Emulation I need help with a gameshark code I cannot find.

[Cassandra_DC]

Hello,
As I just said in the title, I would like to request some help with finding a gameshark code for a GBA game I have not been able to find by myself. Normally I can find them easily with the emulator or with Cheat Engine but, after months and months or trying, this specific one I just cannot find.
The game is Rebelstar Tactical Command, and I want a code that allows me to modify or increase accuracy. For the ones who might not have played it, it's a turn-based tactics game, and all of the characters have skill points and are better with some type of guns (as it happens in all RPG'S). At the same time, all weapons have an accuracy rate for each of its attacks. Now, over my many attempts to find the code to modify that rate I have tried both approaches: to increase the accuracy of the attacks by increasing the specific skill for the character, and to increase the accuracy by modifying the accuracy rate for each gun, but, as you can guess, I have failed miserably. I have tried everything but nothing has worked.
This game holds a special place in my heart and I have been replaying it at least once a year since the first time I tried it. I just love the game so much but the accuracy rate being so low has always frustrated me to the point of insanity because it just extends the hours of playing. It's there just to add turns, t's not a real challenge it is just there to waste time. Like the random encounters with Caterpie in Pokemon.
Anyway, I'm not sure I posted on the right forum, you can move the thread if that's the case. And if anyone think they can help me, I will really appreciate it.
Thanks!

 

[Mythical]

You could try and use something like HxD to hex edit or something

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or you could check the cheat database

 

[Fugelmir]

Find a value that's a solid integer and related to combat. Browse the hex editor in cheat engine as you change weapons to see what values change. The value you're looking for is probably situated very close by.

 

[Cassandra_DC]

I'm using Cheat Engine which is, I think kind of a Hex Editor, (I don't know, I'm far from an expert on cheating or even a hardcore gamer, I just play the games I like) the problem is that I cannot find the specific address to modify.
And I already checked all of the databases I could Google to see if anyone else had posted Cheat Codes for the game, and even though there are some for other stuff, I could not find anything for accuracy.

With Cheat Engine I have tried modifying one by one after they show changes the moment I change weapons or even just after the characters level up, but no matter how much I tried I cannot locate the right one.

I was hoping someone could try to help me find it

 

[FAST6191]

If Fugelmir's method does not work and there are no spells/potions/whatever you can use to buff accuracy to play with savestates (use potion, search, load state, search, maybe do something else and search...) then I would probably go for the debugger approach to this.

In case you were unaware computers are generally all about doing maths very fast.

Most games are also about maths (albeit many with random chance thrown in) so can be reduced to such things.
https://www.dragonflycave.com/mechanics/gen-i-capturing being one for an aspect of pokemon.
You need not make something like that for this game but you will be heading down a similar path.

Anyway you will want a debugger. For the GBA we are probably suggesting http://problemkaputt.de/gba.htm these days over something like vba-sdl-h, mgba or whatever else there is out there with debug options.

As with the more still looking at memory method Fugelmir suggested you will want to find some action that will use the accuracy rating. In this case find the enemy health (same way you would find your own -- do some damage to them, search for differences, do some damage, search, maybe don't do some damage but let it idle for a second or two, search for things that stayed the same, don't do damage but now move around and go through menus and whatnot, search for stayed the same, do some damage... if you want to be immortal characters with infinite ammo and only do a single point of damage to your enemy then it will likely be a bit easier.
If you can also know your attack stats, enemy defence stats and the like, even if it is just numbers on a screen (might want to convert them to hex if they are decimal), it will potentially speed up what is to come.

Anyway enemy health cheats are not usually so useful in general -- if you have a memory viewer you can view it, knowing what it is you can manipulate it (either get them to fight in a "oh dear about to die" style, if there is a special value like 7777 in final fantasy then you can aim for that or just know it), make an infinite enemy health code so you can fight the enemy endlessly (usually see this more for fighting games but could go here too), and you can also do a "set it low and kill them next turn" type deal. What it will allow you to do is play with breakpoints.
Set a break on write (bpw) to the enemy health. Now do some damage to them. The emulator should stop when the enemy health gets damaged. You now look at everything that led up to that -- in most games there will be an attack value that gets used against a defence value, maybe some speed... I don't know what it will be here offhand as it has been way too long since I played this last. One of those aspects of the calculation will* be the accuracy rating.
If you can then make a cheat to set this rating high then great, if you have to repeat this breakpoint lark to chase accuracy further up the chain (maybe edit then ROM even -- if you find yourself watching it load values from something in the 08?????? region of memory then that is the ROM, likewise you will also know the exact instructions to calculate the accurate so you can tell it to instead always return a hit) then so it goes.

*hopefully anyway. Many games have been found to have stats which have no effect or be horrible lies; I am sure we have all had games where we miss a supposedly 99% shot several times in a row.

Assembly coding might look scary but it is really not that bad if you take your time ( http://www.coranac.com/tonc/text/asm.htm is not the gentlest but does cover GBA stuff, http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#armcpureference if you want more in depth)and you are operating within the confines/parameters of the existing game.
I had a bit more in depth discussion the other day in
https://gbatemp.net/threads/is-there-a-limit-as-to-how-many-samples-the-gba-can-play.573544/ and have some more worked examples in https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentation-project-new-2016-edition-out.73394/
https://web.archive.org/web/20080309104350/http://etk.scener.org/?op=tutorial https://gamehacking.org/wiki/Hacking_Game_Boy_Advance is good stuff and if you want a basic crash course in playing with a debugger then https://www.romhacking.net/documents/361/ is for vba-sdl-h but if you can follow along with that but in/adapt it for no$gba you will be fine to search for this cheat as you will be pretty much doing the same thing. Altering the ROM with an assembly hack might appear tricky but you don't need to delete the accuracy calculation part or skip it (though some hackers might) and instead after all is said and done when it dutifully comes back to tell it what it calculated you swap it out with "yeah it hit 100%" rather than have it copy the result in to the relevant part.

 

[Cassandra_DC]

If Fugelmir's method does not work and there are no spells/potions/whatever you can use to buff accuracy to play with savestates (use potion, search, load state, search, maybe do something else and search...) then I would probably go for the debugger approach to this.
...

Using the save states method is precisely what I have been using since the beginning, and since in this game there are not potions of items to modify the accuracy, I can only look for codes during battle. I have tried searching after changing weapons, after missing the target, after hitting the target, before leveling up, after leveling up, after changing characters, but nothing has worked so far.
I think all of the links you sent me redirect me to stuff that is way too advanced for me to try. Although, I must confess, I have not tried the enemy approach you mention. Maybe by messing with the enemy's health before and after they are hit the accuracy address will show close by.
That's the only thing left to try for now. Thank you!