Detox Less Useless

[Siel]

DetoxRemovesMoreThings.ips
In the default game, Detox only removes poison, stun, and curse, starting from levels 1, 2, and 3. This patch
adds muddle, silence, sleep, and slow removal to levels 2 and above.

WARNING: SPOILER!

BuffDebuffStatusRedux.ips
This patch changes a bunch of things:

WARNING: SPOILER!

ATTACK: Instead of boosting ATK by 37.5% and decaying by 12.5% per turn, it boosts ATK by a fixed 25%.
BOOST: Instead of decaying, it boosts DEF by a fixed 25%. It also doesn't affect AGI anymore.
SLOW: Instead of decaying, it decreases DEF by a fixed 25%. It also doesn't affect AGI anymore.
SLEEP: Instead of causing sleep, It weakens ATK by 25% and MOV by 37.5% for 3 turns. Actions and counterattacks can be performed while "asleep". The chance of randomly "awakening" at the end of turn has also been removed. The text bank is untouched so it'll still refer to this status as sleep and say "agility" instead of "attack" for the stat being decreased.
DESOUL: Halves the opponent's current HP instead of inflicting instant death (rounded down). The "soul was stolen" message does not display anymore unless the opponent actually dies from having their HP halved (i.e. they had 1 HP remaining).

Status hit rates have been vastly improved :
Muddle: from 0-37.5% to 0-75%
Dispel: from 0-37.5% to 25-100%
Sleep: from 0-37.5% to 25-100%
Desoul: from 0-37.5% to 0-50%
(maximum resistance - no resistance)

15Range.ips
This patch validates attack ranges up to 15, but doesn't add items and spells capable of such. SF2 Editor hard caps range settings to 3, so item and spell data have to be edited elsewhere.

WARNING: SPOILER!

GisarmeReducesto1HP
Instead of being an instant kill, this patch changes the Gisarme's cut off effect to reducing the opponent's HP to 1 (does not activate if the attack would've killed the opponent normally).

WARNING: SPOILER!

NoRandomDamage.ips
This patch disables damage randomization. Attacks should always deal full damage instead of randomly dropping down, down to 80%.

NoRandomTurnOrder.ips
This patch disables AGI randomization in regards to turn order. Double-turning units also had their second turn made a bit slower (based on 50% AGI instead of 83%).

DoubleUncounterBugFix.ips
Weapons that increase double attack rate seem to reset counterattack rate to the minimum (1/32)? This patch probably fixes that.

============
Collection of patches that were added later on in the thread:

BuffDebuffStatusRedux - DesoulMaxHP Version
This patch is an alternate version of the BuffDebuffStatusRedux patch where Desoul deals damage equal to half of the target's Max HP instead of Current HP.

Guisarme Requires Half HP
Gisarme's cut off effect does not occur unless the target is at half of Max HP or below. The cut off effect itself remains the same as it was in vanilla (i.e. instant kill).

Church Speed Up
Reviving, curing, and promoting no longer require waiting until the end of the jingle each time before proceeding.

Revive and Cure Everyone at Once
When reviving and curing, instead of going through each character and each ailment individually, the priest will offer to service everyone at once for a single payment. If the player can't afford the cost or refuses the mass-service, the priest will offer to go through each character individually, which leads to going through the original game's routine. Uncursing is exempt. Text data remains unchanged and the dialogue is recycled, so it may flow awkwardly.

No Muddle 2 on Attack
Attacks that would inflict Muddle 2 (confusion) instead inflict Muddle 1 (loss of accuracy). The MUDDLE spell is unchanged.

Guaranteed Drops
Rare item drops (Taros Sword, Iron Ball) are guaranteed to drop instead of only 1/32 of the time.

Guaranteed Mithril Result
Mithril will always turn into the weapon of the highest available rank.

No Darkness
The darkness gimmick in caves is disabled (Hobgoblin battle, cave before Ketto).

Curse Relief
Curse doesn't randomly prevent action or cause recoil damage anymore. The restriction on unequipping cursed items is still present.

Healing EXP for Everyone
Healing EXP is awarded regardless of the character's class.

Lower Evasion Rates
Base evasion rate is lowered from 3.125% to 0.833%. Merely floating units no longer gain the evasion rate of flying units (12.5%).

Items Break Less Often
Items crack 10% of the time instead of 25%.

Halve Repair Fee
Repairing costs 12.5% instead of 25% of the item's value.

Halve Uncurse Fee
Uncursing costs 12.5% instead of 25% of the item's value.

L i t t l e m o n e y (via selling)
Resale value of items is lowered from 75% to 12.5%.

Detox Also Heals
Detox Also Heals, But Doesn't Grant Detox EXP
In addition to having the same changes as the DetoxRemovesMoreThings patch, these patches make the DETOX spell also heal based on its "effect" value. The first patch has DETOX grant both healing and detox EXP (10+5=15 EXP) for the action while the second patch omits the detox portion (just 10 EXP).

