@sithlord: sir, thankyou for the program you have created. i was just wondering how come when I edit my saves or i add characters in my party like adding sepiroth.. i always end up stuck in a game script scene.. (ex. when i revisit kalm.. tifa will just look at the place and I cannot move cloud anymore..also, in the marshland area where the beta snake is lurking..when i bypass it and enter the cave for the first time..it shows the scene where a large snake is hanging ..tifa will again look at the place and i am not able to move cloud anymore...)... is this what you call as error since i altered the characters and the save game locations and their stats? thanks sir, i am glad that this forum is still alive after almost 3 years =)
Answer:
This is what happens when you do things the game was not made for. Playing with sephiroth in your party,bringing aerith back from the dead , etc. the field scripts break sometimes because of a missing character, extra characters who are not in the field being there.Some locations just run a specific event without checking any progression varible before doing it. Some locations check several progression varibles .some are using these vaules to do things like track the stage of the smoke animation from a chimney , or the movement a windmill.Place an item on the field or trigger an event. The main Progression or any sub progression varible(s) used in the locations script could be set to values the field is not expecting and halt the script or cause unExpected behaviors.
And now About Progression:
One day we might be able to set all the progression items correctly so you could really reset your game to any location. the problem is there are alot of these varibles being used in field scripts that need to be identified. To further complicate identification some need to be set in conjunction with others for scripts to not break or events to happen. Some Scripts may even reuse the same Varibles that a previous script used. Then there is the useablility issue of progression. The vast amount of data that we would present to the user so many checkboxes and spinboxes that we would boggle the mind of anyone attempting to use it. Scroll For like 10 Minutes Before you reach the end of the list.
Long lists of checkboxes like
[ ]MD1STIN
otion1
[ ]MD1STIN
otion2
[ ]EALS_1: Cover Materia
are not very useful because who knows what map MD1STIN is? would it Make anymore sence using perhaps the locations ID instead of the filename? no list of checkboxes can really be that helpful for progression (and item flags) since most people don't know every single map by its filename, we don't remember (or know) that MD1STIN is the starting platform or that EALS_1 is outside of aerith's house. i really think it can be presented much better something like this
mock up. the locationViewer would show progression and item flags that are used on the selected location. the first step for this goal is to create a dataclass (or two) that can provide this info to the locationViwer much like the FF7Location Class does for the location data, but for Progress and Item flags. then it would be as simple as finding out what goes to what fields and show them when the location is selected. Finding out progression can be a bit of work since. it used to be trial and error of do something , see what changed , reset , look for event again , etc.. it can be easier now with Makou Reactor since we can read the field scripts for locations. slight problems exist like the varibles displayed in makou reactor don't exactly lineup w/ the savemap in much more then chunks. some are identified for example var[15][0]-[15][224] in makou reactor is z_38:12 - z_38:236 in black chocobo.(turns out that not completely true after more testing.) now that the block data is known to identify data in those areas easily someone could load up makou reactor and search for uses of Var[15] and see what items are picked up from what fields (i.e z_38[45]:7 = slfrst_2: Kajata materia). Any data submitted will be placed into the
savemap and then into black chocobo for testing and eventally when varified on to the savemap here @ qhimm's wiki (since i update that one as well)
may the force be with you sir. thanks and more power
thank you for your program it is so cool I am enjoying the game so much!