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If you look around the edges of the License Board, you’ll find things called "Quickenings", which cost 50 LP. They’re sort of like a Limit Break, except you can use them whenever you have full MP and it depletes all your MP. Only one person can learn each one, and if you have more than one character who can use one, you can chain them together using the button commands while the first character is using theirs. If you’re lucky, you can even have two characters switch back & forth (I got a 4-5 combo off of Balthier and Vaan alone, doing 5000 damage).
There’s a quickening directly down from Steal etc. that is fairly easy to reach, as well as one up from the accessories area.
Actually, as I thought about it, I was wondering the same thing. Does it have a value for a ruler? It would be a bit strange for a ruler to have low loyalty to their own cause.
Oh yeah, and I’m on SoSZ too, but I happened to see the post here first :P
I actually just got done beating them up with a couple Mist chains. I took out two of the chicks with a two-Mist chain each (feeding my 2 Mist-ers ethers), then pummeled the third one and finally took out the Cluckatrice. It took me over 10 phoenix downs, but I somehow managed it at level 9 myself. Used around 40 potions too.
The missing stat is 信頼.
This translates to "Reliance, trust, or confidence". The first kanji means faith, trust, or loyalty, while the second means trust or request. I’d almost be inclined to call it "Reliability", but if its game function looks more like loyalty, that’d be the better choice naturally.
Hmm… XVI it looks like a good enough hex editor, I’d have to use it to see what’s different. WindHEX was developed specifically to deal with ROM hacking, so it’s pretty well geared toward that.
CS stands for Computer Science, so yeah, I’m pretty much a programmer. I’ve thought about making an RTKesque creation kit (since I also liked Gemfire, Genghis Khan etc), and it doesn’t seem like it’d be incredibly difficult, but it would be time-consuming. I’d want to wait until next quarter to start, since I’m overloading and taking the toughest math class offered here. Plus there are all kinds of side things to worry about, like AIs (pathfinding with partial info. is nasty – so battle AI would be especially tough), amount of depth, ease of use…
Of course, at least half of the effort would be on the part of non-programmers – artists, a composer, writers… Game creation is more art than programming nowadays.
I’m pretty sure a different one is ambition – I think I mentioned it in my last post, all the traditional ambitious rulers (Cao Cao, Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu) had the most.
It could be something that has to do with ambition… maybe willingness to attack another ruler? That would make sense.
I haven’t tried RTK4 in a really long time, just because the game is really rare and I still don’t have a copy myself. I don’t recall much of anything about the game, but I might give it a try.
What hex editor are you using? WindHEX is case-sensitive, so if you search for Pu you should only get the names – although with bigger names like Liu Bei etc. you will probably have to go through some dialogue first.
Well, I’m not sure if it would be possible to change the equations that decide how much food is consumed and that kind of thing. Right now I’m thinking we may be able to only adjust stats… but there’s only so much you can do with that. I wonder if it might be possible to change who starts where?
If there’s a way we could change how much food soldiers require, that might be interesting. Another thing I thought of doing is making high Army much more rare, so simultaneous attacks can only be done by the "grand strategists" (Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Zhou Yu, etc). But that would only do so much to help the problem. I’d have to take another look and see if I can track down anything more interesting, but I’m not sure if I have the patience for it tonight…
Any more thoughts on what the hidden stats could be?
I didn’t think of kindness and mercy, but it would seem odd to me to have Ma Chao have more kindness than, say, Liu Bei. Maybe it could be some sort of "stubbornness" stat? That would explain Zhang Fei, Ma Chao etc having high stats, and Guo Jia would be the outlier.
It could be life span too, but Guo Jia having a fairly high one would be odd, same with Sun Ce, while Zhao Yun has a short one. Huang Zhong’s stat is 94…
TF – Thanks for the praise, I’m still a beginner though. Some people know assembly code for some of these systems… I’ve only been hacking about a year, but I got to know how the system works through translating an NES game – probably helps that I’m a CS major, so I’ve learned a bit through this or that class. If you can think of anything more interesting to do than just stat hacks (changing text would be easy if we stay within limits – we could correct errors in officer names too), that would be fun. I may give RTK2 NES a try later on.
