Author Topic: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)  (Read 20436 times)

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Newest notes as of 7/27

Cocatrice - Now 1 Gale up front, 3 Petrifies in the back.

Golem - Base Int raised to 50, int per level raised to 2. All resistances raised to 70 except Fire which is 50. Now do 2x Punch in the back.

Rock Golem - Base Int raised to 50, int per level raised to 2. All resistances raised to 75 except Fire which is 50.

Iron Golem - Base Int raised to 50, int per level to 2. All resistances raised to 85 except Fire which is 50

Muse - Now promote at level 13, 60-100 alignment and also gain 4 strength per level.

Ravenmen - Now promote at level 15.

Raised the average level of Kalbian Peninsula to around 20 to better reflect the story progression, It's advised you go there after Shangrila.

Also raised the level of Tundra so you can safely do it after Antalia without the enemies suddenly going down in level.

Raised Gares' support levels to 28.
Raised Rashidi and his support's levels to 33 and 30 respectively.
Raised Diablo's level to 35
Nixie - Now have 4/3/3 for stat growths.




Everyone seems to be getting on the bandwagon for this these days so I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring with a game I am much more familiar with than others.

The idea behind this isn't to necessarily increase difficulty, but it will probably do that just by virtue of making the classes better. I also intend to fix a great deal of enemy formations so there aren't so many front row Wizards.


I am posting this mainly to post my ideas and also to get feedback from anyone else who feels strongly about things one way or another. I am not sure I can change things like Beastmasters granting bonuses to Beasts and so on but I'm going to look into it.


A few things that come to my mind is that a lot of classes are completely invalidated by the special characters, which is fine in its own right but it's still kind of sad. I'll probably be reducing the stats on a few of them and boosting other classes to compensate. Along with that, the Witch blows. I am going to be fixing that and probably giving her a promotion, hopefully I can do that with the Nightmare editor. Samurai Masters will most likely be getting two Iainukis from the back because they had a hilariously pointless promotion.

Monsters are another class that tend to suck too much, I'd like to increase their resistances a bit and also give them some more attacks especially in their later promotions. I don't think I can save Octopi but I'll try.


I am going to make Charisma and Alignment potions storebought because I fucking hate the fact that it's so hard to finagle that sort of thing. I will also be modifying Charisma requirements so that there's a lot more leeway so if you can't buy the potions you're not totally screwed.

If anyone else has any ideas or opinions, by all means please post them.



---Class Changes as of 7/15---


$4F Lord (Phantom) - Increased Str/Agi per level to 3 and Int per level to 5. Replaced Phantom with Meteor, increased Front Row attacks to 3 and back row to 2. Phys resist now 50, Black resist now 65. Base Alignment raised to 50.

Reasoning: This guy sucked. I want to make him the magical focus lord while still being able to be put in the front row if so desired.


$50 Lord (Good) - Increased Physical resistance to 50, Fire to 40, Cold to 40. Increased Strength per level to 4, agility to 3.

Front Row attack is now 3x White-Strength Based attack and back is 2x Icecloud.

Reasoning: Guy was pretty good originally but having Banish was... odd. This one is a little better at fighting and has a base white attack as well for DEMON SLAYING.


$4E Lord (Sonic)  - Back row attack now 2x Iainuki.
Strength per level 5, Agility 3, Intelligence 1. Physical Resistance now 65.

Reasoning: Physical Lord. No real reason to give him much more. Gave him another Iainuki, this way you need to choose between front row attacks or back row with backlash.


$51 Lord (Thunder)

Raised resistances to at least 50 across the board. Front row attack is now 2x Strength Gale and back row is 2x Thunder. Strength/Agility/Int is now 4 per level. Fire Resist now 45.

Reasoning: Having two AoE attacks Makes the Thunder Lord stand out a little more. Much more well-rounded.


**Note, Charisma requirements have been removed from all classes.

Angel-Increased Banish in back row to 2x.

Beastman- Renamed "Tamer." Increased agility per level from 2 to 3, int from 1 to 2. Can now recruit Gryphons instead of Fighters.

