Messages

226

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)

« on: October 06, 2012, 05:13:59 PM »

The story isn't as bad as it looks. There are some issues certainly (in the mini-chapters) and some really really bad ideas (reuse of every boss monster and then some).

I get the feeling racial defense doesn't do too much though.

Although, when I see the classic Behemoth attacking at will on its own (readjusting its speed)... that's a tweak I'm all for...

What I like:
Individual monsters that would be immune to Quake are shown as floating
New monster attacks
Put the game up to FF6 standards (messages and effects during battles)
Bands (this version of CT's Multi-Tech idea)
Charm status on monsters
PSP's version of coloring the ATB (Haste/Slow)
Improvements of some characters - vote YAY to no more Fake Cry
Dualcast - Makes Porom the best White Mage in the game (yes, over Rosa) - and yes, I'm aware others can use it, but having the ability to Revive (Arise) and Heal everyone is far more important than dualcasting Meteor/Flare when both spells have their own issues
Condemn is on par with FF5/FF6, except 10 seconds is far more serious than anything else
Porom is suddenly hot, full stop.
Palom isn't a jerk, just a more mature jerk.
Golbez is a natural bad ass.
Kain is far more than the Dragoon he was.
Children of the characters could arguably be better than their parents.
Resurrection of Luca's Dolls - brings chills
FF5/FF6 inventory (too much crap to worry about)


What I hate:
Charm on characters = random physical attacks ONLY (I did like the occasional fear of Meteor to rain down from Rydia in FF4)
Color Collision statuses (HP Leak is practically the same color shade as Protect)
Optimal equipment automation (but, that is incurable for various reasons)
Filler characters - especially those that are not permanent members... they are needed, yet they are guys that I wish dead!
Useless characters - does anyone need another Tellah or FuSoYa?
One ninja too many
Holy elemental is the defense of choice on some monsters - crippling Cecil's existence
Edward still sucks
Edward's secret gf conflicts me - you are the accountant, yet have the ability to throw $$$ away as a skill - who is wearing the pants here?

What I'm confused about:
Shell/Protect - Does it work like the original or is it the more modern stuff?
Haste/Slow - I cannot tell if it is similar to the original, or more closer to the more modern FFs (the only difference being that Haste/Slow cancels its opposite, so you would have to cast again to get to the status you want) Slowing bosses twice was neutering every boss in the original.. now it's just make them slow once....

227

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)

« on: October 06, 2012, 01:00:40 AM »

 

This probably will be my only commentary to this game. All of my comments are based on youtube vids... and perhaps I'll play them at some point.

I will say that the game seems to be done "right". However, there are some flaws...

The Wii version for the most part despite being a bit more faithful to FF4 (visuals, particularly the numbers)... it suffers from "menus could be fucking better". Maybe it's just me, but I stare at this screens a lot and the very least they could improve details of equipment and stuff like the other FFs in the SNES era and their GBA ports.

The PSP version I applaud for being fairly consistent by its updated graphics. Of course, I'm reread the threads about it... this is a handheld after all. It's polish for what the Wii version didn't do.

On the other hand, I abhor some of the vids... if only because the people that record it don't seem to have played any prior FF4 version before and use really really really stupid tactics to win. FF4 is heavily scripted battle-wise... far less functional than FF5 and FF6... and fortunately this seems to be made up through semi-overpowered combos. I'm not sure what else to say there.

I will have more to say in due time.

228

General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2012-2013) week 5

« on: October 04, 2012, 06:03:18 PM »

Week 5 schedule:

Well, at least sanity came back.

Just to keep semi-track...

Week 5 scores:
Leno: 13-2
Me: 12-3

Cardinals @ Rams (division, Thursday)

Rams -  No real reason for this... NFC West could arguably be the best division in football.

Dolphins @ Bengals

Bengals - I feel bad for the Lawfirm... with his 2nd consecutive fumble.

Packers @ Colts

Packers - Nothing to see here.

