Submit patches to other users' hacks? (Dragon Quest 1&2 SFC)

[hex_usr]

Hello, everyone. Someone recommended me to this site after I created a patch for RPGOne's Dragon Quest I & II translations for the Super Famicom that fixes a well-known bug in the translated versions of Dragon Quest II:

Spoiler

After the Prince of Cannock/Sumaltria falls ill in the Beran/Beranule Inn, you are expected to feed him a Leaf of the World Tree if you want to revive him. But when you do, the game locks up after he says "It was wrong of me to tell you not to worry."

EDIT: Here's a screenshot of the Beran/Beranule Inn:

[close]

...and I wanted to know what the site rules are about submitting patches to other users' hacks.

My fix includes patches for each of the DQ and DW translations, and they are meant to be patched on the original Japanese ROM to avoid the hassle of patching a ROM multiple times. They also include mteam's Dragon Quest 1 Title Screen fix.

[Zynk]

First of all, from the Translation Guidelines:

Addendum: This is for cases where new person/s improve or fix old patches released from other people while promoting good community ethics. Archives should contain a patch that patches an originally patched work.

Submit that under Translations, categorize it as an Addendum, its a good idea to link the page to the original hack translation within the description field like this <== Also follow the example of listing the Credits.

The addendum patch should patch over the original patch; not as a standalone patch.

[hex_usr]

I think I understand the intention of this rule: it is an anti-plagiarism measure to make sure addendum patch creators do not claim others' work as their own. This is a good idea, and I like it.

But you should know that RPGOne's patch requires a headered ROM, and mteam's addendum patch requires a headerless ROM. That means that, in order to add both patches, a user must:

1. Add a 512-byte header to the Japanese ROM
2. Apply RPGOne's translation patch
3. Remove the header
4. Apply mteam's Title Screen Fix patch

That can be a lot of work for a casual user just to enjoy the game in English. And if I submit a patch that must be applied over another patch, that will add a 5th step, further increasing the tedium. It would be hard for me to live with myself, knowing that I put users through that. EDIT: I already experienced first-hand the frustrations of a user trying to patch this game.

And I refuse to use IPS because of its lack of checksums. If someone applies my BPS patch, and beat tells them that patching failed, this forum might see angry posts from confused users in the near future.

I have every intention of crediting RPGOne and mteam for their work. Their names and roles are in readme.txt. I even chose not to modify the splash screen and add my own name to it (in fact, my name cannot be found in the patch at all).

This is not an issue of laziness on my side. If this rule is non-negotiable, I will create a patch over a patch and submit that instead. But please understand the guilt I will have if I do so.

[Rodimus Primal]

If your intent is to release a bug fix, please release it soon. I've been wanting to play through Dragon Quest II and actually complete it, and never did so with the NES version.

You could combine the translation, the title screen fix, and your bug fix into one patch for a headerless ROM, and in the description credit the original hackers with a link in your description to both of their patches. I did so with my Final Fantasy IV Namingway Edition out of respect for vivify93's Project II. Of course, instead of being a translation, it would be a hack submitted to the database. 

[Grimoire LD]

Hello, everyone. Someone recommended me to this site after I created a patch for RPGOne's Dragon Quest I & II translations for the Super Famicom that fixes a well-known bug in the translated versions of Dragon Quest II:

Spoiler

After the Prince of Cannock/Sumaltria falls ill in the Beran/Beranule Inn, you are expected to feed him a Leaf of the World Tree if you want to revive him. But when you do, the game locks up after he says "It was wrong of me to tell you not to worry."

[close]

...and I wanted to know what the site rules are about submitting patches to other users' hacks.

My fix includes patches for each of the DQ and DW translations, and they are meant to be patched on the original Japanese ROM to avoid the hassle of patching a ROM multiple times. They also include mteam's Dragon Quest 1 Title Screen fix.

Well speak of the devil! I've just been playing through the SNES versions for the first time, finished with 1 and just started 2 last night! I read about this glitch in the readme and planned to avoid the event, but I am glad to see that I won't have to. Thank you very much for your modding efforts.

