Messages

126

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.33)

« on: 2016-04-09 21:36:45 »

The counter for Tonberries is not the same as the counter for dragons or steals. You can see the counter increase in Tonberries' AI.

At battle initialization :

Code: [Select]

            if ( !General_TonberryCounter ) {
                set General_TonberryCounter = 1
            }When a Tonberry dies :

Code: [Select]

        if ( General_TonberryCounter < 254 ) {
            set General_TonberryCounter += 2
        }

Thanks for the quick reply. So this means that I could in theory have the game count every defeated enemy by simply adding that code into the AI scripts of all enemies, right? However, doing that manually for hundreds of AIs would be VERY tedious... I guess I'll try out your suggestion instead.

However, tirlititi, I've just noticed a different problem: it seems that the newest version reads some offsets of the German version incorrectly. In disc1, everything looks fine, but on discs 2-4, there are several panels that show rubbish, even when loading the unmodified vanilla game. As an example, here's acomparison of disc 1 (how it should be) and discs 2-4:

     



In all 3 discs, its the same panels that are affected: Items, Key Items, Spells, Commands, and Stats (even though in the Spells and Items sections the names are not off, only their description texts). Do you have any idea what's going on or how to fix it?

127

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.33)

« on: 2016-04-09 11:56:03 »

Those MIPS codes sure look interesting, although quite complicated, and I honestly can't quite make sense of them right now. Does that allow one to basically modify all of the damage formulas in the game? If so, then the first one I'd like to change is Tonberry's Grudge, which has the basic formula:

Damage = 4^(number of Tonberries killed)

Now that damage formula is very awkward in my eyes: The first time you encounter Tonberries it will be all but useless because you haven't killed any Tonberries yet, so it will always deal 0 damage. However, once you've won 2-3 battles against them, they'll start wrecking you, as that formula ensures you'll take 9999 damage once you've killed at least 7 Tonberries. Even 6 dead Tonberries result in 4096 damage, which will more than likely be too much to handle for your average party at this point in the game.

I was thinking of changing the formula to:

Damage = Number of enemies killed by that party member * 10

as it is used in most other FF games. This would result in a more stable damage range for a longer time. However, I'm unsure of how to do that or if it's even possible to make the game count every enemy killed. It would depend on how the game counts the number of killed Tonberries (does it look for the enemy ID each time an enemy dies to check if it's a Tonberry?).

It's also questionable if the number of kills of each party member individually is even counted at all, seeing as even Freya's Dragon Crest simply counts the total number of dragons killed, not just the ones killed by Freya herself. So I'm kinda sceptical about my plan, but hey, maybe someone surprises me by finding a solution?

By the way, nice new artwork for the main page of HW, fits perfectly!

128

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.32)

« on: 2016-04-07 21:10:18 »

Well then, since SE decided to keep the release of the Steam version for later, here is the v0.33 :
 - Added a MIPS editing feature. MIPS is the coding language shared by all the PSX games. It's the deepest level of game modifications and shouldn't be used carefree. More infos below.
 - You can now add and remove several things, so you don't need to recycle another item to create a new one :
 --- Add/Remove texts in text blocks and battles,
 --- Add/Remove enemy groups,
 --- Add/Remove enemy spells.

Wow, I'm not checking the thread for a couple days, and look what I missed! Amazing update man, I'll be sure to check it out immediately! Adding in additional enemy spells was something I've craved to do for a long time now.

- Completed the list of spell effects, though I only know the effect of "Defless" among the new ones : it unconditionally divides both defences by 2.

Now this is a very interesting new ability, kinda like Steiner's Armor Break and Mental Break combined, right? And more reliable than LV3-Defless because the reduction is not random. I'll make sure to put this new skill to good use. I've always liked the idea of certain enemies having either pretty high defense (Adamantoise, Iron Giant, enemies made of stone) or magic defense (magical creatures like Agares, Goblin Mage,Magic Vice, all types of Black Mages and such), thus requiring you to use debuffs as a tactical combat element before you can truly hurt them. Likewise, certain enemies should be able to do the same to you, adding another twist to battles.

