Other encounters loaded from this scene appear to be functioning normally and I'm going to try using a back-up in case there's some kind of corruption but would appreciate any info on what the error is related to.

Edit: It's not the model either; a new formation using this enemy is functioning normally (just tested it).

Edit 2: Fixed it, was an AI issue related to levels. Sorry for making a new thread, just panicked a bit and thought that the scene.bin was corrupt or something.

41

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Snow Field Encounters

« on: 2014-12-13 22:16:24 »

I'm trying to clear space in my NT Mod's scene.bin and one area that takes up a huge amount of space with duplicate monsters is the Great Glacier. Before I start shrinking/deleting formations here though, I wanted to double-check with someone that there were no Snow Field encounters in scenes 168-173 (the pseudo world map where flag poles are planted). As far as I know all the world map encounters are at the top of the scene.bin but just wanted to avoid any potential problems.

42

Gameplay / FF7 EXE Hacks Hub - For DLPB's HextLauncher

« on: 2014-11-20 19:48:14 »

So one thing that could be handy is centralising all the known hacks/fixes for FF7.exe into one file that can be added to and customised fairly easily: http://www.mediafire.com/view/6ql2eyay1as3r2f/FF7_EXE_Hacks_Hub.txt

I put this .txt together for use with DLPB's 'HextLauncher' (just drop it in the HE_in folder after installing HextLauncher, and set yourself user permissions to edit the .txt file as needed like you'd do with Aali's .cfg). These effects can all be activated independently from one another by deleting the '#' symbol from the line. To de-activate them again, restore the '#' symbol:

Note that all of the hacks here were found on threads posted by other contributors, so full props to them for this stuff:

-) Long Range enemy attacks (all enemy physical attacks will be long range, unless the short range flag is ticked for attacks using the PrC tool).

-) Poison Options (allow enemies immune to poison element to get status and to change element of poison status 'tick' damage)

-) Materia Equip Effects (the ones listed in the file are custom-made for the NT Mod, but they can be altered for other uses)

-) Command Materia - Commands don't overwrite the Attack command but instead are placed in a new slot

The rest are untested:

-) Mega-All no longer gives Slash-All

-) Disables Materia Split on Master (used in N7 so should work)

-) Cait Sith & Vincent starting stats/equipment editor (I'm not convinced these are the correct addresses, though)

-) Snowboard NTSC Times Fix (this is in DLPB's mod, so likely working)

If this was built upon, it could be a very handy modder's resource for making edits easier, something that could just be distributed and dropped in without having to bother with .exe patches and the like. It'd also give a little more versatility to Gameplay mods that come out that would have otherwise been limited to editing the scene, kernel, etc. Either way, I'll be adding to the notepad whenever I see something; I've got my eye on another forum that appears to be applying Gameshark codes to FF7 Steam's .exe (one of their members was able to add an E.Skill to Cloud's equipment with specific skills learned on it rather than all of them) so I want to try and add those in.

43

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Sound Effects in Makou

« on: 2014-11-12 01:42:01 »

Hey all,

One of the things I'm missing from my notes is a proper listing of the game's sound effects for use with Makou Reactor (what I'm looking for at the moment is the Phoenix Down sound effect but it's likely I'll need to get a list together for quick reference soon). Does anyone have such a list already kicking around that they could share?

44

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Shortened Summon Animations

« on: 2014-11-06 23:18:23 »

Hey all,

Was wondering if there was a way to either speed up or cut short Summon animations in FF7. I'm specifically wanting to cut Bahamut-ZERO down to the last segment when the beam actually hits; is this possible?

45

Releases / [FF7PC] 2D Menu Sprites - Abyss Wolf (2014-09-17)

« on: 2014-09-16 23:53:15 »

[FF7 2D Menu Sprites - AbyssWolf]

Download Link
http://www.mediafire.com/download/8dh9m91u598tubh/FF7_2D_Menu_Sprites_-_AbyssWolf.exe

This is a quick Menu mod that replaces the FF7 menu portraits with the 2D Sprites made by AbyssWolf.

Installation
Direct the Installer to the 'Data' folder of your installed copy of FF7; listed are the default directories, but custom directories (such as C:\Games) will work as well:

[1998]
-) C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data

[Steam]
-) C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\data

Troubleshooting
If you experience any problems, leave reports and questions on this forum thread. One problem you may encounter is with the download of the installer itself; due to it's rudimentary nature, browsers such as Chrome tend to flag it as malicious. If this happens, recover the file from the Download section of the browser and enjoy a Doom reference when marking it as safe. However, to ensure security only download the installer from this Qhimm Forum thread. On the upside, the installer is fairly straightforward to use.

Credit
The Sprite author, AbyssWolf, made all the artwork patched in by this mod, which was made with his permission:
-) Deviant Art Profile: http://abysswolf.deviantart.com/art/VII-475615832
-) Tumblr Profile: http://ahruon.tumblr.com/post/94735699675/phew-finished

The guy has quite a lot of other neat sprite artwork on there. I recommend checking it out.

46

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Battle/Global Variables

« on: 2014-08-08 01:28:51 »

Hi all,

At the moment I'm trying to come up with a in-game enemy AI system that would allow for 2-3 different settings, adjusting the EXP given by enemies (and in some cases their stats depending on the chosen setting). Basically it would be fast, normal, and slow; it'd let people choose between playing a 'fast' game or getting stuck into a lasting challenge. It could also be changed mid-game without any consequences.

