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I've been trying to get the Cachusha ribbon from the Uribos I've been breeding. I've poached several without visiting the fur shop. I know it's rare, so before going in I save. Then I visit and if I don't see the Cachusha I reset and try again. I've done this dozens of times and still haven't gotten the item. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure that the item you receive from the poaching is determined right when you poach. Breed some more and try again, I guess.

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If you head straight to the shop without doing anything else, then yes, you're doing this the wrong way.

There's no such thing as a completely random number. Most RNGs do one of two things: either use a very complicated formula that returns a huge number (and that later gets trimmed down in the code), then use that number as the basis for the next one; or move around in a pregenerated table of random numbers. FFT, as do many console games, does the latter.

The problem here is that if you go straight to the shop and the counter points to "40" in the table, every time you reload and go back the game will generate "40" as a number. You need to do other stuff to move it around, like getting into a fight.

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Quote (Silverlance @ 1st September 2005 22:22)

If you head straight to the shop without doing anything else, then yes, you're doing this the wrong way.

There's no such thing as a completely random number. Most RNGs do one of two things: either use a very complicated formula that returns a huge number (and that later gets trimmed down in the code), then use that number as the basis for the next one; or move around in a pregenerated table of random numbers. FFT, as do many console games, does the latter.

The problem here is that if you go straight to the shop and the counter points to "40" in the table, every time you reload and go back the game will generate "40" as a number. You need to do other stuff to move it around, like getting into a fight.

Do you mean that everytime I boot up again, I should move somewhere else? Usually I poach a couple (which means getting into multiple fights), and then save it the next town over to the Trade City. Then everytime I load up I move to the City, and go to the fur shop.

Should I move elsewhere everytime I load up?

Quote (veil @ 1st September 2005 22:24)

Should I move elsewhere everytime I load up?

I don't know enough about FFT's mechanics to know where and when it tweaks its random number generator. And Laszlow could be right too, so don't take my word for it.

If you want to test this, though, do something that WILL involve a certain number of random events. Walking around is one: every time you walk, at least one random number has to be generated in order to check if you're going to enter a random encounter or not. Keep in mind that if you just move to the same place every time you load, it's useless: the counter (probably) just gets moved to the same location everytime, so you still get the same numbers.

Like I said, I don't know enough about FFT's inner workings to know if this is how it works. I'm basing this on what I've observed in other games solely.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

From experience, I have to say that both Las and Silverlance are right. If you poach then save, no matter what you do inbetween, you'll always get the same item. The correct way to poach is to save before the battle, then go into battle and poach your monsters, then immediately go to the shop to check if you got what you wanted. If not, rince and repeat (that's why it's a good idea to battle near a Trade City: I generally prefer doing it near Zarghidas, because the battle at Germinas Peak can offer a variety of interesting monsters, and the rare all-magical-gun-users battle).

The RNG number I can't check, because I play on my old FFT game on PSX, so I don't have access to a Save State feature as one would have if they played on an emulator, but from what i saw in console tactics RPG, they mostly use the second solution that Silverlance stated (a generated table of RNG used for every % check of the game. If you're interested, I think the most documented game on the subject is the Fire Emblem serie). My guess is that when you poach a monster, the game checks the next RNG: if it's low (or high) enough, you've poached the rare item, if not you get the standard item. That's why I said I believed it's a savant mix between Las' and Silverlance's statements: preditermined and random.

This post has been edited by Mr Thou on 2nd September 2005 08:57

Ok, my new plan of action is to fight at the Finath River with three bred Uribos, a well-equipped Ninja, and Orlandu. The ninja poaches the Uribos while Orlandu ruins everyone's shit, to use the parlance of our times. When the ninja is done the two of them clean up and I head over to Zarghidas Trade City two spaces over and check the Fur Shop. I've done this a couple of times and haven't gotten a Cachusha yet, but I have faith. I figure doing thee Uribos at once increases my chances of getting one.

Does this sound like it will work soon?

Thanks for your help so far.

I got the Cachusha! Wewt!

*fanfare

I think its more on the random side than pre determined on the random num generator, cause there's been a few times when i want to get to a town without hitting a random battle, so i save after i pass every random battle point, then reset if i get sucked into one.

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