Shining Force: Shining Force Refix v0.1.4 (11/23/10)

[Special T]

If someone doesn't mind, next time they play through the game maybe edit the text slightly and make sure everything seems to work? I seem to remember the Marionette having problems at the circus battle perhaps.

Sure, what would you like to see tested? Does it matter where it's tested or can I just change some dialog at the beginning of the game to see if it works?

[rubixcuber]

It doesn't matter what you change. As long as you save with the text editor so it adds my new text routines.

Just watch for any crashes/bad text. When I was testing before I think I saw part of Marionette's text filled with a bunch of weird symbols and not sure that I ever fixed it or figured out what it was.

[Special T]

I don't have any saves so I just tested this at the begining of the game and it worked fine for me.

I was just messing around to see if it would work and of course it did. I tried overflowing the text but it automatically continues to the next line. I didn't notice any oddities or issues while I was messing with it.

The images below were taken from an expanded rom (4 mb). I exported the text / used notepad to edit / imported the file back into the expanded rom, and this was the result.

[rubixcuber]

This is what I'm referring to:



Which apparently still does in fact exist as an issue.

[Stordarth]

Picture 1: 'Your', not 'You're', and a comma following 'chance'.

Picture 2: 'Damned' instead of 'Damn', and 'Your instead of You're'.

And the previous stated 'mistake' is gramatically sound. 'With' is surpluss to requirements.

[Chaiman]

Hello everyone!
Here all talks are going around script, and that's great, but there's another things in the game which should be fixed. (to my mind )
First - High Priests allways use Heal lv. 4 when healing for the firs time. Even if it's not necessary. And that's consumes almoust all their MPs. Could anyone fix it?
And the second thing - is second Moon Stone in the game, which could be found during the ship battle. This is no problem since Rubixcuber's editor exists

[rubixcuber]

I'll add the healing to the list Chaiman. I was thinking about taking a break from graphics stuff next time I work on the editor and that sounds fun to mess with so I might do that whenever I have some free time...

[BirthBySleep]

Dialogue in the game.


Character's name in the game.

[Special T]

As many times as I've played this game, I've never noticed that they misspelled his name. Good catch!

[rubixcuber]

Small update.

Added the text changes to fix the wrap problems in Pao and Hanzou's name when he joins.

[Lobo]

Luke's post promotion map sprite wears green clothes/armor/shield where it, for sure, should be blue, as it is pre promotion and in the attack sequence .
Think that's one more job for the Refix project!


EDIT
And maybe something like that should be done with the map sprites of promoted knights, as all of the 6 seems to wear the same green uniform.



############################################

Otrant in King Kusuko's throne room:
"Go to Metapha and get the Cha
os Breaker!"

An easy text fix.

[rubixcuber]

I fixed Luke's sprite. I'm not sure about the knights though, since the promoted battle sprites are like that too, so I left them for now.

[Loftus]

would people consider the skeleton not moving in the cave battle an issue? Its pretty easy just to spam him from range without any retaliation if i remember correctly.

Also, another one i've just thought of, would it be an idea to take the medical herbs off of the skeletons in the battle after you get Zylo? its similar to the high priest - heal level 4 issue, in that as soon as any skeleton loses even 1 point of health they all rush over to use a herb, making them stupidly easy because they never actually bother attacking you at all.

Another one is a possible name change on the second version of skeletons you get later in the game (around chapter 5) who are stronger than the first set but otherwise appear completely identical.

This is awesome you are doing this by the way Rubix, fighting balbazak etc. properly will be a nice change.

[Lobo]

I fixed Luke's sprite. I'm not sure about the knights though, since the promoted battle sprites are like that too, so I left them for now.

Yeah. I'm not sure either.
Maybe we should run a poll someday.

[Helldhaz]

would people consider the skeleton not moving in the cave battle an issue? Its pretty easy just to spam him from range without any retaliation if i remember correctly.

True, he's another Balbazak in that he stands in one place for the sake of the plot, but it makes him a completely ineffective fighter. He may as well move around because IIRC getting the Orb of Light in the battle itself rather than immediately afterwards doesn't change/mess up anything.

[rubixcuber]

Was about to try that, but has anyone used the latest version? The data seems to load fine in the editor, but the rom won't start.

I need to check and see what happened, unless it's just me... So I guess don't update to the newest until I see what's going on.

[Kcid]

I did come across two more issues:

First off, when you get an item that starts with a vowel, it doesn't properly respond (Max found a Atlas). Just a minor detail here.

Also, when you use the Demon Rod on an ally (didn't check vs an enemy), it gives you the wrong message. For example:

"Alef uses the Demon rod

Demon rod makes a strange noise...

Alef loses 3 MP!"

When, in fact, Alef gains the three MP, and whoever she used it on loses it. So either it should say "Alef gains 3 MP!" or "Max loses 3 MP!" (or, of course, whoever she uses the Demon rod on).

Edit: Another idea...I don't know if it's just me, but I've always thought it extremely unfair and possibly a glitch that a magic-type attack can double hit (Chimera's fire comes to mind). It sucks.

[Chaiman]

The data seems to load fine in the editor, but the rom won't start.

Yes, the friend of mine told me the same.
Thing is in that ROM became 6,5 MBytes. I was able to run the 1.4 version in Gens Surreal 32 v 1.72 Girl. It's rather old version of Gens 32, but I like it.
As for another emulators - standart Gens and Kega Fussion refused to open latest version...
Maybe "Change ROM" feature will be helpful to make a new ROM without that issue?

... a magic-type attack can double hit ...

That's not magic, but special attack which consumes 0 MP and like all other specials (like stealing life or magic points) could happen 2 times in a row.
And If you would look here you'll se how goblin attack with mixed special and non-special attacks till his enemy's death.
(hope that wouldn't perceived like advertisment, I just cant post the video here)

Oh, by the way, enemy's special #2 is stealing life points. But the issue is that "stolen" HP isn't adding to the "thief". That thing works with special #3, which is stealing magic points. Could we fix HP stealing with editor's features we have?

[Flygon]

Yes, the friend of mine told me the same.
Thing is in that ROM became 6,5 MBytes. I was able to run the 1.4 version in Gens Surreal 32 v 1.72 Girl. It's rather old version of Gens 32, but I like it.
As for another emulators - standart Gens and Kega Fussion refused to open latest version...
Maybe "Change ROM" feature will be helpful to make a new ROM without that issue?

This is because Mega Drive games are not actually designed to be larger than 4 megabytes. To be able to go larger than 4 megabytes, bank switching functionality would need to be implemented... which is probably not going to happen. It's too difficult to program, especially without a disassembly.

It would only really be useful for streaming PCM background music anyway (Which would probably sound better if it used the Sega CD hardware... which... of course, won't be happening ).

[rubixcuber]

Alright, I think it should work now. It's not 6.5 MB for whatever reason at least.

And the bank switching isn't all that difficult. A whole lot easier than some of the other stuff I've done already...