Agility Affects Evasion
Evasion rates are affected by the comparison between the attacker and defender's agility stats. Baseline evasion is increased from 1/32 to 1/24.

WARNING: SPOILER!

Code: Select all

AGI difference, chance of missing vs regular or vs flying (divisor difference)
  0             1/24 or 1/ 8
+20             1/32 or 1/10 (x4/3)
+40             1/42 or 1/13 (x4/3)
+60             1/56 or 1/17 (x4/3)
-10             1/16 or 1/ 5 (x2/3)
-30             1/10 or 1/ 3 (x2/3)
-50             1/ 6 or 1/ 2 (x2/3)

Miss chance when muddled remains at 1/2.

WARNING: SPOILER!

Where to edit the above values with a hex editor:

AB2D: base evasion rate (by default 0x20 (32), lowered to 0x18 (24) by the patch)
AB73: flying evasion rate (by default 0x08)

42BEF: 1st agility threshold for when attacker is faster (0x14 (20))
42BF7: multiplier for 1st threshold (0x04)
42BF8: divisor for 1st threshold (0x03)

42BFF: 2nd threshold for when attacker is faster (0x28 (40))
42C07: multiplier for 2nd (0x04)
42C0B: divisor for 2nd (0x03)

42C0F: 3rd threshold for when attacker is faster (0x3C (60))
42C17: mult (0x04)
42C1B: div (0x03)

42C25: 1st threshold for when defender is faster (0x0A (10))
42C2D: mult (0x02)
42C31: div (0x03)

42C35: 2nd threshold for when defender is faster (0x1E (30))
42C3D: mult (0x02)
42C41: div (0x03)

42C45: 3rd threshold for when defender is faster (0x32 (50))
42C45: mult (0x02)
42C51: div (0x03)

What the above is used for:
The difference between the attacker's and defender's AGI is calculated. This difference is then checked against the above relevant brackets one by one in order, applying the subsequent modifiers to the evasion rating if it qualifies. The code is skipped to the end as soon as one check fails (in other words, the thresholds' values need to be set in ascending order).

============
Collection of patches that were added even later on in the thread:

Buff Debuff Status Redux - Root Stoneskin Blind version
This patch contains the same changes as the one in the opening post, but with these differences:
BOOST (Stoneskin): decreases AGI by 25% in addition to increasing DEF by 25%
SLOW (Root): decreases AGI by 25% and MOV by 100/75/50% instead of decreasing DEF
SLEEP (Blind?): confers MUDDLE's accuracy penalty in addition to decreasing ATK by 25%, but without affecting MOV
MUDDLE: either level of the spell has MUDDLE 2's effect

Ailment Spell Accuracy Up
Unlike the BuffDebuffRedux patches, this patch only affects ailment spell success rates, without touching on their effects. Or almost without touching on them: Slow/Boost/Attack are made to reset their duration instead of failing when they're already applied.
Success rate changes:

WARNING: SPOILER!

SLOW: from 0-25% and 100% to 37.5~62.5% and 100%
DISPEL: from 0~37.5% to 12.5%~87.5%
MUDDLE1: from 37.5% to 12.5%~87.5%
MUDDLE2: unchanged from 0~37.5%
DESOUL: unchanged from 0~37.5%
SLEEP: unchanged from 0~37.5%
(vs maximum resistance ~ vs no resistance)

Further customization guide:

WARNING: SPOILER!

The game actually calculates with chances of failure to determine whether spells succeed or not. Here are the locations in the ROM where values used for those calculations are stored after having applied the patch.

(default values listed are of the patch)

Slow
0xB312: base chance of failure for slow (25% by default)
Each resistance level adds 12.5% to this failure rate
Exception: vs 0 resistance, Slow is guaranteed to succeed regardless of the above settings
Change 0xB310 and 0xB311 from 6702 to 4E71 to remove this exception

Dispel
0xB42E: base chance of failure for dispel (12.5% by default)
Each resistance level adds 25.0% to this failure rate

Muddle2
0xB492: base chance of failure for muddle2 (62.5% by default)
Each resistance level adds 12.5% to this failure rate

Desoul
0xB516: base chance of failure for desoul (62.5% by default)
Each resistance level adds 12.5% to this failure rate

Sleep
0xB57E: base chance of failure for sleep (62.5% by default)
Each resistance level adds 12.5% to this failure rate

change the values of the addresses above to one of these hexadecimal values for the following failure rates:
52: 12.5% failure
54: 25.0% failure
56: 37.5% failure
58: 50.0% failure
5A: 62.5% failure
5C: 75.0% failure
5E: 87.5% failure
50: 100% failure

Muddle1 works slightly differently from the others: it starts with a 100% base chance of failure which is then substracted from. (the reason for this is to first set muddle1 to 100% fail if the target is already affected by muddle2)
0xB4F3: subtrahend for the above, to be multiplied by 12.5% (default value of 7, or 87.5%)
Each resistance level adds 25.0% to this failure rate.


