[GS2] Battle Animations (CQC & Long Range)

[Onikapitua]

I need a little help.
I was renaming and resorting all abilities (of a vanilla Golden Sun 2) under the Psynergy tab in the editor, and swapped all of the stats of "Helm Splitter" with "Terra Strike". Curious to see if I was swapping correctly I went into the game and used the ability. It showed the animation and did everything correctly, except...
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Which led me to test out various other Psynergy to Unleash animations. Most of which turn your animation into a close range attack, but what tells the engine to do this? I checked many times in a hex program and it doesn't seem to be a byte that changes when doing any sort of editing, seems all I really learned from it was how the game's compression tables work.

Point of this topic is if anyone that is hacking the game has figured if there is is a preset variable that defines that animations or attacks are long range or close range. Or if there is a way to influence it, without using the some, 32 preset ones (which you'd have to overwrite or replace) that already exist for abilities in use (Most of the unleashes have these close range animations).

[Salanewt]

Oh, the messed up characters? I think that has something to do with the textual compression format. Not sure what would have happened to mess that up though, sorry.

Edit: Do you use VBA as the emulator?

[Rolina]

If we knew, OOoooh, if we knew, that'd be soooooo freaking helpful in making new spells.

But, until we get an animation editor, we're boned here.

NB4 Atrius whining: But it requires ASM!

[Aile~♥]

I've just been making sure to replace close-combat abilities with more close-combat abilities, and ranged abilities with different ranged abilities.

I've come up with some cool animations by doing that.

[Onikapitua]

Oh, the messed up characters? I think that has something to do with the textual compression format. Not sure what would have happened to mess that up though, sorry.

Edit: Do you use VBA as the emulator?

Sorry if I had worded or presented my inquiry incorrectly, I was asking about animations. The ".n" you saw that I had appended to the name, is for searching/sorting abilities in the GS:TLA Editor.

If we knew, OOoooh, if we knew, that'd be soooooo freaking helpful in making new spells.

But, until we get an animation editor, we're boned here.

NB4 Atrius whining: But it requires ASM!

An animation editor isn't necessary (though I think I get what you mean). I think the distance, as with many animation related things is interpreted by solely the engine.

[Salanewt]

If we knew, OOoooh, if we knew, that'd be soooooo freaking helpful in making new spells.

I think we know now. I am just waiting to see whether charleysdrpepper wants to post his findings, or if he will let me do it.

Anyway, Oni, what number is your new spell? I might be able to help you make it into an EPA if you want.

[Aile~♥]

Additionally, most Djinn effects seem to be partially close-combat. For example, if I need an agility-boosting move, all I have to do is replace a "?" skill and give it Zephyr's or Coal's animation, and the annoying Djinni will completely fail to appear. But when I tried to replace Power Drive, the user actually did their attack animation in place, AND the annoying Djinni showed up.

Oh yeah, I think one time I saw someone make a move where the user actually attacks the enemy in close combat, AND throws a Heat Wave in their face at the same time. It was badace.

[leon_95]

Oh yeah, I think one time I saw someone make a move where the user actually attacks the enemy in close combat, AND throws a Heat Wave in their face at the same time. It was badace.

But this could be used to create some new kinds of attacks! if you combine the distace attack with an short-distance attack...

[Knight of Purgatory]

Ummm... Would it work the reverse way too? As in, if you make some random ability a djinn ability, well would a djinn image come?

[Rolina]

Not sure.  Some djinn animations actually keep their djinn even when you use it for a spell, so I don't know if a djinn will be tacked on to just any ability...  It'd be useful if it did, though.

[Onikapitua]

Some djinn animations actually keep their djinn even when you use it for a spell, so I don't know if a djinn will be tacked on to just any ability...  It'd be useful if it did, though.

Did you test that (or are you just shooting the wind)? Because for all of the animations/slots I've used, I have not gotten one single Djinni animation paired with the animation of abilities.

Anyway, Oni, what number is your new spell? I might be able to help you make it into an EPA if you want.

Thank you for the offer, however I'm trying to do something else. I am curious though, mind explaining what EPA is?

the user actually attacks the enemy in close combat, AND throws a Heat Wave in their face at the same time.

The opening post essentially answered that question.

Ummm... Would it work the reverse way too? As in, if you make some random ability a djinn ability, well would a djinn image come?

No, the Djinni FX animations are their own files much like "Fiery Blast" or "Froth Spiral" (to simplify) you cannot merge
animations (which are taken from their files or strings, and are then 'played') by using
it's Ability  slot (for lack of a better word) it'd require ASM. Doing so results in the same thing as
using a long range animation in a CQC unleash or vice versa. As seen here (I'm using the "Flint" Venus Djinni in each example):

[spoiler]
(I swapped the original animation of "Dire Inferno" with "Flint"s animation in the"Abilities" tab. No Venus Djinni here.)[/spoiler]
[spoiler]
(I tell the Flint Djinni Slot to load the "Flash Edge" ability under the"Djinni/Summons" tab. No Venus Djinni here either.)[/spoiler]
So the djinni flash (when it pops up above your head) thing is not a seperate FX
animation it is just one long portion of the psynergy (attack/spell/whatever you want to call it) animation. This is pretty obvious too,
seeing as when you cast them or use it it transitions to smoothly and oftentimes right
into the animation itself.

The main reason I posted this was to see if Golden Sun could get a total conversion mod.
But I see it's not possible yet.