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Posted: 4/14/2006 7:57 AM
Post subject: Final Fantasy 6
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Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
No, you're not seeing double. :) There is another FF6 run in progress. My original plan was to post my first WIP after the World of Balance. I was going to do this to prove to myself that I was serious about making the run, since this is an easy run to be overwhelmed by. That way I'd be able to quit at anytime without worrying about being known as that lurker who quit his first run. The start of the WOR is about 70% through my planned route so it makes a good no-turning-back point. Currently, my run is at what I think is 50% - just about to tackle the mine cart ride after the MTRF. The WIP is at DeHackEd #966 and here is a YSI of 20 bookmarks and my other WIPs. (The size is 2.55MB compressed but the .smv files expand to much bigger than that!) The game clock is just shy of 2 hours in this WIP. But since Erim is starting a run now I'd feel like a bastard if I was this far along and I didn't help. But I'm still hoping to be the first to submit a run for this game. At first I thought that no FF6 TAS could ever be accepted because of length of the game so a quality submission was all I wanted. But then I saw CT and SoM. And Chrono Trigger has that ugly level-Magus-up loop. If that is acceptable then FF6 is no problem. But this game is still much longer with the cinematics. I wanted to make a new thread because this isn't Jyzero's run, it's my run. There's no point in having a thread where pages 1-14 are in response to the thread creator, pages 15-16 are off topic, and page 17 marks the start of a new run from scratch. Thank you Jyzero for the memory address $7E00BE and for the WIP for me compare myself against up until the Returner's Hideout. I wouldn't have worked on the beginning of the game quite as hard as I did if it weren't for your run. Also, thank you everyone who participated in the pre-emptive attack discussion. I tested those independently and rediscovered exactly the same thing. I was hoping for a more reliable way to cause them to happen but sadly nothing was found. Even a code that locked $BE to a certain number would only work on certain formations. Before I talk about the run itself, just a few more things, bullet-point style, because those are faster to type and easier to read: * I started this run in November. * This run beat's Jyzero's run by 4192 frames up until the point where his run ends. * I have one rule for this run: it must be under 4 hours. Any longer than that is too long to be interesting. * Bugs. Check. * The entire movie was frame advanced. Every frame. Even the turbo A scenes. * No character of mine ever dies in combat. * I wanted to summon Shiva against Ifrit, but it was severely disadvantegous to do so. :( * I'm going to attempt the sketch glitch during the boss fight against the Air Force. * Vanish-Doom will be used but there actually aren't many places for me to use it. * FlameEater will be OHKOed. He has 8000 HP and vanish-doom requires two hits. ;) * This movie has crazy TAS Music Video potential! * I've done several test runs and I do additional re-test runs for each plot node using my lastest WIP as I reach them. * I don't just manipulate luck, I've got the RNG mapped out on my desktop. I can fast-foward to the next desperation attack and know how much damage it will do in advance. (When $BE = A5 the most powerful desperation attack occurs.) Watch the Dadaluma battle and the #024 battle! * Nitsuja - v9 - MEMORY WATCH! - YES! YES! :D :D I only just found it two weeks ago and I don't know how I ever played without it! Well, I do know. I used to cheat the interface and use crtl-A to bring up my latest search. :X CONSTANTLY * Thank you Terii Senshi for your algorithm's FAQ. Who would've ever thought that a OHKO on Ultros #2 was ever possible? * Thank you Master ZED for all the bugs and compiled information. Mimic-Joker Doom is the only solution for the tiers. * Thank you Assassin17 for posting commented assembly code on the Internet. Why can't I use my desperation attack? OH! The attacker must not have muddle or vanish status, $7E3A3E must be greater than 767, and $BE[0..255] must evaluate to 0-15 inclusive. No memory searching, just an answer right there from the code itself! * I love hacking games! ^_^ Not because I cheat, but because I'm interested in the technical and logical side of the games. I love to enter game states that the designers never intended and go exploring. * I LOVE THIS GAME TO DEATH AND KNOW IT INSIDE OUT BACKWARDS FOWARDS UPSIDE DOWN ROT-13 ENCODED! ^_^ So much in fact, that I'm planning a walk-though-walls run for the distant future just to show off how fragile and robust the game is at the same time. * I've been keeping a journal as I TAS this game. Next post...
