Something I've found regarding Newcomer/Casual

[Bloo]

I'm not sure whether this is already taken for granted, and is something everyone already knows, or I'm just being incredibly unlucky.

Anyway.

It seems like the outcome of the Enemy Phase is determined during your player phase, and no amount of loading Casual mode saves can change it.

E.g. Lunatic+ Prologue, I did the normal turn 1 maneuvers, and then made a casual save before ending my turn. However, however many times I reloaded this save, on the enemy phase Frederick always missed the same Barbarian with his Silver Lance, and hit the other one. I do realise that I could just be unlucky with rolls, but also the Avatar always Dual attacked against the Merc that Chrom was facing.

I unfortunately don't have any video or pictures as evidence.

Again, I apologise if this is already common knowledge or incorrect, but I found it noteworthy.

[Agent Khaine]

I've always done Classic and never really used the Save feature on Casual, so I can't really comment with anything useful.

[Tables]

Yeah, this is known. Basically, the RNs are fixed. I'm not sure if it's only for a short period following the load (i.e. some number of RNs are saved in advance, then some new seed is generated based off of something like the time or whatever), or if the RNG is entirely fixed forever. I think it'd probably need more testing.

[Bloo]

Yeah, this is known. Basically, the RNs are fixed. I'm not sure if it's only for a short period following the load (i.e. some number of RNs are saved in advance, then some new seed is generated based off of something like the time or whatever), or if the RNG is entirely fixed forever. I think it'd probably need more testing.

Oh, darn. Thanks for the heads up. Does the same sort of thing apply to level ups as well?

[Czar_Yoshi]

Yeah, this is known. Basically, the RNs are fixed. I'm not sure if it's only for a short period following the load (i.e. some number of RNs are saved in advance, then some new seed is generated based off of something like the time or whatever), or if the RNG is entirely fixed forever. I think it'd probably need more testing.

I've been doing some testing of my own here, and while it's not done yet I still found a few useful things.

First, the RNG that controls enemy movements and the RNG for everything else are separate. That means you can't just run and avoid battles for a turn to change things.

Second, the RNG for battle calculations and level ups is linked, meaning it is possible to advance the RNG (with patience) by levelling up your staffbots/Olivia. Since the enemies in Apo wait for you to make the first move, this means you can freely manipulate the RNG before starting Secret Apo's waves 2 and 3. If you break someone's weapon, you could also do it at the end of wave 3.

I'm currently trying to rig levelups to see if I can use them to tell what order the RNG rolls numbers for various combat stats in (for example, to see if it still rolls a RN for a proc even if you don't have any procs equipped).

[shadowofchaos]

Oh, darn. Thanks for the heads up. Does the same sort of thing apply to level ups as well?

It's pretty much a savestate, unlike Radiant Dawn's Battle Saves.

This is how recording crap like this is even possible:

Sumia and Chrom's STR had to be manipulated to specific values, as if Chrom had STR over a certain threshold, it wasn't going to work.

Edited July 12, 2014 by shadowofchaos