Messages

126

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-26 23:10:21 »

but what of increasing the limit to FF FF FF, is this possible? How would it be done?

I don't know if you read my previous messages, but this is what I did by directly editing the executable, and it works great. The only problem is, you'll never know how much HP the enemy really has... ...It will divide its HP in chunks of 65535. So, if the enemy has 131100 HP and you sense it, it will display "30/30 HP" then after you damage it for 30 points of damage, you'll read "65535/30 HP" and after you deplete these 65535, it will show "65535 / 30 HP" one last time.

@ Wutai clan : I installed the C++ thingy, used a clean FF7.exe, and made FF7opengl.cfg directly read GameSettings.dll, but it still doesn't work

127

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-26 22:35:09 »

@NFITC1:

Yeah, I'm nitpicking with W-Magic, I admit. It's true that it works this way in all FFs that made the command available. Still, I'd love to select the first magic spell, its target, then press Square or something to bypass the need to enter a second command.

@ Wutai clan :

I'll test your test release right away
...if I can make multi.dll work, that is. I followed the instructions : Multi.dll and the LOADR folder are both in the Final Fantasy VII directory, and I added the load_library = Multi.dll line inside the FF7opengl.cfg. And it doesn't work either when I only put FF7anyCD.dll inside the LOADR folder. It works fine without Multi.dll though, so I'll try your dll without it for now.

128

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-26 17:11:43 »

@Armorvil, that address you listed for Sense, I can't find it, not sure how that value relates to the disassembled code, I've seen 30,000 called in several places, RestoreHPMP, uses that same amount for fully restoring your characters, etc,. (I'll keep an eye out for it, but, if you can find it in memory, that would be good.)

Unfortunately, my knowledge in programming is very, very limited (inexistent ? Perhaps). I want to learn but don't know where to start... ...So I can't tell you where to find it in memory. I just opened FF7.exe in my hex editor, searched for the bytes 30 75, replaced each of the found strings by FF FF, and tested the game until Sense worked on an enemy with 60,000 HP. This is how I found the address 0x1C9515.

I might also find other functions that call a specific value, but I have no idea what I could search for next.

EDIT:

- make the Darkness/Blind status effect work on enemies (this one might be easier through AI editing, though)

Does it not work for enemies? I've never tried it.

Yeah, it's one of the many FFVII bugs : the Ink item doesn't do a thing. Credit goes to Vgr255 for giving me the info (and I thought I knew everything about FF7). He also informed me about the Elixir bug, which I easily fixed with Wall Market (since the Elixir's formula is physical, a character equipped with the Cover materia would sometimes jump in front of the character you'd want Elixir'd, and drink it ).

129

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-26 16:53:13 »

Thanks

I set it at FFFFFF : 16,777,215
The problem though, is that the Sense menu can't display more than 65535. So on the enemy I tested it on, which has 330,000 HP, the Sense menu will say that it has 2325 HP. And when you'll remove those 2325 HP from it, the menu will then display oddities like 65000/2325 HP. As if the enemy had 5 HP bars of 65535 HP each, and a 6th HP gauge of 2325 HP.

EDIT:

Thanks for posting a comment after each of those ideas, NFITC1. Though, with all due respect, your comment about W-Magic was pretty stupid

130

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-26 16:36:53 »

- remove the less than 30,000 HP requirement for Sense to work (or make this number much higher)

Found it ! 
The HP requirement for Sense is at offset 0x1C9515. Easy to find in a hex-editor and with proper testing. I just searched for 75 30 (= 30000 ; and I know the bytes are reversed in a hex editor).

Proof in picture

131

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-26 15:40:19 »

Sadly I can't help about all this technical stuff, but I have some other ideas, if you need them. Luckily, one day, some of those will be doable.

- making it so the Back Row modifiers are only applied when at least one party member is in the front row (doesn't make much sense that all allies can get access to the back row ; logic tells me that if nothing is in the front row, the back row becomes the front row... ...if logic can be applied to this row system, that is )

- expand the magic spell lists... ...I bet this one would be particularly tricky, since you'd have to expand the menus, too

- make weaknesses to status effects display when you use Sense

- remove the less than 30,000 HP requirement for Sense to work (or make this number much higher)

- make the Defend command also halve damage from Magic and Fixed damage, to increase its usefulness

- make it so that you can cast a single magic when you're equipped with the W-Magic materia. I find it annoying when I want to cast only one spell, and the game forces me to cast two (waste of MP). This downside to W-Magic makes no sense

- remove the W-Item glitch, of course

- make the Darkness/Blind status effect work on enemies (this one might be easier through AI editing, though)

- make the Defence and Magic Defence work differently. Since currently they work as a % reduction of damage received (512 being a 100% reduction and 256 being a 50% one), a bonus of 1 or 2 points in Def/MDef is negligible. In some RPGs, when you go from 50 points of Defence to 51 or 52, damage is sometimes reduced from 1000 to 500 or even 200. I love that. It would require a complete overhaul of the characters' and monsters' stats, but it would ultimately make the stats more important and thus, the game more interesting

- make the game consider materias as items, so they can be stolen / dropped / morphed from enemies. I'd love to be able to use the Hojo tool (or the yet-to-be-released Proud Clod that will render Hojo useless) to make a materia a battle reward.

