Quick Modding/Hacking Answers Thread

Thanks; it seems version 4.2.5 works, but it always helps to have an older version just in case. =P

Removed one, tested it, player is invisible and uncontrollable until reload.
Tried the other way around, same issue.
Removed both flag and equip flag, no change.

Since I can now post from a PC (rather than a lousy mobile device), I might as well post the full script from the starting map.

Spoiler

#0090
<MNA<CMU0008<FAI0000<END
#0091
<KEY<MYB0002<WAI0002<PRI<MNA<CMU0008<FAI0001<END
#0092
<MNA<CMU0008<FAI0002<END
#0093
<MNA<CMU0008<FAI0003<END
#0094
<MNA<CMU0008<FAI0004<END

#0100
<PRI<FAO0003<MYD0002<TRA0014:0093:0026:0001
#0101
<PRI<FAO0002<TRA0019:0092:0001:0061

#0200
<KEY
<PHY0000:0812<PHY0001:1535<PHY0002:0080<PHY0003:0032
<PHY0004:0085<PHY0005:0032<PHY0006:0051<PHY0007:1280
<PHY0008:0406<PHY0009:0483<PHY0010:0060<PHY0011:0012
<PHY0012:0072<PHY0013:0072<PHY0014:0025<PHY0015:0720
<PHY0016:0000<FL+0500
<MS2<TUR[            ]
Initializing physics<WAI0040<CLO<MS2<TUR[|           ]
Initializing water physics<WAI0040<CLO<MS2<TUR[||          ]
Initializing graphics<WAI0120<CLO<MS2<TUR[|||         ]
Initializing sound<WAI0120<CLO<MS2<TUR[||||        ]
Loading ORG files<WAI0080<CMU0040<CLO<MS2<TUR[|||||       ]
Loading weapon data<WAI0040<CLO<MS2<TUR[||||||      ]
Loading inventory data<WAI0080<CLO<MS2<TUR[|||||||     ]
Feeding flower dragons<WAI0080<CLO<MS2<TUR[||||||||    ]
Scanning for viruses<WAI0160<CLO<MS2<TUR[|||||||||   ]
Loading character data<WAI0040<CLO<MS2<TUR[||||||||||  ]
Revving it up<WAI0080<CLO<MS2<TUR[||||||||||| ]
Loading map data<WAI0160<CLO<MS2<TUR[||||||||||||]
Done. Initializing questions.
Press any key to continue.<NOD<CLRWARNING! Once most options have been
set, they can never again be changed
from the Hub area.      (Press any key.)<NOD<CLRThese questions will be marked with a
dagger (†). Careful not to hurt yourself
with it.<NOD<CLO<MSG<TURDo you wish to shorten (or even skip)
cutscenes?
(†)<YNJ0201<FL+0432<EVE0201
#0201
<KEY<MSG<TURDo you wish to have more save points?
(†)<YNJ0202<FL+0433<EVE0202
#0202
<KEY<MSG<TURShould NPCs repeat the same things over
and over, with no new text?<YNJ0203<FL+0444<EVE0203
#0203
<KEY<MSG<TURDo you want to restrict items to only
mandatory items? (These will be marked
with a sparkle near the chest.)<YNJ0204<FL+0445<EVE0204
#0204
<KEY<MSG<TUR
Simplify the Hub area?<YNJ0205<FL+0446<EVE0205
#0205
<KEY<MSG<TUR
Disable optional areas?<YNJ0206<FL+0447<EVE0206
#0206
<KEY<MSG<TURPlay on Easy Mode?
(+10 starting HP, and infinite ammo and
 mana for ALL weapons and spells.)<YNJ0207<FL+0448<ML+0010<EVE0207
#0207
<KEY<MSG<TURDisplay warning signs in boss rooms?
(†)<YNJ0208<FL+0449<EVE0208
#0208
<CLO<CMU0000<MS2<TURDone.
Autosaving.<WAI0080<CMU0008<SVP<CLRAutosave complete.
Press any key to continue.<NOD<CLO
<FL+0431<EQ+0002<TRA0013:0210:0030:0024

#0210
<KEY<FAI0004<SMC<FLJ0432:0211<IMGJil1<MSGMmmph…
Hm?<NOD
Where am I?
Is this… a dream?<NOD<CLR
......<NOD<CLRDon't have amnesia… I mean, my
name's Jillian Percival, age
19.<NOD I'm human, and the chosen
wielder of the legendary sword
Ritesoa, back home.<NOD<CLRBut I see it's not with me. I
think I should… maybe get out
of this dump…?<NOD<CLO<IMG0000<END
                          |   |         |
#0211
<KEY<IMGJil1<MSG
…? Where am I?<NOD<CLO<IMG0000<END
                          |   |         |

#1000
<END

The only ASM hacks applied to the mod in question would be the "errors" one (that translates the errors into English) and the TSC+ with the PHYS and TIMG add-ons.
(I removed a <LDP from the script that was placed before the <TRA event; at the time, that's the only work-around I could think of.)

