Posts for flechette

Posted: 3/14/2015 2:01 AM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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Location: chattanooga tn
TheAxeMan wrote:
Thanks, I'm glad you liked them. For me the Ultima series was something I grew up with. Now it's making me feel old because there hasn't been a real Ultima game in over 15 years, too long for many here to remember. To young people today video games have always had a fairly broad level of acceptance as legitimate media for art and culture. That is only the case because the hard work and imagination that went into these games helped reinvent the industry after the great video game crash.
When this game came out it drove me nuts. I loved this game for all of it's secrets. It drove me crazy because only had access to Nintendo Power for game tips/cheats and what I really needed was a guide. I never owned the game, only rented from a local VHS store that happened to have a section for Nintendo games, so I never even had a manual to go off of. Still loved it, don't think I ever really finished it. :|
Posted: 11/20/2010 7:21 PM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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Location: chattanooga tn
The reason I went with 2m2bm is because the 2nd monk can just use an item to haste the first monk, so there's no need to have a 3rd bm. Also, this gives me a little play room with the encounters (if the first monk can't kill it, maybe the second one can). The mages are only good for spells, and that's it. The point of leveling one mage is to get sleepra, which can put any monster to sleep, which is more damage (and an easier kill) for the rest of the team. Update: Nothing new with the run, but I'm still finding time to do numbers and think things through. Not much time, but I'm not giving up on this. Working 2 jobs and about to move again. :P
Posted: 10/19/2010 8:56 AM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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Location: chattanooga tn
I broke up with my gf of about 9 months, moved out of the apartment I was renting, and have been trying to just get my life back in order before getting the rest of this run worked out. I'm still here, but it's slow going.
Posted: 7/7/2010 5:16 AM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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Location: chattanooga tn
Hehe it is, just been busy with real life again. I'm trying to decide the best way to get a black mage to 13 before getting the Key. It may mean going back to after the pirate fight and getting another claw, or other things. It seems like no matter what I do I can't get an encounter worth enough xp to level to 13, so I'll need two encounters, which I don't wanna do. Once I clear this hurdle of indecision, I should be pretty much in the clear. >.>
Posted: 7/1/2010 6:13 PM
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flechette
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http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=5209.msg330466#msg330466 There's been some interesting new discoveries for this game recently. Here's hoping they pan out into something incredible.
Posted: 6/17/2010 9:46 PM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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I forgot that when you have party members dead the monsters that spawn do so in different sizes! Arrrgh. The Cobras are out, and I think the Werewolves are as well. I haven't had luck manipulating any land-based group that would give me the 696xp I need to hit 13. However, I *know* I can spawn a 2xShark 2xSahagan Chief group with 1 character alive, and I should be able to kill the Sharks with the blue fang that I have. Hopefully tonight or early in the morning I'll have another WIP which should have me getting up to the Vampire, if not all the way to the Lich. We'll see. Turns out the hardest thing so far is getting IN a fight I want, not avoiding the ones I don't.
Posted: 6/14/2010 9:07 PM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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New .vbm of the WIP that goes up till the death of Astos. I'm going to manipulate a group of 5 cobras on my way back to town so Elia can hit 13 and purchase both Sleepra and Haste. I realized that I can only use the Haste spell once, on Chaos, since ideally Elia will be casting Sleepra on the 4 mobs, so H.Shoes should be used on the first turn by one of the Monks (on the other monk) while Stella is a Temper machine. The list of items I think I'll need from the game will be 3 more E. Exits (Ruby, Floater, Cube), 2 Red Fangs (Vampire), 4 H. Shoes (Lich x2, Marilith x2), and 5 C. Claws (Kraken x2, Tiamat x2, Blue Dragon). I'll also have to make sure to have the 'bonus' prizes include at least 3 Phoenix Downs, since I have 3 dead team members atm. I should only need 2 or 3 megalixirs. One for after reviving the party for the Vampire fight, and one or more for Chaos, maybe. The only other items I'll need to work out are the amount of Speed or Strength potions I'll need to get, but I can work on that when I get to Marilith the first time, I suppose. All told, about 16 more items. :| The new WIP is here: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/104912676/ff1dos_frame38462_6084rr.vbm I also found a really odd bug in the game. When casting a spell or using an item that targets either a player or enemy, if you hit a direction and the A button at just the right frame (the first frame the A button is accepted for input on the 'target' frame) the cursor will disappear, and you get stuck with your character just sitting there looking silly... forever. Not sure if it was known or not, just something I stumbled upon. Just realized that I was a bit off on my experience needed for 13, but I can still pull it off! Dammit!