...Mmm, maybe I should create another topic that would list all those ideas/requests, instead of posting them in your thread.

132

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: FF7 AI question again...

« on: 2011-04-25 18:50:59 »

Ha, thanks a lot, but I actually don't want a condition. I just want an enemy to cast its spell on 1 target or all targets randomly (with a 50% chance for each). The battle mechanics in FFVI already do that, since for example, the SlamDancer, when alone (and without a targeting command to specify this behavior), casts Fire2, Ice2 or Bolt2 either on the whole team, or on a single party member.

I was wondering if there was a simple way to do that in FFVII (in other words, without having to insert dozens of bytes). My guess is it should be possible by calling a random value (0 or 1, think dice-roll), and if 0 comes up -> make the enemy targets 1 ally, and if 1 comes up -> make the enemy target all allies. But I suppose this solution would require kind of a long script...

I wish one could make FFVII read the AI language used in FFVI. True, it is more restrictive, but paradoxally, its simplicity would allow most modders to achieve what they want a lot faster and with less hassle. I love that, for example, if you enter the command "use Fire" for an enemy in FFVI, it will automatically follow this 50% rule - and it's only when you enter a specific target command just above, that it will use Fire on a particular ally, a random ally, or all allies (among other targeting possibilities). Sorry for bringing up FFVI again

133

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: FF7 AI question again...

« on: 2011-04-25 16:49:21 »

Much appreciated ! Still, I gave sleep as an example, as I was thinking about a script which would also work with any magic.

134

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: FF7 AI question again...

« on: 2011-04-25 15:02:42 »

Awesome, thank you very much !

And now that I think about it, I'd hate to abuse your kindness, but do you know what the script would be if I wanted this enemy to only have a 50% chance to target all party members ? IE, making it use Sleep on a single target half the time ?

135

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: FF7 AI question again...

« on: 2011-04-25 13:53:11 »

Thanks for the reply, NFITC1

Here is a random script of an enemy that single-targets a spell :

12 2070
02 20A0
00 4002
80
60 00
40
82
90
60 20
60 [spell ID]
92

Does that mean I just need to replace 82h? You wouldn't happen to know the byte I'd need to enter, would you?... ...In any case, I'll take a look at those examples, thanks ^^

@Bosola: something like that would be awesome

136

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 AI question again...

« on: 2011-04-25 11:04:42 »

Anyone knows which byte(s) to change to make an enemy multi-target a magic spell (like Fire, Sleep, Dispel, ...) instead of single target ? I hope it is as simple as changing one or two bytes, but when I compared Safer Sephiroth's AI (IIRC the guy multi-targets DeSpell) with another monster that single-targets (almost all of them =\), their scripts were so different it wasn't funny.

Any help would be appreciated

137

Gameplay / Re: Final Fantasy 7: Plus (PSX)

« on: 2011-04-25 09:27:20 »

I chose the contraction of the first one "x doesn't have enough MP"
But alternatively, maybe "x is low on MP" is more simple...

138

Completely Unrelated / Re: Sailor Moon

« on: 2011-04-24 14:24:46 »

Ha, thanks for the insight KM, but I just realized I already knew that (in French, the word would be "connerie"). My "bull" wasn't actually meant to be taken litterally, but as some twisted kind of humour. My screaming "bull'!" was just to show that the yuri fan inside of me was angry that this pairing was wrong (and Covarr created a doubt in my mind, regarding my knowledge of the "finer" parts of the English language).

139

Gameplay / Re: Final Fantasy 7: Plus (PSX)

« on: 2011-04-24 14:09:52 »

doh' ! Thanks, I'll fix that

140

Completely Unrelated / Re: Sailor Moon

« on: 2011-04-24 10:33:21 »

Think of bullsh*t as a more intense wrong.

That means I got it right. Wonder why Covarr felt the need to correct me.

141

Completely Unrelated / Re: Standard RPG's just not cutting it anymore

« on: 2011-04-24 08:37:45 »

It is nothing to do with emo characters.  For a starter, Squall was sociopath.  It does not mean it is a bad story because the character has a character trait.  The reason I am sick of modern JRPG and games is the reliance on graphics instead of substance.  Liek FF12,13,14, MGS4, RE4, RE5. etc.

