FF6 Hacking

'eh, it's just this guy we work with who's an as*h**e, and it's not particularly interesting unless you know him.

By the by, I linked to your run on the last post on my site.

(And I still need to respond to that post you made on ID, now that I think on it)

Ok, so, just tried this hack out for the first time today... Must say, it started off well enough, but things got brutal, fast. The enemies in the mountain (where you get Sabin) were two shotting me. Also, what are Gum Pods? I stole them from a Rhinox. If this is just useless stuff you get from stealing from monsters, I feel silly. Though Rhinox totally looks like it could be holding at least some Dried Meat. It has claws.

Gum Pods are (mostly) useless items, that are only used as a trade-in for the SuperBall item in the colosseum. They're mostly at the start of the game there to deter you from stealing things, since a lot of monsters early on also have strong counter-attacks specifically for Steal. Item steals are more or less restricted to humanoid enemies, so Locke should be focusing more on using Attack at this point in the game.

As for monsters two-shotting you, I remember that area being brutal as well, but not THAT brutal. Are Edgar/Terra in the back row? Spears and Tools both ignore row, as does Magic, so they'll survive better back there without a lack in firepower. Locke is still in danger, but he has a lot of evade to help him out at least. Sabin helps ease things out for now (Pummel/Suplex are great so be ready to spam them), and after Lete River the difficulty drops a bit since character levels are getting high enough to survive longer fights.

Gum Pods exist because for a steal counter to activate, something actually has to be stolen. I originally used "Nothing!" for this purpose, but Synchysi bitched because he'd end up with an inventory full of it after taking a Switchblade to the Veldt.

The name is a reference to Dragon Warrior IV.

Anyhow, here are some news points for the next update:

• We've settled on a new formula for Stripper Club Rain/GP Toss. It is as follows:

Gold Thrown = Stamina * 10
Damage = (Gold Thrown * Level) / (# of enemies * 5)

The damage split is necessary to keep it from being a ridiculously powerful attack against multiple targets, though I suppose I might look into making it free targeting (or, even more interestingly, totally random)

• We intend to rework Morph into a permanent status that can be toggled on and off rather than something on a timer (timers are just bad and prone to abuse like a perky set of nipples). It will feature a small damage boost in exchange for a severe increase to damage taken, the latter of which will be reduced by Terra's stamina.

• Control is gone; the Coronet has been reworked into an end-game helmet that offers solid defense/magic defense and can be worn by anybody, but lacks evasion, stat boosts (aside from +5 stamina), and other special properties. The Dancho Doll will be turned back into the old Moogle Charm (its location will be swapped with the Sage Stone), and y'all will just have to figure out what it does now

• I went ahead and set the value of all of Shadow's scrolls to 500 rather than having them staggered out since it wasn't really having the desired effect of making them interesting, but rather was just turning people off from using them altogether (it probably didn't help much that water and bolt weaknesses frequently overlap, a fact which I didn't consider when setting those prices initially)

• The magicite item is really crappy, so I'm just going to replace it with something else. I'm thinking maybe an upgraded version of Phoenix Down (Phoenix Tears, maybe? Either that, or Phoenix Up >.>) that revives a character to, let's say, 3/4 HP.

I did move Edgar and Terra to the backrow, but it may have been me trying to play the game like FF6. A very low leveled run, and not expecting such brutality. Once I got to like level 8 it buffed out. I Googled Gum Pods before posting, so I got the reference, but was still wondering. Putting a description that it's useless would be helpful... and maybe Shadow can throw it for 1 damage as a joke? But anyways..

Part of me loves the idea of a random GP Rain targetting... the other part HATES it. Especially if there's something I'm specifically trying to target, but it hits the wrong one (Damn you Sabin and Cyan!) And if there's room for it, why not call the new revive thing Phoenix Pinion?

(10-01-2013, 12:23 AM)RaikouGilgamesh Wrote: [ -> ]Putting a description that it's useless would be helpful...

Well, that would just take the fun out of it.

