Messages

1

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: Changing Spell Animations (Going beyond the limits)

« on: 2006-07-23 03:14:56 »

An update.

I've tried changing the 'materia type' bytes to make quadra magic or mp turbo to apply to E Skill, but have not had any success... most of the values would just render the materia useless.

It would be wonderful if someone would give me exactly what this byte 14 of the materia data does... Glancing at the numbers seem to indicate that the properties follow a pattern that is commonly seen in other bytetypes, i.e.:
you start at FF and subtract any combination of hex 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 40, or 80 to set that byte into each associated effect...

I've had an idea... just about the only part of the kernel that has not been mapped at all is the 'command data.' Currently, all we know about it is that the record is 16 bytes long. Seeing as the note was posted almost 1.5 years ago... I've been wondering if the team here has had any further success mapping this data since then? If anything about the magic command has been discovered, I might be able to change the set of commands magic refers to as an Enemy Skill subset rather than the 'Magic' subset... Sigh, I have no idea where to begin.

: ( Any help will be sincerely appreciated.

-comet2

2

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Changing Spell Animations (Going beyond the limits)

« on: 2006-07-22 15:55:31 »

Hello,

It has finally come to this. I have done everything I could to get the most powerful spell that is possible within the FF7 universe. Almost all the effects have been ironed out. The only part I'm having trouble with is animation. Very few animations within FF7 meet the category of 'animations that bring into mind total world destruction.' These would be Sephiroth's Supernova or Red XII's Cosmo Memory (Pandora's box, with the cheesy question mark, fails in this sense).

Sephiroth's Supernova cannot be applied at all because the animation probably is tied to Safer*Sephiroth's 3d model. Red XII's Cosmo Memory CAN be applied as an animation to the spells. In fact, I managed to alter Pandora's Box to use that animation. However, I am having much trouble (it may be insurmountable) when I attempted to use this animation for a magic spell such that I could quadra magic and w-magic with the animation. Below is an explanation of my dilemma.

As I had stated in my previous thread, I have been successful in causing any spell/attack cast in the game to have many effects not normally available in-game, as well as force some of the spells to use other animations normally only available as attacks done by enemies (not limited to those that can be gained through Enemy Skills).

This is how it worked....
A normal spell, such as Ice, would have a the following series of data as its information:

64 FF 00 FF 04 00 FF FF 07 00 24 00 0F 1E 22 08 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 02 00 FF FD

Byte 14 (1E in this case) controls the animation sequence of the spell.

To change the animation, I would first look at the target 'spell' or 'attack' (even limit breaks) with the animation, and look at its data. I will take matra magic, 'Heart', and 'Braver' as examples.

64 FF 02 FF 08 00 FF FF 9F 00 9F 00 07 0A 22 0B FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF FD Matra Magic
FF FF 00 FF 00 00 FF FF E5 00 E5 00 03 2F 25 0A FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 02 FF FF Heart
FF FF 00 FF 00 00 FF FF 32 00 32 00 13 00 11 30 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF FF Braver


Byte 14 in each case is 0A, 2F, and 00. It is important to note that while the 'order' of animations may be shared across command types ('limit,' 'magic,' and 'Enemy Skill') It seems that the point at which the labeling of each animation starts is different. (i.e. ID 00 for limit will be different from ID 00 of Magic, and ID 00 of Enemy Skill etc).

The key thing here is that the order is still shared across these different labeling methods. As a result, if we find the relationship between the different labels, we could potentially (and indeed can) find a way to specifically use an Enemy Skill animation as a limit break etc etc. I did not have a good way to figure this out other than by trial and error. Through analyses, however, I did manage to decipher the labeling scheme of Enemy Skill and Magic.

Below is the labeling scheme of Magic Spells.

Before you begin anything, make sure you convert everything to decimals (!!). Very important-it will reduce all kinds of confusion.

00-53: normal magic spells, from Cure to Shield.
54+:
There's a difference between how the labeling is applied to spells that are accessible through the Enemy Skill materia versus spells that are only available as enemy attacks.
Case 1: i.e. Matra Magic, Enemy's spells that can be learned by the player
if you know the animation ID of the spell in the context of the enemy, as I have listed above...
ID number in any magic spell that will give the Enemy Skill animation=(animation ID from Enemy attacks)+49
So, if you would want Matra Magic as the animation for your MAGIC spell, then you would take 0A=15, add 49 to it getting 64, and then plug in (in DECIMALS) 64 as your value of for byte 14 of your magic spell.

Case 2: i.e. 'Heart', Enemy's spells that cannot be learned by player
ID number to input=(animation ID from Enemy attacks)+78
for Heart, this would mean 2F=47, 47+78=125, plug in 125 as your value for byte 14.

Case 3: i.e. Braver, limit breaks
ID number to input=(animation ID from player attacks)+236
for Braver, this would mean 00=0, 0+236=236, plug in 236 as your value for byte 14.

This is where the problem arises. Due to the inherent limitations of the hexadecimal system, you can only put up to 255 different possible animations. Since the animation ID of limit breaks as Magic spells start at 236, this means that 255-236=19 different limit breaks are available. However, there are more than 19 limit breaks possible... since the original limit breaks are listed in the order of Cloud-Barret-Aeris-Tifa-Red XII-Cid-Yuffie-Vincent, this means that only the first 19 of the list of limit breaks are available (all of Cloud's and barret's limit breaks plus some of Aeris's).

And indeed, this is the case-due to the limitations of this labeling scheme, there is currently no way to get Tifa's Red XII's, or any other characters' limit break animations as a magic spell. (I.e. to get cosmo memory, Attack ID "FF FF 00 FF 00 00 FF FF 59 00 59 00 17 29 11 7D FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF FF", I would have to be able to put 29=41+236=277 as my decimal value for byte 14... but hexadecimal values can only take up to 255)

I thought of several possible solutions to this problem.
1)The animations could be tied to what the original spell/attack used. This would mean that I could change the animation for 'Braver,' for example, into the animation for cosmo memory (in effect, changing the 14th byte of Braver from 00 to 29). This didn't work... it seems like the list of animations are independent of what the actual spells may use.
2) Since Enemy skills have a labeling system that is more forgiving (+17 for unlearnable enemy skills, +175 for limit breaks), This means that I could indeed use the animation of Cosmo Memory as the animation for one of the enemy skills. In order to make this useable, I would have to figure out how to make Quadra Magic and W-magic work with E.Skill... Which I have not had much success with.
3) Since the labeling scheme/list of animations is an integral part of the game, I thought that perhaps using a different version of the ff7 exe file might change the labeling scheme. I had been testing so far with 1.00+chocobo patch. When I used the 1.02 version, while it change the memory offsets of a variety of spells, it did not change the labeling scheme...