It is now just a graphic fest and gameplay plays second fiddle to it.  The dumbing down is ridiculous.  The stories are also getting more bloated and ridiculous.

This x 1000. Me (being a huge FF, Resident Evil 1/2/3 and Metal Gear Solid 1/2/3 fan) completely agrees. Sadly, there is not a single next gen game I'm looking forward to, except from The Last Guardian. And, as great as they are, you can't say the Team ICO games are full of gameplay. They're more some kind of emotional experience.

142

Completely Unrelated / Re: Sailor Moon

« on: 2011-04-24 08:29:25 »

Not bull, just wrong. It's Uranus and Neptune.

I thought saying something is bull(shit) means that something is wrong. But I admit English isn't my natural language, so...

143

Gameplay / Re: Final Fantasy 7: Plus (PSX)

« on: 2011-04-24 08:25:30 »

In my mod it says "Soldier 3rd has not enough MP"

144

Completely Unrelated / Re: Sailor Moon

« on: 2011-04-23 23:13:38 »

I tried searching for "sailor saturn uranus" in google image, and in at least 12 pages, not a single yuri pic of the two. So I call bull (and I am disappoint).

145

General Discussion / Re: Final Fantasy VIII - opinions?

« on: 2011-04-22 19:00:17 »

I see, thanks for the info, both of you. Does Alek/Areku/... mean anything ? Because I kinda understand why they went with Wrexsoul. Wrex = wreck; Wrexsoul being a soul-destroyer monster preying on Cyan and all that.

146

General Discussion / Re: Final Fantasy VIII - opinions?

« on: 2011-04-22 18:29:47 »

That translation looks way off.  That is more Aleksoul or somthing....

It's been a while since I played FFVI Advance, but according to Djibriel's FAQ (the FFVI bible), they still translated his name as Wrexsoul. So maybe it is a good translation (or, highly unlikely : they considered it was as legendary as spoony bard & co, so they kept it in).

Or, if you're just joking, I'm afraid I don't get the joke

147

FF7 Tools / Re: [Release v1.4.5] WallMarket KERNEL.BIN editor

« on: 2011-04-22 08:22:46 »

the issue became that i did this with an older release of the WallMarket program and something happened where everything with an H, E, or and A in its name deleted those letters. Ex. - (Final Heaven became Final    ven, Seal Evil became S  l  vil, and so on for a large number of materia, accessory, weapons, armor, and item names.)

Yeah, this is a known problem, and there's still no fix. The only thing you can do is try to correct the names and descriptions. If the same thing happens afterwards, try to do it step by step, by saving your kernel2 file after each correction and by making a backup. Thanks to this method, I noticed that it was when I tried to correct a certain name (cait sith's Game Over limit), that some characters would again disappear. So, in the end, I could correct all the names except this one, and it works fine.

I went back in many  months later to try and fix the problem by maybe reducing the descriptions on key item names, "deleting" items, and removing descriptions, of simple items like Tent or Soft to reduce the size of the resulting file, but then i see that the check box for "update text" was unavailable to be checked. Therefore i couldn't fix my problem. Is there any particular reason for this? The only way i could make it work was by removing the Kernel.bin and placing it into a lone folder by itself, but then i couldn't "create kernel.bin and kernel2.bin" which is final in implicating the changes. So i was able to make everything work the way i wanted but when the text was ruined i couldn't go back to fix it, nor could i go and start from scratch with a fresh kernel/kernel2.bin

From what you're saying you're modifiying the PC version of the game, so it's perfectly normal that the "Update text" function is grayed out. "Update Text" is only relevant if you modify a PSX kernel, since the PSX version doesn't have a Kernel2.bin. As long as you create both Kernel.bin & Kernel2.bin when saving (or only Kernel2.bin), your changes should be saved. If they're not, try my above method because it means that changing a certain name triggers the same bug again.

As far as I know, this problem isn't caused by the file size.

148

General Discussion / Re: Final Fantasy VIII - opinions?

« on: 2011-04-21 22:19:01 »

The funny thing in the Wrexsoul battle though, is that you need to kill the "right" party member during the battle, for the boss to appear (as opposed to having to kill your party members before the boss fight, in Ruby's case). It should be doable through AI editing in FFVII, but don't ask me how (Bosola, NFITC1, Gjoerulv or Titeguy might know, though).

149

Gameplay / Re: [WIP] Custom Game Settings (FF7)

« on: 2011-04-21 20:57:34 »

I see. Oh, and I also know that many people, myself included, would love to increase the damage from the Poison status (something like 25% MaxHP would be cool, so it finally becomes a threat). I'm done this time, promise 

150

General Discussion / Re: Final Fantasy VIII - opinions?

« on: 2011-04-21 20:14:44 »