Very tedious and overused question... Sorry

[The_Iron_Chef]

Hi guys! I've been inactive on these forums for like 2 years now, but i guess something just sparked my interest in my copy of FF7 again. I'm still not exactly up to par with all the modding knowledge for FF7, but i hope i can eventually contribute something to these forums. However, since I've been gone, I found some awesome new mods made by people that I haven't seen before, and I decided to play through FF7 again using all the incredible mod releases. Most of the mods I downloaded, including the high res cloud in battle patch, the NPC RP project, new spell names, battle swirl fix, advent children avatars, and the XP chocobo fix all seem to work flawlessly! However, I decided to cut back on the two probably most important ones, The_SaiNt's High resolution 1280 x 960 patch.... and (I know, what was I thinking) the official 1.02 patch.

THe reason I didn't apply these two patches is because I also wanted to utilize Tony Nilsson's trainer, specifically for the fact that I can bump up my random encounter rate to as high as I want. I want to do this so that I can make my character training go a little faster... However, I've also heard that this trainer's incompatible with 1.02! So I just decided to use the mods I have right now and not take advantage of the 1.02 patch or The_SaiNt's high res patch... Quite a stupid tradeoff, but this is what i prefer. Now the LAST patch I wanted to use was Ficedula's FF7music program, and specifically, I used Kocuru's compilation of Neil Corlett's  and Ficedula's programs in one package (the one including all the plugins, ff7music, the psf files, and cetra). I followed every single direction according to this specific site http://savvygeek.com/2007/10/05/final-fantasy-vii-in-restored-glory/ (only the section that tells you how to replace the crappy PC midi's with the playstation's PSF files).

I followed EVERY step in that section along with the file i downloaded from it... To no avail. When I play FF7, all I get is the game effect sounds and NO MUSIC! It seems when I turned my midi volume back ON... I was back to the plain MIDI sounds instead of the psf songs. WHich means they were never replaced! I came to the assumption that I NEED to install version 1.02 to get FF7music and cetra to replace the MIDI's with the psf files?... Is this right?

And if so, then is there a trainer out there (which allows VERY high random encounters) that's actually compatible with 1.02? I've looked at most of them, and saw that they were all for 1.0... I guess my only solution would be to make my OWN trainer and change the random encounter rate myself, which I am willing to do. This is all because I'm also willing to install the 1.02 patch (which, on the good side, would also let me use The_SaiNt's high res patch  ).

I'm sorry for the reaallly long paragraph.. I know i'm rambling, but it would be a GREAT help to me if you guys replied! I've searched the whole night for answers to these repeated questions, but I just couldn't figure out the answer (i also checked the sticky thread on FF7music). Thanks in advance for any replies! It's great to be back!

[The_Iron_Chef]

Alright, so I finally decided to just install the 1.02 patch. It works great so far, and I also decided to make my own trainer for it (if I'm not mistaken, there are not a lot, if any, 1.02 trainers out there right?)

The two options I essentially want to edit are the limit break bars and random encounter rates. The point of this trainer, i guess, is to speed up gameplay and to basically cover up what the save editors can't do. I've got the character 1, 2, and 3 address values for the trainer figured out using the trainer address finding program Tsearch, so I'm set on that. However... the random encounter value is a whole different story. Not only do I not know the byte range, but I also don't know when the value changes in the game! Is it whenever you enter a new area? If your character is in a town, then does the value suddenly change to 0? I'm using tsearch to accomplish this trainer, so if any of you experienced trainer-makers are around, can you please reply to my question? Or if you already know the addresses for random encounters, that would be even better! I know Tony Nilsson made his trainer to bump up the encounter rates, so does anybody know how to solve this for me? Thanks in advance!

I will definitely release this trainer once it's complete, since it's probably one of the few (if there even are any..) trainers that's compatible with 1.02. Thanks in advance for any replies!

[Landarma]

Hello, I once made 1.02 trainer with some trainer making tool, but I think I lost it now.  Instead, I used T-Search and addresses I found while playing the game.

I can tell some tip for getting addresses for FF7 PC 1.02:
1. Most of addresses can be obtained via adding EA18h to 1.00 address.
(example: Money address becomes DC08B4 = DB1E9C+EA18)
2. However, to get some addresses, like Limit Break Gauge, you should add different value, like E950h.
(It needs some searching and re-caculating.  I can't remember how I got that value well, but checking enemy HP changes may work)

[The_Iron_Chef]

hey thanks for replying!

One problem with what you suggested is that... well... I don't have the addresses for the 1.00 version either!

