Wow this is awesome so far! The luck manipulation... so very impressive. Can't wait to see the full thing, gotta wonder how long it'l end up being as you managed the first 4 chapters in 55min... wow
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Ive been stuck in one spot for quite sometime and couldn't figure out why. On my way to keelon I run into a plesiosaur and get a treasure drop in order to get stilleto earrings for Alena. I suspect that this is actually a rare item to get. Instead of the 1/64 chance, I think it might be more (as much as 1/2048!). I come to this conlcusion after about 2000 re-records. I redid the fight several times and even in different locations but could not get the treasure drop!
I didn't run into this problem in my first run out of dumb luck. I had taloon in my party then and he happened to steal the treasure chest.
After much headache and profane words, I will go back and put Taloon in the party and attempt to get it that way (though I really have no Idea how to force that to happen).
But out of curiosity I would love to know what the "odds" are of getting the random treasure drop in this instance (if anybody skilled person could look into that).
the 1/64 & 1/2048 numbers were based on information that someone got out of DW3 for treasure drops. The standard there is 1/64 and really rare items or 1/2048 (1/64 * 1/64). I suspect that it is the same in DW4 as well.
Here's a snippet from a faq (contains EUC Japanese text) for the PS remake of DQIV on gamefaqs that mentions 8 different treasure probabilities:
P = Item drop percentage.
0 = 1/1
1 = 1/8
2 = 1/16
3 = 1/32
4 = 1/64
5 = 1/128
6 = 1/256
7 = 1/4096
Some code for determining item-drop probabilities that I hadn't understood for this version now makes perfect sense in light of that information. With that in mind, I would say this same behavior is confirmed for the NES version.
As to which monsters have the 1/4096 odds, you've just been wresting with one :-)\ and another is the King Metal. As for which monsters have what probability percentage, that can also be found in the faq mentioned above, directly below the table (search for "4096"). Of course, familiarity with the remake will help in finding the right monsters and treasure names.
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thank you very much Paulygon!
LOL, 1 in 4096, even worse than I thought! Ah well it figures.
Last night I did get past it by using Taloon to steal the treasure chest. It is a little slower to do it this way but I hope nobody will fault me for not brute forcing a 1/4096 treasure drop!
The good news is I am past this spot and on my way to Keelon :)
I think we can forgive you for not trying to manipulate something with THOSE odds. The first time it happened was likely sheer luck, so it's cool. Just glad to see you back on track.
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Well sorta, the first time Taloon just happened to steal the chest so I never had to even try. The 2nd time around I forgot that I happened that way and I assumed I got the treasure drop. That was the reason I was so persistant. I thought "Hey I did it before why can't I do it now!"
2000+ re-records later I began to invistage the problem and thats when I realized.
I am at the keelon fight as of now. Thanks for all the support and encouragement, sometimes I really need it for a game like this!
BTW, im about ~3300 frames slower than I thought for two reasons:
1) Not leveling brey in chp 2, means I couldn't use outside to leave the cave west of keelon (where I get the magic key) This cost about 3000 frames (though it saved my a little more than that on level ups)
[edit]
I also experimented with dying to get out of cave, but after I take the time to revive alena & taloon it ends up slower
2) in chp 4 I skipped the lamp of darkness, but I forgot that you have to search under the chest in chp 5 when you re-visit the cave. So I had to get the damn thing anyway!! This game is irriatingly well programmed. It still saved me about 30 or so frames but not the 300+ that I thought it would.
Neither of these things COST me time, but they resulted in only a marginal improvement instead of ~1 minute that I thought they would.
I think it's this one:
086 Rhinoceros Man Battle Ax 4 0 0 0 70 0 88 100 22 126 39
The one you mentioned is the Rhinoband, found around the Riverside area.
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Found an interesting bug today:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/765/DW4_Deadman_BUG.fcm
Unfortunately I don't see a use for it in my TAS but its interesting none the less.
This bug allows you to walk around as a ghost, you can't talk, search, cast spells etc. But oddly enough you can use the DOOR command.
If you try to use a spell it realizes that you are dead and doesn't let you move until you change party members. If you are in a cave at that point you are stuck and must reset.
I was thinking this might mess up situations where people come up to talk to you rather than you talk to them but there doesn't seem to be any at this point. If anybody has any ideas on potential uses for this bug please let me know :)
Dead Man Walking Bug: You can still search okay...the next living person will be the one to search the area at your feet. The only 2 commands that will ruin thing are the Spell and Members commands. The poison swamps and damage barriers won't hurt you though, so you can raid the treasure at Burland unharmed, and the game will act like Ragnar's the one opening and receiving the items (since he's the next in line).
A case where somebody runs up to you is Endor at night. Enter the castle. Even if you freeze your movement by choosing one of those bad commands, if the sentry sees you, he'll still run up to you and throw you out. You'll be stuck outside the castle, with the game complaining when you try to move.
addition-If nobody else is alive, it's the person walking around who searches, even if they're dead. If nobody's alive, the music will still play for the lone dead walker. If you choose multiple dead people to lead the wagon, the music will play for the second member of the party.
Life is like a box of chocolates-when you want peanut butter, all you get is coconut.
Here's the rest of the bug:
http://www.geocities.com/kolechovski/DW4_Dead_Man_Walking.zip
BTW, when you go into battle, the enemies will blow their attacks on the first round, then the others will jump out of the wagon or you'll get the death music if nobody alive is around.
Life is like a box of chocolates-when you want peanut butter, all you get is coconut.
Yeah, I'd be glad to see as many bugs and glitches as possible. Too bad most likely aren't good for a TAS. I was going to suggest using that dead thingy to clear poison swamps and damage barriers without trouble, but virtually every place that has them has enemies, too, so it likely won't actually do anything. Sigh.
Life is like a box of chocolates-when you want peanut butter, all you get is coconut.
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also it takes a while to set up since I have to kill off my hero (and revive him later). The glitch works because the game won't allow you to leave your hero behind therefore it will pick a dead hero over a living character.
The only way this would be useful is if allowed me to skip a major boss, or a normally required item.
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http://www.woodus.com/den/games/dw4nes/monsters.php
according to this chart, the Gigademon has 1023 hp (which seems to be max HP for any enemy)
I just inflicted 1054 damage to him in the first round but he did not go down!
he could have more than that, but I suspect something else...
Bosses have HP regeneration, but does it get added on between rounds?
Could it be added on the bosses action of the previous round? This would explain my problem since he attacked before ragnar did. If he got is regeneration bonus on his "turn" then that saved him from a 1 round KO.
Could someone look at this for me? I could redo the first round so that gigademon acts last. If my theory is correct this could save me about 30 seconds!
Unfortunately my run is now on hold for the millionth time...
According to some people I used to know long ago (which I unfortunately found out during an attempt to play through DW3 with no allies), not just bosses, but ALL enemies in most DW games have not HP regeneration, but what appears to be an ability to "soak" a random amount of damage based on max HP per turn. This ability is also what gives the illusion of enemies having slightly "randomized" HP values (you might have noticed in normal play that it takes slightly different amounts of damage to kill the same enemy, for example).
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What I've found in DW2 doesn't seem to be regeneration, just a random variance in HP. It seems an enemy's stats can vary by some amount. I'm not sure how easy it is to manipulate them. It definitely exists though, watch my WIP for proof.