[SunGodPortal]

This is not an issue of laziness on my side. If this rule is non-negotiable, I will create a patch over a patch and submit that instead. But please understand the guilt I will have if I do so.

Release it however you see fit as you are the hacker. If you went through the trouble to learn how to fix this, the least people can do is learn how to apply the patch correctly (otherwise THEY are the lazy ones). If they're too stupid to do that, fuck 'em. Even if you go out of your way to makes things as easy as A, B, C - 1, 2, 3 you'll still get complaints because some people won't pay a bit of attention to the patching instructions. They'll just screw everything up and then blame you until you hold their hand through every step of the process*. You can't win, so just do the best hacking job you can and don't worry so much about the rest.

Note: Not everyone will be that stupid, but some people just can't do anything for themselves.

[hex_usr]

Well, I tried using the Submit Translation form, but I use mega.co.nz for file hosting, which does not expose filename extensions in its URLs. Before I can submit this patch, I need to find and register for a file hosting service whose filenames are visible in its URLs.

In the meantime, you can get the patch here. I already posted the link in my first post, but I guess Rodimus Primal did not see it, so I'm posting it again, just in case. It should be applied to the original Japanese ROM.

[Rodimus Primal]

I saw it. I just cannot download it on the PC I'm on currently on, so I will do so when I get home. However, as far as submitting is concerned, I put the file on my public file on my Dropbox, copy the public link for the submission, and delete the file once the submission is approved. Some people use ZE Bucket but you cannot erase old versions off if you update the file.

[SunGodPortal]

Yeah I'd suggest Dropbox. It always gives me a url like: "https://www.dropbox.com/s/4wofogrfat4qa9h/Ancient%20Stone%20Tablets%20Graphics%20Dumps.rar?dl=0", to get it to work correctly I usually have to delete to "s" from "https", change "www" to "dl" and get rid of the garbage that follows the file extension. Otherwise it's been good to me.

EDIT: Oh yeah. I'll go ahead and say this in case you've never submitted anything to this site before: Be patient. Some times it can take a week or two before you'll know if it was approved or not because it seems like when they check stuff that's in the Sumission Queue they only do a few submissions at a time. Some times that might be a few day, some times a few every few days.

[Nightcrawler]

I have a few suggestions...

1. Why not forget dropbox, mega.co.nz, or any other third-party hassle, and simply use The Scratchpad right here on RHDN?

2. Why not contact mziab from mteam and see about combining patches into one release? He is active on this forum.

3. How about including more than one patch? If it isn't convenient to patch over the original base patch (as is the case here), you could include a second more convenient patch in addition to it. No rules say you can't include more than one patch, and that would surely satisfy even the most critical of reviewers.

[hex_usr]

Thanks for the advice, Nightcrawler, but I already submitted it as a Fully Playable translation with the files hosted on ZE Bucket and full credit in the description and readme. I will have to wait for the rejection message before I can do anything else.

I only assumed that I needed to use file hosting services because the submission form does not have a form control for uploading files, so I assumed that the site managers wanted to seep server load to a minimum. If the Scratchpad is an option for file uploading, then I just made donkeys out of myself and everyone involved.

[Grimoire LD]

Hmm, I used the patch you supplied and in a new game the Hero's defense starts at 255 and gains Level 4 in one battle of 5 Exp. Then again, it also said that the attempt to patch it had failed, but the file was still created. Was this an issue on my end then?

EDIT, since there doesn't appear to be an option to delete the post... seems I had the wrong ROM. That has been fixed now.

[hex_usr]

I know I'm necroposting, which is strongly discouraged, but I finally got the rejection letter, so I hereby give publishing rights to mteam. I don't want this hack to be forgotten just because I botched a submission.

Having it submitted as a ROM hack did not sit right with me, because it includes RPGOne's translation in the patch, and I already explained in my previous posts why I'd rather not submit a patch for a patch if possible (inconvenience really adds up, especially when copier headers are involved). Ideally, RPGOne should be "front and center" for crediting because the amount of work they did far exceeds ours, and their hack was the base upon which our hacks were made. mteam and myself should just get side mentions in the description. Unfortunately, during submission, my name was not in the list of authors, and I could not find a way to add it without making it "front and center".

