- War of the Lions Tweak v2.01 - Help support the anti-ASCII art - By: Tzepish movement! tzepish at gmail dot com ***************************************************************************************************** A.) Introduction and How to Patch: This is a quality-of-life improvement mod for Final Fantasy Tactics - The War of the Lions designed to make the game more fun and less annoying to play. Though there are many changes, each is relatively small, ensuring that the core experience still "feels" like the same game that we all know and love. In other words, this mod is not meant to provide a *new* experience - instead, it is intended to replace the vanilla FFT in your games collection. Play this mod if you intend to replay FFT or experience FFT for the first time. This mod doesn't go as far with its changes as other improvement mods, such as Archael's "Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3" or PowerPanda's "Final Fantasy Tactics: Emergence". If you're looking for a larger overhaul, check those mods out! wotltweakv2.01.zip should contain the following files: - wotltweakv2.01.txt: The file you are currently viewing. - wotltweakv2.01_default_no_optional_features.ppf: The default War of the Lions Tweak patch file. Use this one if you are opting out of the two optional features (Encounter Unscaling and Smart Encounters). - wotltweakv2.01_plus_encounter_unscaling_only.ppf: Use this patch INSTEAD of the above if you want to include the Encounter Unscaling optional feature and NOT include the Smart Encounters optional feature. See below for what these optional features do. - wotltweakv2.01_plus_smart_encounters_only.ppf: Use this patch INSTEAD of the above if you want to include the Smart Encounters optional feature and NOT include the Encounter Unscaling optional feature. See below for what these optional features do. - wotltweakv2.01_with_both_optional_features.ppf: Use this patch INSTEAD of the above if you want to include BOTH optional features (Encounter Unscaling and Smart Encounters). I may be biased, but this one's my favorite. - Extra Info (folder): This folder contains four additional text files that go into more detail about certain changes made in this mod. They are optional reference material for those who are interested. - wotltweakv2.01_character_starting_jp.txt - wotltweakv2.01_encounter_unscaling.txt - wotltweakv2.01_skill_casting_speeds.txt - wotltweakv2.01_unique_and_multiplayer_items.txt - Source (folder): This folder contains the source files for the mod. This is only relevant to you if you intend to reverse-engineer, modify, or build on top of my work (see Section E: For Modders). If you don't, then you can ignore or delete it! HOW TO PATCH: Step 0: You will need: * An ISO file of FFT: WOTL (I can't help you find one if you don't already have it!). * A program such as UMDGen or PPF-O-MATIC that can apply PPF patches. * An emulator or a modded PSP or PS Vita to play it on. Step 1: Extract the desired PPF file (one of the four in the archive, depending on which optional features you'd like to include) and place it in the same directory as your vanilla ISO and your patching program. Step 2: Backup your vanilla ISO before patching (always keep a backup of your vanilla ISOs!). Step 3: Run your patching program and use it to patch the ISO. * PPF-O-MATIC will ask you for an ISO and a PPF file. * Whereas in UMDGen, you will need to open your ISO first, then do Tools -> Apply PPF. Step 4: That's it! Your ISO should now be patched with this mod. If you want to quickly verify, try the following: * Run the game. * If you already have a save file, loading it will ask "Load this data?" instead of "Load game data?". * If you're starting a new game, you will be able to control all allied characters in the intro battle (instead of just Ramza). Note: You MUST apply this patch ONLY over a clean (unmodified) US-region ISO file. If your ISO file has been modified in any way (for example, by another patch), this patch is likely to ruin your file! ***************************************************************************************************** B.) Readme Contents A.) Introduction and How to Patch B.) Readme Contents C.) Mod Changes - Quick List D.) Mod Changes - Detailed E.) For Modders F.) Special Thanks G.) The Disclaimer! H.) The End... of the Readme ***************************************************************************************************** C.) Mod Changes - Quick List This section quickly lists all the changes done in this mod by name only. The section after this one contains the same list with details and commentary for each change. Refer to this section if you're looking for a quick overview of all changes. Refer to the next section if you're looking for the details! GENERAL GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) PSP spell effects slowdown fix 2.) Controllable "Guest" characters 3.) Quicker skill casting speeds 4.) JP Boost always in effect 5.) Treasure Hunter always in effect and always finds the rare item 6.) No missable items or spells 7.) Multiplayer items are obtainable in the campaign 8.) Rare (but not unique) items can be purchased at the end of the game RANDOM BATTLE IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Optional Feature: Only fight random encounters when you want to (Smart Encounters) 2.) Optional Feature: Enemies no longer scale to your level (Encounter Unscaling) 3.) Random battles drop common items 4.) Rare battle friendlies can join your team BALANCE IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Slightly easier intro battles 2.) More consistent critical hits 3.) More consistent reviving 4.) More consistent status magic 5.) Human bosses are immune to fewer status effects 6.) Slightly easier Golgollada Gallows battle 7.) Easier end of chapter 3 battles 8.) Slightly buffed endgame magic spells & slightly nerfed special character skills 9.) Harder end of chapter 4 battles UI & METAGAME IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Unique names for modified Squire classes 2.) Consistent skill list ordering 3.) Consistent status effects ordering 4.) Spellcasting quotes reimplemented 5.) Consistent "Boost" ability names 6.) Additional trigger ability animations 7.) Errands take half as many days 8.) Less confusing shop inventories 9.) Readable sound novels in the Chronicle menu 10.) Removed "hose yourself" dialogue choices 11.) Agrias birthday gil requirement fix 12.) Misc text improvements 13.) Known issue: the Tutorial option doesn't work properly CLASS / ABILITY / EQUIPMENT IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Squire: Basic abilities revision 2.) Squire: Defend & ReEquip revised JP costs 3.) Knight: Axe and Flail improvements 4.) Jump+X movement ability downshifts 5.) Black Mage: Thundara MP cost fix 6.) White Mage: Staff of the Magi buff 7.) Dragoon: Jump attack skills simplification 8.) Samurai: Innate Doublehand 9.) Bard & Dancer ability sharing 10.) Arithmetician: Arithmeticks no longer ignores Reflect status 11.) Onion Knight improvements 12.) Onion Knight, Mime, & Dark Knight prerequisite reductions 13.) AI ability assignment improvements CHARACTER IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Lavian & Ladd changes 2.) Guest characters no longer reset their EXP and JP 3.) Late game characters start with more JP 4.) Mustadio keeps innate Safeguard 5.) Luso improvements 6.) Rapha & Marach improvements 7.) Cloud improvements 8.) Reis improvements 9.) Balthier's initial equipment is no longer hardcoded (for modders) 10.) Sprite slot consolidation (for modders) ***************************************************************************************************** D.) Mod Changes - Detailed This section lists all the changes done in this mod with details and commentary for each change. The section before this one contains the same list, but with names only. Refer to the previous section if you're looking for a quick overview of all changes. Refer to this section if you're looking for the details! GENERAL GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) PSP spell effects slowdown fix: The PSP will no longer slowdown while spellcasting VFX are playing, so audio and visuals will remain in sync. (Thanks Archaemic and Eternal248!) 2.) Controllable "Guest" characters: "Guest" characters are now controllable by the player. No more AI allies ruining your strategies and getting themselves killed! In some cases Guest characters were left uncontrollable where it felt appropriate - for example, when encountering friendly strangers and monsters in the wild who haven't "joined" you yet (such as Boco). Also, characters you convince to join your team in the middle of battle (for example, with the "Entice" skill) won't be immediately controllable. 