Shining Force CL v2.1.1 An update is here! v2.0 Changes Ludicrous Speed has been added! Ludicrous Speed is a mode that greatly speeds up the cursor, turn canceling, and enemy turns. This feature is active when the text display speed is set to 4. Turn Order Viewer has been added! The remaining order of the current turn can be viewed via the in-battle Map menu and pressing A. Mass Revival has been added! The priest can now revive everyone all at once. If refused, he also offers to check through everyone individually per usual. Villain Dialogue Retranslation! Dialogue involving major villains has partially been rewritten based on the original Japanese script. There's an extra patch available to undo these changes (apply it after using the main patch). Currently done: Alterone Mishaela Rindo Mishaela (battle) Rindo Mishaela (town) Shade Abbey Darksol (town) Shade Abbey Darksol (battle) Pao Elliott (town) Pao Elliott (battle) Non-combat EXP has been reworked! Healing EXP now has a level difference modifier, so healers who have fallen behind can catch up faster. Detox is also similarly affected and Status spells now grant EXP as well. Healing EXP also no longer stacks up when there are multiple targets, which allows relaxing Aura and Will's high MP costs that were in place as a countermeasure to EXP going out of control. Battle rebalancing and restructuring! A few early game battles have been touched up, mainly with enemy mages being given better choices of spells and a slight boost in MP. Battle 3 (to Alterone): Dark Mage's MP increased by 2 Battle 4 (Alterone Town): southern Dark Mage's spell changed from Freeze 1 to Blaze 2 northern Dark Mage's spell changed from Freeze 1 to Blast 1 Dark Priest made less likely to stupidly wander off Battle 5 (To Manarina): Rune Knight unlearns Blaze 2 outer Zombies made to coordinate with friends a bit better Battle 6 (Cave of Darkness): Dark Priest's spell changed from Mend 1 to Mend 2 bridge-opposite Sniper displaced over to first island Giant Bat displaced to below first island Skeleton AI changed to reposition itself Zombie positions rearranged island Zombie respawn number increased from 2 to 3 to compensate Battle 7 (Circus): Evil Puppet MP increased by 2 Battle 9 (Quarry): switched 2 enemies around so that the cutscene makes more directional sense Master Mage's spell upgraded from Blast 2 to Blast 3 Master Mage's MP increased by 3 reduced the number of times some Giant Bats respawn by 1 fixed 2 rock tiles in the corner not being properly flagged as heavy terrain fixed a minor graphical issue below one of the new staircases widened the final staircase to a width of 2 Battle 10 (outside Bustoke): fixed a hill tile in the dead end not being properly flagged as hill fixed some mountain tiles in the corner not being flagged as mountain (these are actually in the vanilla game as well) Battle 11 (Bridge): Dark Elf unlearns Heal 1 Other rebalancing! Some characters, spells, and items received minor tweaks. Mae: redistributed durability (+1 base&growth DEF, -3 base&growth HP) Tao: slightly reduced durability in the early game (-1 base DEF, +1 growth DEF) Diane: slightly reduced durability (+1 base DEF, -5 base HP) Hans: slightly reduced durability in the early game (-1 base DEF, +1 growth DEF) Lyle: redistributed durability (-2 growth DEF, +4 growth HP) switched around the availability of Spear and Power Lance (Spear to Alterone) EXP Cap is increased from 96 to 100 HEAL and MEND level 1 costs returned from 1 to 2 Lowe Chip Torasu: +2 base MP, Gong: +1 base MP added some Medical Pouches in starting inventory to compensate AURA and WILL MP costs reduced from 7/9/10/11 to 5/7/9/11 Other minor fixes or QoL changes! Power Lance graphic properly changed from a spear to a lance bridge added in Alterone to facilitate entry into town number of chests in Alterone consolidated from an absurd 23 down to 15 (gold chests merged, empty chests removed) shoes added to Anri's extra sprite filled up