Additional failure% per resistance can be edited here:
Dispel: 0xB47E and 0xB47F
Muddle1: 0xB50C and 0xB50D
Change their values from D442 to 4E71 to return the add. fail%/res from 25% to 12.5%

Ailment Spell Accuracy Up: All-Version
This patch does the same thing as the previous patch, but it also increases Muddle 2, Desoul, and Sleep success rates.
Success rate changes:

WARNING: SPOILER!

SLOW: from 0-25% and 100% to 37.5~62.5% and 100%
DISPEL: from 0~37.5% to 12.5%~87.5%
MUDDLE1: from 37.5% to 12.5%~87.5%
MUDDLE2:from 0~37.5% to 0~75%
DESOUL: from 0~37.5% to 0~75%
SLEEP: from 0~37.5% to 0~75%
(vs maximum resistance ~ vs no resistance)

Further customization (refer to previous patch's guide for more details):

WARNING: SPOILER!

Muddle2:
B4F2: base chance of failure (refer to table below)
B4F0, B4F1: D442 for 25% failure/resistance, 4E71 for 12.5%

Desoul:
B576: base chance of failure (refer to table below)
B574, B575: D442 for 25% failure/resistance, 4E71 for 12.5%

Sleep:
B5CE: base chance of failure (refer to table below)
B5CC, B5CD: D442 for 25% failure/resistance, 4E71 for 12.5%

base chance of failure rate table:
52: 12.5% failure
54: 25.0% failure
56: 37.5% failure
58: 50.0% failure
5A: 62.5% failure
5C: 75.0% failure
5E: 87.5% failure
50: 100% failure

Status Spell Accuracy Based on Power
This patch makes ailment spells base their success rate on their spell power. Unlike the previous patches, the change to have Attack/Boost/Slow refresh themselves is not included.

How-to-use:

WARNING: SPOILER!

spell power can be set to anything from 0 to 255 (original_spellpower)
spell power is reduced to be within the range of 0-63 via modulus (reduced_spellpower)

base chance of failure: 12.5% * reduced_spellpower
extra failure per resistance: 12.5% * [original_spellpower/64]

examples:
spell power of 0 would mean 0% failure rate, not increased by resistance level
or 100/100/100/100% success rates

spell power of 5 would mean 62.5% failure rate, not increased by resistance level
or 37/37/37/37% success rates

spell power of 8 would mean 100% failure rate, not increased by resistance level
or 0/0/0/0% success rates

spell power of 64 would mean 0% failure rate, increased by 12.5% per resistance level
or 100/87/75/62% success rates

spell power of 72 would mean 100% failure rate, meaninglessly increased by 12.5%/res
or 0/0/0/0% success rates

spell power of 128 would mean 0% failure rate, increased by 25% per resistance level
or 100/75/50/25% success rates

spell power of 130 would mean 25% failure rate, increased by 25% per resistance level
or 75/50/25/0% success rates

spell power of 192 would mean 0% failure rate, increased by 37.5% per resistance level
or 100/62/25/0% success rates

for reference, the matching spell power values for the Accuracy Up patch's values would be:
SLOW: 66 (75%~37.5% normally, but special exception for SLOW makes it 100%~37.5%)
DISPEL: 129 (87.5%~12.5%)
MUDDLE1: 129
MUDDLE2: 69 (37.5%~0%)
DESOUL: 69
SLEEP: 69

for the All-Version:
MUDDLE2: 130 (75%~0%)
DESOUL: 130
SLEEP: 130

for vanilla:
everything but muddle1: 69 (37.5%~0%)
muddle1: 5 (37.5%)

Attack Boost Slow Refresh Duration Instead of Failing
This patch makes Attack/Boost/Slow refresh their durations instead of failing when their effects are already in play.

Zeroed out Defeat Count
This patch blanks out the defeat count on ally status screens and makes it always display 0.

Mystery Defeat Count
This patch makes even ally status screens display "?" as their defeat count.

Detox Removes More Things: From Level 1
This patch has the same contents as DetoxRemovesMoreThings, but with the effects in play starting from Detox1 instead of Detox2.

Taros Sword Looks Like Broad Sword
This patch gives the Broad Sword's weapon sprite to the Taros Sword when equipped in battle. Whether the Taros Sword can actually be equipped or not is left untouched.

Taros Sword Looks Like Green Great Sword
This patch makes the Taros Sword appear as a green-altered Great Sword when equipped in battle. Whether the Taros Sword can actually be equipped or not is left untouched.
Further customization / screenshot / explanation:

WARNING: SPOILER!

