Messages

101

Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-07 02:15:56 »

Just an update, I'm back to playing hopscotch between FF7 and Morrowind. For this I've been rewriting some mistranslated/misleading script errors, and I'm working on a cutscene video.

102

Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-03 19:04:43 »

How would adding new materia work exactly?

For example, if you added a water materia and wind (that would be AMAZING!) would you have to create animations for them in battle? I realise that part comes after making room for them in the lists and all that, but is it really possible to put an entirely new spell in the game with new animations? Or would you use old animations?

If thats a really stupid question I apologise, I'm just really curious about it. It'd be amazing to have some new spells in the game.

No such thing as a stupid question. 
There are plenty of dummy materia values so adding new materia itself is easy enough. What happens is, you can use WallMarket to change the dummy materia into something more useful, like a magic materia. Materia values are listed in hex. I, for example, am using 3F for my wind materia. Then I just assign it 3 attacks, one it starts with and two more it'll gain as it levels up. So then I go to those assigned attacks and get them to do what I want. In this case, three wind spells increasing in power. In a perfect world this would be the end of the work.
In game, you can equip the materia and it functions normally in the materia menu. When you attempt to use the magic menu though, instead of showing Aero as advertised, you get Cure, because if the spell is of a different value than the menu recognizes as a magic value, that's what it defaults to. I'm hoping, with help, I can fix that soon. The only other way would be to replace existing spells and there's no way I'm going to do that. I'm a terrible explainer, does this make sense?

furzball,
If you read through the topic you'll know I'm already restoring/have already restored much of Jessie's dialog. In this context, I meant that I was having issues opening the file "cargoin" in Meteor to add a choice you're supposed to have. Jessie will say "Thanks for helping me back there at the reactor" and jump away, but now after she says that Cloud will have the option of either saying "It's okay" or "Don't thank me". I won't explain the entire scene or a lot of Jessie's lines, but if it wasn't obvious Jessie had a crush on Cloud, it'll be a lot more obvious after playing through with all the new lines. 
Jessie might have been tossed around as a potential date for Cloud, in fact later she flat out hits on him and talks to Barret about bringing him along to Cosmo Canyon when they're all supposed to go. But the fact is that in the game she dies and I intent to keep it this way for "lore friendly" purposes. So she won't be an option.
As compensation... how do you feel about spicing up the date with Barret by making him wear his sailor outfit? 

Just kidding.

103

Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-03 00:23:25 »

Only four enemies are weak against water: Malboro, Ho-Chu, Wolfmeister and Iron Man

Ah, well in that case, I guess you can expect it alongside the fire, lightning, and ice materia. Again, assuming I can actually get this to work.

104

Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-03 00:15:25 »

Mostly just wanted:

Wind Materia: Aero, Aera, Aeraga
Water Materia: Water, Watera, Wateraga
Booster Materia: Increase AP gained by different percentages as materia level increases.

As you can see I'm using the later naming convention for spells. This will include enemy techniques so they too will be Blizzaga, Thundara, Aeraga, etc. for the ones who use actual spells. Depending on how frustrating this proves, the idea might take back burner until later. Booster will be a special materia you'll need to work hard to get. I gotta look at enemy info to make a decision on Water since I believe a lot of enemies have a weakness to it and this could prove to be cheap. Wind materia will probably be found in most places Earth materia is available. Assuming I get the spells in the materia to do what I want them to, of course. I'm not replacing any existing spells or materia.

In other news, I found a way to edit cargoin to include a dummied choice for Cloud. Meteor crashes when it attempts to open the file, but I found another way. More Jessie content.

105

Completely Unrelated / Re: Corrupt-A-Wish

« on: 2009-02-02 22:29:26 »

... Okay...?

You lost the game. 

106

Completely Unrelated / Re: Corrupt-A-Wish

« on: 2009-02-02 21:50:40 »

Combo Breaker.

 

Corrupt-A-Topic.

*runs*

107

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: Attack Animation Indexes (FFVII)

« on: 2009-02-02 21:21:33 »

Big thanks dude, and I think Leighos Kudistos Megistos is going to like this as well. You should include that with the next WallMarket release so people wanting to do their own projects can make use of it.

EDIT - Whoops, too slow on the reply haha.

Also, semi-related, I wrote a textfile of my own showing the hex numbers of all the materia in the game if there's any interest in that. It's not much, but if anyone wants to place materia in the game through Meteor after messing around in WallMarket or whatever it can speed things up. It's pretty easy, it's almost always like: SMTRA [0,0,32,0,0,0] where "32" is the hex number for the materia.