Ravens @ Chiefs

Ravens - Ever since that playoff game, Chiefs haven't really been the same.

Falcons @ Redskins

Falcons - Probably the most complete team so far in the NFC...

Browns @ Giants

Giants - 2 losses in division games early gets you really behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Eagles @ Steelers

Steelers - I'm sure this is Vick's lucky day! The battle of PA...

Seahawks @ Panthers

Panthers - The battle of odd partners...

Bears @ Jaguars

Bears - One would hope beating the Cowboys up would get to someone's head....

Titans @ Vikings

Vikings - Division leaders? I'm still a bit skeptical there.

Broncos @ Patriots

Broncos - It could go either way... although I'm the one that will be doing the most freaking out.

Bills @ 49'ers

49ers - There's a lot of wasted money on that Bills d-line.

Chargers @ Saints

Chargers - I don't think NBC is that happy to have this game in the first place.

Texans @ Jets

Texans - It could just be Tebow time!

229

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF4 Algo - Input Requested

« on: October 01, 2012, 09:13:17 AM »

Yeah, the Blood Spear is the only thing that missed when I was fighting her, and I knew why that was the case. I forgot to test if her magic evasion gets applied, but luckily I did keep a save from then, so I'll get around to that the next time I play.

It's either the fact that 255 really means invulnerability or it's the evasion/magic evasion multiplier (99x 99%) that causes it. I haven't actually thoroughly tested that.

I know while in tornado form, she is definitely immune to Slow since her magic defense (along with defense). You can cast Slow on her when she's not in tornado form.

230

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF4 Algo - Input Requested

« on: September 30, 2012, 10:59:47 PM »

The only time you can't hit Valvalis/Barbariccia is when your hits accuracy is far below the evasion data for the boss. I had a fond memory of trying to attack her with Jump and the Blood/Drain Spear. Despite the hit being a miss more often than not, the Jump aspect still causes her to counter/react. The only other thing probably involves an underleveled Cecil... but meh.

I've always felt the FF Chronicles versions were primarily the ROM+some emulation-ish overlays

PS is not my forte.. but it's good to know nonetheless.

231

Pandora's Box / Re: Screenshots!

« on: September 29, 2012, 05:31:14 PM »

In the context of the original, hit rate had very little impact. I knew they were trying to differentiate the accuracy of weapons in FF5, and moreso in FF6, but given the dependency on skills or magic... I guess that has been a long time coming!

232

General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2012-2013) week 4

« on: September 27, 2012, 05:57:44 PM »

Ed Hochuli is back.

The guns are back. Thank god the freaking replacement refs are gone.

Week 4 schedule:

Considering MNF was a complete disaster, I would like to pretend I was drunk except I'm dry as hell.

Before I get on my predictions, here's some stats for the past two weeks:

Week 2:
Leno: 10-6
Me: 8-8

Week 3:
Leno: 6-10
Me: 7-9

Only the refs can fuck this up more.

Browns @ Ravens (division, Thursday)

Ravens - At least the NFL spared this game for an "extended finale" of the crap refs.

Panthers @ Falcons, (division)

Falcons - This is the only non-NFC West team that actually pretty good... so far.

Patriots @ Bills (division)

Pats - At this point, I wonder if I'll recover from painful ref memories...

Vikings @ Lions (division)

Lions - One week doesn't make a season...

Chargers @ Chiefs (division)

Chargers - I don't even know how either team survived last week.... curious.

Seahawks @ Rams (division)

Seahawks - Seahawks got a gift.. thanks to Goodell and that BS.

49'ers @ Jets

49ers - Retribution for last week is coming...

Titans @ Texans (division)

Texans - The AFC South is its own disaster.

Bengals @ Jaguars

Bengals - Stranger things have happened.

Dolphins @ Cardinals

Cards - The fish could've won their game... twice.

Raiders @ Broncos (division)

Broncos - Is the Raider penalty-less season a hoax or ref randomness?

Saints @ Packers

Packers - This is the Roger Goodell "appreciation" game.