Posted: 6/13/2010 7:04 AM
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flechette
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Joined: 5/24/2010
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Did some checking on my GBA version of the game, and found out a few things. First off, Scourge has a horrid accuracy. I think I'm going to skip the Razer sword entirely and just get 6 (maybe 5) C.Claws from the 15 game. This seems excessive, but I've spent over 2 hours casting Scourge/Razer at both Kraken and Tiamat chaos versions with no luck at all, whereas I can kill both of them within about 2 turns using C.Claws. I wish I knew some exact formulas for spell success, but I have a very limited understanding of asm. Also, I can Sleepra both Lich and Marilith chaos versions. I can also Sleepra Kraken and Tiamat chaos versions, but the C. Claw can kill them instantly. Sleeped mobs take more physical damage, which means less time spent powering up to kill them. I'm trying to work out the math for how to get a mage to level 13 before I head to the Prince with Matoya's potion. This way I could have a mage know Haste and Sleepra, and could save time on both Lich fights and both Marilith fights, and not force any H.Shoes at all. I know it's a walk across Elfheim, but it'd save time getting the H.Shoes, getting Megalixirs, and it'd speed up killing in 4 fights. I'm thinking I could have 1 mage left alive after the Pisco fight, who could then solo Astos. If I snagged a red fang, I could have the group kill off some Ghasts for some easy xp, which might help me get ahead of the Pisco fight, since it's very hard to manipulate a winnable 3x fight at my level. Urf, planning suddenly jumped up in difficulty.
Posted: 6/12/2010 1:25 AM
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flechette
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Realized today that only 1 Blue Fang is needed to kill the Piscodemons at my current level. I wish I'd know that *before* I manipulated 2 from the 15 puzzle. This means I could power-level a mage a bit. I'm thinking I may get a mage to 13 ASAP to get Sleepra and Haste. Sleepra apparently is non-elemental, which means it can hit sleep resistant monsters, and it is more accurate than just sleep. The only monster who would always resist Sleepra is Chaos, because apparently the Time resistance can resist Sleepra. Having this would mean less Megalixers needed. Right now, I can only see needing them before the first vampire fight (which should be good enough to get by Lich as well), maybe 1 more before Marilith (Kraken and Tiamat should be one-hit kills, not worried so much about the Blue Dragon), and possibly one more before Chaos. Grabbing Haste would mean I wouldn't need to manipulate Hermes' Shoes, except maybe one pair for the Lich the first time. I plan on scraping up enough money to buy a stock of Speed and maybe Strength potions from the Oasis market. On a hasted unarmed Monk, a Speed potion gives 4 more hits. I'll need to see if it's worth buying Strength potions, as they may be about the same as a Speed potion. Also may buy Giant potions and use them for the Chaos fight. It's proving hard to get a first turn on the Piscodemons, especially from a mage. I could use a Megalixir before the fight and the Monks can live through a single weak attack each, but the manipulation on it still stinks.
Posted: 6/10/2010 1:40 PM
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flechette
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Drat! I think this weekend I'll have another WIP of up to at least to the first Lich encounter. I've had some real life issues come up, mainly breaking up with my girlfriend and moving out of my apartment because the landlord was trying to get me to pay for the damage done when lightning hit the house.
Posted: 6/6/2010 4:52 AM
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flechette
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:D The Puzzle game has me going through sheets of paper trying to figure out if I want to break the puzzle game into 3 parts (before crown/before lich/before airship) or if I should do all of them in one setting. I'm also trying to figure out what the exact formula is for instant kill spells are, and if resistant monsters are immune to those spells. We'll see.
Posted: 5/28/2010 10:04 PM
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flechette
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I can see why the puzzle is such a pain now ^^ I also realized that the puzzle solvers out there don't move multiple tiles (when in a row or column), so some puzzles with more 'moves' to finish can actually be faster than lower move puzzles. This doesn't really mean anything, just interesting. Most of the puzzle game will be figuring out a quick initial win for a low 1st place, then figuring out how to win the needed prizes I think I'll need for later on by waiting to win either 2nd or 3rd place. If you keep playing the game, it doesn't matter if you come in 2nd or 3rd or whatever, the puzzle order is set by when you first started playing, not by where you place or when you finish.
Posted: 5/27/2010 2:37 PM
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flechette
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Wren has it pretty much right. Other than the frame a fight is entered, time has no impact on luck. Button presses doesn't either. You can change luck by changing what you have your characters do, but even that seems limited. The pirate fight and Garland's fight were both really lucky, in that I found good fights in a small amount of frames. With the pirates I did have frames where I could get the sleep off first, but then I wouldn't be able to either attack the ones that didn't sleep and kill them before they attacked, or if I could, I couldn't manipulate later rounds to kill the rest off without other ones attacking. I couldn't find a better round than the one I had within the frames I'd save (since I had to find one that would save me more frames than the frames of one pirate attack missing). We'll use the Garland fight for example of luck manipulation though. I'm very limited in my options. I have to attack with the monks, and I have to cast Fire with the mages. The first and second round attack order is pretty much set. However, it is possible to change the battle order of fights (once inside them). Attacking or casting fire doesn't change the damage done by later attacks or by Garland. Neither does it change the next round's order or damage. It seems, after doing a ton of tests, that any ineffectual attack (a sleep that misses, a failed flee, using an item with no effect) results in changed damage for the current round for all actions taken after the ineffectual one, as well as a changed 2nd round. This kind of action all change the battle in the same way this round and next. Having one of the mages equip a staff in the battle and attacking doesn't change anything but his damage for this round and next, it doesn't change other character battle order or damage, either this round or the next. Taking off armor will change a characters damage taken or if he gets hit or not, but won't change anything else. I still need to see how using an item like a Megalixir will change things. I'm fairly certain it will change things if it changes character stats (like Giant's Gloves), and probably won't change much if it's something like a potion. I just don't know at the moment. I'm now wondering if I should bring Monk/Thief/BMage/BMage and try to manipulate a Kikuichimonji off of Kraken :| The early game would basically be the same, and the Kikuichimonji would really boost the Thief, and I'm wondering if he'd then be my end-game killer. Arrrrgh.
