Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

I've been looking around the PSIV code tonight, and the text is easier to find than I thought, though I've got a really awesome guide of all things PSIV: http://www.wrftpb.com/psiv/. That's got all kinds of data. It's too bad the guy that wants to make the editor is currently working on another project, because I'll be able to hunt down all the text in a week or so. I haven't found any unused dialogue yet, like in PSI, but there's some oddities.

Does anyone around here having much programming experience? If so, maybe someone will figure this out: ALL the PSIV level-by-level data, Character names, and Character Profession are in the code twice. My question is.... why? What an enormous waste of space! Though they don't seem to edit quite correctly. On one the experience needed to gain a level doesn't change if you edit the second level, on the other... it does, yet the data is identical. I'd love to know what's going on with it!

Maybe the 2nd set of data is like a, I dunno, backup? For example, take the Deban ability... It raises the party's defense in battle, so maybe the 2nd set of numbers "reset" the stats once the battle's over.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks for the input. My brainstorming hasn't come up with an answer yet!

I hope that helped somewhat...though no other explanation comes to mind.

Though I wonder... Are there any changes at all that would make the sets of data differ as the game progresses? Perhaps you could look into that with savestate hacking... (if possible) It may shed some light on this matter.

As a programmer, I would say that there's any number of reasons the data could be duplicated. Resetting to default values is a good one, but there could be others as well. It's really hard to say what that duplicate would be used for (it might have several uses) without seeing the decompiled code of the game.

Those are some interesting ideas. I still haven't figured it out from tinkering with it. I haven't done a disassembly of it; I'm only searching through the rom right now. Perhaps I'll find the answer in a disassembly. For now, I'll continue trudging through the rom for text.

Thoul, it seems some tweaking of Hordes of Nei was needed. It's V1.43, and is available at my file dump: http://www.geocities.com/komradevladmir/

Here is a list of the changes:

- Edited Magician, Centaur, Androcop, Marauder, Green Dragon, Sorceror, Centaur, Titan, Reaper, Horseman, Blue Slime, Dezorian, Evilhead, Elephant, Mammoth, Frostman, White Dragon, Wyvern, Zombie, Amundsen, Red Dragon, and Nessie enemies to make the encounters easier.

- Ultimate Gun’s damage raised.

Thanks for the update. I've got the new ones up now.

I finished a V1.44 of the Hordes of Nei patch. It includes my original concept for Myau's magic: He learns Fire instead of Terr, and now he learns Heal that only works outside of battle. It's available at the file dump!

For anyone already playing, I haven't mentioned this before, but if you update to a new patch, all you have to do to get the new stuff, is re-patch, load your save game, and equip something on a character who has changed, and that will update them with the new alterations!

Oh, and Fire only takes 3 MP now, and Rise takes 18 MP now.