Monsters Countering One Attack As If It Were A Different Attack

About a year ago, I was here asking for help with a Painful Chainsaw patch I was having problems with (thank you so much for the help, the ReadMe for my hack already has this in the Special Thanks section in order to give credit where due!) - and now I return with a new problem. (Yes, despite that this isn't exactly a Brave New World size/type hack, progress with my hack has been slow, heh. But it's picking up steam again, at least!) Here's an example of one of my boss scripts that is acting up on me, as dropped into a text file by FF3usME:

[Script generated by: Final Fantasy 3us Multi Editor, Coded by Lord J]
[FF3usME version: 6.7.0]
[File version: 1.00]
[Section: Monster Battle Scripts]

[script #-1] ; orig idx=300, "Ultros", nb. bytes=146
FC 15 00 00 ; If VAR000 has all the following bit cleared: 0
F3 0C 00 ; Text: " OPUS, KIDS_<D> "
F9 00 00 00 ; VAR000 toggle bit: 0
EE ; Battle
EF ; Special
FE ; End If and reset targeting
FC 15 00 01 ; If VAR000 has all the following bit cleared: 1
FC 0B 0A 00 ; If timer has reached/passed 10 (locks timer)
FC 0F 00 00 ; If Terra (all allies if N/A)'s level is greater or equal than 0 (random target if many)
F3 0D 00 ; Text: " I'm STARVED!<D> "
D0 ; Tentacle
F9 00 00 01 ; VAR000 toggle bit: 1
FB 00 00 ; has battle timer set to 0
FE ; End If and reset targeting
FC 15 00 02 ; If VAR000 has all the following bit cleared: 2
FC 0B 0A 00 ; If timer has reached/passed 10 (locks timer)
FC 0F 05 00 ; If Sabin (all allies if N/A)'s level is greater or equal than 0 (random target if many)
F3 0E 00 ; Text: " I hate you!!<D> "
D0 ; Tentacle
F9 00 00 02 ; VAR000 toggle bit: 2
FB 00 00 ; has battle timer set to 0
FE ; End If and reset targeting
F3 03 00 ; Text: " Get lost, pretty boy!<D> "
F1 04 ; Targeting: Edgar (all allies if N/A)
D0 ; Tentacle
FD ; Wait until the attack sequence is called upon again, then continue (reset targeting)
F1 43 ; Targeting: allies
D0 ; Tentacle
F1 44 ; Targeting: random ally
F0 EE EF EF ; Rand. spell: Battle or Special or Special
FD ; Wait until the attack sequence is called upon again, then continue (reset targeting)
EF ; Special
F0 EE EF EF ; Rand. spell: Battle or Special or Special
FD ; Wait until the attack sequence is called upon again, then continue (reset targeting)
EF ; Special
EF ; Special
FD ; Wait until the attack sequence is called upon again, then continue (reset targeting)
F3 4D 00 ; Text: " T-time to die!!<D> "
F1 0E ; Targeting: Banon (all allies if N/A)
D0 ; Tentacle
F1 00 ; Targeting: Terra (all allies if N/A)
D0 ; Tentacle
FF ; End first wave of attack
FC 12 00 00 ; If following monster is/are dead:
D0 ; Tentacle
D0 ; Tentacle
F5 04 03 00 ; Monsters are hidden and their HP restored, in water
F3 09 00 ; Text: " _Uh, th-th-th-that's all, folks!<D>"
F7 0A ; Trigger event: defeated Ultros at Leet river w/ Sabin, Edgar, Terra and Banon, fades to black
FE ; End If and reset targeting
FC 02 5E 5E ; If monster has been attacked by spell: AuraCannon or AuraCannon, will target attacker
EF ; Special
D0 ; Tentacle
FE ; End If and reset targeting
FC 01 0A 0A ; If monster has been attacked by cmd: Blitz or Blitz, will target attacker
EF ; Special
F1 47 ; Targeting: use normal targeting
EF ; Special
FE ; End If and reset targeting
FC 04 01 00 ; If monster as been attacked by element: Fire
F3 0B 00 ; Text: " !<D> "
EF ; Special
D0 ; Tentacle
FE ; End If and reset targeting
FC 05 00 00 ; If monster has been attacked
EF ; Special
FF ; End

(Don't mind the part dealing with Edgar during the normal, non-counterattack portion of his AI; I'll refine that later so that Ultros will only go through that part once, much as his individual attacks on Sabin and Terra in base game.)
Ultros keeps wanting to ignore his "If monster has been attacked" counter in favor of his "If monster has been attacked by cmd: Blitz" counter or even sometimes "If monster has been attacked by spell: AuraCannon" (this is just a renamed AuraBolt, if necessary to know for clarity's sake) counter, even going as far as always attacking the previous attacker instead of the current attacker. But it only seems to happen when Edgar uses his Tools (Edgar uses AutoCrossBow, Ultros uses Special+Tentacle on Sabin or Special on Sabin, Special on random ally); I don't believe my beta testers ever encountered this issue with just a standard Fight (well, now "Attack", but anyway) command, that I recall at least. I'm aware of a bug with FC 05 that makes it counter anything that targets the creature rather than *only* being dealt either HP or MP damage (And honestly, I'm not too concerned with my bosses using this type of counter to respond to even non-damaging moves, at least not at this moment anyway.), but it doesn't appear to me to be related to this problem. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course (as I...believe there is a patch by Master ZED that covers this, so I could implement that easily if it's as simple as that to fix my problem). Otherwise, can any one of you shed light on why my Ultros would be adamant about using the wrong counter in such a situation?