Colors can be further edited at 1BEE3C and 1BEE3D for the hilt and 1BEE3E and 1BEE3F for the blade, in the format of 0,R,G,B (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, A, C, or E as color levels). The weapon sprite ID can be edited at 1F9E2



Disclaimer/caveat/explanation: This patch repurposes the leather glove's originally blank graphic data for the Taros Sword's sprite and palette info. Then, since weapon palettes 0 and 1 were identical anyway, it changes all weapons originally set to use palette 1 to use palette 0 and repurposes palette 1 for the Taros Sword's colors. The addresses given above are thus for palette 1 and the leather glove's data.

Accurate Land Effect Display
This patch makes the Land Effect window accurately display 0%/10%/20%. The base game instead displays 15% and 30% despite damage taken only being reduced by 10% and 20%. Exception: Taros and Zeon stand on inaccessible tiles internally treated as 255. Battle-mechanically, damage taken is still only reduced by 20%, but this causes the display to become 25% (last two digits of 255*15) in vanilla or 50% (last two digits of 255*10) in this patch.

Ranged Counter Exp Fix v2
In the original game, ranged counterattacks do not provide EXP. To fix this, this patch forces the screen to return to the player's character after performing a ranged counter attack to properly award EXP to them. A side effect is that merely being on the receiving end of an attack will also award 1 EXP (and taking an AoE spell only awards 1 EXP to the last targeted character).

No Ranged Screen Transition
This patch removes the screen transition mechanic during ranged attacks (i.e. everything defaults to melee range, like in SF1), which bypasses the above-mentioned ranged counter EXP bug.

Curse Relief - Prevent Paralysis Only
Curse no longer causes its "stun" effect in battle. Its other effects (such as inability to unequip and recoil damage) are untouched.

MP Drain is 20
Instead of draining a random amount from 3 to 5 MP (up to how much the target has), this patch makes MP Drain drain a fixed 20 MP.

Magic Drain Based on Spell Power
This patch makes MP Drain drain an amount of MP equal to its level 1 spell power.

Stat-Up Items Always 4
Stat-up items (other than the Brave Apple and Running Pimento) always increase a stat by 4 instead of randomly by 1 to 4. In-battle and out-of-battle effects are both affected and synced up.
For further customization:

WARNING: SPOILER!

change each below value from $04 to what each item should increase its stat by

B739: power water's ATK increase
B73F: protect milk
B745: quick chicken
B7A5: cheerful bread
B7AB: bright honey

Two Final Battles in One Go
Just like in SF1, escaping from the final battle requires going through the penultimate battle again.
Possible issues:

WARNING: SPOILER!

I removed seemingly redundant code for the Geshp and Hydra battles (38 and 39) to make room for the Galam-Zeon thing. In the case it wasn't redundant, some sort of problem may occur when escaping from or losing those battles, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary from a few quick in-game tests.

Recruit All Creed Characters
All 4 characters from Creed can be picked up the first time around. Leaving the map without picking everyone up will have the remaining characters have to wait until the second time around.

Repair Command Replaced by EXP Purchase
Shop merchants cannot repair items anymore. Instead, they offer to level up Force members at a cost of 5 gold per missing EXP per current level (e.g. a level 30 character with 0 EXP requires 15000 gold). Character levels can only be increased up to the Force's current highest level.
For further customization:

WARNING: SPOILER!

$2050C & $2050D: base gold cost (skip this by default)
set to $FFFF to use a cost based on level instead

$2051A & $2051B: cost multiplier for cost based on level ($01F4 or 500 by default)
cost is equal to (this number) * (current level + promo level)
only if $204C8 & $204C9 are set to $FFFF

$20527: whether or not to discount the cost based on EXP already gained (yes discount by default)
set to $00 to not discount, or set to anything else to discount
cost is discounted by (current EXP)%

$20593: whether or not to reset EXP to 0 after leveling up (yes reset by default)
set to $00 to reset EXP, or set to anything else to keep EXP

$204FC: whether or not to allow leveling up characters that are the highest level of the Force (disallow by default)
set to $6D to allow, or set to $60 to disallow

messages that need editing:
when Repair menu is opened: "Whose and which item should I repair?" ($BA or 186th)
when character is selected: "Will you pay #### gold coins to repair it?" ($BB or 187th)
when character is already at level cap: "It's not damaged." ($BC or 188th)
when character is already highest level: "Sorry, I don't repair cursed items. Let sleeping devils lie." ($BE or 190th)

other messages that are used:
when refusing to pay: "Too bad." ($B3 or 179th)
when not enough gold: "You don't have enough money..." ($BD or 189th)

messages that become unused:
"OK, one moment please!" ($BF or 191st)
"Here you go! Beautiful, huh?" ($C0 or 192nd)

==========
Related thread:
Playing around with SF2DISASM
Contains patches pertaining to level ups and EXP gains

==========

Interpatch compatibility note:
Most of these patches can be used together without issues. Exceptions are ones that affect the same areas of the game, namely:

• Buff-Debuff-Status-Redux & its variants, Ailment-Spell-Accuracy-Up & its variant, and Status-Spell-Accuracy-Based-on-Power
• Gisarme-Reduces-to-1HP and Gisarme-Requires-Half-HP
• Taros-Sword-Looks-Like-Broad-Sword and Taros-Sword-Looks-Like-Green-Great-Sword
• MP-Drain-is-20 and Magic-Drain-Based-on-Spell-Power

Non-conflicting (but possibly redundant):

• Detox-Also-Heals & its variant: no issues as they overwrite each other completely
• Detox-Removes-More-Things & its variant: no issues as they overwrite each other completely
• Zeroed-out-Defeat-Count and Mystery-Defeat-Count: defeat count display is zeroed out, but the ? takes over

[Wiz]

Great new batch of contributions, thank you Siel !