3.) Quicker skill casting speeds: Spell and skill casting speeds have been increased by "one step". For example, Curaja went from Speed 10 to Speed 15. Anything that was already Speed 25 or faster was left unchanged (except in cases where a speed up was needed to avoid a tie with a stronger skill). This change is intended to make later game spells *actually usable* without having a large effect on game balance. Personally, I almost never used anything slower than the -ra spells in vanilla FFT, because the casting time just wasn't worth it. This change fixes that! See wotltweakv2.01_skill_casting_speeds.txt for the complete list of speed changes. This change affects only player classes - not monsters or NPC classes (but enemies using player classes benefit from it, too. So enemy Black Mages and Summoners are slightly more dangerous than before). 4.) JP Boost always in effect: The "JP Boost" ability now applies at all times - you will always gain JP as if the ability were equipped. I've also removed the actual ability from the game, since equipping it now would be pointless. JP Boost is one of those catch-22 abilities like Sprint Shoes from FF6 - you feel bad if you don't equip it because you are leaving JP on the table, but you feel bad if you DO equip it because you could have equipped something that makes you more powerful in battle instead. The game is grindy enough already without inflicting this "no win" choice on the player. 5.) Treasure Hunter always in effect and always finds the rare item: The "Treasure Hunter" ability now also applies at all times - you will always find the item when you step on the item tile, as if the ability were equipped. And it will now always award the rare item (instead of awarding you a garbage common item most of the time). In other words, there is no longer a danger of getting a bad result on a unique item and having to reload your game! (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Treasure Hunter rare minimum brave" ASM hack!) Note that this applies only to human characters - monsters under your control still cannot find items. Also, AI characters will now never find these treasures (robbing you of the chance to claim them yourself). (Thanks Xifanie for the "Treasure Hunter is Player only" ASM hack!) During playtesting, I found that making Treasure Hunter always find the rare item caused me to equip it on all my characters at all times "just in case", so I ended up with the same catch-22 problem as JP Boost. I felt bad for using the ability (because I could be using something cool that differentiates or empowers my characters instead), but I also felt bad for NOT using the ability (because I'm leaving items behind). It wasn't a fun situation, so it had to go! Though it's no longer an ability you equip, the rest of this document will still use the term "Treasure Hunter" (or "treasure hunting") to refer to finding items on the ground during battle. 6.) No missable items or spells: Various missable items in the game are no longer missable*! You no longer have to remember to use Steal or Treasure Hunter in specific, non-repeatable battles. See wotltweakv2.01_unique_and_multiplayer_items.txt for the complete list of these items and where they can now be found, if you want to be spoiled. Though these items are no longer missable*, you will still have to go hunting for them, as they aren't on the critical path! *Yes, you can still permanently miss items by dismissing Agrias, Lavian, Alicia, Mustadio, Beowulf, or Reis from your team. Don't do that! Oh yeah, the Ultima and Zodiark spells are no longer missable as well. They can now be purchased with JP like any other skill (or you can still learn them the old way to save on JP, if desired). 7.) Multiplayer items are obtainable in the campaign: All 40 items that were available exclusively in multiplayer can now be obtained in the campaign! These items have been sprinkled across all the optional maps in chapter 4. They are not missable, but they ARE unique. In other words, there is exactly one copy of each of these items obtainable in the campaign. See wotltweakv2.01_unique_and_multiplayer_items.txt for the complete list of multiplayer items and where they can now be found, if you want to be spoiled. The short answer is: look for these items on optional, repeatable battle maps! (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Treasure Hunter 9-bit rare items" and the "ENTD 9-bit equipment items" ASM hacks!) 8.) Rare (but not unique) items can be purchased at the end of the game: At the very end of the game, right before the point of no return, you can now purchase items that were previously obtainable only with the Poach or Steal abilities. These items are distributed throughout the shops based on their item type (for example, the Zwill Straightblade can be purchased anywhere other Knives can be). Of course, you can still get this stuff "early" by using Poach and Steal. RANDOM BATTLE IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Optional Feature: Only fight random encounters when you want to (Smart Encounters): If you opt in to this feature, you will fight random encounters only when you want to! Walking past green dots on the map will now never trigger a random battle, but stopping on a green dot always will. So if you want to fight a battle, click ON the green dot; if you don't want to fight a battle, then click on a dot BEYOND the green dot to pass through it safely! The benefits of this feature are: - It's entirely up to you when you want to grind vs when you want to advance in the story. - You have more control over the difficulty. Story battles will be more difficult if you fight fewer random battles (gaining less EXP). (Thanks Xifanie for the "Smart Encounters" ASM hack!) If you want this feature, use either wotltweakv2.01_plus_smart_encounters_only.ppf or wotltweakv2.01_with_both_optional_features.ppf to patch your ISO. Yes, this means that they are technically no longer "random" battles, but the rest of this document will still use that term. 2.) Optional Feature: Enemies no longer scale to your level (Encounter Unscaling): If you opt in to this feature, enemies will no longer scale to your party level in random encounters. Instead, they will have preauthored levels based on their monster type and the location of the battle. For example, Chocobos in Mandalia Plains random battles will now always be level 3. The benefits of this feature are: - If you are looking to grind, you can choose the level of your opponents. - Random battles won't become harder than story battles, so story battles will feel more significant. Note this does not affect multiplayer battles. This also doesn't affect "rare" random battles (such as the all ninjas battle at Araguay Woods), which lose a lot of what makes them special if they aren't scaled to your level. If you want this feature, use either wotltweakv2.01_plus_encounter_unscaling_only.ppf or wotltweakv2.01_with_both_optional_features.ppf to patch your ISO. See wotltweakv2.01_encounter_unscaling.txt for details on how I determined the levels for each monster in each location. 3.) Random battles drop common items: Because I felt bad that the "Treasure Hunter always finds the rare item" change removes a source of common items for the player, random battles will now randomly award common items after the battle is won. Each monster type has a specific item that they have a chance of dropping: - Goblin | Potion - Chocobo | Phoenix Down - Mindflayer | Echo Herbs - Ahriman | Eye Drops - Treant | Golden Needle Human enemies also have a chance to drop common items (again, only in random battles): - Squire | Potion - Mystic | Ether - Chemist | Remedy - Time Mage | Ether - Knight | Hi-Potion - Geomancer | Antidote - Archer | Antidote - Dragoon | Hi-Potion - White Mage | Holy Water - Orator | Echo Herbs - Black Mage | Maiden's Kiss - Summoner | Hi-Ether - Monk | Golden Needle - Samurai | X-Potion - Thief | 500 Gil - Ninja | Shuriken 4.) Rare battle friendlies can join your team: Random friendly characters encountered in rare random battles will now ask to join your party after the battle. This doesn't apply to all cases in all rare battles, so it's just a nice bonus when it happens. Also, a few more of these characters have been added, and they have been given more JP and rare (but not unique) equipment, just to make these rare events a bit more interesting and rewarding. BALANCE IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Slightly easier intro battles: The first three battles (including the prologue tutorial battle) have been made a bit easier. As it turns out, making the Guest characters controllable makes these early battles *harder* for new players, because they don't know what they are doing yet! So I reduced the power of the enemies slightly, increased the power of the starting roster slightly, and increased the item drop rewards in these battles. 