Posts for Catastrophe

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Posted: 5/7/2006 5:51 AM
Post subject: Sketch Glitch
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Catastrophe
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Joined: 11/17/2005
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Good news! I've discovered something new about the sketch glitch! Master Zed's guide lists the results (per monster formation) of three possible values for $20FF. These three values are the easy ones to obtain: aim at one monster, ditto + previous imp status, and ditto + gained imp status. But one of the many memory addresses corrupted by the sketch glitch can be $20FF if you sketch the right monster. Then if the sktech glitch happens again a new effect will occur! I've also found a way to escape from some battles that Master Zed marked as inescapable. If Relm selects sketch and then another party member quickly uses a Smoke Bomb then it is possible to use that Smoke Bomb even while the menu is frozen. I'm guessing that whoever tested the sketch glitch 40 million times just used the sketch command, froze the game, and marked the result as 'frozen'. I've also discovered that the target of the sketch command does not determine which items I get, but it does have some unknown effect. For example I've used the this glitch on the dangerous Harvester + 2xGabbledegak formation. If I target either of the Gabbledegaks I get the normal 'safe' buffer overflow. But if I target the Harvester then the game explodes. (Intangir is another monster who causes his normally safe formation to explode, I think.) I need to figure out if there are any more good targets besides the Air Force now before I go any further. Relm, like Shadow, does not stick around very long. As soon as she joins after Ultros 3 you walk two screens and trigger a long cut scene. After the cut scene the FC appears and I jump right on. The FC is a one-way ticket to the WOR and no more party members. Relm takes longer than anyone else to get in the WOR, so she's out for good.
Posted: 5/6/2006 5:39 AM
Post subject: Jyzero!
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Catastrophe
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Jyzero wrote:
I hope you at least try to abuse the sketch glitch. The will certainly be interesting and different to watch even if in the end it isn't faster.
Jyzero!!! ^_^ One of the nice things about the sketch glitch, besides giving me an excuse for Rasp, is that it gives me "Oh crap" insurance. Can't manipulate a dodge for Edgar during the Tentacles battle? No problem! I've got 30 Paladin Shlds. That'll fix anyone's mblock problem! (Except Kutan.) The same goes for Gogo. I would hate to get my run all the way to one of the tiers, either 2 or 3, and be unable to survive 10 Hits or Calmness. Mblock helps there too. I'll have more Echo Screens, Magicite, and Flame Shlds (Fire 3) than I'll ever be able to use as well. I still really want a sequence breaker to appear with the sketch glitch. I sketched a random formation on the FC and got a timer that was frozen at 0:00. Now I know that it can 'reach' global flags, wherever that is. Perhaps I could glitch a monster/formation into triggering Kefka's death event? Or Doom Gaze's death event? Maybe just screwing up the camera is enough. If I could 'jump' enough to trigger the statue scene or the final prompt that would be cool too. As for the highlight video I said in my first post that this game has WICKED music video potential! I'm sure someone will do it. The side by side movie is AMAZING! I'm seriously biting my nails while watching it. It has it's moments like at 42:50 where we both get in a battle at the exact same time. Watching myself fall behind on the very first battle when there is no reason to kills me though. :( I feel terrible watching myself fall farther and farther behind. For the first half hour we were practically synchronized but Erim was 6 seconds faster. It was so drawn out I can't stand it. And then Erim uses my cursor roulette thing way before I reach Dadaluma so I end up looking like the copycat. I'm at 54 minutes right now and I wish it would end. Erim is right behind me in the Imperial Camp but he has the other two scenarios done while I still have to do Locke's scenario afterward. That's ugly. But then again my side has it's moments too. Despite the fact that my run gets clobbered for the first 80 minutes I still somehow finish the scenarios two seconds earlier. 0_0 So for all those mistakes that I beat myself up over... it's okay? Watching Cyan talk to Kutan/Celes at 1:23 was beautiful. :) So now I love the movie again! Watching Kefka use poison on both Figaro brothers and then watching them both use their limit breaks at the same time was one heckofva moment. Karetaker, thank you so much for encoding this!
Posted: 5/5/2006 5:42 AM
Post subject: Downloading
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Catastrophe
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Karetaker wrote:
hows about here: http://files.filefront.com/FF3Dualwmvtorrent/;5039845;;/fileinfo.html
I'm downloading that now but I will seed it for.. ever. I'll close a couple of the DKC torrents if I have to since those usually take up most of my upload when any of them do. (I've uploaded Sami's DKC any% run over 50 times!) Thank you Wandering Road for the Osmose correction. The 2 AP means one more battle I can't Smoke Bomb which I guess I'll just have to do. But I've also got a complete plan for the rest of the game that does not use sketch glitch items at all. Giving Terra all those spells to obtain the glitch items might not outweigh the benefit of having them. I'm going to do a test run all the way through Kefka to make sure I'm not wrong about the assumptions I'm making in my path. (The tenacles will be interesting!) 3.25 minutes during the first 120 minutes is alot of time. :( 2.75 minutes is also alot of time. In one sense it is less than three percent of the first half of the run. But that same amount of time is also 7000 frames, give or take. Seven thousand frames is alot even in FF6's scale. Apparently I lost half a second alone in the Esper World because I use turbo A instead of manually hitting each box. I'm going to stop using turbo A right now. I'm really worried because Kutan will never be faster than Celes in the WOR. I want the final difference to be under a minute, not like five minutes or God forbid 10 or 15 minutes. I'm seriously, seriously, seriously, considering going all the way back to the Flan battle before Ifrit, not doing it, and getting out of Vector soooo much faster. My #24 and #128 battles would be faster with the Earrings on Edgar instead, too. Maybe I can make up all the lost time right now.
Posted: 5/4/2006 5:57 AM
Post subject: Plan
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Catastrophe
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Remedy(3), Regen ---------------------------------- Ice2, Bolt 2, Bio(8) Break(5), Doom Demi(5) ---------------------------------- Scan, Slow(7), Rasp(4) Mute(8), Safe, Sleep(10) Muddle(7), Haste(3) Bserk(3), Float, Imp(5) Rflect(5), Shell, Vanish(3) Osmose(4) Warp, Dispel(4) ---------------------------------- (Warning: Magic Points = AP, because MP = mana.) This is a chart I made to help myself visualize which rows are the most attractive to Terra. I need to pick 6 of these. The single best deal is 15 AP to complete two rows with Slow and Mute. The other 4 rows are debatable. Both Shoat and Stray will knock off two rows each for a mere 20 AP. Since I have to drag Terra though Thamasa Island anyway giving Terra 55 AP is a lot more reasonable. But there is another possibility. Getting Zoneseek might take me a full minute, but I'd have to fight far fewer battles. Zoneseek will teach me Rasp and Osmose at a whopping 20x each! So for just 5 AP I can clear two rows! Next, Stray and Shoat still knock off their two rows each for the same 40 AP. Now Terra only needs 45 AP! Saving 10 AP means fighting 5 fewer battles, approximately. That more than pays for Zoneseek's minute. Buying Zoneseek is also definitely faster than trying to encounter Intangirs that I can't even kill anyway. Learning 3 spells from Zoneseek for 20 AP requires me to learn exactly one spell from someone else, which surprisingly does not save AP anywhere. Giving Terra Rasp and 5-20 AP before FlameEater ensures that it will be a killed in hit. That saves me alot of time in picking up the Ice Rod and buying more. The creeps on the second half of the Floating Continent will also die to Rasp or Osmose. In the meantime, anyone can learn Vanish from scratch since it takes 34 AP and Terra needs 45. Edgar is my appointed vanisher since Setzer will lead a different team in Kefka's tower. (Vanish/Snare for one team, Joker Doom on the other two.) Edgar already knows half of Vanish so it won't even be bad if Terra fights the best 3 AP formations on Thamasa. On the Floating Continent I'll take Terra, Edgar/Setzer, and Relm. Ultros 4 (and 3) are as good as done even without the expensive Doom spell. After I do the sketch glitch I'll have Terra throw a Flame Shld at the Air Force. After that the rest of the game is almost linear until I win. The only choice I'll have to make is taking Sabin so that he can put on the SS+CB. I'll just test "Celes", "Sabin", and "Kutan" routes to Figaro castle and report my times.