On that note, and a bit of a tangent, the Qhimm Wiki says materia can be added by using a different method with that opcode, but I have yet to see it. The above method is a lot easier anyhow.

108

FF7 Tools / Wall Market, FFVII KERNEL.BIN editor

« on: 2009-02-02 21:13:42 »

Right now I've got the materia so you can grab it on the field using the SMTRA opcode for testing purposes, it's pretty easy. So guess from here I just find a way to increase the list and likely shift everything after it down eh? Lovely. 

Thanks for WallMarket by the way, quite a powerful tool.

109

FF7 Tools / Wall Market, FFVII KERNEL.BIN editor

« on: 2009-02-02 17:46:29 »

I can tell you several things:
1. This question is more appropriate to be in the WallMarket topic, but oh well
2. Animation index table is NOT in any piece of the kernel. I haven't looked at any other files than the KERNEL.BIN, kernel2.bin, scene.bin and ff7.exe files
3. I can get Heidegger to make me a listing of all the animation indexes used by monsters to see if any of them aren't used.
4. Some of them (particularly summons and limits) are probably in their own category and can't be swapped between them (eg. Howling Moon can't be made to look like Big Guard, Life2, Choco/Mog, etc).
5. When I get this info I'll probably make a new topic about it so everyone knows what it's about (so you know not to check back here Smiley).

Moved. 

Not to annoy you, but I've got yet another issue. I'm not sure what questions I need to ask so I'll just name the problem: basically I'm trying to add entirely new magic into the game. Using WallMarket, the materia can be made to use dummied attack values, but these values apparently are not recognized as spells and so while the materia itself will show the spells (Aero, Aera, Aeraga), when you equip the materia and look at the magic menu, it shows "Cure". I assume that as "Cure" is the first attack ID, this is the default for any attacks going beyond a range acceptable for magic spells.
Do you know if there's a way to expand this?

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Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-02 17:37:22 »

If someone who's got a better grasp of Japanese than myself and the sources I got that info from could properly translate the original and it comes up Organics, I'd be willing to reverse the decision on it. Also, a background of WHY it's Organics and if Woolsey's translation is relevant in the case of FFVII.

Also, turns out I'm having issues after all with that "impossible" feat. I'll find a way to make it work, but it's going to be tedious. Basically *sigh* I added completely new (nothing replaced) Materia into the game with completely new spells. That part is easy. The problem is, the spells don't work properly in the menus. Anything aside from certain values seems to default to Cure in the magic menu instead, causing issues. At first I thought maybe only spells originally put into the game could show in the Magic menu, but several of the summons can fit into it as well alongside the magic. I was HOPING to get the spells to use the attack values of 123, 124, and 125, and I'm hoping there's a way to somehow make the game recognize those as values. If not, with some work I might be able to shift a ton of attacks to add room for a few more spells. We'll see what happens.

111

Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-02 06:00:58 »

Typos will be fixed, to be honest I'm not sure about how to tackle the script just yet as far as what needs explained better. As I continue to go through and add content I'll know what to do. I'd definitely like to place emphasis on a lot more things though so they are more memorable/easier to understand. The one thing you can be sure of is that when the game is over, the player will understand the game. I might not clean up all plot holes as I think they add to the mystique, but there are a lot of areas where the dialog is misleading and I will certainly clear those up.

Also guys, I'm very excited to announce that something I didn't think was possible, in fact, is possible and I cannot wait to show you guys the screenshots! You're going to f***ing LOVE this.

112

General Discussion / Re: FFVII Plot question

« on: 2009-02-02 03:26:26 »

I'd hardly call Last Order canon. In it, Zack and Cloud make it all the way to Midgar before dying and Cloud still hadn't come out of it. In CC and FFVII, Zack dies on a cliff outside of Midgar. An event corroborated in AC when Cloud puts the Buster Sword back in the ground at the end.

**SPOILERS** (It is, unless you want to play through these games as many times as I have to interpret everything)

Cloud never really "comes out of it" until he sees Tifa, and even then he's still really messed up obviously as shown in the flashback where she sees him come off the train at Sector 7. It should be remembered that JENOVA has the ability to read the memories of others, so when Cloud is injected with the JENOVA cells as part of Hojo's plan to test his theory that all JENOVA cells return to her as a means to find Sephiroth, Cloud is able to absorb the memories of first Zack - giving him his skills and making him think he's a SOLDIER, and later Tifa - giving him a little bit of his own identity back since Tifa shares some memories with him. Only then does he actually begin to act like a normal person again. This is why members of SOLDIER must be of top mind and body, lest they lose their psyches in the combination of knowledge from Mako and new memories from JENOVA as Cloud did. Cloud becomes so convincing as a SOLDIER that even Hojo mistakes him as the "failure" who had little reaction to his experiments since Zack was already a SOLDIER and able to cope with them. Cloud was in fact the successful one of the two.

