FFVI Hardcube

[Odal]

Edit - 17 May 2015

So apparently this Romhacking.net site has been around for forever and I never heard of it until last week.  Oh well, got my patch uploaded there rather than random file sharing websites.

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2402/

spoiler

Edit - 15 Nov 2013
New update.  Probably easiest to keep up with it here:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/554041-final-fantasy-iii/67832528

spoiler

Edit - 9 AUG 2012

Download Link: http://multiupload.biz/kh3u9tixyx24/Final Fantasy VI HardCube V0.3 by Odal_MultiUpload.biz.ips.html

Official Name changed: FFVI Hardcube v0.3.  (6 times more difficult than the original )

Well, I figured it was time for an update to this.  The changes listed here are about as good as I could get.  It's been over a year since my last update and I can't recall all of the changes that I made, especially the smaller tweaks.  There is a LOT though, that has changed.  The list below is by no means 100% thorough, however it should give you an idea of the main changes made.  Also you can visit the beginner's area in Narshe for some of the info below as well.

Unfortunately this is only V0.3 because, honestly I am still unsure of the balance in the World of Ruin.  To my knowledge everything functions correctly though.  Anyways here's the changes:

And I'll give you the TLDR highlights version up front:
Basically everything is harder and more balanced.  Each of the 8 Dragons is a superboss with 150k health.  Atma is a 1 million health superboss with 16 different phases and unpredictable AI.

spoiler: Changes V0.3

Monsters:

- Many monsters have changed again for rebalancing purposes, mostly those in the world of ruin.

- The 8 Legendary dragons are now superbosses each with 150000 health and much improved stats and AI from before.  While these can be found throughout the world of ruin, it is not advised to fight them until your characters are above level 90.
   - Those who have played the remake of FFVI may notice that I borrowed some ideas from that version of the game when it comes to the dragons, however I assure you that my versions are much more difficult.

- Atma is now his own unique challenge.  He has a battle script of 2295 bytes (most bosses only have a few hundred) which includes 16 different phases of 62500 health each.  With 1 million health total and an unpredictable, improved AI, you will find this to be the most difficult challenge the game has to offer.  He is optional, and it is advised that you only face him when being as prepared as possible.

- All monsters give approximately 25% more gold.
- All monsters are harder to run away from than in the original game, however all random encounters will always be possible to run from.
- Harpys, a common monster near Thamasa in the World of Ruin, now have a rare (1/8) chance to drop Exp. Egg.

Items:
- Weapons and armor now have their stats annotated in the description box.  Due to limited byte space, these stats are abbreviated as follows.
      - V = Vigor.
      - S = Speed.
      - M = Magic Power.
      - PE = Physical Evade.
      - ME = Magical Evade.
   - An example would be Chocobo Brush: "V+3, S+3, M+5".
   - Stamina was excluded due to its relative uselessness.

Weapons:
- Weapons can no longer be thrown by Shadow.  This does not apply to items which are specifically meant to be thrown, like shurikens and scrolls.
- Weapons will no longer give more than 10% Physical or Magical Evasion.
- All weapons' hit rate has been changed to increase as you get stronger weapons.
- All Daggers now give at least 3 speed.
- ValiantKnife now gives the wearer the ability to cover for weak allies - same as the true knight effect.
- Drainer sword's power reduced significantly.
- Illumina is now: 171 Battle Power, 7 Speed, 7 Stamina, 7 Magic Power, 10% Physical Evade, 10% Magic Evade. Gives: Regen and shell, and increases MP by 25%.
- Ragnarok is now: 171 Battle Power, 7 Vigor, 7 Speed, 7 Stamina, 10% Physical Evade, 10% Magic Evade.  Gives: Haste and safe, and increases HP by 25%.
- All spears now deal the same damage from the back row and have lost a significant amount of Battle Power.  Attack damage will be roughly the same from the back row.
- Imp Partisan changed to Mime Spear, which only Gogo can equip.  65 Battle Power.  Allows Jump to be continuous.  Randomly counter-attacks, and casts Shell and Safe on low HP.  Randomly casts Mute when attacking.
- Shadow's weapons (Imperial, Kodachi, Blossom, Hardened, Striker, Stunner) all give Vigor+5, Speed+3, Magic Power-5.
- Ashura, Kotetsu, Forged, Tempest all give Vigor+3, Speed-2.
- Murasame gives Vigor+4, Speed-2.
- Aura gives Vigor+6, Speed-2.
- Strato gives Vigor+7, Speed-2.
- Sky Render gives Vigor+7.
- All staves now give increased Magic Power.
- All brushes now moderately increase Vigor, Speed, Stamina, and Magic power.
- Shuriken now has 1 battle power.
- Ninja Star now has 11 battle power.
- Tack Star now has 21 battle power.
- All weapons which deals the same damage from back row have had their battle power appropriately reduced to be similar in damage to other weapons of the same tier that will be used from the back row.  This includes Flails, Boomerangs and Cards.
- Fixed Dice replaced by Lucky Dice.  Lucky Dice throws two die like Dice and gives Vigor+7, Speed+7, Magic Power+7.
- All of Setzer's weapons (Cards, Darts, Doom Darts, Trump, Dice, Lucky Dice) doubles the amount of gold gained at the end of the battle.