Right now, the most likely method is a) figure out how to change the labeling scheme, or b) find out how to make Quadra magic and W-magic work with E-skill. I've tried to make the two materia work for E.skill by changing the byte for 'type of materia,' but have not had much success.

I would really, sincerely appreciate any help you could give me... I am really at a roadblock right now.

-comet2

3

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout (With Screenshots in 1st post!)

« on: 2006-07-22 00:22:34 »

...

I believe I had mentioned before the tie/no tie between animation and # of hits of a spell...

4x cut only uses normal cutting animation, and only hits one at a time. By 'Super Combo,' do you mean a lot of hits (something like 10x cut or something)?

I do not know the data structure of commands, so I'm not sure if I can do that... if you want your spell to deal 10x whatever damage you hit it with, you can change the no. of hits of the spell into 10... I think I explained how (byte 20) above.

Ugh. I am still trying to figure out a way to use the animation for All creation as a spell, but I have not been able to do it... This will be my next goal.

-Comet2

4

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout (With Screenshots in 1st post!)

« on: 2006-07-21 23:17:05 »

Hi,
I attempted to find how the computer reads the animations so that I could change the 'scale' (ID of the actual attack versus ID that needs to be put in a spell to give out the attack (i.e. Braver has ID 00 in limit break animations, but is ID 236 in magic spell animation)... I haven't had much success yet. : (

And no, All creation won't work... none of Red XII's limit breaks are within the range of possible limit breaks. Right now, only Cloud's, Barret's, and a few of Aeris's Limit Breaks can be used as spell animations. Sigh... This might involve changing the entire game engine... (The Limit Break Animation IDs are in the order of Cloud-Barret-Aeris-Tifa-Redxii-cait sith-vincent-yuffie)

I wonder-if I change the animation of Braver (the limit break) to use the cosmo memory animation, then change the animation ID of my 'ultimate spell' to that of Braver, will it allow me to use the cosmo memory animation? I'll try this out, although I doubt it will work.

EDIT: doesn't work.

-comet2

5

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout (With Screenshots in 1st post!)

« on: 2006-07-21 22:23:03 »

Hello.

I have one last question to ask you all. Is there any way I could use the animation for cosmo memory in my normal spells? Part of my effort to list all possible animation IDs was to use that animation, as it most really does resemble a huge meteor (not the puny comet one) bringing mass destruction upon the enemies... unfortunately, while these IDs did end up applying some limit breaks, the IDs already went up to 255 before all the Animations could be categorized... Any ideas?

According to my calculations, if possible, the animation for cosmo memory would be #277... If only the byte structure was 17 base, heh. Sigh.

-comet2

6

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-21 04:50:53 »

Currently, my spell stands as : hits 50 times, 9999 each, Quadra magic-able 'Ice' that ignores opponent defense and uses the pale horse animation (only targets one opponent). It costs 0 MP. It also deals all negative status effects, although I'm debating whether to allow the 'imprisoned' status to stay on, as I don't think even the bosses can resist it... although I'm not too sure about this.

Finally, a quick primer for those of you who want to use this spell... An instruction on how to do it (this exact spell).

Before I begin, I'd like to let you know that this is how I did it in my computer and worked-I am not responsible for any damage that you may cause on your computer. You have your warning. If used incorrectly, this has the potential to lock up your computer to the point where you have to unplug the computer to restart it. Don't sue me if you do this one too many times and one day your computer burns out.


Without further ado:

1. equip your character with the 'Ice' materia inside the game.
2. get L.Spiro's Memory Hacking Program. (found in 'list of programs' stickied post in this forum)
3. open Memory hacking program and FF7. alt-tab to Memory Hacking Program. Click File-Open Process-ff7.exe.
4. go to Search-Group Search.
5. Check 'Preserve order of bytes' and 'data as hex'. type in 28 in 'group size'.
6. Type the following code in the 'Data List'. (or just copy paste from here)

Code: [Select]

code for ice:
64 FF 00 FF 04 00 FF FF 07 00 24 00 0F 1E 22 08 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 02 00 FF FDPress 'OK.'
7. There should be a found addresses window open after it's done. If not go to Window-found addresses. Double click on the found address. a window called 'RAM watcher' should open. If it doesn't open, go to tools, click on 'RAM watcher.' then type '28' on the Watch field and the address you found (under 'Address' in the Found Addresses window) in the 'Addresses Starting At' field.
8. Double click on the first address. A window will pop up saying 'Insert Address.' Make sure the Type is set to 'Byte.' Press OK.
9. The address should now be visible in your main window. double click on the address. It will open a window called 'memory attributes.'
10. On the 'Preferred Value' field, type '255.' Click on the 'Locked' Field. Click OK. Congratulations, your Ice will now have a 255% chance to hit.
11. Go back to the 'Ram watcher' Window. double click on the 5th address. It should have some address value followed by 04 and 4. Go through same process to add the address to your main window. then Lock it to 0. Congratulations, your Ice will now need 0 MP.
The instructions will be repetitive if I say the same thing to change each address, so below is the list of which address you have to double click (in the form of 1st-28th) and the value you have to lock it to, followed by what it does.
13th-lock it to 3-will force it to always target just one opponent. Possible numbers below. Thanks dziugo.

Code: [Select]

Byte 13 is the target information.
 0x00 Target Self and only Self
 0x01 Only One Target Allowed
 0x02 Target Enemy By Default
 0x04 Target All (Ignores 0x01)
 0x08 Can Switch Between 1 Target and All Targets if Both Are Valid Options
 0x10 Only Target Default Team
 0x20 ?
 0x40 Hits Everyone (Allies and Foes)
 0x80 Random Targets Within Valid Group14th-lock it to 219-will change its animation to that of pale horse: a dragonball z type thing where energy gathers in front of character then creates a swath of energy through the enemy from the character. You can change this to other bytes (the full list is provided a few posts above)
15th-lock it to 17.
16th-lock it to 255-will force Ice3 to use the maximum possible power in FF7 engine (to use Terence Fergusson's terminology, this will give Ice a power that is 16x base (KotR is 5x base)
18th-lock it to 63-all status ailments this spell causes will have a 100% chance of affliction. To avoid trouble, don't go any higher (please.)
19th-lock it to 0.
20th-lock it to 50-this controls how many hits your spell will deal. In animations that don't depend on the number of hits (most magic spells), this will deal the full no. of hits (up to 81 hits). note that the higher the number of hits, the higher the chance that the game will hang.
21st to 24th- lock it to 205, 94, 8, 142 respectively. this deals with what kind of status effects this spell will apply to characters. The list of ailments and its respective addresses can be found below. Note that multiple status effects can be gained by adding the addresses together (in hex). For reference, see my very first post, 2nd page-thanks Dziugo.