I'm pretty sure it /is/ the FC 05 bug that is the problem here. The script starts at the top and works its way down, so judging by what i'm reading here, it definitely should be working right.
I'd grab the bug fix (located here) and apply it, and see if anything changes. make sure you keep a backup.

Ooh, okay, it just sounded to me like the FC 05 bug was specific to "if monster is attacked", since the others were "FC" and a different number. But still, it wouldn't hurt to try (and it'll take care of that one particular bug, at least, which surely isn't a bad thing as long as it doesn't break anything else), so I will do that. And don't worry about the "make a backup just in case" thing - though it might be overkill, I have a folder with a bunch of backups of my hack - 243 MB/81 back ups worth of old versions, dating back to March 18th of last year - if anything goes wrong at any point while making my hack, I should be able to go back as far as needed (even if reluctantly, heh!). Glad you mentioned it, though, just in case.

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Pardon the double post, let me know if I'm not supposed to do that (as in I should have edited this into my previous message, or something) and have inconveniently forgotten. ^_^; Anyway...
[EDIT: Yep, the auto-merging answered my question. Sorry! I'll remember from now on!]
Okay so, I applied the patch, and the hack didn't seem to break or anything. Here's my testing so far.
I open the battle with Banon: Defend, Terra: Defend, Sabin: AuraCannon, Edgar: AutoCrossBow - Ultros smacks Sabin with Ink/Tentacle as he's supposed to after AuraCannon, but then he immediately smacks Sabin again with Ink/Tentacle after Edgar uses AutoCrossBow.
I open with Banon: Defend, Terra: Fire, Sabin: Defend, Edgar: AutoCrossBow - Terra gets yelled at then hit with Ink/Tentacle, then Sabin gets hit with just Ink. (Expected and normal behavior.)
I open with Banon: Defend, Terra: Defend, Sabin: Pummel, Edgar: AutoCrossBow - Sabin gets two Inks in his face, and Edgar only gets one. (Also expected and normal behavior.)
I switch to BioBlaster instead of AutoCrossBow and redo the above three scenarios - Ultros counters completely properly.
I tried also switching to a standard physical attack, NoiseBlaster (not that this has any effect, given Ultros is immune to Confusion), a Potion, an Ether, a Gold Needle (er, Soft), just whatever I can think of that might even be slightly different from previous commands - every time, Ultros incorrectly counters Sabin the same way as when I used AutoCrossBow. And to be sure (even if unnecessarily), I had Terra be the one to launch a standard Attack on him, still had the same results of Ink/Tentacle to Sabin's face. When I had Terra use Cure on him...he smacks Sabin in the face with Ink. (No Tentacle, though.) And then when Edgar used Attack right after that Cure, he got a proper counter in return.
I'm not sure what other attacks/items/commands I can test at the moment (that would actually be available at the time of this fight, anyway), so I'll leave it at that. Let's just say, Ultros seems to counter Terra's Fire with absolutely no problems, never trying to use that counter on someone else - but that AuraCannon counter is just not wanting to act correctly, for some reason. It wouldn't be because it's a subset of a different command I'm having Ultros counter, would it? I really don't want to give up Ultros's AuraCannon counter, since it's the second strongest attack that can be thrown at this first Ultros encounter in my hack, so...
I even tested to be sure the bugfix patch so much as took hold - in base game, had I triggered a "if monster has been attacked" counter with the Fight command, then used a Potion on the same monster, he'd incorrectly attack the one who used the Fight command, due to said bug, right? After using Attack on Ultros as the first thing targeting him (to trigger the counter), I tried following it up with using Potion, NoiseBlaster, Gold Needle, and Cure on him - none of these things made him counter, even though Attack did, so that means the bugfix patch *did* take hold, right?

Going to bump this since that auto-merge feature doesn't help any to let people know you posted another question. Double posting is okay we won't yell at you for it =D Will also read this carefully tomorrow when I'm not dead tired and try to provide an answer if possible unless someone beats me to it!

Would be greatly appreciated, believe me. Now that I've more thoroughly tested what does and doesn't seem to trigger Ultros's counters acting up, I feel even more baffled! If it was JUST Ultros, I'd almost be willing to chalk it up to plot, just for the laugh I'd get out of it. (Who expects the octopus to be cooperative? Hah.) But yeah, he's one of at least a few bosses I've given counters to that, so far, have exhibited such odd behavior. (I just picked Ultros since he was the first of my bosses to act up on me like this, and the first that came to mind of them. ...Though speaking of sleep, I'm pretty tired myself after being up way longer than planned! Hopefully when I return tomorrow, someone will have been able to shred some light on this oddity.)