2.) More consistent critical hits: Critical hits will now always add +50% damage (instead of randomly adding something between 0% and 100% damage). This ensures that critical hits are always substantial while also making them easier to plan around during battle. (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Crits always deal 50 percent bonus damage" ASM hack!) 3.) More consistent reviving: Reviving downed party members is less annoying and "swingy", due to the following changes: - Phoenix Down now restores 20 HP on average instead of 11. This is to prevent annoying (and expensive) "revive -> death -> revive" loops early in the game. - Raise, Arise, and Revive have a higher (but not 100%) success rate. Is there anything more annoying than missing multiple times in a row with these skills? No, there isn't. Hence, this change. - Revive can now target tiles that are within 1 height from the caster (instead of being limited to the exact same height). This allows the skill to be used on rougher terrain while still preserving its "height matters" restriction that differentiates it from Raise and Arise. 4.) More consistent status magic: Status effect magic was buffed the same way revive magic was: - Like Revive, spells that apply beneficial status (such as Haste) with "height matters" can now target tiles that are within 1 height from the caster (instead of being limited to the exact same height), allowing their use on rougher terrain. - Spells that apply beneficial or harmful status effects, including transformation and instant death spells, have slightly higher hit chances. Note that bosses are still immune to transformation and instant death spells. - Also, Protectja's and Shellja's hit rates were buffed significantly, because they for some reason had much lower hit rates than Protect and Shell. I assume this was a bug, because it's inconsistent with Hasteja and Slowja (which are *more* likely to hit than Haste and Slow). So, I buffed their hit rates to be consistent with Hasteja's and Shellja's hit rates. 5.) Human bosses are immune to fewer status effects: Human bosses throughout the game can now be affected by more status effects. You spent your hard-earned JP on these status effect skills - you deserve to be able to use them! After this change, human bosses are generally only immune to instant death and transformation status effects. If they are ever immune to anything else, it's because they have equipment that grants them the immunity (equipment that can be broken or stolen). 6.) Slightly easier Golgollada Gallows battle: This battle is infamous for being a huge spike in difficulty. Though I don't intend for this to be a "difficulty mod" or a "balance mod", this case was severe enough for me to take action. I reduced the level of a few enemies by 1 or 2 each. The battle is still hard for this part of the game, but no longer insanely so. 7.) Easier end of chapter 3 battles: The other infamous difficulty spike occurs at the end of chapter 3, and this case is even worse because the game prompts you to save before locking you into these battles, causing several players to have to restart the entire campaign! The first and third battles were made slightly easier the same way as the above - by reducing the level of a few enemies by 1 or 2 each. Also, you can now access the Guest character on the formation screen before the third battle, allowing you to spec her for HP if needed. The second battle was still pretty absurd even after reducing enemy levels by 1, and its second boss was buffed by the faster skill casting times, so enemy levels were reduced by 2 and 3 in this battle instead. Also, the first boss in this fight has nerfed armor. However, the biggest problem with the first boss in the second fight isn't how *hard* he is, per se - it's that very few strategies will actually work against him, and depending on how you developed Ramza, you might be locked out of *all* of them, even if your Ramza is a badass otherwise! Thus, in addition to the nerfs above, the following changes were applied to the first boss in order to allow for more strategies: - His weapon deals lightning elemental damage (instead of non-elemental damage). - He no longer has the Safeguard ability equipped. - He is immune to fewer status effects (like all human bosses). These changes may sound dramatic, but this is still by far the most difficult battle in the game. Hopefully fewer players will get stuck here with these changes. 8.) Slightly buffed endgame magic spells & slightly nerfed special character skills: These two are one entry in the list because they solve the same problem - that special characters like Agrias and Orlandeau completely outclass high level spellcaster damage in the endgame. The reason for the imbalance is, as far as I can tell, because of a math error! Magic spells are scaled by Faith and special skills are not, so magic spells deal approximately double base damage to compensate... but the TRUE value should have been x4, because the damage is being scaled by BOTH the caster's AND the target's Faith! So magic spell damage was being scaled down twice and scaled up only once. Multiplying all magic damage by an additional x2, however, would be a terrible fix because it would throw the rest of the balancing of the game out of whack, and because magic is still very strong in the early and midgame. And the aim of this mod is not to make drastic changes. So, I instead made more subtle tweaks (listed below). MAGIC BUFFS: - The -ga spells are slightly buffed (multiplier increased from 24 to 26). - The -ja spells are buffed a bit more (multiplier increased from 32 to 36). - Flare, Holy, Meteor, and Ultima are similarly buffed (+4 to their damage multipliers). - Endgame summons are already terrifying when the enemy casts them, but they are rarely worth buying as a player. I split the difference and gave them +2 instead of +4. SPECIAL SKILL NERFS: - Orlandeau / Meliadoul's "Crush" attacks will only deal damage if the targeted slot is empty (instead of attempting a break AND dealing damage). Also, they now all deal the same amount of damage (equal damage as Divine Ruination). Essentially, destroying the item first is the "cost" you must pay before you can access the high damage these attacks inflict. (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Mighty sword v2" ASM hack!) - Reis's breath attacks and Agrias / Orlandeau / Meliadoul's special sword skills are slightly nerfed (-2 to their damage multipliers). The above nerf hit Agrias harder than Orlandeau though, and it increased the difficulty of the beginning of chapter 2 (since you rely on Agrias a lot during those battles), so the following was done to compensate: - Agrias's Holy Knight class has slightly higher base physical attack power. This closes some of the gap between Agrias and Orlandeau while still keeping her special sword skills under control. - Agrias starts chapter 2 at +1 level higher and starts with a Diamond Armlet equipped (instead of no accessory). This helps to ensure that the sword skills nerf only actually nerfs her in the endgame. - Gaffgarion gets a similar buff, since his sword skills were nerfed as well. He starts with +1 level. - The first battle of the chapter 2 was made just slightly easier. Boco now starts at +1 level and two Goblins have -1 level. 