hmsong

Hmm. As soon as I put the breakpoint on D0CACA, the game froze (before I got the chance to hit any enemy) and gave me this result (pic 04). And it still didn't give me " JSL $C00620" result, no matter how many times I pressed "Step Into" (pic 05).

Aura Wave worked! I don't know the logic behind it, but it worked. Many thanks! I wrote a breakpoint at D0CACA (pic 2) and then hit an enemy, but the game did not stop. I clicked on "step into" and got pic 3, but it didn't say anything about LDA #$0065 (it says LDA #$0000). One of the biggest problem is that I don't know know what numerous vocabularies are, in practical knowledge. What is JSL? What is LDA#0065? I mean, I know "LDA #const" means, "Load Accumulator from Memory" -- that's from the bible -- but I have no idea what that actually means in hex edit (or what it's suppose to represent). The only thing I know how to do is edit the hex numbers using HxD.

Thanks. I'm sure you had mixed feelings about releasing the bug fix patch. I truly appreciate that you decided to do so. For last several days, I tried to find some resource to learn about hacking. I'm sad to say that none of them really helped much. Very far from anything that was covered in the "bible". The only thing that I found useful was the video about pointer table, which somewhat helped me understand... some parts of your bug fix patch, regarding what the address an another address was pointing to (not that I know what specific thing those addresses/valuees did). Sigh. I'm throwing in the towel. Hacking things to create working criticals and agility that is compatible with Trials of Mana is beyond my ability. I simply lack the prerequisite knowledge to even understand the "bible", and nothing I can find seems to help me understand that. I have no choice but to use the fan translation if I want to play the bug fixes version. I truly thank you for even trying to help me (esp that long explanation above). But for now, I'll just stick with minor tweaks that's within my ability. So... could you please tell me how to make Aura Wave fill only 6 bars? (7 if fixed) I assume you didn't do that for the bug fix 1.3 patch. So, how do I make it to 255? And would that affect Energy Ball critical rate? (I think you said you made it +10%, just like SoM, but I'm guessing that was based on 100) Obviously, it's not for any of my public patches, since other than the obvious moral reasons, that's no good by itself anyways. I'm just going to use it for my private usage to simply play the game. Just gonna enjoy playing the game. And thanks for reducing the critical rate to 25%. And reducing the stat up/down to 20% (that ought to balance things a bit).

Oh my god. I see you released a bug patch 1.3 on RHDN. Several questions: Is that compatible with Trials of Mana? I have No Skill Counter on my balance patch, but would your bug patch overwrite that? Which takes priority? In my balance patch, I changed several things (stats and skills) in Kevin's D classes. Apparently, Bashkar and Deathhand got mixed up in the menu (which you corrected), but would that affect which character has which stat and/or skills?

Yes, Dolan fight does indeed have faster "reset" time for the fight. I'm not denying that. My points were 2 things about "tricky gimmick" of MagiMaster: 1. It's easier to figure out what to do the next time you fight him, since you literally see him die after casting Ultima (so you learn, "ohh, so he casts that crap as he dies... gotta figure stuff around that."). 2. There are multiple intuitive counter-measures to defend against it, once you've been through his mechanic. Most people here complained about Dolan, not because he had that one move that wipes out your party (that's actually a great and fun part of the game, and it needs to be kept) -- they were complaining because they couldn't figure out how to neutralize that, and the solution was not intuitive. That's why I proposed a solution to have additional way to neutralize it -- AntiMagic. It's intuitive and available to everyone (assuming someone would have it, or at least available at Black Market), and at the same time, it requires advanced preparation (meaning, if you don't have AntiMagic item, then you have to use Magical Rope and then buy that item, then reclimb the tower). Personally, I enjoy the "advanced preparation due to toughness of the boss" thing, as long as it's something I can reasonably figure out during the first fight (I feel like I'm Batman -- lose the first fight, but come prepared the 2nd fight to kick its ass).

Now now. Let's face it. This game is actually quite fun. Sure, it has its flaws, but we're all here because we enjoyed it. I'm creating my own mod (tweak, really), but I still enjoyed this game (although I only played it once all the way through).

