Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Dromiceius wrote:
The desert fills with clocks and locke somehow produces an atma weapon, but it takes something really bizarre to make Edgar freak out... something like... fire 1.
Yup, seen that one. Did you see the one where the attacker spins like Setzer, turns into esper-Terra, attacks with a sword, and reverts? That's item 125. Item 113 does a suplex. I'd love to work in a suplex on Kefka. That'd be my screenshot: angel-Kefka upside-down.
I tested all 255 items in Locke's left hand (minus the weapons of course). Not many items do something different in Locke's right hand but I tested a bunch of those too. Item 253 had a pretty crazy effect that was never consistent. The list of dangerous items is: 159, 160, 165 (I forget why the emphasis), 167, 173, 193, 199, 202, 203, 205, 206, 214, 217, 220, 221, 223, 224, 235, 241, 243, 246, 247, 248, and 250. I did all of my tests against mould 0 (Leafer). That mould means certain doom when used with the sketch glitch. So even though the sketch glitch can't happen I should probably test against different formations just to make sure there isn't a magic formation, like 6, that produces the perfect effect. Item 159 created the problem where the camera would not follow me when I entered a map. That's one of the classic effects of the sketch glitch so I was encouraged by that. I just need something big enough to blast more memory.
erokky wrote:
I have a feeling that Marvel/RunningShoes (along with one Earrings) might've been faster against Goddess.
Live math example! Not even I know the outcome as I type this!
-Goddess HP: 44000
-Edgar must go first and use the debilitator.
-Edgar and Kutan will alternate turns after that but Edgar may get an extra turn over Kutan either due to the +7 speed of the Illumina or because Goddess stalls Kutan without stalling Edgar. For the sake of this example assume that neither character gets two full moves ahead of the other.
- Kutan can deal 3712 damage per round.
- Edgar can deal 4604 damage per round with no enhancements.
- Edgar can deal 5755 damage per round with one Earring.
- Edgar can deal 6906 damage per round with a double boost.
- Characters with haste take turns about 33% faster.
Assuming the Goddess just doesn't do anything:
Kutan = 3712 damage/round
Boosted Edgar = 6906 damage/round
Combined = 10808 damage/round for 4.5 rounds (and either character can be the .5)
Hasted Edgar = 5755 damage/round * 133% = 7481 damage/round
Combined = 11193 damage/round = 4 rounds!
I can't remember if I remembered to manipulate this or not, but Edgar should never be 'queued' while the Goddess attacks. If I do that, and if I hold Kutan back a second or two in order to queue up the Goddess, then I think I could get the same 4 rounds with either set of equipment. (NO Whelk! It's not your turn yet!) Still, I might as well use the haste strategy since I'll have to manipulate less. Or would I have to manipulate more counterattacks from the Goddess? But then again I might have to test it. Extra Fire3 animations might negate the difference.
Against the Tentacles there might be mutiple enemy moves to take into account. But, against the Tentacles, haste = immunity to all their stuff. BUT, I've already got a dozen Paladin Shlds anyway, which also = immunity to all their stuff PLUS Bio. BUT next time I'll have Celes with an Illumina. If Edgar weakens Mr. 7000 and a rediculously boosted Celes can do just 3k MT (easy) then it could be over after one round. (In which case Celes would then fight the Goddess with Edgar...)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
FreshFeeling wrote:
I think a fun run would be a minimum-experience run. It could be fully glitched but beat the game with mostly level 6 characters. It wouldn't cost that much time at all compared to the existing run. It may not deviate enough from the normal run to merit publication, though.
Unless I beat the existing minimum run's time. Level 6 is the traditional LLG but that requires hanging around on the Veldt for a month to learn AP without earning XP. I could keep it under lvl 10 by getting my AP on the FC and using a consistent party. That's sort of what I already do, minus 5 levels, which probably won't affect much. At worst I'll need one extra desperation move to kill certain bosses, but it'll look cooler and all of the overhead of doing in a DA is in waiting 28 seconds for them to appear. And just think of how much time I wasted on Mt. Koltz and around Narshe gaining a little XP. I shouldn't have bothered. I can manipulate status attacks and killing a boss with one more hit is faster than grappling with a bunch of stupid enemies to gain two levels. If I can beat Number 128, I can beat anything. (Setzer! Help! I'm pincered by three robots who are all triple my level!)