129

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7: Changing the battle theme of the Weapon battles on the World Map

« on: 2016-03-20 17:13:26 »

Hey guys, sorry if this has been asked already but I searched and didn't find anything, so...

How much is known about the music for world map battles? Specifically, I'd like to change the battle music for the fights with Ultima, Ruby, and Emerald Weapon, because the regular battle theme seems kinda lame for these very special bosses. I was thinking of using either the boss battle theme or the weapon raid theme. Does anyone know what I need to change to achieve this? Doing it by hex editing is fine by me, as long as someone tells me exactly what to edit.

130

FF9 Gameplay Releases / Re: [FF9] Alternate Fantasy (v3.2)

« on: 2016-03-05 08:42:37 »

I also don't understand the turn order. Sometimes he just gets no less than four turns in a row. What can I do about a Blue Shockwave followed by a Meteor? The answer is nothing.

Necron's ATB is a bit tricky since he actually has 4 ATB bars. The main one is the fastest and casts Blue Shockwave and Grand Cross (and Neutron Ring in vanilla ; here it became a counter). The other ATBs use respectively the -aga spells, the Cure/Buff spells and the Flare/Holy/Meteor megaspells. So yeah, you can't do a lot if he gets several turns at once ^^
But knowing that, you can care a bit more of the ATB trick : it's not always a good idea to let the ATB run while Necron is casting.

To further elaborate on how Necron works: if you take a look at the Necron battle in Hades Workshop you'll realise that Necron is not alone in this fight. He is accompanied by 3 Dummy enemies that have no name displayed in-game. Furthermore, they are un-targetable, invisible and invincible, so the player has no way of knowing that they are even there. Now here's the deal: Necron himself has really only 3 different attacks: Blue Shockwave, Grand Cross, and Neutron Ring. All other attacks that you see in this battle are performed by those 3 dummy enemies, giving the player the illusion that Necron is capable of acting multiple times in a row (which, in reality, he is not).

This is also the reason why you don't see any body animation of Necron when one of the aforementioned spells is cast. Blue Shockwave, Grand Cross, and Neutron Ring are the only attacks where Necron actually moves his body, but for all the other spells, he just stands still because he is not the one casting them.

131

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.31b)

« on: 2016-02-02 21:07:09 »

3 - Is it possible to disable equipment stat boosts so the stat growth is fixed to its minimum value?

Yes, that can be done right in the item section of Hades Workshop. Each weapon or armor has a Stat Set that can be modified to your liking.

132

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.31)

« on: 2016-01-12 18:51:48 »

I see, I'll try out your suggestions. Thanks again for your help.

133

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: Changing encounters in Gold Saucer's Battle Square?

« on: 2016-01-12 18:36:52 »

Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification guys.

134

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: Changing encounters in Gold Saucer's Battle Square?

« on: 2016-01-11 18:33:37 »

Thanks for the quick reply! I've only ever looked at the "Next Battle" box that is below the Escape Counter, I never paid any attention to the "Next Arenas", even though they're right beside that box. I feel stupid now, lol. Thanks a lot for your help.

But that leads me to another question, what's the "Next Battle" box used for? At first I assumed it might be for the special fight where you face always the same 8 enemies, but then I realized that the enemies for the special fight also have the same formation in all 4 of their "Next Arena" boxes, so... is the "Next Battle" box obsolete?

135

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.31)

« on: 2016-01-11 18:19:49 »

It would be this :

Code: [Select]

if (#(SV_PlayerTeam[MODEL_TYPE] ==$ 2)) {
  // Vivi is in the team
}
if (#((SV_PlayerTeam[MODEL_TYPE] ==$ 10) | (SV_PlayerTeam[MODEL_TYPE] ==$ 11))) {
  // Eiko is in the team
}The list for model types is this one (I don't think I've included it in the help yet, I should do it) :

Code: [Select]

Zidane 0 or 1
Vivi 2
Dagger 3, 4, 5 or 6
Steiner 7 or 8
Quina 9
Eiko 10 or 11
Freya 12
Amarant 13
Cinna 14
Marcus 15
Blank 16 or 17
Beatrix 18
That's strange you got a crash though. What was your try?