As far as the numbers before the "normal" stats, here are some examples. There may be 5, but it seems to have an odd format for the beginning part.
Sun Jian: 6a 00 d2 8e 10
Zhou Yu: 4a 00 b5 aa 00
Sun Quan: 6c 00 e6 6a 70
Huang Gai: 3b 00 5b 7c 70
Liu Bei: a1 00 bc a6 60
Guan Yu: 1e 00 4d cd 50
Guan Ping: 29 00 9a aa 10
Liu Feng: d8 00 29 aa 10 (I was curious, he is an heir for Bei)
Huang Zhong: 41 00 96 99 70
Liao Hua: d9 00 77 88 70
Liu Qi: 9d 00 66 a6 00
Wang Ping: dd 00 a7 88 60
Cao Cao: 67 00 fd ef 60
Xiahou Dun: 19 00 9d ad 60
Zhang Liao: 7a 00 a8 99 30
Xiahou Mao: f8 98 86 86 70 (?????)
Yuan Shao: 03 00 a7 b8 40
Yuan Shu: 05 00 d5 89 30
Liu Dai: 6c 8e 86 99 70 (again ?????)
Quan Cong: 99 86 56 77 60
Kong Rong: 43 00 48 95 50
Gongsun Zan: 40 00 96 c9 20
Lu Bu: a3 00 f8 3f 40
Dong Zhuo: 86 00 f9 78 40
The first stat is somewhat odd. The highest values are Xiahou Mao, Liao Hua, and Liu Feng. The lowest are Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Xiahou Dun. Lu Bu has a fairly high one, while Kong Rong has a low one. I’m going to have to think about this a while.
Unfortunately, the second stat is a complete mystery. What is so special about Xiahou Mao, Liu Dai, and Quan Cong? The only possibility I could see is cowardice (I don’t recall what Quan Cong did actually :P ) at this point….
The third stat seems to be ambition. Cao Cao, Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, Yuan Shu, and Sun Quan have fairly high ones. Most values fit the character well, except maybe Wang Ping (though he did betray Wei).
The fourth stat… well, the highest ones are Cao Cao, Gongsun Zan, Zhou Yu, Xiahou Dun… Zhuge Liang’s is e9, while Zhao Yun’s is ee. If it weren’t for Gongsun Zan, I’d say this would be "cool under fire" or some such. Lu Bu, Sun Quan, Huang Gai and Dong Zhuo have relatively low ones… Could be "mercy", but Liu Bei’s is sort on on the low side.
I’m 99% sure the last stat is approximate lifespan. Look at Liu Qi, who was sickly, with 0, and Huang Zhong and Liao Hua who have 70.
Grah. So these are pretty tough.
Here are the tuples I looked up (I tried to choose distinct personalities, as well as some that should be nearly the same). I’ve ordered them by kingdom where possible, so you can see some of the ideas.
Oh, and I haven’t converted this from text because I really don’t want to go through and multiply all that – sorry, but if you want the direct number, multiply first digit by 16 and add the second. A = 11, F = 15.
These are 4 ‘stats’ we "don’t know". They come directly after the 6 stats I outlined above in the hex, so I know they relate to the character in question. (There are more numbers before the 6 stats; I haven’t looked at those yet).
Sun Jian: 7d 44 02 9c
Sun Ce: 7F 5a 02 AF
Taishi Ci: 78 4d FF A6
Han Dang: 82 53 FF 9c
Gan Ning: 7f 4c FF AF
Liu Bei: 4b 64 01 a1
Zhang Fei: 4b 59 FF A8
Zhao Yun: 4b 5a FF 9c
Ma Chao: 46 4f 05 b0
Dong Zhuo: 00 27 08 8b
Lu Bu: 0E 02 FF 9b
Cao Cao: 19 46 00 9b
Xiahou Dun: 19 5a FF 9d
Xiahou Yuan: 19 5c FF 9e
Guo Jia: 19 5a FF AA
Yuan Shao: 65 23 03 91
Yuan Shu: 8c 27 04 9a :)
Gongsun Zan: 3c 3c 09 99
Kong Rong: 13 38 FF 99
Han Fu: 8b 39 FF 95
Here’s what I’m thinking so far:
The first is almost certainly compatibility: for proof of this, just look at Cao Cao’s section (all 19) or Liu Bei’s section (~4b, except Ma Chao who’s lame). I’m guessing Wu is more fragmented because they hadn’t fleshed out a lot of the lesser generals at this point in the series.