Code: [Select]

Status effects:

21st-22nd-23rd-24th

10 00 00 00 - Sadness (gears) ok
01 00 00 00 - Death (status cure <=> Life/Phoenix Down)
02 00 00 00 - Near Death (gears - probably not useful here)
04 00 00 00 - Sleep
08 00 00 00 - Poison
20 00 00 00 - Fury (gears) ok
40 00 00 00 - Confu
80 00 00 00 - Silence

00 01 00 00 - Haste
00 02 00 00 - Slow
00 04 00 00 - Stop
00 08 00 00 - Frog
00 10 00 00 - Small
00 20 00 00 - Slow-Numb (gears) ok
00 40 00 00 - Petrify (gears) correct
00 80 00 00 - Regen

00 00 01 00 - Barrier
00 00 02 00 - MBarrier
00 00 04 00 - Reflect
00 00 08 00 - dual-shows 'dual' in text screen
00 00 10 00 - shield
00 00 20 00 - death-sentence
00 00 40 00 - manipulate
00 00 80 00 - berserk

00 00 00 01 - peerless
00 00 00 02 - Paralysed
00 00 00 04 - Darkness (gears) ok
00 00 00 08 - Dual (gears)-hp leeching effect, must be combined with 'dual' above for game to not crash
00 00 00 10 - Death Force (gears)
00 00 00 20 - Resist
00 00 00 40 - Lucky Girl (gears) ok
00 00 00 80 - Imprisoned (gears) ok
25th-lock it to 0. This controls what elements the spell will have. Reference for the elements can be found below. (once again, thanks dziugo)

Code: [Select]

Elements:
 0x0001 Fire
 0x0002 Ice
 0x0004 Lightning
 0x0008 Earth
 0x0010 Poison
 0x0020 Gravity
 0x0040 Water
 0x0080 Wind
 0x0100 Holy
 0x0200 Restorative
 0x0400 Cut
 0x0800 Hit
 0x1000 Punch
 0x2000 Shoot
 0x4000 Shout
28th-lock to 219. This controls various special effects of the spell. The full range of values for the 27th and 28th bytes can be found below. Once again, I gleaned these from Dziugo's posts. Note that some specials may only work for specific animations i.e. the blade beam special.

Code: [Select]

Also, the last two bytes are “specials”.
They contain data related to:
 0x0001 Attack MP instead of HP
 0x0002 ?
 0x0004 ?
 0x0008 ?
 0x0010 Drain Damage Dealt
 0x0020 Drain HP/MP
 0x0040 Blade Beam
 0x0080 Ignore Status
 0x0100 Miss if Not in “Death” Status
 0x0200 Reflectable
 0x0400 Piercing (Unblockable)
 0x0800 Angel Whisper/Pulse of Life
 0x1000 ?
 0x2000 Critical Hits
 0x4000 ?
 0x8000 ?

They are combined the same way as statuses and elements except for one thing.
Rather than each bit being set, the effects apply if the bit is NOT set.

Thus Magic Hammer (0xFDEE) has the following properties:
0xFDEE =
1111110111101110 =
Attack MP instead of HP,
Drain Damage Dealt,
Reflectable
That's all. Now you have my spell whenever you cast Ice.

If you don't want to repeat this every time you open up FF7, go to the main window of memhack, go to file-save and save it. Next time you want to use this spell, just open memhack, open the file, and select ff7 as your process.

Memory hacking opens up a world of possibilities, including always-full limit bars, constant peerless/regen, and more.

-Comet2

7

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-20 05:10:35 »

Ugh. I tested all 255 magic animation IDs as well as some summoning IDs. It turns out that all the animations in the game (almost all) can be accessed by this method... below is a list of my findings.

I do not have the brains to remember the name of every single attack the enemies use and corelate them with the animations-as a result, I just gave a brief verbal description of each animation instead.

The values listed below are all decimal values.

changing magic ID's (animations):

Note: all these have been tested through changing bytes of 'Ultima.' No guarantees they will work with other spells (although they probably will)

Code: [Select]

