Shining Force: Shining Force CL

This hack cuts down on downtime (moving from enemy to enemy across heavy terrain) and increases time actually interacting with enemy units. Character and enemy stats have been rebalanced entirely and the weapon progression has been turned more into sidegrades rather than direct upgrades one after the other. Most outdoor maps had their layouts modified to get rid of stretches of nothing but forests and hills, and some indoor maps were edited as well. Essentially, there should be enough changes for it to be like a new game, just with the same look and story.

Shining Force CL v2.1.1

An update is here!

v2.0 Changes

Ludicrous Speed has been added!
Ludicrous Speed is a mode that greatly speeds up the cursor, turn canceling, and enemy turns. This feature is active when the text display speed is set to 4.

Turn Order Viewer has been added!
The remaining order of the current turn can be viewed via the in-battle Map menu and pressing A.

Mass Revival has been added!
The priest can now revive everyone all at once. If refused, he also offers to check through everyone individually per usual.

Villain Dialogue Retranslation!
Dialogue involving major villains has partially been rewritten based on the original Japanese script. There's an extra patch available to undo these changes (apply it after using the main patch).

Currently done:
Alterone Mishaela
Rindo Mishaela (battle)
Rindo Mishaela (town)
Shade Abbey Darksol (town)
Shade Abbey Darksol (battle)
Pao Elliott (town)
Pao Elliott (battle)

Non-combat EXP has been reworked!
Healing EXP now has a level difference modifier, so healers who have fallen behind can catch up faster. Detox is also similarly affected and Status spells now grant EXP as well. Healing EXP also no longer stacks up when there are multiple targets, which allows relaxing Aura and Will's high MP costs that were in place as a countermeasure to EXP going out of control.

Battle rebalancing and restructuring!
A few early game battles have been touched up, mainly with enemy mages being given better choices of spells and a slight boost in MP.

Battle 3 (to Alterone):
Dark Mage's MP increased by 2

Battle 4 (Alterone Town):
southern Dark Mage's spell changed from Freeze 1 to Blaze 2
northern Dark Mage's spell changed from Freeze 1 to Blast 1
Dark Priest made less likely to stupidly wander off

Battle 5 (To Manarina):
Rune Knight unlearns Blaze 2
outer Zombies made to coordinate with friends a bit better

Battle 6 (Cave of Darkness):
Dark Priest's spell changed from Mend 1 to Mend 2
bridge-opposite Sniper displaced over to first island
Giant Bat displaced to below first island
Skeleton AI changed to reposition itself
Zombie positions rearranged
island Zombie respawn number increased from 2 to 3 to compensate

Battle 7 (Circus):
Evil Puppet MP increased by 2

Battle 9 (Quarry):
switched 2 enemies around so that the cutscene makes more directional sense
Master Mage's spell upgraded from Blast 2 to Blast 3
Master Mage's MP increased by 3
reduced the number of times some Giant Bats respawn by 1
fixed 2 rock tiles in the corner not being properly flagged as heavy terrain
fixed a minor graphical issue below one of the new staircases
widened the final staircase to a width of 2

Battle 10 (outside Bustoke):
fixed a hill tile in the dead end not being properly flagged as hill
fixed some mountain tiles in the corner not being flagged as mountain
(these are actually in the vanilla game as well)

Battle 11 (Bridge):
Dark Elf unlearns Heal 1

Other rebalancing!
Some characters, spells, and items received minor tweaks.
Mae: redistributed durability (+1 base&growth DEF, -3 base&growth HP)
Tao: slightly reduced durability in the early game (-1 base DEF, +1 growth DEF)
Diane: slightly reduced durability (+1 base DEF, -5 base HP)
Hans: slightly reduced durability in the early game (-1 base DEF, +1 growth DEF)
Lyle: redistributed durability (-2 growth DEF, +4 growth HP)
switched around the availability of Spear and Power Lance (Spear to Alterone)
EXP Cap is increased from 96 to 100
HEAL and MEND level 1 costs returned from 1 to 2
Lowe Chip Torasu: +2 base MP, Gong: +1 base MP
added some Medical Pouches in starting inventory to compensate
AURA and WILL MP costs reduced from 7/9/10/11 to 5/7/9/11

Other minor fixes or QoL changes!
Power Lance graphic properly changed from a spear to a lance
bridge added in Alterone to facilitate entry into town
number of chests in Alterone consolidated from an absurd 23 down to 15 (gold chests merged, empty chests removed)
shoes added to Anri's extra sprite
filled up Vankar's inventory with medical herbs as a countermeasure to the item-passing feature bug

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About

After playing a few other SF1 hacks, I tried making my own (again). It's not hardcore difficult, but I aimed to make it not boringly easy, without requiring grinding.