9.) Harder end of chapter 4 battles: The end of the game is infamous for being way too easy. And it certainly didn't help that this mod awards more JP and guarantees access to powerful multiplayer and unique items. In my "no grinding" playtests (in which I also didn't allow myself the use of any ultimate characters, classes, or skills), the end of chapter 4 was by far the easiest part of the entire game. So, to increase the enjoyment of chapter 4, the final several battles were made more difficult by increasing the levels of most enemies, starting with the battles at Limberry. At first I thought I'd only need to raise their levels by 1 to 3 each, but upon further playtesting, I actually had to scale each enemy up higher and higher based on how far into chapter 4 the enemy appears. So the battles at Limberry are +1 to +3 levels, the battles after that are +2 to +4, etc. all the way up to a whopping +20 levels for the final battle! In addition to the level increases, the human bosses in the final dungeon all have innate abilities that increase their physical and magical attack power and defense, as well as upgraded equipment (including multiplayer items. Yes, this means you can get additional copies by stealing, but there's no way to exit the final dungeon anyway, so they don't really "count"). As drastic as this all sounds, this part of the game is still too easy. To go any further would be too drastic of a change for this mod, which I'll remind you, isn't a difficulty mod! The end result of these changes is that the final battles are just a bit easy rather than laughably so. UI & METAGAME IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Unique names for modified Squire classes: Modified versions of the "Squire" class now have separate names and text descriptions. This is less weird than the "it's a Squire, but not" situation: - Ramza and Delita begin with the "Cadet" class. For consistency with Ramza's version of the class, Delita gains the Tailwind skill. - Argath remains a Squire, but his version of the class has changed to be consistent with "normal" Squires. In other words, he can now equip Axes, he can no longer equip Robes, and he no longer has copies of the Rend Helm and Rend Armor skills. In exchange, Argath starts the game with a few levels of Knight so that he's more likely to have these skills legit. - Ramza in chapter 2 upgrades to the "Sellsword" class. - Ramza in chapter 4 upgrades to the "Heretic" class. 2.) Consistent skill list ordering: Several skill lists have been rearranged in order to make them more consistent and/or intuitive. For example, "Arm Shot" now always appears *above* "Leg Shot", and skills that reference equipment slots (such as Crush, Rend, and Steal) now match the Equip screen slot order. Elemental Order: | Equipment Slot Order: | Stats Order: | Healing Order: - Fire | - Weapon | - HP | - Hit Points - Thunder | - Shield | - Power | - Status Effects - Ice | - Helm | - Speed | - Revival - Wind | - Armor | - Magick | - Earth | - Accessory | - MP | Attack Order: - Water | | | - Direct Damage - Holy | Body Parts Order: | | - Status Effects - Darkness | - Arms | | | - Legs | | There are some exceptions to the above. For example, the Time Mage specializes in status effects, so its direct damage spells are at the bottom of its list instead of the top. And several skill lists are ordered by power before taking their elements or status effects into account (for example, Rapha's and Marach's skill lists). In addition, the Mystic, Geomancer, Orator, and Templar skill lists were rearranged in order to make them more logical and less of a confusing mess (see below). 3.) Consistent status effects ordering: Status effects are now listed in a more intuitive order in spell/item descriptions and in skill lists. This new order attempts to balance severity (they get roughly more severe as you move down the list) vs expectations (classics like Poison and Blind should be near the top) vs clarity (keeping related status effects next to each other). Status Effect Order: | Status Category: - Poison | - Body - Oil | - Body - Blind | - Body / Actions - Silence | - Body / Actions - Slow | - Actions - Stop | - Actions - Disable | - Actions - Immobilize | - Actions - Berserk | - Mind - Confuse | - Mind - Charm | - Mind - Traitor | - Mind - Sleep | - Mind - Doom | - Mind / Transformation - Undead | - Transformation - Vampire | - Transformation - Chicken | - Transformation - Toad | - Transformation - Stone | - Transformation - KO | - (the most "severe") The Mystic, Geomancer, Orator, and Templar skill lists were rearranged to mostly follow the new status effect order, which makes them much easier to understand. In some cases the order is violated if there were good reasons for doing so. For example, the Orator's list starts with Entice (Traitor) because that's the Orator's signature skill. Known issue: The status effects are still listed in the old order on the "View List" equipment screen. I don't know how to edit the order on that screen! 4.) Spellcasting quotes reimplemented: Remember in the PS1 version when you'd cast a spell and your character would randomly say something cool like "cataclysmic inferno, erupt now!" as they cast it? Wasn't that awesome? Well, it's back! (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Add spell quotes back to the game" ASM hack!) (Thanksto the FFT: Complete team for translating these!) I've also done a writing pass over the quotes for polish (mostly eliminating redundant words) and to ensure that they all fit in one window (it feels buggy and sort of takes you out of the experience when they spill into a second window). 5.) Consistent "Boost" ability names: The game had inconsistent ideas for when something should be called "Boost". For example, "Attack Boost" is a support ability that always increases attack power, but "Magick Boost" is a triggered ability that increases magic power when hit. Also, "Fury" is a triggered ability that increases attack power when hit. Clearly, "Attack Boost" would have been a better name for the one called "Fury"! So, the new rule of thumb is: "Boost" is only used as *verb*, when something *happens*. Hence, the following ability name changes: - Attack Boost (support) -> Martial Strength (for consistency with Arcane Strength) - Defense Boost (support) -> Martial Defense (for consistency with Arcane Defense) - Fury (trigger) -> Attack Boost (for consistency with Magick Boost, etc.) - Adrenaline Rush (trigger) -> Speed Boost (for consistency with Magick Boost, etc.) It's a bit of a bummer losing the flavorful "Adrenaline Rush" name, but I think it's worth it for the extra clarity. I tried going in the other direction - giving *everything* flavorful names like Adrenaline Rush - but the change felt too drastic for this mod. Note that "EXP Boost" didn't get a name change despite being a support ability. That's because it already follows the new naming convention - the amount of EXP you gain is "boosted" (a verb) WHEN you gain EXP. 6.) Additional trigger ability animations: A few trigger abilities that had no animation assigned to them will now play an animation when they trigger. These animations were borrowed from other skills that have the same or a similar effect. For example, Speed Boost now uses the animation from Tailwind (which raises Speed). Note that no new animations were authored for this change - I'm simply using existing animations in more places. Trigger Ability | ...uses the animation from: - Attack Boost | - Praise - Speed Boost | - Tailwind - Magick Boost | - Preach 7.) Errands take half as many days: All "Errands" now take half as many days as they did before, and extra days now give double the rewards (for example, spending 2 extra days will now give you the rewards that 4 extra days used to). Let's be honest, we all just walked back and forth between two safe spots in order to pass all the days anyhow. Maybe more players will play it legit if the time costs aren't so ridiculous. 8.) Less confusing shop inventories: Usually when I'm shopping in vanilla FFT, I often don't understand why a particular item is missing from the shop I'm in, so I just keep guessing shops until I find the item. Thinking on this problem, I landed on a "brilliant" idea to divide the items consistently across the shops based on the "category" of the town - but when I sat down to do the work, I discovered that the game already does this! It just does a poor job of it. The shop inventories were already determined by the town's "category" (the four of which I'm calling "Martial", "Magick", "Exotic", and "Tech"). However, there were many exceptions to the category rules littered about in individual towns, and the categories themselves had several overlapping item types, so ultimately the player couldn't perceive the four types. Instead, it felt like the shop inventories were arbitrary, and it was a common "gotcha" when your desired item was missing in the current town. So, in this mod, those "exceptions" disappear, and there are fewer overlapping item types between the categories. Yes, a "better" fix may have been to add every (buyable) item type to every shop, rather than removing some types from some shops, but I thought what they were trying to do here was neat for flavor, giving the towns a bit of personality. Also, breaking up the shops to reinforce that flavor saves the player from having to scroll super long lists every time they visit a shop. Here are the revised shop inventories: Martial: | Magick: | Exotic: | Tech: - Knives | - Rods | - Ninja Blades | - Guns - Swords | - Staves | - Katana | - Crossbows - Axes | - Poles | - Bags | - Accessories - Flails | - Books | - Harps | - Bombs - Crossbows | - Hats | - Cloth | - Items - Bows | - Clothes | - Shields | - Polearms | - Robes | - Hats | - Shields | - Accessories | - Clothes | - Helmets | - Shuriken | - Robes | - Armor | - Bombs | - Accessories | - Accessories | - Items | - Shuriken | - Items | | - Bombs | | | - Items | | | - Poacher's Den | Martial Towns: | Magick Towns: | Exotic Towns: | Tech Towns: - Lesalia | - Gariland | - Dorter | - Goug - Riovanes Castle | - Yardrow | - Warjilis | - Eagrose Castle | - Gollund | - Sal Ghidos | - Lionel Castle | - Zaland | | - Limberry Castle | - Bervenia | | - Zeltennia Castle | | | In addition, the Select button help text for each town now tells you its shop category! Note: Removing the "exceptions" means the player can no longer purchase Broadswords or Daggers at the the very first shop of the game (in vanilla FFT, it's a Magick type that still sold the Broadsword and all Knives as exceptions). To make up for this, additional Broadswords and Daggers drop as war trophies in the earliest battles of the game. 9.) Readable sound novels in the Chronicle menu: You can now read the in-game sound novels, just like you can in the Japanese versions of the game! (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Unlock novels" ASM hack!) (Thanks Tuffy da Bubba & RafaGam for translating these!) These novels can be found under Chronicle, Artefacts after you discover them by completing enough Errands. They are: - Enavia Chronicles - Mesa's Musings - Nanai's Histories - Veil of Wiyu 10.) Removed "hose yourself" dialogue choices: Two dialogue choices have been removed. These dialogue choices had no purpose other than to hose the player if they chose wrong (by permanently locking out several side-quests and items). The removed dialogue choices are: - The player can no longer turn down Beowulf from joining the team after meeting him in the tavern. - The player can no longer turn down purchasing Aerith's flower (even if they have 0 gil). Note that you can still hose yourself by dismissing Agrias, Lavian, Alicia, Mustadio, Beowulf, or Reis from your team. Don't do that! 11.) Agrias birthday gil requirement fix: The Agrias birthday side-quest allows you to spend 50,000 gil on a gift, but for some reason the quest wouldn't even activate unless you had 500,000 gil in your wallet! This has been corrected, and now the quest requires only 50,000 gil to activate. (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Fix gil amount needed for the lip rouge quest" ASM hack!) 12.) Misc text improvements: Minor text changes were done in various parts of the game for clarity or polish: - When prompted to save between a sequence of battles, you will now be reminded to save on a separate slot (so that you don't get stuck on an unwinnable battle). - Revised several job, ability, and skill descriptions for grammar, gravitas, or clarity. - Innate abilities in job descriptions are specified with "Innate:" text instead of "Ability:" or "Abilities:" text. - Job descriptions will no longer waste your time with "Prerequisites: None" text if they have no prerequisites. - The "Dark" element is now called "Darkness". - Description text for equipment will now tell you if the Dark Knight can use it (in other words, the Dark Knight has been added to grid of classes that appears on the final page of all equipment descriptions, filling the ugly blank space that used to appear in the bottom-right). - Description text for all weapons will now specify how many hands it requires (previously only some weapons did this). - A weapon's parry chance is now specified with "Parry:" instead of "Block:". In addition, the help text for it (and the description text for the "Parry" ability) have been updated to make it clear that the weapon's parry chance only applies with the Parry ability equipped. - Description text for women's equipment now says "Women Only" instead of the out-of-favor "Females Only". - "Women Only" and "Onion Knight Only" text now appears in red so that it's clear that it's a property of the entire item, not an entry of the list that appears before it. "Dark Knight Only" text no longer appears, now that the Dark Knight has an entry in the normal class grid. - The second "Javelin" and "Escutcheon" items (the ones that are super powerful but share names with super weak items) have been renamed to "Master Javelin" and "Master Escutcheon" so that it's clear that these are different (and more powerful) items. - Description text for Axes, Flails, Bags, and elemental Guns now specify that damage can vary due to randomness. For example: "Attack: 13 (Damage Varies)". - Description text for the Healing Staff is more clear that it heals with physical strikes. Its attack power now shows as "Attack: 4 (Healing)". - The Samurai's "Shirahadori" ability description now correctly specifies that it blocks both melee and ranged physical attacks (instead of incorrectly saying that it can't block ranged attacks). - The Onion Knight's job description now makes it clear that the class does not gain EXP (by showing a fake "No EXP" innate ability). - The "Mindsap" and "Magicksap" skill names have been swapped, and their descriptions have been updated for clarity. In other words, Magicksap is now the one that reduces magic power, and Mindsap is now the one that reduces MP. - Rapha's "Ashura" skill has been renamed to "Sky Ashura" to differentiate it from the Samurai's "Ashura" skill. - Marach's Nether Mantra ability description now makes it clear that his spells increase in power with LOWER Faith. - Skills with randomization involved (such as Rapha's spells, Marach's spells, and Reis's Holy Breath) will now specify the number of random strikes it will attempt in their text descriptions. - Reis's job description now correctly lists her innate abilities. - Reis's "Dragon" ability is now called "Dragon Power" to differentiate it from actual dragons. - Reis's skill descriptions now inform you if they work only on dragons or not. - Cloud's "Limit" skillset has been changed (back) to "Limit Breaks" to match FF7. Also, his "Brave Slash" Limit Break has been changed (back) to "Braver", again to match FF7. - Fixed a random typo I happened to spot in an Errand description ("tha" instead of "that"). - Several text changes related to other changes in this mod that had to be manually done. For example, revised spellcasting speeds, job requirements, innate abilities, errand times, etc. 13.) Known issue: the Tutorial option doesn't work properly: A side effect of using the Valhalla tool to edit text causes the Tutorial option to break in a few places. I think there's a bug in the text pointer table ASM script that happens to affect the text entries in the Tutorial. What will happen is: the wrong text will appear in all text windows, but only for some of the tutorials. I took a peek at the ASM script responsible, but fixing it is beyond my powers! Why didn't I use FFTactext then, like a regular person? Well, I tried, but it's very unstable for the PSP version of FFT, even the 0.457 version that everyone recommends, and even after (and before) removing all the Japanese text. Whenever I used FFTactext to edit text, a figurative landmine was dropped in another text string elsewhere in the game, causing a crash when it displays. At first it was the famous crystallization crash, but upon fixing that, it'd crash after grabbing treasure. Upon fixing that, it'd crash when a monster used a skill. Etc. It was like whack-a-mole, and I simply couldn't test every single text string in the game every time I made a change. Several of the changes in this version of the mod were actually originally done for v1.07, but I had to pull them out at the last minute because I couldn't get their corresponding text changes to work (things like quicker casting times, reduced job prerequisites, etc.). I knew I wanted to experiment with Valhalla for the next version after 1.07, and when I saw that it could edit text, I jumped on it! Once the author of Valhalla or some other kind soul finds and fixes the problem, I'll do an update. Until then, if you need to use the Tutorial, do so in vanilla FFT! CLASS / ABILITY / EQUIPMENT IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Squire: Basic abilities revision: The Squire job received the most changes. Their ability list should have been about the absolute basics (without weird off-concept abilities like "Equip Axes" and "Beastmaster"). Now it is: Squire gains: | Squire loses: - ReEquip (from Chemist) | - Equip Axes (to Knight) - Safeguard (from Knight) | - Beastmaster (to Orator) - Jump+1 (from Archer) | 2.) Squire: Defend & ReEquip revised JP costs: Defend and ReEquip now cost 25 and 10 JP (instead of 50 and 0). 