That was a while ago already, but I believe I made it way more complicated than it needed to be. I remember I was looking at Ozma’s AI for comparison, because Ozma uses Lv4 Holy and Lv5 Death only if they hit at least one party member, and that’s a condition similar to what I want for Trance-Kuja and Reflect. Since Ozma has these checks in his looping function, I figured I’d put it in the same place in`Kuja’s AI, and then change his ATB function accordingly, but I guess I messed something up during this (seemingly unnecessary) huge change. Afterwards I suspected that maybe including it in the ATB function as an ‘if condition’ instead might be a better choice.

So what do you suggest would be the best place to insert this in Trance-Kuja’s AI?

The AI also uses it to circumvent auto-Reflect, by casting offensive spells on its own Reflect.
There is a quirk with this subroutine: if the reflected spell doesn't find any valid target, it will reflect the spell on the caster.

That's a nice video, never knew about this bug. And you're right, I forgot completely about auto-reflect! I guess Trance-Kuja's use of Reflect does still make some sense afterall, even without Vvi or Eiko. Then I'd need to make it so he checks for auto-reflect in addition to those two little mages.

136

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Changing encounters in Gold Saucer's Battle Square?

« on: 2016-01-10 20:33:44 »

Hey guys!

As the title suggests, I'd like to know if anything is known about how the encounters in Gold Saucer's Battle Square are chosen. At least something must have been discovered already because here at http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_Square there's a list of possible enemy encounters that become available at the arena at various points as the story progresses.

My question is, is it possible to change or remove specific encounters from that list so that they won't be chosen for the Battle Arena? Because in the mod I'm currently making, the Vlakorados is a truly powerful beast, most likely too tough for a single character to handle (especially considering that it'll have double HP and increased stats in the arena). That's why I'd like to remove the Vlakorados encounter from the Battle Square, as that would lead to many undeserved and frustrating game overs. I was wondering, does anybody know how to change encounters in the battle arena? Has anybody done it already? Or is it impossible?

137

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.31)

« on: 2016-01-10 20:04:29 »

I've got another question about enemy AI, and was curious whether you, tirlititi, or someone else could help me out here:

Is there a way for an enemy to check if a specific character is in your current party? Because I've been playing with the thought of making Trance-Kuja use Reflect only if either Eiko or Vivi (or both) are in the current party, since they are the only two characters that have reflectable spells. Reflect doesn't bother any of the other six party members, so if Kuja uses it if neither of the two is in your party, he is essentially just wasting a turn.

I've only found one enemy that uses a party member's MODEL_TYPE when targeting, and that's the Doppelgangers created by Epitaph who always use their 9999 damage attack against their corresponding counterpart. However I'm unsure how to incorporate the Model Type check in an 'if condition' (I'm assuming that's what I'd need for Trance Kuja; to check if model type Vivi or Eiko is present, then use reflect, otherwise use a different attack). Could you give me a hint on how to write such a condition properly? My first attempt has been unsuccessful and lead to a crash.

138

Gameplay / Re: [FF8-STEAM] Hardcore Boss, Greater Rewards Mod (Initial Ideas)

« on: 2016-01-02 11:40:26 »

SO first things first, figuring out how to remove card mod from the game, if I can find the correct line of code via hex edit... And perhaps adding an item with a MUCH MUCH later boss that allows for card mod (or give it to Cactuar, that would perhaps make a lot more sense), possibly a boss in disc 3.

That's a big step in the right direction already, giving card mod to cactuar sounds like the best idea, imo.

I'll try and play the game through the perspective of the average player, whilst making optional bosses (like Diablos) near impossible early game.

