BTB

Yeah, I dropped the idea of the Lazy Shell being a mass prevention tool for everyone. On the other hand, setting it to "dark" damage means that the Ghost Ring is a prevention relic that anyone can use. If you're going to go gimmick, go big or go home.

More changelog updates. Alexandr and Crusader are being swapped (details inside), Merton becomes a fire/"dark" elemental spell (instead of fire/wind), and shop edits are elaborated upon.

So, to make up for the increased cost, along with the general enemy defense changes I'm making (which shouldn't include many end-game bosses), Break and Quake both are getting an 11% power boost.

Changelog updated again. Of note is the re-branding of the "poison" element to disassociate itself from the status of the same name (which tended to cause confusion) and move it toward being a "dark" counterpart to the holy element, moving Crusader to a cash gate instead of a boss gate along with swapping Holy and Merton on it and Alexandr, and some changes to the Bio Blaster (now available later) and Flash (now weaker since the "Blind" status will be much more effective). Raze also gets weaker and loses the "dark" element, thus making it more of an all-purpose midgame damager until Dark shows up. Also of note are some buffs to Break and Quake to make up for their increases MP costs along with the fact that "standard" enemy magic defense will be lower in the coming update (although bosses will tend toward the current value, so this is an overall buff in that regard).

You're free to whatever ideas you get from BNW, my friend.

Updated for 2.0. Magic Relm will enjoy the extra MP that Zoneseek provides, Stamina Relm (AKA "Love You Long Time" Relm) will enjoy her new rod (giggity) that's basically a 1-handed Mutsunokami that triggers a stamina-based wind attack and a new regen formula that favors stamina over maximum HP (resulting in a huge buff for her), and pretty much any Relm will enjoy the MP bonus (re-)added to the Radiant Gown. But what REALLY changes for Relm in this update are her brushes. Improved stat boosts aside, brushes now hit twice (i.e. X-Fight) to improve the chances of getting a random spellcast. Further, the Ross Brush now procs Reflect instead of Haste in light of the hack which makes Reflect behave like Image instead of being a "timed" status.

Updated for 2.0 Buffs to Gau's base Vigor and Magic make him better right out of the gate. Further, a buff to his base BatPwr aims to make his physical attacks more relevant early on (where they were completely overshadowered by magical damage). His late-game physical damage is now balanced around 3x attack multipliers, which gives him a lot more options than the single 4x he had before, as well as helps keep them from completely overtaking his magical damage once he gets his hands on the Bone Club. Also helping keep his late-game magic damage alive is the fact that the Magic Bone is now a Colosseum trade (for the Bone Club, natch) rather than a hidden item. Oh, yeah, and at least half of the rages in the game have been changed, too. There's a lot more variety now, particularly in regards to healing rages.

Updated for 2.0 Physical Edgar gets slightly buffed all around, with an increase in his Base BatPwr along with an increase to all three of his physical damage tools to the tune of ~20 BatPwr apiece. He also gains Rasp (while losing Mute) as another use for his magic stat. While a Siren build should be able to fully drain most enemies in a single blow, Golem/Dragoon Edgar will probably need to team up with Celes to get much use out of it otherwise. A few other changes have affected Edgar on the magical side of things: lower enemy magic defense in the early game has necessitated that the already borderline-OP Bio Blaster be pushed back to the Zozo era, and the fact that blind is now universally effective has warranted a slight power nerf to the Flash. Edgar is also probably the character most affected by the cover and row targeting changes in 2.0 due to his love of spears often forcing him into the position of bodyguard.

Updated for 2.0 Mog is probably a little unhappy to lose the discounts he was getting the severely underpriced Break and Quake spells, and that's... really the only major thing worth mentioning aside from the sizeable boost (+36) to his base HP.

Updated for 2.0 Not a whole lot to say here: Celes loses Mute and Sleep to pick up Rasp and Bserk, which largely cements her role as party support rather than a debuffer. Reworked enemy MP values and AI aim to make Rasp actually useful in Celes's hands, both as a means of disabling spellcasters and killing the undead (which she otherwise lacks a good way to deal with). Dispel is now learned naturally at level 15, which should come in PARTICULARLY handy during the 024 fight (hint hint). Also, (???) was a wee bit OP, and so the formula was rewritten to make it ignore defense, but be a bit weaker on average. This gives it a more clearly-defined role alongside Celes's spell collection instead of being a generally-preferable alternative to it. One last thing: Crusader & Alexandr have been swapped in terms of location and stat bonuses, so... there will be some confusion in reading earlier posts in this thread.

