Destiny of an Emperor: DoaE: Ludmeister's Remix

This mod aims to improve the gameplay of Destiny of an Emperor. Battles are designed to be more decisive, tipping in favor of the more powerful/smarter army much faster. Tactician heavy armies are designed to be more viable (and more necessary) over a long march. Difficulty is increased slightly, though several castle battles are designed to be rather nasty.

If there happens to be anyone reading this that has played one of my v1.x mods... this version offers a significantly different experience than any of those. I have meticulously retooled various game variables, in an effort to pace the game perfectly.

Because including a full changelog here would make for a needlessly long entry, you can read the readme (link above), or view a comprehensive changelog with screenshots at .

I owe credits, appreciation, and kudos to many individuals for their work on Destiny of an Emperor, without whom the current iteration of Ludmeister's Remix would never have existed. See those credits at .

Destiny of an Emperor- Ludmeister's Remix v3.0, rev. 1
http://jeffludwig.com/doae/
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This patch kit will convert a stock version of Destiny of an Emperor to
Destiny of an Emperor-Ludmeister's Remix v3.0. Here's exactly what this
will accomplish:

This mod aims to improve the gameplay of Destiny of an Emperor. The result
is almost an entirely new game! Battles are designed to be more decisive,
tipping in favor of the more powerful/smarter army much faster. Tactician
heavy armies are designed to be more viable (and more necessary) over a long
march, though it is also helpful to have distinctly warrior-ish officers
too. Difficulty is increased slightly, though several castle battles are
designed to be rather nasty. The end of the game is designed to give players
a hefty challenge.

This mod offers a significantly different experience than any of the previous
versions of the Remix. I have meticulously retooled various game variables
again, and include numerous changes by others.

This verison of the mod would not have been possible if not for the
inspiration and expertise of many contributors over LordYuanShu forums.
MiDKnighT, especially, provided the hacking wizardry behind the 8 tactics
improvement, as well the coding of many new tactics, and the added number
of soldier progressions for officers that receive level ups. I'd like to
thank Sonic Penguin for allowing me to use his excellent officer portraits
to enhance the gaming experience, and for DragonAtma's pixel art in updating
the DoaE font. Thanks to LordYuanShu himself for providing the excellent
forum, and a huge shout-out to Niahak for continuing to make Destiny of an
Editor ever more awesome, without which the Remix would not have been
attempted. Thank you to Zhuge Liang also, for his encouragement and for being
a great motivator. It's fun to hang around with a group of modders such as
these folks, who know a good game when they see it ;-)


Notice, effective March 1st, 2012
******************************************************************************

For this release and all new releases, I am discontinuing the use of
IPS2EXE to create patches that can be applied without an IPS patching
program. These executable patches set off certain virus and malware
scanners.



Version 3.0, Rev. 1 Changelog
*********************************************************

* Fixed a critical stack overflow bug which caused battles to freeze (thanks
MiDKnighT).



Version 3.0 Changelog
*********************************************************

* Tactics have, again, been overhauled. MiDKnighT from Yuan Shu forums
has contributed some very powerful new gameplay strategies by coding
Duel, Life/Arise, as well as Berserk and Protect tactics. The Berserk
tactic can break through an enemy Vanish tactic!

* Sonic Penguin has allowed me the use of his graphical wizardry, and
Ludmeister's Remix features many of his officer portraits. Many officer's
sprites have also been changed to their DoaE2 equivalents.

* Experience is gained quicker in Shu, Wu, and especially in Wei,
over-against v2.0 of the Remix.

* The difficulty curve has been changed. The game is a bit easier to start
out, but gets progressively nastier in Shu. Wu is quite difficult, and
Wei may take some patience. You'll need those levels!

* Every allied officer has a Base Armor Class, which is based off of their
level. Higher Str officers tend to have better Base AC's. Armor is now
no substitute for talented officers, who are experienced in battle. Base
AC is capped at 100. The best Armor is AC 90, and the best Helmet is
AC 50.

* There are several pieces of equipment that allow an extra attack when
equipped. Those are: Longbow, Flame Bow, YouYuu Bow, Talon Sword,
Assassin Dagger, Master Robe, and Hermes Cap.

