Wizardry I-II-III: Story of Llylgamyn: Wizardry 1st Trilogy Rebalancing Mod

This mod aims to enhance the gameplay of all three games in Wizardry's first trilogy. They were already hard enough, and required quite a bit of dedication to get anywhere. On top of that, they seemed to have a couple of rules that seemed arbitrarily handicapping to the player. In creating this mod I hope I have smoothed out some of the rough edges of this game, in order to make it more accessible.

This new version makes level ups more interesting by making attributes gained more random (while removing the possibility of attributes going down). It also lessens the crippling effects of changing classes by applying a penalty of -3 to all attributes (instead of reducing all attributes to racial minimums).

The Rebalancing mod is not an Easy-Type mod. That said, care has been taken to ease the player into the difficulty a bit, especially in the case of Wizardry 1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Overload? Ha!) Several rather arbitrary rules that end up making life difficult for players have been removed... for example, party members 4-6 can now attack like the first three characters in the lineup and certain upper-level spells do not drain experience levels in order to cast them anymore. However, many weapons that used to grant extra attacks to players do not grant this boon anymore; it is relatively rare to have a character's number of strikes augmented this way. In this manner, a character doesn't become a demi-god simply because they found an Infinity -1 weapon... they still have to be worthy to be able to fight with it.

Major props to Gideon Zhi of http://agtp.romhack.net/. It was his pioneering hacking efforts in translating this previously Japanese-only ROM that made this project worthwhile for me to undertake. This download contains his http://www.romhacking.net/translations/496/, as it is a prerequisite for the Rebalancing Mod.

To peruse a more exhaustive changelog, go to . There's also information on the http://jeffludwig.com/wizardry1-2-3/characters.php, http://jeffludwig.com/wizardry1-2-3/itemlist.php, http://jeffludwig.com/wizardry1-2-3/magiclist.php, and http://jeffludwig.com/wizardry1-2-3/monsterlist.php.

Wizardry 1st Trilogy: Story of Llylgamyn
Ludmeister's Rebalancing Mod v1.0, Revision 6 (hopefully final)
http://jeffludwig.com/
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This patch kit will convert a stock version of Wizardry 1st Trilogy: Story of Llylgamyn
to Ludmeister's Rebalancing Mod v1.0. Here's exactly what this will accomplish:

This mod aims to enhance the gameplay of all three games in Wizardry's first trilogy.
They were already hard enough, and required quite a bit of dedication to get anywhere.
On top of that, they seemed to have a couple of rules that seemed arbitrarily
handicapping to the player. In creating this mod I hope I have smoothed out some of
the rough edges of this game, in order to make it more accessible.



Credits
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Major props to Gideon Zhi of Aeon Genesis Translations (http://agtp.romhack.net/).
It was his pioneering hacking efforts in translating this previously Japanese-only
ROM that made this project worthwhile for me to undertake.



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.



ZIP file contents
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You should have received these files within the Wizardry 1st Trilogy
Rebalancing Mod .zip file:

* "Aeon-Genesis-Wizardry-translation-patch-v1.0.ips": Aeon Genesis'
Japanese-to-English Translation patch, version 1.0. It was originally
downloaded from Aeon Genesis' site:
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=wizardry

* "Aeon-Genesis-translation-readme.txt": Readme for Aeon Genesis'
translation patch

* "Wizardry-Story-of-Llylgamyn-Rebalanced-v1.0.ips": Patch to convert an
Aeon Genesis English translated ROM to Ludmeister's Rebalancing Mod v1.0.

* "Ludmeister-Rebalancing-mod-readme.txt": This file (duh).



Version 1.0 Changelog
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The following changes are uniform for all three scenarios:

* Items are rebalanced for all three games:

o There are no useless cursed items (at least, none that aren't plot specific)
o I have included numerous Wizardry and Wizards and Warriors themed items in
the various Item lists.
o Almost all of the weapons that granted extra attacks have been toned down in
that regard.

* Boltac's Trading Post has been given a better inventory, to make gold more useful.

* Magic is realigned. Spells in lower spell levels is more useful, to keep them from
from becoming obsolete as quickly (and because there is a hard limit to the number
of times they may be cast, due to AD&D-style magic levels).

* Magic spells have been renamed to make sense for English speakers, and their
in-game descriptions are more accurate than before in some cases.

* Monsters award EXP in a manner much more commensurate to the threat level that
they represent.

* Many "cowardly" type monsters are no longer cowardly, to make them more of a
threat and to give your party a chance at more experience.

* Party members #4, #5, and #6 may now attack like the first three in battle. I
felt this rule was arbitrary and unlike in Wizardry 5, there were no allowances
made for extended reach or long range weaponry.

* The "Return" spell no longer dispossesses the party, or removes their gold.

* The "Chance" and "Word of Power" spells no longer drain a spell level from the
caster (since their effects are commensurate to the spell level they occupy).

* Removed the aging penalty for changing classes at the Training Grounds. This
penalty seemed arbitrary at best and totally incongruous at worst; how can a
character train for 5 to 7 years and then rejoin their companions who haven't
aged a day?