I'd recommend getting in touch with Lord Envoy via email about this if this doesn't get solved here:
https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/member...ile&uid=15

He would probably be able to see something about why it is neglecting the Aura Cannon counter.

Or maybe Tenkarider here might be able to pin down the issue as he has lots of battle script experience from his Czar Dragon boss hack.

All I can think of from looking at all this is there's too much going on in the counter attack portion and it's having trouble reading it, or maybe the short 10 second timer is acting as a culprit to erase or ignore it, but still you'd think it would work at times. Not sure at all though. Maybe try putting if monster has been attacked by element Pearl, since Aura Cannon is Pearl element it should work the same and trigger like the Fire element one does. Or try switching the order of the counters up for testing, although you've probably tried that.

Sorry I can't be of more help off hand looking at the script, it's making my brain melt lol. You've got it all in the correct order though. I've noticed before as well problems with monsters not multi-countering different attacks or commands, so it's not just you. Hard to tell without playing/testing it out myself, which I may do here in a while. This is definitely a hands-on kind of problem solving thing for me, hard to understand and problem solve it from your written attack pattern notes. Or if the bug fix has fixed anything at all.

I didn't read all the middle posts details, but if i understood the matter, then it should be that you should are expecting a generic counter from "if monster was attacked" AI command, but a specific counter placed above is selected intead, each time you target the monster and doesn't trigger another counter above the specific counter who's spamming.
I know it because it spoiled some AI of my tasks ;[ and it usually happens when you trigger the specific counter as FIRST attack of the whole battle... it's like it overwrites the generic counter block.
The only way to block it manually should be to lock that counter with a battle var, so that it cannot be used again, until you unlock it, but it's tricky and i really hope that Master ZED's patch was designed right to solve this matter, if that the case, then i'd use it too... for CotG, which will rely heavily on the AI script, it's not acceptable to have exploits in the AI.

Maybe try putting if monster has been attacked by element Pearl, since Aura Cannon is Pearl element it should work the same and trigger like the Fire element one does.

...Ooh, of course, I should have thought to try that. Considering there's no other Holy/Pearl elemental attack that can be used at this point, that would be another way I could script it and still end up with the same effect. I'll try it, see if that makes Ultros any more cooperative.

Well, immediately following an AuraCannon, now AutoCrossBow nets the proper counterattack from Ultros. This is a step forward, and that's good. ...However, for some reason, if I instead use Cure, Noiseblaster, or Potion on Ultros after AuraCannon, Ultros uses his "if monster was attacked" counter - on Sabin (despite that he of course cannot use Cure or Noiseblaster at this point, so he definitely wasn't the source of either). For this battle, yes, this seems to be pretty harmless (who would willingly cast Cure on Ultros? Or use Noiseblaster on a boss that clearly has no business being vulnerable to confusion?), but my concern is that it might still also occur in future boss battles I have in this hack. Let's say hypothetically, in a later boss battle, I have a mook monster heal the boss enemy - I worry it might make the boss mistakenly believe the healing attempt by his ally was actually an attack by the player, and so the player would take punishment they don't deserve.

I don't mean to, like, overkill my counterattack script here, but since Sabin and Terra are pretty darn effective against Ultros in base game, I'm wanting to make Ultros be more aware of these threats and treat them with more aggression, instead of weakening Sabin's and Terra's options (as that just doesn't feel right to me, here). ...That and, admittedly, my Dadaluma counterattack script is even longer than this, though as yet untested (I just reached Zozo in my own personal play testing so far). He has a death counter, an AuraCannon/Suplex counter (though after this incident, I'm gonna change it to just a Holy-elemental counter, just in case), an Attack counter, a Magic counter, and a Steal counter. Granted, only two of those counters are new (the final attack, and getting testy with Sabin should he use certain Blitzes), but if Ultros's counter script might have been too long for the game to deal with properly, I fear it will simply explode on Dadaluma, heh.
As for Ultros and that ten ticks timer, that was from base game (as you probably know, but just to acknowledge that I realize it as well), so if that in any way is causing a problem, I could probably simplify that section (by just dropping the timer and making those actions run on normal turns or whatever instead) since I don't feel it's necessary for my Ultros to retain *that* much of its base game AI script in my hack.

I vaguely recall being told by somebody that individual Blitz counters either don't work or are bugged, and that may be the culprit here. I'll drop the script in on an enemy in a bit and test it myself.
I guarantee length is not a factor there, given there are substantially longer scripts even in vanilla FF6.

More help as well as testing like that would definitely be appreciated, as I'd definitely like to get to the bottom of this bug and sort it out so I can continue play testing my hack confident I won't have more bosses exhibiting issues like this, heh. Just, if you drop this script onto an enemy, do change the "If monster has been attacked by spell: AuraCannon" part to "If monster as been attacked by element: Pearl", since that's what I'm having Ultros do now, which ended up in my previous post's results of lessening the problem, though unfortunately still not eliminating it.