Ideas for a PSII Hack

I'll take all the advice into consideration! There are some good ones here; nice list, Shinuzzo!

Like Thoul, I like that PS has some unique names, but Hugh and Kain's are simply ridiculous! It doesn't help that the only time I've ever seen what those Techs do is in that rpgdl topic ex: Confusion = Monster misses 50% of time with main attack.

Well, I didn't get much accomplished yesterday because an idea struck me for my next project, and I spent all night ripping a couple thousand sprites to use in it.

I'll work on the PSII hack some more tonight: I plan on getting the all the changes to the character Techniques straightened out and any editing of the power and TP usage, and finish tweaking the equipment and the shop database.

Next will be the character level-up data, then the monsters, and finally text changes. I still haven't implemented anything yet because there are so many changes that I have to get them all down on paper to keep them straight!

The Techs are looking good, I'm adding at least 3 Techs to each character, with Nei getting the biggest leap up to 10 new ones. I think this will open up some great new strategies for each character. When I get a chance, I'm going to experiment some with the Rever Tech and Fanbi to see if I'm able to up the power of each.

Man, the Attack and Defense formula are slowing me down in regard to making a firm decision on the equipment values! That formula is a mess! I've narrowed it down a great deal though, and I've got quite over 75% of the values finalized. I also created a guide for how the characters should level-up, which is also a problem due to the randomness involved. Many of the characters' stats won't change in variance, but the biggest change by far is that I'm giving nearly every character more TP per level up. However, I've still got to actually go level-by-level using my guide as a key to actually change each level template... that will take a while!

I've got to run some tests on the new types of equipment I created to make sure that they'll work; ex: I've added some attack values to some armor like the Knifeboots in the original, but I'm not sure if that will try and make that armor attack and freeze the game. I found a couple of unused pieces of equipment, and the game did a lot of freezing when I tried to make them weapons; I hope this doesn't carry over to my new equipment!

Oh, horrors, I've had to redo part of the equipment database. I had created a new series of armor, helmets, and shield/emels that increased a character's offensive abilities, but I started to wonder about how the Knifeboots affected the Attack stat, and it turns out, that the boost it gives doesn't factor into anything! I did several tests, and had my suspicions confirmed in those, and also from Twikltri at Rpgdl. So.... I've got 11 pieces of equipment that I've had to come up with new ideas for, but the good news is that I think I have some excellent replacements. There's even two Easter Egg equips that I'll hide in the game!

Needless to say, that Attack-Equipment business slowed me down. I still need to redo the Shop Inventories again because of this setback. Interestingly enough, I must be getting very good at doing these remakes because I'm going to be done much more quickly than my initial one month estimate . If it takes two more weeks, I'll be shocked. I'll keep you all updated on my progress.

Ouch! Sorry to hear about all those troubles with the equipment. It's a shame that equipment can't have attack and defense like in PSIV. Even with that set back, it sounds like things are coming along very quickly. We're all looking forward to see what you create!

Yeah, it's getting there! I didn't work on it yesterday, but I plan on finishing up some of the final preparatory spreadsheet work tonight. I had a laugh to myself when I saw a topic about reviving Nei at gamefaqs, my exact thought was: "just you wait; you'll get her back in a couple of weeks! "

I had some fun deciphering the monster sprite database last night; I suggest you all scroll down the bottom of my file dump page for some bizarre fun: http://www.geocities.com/komradevladmir/

Seeming as there were more than 40 byte pairings of sprite info, that's all I accomplished on the hack last night!

Also, I can change every monster around, so should I: 1. Change the color of some monsters 2. Change the color of all monsters 3. Change monster body types and colors?

Obviously #3 is a large depature from the overall enemy set, but would have a completely new experience in battle. I can also change the sounds and abilities the monsters have too.

I'm open to any of the options, though I'm leaning to #3, even though it's by far the most work.

I think #3 would be the most interesting and add more to the experience of playing the hack, but if it's too much work I would just go with 1.

We'll see how it goes, the monsters will take the longest to implement as anything, since it looks like it'll take two more days just for me to record the data. It might add a week or so to the first release to create all new monsters. What do the purists say? Do you just want new colored monsters or new bodies too? I could do both, but then I'm probably going to have to make 4 versions of the hack, which would be nasty to update if there's a bug.

I'm near making a final decision on the EXP and Meseta boosts; officially on double. I compared the XP and Meseta of the enemies in PSIV, and the numbers are surprisingly similar! But that doesn't take into account how much longer each battle takes in PSII because the enemies are so much harder. I'm still undecided on the Meseta though, because the monsters give so little in this game. It all depends upon the costs I put on all the equipment, so that it will be affordable at a decent ratio to character level-ups.

BTW, does anybody know who Trogdor is? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Trogdor.png

Doesn't PSII King Lava have a arm coming out his back too?
http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/gene ... nglava.jpg

I think so. Such is the fun of hacking the monster database!

The remaining steps in the hack are:
1. Finalize integrating the "Knife Boots" equipment changes, (all the others are done.)
2. Finalize the shop database, including the costs for everything, (this is done for all but the "Knife Boots" equips.)
3. Modify both the character level-up stats to my chosen templates and the experience curves.
4. Edit the Monster stats to constitute a consistent, but not insane challenge, including EXP and Meseta values.
5. Do some pen and paper calculations to make sure the value changes of both equips and monsters aren't out of proportion.
6. Edit the Monster sprites to modify or create new monsters.
7. The many text changes, from lower-case character names, modified Tech names, dialogue fixes, and some special fun with the Nei text.
8. Type all these into the hex editor, and make the patch!

As for the character level-up EXP, I was thinking about using PSIV EXP curves for characters in close relation to certain types: Rolf to Chaz, Nei to Rika, Amy to Raja, etc. In all but a couple of cases this lowers the overall EXP needed to level up. The exceptions are Raja and Alys/Kyra. The best idea I can come up with for the exceptions are to lop of the EXP these characters in PSIV gain before they join you, (doesn't Raja and Kyra already have about 2 million EXP when they join?) This way, the EXP for each PSII character to gain a level would be their counterpart in PSIV's every-other-level (since that goes to level 99, and this goes to 50.) That'd save a lot of headaches in me trying to create balanced EXP. What do you all think of that idea?

The Firefall comes in the niiiiiiiiiiight!!!

Ok, a couple of things to update: First, I'm not importing the complete EXP table from PSIV since PSIV's levels are balanced throughout, while PSII is massively backloaded! The range varies between PSIV's first 50 levels being 20x to 3x the EXP of PSII's first 25 levels. Instead, I tried reducing the curve on the last 25 levels of PSII, and that works much better, as the gains required are not nearly as steep.

Also, when factoring in the PSIV EXP table to equivalent PSII, I think I will accept raising the necessary EXP on the few characters that their counterparts take more EXP: Rudo, Amy, and Anna. The change really isn't that severe, and it helps separate the characters to give them weaknesses or strengths based off of their varied level-ups. The change isn't that noticeable anyway, since I'm doubling monster EXP.

I can't create a revive Tech like Regen, so Amy's advantage will be that she's the only character with Nasar.

The equipment and shop database are finalized, so #1 and #2 are done on the list. Hopefully I'll get #3 finished tonight.