I've got a pre-battle AI template set up, but what it needs is a trigger that can be set through the field. I've been looking at the character AI that handles 'Love Points' through Global Variables as a point of reference but I'm a little unsure about the way functions with these are carried out and how the numbers used determine the variable address. 7H could easily skirt this by swapping in different scene.bins, but I want to keep the non-7H version of the mod as functional as possible and keep file clutter down for the planned 7H one.

That, and I reckon having global variables to make use of in AI might lead to some interesting new possibilities when making enemies beside stat alterations. Let's say you're fighting Reno and Poison is effective so you use it against him. A variable flips when it returns true that the actor is poisoned; this then unlocks AI in subsequent fights (using that global variable) where he makes use of an ability that prevents or gets rid of Poison because of what happened in the last encounter. Recurring enemies with 'evolving' AI like that could be a good laugh, and be used to present different kinds of challenges. There's a lot of other possibilities as well.

I'd appreciate pointers on these global variables; I'm already finding this to be a bit of a nightmare for my usual trial & error approach 

47

General Discussion / FF7 Music behaviour poll

« on: 2014-07-25 18:43:30 »

Hey folks, was hoping you could help me out by lending your opinions on something.

I've got two flevels for my mod; one has normal music behaviour; battle theme plays, victory fanfare plays, no change. But the other doesn't play the battle theme or victory fanfare for random encounters on field screens. The idea was to make each area's encounters feel more specific to the area you were in and cut down on fatigue from hearing the battle/fanfare too many times. This isn't used for world map or boss battles (some other encounters are also exempt). It can be seen/heard here at 7:12 - http://youtu.be/lYk5rzkJ-7k?list=UUcK6xpSx8SGvmRlETyH5bug

At the moment I'm about to go ahead with some extensive flevel changes to make v1.2 of the NT Mod which would be making use of 7H and breaking the flevel.lgp down into it's constituent files so it's easier to distribute and blend with other mods. Thing is, it'll get trickier to support both flevels the further I go so I want to drop one of them in favour of the other. I'd like to keep the Field Music one but I imagine that the majority of people would prefer the regular music behaviour. Got a strawpoll set up here:
http://strawpoll.me/2191469

48

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 Enemy AI: Displaying a Variable's Value as a String

« on: 2014-06-01 14:30:33 »

Hi folks,

I'm having a go at re-designing the Lost Number battle and my idea was to make the fight revolve around a mathematical riddle. The player has to make the value of the variable land on a certain number to trigger one of his two transformations (if 'killed' in his composite state, he revives and resets the variable).

Thing is, a fight like this could be quite awkward so if I went with this prototype I'd want the player to have an easy way of keeping track of the variable. Is there a way to have the game read and print the value of a variable as a text string? I'm not sure how to represent the variable in the string.

49

Releases / [FF7PC-98/Steam] Lv.1 Challenge Mod (2014-04-18)

« on: 2014-04-18 16:33:40 »

FF7 Lv.1 Challenge
https://mega.nz/file/a1l0CYwQ#ibQBiG8O5g5vz5mpbHHCQQO2ibO4o6AWfQzrCd9Vbss

FF7 Lv.1 Challenge 7th Heaven IRO
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IXYoK1B75dezh-f9djdr9Zk3Fiw2ESZA/view?usp=sharing

Restricts the player to using Lv.1 characters with their Lv.1 stats; affects the scene.bin and kernel.bin files so it's very lightweight. To install, simply unzip the download and place the scene.bin and kernel.bin into the following locations:

1998 Version
Final Fantasy VII/Data/Battle (scene.bin)
Final Fantasy VII/Data/Kernel (kernel.bin)

Steam Version
Final Fantasy VII/Data/lang-en/Battle (scene.bin)
Final Fantasy VII/Data/lang-en/Kernel (kernel.bin)

If using the IRO, then import to 7th Heaven and activate it (also available through the Sega catalog).

50

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF8 Modding: Auto-Aura for Enemies/Lv.100

« on: 2014-02-12 17:33:39 »

Hi all, I've been making tentative steps into FF8 modding with an aim of making a special mod specifically for a challenge run. Was hoping to get some advice about making certain things happen with the game using the currently existing editors. If anyone has some Gameshark notes that could make these things happen, though, then I'd be very interested in that too.

First, I was wondering if it's possible to have all enemies/bosses in the game have the Aura effect active at all times. Aside from the strength boost, I was reading about the special attacks that certain monsters gain access to under Aura; are there many of these attacks or is it limited to Thrustaevis, Raijin, and GIM52A? (pulled this info from the Wiki). I know it's unlikely, but is there a flag for Auto-Aura or a way to insert some AI into the enemies that has them placed under the Aura effect? If it's not possible/feasible at the moment, then no worries.

As a back-up, I was thinking of doing a Lv100 run but I thought it would be a nice twist to do it with an initial-level party, rather than a Lv100 party. Is it possible to circumvent the game's mechanics and have enemies spawn at Lv100 regardless of party level? A few folk told me that the enemy level is fixed for certain areas, like the Lunatic Pandora, so I was wondering if there was something in the flevel that activated this and which could be altered and applied to more areas (haven't had much luck deciphering the scripts). I also read somewhere that the way the game handles enemy level and where this calculation takes place is currently unknown, but it never hurts to ask.

Any advice that can be offered would be appreciated. Could always do a plain ol' Lv100 run with other challenge conditions but there's something about fighting golden enemies that just seems appealing, y'know?