Mr. Ultima

Brave New World is, as you can tell already, very different from vanilla. You should not let your first 15 minutes of play time judge the entire mod. This hack is not just a re-balancing of the game, but more like a complete overhaul. As for Whelk's turtling, previous versions did in fact have the boss go into his shell one time throughout the fight; however, this really just wasted the player's time. Unlike vanilla Whelk is not the "tutorial" boss, Vargas is. Many things have been cut back on since vanilla, such as the elemental beams that took up coding space. The game will start to feel much better once you have reached South Figaro as it will provide you with some actual options for your characters. The tutorial school might come off as demeaning to some people, as it emphasizes the fact that if you haven't played the mod before then you are a new player. But here's the thing: the game is right. The tutorial school may be just one big text dump, but it is a very vital and necessary text dump that will provide you with all the knowledge you need in order to play the game "correctly." If you play on you will see that this game provides quite the challenge. Play on until you have defeated Vargas, that should provide you with enough game play to form a solid opinion.

I honestly forgot all about Setzer's triple bar when I made my post. Most espers are based off magic unless they apply a buff, like Seraph, so having Setzer spam summons is not at all a bad idea. Triple bar is pretty inconsistent, though far from a reason not to use it as dice Setzer is one of my favorite builds. Just don't let summon spam overshadow his other abilities. But hey, if it works, then it works.

Summons are all based off magic unless otherwise stated. A notable example would be Odin, which us stamina based. Also, it's not a good idea to only focus on a single character for summons as you can only use a summon once for the duration of an entire fight. Setzer has some good summons, but keep in mind that for every esper he has access to one other character has access to it as well. Some espers, like Golem, will be more situational than others but are very effective when used correctly. Basically, don't focus on one characters as a "summoner" as every character is capable of summoning and every esper has a unique purpose.

Wrexsoul dropped Genji Armor for me, the unlockme files say that he drops Force Armor.

What if Chakra had MP healing over time? Have the power/number of tics based off stamina.

My main issue with making both of Sabin's AoE blitz stamina based is that it gets rid of his magic synergy. Every character seems to synergize with the 4 essential stats in some way. Shadow, for example, uses magic for his scrolls. Cyan syncs with magic for his healing power. Hell, even Strago/Relm sync with vigor in order too use Rods/Brushes. Sabin's magic is a tolal joke, yes, but it should still have some use. If both of his AoE blitz used stamina he might as well have no magic at all. I also believe that his low magic can be mitigated with the introduction of the Force Robe, perhaps also include a magic cap of some sorts for him and Gau, I think they could benefit greatly from one. This is the exact reason that Sabin should have a way to learn them all at once, similar to Cyan. The master Duncan event would be perfect for this. Another idea, drawing inspiration from the auto crossbow, have the Duncan event increase the power of his Blitz (Bum Rush would need a bit of a nerfing to compensate.) I know Cyan's dream is suppose to be done mid/late WoR but this is why I suggested the boss battle with Duncan in order to prevent players from getting all his Blitz as soon as you get the airship. The man used to hunt monsters, he should be able to take a couple hits before going down. I second this idea, everything becomes a lot more "gimmicky" near the end. Mabye also have Fire Dance apply a dubuff of some sort?

I should clarify, because I forgot it in my original post. By the time you reach the Floating Continent the player has already been accustomed to Locke's low MP, just throw a tincture or two at him every couple of battles and he will do fine; besides, you will only really use his healing in battle when necessary or to hit elemental weaknesses. His MP usage becomes exaggerated once you reach the WoR but he does have Pheonix to help mitigate this. As someone who plays all three regularly, I agree. I think Shadow and Relm get low votes because people forget to apply buffs on them.

I’ve been giving this some thought and here is what I think. Stam based elemtal Blitz sounds nice but ultimately make Sabin’s synergy with magic atrocious as the only thing magic will affect is Quake. The fact that Sabin has 2 AoE Blitz that scale off magic is a little redundant, changing these to scale off stamina will be just as redundant. Therefore, I instead of changing both Fire Dance and Sonic Boom to scale off stamina we should instead have only 1 scale off stamina. If one of them stay magic based vig Sabin would still have a decent AoE. We have two options, here are my thoughts on both: -Fire Dance: While seeming like a nice option at first, as you get this Blitz around the same time you get your first batch of espers, it would do more harm than good. Sabin would have zero magic synergy until he gets Quake or Sonic Boom, both of which come at late game. -Sonic Boom: Should function as an “in-between” with Fire Dance and Quake and should also switch places with Chakra. This would change stam Sabin’s function completely. He would no longer focus on being just a healer but rather his main asset would be AoE effects. Sonic Boom would be his main attack while Fire Dance would serve for enemies that are resistant/immune to wind or enemies that are weak to fire. Quake would be more powerful but would require a bit of setup. Mantra/Chakra are already AoE and having him be the only one with an AoE MP heal fits the build. Aurabolt could function as a powerful one hitter when necessary. Along with the changes to Sonic Boom, Aurabolt should receive a bit of a buff to compete with AoE attacks. Mantra should also give him regen as this would free up a relic slot and make his healing more viable, Mantra’s formula should also be changed to have stamina have a greater impact on it Lastly, something that would make Sabin better in general, have the Duncan event teach Sabin all of his Blitz, like Cyan. This is a little OP as you could do this immediately after getting the airship. I suggest having a boss fight to test the player. Maybe a 1v1 with Sabin and Duncan? +1 to having Odin EL’s be HP/Stam, would make Holy Wind/Raid more useful

Not sure if any of these are known bugs but here they are: Whenever I use Setzer's Jackpot he will inch forward and get cozy with the enemies. This seems to bee purely aesthetic. When I had Cyan attack Gau to kill him to change rages the sword cast windslash on the enemies, it seems like it should be cast on my own party instead. Shadow was fighting Siegfreid in the coliseum, Siegfreid uses vanish, Shadow attacks with the Kagenui dagger, attack misses but it still casts net, net hits Seigfreid and he was a sitting duck the rest of the fight.

If the Force Robe and Force Armor trade for each other than i don't think it will affect the coliseum too much. The best way to go about naturally finding the Force Robe is to have it replace the Force Armor found in the Fanatics Tower. Elemental resistance on light robe sounds nice. The +stam +mag on the Force Robe would fit in with pretty much all four of them. Obviously Sabin increasing stamina while providing nice magic defense. Terra has morph and therefore will always benefit from stamina. Celes has regen, but she also has fractional magic which have hit% based off stamina. Mog requires a mix of stam & mag for dancing, so that one is already covered. Only problem here is what will Sabin do with that +7 Magic. While on the topic of changing terminology, I propose that the term "Status Ailments" be replaced with "Debuffs." I personally believe it's a much better term and will save a ton of text space.

So does this patch cause the Reflect status to simply make spells miss?

It would definitely be possible to have them trade for each other in the coliseum. The main issue is text space. If you open up the ROM with FF3usME you can edit the coliseum battles and choose which items trade into which. You can also edit the stats on weapons/armor. Neither of these effect game space at all. What would be difficult is making text space for the item to say "Halves Ice/Fire/Bolt Damage." More text space is probably possible via ROM expansion or by changing terminology that is already there. A good example would be changing the term "Stronger in 2 Hands" to "Stronger 2 Handed" as the first uses 19 bits(characters including spaces) whereas the latter is only 17. Only a 2 bit difference but could free up a bit of space if all instances of the quote were changed. Also having 3 Force Armor/Robes sounds like the perfect amount, 2 is too little while 4 is overkill.

I'm voting for Locke for one reason: he is the most balanced character in the game. Every build of his is very good and not overpowered. He gets a nice amount of HP/Stam making him a good "light tank" being able to equip sword/shield and heavy armor. He is one of 4 character to receive a +2 speed esper, making him a very fast character with Mirage Vest/daggers. Both build options above are partnered with the fact that he has access to Ranuh which allow him to compete with Terra/Celes/Edgar when it comes to Vigor. X-Mage Locke can absolutely demolish machines and undead alike. Not to meantion he is the best healer in the game, being able to throw out a Cure2 AoE and a Cure single target on your tank will almost always get everyone back on their feet. He does have one flaw that is prominent throughout the game: he has almost no MP. He runs out of MP fairly quickly in WoB, and once you recruit him in WoR you have access the more MP via EL's; but, you will have him using X-magic by this time so the +MP doesn't help too much. Basically just throw a Tincture at him every couple turns and he will be good.

The Force Robe sounds nice, but your cutting off more physical based characters from having magic defense to give magic users even more magic defense. Instead of getting 4 Force Armor you should instead find 2 Force Armor and 2 Force Robes, maybe have them trade for each other in the colosseum. Also +1 to stam on spears, finding a mirage vest outside colosseum, and a relic that gives Relm Interceptor

I think the Espers and spells are fine the way they are. Merton damaging allies and being elemental ties into Celes being the more strategic of the two, and same with Ultima being Terra's best spell. I would be in favor of obtaining Ragnarok before Kefka's Tower and have the eighth dragon drop Excalibur instead. However, I don't think it should be the water dragon that drops it because you already get Odin in the sunken keep. Besides, limiting Merton to be used only for the warring triad/Kefka fight would make the spell far worse then what it already is. Also, most of your points are simply for flavor reasons rather than actual gameplay reasons.