Auction House: Expanded-Workable

Oh... now that's an idea. Plausibe, functionable and versatile.

On another note, finished the initial code writing/checking. Luckly it turns out I can copy and paste the 1,760 line of spaced out commented code straight from excel to HxD. So far, it kinda works, better than I expected anyway. The auction selction part seems to be working fine.

Only had one auction castastophically fail (it opened up the load save game screen the dies when you pick one. ) I'm leaning toward the airship auction but havent checked into it yet.

Had a missed byte on a action queue.

A problem I do have and dont know how to fix exactly is getting rid of NPCs after the player wins one. Imp in this case. Its spawned with "create object" and "show object" but delete object and hide object does not dispose of it. *edit* It definatly helps however to actually tell it to delete object imp instead of an object thats not there....
Further bug locating/ extermination required.

My very first IPS patch. Auction House Rewrite

It is for a headered, V1.0 Rom. It only effects the auction house block of code so I'm not 100% sure that it matters regarding other versions. The zip also includes the commented code, as well as two srm saves (One WoB, one WoR) in an attempt to make it less painful to try out.

AND it makes no real major changes to the actual gameplay what so ever! Sounds like a real great patch don't it? All it does at this point is, as the rest of the thread states, starts from the first line of code regarding the auctions and changes everything from there. The only part I didn't move/modify to any extent was the "take your seat" actions, I made changes above them in order to relocate the auction is over message but changed the "is it open" check to use less space, which by chance left the directions for seating in the exact same normal place oddly enough. The rest I mutilated with a large hammer... and a torch... then poked it with a stick a few times.

Okay actually I just used the holy hell out of Call subroutine to get rid of as much repeated code as possible, then straightened the rest of it out, then added a few dozen 50% chance of branching calls to mix it up.

What I could really use at this point is opinions.

As said, there is nothing really new added. What I need to know is does it flow naturally or is it kinda choppy/rushed? There are still bugs, plenty, but from what I've played with so far they are not the kind that crash when you walk in. I'll list the big things I've found at the bottom but the point is it will complete the auctions. Not a finished product, but enough to tell if its doing its job.

I could also use some input regarding what could be added to THIS patch. THIS one will not change stuff outside of the normal auction script. That includes extra dialog, space, etc... That still leaves a helluva lot of space. Would more generic items be worth adding? Megalixer, pheonix down, maybe something like a grab bag consumable gift pack? Or would gear be a better choice for more stuff?
Another options I was considering is maybe selling items in the auction? Wouldn't be to hard to add, the items you could sell would be slightly limited. Random prices wouldn't be hard to add... Yes I need ideas. I want more crap to cram in this auction space!

Oh, I should list the things this patch actually does:

1. Player has a small chance to Win most auctions on the first bid.
   
2. Player has a small chance to Lose some auctions on the second bid.
   
3. Some auctions are inclinded to End if the player passes a bid.
   
4. Most auctions (all but 1 or 2) are not a set length, more/less npc bids randomly.
   

Known Issues:

1. The stage girl moves forward, then drops NPC on top of herself for auction. (Have to add a quick check for that type auction to bypass that action queue in the subroutine).
   
2. Some dialogue is a little.... funny... (Just a few typos in the message #'s)
   
3. Player does not see a price when given the choice to bid or pass (Can't fix it, as said I'm not using anything outside of normal auction stuff so I set all "bid/pass" options to use the same message and used the 7 or 8 extra messages with prices for other stuff)
   
4. One NPC twitching, a different NPC bidding (I confused a few NPC numbers, already adjusting for it now)
   
5. One auction crashes soon as you take your seat (I think its the airship because thats the only one I haven't seen that should be running still have to find a problem though)
   
6. Chocobo doesn't face the crowd while being sold (Maybe a bug, maybe not, its a show bird, they are trained to do that)
   
7. Pricing and bidding on one item doesn't match up at start of auction (Player's part is correct, just not the other bids/wrong msg)
   

Thats just what I'm fixing right now. Again, I'm not really looking for bug hunters (I damn sure won't stop you though) I just would really like to know if the auctions feel right or not. And maybe what else could be added.

If anybody happens to know of anything outside of this that branches to the middle of the auction block for any reason, yeah this probably breaks that, please share that information.