Posted: 5/3/2006 6:55 AM
Post subject: Trial
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Catastrophe
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I've never looked at SNES (65816) assembly before. But I used to be familiar with 80?86 assembly. The '?' is the last digit of your party's GP. ;) But all of the instructions in this loop were easy anyway. For just the loop at c2/55f0-561c I made commented assembly and I re-wrote the same thing in C just to prove to myself how it worked. And Nitrodon was exactly right. :) I was hoping that there would be something strange or exploitable, but no. Each of the three lists have lengths that are divisble by 3 (9, 21, 24) so there is never an odd-slot out. I need 9 spells to fill up 27 slots and a 10th spell to be the 28th. I could speed up the end of Siren a bit by switching to Bismark. (Haha! A use Bismark!) Sraphim probably isn't worth it. I suspect that Cure, Antdot, Regen, Fire, Break, Bio, Mute, Muddle, Imp, and Break are the way to go after all. But let me see if Shiva's x5 Ice 2 can replace x4 Antdot or x5 Regen. Maybe the magic points gained on the minecart are nothing compared to having Terra start with Cure, Antdot, and Fire already? If so, I actually have a use for the x4 Rasp and Osmose. ---------------------------------- Cure, Cure 2, (Cure 3) Life, (Life 2), Antdot Remedy, Regen, (Life 3) ---------------------------------- Fire, Ice, Bolt Poison, Drain, Fire 2 Ice2, Bolt 2, Bio (Fire 3), (Ice 3), (Bolt 3) Break, Doom, (Pearl) (Flare), Demi, (Quartr) (X-Zone), (Meteor), (Ultima) (Quake), (W.Wind), (Merton) ---------------------------------- Scan, Slow, Rasp Mute, Safe, Sleep Muddle, Haste, (Stop) Bserk, Float, Imp Rflect, Shell, Vanish (Haste2), (Slow2), Osmose Warp, (Quick), Dispel ---------------------------------- If Terra skips Kirin she can use her natural Cure + Antdot for two rows. If she hits level 12, which she will automatically if I use her for the glitch, then her natural Drain will account for another row. Natural Fire is a 4th row. She learns Bio and Break from Shoat for rows 5 and 6. If only Ice 2 weren't in the same group as Bio I'd be all set since I get Ice 2 for free while learning Rasp and Osmose at x4. It is also a tragedy that you get Sleep for free with Mute. Both spells have really high rates on the same esper. Slow, Mute, Muddle, and Imp fill the last 4 four rows and set up Break like before. I need to go to bed....
Posted: 5/3/2006 3:39 AM
Post subject: Tetrissphere
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Catastrophe
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Wait wait wait. You mean you're NOT supposed to clear the entire sphere each level? You're only expected to clear one tile on the surface? As if this movie wasn't bonkers enough! I've never played this game before but I could tell that something up when the timer sat at 0:00 for a minute. :) Fantastic job! Maybe more N64 games behave strangely when you provide input faster than is humanly possible? This movie was on par with Zelda 2 in terms of "What the freak am I watching?" and that's another game that doesn't handle frame-by-frame input very well. (Or it handles it very well, depending on your definition.)
Posted: 5/3/2006 3:30 AM
Post subject: Speed
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Catastrophe
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No, actually, I was going for super-fastest speed ever. :( I still am. Excluding that one moment I took Locke's alternate outfit I've been looking for advantages the whole way. That's why I calculated the precise time I 'wasted' with the glitch. Even with Kutan the plan was to attempt to glitch some equipment onto her. I also plan on counting the precise number of frames that Kutan loses me in the WOR by rewinding. I'll rewind, get Celes, and count the frames to the end of the scenario (still using the Thunder Rod). Then in the WOR I'll equip SS+CB and count the frames from the raft scene to the moment Edgar joins. The difference is what Kutan costs. That way I can find out what my final time would have been. I don't know how but I still want to be faster than Erim. I also want the sketch glitch to overflow and mess up the script scheduled to run after the Air Force. ;) Just drop me right into Kefka's tower instead on the FC. C'mon, please? But sadly the Air Force is perfect monster to use the SC on. I've done it numerous times and each time the background gets a little messed up but is immediately fixed since it is scrolling. I then get tons of awesome items and there are no side effects what-so-ever. I really wish I could start a sequence breaker with a side effect or at least a hillarious graphical mess up because it looks like nothing happens. (It also looks like a cheat code.) Sketch on Ultros 4 gives me, amoung other things, Leo with rage and float, a re-encounter to the same battle, and a crash. That, is a glitch. :) Nitrodon: Thank you so much! I was just looking at assassin17's commented assembly and I got all the way through the file without finding anything of intrest. Did I look too fast or did you open a debugger? Either way I owe you one, two if you spent time debugging just for this. Now "() () Sleep Cure" makes sense - Sleep is last in it's block of three. Now the problem is where to use the sketch glitch. No amount of extra questing means extra AP since it's always faster to 'dodge' the random encounters anyway. I'll figure something out. I just occured to me that I might be able to get random values in $20FF by leaving my party's leader blank. Maybe?
