Secret of Mana, Turbo - Beta 230822

[Mr X]

I tried your latest update, have got the girl and I can't seem to buy more than one arm guard.

If it helps, I usually  also use Easier or Harder Monsters patch also (the one that doubles HP of bosses).

EDIT: It still happens that I can't buy more than one arm guard even without the above mentioned patch.

[Queue]

Items\Unique_Equipment
(Obviously disable it if you find it unpleasant.)

I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but with how few items the game has, I personally am enamored with the result.

[Mr X]

Items\Unique_Equipment
(Obviously disable it if you find it unpleasant.)

I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but with how few items the game has, I personally am enamored with the result.

Oh ok thanks. Out of curiosity may I ask what's the idea behind that?

[Queue]

There aren't that many items in the game; Items\Unique_Equipment forces you to use basically all of them because you can't just double or triple up on whatever is "best."

The only point in the game where this really hurts is when there's a huge jump in defense on equipment AND the most accessible option is a single helmet, armor and accessory available from one merchant (in vanilla it's not unusual to simply buy three sets of it before heading into the volcano). The rest of the game there's just enough variety within items available at a given time that you'll be fine (defense-wise), and you get to decide who you want to wear what instead of having three clones.

[FlamePurge]

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for this; I just tricked out my SNES Secret of Mana copy with a bunch of enhancements and bug fixes.

Now, if only someone would make it so Secret of Evermore let you confirm in menus with A and run with B...

[Mr X]

There aren't that many items in the game; Items\Unique_Equipment forces you to use basically all of them because you can't just double or triple up on whatever is "best."

The only point in the game where this really hurts is when there's a huge jump in defense on equipment AND the most accessible option is a single helmet, armor and accessory available from one merchant (in vanilla it's not unusual to simply buy three sets of it before heading into the volcano). The rest of the game there's just enough variety within items available at a given time that you'll be fine (defense-wise), and you get to decide who you want to wear what instead of having three clones.

I am actually enjoying it, definitely wont turn that off 

[FlamePurge]

Hey Queue, do any of the bug fixes fix the extra Sword's Orb glitch? That's probably the only one I'd like to stay, if at all possible.

[Queue]

If you mean saving at Neko in Ice Country, then starting a new game, then soft resetting at Mantis Ant, then loading the save, to get an 8th sword orb, two different things interfere with doing that:
- Bug_Fixes\Ice_Country_Neko_Landing
- Technical\Disable_Soft_Reset
You'll need both of those off for that.

If you use:
- Items\Weapons_Progression_Balance
You'll get an 8th sword orb (to forge the level 9 sword) without glitches.

In either case, I recommend:
- Bug_Fixes\Mana_Magic_Unequip_Fix
Since Mana Magic has issues when it fades in general, and especially if you have the level 9 sword (though this does nerf the level 9 sword's stats to be in-line with other level 9 weapons; it's still crazy buffed when under the effects of Mana Magic though). Because the level 9 weapons are all so bad (no procs), the level 9 sword is still the best of them. Lots of level 6 weapons are totally better weapons though. -_-

[FlamePurge]

Oh, OK. I enabled the Neko Ice Country landing bug fix. I'll live without my extra Sword's Orb like a good boy, lol. Thank you very much!

[Hybrid Divide]

@Queue

Thanks again for all your hard work!  Quick question!  I read that the "Level 9 Weapons Progression Balance" patch was updated recently.
Will the new version be implemented into the next SoM Turbo release?

Thanks! 

[Queue]

It will be, but probably not the very next release; you can safely assume I'll have all of Kethinov's hacks available and as their newest versions eventually. It just takes time (and there are so many!). For example, the next release will finally have his "Easier or Harder Monsters" hack, but it took a while to figure out how to import it (it's over 100 2-byte edits, which is pretty horrible to type by hand, and still tough to copy and paste because it's a bunch of small disjointed changes) and give the user a means to choose settings for it. I'm hoping to have a release later today since the most recent download either has expired, or will very soon.



Version 2019-06-18:
https://ufile.io/lfa4z3tr

Changes:
- Added Kethinov's "Easier or Harder Monsters" (configurable via the Advanced Options menu)
- Added superscript 3 markers to features that expand the ROM from vanilla 2 MB to 3 MB (features marked with ~ expand it to 4 MB)
- Feature cross-dependencies sorted; if you uncheck every feature with a superscript 3 or ~ in its description, you'll get a 2 MB output ROM
- Fixed a bug in the ZSNES MSU-1 loader that caused a lockup when starting a new game in ZSNES
- Added a bug fix for an obscure vanilla memory corruption bug related to attacking bosses (Bug_Fixes\Boss_Block_Fix)
- Minor code cleanup
- Fixed Spring Beak rendering issue (related to Scroll Hack)
- Fixed Mech Rider II rendering issue (related to Scroll Hack) and fixed minor art issue on the lower arches in his fight room
- Fixed a tree north of the Potos elder's house
- Fixed two minor art issues outside the Fire Palace

[lexluthermiester]

It will be, but probably not the very next release; you can safely assume I'll have all of Kethinov's hacks available and as their newest versions eventually. It just takes time (and there are so many!). For example, the next release will finally have his "Easier or Harder Monsters" hack, but it took a while to figure out how to import it (it's over 100 2-byte edits, which is pretty horrible to type by hand, and still tough to copy and paste because it's a bunch of small disjointed changes) and give the user a means to choose settings for it. I'm hoping to have a release later today since the most recent download either has expired, or will very soon.



