Random Battles and other mechanics (FFVII TAS)

[antd]

Hi.

I'm going to be doing a TAS (tool-assisted speedrun) on FFVII.
I can use a PSX emulator with frame advance, save/load etc to complete FFVII in the fastest time possible.

I need to know how random encounters are derived. Obviously I want to avoid all random encounters. However, I don't know how the game controls this.
I've tried walking for different amounts of time, entering the menu, but I still get the same battle at exactly the same frame?!
The 'randomness' is obviously horrible, because I can't get it to change lol >.<

Anyway, I hope there are some people here who understand it!

Also, I would like to know how to always get critical hits. What governs those?

And what governs running away from a battle, since I may need to run away as fast as possible?

I've already read many posts and FAQs, none of them directly answer my questions.

Since I can advance 1 frame at a time, I may be able to do some accurate testing which have never been done before.

[Vanit]

This is because its not purely a random chance each step. There is a counter that is incremented that increases your chance to enter a battle as you move around. You've probably saved at a point where your almost certain to get a battle each step, and this is why you're experiencing the scenario you're describing. Its purposely designed so that battles are envitable, although their frequency does change from area to area. I suggest you look up the mechanics guides by TFergusson at gamefaqs.com for FF7, as he has documented most of the mechanics for the game.

[antd]

I've read all of his guides and I have not seen where he explicitly states what can influence the random values.

For example, I have found no way of getting past this point without getting a battle (usually directly on it if you don't stop moving).
It seems that the probablity of getting a battle after frame 6338 is 100% (that's of course if you don't enter the menu)




I just thought there must be a way to avoid the battles. And also there must be a way to influence which battle you get.
For example, I get 2 soldiers here. I've seen a speedrun (non TAS) where a guy also get's to this red line and enters a battle. So perhaps it is so unavoidable.

However, that guy gets to fight 2 birds (those parrot things). He also escapes before one attacks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1PD0jFZ1Pc&feature=PlayList&p=D305DAD36259178E&index=0
In my situation I fight 2 soldiers who attack before I do. So you can see why I want to change that battle as much as I can.

[Akari]

If you saving with emulator (not with ingame thing) it's obviously that you will encount the same battle at the same time. Emulator save whole game state (with all registers) There is no such thing as random here, just lookup table with mixed values. Each time game need to get new random it takes next value and increment counter so next time you will get different value. When you load with load state - next random value will be the same, and you will get same battle. It has no relation with danger counter which makes random encounter unavoidable.

[antd]

If you saving with emulator (not with ingame thing) it's obviously that you will encount the same battle at the same time. Emulator save whole game state (with all registers) There is no such thing as random here, just lookup table with mixed values. Each time game need to get new random it takes next value and increment counter so next time you will get different value. When you load with load state - next random value will be the same, and you will get same battle. It has no relation with danger counter which makes random encounter unavoidable.

Yeah of course I know that. But I'm thinking that I can change my input in order to get different battles (enemies) or avoid the battles completely.

Do you have some idea of what I should do?

[Vanit]

Set battle speed to fast in the config menu, use cheats to make your characters 1 hit everything.

[antd]

No cheats.

[Vanit]

Long story short: no there's no exploit or trick to manipulating the encounter rate aside from equipping a few enemy away materia. As I suggested before just set battle speed to high and your battles will go way faster.

[antd]

Ok.

[antd]

Long story short: no there's no exploit or trick to manipulating the encounter rate aside from equipping a few enemy away materia.

I've researched a lot by now, and you can see that there are tricks and exploits to avoid random encounters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSBBypMya4U
FF7 TAS

So you don't know what your talking about^^

[Akari]

Long story short: no there's no exploit or trick to manipulating the encounter rate aside from equipping a few enemy away materia.

I've researched a lot by now, and you can see that there are tricks and exploits to avoid random encounters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSBBypMya4U
FF7 TAS

So you don't know what your talking about^^

Fake. Menu doesn't reset danger counter.

[antd]

Long story short: no there's no exploit or trick to manipulating the encounter rate aside from equipping a few enemy away materia.

I've researched a lot by now, and you can see that there are tricks and exploits to avoid random encounters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSBBypMya4U
FF7 TAS

So you don't know what your talking about^^

Fake. Menu doesn't reset danger counter.

lol what are you talking about?

I made this video using PSX NTSC version.

Just because you didn't know about this glitch you say it is fake?

When did I say it resets the danger counter? I didn't say that.

Make sure to research before you call something fake. It makes you look silly.

Everything in that video is 100% doable on a PSX NTSC U version.

[Krigo]

Looks good right now, can't wait to see your final time(when you finish it) and how you did