Final Fantasy Hacktics

Final Fantasy VI (Known as Final Fantasy III when it first came out for the SNES) is probably my favorite Final Fantasy of all time (Tied with Tactics, of course.) However, it's not exactly... the most difficult of games. For years I've been searching for an editor that even an idiot like me could use to make the game a tad more difficult.

I stumbled upon the Final Fantasy VI Multi-Editor, a wonderful program that, much like the Patcher, is an easy to use tool to edit enemies, items, and other parts of the game. As a result, I've decided to use the Editor to attempt and create a hardtype version of Final Fantasy VI for the SNES.

Lunar IPS
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/ (http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/)

If you can order Gau's Rages into alphabetical order, I would play this instantly. If you only did that, I would still grab the patch. If that is possible of course.

You have my support, and my heart.

shotgunning stuff, I'll let you work on what's possible and stuff

reduce cooldown on Morph ability
Make Runic enemy-only/not work on white magic/?
Make tools scale better -- Edgar starts off as an auto crossbowing hoss, but eventually just succumbs to delibitator bitch, and Drill isn't much better than straight up melee, iirc.
Blitz - OP!  Make it weaker
Make Cyan's charge gauge increment faster
Blue Magic - reduce its MP cost
Sketch - somehow make it not glitch the game.  Reduce chances of Coronet + Fake Moustache + Control.

More edits:

Make the esper-level up bonuses a little more evened out -- give a good spread of multiple espers with the same bonuses so I'm not stuck rotating a single esper around depending on who's going to be getting the next level.

Specific fights... hm...

Make phantom train immune to phoenix down?
increase difficulty of the Sabin/Cyan waterfull piranha gauntlet
On the reunite and split up v. kefka, somehow make it so Edger can't solo entire soldier packs with a single bio blast.
SOMEHOW REDUCE ENCOUNTER RATE IN ZOSO #$R@#$%#@$
In the figaro tentacle boss at the start of WoR, make the fight no longer cheeseable with running shoes

Are the big things.  "Everything else harder" should suffice for the rest, though imo the Floating Island really doesn't need to be bumped up too much -- if you can make everything that level you will have my eternal <3.

Also!  Can you somehow make Shock (general Leo~) a Cyan swordskill?  Replace one of the crappy ones.

Quote from: "Bastard Poetry"You have my support, and my heart.

And my Axe!

(http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/hackz.jpg)

Quote from: "philsov"reduce cooldown on Morph ability
Make Runic enemy-only/not work on white magic/?
Make tools scale better -- Edgar starts off as an auto crossbowing hoss, but eventually just succumbs to delibitator bitch, and Drill isn't much better than straight up melee, iirc.
Blitz - OP!  Make it weaker
Make Cyan's charge gauge increment faster
Blue Magic - reduce its MP cost
Sketch - somehow make it not glitch the game.  Reduce chances of Coronet + Fake Moustache + Control.

More edits:

Make the esper-level up bonuses a little more evened out -- give a good spread of multiple espers with the same bonuses so I'm not stuck rotating a single esper around depending on who's going to be getting the next level.

Specific fights... hm...

Make phantom train immune to phoenix down?
increase difficulty of the Sabin/Cyan waterfull piranha gauntlet
On the reunite and split up v. kefka, somehow make it so Edger can't solo entire soldier packs with a single bio blast.
SOMEHOW REDUCE ENCOUNTER RATE IN ZOSO #$R@#$%#@$
In the figaro tentacle boss at the start of WoR, make the fight no longer cheeseable with running shoes

Are the big things.  "Everything else harder" should suffice for the rest, though imo the Floating Island really doesn't need to be bumped up too much -- if you can make everything that level you will have my eternal <3.

Also!  Can you somehow make Shock (general Leo~) a Cyan swordskill?  Replace one of the crappy ones.

Morph ability: Not quite sure how to edit it, since it's based on AP and all, but I'll look into it.

Runic I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but I like Runic how it is now. It kind of forces you to time your spells well, and since a lot more enemies will be using magic now, it'll be able to see some more use.

Tools are definitely getting a nerf.

Blitz... oh Blitz. There are a few ways I could go about this. Either reduce Sabin's overall magic stats (since Blitz is somehow based on Magic) or reduce the power of the Blitzes themselves. Comments?

Cyan is definitely getting a Speed boost, but I'm not sure if that'll affect his gauge or not.

Blue Magic: Are there any specific spells in mind? I agree, though, that it's fairly expensive.

Sketch: There are a bunch of Glitch Fixes at Data Crystal, so I can see if one of them fixes the Sketch Glitch. I've already used the Evade Glitch Fix (say that 10 times fast).

Esper bonuses: I'm tempted to see if I can remove Esper bonuses all together, but I'm not sure how much that would nerf the party. Comments?

Phantom Train: OK, here's where I'll get flamed. I removed the Undead tag from a few of the enemies in the game (I'll go through and change them all later). I did this for a few reasons.

1) No Phoenix Downing your way through a battle.
2) They can have Regen properly.

However, although they've lost their tag, they'll still be weak to Holy. so for all intents and purposes, they're undead.

Heh, I have something in mind for the Piranha fight...

Edgar vs. Soldiers: I'm probably going to change Bio Blast so it just inflicts Poison or Sap.

Tentacle battle: Not sure I know what to do with this one yet.

Screenshots coming in a few... my desktop doesn't want to recognize my USB. =([/quote]

I'd say reduce Sabin's overall magic stat to make him more of a pure musclehead type.

If you can somehow introduce character-based level ups I'd be all for the removal of the Esper system.  But if that's not possible, make the character's base stats a little more... pronounced and defined.

Quote from: "philsov"I'd say reduce Sabin's overall magic stat to make him more of a pure musclehead type.

If you can somehow introduce character-based level ups I'd be all for the removal of the Esper system.  But if that's not possible, make the character's base stats a little more... pronounced and defined.

Well, I'm not too familiar with how much of an effect stats have in the game, so I'm leery about touching them. However, weapons/armor will be more character-specific now, which will certainly be a start, IMO.

OK, the enemy changes have been made! Included is the lik to the Final Fantasy VI Hardtype Version 1.0 patch. This doesn't include the equipment/spell changes (sans Meteor/Flare/Ultima being changed), but it should be a decent preview for those of you who are interested.

Please tell me if the patch works or not. You'll know it does if the Guards at the beginning don't fall in 1 hit and use Net. If you notice anything you think should be changed, post 'em here!

To use the patch, you'll need a clean Final Fantasy III SNES ROM, as well as Lunar IPS, which can be found here:
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/ (http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/).

Enjoy!

Final Fantasy VI Hardtype Version 1.0
http://www.sendspace.com/file/v28tmj (http://www.sendspace.com/file/v28tmj)

Quote from: "Voldemort"

Quote from: "Bastard Poetry"You have my support, and my heart.

And my Axe!

And my bow!


wait we're doing this backwards aren't we



Also, name changes are rather silly. Make a translation hack if you want to do that.
I will curse you unto the seventh generation if you change Atma->Ultima, for example, and I'm certain other people out there have nostalgia about weird stuff like sons of submariners.


My only suggestion is to buff boss health drastically, but not make random battles last a ridiculously long time. The encounter rate in this game is high enough; making random battles last LONGER will only serve to frustrate.

Quote from: "Kaijyuu"My only suggestion is to buff boss health drastically, but not make random battles last a ridiculously long time. The encounter rate in this game is high enough; making random battles last LONGER will only serve to frustrate.

Agree with this completely. Don't make normal battles too long.

Well, I was going to change Atma to Ultima, but if you guys don't want me to, then I won't.

As for random battles, they also got a health boost and smarter moves with some deadly combos. Bosses, however, will probably take a while to fell.

Also, some names such as Cactrot, Oscar, and Pugs have been changed. Sorry, but when I hear Cactrot I think of carrots, Oscar belongs in Sesame Street, and Pugs just make no sense whatso ever. =P

My opinion is that gameplay and aesthetic patches should be separate. But that's just me :P


TBH difficult random battles would be fine if you lowered the encounter rate at the same time. I wouldn't mind a boss type random battle if I only fought one once in every room, rather than one every 4 steps.

I would personally like a translation fix as well.  Obviously poor translations annoy the crap out of me if I have to be subjected to it for the span of an entire game.

Here were a few things I was going to change, translation-wise:

Mithril->Mythril
Tonic->Potion
Potion->Hi-Potion
Tincture->Ether
Ether->Hi-Ether
Revivfy->H Water
Antdot->Poisona (or Poisna, if it doesn't fit)
Remedy->Esuna
X-Zone->Banish
Doom->Death
Condemned->Doom
Qrtr->Demi2

I know there are more, though. Tell me if there are any changes you're ABSOLUTELY against. Note that I'm not touching the story AT ALL, which means character names will be left intact.

I think you should definitely do those simple/obvious translations for spells/items, it's your patch and if you are going to such lengths to change other aspects of the game why not throw in some nice aesthetic changes as well to make it more interesting for people who have played through the original so many times!

Anyway, I'll be tracking this for sure, good idea and good luck Eternal, it should be a fun playthrough

Yes, I think it'll be a very fun playthrough indeed! For any of you all who are playing through it, let me know how the battles are going! Feedback is always great. ^_^

Buffffffffffffffff Cyyyyaaan's Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed...

And hasten his Charge Gauge! Replace the slots with Quadra Slash with Quadra Slice, and Quadra Slice with a buffed Shock! (Or, just remove Quadra Slash entirely and replace it with a debuffed Shock!).

I don't mind if Atma is renamed Ultima, to be honest.

Nerf Sabin's MA stat. Gogo + Blitz is pretty cool, and at 80-99 I believe Bum Rush only hits like, 8600+ or something.

Give Edgar's Bio Blast 100% hit Poison and Sap status, but zero damage. If 100% is too awesome, give it a substantially good hit ratio (if you can separate the status infliction between poison/sap, even better). Chainsaw is, what 1.5 times base damage with a chance to inflict death on the enemy? Comparing that with Drill, Drill is outclassed. Maybe make Drill slightly less buffed at 1.2 times base damage, but has a high chance of landing a critical hit (I think that's possible?).

Definitely nerf MP costs on Blue Magic, but "Traveler" might be a toughie, considering that it gets stronger/expensive with each step you take throughout the game. Not sure what to do with  that spell.

Anyway, <3

Quote from: "Wasabi"Buffffffffffffffff Cyyyyaaan's Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed...

And hasten his Charge Gauge! Replace the slots with Quadra Slash with Quadra Slice, and Quadra Slice with a buffed Shock! (Or, just remove Quadra Slash entirely and replace it with a debuffed Shock!).

I don't mind if Atma is renamed Ultima, to be honest.

Nerf Sabin's MA stat. Gogo + Blitz is pretty cool, and at 80-99 I believe Bum Rush only hits like, 8600+ or something.

Give Edgar's Bio Blast 100% hit Poison and Sap status, but zero damage. If 100% is too awesome, give it a substantially good hit ratio (if you can separate the status infliction between poison/sap, even better). Chainsaw is, what 1.5 times base damage with a chance to inflict death on the enemy? Comparing that with Drill, Drill is outclassed. Maybe make Drill slightly less buffed at 1.2 times base damage, but has a high chance of landing a critical hit (I think that's possible?).

Definitely nerf MP costs on Blue Magic, but "Traveler" might be a toughie, considering that it gets stronger/expensive with each step you take throughout the game. Not sure what to do with  that spell.

Anyway, <3

Cyan's Katanas will probably boost his speed.

Sabin will soon be a muscle-head, if I can alter it in the Editor. If not, I'll nerf his Blitzes.