Version 2019-06-18:
https://ufile.io/lfa4z3tr

Changes:
- Added Kethinov's "Easier or Harder Monsters" (configurable via the Advanced Options menu)
- Added superscript 3 markers to features that expand the ROM from vanilla 2 MB to 3 MB (features marked with ~ expand it to 4 MB)
- Feature cross-dependencies sorted; if you uncheck every feature with a superscript 3 or ~ in its description, you'll get a 2 MB output ROM
- Fixed a bug in the ZSNES MSU-1 loader that caused a lockup when starting a new game in ZSNES
- Added a bug fix for an obscure vanilla memory corruption bug related to attacking bosses (Bug_Fixes\Boss_Block_Fix)
- Minor code cleanup
- Fixed Spring Beak rendering issue (related to Scroll Hack)
- Fixed Mech Rider II rendering issue (related to Scroll Hack) and fixed minor art issue on the lower arches in his fight room
- Fixed a tree north of the Potos elder's house
- Fixed two minor art issues outside the Fire Palace

Rockin it man, Rockin it!   

[kethinov]

- Minor code cleanup
- Fixed Spring Beak rendering issue (related to Scroll Hack)
- Fixed Mech Rider II rendering issue (related to Scroll Hack) and fixed minor art issue on the lower arches in his fight room
- Fixed a tree north of the Potos elder's house
- Fixed two minor art issues outside the Fire Palace

Which hacks were modified here? Just Tidy Map Pieces? (I presume not Scroll Hack itself?)

[Queue]

Scroll Hack is tiny, just 4 bytes changed to alter the amount of slack allowed on each side of the screen before you start scrolling, so there's not really any way to modify it (aside from going nuts and rewriting how screen scrolling works).

Anyway, the two changes that mention bosses (and Scroll Hack) are changes to Bug_Fixes\Boss_Rendering_Fix, the other two are Bug_Fixes\Tidy_Map_Pieces. When I do map tidy-ing on a fixed boss room, those changes are in Bug_Fixes\Boss_Rendering_Fix as well since they often have to accommodate or even depend on the boss room shift.

[kethinov]

It occurs to me another possible approach to address my concern about Equip 2nd Weapon is to steal the [Start] button back from Safe Save State and use that key for it instead of X. Is making that an option a possibility? Could potentially even make it compatible with Safe Save State by instead requiring Safe Save State to be activated with R + [Start] instead or something.

[Queue]

I'm not sure Start would be viable, at least if quick weapon switching is to be available for multiplayer. I overloaded Start with safe save state because I figure a pause primarily meant for save states made sense as a single player feature, and because Start is often a pause button (SoM's got pretty atypical button assignments), so having it be a button combination (like in zhaDe's original set up for NGI) was overkill.

A combination press for quick weapon switch isn't unthinkable, it just isn't super trivial to implement. Changing any of zhaDe's hotkey code usually involves untangling side effects, not because there's anything wrong with it, but because there are so few buttons, they're all already used for something, or often multiple things at this point. For example, the reason R + X is non-trivial is if Manual Blocking is on and overrides R, when you press R it triggers the block animation, and weapon swapping needs the character to not be playing a block animation (among other things, keeping the explanation plain). So you can make R + X not block (or stop blocking), but it takes time for the character to stop blocking, so you'd have to hold R + X to get a weapon swap... but then weapon swap code would need to be changed to wait until a swap is okay rather than seeing the buttons, knowing now isn't a good time, then not recognizing that same press until they've been released (I actually already did change this button logic in a previous release to make it more tolerant in combat). Weapon swap would work with a perfectly synchronous press of R + X, but strict timing for something like that would suck. Setting the hotkey to R + X (or whatever button or combination) isn't the difficult part; having the buttons not conflict with others is. R + Start has similar considerations on block animation timing (the inverse of your suggestion), plus if you release R before Start, avoiding triggering any of Start's other behavior.

I get that you want vanilla X behavior back, I just haven't found anything adequate for an alternate button choice.

[kethinov]

Ah yeah, duh, [Start] is needed to tag in / tag out for multiplayer, so you're right that is obviously not viable. Dunno why I forgot that. [R] + [X] is really the only good solution. A shame it would be so much work.
June 22, 2019, 01:44:53 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Found a bug. When you apply the Turbo Logo without the other title screen hacks applied, this happens:

[Queue]

Whoops, I see why that happens. The Turbo Logo needs to re-arrange the tile map for the logo; you can see there that the tile map is wrong; that's the vanilla logo tile map with the Turbo Logo tiles filling the vanilla unused spaces in the logo. In order to look good with the restored Japanese background image, I have to shift the entire Secret of Mana logo up. Currently, the Turbo Logo depends on that logo shifting code the restoration uses, so if Restore_Title_Screen is off, the tile map doesn't get changed at all. Just need to rework the patcher logic a little to compensate (erm, which I did before I finished typing and posting this).

Thanks for the bug report. =)

[darthvaderx]

Updated three of my hacks:

- Neko and Watts in the Mana Fortress (https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4413/): Fixed the VWF issue Queue pointed out.
- Equipment Progression Balance (https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4422/): Fixed a crash when combined with VWF reported by someone who emailed me.
- Magical Herb (https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4426/): Compressed the code the same way Queue did in the Turbo patcher.

Going to work on compatibility fixes for Relocalized next. Thanks for the help, Queue!

In Seiken Desentsu 3/Trials of Mana if you hold down the A button during a battle, the character you are controlling will automatically fight, would it be possible to implement something like this in Secret of Mana?

[lexluthermiester]

In Seiken Desentsu 3/Trials of Mana if you hold down the A button during a battle, the character you are controlling will automatically fight, would it be possible to implement something like this in Secret of Mana?

Maybe. It might be possible to let the AI routines take over on command..