Hopefully I'll find the time to create the appropriate tools at some point to overcome the limitations you identified in SF2Editor.

[Siel]

That sounds awesome. I'd sure like something more easily navigatable than tiny drop-down lists everywhere, too, although I've recently found out that the import feature from SirHedge's version is pretty convenient for bypassing that issue to some degree.


Edit (AUG28): The 14range patch apparently breaks item usage, so I'll try to redo it when I get the time. I actually originally intended it to be a 15range patch, but ran out of space, so I might take the opportunity to upgrade it in that regard too.

Edit2 (AUG29): I reuploaded a fixed version of the 14range patch that doesn't hang upon using an item and that actually goes up to 15 range.

[SirHedge]

Hey Siel! Glad to see you're still around. This (and all the amazing stuff Wiz has done) really makes me want to get back into hacking again. Still don't know when I'll have the time, given my other projects, but it really needs to happen. I have a game to finish!

Also, I still have the source code for Space King's SF2Edit, for those interested.

[Siel]

I'm still looking forward to your game, so do notify me if there are any major updates.

I've recently been working on a mod of my own too. In fact, all these patches I've been churning out lately are just byproducts from it!

As for the patches themselves, here are some issues/bugs I realized they have.
DetoxRemovesMoreThings: It might be sometimes displaying unnecessary messages without having actually removed the corresponding status, but I haven't verified this.

BuffDebuffStatusRedux: According to the description, the new SLEEP shouldn't randomly run out at the end of each turn and instead always last 3 turns, but it looks like I forgot to actually include this behavior change in the patch. I might just leave it as is. I actually had it included after all.

The other patches seem to working properly without issues so far.

[FfuzzyLogik]

Hello there just a plop to give some opinions about the things done if those thoughts are of use...
DETOX : I find some ideas very intresting. The frist one is for sure because at first levels, detox is not very useful...
ATTACK : Very nice, +25% every level its cool but not insane (37,5 is a bit too much and 12,5 quite weak on "equipped" characters)
BOOST : Perfect for the +25% for 3 turns. But why not stand the agility bonus ? Okay it just makes you be better tank but the other use of "boost" is to "play again" at a critical moment. May it be possible to "recycle" some other spell to make a "QUICK" spell to imporve the agility of members ?
SLEEP : Can be recalled "weakness" or something like that. That's intresting, you don't "kill ennemy" but weaken it to stand. Just a question, it will work the same for "sleeping ablities" ?
DESOUL : I'd suggest just doing half of max HP ? So it can "do nothing" or "make half of life damage" ? Then you can "kill ennemies". I raaaaaarely use this spell but find fun to have a such one in game.
GISARME : For Slade, I suggest the Gisarme do something similar because its fun to "cut-off" ennemies ! Maybe let it work "only if he has less than 50% HP" ?

Anyways thanks for making new things ! Have a good day,
FfuzzyLogik.

[Siel]

Okay, here are some alternate versions of those patches with the changes you mentioned and some new ones.

BuffDebuffStatusRedux_desoulMaxHP.ips
This patch is the same as the one in the opening post, except Desoul deals damage equal to half of the target's MaxHP instead of CurrentHP.

WARNING: SPOILER!

BOOST: Sleep's new behaviour took up extra room, so I don't have enough room left for both BOOST and SLOW's AGI modifiers. I could make another version with just BOOST affecting AGI (if I don't find some way to shoehorn in SLOW too).
SLEEP: The changes are tied to the status ailment itself, so anything that inflicted SLEEP in the original game will inflict WEAKEN with this patch. The text changes are up to the user to make (dialogue 0x152 for falling asleep and 0x162 for awakening).

GisarmeRequiresHalfHP.ips
Gisarme's cut off effect does not occur unless the target is at half of Max HP or below. The cut off effect itself remains the same as it was in vanilla (i.e. instant kill).

WARNING: SPOILER!

If you used the other Gisarme patch already, use this patch to revert those changes before applying this one.
GisarmeCutOff1HP-undo.ips

----------

No Muddle 2 on Attack
Attacks that would inflict Muddle 2 (confusion) instead inflict Muddle 1 (loss of accuracy). The MUDDLE spell is unchanged.

