Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements-Beta Released!

Discuss/post fan stuff (images, fictions, games...)

Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements-Beta Released!

Postby Oresama » Thu Apr 07, 2011 1:34 am

Update: Download links to the latest version:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/rkzj7uypr ... Planet.rar
https://mega.nz/#!Q0ATGKKI!R_39CUsStXld ... 375Hv-gxIo

I first played Fallen Planet awhile ago and loved it, but had a few things about it that bothered me like the encounter rate and some of the MIDI choices. Rather than just complain about it I decided to use the RPGM2K editor to fix it to my liking. Knowing nothing about the program when I started using it, and still only knowing what I've figured out playing with the GUI, I would need some help to finish what I'm looking to do, and will release it publicly unless James has a problem with it once it's done. Should anyone want to play it as is, I can upload that too. I sent him an email and a PM on this board about it and didn't hear anything back, which I am taking as abandonment of any potential future development on the game. Either that or he got his Force Staff stuck in Talis' monomate. One of the two.

First, what I have already done.

-The random encounter rate has been cut to 1/3. Enemies give triple experience and meseta to compensate for the game's pacing. The random encounter enemies that did not give any experience or meseta now give EXP and MST equivalent to enemies encountered in the area. This is a massive improvement to the game's pacing and I no longer find myself screaming obscenities every 5 seconds. When not cheating you don't have tons of money left over to get the expensive items available toward the end of the game, so you still have grind to get them, honoring the pace of the original.

-The MIDI soundtrack has been completely scrapped, and replaced with WAVs. All of the music from Phantasy Star I and II now uses the improved versions found on the Phantasy Star Collection CDs. Words do not describe how glorious it is to hear these in a Phantasy Star game. If I could hack it into my Genesis carts, I would. The music from Phantasy Star IV used in Fallen Planet was not on the Phantasy Star Collection II CD, but I did have it as an MP3 perfectly ripped from the Genesis version, and used that. Music I recognized from mainstream bands has also been replaced with WAVs of the originals. So far this makes the game ~530MB bigger. The game crashed constantly when trying to use the MP3s with hacked version of RPGM2K so I will not be exploring that further. The WAVs sound better anyway, and anyone with a semi-modern PC should be able to free up 600 megs of hard drive or thumb drive space.

Other things I want to do for this release, but don't know to do in RPGM2K:
-Eliminate that awful horrible static noise the game makes once you get later into it. I assumed it was a bug with one of the MIDIs, but after replacing them with my WAVs it's still there. Fixing this is my highest priority.
-Eliminate random battles when in the Landrover. James mentioned that he should have done this in his Evil Path Let's Play too.
-There are 5 MIDIs used the game I didn't immediately recognize. If anyone know the original source for Animal, Boss4, Casino, Pirate3 and Treasure I'll incorporate the improved versions into my hack (or whatever else you want to call it).
-Make the spaceship fly over ALL mountains, not just the mountains with the larger tiles. That things makes the Dezoris run in 20 seconds for fucks sake. You won't convince me that it can't fly over a little mountain. This might be a limitation of the engine though.
-Fix typos in the game script if anyone knows where to find it.

Smaller things I could also use help with:
-Take out all snow/rain/shaking effects for a more stable game. The first time I played it got to the point where it was always raining, snowing and shaking. I couldn't take it and had to completely start over. With my knowledge of the editor I can't even find where these things are coded.
-Compile guides with useful information, like the locations of all laconia items, mirror shield, how to get the neutral path, interactions between characters and subquests that are started by bringing people A and B to Gothic, etc.

Another goofy things I considered was replacing the music in Gothic with Spray's "I Am Gothic" as heard in Dance Dance Revolution. Surprisingly it actually works.

Anyone with feedback/suggestions/offers for help please post here and feel free to PM me.
Last edited by Oresama on Sat Dec 17, 2016 5:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Oresama
Locusta
Locusta
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:41 pm

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby BenoitRen » Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:31 am

Oresama wrote:The WAVs sound better anyway, and anyone with a semi-modern PC should be able to free up 600 megs of hard drive or thumb drive space.

Sure, but it's still a large download, and web hosting space isn't free.
Get Xenoblade Chronicles!
User avatar
BenoitRen
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 3122
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:19 pm
Location: Belgium

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby Oresama » Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:55 pm

It is if you're cheap about it. :mrgreen: I was going to put it on Megaupload and post a link. I wasn't planning on asking anyone who pays for their own bandwidth to cover that. I don't even want to think about how much that would cost.
Oresama
Locusta
Locusta
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:41 pm

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby LegoMuskCat » Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:07 pm

-Eliminate random battles when in the Landrover. James mentioned that he should have done this in his Evil Path Let's Play too.
This is an easy fix. I believe you simply locate "Change Encounter Rate" in the event editor commands and set it to 0. This should disable random battles. Note that I am using RM2k3 to check these things, but the only real difference between the two are the battle systems. =P

-Make the spaceship fly over ALL mountains, not just the mountains with the larger tiles. That things makes the Dezoris run in 20 seconds for fucks sake. You won't convince me that it can't fly over a little mountain. This might be a limitation of the engine though.
That sounds like it's related to terrain or something in the map. I'd have to look at it to see how it's handled.