_{Or… is it possibly a side-effect from having like 181 maps in the executable (despite only 128 being usable from what I could tell by testing)?}

It might be the <IMG command. But you should put a <PRI and then a <KEY at the beginning. I've never used <IMG myself, but it could be the issue.

 

How to make myself look hopeless: I'll ask an ASM question in this thread! Cuz I ain't getting help in the CSMC, and I'm all out of options.

So I'm trying to modify my <BLO command to have an argument so it can read off an npc's event number, turning it to <BLOXXXX. However, even with looking at my ASM notes and even looking off of commands by Thomas Xin or Cyber for reference to see what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong, I still can't figure out why the command just won't work with the added argument. Help would be appreciated, thanks.

Spoiler: Original <BLO code

cmp dword [eax], {<BLO
jne :START<CLO
push 0
:startloop
pop eax
cmp ah, 2
jnb :endloop
imul ecx, eax, 56
lea esi, [ecx*2+4a6220]
inc eax
push eax
test byte [esi], 80
je :startloop
cmp dword [esi+30], EventNum
jne :startloop
push 1
push dword [esi+0c]
push dword [esi+8]
call 40ea70
add esp, 0c
jmp :startloop
:endloop
add dword TSCLoc, 4
jmp ParserEnd

Spoiler: New <BLO code

cmp dword [eax], {<BLO
jne :END<BLO
mov esi, TSCLoc
add esi, 4
push esi
call ascii2num
pop ecx
push eax
push 0
:startloop
pop eax
cmp ah, 2
jnb :endloop
imul ecx, eax, 56
lea ecx, [ecx*2+4a6220]
inc eax
push eax
test byte [ecx], 80
je :startloop
cmp [ecx+30], eax
jne :startloop
push 1
push dword [ecx+0c]
push dword [ecx+8]
call 40ea70
add esp, c
jmp :startloop
:endloop
add dword TSCLoc, 8
jmp parserend
:END<BLO
jmp 423783

 

Is there a way to make the colliders around enemies, tiles and player visible? (and hitboxes)

 

I pray that anyone still checks these forums because for a while now I've been having an issue where making a map using Layered mode to build separate layers of tiles with Booster's Lab will cause the map to be entirely empty in-game. Unfortunately, no amount of googling has helped so uhhhh anyone got any idea? This happens on so far all three different computers I try it on, by the way.

 

My memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I think that the tile layer feature in Booster's Lab was intended specifically for either a special customized engine that Noxid made for his now abandoned mod, or it was specifically for an assembly hack. If you're working with a copy of Cave Story that doesn't have said hack or isn't Noxid's custom engine, then that might be the problem.

 

I feel it has to do with the tiles used for Treasure Islands, which uses ASM. The layered tiles hack for it was never publicly distributed, tho. Unless anyone decides to reverse engineer it... Uh, I know someone's made it work with CSE2, but no distribution allowed. Unless someone did a thing on D-RS?

 

My memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I think that the tile layer feature in Booster's Lab was intended specifically for either a special customized engine that Noxid made for his now abandoned mod, or it was specifically for an assembly hack. If you're working with a copy of Cave Story that doesn't have said hack or isn't Noxid's custom engine, then that might be the problem.

I assume this means it isn't going to work? I mean, base Cave Story and the few mods I've used have working layering, any replacements at the least?

 

Base only supports two layers. The version of BL you're using uses four, which requires an assembly hack.

 

Base only supports two layers. The version of BL you're using uses four, which requires an assembly hack.

I'd be glad to use even two layers, but the classic mode of Booster's Lab just greys out all layer buttons. I only get one to work with which makes it hard to design maps is what I mean.
Sorry if I'm being confusing, I'm still pretty new to this. I tried CaveEditor but I can't find anything to change layers, plus It's a bit hard to use. Am I missing something, or am I just not going to be able to edit more than one layer, or? Sorry again.

 

Both use the same layout, foreground and background. You just gotta change the tile's attributes by right clicking them in the tileset.