Armor:
- Armor has been divided into two types.  Heavy armor and Light armor.  Character-specific armor are always light armor. 
   - Heavy Armor lowers the speed of its wearer.  In the early game a full suit of heavy armor lowers physical damage taken by about 33% and scales up to 50% in the late game.
   - Light Armor often increases stats at the cost of defense.  In the early game a full suit of light armor lowers physical damage taken by about 25% and scales up to 33% in the late game.
   - Both Heavy and Light armor reduce Magic Damage by roughly the same amount, however many specific pieces of light armor have increased magic defense as a bonus.

- Flame Shld stats changed: Physical Evade+10%, Magic Evade+10%, Half: Fire, Weak: Lightning, Water.
- Ice Shld stats changed: Physical evade+10%, Magic Evade+10%, Half: Ice, Weak: Fire, Wind.
- Thunder Shld stats changed: Physical evade+10%, Magic Evade+10%, Half: Lightning, Weak: Ice, Earth.
- Top Tier Shields:
   - Genji Shield - All purpose.  High defense, Magic Defense, and 10% Physical and Magical Evade.
   - Paladin Shield - Physical defense shield.  Highest Defense, 30% Physical evade, Adds: Safe.
   - Force Shield - Magical defense shield. Highest Magic defense, 30% Magic evade, Adds: Shell.

- Imp Equipment has been changed to Mime equivilants which can only be equipped by Gogo.  These are as follows:
- Mime Shield: Weak: Wind, Prevents: Dark, Zombie, Poison, Clear, Imp, Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute, Berserk, Muddle, Seizure, Sleep. Note: No evasion.
- Mime Hat: Weak: Poison, Changes Fight to Jump, Changes Sketch to Control, Changes Steal to Capture, Randomly Counter Attack, Raises Steal rate, Raises Control Rate, Magic Cost is halved, Doubles Exp gained, Doubles gold gained.
- Mime Clothes: Weak: Earth, Gives Regen, Haste, Shell, Safe.

Tools:
- Noise Blaster hit rate changed to 66%.
- Chain Saw battle power changed to 20, hit rate changed to 100%.
- Debilitator hit rate changed to 50%.
- Drill battle power changed to 30, hit rate changed to 90%.
- Air Anchor hit rate changed to 60%.
- Auto Crossbow battle power changed to 80, hit rate changed to 100%.