Guaranteed Drops
Rare item drops (Taros Sword, Iron Ball) are guaranteed to drop instead of only 1/32 of the time.

Mithril Always Best Weapon
Mithril will always turn into the weapon of the highest available rank.

No Darkness
The darkness gimmick in caves is disabled (Hobgoblin battle, cave before Ketto).

Curse Relief
Curse doesn't randomly prevent action or cause recoil damage anymore. The restriction on unequipping cursed items is still present.

Healing EXP for Everyone
Healing EXP is awarded regardless of the character's class.

Lower Evasion Rates
Base evasion rate is lowered from 3.125% to 0.833%. Merely floating units no longer gain the evasion rate of flying units (12.5%).

Items Break Less Often
Items crack 10% of the time instead of 25%.

Halve Repair Fee
Repairing costs 12.5% instead of 25% of the item's value.

Halve Uncurse Fee
Uncursing costs 12.5% instead of 25% of the item's value.

[DiegoMM]

Can I suggest a patch idea? I dont know if its possible, but change the revive routine, to revive all dead character at once, with only a paycheck and just a text speech from the priest. It would be a time saver. Maybe do the same with cure option.

[Siel]

I don't think I'd be able to make a generic patch for that. The functionality itself is probably simple enough to implement, but dialogue changes would be needed to make it comprehensible to the player and any change to one section of text displaces the rest of the data, which brings out compatibility issues.

However, here's an alternative that might solve the time issue.

Church Speed Up
Reviving, curing, and promoting no longer require waiting until the end of the jingle each time before proceeding.

[FfuzzyLogik]

Good evening !
Nice to have some activity. My posts just came yesterday ; I'm allowed to post now (for the worst for sure - I'm evil ).
Just some ideas (no need to make patches for all but thanks to give to community such things done).

- Muddle lv1 and lv2 having very different effects, it can be thought to make them two different "spells" or abilities ? This shall increase the number of spells/abilities.
- I just begin on there so I'm quite newbie but seeing spells, I noticed that sleep/muddle/slow... Look to exist from level 1 to 4. But, the other levels (not used in game normally) are "healing spells who uses sprite of fairies healing". The first kind of spell in tree. So it can be tought about making them "work" to increase the number of spells and make for example "sleep" be more of use ? But as I'm newbie, I don't know how to change those spells from "healing spells" to "offensive spells" and I'm not sure if once changed they will work. Maybe you know ?
- You look to know about curses effet. If I dislike the stunning effet, I find "fun" the counter-attack effect (damaging you in counterpart) but I don't know exactly how it works. It does a percentage of damage done in counterpart ?
- Other thing, as money is "not of use" because you have "too much" and "too easily"... I thought about making the money more "important in game". I thought about the sold is 1/8 instead of 1/2 (the mearchants buy you items to 50% value, its quite "too much" I find). So then the cost of new items shall be hardter to have ; making the bought of new ones more "challenging".
- Nice idea for uncurse fee. A bit expensive I find. The solution I choosed is to change price of cursed item and basically it does quite the same. I'm not fond of repar fee because its not too expensive I find ; samely for breaking probability. But everyone may not find the same ! So thanks again for those patches !

Ah, for detox (that doesn't work but I tested with only SFII editor), I initially thought to add some light healing effect to it (like aura but weaker). So it could be a "healing spell" who also "detox". This is a way to make it "more of use" ? But actually, the values aren't used and so it can't heal in just adding values on "effect". Maybe it can be some idea... Up to you. Opinion's welcome here !

Do you have some objectives in general ? I thought making a new SFII mod ?
Good night,

[Siel]

More spells, more levels: Unfortunately, it looks like the limit on the number of spells and levels is somewhat hardcoded. That is to say, the block of data for spells is immediately followed by another block (item names), which makes it difficult to expand on. A workaround could be to just relocate it elsewhere with more free space. Anyway, here's a thread that discussed adding more spell levels:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19525

Changing spell effects: At 0xB0BC to 0xB113 in the ROM, there's a table that redirects each spell to the location of its effect, which can be edited to reassign spell effects. Every two bytes corresponds to one type of spell (i.e. the first two are for Heal, the next two are for Aura, the next two are for Detox, etc). For example, to switch Heal to Blaze's effect, count up to Blaze's pair, note down the values, and overwrite Heal's pair of values with them. This will make Heal refer to Blaze's spell routine instead while still using Heal's settings. There's unfortunately not an editor for this, so it'll be cumbersome to do manually via a hex editor.

Curse damage: There's a 50%? chance of taking recoil damage after an attack. The recoil damage is equal to 12.5% of the damage dealt.

Sell price:
Little Money
Resale value of items is lowered from 75% to 12.5%.

Detox healing:
Detox Also Heals
Detox Also Heals, But Doesn't Grant Detox EXP
These patches are the same as the one in the opening post, except Detox also heals based on its Effect value. The first patch grants healing+detox EXP (10+5→15) for the action while the second patch omits the detox portion (just 10).