1-54: animations that can be gained from normal magic spells
54=frog song-thing, music notes all over the place
55=line drawn from character to enemy, burnt then explodes
56=hammers appear out of nowhere, hits enemies
57=white confetti on enemies
58=hero drinks
59=hangs game
60=rainbow disco ball type thing on one enemy
61=huge bubble type thing w/face on one enemy
62=flamethrower thing, hangs game
63=multiple red beams-one enemy
64=missiles-similar to matra magic-all enemies
65=pillar of smoke
66=Beta (red tube)
67=a lot of large water bubbles (screen goes dark)
68=clear tetrahedron forms around enemy, deals damage
69="Magic Breath" lots of colorful bubbles
70=huge 'weight' forms on enemy...
71=several 'orange flashes' (like gunshots) on enemy
72=hangs game
73=red skull with flame inside forms inside each enemy
74=hangs game
75=hangs game
76=Shadow Flare-type, screen goes white with black bubbles, single enemy
77=pandora's box-outer space, question mark all enemies
78=3 balls of ilght, 1 for each opponent
79=3 fiery balls, 1 for each opponent
80=3 spiderweb-type things... 'northern cross' on each opponent
81=small green cloud on each opponent
82=blue laser on each opponent from character
83=spiderweb-type things-true 'northern cross' on each opponent
84=blue beam
85='seed shot'
86=funnel from character open towards enemy, then 'teardrop' crystal shape appears on enemy
87='smoke shot'
88=red Japanese characters circle around the enemy, then explodes
89=blue circles (like one of those classic 'sonic beams')
90='sand storm' from worm-type enemies (sand funnel)
91=screen goes dark, something shoots across ground then hits opp. with electricity
92="silver wheel" small white gear goes through enemy
93=pillar of fire on enemy
94=screen flashes white, then damages enemy
95=many yellow beams go around enemy in a funnel shape, like the first part of 'stone stare'
96=big red blast, sends black pieces of stone flying
97=1 missile per enemy
98=smoke on enemies, then orange tube around enemy
99=a small white cloud
100=shot of blue cubes
101=red 'ufo' thing goes on top of enemy, energy collected upward, taken back to character
102=something shoots across land to enemy, then explodes
103=screen goes dark, black half-sphere rises from ground and explodes
104=sewer tsunami effect (grodn turns into water, wave goes across enemy)
105=big blue funnel at both enemies from character, 'sucks in'
106=small white explosions
107=screen goes dark, snowflakes fall down and explode
108=simple 'fire'
109=1000 needles type animation
110=screen goes dark, 'hole' appears and shoots stone at enemies
111=true 'avalanche' of snow, leaves enemies frozen
112=flying sickle (crescent moon shaped blade goes through each enemies)
113=sorm of leaves
114=stone falls on each opponent, splits in half and breaks
115=heart goes on top of enemies, then rains sparkles
116=screen goes dark, energy gathers in front of character, then shoots across to enemies
117=screen goes dark, red tetrahedron forms 'in' each enemy, orange electricity then streaks inside
118=screen goes dark, blue energy gathers middle of field, then lightning falls on field, energy balls shot to enemies
119=simple fire
120=screen goes dark, small orange beam at each enemy
121=screen goes dark, blue ball of energy gathers in front of enemy, several balls come out and shoot toward enemies
122=red seed shot
123=simple fire
124='spade' (from that card shooting enemy)
125='heart'
126='club'
127='diamond'
128=hangs game
129='the hierophant' (Death Dealer)
130='the hermit'=removes enemy from game into a 'hole to space' in ground, even if the damage isn't dealt...
131="the star"=screen goes dark, shoots stars at opponent
132="the sun" weird piece of wood rises from ground and attacks opponent
133="the world" stop-type effect
134=orange multiple flying sickles
135=small balls of light shot at all opponents, rainbow explosions
136=3 fiery balls
137=screen goes dark, white funnel opens and closes upon enemies, snowstorm background
138=green smoke shot
139=yellow 'sonic shot' then circle dissipates away from enemy
140=yellow sand funnels at each enemy
141=big black missile on enemy, screen goes black, 'mini nuke' effect
142=shot of white mass
143=screen goes dark, small lights shoot up from enemy, forms sphere, falls on character (sucking up energy)
144=something red shoots across land, then explodes on enemy
145=screen goes dark, ground explodes on enemy creating red and white flashes
146=red 'snowflakes' fall on enemies and explode
147=orange dragonball z type effect
148=fire spews out from character to all directions
149=sets fire on field floor
150=sewer tsunami (starts from back of character)
151=sewer tsunami (starts from back of enemies)
152=shoot a blue ray on each opponent, explodes in 'bubbles'
153=yelow and red 'beam' that draws figure 8 across enemy (search scope or something from guard scorpion)
154=blue ray (probably tail attack from scorpion)
155=enemies engulfed in purple coud
156=icicles drop on enemies from above
157=blue funnel from character, enemy surrounded by bubble
158=blue 'smoke shot', bubbles shoot out from under enemies like geysers
159=bubble geyser on top of character
160=bubble geyser on top of character, screen goes slightly white
161='volcano' spews from top of chracter (basically red bubble geyser)
162=coin(?) geyser-something yellow with marks
163=white smoke tornado goes through enemy
164=white smoke tornado 'on' enemy
165='stone stare' search scope-type ray then opp. turns into stone
166=mini 'ultima' on foot of enemy
167=character 'shoots' something, then mini 'ultima' on foot of enemy
168=screen flashes blue, electric attack on enemy
169=blue laser shot from character to enemies
170=white 'lines' revolve around each enemy
171=a big explosion...
172=small grey stars flash on enemies
173=white seed shot, ice forms around enemies, encasing them
174=white ice flame
175=white ice/red fire flame
176=screen goes dark and big blue ball of energy forms in middle of field, 'explodes,' spewing debris
177=screen flashes red
178=screen flashes blue
179=blue ball of energy shot (blue beam trail), enemy it passed through has blue mini ultima on foot
180=red bubbles shot from character to enemies
181=blue beta (aqualung?)
182=black triangular missiles shoot towards enemy
183=thin grey missiles shoot toward enemy
184=many lightnings converge to one spot, stones break off
185=medium black missile shoot toward enemy and explodes
186=blue ball of energy shot
187=screen goes dark-red dragonball z thing- red 'pale horse'
188=screen goes dark-blue dragonball z thing
189=pink 'smoke shot'
190=pink funnel, shoot hearts
191=shoot lots of multicolored rings
192='rain' of tiny blue stars
193=electric sparks in front of character, eye forms and shoots toward character
194=blue notes shoot toward enemies
195=stone volcano all enemies
196=screen shakes, stone volcano on 'top' of character
197='pulsating' clock on one enemy
198='blood' shoots out of enemy body, then white skull forms on top of enemy (screen goes dark)
199=yellow explosions
200=smoke shot
201=screen becomes tinted yellow, sandy funnel on each enemy
202=small grey cloud shot toward each enemy
203=gunshots at enemies' feet
204=search beam thing
205=blue 'frisbee' shot from character to enemy
206=blue frisbee shot from character to enemy (screen goes black)
207=shoot round black 'cannonball' with fins at enemy
208=shoot round black spiked 'cannonball' with fins at enemy
209=blue flamethrower
210=blue rings shot toward enemies, then field becomes blue cave
211='quake' brown circles form below enemies (?)
212='quake 2' beams shoot out from ground, then large brown circle forms below enemies
213='quake 3' beams shoot out from ground, then brown 'mountain' shoots out
214='bolt' lighning bolt strikes enemy
215=multicolor rings shoot toward enemy, field becomes rainbow cave
216=flamethrower (hangs game)
217=flamethrower (does not hang game)
218=dense blue ball forms and sprays laser shots on enemies (darkens screen)
219=blue dragonball Z thing, 'pale horse'
220=weird red dragonball z thing, 'heartless angel'
221=hangs game
222=hangs game
223=small white masses spew from character
224=small rock shoots from character, breaks on contact with enemy
225=causes sephiroth death animation... screen remains white after completion
226=healing animation (multiple color)
227=whirlsand
228=changing camera angle
229=game completely crashes
230=screen darkens, blue ball of energy gathers around character, then shoots red balls at enemy
231=blue beam
232=weird... nothing spectacular other than throwing enemies 5 feet into the air
233=small yellow bits shot at enemies followed by huge dragonball z thing
234=yellow beam, causes bubble explosion
235=nothing
236=blue flash in front of character, then flash on enemies
237='cross slash' animation on enemies (character stays still after displaying 'casting' animation)
238=blade beam animation
239=climhazzard
240=meteorain
241=finishing touch
242=omnislash (crashes game after 3rd strike)
243=big shot
244=etc the rest are all limit break animations, I won't bother to list them (they go in the order of cloud, barret, tifa, up to some of Aeris)

Changing Summoning IDs:
All these were tested with Leviathan. same warning as above.
16=fat chocobo
17=gunge lance
anything higher will hang the game.
That's all folks.

By dragonball z type effects, I mean energy gathers in front of character, then shoots through enemies in a thick beam.

Some suggested animations for large-scale attacks would be 77-pandora's box, 103-alternative ultima, 111-an avalanche of snow, 118-rain of lightning, the many dragonball z type effects, the ones where blue ball of energy gathers in the middle of field and shoots smaller balls at enemies, 240-meteorain animation.


Maximum damage tests: while 81 hits is the maximum number of hits a spell can deal w/o the game crashing immediately, it seems like such hits will cause the game to hang with a high degree of frequency... I do not exactly know what the 'safe' value that will almost never make the battle hang, but I think the actually feasible number of hits may well be lower. I'll experiment with 50 hits and see...

It's a pity that I did not find spell animations that ruly brought into mind world destruction. The best I can do would be comets, energy beams, and avalanches. Oh well.