I'm still hoping that FF6j (SNES) turns up some rediculous glitch. Being able to put the Moogle Charm on anyone is such a big help! Unfortunately I have no idea how to get one besides the only one. Not even the sketch glitch can give you one and that glitch doesn't work anyway. There are a few places in the game where, if I could walk through walls, I could travel between the WOB and the WOR. I'm trying to find more NPCs that I can pass through. (Sneaking into Umaro's cave is one of those points. I wish: sneak in, exit into WOR Narshe, pickup Mog and the MC.)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Awww.. I was going to suggest using luck manipulation on the "Wanted: " missions to get the advanced classes.
As a half-aside, I once lent this game to one of my friends after beating it myself. He returned the game to me with the weirdest save file: 24 hours, beat the game, all party members are level 1, and none of the optional quests were done. I have neither my SP nor my DS here to load the game and check out his setup but I vaguely remember how he did it:
1) "Aw, I died." *reset* "Aw, I died." *reset* "Aw, I died." *reset* "Aw fk! I was close that time!" *reset* "Yes! I won and no one hit level 2!" He had 24-odd hours on the game clock. This took him weeks.
2) Random encounter with thieves. Disable all of their abilities except steal XP. Kill all but one of the theives. Strip all of everyone's armor. Get the shit beat out of your characters. Once everyone is back to the beginning of level 1 then kill the last enemy. Meanwhile, farm JP.
3) If anyone reaches level 2, they're fired. (Obvious.) He saved Montblanc.
4) And this is important part that I forget: how he actually killed things. I know that he had high evade and that he was essentially manipulating luck in step one. I just can't imagine how a team of lvl 1s took down Adramelek let alone any of the later bosses. He was probably casting Holy and stuff. But it's good to know that skills and equipment can compensate for levels.
(Forgive me if I get the real Tactics confused with Tactics Lite occasionally. Sometimes I was playing FFT while he played FFTA in the same room. Tactics party!)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
A 100% would pretty much have to be episodic. Take an 8 hour movie, chop it up into 24 20-minute episodes, and call it a 'season'. Show/make one new episode per week and take half a year doing it. x_x Technically, you could concatenate all of the episodes and submit a 6MB .smv file...
In a 100% run I might want to use all of the tricks once just to show them off. I'm thinking of 777 on the IAF, but not Ultros4 or the Air Force, and never anywhere else for the rest of the game. All of the bosses should be fought honorably, at least. I could try different strategies where they won't slow me down too much. That way Offering+Fixed Dice, Quick+Meteor, and series of desperation moves don't get worn out. (Or, different from the 100% run, if everyone really really hates Setzer now, I could do the Airship Glitch and turn Setzer in Kurin! Everyone except Terra, Locke, and Mog are skippable. You will have to take Kutan, Kumama, and Kirin in the WOR. You don't need Setzer for 100%.)
I've been playing around with 6j trying to find something new and exploitable. So far I can crash the game with bad sprite data immediately after reaching Figaro castle! (Equip an Ether, punch a Leafer, BOOM!) Now all I have to do is figure out if I can garble any useful memory addresses and then find a way to recover after. I'm trying to get a Moogle Charm equipped during the first half hour. That would help the speed/running so much!
Dromiceius wrote:
Eh... has anyone else been able to watch the completed movie from start to finish, without savestates? I keep getting the same desync near the end of the FC. Celes uses a warp stone, Relm smacks the Naughty, Sabin does a blitz, everybody dies.
Celes (Kutan) should be using a Flame Shld. If you don't have any Flame Shlds then you might be using v1.1. I tested watching the movie without save states in snes9x v9 and the Sketch Glitch did record and playback correctly for me.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Great! I've used FCEU for tool assisted plays before. I never thought about making any runs with it but that's only because I haven't thought of a game yet.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Can anyone here read Japanese? I'm just curious although it's probably gibberish.
Just a png, no need to fire up your emulator.
EDIT: +3l2l24, &l)94l2, 10[|{3 (I'm actually kind of glad no one got it.)
EDIT2: Yay! NrgSpoon!
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Thank you. I was trying for speed though. It just happens that someone started another run while mine was in progress, finished before I did, and did it faster. x_x
kwinse wrote:
And how would you define 100%?
All characters, 253 items, steal the 254th during the final battle, all espers besides Odin and Ragnarok, and all character enhancing side-quests done. And of course, all of the above done correctly. A 100% run sort of loses its value if I obtain the Paladin Shld with the Sketch Glitch. I'm supposed to get Locke, drag him to Narshe, and deal with the Cursed Shld as I do other quests so that I don't waste time uncursing it. Likewise, my Illuminas should come from the Colliseum only and there should only be one of those, too. Things I wouldn't have to do: mail the wounded soldier's letters, get rages, get lores, get dances, learn spells, save cid (though I would), fight Sigfried in the Colliseum, acquire more than 1 of any item, or encounter every monster.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Dromiceius wrote:
What's the "collector's edition" about? I checked the link but it told me to enable cookies.