Posted: 4/14/2006 7:58 AM
Post subject: Post 2/8
Quote
Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
PLOT NODE 1: Narshe I start off just like Jyzero and clear the first three scripted battles almost identically. I may have saved one frame on the config screen as well. I seem to have lost my frame comparisons for the first 3 battles but I remember reaching Whelk just a hair quicker or later than Jyzero and then beating Whelk much faster. I remember in Jyzero's thread he said that he tried his hardest and could not defeat Whelk without the little bugger retreating and wasting 15 seconds. Well, I remember doing it once by accident on the console. Back then I had no idea how I did it and it was very rewarding to finally be able to figure this out! When Whelk dies in my run $7E3DC8 has incremented to over 40 but his "Gruuu..." message is supposed to occur when it reaches just 10! So what happened? Check out Whelk in FF3usME. The battle is implemented as two monsters. The 'head' monster has a boring script that randomly does one of the following each turn: battle, battle, !slime (slow). His battle is the fastest action that he take and it does a meaningless amount of damage. The head also has a 100% chance to drop me a potion and waste a couple frames. The 'shell' monster is much more interesting. It takes no offensive action and it's script is programmed show and hide the head monster every 10-count. So if somehow I could stop the shell from taking it's turn then that script will not run! But, not only do I lack any nifty abilities at this stage of the game, the shell is immune to everything anyway. A hacked pre-emptive attack isn't enough time for me to defeat Whelk, either. My damage options are enumeratable: a 550 damage missle from Terra and a 125 damage beam from each of the two soldiers. There are really no other choices. So I need either 6 perfect attacks of 2 missiles and 4 beams or 3 imperfect missles and any beam to do the 1600 damage that I need to do. How do I get those turns? It turns out that the ATB gauges are stupid when the battle mode is set to wait. These are the facts. The ATB gauges will increase during animations though the battle timer at $7E3A3F will not. The ATB gauges will NOT increase while my cursor is 'hiding' in a menu. If an animation plays while I have a menu open then the ATB gauges will NOT increase. The RNI (Random Number Index) does increment even while I am in a menu. (Which is the only way to manipulate luck mid-attack in this game.) Manipulating the initial ATB values for myself and Whelk is not enough to ensure that he never hides. I have to manipulate my animations such that my gauges are always filling while his are stalled during all other times. This is the play by play: Terra - 565 damage missile, holds the menu Vicks - 132 damage fire beam, holds the menu Wedge - 122 damage ice beam, lets go of the menu so Terra and Vicks can refill Vicks - 126 damage bolt beam, holds the menu just a bit Terra - 544 damage missile, lets go of the menu so Wedge and the Head can go head - punches the guy in the mech suit, very effective Wedge - 126 damage ice beam, 1615 total damage, -15 overkill The shell never got a turn even though it was very much due for one. I used one other trick that I call cutting someone off. Basically whenever a queue of actions forms the player has the opportunity to act next when the computer does not. This happens because you can enter commands during animations while the computer waits for the animation to finish! So during the head's attack animation the shell's ATB fills up before Wedge's ATB. However, I enter Wedge's command ASAP during this animation. The computer puts Wedge next in the action queue. Then the animation finishes and the shell inserts itself next into the queue. Wedge's action takes place, kills the head, the head removes both monsters from the battle, I win. :) I use turbo-A for most of the dialog in this game but early on I was frame advancing the dialogue to get it all frame perfect. There is a 50% chance to save 1 frame on each dialog box. I wanted to do this game right and be frame perfect like the famous platformers so I did it. But once I reached Figaro Castle I realized how unrealistic it is for a human to save