Posted: 5/2/2006 12:55 PM
Post subject: Sketch Glitch
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Catastrophe
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Thank you for the offers! I'll use savestateify and email the save states as soon as I finish the cave to the sealed gate. The sktech glitch looks like it is going to be a pain to set up. I said before that the glitch requires one of a several spells in position 28/54 in a character's list of spells. The problem is that I can't seem to get any spell arranged into that slot without taking the time to learn at least a dozen others first. I've figured this much out about the spell sorting. There are 3 lists: white (length 9), black (length 24), and grey (length 21). Your spell list appears as a pair of columns although it is really a one-dimensional list. Each of the three groups are appended to each other in the order that you specify in the config menu. Within each of the groups there is a natural order of spells. For example white is: Cure, Cure2, Cure3, Life, Life2, Antdot, Remedy, Regen, then Life3. If a character knows only Cure and Antdot then their white section will be: Cure, (blank), (), (), (), Antdot, (), (), (). If that was all there was to it then I'd be done. Mute is free to learn and can be positioned perfectly with the order BGW. (24 black spells, grey spell 5/21.) Unfortunately this game has a nifty feature that auto-arranges your spell list. The designers knew that scrolling through 54 blank spaces for 8 spells was dumb idea. But they probably also thought that players would learn to navigate the menu by using spatial relationships. (For example: Doom is located one row below your level 2 magic.) So they didn't want a solution as simple as removing all the blank spaces. What the game actually does seems to be unpredictable. At first I thought that the game was simply removing large groups of blanks in groups of three. Then I thought that the game was somehow required to never shrink any of the three lists below 12 items. Then I thought that blank spells were removed one at a time from blocks of four items to a minimum of 2 blanks per four slots. Nope. (Slots are never actually deleted. Blank slots just get sent to the bottom below your last spell or blank space. I've sorted my list with grey last and still had 8 blanks after Dispel which should always be at the very bottom.) I noticed that a lone Bio spell was arranged differently from a lone Fire spell. I noticed that Cure 2 could be sorted into the first position if Cure was not learned first but this was not true for Antdot. I almost gave up when I sorted my list GWB and recieved "() () Sleep Cure (rest blank)" at the top of my list. What I think the game is doing is looking specifically for certain spells and triggering blank spaces around them if nearby spells are not learned. For example the four consecutive spells "Fire3, Ice3, Bolt3, Flare" always seem to dissapear as a group when none of them are present. I'm afraid that the real logic is something like "Send the four spells Fire2 Ice2 Bolt2 Bio to the bottom if they are all not learned, else keep all of them in their current position as blanks unless just Bio is learned, then send the first two blanks to the bottom." The best I've ever done is one Bio spell in slot 18. By teaching someone pretty much every spell available I can get either Muddle or Mute into position 28 but I can't do it without tons of other spells. I'm thinking of not doing the sketch glitch since it takes so long to set up. I can beat the game without it and I have fast strategies for the rest of the bosses anyway. How dissapointing would it be if I didn't use the sketch glitch? And is it worth me wasting half an hour on Triangle Island for?
Posted: 4/28/2006 3:36 AM
Post subject: Redo
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Catastrophe
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Yay for getting the desync fixed! ^_^ Highness: I'd like to, but I need upload space for the 'bookmark' save states. I could use yousendit/rapidshare/whatever but that's not really convienient for 1 or 2 save states each update. I'll at least keep doing packs of 10 save states every 200,000 frames or every ten noteworthy scenes. You can also make your own save states in my movie. Sabin's (default!) equipment does not boost his magic power and I do not have any items in my possession that can raise Sabin's battle power. Sabin's two relic slots are full of the two earrings which essentially multiply my damage by 1.5x. I need the 3 points of damage in addition to that. But, I think I need to redo the mine cart sequence (and cranes, and the story sequence) over again. Three reasons: 1) By my calculation, Edgar's Royal Shock (desperation attack) should do 2734 damage if he takes both earrings from Sabin. That leaves 542 damage for Sabin to do. Also, Edgar can boost his magic power with the Blizzard. This raises his 'A5' desperation to 2866 damage! Sabin can definitely handle the remaining 410 damage, especially with a Hero Ring if he has to. If I have to replay this battle it will be faster and hopefully still faster overall after I juggle my equipment. 2) I like Ice Rods. :) I've discovered that Terra's morph command is unuseable when she arrives at FlameEater. The rare steal on Number 128 is 'Ice Rod + 1000 GP'. ;) I would like that! 3) The sketch glitch requires that I have one character with a particular type of spell in their 28th in-battle spell list. This can be manipulated by altering the spell sorting config. Unfortunately, none of my characters can do it right now with any of the 6 sorting options. So, instead of Muddle, Sabin needs to be learning whatever else works instead. There are basically no spell points available from the mine cart to the time when I need to activate the glitch. I'll figure out which spells I need now, change espers, and have that spell ready for when Relm arrives. (Sabin learned Mute, which does work, but Sabin needs to learn other spells to manipulate the sorting options to put Mute into exactly the right RAM position.)
Posted: 4/28/2006 1:11 AM
Post subject: Read Only Oops
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Catastrophe
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Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Uh... Uh... That does sound contrived. I think if you're smart, you won't let it happen. Yeah.
I used to have 'desyncs' during Dadaluma and Kefka #1 that I 'resolved' by deleting all of my save states. In Zelda the mistake is obvious: "Hey, that darknut just teleported! Oops!" But in FF6 the difference between frame 441678 and 441700 can be slight or non-existant. Sometimes I've used all my save states and I need to rewind to make some more. That's where the trouble starts.
Posted: 4/26/2006 3:00 AM
Post subject: RNG
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Catastrophe
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Erim is the fast one. I spent from November until the start of Erim's run just getting to the MTRF. Since then I've just finished the Cranes while Erim is... moving a hellova lot faster than I am and saving time. But then again, I spent alot of time learning how the game works, not using turbo-A, and comparing myself to Jyzero. Since I don't do any of those things anymore my real world speed will increase. I talk to Erim every day on AIM and we exchange everything but we agreed not to post secrets about each other's runs. (Including secrets that apply to both of our runs.) http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1068/run.smv is my latest WIP. I stopped at the very frame where you first get control of the airship. Number 128 played out in an unexpected way. The first thing I tried was 2 Blitzes or Chain Saws and a Tiger Break. Then I realized that it would be much faster to manipulate one extremely high damage attack and use just one. Unfortunately, one Aurabolt does a calculated and verified [578..658]. Sabin's Tiger Break basically does 2615 if I do the 'right' one. Combined that deals a total of 3273 damage, which is 3 HP short! So then I decide to skip the rare steal and have Locke punch the boss since I can't really use the rare steal anyway. Unfortunately, this boss has a counter that might as well be called !Drain. I was already manipulating away the chances of him using this. Unfortunately the remaining possibilities seemed to always result in either a !Drain on Locke, a Slice on Sabin, or a Rapier on Edgar. (Dead, dead, dead, in that order.) Since !Drain leaves the boss with more HP than Locke started his turn with, that is also bad. ;) I also tried having Sabin summon Bahamut at the start of the battle. I was happy to see that it did 800+ damage every time! However, doing so also kills off the two wingmen. Not only do I need those two wingmen to knock Sabin down to low HP, but they also take longer to fade away and die than the entire battle in this WIP! So Bahamut was ruled out. I found my current (odd) solution while essentially brute forcing frames on Sabin's first Aurabolt. I don't know what I was looking for, but I found a rare sequence of random numbers that allowed me to take a beating from Number 128 at the start of the battle, live (barely), and counter attack just in time for a DA before he gets his turn again. Surprisingly I do not use Tiger Break even though Sabin is set up for it. It turned out to be faster for Sabin to assist Locke. The reason is because Locke is ready to take an action right as $7E3A3E unlocks DA moves. If I were level 8 here I'd be screwed. Well, no, but I'd take 1500 frames just killing it with 2 DAs, which is still bad. The above lengthy example is what I mean by mapping out the RNG. For example, I have written down on a piece of paper here that "569 -> *, 2, 5" which means that pressing A to confirm my attack on frame xxx569 results in Edgar and Locke getting beaten down to 5 and 2 HP. Also, "471470 = 653", which was Aurabolt damage on a previous test run. Let's pretend that Number 128 does only have 3273 HP and that Aurabolt + Tiger Break manipulated to their full potential will kill him. I'll test 30-40 values for $BE for Aurabolt, write down all the 658's, and reload to the beginning of the battle. Now, I do whatever new and different manipulation I have to do to get Sabin's butt kicked. Now, I Aurabolt on one of my chosen frames, do 658 damage, do Tiger Break when $BE = A5, do 2615 damage, and not have to worry about manipulating two things at once. :) Number 128 messes this up quite a bit because of his darn three parts. They'd frequently interrupt me and cause me to 'miss' the frame I was aiming for. Desperation moves are very easy. I made a slight typo on the first page. Replace 'D9' with 'D1' and blame some temporarily bad penmanship. :) In addition to noting which frames gave Sabin a DA, I also noted the damage that they would do against any foe. So I also have a table of 8C->2468, A5->2615, E3->2395, and so on for all 16 values. Now if I ever need at least 2500 damage from Sabin to end a battle I'll know without doing a single re-record or test which DA is the fastest that will also get the job done! This is how I did Dadaluma. I figured out that a punch, a Chain Saw, and a Tiger Break would do the job. Then I just went back and picked the fastest frames for the last two attacks that had the result I wanted.