*EDIT* All of this and I didn't even mention the selection process...
First it makes a pass through the 3 main branches.(1=magicite, 2=NPC type, 3=Items)
Each path has it's auctions listed based on how rare they should be with chances to branch.
After all of that, each auction has its own block for direct checks (WoB/have already bought) and sometimes a chance to "upgrade" to the next item on the list.
After all magicite are bought it redirects to Path 3 to select an item.

What this does is allow it to be inclinded to push Magicite auctions first, then rare items, and lastly NPC's occasionally tossed in. After all Magicite are bought it is going to lean toward item sales instead of mostly npc auctions. Hopefully this is an improvement.

It will probably take less time to use the patch and test it than it did to read all this so... yeah... please? And thank you.

Known Issues:

1. The stage girl moves forward, then drops NPC on top of herself for auction. (Have to add a quick check for that type auction to bypass that action queue in the subroutine).
   
2. Some dialogue is a little.... funny... (Just a few typos in the message #'s)
   
3. Player does not see a price when given the choice to bid or pass (Can't fix it, as said I'm not using anything outside of normal auction stuff so I set all "bid/pass" options to use the same message and used the 7 or 8 extra messages with prices for other stuff)
   
4. One NPC twitching, a different NPC bidding (I confused a few NPC numbers, already adjusting for it now)
   
5. One auction crashes soon as you take your seat (I think its the airship because thats the only one I haven't seen that should be running still have to find a problem though)
   
6. Chocobo doesn't face the crowd while being sold (Maybe a bug, maybe not, its a show bird, they are trained to do that)
   
7. Pricing and bidding on one item doesn't match up at start of auction (Player's part is correct, just not the other bids/wrong msg)
   

That is a great effort of yours to make te aunction more random and fun. When these issues are fixed (except #3 and #6), we'll add your patch to the correct sub-forum.

Most of the info, patch, etc has been added to the original post. Even with as long as that thing is I did forget a few things that I'll need to edit into the readme as well.

Other than fixing, or tweaking, I think THIS patch will not go any further. Initially it was intended to be a base, and it is even with the added items. What I mean by no further is, any other additions will be directly related to the airship expansion (another auction, places to put the extra bought stuff). That being said, the more I think about it I kinda like the idea of adding a scripted "enforcer" boss battle to deal with bad bids(not enough money). But thats a whole other project. This being contained to the auction house (space, data, maps) only is best for what it is.

The things I need to add to the readme.

• The Zephyr Cape can be bought multiple times. I re-preposed the "bought zephyr" bit into "bought ragnarok" bit. Didnt think several overpriced Zephyr Capes would cause any major unbalancing truth be told.
  
• You can get more than one Hero Ring here. The bit check for that is still there, however if you get the Ragnarok, and that auction is rolled again, it will bypass the check for bought Hero Ring. That auction is rare enough that this shouldnt throw anything off.
  
• Something to add to the "WTF" section. Player bought NPC types (chocobo, imp, airship) will not walk/drag to the player when bought. Its simple really, the script for these requires a seperate action queue for each auction. I did each auction's NPC bought script individually since Papa, the kid, and the item all walk out. For the player it just wasnt worth it for those two steps. For severl cases I used the bit 1F0 (normally set for auction over and cleared on map load) to run checks in several subroutines to tell what type of auction it is by how early the bit is set. (Always set at very end, NPC auctions its set at start to keep stage girl from standing under the item, and set early for an NPC magicite win to tell them to take a rock instead of a chest.) Yes I'm proud of that little trick damn it, gimmie a cookie! Or at least let me brag a little.
  This trick didnt help keep the stage girl from walking into the wall after a player win on the npc auctions (well adding it at that point would have added an extra 6hours of making my eyes bleed vs 5 min to add a new "player win ncp auction subroutine") not overly happy about adding it but adding it out of place did piss me off a bit, was still tons easier and fixed the issue. I was not going to add three more out of place subroutines to make those auctions walk two steps to get off stage though. So that will just have to be ignored, use the fast forward button when you walk to the stage and you'll never notice.
  
• Last note, there are actually several extra places that the 1F0 bit is set just as placeholders for future bit sets. Also for things like the zephyr cape, the space is allocated for a bit set and check on purchase it just sets and checks unimportant bits as is. If wanted can adjust to restore the one sale only style very easy.
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  I think that does cover the rest. Now I've two other projects that dont run on hex (thankfully) and I have to write my magitek armor auction before I forget how to.
  Good luck have fun.