Is this possible?

[Rolina]

Ah, I see.

Well, with the patches, there's always debugging that goes on.  We'll be sure to let you know if anything comes up, but don't beat yourself up over it, okay?

Just one byte?  The extra 55 is nice, but... Is there a way to expand storage for data, perhaps through a patch?  Again, I'm only asking if it's possible.  I'm not actually asking you to go do it in this thread...  Whether or not you do it is up to you.


Huh, that is weird.  Perhaps it's just a single digit, and the multiply it by 10?  Or is it something else?

[Rolina]

Long time since I last asked something on this thread...  But here goes.

Can we create new status ailments?  In other ones, can we teak the game's current status ailments to create new ones as well?  Such as creating a version of poison/venom that affects PP instead of HP?  Having an "Ailment Editor" could come in quite handy in creating a wider variety of ailments.  So long as we base them in older ailments, we can still cure them via Antidote/Restore/Etc...

[Charon]

That would most likely require some more programming of some sort. I don't know anything about GS:TLA's programming; maybe if Atrius cracked how the information is stored it would become a little easier. Since each game is unique in the way it does battles, damage calculation and the such, and the fact that Golden Sun has this obsessive compulsion to apparently compress EVERYTHING in funny formats, it may be a very difficult thing to do.

It would also help to know where this information is stored, so he or anyone else could go meddling with it. ((speaking of which, I need to find the Ruby attack effects to do the same >_>))

[Atrius (He/They)]

I don't really know for sure at all right now, but I have a feeling the status ailments are programmed into the battle engine.

[weckar]

Though I wouldn't be surprised if poison atleast is quite close to the inventory storage... That's the most logical place programming wise.

[Rolina]

Once we find it though, it should be relatively easy to edit them.  All you'd really have to do is duplicate the data for one then tweak it a bit.

The only problem I can really see is not having the room.  Similar to power/resistance, which only have room to go up to 255, I can see the possibility of status ailments being given certain values with a similarly limited range...  If we do have the room, however, I'll have an AWFUL lot of fun making some new status ailments...

[Charon]

I was thinking, if we could find Mold's attack data, we could have a confusion status effect with a little repointing :3

[Rolina]

Confusion and Charm apparently already exist in the data.  As do a nice bit of psynergy never used (such as a poison/venom psynergy group).  Problem is fiddling enough to see what they do.

Did some fiddling.  Taint and Poison are need to be nerfed, as they ALWAYS seem to work for me.  Other than that, they work GREAT.  As for Confuse and Charm?  I don't think that they finished coding it or something.  You get the 'inflicted' and the 'wears off' messages... But nothing changes.  So Atrius or someone else will have to go in and make patches to make them work.  Confuse has a range of three, and should theoretically have a CHANCE of changing the target from 'target foes' to 'target allies', OR could work instead like in pokemon, where they have a chance to hurt themselves instead of preforming the selected command.  Charm should most likely force the afflicted person to make a physical attack against a random ally.

We need to be able to select the %age of an affect taking place, so that we can help to balance and implement some of these things!

[Charon]

Mold works like that though, minus the precentage of it working. It always works like that no matter what. So if Confuse has no actual effect, it could be possible to take Mold's effect and transfer it there.

[Rolina]

Actually, that'd be much better for charm.  Confuse should be a more limited version of it... like Mold's effect, but it only takes place 50% of the time.

Anyone else see any stuff in there we need to make work?  I can see reflect, but the only way I can think of making it work would be to cause recoil on the enemy if they use an elemental attack, similar to how Haunt works.  But how to code it is the question...

Also, MAGNET (YES, Atrius, MAGNET.  NOT magic circle.  As shown by it's Magnet in the pic!) could be fiddled with so it does SOMETHING... we could find a use for Arrow, as well.

[Charon]

Just an idea, but I think that Reflect should negate damage. Like, take Flash's effect and set damage taken to 0% rather than 10%. And make it for one character only.

[Rolina]

Ah, that'd be easier to code for too.  But it should only apply for elemental damage.

New idea!

Okay, when you need to use a certain item to progress, is it possible to have any item be used?  As in, could you choose a certain item to be used as the required item?

Like, having a door guarded by three fates.  How to get it open?  Why, give each fate their staff, of course!  You'll go up to Clotho and choose her Distaff, go up to Lachesis and choose her Rule, and then head over to Atropos and give her her rod.  Afterwards, the door will open.

So is it possible to do such a thing?  Or does it have to be a key item?  If we could choose to require a player to hand over a specific, RARE piece or set of equipment, it could be a very good way to make a hidden dungeon.


And to go with it... Would it then be possible for them to GET THEM BACK?  I mean... I doubt they'll be too happy if going to an uber dungeon meant that they lost their Fates Staff Set forever.  Actually, I'm sure they'd be pretty pissed...

[Charon]

Since nobody really knows Golden Sun's Scripting code yet, I'm just taking a wild guess, but it would be probably pretty easy, simply making it so that each statue would have a checkitem script (in Golden Sun, cue msgbox, then open menu, then expect certain item selected).

Then, each would raise a certain variable. First statue sets the variable to 0001. Second statue to 0002. When the third statue is activated, the variable is set to 0003, thus activating a new script (a setmaptile script) that opens the door; then a flag would be set to ensure the event cannot occur again.

That's how you'd do it in Pokemon script. This is just speculation but it would probably work in GS:TLA as well.

[Rolina]

I figured that part would be easy... But the question is on the next part.  Examining the statue again will give you the item back, but remove it from the statue (thus causing the door to close again)...

[Charon]

Giveitem script based on two flags - an activated flag (your previous flag) and an unactivated flag (making sure you wouldn't obtain the item twice).

[Rolina]

Cool, that's good to know.  Opens up a lot of options on how to do things...

So my Temple of Fates idea (leading to the battle with, and thus ability to summon, Charon) would be able to work... Not to mention my ideas for several other dungeons, like the Cave of Four Winds...

[Aile~♥]

Arrow could be used similar to the way you use the bow in puzzles in The Legend of Zelda. Cast Arrow when facing towards one of those creepy giant eyes to open the door!

Also, Reflect could be used like Reflux. It should just negate the damage to your guy similarly to Flash, and then show the Counter Attack animation and the enemy takes damage according to the Psynergy's power. Alternatively, if you want to make it supremely powerful, make it so the game acts as if the Reflector had cast the Psynergy, with the targeting focused on the enemy who used it. Thus if someone Searing Beamed you, it would show them using Searing Beam, then all of the people hit (with the exception of the Reflector) would be damaged, and then it would show the Reflector casting it, and all enemies under the targeting would take the damage of the Psynergy.

[weckar]

Arrow has a use already. it was highly probably meant to light torches. But then blaze came along, and to not make blaze redundant, arrow  had to go.

Magnet does some weird rope manipulation too... maybe magnet could be programmed in such a way that objects on which psynergy can be used shake a bit? It could function like a Hint psynergy that way.

[Aile~♥]

Reveal already does that. Things that can have psynergy used on them are in colour, while everything else is grayscale. Magnet could be used to pull far away objects to a far away location. Stand between the item and the place it needs to go, activate Magnet, and if they are both in the magnet radius, then the object gets pulled to the switch/other special location.

[weckar]

hmmmm... magnet as is would work so much better in a co-op version of GS...