-Fix typos in the game script if anyone knows where to find it.
That should be located in events on the map.

Smaller things I could also use help with:
-Take out all snow/rain/shaking effects for a more stable game. The first time I played it got to the point where it was always raining, snowing and shaking. I couldn't take it and had to completely start over. With my knowledge of the editor I can't even find where these things are coded.
Sounds like this part could use work. I think weather effects are nice, but constant shaking? There's a way to turn that off or anything else undesired.
Image
User avatar
LegoMuskCat
Scorpius
Scorpius
 
Posts: 435
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:05 am
Location: US of A

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby Missagh » Thu Apr 07, 2011 7:33 pm

Just to note, James, the fan game makers email is mr.jamesquinn[AT]live.com in case you were using one of his older emails.
I have contacted him and told him about this thread. Hopefully he shows up!
-- Missagh Alami, webmaster of Phantasy Star Cave.
User avatar
Missagh
The Administrator
The Administrator
 
Posts: 1189
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:16 am
Location: Sweden and UK

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby James Quinn » Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:53 pm

Thanks Missagh for clueing me into this!

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been so out of touch!

First thing; I want to thank Oresama for his hard work and passion for my little fan game. I am totally supportive of the improvements you propose and am personally excited to see it when it's done. I was so ambitious and excited when I originally created it that I simply rushed over a lot of issues that could have been prevented/fixed with a simple QA process, and it's always been a big regret of mine. As long as no major changes are made to the story or any Character arcs and all revisions are purely technical or aesthetic then I think it's awesome! So let me just say that I am thrilled and flattered with your project.

One thing to note- I originally made the ship unable to cross taller mountains so as to prevent the player from simply dropping into the Artificial Continent (2nd to last 'level' in the game, while the airship can be acquired much sooner if you play the game a certain way.) prior to the appropriate time in the story. If you can come up with a better way to accomplish both, then you also have my support.

Keep us updated! I'm excited to see what you can do! Maybe Ill finally get around to my 'Good' and 'Neutral' path walkthoughs eventually. =)

If you need anything else, don't hesitate to hit me up. I'll try to be more accessible.
User avatar
James Quinn
Xanafalgue
Xanafalgue
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:16 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby Oresama » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:05 am

My email went to one of James' older email addresses so it's good to know that was the reason I didn't hear anything back.

Obviously my lack of knowledge for using the editor was exposed by not knowing about event editing mode. That opened up the vast majority of the game script as far as I can tell. I got it mostly cleaned up today. I didn't change the content (well, Talis is now an alien lesbian with a Myau fetish, and Josh has the hots for Jams, but other than that...), rather fixed misspellings, missing words, punctuation, etc. I think I got most of it, but after a couple hours the RPGM2K scripting started to blend together. Once it's released if anyone finds something in the script that needs to be fixed, let me know and I'll update it.

The Landrover cannot be edited the way Dreamer made it sound, at least with my understanding of the editor. Editing the encounter steps value is how I reduced the random encounter rate by 1/3. Changing those values to zero would eliminate all random encounters in the game completely, in the Landrover or not. Going to Tools->Database I see Landrover in the items tab, but nothing present there gives me any idea how to eliminate random battles when in the Landrover. If there is a way to change encounter steps when in the Landrover only, please let me know so I can make that improvement.

Looking at the game script in Event Editing Mode I found more music that needs to be upgraded. Anger, Battle3, Boss1, Nitrotech and Spirit will also need to be upgraded. As with Animal, Boss4, Casino, Pirate3 and Treasure help identifying where the MIDIs came from so I can find a better source for the music would be appreciated.

For the weather effects that won't go away, I thought about modifying the crystals and USS Enterprise in Abion's Control Tower to the appropriate switch. I tried testing this theory but setting one of the crystals to switch 0343 Rain dialogue made it disappear completely. Obviously that wasn't the proper way to do it. But I would like to add something that can be touched in Abion to enable/disable rain, snow and shaking to avoid a situation of dealing with it for the rest of the game or starting over when the effects go awry. Any ideas on how to accomplish this?

I'll leave in the limitation with the spaceship since there is a legitimate reason for it. It was something I noticed and would have fixed while I was working on the game anyway had it been an unintentional oversight.

In Camineet the guard in the Control Tower gives a message about finding the Guard Captain, which was related to finding Dune in Loar and over well before anyone gets to Camineet. This dialog was fixed.
Oresama
Locusta
Locusta
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:41 pm

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby LegoMuskCat » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:43 am

I had the code in mind for how to handle the encounters, but honestly the best way to fix something like that is for me to see it myself. It's not like the value couldn't be reset back to the way it was, either. =P I'll drop you a PM.