Posted: 5/27/2010 4:18 AM
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flechette
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I do indeed use the same 15 puzzle program that Tafatt linked to in one of the other threads. It takes time to frame advance to a new puzzle and then input that puzzle's setup into the 15 puzzle program to find out the quickest solution. The one at the end of the movie was 38 moves, at 5 frames per move, which is 190 frames. That's not counting the frames getting into the game and either exiting or to continue playing. Shorter games are obviously possible, and longer games will also need to be played (that is, they could all I guess be 20 moves, but I could frame-delay the last input to come into second or third place) to win needed prizes. I also found out that NPC placement is static. They always reset to their starting locations no matter what shop you enter/exit or what frame you enter/exit. They also don't move any quicker depending on your input, unless you're standing right next to them pushing them. You can manipulate the direction they walk, but that's it. I did get out of Pravoka a bit earlier though, by about 20 frames. I tried with my current party (and with Monk/BMagex3) to kill Garland in 5 actions, and not 6. The 3xBM party proved much harder to use in the first fight, and the pirate fight was a nightmare. I'm fairly certain this group will work fine late-game. I still need to go back through and check all 122 frames at Garland. That would be the frame count for 1 monk attack, so if I can do 160 damage the first round, and get a 52 crit first move on the second, I'll take it, as long as it's <122 frames from when the point I enter the fight now. If an enemy misses, it also saves about 5 frames (no damage graphic before 'miss' is displayed). I'd rather not take damage, but I do believe lich/lich/chaos will change that, so even if I get hit I'll take a 5 action fight. The pirate fight was SO much more fun to do than Garland. I believe (if I end up keeping the current Garland fight) that this is as good as this'll get. The attack order is set by frame when a fight starts, and changes depending on action (obviously, if I sleep or prevent them from taking an action by killing them). So if a bunch of pirates get the first move before I can change their actions, I lose time. This was the quickest way I could find to kill them. A 3xBM party would take longer to kill them as well since they all have 24hp. Assuming 1 sleep and 2 fires, that's 3 pirates dead the first round, and then the 3 mages would have to attack. I haven't seen a mage crit at level 2, let alone crit for enough to kill a pirate. It'd take an extra round of attacking to kill them all off.
Posted: 5/26/2010 1:26 PM
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flechette
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I've tried waiting for up to the amount of frames lost both before I enter and before I leave the black magic shop, and it seems the npc is always is the same spot. It should be possible to manipulate him to start moving earlier, though. As far as the 15 puzzle, it can be changed by the frame you enter the game. The initial puzzle, that is. You can replay the game again without having to re-enter the game, and the second puzzle (and third, etc) will stay the same. That means, if I enter a puzzle on frame 1, I'll play game A and game B. If I enter on frame 2, I'll play game C and game D, etc etc. I need to check if coming in a different place changes consecutive game boards. The lowest solution I've come across so far was 38 steps, but there should definitely be a lower solution out there. I have a whole sea to figure it out though ^^
Posted: 5/26/2010 3:43 AM
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flechette
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I've got a work in progress going for this game. Currently working out the number of items I may need later, as I'm at the ship game. Garland dies (starts breaking apart) at frame 6000, and at frame 20000 the battle with the 9 pirates is starting. I beat them in three rounds. So far, no damage taken. I'm using a bit of a different team though, so I'm still kinda unsure about if I want to work down this path. Right now I'm more interested in planning out and working out a reliable path through the game, as well as testing a few other things along the way. I'm interested in Tafatt's WIP's, but all his links are dead. Any comments are welcome (and actually wanted). There was only one thing so far that I'm still going back and trying to fix in the run, and that's that coming out of the Black Magic shop in Pravoka is placing a NPC in the way, and I can't seem to manipulate him to not be there. Stuck losing frames waiting for him to move. The ship game was just me testing it out, until I figure out if I can move the NPC in the town I'm not continuing too far on. Here's the current WIP. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1417798198/24598.vbm I'm going to (try) and manipulate a Deathbringer sword, since it should be effective against both forms of Marilith, Tiamat, and Kraken. Lich should be killable by using earthquake, but I'd have to be level 26 to buy the spell, which is sold in Crescent Lake... which is way way out of the way. So yeah, any thoughts? The only real annoying fights are going to be Lich, Lich, and Chaos.