The second is probably loyalty or honor: look at Liu Bei’s section, where almost all characters have values in the high 50s or 60s. Yuan Shao and Shu have the expected low values, while Lu Bu is incredibly low, although Dong Zhuo is unexpectedly high (more loyal than Yuan Shao?). So less loyalty than Lu Bu is not only possible, it seems likely if they’re given a default "0" value (which I could sorta see as a bug).
The third part shows who is the heir to a kingdom that has them. Why do I suspect this? Almost all sub-generals have FF (probably a "none"). It doesn’t necesarily designate a ruler, as Sun Ce isn’t always a ruler. Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and Gongsun Zan all have heirs, so they have numbers; but Kong Rong and Han Fu are rulers who have none. Lu Bu likewise becomes a ruler without an heir, but Dong Zhuo has Niu Fu as one (although I haven’t looked at the code). So the third part designates family.
If you think I might’ve gotten any of the above wrong, please let me know, as I’m pretty tired and going off what I remember of TK lore.
The fourth part confuses me, honestly. Ma Chao stands above all with b0. Sun Ce and Gan Ning both have high values (AF). Makes me lean toward bravery, but Guo Jia (!) is the next with AA, ranking above Sun Jian, both Xiahous, Zhang Fei, Taishi Ci….
So my question for you guys as fellow RTK fans is… what do Ma Chao, Sun Ce, Gan Ning and Guo Jia have that the likes of Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Kong Rong, and Sun Jian apparently lack?
Sorry for the long-winded post, I was thinking through this as I wrote it.
Yeah, the created officers for RTK games tend to be the exact opposite of how you try and make them for some reason. :/
The issue with trying to modify created officers’ hidden stats is that… they’re definitely hardcoded somewhere and I have no idea how you would find that. Changing them "after the fact" might be easier, but they’d still be stored in the separate memory.
I’ll take a look now and see if I can at least find some hidden stats. This may include some detective work, so I’ll post the numbers here if I can’t figure this stuff out right away…
It seems likely it’d be in there somewhere, but the way they encode it might be odd. It could be birthdate and lifespan…
And then, when you get into dates, they could just have normalized them (i.e. 130 is "0" so all birthdates are coded as X where real one is "130 + X").
Maybe I’ll take another look tonight and see if I can compare a few officers to get a feel for how it might be stored.
The order they’re stored in is what got me the first couple times; I had to search for a couple different values. Army, Navy, War, Int, Pol, Chm should be the order.
3 can indeed be hacked, I took a look at it just now, here’s what I came up with:
Stats in RotTK3 are stored directly in the hex.
For example, take Sun Jian. His stats are 84/72/90/87/81/90 (Int, Pol, War, Chrm, Army, Navy).
In the hex, his stats are stored around 0x000AA290.
They’re stored in a different order, though. The second column is the start of the stats:
81 (Army), 90 (Navy), 90 (War), 84 (Int), 72 (Pol), 87 (Chm), encoded as the block (515A5A544857). The rest of the values might contain hidden stats, but I haven’t done any testing. After the values, my hex editor even has the name: Sun Jian (53756E000000004A6961), separated by 4 spaces in the hex (which looks standard).
Let’s say I want to give him 100 War, because I think he was particularly awesome.
I would change the third stat hex value to 100 (0x64)…
save, and load up the ROM.
Check in and…
he has 100 War. Changing other values for characters is similar.
Let’s say I want to give Cheng Pu his stats from, say, RTK8 (I made up Army and Navy).
I would search the text of the ROM for "Cheng" – it turns out he has only 2 spaced between surname and given – search manually for Pu, and change the appropriate values.
It’d be a bit tedious to change a lot of values, but changing just a few shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Guide updated. This update covers the first actually difficult battle in the game, including a couple towns and a formatting change or two.
My Zhang Fei’s dead and from the looks of it revives cost 600. I may have to kill a lot of bandits to get enough gold to bring him back.
