FF1 Troubles

[Kularian]

I'm using FFHackster, which is awesome by the way, and also FFWindows. I don't know why, but for some reason, when in Corneria and exiting from a Shop, the colors flash for about a minute before control returns to the player. Has anyone else ever had this problem, or at least know how to fix it?

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--Kular Out</P>

[HighT1mes]

> I'm using FFHackster, which is awesome by the way, and also
> FFWindows. I don't know why, but for some reason, when in
> Corneria and exiting from a Shop, the colors flash for about
> a minute before control returns to the player. Has anyone
> else ever had this problem, or at least know how to fix it?
>

I believe that's how the real NES Final Fantasy game works. When you exit the shop the game probaly goes into a function in the assembly code that simply cycles through a array of bytes setting the palette entry #0 which is the background color and transparency color to the current data byte in the array to achieve the background color cycling effect... Pretty simple stuff. If you want to disable this effect or modify it you will have to locate the code I just mentioned with a NES disassembler/debugger and use a hex editor to manipulate the code to do what you desire.

For instance you could locate the function that does the exit shop or town whatever color cycling and then simply use a hex editor to change the first byte of that function to a RTS instruction... Simple now that effect will not take place in the game.

- HighT1mes

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[Kularian]

Hm, that's a pretty good idea. I mean, it usually sorts through the colors, but not as long. Maybe because I edited the palette, and because it can't find its color after a certain amount of time, it just gives up or something. But yeah, disabling it would work. I'll look into that, thanks!

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--Kular Out</P>

[Disch]

This is a side-effect of changing the background color in a map. I'm unsure exactly which color triggers it.. but it seems to be if you change the BG from its normal black to a lighter color (like a much more logical green)... the palette cycling routine goes haywire. Some colors make it worse than others... I don't really notice a pattern.

Anyway... what HighT1mes suggested is exactly what I did when devising a solution for this (which I did some time ago). Details are in http://board.acmlm.org/thread.php?id=1199this thread</a>, about 10 posts into it.. it's my second post in the thread... so if you search for "Disch" and keep searching you'll hit it eventually.

In case you don't want to sort through it....

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>


This happens when you change the background color on maps. Anything but standard black ($0F) or maybe a few other darker colors cause this side-effect to occur. To fix, you can either revert all the background colors to normal, or you can apply this hack which removes the palette cycling effect completely:

- Change $3D96B from $C0 to $A0
- Change $3D972 from $20 $18 $D9 to $EA $EA $EA


<hr></blockquote>

However you still might want to check out that thread, because there's various info on FF1 in it... might be interesting and/or help you with future problems.

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[Kularian]

K, I'll go check that out. Just for a basis, the game basically makes the characters the 'anti-heroes' in which you are against the world, instead of for it. It's going rather well so far, except for that error. But yeah, I'll see how to fix it.

Thanks!

Edit: Woot! You're the man! I got it working correctly. I had some trouble at first, because my colors were already changed, so finding the exact Hex string was a little difficult. Either that or I'm an idiot and walking away from it for a bit cleared my head. But again, thanks. That was royally ticking me off.

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--Kular Out</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Kularian on 11/11/04 03:50 AM.</FONT></P>

[HighT1mes]

- K, I'll go check that out. Just for a basis, the game
- basically makes the characters the 'anti-heroes' in which
-you are against the world, instead of for it. It's going
- rather well so far, except for that error. But yeah, I'll
- see how to fix it.
>-- Thanks!
-

Sounds interesting :)

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[Kularian]

Is there a way to differ the palettes for the walk around sprites? Or at least make it so they don't all use the same colors for skin? My characters are of various races, of which not all of them are the same color. Or do I just simply try and find a neutral color for skin for them to share?

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--Kular Out</P>

[Disch]

> Is there a way to differ the palettes for the walk around
> sprites? Or at least make it so they don't all use the same
> colors for skin?

Each class has it's own palette for walking around on maps except for their skin tone and the color which is used as the border (the black). If memory serves, there's no simple way to give different classes different skin tones. For now you're probably better off finding a neutral color. I might look into this to see how to get classes to have a unique color.. but I make no promises

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[Kularian]

Ack, that sucks. I was afraid of that. Ah well, I suppose I'll have to find a color that works best. If you do find something, let me know. If not, it's no problem. The characters will look a little funny though, hehe. K, back to work!

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--Kular Out</P>

[icenine0]

Man, I wonder if any of the original FF programmers could have envisioned their now-ancient code being poured over and h4x0red in the far flung future of 2004.

<P ID="signature">The more often you fail, the sweeter the taste of success!</P>

[Kularian]

Tis me again, from long ago, if anyone remembers me. I'm afraid I don't quite understand how the random battles work in the dungeons. I'm recreating the whole game, more or less. My friend beat it the other day, so it gave me back my inspiration, <img src=smilies/magbiggrin.gif> I'm using FFHackster, for reference, and I'm trying to edit the Standard Maps, and change the battle chances in various areas. If anyone can give me some information on how this works, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

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--Kular Out</P>

[Murray]

Does anyone know how to edit the ending text?

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[Disch]

> I'm afraid I don't quite understand how the random battles work
> in the dungeons.

Each "domain" has 8 battles. Which of the 8 battles is used is determined kind of randomly (but not really -- it follows a fixed pattern). Anyway, you can adjust the weight each battles have in Hackster -- look at the bottom of the Standard Map editor, there's the domain and battles, with an "XX /64" next to it. That value is the chance of the battle to occur. As you can see the first 4 battles have a 12/64 chance (pretty common), whereas the last battle has a 1/64 chance (pretty rare). YOU CANNOT ADJUST THESE VALUES FOR EVERY MAP. There's only 1 set of values for the whole game, so changing the weight in 1 map will change the weights in all the other maps as well.

The battles in the domain can be edited via the Battle Editor. If the "F-2" box is checked in the map editor, that means it's a formation 2 battle (different enemy quantities -- check the "Formation 2" Button in the battle editor to see). if "F-2" is unchecked it's a formation 1 battle.

Each standard map has its own domain EXCEPT for Coneria, Provoka, and Elfland -- which are used for the Northern River domain (Coneria), Southern River domain (Provoka), and Ocean domain (Elfland).

The overworld map is split into 64 seperate Land domains -- with each domain being 32x32 tiles in size (Hackster can draw little lines in the map editor to show you where the edges of the domains are, the domain listed at the bottom is the last domain you clicked in, so to edit a different domain -- just right-click in the domain you want to edit).

> Does anyone know how to edit the ending text?


Can't do it in Hackster, but you can use Hackster's DTE table for it. Get a hex editor with table support and load up the ROM and the DTE table with hackster and look around for the ending text. I can't recall where it is exactly and I don't feel like looking. This is one of those things you'll have to do by hand.

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[Kularian]

Ahhhh, I see now. That clears up a lot of my issues, actually. Thanks! The game is still in progress, although slowly, I'll admit. I hope to have a playable version out sometime this summer, as I don't have a great deal of time to work on it.

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--Kular Out</P>

[Kularian]

This is more of a question than anything else. Is there anyway to change the graphics and text inside of shops? I
can't find it anywhere in FFHackster, nor mentioned in FFBytes. I'm certain I'll have to use Hex Editing to get to it, but I'm not certain where to look. If you've an idea of where to look, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

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--Kular Out</P>

[Lenophis]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

This is more of a question than anything else. Is there anyway to change the graphics and text inside of shops?

<hr></blockquote>
The font starts at offset 247A0, with some shop graphics not too far above that. You can also find some extensive help here (http://board.acmlm.org/thread.php?id=1199&page=4). Hope that helps.

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