The intention behind this hack was to cut down on downtime (moving from enemy to enemy across heavy terrain) and increase time actually interacting with enemy units. Character and enemy stats have been rebalanced entirely and the weapon progression has been turned more into sidegrades rather than direct upgrades one after the other. Most outdoor maps had their layouts modified to get rid of stretches of nothing but forests and hills, and some indoor maps were edited as well. Essentially, there should be enough changes for it to be a new game, just with the same story and graphics (for the most part).

Below are lists of most changes, split up into categories:

General Changes:
Characters and enemies have different stats (enemies are generally more durable than vanilla)
Most items have been thrown out and replaced
Gold acquisition and shop prices are changed up
Spells have different ranges and effects (some spells are new)
Chests have different contents (some chests are new)
"Hidden" items during battles have been marked with a chest tile
Battles have different enemy formations
Most battles have different map layouts
Jogurt isn't completely useless

Technical Changes:
Experience gains slow down slower for high-leveled characters and are much higher for low-leveled characters
Experience cap per action has been increased from 48 to 96
Healing experience has been increased from 10 to 16
Certain characters have new classes
YGRT and MGCR have been changed to gain experience as if they were promoted classes
Stat penalty on promotion has been removed
Promotion requirement has been changed from 10 to 18 (but 20 is recommended)
Damage bonus for hitting a weakness has been increased from 25% to 50%
(Incidentally, flying enemies have been made weak to arrows and high-defense enemies to magic)
Damage variance has been removed
The high-critical attribute on weapons has been increased from 13% to 60%
Poison damage has been changed from an absolute 2 to 1/8 of max HP
Land Effect has been reduced from 30% to 25%
Item crack chance has been increased from 25% to 100% (but most usable weapons have been changed to not have a chance of cracking)
Evasion rates have been halved
Chances of enemy double attacks have been greatly reduced, except in specific cases
Some items affect both ATK and DEF

Misc Changes:
Reversed land effect bug is fixed
Items are automatically passed on to the next character if hands are full
EXP carries over on a level up
Some items can be equipped in addition to a weapon and a ring
Enemy level is visible on their status screen
Crit chance is displayed on the status screen
Costume sprites are different (and some have been added for Diane)
Enemies will actually go for characters other than Max and Domingo
Gargoyle's attack animation has been shortened
Sky Warrior's attack animation has been shortened (these two are originally abnormally long)
Monk's attack animation has been shortened (to make it look less clumsy)
Animations for some classes' new weapon types have been added

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Changelog

v2.1.1(20190318)
fixed certain characters having incorrect max level settings

v2.1.0(20190318)
fixed non-promotable characters softlocking the game (requires a new game start)

v2.0.1(20190204)
decreased AURA and WILL's MP costs from 7/9/10/11 to 5/7/9/11
removed extraneous spell on non-caster enemy in battle 11

v2.0.0(20190203)
added Ludicrous Speed
added Turn Order View
partially rewrote villain dialogue
increased EXP cap from 96 to 100
reworked healing&detox EXP (level modifier)
reworked status effect EXP (grants EXP similar to attacking instead of 1 EXP)
edited battles 3 to 7, 9, and 10 and enemies therein
redistributed Mae, Tao, Diane, Hans, and Lyle's HP and DEF status
increased Lowe, Khris, Gong, and Torasu's base MP
increased HEAL and MEND's Lv1 cost from 1 to 2
added Medical Pouches in starting inventory of starting party
moved Spear's availability to Alterone
moved Power Lance's availability to Rindo
changed Power Lance's battle graphic from a spear to a lance
fused chests contents and removed empty chests in Alterone
added Medical Herbs to Vankar's starting inventory
added shoes to Anri's extra sprite