50 is a pretty high price for such a fundamental ability at the very beginning of the game, and ReEquip being free caused even more of a disincentive to buy Defend. After this change, the player can at least make a choice, and one that is not prohibitively expensive. 3.) Knight: Axe and Flail improvements: Axes and Flails are very annoying weapons due to their randomness. In order to increase their usefulness, each has been given a minor boost. Axes (except the Slasher) can now break shields; Flails (except the Flame Mace) can now break helmets. The Slasher and the Flame Mace already have their own special effects, so they instead gain +2 attack power. In addition, the Knight can now use Axes and Flails. This is the class that can break enemy equipment, yet they could not equip the heaviest weapons that typically do this in other RPGs. That's weird. Also, it was weird that the Squire and Dark Knight can use these but the Knight cannot. Weirdness corrected. 4.) Jump+X movement ability downshifts: The Jump+X movement abilities are not as broadly useful as the Move+X movement abilities, but the game treats them as if they are. This has been corrected by shifting each Jump+X ability down "one step" in JP costs and in class assignments: Before: | After: | - Jump+1 = 100 JP Squire - Jump+1 = 200 JP Archer | - Jump+2 = 200 JP Archer - Jump+2 = 560 JP Thief | - Jump+3 = 560 JP Thief - Jump+3 = 1000 JP Dancer* | *See "Bard & Dancer ability sharing", below, for more on this. 5.) Black Mage: Thundara MP cost fix: Thundara, for some reason, used to cost 2 MP less than Fira and Blizzara. This has been corrected - Thundara now costs 12 MP instead of 10 MP. Previous versions of this mod opted to lower Fira's and Blizzara's MP costs to match Thundara's instead. This was in keeping with the philosophy of this mod - make the game more fun and convenient. However, after increasing all the -ra spellcasting speeds, they really needed that extra 2 MP cost for balance. 6.) White Mage: Staff of the Magi buff: The Staff of the Magi now Boosts Holy and starts you with Reraise status. The Staff of the Magi was essentially a troll weapon. You got it super late in the postgame, but it's terrible, and its description even acknowledged this by calling it an "ordinary" staff. This buff makes it more consistent with its abilities in other Final Fantasy games, and makes it more appropriate for the postgame. The description also no longer makes fun of the weapon. 7.) Dragoon: Jump attack skills simplification: Redundant Jump attack skills are no longer necessary to purchase in order to Master the Dragoon class. The Dragoon skill list has been simplified; now there are only two Jump levels, 3 and 8. Jump 3 is free, and Jump 8 costs the same as it always had. These skills have been renamed to "Basic Jump", "Enhanced Horizontal", and "Enhanced Vertical". This was another catch-22 situation, similar to JP Boost, where you felt bad no matter what you did. Playing optimally (saving up to buy Jump 8 first) felt bad because your jump range sucked until you could finally afford Jump 8. Buying the intermediate Jump skills felt bad because you were ultimately "wasting" JP in the long run. Mastering the class felt bad because you had to waste JP on Jump skills that do nothing (once you had Jump 8, all other Jump skills added nothing to your Jump range). This change fixes the above conundrum by allowing you to play optimally (purchase Jump 8 first) while still enjoying the benefits of the class (the free Jump 3), and you won't be required to purchase useless skills to Master it. 8.) Samurai: Innate Doublehand: The Samurai class now has the Doublehand ability innate, in order to compete with the Ninja's innate Dual Wield. Samurai and Ninja are both supposed to be the final physical classes, but the Ninja is amazing and the Samurai sucks. This change should make their damage competitive. This also makes enemy Samurai more powerful, so watch out! 9.) Bard & Dancer ability sharing: The Bard gains Bravery Boost, and the Dancer gains Faith Boost and Move+3, so now both classes share these three abilities. The Dancer loses Jump+3 (which is now on the Thief). Both Move+3 and Jump+3 have been removed from the Dark Knight (since they are no longer necessary there). Note that Attack Boost is still exclusive to the Dancer and Magick Boost is still exclusive to the Bard. Previous versions of this mod used to share these abilities as well, but this actually created a new design problem: Since male characters have +1 physical attack and female characters have +1 magic attack, giving both genders access to both Attack Boost and Magick Boost meant it was ALWAYS optimal to make your physical characters male and your magic characters female. Whereas leaving these two abilities exclusive gives the player more interesting choices and lets each gender be the "best" at physical and magic classes in different ways. For example, a male Knight will have more physical attack power by default, but a female Knight can equip Attack Boost and potentially out-damage the male Knight over the course of the battle. And vice-versa for magic - a female Black Mage will have more magic power by default, but a male Black Mage can equip Magick Boost and potentially out-damage the female Black Mage over the course of the battle. Of course, the "best" solution for this would be to remove the gender differences to begin with, but I don't know how to do that! 10.) Arithmetician: Arithmeticks no longer ignores Reflect status: Spells cast via the Arithmetician's Arithmeticks ability will now honor the Reflect status on their targets, rather than bypassing it in all cases. This class was already overpowered enough without this weird, unadvertised benefit. (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Abilities in Arith skillset can be reflected" ASM hack!) 11.) Onion Knight improvements: The Onion Knight has been buffed to the point of potential usefulness: - The base version of the Onion Knight now has good stats and is usable (slightly higher stats than the Knight). The master version still has absurdly high stats. - The Onion Gloves now grant +3 Power (in addition to all its status immunities). It bothered me that the best loadout for the Onion Knight was all Onion equipment and the Bracer instead of the Onion Gloves. - The class gains Parry and Safeguard as innate abilities. - Added a fake "No EXP" ability to its description text to make it clear that it doesn't gain EXP. 12.) Onion Knight, Mime, & Dark Knight prerequisite reductions: The Onion Knight, Mime, & Dark Knight jobs have had their overly-strict prerequisites reduced: - All prerequisites higher than level 5 have been made equal to level 5 instead. - The Mime and the Dark Knight require fewer jobs to reach level 5. - The Dark Knight no longer requires killing a requisite number of enemies, nor does it require Mastering the Knight and Black Mage jobs. (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Unlocked jobs v2" ASM hack!) Onion Knight Before: | Onion Knight After: - Squire Level 6 | - Squire Level 5 - Chemist Level 6 | - Chemist Level 5 Mime Before: | Mime After: - Squire Level 8 | - Squire Level 5 - Chemist Level 8 | - Chemist Level 5 - Summoner Level 8 | - Geomancer Level 5 - Orator Level 8 | - Orator Level 5 - Geomancer Level 8 | - Dragoon Level 8 | Dark Knight Before: | Dark Knight After: - Knight Master | - Samurai Level 5 - Black Mage Master | - Black Mage Level 5 - Geomancer Level 8 | - Dragoon Level 8 | - Samurai Level 8 | - Ninja Level 8 | - Crystalize 20 enemies | 13.) AI ability assignment improvements: The following changes ensure a smoother and more varied gameplay experience by changing how the game chooses abilities for AI characters: - When generating characters, the AI will now always purchase either the first, the cheapest, or the most basic skill in their skill list if the character has enough JP to do so. For example, an AI Squire will always purchase Rush. This is to prevent AI characters from being unable to use their skills in battle (for example, this prevents an AI character from being created with the Aim ability equipped but with no Aim+ skills learned). There are a few exceptions to this - this wasn't done where it would introduce an undesired bias (for example, I don't want enemy Black Mages using Fire more often than Thunder and Ice). - Conversely, the AI will now NEVER purchase the following abilities: Brawler, Dual Wield, Doublehand, Auto-Potion, Sticky Fingers, Gil Snapper, Poach, Tame, Accrue JP, Faith Boost, Ignore Weather, Ignore