Posted: 4/24/2006 2:07 AM
Post subject: Competition
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Catastrophe
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Oddity wrote:
Seems like hardwork to type so much crap, and then have someone else trying to compete with your run.
Erim is going to be faster but I'm hoping that my (ticks + glitches + (6h30m - time)) coolness number is still somehow higher than Erim's coolness number. Even if my run does get obsoleted Erim promised to wait a bit before submitting. And even if my run does become obsolete then there is a GBA port coming out! >:) Dash button + hyper text scrolling - glitches = overall faster - boring scenes + more intense battles!!! :D I hoping that the GBA port is so awesome that no one will need to use frame-skip on it. And like I said in my first post, the regulars here would hate me if I didn't share information. Nobody has ever done a competitive speedrun against someone else where keeping tricks a secret until a movie is published is part of the game. Maybe the judges would reject my run simply because I wouldn't help the person who was posting WIPs? I can imagine it: "Status: rejected; Reason: fuck you". :P
Posted: 4/24/2006 12:43 AM
Post subject: test run
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Catastrophe
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Tilus wrote:
-(I) have attempted to experiment with it to try to find a way to manipulate the distance between random battles inside caves/dungeons. Extensive searching and testing has come up with no solution, not even a counter which counts up or down the distance remaining until a random battle. After looking back, the distance between my run and Boco's between battles (and even the formations encountered!) is eerily similar, so chances are this may not be manipulateable at all, instead possibly being called off a set and unchangeable encounter list, not unlike FF1. Anyone with assembly knowledge want to take a look into how this works? - The time it takes to run away from battles in this testrun is slightly inconsistant, which while fast seems to have as much as a second of variance in between escapes. I haven't attempted to manipulate this variance down in this testrun.
This game and FF6 are supposed to be very similar code-wise. For example, the overworld map. Mimic was an extensive special case in FF6's code and although I know very little about FF5, I have a hunch it was mostly left over from that game. I also have a hunch that these two features are implemented the same in both games. Terii Senshi has a very long explanation in his FF6 Algorithms FAQ. The short answer is that no, you cannot manipulate either without doing something much earlier in a much different way so as to get the random number index in a different place. And even then, formations are hardly random. In FF6 the lack of formation randomness is due to duplicate random formations and due to there only being a total of 16 possible 'ways' to initiate a battle. Exhaustively testing each possible result of their random number generator and not getting a single satisfactory result when the code technically allows it annoys me.
Posted: 4/24/2006 12:43 AM
(Edited: 4/24/2006 1:24 AM)
Post subject: Hero
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Catastrophe
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Simon wrote:
Catastrophe, you're my new hero. Just so you know.
Thank you. :) I'm still working on #128. I'm trying to kill him with all of the following conditions: - get the rare steal - two hits - exactly 3,276 damage - no one dies - as fast as possible on that last Tiger Break I was also hoping that Sabin could 'solo' the boss by doing Aurabolt and TB for exactly enough damage. I've had him fall 8 and 1 damage short in test runs. If I had some way to deal exactly 1 point of damage that would be the best kill ever. :( Then something funny happened on an unrecorded test run. I wanted to see how much damage Edgar would do with Bahamut and Earrings. First try, Sabin Aurabolts for 701 damage when he only needed 661 damage (653 and 660 before). So then I scrap the Edgar plan and go back to doing Aurabolt. Equipping Edgar would've cost time, anyway. It feels like this game doesn't generate enough random numbers. I try different indices (values of $00BE) and I seem to get the same results all the time. But I know that the crazy boss battle that I want is still possible, so I try. EDIT: Since you're probably wondering what the Magicite was for, I was supposed to use it here. But for some reason Aurabolt out-damages Bahamut from either Locke or Edgar and other non-Crusader summons do a whopping 200 damage or less. Even Edgar's Chain Saw does 500 damage. I definitely over estimated my damage output. The reason why I want to do 3276 damage is because Number 128 has exactly 6 more HP than Dadaluma. But, I just said Dadaluma. ;) If I used three hits and the third hit was a punch from Edgar then I could definitely do it. That's what I'll do if I can't get plan C to work. (So... many... re-records! *pulls out hair*) Since I can't scan this guy I might just forget about the perfect kill like DeHackEd says in the post below this one. But don't worry about the magicite being a waste of time! ;)
Posted: 4/19/2006 6:54 AM
Post subject: Erim's Times
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Catastrophe
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Your Whelk is 2742 frames, mine is 2970, apparently because of better randomness. The same things happen in both movies. You save more time by not having Wedge or Vicks run away in battle number 2. Your Terra is at a lower level because of this, but you win two battles before Locke appears. You're 315 frames ahead at the time Locke is named. First Command on Whelk: 17251 (18971) Got Potion: 20981 (21941) Locke Start Button: 39507 (39822) Between Locke and the first black frame of the Marshall fight we are the same. Somehow, your Marshall battle was 22 frames faster even though the battles were exactly the same for both of us. Now you're 333 frames ahead. Black Frame: 45623 (45934) Black Frame: 47143 (47476) When "EDGAR: " appears in the text after naming Edgar my time is 56519 and yours is 56136 (-383) even though you stop to win against the leafer. When "SOLDIER: " appears in the text box in front of the cave my time is 83868 and yours is 83374 (-494). You picked up 111 frames during the M-Tek fight and chocobo ride afterwards. Next, you save a rediculously unmeasureable amount of time by taking neither the RunningShoes & Hyper Wrist in South Figaro nor the Atlas Armlet in Koltz. You said you're going to do Locke's scenario correctly and actually get Celes so that would be why. Or maybe you'll just never need the relics? These are the Vargas times, but I think I might have measured the second half wrong: Black Frame: 102021 (108103) "Enough!": 104120 (110822) difference: 2099 (2719) Black Frame: 107004 (113736) difference: 2914 (2884) I must be wrong because your second half is apparently 30 frames faster than mine despite getting hit with !Doom Fist and two dialogs. The final frame after entering the Returner's Hideout is: Erim: 111904 (+6488, +10655) Me: 118392 (+4167 Jyzero: 122559 (Erim already knows all this because we're talking on AIM.)