v20180617
altered battle 18's enemy formation
altered battle 19's enemy formation
slightly increased Kane's durability
changed Kane's subweapon
altered battle 21's enemy formation
changed Mishaela's spell
altered battle 28's enemy AI
fixed a visual map error in battle 28 (red block in midair)
removed Colossus's minor magic resistance
altered battle 30's enemy AI
enabled kituihuku for Khris
fixed a minor typo in Khris's intended MP (+0.1MP/lv after promotion)
very slightly shifted some of Alef's, Torasu's, and Adam's level up gains towards later levels
added a minor DEF reduction to Heavy arrows (-1 DEF)

v20180613b
removed battle 29's boss's unintended minor evasion boost

v20180613
fixed weaponless enemies in battles 28 and 29

v20180529
altered battle 20's formation
altered battle 21's formation and stats
fixed evil puppet's name
raised detox's exp gain from 10 to 16 (the same as healing)
changed the power blade's icon
changed the contents of a chest in chapter 4
enabled checking for more than one outfit item per character
added extra outfit combinations: Anri, Tao, and Diane can now make use of the outfit item they couldn't before

v20180516
replaced an item's placeholder icon

v20180514b
fixed battle 5 terrain

v20180514
fixed some missing weapon sprites
fixed healing item use range

v20180513
minor fix to battle 1's AI
terrain data fix for battles 2 and 3 (roads were hard to traverse)

v20180511
initial release

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Info&Data

Character Descriptions:
Swordsman:
Max - above-average rounded fighter with a very slightly slow start

Knights:
Mae - defense-oriented sword-wielder
Ken - rounded with a penchant for offense
Pelle - moves really far
Vankar - sturdy with a high critical hit rate
Earnest: all-in-on-offense axe-wielder

Warriors:
Luke - offense-oriented
Gort - slightly less offense-oriented

Archers&Lyle:
Hans - regular archer
Diane - melee archer
Lyle - mounted archer (moves kinda far)

Mages&Co.
Tao - aoe mage with slight durability
Anri - frail long-range mage
Alef - melee mage
Arthur - mounted mage with a variety of spells and decent physical prowess
Domingo - flying mid-range mage

Healers&Gong
Lowe - low-range healer with access to AoE detox
Khris - high-range healer with some AoE healing
Gong - fighter-healer hybrid with high movement
Torasu - aoe healer

Birds&Kokichi
Balbaroy - slight penchant for offense
Amon - slight penchant for defense
Kokichi - higher movement and access to spears

Weaponless
Zylo - glass cannon
Bleu - flying tank
Adam - cooldown-based fighter
Jogurt - gimmick character, mixed bag

Misc
Guntz - physical tank
Musashi - slow powerhouse
Hanzou - fighter&aoe-mage hybrid

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Items:
name ATT effect
Medical Pouch - heals 20 HP, 2 uses, self-only
Healing Bag - heals 40 HP, 2 uses, self-only
Cure Bottle - heals 60 HP, 2 uses, self-only
Remedy - removes status effect, 1 use, usable on ally

Short Sword 8
Power Sword 12 -5 DEF
Guard Sword 3 +5 DEF
Doom Sword 3 60% critical
Frost Sword 0 2-range, 10 magic damage

Hand Axe 8
Power Axe 12 -5 DEF
Guard Axe 3 +5 DEF
Throwing Axe 4 2-range

Bronze Lance 8
Power Lance 12 -5 DEF
Guard Lance 3 +5 DEF
Spear 6 2-range
Doom Lance 3 60% critical

Wooden Arrow 8 3-range
Heavy Arrow 12 1-range, -1 DEF
Light Arrow 4 5-range
Doom Arrow 3 60% critical

Wooden Staff 6
Power Staff 12 -5 DEF
Muddle Staff 8 casts 2-range muddle
Dispel 8 casts 2-range dispel
Sleep Staff 10 casts 2-range sleep (these effects replace the attack command
Slow Staff 10 casts 2-range slow (which was in turn moved to the use effect)

Flame Tome - usable once per battle to cast an 8-range aoe spell
Ice Tome - usable once per battle to cast a 10-range single-target spell

