Clearing scene look-up data from memory and forcing the game to load it again ?

[Armorvil]

I am currently modding the PSX version of FFVII as I play through it. It makes it easier to edit every enemy when I first encounter them. By doing so, I can micromanage all changes I make to an enemy, and test those changes instantly by loading a state in EPSXE (thanks to Hojo and Heidegger, by the way).

But, as you certainly know, heavily editing the Scene.bin file also implies updating the Scene look-up data. And the problem is, KERNEL.BIN is only loaded into the PSX's memory at the start of a new game...

This means that all enemy formations will eventually get messed up because of my SCENE editing. When that happens I just update the KERNEL.BIN and insert it back into the iso, but an updated Kernel inside the disk won't do any good since the game won't read it unless I start a new game.

Aside from restarting the game from the beginning every time the enemy formations go haywire (which means I might have to restart the game one hundred times over the course of my playthrough), is there another solution ? Hex-editing a save-state, a memorycard save, or something completely different ?...

And if there are no solutions, is there some kind of logic behind the way the formations can go wrong ? What I mean is : is there some specific data, inside SCENE.BIN, that lead to this glitch ? Has this formation problem more chance of happening if the changes to the SCENE involve dropped/stolen items, elemental reactions, or stats ? I'm asking this, because, if for example the formation problem occurs most of the time because of modified elemental reactions, then I'm going to edit all enemies' elemental reactions right now, update the Kernel and start a new game hoping no other changes to the SCENE will lead to the formation glitch...

Thanks for reading all this, and the person who can help me wins my eternal gratitude (it's not much, I know, but I possibly can't do better  ).

[Vehek]

Does that mean the PSX version copies kernel.bin into the save data?


I don't know if you know this already or it's the problem, but I think I've read that the formation problem comes from the files not compressing as well after being modified, knocking many of the following scene files out of place.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5136.msg67105#msg67105

QhimmWiki also mentions this.

[Armorvil]

Does that mean the PSX version copies kernel.bin into the save data?


I don't know if you know this already or it's the problem, but I think I've read that the formation problem comes from the files not compressing as well after being modified, knocking many of the following scene files out of place.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5136.msg67105#msg67105

QhimmWiki also mentions this.

Yeah, the PSX version copies at least some parts of the Kernel somewhere (you may be right, it could be in the save data). So updating it and loading a game is completely useless.

Thank you very much for the link, Vehek. According to Terence, it looks like this problem occurs because an enemy can't have too many things altered - and it's true that the formations changed as soon as I gave the Vice enemy a higher speed stat (after already altering its level, attack data, HP, XP, strength, defense, elemental reactions and items). I think that putting its speed back to its original value should fix the problem. I can always take note of what stat I couldn't edit because of the glitch, edit them after my playthrough, update the kernel and, when I'm done, start another new game to double-check.

EDIT :

Yup, decreasing Vice's speed (temporarily) fixed it