* Most every officer can learn at least one tactic. The less Int an
officer has, the more physically oriented his tactics are.

* Every officer brings their own set of tactics to battle, just like in
v2.0. But now, but the strategist has been made totally obsolete. Now
you don't have to keep one high-Int officer out of battle at all times
to use tactics.

* Officers may "Defend" and in so doing, can regain a small number Tactic
Points (credit: MiDKnighT).

* Directly offensive tactics and healing tactics are significantly more
effective as your army gains experience levels. Additionally, fire,
lightning and healing tactics are bolstered by a high Int stat. The
Skirmish, Archery, and Destroy tactics are bolstered by Str and Agi
(credit: MiDKnighT).

* Lightning tactics (which replace Water tactics), as well as Skirmish
and Archery, automatically succeed in hitting all opponents
(credit: MiDKnighT).

* Whenever someone in your army learns a tactic, the army gains a flat
8 TP bonus. There's no random variance.

* Upper-end tactics cost quite a bit more.

* The arsenal of DoaE has been expanded, and now there are 31 weapons,
9 armors, and 8 helmets!

* Added two new weapon shops that you can find across China: One in
Hu Lao Guan, and the other in Cheng Du!

* Added several places where you can change officers, and several places
where you can save your game. Also added one inn at Chen Liu fortress.

* While in an officer's Item screen, you can enter multiple commands before
you return to traveling. This is extremely helpful for reorganizing your
backpack, and equipping multiple items.

* Many textual edits have been introduced. While the storyline has not
changed, there are some new surprises in store for players of earlier
versions of the Remix!

* There is a small chance after every victorious battle that your army will
receive spoils from the enemy (above the normal experience and gold
reward).

* Items are sold back to stores at half the normal rate (new rate is 37.5%).

* The font used in-game has been meticulously recrafted. There are new
icons describing all weapons and tactics! Also, the game's palette has
been minorly tweaked (design credit: DragonAtma and myself)

* All officers have been rebalanced due to the widespread changes to the
arsenal and the tactic list.

* Roving forces have been powered up, especially the later you go in the
game.

* Bugfix: fixed the instant KILL of Guo Si if you attempt to cancel the
leader's orders in battle.



Version 2.0, Rev. 2 Changelog
*********************************************************

* The Haste tactic can increase the number of agility-based bonus strikes
executed by a general, and protect against being struck multiple times
by opposing generals.

* Fixed a typo or two.


Version 2.0, Rev. 1 Changelog
*********************************************************

* Fixed an issue with auto-equipped items in the beginning the game not
also giving attack and defensive values.



Version 2.0 Changelog
*********************************************************

* Officers can have 8 tactics in their repertoire!

* Tactics have been meticulously rebalanced (who learns them, when they are
learned, etc.). No tactic is learned at levels 7, 17, 19, 29, and 34, and
the final tactic is learned at level 36.

* It now requires 150 INT to learn tactics in Liu Bei's army, and all users of
tactics can be tactician.

* Every officer brings their own set of tactics to battle, and *not* the
strategist's! This will make the make-up of your fighting party more
important, and make your choice of tactician less important (as they only
provide the TP to power your officer's skills).

* If an officer has less than 150 INT, they will not be able to use tactics in
battle. No more uber-powerful Zhang Fei healing tactics...

* Agility is now every bit as primary a statistic as Strength and Intelligence.
It provides the possibility of granting bonus attacks against forces that
are slower than the attacker. If the difference is significant enough, the
attacker may make two or more extra attacks! As the game progresses, having
a low Agility will definitely be detrimental to your health...

* Many officers (about 50) level up, and almost all of them have their own
progression. There are 6 starting values for these progressions (80, 100,
125, 160, 200, and 250).

* Many officers have all new (well, sorta) portraits, taken from Capcom's
excellent sequel, Destiny of an Emperor 2.

* Numerous battle messages have been shortened or made more punchy, meaning
you won't have to mash the "A" button much as the round of battle progresses.
It also means that if you're wanting to direct a battle via savestate... you'll
generally to do it a round of battle at a time.

* Subtle changes were made to the experience curve, as well as the amount of
experience and gold gained per battle.