Posted: 4/19/2006 3:21 AM
Post subject: Thank You
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Thank you for noticing the cursor roulette! I try. :) I'm switching to plan B for Number 128. My original plan was to summon either 2-3 Bahamuts or 1-2 Crusaders (hehe) to deplete his 3276 HP. Unfortunately, Crusader does 1700 when Sabin uses it, Sabin's Bahamut does 1100, and the other characters do about 60% damage when they try instead. Since Crusader requires setup to not annihilate myself Sabin cannot use both Crusaders while Bahamut fails to finish the job unless Sabin summons all 3. Even if I were to do that then a simple TigerBreak for 2500 would still be better. So plan B it is! Speaking of well-crafted bosses, this guy features a ones digit! :P He's an order of magnitude cooler than Dadaluma! I think I can do exactly that much damage in three hits but one of them will have to be a TigerBreak. After this boss the bosses stop having HP on the order of 3000 and immediately start having HP on the order of 10,000. So this will be the last desperation move I ever use and the last boss I ever kill by dealing damage to it. But then again, you never know. Nerapa doesn't count. :P Nerapa absorbs fire magic but is weak against getting his butt kicked. I'd use the three minutes or so to torture that monster if killing it quickly and jumping without Shadow weren't so much faster. (Sorry ninja fans, but there is no way in heck I was going to pick him up anyway.) EDIT: SaxxonPike? Oddity? y/n? :D
Posted: 4/17/2006 2:47 AM
Post subject: FF6
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Fuzzmosis: You're right. The battle in the Imperial Camp battle with 3 enemies, Cyan on auto-pilot, and Sabin at low HP could have been improved. Here Sabin uses a potion because the previous battle (Sabin versus 4 dudes) almost killed him. Using the potion isn't what makes this battle imperfect. Entering the subscreen outside of battle just to use a potion is slower than using one in battle. Of course, this may not be worth it if the next battle is slower as a result. The reason the battle is imperfect is because I could have manipulated two counter-attacks against Sabin rather than waiting for Sabin to get his next turn to attack the last enemy. The Imperial Base and the Serpent Trench are the only places where Sabin might possibly use his HP and I leave Sabin at 1 HP from the Barren Falls through Nikeah. Perhaps I could have even manipulated a dodge, instead? I noticed that both Ifrit and #024 desynched after waiting a few frames for a desperation attack. I think this is due to me miscounting or something. In v7 I had two black frames that forced me to be very deliberate with how I reloaded and pressed the A button. I don't think it is just a coincidence that my first two bosses since switching to v9 have desynced. I have no idea how the movie could record correctly and play back 1 frame late but I can replicate the problem. On Saturday I replayed #024 three times and Sabin's TigerBreak always played back one frame too late. Fir this version that does not desync I actually played a large chunk of the battle in one take without using save states after each move. (I wrote down my inputs on a piece of paper while I used save states, reloaded back to the beginning, and followed the instructions.) I'm very happy with how #024 turned out. His rare steal (Drainer) has an alternate battle effect that can be bugged when the user is alive at 0 HP. I might need that. The next WIP after the Cranes will be my last for awhile. I'm going to spend a lot of time figuring out the following things: - How to best learn the magic spell required for the sketch glitch. - How much time Mog does or doesn't save in the WOB. Technically, he saves none. But teaching him vanish now might save time, unless... - How much time Sabin will save in the WOR. Sabin can put Sprint Shoes and a Charm Bangle on for Celes. Even on a cartridge Sabin only takes 3 minutes to get - worldmap to worldmap. If Sabin IS a timesaver in the WOR then he can learn Mog's vanish spell, pwn some things, and travel with Mog in the final dungeon to visit Goddess. Mog knowns Snare. :) - How to learn magic: Chain Saw on Cactrot, Snare on Intangir, or pick up the points during required battles such as the cave, banquet, and the IAF sequence? - I am stealing DragonBoots from Wyvern near Vector as a I walk to the sealed gate. I can't stop random encounters, I need a pair, and now I need the spell points. That'll take me awhile. Remember that it has taken me 6 months to get this far! I'm on pace to finish next October. I'm still hoping for 4 hours from power on to Kefka's death. The ending takes half an hour by itself and I can put that in a separate movie. If I miss 4 hours then maybe I can try to keep it under 1 million frames?
Posted: 4/17/2006 2:03 AM
Post subject: Joker Doom
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Ultros #3 and Ultros #4 cannot be joker doomed because their formations are specifically exempted by the joker doom code. Dullahan and the Tentacles cannot be joker doomed because neither Setzer nor Gogo can be present. The three tiers in the battle are also immune to joker doom but a 7-7-Bar can be redirected back at them. FlameEater, Poltrgeist, Inferno, Guardian, Air Force, and the Tentacles are immune to Vanish. :) Neither JD nor VD solve every problem! Wandering Road is right about the boss battles staying interesting. Using the proverbial Bane Sword is dissapointing but it is at least 100x more interesting than watching Magus swing his scythe for 5 minutes. The bosses in Kefka's Tower have approximately 40,000 or 60,000 HP each. Yeah, I could smack 'em six times with a lvl 6 zombie-drainer for 9999 (I just learned about that glitch yesterday) and then let Kutan punch 'em for 6 damage but that would take a long time to setup and execute. For example, Mog needs Tapir for that trick to work. Don't get me wrong though - having a lvl 6 character do 9999 is awesome and a killing blow of 6 damage is priceless. But after watching deperation moves for 2 hours I think ID is the way to go.
Posted: 4/16/2006 7:05 PM
Post subject: Easter!
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I'm going to be late for Easter dinner, but here is the WIP. I watched my entire movie from the beginning and it reached the end safely. :) I'll post about what I think is causing me to desync my own movie later. I also have to reply about that battle in the Imperial Camp where Sabin uses a potion. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1021/run.smv
Posted: 4/15/2006 6:06 AM
Post subject: Thank You Everyone!