ALL of Edgar's tools are going to be changed. Flash/NoiseBlaster will probably affect allies/enemies; AutoCrossbow won't ignore Split Damage, BioBlaster will inflict Sap/Poison, Chainsaw will inflict Instant Death (maybe, not sure yet), Drill will do heavy single-character damage. Air Anchor/Defibulator will probably remain the same.

And yes, Blue Magic MP costs will be reduced.

Updated the first post with the newest patch. Blue Magic hasn't been touched... yet.

Sorry for the multiple posting, but perhaps someone here knows of this:

When I was doing my own playthrough, when I sorted my inventory, all my Potions disappeared, and other people had the same issue from what I understand. Was this a glitch in the original? Or was it because I renamed 'Tonic' to 'Potion'? Any help would be wonderful, thanks.

I do recall some sorting glitches if an item was placed in the very last spot of your inventory.
If square did sorting by name instead of item ID, I'd be surprised.



Also, I don't see why you couldn't release the gameplay patch and any aesthetic changes (changing names, ect) as two separate patches.

Well, I can do that after I complete all the other changes, certainly. It's simply a matter of changing the names back to what they were. Not a big deal at all. Right now I'm more concerned about gameplay than names, though, because there are a handful of enemies I made invincible by mistake. Whoops.

tl;dr: I may release a Nostalgic Hardtype patch later.

Here is a guide on how to patch on ZSNES without altering the ROM itself or bothering with Lunar IPS.

Config -> Options -> Check "Enable IPS Auto-Patching"
(http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj174/FF255Master/1-1.jpg)

Do that, and then place the IPS into the same folder as the Rom. Rename the IPS to the same file name as the ROM. For example, mine is "FFIII.smc" so the IPS will have the name "FFIII.ips".

From there, just play!

This makes it easier to update patches, and removes the bugs from dirty patching completely. All you have to do is delete the old patch, replace it with the new patch, and rename it!

Suggestion:  nerf Marvel Shoes, or balance all the late game around it.  Preferably the former.  Just Auto-Haste and Regen should be good enough considering Marvel Shoes completely invalidate Running Shoes, Cure Ring, Guard Ring, Pod Bracelet, and a lesser extent, Force Shield.

Yes, Marvel Shoes have been limited to certain characters and now have some negative effects to balance the positives. Thanks for your suggestion, though. ^_^

Cursed Ring should get some boosts other than teaching you Banish/X-zone at x5 rate.

And when we spoke in chat about the Cursed Shield being "uncurseable" does that mean the negative stats stay but the negative status ailments are removed? Just a thought.

And from what I remembered in the SNES version of FFIII/VI, there was only one method in getting the Ragnarok sword, and that was either choosing to craft it as a sword rather than an Esper in WoR's Narshe. If possible, getting it as a random drop or a hard steal from a super-powerful rare enemy in WoR would be awesome imo, since from what I've been hearing during chat the battles in WoB is pretty unforgiving to some extent. And, the reason I've suggested this is that in the PSX/GBA (Advance) versions, the way to get multiple Ragnaroks was to steal from Kefka's third form during the last battle, and have it transitioned to a game save after the credits.

^Granted if obtaining the sword in-game from an enemy is a possibility, and that the Flare spell has been suped up to be much more powerful than in vanilla, the sword's attack power (and maybe its stats), should be nerfed respectively. Or, keep/balance its stats and attack power and remove the Flare proc from it and replace it with another non-elemental spell. This same process/suggestion should be done on the Illumina/Lightbringer sword as well, but should have some qualities that make it slightly stronger than the Ragnarok sword (whether or not the "long-range" quality of the sword should be removed or not is under your digression; I say keep it, nerf its stats slightly, and make it harder to obtained through the Colliseum (sp?).)

Also, not sure whether the Ragnarok/Illumina swords should keep their critical hit aspects. I loved seeing that flashing light whenever I hit the attack button. Maybe make the MP cost go from... 15 to 18-20? I think that's the correct cost for causing the innate critical hit quality on weapons with that speciality in them.

LD beat Omega with the same party he tried it with 6 hours ago (Terra / Relm / Cyan / Edgar). Pretty awesome to watch since he was doing about ~9k a pop around the end. You'd have to ask LD how he did it though, but it's great. Props to saestrol who came up with the strat lol.

EDIT: I got through the game all the way to the Returner's Hideout, I tried to fight whenever I could (aka not much =/)

Quote from: "Aquilae"

spoiler

(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n125/szewei1/LD.jpg)

LD beat Omega with the same party he tried it with 6 hours ago (Terra / Relm / Cyan / Edgar). Pretty awesome to watch since he was doing about ~9k a pop around the end. You'd have to ask LD how he did it though, but it's great. Props to saestrol who came up with the strat lol.

EDIT: I got through the game all the way to the Returner's Hideout, I tried to fight whenever I could (aka not much =/)

spoiler

The first part was fairly easy, Whelk was no problem at all. I used Mog's team for the rescue Terra fight, avoided all the fights except one (to learn Dusk Requiem), and beat the Marshall with it. Didn't blick the Marshall though, needed to chug a few Potions to survive and kill him with Cave In.

Magitek Armors were evil, heh. It took a bit of luck since Tek Laser one-shots Terra and puts Locke and Edgar in critical, but I spammed Fire with Terra and used Potions as necessary and got through the fight. Also, I hate that Auto-Crossbow can miss now and Noiseblaster is useless =(

Anyways, made my way to South Figaro, and the random monsters are a pain in the ass. Poison from Hornets (I only learnt Poisona just before Mt. Koltz) and Sleep from the Blearies, so I ran away from these guys and only really fought the crawly thingies.

Bought 50 Potions at South Figaro, and had ~25 when I reached Vargas. Why do all these monsters have status ffffff

Anyway, Vargas was pretty easy, just had to watch out for Gale Cut and heal as necessary, even then he only uses it once every few turns. Used Fire + Bioblaster on the Ipoohs, and once Vargas was alone I pummelled him with Bioblaster and used Terra to heal. I ran out of Potions, but I managed to end the fight with Locke and Terra in critical and Edgar at almost full health. Sabin... well you know the rest.

Thank you for your feedback, Aquilae- and fight where you can. It's possible to find a few cheap/free healing spots throughout the game and it's best to fight randoms and heal up there. Once you get magic, though, it gets a lot easier to train.

About Noiseblaster... many enemies late game are vulnerable to Confuse. Assuming you wish to take advantage of an AOE confuse such as Noiseblaster, you can form your party around that strategy and have Noiseblaster barely affect them at all. =D

Mt. Kolts statuses are easy to deal with- just equip everyone with a Star Pendant and a Jewel Ring. There, no more Mt. Kolts statuses. ^_^

Wow. LD's a masochist.

Congratulations go to LD for being the first to beat Kefka! With any luck, he'll be the last! =P

Hey Eternal, do you know what kind of variable(s) is/are used for the Experience absolute values and Experience increment values?

I'm afraid not- I haven't really touched experience all that much (there's really no need to), but if you're really interested you could download the Editor and a ROM and check it out yourself. It's rather... difficult... to explain some of the features in the Editor, but it's amazingly simple to use when you have it right in front of you. =D

I'm trying to set a soft level cap by making it take an absurd amount of EXP to level up after you reach a certain level.  Damage in FF6 gets a little out of control at later levels because of how well things scale with level increase.

Well, damage isn't so bad if you take away the Esper Bonuses and limit some of the items' powers. A 9999 attack isn't as bad as 4 5000 dmg. attacks.

I've already changed all the +2 esper bonuses to +1.

Phew- the final version is out! I made a bunch of changes on this version, most of which include buffing the Skull and Gold dragon, the Statues, and making Intangir beatable. From here out, any further released versions will have glitch fixes/changed formations, but nothing huge (I hope) and I'll bump the topic when there's a new release.

OK, the rundown of changes are huge overall, but it's basically the following:

1) Enemies are harder in Vanilla (you might actually die when fighting Guards!)
2) Equipment is much more unique to certain characters.
3) Mog has innate Jump, Gogo has Shock and Health.
4) Dragons are now true superbosses, as is Atma (now known as Omega)
5) Many Espers teach different spells now, allowing you to form different strategies.
6) Many items now go by the GBA name, for clarity's sake.

I'd like to thank FFM, LD, and Saigas for helping test out these versions- they've been a great help. I'd love it if more people could test it and give insight as well. Thanks!

Cool beans, Eternal. Ill try it out after finals are over and done with.

Thanks Nocat! I know how busy this time of year can be, so no worries.

Updated original post with an update... albeit a VERY minor one. I'm experimenting changing Quick to Blind so that 'Blind' is actually its own spell (strangely you never have access to a regular 'Blind' spell in VI) thus, feel free to test it out. It'd be much appreciated. It's learnable via Ramuh at x5. Enjoy. ^_^

Ehh. Not to detract from you or anything, but I generally would play this game more for the story. Who knows, though, I may just check this out and redownload all my roms again. For the trillionth time.

Yes, that's why I left the story untouched. That way people can play through and enjoy the story whilst still having a semblance of a challenge. It'd be blasphemy to touch the story. =P

Update time!

Romhacking.net has accepted VI Hardtype and added it to their website! Thanks again to everyone that provided input into this project!

Quote from: "Eternal248"Final Fantasy VI (Known as Final Fantasy III when it first came out for the SNES) is probably my favorite Final Fantasy of all time (Tied with Tactics, of course.) However, it's not exactly... the most difficult of games. For years I've been searching for an editor that even an idiot like me could use to make the game a tad more difficult.

I stumbled upon the Final Fantasy VI Multi-Editor, a wonderful program that, much like the Patcher, is an easy to use tool to edit enemies, items, and other parts of the game. As a result, I've decided to use the Editor to attempt and create a hardtype version of Final Fantasy VI for the SNES.

tl;dr- I'm making a hardtype with an editor because my hacking skills are nonexistent.

Changes Made:

spoiler

Enemies now have more HP/MP and can use much stronger abilities.

Items have GBA names, and are much more unique to characters now, meaning only a few characters can use certain types of items.

Espers are changed, meaning spells/spell rates are changed.

Ultima can now be used by 2 people- Terra and Celes. Terra learns it at 99 as usual, and Celes learns it via the Paladin's Shield, which is now unique to her.

Cyan's Speed has received a boost, and his Katana now raise Speed.

Umaro's received a rather large boost, and his Blizzard Orb makes him much stronger.

Blue Magic has been altered, but I need feedback on the changes. For the most part, quite a few spells have been changed- and I need feedback on those as well.

Tools has been changed.

Mog now has Innate: Jump, rather than Fight- which means you now have to choose between a defensive attack (Jump), luck (Dance), or Magic.

Setzer can now use a huge amount of Back Row weapons, meaning he can be quite a defensive powerhouse.

Ghost Train now has a Shop on the second part of the train, but it's glitched and I need feedback on how to make it... not... glitched. =P

Terra now uses mostly Rods with a few Swords late-game, whereas Celes uses mostly Swords with a few Rods. Their roles are quite a bit more distinguished.

Relics are now much more limited as far as who can use them.

Phantom Train is Suplexable again (I think LD would have killed me otherwise)

Quite a few other changes have been made- but you'll have to look for them yourselves.