Labeled savestates for every major scene in the movie! Plus, all 58 WIPs. As I was working on this game I created a new copy of my movie each time I sat down for a session. The first one is "12-1-05.smv" and the last one is "11-27-06.smv". It's way more information than anyone could possibly need. I just called it the Collectors Editon because I was in a silly/happy mood yesterday from having finished the run.
Bob A and Paused wrote:
Are you going to
(My opinion here, but I could be persauded.) There are only two entertaining ways to run this game, and three significantly different versions to choose from:
1) Fastest time period. Just exploit everything possible to reach the credits. Use all kinds of strategies ending with "Doom", 128% mBlock, the Sketch Glitch, use item magic, abuse esper bonuses if you can, use Life on undead enemies and DoomTrain, equip items in the wrong place if you can, use the Nightshade rage, and 'cheat' like there's no tomorrow. :)
2) A clean 100% run. Some people say that since Vanish+Mute doesn't set silence on silence-immune monsters, V+D shouldn't have ever set death on ID protected monsters. According to early information from the recently dumped GBA remake, those people are now right. But a clean and fast run would just be boring. Imagine something like the Lavos battle at the end of the published CT movie looped about 20 times in a row. Ugh. And for those of you in this group who hate Setzer now, he'd still be one-shotting everything in the WOR from the back row with an Offering and the Fixed Dice.
For runs of the first type either the Japanese FF6 for the SNES or USA v1.0 should be used. The Japanese version offers the equip anything glitch. This glitch can cause some interesting effects if you equip non-weapons as weapons and it allows anyone to equip the Moogle Charm! YES! You can also equip both an Ice Shld and a Fire Shld and litterally 'cheat' with both hands! (Is anyone getting the reference?) The USA v1.0 version has the Sketch Glitch.
For runs of the second type the GBA version must be used. Sure, you could just refrain from being cheap in USA v1.1, but only the GBA remake also fixes the evade bug, which cannot be helped in the SNES version. I've heard that FF6 is banannas when the evade and mblock stats work properly. The GBA version is the honorable choice. And for a 100% run it has the bonus content too.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
ZSNES implements macros like this:
"A, 60 frame delay, A, 65 frame delay, A, 65 frame delay, A, 1 frame delay, A"
I would love that feature in every emulator but I have an even better feature in mind:
"d-Up, skip 240 frames, render the screen, activate frame advance and pause there"
If I could hotkey that then it would make trial and error testing so much easier! If an emulator were to get scripting support (the topic of another thread) then I wouldn't need this because I could just write linear short scripts that provide input without checking any RAM or anything. But this is probably easier than script hooks or it might be the first step towards writing script hooks. (Or I might get a bunch of replies telling me to use ZSNES.)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Input End :) 923,693 frames total.
Erokky's movie ends right before I fight the first tier. That's pretty darn close considering that I screwed up as follows: (pretend I'm the soldier from the banquet scene giving out the prizes ;))
He started after me, he could manipulate the raft ride, he knew better than to pick up useless treasure chests in Narshe and South Figaro, he also knew better than to kill TunnelArmr with the Lightning Rod, and he didn't take Kutan. Well... :D
With just those improvements alone, all before the Narshe Battle, I could get the time down to 3:50 no problem. And with a route change to take advantage of Celes and maybe Gau I think 3:30 is possible!
I'm positive that the Sketch Glitch does help. Celes' natural magic will make it even better. A really long time ago I did explore a bunch of plans for taking Terra on the FC just to take advantage of her natural magic. Unfortunately, I had to take Sabin because he needed to learn V+D. But with Celes instead of Kutan not only do I get natural magic, but Celes can 'replace Sabin' (who was replacing Celes in the first place) in my run.
As for what happened in the last leg of my run, just watch it! Kefka's Tower is very exciting. I noticed some glitchiness during the Falcon's cutscene but it doesn't seem to have affected anything. I promise very interesting boss fights where Setzer is not involved. And even then, the tiers turned out very well I think. During the "10 Hits" I didn't know if I was going to make it or not. I had to remanipulate those 10 hits several times to dodge all 10. Hey, wait a sec. Who muddled Setzer during the second tier if it wasn't Sabin? Hehehe.