Relics:
- Goggles removed and replaced with Monocle which increases all stats by 1.
- Star Pendant no longer prevents poison.  Instead it gives Vigor-1, Magic Power+2.
- Peace Ring no longer prevents Berserk or Confuse.  Instead it gives Defense+20.
- Jewel Ring no longer prevents Petrify.  Instead it gives    Vigor+4, Magic Power-2.
- Fairie Ring removed and replaced with Fairy Walnut which increases MP by 25%
- Running Shoes no longer give Haste.  Instead it increases speed by 7.
- Reflect Ring removed and replaced with Shell ring which increases Magic Defense by 20.
- Cherub Down removed and replaced with Emu Down which gives Half: Earth.
- Earrings can now only be used by Terra, Celes, and Relm.  In addition to 25% increased magic damage, they also give Vigor-3, Speed-3, Stamina-3, Magic Power-3 Physical Evade-50%, Magic Evade-50%.
- Atlas Armlet no longer gives 25% increased Physical damage.  Instead it gives Vigor+3, Speed+4, Magic Power+3.
- Hero Ring no longer gives +25% Physical and Magic Damage.  Instead it increases HP and MP by 12.5%(1/8).
- Economizer no longer reduced MP costs to 1.  Instead it halves MP consumed and increases MP by 50% and increases all stats by 3.
- Gauntlet now increases Vigor+5 as well as allowing a weapon to be held with 2 hands.
- Hyper Wrist functions differently now.  It subtracts 6 vigor and then increases the result by 50%.  For weaker characters this will actually lower their vigor unless increased with other items.
- Marvel Shoes no longer gives haste, and instead gives Speed+7.  Still gives Regen.
- Sprint Shoes removed and replaced with Voice Box which prevents silence.

Colosseum:
- Illumina can be bet to win Ragnarok.
- Ragnarok can be bet to win Illumina.
   
- Falchion can be bet to win Flame Shld.
- Flame Shld can be bet to win Thunder Shld.
- Thunder Shld can be bet to win Ice Shld.
- Ice Shld can be bet to win Flame Shld.

Characters:
- Exp required to level reduced at higher levels.  Overall experience required to reach 99 is approximately 80% of what it was in the previous patch.

- Stats for most characters changed drastically. In most cases all stats are lower than in vanilla. Especially concerning Vigor and Magic power. Physical damage characters will tend to have low magic power.  Magic damage characters will tend to have low vigor.

spoiler: Old Post 5 JUL 2011

This is my version of FFVI Hardtype hack.  I got tired of waiting for an update to Eternal's and one day I was bored so I asked him what program he used to edit the game and ever since then this has been the focus of my free time

At this point, I have pretty much balanced the first half of the game pretty well as far as I can see.  Though I do tend to get stuck in my own style of playing and I'm sure there are play styles that are better than mine and those which are worse than mine so I am sure there is still a lot of tweaking to be done.

First of all, there is very little, if any eye-candy to this patch.  I'm all about changing the actual game play.  I will not bother with retranslating the game, spells, or items.  The only exceptions being "Fenix Down" being changed to "Pheonix Down" and changing Vicks to Biggs.

Also as of this post, there has been almost no testing to the World of Ruin.  It has taken me so long just to do the World of Balance and I really think the World of Ruin needs a lot more work than the World of Balance.  With that said, it will definitely be harder than vanilla due to blanket changes I made to characters and monsters.  For example, I went through every monster AI script and removed any chance to do nothing.  I've also boosted status immunities and this, by itself, will at least make the bosses able to put up SOME fight.  However I haven't gone through and tested each fight.  Also keep in mind the list of changes below which concern abilities or items which are mostly found in the World of Ruin are not yet balanced for gameplay there and are mostly just ideas for how I would like them to function.

My goal, with the WoR is to make quite a difficulty shift.  While I hope the WoB provides a nice challenge, I want the player to be on their toes even moreso in the WoR.    There'll be tougher, though not necessarily longer, random battles in the WoR.  Also, as part of the balance, exp gained will be significantly higher to better prepare the player for the battles he/she faces. Bosses will definitely be tougher overall.  I plan to make each of the 8 dragons a superboss.  Atma will be another epic fight, as well as the three statues.  And, in addition, there is also the optional and slightly hidden boss fight against Czar Dragon now.  And of course, the fight with Kefka + his three layers will be among the most difficult parts of the game.  In the distant future I plan to make my own superbosses which will possibly even exceed Czar Dragon in difficulty.

Lunar IPS

Use the above program to apply the patch which can be downloaded at the bottom of the post at This Link

EDIT - 5 JUL 2011 - v0.2 out.  Taking down v0.1 and adding changes:

spoiler: Odal FFVI Hardtype V0.2 Changes

Monsters:

- The AI of all monsters in the World of Ruin has improved.  Be careful!