Also, for those interested in said editor, here's the link:
http://www.romhacking.net/utils/86/ (http://www.romhacking.net/utils/86/)

Lunar IPS
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/ (http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/)

Final Fantasy VI Hardtype Patch (.ips) FINAL VERSION:
http://www.eternal.ffhacktics.com/Final ... 0FINAL.zip (http://www.eternal.ffhacktics.com/Final%20Fantasy%20VI%20Hardtype%20FINAL.zip)

Such a very amazing link!
Thank you for the post.

yay ^ ^ congrats

I'm still working on Newtype folks, so no, that project isn't abandoned. I'm just taking a slight break to refocus and hopefully get some new ideas to add in with the new stuff I'm adding in. =P

Anyways, looking back at my old files, I admit that I'm really not happy with how my FFVI Hardtype hack came out. Thus, over the course of the next few weeks I'll be revising it, and revamping a ton of stuff. This includes the following:

-Revamping the magic-learning system:

My plans are simple. Limit (highly) what spells are limited to be learned via Espers. Each character can learn a set of universal spells which are learnable via Espers. Those are listed below.


Additionally, Espers will not have stat bonuses, and each character will grow based on their own stats. I've done some rough planning about what spells would be learned via Espers, and which Espers would simply be usable as Summons (as they were kinda meant to be in the first place).


So you ask yourself: where the heck do all the other spells come from? Simple: items.

Under this system, characters would learn a variety of spells (based partially on their Jobs, more on that below) from their equipment, which is far more limited than they were previously. This means that there might be times when you have to forego getting a certain equipment upgrade, because you might want the spell taught by the old piece of equipment.

Below is a list of equipment that would teach spells, what spell it would teach, the rate, and who can equip it. Note that not all equipment teaches spells. Sorry that the format looks weird- that's what I get for copying and pasting from Notepad. =P


Below is a list of each character, and what spells they will be able to use.

Terra:

Celes:

Edgar:

Sabin:

Locke:

Relm:

Strago:

Gau:

Mog:

Setzer:

Shadow:

Cyan:

Gogo mimics the spells from people in the party, and Umaro can't learn magic.

-Jobs

Each character in VI had a very loose job that they fit into. I intend to further structure them into these jobs so that they are more unique. Below is a list of each character, what Job they are, and what their general purpose in battle is.


As well as the changes mentioned above, the cost of spells will be changed, probably, as will the cost of items and equipment.

Further gameplay changes will include changes to enemy AI (I'm not quite happy with all the enemies just yet. They're not very interesting, IMO) as well as potentially new bosses.

-New attack/spell names

This has driven me batty, looking back on it. I'm not quite sure why I let certain weird translations pass through (I'm looking at you, Sour Breath), but I'll go through and change those. Sadly, there is a limit to how many characters that can be used for each attack, meaning one must be brief with the names. Suggestions are welcome!

-Rebalanced equipment/enemies

There is still quite a bit of balancing to do to certain spells and pieces of equipment. Hopefully this time I'll be able to balance them just right so that each piece of equipment and each spell is balanced.

This isn't doing a totally new project, but I think it would be a really fun, short project to do (until I get back to Newtype, that is!)

As with last time, I want to hear your suggestions on what YOU would like to see in FFVI. This can be anything from enemy suggestions, item suggestions, just thoughts in general.

If you're interested in downloading the original FFVI Hardtype patch made by yours truly, the details can be found here:
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/617/ (http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/617/)

*Note that the link above does NOT have these changes and this topic is basically a to-do of things to do in the revision.

OK, so a new feature in the next version will be new superbosses. Most of them will be battled as random encounters (albeit very rare) throughout the World of Ruin. However, I want your opinion on some of the ones I'll be using. Since there's so little room for sprites from other FF's, I might have to resort to using sprites found in FFVI. That might create a conflict for a few of them. Each of the superbosses will be a well-known enemy or boss from another FF game, and will have an AI script similar to the one used by the monster in the game.

Final Fantasy- WarMECH
Final Fantasy II- Beelzebub
Final Fantasy III- Ahriman
Final Fantasy IV- Demon Wall
Final Fantasy V- Shinryu
Final Fantasy VII- Dark Nation
Final Fantasy VIII- Tiamat
Final Fantasy IX- SoulCage
Final Fantasy X- Chocobo Eater
Final Fantasy XI- Dark Rider
Final Fantasy XII- Fury

As usual, give me your thoughts/opinions.

Oh wow. I never realized this was the VI Hardtype that I tried earlier this year/last year(can't remember).

Ooh, normally I hate FFVI with a passion due to 1. how much is (easily) permanently missable and 2. how arbitrary and frustrating juggling magicite for leveling purposes was.  Your changes might actually persuade me to play it again since it is eliminating one of two of my biggest grievances about the game.  (I quit playing the normal game 3/4ths of the way through due to looking at a guide and seeing just how much I had screwed up.)

While Fire, Ice, and Bolt might lackluster when Maduin becomes available, I can't help but feel that it isn't right for him to completely trump Shiva, Ramuh, and Ifrit for learning those spells.  I I would feel more comfortable if you would at least swap their learning rates or something and make him have x5 and them have x10.  You probably don't want them to learn those spells very quickly that soon in the game though, so maybe just turn down Maduin's speed to x3 or something?  Tritoch irks me in a similar fashion.  If the second tier elemental spells are going to be taught by any magicite, why not the ones actually dedicated to those elements?  Teaching both tiers might be worth enough to keep them learning them slower than Maduin and Tritoch, maybe.  I know those three are obtained relatively early in the game, but something just doesn't feel right about making magicite be rendered obsolete or near so by later magicite like other far more mundane equipment are.

Swapping around the learn rates for Shiva/Ramuh/Ifrit with Maduin sounds fair enough. It'll help cut down on the grind when you first get those Espers, as well. The biggest thing about Maduin is that you get it almost right after Shiva and Ifrit, in the Magitek Factory, so it's hard to balance it in comparison to them.

The reason Tritoch gets the Tier 2 magic and not Shiva/Ramuh/Ifrit is because I don't want people running around with level 2 magic as soon as you get Ramuh. If you're like me, you probably grinded to get Bolt 2 (and Fire 2/Ice 2 once you got Ifrit and Shiva) as soon as possible. This way, Terra, Celes, and Strago (the mages) can get Tier 2 Magic from Thamasa (through the elemental rods) while the non-mages- people not proficient in magic- will have to wait and get them later.

Since I'm making so many large changes to the system, I'll probably have to go through and rebalance everything. Once I'm done with the superbosses, just about everything else is done. I just need to revamp the normal enemies and redo the bosses. From there, I can have people start helping me test to make sure everything is beatable and balanced. If you want to help for that purpose, feel free to let me know.

EDIT: Regarding keeping Shiva/Ramuh/Ifrit around, their summon attack will probably be only slightly weaker than Maduin's, but Maduin's is multi-elemental, meaning many enemies will be able to absorb it. Just something to think about.

Ooh, I like your planned new updates very much! That sounds very enticing. If this ends up coming to fruition I don't think even my massive gaming backlog could keep me from giving this a whirl.

Great work as always Eternal

Of course it's coming to fruition. Right now I'm working on the script. =P

I can post stuff more, if you guys would like.

I would love to read more updates on your progress, but I totally understand that this is a slow board and so feedback wouldn't be coming hard and heavy, it can feel like nobody is reading, yadda yadda yadda, so it's up to you. But I would definitely read them!

Well, what I'm currently doing is adding in some backstory on the characters. A lot of it is from non-canon sources, but generally it's not huge enough to make a huge impact on the story. I'm naming quite a few unnamed characters and each character is getting a little more personality.

Warning: long post ahead.

So, I've been coming up with new, dynamic ways to alter VI's gameplay to be more fun- and different- while still maintaining what makes VI great. In doing that, I've come up with a huge change to certain gameplay aspects in addition to the ones mentioned above. I'd love your thoughts on these!

-The Dynamic Spell System-
Simply put, the Dynamic Spell System (DSS for short) is what I call simply giving each tier of magic a potential use during battle, and having higher-end spells require more strategy to use. This means that spells like Demi and Haste won't necessarily be outclassed by their level 2 counterparts, and that the Fire/Ice/Thunder/Cure magic tiers will each have their own uses in battle. It's up to the player to know when and how to use them! Listed below are the spells and their basic effects. The DSS also ensures that Summons have their own uses, and that the player would want to use them in battle. Additionally, certain spells have gimmicks that will require you to think and use them more strategically.


-Equipment Weight System-
As stated above, spells will need to be chosen and used more strategically in order to reap their effects. The same can also be said of Equipment now as well. The Equipment Weight System (EWS) gives each weapon a Speed penalty, based on how heavy it is. At times, you may wish to downgrade a piece of armor because it's lighter, and will allow you to get more turns. The same can be said of weapons and attack power. Whether you wish to be a slow and sturdy tank, or a nimble, but weak striker, it's up to your style!

The items listed below show the Speed penalty given by each item. Note that Angel Wings increase Speed by 7, effectively cancelling any equipment weight. It also grants Float, and is a crucial item for a certain area in the WoB. However, it grants a weakness to Wind, so be wary!

-The Voidtreaders Eleven-
Let loose from the Void upon Kefka's usurping of the Gestahlian Throne and the destruction of the world, the Voidtreaders are powerful creatures from other worlds, capable of destroying the party with ease. These act as new Superbosses, and are references to the other Final Fantasies from 1-12. Each boss has a gimmick in battle, and only by finding that gimmick- and weakness- can you hope to defeat them. Good luck!

By defeating these baddies, you can win the Eight Legendary Weapons. They're weapons, they're legendary, and there are even eight of them! The four bosses that don't drop Eight Legendary Weapons will drop very good items as well, so be sure to face them all!

The Eight Legendary Weapons have amazing innate abilities... at the cost of 1 Battle Power and a negative status condition. That being said, each one is fitted for a character, and geared towards that character's strengths. So even if they're not good to use, they have other uses!


Yes, you saw right. Certain items are to be replaced. This means Remedies will take the place of regular status curing items, meaning that status protection is all the more important now! With any luck, I'll be able to make all the changes to shops and treasure chests to reflect this.

-The Low Level Challenge!-
Think you're man enough to beat Hardtype... at a low level? Well, I'm going to build in a low level challenge for people. Bosses in the next version will give 0 EXP, and there'll be an item won from Ultros 1 that prevents random encounters. So you can just hop from boss to boss and try to beat them using strategy (and luck) alone. Impossible? Probably. Will someone try it? Probably.

EDIT: It's G O Dhand for Sabin. Sorry about the alignment being out of whack. It's what I get for pasting from Notepad.

Looking good man, the changes are certainly more pronounced. Again I feel some people may not like that, but as someone who has played through VI enough I am excited to play something that will feel similar and yet very unique as well. Cannot wait to give it a whirl, and always excited to see an update

Wow, you really are revamping VI. I should resume playing VI again so I can play this.

Say why don't you add a boss from FFT? As a suggestion, I think Queklain is the most recognizable boss in FFT.

Cuchulainn is already in Hardtype. The fun is looking for him (not that he's hard to find, and he's a normal enemy). =P

Oh cool then.

Looks like we think quite the same when it comes to abilities. *laughs at Chronos*

Seeing the work you're putting into this might encourage me enough to finally finish vanilla FF6/FFVI.

Wow this train boss is really hard. That instant-death reaction is ridiculous.

Really good job on this so far. I am not a fan of your changing Cyan's speech, but it's still playing pretty well

Wait, you changed Cyan's speech?! Ah well, count me out then! (totally kidding! I did like his dialogue though, especially when he was made fun of for it )

I haven't changed his speech at all. At least, not yet.

So far I haven't seen any "thou's" or shalt's, etc. from Doma Castle - Ghost Train But Sabin still had his "Thou art such a pain in the..."

I'm falling from Baron Falls as we speak.

The GhostTrain wasn't too hard in the end, I was just being stupid about the fight. I kept using all three people to hit, but he can't counter me with death when only two of my people hit

EDIT: Scratch that, got some of Cyan's old speech on the Veldt with the dried meat scene.

Proposed story changes:

1) Include backstory about King Edgar and Sabin from the (half-canon) doujin "Tales of the Desert", written by FFVI's scenario director.