It's true that some of the GB gimmicks are a bit tough to figure out. I propose that Dolan does less damage (Final Fantasy 6's "Angel One" effect?). Or one of his spells do 999 damage on one character. Or have numerous ways to neutralize 2nd Spiral Moon. That way, players can have several ways to survive (barely), instead of one specific method. For example, in FF6, we have that one crazy boss, MagiMaster. He casts Ultima as his dying spell, which generally wipes out your whole party if you don't know what to expect (which would require the player to reclimb that damn tower). But there are numerous ways to survive that attack, and many of those methods are rather "intuitive". 1. Overlevel, hence having enough HP to survive. 2. Reraise. 3. Drain its MP (numerous means). 4. Have one character be in the air (boot, summon, etc). The point is, they'll probably die the first time, but will come prepared the 2nd time. I think that's one of the many reasons why people loved FF6 (despite its many many flaws). I think the game would be a lot better if there's at least some "intuitive" way to solve a fight, even if they lose the first time. AntiMagic is an excellent intuitive method of neutralizing 2nd Spiral Moon, and it can always be available via Black Market. After all, preparation is half the battle. Btw, my fav method of killing MagiMaster was draining its MP via really complicated method -- Berserk the boss, Invis all your characters, have one guy equip Heal Rod, and then have the other 3 chars equip MP draining weapon on one hand, and MP using weapon hand on the other. Then Haste + Berserk everyone. Then go do something else for a day or so. Extremely tedious, but it was fun trying to figure out yet-another-method to kill that asshole. Well, I didn't come up with that method, but it was still fun.

Thank you, to both of you. Sigh. The more I read about hacking, the more I realize how difficult it is for me to really understand all this hacking knowledge. A strong part of me wishes that there was a bug fix patch for the official Trials of Mana (I'm not expecting it, since almost nobody is working on that game). I mean, as Soul Knight said, I ended up creating something that's mostly for Trials of Mana. But with all the bugs present (some more devastating than others), most people will just go back to fan translation. Hence why I'm trying to incorporate many of the bugs in my patch. This is going to take a long time for me to learn.

Thanks. I guess I just suck at finding stuff. Figuring out your instructions may take some time. It's a lot to process. I'll try my best. Started by reading some elementary materials (google). Btw, is there a way to reduce the amount Aura Wave is giving to the Tech bar? It fills 9 bars, but I much prefer it do less (7 if fixed, 6 if not). I tried to reduce D19C4C, but it's not having any effect (it still fills the bar all the way). Is there some "quick fix" to do that for vanilla? Or any other way to reduce the OP-ness of Aura Wave (while still having something to do with the tech bar). Edit: I see that Sin of Mana already has that. I don't know what "+1 tech buff" means, but I'm still interested in how you changed the bar fill-ness from the spell. Could you please tell me?

For 2.0, perhaps you can give someone Detect ability. There is a slot, and there is animation. Why not use it? I know you can't really make "Analyzer" from Secrets, but you can give it AntiMagic property to it, except for your allies (basically Stardust Herb). As in, "detect" any abnormalities.

Wow. I googled, "Snes9X v1.51 "ep10r1" Geiger Debugger", and I only got 2 hits. That's a first. I always get a ton of hits on anything. And I only got 2 hits (total of 6), and they're all in Japanese. With no links to the download. Uhh, can you upload ep10r1? Apparently, GOOGLE doesn't have it.

Oh my god... I took a look at 65816 Reference (the bible). I couldn't even understand the 1st table. I feel like this page assumes the viewer already knows the basics of these... codes and terms (such as the definition of "Mnemonic" or "binary value"). I am so lost. I feel like I've been given a text book about PhD on advanced physics, when I barely passed high school physics class (15 years ago). I'm afraid I may need something more... basic. Well, I got the debugger snes9x (I can only find ep10r2). I can't even open it though... (included picture) "Side by side config"? "Event log"? What is the computer talking about? I don't understand what "execution breakpoint" means. Boy, this is a train wreck. =::( Maybe I'm in way over my head with trying to implement Luck to critical. I feel like I'm too unskilled for this. I feel... hopeless. I'm looking at a pit, and it's bottomless. Sigh. Is making AGI work (well, Acc/Eva) just as complicated? That's of higher priority than critical (since several spells are literally useless).