Beast Master - Renamed "Whisperer." 3x attack in front or back row. Increased agility per level to 4. Now promotes at level 10, 10-65 Alignment

Black Dragon - 3x Physical in front. Increased alignment max to 45.

Cerberus - Can promote at level 12, 0-100 alignment.

Cherubim - Banish in back row now 3x, now promotes at level 8, 50-100 Alignment.

Cleric - No change.

Cockatrice - 2x Gale up front and 3x Petrify in back, Increased stats per level to 4/5/2. Raised Weight type to Dragon level, should be easier to get High Sky with one.

Coffin - No change. TANK

Demon - 2x Nightmare in back replaced with 1x Meteor. Increased Int per level to 4. Can now promote with up to 50 alignment.

Devil - 3x Strength Black attack up front, 2x Meteor in the back. Can now promote at 16. 4/4/4 per level.

Doll Master - 3x Physical up front, 2x Acid in the Back. Now gains 3/3/4 for stats. Physical resistance is now 46. 50-100 Alignment.

Doll Mage - Strength is now 2 per level. Physical resistance now 40. Alignment now 35 to 75.

Dragon - Increased agility and int per level to 2.

Dragon Master - 3x Melee up front, 3x Magic in the back. Stat gains are 4/4/3, Resistances are all 55 except for Physical, White and Black which are 40. Now promotes using the Stone of Dragos. Now recruit Tier 3 dragons.

Dragoner - Now promotes from Valkyrie starting at level 12. All resistances now 50 except Physical, White and Black, which are 40. Melee up front, Magic in the back, 2x. Can promote from 0-100 Alignment.

Eagleman - Backrow Thunder replaced with MT Thunder. Strength/Int boosted to 3 per level. Now promote at level 10. 0-100 Alignment.

Evil One - Now use Str-Inferno in back row. 3 attacks both places. Strength and Int gains now 4 per level. Now promote at level 14. 0-45 Alignment. Base cost now 1100

Faerie - Replaced with Siren class, promotion from Witch. 2x Fire or Charm up front (Cerberus) 1x All Magic in the back. 4 HP Per level, 5 Int per level. Promoted at level 10, 0-50 Alignment. Black resistance 55, White Resistance 35.

Ghost - No Change.

Gold Dragon - 4x Melee up front, 2x Icestorm in the back. 5 Strength, 4 Int. 60-100 Alignment. Level 15.

Golem - 1x Quake in the back row. 2 Agility per level.

Gryphon - 3 Strength per level. Physical resistance raised to 50. Increased Weight priority to Dragon-level, should be easier to get High Sky with one now.

Halloween - HP per level raised to 5, Strength to 4. Raised physical resistance to 70, lowered Fire Resistance to 30. Can now be recruited by Deneb by default.

Hawkman - 2 attacks from the back.

Hellhound - No change.

Imp - Now get 2 Nightmares in the back. Strength reduced to 2 per level.

Iron Golem - Now promoted from Rock Golems at level 16. 4/3/3. 3x Melee up front, 1x Quake in the back. Fire resist raised to 60.

Knight - Now get 2x Healing in the back row. Knight now gets 2 Int per level.

Kraken - Strength increased to 5 per level, agility to 3. Physical resistance increased to 75. (they honestly aren't that bad, really)

Lich - 3x Magic in the front row, 2x Aoe Magic in the back. Base cost is 1500 and cost per level is 400. Fire resistance reduced to 45. Now promotes from Undead Staff from Mage. Can no longer "promote" into Skeletons.

Lycan - 2 Attacks in front and back. Now gains the same stats as Tigermen during the day.

Mage - Alignment 0-40, level increased to 11. Int per level increased to 5, HP per level to 3.

Mermaid - 3/3/3 for levels, Phys resistance up to 40. 2 Blizzard in the back row.

Monk - Now promoted at level 16. 55-100 Alignment.

Muse - 55-100 Alignment.

Ninja Master - 4x Attack from the front, 2x Aoe in the back. 0-50 Alignment. White Resistance raised to 25. Now promote at level 13.

Ninja - Can now lead units. (why couldn't they before?) Strength per level reduced to 2.