(10-01-2013, 12:23 AM)RaikouGilgamesh Wrote: [ -> ]And if there's room for it, why not call the new revive thing Phoenix Pinion?

That's too long. We only have 12 characters to work with, so we went with "Phoenix Tear".

Why was the phoenix crying? Probably because we ripped off all of its feathers >.>

Now, on to other news...

I'm looking at Gau's stamina-based attacks that currently do shit for damage. The reason for this is that they're physical attacks, and attacks that do physical damage don't seem to be playing very nicely with the hack we're using to use stamina in place of magic power (which would be vigor if the "physical damage" flag is set). I don't fully understand the mechanics of what's happening, since it's disregarding the battle power of his weapon (this is expected - Battle and "Special" seem hard-coded to consider it, but no other physical command will), but for some reason appears to be *subtracting* his base battle power from that of the attack (though it could just be a coincidence that adding Gau's base battle power to the attack's power results in almsot exactly the damage it should be doing). Clearly, I'm missing something.

In any case, the above is moot since these attacks simply cannot deal competitive physical damage because the damage multipliers from the rages specials far outstrip any benefits Gau (or Gogo) might have from having even twice as much stamina than vigor. However, I find them to be balanced exactly as I want them to be if they do magical damage, so it shall be so.

To summarize: Rock, Tentacle, and Shrapnel will deal *MAGICAL* damage when raged. It'd be nice if Synchysi can find a way to make them use the magical damage formula but still deal physical damage (i.e. consider physical defense), but it's not really a major concern. In fact, I think the fact that they don't get damage boosts from the Atlas Armlet is probably a good thing and helps keep them in check in the early game. It's also good for consistency since all other stamina-based spells/attacks are magical, and this is a subject I'm actively trying to alleviate any confusion about.

So, yeah, we'll just leave it at Gau and his magic tentacles.

(10-01-2013, 05:58 PM)BTB Wrote: [ -> ]It'd be nice if Synchysi can find a way to make them use the magical damage formula but still deal physical damage (i.e. consider physical defense), but it's not really a major concern.

What if you separated the damage forumlas from the physical damage bit. It might be simpler to use one of the extra bits in "Special Byte 3" to pick the damage formula, while using the original physical damage byte to select what stats to use. It would keep you from having to write a bunch of exceptions which can get really hairy. Heck, or just leave everything the same and write a brand new formula that only those spells use that is selected with one of the extra bits... Ok, now I'm getting ideas for my hack... goodbye.

(10-01-2013, 09:51 PM)Edrin Wrote: [ -> ]What if you separated the damage forumlas from the physical damage bit. It might be simpler to use one of the extra bits in "Special Byte 3" to pick the damage formula, while using the original physical damage byte to select what stats to use. It would keep you from having to write a bunch of exceptions which can get really hairy. Heck, or just leave everything the same and write a brand new formula that only those spells use that is selected with one of the extra bits... Ok, now I'm getting ideas for my hack... goodbye.

'eh, I suppose. But like I said, I really don't mind it as it is. The only real concern is that it's counter-logical that attacks that are supposed to be "physical" get a damage bump from magic-boosting relics instead of physical ones (and consider enemies' magical defense instead of their regular defense, which may actually be the bigger issue).

Anyhow, I felt like I should drop in with an update about the next version. Here's our current changelog:

• Wrote out some of the more gratuitous profanity in the dialogue and added an optional patch that removes *all* of the mod's profanity (and other assorted naughtiness)

• Reworked stamina to bring it in line with the other main stats, which included edits to esper boosts and several characters' base stamina - THIS WILL REQUIRE A NEW GAME

• New regen and seizure formulas that (still) allow stamina to contribute appreciably, but don't render high-stamina/HP characters (i.e. Sabin) essentially immortal

• Raised the power of several bushidos (Empowerer, Flurry, Eclipse, and Tempest) as well as the random Wind Slash/Aero casts from weapons; also set the Dragon bushido to use stamina instead of magic power

• Shuriken (and Ninja Stars) are now free targeting (press L/R to target multiple foes w/ split damage)