Wow, implementing those two things would work greatly (probably). 255 is much more reasonable than 100 (that means crit maxes out at ~8.6%). Fixed isn't bad either (5% sounds about right -- if I can't load the luck stat, I'll go with that). And changing to +25% damage would work great too. I need to test that though -- could you please tell me which byte I need to change? I assume the address I need to change is D0CAE1~E2. As for the unused space... I'm just gonna take a wild guess, but would I be able to use any space where there's bunch of collection of FFs? (105720~105FFF, 10B5E0~10BFFE, 112860~112A3F) Or would I need 00s space? (11D630~11D6CF) I don't know what is unused. I just randomly chose D0xxxx~D1xxxx, because I have a vague feeling that that's where anything is supposed to happen. I'm honestly not sure. How much space would I need?

Based on what I can tell (other than what you already noticed): AA: Icon ID CC: Color ID MM: Element absorb (or immunity? or weakness?) NN: Element immunity (or absorb? or weakness?) OO: Element resistance The rest, I couldn't tell. In any case, you should know that the element resistence/stat effect immunity doesn't work. At least, that's what I'm being told.

@praetarius5018 Ohh, awesome. Now, I can implement Item Seed to the shop (just changed 32 to 01). Thanks. You were right. Criticals are... more than what I'd bargain (not that I doubted what you said). I wouldn't mind implementing Criticals if the frequencies were significantly less (max 10%), but 20+% by the end of the game is just too much. And I'm not going to lower the cap on Luck stat, since that affects the traps in the chest. And normal enemies doing criticals on you was... less than likable (my allies died way too quickly). Hell, I can already tell that getting mobbed by moderate normal enemies would end up killing you (which is just ridiculous). Btw, you said that TransShape and Sleep SE share the same duration time. What about Freeze and Petrify? Does that share that same code? Or is it different code? Sigh. I'm sorry to ask you again, but could please you help me to make Acc/Eva work? Soul Knight had me convinced. I'm sure it's more complicated than anything I've done before, but if it's doable, then I'd like to try as much as I can. @Soul Knight Wow, you make a compelling argument about Agility. I forgot about Speed Up/Down spells, despite Serafie1999AD said above that Speed Up/Down not working properly (and therefore literally useless). Boy, my mind is wondering off a lot these days. And you're right. Enabling Acc/Eva probably would make melee attacks weaker (less frequency of hits), which is in line with what I want. But that probably applies to enemies too. I think someone somewhere said that most normal monsters don't have any accuracy, and therefore would make high EVA characters (such as Duran with shield) immune to normal attacks. Well, I can just lower the EVA bonus from all shields to fix that. But I think someone said that Jewel Eater and Gorva has very high EVA, which would make them impossible to hit with the normal attacks (softlock, unless you have Angela or some ways to attack them with screen freezing skills). This is something I'll have to test and see. Even if AGI works properly, there are probably some additional "corrections" that need to be done. I think praetarius5018 mentioned that somewhere (I think that was from an older board). This is going to be a tough work, but it'll be worth it, since it'll have Speed Up/Down actually do something, and it'll make Shield actually do something. Unless it's something beyond my ability. In any case, thank you for bringing that up. I can't guarantee that I can implement ACC/EVA though, whether due to lack of skills or impracticality (if it makes it impossible to damage some bosses, then I can't use it -- it'll soft lock the game). As for the Criticals, I tried what praetarius5018 said, and oh boy. That makes everything ridiculous. Christ. Critical hits do too high damage. And you take just as high damage (normal enemies were doing 150+ per hit in the final dungeon). Although I can see why some people would like that (assuming it is default crit, and not "crit every hit"), I don't like it. If people want that, then they can just use the old bug fix patch on top of my patch. The point is, I have no intention of making criticals exist. Still, thanks for the suggestion -- you made a valid argument, but I have decided not to implement that.

Which specific addresses are you looking at? If I know which specific address and which specific equipment you're looking at, I might be able to tell you something, based on empirical observation. One weapon and one armor would be good.