Nixie - 3x Melee in front, 2x Icestorm in back. 3/3/4 Now have 45 Phys resist.

Octopus - Strength increased to 3x per level.

Paladin - Now use Healing+ (Aoe) 2x in the back. 4 strength per level, 3 int per level. 60-100 Alignment.

Phantom - Promotes from Ghost at level 12

Pixie - Replaced with Wicca class (Unique to Deneb) Front row is Charm/Fire (Cerberus), back row is 2x Endora's Magic. Also grants 1 extra attack if made leader. 32 Physical Resistance, 60 everything else, 80 Black, 25 White.

Platinum Dragon - Renamed Bahamut. 4x Cold in the front. 12 HP per level, 4 agility, 5 int. Phys resistance to 60. Promotes at level 20. 55-100 Alignment.

Princess - No longer gives +1 attacks as a leader. Now has 2x Jihad up front, 2x Starlite in the back.

Pumpkin - 3/3/2 Phys resist to 50.

Ravenman - 2x Melee up front, 2x Nova in back. 2/4/4 35 Phys resist. Promotes at level 15 from Eagleman. 0-55 Alignment.

Red Dragon II - Renamed to Fire Dragon. 3x Fire in the back. Int to 4 per level. 25-65 alignment. 50 phys resistance.

Red Dragon - 3 Melee up front. 25-65 Alignment.

Rock Golem - 1 Quake in the back. 2 Agility per level.

Salamand - Renamed Salamander. 4 Fires up front, Promotes at 21. 4 Agility, 5 Int. Phys to 70.

Samurai Master - 4 Strength per level, 3 agility. Phys resistance to 60. 2x Iainuki in the back. 55-100

Samurai - Phys resistance to 50. Promotes at level 6.

Seraphim - 4 Halos up front, 2 Jihads in the back. 3 Strength, 5 intellect. Promotes at level 16. 65-100 Alignment.

Shaman - 50-100 Alignment.

Silver Dragon - 3 Melee up front. 3 Agi per level. 55-100 Alignment.

Skeleton - Promotes to Wraith!

Soldier - Unchanged.

Sorceror - Replaced with a unique class for Galf.

Sylph - Replaced with an upgrade for Eagleman, the Vultan. (Eaglemen actually were Vultans in the original Japanese game but whatever)

Tiamat - 3x Acid up front. Max Alignment is now 45.

Tigerman - 3x Lifesuck up front.

Valkyrie - Unchanged.

Vampyre - Renamed to Vampire, because seriously. 3 attacks in front and back. Might change the Charm to the Cerberus Fire/Charm versions.

Werewolves - Unchanged.

Wild Man - Renamed Berserker. 2 attacks in the back row now,  HP per level reduced to 5, physical resistance reduced to 30, strength increased to 4 per level. 0-55 alignment.

Witch - 3 SLAPs up front. 2 Strength per level.

Wizard - 10-75 Alignment. Now also do 2 magic up front for those people who think Wizards should be on the front lines. 

Wraith - Promotes from Skeleton at level 12. 2 Attacks in the back row.

Wyrm - Increased Phys. Resist and Fire Resist to 50, lowered Cold to 30.

Wyvern - Now get 3 attacks in the front and back. 0-100 Alignment. 60 Phys and Fire, 25 Cold. 2 Int per level.

Zombie Dragon - Still use Undead Rings to promote. 2x Acid from the front, 3x Evilring from the back. Still uber tanks.


Sylph - Replaced with Vultan Class. Promotes from Eagleman at level 15, 55-100 Alignment. They are a more physical-oriented Hawkman class compared to the Ravenman's magic-focused. 3 attacks up front, 1 Gale in the back. 4/3/2, 50/42/45/41/40/40
« Last Edit: July 28, 2011, 01:24:02 AM by Nephrite »

Dunefar

  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 1222
  • Wuffy-wuff-wuff!
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2011, 04:23:39 AM »
All of this is my opinion so take it with the required grains of salt.

A few things that come to my mind is that a lot of classes are completely invalidated by the special characters, which is fine in its own right but it's still kind of sad. I'll probably be reducing the stats on a few of them and boosting other classes to compensate.