"??????" as Celes Chere. Nice. You'll need bookmarks to see it unless you've got a few hours to burn. [URL=http://www.mediafire.com/?0ndfjznlozd]This is like the collectors edition of my whole movie right here.[/URL]
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Awesome! I love DKC! I might have once wanted to start a DKC run but since a couple other players already have that series covered I guess I'll just watch 'em. :)
Easy Parts:
- One game hits a mine cart level and almost plays itself, which lets you focus on the other two.
- Using bonus levels in one game to sort of turn that game off while you play the other two.
- (DKC2) Getting the Kongs stuck in honey to pause their run until the next time you jump.
- The world map.
Hard Parts:
- Fighting one boss and doing two levels simultaneously. What are DKC1 and 3 going to do while you fight Kleaver's Kiln?
- Fighting two bosses at once. x_x But maybe that won't happen.
- Any underwater level.
- The two elevator levels from DKC1. Holding left or right for 2 seconds will kill you. But there are probably many times in DKC2 and 3 where standing still will kill you too. Doing a long roll might also kill you. You might actually find a pair of levels where the set of all inputs that completes both levels is the empty set.
But on the plus side, if you pull it off, the Kongs should have good synchronization. Unlike the MM games, the Kongs can cancel their slide with a jump. So if you run to the right, roll, and jump mid-roll, then all three Kongs will do the same thing. (Carts, animals, water, and Dixie's hair aside.) Don't worry about having one Kong walk into a wall for 8 seconds because doing so kind of shows off the synchronization. If you do it too well (like the MM run actually) then it won't be obvious to the viewer that there is only one set of input.
As for game length, you could do something like 101% in DKC1 and a minimum run in DKC3. That would definitely help fix the length. But more importantly I'd say just do what you have to do in each game. If DKC1 only ends up as a 97% run while the DKC2 and DKC3 runs are minimal then that'll be more than good as long as you reach input end. You could maybe add some length to DKC1 by using the DYDDY code after you beat it. Or, and this would be nuts, you could do two laps around DKC1 while beating the other games once. Maybe use the corner-warp to cut off the first two levels of DKC1 on your second time through? Craziness.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Thank you everyone for the encouragement. :) I'm glad Kutan is entertaining because that's why I did it. Back when I choose Kutan, Erokky hadn't started his run yet, and I hadn't started posting here yet. I had a plan, but I had to guess, so I erred on the side of showing off glitches. That's why I gave up a carefully measured 2292 frames to glitch Locke, too. (My favorite part is right before the Narshe battle. Cyan: I recognize that moogle! That's general Kutan of the Empire! Let me at her! Merchant: No! I swore I'd protect this moogle! Would you like to buy something instead?)
In 5 days there will be a new GBA game in Japanese stores that is a port of FF6. It arrives after 4 and 5, the other games in the SNES FF series. (Not to be confused with 3, which was on the NES, and the recent remake of that on the DS is supposed to be significantly different.) Both 4 and 5 on the GBA recieved a 'graphical upgrade' and some bonus content like a dungeon or whatever. I haven't played either of them and I don't want them spoiled. Anyhow, I'm expecting this new version to be the best port ever that actually makes the SNES cart obsolete but I might have my hopes up too high. (But after the unplayable PSX port the only way to go is up.)
Joe wrote:
That's a matter of opinion
Oh I know. :) But in my run I'd rather play the game my way if I can. Unfortunately, Kutan clumbsily grabbing fish and limping back to the house makes for slightly better video than Kutan running laps around the house like a lunatic. (Only slightly.) My deal with Shadow is that he openly admits that he's a murderer, everyone knows it, but he still feels like he has to be all sappy and remorseful on occasion. He says something like "The reaper is only one step behind me" when he joins you in Kohlingen, I think. So here we have a guy who says that he wants to pay his debt to society, except he really doesn't, and a guy who is supposed to be emotionally dead, but really isn't. If you were to ask me "Can a murderer be redeemed for his crimes though good deads alone?" then I'd say no. Given exceptional circumstances, and the FF series definitely excels in those, then maybe. But Shadow doesn't seem to want it and he doesn't have any reason to be in the WOR anyway. His death on the FC is medium-heroic so I say just let him go. Now, if Shadow had shown any kind of interest in Relm then that would change everything, but he doesn't, because he's a douchebag, so he dies. Cid's death is remarkably poetic: he wastes away in solitary confinement for a year. And then shortly after starves to death, a piece of magicite washes up on his shore. Get it? He's in one of his own tubes!