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Thank You Everyone! :) Atma: Nah. Shadow slows Sabin down and he wastes time with his goodbye speech. Also, something funny happens in Albrook if you haven't yet met Shadow. :) Kutan has no desperation move. Neither do Kamog, Leo, Wedge, Bannon, or any of the ghosts. I was hoping that Kutan could use Spin Edge but the game checks your character id and adds it to F0 to calculate the attack number that will be your desperation move. (Gogo is a special case, subtract one from the attack id because Gau does not have one.) So even if I were to somehow bypass the check to see if the character id is > 12 (Kutan is 22) then F0h + 22d = 06 and Kutan would use Bolt 2 as a desperation move. I'm hoping that Kutan's 'character sheet', 'slot', whatever you call it gets totally blown away by the sketch glitch and that the ID changes to something useable. (If I can manipulate the sketch glitch, I will.) Bisqwit: You're right about how this game works. There are 16 fixed-width 'character sheets' that get erased and overwritten constantly as your real characters replace the temps. Celes/Kutan is slot #7. The game's programmers assume that Celes is in that slot at all times. Sometimes they just use Celes' sprite without even checking who is in the slot, because they 'know' that you 'must' have Celes. I don't want to say for certain, but I think Locke is also back to normal in the WOR. Erim: Keep a watch on $BE. Notice how it stops when your characters attack. Critical hits occur when $BE contains one of the following values (hex): 22, 54, 68, 75, 7F, 81, 8D, or FD. Usually when you 'hit' the critical at 68, for example, $BE will show 6A or 6B because after using 68 at the right moment the game then used 3 more random numbers to determine your damage. (Or whatever.) It takes three or four re-records in the right area to get one. But if you do get a critical hit on frame X, and BE reads 6B during the animation, then you can be 100% certain that frame X+13 will also give you a critical hit without even having to try it! Desperation moves are the same way with the following values for $BE (hex): 01, 0F, 2D, 53, 56, 65, 69, 8B, 8C, A5, D7, D9, E3, E9, F5, and F9. If you are near fatal and need a critical instead of a desperation then only six numbers will do it: FC, 21, 5D, 74, 7E, and B0. Saturn: Locke's clothes are just for fun. Jyzero: I think a mimic-reversed Joker Doom is the only way to take out the tiers at the end of the game! Also, since Ghestal failed to 'put Kefka to sleep laughing', I think it is fitting to at least defeat him with a spell that laughs at him. :) That high pitched shrill that plays every time Joker Doom goes off is the joker laughing at you before setting your wound status without checking your instant death protection bit. :) Ha HA ha ha HA! MattyXB: Invisible chests do exist in this game. Unfortunately I've lost the link to this awesome website with everything you need to know about FF6 treasure chests. (All locations, all dupicates, and their implementation if you want to hack them.) The Sprint Shoes in Narshe are totally inaccessable. I did pick them up once, but I used a walk-through-walls cheat. Besides that I cannot reach them. I tried everything I could think of to 'break' the game but the walls are just solid. My ROM is FF3 (U) (v1.0) [!]. This is the only version of the game where the sketch glitch can be performed. That's important since I'm planning on doing it. The Ifrit desync drives me nuts but the movie titled "04-5-06.smv" that ends in the middle of the #024 battle should get that far without a desync. My next actions in that movie should be to press B at the right moment to do TigerBreak, which should also cause Locke to punch Edgar down to 1HP, who then finishes the boss off with RoyalShock. I'll post another WIP up to the minecart ride to make sure that this desync is really gone.
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:10 AM
Post subject: Post 8/8
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PLOT NODE 8: The Opera House Run to Jidoor, blah blah blah. Run to the Opera House, blah blah blah. Balcony scene, not blah blah blah! Enjoy this moment! It takes place in a fixed amount of time so I play around with walking all over heck and taking the final step at the last possible frame. For the next action scene I'm dodging the 5 rats in the attic. They wouldn't cooperate and a subscreen access would not change their paths (but would affect their clipping!) so I use a combination of patience and impatience to pass by. I reach Ultros with 4:14 (out of 5 minutes) on the clock and I start his battle: Sabin attacks himself for 69 damage, 162 HP remain Locke attacks Sabin for 16 damage, 146 HP remain Edgar attacks Sabin for 40 damage, 106 HP remain Locke attacks Sabin for 16 damage, 90 HP remain Ultros uses !Ink on Sabin for 89 damage, Sabin is at 1 HP while blind! (although blind status does nothing) Sabin uses TigerBreak for 2615 damage, -65 damage overkill The long delay was to ensure the correct amount of damage for a OHKO on Ultros. Not just any double-boosted desperation move will do it. It has to be a high rolling double-boosted attack. :) The desperation attack I used was the best one where $7E00BE contains A5 to trigger the attack. None of the others that I tried even did the minimum required (2550). At this point it's turbo A right into the Magitek Research Facility (MTRF). I did try going to the Imperial Palace first and I did try clipping the Guardian every which way and in a test run I did perform the muddle-Smoke Bomb trick on him. None of these things allowed me to gain entrance into the palace. It would've been the ultimate sequence breaker though if I had succeeded! If no chests are taken, the MTRF is very short. I arrive at Ifrit but instead walk behind him. I need to fight a family of Flan first. The Flan are a very special monster. They only appear in this one very small room and no where else in the game. They are elementally immune but extremely pathetic. The particular formation that I'm fighting is programmed to arrive in waves: 1 by itself, then a pair of them, then three. But the most interesting thing about the Flan is that they have a MAGICITE ITEM available as their rare steal. These are one use items that summon a random summon. You're not supposed to get these until the Cave to the Sealed Gate. And even then, they can be out of the way. But these 3 pieces of Magicite that I steal now are going to make Number #128 so much easier! Low level games on a console should seriously try this since there is a save room right there. Just load up on Magicite by running away from each battle! I start the Ifrit battle by getting the event script to clip me through him. :P He dies easily enough with a Pummel (no other blitz works), a Chain Saw, and a TigerBreak. This battle suffers from occasional desync when frame 440834 is delayed by a single frame and becomes 440835 and I'm not sure why. Once it desynched by two frames and I saved it by hex-editing. But then I had to redo my already perfect Number #024 fight because I couldn't get there two frames earlier. And I do test these WIPs after every major battle. I can't imagine how this happens. The Number #024 battle took me a very long time, both times that I did it. In this run, assuming that Ifrit did not desynch on you, I get the rare steal, his !Overflow (muddle) attack twice on the same character, a *dodge* on Sabin, both Figaro brothers at 1 HP, two desperation moves, and a high damage Aurabolt to being him down to -205 HP before his first WallChange. By getting him to use !Overflow twice on the same character it is guarunteed to miss and a missed attack displays no animation, meaning that no real time was spent. This is my second favorite battle next to Dadaluma. Up next is the minecart ride and the Joker-Doom cranes! The Ifrit desync bothers me but the movie recorded on the 5th of this month seems NOT to desync. I'd like to know why. Twice on two separate runs I've managed to do the two desperation moves in the Number #024 battle where Locke also reduces Edgar to 1 HP while muddled. I had to try a LOT of frames to get that to work.