Agreed again, this is (again imo) the most balanced approach that should attract many players. A somewhat challenging (yet not too frustrating) main story coupled with some very difficult optional bosses.  I was always of the opinion that optional bosses should be considerably tougher than the actual storyline stuff, because nobody has to fight them if they don't want to. If a player can't seem to beat a certain otional boss or doesn't want to spend too much time preparing for it, they can just skip it.

With regards to Diabolos, he should certainly be very difficult, but still be beatable even in the beginning, because you can learn the valuable steal-ability from him, and most bosses from then onward have some valuable items to steal that perfectionists might not wanna miss.

Anyway, good job for now, man!

139

Gameplay / Re: [FF8-STEAM] Hardcore Boss, Greater Rewards Mod (Initial Ideas)

« on: 2016-01-02 08:06:45 »

I can only agree with everything Olearyf2525 and Sega Chief have said. Mandatory grinding can never be the solution to a game's lack of difficulty. Rather, you should try to tackle the root of the problem, which is the major imbalance of the junction system itself. Stat boosts from magic should at least be cut in half (probably even more) so that the player isn't allowed to become super-powerful at the very beginning. As somewhat of a compensation, natural stat growth should be higher, this way spending hours upon hours drawing certain magic and/or playing cards for refining magic won't be a necessity. If I were to go for a FF8 difficulty mod, fixing the ratio of junction stat boost vs natural stat growth would be the first thing I'd do.

Unfortunately, we currently have no way of modifying junction boosts, that's the only reason why I never even bothered for a difficulty mod, seeing as in FF8's case, simply boosting enemy strength wouldn't be enough. Not with the (in my opinion) completely broken junction system.

The second major problem stems from the fact that a lot of the game's more powerful spells become available way too soon. You can refine Curaga, Tornado, Quake and others from cards and various items on disc 1 already, and that simply shouldn't be possible. In most rpgs, there's a steady increase in power of the available spells which draws nearly through the enitre game. In FF7 for example (assuming you play without grinding and just moving through the game the normal way) you have nothing but Level 1 magic available until you reach Fort Condor/Junon. At least for me, this is usually the point where Level 2 magic starts to show up, and then it's again a long way before reaching Level 3 magic (for me usually on disc 2 somewhere at Gaia's Cliff/Northern Crate, which is about a little more than halfway through the game, considering that disc 1 is the longest and disc 3 is actually rather short). It's similar in FF9, where you aquire your first Level 2 magic near the end of disc 1 and Level 3 magic no sooner than mid-disc 3 (Gurgo Volcano).

Most rpgs follow the same setup (more or less), as it always has been considered a well-working and maybe even integral part of game design. Yet FF8 doesn't follow this seemingly basic rule at all, as it grants the player access to a wide range of high-level magic in pretty early stages of the game. If it were to follow the established rules of spell progressing, it would need to look something like this:

Level 2 magic becomes available at late disc 1, Level 3 magic including Quake and Tornado become available around late disc 2/early disc 3, and high-end magic like Ultima, Meteor, Full-Life and the like shouldn't be available until mid-to-late disc 3 (maybe after aquiring the Ragnarok).

An important change to achieve this would be to make card refinement not available until later stages of the game, and certainly not in Balamb already! Giving this ability to one of the beginning G.F.s can just be described in one way: bad game design.

Anyway, those are just the most important points that a difficulty mod should address before anything else, imo. Once a reasonable junction system and magic availability has been established, the fine-tuning of enemies can begin, but just boosting enemy strength without solving the major gameplay issues first would be rather pointless.

140

General Discussion / Re: Final Fantasy IX coming to PC and mobile... finally.

« on: 2016-01-01 08:12:04 »

Yeeessss!!! My favorite Final Fantasy is finally arriving on PC!!! Then my favorite forum can start modding it.. Happy new year to us!!

I'm not the biggest fan of FF IX, but if this means modding will be possible it's a win anyhow.

I'm looking forward to it! FFIX deserves some more love! Hopefully, this port sparks the interest of some people to get modding on that game.