@praetarius5018 In vanilla, all seeds (Item Seed, Magic Seed, etc) heal all your character by 50HP. Is there a way to change that? Maybe change the healing amount to 1HP? I want to include Item Seed in the regular item shops, but its Heal-Everyone-By-50HP effect would make it too powerful in the beginning of the game. If I can't change the healing amount, then is there a way to target only one character, instead of all characters? @Soul Knight My balance hack is specifically for balancing, not bug fix. I'm only including the TransShape fix, because of how bad vanilla TransShape is (which affects the balance of Ninja Master). And it's the same for No Skill Counter -- without it, Angela is useless, except Rune Maiden (and that I cannot release it as stand-alone). Agility and Critical don't play any part in balancing (in terms of class balancing). As for Agility, it already plays a functioning role in the game -- power of throw weapons (and some skills). True, it's not the most useful stat, but I intend on bettering that slightly by making Dart available in every single item shops (I will eventually release a patch that tweaks the item shop items). And as for critical hits... if praetarius5018 is right about how critical hits throw off the balance in the game, then that's all the more reason to AVOID making critical hits exist in the game. And I definitely don't want to see Hawkeye's non-buffed melee attacks having 20+% critical hit rate (it can be as high as 24%!!). He's powerful enough as it is. No need to make him even more powerful. If anything, I want to make everyone's melee attacks less powerful (since it dominates most of the battle). I made a separate Energy Ball patch (buffs all stats), specifically because criticals don't play any part in the game. Okay, this needs to be said. Please don't ask on my behalf. If you want to know, then you're free to ask him yourself, but what you said just now seemed like you were asking on my behalf. That's just wrong, and I think you know that too. Don't do that again. If you really must say that, then please PM me directly, instead of posting that.

Are you serious? Jeez. That's... umm... I'm at loss for words. I assume Stardust Herb/Anti-Magic dispels that though, right? It's not some error where the devs misplaced the dispel effect on healing, right? And I assume healing (2nd time) doesn't affect other Stat Up/Downs or Sabers, right? Is there a quick fix for that one? Oh damn. I thought Spirit is the one that dealt with status effect recovery. Oh well. May I please use the TransShape fix on my balance patch? Of course, it will not be a stand-alone, and I will say that the fix was your work.

@Soul Knight Actually, when I first started making SD3 patches, I didn't even know about the existence of Trials of Mana. I simply created the balance patch, because I wanted to. I wasn't satisfied with how the vanilla's balance was, so I wanted to balance it. But of course, I didn't know anything about which address contained what, so I couldn't even start. Even my hacking skills were VERY limited (it still is), so I was completely lost. Then I learned about the existence of Sin of Mana. I asked Praetarius5018 about where to edit what and so on, and he told me exactly where and how. So I created a half-assed patch (for the sake of creating, and not for public release). Then I played Sin of Mana, and I realized how pointless my patch was, so I stopped working on it (and due to my real-life issues at the time). After my issues were dealt with and after reading through the discussion board, I realized the existence of Trials of Mana, and that it had significantly better translation. So I picked up a rom for that to see if I can edit anything there. And surprise surprise, many things were at the same location as the old J rom. So I started working on the patch again, which worked on both the old SD3 and the new ToM. No offense taken. And I'm glad you found your way to Sin of Mana (that's why I put the link in my document). I did say in my document that any suggestion is welcome. And yes, I'm aware that my patch will never be as good as Sin of Mana, and as you said, my patch will most likely be for people who play ToM. But I already said in my document that my patches are compatible with ToM. I don't think I need to advertise any more than that. It's not like I'm competing or trying to make money. I just wanted to throw my patch into the world, that's all (for my my own ego). Ultimately, I guess I just wanted to be a part of the hacker community who put out the "improvement" hacks, just so other people can appreciate the original game more. And partly, I enjoyed many hacks from RHDN, and I wanted to return the favor. Your suggestion on Rainbow Dust is actually doable. Had you suggested to add Counter Magic or Aura Wave or something, I would not be able to, because I wouldn't know how. But TransShape can be combined with Life Boost. Thanks for the suggestion. I shall add that. As for your request to extend the duration for TransShape, I honestly don't know how to do that. I didn't even test TransShape much, but after what you said, I tried TransShape, and oh my -- it really has short duration. According to SoM document, the vanilla behavior is [25 - Luck]. That is indeed terrible (what were the devs thinking?). I shall inquire Praetarius5018 if it's something that can be fixed easily (and if it's doable, then obtain permission to use the fix in my balance patch). Posting your thoughts here works great. In fact, I prefer it, since I can edit my reply. And other people can respond too. As long as the comments are civil, I welcome all opinions, even criticism. That's how I make improvements after all. @Praetarius5018 Ohhhh, so that's what you meant. I didn't really understand, because the addresses were different, and I just figured it was a typo or something. You're right. I should indeed adjust the price by pointing to different index, rather than change the price directly. If I adjusted the price directly, it would probably affect other items too. Thank you. Also, a question. Do Stat Up/Downs, Saber, and Counter Magic have time limit? I know Life Up/Down has time limit, but I couldn't tell if other buffs have time limits (or in Counter Magic's case, # of times of reflection). Thanks to Soul Knight, I realized that vanilla TransShape is really crappy. You obviously made the fix for Sin of Mana, but could you tell me how to make the TransShape have your logic, instead of the vanilla logic? I would love to put that in my balance patch (with your permission, of course). Is there some sort of quick fix for that? Or is this one of those, "gotta expand the codes, and therefore incompatible with Trials of Mana" thing? Thank you. I'm glad that people enjoy my patches.

