Guest party members possible?

[IHBP]

I believe there exists the limited ability to edit enemy AI, if an enemy could be programmed to attack only other enemies then you could have them follow the character the same way Crono's cat does, essentially creating a guest party member.

[Acacia Sgt]

That's a very interesting idea.

Considering some enemies already do that, at least only through specific cases (like the snakes in the Cursed Woods that attack the frogs as a counterattack), then making it for all their actions shouldn't be that hard, I'd guess.

[Mauron]

You could definitely make an enemy that only attacks other enemies, but you couldn't prevent the party from targeting it.

[IHBP]

That's not a big deal, just make it impervious to damage since enemies won't target it anyway (invincible guests worked very well in Dragon Quest XI)

It however would need to be programmed to end combat when it's the last one alive. It's pretty situational but still has possibilities.

[Acacia Sgt]

I agree. Said "guest" could have either insane defense or evasion, or a barrier like some enemies do.

Sure, that means you have an invincible "party member", adding that other enemies wouldn't target it. Then again, sometimes, "guest" party members in games really are invincible, but on the trade-off that they're not THAT good in combat, and/or if the main party is defeated it's still game over even if the guest is still battle-capable.

So perhaps the same could be done here.

[IHBP]

That's exactly how it would be, and I think it would be pretty fun to play around with

[Mauron]

I've been working on improving AI editing. Right now I need a test of a hack that will be used as a base for the Temporal Flux plugin I'm working on. There should be no visible differences in AI with that patch.

[IHBP]

What exactly are the testers of that patch supposed to be looking for? And can I apply it over top of Chrono Trigger Plus?

[Mauron]

With the patch, AI behavior should be the same as before. If anything changes, that's something I need to know about.

It should be compatible with Chrono Trigger Plus, but I recommend soft patching in case there are issues.

The patch fixes a couple of glitches with AI, most of which don't take effect in the original game, and alters the AI code to use 3-byte pointers to make expansion easier.

[IHBP]

Starting in December I'll be getting back into hacking CT this is not a big deal to test.

[Fauntleroy]

Alucard voice: I'm interested in this.

This would make an amazing set piece for my hack.  The "guest member" wouldn't even have to move, but just be present for one battle and occasionally do something moderately helpful.

Has anybody made a proof-of-concept of something like this?

[IHBP]

The only thing required to make it work is you need an enemy that A: attacks other enemies and B: ends the battle when its the last one alive.

Currently there are enemies that do those things however none that do both at the same time, hence the reason we need to test Mauron's AI editing code.

[Mauron]

It's not impossible with the current code, but AI has to be in the 0xC0000-0xCFFFF range, and Temporal Flux has probably used most of the free space in that range for both your projects. It might be possible to adjust an existing AI, if it has enough space already.

[Fauntleroy]

Awesome.  It will be very interesting to see how this develops.