Objective: Most of these patches were just byproducts of changes I made for my own mod, which can be found here. It's incomplete and slightly abandoned, but I'm thinking of returning to it sometime. It's only been edited up to the Zalbard battle, but can be played until the end, just without battle formation changes (stats of enemies themselves are changed) and new items past that point (for example, I had planned for a staff weapon that extends spell range by 1 and maybe lifesteal weapons).

[DiegoMM]

Talking about the revive routine again, im pretty sure you can use almost the same text but instead of {Name} use "force" or any word with the same amount of characters. How much space the tag of character name uses? Even if you dont change the text, could you do it sometime please? I can try to make up a text with the same amount of characters later.

[FfuzzyLogik]

Siel, it looks you make patches faster than we write
I read posts you linked with intrest. I read one of them before but wasn't nor remembering all nor understanding all at the time I had it under my eyes.
So if I understand well, the spells does "exist" in list but have no spot in "spell effects". Those spots are limited and can't easily be more than it is actually (without very high amout of work to change it).

So basically, the "easier to do" is thinking about "what spells are/may be the more intresting in game" and increase the slots for them ?
For diminishing the decrease of slots, I have a question : do the items effect take one "spell space" too ? Just for thinking... For example, quick chicken, blizzard, shining ball, burst rock, the "restore effect", "mana steal" (the supply staff one and it does exist some other if I remember well, right of hope (who don't really "exist" in game and is a bit OP)...

One other thought, on every "hard mode" in general, ennemies are full of HP, more tanky, more strong... And the "only technique" to win is... Boost ally (because this spell is quite OP), attract ennemies (1 or 2 or 3), hope to tank their damage and kill them 12 vs 3. And repeat. Instead of increasing "difficulty" I find it "just" increase time necessary to win. I have no "perfect" solution (out of increasing IA's efficience) but as idea, I thought about decreasing the power of boost (who gives reaaaaly tons of XP for free and costless in mana) and imagine some spells can be of use against some ennemies (as told, sleep level 2-3, muddle level 3) to give ability to "get time" during fights and not necessarily just cast "boost and aura" (who heals too much I find) to hold and "freeze-bolt" to kill.

I also thought to make the hero "less strong" (in damage and in defense) but play twice per "turn". I tryed to give him 105 agility but... That doesn't work. I hoped that added "by hand" at start it shall work how it does for ennemies (you see written 5 and ennemy plays twice a round) but nope, for shining force that doesn't work.

I also thought about making agility "useful" because here its really not (I find).
I had in mind this :
Calculate difference between attacker and defender agiltiy. If this difference is important you get increased probability to hit as attacker (decreasing the probability for ennemy to evade).
For 20 bonus as attacker, defender's evade rate goes from : 1/4=>1/6 ; 1/8=>1/12 ; 1/16 => 1/24 ; 1/32 =>same.
If you get 40 difference, defender's evade rate goes from : 1/4=>1/8 ; 1/8=>1/16 ; 1/16 => 1/32 ; 1/32 =>same.
If you get 60 difference, defender's evade rate goes from : 1/4=>1/12 ; 1/8=>1/24 ; 1/16 => 1/32 ; 1/32 =>same.
Oppositely, if you have more agility in defense than attacker, you get increased probability of dodge.
For 10 extra agility in defense : 1/32 => 1/24 ; 1/16 => 1/12 ; 1/8 => 1/6 ; 1/4 => 1/4 ?
For 30 extra agility in defense : 1/32 => 1/16 ; 1/16 => 1/8 ; 1/8 => 1/4 ; 1/4 => 1/3
For 50 extra agility in defense : 1/32 => 1/8 ; 1/16 => 1/6 ; 1/8 => 1/3 ; 1/4 => 1/2
Last thing (for bosses don't always evade) if a "creature" have for example 115 of agility, let it count as "15" (as written) but play twice per turn.
What do you think about this idea ? For sure, doing that looks quite impossible.
I'll search some other idea to make it of use differently but that truly bother me to see that characteristic so useless... The only moment it's of use it when cast boost (so your agi increases and you may play again before ennemy, making boost more powerful...).
Ah just one other idea : it may influence spell effects maybe ?

About your mod, I watched the spoilers ! Yes I did that !
I haven't understood well the items. It looks they are all diffrent but not "some more strong than others" (out of first one) ? Not sure the attack bonus is well written ?
You increased life by many - so levels change a bit less your power. I suppose its to not have some +2 in defense makes ennemy does 1 damage to you ?
It looks spells have been changed in many ways. That looks intresting ; you tested it (for equilibration) ? Personnaly I'm not fond of "damaging one unit and do insane damage" (like freeze, bolt, blaze lv4 in standard game). I prefer see mages as zone damaging... You made more kind of mages but I don't see well what "it is" for now. I'll try to give feedbacks later... I'm tired...

That's all for today. See you.