2) In Darill's Tomb, have Setzer face a shade of himself (known as Guilt) in order to overcome his despair, before obtaining the Falcon.

3) Make the opening scene in the snowfields of Narshe (the War of the Magi explanation) a narrative told from the perspective of Locke's grandmother. Only at the Returners' Hideout when Locke retells the story is it retold, at this time you'll realize the opening scene was Locke's grandmother's story.

4) Expand the Empire's story.

5) Restore lost pieces of info about the story, such as explaining Relm's Sketch ability, delving into Shadow's past, etc.

6) Making Kefka more active during the WoR.

I'll take it all please. I trust you to do things like this right, because you are a massive final fantasy nerd (I say that with more jealousy than anything else!) so I know you will do things justice. And I'd be curious to see some semi-legit canon material added in that I missed out on in some ways. But I just want to see whatever you come up with, so I am way too easy, heh.

Now that I'm finally making some progress on VI... I think I'll do a character of the week format, featuring each playable character in FFVI and going through their details. Even if you've played VI before, you might learn something! This week's character...

EDGAR RONI FIGARO
"Sometimes when your back is against the cliff... you just have to jump!"

Job Class: Knight/Machinist
Age: 27
Skill: Tools
Desperation Attack: Royal Shock

Height: 6 Feet, 0 Inches
Weight: 169 Pounds

Blood Type: O

Birthplace: Figaro
Treasure: Double-Headed Coin

Loves: Women
Hates: Lectures, and the people who give them

Hobby: Flirting, mechanics

Ultimate Weapon: Aura Lance

Equippable Items: Swords, Spears, Shields, Heavy Armor

HP: ****
MP: **

Vigor: ****
Speed: **
Stamina: ***
Magic Power: **
Battle Power: ****
Defense: ***
Magic Defense: ***
Evasion: **
Magic Evasion: **
Fleeing Capability: ***

Edgar Roni Figaro is a young King of the mechanical fortress, Castle Figaro. His parents were slain by the Empire before the events of FFVI, and ever since, Figaro has been allied with the Empire. To this end, Edgar feels anger that he is forced to feign alliance with his father's slayers, and also feels remorse that this decision caused his twin brother, Sabin, to leave Figaro a decade earlier.

Secretly, Edgar is a member of the Returners, a band of rebels seeking to throw the Gestahlian Empire into dischord. Despite being a rebel, Edgar's ultimate dream is to see a nation where his people are free of worry, where hope blooms as the Desert Rose. Edgar's primary motivation is seeing his nation's survival, and ultimately, its liberation.

In FFVI Hardtype Revision, Edgar is to take the Empire's throne should the rebellion succeed, naming Edgar Empire of Vector, due to Edgar's political and economical knowledge. Further, VI Hardtype Revision reveals more about Edgar's family and his heritage, as well as more about Figaro itself. But the question is... will the rebellion succeed? Or will Edgar's precious Figaro fall to flames? Find out next time, on FFVI Hardtype- the revision!

I was just coming here to ask if there were any small updates and I see I don't have to! Good stuff. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Quote from: "FFMaster"If you can order Gau's Rages into alphabetical order, I would play this instantly. If you only did that, I would still grab the patch. If that is possible of course.

http://assassin17.home.comcast.net/~ass ... m#anchor14 (http://assassin17.home.comcast.net/~assassin17/patches.htm#anchor14)
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.p ... file;u=247 (http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=247)

I'll be sure to include that patch in the next version.

I am really liking all that i'm seeing here so far, but the format of the character spell lists makes it kind of hard to see the major differences between them. It would be a lot easier to read if those segments listed ONLY those spells granted via equipment, and not part of the universal esper spell bank.

EQUIPMENT SPELLS:

Locke:
-Scan
-Protect
-Reraise (Unique to Locke)
-Blind
-Haste

Shadow:
-Death
-Warp (Unique to Shadow)
-Poison
-Blink
-Stop (Unique to Shadow)
-Blind

Celes:
-Silence
-Ice2
-Drain (Unique to Celes and Edgar)
-Cure3
-Demi
-Shell
-Ice3 (Unique to Celes)
-Reflect
-Raise
-Protect

Terra:
-Fire2
-Break (Unique to Terra)
-Holy
-Flare
-Chrono
-Demi
-Fire3 (Unique to Terra)
-Reflect

Strago:
-Bolt2
-Chrono
-Fire2
-Ice2
-Bio
-Demi
-Meteor
-Bolt3 (Unique to Strago)
-Regen
-Banish

Edgar:
-Drain (Unique to Celes and Edgar)
-Osmose (Unique to the Figaro Twins)
-Chrono
-Slow
-Shell
-Reflect
-Protect

Sabin:
-Fire
-Osmose (Unique to the Figaro Twins)
-Berserk (Unique to Sabin)
-Poison
-Fire2

Cyan:
-Death
-Bolt2
-Regen
-Haste
-Slow2
-Dispel
-Shell
-Reflect
-Protect

Mog:
-Chrono
-Slow
-Imp (Unique to Mog)
-Ice2
-Protect
-Raise

Relm:
-Cure2
-Chrono
-Holy
-Haste
-Reflect
-Cure3
-Arise (Unique to Relm)
-Sleep (Unique to Relm)
-Haste2
-Regen
-Scan
-Banish
-Esuna

Setzer:
-Scan
-Death
-Rasp (Unique to Setzer)
-Chrono
-Bio
-Blink
-Haste

Gau:
-Ice2

Update time! Thanks to Celdia and Lenophis for this wonderful ASM work- FFVI now displays job names in the menu! I avoided traditional Job Names this time, so hopefully you all will like it. =D

In case the screenshots are too small, and you can't see the job names...

Terra-   Witch      ->   Esperkin
Shadow-   Nightshade
Edgar-   Nobleman
Sabin-   Brawler
Locke-   Adventurer
Cyan-   Retainer
Mog-   Moogle
Celes-   Rune Knight
Setzer-   Corsair
Strago-   Loremaster
Relm-   Pictomancer
Gau-           Feral Child
Gogo-   Famed Mimic
Umaro-   Yeti

Biggs-   Captain
Wedge-   Corporal

Banon-   Orator

Ghost-   Wraith

Leo-   General

I like the class titles. Witch alone is probably good for Terra. Pictomancer's clever. I know the term Pantomancy but never heard that. I love this game..can't wait

Very cool. I haven't had time to play this game since my last post, unfortunately. However, it's probably better to wait for the finalized version anyways

Since there'll be two patches, one for the World of Balance and one for the World of Ruin... I've been coming up with some ideas that could utilize that feature. That said, these are only -ideas- and are in no way guaranteed to actually be utilized. (Maybe if people are really gungho about them, though...)

1) Item Transmigration
-By keeping a main character's initial weapon/armor all the way into the second "Disc", it'll transform into a more powerful, unique item for that character, far stronger than what item it was before.

2) Sprite Ruination
-After the WoR, since it's a totally seperate patch, it would be possible for characters to have more ruined-looking sprites and portraits. The sprites could have torn clothes, and the characters' portraits could look more sickly or hopeless.

3) Job Upgrades
-Characters could potentially have different jobs in the WoR. That said, I'm only going to utilize that right now with Terra's job changing from 'Witch' to 'Esperkin'.

4) New Bosses
-Using WoB/WoR-unique enemy sprites in their opposite World, I can make new enemies or bosses. For example, I could replace Vargas' boss sprite with Gilgamesh's, since Vargas doesn't appear in the WoR.

Have any other thoughts? There's still a long way to go before I utilize any of these, but I think it's worth discussing.

EDIT: Also, how about giving Shadow's Ninja Blades the Genji Glove property, allowing him to innately Dual Wield weapons? I could give the Genji Glove to Sabin and tone down Offering, as well.

Hah, this is so cool. Really looking forward to it. I have a habit of OCD-style holding on to all initial equips since you can never seem to buy them anywhere, so I love the idea of the Transmigration... I mean they don't have to be super powered ultimate weapons of course, but just comparable/a bit better than what you are getting at the time. Or maybe unique in a way that facilitates that characters style while leaving many other weapon choices open, which I think is what you are leaning towards. I like that one just for novelty sake.

Sprite thing would be great if done well and subtle. Could be a nice touch.

Job Upgrades would be text change only right? If it fits a character it would be cool, like Terra, while some others may not really have a proper job to change too I'd presume?

And new Bosses, hell new Bosses are always good!

LOCKE COLE
"I ran as fast as I could back to the village, only to see you standing over her body... You said you gave her some medicine to preserve her corpse... but to me, she's not a corpse, she's Rachel- the person I loved who I failed to protect!"

Job Class: Adventurer (Thief)
Age: 25
Skill: Steal/Mug
Desperation Attack: Mirage Dive

Height: 5 Feet, 9 Inches
Weight: 147 Pounds

Blood Type: O-

Birthplace: Kohlingen
Treasure: Phoenix Magicite

Loves: Adventures
Hates: Mushrooms/Farewells

Hobby: Treasure Hunting, "Treasure Hunting"

Ultimate Weapon: Zwill Crossblade

Equippable Items: Daggers, Smallswords, Small Shields, Hats, Clothing

HP: ***
MP: **

Vigor: ***
Speed: *****
Stamina: ***
Magic Power: *
Battle Power: **
Defense: **
Magic Defense: *
Evasion: ***
Magic Evasion: **
Fleeing Capability: *****

Locke Cole is the young explorer of FFVI's world, forever searching for the ancient treasure said to reawaken the dead. His primary motive throughout the game is to fell the Empire which has caused him to lose those close to him, and to defend those who are still living. Throughout the game, Locke sees his former lover in a few of the party members, which spurns him ever further to defend them from the same fate that awaited his lost love.

Thief by trade, preferring the title "Treasure Hunter", Locke is very nimble and stealthy, able to steal items from unwary enemies and use them as his own. In FFVI Hardtype Revised, Locke is informal- but polite- and is ever chivalrous. He admires Terra's innocent nature, and desires to maintain it at even the cost of his life. His duty as a Returner sees that he defends many innocents from the Empire's harm, although Locke still maintains the guilt that he could never protect Rachel that day, when one of the Empire's Generals burnt down Rachel's village...

This is going in a very good direction. I have been playing/beating FF3/6 since I was seven. When your a kid, the difficulty holds up, but not after 16 years. You just make everyone wear force/genji equipment, learn ultima, wear marvel shoes etc..., and never mind the glitches/tricks. Thats the problem, all characters can, ultimately, become vanilla power hitters. Yes, the same can be said about FF5, but that game demands strategy over brute force. So this project will seemingly breath new life into a beloved, yet stale, game.

As for the content, the super bosses are what really got me excited (Imagine 5 hour+ epic battles/gauntlets?lol). I am also really liking the magic learning system, giving actual use and uniqueness to each character. Perhaps, instead of level bonuses, give equip bonuses (Madeen, being Terra's father, gives her a bonus to overall magic effectiveness).

I willl understand if people will want to rip my lungs out here, but heres a plot suggestion. In WoR, Terra battles Humbaba solo. She CAN kill him, but if she dies, she turns to magicite.

Esper Terra:

Fire1 X20
Fire2 X10
Fire3 X5
Merton X1

Bonus: +10 Magic when equipped, Summon: 200MP Basically merton and revives party.

Welcome to FFH, and thanks for making your first post on here in my topic. ^_^

Personally, I'm of the philosophy that longer battles != fun, and that they should try and be avoided. The only bosses that should really take a long amount of time are Omega, Shinryu, Yiazmat, and Kefka. That said, I can't give individual players individual bonuses for Espers (although that would be really cool, give Maduin to Terra, Phoenix to Locke, Alexander to Cyan, etc.) without serious ASM. The same goes for your Terra Magicite suggestion- it would require serious event editing and could really mess up the story. It's quite a creative suggestion though.