-comet2

8

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-19 21:39:55 »

Some Additional Info.

I've got my spells to have most of the enemy skill graphics (anything from the 'stone stare' to 'heart')

It turns out that by changing the 'attack ID' value on any of the enemy skills into the desired number, you can get the spell to display the desired graphic. Unfortunately... it seems like the supernova animation is somehow tied to the existence of the safer sephiroth-the game just hangs there without any animation playing if I try to use its animation...

Oh well. This still opens up a world of possibilities-I've always wanted to use the 'sewer tsunami' graphic effect on one of my spells

This was discovered by taking the ID number beyond the current 17 max that gives the Pandora's Box animation. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I used tabulated Enemy Attack data as well as Enemy skill data (memory addresses, btw) to compare this, and it seems like whatever ID Enemy attacks use, you have to convert it to dec, add 24 to it and place it in the ID value of any Enemy skill to produce the desired animation.

I'm going to see if I can do something similar to the magic spells, although I doubt it. I've already tested summons-the game crashes if I go beyond KotR animation It seems like Square didn't have any extra summon animations hidden for us to find.

I love being able to use pale horse/heartless angel, lol. Pale horse makes the character shoot a blue dragonball Z type-thing (the gamehameha thing). Heartless gives a 'bigger' red dragonball Z type thing. The joke about a Dragonball Z mod might actually come true heh.

More edits:
deen, diamond flash, ruby flame, ruby ray, air tam storm, emerald laser etc, most boss enemy skills work.

Also, I have made progress with testing change of magic spell graphics (not enemy skills). I'm not sure 100% yet, but I've found that spell animations can indeed go beyond the 0 to 53 available. In fact, the 54th is frog song, 56 is some weird spell where a hammer appears out of nowear and hits enemies, and 58 is the 'hero drink' animation. 66 is the animation for Beta.

I'll try to find the pale horse/heartless angel/diamond flash graphics for this 'category' of spells-this way, I can have a quadra magic/w-magic able enemy skills...


-comet2

9

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-19 00:10:16 »

I assume that you mean sephiroth's supernova attack, right?

The problem is, the animations of the spells seem not only just tied to the specific IDs, but also to the 'category' as well... I'm sure that one of the enemy skills can be edited to use the animation for that attack. However, the problem is that none of the E.skills can be quad magic-ed... meaning that I don't think using both this animation and still obtaining the max damage can be done-unless somehow, the categories from which each materia recalls its spells can be changed... changing the actual values of the spells themselves across different categories do NOT produce the same animations.

As to the problem of the 81x hitting spell... It seems like I will have to be content with it attacking a single target only-what I gather is that when an enemy loses all its hp without the full 81 hits have been dealt, and that applies to multiple enemies, the game somehow carries over this fact to the next battle... resulting in the game hanging the battle while it waits for the flag for 'hit completion'-except that since this is a new battle, there will not be anything that can apply that flag... forcing the battle to stay in the 'wait' status.

Sigh.

I'll try to improve this some more then post memory addresses/values that can do all this... courtesy of Spiro's Memhack 3.

Comet2

10

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-18 15:39:05 »

Hi.



I did manage to force the spell to hit 81 times as a normal magic spell, able to be quadra magic-ed and all that, while using the animation for comet, even when it's replaced for other minor spells such as Fire or Ice.

I've encountered quite a few problems.

First of all, the perma-reflect trick doesn't work. The 81 limit means that no matter what, there can only be a maximum of 81 hits before damage is applied to the enemy... Reflect on all 3 party members mean that the enemy would have to undergo 243 hits before damage is calculated-and the game crashes...

Otherwise...
The spell works fine when going against single enemies. However, when going against multiple enemies, it tries to attack all of them at once-I'm not sure I understand why, but it leaves some empty 3D model problems. Moreover, whenever this happens, the game hangs at the beginning of the next 'battle'-forcing me to restart the game.

I'm not sure exactly why or how this is happening... Sigh. More experimentation is in order before this spell is truly workable.

11

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-17 20:21:29 »

Hmm. It looks like this can be further enhanced then, using the quadra magic method...
It might as well be 5 pairs of Quadra magic+master magic and one W-magic. Note that each additional copy of quadra magic only allows one extra casting up to 8 casts, meaning that this setup will give 2*(4+4)=16 casts per turn.
Permanent reflect can be gained either by putting the reflect ring on the character or holding the value that controls the flag for 'reflect' constant.

This increases damage potential to:
9999(damage)*81(number of hits)*8(multiple quadra magic)*2(w-magic)*3(reflect by each member of party)=38,876,112 damage

I still have not figured out the correct memory address to flag the spell as reflectable. Oh well. My stupid cold will give me plenty of time to experiment.

-comet2

12

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-17 17:05:00 »

Another Update...

I tested these ideas (making other 'types' of spells use different animations i.e. changing the 'ID' of fire to use Highwind's animation ID) by replacing all set of bytes for spells into the same bytes as used by Highwind. The results of these tests showed that I cannot use this method for summoning spells (it would crash on me), but I could indeed use this for magic spells. While it would just use the animation of Bolt and would only display one 'damage' calculation (no matter which spell I replaced, this stayed the same), the 'sense' materia showed me that the full 18 hits did indeed register.

This shows that you can indeed convert one of the magic spells to deal 81 hits of 9999 each, 8 times a turn. I am now trying to find out which byte will allow me to keep the same magic animation, as if there will only be one damage printout, might as well make the spell use animations that are more... I don't know, eye-catching?

Also, I've been thinking how to further increase my damage output, as the game crashes if any spell deals any more than 81 hits. If I can make this spell reflectable, then cast it on a perma-reflect party (through status effect byte set)... I could possibly have a spell that can deal:
9999(damage)*81(number of hits)*4(quadra magic)*2(w-magic)*3(reflect by each member of party)=19,438,056=about 20 million damage in 1 turn.
Because Enemy HP is determined in Scene.bin by 4 bytes, the max HP any enemy can have is 4,294,967,295=about 4 billion HP. It would take 20 hits of the above 'ultimate spell' to down the enemy.

Once I complete the analysis to figure out how to make the spell reflectable and use the appropriate animations, I plan on making Safer*Sephiroth have the HP plus 255 on all stats+absorb all elements and see if I can defeat him.



If anyone out there is still reading my posts... : ( Can I ask for your help on figuring out how to make the spell reflectable?

-Comet2

13

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-16 01:25:41 »

More Questions...


Total possible spell damage is currently limited by the animation and timing of damage calculations of these various attacks.

As a result, the key to obtaining the maximum damage possible for any attack may be to force the specific attack to use animations that have multiple calculations, such as KotR (13 calculations), Highwind (up to 81 calculations), and comet2 (up to 6 calculations).