Updated for 2.0 Sabin is seeing a LOT of changes here, most obviously that Aurabolt is learned much earlier now, pushing back Fire Dance and Mantra and reverting him to the classic "vanilla" Blitz order. Since Sabin's stamina-boosting esper doesn't also raise his HP like Cyan's does, he wants the offensive benefits sooner rather than later, and for the first half of the game Stam-WOW Sabin will hit just as hard on average as Slap-Chop Sabin does with Suplex. However, Sabin was initially designed as a high-strength character who likes his physical options regardless of build, and the changes to Aurabolt now push that: it no longer ignores defense as his physical blitzes do and it no longer ignores row so that he will never be in a position where his physical blitzes are doing half damage to Aurabolt's full damage. He does eventually pick up a ranged stamina attack with Sonic Boom, but it's more of a sweeper than a viable single-target damage option. Perhaps most importantly for Stam-WOW Sabin, the Mantra formula has been greatly improved to favor stamina over HP growth, and is now on par with other "big" healing attacks (on a stamina build, at least - it's serviceable on a vigor build, but noticeably weaker). Vigor Sabin, on the other hand, sees something of a nerf in that Suplex no longer sets Slow since he has regained access to the spell (Suplex setting slow was nice, but confusing to most players who didn't know what it was doing and OP to veteran players who did). On the positive side of things, however, his endgame claws are stronger (namely the Stormfang), and he gets earlier access to both the Spirit Claw (now for sale by the travelling merchant - and necessary to slow the Phantom Train) and Poison Claw (now for sale at Nikeah). The changes to Sabin's spell list are fairly uninteresting because he's, well, Sabin. He loses Mute (which he wasn't supposed to have in the first place - Stray having it was a bug) in favor of Sleep and loses Bserk to get back Slow. While this is an overall reduction in his status coverage, it's worth noting that he retains control over three very debilitating statuses - Imp, Stop (now on Suplex), and Sleep - that are relatively uncommon on other characters.

Updated for 2.0 Strago's abilities see quite a few changes here, most notably a hard focus on X-Dark (which is now stronger and more expensive) as his best single-target damage while Raze loses its "poison" element along with a little bit of its power to make it a more of a general-purpose attack (that's now slightly weaker than Dark) until Dark is obtained. Refract is more expensive - and rightfully so - due in part to Reflect's changed behavior, but mostly just because it was undervalued before due to how useful the Image status can be. Blow Fish, finally, no longer has an MP cost: a major boon to you LLG freaks out there, but otherwise unremarkable since its damage is insignificant in a normal game environment and the change was done primarily so that enemies who use it did not need MP (and Mute would not prevent it). On the spell side of things, Strago loses Sleep (not that he needed the extra status coverage) and gets Warp back... for what good that will do him. Strago also gets the only EL change in 2.0: an increase in the MP offered by Zoneseek, which previously was of little interest to him since Carbunkl offered more. This increase draws a much clearer line in the sand for Strago's EL options: Shiva/Zoneseek for a magic build and Carbunkl/Odin for a stamina one. And speaking of Stamina Strago... the old man loses his ill-advised ability to equip maces in 2.0, but in return gains access to a new weapon that looks like a rod but is basically a 1-handed Mutsunokami. As the random wind damage from such weapons is now stamina-based, this at last gives Stamina Strago an actual offensive option aside from Odin. Even MORE importantly, the updated Regen formula now favors stamina over maximum HP, thus resulting in a massive buff for "Viagra" Strago's... *ahem* longevity.

Updated for 2.0 Locke... really isn't changing much here. He gets a boost to his base stamina in celebration of the fact that people actually run him as full Kirin these days and he likes the reduced summon costs for Ramuh and Ifrit more than the girls do, but that's about it.

Updated for 2.0 There's quite a lot going on here. Vigor Cyan gets a buff through higher base BatPwr and a Tempest that is now stronger on average (although it no longer ignores defense - that's what Dispatch and dragon are for), while Stam Cyan sees a slight nerf to Dragon's power along with the Kazekiri/Mutsunokami procs now being stamina-based. Eclipse is reverted to being magic-based so that it scales the same regardless of build and doesn't compete with the wind blades for damage (which it shouldn't - the Blinding effect is meant to be its primary draw). Speaking of magic, Cyan's base is now back down to the bare minimum as I effectively shrug my shoulders at the concept of Cyan's attack magic serving any actual purpose (although he does get Merton now in place of Holy and I find the prospect of someone getting mileage out of it hilarious). Cyan's magic is for cure spells, and that's not something he's meant to be especially good with (although Regen can still pack quite a punch on a stamina build). He also no longer gets any magic boosts from his weapons, instead seeing stamina become the common stat on katanas and his "magical" ones now also offering the oft-suggested (and very much needed) speed boosts.

Updated for 2.0. The nerf to Umaro's base speed is undone by a +5 speed bonus now on one of his special relics, and I finally went ahead and axed his (completely unused) magic stat. Also, Umaro can now wear the Skull Cap you find in Kefka's Tower.

Gogo Slave to the Power of Death BASE STATS Vigor: 30 / Magic: 30 / Speed: 30 / Stamina: 30 HP: 0 / MP: 0 BatPwr: 16 / Def: 24 / M.Def: 24 / Evade: 24 / M.Evade: 24 EQUIPMENT Weapons: Knives, Rods, Brushes --- Shield: Light Shields, Elemental Guards Head: Crowns, Hats Body: Light Armor, Hides, Parkas, Vests SKILLS Mimic - repeats the last action taken by any ally --- Gogo's command list consists of Mimic and three of *any* other command/skill ESPERS Gogo cannot equip espers SPELLS Gogo can use any spell that anyone else in the current party can use

Updated for 2.0 Nothing to say here except that Gogo can't wear robes anymore.

Updated for 2.0 Not much to see on the surface except for a doubled MP cost for Fenrir; like Setzer, Shadow's major changes in 2.0 are a significant overhauling of his weapons. Of particular note is that the Kazekiri/Mutsunokami procs are now stamina-based and the Kusarigama is now an anti-human "net" weapon available in the Zozo era.

Setzer Gabbiani The Angel & The Gambler BASE STATS Vigor: 36 / Magic: 30 / Speed: 30 / Stamina: 24 HP: 60 / MP: 0 BatPwr: 24 / Def: 36 / M.Def: 24 / Evade: 12 / M.Evade: 12 EQUIPMENT Weapons: Casino Weapons, Knives --- Shield: Heavy Shields, Light Shields, Elemental Guards Head: Helmets, Hats Body: Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Vests SKILLS (Slots) Solitaire (3 diamonds) - Magic damage to all foes; sets Blind Trifecta (3 chocobos) - Magic damage to all non-floating foes; sets Sap Blackjack (3 airships) - Magic damage to all foes; ignores defense Roulette (3 bars) - summons a random esper Jackpot (3 7's) - revives all fallen allies & restores HP to live ones; Magic determines amount of HP restored Go Fish (losing spin) - restores HP to entire party (Magic) --- GP Toss (replaces Slots) - throw GP at one or multiple foes (Stamina); ignores defense, damage is reduced for each additional target ESPERS Shoat - Magic+2 --------------- 48 MP: sets Stone on all foes Seraph - HP+30/MP+15 --- 80 MP: sets Rerise on party Starlet - Stamina+2 -------- 80 MP: restores party's HP to max & lifts *all* bad statuses SPELLS Sap - Magic Poison - Magic Doom --- Cure 2 - Magic Cure 3 - Magic Rerise Remedy - Stamina Regen - Stamina RegenX - Stamina

Updated for 2.0 Not much on the surface here - just a new option for Sap (and AoE Poison) through his magic and higher MP costs for Shoat and Seraph. The big changes for Setzer in 2.0 are improvements to his weapons, namely the Tarot (now slightly stronger than an Avenger vs. undead bosses) and Viper Darts (now use MP for critical hits instead of being an insta-kill weapon)

Updated the changelog again. Clarified some of the tentative/unclear points about enemy stats and behavior, finalized all of the rage changes (hopefully), and swapped around the Poison/Bio (now "Sap") spells.

Updated for 2.0 Loses Bserk/Rasp and gains Stop/Mute, but that's about it.

...and that is why we don't do superbosses. @Reiker RE: Stamina Sabin, it's basically Chakra/Mantra, to be perfectly honest. The new Mantra formula is a fairly notable buff.

The answer to this one is pretty easy: working with smaller numbers is exponentially easier than larger ones, and balancing within a smaller range of possible levels is easier than with a larger one. I didn't "lower the cap" so much as I just shrank the total range I was working with - consider level 50 in BNW the equivalent of 99 in vanilla. Although the level cap is advertised as 50, players will generally never see it. I'm a firm believer in that the player should never *see* the invisible boundaries, so to speak, so you're generally not going to get very far into the "soft" cap that starts at the late 30's.

ROM expansion isn't necessarily the magic bullet that everyone thinks it is. Practically speaking, the primary tool used to accomplish it only creates more space in the enemy AI bank (which I presently just freed up 500 bytes and counting from in script rewrites) and the dialogue bank. I have refused to expand the ROM needlessly because I'm a firm believer in that restrictions breed creativity and I can assure you that a lot of what's currently in Brave New World would never have been thought up if infinite free space gave me carte blanche to shit up the AI bank with anything I wanted.