Stop Katanas from Breaking

[Paheej]

Is there anyway to stop Katanas from breaking with the Samurai Skill Set?  I tried changing the calculation away from "XXX//May display broken" but all that does it make the skill work similar to an item (in which the katana is auto-consumed) which is the exact opposite of what I am trying to do.  I figured this has probably been done before but I could not find a thread about it.

[Vanya]

there is a post in one of the asm threads that has the addresses and data for the chance to break each katana.
change those values to 00 and you're set.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

A Katana's attack power is it's chance to break.
For example:
7 Attack Power = 7/100 chance of breaking when using Draw Out.

I think someone found a way to get Draw Out skills to use weapons other than Katanas, but maybe it's the Katana formula itself that forces the weapon's attack power to become it's break percentage.

Possible Solution:  Change the formula for the Draw Out skills.

Tell me if that works for you, we need to know this.

[philsov]

A Katana's attack power is it's chance to break.

A decent rule of thumb but the two numbers are ultimately independant.

[Vanya]

Yeah, the attack powers don't have any affect on the chance to break.

This is the data Razele provided:

Katana's chance to break
in SCUS_942.21
0x543EC = Asura
0x543F4 = Koutetsu
0x543FC = Bizen Boat
0x54404 = Murasame
0x5440C = Heaven's Cloud
0x54414 = Kiyomori
0x5441C = Muramasa
0x54424 = Kikuichimoji
0x5442C = Masamune
0x54434 = Chirijiraden

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2913

*confused*

[philsov]

huh.  the more you know.

[Paheej]

A Katana's attack power is it's chance to break.
For example:
7 Attack Power = 7/100 chance of breaking when using Draw Out.

I think someone found a way to get Draw Out skills to use weapons other than Katanas, but maybe it's the Katana formula itself that forces the weapon's attack power to become it's break percentage.

Possible Solution:  Change the formula for the Draw Out skills.

Tell me if that works for you, we need to know this.

Do you mean through ASM hacking or through FFT Patcher.  Using FFTPatcher to change the formula makes the Katana skills work exactly like item.  In effect you "use" a Katana to execute a skill and it is permanently lost like a potion.

[Vanya]

The attack power has nothing to do with chance to break.

@ Pickle: Don't know what that is. It could literally be anything.

[Paheej]

Yeah, the attack powers don't have any affect on the chance to break.

This is the data Razele provided:

Katana's chance to break
in SCUS_942.21
0x543EC = Asura
0x543F4 = Koutetsu
0x543FC = Bizen Boat
0x54404 = Murasame
0x5440C = Heaven's Cloud
0x54414 = Kiyomori
0x5441C = Muramasa
0x54424 = Kikuichimoji
0x5442C = Masamune
0x54434 = Chirijiraden

I have no idea what I'm doing with ASM hacking.  Is there a picture tutorial or something I can look for that will help me do this?  Its the only ASM hack I really need done (outside of the ones provided by Nate's ASM hack program).  This is the one last thing I need to do for class balance so if I could figure it out today that would be great.  I've got the Cheat Engine, Renegade 64, and a Hexeditor but have no idea what to do - the examples on viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1582&start=20 I don't really understand.

[philsov]

well for starters that isn't really asm.

extract SCUS from your iso with CDmage or similar program, then open it up with a hexeditor.  Navigate to 0x544whatever and change the values to 00.  save, reinsert with cdmage.

[Paheej]

Damn, well I have no clue about how to use hex editors.  I've got SCUS_942.21 extracted with CD Mage and I have it opened in my hex editor.  Unfortunately I don't know how to navigate to those locations using "Hex Workshop" can anyone help me out?  I know I'm n00bing it the hell up here but this is way the hell different to what I normally mod (CPU games).

[Vanya]

There is a tutorial on Hex Editing around here somewhere.
I've heard it's pretty informative and noob friendly.

[Paheej]

Ok, got it done, let's see if it works . . .

[Paheej]

The attack power has nothing to do with chance to break.

Yo man, this is entirely incorrect.  Changing the values based on Razele's data results in Attack Power of Katana's being also being changed.  For instance when I changed the values to 00 the attack power on all Katanas became 00.  

So PickleBoy was right.  We'll need to change the Katana Draw Out formulas.  Anyone have any idea how to do this?

[Vanya]

Weird. no one ever mentioned that before.
Changing the formula is far more complex.
Only a handful of ppl know how to do that, but most of them haven't been around for a while.
I understand the gist of it. You'd have to locate the relevant code and modify it to use a value of 00 instead of loading the values from the table.

I have a question for you though. Does changing those values also change them in the patcher?

[Arganthonius]

I know how to make katanas unneeded by changing their action menu to default, but I don't know how to keep them required AND stop them from breaking.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

This would require a major overhaul of the Item and Item Attributes for Katanas, but you could set every katana's attack power to 0, then give the individual katanas special things that make them useful despite having no attack power.

[Vanya]

It's a solution, but it just doesn't feel right for a katana not to have it's own attack power.

[Paheej]

I'm thinking the easiest thing would be to change the Samurai skills to something else (half of them are redundant already).