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:07 AM
Post subject: Post 7/8
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PLOT NODE 7: Zozo There is a chocobo stable near the future site of the colliseum that makes the trip to Zozo a breeze. I pick up a Hero Ring here because it counts as Earrings when paired with Earrings. Since desperation moves are magical attacks they are boosted by the double Earring bonus! Sabin has the fastest desperation animation and he is a generally useful guy so I appoint him into the position of 'Haymaker'. It's fitting for him I think. :) Frame advancing the chocobo ride itself wasn't trivial but result looks nice. I counted on pushes from the scenery to adjust my strafing movement whenever it didn't slow down my foward movement. I enter Zozo 2 frames 'late' so that I can get a pre-emptive attack. I pick up the Chain Saw. With the wonders of luck manipulation this tool lets me perform my choice of either an ID (Instant Death) attack with a perfect hit rate or a 252 power physical attack that ignores defense! YOINK! :D The pre-emptive that I got in this room was hard to get. In the room with the annoying NPCs who force you to wait in line I get in a battle at 327363. Fortunately, this is a pre-emptive. I say fortunately because this is the exact frame I needed the battle to happen on in order to clip through the guy who is about to cut me off and make me wait longer! (See frame 327904.) Unfortunately the stairs cannot be used to clip through someone from behind. I tried reasonably extensively and it wouldn't work. But I did find that I could partially clip into someone and fall behind them again. I do this although it doesn't help me get to the doorway any faster. I wrote down in my journal that a subscreen access does let you clip through their backs here but that it was much slower. I also noticed that the Harvesterx1 formation is a pain to get a pre-emptive attack against. Also, without that pre-emptive attack, this monster always always goes first even though he does not have the "attack first" attribute set. This vexed me. The Dadaluma battle is one of my favorites! Please watch this! Sabin - Aurabolt, 523 damage Dadaluma - Battle, Sabin takes 113 damage, 118 HP remain Edgar - Battle, Sabin takes 58 damage, 60 HP remain Sabin - Battle, does 136 damage (not a critical hit? yes!) Edgar - Battle, Sabin takes 59 damage, Sabin is at 1 HP! Dadaluma - Battle, Edgar takes 105 damage Sabin - TigerBreak, does 2542 damage (not 2615 for the win? yes!) Edgar - Battle, does 69 damage, Dadaluma has 0 HP! Frames lost for perfect kill: 195. Total awesomeness points gained: 1,000,000. 8) Unlike most every other boss in this game, Dadaluma has a strange 3270 HP. Not 3500, not 3000, not even 3250, but 3270. Number #024 has 4777 HP but that kind of makes sense in a 777 kind of way. (Magus has 1666 HP is Chrono Trigger.) But when I look at that 3270 I say to myself: "Somebody did that on purpose. If you were just a lesser boss they wouldn't have taken such care with your HP total or your battle script, which is also quite well defined. So for you, the well crafted boss with 3270 HP, I'm going to give you exactly 3270 points of damage." It's just right! :) When my party reforms after yet another long non-game scene I give Locke both types of shoes, Edgar the Hyper Wrist and Atlas Armlet, and Sabin the two 'Earrings'. I discovered a strange bug at this moment. Sabin and Edgar each get +1 current HP. I don't know why they weren't completely refilled or how the number 1 was choosen, but thats what happened. I wonder if the game always adds one and I never notice?
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:06 AM
Post subject: Post 6/8
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PLOT NODE 6: Locke's Scenario I get Kutan. First, it's amusing as heck and that's the only reason why anyone would ever watch a run this long. Second, Kutan is weak so players who understand how crippled I am should be impressed by how 1337 my battles are. My plan is for Kutan to simply use Magicite. (Forget rods! They're more expensive aren't nearly as flexable enough. Summons are basically a level 2 spell of my choice. I can manipulate which esper I summon!) I'm also hoping that the sketch glitch can be used to force Sprint Shoes onto Kutan. The downside of Kutan is that she cannot equip the Gale Hairpin, Charm Bangle, or Sprint Shoes because she cannot equip any items. This severely wrecks my speed worse than anything in any accepted run ever. I lose minutes over all those frames that I've optimized previously. But then if I don't use the Kutan glitch people might ignore my run. So I hope the excitement/second ratio (EPS?) is higher for everyone with Kutan. Remember that when she's crawling through the cave to Figaro Castle later. Since I'm exploiting Locke's ability to break the rules, I opt for a sprite change. If he leaves his scenario in costume he'll stay that way for the rest of the WOB, which is also the last anyone will ever see of him. Taking the alternate costume cost me 2292 frames (38.2 seconds). However, as your reward you get to see a merchant sneak into the MTRF. This also sets up a nice screenshot at 291,665 where a merchant, a moogle, and Gau are standing in front of Bannon. :) I hate to post the words "...cost me 2292 frames" on a website where movies are published for being a dozen frames faster than before. But then again, when I make an optimization like killing one Ipooh faster in the Vargas battle I save at least 129 frames from his attack animation alone. And 129 frames is a big deal even in this movie. Locke takes the ThundrRod in the cave and uses it on the TunnelArmr for yet another easy OHKO. I just barely kill the darn thing. (-42 overkill!) It turns out that Locke doesn't need Earrings to make the OHKO work after all. That was a nice improvement over my test runs. I think it's hillarious that the only monster that was not OHKOed in all 3 scenarios combined was in Terra's scenario! :P PLOT NODE 7: Narshe Battle I spent a full evening on the party selection screen. I ended up building a long push button code and then entering it: (RA)DLDARAULUAR~R~(RA)DLD~(DA)R(UA)RUR(UA)RAD~DAB. I tried clipping though the soldiers here but the programming is exactly like moogle battle earlier. Oh well. Locke runs up my step counter for your entertainment. It is almost possible, but not quite, to pass by the brown soldiers when they take their first step. It is technically possible but Locke needs to be there two frames faster, which is impossible. I spent SO LONG trying to find those two frames and trying to find odd combinations of the X button that might let it work, but sadly nothing was found. I slip though the guards like normal and encounter Kefka: Kefka attacks Locke for 143 damage, 25 HP remain. Terra attacks Edgar for 11 damage, 211 HP remain. Locke snags an Ether, just because. The Elixir was impossible to manipulate at this time. Terra attacks herself for 6 damage. Locke attacks himself for 24 damage, Locke is at 1 HP! Kefka casts Poison on Edgar for 205 damage, 5 HP remain. (Edgar is the second young king that Kefka has poisoned this hour! He's on a roll!) Edgar takes 4 points of poison damage, Edgar is at 1 HP! Edgar uses RoyalShock! Kefka takes 1722 damage! Terra attacks herself for 6 damage. Locke uses Mirager! Kefka takes 1494 damage! Kefka is overkilled by -216 damage. Not only did I manipulate this once, but twice. The first time I did it I had a major desynch that couldn't be fixed by hex-editing (I left a cheat code on) and I had to redo the battle almost from the beginning. Frame 299583 might make a good screenshot. Time for Zozo!
