FFTPatcher Blank & Unknown Research

[Xifanie]

Whoa crap, I never saw that other post: Yes for that.

And cool, I always found the values weird, don't think I would've ever thought about it.

Oh, and I invite everyone to post modifications melonhead has to apply in this wiki page: http://www.ffhacktics.com/wiki/Melonhea ... o_do_notes

[Vanya]

Cool! I'll be heading over there to post some stuff! ^_^

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Anyone ever notice that monsters that you can Jump on top of to reach something else have Jump values over 128?

[LastingDawn]

Yes, it does appear that way, it's more then likely the one in front, or a specific byte value being called "special" by the game.

[MiKeMiTchi]

Is the second post up-to-date?

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Yes, it does appear that way, it's more then likely the one in front, or a specific byte value being called "special" by the game.

Lol, I know what bit toggles are.

[MiKeMiTchi]

That's what monster sprites have that generic humans don't have.
Super Jump!

Like the Poison Nail animation..
If we give that skill to a non-mon sprite, it won't jump. Too bad.

[Vanya]

Is the second post up-to-date?

AFAIK it is.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

If I set the Y Value of Scream to 129, Scream does exactly the same thing it normally does.  Nothing changes, which is surprising.
If I set the Y Value of Scream to 65, then Scream  gives a boost of 65 to PA, MA, and Speed.
So bit 7 for Y in ability data is unused.


If I set the X Value of Scream to 138, Scream does exactly the same thing it normally does.  Again, nothing changes.
If I set the X Value of Scream to 74, then Scream boosts Brave by 74.
Bit 7 is also unused.


Any MP Cost over 99 shows an infinty sign as it's MP Cost.
Just plain weird.

I know I had something else...

Got it.  You could give an item attribute +128 to Jump to turn any unit that uses that item into a Step-Up, like dragons, hydras, and worker 8.

[MiKeMiTchi]

Any MP Cost over 99 shows an infinty sign as it's MP Cost.
Just plain weird.

Cool!

into a Step-Up, like dragons, hydras, and worker 8.

Step-up?

[Aquablack]

Step-up means they can hop on the monster's back to get up higher ledges.

[Vanya]

If I set the Y Value of Scream to 129, Scream does exactly the same thing it normally does.  Nothing changes, which is surprising.
If I set the Y Value of Scream to 65, then Scream  gives a boost of 65 to PA, MA, and Speed.
So bit 7 for Y in ability data is unused.


If I set the X Value of Scream to 138, Scream does exactly the same thing it normally does.  Again, nothing changes.
If I set the X Value of Scream to 74, then Scream boosts Brave by 74.
Bit 7 is also unused.


Any MP Cost over 99 shows an infinty sign as it's MP Cost.
Just plain weird.

I know I had something else...

Got it.  You could give an item attribute +128 to Jump to turn any unit that uses that item into a Step-Up, like dragons, hydras, and worker 8.

Those are some far out discoveries.

[LastingDawn]

Haha, that is pretty interesting work Death is the Road to Awe, very nice discoveries, though I think the "infinite" sign wasn't a mistake. I feel it was intended originally for a spell or two to be above 100 MP, but didn't want to take the effort to change the two graphic to three.

[Aquablack]

So, could I make an accessory that, when equipped, allowed other units to use them as a step-up? That would be interesting.

[Kokojo]

Definitively using that in COP for some story missons...

And now that I think of it, Step-up Pillards that are really sprites...and can be destroyed. How awesome would that be ?
^ Dibs on that idea !

[Zozma]

it would be cool if it could be asm hacked so that a value of 100 mp setting the infinity sign just makes it so it uses all the casters mp.

i guess it would have to be a pretty good spell tho

[Cheetah]

Definitively using that in COP for some story missons...

And now that I think of it, Step-up Pillards that are really sprites...and can be destroyed. How awesome would that be ?
^ Dibs on that idea !

I wonder if there is a way to do this and your fence idea with EVTCHR stuff instead of using actual sprites. It seems like it should be possible. What happens if you have the sprite just use a frame of animation, not march, and have the "character" set up so their turn never comes up? I think it would just stay motionless in the animation. The only problem is if it took damage it would likely do the damaged animation...hhmmmm.

[Zozma]

isnt that why they actually made battle sprites for characters like "teta" because the event fraemes wouldnt stay or something?

[LastingDawn]

I believe that's the case Zozma, but I can't 100% recall, but all things point to that.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

The X and Y values can be greater than 128 (0x80); it looks like it depends on the formula.
Raise [Formula 0x0D Heal_(Y)% Hit_F(MA+X)%] has an X of 180 and a Y of 50.
So this is good and bad news.
The good news is it should be less of a pain in the butt to find Scream's Formula and tell it to treat X and Y Values as positive if bit 7 is not set and negative if bit 7 is set.
The bad news is, if you want every formula to treat X and Y values as signed, you'll have to either modify each and every formula or rewrite the way the game handles formulas.
But I'm no programmer, so take my ideas with a dumptruck of rock salt.

Various other musings...

Scream's formula is 0x3B [+Brave_(X) +PA/MA/SP_(Y)NS]
For the X:
1. Bit 7 to toggle positive/negative values,
2. Bit 6 to toggle Brave, and
3. Bit 5 to toggle Faith.

0x80
0x40
0x20
0x10
^Would all be used, meaning you couldn't make any PA/MA/SP changes greater than 15.  Which isn't really a big deal, I think.
Why could this be important?  By consolidating as many formulas as possible, it frees up room for new formulas.  Unless, of course, these changes take up more room than all the formulas they would replace.  But still, this allows for quite a bit of customization...  

If you don't mind not being able to make changes to Brave or Faith greather than 31, then you could use in the Y:
1. You could use bit 7 as a toggle for positive or negative values,
2. Bit 6 could toggle PA,
3. Bit 5 could toggle MA, and
4. Bit 4 could toggle SP.


0x80
0x40
0x20
^So 0x00 to 0x1F are your limits.

Just this hack alone could replace formulas:
0x36
0x39
0x3a
0x3b
0x55
0x56
Along with half the Dance and Sing Skillsets.

So, why the heck didn't the game's programmers do this?  Typical crack-smoking Square programmers...

Later: Why not use the unused and unknown bit toggles in the "Learn with JP" Column?  Well, isn't that the freaking point of Vanya's little project here?  *Facepalm* I'm an idiot.

Still Later: Maybe the unused bits in the "Learn with JP" Column could be used for global, formula independent changes, and the unused bits in each formulas X and Y values could be used for smaller, more specific things?

EDIT:
More stuff.