113

Archive / Re: FFVIIPC MDef bug fix

« on: 2009-02-02 03:01:17 »

NFITC1,
After writing Wall Market, by any chance have you located where the animation index table is located for all the different attacks? And if so, are there extra index values that could be used?

114

Archive / Re: [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-02-02 01:49:46 »

Big update, check the first page.

115

Completely Unrelated / Re: FF7 remake - if it happens, will it go PC? |OR| Your first FF7 experience?

« on: 2009-01-28 09:45:34 »

Probably not, which is a shame especially if they choose to release it on PS3 because I have no plans to buy one ever plus I'm a PC gamer in general. If they did though I'd certain buy the game, and I'm sure enough people would to justify the port.

116

Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-28 06:23:02 »

Quick update, I've got the Seventh Heaven scene completely up and running now. Screenshots when I feel like dealing with 56k upload speeds.

I've seen that video, I had thought about adding it into my optional component for the new intro sequence, but all of that gets told anyhow later on. The "silent intro" where you have no idea what's going on at first I think is better and really draws the player in to wonder why you're there, so no words. Of course, nothing is stopping you from editing your own videos.

117

Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-20 16:58:26 »

I was thinking of making a demo spanning the duration of your initial time in Midgar at some point, and then after that the final package. No estimate on how long it'll take. If things go my way the demo will be out by, at the very least, May. This summer I'm fighting fire and we go out for 2 weeks at a time, which won't leave much room for FF7.

EDIT - I just got back home and I'm freaking tired. MOAR DELAYS on the screenshots. However, I did manage to enable the scene between Tifa and Cloud outside in the slums in what time I had to work on this. I just have to find a clean way to integrate everything now and piece together a couple lines that have no clear place. Also, I noticed a lot of blank lines in the Seventh Heaven basement which generally indicates something was ripped out. Perhaps someone with a Japanese version of the game could take a look at the field file?  I'll give you free cookies? lol

118

Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-20 15:39:35 »

OK, so tonight I will seriously stop procrastinating on the screenshots and post them online. I've got a slow internet connection so I'm always like "Ah man I reeaaallllyyy don't want to upload these" lol. But I will.
I'm about to look just for curiosity's sake at the Sector 7 LZS file to see if that scene between Cloud and Tifa remains intact in the PC version as well. I was looking in Seventh Heaven some more, and it would appear that the dialog I had intended to re-add is already in the game and used, but something keeps you from ever being able to see it. I should be able to figure that out with no trouble. At this point though I'm wanting to restore access to that dialog and combine that with a slightly edited version of the scene between the two outside so the Sephiroth references are much more vague, if not removed entirely.
In the bar, there's also a different scene which Cloud is ready to walk out, Tifa asks if he'll stop, then Barret climbs up, gives him his money, and tells him to get the hell out. There's also a scene in the bar where Tifa is constantly asking Cloud if he'll keep his promise, and you can either say a promise is a promise, or you can keep saying "But I still hate Barret" and Tifa will say new things letting you know how pathetic you are. :p
So what I'm thinking is, in that video above the GameShark code cut out some stuff. I think what's supposed to happen is that you're able to say sorry to Tifa, and then Tifa will ask if you'll just wait, a TV announcement happens, Tifa talks some more, Barret climbs up and tosses you your money, and then you leave. The video above would then take place (again I intend to edit out the story foreshadowing) and you'd eventually realize you have to go back into the bar. Alternatively, after the talk between Tifa and Cloud, you can just go back into the bar.
And I'm pretty sure at this point you'll go back into dialog with Tifa and she'll ask if you're going to keep the promise, you can still say you hate Barret, but in the end Tifa says she'll talk to Barret and you go to sleep.
There's also dummied dialog between Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge about how they're scared about SOLDIER, so maybe when you go back into the bar, they're supposed to be there and you can talk to them before you talk to Tifa.

I'll have a lot of questions answered about what goes where when I figure out what's keeping the player from accessing the dialog, but if anyone has some input in the meantime, by all means.