I mentioned the possibility of glitching Sprint Shoes onto Kutan a few pages back and I run into three problems. One, the equip anything bug can only be done in the Japanese verison, and I can't begin to equip Kutan anyway. I could use the sketch glitch to equip Sprint Shoes in Kutan's left hand, but none of the outcomes allow that I don't think. (The useage field of the items in your in-battle inventory is frequently wrong for the item. For example, pause my movie and equip a Gem Box into Sabin's left hand! Notice how he get's X-Magic, too.) And finally, everyone in the whole party gets de-equipped prior to the Solitary Island anyway. So even if Kutan did get those Sprint Shoes on he'd still lose them.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
I think this movie will be done shortly for three reasons:
- I'm past the tentacles and I 'only' have about 20 minutes of gameplay left.
- My first WIP (I make new copies each day) is called "12-01-05.smv", so I'm creeping up on a year.
- The Japanese re-release date is Nov. 30th. :) So I've got two reasons why the timing couldn't be better.
WIP Link Thank you DeHackEd for the upload space. Thank you Gatsby for the fixed link. (Error message of the year award!)
Comments:
- Kutan ruined my run whole run, basically. Forget what I said about Kutan earlier. There is no possible way that Kutan could ever be faster than Celes, especially if you figure in missed chances for optimizations: Celes on the FC, Celes learning Vanish/Doom (no Sabin!), no Sabin! (twice for emphasis), and the required bosses.
- I hate the Solitary Island. First, I lose crazy amounts of time here because I don't have Sprint Shoes. Not only do I need 5 trips to Cid instead of the optimal 4, but each of those 5 trips take me longer because I don't have Sprint Shoes! Watch the video - I cried. Speaking of that, the second reason I'm ticked about the Solitary Island is because saving Cid turned out to be 5933 frames faster than letting him die. If I had lost tons of time here but included the suicide scene as a tradeoff then I would've been happier. (Cid and Shadow are supposed to die because they've both killed innocent people. But, their deaths have meanings. If you save their lives it's an injustice and it ruins the story. And if you save Shadow he just kills himself anyway because he knows he's supposed to die. :P Such a happy video game.)
- Tzen goes really well! Two random encounters and I'm in and out as fast as I can be without Sprint Shoes. I'd say more about this event but it went by so pleasantly quick as it should in a TAS.
- The Tentacles die in 5 actions: Debilitator, Flame Shieldx4. That massive time saver just paid for my sketch glitch spell learning. I also like how invincible I am during that battle. Edgar has such a high mblock thanks to the Illumina + Paladin Shld that I didn't even need to manipulate those 3 consecutive dodges. All I had to manipulate away was as many time-wasting counter-attacks as possible.
- The reason why I re-equip Sabin with two Earrings 8 steps before the engine room is because I need to manipulate the battle on the next tile. My previous battle back in the cave gave me zero options for manipulating a pre-emptive there. (Long explanation:) Normally I can adjust my flee time such that the screen fades out at the right time such that I end on the correct 'wavelength' to hit the next pre-emptive. By 'wavelength' I mean check out Jyzero's line graph of frame-counter vs. initial ATB. However, my previous battle gave me two identical choices for my ending and neither of them worked. Entering the subscreen lets me choose any wavelength that I want at the cost of entering the subscreen. So, I equipped Sabin while I was in there. Phew, that was a long explanation of something that no one will likely notice.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Holy cow! I just watched the video, and it does decrement on some 'fairway' squares. It decrements on certain fairway squares that border dark green squares. Very nice find! It makes sense that the fairway should protect you from random encounters, but, since I've had random encounters on fairway before, I didn't think that the feature worked/was ever implemented. Now I know that I am protected on certain tiles. Awesome! (The two byte number located at C0/C2A5 shows the encounter rate for fairway tiles without the CB or MC: zero! I just read that from Assassin's commented C0 file.) I wonder which tiles use the same encounter rate? Maybe a few tiles from the mines? :) And I like the idea of showing the monster HP and encounter counter to the viewer.
I noticed yesterday that I wasn't getting the correct items out of the sketch glitch. For example, I noticed that I wasn't getting any Paladin or Flame Shlds. So I must be crashing the game because I'm doing the glitch with the wrong value in Sabin's $20FF byte. It shouldn't be changing but I'll manipulate it and try again.
EDIT: Sabin either needs to be an imp or needs to be out of MP before the battle begins. That should be easy...
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
erokky wrote:
ie. GET INTO A RANDOM BATTLE ANYWHERE
That was a joke. :) In order to manipulate my next random encounter, I have to get into 8 random encounters. It's not a clever joke, don't think about it too hard.
