Entry 222

Mutation's item use, its new remarks and a carry fix

2026-09-27volumes

Filescrates/piney-gen/src/syms.rscrates/piney-gen/src/manifest.rscrates/piney-battle/src/party_chat.rscrates/piney-battle/src/party_ai.rscrates/piney-battle/src/damage.rscrates/piney-battle/src/item.rscrates/piney-fieldui/src/items.rscrates/piney-world/src/field_world.rstools/volume.pytools/test_battle_items_rs.py

tools/test_battle_items_rs.py now passes on Mutation, 5 of 5. It still passes on Infection. Getting there turned up new rules, six new chat tables and a wrong stretch of the carry.

Six remark tables

After ChatMessageWalkingTalk, Mutation adds six ccAI functions. Each says a member's line from a table of its own: 19 rows, one per MessageIndex(). No symbol names them, so the port names them after their tables (party_chat::Remark):

They follow the usual pattern: in the party (partyFlag 1), not under manual control, a line in the row, then ChatMessageModify and chatRequest.

On Quarantine the tables sit elsewhere and have more rows. So piney-gen finds each one through its code, with callee_table: the named caller's n-th unnamed callee, and the first lui/addiu pair in it. Each table is empty on Infection.

tools/volume.py finds the functions the same way (callee, remarks()). The party AI and items harnesses hook them under the port's names.

Rules

• ChatMessageAttack. On a zero-damage hit it asks a new function (0x005c24b0), ported as damage::exdefense_held. That function returns the Exdefense kinds the foe still holds that the skill runs into. A physical or magic kind gives its remark. An element gives ChatMessageAttributeGuard, which Infection decided with CheckCharAttribute.
• ccAI::UseItem.
  • The member must pass CheckAction(7).
  • Held, it may still use an item. With a boss in (CheckBossEntry(1)) it returns -1 instead.
  • After the use it says its remark.
  • item::ai_use_item emits the remark as Step::UseItemRemark.
• ccUseItemRequest.
  • The both-bars recovery items (21, 22) no longer close the menu and wait ten frames between the HP and the SP affects.
  • Books cap maxHP at 9999 and maxSP at 999.
  • The gate-out ocarina clears worldman->warpFlag (Step::WarpFlagOff).
  • The Grunty flute sets ccSnd +0x139 (Step::VoicesOff). While that flag is set, ccWordsPlay and ccVoiceRequest return at once. ccThPucciguso clears it when the ride ends, and so does ccFileListLoad. FieldWorld::voices_off holds it: the ride's exit clears it, and so does a new field world. The skill words are not queued while it is set.
• ccCheckSkillUseful. With eventStatus[40] set (the bracelet off, the same flag that hides its gauge), the Data Drain skills (2-5) find no target. Both copies take drain_off: the battle crate's skill_useful and fieldui's check_skill_useful.

The carry

Mutation's main .sbss has a word inserted before cmndPcRoot. The syms layout pass still laid about 40 globals there (rtpcChatNum to cmndTargetPriNum) by Infection's spacing, 4 bytes short. It even put cmndTarget and cmndTargetPrev at one address. gcmn's code builds them 4 bytes further on, and the carry had both rows.

symbol_named found the main row first, so harnesses wrote cmndSortRoot where the game never reads it. That was the last skill_useful mismatch.

The layout pass now ends a span at the first global that an overlay's code puts elsewhere. The rows up to that point keep their places, including the boss vtables lower in the span. The sidecars and carries of Mutation, Outbreak and Quarantine were regenerated. The generated tables did not change.

The harnesses

• ccSpcChar's vtable. The items harness gives the AI's member the vtable at +0x1f4, so Mutation's CheckAction(7) runs.
• Characters 18-20. Their item lists go where Mutation's GetItemList reads them: the save's second block (volume.item_list_at). The probe reads them the same way (by_id::item_list).
• Epitaph pointers. The harness reports them as Infection's addresses through the carry (volume.inf_of).