that half-frame on each dialog box. Maybe next movie I'll write a BlahBlahBot. During the moogle battle I use Mog's group. Mog needs to learn snare. Someone has to kill the Marshall and no other team has an interesting reason to participate. Not only is snare an instant KO it also has the rare ability of preventing the target's counter attack. Too bad Mog won't join untill after Doom is acquired, oh well. Notice how I mock the awful collision detection on those chumps. I save 1,970 frames over Jyzero by abusing this. You can't clip though them like NPCs unfortunately. The monsters here technically aren't NPCs - they're moving event tiles. The Marshall battle was a severe pain. All 16 battle seeds resulted in either the Marshall going first and using !Net (stop) on Mog or I would have to wait a very long time for my critical hits. I had no choice but to let one of the Lobos make an attack. Jyzero's battle was faster by the length of that enemy attack animation (120 frames) but I had to let it go. At this time I did not know that a subscreen access of a certain length could get the random seed 'stuck' on new intervals of 4. I could've used that to fix my battle seed problem here but I don't think that a subscreen access + delay is much faster than 120 frames anyway. Maybe this was optimal for my circumstances after all? Run to Figaro, fly through the dialog boxes.
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:00 AM
Post subject: Post 3/8
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Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
PLOT NODE 2: Figaro The M-Tek plot battle was a pain because the stupid M-Teks could kill Terra with a !Metal Kick (hit) and Locke had to make an additional attack to finish one of them off because my Edgar was so weak. The timing on Locke's attack determined both the damage that the auto crossbow did and the target of the enemy's next attack. The Figaro Cave was awesome. I got three unmanipulated pre-emptive attacks with no delay! That's all I can ask for on this map. Arrive in Foot Locker, I mean South Figaro. Locke and Edgar equip Sprint Shoes right now because they will both need them for their scenarios. That saves a re-equipping later. I pick up the Hyper Wrist and RunningShoes from the basement now because I know that I'll be skipping Locke's scenario. Also, they'll be useful on Mt. Koltz. The Hyper Wrist boosts Edgar's auto crossbow. Locke is now wearing two pairs of shoes. :P Enjoy the frame advanced chocobo riding! The reason I've won a few battles prior to and on Mt. Koltz is so that my characters have just a little more HP and so that Sabin hits level 10 to learn Suplex. Occasionally I get unlucky and cannot manipulate a pre-emptive attack without opening my subscreen but I keep excellent time anyway. I pick up the hidden Atlas Armlet and give it to Edgar for additional crossbow damage. At frame 99300 I actually catch shadow Vargas with the A button. :) He turns to face me, says nothing, and continues running away. Here is the turn-by-turn for Vargas' battle: Ipooh2 - hits Terra 12 damage, 76 remain Terra - single target Fire Ipooh1 for 196 damage, 164 remain Locke - attack Ipooh1 for 53 damage, 111 remain (critical would not kill it) Vargas - hits Locke for 40 damage Edgar - crossbow both bears, 144/146 damage, Ipooh1 defeated without it getting a turn Locke - attack Ipooh2 for 51 damage, 95 remain Terra - single target fire Ipooh2 for 180 damage, Ipooh2 overkilled by 85 Edgar - hits Terra for 26 damage, 50 remain Vargas uses Gale Cut, Terra takes 49 damage, Terra is at 1 HP Terra uses her desperation attack Riot Blade so fast that the numbers '49' are still showing on her! :P That was the first chance to use a desperation attack that battle. Vargas takes more than his 720 damage (although he actually has 11k HP) and starts the Sabin scene. Because Vargas had *just* used Gale Cut and because Terra went *immediately* afterwards Vargas' ATB is completely empty when Sabin arrives. Sabin uses his plot pummel to end the battle before Vargas even has the chance to use his special !Doom Punch (condemned) and start talking. Since Vargas' special and his taunt waste quite a bit of time, quite a bit of time was saved here. (2,759 frames saved over Jyzero!)