119

Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-20 00:46:23 »

I must say that I really like this idea. So, is it a one man project, or can others join? Maybe being a humanities student could actually help me out here; I don't know much about programming, but I do like my stories

At the moment I'm not adding much in the way of completely new dialog that was never intended to be included. Most of the new dialog is derived from dummied game files, the translated dummied lines from that blog/Face of the Moon, as well as early magazine scans and demo disks. This is to keep all the content "lore friendly" in that it came straight from Square. I've read the Ultimania and countless guides, as well as played through the game repeatedly. Coupled with my script dumping for FF7Voice I did for awhile (Marcis heads that now) I have a very good grasp of the game and know where I want to go with it.

But, depending on what I can accomplish in Meteor I might think about adding completely new things into the game after my current goals are wrapped up. Learning the field script for me is quite challenging. Adding new dialog and dialog choices is pretty easy, along with animating the characters while they talk. However, adding completely new NPCs in a field and moving them around I'm finding rather hard.
If you look at the translated dialog at Berri's blog, you'll see the translated lines from the Honey Bee Inn. I'm recreating the scene entirely to use THAT dialog, and so this involves completely reworking the scene in which Cloud passes out. Originally, he's supposed to get into the hot tub/bath with the girl that accompanies him, so I'm trying to make that happen at the moment. When I post screens, you'll see some of the parts from there I've already completed without a hitch, though.

I'd also like to make some use out of the cave in the Ancient Forest or whatever it's called that was clearly intended for SOMETHING but never used. If anyone can find me some information on that I'd be grateful.


LimitBreak,
I'm thinking about just getting a copy of the Japanese game to note all the differences. I've read the same thing about the clock and I'd like to include that change as well. There's a lot of rumors I want to verify, like hidden bosses and such.
Well so much for Morrowind. After writing about this so much and doing more research, I'm wanting to jump back over to this project.

120

Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-19 19:26:39 »

Thanks, I apologize for the lack of updates on this - I've been trying to wrap up a project I've been working on for Morrowind.

I HAVE been messing around with the Final Fantasy VII sampler disk looking at some of the scenes in that, though. I'm hoping I can find a way to open it's field files so I can study how certain scenes in it were created. For example, after you set the bomb in the first reactor mission, in the sampler not only is Jessie's leg stuck, but Biggs has been knocked out as well. You have to grab them both before you can escape. You can't miss him where he's laid out, and it doesn't add any difficulty in the escape really. At most the extra running gives you one extra random encounter. But I think it helps further paint the scene of what AVALANCHE really is - just a bunch of kids that maybe don't have the most talent, but they've got a lot of heart, a will to learn what they need, and they believe in their cause. This idea is almost completely ripped out of the final game and it's a shame, because it really draws you closer to them, and makes you understand their awe they have of Cloud.

121

Troubleshooting / Re: Who would want a New Game+?

« on: 2009-01-15 18:34:45 »

There was an old discussion here. Basically, it has been attempted but abbandoned.

As for technical stuff - I added some part of code which enabled a new option in the main screen so it would let you choose the saved game and then started a new game loading the selected file instead of the one from kernel.bin. IIRC I only blocked the stats and inventory/materia resetting.

That makes me wonder, how difficult would a bestiary be? I can think of a ghetto method to do this in field script, by having the option take you to a field which brings up a dialog. By selecting an option, you are taken to another area which maybe shows a rotating graphic of that enemy and displays dialog presenting the information on it. That of course is a very swiftly thought out idea and surely could be refined, but it could be possible.

122

Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-14 20:15:29 »

There's really no reason to delete any of it, and it leaves the dialog IDs intact to leave them in for use in other projects. Some of the lines are actually variations, even. If you look at md1stin for example, it appears to have duplicated dialog from the other reactor field files but in fact it's different in some areas. But it's not used obviously. At best, deleting these lines would simply pretty up the LZS files when viewed in an editor.

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Archive / Re: Final Fantasy VII - Clever Hack Name Here

« on: 2009-01-14 20:04:23 »

Actually I came up with the idea after talking to the writer of that blog (she's also on the FF7Voice project), after looking at all the dummied dialog in FF7's script in Loveless while dumping said script for FF7Voice.

124

Archive / [WIP] Final Fantasy VII - Revised (Working Title) UPDATED 2/1

« on: 2009-01-14 19:41:51 »

The goal of this project will be to attempt to restore Final Fantasy VII's dummied content and recreate intended scenes from scratch. This will be presented using a modular system so you can pick and choose only what you want in your game. I may also include some content that was never in the game at any stage but is widely considered a good inclusion. Again these will be optional so you purists don't have to touch them.