(This came about during my quest to make KotR a quadra-magic-able attack-I was able to change other quadra-magic-able summoning spells (I used Bahamut Zero) to use KotR as their attacks, allowing my characters to be able to attack 13*8=101 times per turn)

I've been able to change the animations of different attacks within their specific category, whether it is a magical, summoning, or limit breaks-i.e. from 'ultima' to 'comet2', 'angermax' to 'omnislash' etc...  However, I have not been able to change the animations across categories, such as using KotR as the animation for omnislash, using Highwind as the animation for Fire2, etc.

As a result, the question I'm asking is this: Is there any way I can make this possible-force a magic spell to use animations for limit breaks, or even force a magic spell to use animations of summons etc?

Your answers to this will be sincerely appreciated...

-comet2


Notes:
Current damage rank
1. Quadra-Magic-able KotR=9999*13*4*2=1,039,896
2. 81 attack Highwind=9999*81=809,919
3. 6-comet attack comet2=9999*6*4*2=479,952
4. 4-comet attack comet2=319,968
5. w-magic KotR=9999*13*2=259,974

"Ultimate Damage"
-Can be obtained by making either a summon or a magic spell use animation for Highwind, then make it quadra-magic able
9999*81*4*2=6,479,352

14

Archive / Re: Spell animation structure and damage printout

« on: 2006-07-14 17:34:21 »

Hello,

I've tested Angermax, Tifa's Limit breaks, and a variety of other limit breaks and spells-so far, the only one I managed to find a way to increase hits other than comet2 was Highwind.

It's strange-I can hit up to 81 times... if I try to make the spell hit any more than that (even just 1 more, as in 82), the game crashes. I tested by having the spell have a strength of 1 but with auto crit and ignore def to minimize the randomness, and then sensed the monster after each hit (my test subject was 'sea worm'-always travels alone). Each of 81 hits connected.

Summary:
1. Comet2 can be raised up to 6 hits
2. Highwind can be raised up to 81 hits
3. Angermax, most other limit breaks and spells-increasing hits either end up with the empty 3d model problem or crashes the game.

Thank you.
-Comet2

15

Archive / Spell animation structure and damage printout (With Screenshots in 1st post!)

« on: 2006-07-13 15:59:13 »

EDIT: To find out how to edit the memory and actually use the spell... go to reply #18.


casting the spell...




Ice graphic changed to an avalanche of snow.




Ice graphic changed to blue dragonball-z type energy beam.




Ice graphic changed to yellow dragonball-z type energy beam.



Original message below.
--------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

I have been experimenting with the # of hits part of each attack type (i.e. comet2=4, omnislash=15 etc). What I've realized is that for most spells, this value does not actually change the number of hits... rather, it is used by the computer to guage when a death animation should be played.

What I mean is that i.e. for Omnislash, even if you have dealt enough damage to take all the monsters' hp away by blow 4, the computer will not display the death animation until you have struck the 15th and last blow. This makes for strange situations when I try to increase the no. of hits for omnislash to, say, 18-while animation sequence for Omnislash only allows for 15 blows, the computer is still waiting for the 18th blow even after omnislash is done. As a result, the battle models of the monster is still there, alive and breathing, even as the victory animation sequence is played by the characters.

This is the case for most attacks-if you try to increase the 'no. of hits' category in the spell bytes/memory addresses, all you get is an untargetable 3d model of the monsters that persist up till the very end of battle.

So far, I've only found one instance where I could actually increase the no. of damage printouts and have the spell work correctly with all the animations. When I increase the comet2 no. of hits from 4 to 6, the animation drops 6 comets on the field instead of the normal 4, and it correctly randomly targets 6 opponents. Any more than that, however (even 7) and the 'undying 3d model' bug rears its ugly head (only 6 of the 7 hits are actually dealt, and then the animation sequence ends before any more comets can fall on the field or damage printouts can be done)

This brings me to another point. It seems like there is a 'flag' that directs the game to end the sequence after a set amount of time-meaning that to change the number of hits for most attacks, we would not only have to edit the number of hits but also this 'animation end' flag as well.

The point of my post is this. I'm sure other hacking masters have experimented with this before... How many of the various attacks are flexible enough that some editing of the number of hits can be done?
i.e.
1. comet2-original 4 hits, animation and everything could work up to 6 hits
2. ?? others?

Some potential candidates, I feel, could be angermax, Highwind etc-except that the damage prints out way too fast for my eyes...

Ugh. I hate typing while I'm sick.. I'm rambling too much already.

Your help/guidance will be appreciated.

-Comet2

16

Archive / How I enjoy FF7 through Scene.bin editing and Memhack

« on: 2006-07-07 20:17:02 »

Hello.

I played through the game once and realized how easy it is. A variety of recommendations were given about how the game could be made harder... a reigning opinion has been that we gotta edit the script system so that fights will be more strategic. However, I feel that this is not so necessary... While a guard scorpion going into 'scorpion tail' mode more often may indeed be more challenging, neither the original nor the 'smarter' version would stand much of a chance anyway against a skilled player... I feel that an increase in speed, strength, and survivability of each monster will force a player to become more strategic just because he or she now actually has to care about what the monster is doing.

As a result, I decided to utilize the Secene.Bin exporter and Scene Edit given in the 'Compilation of Programs' Topic to have some fun.
Here's what I did:

Editing Monster Stats:
all 0-->10 (in below)
HP: x10
MP: x10
Level x3
Str: x3
Def: x4
Mag: x3
Mag Def: x4
Evade: x1.5
Luck: x5
Speed: x4

Any elemental immunity has been given a step 'up':
Death-->Unavoidable
Unavoidable-->Double Damage
Double Damage-->Half Damage
Half Damage-->Immune
Immune-->Absorb
Absorb-->Full Cure


If no elemental immunity, an elemental immunity that is consistent with its backgrounds have been given (i.e. 'Jumping' has half damage from ice)

For each stat that hits 255 (cannot be put any further because of the byte limit), hp and mp +2x
i.e. for Ruby Weapon, str, def, mag, mag def, and speed will reach 255 by above formula. His HP and MP will therefore be multiplied by (10+2*5)=20x.

Example:
Guard Scorpion
HP: 800-->9600
MP: 0-->10
Level: 12-->36
Str: 30-->90
Def: 20-->80
Mag: 15-->45
Mag def: 150-->255
Evade: 0-->10
Luck: 1-->5
Speed: 60-->240

Ultimate Weapon:
HP: 1000000-->16000000
MP: 400-->6400
Level: 61-->183
Str: 100-->255
Def: 60-->180
Mag: 170-->255
Mag Def: 50-->150
Evade: 3-->5
Luck: 50-->250
Speed: 215-->255

----------------------
no change in win bonus, items etc.