DeHackEd - That's pretty cool and I like the video. But since you can't manipulate the number of steps between battles in any meaningful way I don't see how you could use it in a run. Or can you? Because I just walk, reach a fight, and if I don't get a pre-emptive first try then I go back and manipulate it. Theres no way to even save myself the trouble of one re-record by knowing when my next fight will be. And I'm obviously taking as few steps as possible on maps where random encounters can happen.
Just in case anyone missed it, I edited my post on the previous page last night to include a same-day WIP. The WIP gets right up to the Atma Weapon and does the Sketch Glitch on a Dragon. However, my WIP should cause S9Xw-improvement9 to barf even when watched from beginning to end on a 'warm' ROM. A few pages ago I was having this problem too. I'm going to try to find out now what causes the crash since it has worked before.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
MAUDE: Oh wow. Those other guys bit the dust pretty fast. Just give me a 10 or more! If I get Bordwalk and Park Place I think I can take him out!
MAUDE: Six. Figures. Oh well, as long as I don't roll a 2 or 3 I'll be okay.
MAUDE: YES! Six again! I've escaped the oranges! I'll get you yet FRACTAL! This chance card will be the beginning of my good fortune.
MAUDE: Back three. That puts me on... NO! How can this be? He stacked both the dice and the deck! Curse you FRACTAL! *cries*
FRACTAL: I'm back. What happened on your turns while I was getting the snacks?
(too late to vote yes)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Nitrodon wrote:
As far as I know, there is no way to change the order of formations.
Yup! Clerical error. Assassin just PMed me his dissassembly of C0/C496 and C0/C36C. The random numbers generated specifically for random encounter formations are a little different than the random numbers used in other places. First, you get all 256 numbers in the random number table in order. Then, on calls 257-512 to this function, you get the same 256 numbers in order plus 23. Hopefully no one ever gets into more than 512 random encounters between power cycles. :) $1FA2 contains the current index and $1FA3 contains the addition (23, 46, 69, ..., 253, 21, etc).
There are five things I can do to increment $1FA2 and change the formation:
* Get into a random battle on the overworld. +1
* Get into a random battle inside a dungeon. +1
* Get into a random battle on the veldt. +1
* Reset the game. +1
* Load a save file. +13
* (hidden sixth option: call C0/A4AB, which is also +1)
The good news is that there is a save point directly on my path, as in zero steps out of my way. I could probably also do multiple resets and then a load to get +15, +22, or +whatever I need. However, formation 183, which can be manipulated into a 185, appears as my 5th and 8th battle on the FC. It's a giant waste of 5 AP and approximately 30 seconds but I think I'd be better off winning my first 4 random encounters and doing the glitch right away. I'll try now.
EDIT: My first Dragon is 11 battles away. After 14 (doh!) my next is at 22. If I didn't have to kill 5 things instead of 4 to set the glitch up then a reset could've saved me some time. Obviously I'll take the CB off.
EDIT2: Complete WIP! The Dragon crashed again! Other than that the WOB-FC was perfect too. I took off the CB and got right up to the Atma Weapon with exactly enough battles to enounter the Dragon with no wasted steps. (Then I put my CB back on to save a Naughty later.) The Dragon appeared, I did the glitch, and then back to the black screen that changes resolutions rapidly. Ugh. I thought I had the cause of that figured out before. Does the Sketch Glitch not record properly in some cases or something? Or maybe this movie will play correctly if I watch it from scratch?
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Yeah, I figured something was up when Djibriel listed the probability of each formation. According to him (without luck manipulation) the odds of a Dragon are 5/64 and the odds of one of the two special 6AP formations are 1/64 each. So with luck manipulation my real odds are 6/16 for the Dragon and 1/16 for the two special formations.
Just for kicks I figured out what my next 18 battles would be:
183, 7(180), 177, 180, 183, 177, 177, 183, 3(177), 180
Then I tried again after removing my Charm Bangle:
183, 7(180), 177, 180, 180, 183, 177, 177, 183, 3(177), 180
So, it's actually not based on the number of steps* after all. By removing my Charm Bangle I actually caused one extra encounter besides taking many fewer steps to trigger these 19 encounters. (I want more steps between random encounters.) And the pattern actually resumed once that second 180 formation was over. At each step of my experiment I reloaded and walked in a different direction for two reasons. One: fighting a pair of Ninjas (180) doesn't tell me if I really have a 177 or a 180 so I need to re-manipulate that formation to something conclusive. And two: I was simultaneously testing if my x/y coordinate had any effect. (Nope.)