I'm on board with boosting the generics, but I don't see any reason to nerf the special characters. Many of them are a hassle or difficult to get, why make the work have less of a return? Besides, if you're boosting normal classes, they'll be less uber because they're dealing with stronger opposition.

Quote
Along with that, the Witch blows. I am going to be fixing that and probably giving her a promotion, hopefully I can do that with the Nightmare editor. Samurai Masters will most likely be getting two Iainukis from the back because they had a hilariously pointless promotion.

Anything to improve the Witch is good. Buffing Samurai Masters seems good, too.
* Infinite_Ko_Loop is now known as Ko-CidisnotaPrincess
<Nephrite> That is depressing.
<CmdrKing> I know.  Cid would makea  great princess.

Fudozukushi

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 1552
  • Born to hunt Death Knights
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2011, 04:52:04 AM »
I don't think I can save Octopi but I'll try.

Eight arms eight attacks!

Anthony Edward Stark

  • Is that... Alcohol?
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 4347
    • View Profile
    • Modern Drunkard Magazine
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2011, 05:30:21 AM »
Bonus against female classes.

superaielman

  • "Mordero daghain pas duente cuebiyar/The fear of death holds not my heart!"
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 9630
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2011, 07:38:25 PM »
Thoughts:

I would nuke CHA as a requirement entirely, ala OB64. It's one of the few things that game did that I really approved of.

Rebalancing issues:


I'd leave the special PC's alone for the reason Dune said.


Classes:


Make Golems-Stone Golem-Iron Golem promotable. I would either buff Golem HP or agility, not both. Probably agility, as it makes their offense and durability better while not lessening just how badly they get owned by weakness hitting things. Make Stone golems promote at L5, and Iron at L10.

Giants-Make them all hit the second tier classes at L10. (As it is, Fire/ice/titan is L8/10/15). I would also elimiate the alignment requirement here, so you just pick an element.  Give the Ice/Fire giants the MT elemental attack, instead of the ST spell.  Boosting Giant physical resistance is a good idea in general as well- monsters need to be tough to justify the two slots and no leadership trait.

Gryphon type- Remove petrification (it's useless), give Cocktrices a third attack.
Wyvern- Third attack upon promotion, make the fire breath skill MT. 
Octopus- Boost agility. Otherwise, leave as is. They get FOUR attacks and are extremely difficult to kill in water; two of them with a cleric or muse make an excellent unit. You need to position them on a town or in water, but they are good enough that it doesn't need buffing.  Lower promotion level to 10.
Hellhound- Lower promotion level to 10, raise elemental defenses sans holy, lower INT. Give Hellhounds the MT physical fire skill (1x) in the back, and hellhounds the fire skill (2x) in the back. 

Dragons: Give every one three physicals from the front.  Lower level requirements for dragons to level 5/10/15 instead of 7/15-17/23-24 respectively.  Give Zombie Dragons Evil Ring in the front row (2x).


Ghosts/Skeleton- Let them promote at L10.

Weretigers/Wolves- Give them 2x life drain at night and 2x physicals at day. Give the the same stat growth day and night. You need a unique item or to get lucky with a neutral encounter to get them, so they should be good. Werewolves are still better on raw offense, but Weretigers are going to be extremely difficult to kill. Leave Werewolves as is.
Pumpkins- Make the Pumpkin+ storebought in Deneb's garden.
Devils: Give Demons 1x Meteor, and give Devils 2x Meteor. Make the promotion level 7/15 instead of 10/20 respectively.

Hawkmen class: Give Eagle/Ravenmen the MT version of their awful spells, let Ravenmen promote at L10 instead of L12. I'm fine otherwise with them, they give you low sky which is awesome.

Angels: Promote Angels to Cherbiums at L5 instead of L11, and to Seraphims at L10 instead of L22. Give Seraphims 3x Halos in the front row.

Faeries: Rename this to the AAA class. Let Faeries promote at L5/10 instead of L10/20. Replace Kiss with Halo, and replace Slap with Charm. Give Sylphs 3x attacks in the front row.