- Increased the health of all regular monsters in the world of ruin by about 50%.

- Increased the level of all monsters in the world of ruin by 10% (on top of the 25% increase from v0.1)

- Increased experienced gained by all monsters in the world of ruin by approximately 50%.

Battle Formations:

- Increased the encounter rate at all places in the world of ruin to "More Encounter"

- Increased the encounter rate of all formations in Kefka's tower to "Even More Encounter"

Magic:

- Ultima's power is lowered slightly and is now unique to Terra learned at level 99.
   - Ragnarok now teaches Pearl, Quartr, W Wind at x2 rate.
   - Paladin Shield now teaches Life 2 at x20 rate.

- Meteor is now unique to Celes learned at level 98.
   - Odin now teaches Doom, Break, and Quartr at x6 rate.
   - Raiden now teaches Haste 2 and Slow 2 at x5 rate and Flare at x10 rate.

- Merton is now unique to Relm and can be learned from the Rainbow Brsh at x10 rate.
   - Terra no longer learns Merton at level 86.
   - Crusader now teaches Fire 3 at x10 rate and Flare at x5 rate.

- X-Zone can only be learned by Terra, Celes, and Relm.
   - Terra learns X-Zone at 86.
   - Celes learns X-Zone at 81.
   - Terra and Celes can learn X-Zone from Minerva at x10 rate.
   - Relm can learn X-Zone from Czarina Gown and Magical Brsh at x10 rate.
      
- Big Guard now only targets one party member.

Items:

- Moogle Charm no longer ignores encounters and instead Raises Preemptive attack rate and prevents Back and Pincer attacks.

- Marvel Shoes now only give Haste and Regen and no longer give Shell and Safe.

- Memento Ring no longer protects its wearer from instant death attacks.
   Instead it randomly evades physical attacks and gives its wearer 10 defense.

- Beads no longer randomly evade physical attacks and now gives 10% physical evade.
   (Previously it gave a chance to randomly evade attacks on top of 20% evade which was too strong)

- Zephr Cape no longer gives physical evade.

- Mog can no longer equip the Snow Muffler.

- Kaiser Claws now randomly cast Pearl.

- Fire, Ice, and Thunder rods can no longer be used (and broken) as an item to cast their respective rank 2 spells.

- Tempest Knife can no longer be equipped by someone with the Merit Award.

- Magical Brsh can no longer be equipped by someone with the Merit Award.

- Rainbow Brsh can no longer be equipped by someone with the Merit Award.

- Flame, Ice, and Thunder shields now only lower damage taken from their respective elements by 50% instead of absorbing the
   element.

- Red Jacket now only lowers damage taken from fire by 50% instead of nulling the effect.

Characters:

- Shadow's base physical evade lowered to 18% down from 28%.

I tried my best to make a list of all of the changes.  I know for sure I left some out, especially really minor ones.  But this should give you a jist of what's different.  Enjoy.

FFVI Changes

spoiler: Bug fixes

Evade Bug Fix - Physical evasion makes a difference now.

Rage Patch - Allows you to learn the Allo Ver, Chupon, and Siegfried rages.

Rippler Bug fix - Rippler works correctly, no longer swapping effects which should be unswappable.

Vanish/Doom fix - No more killing death immune bosses with vanish + doom.

Psycho Cyan fix - Fixes the "Psycho Cyan" glitch

Hidden Bridge in South Figaro - Fixed the somewhat hidden bridge in South Figaro which allowed you to pass over the water behind a building.

Genji Glove Fix - In vanilla Genji glove was supposed to cut the damage of each swing by 1/4.  It only did that when there was one weapon equipped (which didn't make sense).  This has been fixed to properly do this.

spoiler: MONSTERS

- All monsters levels raised by approximately 25%.

- All monsters have an improved AI
- For regular monsters this is mostly just a more aggressive AI which will no longer have an option to do nothing like so many did in vanilla.
- For bosses the AI improvement is often more significant than regular monsters.  Special care has been taken to make these into an appropriate challenge.

- Boss monsters now give exp.

- Monsters can no longer be killed by losing all of their MP.

- Most bosses have had their immunities boosted.  This should prevent a lot of cheesy tactics to defeating boss battles, like X-Zone vs. Wrexsoul and Stop vs. Poltergeist, to name a few.  Don't worry; Sabin can still suplex trains.

spoiler: ITEMS

- Endgame weapons have been changed to be more based on their usefulness than on their sheer power:

-  Valiant Knife: 50 Battle Power.  Gives the user the Seizure status.  Still deals damage based on health lost.  Lower Battle Power is due to ignoring target's defense and also it should emphasize the need for less life to do more damage.  Locke Only.

-  Excalibur: 200 Battle Power, 2 vigor, 2 speed, 1 stamina, 1 magic power.  Pearl elemental damage.  Gives the user Regen, Haste, Shell, Safe.  Useable by Terra, Locke, Edgar, and Celes.

- Scimitar: 210 Battle Power, Randomly dices up an enemy.  Useable by Terra, Cyan, Edgar, Celes.

- Illumina: 155 Battle Power, 7 vigor, 7 speed, 7 stamina, 7 magic power, 30% evade, 30% magic evade.  Uses MP for critical attacks.  Useable by Terra, Locke, Edgar, Celes.

- Ragnarok: 155 Battle Power, 7 vigor, 3 speed, 7 stamina, 7 magic power, 30% evade, 30% magic evade

- Atma Weapon: 10 Battle Power, 7 stamina,  Gives the user Regen.  Still deals damage based on level and % of health.  Low battle power due to ignoring target's defense and also it should emphasize the need for more life and higher levels to do damage.

- Sky Render now increases vigor by 7.

- Tiger Fangs now give Haste.

- The battle power of lances has been lowered by about 20%.

- The battle power of "Same Damage from Back Row" weapons have been lowered by about 20%

- Elemental absorption on endgame armor have been mostly removed and replaced with extra magic defense.

Shields - These no longer give more than 30% of total chance to block physical and magical attacks combined.

- Force Shield is now more specialized giving no defense, high magic defense and 30% magic block.  Does not null or absorb any elements.

- Paladin Shield is now more specialized giving high defense, no magic defense and 30% chance to block physical attacks.

- Genji Shield is now the bread and butter shield giving med/high defense, med/high magic defense and 10% chance to block physical attacks and magical attacks.

- Armor which activates while an Imp is now slightly weaker in defense and magic defense than its Genji counterpart.

- Genji Helmet now increases health by 12.5%

- Genji Armor now increases health by 12.5%

- Tool: Noise Blaster now has a 66% hit rate.

- Tool: Flash now deals similar damage to Bio Blaster (But is lightning elemental)

- Tool: Chainsaw and Drill has had their Battle Power reduced significantly due to their ability to ignore their target's defense.

- Tool: Air Anchor now has a 50% chance to hit.

- Tool: Auto Crossbow Battle Power reduced moderately.

- Running Shoes now increase speed by 3 in addition to giving haste

- Earrings are now only useable by Terra, Celes, and Relm.

- Atlas Armlet now increases Vigor, Speed, and Magic Power by 7 instead of increasing Attack damage by 25%.

- Hero Ring now increases HP and MP by 12.5% instead of increasing both magic and physical damage by 25%.

- Economizer reduces Speed and Magic Power by 7.

- Offering now reduces Vigor and Speed by 7 and casts Slow on its user.

- Gem Box now reduces Speed and Magic Power by 7.

- Sprint shoes now give the user 5 speed.

- Fenix Down now spelled Pheonix Down

- Pheonix Downs and Revivifys no longer kill undead.  They can still be damaged by healing or killed by life spells.

spoiler: COLOSSEUM

- A few "items won" changed to ensure the limiting of many endgame items.

spoiler: BATTLE FORMATIONS

- All instances of "less" encounter rate have been changed to "normal" encounter rate.  Most places in the game were already set to normal, this may only be noticeable in a few places.

- A few battle formations had lonely monsters.  Most of them now travel with friends.

- World of Ruin: Czar Dragon is now in game!  Czar Dragon hangs out among other high level, commonly found dragons on an island on the world map (not telling where ).  You have a 1/16 chance to find him amongst his other dragon friends.  Be careful, he's currently the hardest enemy in this version of the game.

spoiler: CHARACTER CHANGES

- VICKS' name has been changed to BIGGS.

- Characters evolution has changed significantly:

- HP gains are lower at low levels and increases at higher levels.  In vanilla health gains peaked around level 70 making levels after that less impactful.  This will emphasize the importance of leveling to 99.

- MP gains are lower at low levels and increases at higher levels.  Similar change as HP.

- Exp required to level from 1 to 99 has lowered by 25%.  You will not notice much difference early on.

- The levels at which Sabin and Cyan learn their Blitz and Sword Techs are increased by approximately 25%.

spoiler: SPELLS

- All spells have had their power reduced by about 20%.  This includes monster's spells, but excludes spells which are based on a % of the target's health.

- SwdTech: Dispatch's power reduced significantly.

- SwdTech: Quadra Slam and Quadra Slice power lowered moderately.

- Most Blitz abilities have had their battle power significantly reduced and/or removed their ability to ignore target's defense.

- Takedown and Wild Fang (Interceptor's counters) does not ignore target's defense and battle power reduced slightly.

- Lagomorph now casts regen on the party.

- Espers no longer give level up bonuses.

- Raiden now teaches Haste 2 at x5 rate, Slow 2 at x5 rate, and Meteor at x2 rate and no longer teaches Quick.

spoiler: DIALOG

- VICKS' dialog changed to BIGGS' dialog.

[Odal]

Still working on the WoR.  Here's a preview for Phunbaba.  Things may still change though.

-Video deleted-

[philsov]

Genji Glove Fix - In vanilla Genji glove was supposed to cut the damage of each swing in half.  It only did that when there was one weapon equipped (which didn't make sense).  This has been fixed to properly do this.

So... the only benefit genji gloves provides regarding attack is stat boost from another weapon instead of a shield?  I think I'll just stick to gauntlets then O.o

[Odal]

Ooo, my bad, that's a typo.  It's a 1/4 damage reduction, not 1/2.  That makes quite a difference.

I'm still not sure if which is better though.

From http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197336-final-fantasy-anthology/faqs/13573

spoiler

For physical attacks made by characters :

    Step 1a. Vigor2 = Vigor * 2
             If Vigor >= 128 then Vigor2 = 255 instead

    Step 1b. Attack = Battle Power + Vigor2

    Step 1c. If equipped with Gauntlet, Attack = Attack + Battle Power * 3 / 4

    Step 1d. Damage = Battle Power + ((Level * Level * Attack) / 256) * 3 / 2

    Step 1e. If character is equipped with an Offering:

    Damage = Damage / 2

    Step 1f. If the attack is a standard fight attack and the character is
    equipped with a Genji Glove, but only one or zero weapons:

    Damage = ceil(Damage * 3 / 4)

The final part about Genji Glove is what the calculation is in vanilla.  So with the bug fix it may be more like:

Step 1f. If the attack is a standard fight attack and the character is
    equipped with a Genji Glove, and two weapons:

    Damage = (Damage * 3 / 4) + (Damage * 3 / 4) (Not sure what "ceil" means in the original calculation)

[Odal]

New version out.  Though the list looks shorter, I assure you this took a while to go through the AI of each monster in the world of ruin and make them more aggressive as well as buffing them up stat-wise.  I am currently in the process of trying to balance it all out, so I would not consider this an official release of the patch.  It is very likely that there are monsters which are obscenely powerful while others are not powerful enough.

Aside from monsters, the biggest things to note are that there are very few items which absorb elements anymore, including the elemental shields.  Encounter rates are much higher in the World of Ruin (with increased experience gained to compensate), and even moreso in Kefka's tower.

Also, endgame spells are limited as follows:
Ultima - Terra
Meteor - Celes
Merton - Relm
X-Zone - Terra, Celes, Relm.

spoiler: V0.2 Changes

Monsters:

- The AI of all monsters in the World of Ruin has improved.  Be careful!

- Increased the health of all regular monsters in the world of ruin by about 50%.

- Increased the level of all monsters in the world of ruin by 10% (on top of the 25% increase from v0.1)

- Increased experienced gained by all monsters in the world of ruin by approximately 50%.

Battle Formations:

- Increased the encounter rate at all places in the world of ruin to "More Encounter"

- Increased the encounter rate of all formations in Kefka's tower to "Even More Encounter"

Magic:

- Ultima's power is lowered slightly and is now unique to Terra learned at level 99.
   - Ragnarok now teaches Pearl, Quartr, W Wind at x2 rate.
   - Paladin Shield now teaches Life 2 at x20 rate.

- Meteor is now unique to Celes learned at level 98.
   - Odin now teaches Doom, Break, and Quartr at x6 rate.
   - Raiden now teaches Haste 2 and Slow 2 at x5 rate and Flare at x10 rate.

- Merton is now unique to Relm and can be learned from the Rainbow Brsh at x10 rate.
   - Terra no longer learns Merton at level 86.
   - Crusader now teaches Fire 3 at x10 rate and Flare at x5 rate.

- X-Zone can only be learned by Terra, Celes, and Relm.
   - Terra learns X-Zone at 86.
   - Celes learns X-Zone at 81.
   - Terra and Celes can learn X-Zone from Minerva at x10 rate.
   - Relm can learn X-Zone from Czarina Gown and Magical Brsh at x10 rate.
      
- Big Guard now only targets one party member.

Items:

- Moogle Charm no longer ignores encounters and instead Raises Preemptive attack rate and prevents Back and Pincer attacks.

- Marvel Shoes now only give Haste and Regen and no longer give Shell and Safe.

- Memento Ring no longer protects its wearer from instant death attacks.
   Instead it randomly evades physical attacks and gives its wearer 10 defense.

- Beads no longer randomly evade physical attacks and now gives 10% physical evade.
   (Previously it gave a chance to randomly evade attacks on top of 20% evade which was too strong)

- Zephr Cape no longer gives physical evade.

- Mog can no longer equip the Snow Muffler.

- Kaiser (Claw) now randomly cast Pearl.

- Fire, Ice, and Thunder rods can no longer be used (and broken) as an item to cast their respective rank 2 spells.

- Tempest (Katana) can no longer be equipped by someone with the Merit Award.

- Magical Brsh can no longer be equipped by someone with the Merit Award.

- Rainbow Brsh can no longer be equipped by someone with the Merit Award.

- Flame, Ice, and Thunder shields now only lower damage taken from their respective elements by 50% instead of absorbing the
   element.

- Red Jacket now only lowers damage taken from fire by 50% instead of nulling the effect.

Characters:

- Shadow's base physical evade lowered to 18% down from 28%.

[Eternal]

Just to note, upping the encounter rate will only lead to more EXP being gained, which means more levels, which means less challenge in the long-run.

[Odal]

Of course.  But I'm trying to make the game a challenge even at 99.  I'm not saying you wont feel the need to grind, but if the player does need to grind, at least it'll be pretty quick.

[Kaijyuu]

Unless the battles are short, you really should significantly *lower* the encounter rate. This is one of those old games where you can get in a tedious battle every 3 steps. It can really get obnoxious.

[Odal]

Actually the mechanics are as such that it'd be very unlikely to get a battle in 3 steps ever.  It's possible but the chance is very small.  And then when you consider that you have a relic to cut the encounter rate in half if you hate it that bad, there's really not much reason for me to lower the encounter rate.  Either you get rare encounter rates and retardedly difficult/long battles, or battles which I'm trying to balance out to be a few minutes at the longest but more frequently.

From the gamefaqs link I posted earlier in the thread:

The game keeps a counter that increases each time you take a step. Walking on
the overworld map adds 192 to the counter for each step taken; walking in
caves, towns, etc. where monsters can be encountered adds 112 to the counter
for each step. Each step, a random number is picked from 0 to 255; if this
number is less than (counter / 256 ) then a fight occurs. When a random
encounter occurs, the counter is reset to 0.

Unfortunately I don't know the numbers for the increased encounter rates, since this guide was about vanilla and pretty much everything in vanilla was normal encounter rate.

[Odal]

I haven't given up on this project!  There have been lots of changes since the last update.  Currently looking for people to volunteer to test it out before an official release.  PM me.   You know you wanna

<3<3<3

[Alaris]

Just to note, upping the encounter rate will only lead to more EXP being gained, which means more levels, which means less challenge in the long-run.

AHHHHGGGG... DO NOT UP ENCOUNTER RATE!

STANDARD ENCOUNTER RATE IS ALREADY SO HIGH....

Brrr....

Sorry about that... nightmares of playing in ET's HT patch... *Shudders* Encounter Rate hurts...

[Odal]

In the few play-throughs I've done since then, the increased encounter rate is really only noticable in Kefka's tower.  I dun care what you all say, that place should be tough... it's the final area!

Alaris, I was the one who commented on your vid saying you should grind up exp more since you ran from battles so much.  I don't know how you can like FF games when random encounters seem to bother you so much

Guess I could double the exp gain from random battles, change the encounter rate to the lowest (just above none), and then people can breeze through the game like nuhbuddy beness.  Seems kind of bland when there's already so many ways to avoid battles if you absolutely have to... chocobos, smoke bombs, warp stones.  Also the charm bangle to cut encounter rate in half, if you do the emperor's banquet right.

[Alaris]

Well, I do run from random battles a lot in FF6 HT (ET Version), but that's HONESTLY because I don't like to show all those random battles onscreen.  I don't honestly think the viewers would enjoy it. 

Put simply, however.. FF6 has a very high encounter rate to start with.  I generally can't go more than 3-6 steps without a fight.  And it drives me insane.  In most other FF games I've played, the encounter rate is lower, and I'm not getting into a fight so often.

But, if you say it will be better off, then by all means, do it.  I haven't seen the current Encounter Rate of your version of Hardtype.

[Odal]

Well, in my hardtype, I'm trying to balance it so grinding is not needed until maybe late game where it's almost impossible to avoid at least SOME grinding due levels being a bit staggered when you get your characters.  And even with that, I'm trying to make it as painless as possible with a way to get exp. eggs.

I guess you could do a lot of running and avoiding battles and then do grinding in small doses along the way to keep your levels up if you wanted.  That's more frustrating imo though.

As for showing random battles on-screen, well people can fastforward, or you could edit them out, or you can pause recording (depending on your software) while battles are going on, but that's a bit more clunky. 

[Odal]

Yay for updates!  See updates in original post.

[Odal]

New update.  Probably easiest to keep up with it here:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/554041-final-fantasy-iii/67832528

[Odal]

So apparently this Romhacking.net site has been around since forever and I never heard of it until last week.  Oh well, got my patch uploaded there rather than random file sharing websites.

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2402/

[theultrawolf]

Have you ever thought about editing FFVI Advance? There hasn't been to my knowledge any good ROM hacks of that game and I know tools exist for it that are similar to the tools used for FF3 editing. I made a FF3 patch myself a while back and someone asked me the same question.

[Angel]

The problem with VI Advance is that even if you fix the audio (restore to SNES quality), there's still a ton of other things Square broke in porting it to GBA - VI is the most broken SNES Final Fantasy, and they broke it even more. For this and other reasons, I don't really think it's a better base than the SNES game, to be honest.

Now, if you really do want to work on Advance anyway, I suggest using every bugfix patch for it on RHDN and working from there.

[theultrawolf]

Yeah, I figured that might be the case. Square seems to enjoy releasing sub-par ports, with the exception of Tactics Ogre from what I've seen. And I did notice while playing FFVI-A that the music was off a bit, but you would think with more room for editing names/descriptions that it would have a lot more going for it in the modding department.
And eh, I'm not TOO interested in making a patch for Advance myself, mainly because as I said, I couldn't find a lot of tools for it, but it would be awesome to get some good patches rolling out for it.