Quick Modding/Hacking Answers Thread

Okay so for you to understand this, here's some background:
Entity objects in Cave Story (that is, NPCs like Toroko, Sue, all of the characters, all of the enemies, a good portion of the game's effects (i.e. smoke), and more) are automatically destroyed, leaving a flashing effect object, smoke, dropping weapon energy and playing their "on death" sound when their health reaches 0 (or less than 0). Unfortunately this leaves no room for NPCs that don't just immediately cease to exist upon death, so to work around this when Pixel wanted to have enemies like the Gaudi, Gaudi Eggs, Buyobuyo Bases, etc. that don't disappear on death he would actually give them an extravagant amount of health, and then program the entity to appear as if it had died when the entity's health went below a certain threshold. In the case of Buyobuyo Bases, this threshold is [less than 940 health]. What probably happened is that you edited the NPC's health in the npc.tbl editor and set it to a value much lower than this, and it is immediately 'killing' the entity (but not actually killing it) because its health is below that threshold from the moment it spawns.
Now, here's where I want to point out an idiotic mistake on Pixel's part:
Instead of making the threshold 1000 health for all of these NPCs, and then just setting their health in the npc.tbl file to just be [the NPC's noticeable health] + [1000], he gave all of the NPCs 1000 health in the npc.tbl file and then set their thresholds to be [1000] - [the NPC's noticeable health]
Why are the numbers so high? Well, if the player could deal X amount of damage to an NPC in one frame (for the Buyobuyo base, 940 damage) then they would be able to destroy the entity object before it could disable its shootable flag and it would break the effect. Pixel was always very cautious about this sort of thing, knowing that someone somewhere would find some exploit at some point, so as far as I know it is actually completely impossible to do this.

P.S. some of their thresholds are 100 health, like the Gaudi Eggs.

I'm really impressed by your knowledge on the subject.
Now it's all clear, thanks.

 

Ok, now this is important. Is there a way to change the enemy drops with BL or any other editor without recurring to ASM(sooner or later I'll learn that stuff). I really don't want the enemies to drop hearts and this influences the game design so it would be important to know.

 

*resorting to
Something 'recurring' is something that happens over and over again. 'Recurring to x' doesn't make sense.

Good to know

*resorting to
You can use the npc.tbl editor in Booster's Lab or Cave Editor to change how much weapon energy enemies drop. If an enemy drops one or more weapon energy they'll also drop health (and missiles if applicable). If they drop 7 or more weapon energy they'll also drop 6 health (and 3 missiles if applicable). All of the code for this is at 00471C2B. It applies to all entity objects.

I don't see this weapon energy anywhere in the npc.tbl, only experience, health, damage...(I'm using Booster's Lab but I don't see it even with Cave Editor)
What am I doing wrong?

 

Weapon energy is experience!

Well, makes sense.

 

So I was gonna release something regarding my in-development mod but I can't test my demo.
If I open the game it stops responding at the loading screen, (right before the "Studio Pixel presents" screen).
Now, I recently realized this might possibly be due to the fact that I was deleting some maps from booster's lab but anyway, here's the document that says error:
C:\Users\HP\Downloads\Cave Story Modding\Booster's Lab\DEMO - Copy\data\stage\Prt.bmp,0
C:\Users\HP\Downloads\Cave Story Modding\Booster's Lab\DEMO - Copy\data\Npc\Npc.bmp,0
C:\Users\HP\Downloads\Cave Story Modding\Booster's Lab\DEMO - Copy\data\Npc\Npc.bmp,0
I don't know what it says exactly, so that's why I'm asking,(I also recently found about the error text document so yeah); (by the way, with recently I mean like a couple of hours ago).

 

if you used Cave Editor to change certain things (tile set names, map names, etc.) it wont change the file name, so either
1. change the file name
2. change the names back
Also, Caption is what shows with the <MNA command and doesn't require you to change the map name
However, if you used Boosters Lab, then I dunno

 

It just says you have some missing bitmap files, did you delete any or did you delete the whole data folder by any chance?

 

Usually you'll see a window if you get an error.log like that. Try deleting the log and re-opening the game.
As for the files, check to see whether or not they're actually there. If they're not... put them there. error.log usually just lists missing files.

I deleted the error.log but still no window appears after that and I need to use task manager to end the task.
All the files are there weirdly enough but some of them were modified by me. Naturally I just changed the tiles and faces with a program but that's all.

It just says you have some missing bitmap files, did you delete any or did you delete the whole data folder by any chance?

Nope. Didn't do any of that and I can't find the files Prt.bmp and npc.bmp even in a previous copy of the game that works.

if you used Cave Editor to change certain things (tile set names, map names, etc.) it wont change the file name, so either
1. change the file name
2. change the names back
Also, Caption is what shows with the <MNA command and doesn't require you to change the map name
However, if you used Boosters Lab, then I dunno

I'm using booster's lab but didn't change the file names at all; also are you sure that changing them could make it work?

 

You can confront yourself with a normal cave story folder.
(This is what you wanted to see, right? If it's not, please tell me what to do).

 

Well, maybe your data folder, otherwise, I dunno, it said the same for me one time, and I had to go back to a previous version

 

View attachment 5902View attachment 5903
You can confront yourself with a normal cave story folder.
(This is what you wanted to see, right? If it's not, please tell me what to do).

Did you check if the Stage folder isn't checked with the "Read Only" option? Try to uncheck it if it is.

 

Did you check if the Stage folder isn't checked with the "Read Only" option? Try to uncheck it if it is.

It was checked as read only just like a previous version that actually works, so I unchecked it as you said but the problem still persists.

Well, maybe your data folder, otherwise, I dunno, it said the same for me one time, and I had to go back to a previous version

Are you suggesting I should go back to a previous version of my Mod? Maybe I'll do that if nobody finds a solution.

 

Ok, so I figured out what was causing this: it was deleting my maps. Now,I don't know if deleting any map causes this or if it's specifically for some of the maps.
Right now I'd really like to know why deleting maps causes that, though.

 

Ok, so I figured out what was causing this: it was deleting my maps. Now,I don't know if deleting any map causes this or if it's specifically for some of the maps.
Right now I'd really like to know why deleting maps causes that, though.

Because Booster's Lab v510 is garbage. No such problem exists for v500.

 

Because Booster's Lab v510 is garbage. No such problem exists for v500.

I didn't know that, I guess that from now on I will only be using that version then. Still, I don't understand how a later version of the same thing could be worse but whatever.