[Siel]

Church: The dialogue problem ended up more minor than expected. The priest connects into "but" clauses out of nowhere, but the feature seems intuitive enough on its own.

Revive and Cure Everyonce at Once
When reviving and curing, instead of going through each character and each ailment individually, the priest will offer to service everyone at once for a single payment. If the player can't afford the cost or refuses the mass-service, the priest will offer to go through each character individually, which leads to going through the original game's routine. Uncursing is exempt. Text data remains unchanged and the dialogue is recycled, so it may flow awkwardly.

Evasion: There are no 1/4 1/8 1/16 1/32 settings for evasion rates like there are for countering and doubling, so I couldn't follow what you proposed but tentatively made up something similar based on that.

Agility Modifies Evasion
Agility Modifies Evasion - Fixed Version
Evasion rates are affected by the comparison between the attacker and defender's agility stats. Baseline evasion is increased from 1/32 to 1/24.

WARNING: SPOILER!

Code: Select all

AGI difference, chance of missing vs regular or vs flying (divisor difference)
  0             1/24 or 1/ 8
+20             1/32 or 1/10 (x4/3)
+40             1/42 or 1/13 (x4/3)
+60             1/56 or 1/17 (x4/3)
-10             1/16 or 1/ 5 (x2/3)
-30             1/10 or 1/ 3 (x2/3)
-50             1/ 6 or 1/ 2 (x2/3)

Miss chance when muddled remains at 1/2.

Mod:

WARNING: SPOILER!

Mod items: New weapons are meant to be extra options rather than straight up upgrades, since I found that a bit too boring. I also tried varying the selection and availability between each weapon type.

Mod stats: Yes, I changed starting stats, level ups, and EXP gains to slightly diminish the importance of level ups, especially early on, so that enemies don't drastically change between really tough and really easy with just one level up and so that some less fortunate characters don't end up in a vicious cycle of falling more and more behind.

Mages: Well, I gave all mages access to AoE spells, although some specialize slightly more in single target spells. Spells also don't all turn into single target spells at level 4 like in the original.

edit: replaced link to broken patch with the functional version

[DiegoMM]

Wow thank you very much!
I think you deserve more recognition, maybe organize all your mods on a more organized topic, or make a awesome mod and release on steam.

[FfuzzyLogik]

Woooow

Church: The dialogue problem ended up more minor than expected. The priest connects into "but" clauses out of nowhere, but the feature seems intuitive enough on its own.

Evasion: There are no 1/4 1/8 1/16 1/32 settings for evasion rates like there are for countering and doubling, so I couldn't follow what you proposed but tentatively made up something similar based on that.

Agility Modifies Evasion
Evasion rates are affected by the comparison between the attacker and defender's agility stats. Baseline evasion is increased from 1/32 to 1/24.

WARNING: SPOILER!

Code: Select all

AGI difference, chance of missing vs regular or vs flying (divisor difference)
  0             1/24 or 1/ 8
+20             1/32 or 1/10 (x4/3)
+40             1/42 or 1/13 (x4/3)
+60             1/56 or 1/17 (x4/3)
-10             1/16 or 1/ 5 (x2/3)
-30             1/10 or 1/ 3 (x2/3)
-50             1/ 6 or 1/ 2 (x2/3)

Miss chance when muddled remains at 1/2.

Sorry about my mistake on evasion ; I had the probability of second attack, heavy attack & counter attack in mind so I start from the wrong base... But you correct all... I feel a biiiiiit useless And you even thought about something for flyers...
Again I have to thank you and for your activity, your efficience and your reactivity.

[DiegoMM]

Another idea for your mod: If magic users counter magic with magic? I know its somehow possible, but the hard part would be it happens only when you have the same spell that hit you. So, counter blaze with blaze, freeze with freeze.

[Siel]

Fun fact: the automatic counter patch I made originally had double-attacking units also be able to counter magic with magic. I originally decided to just run with it as a feature (partially because those enemies had MP anyway), but eventually decided to fix it. The outdated version 6 of the patch probably still has this bug.

Checking if the would-be counter-er has the spell learned is probably going to require a lot of empty coding space, but shouldn't be too complicated, so I could probably be able to make a patch like that, but I don't think I'd want to include it in my mod. The general idea is that while physical attackers can counterattack and get counterattacked, magic cheats and is outside of that loop. It's also late to make such a big balance change.

[DiegoMM]

I see. I dont have interest in such patch too, it was just a idea for your mod.

Another idea for you: If theres any unused character in the game font, you could change to symbols to represent the "roles" like full counter, attack first, double attack (i dont know, two swords, a triangle) and put it in the enemy/character names. It would be visually possible to know in game that slades ignore defense or some enemy has double attack.

[Siel]

Oh yeah, I was going to rename unused items and change their icons to use them like that, but since I wasn't sure what would remain unused or if I'd have enough items left or would need another method, I hadn't done it yet.