Also, don't worry about your lungs being ripped out. That only happens when you call someone a thief. =P

I got to the convergence battle, and got seriously owned by Kefka like 10 times until I beat his androgynous ass. I am now stuck at Dadaluma, with everyone at around level 13. Is it possible to beat him, considering he maxes out his health after awhile. I am considering starting a new game due to the fact I didn't realy grind at all.

Sorry for the off-topic post.

No, it's very possible to beat him. He only restores his health once per battle, so after that you can start beating him down!

Quote from: "Dies_Irae777"I got to the convergence battle, and got seriously owned by Kefka like 10 times until I beat his androgynous ass. I am now stuck at Dadaluma, with everyone at around level 13. Is it possible to beat him, considering he maxes out his health after awhile. I am considering starting a new game due to the fact I didn't realy grind at all.

Sorry for the off-topic post.

Also Do Not steal from him. Fairy Ring might seem good in the short term, but it's not worth the horrible counters you get from him (he'll toss a few extra knives and weapons your way, almost guaranteeing an instant kill each time)

I had to crop a bunch.  It's 40/40  px.

I've always loved FFVI, and your patch sounds great.  I look forward to trying it out!

On a side note, am I the only person that thinks of this when you learn Edgar's full name?

I just finished playing through Super Robot Taisen OG, and ready to give hardtype a try (about damn time!). Now the new changes you're making are probably severe enough to count as sequel to hardtype rather then merely an update, so I just wanted to know if you have some sort of Hardtype Neo beta patch or if i'll just have to work on the original HardType until you do?

If I were to make a patch right now, the only thing that would be in are the limited spells for characters, equipment spell system, equipment weight system, changed Espers, and new growth system. So yeah... wouldn't be much. Wait a little longer. ^_^

Behold, Biggs' and Wedge's new Magitek skillset! (At least for now, until I make some new abilities for them.)

I have a cool idea, make their sprite without helm, it will make them more unique!

@New MagiTek
i'm assuming that Biggs and Wedge's new skillsets will also transfer to the Imperial Base and Cyan's Dream sequences, right?

@Hardtype
hit my first wall at Tunnel Armor, so i'm reverting to an earlier save to grind a few extra levels at Lete River
:EDIT: finished grinding up to level 16, just enough to get everybody up to ~500hp, my hope is that by the time I get back to Tunnel Armor, i'll have enough hp to survive a split level 2 spell. Incidentally, have you raised Tunnel Armor's mp pool, or is waiting till it runs out of mp before starting your attack still a viable strategy?

Regarding Biggs and Wedge, yes, their skillsets should also transfer to non-Terra characters in the Dreamscape sequence.

Regarding Tunnel Armor, there's really no need for the grind. The key is timing Runic just right- and you can totally ward away its level 2 magic. It's like a rhythm game- just get the pattern down. =P

well, I just keep getting hit with a situation where it'll cast a spell, I catch it with runic, immediately use runic again, and get hit with another spell before my next runic can activate, resulting in a 1HTPK (one-hit total party kill), so I need the hp buffer.

Beat Doomtrain on a lucky run where it never used Death and only used Roulette once. Now to go on to the Veldt and grab my second favorite character, Gau!

Very nice work on Doomtrain! Hopefully the Piranhas don't give you too much trouble. Remember, Cyan's countering SwdTech is more useful than you'd think.

so is my PrEmptvSwdPrxyCntrMvPlsSttIncrs

Blazed through the veldt and Tunnel Armor with no difficulties this time, got to the Narshe battle sequence, owned Kefka's face with Runic and Stray Cat rage, then forgot to save like a moron and have to do it all over after getting wasted by the VERY FIRST RANDOM ENCOUNTER IN KHOLIGEN.

Almost failed at the opera house, now getting my ass handed to me in the magitek factory. Also, I was suprised to see that espers still gave stat ups in hardtype. In any case, i'm keeping a save file of my group right after zozo, before gaining any esper levels, so that I might attempt a NMG run after beating hardype normally (assuming that I even want to attempt it at that point, which I probablly will, since hardtype will be the ONLY time I will have ever completed a non NMG run of FFVI)

Yeah, I kind of had to keep the Esper stat growth at the time, since I didn't know there was an ASM out there for natural stat growth. In the updated version of Hardtype, there won't be Esper stat growth at all, and Espers will be best used for summoning. Hope you're enjoying Hardtype! ^_^

Posting from the campus computer lab right now, will play some more Hardtype later. Still wandering around the Magitek Factory, taking my time since the Magitek Factory theme is my favorite area music in the game *duh duh dunnn da-duhduhdada duh duh DUH DA dud-da da*. That being said, i'm personally not sold on the natural stat growth as an alternative to fixed character stats, especially since all the damage formulas take character level into consideration anyway, I mean, you can still hit 9999 damage in a standard NMG fairly easily by morphed rod breaking, or simple level grinding, so increasing stats via level up just makes it easier to do more damage sooner, something that just doesn't sit quite right for me, at least in a patch that is at least partly a hardtype patch. Besides, if natural stat growth works like esper growth, then you can't have fractional increases to base stats, right? So unless some characters don't grow at all in some stats, they will all have stats of at least 60 come end game (level 40-50, +1/level growth), and likely have already maxed out their primary stat (+2/level growth).

Update!

-The Dragons Eight will be using their Dragon's Den attack scripts and stats, meaning if you never got that far in the GBA version, you can face them here!

-Lores will be primarily learnable by teaming up with Relm, and Sketching/Controlling enemies. To this end, if you're using Strago, you should probably bring around Relm.

-Not very important to the player, but enemies are split into "genuses" now, for reference. Each genus has a specific Lore to be learnt, either by Control/Sketch, or individually by each monster in that genus by performing a very specific action. So experiment!

-Gau won't be able to equip much armor (with the exception of a few things, like the Tiger Mask, Snow Scarf, etc.), so his primary defenses will come from Rages. This means you'll need to know which attacks enemies use, and choose a proper Rage to deal with the situation, since Gau's stats and status comes from the Rages he uses.

-Rods are no longer breakable. You can constantly use a Rod to cast a weaker spell for free.

-Many bosses will no longer fight alone. Expect the enemy to use backup!

-There may well be a surprise enemy from earlier in FFVI to be found somewhere in the WoR to battle. Who is it? It's a secret...

Note, though, that everything is tenative. If, during testing, things don't quite work out, I may have to exclude some stuff.

For the creatures that only use a Lore in response to "a very specific action," are any of these monsters rare or have any sort of limited availability?  Because that I personally would find that infuriating.  I'm hoping you mean things no more specific than simply having a party member with the Protect status.  If you mean things like having Edgar use a specific tool, then I would hate you with a passion if I tried playing this.

Nah, the monsters won't be too rare. And besides, Lores are given to specific genuses, so even if one of the monsters is rare, you could head to the Veldt and try to find it there. Regarding the specific action, it'd probably be something you stumble upon by accident, such as using a Poison-elemental attack on an Insect, or the like.

That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.

btw, eternal, do you have the map/npc editor for FF6? because i have it if u want

Edit: oh sweet, i never noticed this other editor before, maybe ill play with ff6 again (but with rachel since u wont add her  lol)+

Is work on this postponed or something?  What's with the lack of activity?

He's doing his FFT patch

I still have a good amount of work done already on FFVI (the DSS and items, for example), but it's not really enough to warrant a new release. The only things left are editing monster AI scripts, formations, and the new script. That said, they're not necessarily -difficult-, but they are very time consuming, and require a lot of testing. Sadly, there are only 24 hours in the day, and between this and FFT: Newtype and life, there's just a lot going on. Rest assured, this project isn't dead. I still have everything in front of me to continue it, and I want to, but by popular request, FFT is coming first.

Understandable.  Just wanted to check since there was nothing explaining it in this thread.  Unless I overlooked an update somewhere.

Updated version with Equipment Weight and a pseudo-single Job system: http://www.insanelyderpy.com/forum/download/file.php?id=88

Quote from: Eternal248 on July 10, 2010, 10:36:00 pm
Proposed story changes:

1) Include backstory about King Edgar and Sabin from the (half-canon) doujin "Tales of the Desert", written by FFVI's scenario director.

2) In Darill's Tomb, have Setzer face a shade of himself (known as Guilt) in order to overcome his despair, before obtaining the Falcon.

3) Make the opening scene in the snowfields of Narshe (the War of the Magi explanation) a narrative told from the perspective of Locke's grandmother. Only at the Returners' Hideout when Locke retells the story is it retold, at this time you'll realize the opening scene was Locke's grandmother's story.

4) Expand the Empire's story.

5) Restore lost pieces of info about the story, such as explaining Relm's Sketch ability, delving into Shadow's past, etc.

6) Making Kefka more active during the WoR.

Hello Eternal, just found your patch and read through all the pages. I am wondering if you've added the extra info about Celes' Runic/Sealed Sword.

"The creation materials state that Runic's power comes directly from Esper Magic channeled through her sword."

Source: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Runic

Haven't played your patch yet, just mentioning it.

I had planned on making someone- maybe Cid- mention it. At this point, I'm focused on FFT although I'm still adding things to VI Hardtype every now and again. :D

Any ETA on this, Et?

Tweaking some more stuff with this during this week~

Quote from: Eternal248 on October 01, 2011, 05:40:33 pm
Tweaking some more stuff with this during this week~

Does that mean you expect to release another update pretty soon?

I've been watching this for a while but just decided to register to show my support. FF6 was always my favorite FF and I think this project looks extremely promising and creative.

Yeah, there'll be an update this week. It won't be huge, but it'll fix a lot of issues I had with previous versions.

Looks like most stuff is ready. Have any suggestions, post 'em now, if not, this will be (re)released on Sunday!

The final version of FFVI Hardtype has been released, folks, after 2 years of tinkering around with it. Though I say it's the final version, if anyone comes across any concerns/suggestions, I will gladly release fixes and updates. Hopefully you all enjoy it!

Actually, nix that. There's an odd glitch that needs worked out.

EDIT: Nevermind, issue was solved. BE SURE TO USE LUNARIPS OR IT WILL GLITCH.

Two issues that I found you...already saw, basically. Did you fix the Leafer hp? I feel like it was more the leafers were using Holy as some sort of last-resort attack. So they died, but that triggers a retaliative holy.

There also appears to be a bug where Vargas' Pummel does too much damage. I'll release a fix for that tonight. Sorry about the inconvenience.

I'm sorry to say I have not been able to get the patch working. I have tried patching it using the latest LunarIPS with several different copies of the FF3 US rom, both 1.0 and 1.1 and headered and unheadered. ZSNES always says "bad rom" and only shows a black screen. I also tried patching with SNESromutil, the game then occasionally ran but with major glitches. Does anyone have any advice?

edit- perhaps the new fix may work better

Sent you a PM, Parimen, please check it. :)

If not, then snes9x works wonders.

This update features some bugfixes and altered Natural Magic for Celes/Terra.