Vankar's inventory with medical herbs as a countermeasure to the item-passing feature bug ========== About After playing a few other SF1 hacks, I tried making my own (again). It's not hardcore difficult, but I aimed to make it not boringly easy, without requiring grinding. The intention behind this hack was to cut down on downtime (moving from enemy to enemy across heavy terrain) and increase time actually interacting with enemy units. Character and enemy stats have been rebalanced entirely and the weapon progression has been turned more into sidegrades rather than direct upgrades one after the other. Most outdoor maps had their layouts modified to get rid of stretches of nothing but forests and hills, and some indoor maps were edited as well. Essentially, there should be enough changes for it to be a new game, just with the same story and graphics (for the most part). Below are lists of most changes, split up into categories: General Changes: Characters and enemies have different stats (enemies are generally more durable than vanilla) Most items have been thrown out and replaced Gold acquisition and shop prices are changed up Spells have different ranges and effects (some spells are new) Chests have different contents (some chests are new) "Hidden" items during battles have been marked with a chest tile Battles have different enemy formations Most battles have different map layouts Jogurt isn't completely useless Technical Changes: Experience gains slow down slower for high-leveled characters and are much higher for low-leveled characters Experience cap per action has been increased from 48 to 96 Healing experience has been increased from 10 to 16 Certain characters have new classes YGRT and MGCR have been changed to gain experience as if they were promoted classes Stat penalty on promotion has been removed Promotion requirement has been changed from 10 to 18 (but 20 is recommended) Damage bonus for hitting a weakness has been increased from 25% to 50% (Incidentally, flying enemies have been made weak to arrows and high-defense enemies to magic) Damage variance has been removed The high-critical attribute on weapons has been increased from 13% to 60% Poison damage has been changed from an absolute 2 to 1/8 of max HP Land Effect has been reduced from 30% to 25% Item crack chance has been increased from 25% to 100% (but most usable weapons have been changed to not have a chance of cracking) Evasion rates have been halved Chances of enemy double attacks have been greatly reduced, except in specific cases Some items affect both ATK and DEF Misc Changes: Reversed land effect bug is fixed Items are automatically passed on to the next character if hands are full EXP carries over on a level up Some items can be equipped in addition to a weapon and a ring Enemy level is visible on their status screen Crit chance is displayed on the status screen Costume sprites are different (and some have been added for Diane) Enemies will actually go for characters other than Max and Domingo Gargoyle's attack animation has been shortened Sky Warrior's attack animation has been shortened (these two are originally abnormally long) Monk's attack animation has been shortened (to make it look less clumsy) Animations for some classes' new weapon types have been added ========== Changelog v2.1.1(20190318) fixed certain characters having incorrect max level settings v2.1.0(20190318) fixed non-promotable characters softlocking the game (requires a new game start) v2.0.1(20190204) decreased AURA and WILL's MP costs from 7/9/10/11 to 5/7/9/11 removed extraneous spell on non-caster enemy in battle 11 v2.0.0(20190203) added Ludicrous Speed added Turn Order View partially rewrote villain dialogue increased EXP cap from 96 to 100 reworked healing&detox EXP (level modifier) reworked status effect EXP (grants EXP similar to attacking instead of 1 EXP) edited battles 3 to 7, 9, and 10 and enemies therein redistributed Mae, Tao, Diane, Hans, and Lyle's HP