Uhm, the possibility to mod FF9 has been there for a couple years now, there are even some mods around at this forum. Have none of you ever checked out tirlititi's HadesWorkshop in the Tools section? It allows you to edit pretty much everything ranging from items, spells, equipment, shops, party stats, enemy stats, enemy attacks, enemy AI scripts, enemy formations in battle, Tetra Master cards, treasure chest contents (both in fields and on the world map) etc. What more could one ask for? It's like FF7's Hojo, ProudClod, White Choco, Wall Market and Makou Reactor combined! In short, amazing. You have to make isos of your PS1 discs first or (dare I say) download them from somewhere, and you have to make the changes on each of the 4 discs individually which can be a bit tedious at times, but still.

Anyway, great news that it's finally getting a PC release, even though I wished that this happened like 14 years sooner.

141

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.31)

« on: 2015-12-21 14:19:48 »

Fixed, thx for warning Kefka.
Here is also a temporary link for the .dll only.

Thanks a lot, it's working fine now.

Edit: the possibility to modify and create entirely new sets of status effects seems very promising. Am I right in assuming that the various ''No Status'' sets at the end of the list are currently unused? Because all abilities that don't inflict a status use the ''No Status'' set at the top.

142

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.31)

« on: 2015-12-20 20:48:28 »

I downloaded the new version, but when I try to start it I get the message that I'm missing the following dll:

wxmsw30u_gl_gcc471TDM.dll

It's not included in the zip folder.

143

General Discussion / Re: FF7 Remake Gameplay Reveal

« on: 2015-12-15 14:52:20 »

Anyways, here's a video I think you all might find interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpIlShZ2tEI (It's Jim Sterling's opinion on the remake situation.)

Yeah, he covered it quite well in that video, turn-based combat is far from outdated, at least not for me. What I always liked most about turn-based combat systems was the strategic aspect they offered. My issue with action-driven systems (from FF12 onward) was that you lose track of what's actually happening on the screen way too easily with everyone acting at the same time and damage numbers flying all about. This loss of control over the battle gives me the feeling that I'm a bystander rather than an actual participant. Thing is: the faster a combat system is designed, the less strategic it gets (because you don't have the time to ponder your next move anymore). And it's not funny when your AI-controlled comrades kill that one enemy that you still wanted to steal an item from. With turn-based combat systems, everything was much better "organized", if that makes sense.

Oh, and I agree that hian's Cloud looks a lot better than what Square Enix has given us. Good job, hian.

144

General Discussion / Re: Petition to have FF7 Remake be a FULL TITLE!!!

« on: 2015-12-12 06:36:48 »

You're making a lot of generalizations there, so I guess we will just have to wait and find out what it really is. I think you've spent so much time tearing apart the original, that anything new just doesn't seem right, I understand that perspective.

It's not that we despise anything new in general, but rather that we have reasonable doubt that Square Enix has what it takes to change the game for the better. I would always welcome changes even in remakes, as long as they're indeed changes for the better, and not for the worse. The problem is, we already KNOW for a fact that when it's the bone-headed blockheads at SE that are doing those changes, they can only be for the worse. And we know that based on our experience with all their RPGs that they released in the past 12+ years or so. Their track record leaves us little reason to remain optimistic.

On topic: I like the idea of such a petition and I fully support it, but I just doubt that it would make an impact on SE's business decisions even if the petition managed to assemble about 100.000 people, because... when was the last time that SE ever listened to their fanbase?

145

General Discussion / Re: FF7 Remake Gameplay Reveal

« on: 2015-12-08 08:58:42 »

Oh... my... god... the confirmation of both Advent Children style graphics and over-the-top hack'n slash gameplay was to be expected, but it's still a big bummer to me. Basically, this remake is now going to be the exact opposite of what I had hoped for (not that I had much hope to begin with, my faith in Square Enix was shattered one too many times in the recent years). That alone will already be reason enough for me to NOT be getting it.

But now the additional confirmation that it won't even be released as a full game, but rather in episodes? It's very hard to put my feelings on that into words. It's like my disappointment just hit a whole new level that I didn't even know existed.