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:04 AM
Post subject: Post 5/8
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PLOT NODE 4: Terra's Scenario Terra's scenario comes first because it has no effect on the other two. It is also really short. In the first battle having all 3 monsters alive allowed Terra's fire to kill them all. A critical to remove one target first would have caused the fire spell to go 'soft' on one target. For some reason this battle was a pain to win in just 3 actions. But by reaching the victory screen I was able to manipulate a pre-emptive on the next battle! That made the battle worth it. Also, everyone leveled up, but I don't care about Bannon. Apparently the end of the river is also the end of the experience because from now on all of the monsters give about 16 experience to the entire party. (Even at these low levels I need at least 1,000 XP! Haha!) But the end of the river also means the end of battles on rails so I don't actually have to fight these stupid things anymore. At frame 150,000 I'm entering Locke's secret passage. I found a clever path in the checkpoint room. I could reach the door at 153,886 by simply following the path. But instead I reached the door at 153,834 by intentionally stepping off the path and tagging the glimmering light. That saved 52 frames! Next is a quick walk to the end of this scenario. I unequip these guys and they're done. PLOT NODE 5: Sabin's Scenario I do Sabin's scenario next because I was planning on using the RunningShoes in both scenarios and Locke can't unequip after his. Sabin gets a pair of Earrings for Locke as well. Sabin's Earrings are faster than Locke's Earrings and I only need one since I'm going to pick up the Hero Ring later. The Hero Ring later is also faster than Locke's Earrings because there are no battles on the way to the chest/pot with the Hero Ring. Money is not a problem thanks to those few battles I fought and Locke isn't going to visiting anybody's basement anyway. Locke doesn't pick up a single gold piece during his scenario at all! Sabin starts his scenario already equipped and doesn't even stop to visit Shadow or the merchant. There is no need to. Shadow can makes neither the Imperial Base nor the Phantom Train faster and he'd just take XP away from Sabin, if I were to earn any. Which as a matter of fact I do: two Beakors. This is exactly enough to give Sabin his Suplex. Sabin is now level 10. Up next is the Imperial Base and a ton of dialog. Whoopee. Cyan OHKOs the general with the only attack of his that can do it: retort. That little bit of manipulation was to prevent the general from wasting time with a counter-attack before his death. Also, I had to make sure that I won the Black Belt from this fight. There is a 25% chance to win a Fenix Down instead and I NEED the Black Belt for a fast victory in the next battle. The battle at 178,365 is interesting: Sabin versus Gruntx2 and Cadetx2. See what the Black Belt was for? :) There was so much going on in this battle. Basically, I get one action, then they take 4. I had to manipulate all of the following things at once: pummel had to hit a enemy in the back row, I had to counter and kill a guy in the front row, and they had to not counter-attack me to death. All four enemies have counter-attacks in this battle. The result is beautiful though! Sabin takes out 4 of them with 2 actions and only one wasted counter attack. Although I couldn't use it in this run, I did exactly 380 damage to one of the grunts in one of my test runs. Grunts have exactly 380 HP. ;) I gain control of Cyan. He needs Sprint Shoes to do his little plot section. Together we steal some magitek armor and bust up the place. Sweet. Next is the Phantom Forest and the Phantom Train. The game forces me to walk slow to the spring like that. On the train I hurry straight to the Earrings which are hardly out of my way. However, I leave the "random encounter counter" at one. This means that at the moment I enter the train I'm due for a battle on my next step. However, the earrings are in a no-enounter zone. So when I step out of the car I get in a battle right away and cannot manipulate a pre-emptive by changing my timing. (I tried like crazy.) Accessing the subscreen worked like a charm though. It always does! I use this opportunity to equip some new relics. The battles on the train suck. The Hazerx2 and Whisper battle gives 59 XP and a lone Bomb gives 17 XP, one whole point more than a lone Leafer. Oh fantastic! I'm done with XP anyway but I just wanted to point this out to anyone else who might be making a run. The GhostTrain suffers perhaps the most embarassing OHKO so far, but hopefully not the most embarrassing OHKO of the run. (That will either be the FlameEater or Kefka, I hope.) That long silence afterwards cannot be skipped so I fill it up with some pacing and dancing. I convieniently encounter some Stray Cats right before the Barren Falls. That would've been nice if Gau could have somehow encountered this rage. But sadly, I'd have to waste time on the veldt for either 17 battles (or 4, save game, and a hard reset) to learn this rage. The only places where I could've used Catscratch are Ifrit and Number 128 but neither boss would be any faster. Both of those bosses can be killed by a double-boosted depseration move and either a chain saw or a Sun Flare. (Yes! Sun Flare! Yes, double-boosted!) Then after those bosses I have vanish-doom under my command so inflicting damage upon my enemies becomes an obsolete tactic. :P Oh! Now I remember what those levels were for: MP. I need that. The piranha battle is hillariously coded. Dead serious, here is a summary. Each piranha has 10 HP. Even an unequipped back-row Kutan could kill them. They use battle as their only command. When each piranha dies a check is made to see if it was the last one. If it is and the battle timer is at approximately 60 seconds then show the boss. Else, show more piranhas. So the unbeatably fast way to get through this battle is to leave one piranha alive for a minute, find the exact frame in which killing it summons the boss, and then sink the boss. That frame is 235,782. I used lots of trial and error to figure that out. It was like a game of guess my number. (Too high! Too low!) I knew I had it right when 235781 did not work. I tried to make wasting time as interesting as possible without wasting more time than necessary. Entering menus wastes more time but watching Cyan's SwdTech meter ironically does not. So lets watch Cyan's SwdTech gauge for bit and then hit the Rizopas with the absolute fastest depseration attack possible! Ok! Frame 236195 might make a nice screenshot. The ranomosity on the veldt sucked. First, I hit an encounter that I could neither run from nor manipulate away. Then, I hit an enounter with just one step left to go in the scenario! Figures. Fortunately I got two pre-emptives on the first two Serpent Trench battles. Stopping in the cave that one time was faster and it let me manipulate a pre-emptive to make the next section even faster yet. I buy 21 Echo Screens and 11 Smoke Bombs. The Echo Screens are for Joker Doom and the Smoke Bombs are for the muddled-Smoke Bomb trick if I need to do it against the Guardian in Kefka's tower. I won't use 21 Echo Screens and it's just as fast for me to buy 11 and 21 of something as it is for me to buy 1 and 2 of something, so I might as well. Smoke bombs should help with some of the random enounters in Kefka's tower that cannot be run from. I unequip these guys before the end, too.
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:02 AM
Post subject: Post 4/8
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Catastrophe
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Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
PLOT NODE 3: Returner's Hideout I stop to win two random encounters for high experience. The delay to win each was very short. Although I run from a most enounters on the raft ride I do win a few. These battles give me the extra experience that I need to level up one last time on the Lete River. (I have no way of knowing how effective that last level up was. I never do use Suplex like I thought I would.) Arrive at the Returner's Hideout. Dialogs. Wake up and snag a Phoenix Down just 3 steps away from Locke. I believe this is the item that says "GhostTrain" on it. :P Saying no 3 times triggers the faster cut scene and scores me the cooler Genji Glove. On the raft ride the first choice does not matter. I had to manipulate several battles at once since the end frame of one battle indirectly determined the seed of the next. Notice how Bannon dodges an attack then gets a critical hit. :P An unmanipulated dodge like that is extremely rare. Even with manipulation it's still unlikely because my manipulation would most likely change the attack choosen and the target, which are choosen first. Without mBlock equipment dodging is basically impossible. Those Pterodons are great XP, but as I mentioned earlier I'm not sure if I needed it. I'm successful in manipulating a pre-emptive after the second save room. Since the battle triggers fire randomly it's too bad I didn't figure out how to manipulate those. I bet it has something to do with a wild, unrelated value elsewere just like how your party's leader affects what monsters you see during the similar minecart ride. It's not likely to be possible to make them all go away in either case. I have some fun with Ultros: First Ultros spends so long talking that everyone's gauge fills. Ultros - hits Bannon for 42 damage Bannon - critical hit! 234 damage Terra attacks herself for 5 damage, 131 HP remain Sabin - Aurabolt, Ultros takes 338 damage Edgar - critical hit! Ultros takes 363 damage Bannon - critical hit! Ultros takes 223 damage Ultros - Tentacle, Terra takes 130 damage, Terra is at 1 HP Terra - Riot Blade, Ultros takes 1907 damage, -65 overkill Manipulating the Tentacle attack to smack Terra for exactly 130 damage instead of any other amount that might let her live cost me 1 frame, but then I had to wait 7 frames for my desperation attack anyway. One thing I didn't think to test at this point in the movie was two desperation attacks. But if I were to do that then this battle wouldn't be half as entertaining. I like how everyone beats the tar out of Ultros, except Terra who pinches herself for 5 damage. And just like Vargas the desperation move looks like a counter-attack from out of nowhere. :) Sabin throws himself the river. Time for the scenarios.
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