Nixies- Make Ice Storm/Blizzard 2x attacks a battle, lower promotion level to L10.

Witches- Raise strength growth from 1-3x to 3-5x a level, raise all resistances by 10 except physical (raise by 15), give them 3x attacks from the front row.

Clerics- Give entire class series 3x attacks from the front row, lower Monk's promotion level to 15. Let Clerics recruit Fairies and Angels.

Princess- Lower INT growth to 3-5 from 4-6, lower HP growth to 2-4 from 2-6, raise deployment cost by 1.5x.

Vampyre- Give them 3x attacks in the front and back.

Knight/Paladin: Raise INT growth by 2 points on average for Knights/Paladin, give Knights 2x Healing in the back row and Paladins 2x MT healing in the back row. Raise Knight/Paladin resists by 15, reduce Knight/Paladin STR by 1 per level.

Samurai: Lower all resistances by 10, raise STR by 1x per level. Give Samurai 3x physicals in the front and Samurai Masters 4x physicals and 2x Sonic Slice.

Mage: Make the alignment range for mage 0-35, raise promotion level to Mage to 12 from 10. Lower Sorcerer/Lich INT by one point a level, raise Lich's deployment cost by 1.5x (if possible), lower physical resist by 20.

Beast Master: Give them 3x attacks in the front and back row, lower promotion level to 10 from 12, raise agility growth by 1x per level. Let Beast tamers recruit more monsters.

Dragon tamers/masters: Give them 3x physicals in the front and 2x ice field in the back, increase all stat growth for both classes by 1x per level. Lower Dragon Master promotion level to 15 from 20, let them recruit final tier dragons, give them 2x MT ice spell in the back and 3x physicals in the front.

Ninja: Let them lead units. Lower Ninja Masters promotion level from 15 to 12.

Wild Men: Raise STR and INT growth by 1x per level for both classes. Raise Black Knight physical resist by 10,  give them 1x Meteor in the back row, and give them 3x physicals in the front row. Lower promotion levels to 5/15 from 6/16.

Muse: Leave as is.

Doll Men: Change Enchanter alignment range to 50-100.

Odds and ends: Increase the selling price of the dream crown, undead ring, and undead staff to 200000 Goth.  Increase the selling price of the stone of dragos to 50000 Goth.

This is mostly off the cuff.  You're going to need to buff enemy formations some (Which is easily done) to compensate for the increased strength enemy formations. I didn't mess with recruiting much- I more just wanted to be able to easily access every class and monster type (Angels in particular are obnoxiously useless/hard to get till Yushis).
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself"- Count Aral Vorkosigan, A Civil Campaign
-------------------
<Meeple> knownig Square-enix, they'll just give us a 2nd Kain
<Ciato> he would be so kawaii as a chibi...

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2011, 08:05:19 PM »
Dune, you're right, a lot of them are a pain to collect. I will probably see what I can do about making some of the more annoying ones (Galf, Deneb) a bit more appealing.

OblivionKnight

  • Boom! Big reveal: I'm a pickle. What do you think about that?
  • Global Moderator
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2999
  • I'm Pickle Rick!
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2011, 09:29:15 PM »
I'm not a huge OB fan, but I'd really like to see the bosses suck a lot less (lol Gares). 

Maybe giving them more support if you can (maybe Gares could come with Liches and dragons or something).

Or just a straight up boost.
[11:53] <+Meeple_Gorath> me reading, that's a good one

[19:26] * +Terra_Condor looks up. Star Wars Football, what?
[19:27] <+Terra_Condor> Han Kicks First?
[19:27] <%Grefter-game> Vader intercepts.
[19:27] <%Grefter-game> Touchdown and Alderaan explodes in the victory

superaielman

  • "Mordero daghain pas duente cuebiyar/The fear of death holds not my heart!"
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 9630
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2011, 10:15:05 PM »
Gares isn't terrible the first few times. The bigger problem with OB that it's hard to balance bosses against a normal playthrough, when you can get some evil blitz setups going later on. That's also ignoring that Tarot Cards exist.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2011, 10:18:00 PM by superaielman »
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself"- Count Aral Vorkosigan, A Civil Campaign
-------------------
<Meeple> knownig Square-enix, they'll just give us a 2nd Kain
<Ciato> he would be so kawaii as a chibi...

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2011, 09:49:39 AM »
If there are any decent hacking documents available for SNES OB, I might be able to help you with some event editing if you want to say... make getting some of the special characters less annoying?

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2011, 03:00:01 AM »
http://finnshore.webs.com/ Has a good deal of them but I don't know if that helps you any.

superaielman

  • "Mordero daghain pas duente cuebiyar/The fear of death holds not my heart!"
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 9630
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2011, 04:46:31 AM »
Is there a way to fix the number of tarot cards used in a battle to one?
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself"- Count Aral Vorkosigan, A Civil Campaign
-------------------
<Meeple> knownig Square-enix, they'll just give us a 2nd Kain
<Ciato> he would be so kawaii as a chibi...

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2011, 05:13:56 AM »
http://finnshore.webs.com/ Has a good deal of them but I don't know if that helps you any.

Is there anything out there more in-depth than that? I checked all of the documents there, but it's -very- basic stuff. Nothing on events at all. Not even a dialog map. I'm at work, so I haven't checked out the Nightmare editor yet, but I suspect that won't have anything deep enough to actually edit events.

I can handle some raw Hex editing, but I'd need a map to do anything exciting. I don't really have the time to go searching for OB docs myself, but if you stumble across something that looks promising, let me know.

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2011, 06:34:29 AM »
It seems that the Gamefaqs community is pretty popular in terms of this sort of thing so I'll ask over there.

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2011, 06:48:07 AM »
In order to make new classes, old ones have to be replaced. I can think of a lot of ones that can easily get junked (Faeries and their upgrades are worthless as hell) and a few others to make some room. It also seems that to change the promotion trees, you just have to hex edit the values. Djinn, I'd love to get your assistance with that one whenever you're able to grant it.

I found http://sennue.com/files/misc/ob-data.xls

Which seems to have a lot of various pointers and things though I don't think we've found anything pertaining to reputation or what have you, so that may be something we can't do much about.

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2011, 12:48:41 PM »
There's an awful lot of information in that spreadsheet, but it's really disorganized. And there's only one note on anything regarding Promotion Trees. Since I'm no expert on how OB promotion works, I don't really know what I'd need to look for to figure out how the promotion trees work, but based on the one note in the spreadsheet, you should open up the ROM in a hex editor and look at byte 04AB77 and the 101 bytes that follow to see if you see any logical patterns. Since there's exactly 101 bytes of this information, I suspect that it directly relates to fact that there's 101 PC unit types in the game.

I would look to see if each of those values relates to the class ID of the class it can promote to (in hexidecimal, of course). Since there's some kind of Table that follows it, I suspect there's a few more things that go into setting which classes are available, but without more information, I'm not sure what you'd need to change to build new Promotion Trees.

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #15 on: July 05, 2011, 03:58:34 AM »
Yeah, I found a Gamefaqs post that detailed how the promotion trees all work, so that should be a rather easy thing to do. The thing I'm concerned about is how to change the name of the classes... I assume all of that is just stored in the ROM data somewhere.

Putting this here for my own notes

"Recruit info starts with a list of pointers at 4ADC2, actual recruit lists begin at 4AE92 (which is technically the list for Fighter and therefore empty). Format is similar to promotion lists, although you can use any unit value (including boss types and named NPCs). It will freeze if you attempt to recruit a unique unit who you already have in your army, though. It doesn't seem to mind recruiting clones of your opinion leader, but I don't know what effect that has if you try taking them into battle."

"Ok, now here's the really awesome part. Promotion options by class are stored as 2 byte pointers starting at 04AF4C (4AE16 unheadered) with Fighter. These values correspond to a list of data starting at 04B016, consisting of a list of numbers (unit indexes) followed by a 00 to signify the end of the list. These go in straight order by class, and every one of the first 77 classes is represented with its own unique space. So for example you have 02 04 06 08 0D 11 13 00 01 03 00 01 02. The first 8 bytes make up the fighter's promotion list: Knight (02), