Posted: 3/23/2018 12:21 AM
Post subject: How can i change a Boss placement before the fight starts?
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Ultimatesaber27
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I'm TASing a Mega Man game (a rom hack) and i must know how to manipulate a certain boss position in the screen when the fight starts. It can appear literally anywhere, but unfortunately, right now it chooses to stay as far away from me as possible (it can even appear in completely unreachable places). I mean, if such a thing is possible, that is.
Posted: 3/23/2018 6:46 AM
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MESHUGGAH
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1. You can use a level editor, Visine or Rock and Roll or others by googling mega man NES level editor 2. You can read the memory map here 3. Next time also declare the exact title of the hack. A hack can do whatever on it's own, so it's possible they have an extra subroutine to randomize starting position of that boss 4. A simple trace logging should help you in this case. Once you know the address of the boss X and Y position, you should dump the frames where you see the position have been intialized. If it's a one-time generation, you will see only one change after searching for that address being changed. If it's generated multiple times, you will probably see a subroutine handling this address.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Posted: 3/23/2018 3:34 PM
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Ultimatesaber27
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Err... Okay... This is really embarrassing, but i don't have any actual experience in programming (just the basic stuff. I'm currently studying software development, but i'm still learning the very basic of it.) I've tried to use RAM Search, but to no avail. I don't know which Memory Address does which action. Well, if it helps, the Hack is called Rock Man CX. Here's a video of the game and the boss in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pwsdflwIc&t=15m11s Here, you can see that it appears in the top screen. Well, for me, it appears in the Top-Right corner of the screen. Even losing some frames before entering the boss gate does nothing. I have submitted a WIP of this game (it's really old) but i'm currently working on an improvement that cuts off two minutes or so. In that old WIP it appeared right above me, so that was very ideal. I can't afford to lose these frames i've worked so hard to save in the first place.
Posted: 3/23/2018 3:49 PM
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DrD2k9
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Ultimatesaber27 wrote:
Here, you can see that it appears in the top screen. Well, for me, it appears in the Top-Right corner of the screen. Even losing some frames before entering the boss gate does nothing.
The RNG that determines his position may not be time related...meaning waiting any number of frames may not have an effect. For example, the RNG instead may be based on any (or all) of the button presses up to that point in the game.
Posted: 3/23/2018 4:11 PM
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Ultimatesaber27
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DrD2k9 wrote:
The RNG that determines his position may not be time related...meaning waiting any number of frames may not have an effect. For example, the RNG instead may be based on any (or all) of the button presses up to that point in the game.
Well, if it helps, the floor of the stage causes mega man to slip. There are many possible scenarios that i have encountered because of this. -Entering the boss gate by dashing (you end up in the platform below the one you start. See the video) -Pressing left at the last possible frame before entering the boss gate. -Entering the boss gate by jumping (meaning you don't slip when entering the boss gate) -And also by walking, (not dashing, you end up being placed slightly to the right here, but you don't actually fall off to the platform below.) All these scenarios have showed me that it changes its position that way. But it's still the same, it appears either very far away, or in an unreachable place (he can even appear inside of one of the spikes shown in the video)
Posted: 3/23/2018 5:12 PM
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Ultimatesaber27
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Actually guys never mind. Turns out i needed to be placed slightly separated from the boss gate (by cancelling the Dash 5 frames before entering the boss gate). Look at this image: https://imgur.com/a/Jmyl3 See that circle in the top right corner in the first image? Well, that's him. However, by doing what i recently did (notice that i'm a few pixels away from the door), now i have him where i wanted him to be!! He's even closer to me compared to my previous WIP!! Still, just for discussion's sake, what do you conclude from this? Is the RNG determined by Mega Man's current position?
Posted: 3/23/2018 5:44 PM
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DrD2k9
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It's still hard to say. Your changes sound like they alter both timing and button presses, so either or both could still be contributing to what's altering the RNG. I'm not familiar enough with the mechanics of the official MegaMan series to know how their RNG is affected, so the best I can do is speculate on a hacked ROM.