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:02 AM
Post subject: Post 4/8
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Catastrophe
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.
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:04 AM
Post subject: Post 5/8
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Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
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 8:06 AM
Post subject: Post 6/8
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Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
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 8:07 AM
Post subject: Post 7/8
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Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
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 8:10 AM
Post subject: Post 8/8
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Catastrophe
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
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 8:33 AM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 8:39 AM)
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
You sure like to type... Edit: I'll check your WIP out soon.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/14/2006 8:39 AM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 9:58 AM)
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NrgSpoon
Joined: 6/14/2004
Posts: 646
So hey, it desyncs for me during the first random overworld battle where you fight one of those cabbage rabbit things. Locke steals a Tonic, Terra does 20 damage, then it goes to the row command for the next turn for some reason, followed by strangely timed running etc. All the stuff prior to that looked excellent though, even if it WAS very little... edit: fixed by getting snes9x+v9. i was running v8 apparently
I like my "thank you"s in monetary form.
Posted: 4/14/2006 9:36 AM
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Ozmodiar
Joined: 8/2/2004
Posts: 98
NrgSpoon wrote:
So hey, it desyncs for me during the first random overworld battle where you fight one of those cabbage rabbit things. Locke steals a Tonic, Terra does 20 damage, then it goes to the row command for the next turn for some reason, followed by strangely timed running etc. All the stuff prior to that looked excellent though, even if it WAS very little...
I use Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.0) [!].smc and it works perfectly. Also, Catastrophe: I love you.
-Oz. If practice makes perfect, but nobody's perfect, why practice?
Posted: 4/14/2006 10:28 AM
Post subject: Nice Video
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Fuzzmosis
Joined: 6/9/2004
Posts: 40
Location: Calgary
I got desynced during the ifrit fight, then sabin died, then everyone died, so, well, it was at the end. Otherwise, very entertaining movie, well thus far. With the Sabin and Cyan fight where you heal, had you healed pre combat and maniupalated sabin into countering twice, wouldn't that be a faster fight?
Posted: 4/14/2006 11:40 AM
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LagDotCom
Joined: 3/7/2006
Posts: 720
Location: UK
It always desyncs for me in the Ifrit battle; Sabin attacks normally instead of performing a DA. Playing back from the savestate doesn't help either. Great work so far though! Loved the manipulation on the Whelk.
Voted NO for NO reason
Posted: 4/14/2006 1:06 PM
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Atma
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
Same for me, Ifrit battle desync. I like the usage of desperation attacks, as it not always using the same one (and even more so multiple in one battle!). You lose points though for not using Shadow when he's available though. Other than that though, looks great. Keep it up! Also, does kupan have a desperation attack?
Posted: 4/14/2006 1:17 PM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 3:21 PM)
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Your posts are very insightful reading. You must have been doing FF6 ROM hacks or something at some point of time. Hmm, a form of Celes appears in Zozo. Must be a Celes-looking object, because if it was Celes, it would look like Kutan :)
Posted: 4/14/2006 1:18 PM
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Luke
Player (87)
Joined: 2/10/2006
Posts: 113
Location: US
Also had a desync in Ifrit. I really enjoyed the movie and lol'ed when Kupan comes out of the dressing room looking like Maria. Keep at it! Even if it's not perfect, a FF3 TAS is high on everyone's Most Wanted list D
Use the force
Posted: 4/14/2006 1:39 PM
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Highness
Player (71)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
This was a delightful surprise indeed! :D Sad that it desyncs at Ifrit though. And seeing Kutan is loads of fun. Keep it up!