* Character's stats aren't reset to Race minimums when training. Instead, there is
a -3 penalty levied against all attributes.

* Base stats for each race have been reduced, as shown below. This makes changing
classes a bit more painful for characters.

Human STR- 6 INT- 7 PIE- 5 VIT- 6 AGI- 6 LCK- 7
Elf STR- 5 INT- 8 PIE- 7 VIT- 5 AGI- 7 LCK- 5
Dwarf STR- 8 INT- 5 PIE- 7 VIT- 8 AGI- 3 LCK- 6
Gnome STR- 4 INT- 6 PIE- 8 VIT- 7 AGI- 5 LCK- 7
Hobbit STR- 6 INT- 7 PIE- 3 VIT- 5 AGI- 8 LCK- 8

* Characters are awarded 8 to 15 bonus points normally, with additional +10 bonus(es)
for exceptional rolls. This balances out the reduction in racial stats.

* For all games, the maximum stat value is 16 greater than the minimum. This changes
the maximums for Wizardry 1 and 2 (Max = 18), and Wizardry 3 (Max = Min + 10).

* At level up, stats cannot be decreased, but the chance for increase has likewise been
reduced (about in a 9 in 16 chance for an attribute to increase).

* You can create any type of class at character creation now. Stats and stat
requirements for classes are aligned to be much more akin to Wizardry 7. Alignment
is immaterial for creating characters of any chosen class.

Fighter: STR- 11 VIT- 8
Mage INT- 12
Priest PIE- 12
Thief AGI- 11 LCK- 8
Bishop INT- 10 PIE- 10 VIT- 7
Samurai STR- 9 INT- 8 AGI- 10
Lord STR- 10 PIE- 8 VIT- 11
Ninja STR- 9 AGI- 11 LCK- 10

* Spellcaster's spell level are modified.

Mage Mage spells: Begin Level 1, every 2 levels thereafter
Priest Priest spells: Begin Level 1, every 2 levels thereafter
Bishop Mage spells: Begin at 1st level, Gain 2nd level at Exp. Level 5,
+1 for every 3 levels thereafter
Priest spells: Begin at 2nd level, Gain 2nd level at Exp. Level 4,
+1 for every 3 levels thereafter
Samurai Mage spells: Begin Level 3, every 3 levels thereafter
Lord Priest spells: Begin Level 4, every 3 levels thereafter

* HP values for the 8 classes has been modified very slightly.

* Ninjas have better AC when unarmored now. Their AC has increased from
8 - (level / 3) to 8 - (level / 2). In addition, equipping a weapon does not
hinder this bonus now.

* EXP curves are different. Characters need more EXP to raise to levels 3 to 8, levels
out about level 9, and after that it becomes easier to increase levels.

* Certain classes gain more attacks per round quicker:

Fighter: Every 6 levels
Mage: Every 10 levels
Priest: Every 8 levels
Thief: Every 4 levels
Bishop: Every 8 levels
Samurai: Every 5 levels
Lord: Every 6 levels
Ninja: Every 5 levels, plus 1 additional attack



Known issues
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* The Turn Undead and Banish spells only damage undead, and other monsters
take zero damage from them. However, if it strikes an non-undead enemy
which has been killed during the current battle, these spells will kill
those monsters again, granting additional experience.



To convert your Wizardry 1st Trilogy: Story of Llylgamyn ROM
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The following applies this and all future releases of the Ludmeister's Rebalancing Mod.

0. First of all, you will need to obtain a clean SNES ROM of Wizardry 1st
Trilogy: Story of Llylgamyn. 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. Make a backup of your ROM in case you end up borking it. It's just good
practice. Also, when I post updated versions of the mod on jeffludwig.com
I will not provide "upgrade patches".

2. If you got a Japanese version of Wizardry 1st Trilogy, continue with the
next step. Otherwise, you may have downloaded an pre-Aeon Genesis-patched
English ROM; if you have, skip to step #4.

3. Use the IPS patching program of your choice to apply the the
"Aeon-Genesis-Wizardry-translation-patch-v1.0.ips" patch to the Japanese
version of Wizardry 1st Trilogy. 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. This will convert your ROM to an
English-playable version.

4. Download the newest version of Ludmeister's Rebalancing Mod.

5. Use the IPS patching program of your choice to apply the mod's .ips patch to
the Aeon Genesis translated ROM.

6. I hope you enjoy it!



Feel free to contact me directly via jeffludwig.com if you have comments or
questions, or if you find any (undocumented) bugs to report.




No-Intro Name: Wizardry I-II-III - Story of Llylgamyn (Japan) (NP)
CRC32: B8A72553
MD5: 5987975FB59733089149003C506810AF
SHA-1: 6B63C968AEC822C0728513C01CD729FFD45DBAB7

Headerless checksums for ROM patched with AGTP 1.00 English Translation:
CRC32: 16FFE85A
MD5: 167F3DE8C5E5F464D1D473EB628B2AAF
SHA-1: C2FE27A3E1802B33C40B5C9FEA3AAB934396E792