EDIT: The visible layers should look like this on classic. If all else fails, you may, have to download an older version of Booster's Lab. Because v511 sucks ass.

 

Both use the same layout, foreground and background. You just gotta change the tile's attributes by right clicking them in the tileset.

The visible layers should look like this on classic. If all else fails, you may, have to download an older version of Booster's Lab. Because v511 sucks ass.
EDIT:

OH sorry, somehow I was convinced it was normally possible to put a background behind a tile, on further inspection I see nothing of the sort in the vanilla maps, so sorry aaaa
This is what I was trying to say but yea that doesn't exist, I'm just being dumb lol oof

 

For the record, layers in CSE2 has been a solved problem for a while now (you can follow either the normal instructions, or the 16 bit tileset instructions to add it to your copy), and the same code has been ported to freeware via a dll earlier this year.
Layers have been implemented in d-rs before (see: CS Encore), but they aren't in the main branch yet, so you're on your own to transfer the CSE2 instructions over.

 

OH sorry, somehow I was convinced it was normally possible to put a background behind a tile, on further inspection I see nothing of the sort in the vanilla maps, so sorry aaaa
This is what I was trying to say but yea that doesn't exist, I'm just being dumb lol oof

View attachment 9039

You can technically still do this by either editing the tileset to have a version of the statue with that background or by having said background as, well, the background.

 

I assume this means it isn't going to work? I mean, base Cave Story and the few mods I've used have working layering, any replacements at the least?

I'm a bit late to this, but there is actually a DLL inject for Layers mode that got released in the Cave Story Modding Discord server a little while back,
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/312733438153326593/1113572572408315934/layers.zip by Periwinkle
Layers mode is not a freeware feature and Cave Editor does not support it, so you'll have to use the layers version of BL if you'll be utilizing this!!
It works with both Clownacy's Mod Loader and standalone, so if it's the only DLL you're using you can rename it to dinput.dll. Otherwise, make a folder in the mods folder with the same name as the DLL and add it to mods.txt.

EDIT: Ah shit, I don't mean to be a broken record, for whatever reason it didn't show that there was another page when I was reading the thread, sorry! Hope this helps as an explanation for importing into freeware at least.

 

I'm a bit late to this, but there is actually a DLL inject for Layers mode that got released in the Cave Story Modding Discord server a little while back,
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/312733438153326593/1113572572408315934/layers.zip by Periwinkle
Layers mode is not a freeware feature and Cave Editor does not support it, so you'll have to use the layers version of BL if you'll be utilizing this!!
It works with both Clownacy's Mod Loader and standalone, so if it's the only DLL you're using you can rename it to dinput.dll. Otherwise, make a folder in the mods folder with the same name as the DLL and add it to mods.txt.

EDIT: Ah shit, I don't mean to be a broken record, for whatever reason it didn't show that there was another page when I was reading the thread, sorry! Hope this helps as an explanation for importing into freeware at least.

THANK YOU I didnt understand what the last guy meant due to me being a moron but your post made it clear xD this is a huge help as I was trying to make all the tiles I needed in different combos which obviously ate up all the space on the 256x256 tileset immediately, lol
Also sorry for the deleted quote, I was a moron and forgot to paste it into the main mod folder and not my backup and realized as I posted it...

 

THANK YOU I didnt understand what the last guy meant due to me being a moron but your post made it clear xD this is a huge help as I was trying to make all the tiles I needed in different combos which obviously ate up all the space on the 256x256 tileset immediately, lol
Also sorry for the deleted quote, I was a moron and forgot to paste it into the main mod folder and not my backup and realized as I posted it...

it also makes it so that you can use tilesets bigger than 256x256 as a side effect of the tile code rewrite i think

 

Sorry if this question sounds dumb/should have been asked in the modding Discord, but is there any way to set a weapons maximum level below 3? I highly doubt this would work, but I just wanted to ask. (As far as I am aware there hasn't been any question regarding this, so..)

 

Probably a good idea to ask in the modding discord. Otherwise, if you want to be a little cheap on it, you can set the Lv. 3 Polar Star to shoot Lv. 2 bullets through the hackinator in Booster's Lab, if you don't mind the glaring "3" next to the EXP meter.

 

Testing to see if this will fix the emptied latest post slot
Edit: Very good, proceed as normal

 

Testing to see if this will fix the emptied latest post slot
Edit: Very good, proceed as normal

noticed that yesterday, really odd, wonder how that happened