Terra:

Lv. 1
Cure

Lv. 1
Fire

Lv. 5
Chrono

Lv. 10
Drain

Lv. 15
Demi

Lv. 20
Fire2

Lv. 25
Warp

Lv. 30
Poison

Lv. 35
Dispel

Lv. 40
Stop

Lv. 45
Break

Lv. 50
Quake

Lv. 55
Demi2

Lv. 60
Fire3

Lv. 65
Melt

Lv. 70
Ultima


Celes:

Lv. 1
Ice

Lv. 1
Cure

Lv. 5
Protect

Lv. 10
Shell

Lv. 15
Raise

Lv. 20
Float

Lv. 25
Haste

Lv. 30
Cure2

Lv. 35
Ice2

Lv. 40
Regen

Lv. 45
Whirl

Lv. 50
Dispel

Lv. 55
Ice3

Lv. 60
Holy

Lv. 65
Esuna

Lv. 70
Meteor

I am pleased to say that I have been enjoying this hack for the last few days. I've been taking notes after each big fight to sort of chronicle my progress, I hope this is useful to you as feedback. I've just made up to Terra becoming an esper, and felt this was a good point in the game to post my feedback and maybe ask a few questions. For everyone else, I do discuss some fight strategies which you might consider a sort of spoiler so be careful. Without further ado my crappy notes:

WHELK: This battle was surprisingly tense. Added soldiers made the beginning a little hectic, and early into the fight I managed to mistime a shot and hit his shell. Biggs and Wedge were instantly killed by his counterattack, but I had used Barrier with Terra and she was able to whittle down the rest of his health by herself.
MAGITEKS: Does this count as a boss? It was certainly hard enough! I actually had to go grind a couple levels with Terra to get through this as her health was just so low the first couple times I tried it. Granted I usually grind a bit with Terra here anyway. Their laser is devastating and this fight was a careful balancing act between hitting one enemy with all I've got to even the playing field as fast as possible, and keeping everyone's health high to avoid getting oneshot.
VARGAS: Nothing special as far as I could tell. He didn't really seem too interesting. This boss was actually a little easier than some of the random encounters coming up the mountain, which were a pain with all their status effects until I just went back and bought everyone some relics.
ULTROS: Lots of wacky status effects, but this was still not too bad thanks to Banon. I got lucky and had a white cape on Terra and blazed through this fight in one shot.
TUNNEL ARMOR: First time I had to really pay attention to a boss. This fight was hard. I don't remember if it was as unforgiving in vanilla FF6 but you really have to be on the ball with Celes to get through this, if you mess up once it's game over. I had a hasted Celes standing by ready to Runic every spell while Locke chipped away at his HP. The one-two punches of back to back spells were pretty brutal. You really had to be quick with Runic to survive.
GHOST TRAIN: This was a lot more hectic than in vanilla. Constant instant death attacks made for a very defensive battle fought at very low health where I got to put to use all those Phoenix Downs that drop from the enemies in the area. I really like how different all the bosses have been from each other and this is no exception, you turned a really boring and easy boss into something really exciting and challenging. Really had to change up my tactics for this. Also, Sabin suplexing the train will never get old.
PIRANHAS: I wasn't expecting a real boss here! The boss piranha was actually pretty tough, but luckily Cyan's Tiger (half hp) worked on him and he quickly went down. It would have taken forever without that.
KEKFA: Whooo finally. That was a good fight. Seemed almost impossible the first time, but became easy once I figured out the trick. The trick being Runic - Celes and a party of physical attackers were able to beat him down quite handily, it was almost pathetic. I'm gonna start using Celes more, Runic seems like it could be a very useful defensive tool in this hack.

Some random thoughts:

In general I like the way everyone feels, though I'm not far enough yet to really know. I really like the FF9 style equipment-magic system, even at this low level I find each character more distinct than in the base game. Character-specific relics and spells give the characters that have them a useful niche, eg I like how Locke learns Haste. Edgar's Tools revamp were a surprise and made him much more strategic to use instead of his usual role as the most overpowered character in the early game. NoiseBlaster being all-targets makes for quite the chaotic battle, that sometimes is even tactically sound on the right enemies. BioBlaster is decent as always, but a lot better now in comparison to the flaky Autocrossbow, which I find misses too much to use reliably. Blitz still rocks and Swdtech still kinda sucks, though Cyan can be pretty good at just fighting with his genji gloves.
Random battles are much better now, they actually take a little bit of effort and some configurations can be quite challenging. Each enemy simply being tougher means you have to consider your moves a bit more carefully. I also like the potent new moves I've noticed on some enemies as well. I especially liked the evil new Leafers and quickly learned to kill them in one hit. Though I fear some are perhaps too potent. I suppose that is what the run away button is for, I have definitely been using that a lot more :P

I have a couple of questions too. Some may be kind of stupid or obvious so bear with me.

1. The first post in this thread requests you alphabetize Gau's rages, which you said you would do on page 4. Upon getting Gau I noticed his rages were in the default order. I then downloaded the linked Gau alphabetized rage patch and applied to the game with LunarIPS. Started up the game again, saw the rages were mostly alphabetized, fought a few battles, didn't notice any bugs. My question is this: I'm kind of worried somethings going to glitch out somewhere down the line, so, did you not apply the patch because it conflicted with your edits, or was there some other reason? I am not trying to blame you for not including it, just wondering if there is an important reason not to use it, such as that it might conflict with or overwrite the changes you have made to the game. I know almost nothing about the technicalities of SNES ROM modding or hacking. If it helps, the Gau patch's readme says it changes ROM addresses 25A41 - 25A63, 2FCD0 - 2FDCE, 2FDD0 - 2FDD3, 355C7 - 355ED, 35633 - 35634.
I dont mind restoring my save from before I applied the patch if it is indeed incompatible with yours.

2. Also on page 4 you have some neato screenshots of the characters having jobs listed in the menu. Did this not make it into the final version?  Just wanna make sure I applied the patch right. Actually, since there were other cool sounding features you've discussed in this thread, do you have a more recent changelog since this old readme? http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/617/ Or are the changes since then relatively minor enough that one is unnecessary.

All in all I have been having a very good, challenging time with this hack and hope the quality persists to the endgame! Thanks for making it :D

Thanks for the incredible battle logs. I hope you continue to post these! As I've mentioned above, though I say this is the final version, if there's anything you guys feel need to be fixed/changed, I'm more than willing to update for those.

To answer your questions, I heard that the ASM messes up if you switch enemy names from their defaults, which I do a lot- particularly in the WoR. I'm not sure if that's particularly true or not... but given how many times I've had to restart this patch because of dumb ASM stuff, I didn't want to take any risks that wouldn't really have decent rewards.

As for job names, you're getting your wish very soon, I'm hoping. :)

Just uploaded a slightly fixed version that includes job names and some fixes to items, such as Poison Knife, which didn't properly inflict Poison. Enjoy, and send thanks to Celdia and Lenophis for the Job Name ASM!

Here's some more notes. The number in parentheses is roughly my party's level.

DADALUMA (17): Wow this guy is a beast and took me many tries. I first tried with Locke, Sabin, Edgar, and Celes and got nowhere since Sabin and Locke couldn't do anything without being countered by Dadaluma. Eventually went all the way back to Narshe to drop off Locke and hire Shadow. I figured Sabin could help out by using items and casting his piddly Fire spell but he was dead more than alive, Locke's Haste would have been better. I also equipped everyone with confusion-protecting gear (the Headband is finally useful) so I could use Noiseblaster on the iron fists to avoid their damage. Shadow ended up making a major difference with his skeans and shurikens and then... what! he healed to full!! :shock: Long, painful fight but I eventually won. I noticed an oddity in that he seemed to want to counter physical attacks and Mug, but Throw and physical Tools were fine yet even the magical Blitzes were countered. Maybe he's just programmed to hate on Sabin because they use the same moves :P Grueling but fun fight that takes a lot of preparation.
ULTROS (19): Not too hard, basically the same as the original. Sabin's Fire 2 from the fire knuckle really came in handy. Everyone's level being 19 I was thankfully able to avoid all his L? spells. Also, I noticed that Ultros' Drain was not doing any damage or healing until about halfway through the fight - intended?
#024 (21): Not too hard. His attacks seemed more damaging than normal so Runic was very handy. Blocking confuse also made it much easier. The magitek factory leading up to him was a little intense at times, and I wish that the new item Rubber Boots was available on this continent.
#128 (21): Quite a troublesome foe, though the fight mechanics were mostly unchanged I quickly realized his higher stats and annoying statuses meant if I didn't take him out fast I'd lose to attrition. My first try failed miserably but then I equipped Carbuncle and Phantom and they made a huge difference, allowing everyone to get in a few free hits without having to worry about healing the massive damage going out. Runic would have been great here, I miss it already.
CRANES (21): Very easy. Used Carbuncle and killed them quickly. Nice little breather fight after that annoying gauntlet.
FLAME EATER (25): Surprisingly tough, though the mechanics hadn't changed much each characters limitations made the battle difficult to survive. Nearly any attack from any enemy in the fight would one shot a character, especially the self destruct and flare. After some trial and error, my strategy was to immediately break an ice rod to clear the bombs and do quite a bit of damage to the boss. I summoned Carbuncle right after that to protect Locke and Strago for a couple rounds. Once a new group of bombs showed up I used Siren to completely neuter them for the remainder of the battle. Morphed Terra and started pounding the boss with Ice until it died. She had a reflect ring to stay mostly immune to the boss's attacks and Kirin to heal whatever got past it. The beginning of this fight and dealing with the bombs was the hardest part and required some quick timing, and Siren was extremely useful so I could just silence the bombs instead of having to kill them over and over. I like how this hack makes me think about my esper attacks - the base game was easy enough I didn't really bother summoning them too much. I could have made this easier for myself by buying some extra ice rods I guess, but I figured it was doable without.
ULTROS (26): Seems unchanged, which is ok because its basically a cutscene.

Stuff:
I have noticed two bugs. Nothing major. The first is in the last save room of the phantom train and what appears to be the top half of a ghost is next to the save point. If you walk on it you are unable to walk off. Good thing I used the save point first.

(http://i.imgur.com/UYpJW.png) (http://i.imgur.com/wKahp.png)

The second is on the status screen. The "ag" popped up sometime recently, if I had to guess exactly when I'd say when Relm joins your party after Ultros.

(http://i.imgur.com/tgFzE.png)

Still enjoying myself and looking forward to the reportedly even more different WOR. Each character's magical limitations renders their skills, equipment, and espers a much more tactical and interesting choice. I was somewhat disappointed to see esper level bonuses are still in, but its not too bad since there are only a few spells to learn and I guess those stats have to come from somewhere. But those job names look great. Before I head off to the flying continent, though, are there any of Strago's lores you've made only available in the WOB? I'd hate if I missed a good one.

That ghost was originally going to be a merchant for the fight before the Phantom Train. I've removed every instance of that event a very long time ago, but for whatever reason, it's still there. =\

The -ag is probably a result of the Job Name ASM.

Also... I think the WoR needs buffed. I'm going to need your feedback on that when you get to it. You don't need to worry about Lores since you'll face a new enemy in the Cultist's Tower that uses every Lore in the game.

Thanks, and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

This is good fun, but I've hit a brick wall at atma/Ultima weapon on the floating continent.  I was able to grind requisite spells out and get to him at clvls 23-26, but I didn't have nearly the output to even think about taking him down as cyan/locke/celes/shadow.  I came back with setzer instead of locke for his zephyr cape and runic friendly aoe healing, and while I'm pretty good at sustaining the fight indefinitely, I still can't out damage his uber regen.  Everything else I've been able to finesse pretty well.  I wonder if there's a changed item/piece of gear/ability that's relevant to my situation that I'm missing.

His regen starts at 200/tick, and gradually gets larger until it's ticking for 2000, like a sort of a reverse poison.  Hitting for 1200-1300 a turn isn't close to being good enough if I have to recover from his cyclone/whirl while blocking flares.  It's too bad none of my sap/poison skills seem to affect him. 