Additional Advice:
Battle Speed-Maximum
ATB-Active

To counter this increase in difficulty, the following has been applied through memhack+dziugo's patches:
Unlimited limit breaks-limit break guage always full
Full hero drinks always applied-At, MAt, Def, MDef mod always 100 (essentially, damage output and def doubled no matter what)
All limit breaks always crit strike
Tifa's limits always hit
9999 limit broken
All limit breaks power adjusted upwards by 2.5
All Magic and Summon power adjusted upwards by 1.5


Access to two spells

1. Ultima
-casting cost 255
-'Recovery' on all allies
-revives all dead characters with full health
-100% chance of giving haste, regen, barrier, mbarrier, shield, peerless, death force, resist, lucky girl (Mbarrier and barrier etc can be recast despite resist through this spell)

2. Comet2
-casting cost 255
-Strength 16x base
-100% chance of inflicting death, sleep, poison, confusion, silence, slow, stop, frog, small, petrify, paralyzed, darkness, DUAL (drain HP like poison)
-hits 6 times
-ignores defense
-absorb damage as HP (100%)

I find it much more interesting that the enemies are actually putting up a fight now.

While some ppl may say this will slow down the game a lot, I enjoy this pace... makes you actually feel accomplished whenever you reach a story point, going across enemy-infested lands, actually defeating a 'weapon' that could have destroyed the entire world... (then again, I also enjoyed those civilization3 'huge world map' games that take two months with 3-4 hours of playing a day to win through conquest...)

any other suggestions?

-comet2

17

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-07-01 22:46:25 »

Hey Dzuigo, I found that about 1/4th of your note about statuses was wrong...

Code: [Select]

10 00 00 00 - Sadness (gears) ok
01 00 00 00 - Death (status cure <=> Life/Phoenix Down)
02 00 00 00 - Near Death (gears - probably not useful here)
04 00 00 00 - Sleep
08 00 00 00 - Poison
20 00 00 00 - Fury (gears) ok
40 00 00 00 - Confu
80 00 00 00 - Silence

00 01 00 00 - Haste
00 02 00 00 - Slow
00 04 00 00 - Stop
00 08 00 00 - Frog
00 10 00 00 - Small
00 20 00 00 - Slow-Numb (gears) ok
00 40 00 00 - Petrify (gears) correct
00 80 00 00 - Regen

00 00 01 00 - Barrier
00 00 02 00 - MBarrier
00 00 04 00 - Reflect
00 00 08 00 - Shield (gears)(no, dual!) shows 'dual' in text screen
00 00 10 00 - Death-sentence (gears) (no, shield!)
00 00 20 00 - Manipulate (gears) (no, death-sentence!)
00 00 40 00 - Berserk (gears) (no, manipulate!)
00 00 80 00 - Peerless (gears) (no, berserk!)

00 00 00 01 - ? (no, peerless!)
00 00 00 02 - Paralysed (gears) ok
00 00 00 04 - Darkness (gears) ok
00 00 00 08 - Dual (gears)-hp leeching effect, must be combined with 'dual' above for game to not crash
00 00 00 10 - Death Force (gears)
00 00 00 20 - Resist
00 00 00 40 - Lucky Girl (gears) ok
00 00 00 80 - Imprisoned (gears) ok


18

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-07-01 18:49:09 »

Thank you, dziugo...

Those notes are amazing...

YOU are amazing!

I don't know if I'm overstepping my bounds or anything, as a newbie w/o computer skills... but may I ask you for any other notes you may have regarding FF7 (maybe not the codes, but stuff like the IDs, what each values in a status spell represent etc)..? They would be extremely helpful in the course of memory editing...

Thank you so much!

Magimaster:
'Lucky girl' is a status you can get through one of the effects from cait sith's 'slot' limit break. It has no visual effects. However, all physical attacks you do will be critical strikes as long as Lucky girl is on you.

-comet2

19

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: Help with a few other aspects... again.

« on: 2006-07-01 18:46:48 »

In the 'ultimate weapon's case, it counters with 'ultima' when the character attacks it with KotR.

20

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Help with a few other aspects... again.

« on: 2006-07-01 08:20:06 »

As I began looking through more and more posts here, I've noticed that there is a wealth of 'code' information (i.e. which specific values in the 'status' bytes give what kind of statuses) that are not generally available in gears (neither the pdf nor the wiki)

As a result, I've been wondering if the respected forum members have some notes that go further than what the gears documents provide...

If possible, may I ask you a few questions? I have been trying hard finding these values...

First of all, is there a consolidated set of these 'codes' that are not available in the gears document? I've been going around and finding as much as I can... unfortunately, I don't think the search function here allows me to search only for posts with the 'code' grey box inset...

There are places in 'gears' that talk about various 'restore apply' values for the different attacks-what are the corresponding restore apply values? It seems like changing some of them changes the different targeting areas... Moreover, there are values that are listed as 'unknown' which, when altered, seem to have many interesting effects... for example, changing one unknown value gave my spell the ability to revive my party with full health each time it was cast, much like the phoenix spell... changing another unknown value gave the spell a camera zoom level of a summon spell... May I ask any more info you may have on the "Attack data format" section (or even other sections) of the qhimmwiki?

Also I've wondered... there are a few enemies that use spells with similar names as those of player spells (i.e. ruby weapon 'comet2,' ultimate weapon 'ultima') Do these spells read the same data as player spells? I changed a few values in the comet2 spell and the ultima spell, and I've been wondering if I'd be faced with the same challenge when facing the two enemies...
[edit]
Status values-it turns out that I had an incorrect set of numbers applied-I fixed this problem.
[/edit]
Additionally, where may I find the flag that bypasses status immunity checks for perticular spells? I've been trying to find a way to apply 'resist' to my characters and yet still be able to cast Haste on them... (after 1st casting runs out)


Thank you soo much for your help...

-comet2

21

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-06-29 06:56:07 »

Magimaster-lol, it's really easy, once you get the hang of it...


I'd like to express great thanks to those who helped me-especially dziugo!!! I cannot thank you enough.

Through further use of the knowledge I've gained, I also created the best healing spell possible... (within bounds, that is-no forever peerless, no invincibility etc)

I really liked the spell 'ultima.' However, at the beginning, it was set up as an enemy attack-all spell with no statuses, and the camera panning out to the enemy in the end. I really wanted to be able to have a healing spell using ultima's sounds and graphics.-especially since it has a green glow that, if you squint just a little bit, could be said to be a glow of health, rather than a glow of doom.

To do this, I had to fix the following:
1. MP cost. initially 130... since after all, this will be the 'ultimate' healing/buff spell, I want this to be 255.
2. change the camera angle-set it to focus on the players instead.
3. change attack attributes-before change, when the player selected ultima, the pointer automatically was set as 'all opponents.' I had to somehow fix this so that it would automatically point to all allies (not just for aesthetic reasons... by changing the auto target, I could have my characters use sneak attack on this spell)
4. Make it so that restore 'applies' to the character (make it in and of itself a restorative spell)
5. give it the ability to heal HP... I didn't want it to heal MP as well, since it already uses MP to cast it... something that uses a resource to create more of the same resource? not likely...
6. give it 100% chance to apply whatever buffs I'm going to give
7. set its buffs-haste, regen, barrier, mbarrier, death force, resist, lucky girl
8. finally, set its element as 'restorative.' any other elements caused the spell to deal damage instead.

and it worked!