*Not the game's step count. I mean the number of random variables used on each step. So I guess the formation picker doesn't use the same random index as the random enounter chooser.
I also tried taking Shadow, hitting switches, and putting the Charm Bangle back on after taking it off. None of these things had any effect on whatever my index was. I'm going to try manipulating $7E1F6D next.
I also used Geiger's to copy the dissassembly from C00000-C0FFFF and C10000-C1FFFF to a text file. But then all I did was ctrl-F for '$11E0' and look for instructions that wrote a value to $7E11E0. I only found one match and it was a LDA, which I'm pretty sure means copy $7E11E0 into A, which is a read. So either the game stores the formation number in a dynamic address, which just happens to be $7E11E0 when the game runs, or I don't know how to use this debugger. (When I actually ran the game with breakpoints I was getting at least 3 writes to this memory address when a battle started on the FC.)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Dromiceius wrote:
The only concern I wanted to bring up was the usage of a potion in the Imperial Base. Sabin uses a potion on himself during battle, IIRC, but wouldn't it have been faster to use the potion in the menu before the battle?
Thank you for the compliments! I think I remember writing something about that battle, and I remember recording that one particular battle, but I'm starting to forget it. In my physical notebook I wrote: "The Gruntx2 Cadetx2 Kefka battle w/out Shadow was hard, BB absolutely required." Now that I think about it, I think I needed to manipulate the enemies in a certain way so that they'd kill themselves on my Black Belt. And since I had to manipulate multiple enemies I don't think I had many options. It's possible that I just forgot to heal before hand. Do I have RunningShoes on in that fight? If I do then using the Potion in-battle is faster, else going through several sub-menus later (or earlier) is faster.
The shop is the shop. :) I don't know why the shop screen behaves differently than every other item list in the game. The shop also has that bug where if you move between the buy and sell menus too fast (maybe press A+B together) you can freeze the game. Cool.
So... Floating Continent random encounters. On the 'WOB' side all enounters are taken from pack 112, which is a very special pack. On the 'WOR' side of the FC random encounters are taken from pack 419 (all Naughty formations.)
Pack 112 is the only 4-pack in the entire game that uses the "randomly add 3" flag on its members. This gives me the ability to choose who I fight! Normally when a random encounter happens my current position will be used to choose a 4-pack. Out of that 4-pack one of 4 formations will be choosen. I cannot manipulate this because it is dependant on the number of steps that I take in hostile territory. (Hence, Erokky and I get almost all the same fights despite the differences in our runs! Funny how that works out.) However, because the "randomly add 3" flag is set, a random number from 0..3 will be added to the formation number before I fight it. That part that makes me happy because I can use $00BE to choose which number gets added to my formation number! I'm especially happy because the FC is coincidentally the only part of the game where I need to encounter a certain random monster.
Pack 112 contains these formations: 177, 180, 183, and 185. The formations that I'm interested in are the following: 185 (1xDragon, my glitch formation); 187 (2xBehemoth, worth 6AP); and 188 (2xNinja, 1xWirey Dragon, also worth 6AP). The Dragon I can thankfully garuntee myself whenever my initial formation is 183 or 185. But the two formations that I need to learn Vanish require me to start with 185 before I can manipulate them. Remember, the initial formation number is determined by the number of steps I take between battles, which is essentially constant.
My plan was to flee until I had an opportunity for a 6AP formation. With any other 5AP formation I would learn Vanish and the rest of my sketch glitch spells on Setzer and Relm all simultaneously! Setzer and Relm would then remove their espers, Sabin would take Shoat, gain 20 AP, and learn Bio+Break. With those spells the sketch glitch becomes armed. Finally I would manipulate just one Dragon to do the glitch on.
But for some reason the game just hates me. I always get 180 as my base formation. I have yet to see a formation higher than 183. I don't know why. Every other time I've played this game, emulator or console, including my test runs, I've always had a variety of enemies. I don't know why the random number generator is being so non-random. I always thought that the four formations in a 4-pack were of even probability (25%) but maybe this is not the case? Even if one was 1/8 and one was 4/8 then I still shouldn't be seeing so much of one formation. Removing my Charm Bangle after the movie ended still caused me to fight three 180s in a row! So something is up and I need to figure out what it is.
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Bob A wrote:
Yay!
Hmm... it looks like you purchase the ice rods suboptimally.