Genji glove's damage reduction applies to skills, making the item only relevant to a tiny niche of fights for cyan, and worthless for shadow so far for the WoB.  I like the changes to cyan's sky/second bushido, unless it's just being buggy -- it goes off when an enemy gives anyone on your team a debuff from what I could tell, in addition to its old functionality.  I have at least twice seen it act like FFT's Hamedo (though without canceling the incoming attack), in the fight against #128;  it appeared that cyan stepped forward and used the skill -- and while cyan was still standing forward the boss followed with his poison attack on someone else. 

Besides Ultima so far, only Dadaluma really gave me issues, though in my party only cyan could damage him without getting his face mage smashed or bum rushed. 

Hmm, if it turns out Paminen is also having this issue, I wouldn't be against removing Auto: Regen, particularly since he uses some fairly vicious spells. Have you tried using Cyan's 4-hit attack? That may be enough to do some decent damage each turn.

Not sure what's up with Sky, since you're the first person to have reported it, and I haven't touched it at all. By debuff, do you mean debuff magic like Slow/Confuse?

Thanks for the feedback, hope you all are enjoying it!

I haven't tested sky on everything, but I've used it most frequently against dadaluma and #128 -- sky would counter rapier or any of their physical skills that cause sap or poison, even if it targeted anyone in the party, and even if a party member was immune to the effect.  Additionally, Cyan would not necessarily counter the enemy that committed the attack, seeming to favor a random target instead when Cyan wasn't hit.  

Unfortunately, Ultima's armor is such that cyan's fang/first skill does 20-30% more damage to it than cyan's flurry/fourth skill.  

Edit:  I hadn't really used shadow outside when you're forced to (he's awesome I know, it's just a preference thing) but it appears that sky/cyan's second goes off whenever shadow uses throw.  That's pretty awesome.  Hmm.

re-edit: Can't recreate the previous edit.  Further testing req'd.

YES


(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Kaleedity/YESS-1.jpg)

Finally took him down.  It took Terra/Relm/Celes/Shadow with three reflect rings being overly aggressive.  Would be impossible with "Active" time selected; I cut down his regen by waiting in menus instead of letting it tick after every single flare.  It was my second attempt at getting to his second phase.  Had he used comet once I would've been done for, but I got lucky.  

ed: no one in the party is over 27

I'm afraid to say I am having quite a lot of trouble with Ultima's 2000-per-tick Regen too. Been working on him for quite a while with several different parties, including the all-girls reflect ring group posted above, as well as parties that have even more potential for damage. I can sometimes make it to the second stage but my luck always runs out before I can finish. It'd be a hard fight on its own but wouldn't be nearly so bad if I didn't have to either play so riskily to outpace the Regen or take a few turns to take care of the party and quickly fall behind. Also if I didn't have to run through the entire FC to change parties =P I'll keep working on it - my next idea is trying a party with Edgar for Debilitator, hopefully he's affected - but as it stands I do think the high Regen should be toned down or removed as its high healing rate makes the fight uncharacteristically long and luck-dependent for what I think has been a pretty well balanced though difficult hack so far. The Air Force battle had a similar "dps check" with the doom but was handled a bit less annoyingly.

Up to you though. I also wanted to let you know about a couple more bugs I've noticed, one obnoxious and one just weird. The first bug is that using the "remove all equipment" function from the guy on the airship will also remove the permanent sprint shoes effect on those characters it affects. Choosing "unequip everyone" will definitely remove the effect from everyone, while choosing "only unequip people not in my party" seems to only sometimes remove the effect, I'm not sure. I dunno if you can do anything about this or if its just the way the game is programmed, but its something to keep an eye on. If anyone else becomes afflicted by this, I was able to restore the sprint shoes effect for myself by using the zsnes cheat code file from http://zsnes.zophar.net/cht/

The second bug is just kinda funny. There are two listings for Gale Hairpin, each with slightly different stats and description.
(http://i.imgur.com/YOXtl.png) (http://i.imgur.com/VQkIA.png)
As far as I can tell they both increase preemptive attacks, its just that one has +2 more speed than the other. I wish I could tell you where I got them but I wasn't really paying attention at the time.

The first bug mentioned is because at the time, I was unaware there was an ASM for auto-sprint, so I have each piece of gear auto-sprint. Therefore, when you removed it, you could no longer sprint. Second bug is being fixed as we speak.

Regarding Ultima, I've toned down his Regen for an update I'll release today. I just tested the battle myself and I agree with your findings.

Thanks!

Okay, I've uploaded a fixed version which fixes Gale Hairpin, Quake, Whirl, and Ultima Weapon (boss). Sorry about the inconvenience!

omgonmgomg I just noticed this update.  DLING RITE NAO!

Well, got up to Mt. Koltz or however it's spelled.  Some of the random battles are needlessly long z_z  I'm sure I spent at least five in-game minutes fighting two battles against brawlers.  Thank goodness for fast forward.

I forgot to record the Whelk fight, but it was pretty easy, even with Biggs and Wedge pre-poisoned and no way to take care of it.

Marshal wasn't too bad.  I used the moogle team with the cure brush or w/e the name of it is.

The Magitek armor guys were a bit annoying with their 1-shotting Terra, but I got past it.

I better get some sleep... I'm already gonna be wishing for death tomorrow ._.

Thank you, Eternal!  yAAAAyyyy!!11!

Since I got past the ultima weapon, I played quite a bit over the weekend.  Stuff's pretty addictive.  I'm pretty scatterbrained from some of these encounters because I've probably done too much in a weekend.  All these notes are from before the most recent patch:

1- The rest of the floating continent rush-off was fine.  The "miniboss" that you have to fight was a little problematic for my purely magic team of terra/relm/celes, but I made up time because terra could oneshot all the normal mobs.  Also, morphed Terra is the only reason why I was able to drop pre-patch ultima.

2- Celes' solo sections seemed pretty easy, though Celes was one of my powered up characters in the WoB.  I'm used to this section of the original sucking because I never used her much in previous iterations of the game.  Finding Sabin wasn't so bad, with the only issue being that if you grab all the chests in the timed building collapse event you'll run out of time fighting the monsters-in-a-box for no gain because they have so much hp. 

3- Terra's boss was pretty easy, but bolt3's slow suucks to get hit by, even with rubber shoes.  I'm really glad Celes knows haste naturally by now, as I've used to to counter slow with almost every one of bolt3's showings.

4-  Edgar's tentacle monster boss was easier than I recall it being without the patch -- but again this is because I'm actually trying to use mechanics available to me in game instead of killing everything with fight.  Poison from bio blaster pretty much ends this boss.  I recall some of the trash being pretty dangerous, but nothing overwhelming.  Since I'm not utilizing Sabin or Edgar for MP-heavy roles, I find little use for the mp-stealing soul saber as of yet.

5-  Darryl's boss took me a while to finish, but I only remember the multitarget imp song and the morningstar counter.  Fuck being imp'd and then countered.  I think I just managed to slog through it with a bunch of healing and protect.  Oh, and some of the trash here isn't worth fighting at all.  Fortunately you can just run away from it.  The monster-in-a-box whelk upgrade was fairly trivial.

6- This is where the game opens up, and I've tried a bunch of things.  I'm pretty sure I picked Cyan up first.  Mt. Zozo wasn't problematic, and in fact I think it's the only place in the WoR where the trash monsters didn't wreck me constantly.  It was fun peeking at the first WoR dragon here and getting subsequently one-shot for 3-4 times my party's health. 

7- This is when I typically try to pick up Shadow.  The toecutter trash mobs in the Veldt cave are overwhelmingly powerful for my characters at this moment, but at least I can run away with no drawbacks.  I get killed in pincer attacks if they happen.  Trying to do the monster-in-a-box is hilarious and I decide to wait on that one until I can pack some party members with memento rings.  I get to SrBehemoth/King Behemoth and ho boy I thought the Ultima weapon was a problem.  This dude is extraordinarily difficult.  The first phase is trivial until he uses comet if you use the phantom esper and spam runic, and comet is recoverable.  The problem is the second phase -- You've got this bastard that has max 65k health, has regen like the ultima weapon, counters everything with cyclone (the one that reduces your health to a few percent) or single target meteor (appears to be umavoidable by runic), and uses cyclone/comet/multi-target meteor/death on his turn for his first set of moves.  At the level I first tried him, the comet or meteor killed two of my party members at full health.  I'll just leave and come back to this one.

8- I cleared out Narshe without Locke next.  Umaro was not overly difficult.  I'll note that the encounters in the normal streets of Narshe are EXTRAORDINARILY difficult and are more dangerous than many of the bosses I've taken out at this point. 

9- I got Terra back.  There was nothing buggy with Phunbaba, but those counters from the last version of him were pretty harsh.  I remember drain being the mvp of this fight.

10- I'm pretty sure I tried to clear out Doma at this point, after gaining the elemental-2 spells from Narshe's Tritoch on one or two characters.  I found out the three stooges no longer have their elemental weaknesses, instead taking at most 0 damage from elemental abilities.  Oh, and they counter everything with an elemental-3 (one uses ice 2 sometimes).  This makes the bolt3-slow, ice3-mute, and fire3-sap extremely problematic.  I planned on coming back later, as I had no one that could really effectively deal targeted damage at the rate I needed to drop them between the elemental-3 onslaught.

11- I actually went through the ancient castle below figaro next.  The trash mobs in the cave portion are interestingly difficult, but it doesn't feel like they're going to kill my entire party if I try to fight them.  I gain quite a few levels down here from abusing phantom on the mostly physical packs in the caves.  Once you reach the castle grounds, the mobs other than the (I think they're called hellspawn?) mostly physical damage packs are overwhelmingly difficult.  I'm able to grab the offering, and I really don't think it's worth it in its current form.  Now, I don't know if Sabin gets an armor-ignoring weapon, and I like the idea that only someone like Sabin can equip it, but permanent slow and mute is pretty harsh.  Well, really just the slow.  I think the drawbacks are too much for Sabin, who would have to be put in the front row at great risk to make use of randomly targeted melee attacks, something he has mostly through back-row-friendly blitz already.  I'm sure it'll be a good option if I can power him up to hit the damage cap, but that's not going to happen any time soon unless there's some new claws I don't know about.

12- I did Locke's cave next.  Really all you need is two groups that can handle the 1k needle spam mobs as everything else you can just run away from.  Caitsith could basically solo this place, and Sabin can render them useless with berserk.  Picking up Locke is vital for some of the bosses I've seen, as with the valiant knife I now have a melee powerhouse that can choose targets.  Setzer's pretty good, but not having a powerful armor-ignoring weapon at this point slows him down a bit.  The other physical options either have elemental weapons (that are worthless on some bosses, like Sabin's vs the stooges) or can't wear hermes shoes (and ignore bolt 3's slow) or both.

13- With Locke I re-attempted Doma's event.  This has probably been my favorite part so far, or maybe it's just because it's one of the last things I did and it feels like a hell of an accomplishment.  I'm able to drop the stooges with Locke's melee, shrugging off the elemental spells with reflected Celes and rubber-boots-chakra-spamming-Sabin.  Perhaps their hp, regen, or cure spells are too much, but this fight took a long time.  I get through to Wrexsoul and oh man I'm glad I had 70 phoenix downs.  We're talking a super high phys/magic defense boss that has 40k health that can only be targeted once before countering everything with possession, forcing you to kill a random living party member each time you attack him.  Also, supporting monsters that cast elemental-3 spells, silencing and slowing your party.  God this fight took a long time.  Might want to make him only sometimes counter with possession.  Granted, it was pretty hilarious when he countered his allies' cure spam with it, making me kill another party member. 

I've since picked up Ragnarok and learned flare/fire 3 on Terra, and I hope I don't regret skipping out on the +speed ragnarok esper.  I'll pick up illumina as soon as I get someone strong enough to handle the arena.  I'll probably pick up Relm and Strago next. 

Thanks for the logs! Hopefully you're enjoying it, since that's what matters most!

