For anyone wanting to help, or just curious, I have all of relnqshd's maps (ripped straight from the rom) here. I included the html for easy browsing, and in the future, we can draw on these maps to make points instead of just describing, like the SMW guys do.
Now a rant, which has nothing to do with Lufia, so you can skip.
You won't believe how hard it was to get these. I found the link back in Feb, but neither me nor DD saved them. The thread on GF was purged. A thread dedicated to "reli's work" didn't have them. Hell, reli's own site didn't even have them. I tried google but the couple links I found had all expired. I searched both Lufia threads, and other Lufia boards, before caving in and finding with the ultra-slow SDA search feature (in a thread called "the buggiest game in the world?" in general chat btw).
Then on the page, I noticed there was no link to any zip to get them all. It was also free hosting, so I figured I should get them before something happens. Clicking them all would have taken hours, so good thing I know how to use wget. Well they were downloading, but then the daily bandwidth limit was exceeded halfway. No problem, I continued the next day... except that two days of bandwidth wasn't even enough. So after three days of downloading, I had almost 60 MB in pngs.
Since that seemed excessive, and with all the repeating tiles, it ought to be a lot lower, I decided to optimize the pngs (this compresses over 2-3 as well as just zipping them, makes them load faster and a lot smaller when unzipped, and basically has no negatives). The program I used, pngout, was ridiculously slow. I tried it on a ~70 KB file with default settings, and it took 4 mins. The whole thing would take about 2 whole days at that rate. I was going to give up, but I found another program, optipng, that was way faster (1 sec) and compressed over twice as much... which I suppose was worth it in the end.
So all that, along with some minor html editing, turned into the link you see now. I'm just glad nobody else has to bother with this. I'm making it sound a lot worse than it was (since I didn't need to brute force anything), but it was certainly a lot more trouble than just downloading the zip/rar.
Since I realise you can hardly skip anything in this game (maybe Forfeit Island and Ancient Cave), have you decided on how to fight the Sinistrals at the end yet or no? Just as a thought to keep in mind.
I do recall that either Fry or Zap (I want to say Zap) was a paticulary good spell to use against them.
Also, you may want to check out the lufia.net forum. Some of the people there might be able to give you ideas on how to play it faster and more effectively. The link is:
Got all the maps edited in terms of removing the extra stuff (the icons off to the side and junk).
Started a run through for item cataloguing, and edited the maps further, with clear indications of what items are where, and what stairs/doors lead where.
Also included the outdoor maps of the towns, but I didn't bother editing them at all since most of them are pretty self-explanatory.
I'll keep this post updated with the maps as I progress through the game...feel free to start drawing on them in whatever manner you feel appropriate
EDIT: Decided to add shop lists to the towns, and monster locations to the dungeons. EDIT 2: Damn...I'm spending a helluva lotta time editing these maps - they look great so it's worth it. Maybe I should consider submitting these to GameFAQs when I'm done...
One of the mountains, forgot which one, will be a doozy to do. The one in which you have to lure the monster to the middle square platform. Probably will take a few retries to get the best result, since the monster can move any way it wants to.
One of the mountains, forgot which one, will be a doozy to do. The one in which you have to lure the monster to the middle square platform. Probably will take a few retries to get the best result, since the monster can move any way it wants to.
That's nowhere near as bad as getting drops. This is segmented anyway. But actually, I know what you're talking about and I seem to get lucky there usually.
Quote:
The one I found difficult was the last one, I think the Dragon Cave or something with the vine puzzle.
I think I know which dungeon you're talking about, and it's not the world's most difficult puzzle and probably not the one where you have to cut all the grass (in a 3x3 grid) that keeps on growing. So, if you mean the one with the vine on the wall that keeps on growing back when you try to bomb it... I'm 99% sure you don't even have to do that, and it's just to access the WMDP and other chests.
Anyway, no puzzle can really be "hard" for a speedrun since there's FAQs and such.
Oh right, almost forgot to say. Just for the hell of it (doesn't replace my notes or anything), I mapped out the Cave to Sundletan and Lake Cave. You can check them just in case. Might be more interesting if there were actually chests to pick up!
One thing I noticed about the Cave to Sundletan map...you push the bottom 2 blocks out of the way. I usually push 2 of the sides rather than those 2 since the Mushroom always faces down, giving it a chance at first strike.
I was also leaning toward no Insect Crush...too many fights IMO. The only other thing I was considering was picking up the Escape in the Cave to Sundletan.
As for the vine puzzle...I'm pretty sure he's referring to the 3x3 that keep growing back. The one you're referring to is a weak spot on the wall (no vine) that needs to be bombed a couple times in quick succession. It leads to the WMDT, but I actually think it may be quicker to use that route since it bypasses most of the enemies plus the Ice puzzle in the large Lava room (obviously skip the WMDT).
EDIT: Decided to list all the maps I'm planning on editing, even if I haven't gotten to them yet. Going through all the towns first since they're about 50x easier to do than the dungeons. EDIT 2: All the Towns except Chaed are done...don't have a file that has access to a non-obliterated version of the town. EDIT 3: Dungeons up to the Ruby Cave are done...god damn towers are gonna be a bitch to do...mountains will probably be worse I'm guessing...