Terrain, Waterwalking, Lavawalking, Throw Items, Beast Tongue, ReEquip, and all the "Equip _____" abilities. This change is to prevent AI characters from having, say, "Brawler" equipped along with a sword and shield. These abilities rarely make sense on an AI character, so it's better that they just spend their JP on other things. Note that this change does not prevent an AI character from being *preauthored* with one of these abilities equipped (like that weird Monk with Equip Swords in the Balthier battle). - Safeguard will now also never be purchased by an AI character, so you won't randomly get hosed out of stealing. If an AI character is *supposed* to have Safeguard, then it will always be visibly equipped. For example, Elmdore used to have Brawler equipped and a sneaky, invisible Safeguard - now he has Safeguard equipped with a sneaky, invisible Brawler instead. - Enemy Knights are now less likely to have the various Rend Equipment skills (such as Rend Weapon) and instead will prefer the Rend Attribute skills (such as Rend Power). Now you're less likely to be hosed by an enemy knight breaking something important (such as my fricken Genji Armor!!). - AI characters who join your party will now equip more of their abilities from the start instead of leaving blank slots. The abilities are randomly selected from what the character has learned, so they may end up weird, but it's better than the blank slots they had before. CHARACTER IMPROVEMENTS: 1.) Lavian & Ladd changes: Lavian starts with White Mage and Mystic levels instead of Knight and Monk levels in order to differentiate her from Alicia, and to provide the player with a wider selection of skills in the early game. Ladd starts with Thief levels instead of White Mage levels, since Lavian uses White Magic now. This also improves Ladd a bit, but it sucked that he was weaker than Lavian and Alicia anyway. It also makes more sense that Lavian, a knight in the service of Agrias, would be more likely to have White Magic than Ladd, one of Gaffgarion's mercenaries. 2.) Guest characters no longer reset their EXP and JP: Guest party member EXP and JP will no longer be reset when they join your team "for real" (when they upgrade from Guest to full party member). This affects Mustadio, Agrias, Rapha, Meliadoul, and Reis (first form). In addition, Delita and Ovelia no longer *lose* JP later in the game. Note: Mustadio, Agrias, and Rapha will remain on your formation screen even after they have temporarily left your party. This was necessary for the game to remember their statistics. I'm not sure what would happen if you load a vanilla save game (in which they are not on your formation screen), then proceed in this mod (where they are expected to be there). I imagine this would result in an infinite hang as it attempts to load the absent character. If this happens to you, then proceed in vanilla FFT until the character rejoins, then switch back to this mod. Saves from previous versions of this mod are safe, because this feature has been there since the very first release. Note Reis's level still resets when she transforms. In order to reduce the odds that her level goes *down* during this event, I increased her second form's base level. 3.) Late game characters start with more JP: Characters who join the party later in the game (chapter 3+) will now start with more JP. It was always a bummer when a neat character joined your team and you were excited to use them, but they were so behind on JP that they were unusable without grinding. After this change, these characters will still be behind your main team, but not dramatically so. See wotltweakv2.01_character_starting_jp.txt for the list of characters and their new starting job levels. 4.) Mustadio keeps innate Safeguard: Not much more to say here. Mustadio's Machinist class no longer loses its innate Safeguard ability when he joins your team "for real". 5.) Luso improvements: Luso gains a few minor improvements that make him feel more like a "Game Hunter": - His Game Hunter class gains Beast Tongue as an innate ability. - His Game Hunter class can now equip Bows, Crossbows, and Spears. - He starts with more JP in "hunter" type classes (Archer, Thief, Dragoon). 6.) Rapha & Marach improvements: Rapha and Marach are notoriously terrible characters, so I've attempted to help them out with several improvements: - Rapha starts with significantly more JP in spellcasting classes. - Her Skyseer spells will always strike 7 times (instead of choosing a random number from 1 to 10), and they will no longer hit allies or Rapha herself. Each of the 7 strikes will still hit a random tile though. - Marach starts with significantly more JP in physical classes. Though he seems like a spellcasting character, his Netherseer spells are stronger with LOWER Faith, so he is actually terrible at the other spellcasting classes. - His Netherseer spells will attempt more strikes (striking 1 to 13 times instead of 1 to 10 times), and they will no longer hit allies or Marach himself. - I fixed the damage formula for his Netherseer spells so that they are now comparable to Rapha's Skyseer spells. Turns out these spells suffered from a similar math error as the high level black magic spells - they needed to be doubled AGAIN to account for both the caster's AND the target's Faith scaling. So I fixed them to deal damage equivalent to Rapha's, then added a little boost on top to make up for the extra randomness Marach still has. Netherseer spells are now capable of dealing massive damage to low Faith enemies. Note: Now that Skyseer and Netherseer spells avoid allies, you can strategically cast one on top of your allies in order to reduce the number of valid tiles in its area, increasing the odds that multiple strikes will stack on your enemies. Completely surrounding an enemy and unleashing one of these spells on the only valid tile is one of the most devastating attacks in the game! 7.) Cloud improvements: Cloud is another notoriously underpowered character. He gains several improvements to increase his power and to make him better match his FF7 counterpart: - He starts at a reasonable level (instead of level 1), like all other optional characters. - His Soldier class gains Doublehand as an innate ability (since he uses huge two-handed swords in FF7). - His Soldier class can now equip Knight Swords (in addition to regular Swords). - He starts with the Materia Blade equipped. However... - He no longer requires the Materia Blade to perform his Limit Breaks (he still needs a Sword or Knight Sword equipped though). - His Soldier class deals more damage with magic, allowing you to spec him as a hybrid physical/magic character (like in FF7). - The Materia Blade now gives +3 magic power, in order to give it a reason to exist, and to enable more character builds (for Cloud or for other physical/magic hybrid characters, like Beowulf). - His Limit Breaks are now based on physical attack power, including his equipped weapon, instead of using magic power and *not* factoring in the weapon. They are more powerful than Agrias / Orlandeau's special sword skills, but in exchange they have charge time. - His Limit Breaks cost half the JP they used to, so that the cost to max him out is about the same as maxing Agrias or Meliadoul. 8.) Reis improvements: Reis had some serious annoyances that have been fixed, and her support skills can now target non-dragons (with caveats - see below): - Her Dragonkin class can now equip any accessory (instead of just Rings and Armlets). This is the only class in the game that had accessory type restrictions, and the game never warned you about it, so it played like a "gotcha" when you "for some reason" couldn't find the accessory you were looking for. - Holy Breath will always strike 12 times (instead of choosing a random number from 1 to 11), it will no longer hit allies, and it has a chance to apply negative status effects. Each of its 12 strikes will still hit a random tile though. Like Rapha's randomized skills, the fact that it no longer hits allies means you can attempt to concentrate the damage by reducing the number of valid tiles, though this is harder to do with Holy Breath because it hits such a wide area. - Dragon's Gift has been renamed to "Dragon's Light", as it no longer harms Reis when she casts it. It now works on anyone, not just on dragons. - Dragon's Speed has been renamed to "Dragon's Quickness" so that it's more clear that it doesn't affect the target's Speed attribute (it actually applies Quick to the target). It now works on anyone, not just on dragons. - "Dragon's Roar" is a new skill that's essentially a weaker version of Dragon's Might, except it works on anyone, not just on dragons. I originally made Dragon's Might usable on anyone, but playtesting revealed it to be overpowered (it was the only skill I ever wanted to use on Reis's turn), so I made this weaker version instead (keeping the stronger version for use on dragons only). Reis also cannot use this ability on herself, as playtesting revealed it to be more interesting if it works only on others (like an inverse version of Ramza's Shout skill). Note: I had to plunder Balthier's Plunder EXP skill in order to create this skill, so Balthier can no longer plunder EXP! - Dragon's Might has been renamed to "Empower Dragon", and its description has been updated, in order to make it clear that it works only on dragons. It has also been buffed to +15 Brave, +3 Power, +3 Speed, +3 Magick, and it costs 100 fewer JP. This was to make the "allied dragon support" build for Reis more attractive in a world where she can support non-dragons too. - Dragon's Charm has been renamed to "Tame Dragon", and its description has been updated, in order to make it clear that it works only on dragons. I considered allowing this to work on any creature, like I did with the above skills, but then I'd have to give it a failure chance for balance, essentially making it a copy of Entice. 