Redskins @ Buccaneers

Bucs - Go figure with these two teams.

Giants @ Eagles (division)

Eagles - No rhyme or reason to this pick.

Bears @ Cowboys (Monday)

Bears - Had anyone watched the Cowboys game... it was really unwatchable.

233

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Yang's Battle Script

« on: September 26, 2012, 10:43:44 PM »

Actually, status spells are tested once... they always use a spell multiplier of 1 unless it is an attack spell like Bio or Venom.
I call it the solo multiplier, because it is also used for the magic evasion multiplier as well (unless, you are Cecil/Yang/Cid that tends to have a magic evasion multiplier of 0).

I already posted a document on Gamefaqs with a relatively complete Algo FAQ and a separate spell doc.

234

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Yang's Battle Script

« on: September 26, 2012, 09:28:34 PM »

Thanks for the explanation. I recall someone had started a solo Cecil challenge and quit when they reached Cagnazzo because Cecil couldn't hurt him enough and his Recover healed too much HP for him to get through. I wonder if it was also reducing damage?

Setting the new defense value in the script does actually reduce damage. Think of it like the Valvalis/Barbariccia battle. Same idea, except Cagnazzo stays with those stats forever (the new defense stat does not ever revert script-wise, unlike Barbariccia).

It's actually worth checking out how that works with a Beastiary type code (forcing the battle for your own testing amusment).

Though don't enemies use Magic Evasion when it comes to status ailments? Or does it only look at the caster's Wisdom/Will for that?

Status ailments depend on the property that is applied to it. Bio/Virus's HP leak property is not blockable, but if you have enough magic evasion, the HP leak property is a non-issue... unless it is multi-targeted (Zeromus). Spells like Toad/Mini is tested against Magic Evasion (assuming you have a minimum of multiplier of 1), however you have to check its hit rate/accuracy through its base accuracy (Toad/Mini has 50) and appropriate stat (Toad for Wisdom, Mini for Will)

Hit Rate = 50 + (Wis or Will)/2

Spells like Venom tend to apply the damage+status (status is not applied if resistant), but there are issues with that with the various versions of FF4.

Monster spells (usually towards the bottom of the spell list) simply check for status resistance before applying them... the hit rate value is ignored altogether.

Monsters never have magic evasion, so it works or it doesn't, depending on the spell and status ailment.

235

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Yang's Battle Script

« on: September 26, 2012, 05:37:28 PM »

I wrote some stuff about Cagnazzo about his shell mode.

http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=544.msg4314#msg4314

I should've tried to clarify this better.

3 is the defensive value of the index that the stats are based off of.
It's not the actual index. To be frank, I think defense is actually set (the value of 3), but the post wasn't about that.

Some background:
There is an index of data that is used to set the parameters of monster attributes. There are 3 bytes each I think.
These are used for assigning three aspects of the monsters. Attack, Defense, and Magic Defense.
For example, let's use the Kainazzo (Cagnazzo) in FF2US v1.0 data through an FF4 editor:
Attack: 0x16 = 3x44 @ 99%
Defense: 0x77 = 2x2 @ 50%
Magic Def: 0xDA = 10x48 @ 50%
1st byte = Multiplier
2nd byte = Actual Value
3rd byte = Effectiveness
For Attack, this means, the monster can produce up to 3 hits, with 44 attack power, with an accuracy of 99%
For Defense, this means, the monster can evade up to 2 hits, with 2 defense, with an evasion rate of 50%.
Note: Evasion is NOT factored in unless you use a script to SET the defense. 255 Defense = immune to all physical attacks (doesn't include Throw since it isn't a physical attack, Jump and Power however are) Monsters in general have NO evasion.
For Magic D, this means, the monster can magically evade up to 10 hits, with 48 magic defense, with a magic evasion rate of 50%
Note: Magic evasion is never factored in I believe. 255 Magic Defense = immune to all magic. IIRC, Magic evasion is never a factor for monsters, so it's an irrelevant stat.