and DEF status increased Lowe, Khris, Gong, and Torasu's base MP increased HEAL and MEND's Lv1 cost from 1 to 2 added Medical Pouches in starting inventory of starting party moved Spear's availability to Alterone moved Power Lance's availability to Rindo changed Power Lance's battle graphic from a spear to a lance fused chests contents and removed empty chests in Alterone added Medical Herbs to Vankar's starting inventory added shoes to Anri's extra sprite v20180617 altered battle 18's enemy formation altered battle 19's enemy formation slightly increased Kane's durability changed Kane's subweapon altered battle 21's enemy formation changed Mishaela's spell altered battle 28's enemy AI fixed a visual map error in battle 28 (red block in midair) removed Colossus's minor magic resistance altered battle 30's enemy AI enabled kituihuku for Khris fixed a minor typo in Khris's intended MP (+0.1MP/lv after promotion) very slightly shifted some of Alef's, Torasu's, and Adam's level up gains towards later levels added a minor DEF reduction to Heavy arrows (-1 DEF) v20180613b removed battle 29's boss's unintended minor evasion boost v20180613 fixed weaponless enemies in battles 28 and 29 v20180529 altered battle 20's formation altered battle 21's formation and stats fixed evil puppet's name raised detox's exp gain from 10 to 16 (the same as healing) changed the power blade's icon changed the contents of a chest in chapter 4 enabled checking for more than one outfit item per character added extra outfit combinations: Anri, Tao, and Diane can now make use of the outfit item they couldn't before v20180516 replaced an item's placeholder icon v20180514b fixed battle 5 terrain v20180514 fixed some missing weapon sprites fixed healing item use range v20180513 minor fix to battle 1's AI terrain data fix for battles 2 and 3 (roads were hard to traverse) v20180511 initial release ========== Info&Data Character Descriptions: Swordsman: Max - above-average rounded fighter with a very slightly slow start Knights: Mae - defense-oriented sword-wielder Ken - rounded with a penchant for offense Pelle - moves really far Vankar - sturdy with a high critical hit rate Earnest: all-in-on-offense axe-wielder Warriors: Luke - offense-oriented Gort - slightly less offense-oriented Archers&Lyle: Hans - regular archer Diane - melee archer Lyle - mounted archer (moves kinda far) Mages&Co. Tao - aoe mage with slight durability Anri - frail long-range mage Alef - melee mage Arthur - mounted mage with a variety of spells and decent physical prowess Domingo - flying mid-range mage Healers&Gong Lowe - low-range healer with access to AoE detox Khris - high-range healer with some AoE healing Gong - fighter-healer hybrid with high movement Torasu - aoe healer Birds&Kokichi Balbaroy - slight penchant for offense Amon - slight penchant for defense Kokichi - higher movement and access to spears Weaponless Zylo - glass cannon Bleu - flying tank Adam - cooldown-based fighter Jogurt - gimmick character, mixed bag Misc Guntz - physical tank Musashi - slow powerhouse Hanzou - fighter&aoe-mage hybrid ---------- Items: name ATT effect Medical Pouch - heals 20 HP, 2 uses, self-only Healing Bag - heals 40 HP, 2 uses, self-only Cure Bottle - heals 60 HP, 2 uses, self-only Remedy - removes status effect, 1 use, usable on ally Short Sword 8 Power Sword 12 -5 DEF Guard Sword 3 +5 DEF Doom Sword 3 60% critical Frost Sword 0 2-range, 10 magic damage Hand Axe 8 Power Axe 12 -5 DEF Guard Axe 3 +5 DEF Throwing Axe 4 2-range Bronze Lance 8 Power Lance 12 -5 DEF Guard Lance 3 +5 DEF Spear 6 2-range Doom Lance 3 60% critical Wooden Arrow 8 3-range Heavy Arrow 12 1-range, -1 DEF Light Arrow 4 5-range Doom Arrow 3 60% critical Wooden Staff 6 Power Staff 12 -5 DEF Muddle Staff 8 casts 2-range muddle Dispel 8 casts 2-range dispel Sleep Staff 10 casts 2-range sleep (these effects replace the attack command Slow Staff 10 casts 2-range slow (which was in turn moved to the use effect) Flame