Outstanding. I can work with that. Thanks. Okay, that's weird. I took a look at the addresses, and here's what: Item Seed (D1ABDF): 0A 00 Mysterious Seed (D1ABF0): 1B 00 Flying Seed (D1AC01): 0A 00 Magic Seed (D1AC12): 11 00 The buying price for the items are: Item Seed: 5 Luc Mysterious Seed: 40 Luc Flying Seed: 5 Luc Magic Seed: 18 Luc Hmm. I don't see any pattern here. For Item Seed and Flying Seed, I just divide the hex number by 2, but the other two are all wrong. What am I missing?

Sorry, I just editted my reply. The question was, is there a way to expand the items for the regular shop? If spaces are necessary, then I have no problem with using tutorial shops as regular shops. Okay, I think I got that figured out. My god, the weapon/armor shop is ridiculous. Good thing I'm not gonna mess with that craziness. Also, for the 3rd byte for the item entry in the shop, what is 7E? Some of the entries have 7E for the 3rd byte. Now, I realize that the seeds are way too cheap. Do you know which addresses adjust the price for the seeds?

Oh damn it. So much for my brilliant idea. I really thought I had something there. Sigh. Okay, I went to Maia, and the opened up the item shop ring. The value of 7E2F00 is 17. So 17 x 2 = 2E. Add that to CFE880 is CFE8AE. The 2 byte values at that address is 16 EE. So I'm guessing the shop data for Maia item shop is at CFEE16? The first 3 bytes from that are 53 FE 7F, so I'm guessing Round Drop is 53? Do I understand correctly so far? Then is there a way to expand the items that are being sold in the regular shops? I want to at least add Dreamsee Herb. And/or Item Seed.

True, but there are three evil factions (sort of). Besides, there were multiple atrocities that were committed in the regular world, which is the root cause of Mana weakening in the first place. And above all else, I think "Sins" of Mana sounds cooler. It just... rolls off the tongue.

Wow, it's a shame that you'll stop updating this project after the final release. Thank you for all your work. Hmm. For the final product, perhaps you should modify the title screen to "Sin of Mana", or "Seiken Densetsu 3: Sin of Mana". There are other people who modified the title for this game, so I'm guessing someone of your skill can do it too. It would really feel like it's complete. Or just add the "Sin of Mana" to whatever title that the users use (japanese, Seiken Densetsu 3, Trials of Mana, etc) -- similar to what Queue did for his Secret of Mana Turbo (he adds Turbo at the bottom of whatever title the user uses). And speaking of the title name, I think "Sins (plural) of Mana" sounds better than "Sin of Mana". I'm not entirely sure why it sounds better though. Food for thought.

For example, item shops sell things like Round Drop, Pakkun Chocolate, Puipui Grass, etc. What are the values for those? And in the black market, they sell magic items and throw items -- I would love to know the values for those too. What are the values for those? Based on the PAR guide in gamefaqs.com, Bronze Sword is 2C39 (item in the storage code), but I'm not entirely sure if that's even reliable. And it didn't have the values for the usable items either. Well, I'm not gonna touch the equipment shop, but I wanted to change the shopping items for all item shops (similar to what I did for Secret of Mana patch in Queue's Turbo pack -- I was only able to do that, because Queue told me the shop addresses and the value codes of the items). I don't know how hard it is to overhaul the shops, but I wanted to try -- specifically, add one magic item or throw item in all shops, to make those item shops unique. Well, maybe just the big towns. Of course, I'd love to know the addresses for all item shops too, if you're willing to go that far to help me.