The point of the info was that in some of the bugged versions of FF4A, the defensive set in the script is not done or is executed/enforced correctly.

In the script (when going into shell mode - the mode that causes the monster to heal itself), it sets defense to index 0x7A. This would produce a monster with the defense of evading @ most 3 hits, with 3 defense, and has a chance to evade @ 70%. If you have ever hit that side of the script with a low level Cecil, you will find him to do pitiful damage against Cagnazzo. The script works as intended as far as I can tell (unless you get Cecil to dish out 4 hits @ minimum).

Hopefully, that clears things up.

  Clarification on the part of the script that causes the changes.

236

General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2012-2013) week 3

« on: September 20, 2012, 06:51:08 PM »

Week 3 schedule:

Moo!

Giants @ Panthers (Thursday)

Panthers - Giants are a bit beat up here.

Rams @ Bears

Bears - Don't let last week's game fool you...

Bills @ Browns

Bills - Flip a coin.

Buccaneers @ Cowboys

Cowboys - I dunno how the Cowboys manage to embarrass themselves last week... but they succeeded!

Jets @ Dolphins (division)

Jets - Stranger things have happened...

49'ers @ Vikings

49ers - Have fun!

Chiefs @ Saints

Saints - The Chiefs will temporarily be the cure that ails the Saints.

Bengals @ Redskins

Redskins - The Bungles always manage to beat those that they should beat... I don't think this is one of them.

Lions @ Titans

Lions - Too bad Jeff Fisher is not there anymore... not that it matters.

Jaguars @ Colts (division)

Colts - Possibly an unwatchable game.

Eagles @ Cardinals

Cards - I'll give credit to the Cards for winning... on the other hand, the d-coord has foot-in-mouth syndrome.

Falcons @ Chargers

Chargers - I don't even know how the Falcons barely survived against the Broncos last week.

Texans @ Broncos

Texans - I'm not entirely sure the Broncos are quite ready yet... especially due to last week's performance.

Steelers @ Raiders

Steelers - The ungreatness of teh Raiders!

Patriots @ Ravens

Ravens - I'm just hoping Bernard Pollard is out for the game. Then, I could kinda care less about the result.

Packers @ Seahawks (Monday)

Packers - Pete Carroll's "the college good try" eventually will wear thin.

237

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Power Command

« on: September 13, 2012, 09:45:55 PM »

FuSoYa is still relatively "complete". He closely mirrors Tellah in the sense that his MP never grows until level 70 (which Tellah still never gains enough MP for Meteor). Consider that is starting MP is 190 vs Tellah's 90... it could be coincidence but ultimately FuSoYa is a the #2 meh character in the game...

I considered Edward to be far more useful than Tellah and FuSoYa by comparison...

238

Gaming Discussion / FF4 (all SNES+GBA) - How To Beat The CPU v3

« on: September 13, 2012, 07:23:40 PM »

I was thinking about this during some small discussions about the Giant of Babil, and this occurred to me.

One of the biggest interesting "lie" in FF4 is the fact that the Tricker monster (the floating yellow Imp/Goblin) you find in the Lunar Subterrane. It has nothing to do with the fact that it can kick your ass if you cast Lightning on it, but it has more to do with the "floating" aspect.

The property of "floating" for monsters is simply cosmetic. The actual property that causes them to "avoid Quake" is being weak to arrows/projectiles (Air/Wind) so to speak. This is also the ninja reason why the v1 undead version of Milon/Scarmaglione and the Electric Fish are immune to Quake.

So, back to the CPU battle. Those "floating" orbs are actually not immune to Quake. Of course this isn't exactly the most useful info... killing the two smaller orbs (Defender and Attacker) causes the big CPU to own you... twice!

One of the few rare things people have not considered is the reflect property of Float. This technique requires FuSoYa, but it works just as well when Rosa has learned Reflect (if not Float). First off, cast Reflect on any party member (or just put the middle target for simplicity). Then, cast Float on the next turn.

