Changing encounters in Gold Saucer's Battle Square?

[Kefka]

Hey guys!

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

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

[Sega Chief]

Yeah, I've done it. In the formation screens for all the possible encounters are boxes called 'next arenas'; this is basically a roulette that randomly picks the next enemy formation to be used in sequence. What I did first was refer to the listed possible encounters in the Wiki (it's best to find the initial encounter first; this is the one that starts the 'chain') and then located each of them in turn to make alterations.

For stats, Battle Square gives any enemy that appears a 25% boost or something to HP, Attack, and Magic but you can get around this by manually 'fixing' the enemy's stats through it's pre-battle AI. If you do it that way, they won't gain the 25% bonus which is much more dangerous in mods where enemy stats have been raised.

[Kefka]

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

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

[Sega Chief]

I'm not really sure; I tend to just follow the game's example and set things up the way they've been set up for other fights. I'd change all of them anyway just to be safe.

[nfitc1]

Next Battle is only used on one boss in Vanilla: Hojo. Basically they function almost the same way except it's not randomly picked and the battle scene stays the same.

This video is done entirely using the Next Battle to just start the next battle and maybe some slight alterations to Death Counters.

[Kefka]

Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification guys.

[DynamixDJ]

The "next battle" is also used for the Hundred Gunner / Heli Gunner battle. Some of the test formations also use nest battle, however the battle jump doesn't occur. Possibly something to do with the F7 setup flag used, or possibly because the formation they are jumping to is not a regular battle (back attack, side attack), or possibly because the formation ID that some of them jump to is the same as the formation ID that they themselves use. Not too sure...

My question is this (following on from my battle flag topic) - how does the Battle Arena handle the initial formation? Take for example battle #95 (05Fh - 2x Spencer). This battle is never called upon in the World Map scripts, and is only ever used as a scripted initial battle when starting a Battle Arena fight. The background ID for this formation is "Battle Square".

Now look at formation #100 (064h - 2x Joker). This is a regular World Map encounter, and has the "Grassland" Background. This formation is also called upon as an initial starting Battle Arena battle - how does the game know to change the backdrop to battle square, does it change the setup flags that are being used, or is it hardwired elsewhere? And what about the victory pose - is that disabled via setup flag (as it is with Diamond), or is there special battle script dictating how the battle arena battles play out

These are the Setup flags that I've worked out:

Bit0 0x01 (unknown - always ON)
Bit1 0x02 (unknown - this is usually ON, however when it is OFF I can't make out any difference whatsoever...)
Bit2 0x04 OFF = Can't Run
Bit3 0x08 (unknown - Test subjects and Diamond only... OFF = no victory pose??)
Bit4 0x10 OFF = Preemptive chance off
Bit5 0x20 unused (?)
Bit6 0x40 unused (?)
Bit7 0x80 unused (?)

Bit3 could be nothing to do with the victory pose, and could be to do with a special post-battle panning effect.

Now, I know that if random encounters are off in an area, then the Preempt chance will by default be off (forced battles). I also know that if random encounters are on, however the field scripts are disabling Rnd Enc's, then Pre-emp chance will be off. This is way you'll never get a pre-emp strike at the battler square, however setting a field script random encounter to #95 will enable the pre-emp chance (as that formation as the FD flag). Because of this, 5 bosses can also be back-attacked

I'll run a series of tests to find out if/how the unused (?) setup flags affect regular battles, and Battle Arena battles, I'll report back.....

[DynamixDJ]

Bit2 0x04 OFF = Can't Run
Bit3 0x08 OFF - No victory pose
Bit4 0x10 OFF = Preemptive chance off

The rest as far as I can tell are unused (both bytes)

[nfitc1]

The "next battle" is also used for the Hundred Gunner / Heli Gunner battle.

Yeah, I forgot about that one.

My question is this (following on from my battle flag topic) - how does the Battle Arena handle the initial formation? Take for example battle #95 (05Fh - 2x Spencer). This battle is never called upon in the World Map scripts, and is only ever used as a scripted initial battle when starting a Battle Arena fight. The background ID for this formation is "Battle Square".

As you saw (if you watched it) in the video link I posted the background never changes. Whatever the formation the battle just goes straight to the next set of enemies.

Now look at formation #100 (064h - 2x Joker). This is a regular World Map encounter, and has the "Grassland" Background. This formation is also called upon as an initial starting Battle Arena battle - how does the game know to change the backdrop to battle square, does it change the setup flags that are being used, or is it hardwired elsewhere? And what about the victory pose - is that disabled via setup flag (as it is with Diamond), or is there special battle script dictating how the battle arena battles play out

Lots of Battle Arena stuff is hard coded because the battle is unique. It doesn't conform to normal battle patterns so it has its own battle handler wrapper function. This disables things like victory poses (until the end) and enables the slot menu and the background, music, etc.