100% success on dragons only is more interesting and flavorful. - Reis's Dragonkin class had to lose two innate abilities in order to make room for the "always on" JP Boost and Treasure Hunter. I kept the two that fit her concept best without requiring levels in other classes for special builds. Say goodbye to Dual Wield and Beast Tongue (she keeps Beastmaster and Tame). 9.) Balthier's initial equipment is no longer hardcoded (for modders): This change is relevant for modders only, as it doesn't directly affect the game. Balthier's equipment is no longer hardcoded - in other words, he will honor whatever he is assigned in ENTD. His ENTD entry has been updated accordingly so that he still has his correct initial equipment. (Thanks Xjamxx for the "Balthier gets no special ENTD items" ASM hack!) 10.) Sprite slot consolidation (for modders): This change is relevant for modders only, as it doesn't directly affect the game. Three sprite slots have been freed up for use in custom characters, if you wish. These slots were duplicates of certain characters, and I have consolidated the duplicates and originals into one slot, freeing up three slots. The freed up slots are slot 19h (Rapha duplicate), slot 22h (Mustadio duplicate), and slot 34h (Agrias duplicate). ***************************************************************************************************** E.) For Modders So, you want to make a War of the Lions mod and you like the changes I've made here? Great! No need to reinvent the wheel. You are free to use this mod as the base for your own mod if you wish, without my specific permission. You have my general permission do this as long as you follow the terms below: 1.) Your mod, once released, must be distributed with documention (in the form of a readme file of some sort). 2.) You must credit me ("Tzepish") and this mod ("War of the Lions Tweak" or "wotltweak") in said documentation. You do not have to credit me anywhere else (the project's website, in the mod itself, etc.), and you do not need to specify a version number. Something as simple as "This project incorporates the changes made in Tzepish's wotltweak" or something similar is fine. Or listing in the credits section something like "Tzepish - credited for creating wotltweak, which this mod was based on" or "built upon". 3.) You may alter or remove any of my work, but you cannot credit yourself for any of my work. ...And that's it! Pretty reasonable, eh? Note that even if you use my project as a starting point for your own mod, you are not required to distribute my patch with your project. My involvement with your project will be invisible to the user (unless they read your documentation, which, of course, we all hope they do). If you agree to the above, you can recreate my mod (and edit whatever you want) using the files in the "Source" folder. They are: - wotltweakv2.01.fftpatch: The War of the Lions Tweak fftpatch file, containing all data changes (but not text, event, or ASM changes). - wotltweakv2.01_plus_encounter_unscaling.fftpatch: The alternate fftpatch file that also includes the removal of enemy level scaling in random battles (by manually assigning levels to all enemies in ENTD). Aside from the ENTD tab, it's identical to wotltweakv2.01.fftpatch. - Valhalla (folder): This folder contains several Valhalla source files for the text, event, and ASM changes included in this mod. See below for how to use it! When recreating the ISO, make sure to follow these steps in order, otherwise you may end up with a corrupt file! Initial Setup: * Install Valhalla. * Put a copy of your vanilla FFT ISO in Valhalla\Data. Name it "fft-wotl.iso" * Run Valhalla and do "Setup Files", "Decode text files", and "Decode EVT" in order to create all the files Valhalla will need for editing. * Drag the contents of the "Valhalla" folder included in this mod's archive into your Valhalla program folder and overwrite all files when prompted (this is replacing stock FFT text and events with the edited text and events from this mod. It's also replacing Valhalla's stock ASM scripts with the edits done by me). * Initial setup only needs to be done once. Step 1: Use FFTPatcher to open whichever version of the patch you like (depending on whether you want the Encounter Unscaling optional feature or not). Change whatever you like, then patch it over a vanilla ISO. Step 2: Place the patched ISO from Step 1 in the Valhalla\Data directory and rename it "fft-wotl.iso" (replace the existing ISO if you already have one there). Delete "fft-wotl-patched.iso" if it's already in there. Step 3: Edit blacklist.asm, if desired, in a text editor. You can turn on/off the Smart Encounters optional feature here (as well as any other ASM hacks). Step 4: Run Valhalla. Do "Setup files", "Encode text files", "Encode EVT", and "Apply patches" in that order! Step 5: Close Valhalla, navigate to Valhalla\Data, and find "fft-wotl-patched.iso" <- that's your finished iso! When iterating, just follow the steps above (from Step 1) again once you have made your edits in FFTPatcher or in the Valhalla source files. Always start from a base ISO in FFTPatcher, then use that ISO after patching for "fft-wotl.iso" in Valhalla. Don't run "fft-wotl-patched.iso" through FFTPatcher or through Valhalla again! ***************************************************************************************************** F.) Special Thanks The following individuals helped to make this mod possible: - Joe Davidson: The creator of FFTPatcher, the latest and greatest Final Fantasy Tactics editor. Used for each and every gameplay change in this mod that wasn't text, events, or ASM. - zzdd: The creator of Valhalla, the tool that WAS used for text, events, and ASM! - Xjamxx & Xifanie: The authors of various ASM hacks that are included in Valhalla and were applied in this mod! - Archaemic & Eternal248: Created the spellcasting Slowdown Removal Fix, removing the final obstacle to declaring War of the Lions version to be the definitive FFTactics experience. I know there are some modders out there who would hate me for saying that. - Tuffy da Bubba & RafaGam: The translators for the readable novels in the chronicle! - Jay "Adilegian" Howell: Helped me finesse many of the text changes in this mod! - Qu Marsh, Brumbek, & STobias: Authors of amazing FFTactics guides that were indispensable when planning out where each missable and multiplayer item should drop! - Roman217: A reddit user who requested the no random battle scaling feature, which was the kick in the pants I needed to start working on this mod again! - salted_crackerz: A reddit user who reported a rather nasty bug in v2.00, which is now fixed! ***************************************************************************************************** G.) The Disclaimer! -- (C) 2008 - 2021 Tzepish (Blaine Higdon) -- wotltweakv2.01.zip is not to be distributed with any other files (especially ISOs). It is not to contain any files other than those listed above in Sections A and E. -- Tzepish is not responsible for any damages done to your computer, whether you use his patches or not! -- If wotltweak is used as a base for your own project, you must follow the terms listed under Section E: "For Modders". ***************************************************************************************************** H.) The End... of the Readme Do I really need a whole section for this?