[TruePhilosopher]

So my topic title really speaks volumes for what I'm trying to accomplish here! 

What I want to do is to skillfully learn how to use Temporal Flux to edit Chrono Trigger in a variety of different ways including, but not limited to: Adding Boss Battles, room additions and some event script editing.  This is rather difficult, however considering there's very little documentation to be found and the .html tutorial is very, very basic.

So far from my tampering with the app I've learned some of the basics.  Tile editing, solidity and climbing are simple enough. I was able to add a very basic battle in place of the Gato, however I know my scripting wasn't spot on as the battle didn't flow as smoothly as I would've liked.  Also I expanded the map for the Prehistoric Exhibit to include a Scroll Masked area which I attached to an empty map slot.  I was able to put an exit into the Prehistoric Exhibit area that linked to the new locale, however when I loaded up the new area it popped up, but nothing happened. The map looked correct, but no characters popped onto the screen.  I think my destination co-ordinates were off as I don't know how to judge where they are going to pop into the scene at.

At any rate enough of that.  I would love some teaching from the masters of Flux or even peeps like me who are just trying to figure this thing out.  As I learn I'll be willing to assist others with their TFlux needs as well! Hope to receive some help soon! 

[LostTemplar]

Sorry, I have no experience with Temporal Flux whatsover, but in the case you haven't noticed yet, I just wanted to let you know that it seems to undergo drastic changes:

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,12426.0.html

[TruePhilosopher]

Oh yes I've seen that thread.  I understand it undergoes changes from time to time, however it basically stays the same with upgrades! 

I also want to let everyone know what I have in mind! Ever have things you felt should've been part of the original Chrono Trigger?  I plan on going in and adding all those things! For instance, I always felt there should have been a ferry between Truce and Medina, however even after giving (Bantham?) the proper tools for the job he never does it! Also I've always wondered what it would've been like to have a battle with the Frog King, whom Cyrus defeated in epic fashion!

Those are just some of the ideas floating in my head at the moment.  When I become more proficient at using Flux I'll make an official project thread for ideas and input! And I'll eventually release an .ips patch for legal reasons haha. 

[Mauron]

Frog King had very limited AI in the released version. Using him would require the ability to edit that. There's one semi-functional AI editor available right now.

What went wrong with your Gato replacement? The battle command called from events starts a fight with every enemy on screen - The game normally adds or removes enemy's to suit the intended battle as necessary.

For relocating, exits and the change location command will use the coordinates shown on any map in Flux on the lower right, divided by ten.

[TruePhilosopher]

I've been searching for the AI editor to no avail. 

Nothing technically went wrong with the Gato replacement. He did have horrible battle scripting, but I got it to the point to where you could defeat the Frog King with no issues, however the way I implemented the battle music made it continue after said battle rather than reverting back to the norm plus he'd re-appear upon entry. I'd also like to learn how to make him die like a boss and have text to speak. Every time I gave him text with the text box, upon activation the screen would turn light blue.

Where I really run into trouble is understanding the Flux set-up itself a lot.  For instance activate is to run into and manually activate the enemy/object, touch is self-explanatory, but what are all the arbitraries for?

Another issue I ran into was trying to place Frog King inside Guardia Forest (Present). I did the exact same steps as the Gato area, however upon entering the forest the screen would turn magenta no matter how many times I altered the coding. Of course at the time I didn't know about dividing by 10 haha.

One last thing to ask at this time, but do you convert the number to decimal before you divide it by 10 and then convert it back to hex?

What would be majorly helpful is a tutorial explaining the options of commands in the events section as this is where all the magic happens so to speak.

[Mauron]

Arbitraries will be executed when called. Activities at the fair often call one of the arbitraries of PC1, for example.

Solid color screens are a sign something is wrong in a way the game doesn't like. Without a Flux file of Guardia Forest's events, I couldn't tell you any more than that (use the export feature to generate one).

Divide by 10 is probably a poor way to phrase it (technically it should be 0x10). For certain commands, you can place something down to a pixel. Others only let you place down to the tile. If the value takes a max of 0xFF, you need the tile number. Essentially the higher two digits of the pixel number will be used.

I'm not sure what's left of the old AI editor. It looks like my copy was lost a while back.

I've got some scattered notes about AI, but without an editor you'd be stuck with a hex editor. At some point I intend to make a plugin to better handle AI, but that may be a while...

I've been wanting to write a tutorial on events for a while, but procrastination and the fact that I don't know parts have delayed that.

[justin3009]

I can tell you straight up that Guardia Forest and The End Of Time are HORRIBLE places to add or modify anything.  The game doesn't seem to be able to expand much at all on their data unless it wants to blow up.  I encountered issues with those two horribly with the 8th PC project.

[TruePhilosopher]

This saddens me as it would be the perfect place for a Frog King showdown. 

I suppose the Cursed Woods would work for my purposes. Honestly any wooded area could work as I could just make the exit via Guardia Forest to the new locale and just make it appear to be connected.

[Mauron]

I believe the problem Justin describes comes from the number of events and loaded sprites in the locations. An extra exit in either shouldn't be a problem.

[TruePhilosopher]

Would anyone be able to give me an example event code for attaching an event trigger to another event?  For instance I wouldn't want the Frog King battle to trigger until after the Cursed Woods scene where Glenn has his flashback. 

Edit: Also would anyone know how to give an enemy a boss style death? So far I've only gotten Frog King to die via regular enemy death. 

[Mauron]

The boss style death is determined by the monster stats. You'll need an editor to tweak those.

I recommend my Monster Plugin. It has labels for the some settings that other tools don't. Unzip the DLL into the same directory as Temporal Flux, and you can access it from the Plugins menu. It's still a bit of a work in progress, so let me know if you have any problems.

At the very least you'll probably want a full set of immunities, HP 1/2 and Death Fails, Boss Death Animation (this is the one you specifically mentioned), and SightScope/Relic Fails.

For the event question -  you can't determine the status of anything outside of the current location. You'll need to compare a RAM address that was set by the game. The Frog King is after getting the Masamune, so we can find a plot point pretty quickly.

Do a comparison, Value-to-mem. The Address should be 7F0000, known as the storyline counter. Chrono Trigger uses it to track the plot. The Value should be 84, which is what it is set to after the flashback. The width is one byte, and the operation is ">=". Update the command you'll have a condition that triggers properly.

Knowing useful RAM addresses will really help. Temporal Flux has some labeled after updating, but the Chrono Trigger Database has more.

[TruePhilosopher]

Awesome Mauron! Thanks man. 

Currently I'm mapping all of Frog Kings animations via a patch I downloaded and it's going rather well.  The only thing I don't quite comprehend is the Static option included.  After I get all this info collected I'm going to start piecing together everything probably starting with a map design first and foremost. This is such a fun project to be working on haha and you guys are being more than helpful! 

[Mauron]

I explained the static thing in the topic on the board you found it, but I'll add it here as well.

Statics are sprite assembly frames. Any pose of a sprite can be loaded with the static value.

[TruePhilosopher]

That board is being a bit wonky at the moment for some reason... 

At any rate this makes sense as with the static poses you can freeze them on-screen in whatever pose you want!

Your monster program is amazing by the way! Excellent addition to Flux. 

[Mauron]

Glad it's helping. I'll probably bang out some of the last things I want in the final version soon - or at least the first released version.

I noticed that problem as well, and PMed the admin elsewhere. It's possible that the transfer between sites resulted in a software upgrade, but the current message is just... weird.