Final spell list:
comet"3"
1. casting cost 255
2. camera position from 'Ultima' (original one where it closes on the character casting the spell in 3 directions then pans out on the enemy)
3. strength level of 65 (KotR 80)-this is still enough to reach 9999 dmg @ level 99, mag 255, full hero drinks, level 5 mp turbo, even with quad magic attached
4. 100% chance of inflicting death, sleep, poison, confusion, silencee, slow, stop, frog, small, petrify, paralyzed, darkness, DUAL (drain HP like poison) each of 6 hits
5. attacks 6 times
6. ignores opp. defense
7. can be quad magic-ed

Hultima
1. casting cost 255
2. camera position like normal healing spells
3. initial targeting to players-can be sneak attacked
4. fully heal
5. 100% chance of giving haste, regen, barrier, mbarrier, death force, resist, lucky girl
6. and looks cooler than any healing spell

Now, I want to enjoy the fruits of this labor by going through the game (finally). I actually only began playing this summer, and have not yet gone through the whole game yet, heh.

Once I go through the game, I might return and work on a 'guide to memory editing'... since I'd imagine a lot of people would like to do this too...

Or maybe I'm just being too forward. Oh well. Thank you!

-comet2

22

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-06-28 23:25:54 »

Oooh.

I thought that was it :p. I do know what an OR combination is in math... but wasn't sure whether it applied in this instance, and definitely did not know that an OR combination in binary is the sum of the two... damn humanity major.

Thank you dziugo... I'm sure it must've been a lot of work figuring all that out.

-comet2

edit: dzuigo-->dziugo
least I can do to express gratification is to spell your name correctly 

23

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-06-28 23:03:21 »

Dziugo... thank you so much for your information... however, I do not understand what an 'or' combination is... could you explain a little further?

i.e.
sleep=04 00 00 00
poison=08 00 00 00

an 'or' combination of these would be...?

I tried googling, but not much use...

Thank you...

-Comet2

(no computer science background at all )

24

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-06-28 22:13:09 »

Just came back after a few discoveries...

so, we know that 4 offsets in each 'attack data' record.

...
Offset    Length    Description
0x14    4 bytes    Status
...

Additionally,

0x11 2 bytes Unknown

among these two bytes, the byte in 0x11 displays the % chance for the spell to cause whatever status that is listed in 0x14-0x17. (note on format: a value of 40, which in decimal terms is 64, stands for 100% chance... weird. something like decimal % chance-->hex value, treat the converted hex value as a decimal value and convert it to hex again (?))

As a result, as long as we have a value of 40 (in hex) (60 in dec), we can list whatever values in 0x14-0x17, and have the spell cast the corresponding status 100% of the time each time.

The key here is to find whichever set of values in 0x14-0x17 correspond to which (or which set of) status(es) in the game. I have been having a lot of trouble here.

The easiest way one would have done would be just list one status element per offset for a max of 4 offsets the spell can incur at a time. However, we know from Hades that spells are not limited to applying just four statuses.

The next method I thought about involved perhaps adding/subtracting from 0/255 whichever values the statuses express (i.e. if poison=8 and death=1, spell causing both poison and death would be 8+1=9 or 255-8-1=246). This didn't work after much experimentation.

I couldn't think of any other methods. As a result, I just went about finding the current available status offsets (by looking at various spell data) in-game, and extrapolate from there. Below are my discoveries: (not much-I didn't have enough time)

none:
FF FF FF FF

poison only:
08 00 00 00

sleep + poison+???:
3C 00 00 00
(3C in hex=60 in dec)

confusion only:
40 00 00 00
(40 in hex=64 in dec)

Silence only:
80 00 00 00
(80 in hex=128 in dec)

poison+confusion+???:
78 00 00 00
(78 in hex=120 in dec)

toad only:
00 08 00 00

stop only:
00 04 00 00

"death" only: (not the insta-death that ignores status immunities i.e. cait sith's limit break)
01 00 00 00

petrify only:
0 40 00 00
(40 in hex=64 in dec)

"Hades" (sleep, poison, confusion, silence, frog, small, paralyzed):
CC 1A 00 02
(CC=204 in dec, 1A=26 in dec)

sleep+poison+confusion+??:
CC 00 00 00
(CC=204 in dec)

confusion+poison+sleep+silence+??:
FE 00 00 00
(FE=254 in dec)

Instant death, plus various (probably all, including haste, peerless, insta-death, as well as poison, fury etc):
FF 00 00 00
or
00 FF 00 00

This is as far as I've gotten these past few hours. I cannot discern any recognizable pattern here. As I'm no computer guy, I've been wondering if anyone else in this forum could make sense out of this data... perhaps find a pattern as to how the game engine might recognize which status to apply?

Thanks...

-comet2

25

Archive / Re: help with spell damage

« on: 2006-06-28 17:07:53 »

Right now I'm in the process of figuring out how the different status effects are displayed... I can discover the address values for a single ailment, but I'm having difficulty finding out exactly how the game reads in multiple statuses... It's kinda tough, as I do not have a very effective way of testing whether a status is applied or not other than entering battle and using sense, then healing with a status heal item and checking to see if there's another status that was 'masked' underneath...

Basically, what I'm trying to do is:

i.e.

there are four memory addresses in which the game deals with status effects. 'death,' for example, is governed by a '01' value in the first of the four memory addresses. Poison, if my memory serves me correctly, is governed by a '08' value (don't kill me if this is not right-I'm at work right now)

I've been attempting to find how the game would apply both 'death' and 'poison' in the course of the attacks... they aren't any sums (a simple '09' did not yield anything), nor are they any simple multiplications or subtractions (as testified by Hades, with a crazy memory address, something like FC 17 00 04 or something (this is wrong for sure, but it looked something like that))

May I ask someone here for help? I could just put in FF for the status effects, but then it would apply ALL the effects, including peerless and haste...

Thank you so much for your help.


If it may be of any help... in a few hours, I will have most of the single-status values available, as well as a few double-status values...

I haven't been able to figure out a pattern yet, but I'll post whatever data I have in 2 hours.


-comet2

P.S., steven, this is all memory editing... What I'm doing is figuring out the memory addresses for which my particular version of ff7 (original install (not v1.2) and chocobo patch) saves the data for all the different spells. I'm not altering the actual data itself. Any addresses that I find might be different for your version... However, the 'patterns' of the data will be the same everywhere.  I can tell you how I did it, later on.