Update 2/1/09:
While I had planned on working with both this and helping FF7Voice, apparently they've got no need for script revisions from me now. As a result, most of the revision work I had planned to do will be instead crossing over into this and I'll be able to work full steam for you guys. Best of luck to them.

This means this FF7Voice will largely be incompatible with this project as several lines have been revised for accuracy, many lines have been added, and the result would be half the lines spoken, half the lines unspoken, and several spoken dialogs mismatching the written text. Fair warning.

Here is a small collection of screenshots with descriptions showing some of the changes. I didn't want to give away TOO much before the demo, but just letting you know I'm not blowing smoke at all of you. The screenshots are also taken with YAMP's transparent boxes, damage limit breaking, high-res patch, and NPC-RP/PRP applied - they will not be included with my mod and must be downloaded separately! 

Just a simple dummied line restored, was added by myself originally for FF7Voice:


I find it a better introduction to Materia than simply telling you that you found some. The message box informing you that you've found it, of course, is still present and shown after you actually pick it up.


Barret needs a vacation:



Unused dialog from the international FF7 by Face of the Moon, translated by Glitterberri, and "Barretized" by myself. Gives some meaning later to the Cosmo Canyon scene where Barret is supposed to allude to this scene.


Jessie 2.0 - now with 200% more personality!




Face of the Moon/Glitterberri/Revisions where needed. As you can see, I goofed that choice box a bit, that'll be fixed before the demo.


Cloud getting his pimp on at the Honey Bee Inn... well, sort of...:




The dialog comes from the Face of the Moon blog, found in the international version of FF7, translated by GlitterBerri, and shortened or revised in some cases where necessary by myself. 


Cloud's "first time":




Same source and story as the last pictures.


Cloud giving the Honey Bee Inn girls even more of a hard time:



Originally there was a third choice as shown in the first picture, which then could lead into the choice shown in the second. These were already in the game, they just needed to be inserted back into the code.


A couple uncensored dialogs:



(What's really funny is after I took the screenshot, I noticed that apparently Johnny just couldn't hold it anymore and decided to go beside the Inn to take care of business...)
Because @(&%! just doesn't cut it. Nothing over the top in the game, I promise.


Weapons with lore?!


Depending on the sneaky tricks I can accomplish to not make the game crash, I'm going to try to add lore descriptions to as many items as possible. These descriptions largely come from official sources such as the Ultimania, the game itself, the manual, etc. In this case, the Buster Sword's description comes from Cloud's bio.


Properly translated/renamed items/spells/techs/etc. for accuracy and continuity.


Before anyone gives me crap about Ogre Nix, let's face it - the sword looks like an axe, and in previous FF games there was always an Ogre axe (not to mention the fact Ogre Nix was in VI). Organics was supposed to be a "prettier" revision, but it made no sense at all. If you don't like it, it takes all of 10 seconds to revert in Teioh. It stays Ogre Nix.
This whole portion will be an alternative to the currently available Kernel2.bin replacers. Nothing will be speculated, so don't worry about made up items or descriptions. The picture before this one also showcases the Kernel2.bin changes. I know there's currently a limit, but, don't worry about that.

END OF 2/1/09 UPDATE



Below is a selection of changes and inclusions I intend to make. So, *spoiler* alert I guess:

- Improved reactor mission. More than double the present content will be here, consisting of restored lines, options, recreated scenes, new encounters, and a new introduction sequence. AVALANCHE will become memorable.

- Improved scene at Seventh Heaven. Your options will now actually MEAN something here, as I'll be restoring some content.

- Improved train escape sequence, when the alarm sounds. Again, nearly twice the content. New cutscene, new dialog.

- Improved Honey Bee Inn. Hilarity awaits with the original intended scenes restored.

I could go on, but you get the point. Thing is, I haven't even gotten further than, say, the Golden Saucer in the game files, and I've already got a platter full of new content. It's amazing how much was left out of this game. Not EVERYTHING will be restored, some dummied content was left out for very good reason.

125

Releases / Re: FFVII Psx bug fix? Here I provide

« on: 2009-01-14 18:59:33 »

Same effect, really. This is just more of a... "proper?" way to do it, and looks cleaner since it doesn't jack your spirit up in the stat screen. Technically it can lead to a higher overall magic defense since you can stack M.Def over top of 255 spirit (if you collect the boosters), if for whatever reason you wanted to do that.

For those wanting a fix for the PC *cough* better *cough* version, Wall Market CAN be used without having to get into the nuts and bolts of the game, but it's a poor man's method. Spirit's only function is magic defense. M. Def is basically a second Spirit stat that combines with it for your over all defense against magic.