Ideally, you want to give Float status to the Attacker. You have a 1/3 shot of that happening... but it's not necessarily the end of the world if you get it on the Defender. Simply start over if Float status is applied on the CPU... you don't want it immune to Quake. Once you get Float status on either of the orbs, just cast Quake. FuSoYa should be reasonably powerful enough to help out in dealing damage in this battle.. instead of being woefully useless. Rydia's best spell is still Sylph, to counteract the effects of the Attacker's attack... but Titan is still a capable spell in this instance (she's better off with Quake though). Having FuSoYa useful should make it far easier to counteract the healing the Defender does, assuming you gave Float status to the Attacker orb.

Worthy of note from this research.. revived monsters don't retain Float status... which is very different from characters (they still keep the status while in a dungeon).

Hopefully, someone considers this to be a viable option instead of the slow and painful "kill defender and focus on CPU" method or the insane "dish out as much damage after both Attacker and Defender are gone".

239

General Discussion / Re: NFL season (2012-2013) week 2

« on: September 13, 2012, 05:50:54 PM »

Some quick updates and scores:

Leno: 10-6
Me: 10-6

RG3 did pretty well.. though I didn't see the entire game. However, I think the Saints defense isn't looking that hot.
I really don't know how the Jags @ Vikings game came to where it ended up late.. I got bonus coverage and that boggled my mind a little.
49ers seemed to have complete control vs a somewhat discombobulated Packers.
I caught a little bonus coverage of the Seahawks and Cards game to see a WTF moment with the 4th TO.
Also, Peyton looks mostly like himself during SNF...

Week 2 schedule:

Yay?

Bears @ Packers (division, Thursday)

Packers - It would be nice if Cutler stayed quiet more...

Chiefs @ Bills

Chiefs - Go figure on the Bills last week... complete and utter disaster.

Browns @ Bengals (division)

Bengals - The Browns d is far ahead of the Browns... "Oh MY GOD, we still have no QB!"

Vikings @ Colts

Vikings - Rare moment of clarity for me.

Saints @ Panthers (division)

Panthers - Someone better make up for that disaster for the Panthers last week...

Texans @ Jaguars (division)

Texans - It's sad that the Texans practically have no competition in the atrocious AFC South.

Raiders @ Dolphins

Raiders - No backup long snapper? Oh well.

Cardinals @ Patriots

Pats - Cards are "Steelers west". Go figure.

Buccaneers @ Giants

Giants - This game might be more interesting than it first looks.

Ravens @ Eagles

Ravens - Vick is very likely to be taken out sometime during this game...

Redskins @ Rams

Redskins - I hope to see a bit more RG3.

Cowboys @ Seahawks

Cowboys - Luckily the Seahawks won't get a 4th TO this time.... maybe?

Jets @ Steelers

Steelers - The Jets are not as good as their week 1 score says... the Steelers are not as bad as their week 1 score says.

Titans @ Chargers

Chargers - Good luck to Hasslebeck. He'll need it.

Lions @ 49'ers

49ers - This rematch could be atrocious.

Broncos @ Falcons (Monday)

Broncos - Not even a dome will stop the Broncos here.

240

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Power Command

« on: September 13, 2012, 12:43:24 PM »

To bring some sanity to explaining FuSoYa... his equipment set is virtually the same as Tellah, except he can also equip bows+arrows. I've tried using that combo on FuSoYa (Elven Bow+Lightning Arrows) and that produced pretty mediocre results (the Samurai/Yoichi Bow probably would help a little).

It would make sense to move out Edge in this instance, if FuSoYa was meant to stick around. He's the only character that never leaves you when he joins...

If FuSoYa was never meant to stick around, can you imagine a kickass group of Cecil, Cid, Edge, Rosa, and Rydia? That would be genuinely storming that Giant.

I'm trying to recall if the CPU battle considers the CPU as a back row target when one of the front row targets go... because that would make Kain invaluable if he was meant to be involved in that...