EDIT 3: Dungeons up to the Ruby Cave are done...god damn towers are gonna be a bitch to do...mountains will probably be worse I'm guessing...
imo, the mountains will be less trouble to edit the maps of. In towers you have to backtrack sometimes to pull a switch or something (northern lighthouse), while almost every Mountain, except maybe Flower and Dragon mountain, are without backtracking
imo, the mountains will be less trouble to edit the maps of. In towers you have to backtrack sometimes to pull a switch or something (northern lighthouse), while almost every Mountain, except maybe Flower and Dragon mountain, are without backtracking
Actually, I was referring to the general layout of the map itself. I've been compiling all the floors into one giant map of each area.
Towers not only have the floors, but also an outside area...which would look silly as it's own floor. It took me a little while to decide on a good layout.
The problem with mountains is going to be the same as the towers (with an outside map) except the outside map is generally much larger, making the layout a bit more complicated.
Life got a bit busy for the last couple weeks, and I had to put everything save for DS games (since I can play those on break at work ;)) aside. Couple that with some PC issues...
At any rate, I've been working on getting the maps done. I went back and redid all of them since quality actually matters to me (yeah, I'm a friggin' perfectionist 8)), and the result is better looking maps with smaller file sizes (traded .gif for .png).
I have all towns except Chaed done, and all dungeons up to the North Dungeon. See the first post on this page for links to those. Should be able to pound out a few more maps today barring anything unusual happening...
wohoo 5 maps to go =P Fortress of Doom doesnt really need a map, since you just follow the path. Thank god you dont get random encounters there like in Lufia 1
Make that 4 to go...just finished Gratze Castle Basement. Rather easy map to do.
Dragon Mountain was a lot easier to map out than I had anticipated also. It's actually the only mountain area that the game doesn't split up into unique "sections," but rather does it by floor. It is, however, nastily huge, and still took me 3+ hours to finish.
Once I'm finished with all the maps, I'm going to make an initial item gathering list.
Now, here's the initial list of items I think I'll be grabbing. Note that this WILL change before I start on the final version of the run, but I think this will be a good starting point.
It seems the game sames ALL values when a game is saved.
Namely, I'm saved before Big Catfish, with the Eagle Rock. If I move in the exact same manner, and do the bridge puzzle the same way, I can always get the exact same fight from Big Catfish.
1 - Boomerang hits for 53, Big Catfish hits for 17. 2 - Boomerang hits for 51, Big Catfish hits for 14. 3 - Use Potion for 31, Big Catfish hits for 18. 4 - Boomerang hits for 50, Big Catfish hits for 14. 5 - Boomerang hits for 48, Big Catfish dies.
However, I don't get a Catfish Jwl.
Most other movements result in not enough damage from Boomerangs for a 4 round fight, resulting in 1-2 extra rounds. Still nothing yields a Catfish Jwl.
I will note that I tried for the better part of 30 minutes trying to get the Eagle Rock, with no luck. The ONE time I tried a weird movement pattern (ie, didn't run directly toward the Eagle) it finally dropped.
It looks like a lot of the "luck manipulation" is actually going to come from different movements and the like.
EDIT: Just tested the Eagle Rock again. It will ALWAYS drop if I fight it from the square I got it on the first time. 100% drop rate. Using the Reset spell seems to change values, so I'm gonna screw around with that to see if I can use that to a Catfish Jwl. to drop.
I remember this game. It should be an interesting speedrun with lots of variables to optimize. A few questions for ya:
1) Have you decided what items/spells to buy?
2) Is there any place where you need to do some powerleveling? Red or other-colored cores with luck manipulation might be a decent option here.
3) Do you know where the toughest spots are, i.e. bosses that may require some preparation in order to fight them speedily. I think Maxim, Selan vs. Idura might be one of them.
4) Is there some webpage out there with comprehensive information on how the damage system works, preferably created by reverse engineering the ROM? I found this kind of information to be absolutely essential for my FF5 run.
About that 'same battle sequence every time' thing. Try opening and closing the menu while walking around and see if that changes how things go. When researching luck manipulation for a TAS, you need to check everything.
2: Shouldn't need any outside levelling at all. With the right equipment/items, practically any boss can be brought down with ease.
3: Same as #1.
4: For info, IronKnuckle's FAQ at GameFAQs seems to be the best, and I've already downloaded it (used that in conjunction with my maps to get the first item grabbing list)
Lag.com: Opening the menu doesn't seem to make a difference at all. I still got the same battle with Big Catfish even if I screwed up and accidentally exited the menu while healing Maxim and equipping the Eagle Rock.
Although it does seem that the Reset spell has the largest influence on Big Catfish's pattern, so I'm gonna try screwing around with that a bit.
Although, looking at how many sheer combinations there are for manipulating things...
3 different places to make the first bridge (the long one) 4 different places to set the last bridge piece down. 2 different places to make the final one-square bridge. 7 different combinations of resets between the 3 rooms, excluding using it multiple times in one room.
3 x 2 x 4 x 7 = 168
Now, there's a variable I didn't check that I want to - the block placement order. There's 4 different bridge pieces that can be used, and I have to wonder if the order I pick them up and use them has any influence...
However that would result in:
24 different ways I can pick up the bridge pieces. 168 x 24 = 4032.
EDIT2: Saved at the top of Tanbel Southeast Tower with 32 minutes on the clock. Camu's gonna be a bitch to manipulate the Camu Jewel off of. Also, he never attacks Guy often enough for him to use the Kukri IP. For that matter, he spent a good 75% of the battle "Calling Companions" so no one's IP guage went anywhere.