Cheating, the easy way

[Gvaz]

Is it possible to find the value of an item, in terms of giving yourself items? Like populating your "inventory" with a list of items?

How would you do that?

[jlwmanagement]

I did that with Dragon Quest 8 and was quite involved. Each slot has a value associated with an item and normally a different location has the value of the item. However, in DQ 8 none of them were numbers you would expect. Like if you had 1 medicinal herb, the value for the number of item in that slot wasnt 1 but rather 65535. I am sure there is a reason for it, but I wasnt all that interested in finding out why.

[Coornio]

I did that with Dragon Quest 8 and was quite involved. Each slot has a value associated with an item and normally a different location has the value of the item. However, in DQ 8 none of them were numbers you would expect. Like if you had 1 medicinal herb, the value for the number of item in that slot wasnt 1 but rather 65535. I am sure there is a reason for it, but I wasnt all that interested in finding out why.

I'm pretty sure you just messed up. I have used cheat engine a lot in that game and it's easy as piss to cheat on it. The whole inventory is simply a huge followup of 2-byte addresses spanning god-knowns how long. Each slot is a combination of 2-byte addresses, the first being item type and the second item quantity. The same thing goes for the Monster Hunter franchise.

[Koji]

Is it possible to find the value of an item, in terms of giving yourself items? Like populating your "inventory" with a list of items?

How would you do that?

What you need is the "unequal" option. Switch one item in your inventory and then use unequal, then leave it alone for awhile and do equal, then switch it out with a different item and do unequal again.


Basically, you're trying to find the address for 1 slot that your inventory has (guessing you mean standard RPG inventories, adventure game type ones where each slot is only inhabited by a single item is something else entirely). Once you have the address for a single spot in your inventory, then you either use an existing item you want to duplicate, put it in that slot and get the value.

If you don't know the value, then you got to play guess work... trying new values one at a time. You generally can figure out a pattern though. If you put in a value that gives you a helmet, then you add +1 to it, then you get another helmet, it's probably safe to say that all the values around it are likely all helmets, so then you can try a much higher/lower number till you hit a new category. Some games are haphazard, but the majority fit that well enough.

[Gvaz]

Cool info, thank you!

Second question: How do I find out the value for an item where I don't know what the value is? Greater than? I find good results when the item fluctuates, but not when it just keeps increasing.

Example: Ability has a level, when it's at a higher level it does more damage. However it only levels up on usage, with no tracking of current xp or anything. It just displays it is at the higher level. Now, would I check for the change in level (iow, search for level 4, changes to five, search for 5, etc) or search for the increasing value? The problem I can think of is twofold: One, the value restarts from zero to meet a new "xp limit" before it levels up again, so I can't exactly check for existing xp, I suppose at least until the level up happens, then I would search for a decrease in value. The other issue is, would changing the level that I see in the menu to use the ability, simply change its display level and not the actual level?

To be less vague: I'm talking about anima special attacks and character special attacks in Xenosaga 3.

[Saiki]

same way I checked for the data drain in .hack

You know it's unknown, and you know with use it increases. that's what you use. also use a savestate to knock the data back so you can clear that as well. I'll make a video for .hack in a while if you need it as an example

[Gvaz]

So search for unknown initial value, then do increased value? Then you do that a few times, then reload the savestate and do decreased value?

[fade2black001]

I can vouch for Cheat engine not working on PCSX2. Although Saiki you claim it does. Maybe it was a problem on my end... I tried it out with FFX for gil. I found the right value for it and I entered an amount (all in 9's) and it crashed the emulator. What it simply did was make the numbers (the text) transparent and it color was really light. After a few secs of sitting idle or the next thing you do (scroll down the menu, exit it ect) the emulator would crash.

[Saiki]

I can vouch for Cheat engine not working on PCSX2. Although Saiki you claim it does. Maybe it was a problem on my end... I tried it out with FFX for gil. I found the right value for it and I entered an amount (all in 9's) and it crashed the emulator. What it simply did was make the numbers (the text) transparent and it color was really light. After a few secs of sitting idle or the next thing you do (scroll down the menu, exit it ect) the emulator would crash.

[attachment=44337]
FFX international:
patch=1,EE,2031CE98,word,1DCD6500

once my recording software is done.. I'll upload a video too

[Gvaz]

I get the former specific value in your patch, but what does the other number signify? (the latter one)

I found the value for a specific character special attack experience simply placed in an 8 byte value, lol. It's not even anything complicated, it's just cumulative. I couldn't believe it.