The hack was not removed from my mega.co.nz account, so it is still available. Make sure you apply it to the original Japanese ROM without a header.

[Rodimus Primal]

I know you don't like the idea of having to combine 3 seperate patches but you might think it best to create a patch just to fix the bug present in the translation. Then link in the description to the translation and link to the title screen fix and give instructions on what to do. You still have the full patch on Mega but this would give people credit where its due.

Also you can edit credits so that folks get credit on the Project Page. You have to do so AFTER the Project Page is created though. To see what I mean by all of this, look at my hacks and their project pages:

Rodimus Primal's hacks

[eyeball226]

I know I'm necroposting, which is strongly discouraged, but I finally got the rejection letter, so I hereby give publishing rights to mteam. I don't want this hack to be forgotten just because I botched a submission.

...

The hack was not removed from my mega.co.nz account, so it is still available. Make sure you apply it to the original Japanese ROM without a header.

Apologies for the necro, but it seems like it's gone from your mega.co.nz account now. Is there anywhere I can get your fix now? Either as a standalone patch or a patch to a patch?

[Bahamut ZERO]

I too am curious to know if this patch still exists. Was about to start a playthrough of DW2 and found out about the bug. 

[cliff]

I found a copy of the patch and readme on a public file hosting site:

http://www.bwass.org/bucket/dragon_quest_1_and_2_rpgone_beran_inn_fix_2_2.7z
http://www.bwass.org/bucket/dragon_quest_1_and_2_rpgone_beran_inn_fix_2_2.txt

It's the multi-step version of the patch. beat claimed the patch had failed in the last step (DW version), but the CRC matched the one in the readme and the final result ROM loaded fine in snes9x, so I assume everything is okay. I haven't tested if the bug is actually fixed though.

[Kallisto]

If I'm not mistaken..someone here provided a patch on one the threads here that has the fix already installed.

[eyeball226]

It's the multi-step version of the patch. beat claimed the patch had failed in the last step (DW version), but the CRC matched the one in the readme and the final result ROM loaded fine in snes9x, so I assume everything is okay. I haven't tested if the bug is actually fixed though.

Thank you so much! It doesn't seem to be the multi-step version to me but rather the all-in-one version. Either way, the DQ version worked with no problems whatsoever (no failure message like your experience with the DW version).

[hex_usr]

I thought I'd come back to elaborate on the missing link.

Mega restructured their website last year or early this year (not sure exactly when), and every single one of their old links all went dead simultaneously. All of my files are still intact, but they now have new links instead.

Dragon Quest I & II RPGOne Beran Inn Bugfix can now be downloaded here instead. Just like before, it should be applied to the original Japanese ROM.

This patch will never be hosted on ROMHacking.net. The anti-plagiarism policies here are actively working against my efforts to reduce inconveniences for users. I took a long exile from making posts here because of it, and only now decided to come back because someone complained that the patch was taken down. Despite this, I still stand by my policy even now.

I did send a private message to mziab giving him full rights to host the patch... but he seems to have not done so. I will respect his choice and not bother him about it again.

If hosting this patch requires users to take the following steps:

• Add a copier header to the original Japanese ROM. (hard)
  
• Apply RPGOne's translation. (easy)
  
• Remove the copier header. (hard)
  
• Apply mteam's Title Screen fix. (easy)
  
• Apply hex_usr's Beran Inn bugfix. (easy)

...then I'm not willing to comply. I have nothing against anti-plagiarism in general, but in this specific case, it is a convenience problem. Copier headers cause so many problems while solving 0 problems. If the original RPGOne translation is re-hosted without a copier header requirement, then I might be willing to reconsider because it would only be 3 easy steps instead of 5 harder steps. But that will never happen, because RPGOne no longer exists and would be incapable of giving permission. So we're at a standstill.