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Spells:
name power range aoe cost
Blaze 10/10/13/16 2/2/2/2 0/1/1/1 1/4/6/8
Blast 8/10/13 2/2/2 2/2/2 5/7/10
Freeze 10/13/17/22 2/3/3/3 0/0/0/0 1/4/6/8
Frost 10/13/17 3/3/3 1/1/1 5/7/10
Spark 12/15/19/24 1/1/1/1 0/0/0/0 1/3/4/5
Storm 12/15/19 1/1/1 1/1/1 4/6/8
Prison 10/13/16/19 1/1/1/1 X 3/5/7/9
Heal 18/25/35/45 1/2/2/2 - 2/3/5/6
Mend 14/20/28/36 2/3/3/3 - 2/3/5/6
Aura 15/20/25/30 0/1/1/1 1 5/7/9/11
Will 10/13/16/20 1/2/2/2 2 5/7/9/11

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Chest Content Changes:
chapter 1
guardiana, after invasion
empty to sugoi mizugi

guardiana castle
power potion to medical herb
defense potion to medical herb

alterone town
power potion to power sword
healing seed to medical herb
healing seed to medical herb

alterone town, basement
power sword to antidote
bronze lance to muddle staff
healing seed to medical herb
healing seed to medical herb

alterone castle
power sword to guard axe
bread of life to 50 gold
defense potion to medical herb
wooden staff to 50 gold
wooden arrow to 50 gold
empty to 50 gold

alterone castle revisit
empty to 50 gold

chapter 2
manarina
null to kitui huku

cavern darkness
power staff to dispel staff
circus
defense potion to shield ring
elven arrow to frost sword

chapter 3
quarry
sugoi mizugi to flame tome

pao bridge
kitui huku to spear

chapter 4
pao 1
bread of life to healing seed
empty to healing seed
legs of haste to healing seed
long sword to guard sword

pao 2
elven arrow to power axe
steel sword to doom sword
empty to kitui huku

fortress
kenji to bolt lance

chapter 5
ship 1
moon stone to ice tome
null to power ring

waral
bread of life to sugoi mizugi
defense potion to speed ring

ship 2
null to shield ring

chapter 6
rudo
guardian staff to sleep staff

dragonia
halberd to heat axe
broad sword to null
null to kitui huku
youji to healing seed

demon castle
power potion to bolt tome

chapter 7
tower ancient
valkyrie to longinus
turbo pepper to mobility ring

chapter 8
rune castle
atlas axe to flame tome
valkyrie to ice tome

ancient castle
kaku-chan to bolt tome

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Map Changes:
Guardiana
modified some house damage

Manarina
added a chest

Rudo
removed barrels blocking shortcut to Krin's room
unbarred door in Karin's room

Dragonia
moved a chest around


Battle 2&3
deleted forests and hills
expanded river
added roads and trees

Battle 5
deleted tall grass
added trees

Battle 6
added stalagmites

Battle 8
enlarged chapel
added tables

Battle 9
shortened upper platform
added ledges and stairs

Battle 10
deleted forests and hills
added trees

Battle 11
remade bridge

Battle 12
moved tall grass around

Battle 13
removed fortress
added new fortress

Battle 14
enlarged quay

Battle 15
moved bridges around
reshaped floating platforms

Battle 18&20
deleted forests and hills
added trees and hills

Battle 19
moved staircase around
added land effect

Battle 21
added bridges

Battle 22&25
deleted forests and hills
added trees
expanded mountain

Battle 23
reshaped tower

Battle 26&27
reshaped treasure room
made holes everywhere
shifted throne over

Battle 28
partly deleted bendy things

Battle 29&30
partly deleted bendy things

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Outfit Compatibility Chart

Character Mizugi Huku
Anri yes yes
Tao yes yes
Khris no yes
Gong no no
Diane yes yes

==========

Tools Used:
rubixcuber's SF1 Editor
XVI32 (hex editor)

Known Issues:
If too many characters' hands are full, the automatic item passing feature eventually passes items to characters that haven't yet joined or even to enemies (SF1 Editor bug)

Talking to one of the new sprites at headquarters causes the BGM to stop (fixes itself upon moving to another map)

Outside of battle, some maps that were changed retain their wall checks from vanilla and don't match up with the visual changes (Uranbatol, in particular)

==========

copypasted from author's thread at
https://forums.shiningforcecentral.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=43076

Region: USA
CRC32: E0594ABE
MD5: 4B4ACBE75FF7AAEB534AB78ED95910D1
SHA-1: 7CBB3ED31C982750D70A273B9561A9E1B2C04EEA
Checksum: E975