146

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.30)

« on: 2015-11-01 17:26:48 »

Wow, thanks a ton man! Those are some really useful tips. I'll try them out right away, and who knows, if it works I might even try the same for Kraken and his tentacles.

Yeah, I was worrying about the Delta Attack, too, so I'm glad that you found a solution for that one.

147

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.28b)

« on: 2015-11-01 09:02:07 »

Hey man, good to see that this program is still getting updates. (After the long break now, I was beginning to worry.)

- Added a "Tetra Master" panel. You can modify the name and the random range for the statistics of cards (not pictures yet). You can also modify the card decks used by the NPC. The naming rules for decks are the following :
-- For decks used by NPC in Treno Stadium, Memoria or by the Fat Chocobo, the name of the NPC is used,
-- For the others, the name of the town where you can first meet a NPC playing that deck (provided you don't change the script for that) is used,
-- If decks are used by NPC of several towns, a dot dot dot is added.
Thanks to Froggy25 who totally cracked the Tetra Master deep mechanics btw.

That's quite interesting, I've always wanted to achieve the highest rank in Tetra Master, but I never bothered trying because getting all different arrow combinations is a pain in the a**. The ability to modify the decks of all opponents will definitely allow for huge improvements, I'll certainly take a look at that.

Also added the "Link enemies" flag in the groups submenu : it is, by default, used exclusively by the Sand Golem, Movers and Kraken to make several targeting parts for 1 enemy. When enabling that flag, the scripts for all the linked enemies but 1 must be deleted and the remaining one will handle all the attacks and counter-attacks (See Kraken's AI script for an example).

Now this is most intriguing. I've already tried several times to make all three Movers act independently from each other (so that they can attack three times per round instead of just once), but no matter how much I tweaked their battle script, it just wouldn't work. Now I know the reason, and I'll give it another go. By removing that Link flag and giving additional AI scripts to the other two Movers it should work, right?

148

General Discussion / Re: People telling me FFVII Remake will definitely be better than the OG FFVII lol

« on: 2015-10-30 21:36:20 »

What can I say? I pretty much agree with what most people here said. I, too, am fearing the incompetence of the current SE staff and the completely wrong priorities they set for their projects (graphics above all else). If (more likely "when") our worst fears do come true, I'd wish for a big time flop of this remake that rips a huge hole in their purse, just so they learn that they can't continue like this any longer.

However, a lot of the new teeny-fanboys that grew up with the compilation are apparently looking forward to this remake. Also, reviewers tend to give top scores to any visually polished game no matter how crappy it truly is. Sad but true.

149

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] General editor - Hades Workshop (0.28b)

« on: 2015-10-27 15:43:14 »

Hi Tirlititi, I've encountered a problem with a specific battle that I hope you (or anyone here) can help me with. I spent weeks adding more enemies to most battles, so all of the small-and medium-sized enemies appear in groups of 3 or 4, and during playtesting all of them worked quite well, except for the battles with the Hecteyes. For some reason, the game always crashes when I enter a battle with 3 Hecteyes, and and on my old computer I've also experienced a major slowdown during this particular battle.

First I thought that my old and outdated computer was the problem, but I have recently aquired a new and technically up-to-date netbook. The game runs much faster now, and even in the 3 Hecteyes battles there's no more slowdown, however, the game crashes still remain. Any idea what might be causing this? I've been wondering because all other battles with increased enemy numbers (and those were a lot!) work just fine.

150

FF9 Tools / Re: [FF9] Tetra Masters RNG manipulation

« on: 2015-10-25 13:13:44 »

Nice work, man! Oh, and welcome to the forums, too.

Completing the Tetra Master collection and getting the highest rank was the only thing I never even bothered with in FF9, as it seemed next to impossible anyway. Getting every arrow combination would take a crapload of time considering that you can only hold 100 cards at max, and you have to drop old cards without knowing which arrow combination you'll get next, so anything that can help to speed up the process is highly welcome. I don't quite understand why Memoria would interfere with the RNG, though.