Posted: 4/14/2006 2:24 PM
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Mlandry
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 325
Goodluck with this run Catastrophe, i really hope that we can fix this desynch (i didn't try watching it yet but pretty much everyone has gotten it ) Is Ifrit far from where you are now ? i don't really remember this game well so hopefully if we can't fix the desynch it won't take too long to remake that part, just don't get discouraged because of it
Posted: 4/14/2006 2:29 PM
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Tombad
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 380
Location: Finland
Sadly, desync at ifrit for me too. :( Looking very good, fine job you've done. Keep it up and we'll see one of the finest movies on this site.
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home." ( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
Posted: 4/14/2006 3:09 PM
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erokky
Former player
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
Thanks for taking the time to type up all that information. It could prove useful. I don't really want to steal anyone's work. Your run is incredibly well done though. So I appreciate you typing that up for us (who are also attempting the run). Command Menu Short is better than Default. It's a minimal problem though. Wow, I really liked that, how you used Desperation attacks in the most fashionable ways. And just a heads up for anyone who asks me: It'll be months before I can have anything to show of such a grand scale. I am going out of my way, even if it takes up 5 minutes of my life, to save every frame I can. All my battles, all my dialogues. Am I going crazy? Yeah. :P
Posted: 4/14/2006 3:27 PM
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MattyXB
Player (25)
Joined: 4/23/2005
Posts: 435
Location: Germany
WOW. I am right now at the point were Kutan appear infront of Banon. I am suprised. The trick to leave the town from the entrance was great. I never know about this or hear this trick. But as you arrive in Narshe with a Mog I was shocked. Then I remember that you normaly save Celes in the senario from Locke and this is not happen here. So this was a nice glitch to see a Mog and not Celes. But I never hear about this trick too, that a Mog will appear at this point. The different costum from Locke is a great idea too. This all together give the movie a great suprising effect. I like it very much and hope this will get puplished when its finish. Thanks for making this movie, I must see more now.
Last TAS finished: Final Fantasy Adventure (4.0 Warp Glitch Run) WIP in the moment: Tail Gator (GB) Matty
Posted: 4/14/2006 3:55 PM
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erokky
Former player
Joined: 4/6/2006
Posts: 462
This sounds silly, but I need help on manipulating critical hits. I can't trigger critical hits. You can alter your damage by waiting 2 frames after the other right? I've tried 50 different attacks(100 frames) and I can't get a critical hit to trigger. Sorry for asking, what a silly question =(
Posted: 4/14/2006 5:42 PM
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Saturn
Player (206)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
This is great! I really hope you guys will finaly make a TAS of this legendary RPG-game! For me the movie also desyncs at Ifrit as Sabin misses his DA and does a normal attack. I tried FF3 1.0 (U) and FF3 1.1 (U) with same result. :-( I used SNES9x v9 to playback with the loaded sync-settings from the movie. You should really check if this also happens to you and fix it before recording further. The movie itself is great so far. The desperation attacks were really cool and the South Figaro escape with Locke was very nice. One thing I can't understand is why did you go and get the merchant clothes anyway? Does it affect anything in the game later? Other than that keep up the great work, I look forward to it!
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 4/14/2006 5:57 PM
Post subject: Re: Post 8/8
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Catastrophe wrote:
I start the Ifrit battle [...] 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.
The movie seems to desync for everyone here. By doing what you described, you actually made it to desync. Probably, you first loaded a wrong save, and thus, observed that the movie desynced, and you attempted repairing it by replaying from that point, but instead, you actually broke it.
Posted: 4/14/2006 7:39 PM
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MattyXB
Player (25)
Joined: 4/23/2005
Posts: 435
Location: Germany
I try the later SaveStates from the other file, the next Boss battle desync too. Good luck for fixing this all, because I like to see much more. Will the graphic from Celes/Kutan now stay as human, or will she change back to a Mog later? I like the Mog more. :-) She already changed sometimes from Mog to Human and back again, but at the Opera scene she seems to stay human. And I notice, that she can't use Runic now. Its not in here list.
Last TAS finished: Final Fantasy Adventure (4.0 Warp Glitch Run) WIP in the moment: Tail Gator (GB) Matty
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