Question(s) about modding MM7

[BTB]

So, I have this habit about modding games (someone here once recognized me for my Morrowind mod, and I just got done totally overhauling Final Fantasy VI). And I've sort of already accomplished most of what I want with MM7 just by using St0rmcat's MM7 Viewer to edit the text files in events.lod and Versenwald's skill table editor (he actually wrote that program at my request... <3 Versenwald) to edit the class skills. But there's just a few things that are beyond my ability...

Primarily, I want to edit the requirements to train skills (i.e. to expert, master, or grandmaster). I would like to be able to adjust the cost in gold of doing so, the stat requirements, and even the skill level requirements. That last part, specifically, is so that the "worthless" skills (Stealing, Perception, ID Monster/Item) can actually be made more viable by significantly reducing the number of skill points you need to dump into them in order to make them useful.

(Ideally, shitty skills should really be fixed by making them actually useful. Perception should give an evasion bonus in combat, items should not convey their special bonuses until identified, certain attacks should do more damage to a trained monster identifier, and stealing should, you know, just not suck. I'm aware that this is well outside the scope of what anyone can do, but it is good insight for anyone working on developing their own game.)

Secondly, I'd like to edit the stat thresholds for bonus increases. I'm aware that this is possible and has been done, so I'd appreciate any advice on implementing that.

Lastly, I want to edit the bonuses on artifacts and relics. Would also be nice to edit the "special" item bonuses (Wizards', of the Ocean, etc.) to make them less shitty. I'm not sure how doable this one is, though.

Thanks in advance.

[Bandobras Took]

Not that I have the answer to your questions, but that Skill Table Editor sounds interesting -- where can I find it?

[BTB]

Not that I have the answer to your questions, but that Skill Table Editor sounds interesting -- where can I find it?

http://btb2.free.fr/files/mm7_utilities.zip

I'm looking at Grayface's MM7 extension right now, and it appears to allow this functionality, as well.

[GrayFace]

I didn't look for expert/master/GM requirements yet. As for skill boosts, it's all about the effect that you want to add from a skill. Each effect requires its treatment, so it's harder, but possible with reverse engineering.
I'll certainly add a way to change artifact and enchantment bonuses, but I haven't yet.

For stats:
At 4EDEA4 is array of 2-byte stat breakpoints. At 4EDEE0 is array of 1-byte bonuses. E.g. in MMExt script in General folder:
mem.i2[4EDEA4 + 3*2] = 275
mem.i2[4EDEE0 + 3*1] = 19
This would set the default breakpoint #3 and corresponding bonus to their default values.
See https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanics for default values.

[BTB]

For stats:
At 4EDEA4 is array of 2-byte stat breakpoints. At 4EDEE0 is array of 1-byte bonuses. E.g. in MMExt script in General folder:
mem.i2[4EDEA4 + 3*2] = 275
mem.i2[4EDEE0 + 3*1] = 19
This would set the default breakpoint #3 and corresponding bonus to their default values.
See https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanics for default values.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, where exactly do I edit/write this script? I see a few files in the General folder, but nothing contain anything that look like what you just typed.

[the beavers1]

For stats:
At 4EDEA4 is array of 2-byte stat breakpoints. At 4EDEE0 is array of 1-byte bonuses. E.g. in MMExt script in General folder:
mem.i2[4EDEA4 + 3*2] = 275
mem.i2[4EDEE0 + 3*1] = 19
This would set the default breakpoint #3 and corresponding bonus to their default values.
See https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanics for default values.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, where exactly do I edit/write this script? I see a few files in the General folder, but nothing contain anything that look like what you just typed.

That is probably because it is hexadecimal, or at least it looks like it, I believe he decompiled the exe or Lod to get those numbers, not sure.

[GrayFace]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, where exactly do I edit/write this script? I see a few files in the General folder, but nothing contain anything that look like what you just typed.

No worries You need to create a new file there. Here I wrote the script for you: viewtopic.php?p=340975#340975

[BTB]

Excellent!

What do I name the file that I create? "Vals"? Or does it matter?

[GrayFace]

It doesn't matter, but "Vals" would be too meaningless.

[BTB]

Hey, Greyface. Sorry I haven't been around in a long while... kinda got caught up in one of my other modding projects (Final Fantasy VI), but I've been looking back into this lately.

First of all, thank you again for the stat break code. Here's what I ended up with:

Code: Select all

local vals = {

   500, 50,
   450, 45,   
   400, 40,
   350, 35,
   300, 30,
   250, 29,
   225, 28,
   200, 27,
   175, 26,
   150, 25,
   140, 24,
   130, 23,
   120, 22,
   110, 21,   
   100, 20,
   95, 19,
   90, 18,
   85, 17,
   80, 16,
   75, 15,
   70, 14,
   65, 13,
   60, 12,
   55, 11,
   50, 10,
   45, 9,
   40, 8,
   35, 7,
   30, 6,
   25, 5,
   21, 4,
   19, 3,
   17, 2,
   15, 1,
   13, 0,
   11, -1,
   9, -2,
   7, -3,
   5, -4,
   3, -5,
   0, -10
}

for i = 0, #vals - 2, 2 do
   mem.i2[0x4EDEA4 + i] = vals[i + 1]
   mem.i1[0x4EDEE0 + i/2] = vals[i + 2]
end

I feel that gives players a good reason to keep boosting their stats since you keep getting benefits for every five points up until 100.

Anyhow, now that I'm back, I'm again looking into the possibility of modifying the skill level and gold requirements to advance in certain skills, with the intention that you'd have to invest less skill points into "useless" skills like ID Item, ID Monster, and Perception.

Further to the above, I was wondering if it was possible for unidentified items to lack their enchanted properties like they do in MM9?