• Set the value of all scrolls (thrown weapons) to 500 instead of having them staggered

• Gau's stamina-based attacks, which are physical when used by the enemy, now do magical damage when he uses them so that they actually do competitive damage with a stamina-built Gau (see conversation above)

• Sand Storm now sets the Dark status (to help make Desert Aria more useful against large enemy groups)

• The Specter dance step now absorbs HP from its target instead of setting Stop (it still sets Seizure) to help shore up the "weaker" dances (Love Sonata and Dusk Requiem) that use it

• The Storm spell now targets all enemies instead of the entire battlefield (and so is actually usable)

• Set Maduin summon to ignore defense (making it essentially a multi-target Break with no split damage) and raised the power of Bismark, Terrato (note: also cleared the "ignores defense" flag for Terrato that was previously set in error, so the net result is a nerf), Alexandr, and Crusader

• Palidor now deals physical damage to all enemies instead of allowing a mass jump attack (which was both prone to all sorts of buggy behavior and really kind of shitty)

• Fixed a bug where Starlet and several dance steps (Meerkat, Tapir, and Ice Rabbit) were not correctly restoring all characters to max HP (I *thought* I fixed this in 1.1.4, but apparently not...)

• Discord now sets bserk and muddle instead of halving the target's level as it was discovered that the level-halving effect was working even if the attack missed (i.e. it was working on bosses)

• Control (the upgraded Sketch command) has been removed from the game; the Dancho Doll (Fake Mustache) and Coronet have been reworked into different/new items

• The Magicite item has been replaced with an upgraded Phoenix Down that restores a character to 1/2 their Max HP

• Lowered the defense and/or magic defense values of some (mostly end-game) armor and relics, most notably the Minerva, Czarina Gown, Royal Jacket, and Guard/Wall Rings

• Tarot now (correctly) trades in for Heiji's Coin at the Colosseum instead of a Relic Ring

• Changed several enemy steals/drops and tweaked the steal success formula to make it a little easier

• Made bosses immune to Rerise (via the same method used to make fractional damage attacks always miss them) because of issues with a muddled/bserked Relm (or Gogo) setting it with the Rainbow Brush and the fact that Rerise was (somehow) preventing bosses who drop things from dropping things

• Corrected an oversight wherein it was possible to kill Chupon with Joker Doom without triggering his Sneeze-out, thus rendering the battle unwinnable since Ultros is no longer targetable

• Fixed several zones on the WoR overworld that were incorrectly set to "no encounter"

---

As for the things that are still being worked on:

• A reworking of the Morph command to be a toggle status rather than a timed one (as timers in this game are prone to being abused like a perky set of nipples)

• A new formula for GP Rain that makes it a much more viable attack and even tempts an alternate build for Setzer as it considers his stamina

• A fix to the damage formula for Umaro's "character toss" attack that will let it do the ridiculously high damage that it was intended to, as well as quite possibly adjusting the likelihood of each of his attacks being used to something more favorable to the player (note that I've already jacked up his base stamina from 12 to 60, which is now double the second-highest natural value in the game)

• A tweak to the Atma/Omega Weapon's damage formula that renders it much less of a crappy weapon; it will lose its back-row capabilities and evasion bonuses to compensate

• The Moogle Charm will be put back in the game (replacing the Dancho Doll, which went away along with control), but will have a special "hidden" bonus(es) rather than eliminating random encounters

• Updated the Unlockme.txt file

• Some other minor stuff

(We're also technically not finished with the dialogue changes, either, even though I have it listed in the "complete" section >.>)

Well, the clean version is officially done. And f**k if it isn't getting a f**k**g disclaimer that it was not taken seriously at *all*.

Bear in mind that the original has been toned down, and steps have been taken to make it less childhood-rapey. The clean version is intended only for those who *still* think there's too much swearing in this game.

I have nothing left to do except play through the game again and finish up the Unlockme documentation (which will be getting updated in this release). Synchysi is currently playing through right now, and will likely beat me by a long shot.

That disclaimer kind of makes me want to play through the clean version, just to see how ridiculous it got.