* Fixed a bug in Version 1.0 and 1.1 that leveled your army from 50 to 53 if you
saved the Ji Zhou priest's free level up until your army couldn't level up anymore.
Maximum level is now 51 again, as Capcom originally intended.

* Fixed a few textual anomalies that were present in Version 1.0 and 1.1.



Version 1.1 Changelog
*********************************************************

* Edited the tactic's learning order and priorities. This makes endgame
battles much more interesting as any tactician having 210+ Intelligence
features useful tactics that provide viable attack strategies (though
higher Intelligence generally yields more surefire strategies).



Version 1.0 Changelog
*********************************************************

* A general's status screen shows their AGI, and not T.P. If you want to
know if they can be a tactician, they will have Tactics listed (after
Level 1, of course).

* Soldier graphs in battle are improved (Full length of green bar depicts
about 64000 soldiers).

* The palette for Character sprites have been tweaked slightly. I'm not a
fan of pink.

* All tactics have been given an English name. I wouldn't call them
"translations" because I don't know Chinese... I merely described the
tactic in English. In addition, the names of several weapons and armors
have been edited.

* Item disappearing bug is fixed.

* Many more generals gain soldiers at army level up. Many Generals have
different stats.

* Liu Bei can recruit Yuan Shao during chapter 4 (where Zhou Cang was
recruited). Zhou Cang is recruited at Luo Yang, in place of Wang Gui.
Yuan Shang is the nemesis for Chapter 4. Doesn't make sense... I know.

* Can recruit Lu Meng after fighting Sun Quan, and Zhang He after defeating
Cao Pei at Ru Nan.

* Unbilletable generals Zhuge Liang, Lu Bu, Zhang Bao, and Guan Xing are now
billetable.

* Food is consumed a bit slower now (x/1600, min. 1)

* All Items (excepting elixirs) cost more.

* Attack damage is much more randomized. Critical hits are more devastating.

* Power of Weapons/Armor/Tactics are heavily modified. Water tactic #2 attacks
whole party.

* Gain 5-8 TP per level. TP cost for most tactics reduced. Regularly using
Tactics is a viable strategy now, and sometimes essential!

* Attack damage calculation is heavily modified. Specifically, the size of an
officer's army is much more important in determining casualties inflicted.
Before, a general's effective Strength was determined by calculating:

Strength * (digits(army size) ^ 2).

In other words, if a 250 STR general with 500 soldiers attacked, his effective
Strength would have been 2250 (250 * 9). Ludmeister's Remix calculates the
Strength multiplier differently, based on a stair-step approach, as shown below.


Army size (soldiers) Strength multiplier (x = army size)
1 to 255 (x / 32) + 1
256 to 2047 (x / 128) + 7
2048 to 8191 (x / 256) + 15
8192 to max (x / 1024) + 39

Hence, when outnumbered, using brute force will likely result in the good guys
getting routed. At times like that, Intellect and the correct tactics will be
very important to victory.



To convert your Destiny of an Emperor ROM:
*********************************************************

The following applies this and all future releases of the Ludmeister's Remix Destiny
of an Emperor mod.

0. First of all, you will need to obtain a clean NES ROM of Destiny of an Emperor.
You are on your own for this step, as it is illegal to provide ROMs of copyrighted
material. There are sites that do provide this ROM though, and you should be able
to obtain it.

1. When you get it, make a backup of it if you would want to play the stock version,
play another mod, or, in case I post an updated version of the mod here... I am not
going to make version 1.0 to "version whatever" patches for my mods, for instance.

2. Download the Ludmeister's Remix mod.

3. Use the IPS patching program of your choice to apply the .ips patch to the
correct ROM. As I use IPS XP (http://home.arcor.de/minako.aino/ipsXP/) to
create my patches, I recommend using this program to patch your ROM.

4. I hope you enjoy it!



Destiny of an Emperor (U) [!].nes - GOODNES 3.14
CRC32: C0F73D85
MD5: F2DD8CE3A76AA35832575A08A9CE9CB6
SHA-1: 1D0C4EB62E959AB172CCA34CAFDF88796FCF4C5B
SHA-256: C341BFB5779691BFBCCA25741245DECDAB23649BA4BFF8314750EC9EBC01937D