Tome - usable once per battle to cast an 8-range aoe spell Ice Tome - usable once per battle to cast a 10-range single-target spell ---------- Spells: name power range aoe cost Blaze 10/10/13/16 2/2/2/2 0/1/1/1 1/4/6/8 Blast 8/10/13 2/2/2 2/2/2 5/7/10 Freeze 10/13/17/22 2/3/3/3 0/0/0/0 1/4/6/8 Frost 10/13/17 3/3/3 1/1/1 5/7/10 Spark 12/15/19/24 1/1/1/1 0/0/0/0 1/3/4/5 Storm 12/15/19 1/1/1 1/1/1 4/6/8 Prison 10/13/16/19 1/1/1/1 X 3/5/7/9 Heal 18/25/35/45 1/2/2/2 - 2/3/5/6 Mend 14/20/28/36 2/3/3/3 - 2/3/5/6 Aura 15/20/25/30 0/1/1/1 1 5/7/9/11 Will 10/13/16/20 1/2/2/2 2 5/7/9/11 ---------- Chest Content Changes: chapter 1 guardiana, after invasion empty to sugoi mizugi guardiana castle power potion to medical herb defense potion to medical herb alterone town power potion to power sword healing seed to medical herb healing seed to medical herb alterone town, basement power sword to antidote bronze lance to muddle staff healing seed to medical herb healing seed to medical herb alterone castle power sword to guard axe bread of life to 50 gold defense potion to medical herb wooden staff to 50 gold wooden arrow to 50 gold empty to 50 gold alterone castle revisit empty to 50 gold chapter 2 manarina null to kitui huku cavern darkness power staff to dispel staff circus defense potion to shield ring elven arrow to frost sword chapter 3 quarry sugoi mizugi to flame tome pao bridge kitui huku to spear chapter 4 pao 1 bread of life to healing seed empty to healing seed legs of haste to healing seed long sword to guard sword pao 2 elven arrow to power axe steel sword to doom sword empty to kitui huku fortress kenji to bolt lance chapter 5 ship 1 moon stone to ice tome null to power ring waral bread of life to sugoi mizugi defense potion to speed ring ship 2 null to shield ring chapter 6 rudo guardian staff to sleep staff dragonia halberd to heat axe broad sword to null null to kitui huku youji to healing seed demon castle power potion to bolt tome chapter 7 tower ancient valkyrie to longinus turbo pepper to mobility ring chapter 8 rune castle atlas axe to flame tome valkyrie to ice tome ancient castle kaku-chan to bolt tome ---------- Map Changes: Guardiana modified some house damage Manarina added a chest Rudo removed barrels blocking shortcut to Krin's room unbarred door in Karin's room Dragonia moved a chest around Battle 2&3 deleted forests and hills expanded river added roads and trees Battle 5 deleted tall grass added trees Battle 6 added stalagmites Battle 8 enlarged chapel added tables Battle 9 shortened upper platform added ledges and stairs Battle 10 deleted forests and hills added trees Battle 11 remade bridge Battle 12 moved tall grass around Battle 13 removed fortress added new fortress Battle 14 enlarged quay Battle 15 moved bridges around reshaped floating platforms Battle 18&20 deleted forests and hills added trees and hills Battle 19 moved staircase around added land effect Battle 21 added bridges Battle 22&25 deleted forests and hills added trees expanded mountain Battle 23 reshaped tower Battle 26&27 reshaped treasure room made holes everywhere shifted throne over Battle 28 partly deleted bendy things Battle 29&30 partly deleted bendy things ---------- Outfit Compatibility Chart Character Mizugi Huku Anri yes yes Tao yes yes Khris no yes Gong no no Diane yes yes ========== Tools Used: rubixcuber's SF1 Editor XVI32 (hex editor) Known Issues: If too many characters' hands are full, the automatic item passing feature eventually passes items to characters that haven't yet joined or even to enemies (SF1 Editor bug) Talking to one of the new sprites at headquarters causes the BGM to stop (fixes itself upon moving to another map) Outside of battle, some maps that were changed retain their wall checks from vanilla and don't match up with the visual changes (Uranbatol, in particular) ========== copypasted from author's thread at https://forums.shiningforcecentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43076