The Gale Hairpin bug is present. :/

And, just a general question, but did anyone else not get the Charm Bangle after the Vector Banquet?

I... I reach the overworld, save (thankfully) and get into a random encounter.

I run into a single Leaf Bunny, try and Steal from it...

It casts freaking Holy on me.

That is the most amazing dick move I have ever seen.

Kalas: Download the latest version on the front page.

Pata: You got incredibly unlucky. They only react with Holy 33% of the time. Best thing to do is run from the buggers. They're a pain in the ass to fight.

Tera OHKO's them with Fire, so I just killed them that way.

Quote from: Kalas on October 28, 2011, 02:55:02 am
The Gale Hairpin bug is present. :/

And, just a general question, but did anyone else not get the Charm Bangle after the Vector Banquet?

In the newest version, the Gale Hairpin has become a pretty cool unique accessory for Setzer. I'll let you find out what it does... And, I did get all 24 soldiers at the banquet and received the Charm Bangle. Maybe you missed someone.

I've been way to busy to play this lately, but hopefully this weekend I'll have a chance to make some more progress.

I had 24 at the final count. It even appeared on screen as "24."

Thought there were 26 soldiers...

Oh BTW Eternal OMFG YOU FINISHED IT!!!!!!  CG!  I'll pick this up in a bit, a lot of gaming on my plate right now.  Thanks so much! 

In a walkthrough I looked at it said 24...may have been wrong though.

Big update coming soon.

Part of which includes:

-Two new superbosses
-Gau/Mog switching Rages mid-battle

well I am right before I get gau so hopefully I won't be missing too much.

You won't miss anything. The update will just have Dried Meats cancel Rage and Green Cherries cancel Dance in addition to Imp, allowing you to switch them.

Updated the main post with a fairly large update. Enjoy!

Awesome. And now I will be suicidal, and try to play FF6 Hardtype, without having played the original FF6.

Wish me luck.

Luck! :D

Nice avatar, Alaris.

Here we go folks.

I cringed watching you use potions in the opening scene, knowing how useful they are >_>
Also, two hits on the shell, ouch...
Pink = Stop

Just a few things I put in the reply box while I was watching this.

Potions are valuable and/or rare?  Good to know, lol.  Thanks for letting me know what Pink is. 

I think I'll make another video of this soon, see if I can get into some of the real game.  And possibly, actually die horribly. ^_^

Quote from: Eternal248 on November 13, 2011, 04:03:03 am
Updated the main post with a fairly large update. Enjoy!

Are saves from the previous version compatible?

Also, what exactly are the changes?

Yeah, saves transfer between versions so long as the ROM's name is the same.

The biggest changes include being able to change Rages/Dances by using Dried Meat/Green Cherries, and a bunch of little balance things like making Cyan faster, nerfing Bio Blast/Flash, and making some Blitzes evadeable.

Bioblaster needed nerfing?

I mean, it was still useful. But in this hack, I find that powerful single target damage is more useful then the weaker group damage. So Drill is by far the more useful Tool so far. And before that Bio Blaster to inflict Sap, followed by just attacking seemed better.

If I find that a lot of people want it back to the way it was, I'll change it back. It's kind of an experiment right now, along with the Blitz changes. So by all means, give feedback! :P

Did you change Flash back so that it only hit enemies again? Because I could have sworn it was hit-all in the previous version

The targetting was screwy. Although it showed that it would attack everyone, it actually only attacked enemies. It should be fixed now.

I think I found a glitch.

Unless Suplex never hitting, ever, is intentional.

Ah, I see why. I'll release a fix tonight.

Updated the first post with a version that fixes Blitz. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Quote from: Eternal248 on November 17, 2011, 08:40:28 pm
Updated the first post with a version that fixes Blitz. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Actually it was slightly more convenient because it made the boss of Zozo easier.  :P

Anyone have tips for Dullahan?

Episode 2:


Hmm, this might become a full-blown Let's Play at this rate. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.  Wonder how long before my first wipe...

Another glitch, I think.

Nobody can equip the Thunder Blade and I have all the sword using characters.

Also, Cait Sith targets enemies and does nothing.

Also, a question: I notice in the patch notes it mentions the Angel Brush, Relms ultimate brush from FFVI Advance, did you add in those weapons? If so, how are they gotten.

Thunder Blade should be Strago-only. Cait Sith is fixed for the next update, and no, FFVI Advance items are not in. I just changed some existing names around.

If Dullahan wasn't already amazingly difficult, slapping Imp Song on him just about takes the cake for being the most ridiculous boss ever.

Few questions eternal.  Do you have a rage list anywhere?  When tough to get mobs like marshal having a fairly junky buff, assuming attack + one special per rage, seems very wasteful and makes me want to stop hunting the veldt, and seriously cramping gau's style.  Also I found either one of the extra bosses or some kinda uber enemy I have never seen on the veldt, PM me if ya wanna know so I don't spoil it.  Its raped my 2 member team.   Also is regen set per monster or is it a flat like 5 or 10% or max health?  total health? 

Expect an update tonight nerfing Dullahan a bit.

Episode 21:

QuoteEpisode 3:

spoiler

Bunnies... BUNNIES...they're not cute... not like everybody said.... hoppy legs...twitchy noses...AHHHHH!!!!!

QuoteEpisode 4:

spoiler

Updates are fun...

QuoteEpisode 5 (Special):

spoiler

Special Episode... a full one-hour long, as the Let's Try becomes a Let's Play!  HUZZAH!

QuoteEpisode 6:

spoiler

Completely forgot to post the latest episode on here. FAIL!

QuoteSeems that I managed, even with killer bunnies...  Episodes 7 and 8 are up.  I decided to primarily split them into just 20 minute segments, so people can watch them and not have to devote an hour to doing so.  Some people have complained that they didn't have the time, so there you go.

Episode 7:

spoiler

Episode 8:

spoiler

QuoteFor people's sakes, I'll put the rest in Spoiler Tags, but I've been feeling under the weather... so I did more videos.  Because other than staying in bed to recover, I had nothing else to do.  Blarg.

Episode 9:

spoiler

Episode 10:

spoiler

Episode 11:

spoiler

I think I'll go back and edit the rest of them too... so they aren't massive videos taking up the whole page.

QuoteEpisode 12:

spoiler

Episode 13:

spoiler

Episode 14:

spoiler

Episode 15:

spoiler

Final Fantasy VI Hardtype - [Developer's Room & Narshe Secrets]

spoiler

EDIT: I've consolidated 90% of my episode posts into this single post, because there was no reason to have hat many posts, especially since I believe I had a quadruple post here... which may or may not be against the forum rules. Below are most of the episodes.

QuoteEpisode 16:

spoiler

Still sick, it sucks...

QuoteEpisode 17:

spoiler

Episode 18:

spoiler

QuoteEpisode 19:

spoiler

QuoteEpisode 20:

spoiler

Thanks for the updates! I actually need to still release that fix for Dullahan- a boss later on. I'll get around to it some time this week.

So... Cool.  Have several more videos ready to upload soon.  Or at least, ready to be rendered, and then uploaded.  So please, watch and enjoy. ^_^

Episode 23:

QuoteNot a problem, I enjoy updating.  And all that jazz.

Episode 22:

spoiler

I've updated FFVI Hardtype to 1.2 in the first post. This update includes a nerfed Dullahan and some bugfixes for your pleasure. Enjoy!

Episode 25:

QuoteI'll be updating to 1.2 for Episode 26, since 24 and 25 are already recorded. Thanks for your hard work, Eternal.

Episode 24:

spoiler

I really need to change the name of the patch. It's not so much a Hardtype as it is a rebalancing.

I suppose that's true.  Don't know what to rename it... "FF6 Rebalancing-Type" doesn't roll off the tongue too well.

Once I finish changing the script and adding the superbosses, it'll likely be renamed FFVI Complete or something. Not a big deal right now though.

Rebalancing a game makes it harder
Not by much, but still harder than the original game

A 'hard type' is implied to be a challenge hack, which this really isn't anymore. It's also why calling FFIV "hard type" irritates the hell out of me.

Quote from: dn on February 06, 2012, 11:18:42 pm
A 'hard type' is implied to be a challenge hack, which this really isn't anymore. It's also why calling FFIV "hard type" irritates the hell out of me.

Well, obviously you wouldn't want to call it "FFIV Hard Type," since it's not Final Fantasy 4, but Final Fantasy 6 (VI).  ^_^


<ALSO:  FUCK THE FIRE EATER!>

For the love of ALL THAT IS HOLY, why the hell is the FireEater so powerful.... jesus Eternal... I find myself wanting to hit you over the head with a sledgehammer...over...and over... and over again.

You can do it, just keep trying!

Attempting to setup an even more focused spell system for characters so they have even more defined roles. This is what I'm thinking currently:

Locke:


Shadow:


Terra:


Celes:


Strago:


Edgar:


Sabin:


Cyan:


Mog:


Relm:


Setzer:


Thoughts and feedback are needed.

Episode 36:
[/spoiler]

QuoteIn response to your latest post, I think I'll reserve judgement until after my playthrough before I make recommendations.

Episode 33:

spoiler

Episode 33.5:

QuoteAnd finally, I'm back to updating FF6 Hardtype. It's really a good game, and I like the challenge of the patch, even if it is somewhat frustrating sometimes. ^_^

Episode 34:

spoiler

Episode 35:

Isn't there a Master's Guide that describes all the changes in the current version?  All we get throughout the thread are snippets and most of them out outdated.

Also, when the fuck did bunnies get Holy as a spell?  Doesn't anyone know when to quit with really old jokes like those?

Don't even bother. I'm totally changing things around when I update again.

Got a date set for that update?  You don't have to answer.  Still, I just started playing the current version very recently and I'm startled by how visceral it is.  It has even me on my toes.  A list of planned changes--when you have time--may be more appropriate than a Master's Guide.

A lot of the later changes are just poorly balanced, and it's not fun at all for it, I feel. I want to go through, keep the character/magic changes, and moderately update enemies without going as far as they have now. It shouldn't take too long to do, but I want to focus on FFT/FFTA for now.

Still, there's something new to learn in playing a game--modified or not--that you didn't really notice during the first time around.  Take the Rubber Shoes.  Those are meant specifically to prevent the new Rhinotaurs lurking in the South Figaro vicinity from ruining everyone's Egg McMuffin.  They hit hard, but they can be addressed.  What I never knew was that Runic, Celes' ability, had a peculiar glitch when it addressed an elemental spell she would otherwise absorb with the blade.  When you negate damage from an element, you don't absorb MP.  Anything that could change your status can still be absorbed.

So here I was, fuming during every fight with the Rhinotaurs while grinding with Locke and Celes, utterly pissed that for some reason Eternal248 had to go and gimp Runic in a response to its sudden usefulness given the change in enemy AI.  Then Locke cast Protect and it was absorb, giving her the cost of the spell.  I was relieved.  I guess the absorption occurs only when Celes is actually threatened by the spell.

I'm enjoying the patch that's set up so far, although you're right: the enemies have either too much health or a strange ability to make life utterly miserable as opposed to a fair and true challenge.  It's a case of fake difficulty that I hope isn't replicated in any of your patches for Tactics.

Nah, I learnt a lot from FFVI HT. It was my very first patch afterall, so it was bound to kinda suck. :P

Like I said, I plan on one day going through and fixing enemies, so don't worry too much about that.

Oh God! Month long delay! Sorry guys, my computer DIED!

Episode 47:


Episode 37:


Episode 38 was lost during recording.

Episode 39 (Special, No Commentary):


Episode 40:


Episode 41:


Episode 42:


Episode 43:


Episode 44:


Episode 45:


Episode 46