As for those midis, I need to reinstall RM2k to remember what they sounded like. I think I knew what one of them was, but I'm not entirely sure since it's been a few years. =(
Image
User avatar
LegoMuskCat
Scorpius
Scorpius
 
Posts: 435
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:05 am
Location: US of A

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby LegoMuskCat » Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:51 am

Sorry for the double-post, but I'm gonna post my edits as well:

  • Fixed the Landrover to work the way Oresama specified. You won't encounter enemies until you leave the vehicle.
  • I am currently working on removing the weather effects. When you leave the world map, they will stop. This should fix two events I've seen, one for snow and another for rain. I've yet to see the shaking event or find where it's located, however, since my main focus is the world map itself.
  • Added two common events in the database, both of which should cut down event size for a ton of overworld events that deal with teleporting to other maps. They also directly deal with the items I've listed above. It's easier to have them all work with the single common event since if any changes need to be made with screen transitions, then the event can be called from anywhere rather than replicating the same code over and over.

I want to finish this first and then send it, if that's fine with you, Oresama. That way you can look it over and pick and choose with whatever you decide to use.

James, I have two questions for you after looking through this charming game (I played with it to see the intro, and there's much humor and silliness in this project which I find highly appreciable). =)
    1. Is this your first RM2k project?
    2. What year was this completed?
Thanks!


EDIT: Before I forget to mention this, I am basically working on this in my spare-spare time (emphasis on the spare). I can't give an estimate as to when this will be done, but since I like systematic modifications and the likes in RM2k (I have a blast with programming things like this, honestly), it may not take too long. Gimme a few days and I'll get back to you. It may be sooner than that, no promises though since I hate deadlines. =p
Image
User avatar
LegoMuskCat
Scorpius
Scorpius
 
Posts: 435
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:05 am
Location: US of A

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby Oresama » Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:27 am

Fantastic. Thanks again for your help.

The shaking event only occurs in one place - the Noc Noc bar in Camineet. Order anything at the bar and the screen will start shaking horizontally to simulate drunkenness. Normally it stops after a little while, but sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't it gets old. Fast. Now imagine trying to play the game while it's doing that all the time, plus raining and snowing constantly, and you have my first time playing Fallen Planet. That is why I was hoping to get these things fixed while working on it.
Oresama
Locusta
Locusta
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:41 pm

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby LegoMuskCat » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:04 am

It's no problem at all. ^_^ I'm having fun with this, actually.

Thanks, saves me some trouble of finding it. :D I'll be sure to look at the bar and see why it's acting up. It could be because there's no event command places that tells the game to stop the shaking the screen, but I'll look at it tomorrow. Aside from the bar and world map, are there any other weather effects used in the game or things that just don't work right?
Image
User avatar
LegoMuskCat
Scorpius
Scorpius
 
Posts: 435
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:05 am
Location: US of A

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby Oresama » Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:50 am

The last major issue is what inspired me to redo the soundtrack in the first place that I mentioned initially. Later in the game, when the Army Eye joins, the game makes a horribly loud static noise that does not go away for the rest of the game. Something that happens with the event of the Army Eye joining or change on the world map immediately after triggers it. I sent you a save file that puts the game right at that point. If all of these issues are resolved this upgrade will be ready for a beta release so if people find typos I missed, or I forgot to hit apply in the editor before hitting OK when I fixed them the first time ;(^_^) those can be resolved. I'm hoping to hear back from James on where he got the rest of the music that needs to be upgraded, which will then be the only thing left to do. Even if all of the music isn't identified I'll still release a beta either way, and the rest of the music can be upgraded when it is identified.
Oresama
Locusta
Locusta
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:41 pm

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby LegoMuskCat » Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:38 am

I'm gonna be busy for the remainder of the weekend unfortunately (every weekend is like this for me, ugh!), so it'll take me a bit to get to everything. Now I gotta redo all the previous work in the new project you sent still, but hey, no biggy since they were easy fixes anyways. =p

I'll PM you once it's all done. =D


EDIT: It seems the problem was already resolved in my edit of the game, somehow. I think when I tampered with the weather effects, it was fixed. I know what the problem was now, it was an event set to "parallel processing" and it had some thundering sound effects... because it was a parallel process, it keeps running forever since there's nothing telling it to stop (a variable, switch, anything) and it repeats the sound effects. Adding some switch to that event to change the page settings (need to add a blank page at the end with a switch set to the event condition, basically) stops it, but I'm horrible at explaining, I'm sure. =p
Image
User avatar
LegoMuskCat
Scorpius
Scorpius
 
Posts: 435
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:05 am
Location: US of A

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby Oresama » Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:01 am

You are awesome. I only looked at it for a few minutes right now but so far so good. I'm going to play around with it for a little while tomorrow night to see if I can break it somehow, and if I don't I'll be releasing a beta Monday with a mostly improved soundtrack (save for the MIDIs that haven't been identified) and a mostly corrected script (save for anything I missed/didn't save).
Oresama
Locusta
Locusta
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 11:41 pm

Re: Phantasy Star 2.5 Fallen Planet Improvements

Postby LegoMuskCat » Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:54 pm

I'd feel really bad if I did miss something, but I think I covered all the problems you've mentioned. ^^; Lemme know how the testing goes. :D
Image
User avatar
LegoMuskCat
Scorpius
Scorpius
 
Posts: 435
Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:05 am
Location: US of A

Next

Return to Fan stuff

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron