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+--- Thread: FFVI: Divergent Paths (/thread-3574.html)
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - Asmorano - 06-16-2021
Oh, I remembered the other “bug” I thought I had forgotten in a previous post. It’s not actually a bug, but a balance observation. Since you’ve changed Quake to only effect the enemy party, it’s had the unintended effect of making the Chuckenlip rage waaaaay too good. It’s clearly the best rage Gau has now, to the point that once I got it in the WoB I’ve never needed any other rage; even the meteor spell from the Behemoth rage pales in damage to Chickenlip. Since it’s such a common rage, this feels like a bit too much power too early in the game. I know Divergent Paths isn’t really a balance hack, but maybe you want to consider toning down that rage?
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - PowerPanda - 06-16-2021
(06-16-2021, 07:19 PM)Asmorano Wrote: Oh, I remembered the other “bug” I thought I had forgotten in a previous post. It’s not actually a bug, but a balance observation. Since you’ve changed Quake to only effect the enemy party, it’s had the unintended effect of making the Chuckenlip rage waaaaay too good. It’s clearly the best rage Gau has now, to the point that once I got it in the WoB I’ve never needed any other rage; even the meteor spell from the Behemoth rage pales in damage to Chickenlip. Since it’s such a common rage, this feels like a bit too much power too early in the game. I know Divergent Paths isn’t really a balance hack, but maybe you want to consider toning down that rage?
Sure. I'll probably change it to "Magnitude 8". Thanks for the observation! I'm setting a release date for Sunday the 20th, so if there are any more things people want to bring up, do so now. Unless there are major bugs found after release, I do not plan to release a v1.1.
Oh, I think I know what is going on with Purify in the submenu. It is indexing assuming a 7-character name for all of the magic spells, rather than using the pointer that the rest of the menus are using. Since Purify is somewhere between F0 and FA (don't remember which), it's taking that number multiplied by 7. It's fixable, but not something I have the appetite to take on right now. I'm feeling the need to be done and move on.
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - Asmorano - 06-17-2021
I just wanted to say I finished the hack this morning. Incredible. I loved every change you made. The Esper spells felt more natural and more balanced, the characters (Cyan, Gau, Celes) were more interesting, the story was more compelling, Leo was cool and well characterized (and didn’t dominate the hack or turn into a Mary Sue), and it still felt like FF6, just more so. This is an absolute masterwork- thanks for making it!
You keep mentioning that you want to be done with this hack so you can move on to other projects. Do you mind if I ask what sorts of projects you’re excited to be moving on to?
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - PowerPanda - 06-17-2021
I am a professional board game developer, and for the past month I've been (poorly) running double duty on this hack and a game I'm designing/developing under contract. I need to be focused on that. (The game is Space Base if anyone is wondering. I am on a handshake agreement to develop the next 2 mini-expansions and the next boxed expansion.)
I plan to let this be the last big romhack, at least for a while. Since I started working on Divergent Paths, I have gotten a promotion, a second job, and jumped from 2 kids to 4. The time just isn't there anymore. I've only been able to finish it in these past 5 months because my second job is contract-based, and contracts were on pause while the manufacturing and shipping caught up from Covid. My wife asked me at the beginning of that time if there was anything that felt like "unfinished business", and I answered, "My FF6 hack."
As far as romhacks that I might be doing, there are 2 that I think are doable:
1. I have a hack for A Link to the Past that re-arranges the dungeon items and a select handful of overworld tiles to make the game non-linear in 3 sections: (1) The Light World Dungeons can be done in any order, (2) The first 4 dungeons of the Dark World can be done in any order, and (3) Dark World Dungeons 5 & 6 can be done out of order, but require items from the first 4 dungeons.
2. I am considering a hack to Chrono Trigger that separates Water and Ice into separate elements, and re-arranges the tech list to make each character feel more unique.
There is one BIG romhack on the level of Divergent Paths (or maybe even more) that I may just release my documents and plans for, and then people can do with that what they will. It is for Chrono Cross, and it is a rewrite of the story for a cast of 8 well-developed characters. It rewrites the backstory to make the events of the game feel less random, and adds a level of cosmology that drives the game towards its conclusion. I'd be willing to come along as the script writer for that project, but I don't think I'd be willing to do it as a coder.
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - Gi Nattak - 06-17-2021
(06-17-2021, 02:48 PM)PowerPanda Wrote: My wife asked me at the beginning of that time if there was anything that felt like "unfinished business", and I answered, "My FF6 hack."
You absolute legend!
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - Sarah-ga - 06-17-2021
Chrono Cross with fewer playable characters sounds amazing. I dunno much about Playstation hacking though, other than asking SecondAdvent about BoF3 and seeing how hard-coded that game was.
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - Asmorano - 06-17-2021
I know Space Base! That’s very very cool; I’ve been thinking about that game since I first saw it played, so maybe I might pick it up. I’m glad you were able to devote some time to finishing this hack, as the care and quality you put into it really shows. I get how life gets busy (I’m a history professor and it turns out I need to start devoting a lot of time to book revisions) so it’s great to here that you were able to carve out time for your personal projects.
All those hacks sound awesome, but your Chrono Cross idea is basically a dream come true. I’ve actually looked into what it would take to do a Chrono Cross hack myself- my goal was to basically preset all the elements in each element grid, so each character has completely unique abilities. I’ve also been planning to do a minimum character run of the game for awhile where each character can only use elements that match their color. The biggest problem is that there are basically no tools out there for Chrono Cross hacking (there’s a script editor but that’s it), and no community for the game either. Since I’m not a coder, there’s no real way to develop those tools and I wasn’t able to move forward. But that’s a game I wish had more hacks, since it’s such a brilliant, yet completely flawed game.
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - MysticLord - 06-17-2021
(06-17-2021, 05:22 PM)Asmorano Wrote: All those hacks sound awesome, but your Chrono Cross idea is basically a dream come true. I’ve actually looked into what it would take to do a Chrono Cross hack myself- my goal was to basically preset all the elements in each element grid, so each character has completely unique abilities. I’ve also been planning to do a minimum character run of the game for awhile where each character can only use elements that match their color. The biggest problem is that there are basically no tools out there for Chrono Cross hacking (there’s a script editor but that’s it), and no community for the game either. Since I’m not a coder, there’s no real way to develop those tools and I wasn’t able to move forward. But that’s a game I wish had more hacks, since it’s such a brilliant, yet completely flawed game.
It's pretty easy to make a spreadsheet to edit plain ole data tables. I made a few for Ogre Battle - The March of the Black Queen, and a bunch for another game that was recently remastered that aren't released yet to avoid a C&D.
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1618/
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1612/
The scripts to rip data are slightly customized for the data, but it's piss easy for any coder to modify. If you are willing to put in the work of finding/documenting data and learning to do what I teach you, you can make good enough editors.
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - Sarah-ga - 06-17-2021
*eyes light up*
Ooooh, Python... I made a few Python utilities for my own Arcana mod, but they're just for ripping the data and not re-inserting it. I had command line arguments for the input and output file in the 2 I published to RHDN, but I lost the source code for them after a machine wipe. The rest are on my local machine so I just hard coded the file name (lol), but yours are way more optimized. Makes me want to help out too!
OMG I got the Marvel Shoes... very lucky double Cure 2 to counteract Fallen One and S. Cross.
And Jesus, finally beat a tonberry in Colo for the Magus Rod after like 10 tries as Leo.
RE: FFVI: Divergent Paths - PowerPanda - 06-17-2021
There are also quite a few people over on Chrono Compendium who have made great headway into Chrono Cross hacking. Some of them have even figured out how to do event editing, as evidenced by a proof-of-concept hack that had Guile turned into Magil, complete with changed cutscenes. To be clear though, I would provide the source documents for said hack, as well as the storyline changes, but I cannot take on another hacking project the scope of Divergent Paths.