I think I may have a solution though. I was thinking I would check for an unknown value after I've exited an area that HAS random encounters, and check in "Has changed to 0" when I go into an area that has 0 random encounters, like a town. Wouldn't that make sense? I mean a town or other place with no random encounters should have a random encounter rate of 0, right? The only problem is that I don't know if there are any other values that change to 0 in a situation like that... I mean I don't want to mess up the game in any way you know? Then I'd have to start all over again.

[Landarma]

hey thanks for replying!

One problem with what you suggested is that... well... I don't have the addresses for the 1.00 version either!

I think I may have a solution though. I was thinking I would check for an unknown value after I've exited an area that HAS random encounters, and check in "Has changed to 0" when I go into an area that has 0 random encounters, like a town. Wouldn't that make sense? I mean a town or other place with no random encounters should have a random encounter rate of 0, right? The only problem is that I don't know if there are any other values that change to 0 in a situation like that... I mean I don't want to mess up the game in any way you know? Then I'd have to start all over again.

Here're some codes I wrote down to use with TSearch.(I think searching for 'FF7 GameHack code' from GameFAQs or somewhere else will be helpful)

Code: [Select]

<Battle>
99C958 - enemy 1 HP
99C9C0 - enemy 2 HP
99CA28 - enemy 3 HP
99CA90 - enemy 4 HP
99CAF8 - enemy 5 HP
99CB60 - enemy 6 HP
99A1C5 - P1 battle timer
99C7B8 - P1 hit points
99A470 - P1 limit break(+E950h)
99C7B4 - P1 magic points
99A209 - P2 battle timer
99C820 - P2 hit points
99A4A4 - P2 limit break
99C81C - P2 magic points
99A24D - P3 battle timer
99C888 - P3 hit points
99A4D8 - P3 limit break
99C884 - P3 magic points

DAE0C1 - Random encounters (0:No encounters)
98F970 - Gained EXP
98F974 - Gained AP

DB1EDC - battle counter

<Menu>
DB1EE0 - Menu control 1 (255:all option visible)
DB1EE1 - Menu control 2 (255:PHS & save visible)
DB1EE2 - Menu access 1  (0:all options accessable)
DB1EE3 - Menu access 2  (0:PHS & save available)

<Character>
DB1818: Character slot 1
DB1819: Character slot 2
DB181A: Character slot 3



<Item>


DB1F04 - Key items 1
DB1F05 - Key items 2
DB1F06 - Key items 3
DB1F07 - Key items 4
DB1F08 - Key items 5
DB1F09 - Key items 6
DB1F0A - Key items 7

<Materia>


<Etc.>
DB1E9C - Money (DC08B4)
DB200E - GP (Gold saucer)
DB2014 - BP (Gold saucer)

DB1390(DBFDA8) - Cloud's weapon


For Riva patch: (address)+EA18h

CFF638(CC14ED?) - High TV Ratings/President's Mood


[The_Iron_Chef]

WOW THIS IS AWESOME!

Thanks Landarma!

However, I just ran a test using your advice. I checked my limit bar meter for Player 1 using the character editor program, and set it at 251, and it seems to correspond with the address I put in! (99A470 E950h)

However, when I changed the value to 255, nothing happened! The limit bar didn't reach the maximum! What could've gone wrong? I read somewhere that the character limit bars in the game actually have TWO addresses that need to match in order for it to change...

Also, this is the gamefaqs hacking page that you mentioned http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/130791/13970

The author says, near 3/4 of the page, in the limit break gauge section, that there are two addresses...

However, I forgot to tell you, I have a BUNCH of mods installed on my installation of FF7... the NPC RP mod, avatar, the new buster sword, the high res cloud, and the_SaiNt's high res patch, and a few others. I also have ff7music so that I play the .psf files instead of the MIDI ones... Could these mods have POSSIBLY changed all the addresses around?

Thanks for the help though, looks like you were right! Maybe there's one other address that needs to be changed too though... That's what I read.
Thanks for the reply Landarma.

[Landarma]

If the mod affects to executable file directly(like patching it), there might be chance of affecting base addresses as well.  But I haven't seen that with chocobo race patch and minigame patch.  I once tried high-rez patch, but since I didn't play with it much, so I can't tell.

**By the way, I think Limit Gauge value was 3 or 4bytes, not 1byte.......

[The_Iron_Chef]

Well the maximum of the bar is 255, since in the savegame character editor, if you set it at 255, your gauge is full, but i'll try and do it at 4 bytes anyway.

Well i got a trial version of Gamehack 2.0 since that's what the gamefaqs guide author says he used, but the addresses seem different from yours. I'll try it with this one now, but thanks for all the help Landarma! Let me know if you recall anything new.

EDIT:
Looks like gamehack is a bust 
It uses totally different addresses... Landarma, if you remember HOW you obtained both the limit gauge addresses and the random encounter one, I would be forever in your debt. But you've helped me out a lot already so far, thanks a lot man.