Uh-oh. What did I do wrong? Is it while I'm selling items? Because I decided at the last minute to spare the Wall Ring. And I'm positive that tapping the right button every other frame is faster than holding it when I'm trying to choose '8' rods.
I skip over two items while selling items: the Wall Ring and the Running Shoes. The Wall Ring is still playable maybe during the Tentacles. And I think it was worth the 3 frames not to sell it since I have the excess gold. The Running Shoes are saved because I need those for the IAF and FC. I don't think they save enough time to have made it worth going into that guy's basement to get them, but at least they weren't an obviously bad choice like the Wall Ring. And I've been using the shoes all along. If I ever do a second run I think it is actually worth it to take the pair that is located at the top of Zozo's tower in Terra's room. Good places for RS: IAF, Flame Eater for a sometimes faster 4th rod, 128, Cranes, Tentacles for immunity, and the tiers.
Back to the shop! :) I realize now that while I was rearranging my inventory during the Cranes, I should've pushed these items closer to the bottom (but still near the top) so that I wouldn't have to skip over them. Since it takes 3 frames to scroll past one item that means I lose 6 frames from having my inventory out of order. (Or, I lose 3, and then lose 3 more frames because of yet another late decision about the Wall Ring.) It might be possible that these frames weren't lost at all, since I won't have to scroll way down to equip them later? I'm afraid to put them too low on my list because the Sketch Glitch will wipe out some of my items. Either way, luck manipulation takes way more than 6 frames, so I don't regret it. Or do you see something else that is actually much more time? Thank you for watching!
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
:)
WIP into the middle of the Floating Continent
(The same movie from the Imperial Banquet)
Everything is going according to plan so far. Thamasa went quick and the FlameEater didn't even get one hit in. Leo's fight was improved by 4 Ice Rods, yay! Even though I used the same Ultros4 strategy as Erokky my version was faster since I didn't have to wait for Ultros to smack Setzer. (Erokky had Gau, and Gau doesn't have fight, so his third party member couldn't punch Setzer. In my run Relm punches Setzer to get the Muddle-Doom trick off faster.)
I wanted to post my WIP from AFTER the FC but manipulating the random encounters is being untypically strange right now. Remember, I need one of the two rare encounters next to finish learning Phantom (optimal), and then I need a Dragon encounter to do the glitch with. But for whatever reason the FC just doesn't want to give me what I want today. I just tried 50 battles, didn't see one Dragon, and they're supposed to be a 6/64 chance. Argh. I'll figure it out. (Or someone else will! I have to give Nitrodon, flagitious, and Erokky credit for their contributions: spell ordering, Muddle-Doom, and Ultros3, off the top of my head.)
I really, really, really, will finish this. I'm over 75% now. I was just distracted by some new games that came out. Now I'm back to working on this as normal and the part that I was dreading, the IAF, is over. :) It's all fun stuff left now!
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Myria wrote:
Beatmania
1. New game. Enable autoplay.
2. Play era (nostalmix) doubles another. (rediculous)
3. The game will autoplay and have a perfect $200,000 score. Boring.
4. Go back, turn autoplay off, and restart the song.
5. Play perfectly for the first half.
6. During the slow down, while continuing to play perfectly, also hit the extra notes required to play the Happy Birthday song.
7. During the ending, while hitting the last three notes perfectly, hit extra notes to play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme.
8. Use the extra notes from the TMNT theme to reduce your life gauge to 80%.
9. Score $200k plus the legendary border+perfect bonus for a total of $211,400 points. You just beat autoplay!
Mario Paint was also supposed to be impossible. :)
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Saturn wrote:
It is very difficult to make correct calculations on which variation is faster without actually doing a TAS for both routes and compare them side by side. This is another reason that holds/held me back from TAS'ing this game.
Don't let it! Any TAS is potentially improvable anyway. In a 15-30 minute Mega Man movie you do have to make the right path decisions or the movie will look wrong. Same goes for the original Zelda. With that game there was a thread dedicated to finding the optimal path that minimized walking on the overworld.
But since RPGs play very differently with tools you can't really make paths. For example, I can stop this run on almost any frame and resume playing without tools. I'd have to walk instead of zip, and I'd be obviously slower, but I could follow the same route. However you cannot play Earthbound unassisted using the TAS as a guide. So for that reason you should pick a route that is helped by tool-assistance, any route at all really, and just do it. I'm not saying don't test variations. What I mean is do test to see if killing Cid is faster than saving him, but don't test to see if Kutan is faster than Celes. And don't regret your decision. You might find that on a second attempt that 'should' be faster that your first run was faster anyway.
