How does Riviera work?, Ask me anything Options

[Raijinili]

If I don't know, I'll find out.

If I can't find out, I'll kill you.

[Nanashi]

Does Riviera use any of the GBA's Mode 7 capabilities?

[Raijinili]

I don't know what that is, but my magic Sturmball says no.

[Nanashi]

How does Riviera do voiceovers? Does it use samples? Digitized recordings? what?

[Raijinili]

I don't know what the heck you're talking about.

It seems to use the same channels as the regular music, so I was unable to extract the sound from the ROM.

The sound is not compressed, as far as I can tell. You can take each byte of the voices and put it into a WAV file (adding an empty byte after each byte so as to make it a 16-bit sound file).

[Nanashi]

hmm... okay another question... does Riviera use flash memory to save or battery backup?

[Raijinili]

I KNEW THIS ONE!

Flash or EPROM or EEPROM. Not battery.

[Nanashi]

How does the battle system keep track of initiative... is it an actual score that depletes as turns pass and then when it hits zero it's that characters turn?

This post has been edited by Nanashi: Mar 5 2006, 02:46 AM

[Raijinili]

Each unit has WT.

When you use an attack, your Max WT for that turn is calculated as follows:
max{floor["Base WT of skill" x (100 - "AGL") x 100], 0}

In other words, take the base WT of the move, then take away AGL% and round down. If your value is lower than 0, your max WT for that turn is 0.

The starting Current WT for that turn is just the Max WT, but take away 10% if it's an Attack move in Attack formation, and 20% if it's a MGC move in Magic formation. Either way, round down to the nearest integer.

When your WT is 0, it's your turn. Unless another unit hits 0 at the same time. I believe that the enemy has priority, and that if two units on the same side both have 0, then it is decided differently for each side.

For you, I think (untested) that the priority goes to the first unit you picked for that battle, then the second.

For your opponent, I think (partially tested) that the priority goes in the order that they're stored in the RAM:
246 <-Back
135 <-Front

The enemy with the lowest number goes first.

[Nanashi]

Ok, how about damage, how is damage determined?

[Raijinili]

Most of the information comes from research by Tonfa and Terence Fergusson.

Damage has several factors.

power = Skill's base (shown in-game)
bonus = Bonus for a hit (such as with the last hit of the final Lv3s)
cSM = "Caster's" STR/MGC
cM = The mood factor to STR/MGC*
cF = Caster's formation bonus for STR/MGC**
tSM = Target's STR/MGC
tV = Target's VIT
tR = Target's Resistance
W = Weakness type bonus, such as OAir
var = A bit of randomness. The damage's variance.

You take both STRs if it is an attack type, and both MGCs if it is a magic type. In no case do you take one of each.

From here, the information is all from Terence Fergusson and Tonfa.

*The mood factor is applied to the attacker's STR/MGC. If a positive mood, then add Chapternumber to the attacker's STR/MGC. If a negative mood, then it adds negative Chapternumber to the attacker's STR/MGC. The defender's mood does not matter.

**The Formation bonus is also equal to chapter. It's a MGC boost for Magic formation and STR for Attack Formation. It's also equal to the chapter number. Only for the player's skills.

maximum[(cSM + cM + cF -tSM), 0]

Bah, I don't understand it.
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessag...23777070&page=0

Post 76 and 77 explain it.

[Nanashi]

hmm... makes sense... Ok... Is there a sprite carrying each weapon and using it when you're using it in battle... Or, does the game have a rendering engine so it places the weapon sprite over the character sprite?

[Raijinili]

The weapon sprite and the character sprite are separate.

In fact, it seems as if there is only one Weapon sprite in the entire animation. It just rotates.