[GC] CRC check or any other measures ? and stuff...

[eleriaqueen]

Hi, I'd like to know if in PSO ep1&2 (plus and normal) there are measures to detect game file modifications like CRC checks or things akin to that and disable Rare Drops. (I've started play-testing but haven't found a single red box, not even on 2 nar lillies, so I'm wondering... ^_^)
My question stems from the fact that I'm running custom versions of Ep1&2, i've been experimenting with speeding up early leveling with 3x boost to OFFLINE normal EXP, 2x to Hard, 1.5x to VHard and 1.25x to Ultimate. The files I modified are BattleParamEntry and BattleParamEntry_lab with an old version of a server admin tool which just happens to handle GC as well.
(I'm too much of a noob at hacking that even with Tofuman's ItemPMT structure release I haven't the skills to write something to even slightly modify this file as well.)


Aside from that, I'd also like to implement Zorlon@EPForums 's Difficulty/Area unlocker NPC into PSO GC (it was made for Xbox and have no idea why neither pso1&2 nor Plus work with that mod, they crash when loading pioneer2) mainly because it's such an incredible pain on each new character to have to activate the pillars, talk to what's-his-face after every boss...

Just to be clear it's only to have fun playing OFFLINE on Dolphin.
And I have no plans on ever releasing anything copyrighted I have modified.

Why do I want to achieve the above ?
My attention span has been lowering quite a bit the last few years. I love PSO and would like play it still, but it contains a few oddities (by my standard) I would like gone.

[eleriaqueen]

Seems Xbox GSL files are little endian while GC ones are big endian... no wonder PSO crashes when I replace them

[Sir Rappington]

I don't know much about the specific mods you're using there, but there are definitely hacks which nullify rare drops, at least in online games (and those factors I think would be client-sided).

I can also say it's not Dolphin's fault, as I play in Dolphin (without mods) and I do see rare drops. Then again, my Dolphin client appears to hate me on any hunt worth a damn, and I too have piped Nar Lilies and failed to get a drop from them twice in a row on VHard, so YMMV.

[eleriaqueen]

Yeah, there's not any info online whether modifying game files result in no rare dropping or not.
It will probably take me a long time to test this out since rare drops are, by design rare. And not getting one at all is possible I guess >_<

@Sir_Rappington what do you mean when you say your Dolphin client hates you ? :3

[K_I_R_E_E_K]

Only mags with levels above 200 and the stackable items above 10 (with some exceptions) will disable the rare drops.
I say to keep trying to play the game to be sure that the trigger is indeed enabled. I mean in what difficulty did you kill the nar lily?

[Sir Rappington]

@Sir_Rappington what do you mean when you say your Dolphin client hates you ? :3

Sorry. Just my way of saying that it seems to drop what other people call when I'm lead, but never what I want. XD And the above-mentioned Nar Lilies thing as well. And at least 50-60 runs of FoS without a God/Battle. And... yeah.

But rares do drop. Just to be clear. In some configuration that would approximate to "normal" if, say, the universe hated me.

[Aleron Ives]

It's highly unlikely that modifying those files disables rare drops, as Sega would have had no reason to fear people using bootleg GC discs, since NODs have one of the most rock-solid copy protection schemes ever for game systems, unlike DC, where running unapproved software is easier than it is on any other system (and even on DC, you can patch the game however you want).

The fact that Mags > 200 and tools stacked > 10 disables rare drops is one of the greatest mysteries on GC. The fact that doing these things stops rares from dropping indicates that Sega knew these exploits were possible... so why not just fix the exploits in the first place instead of disabling rare drops? It's possible that rares stop dropping as a bug (perhaps as rares don't drop in quests on DC), but there's no way to know without the game's source code.

[eleriaqueen]

Ooh, thanks for the replies and answers.
@Aleron Ives It is indeed funny now that you say it ^_^.

@Kireek I killed the aforementioned Nar Lillies on Hard.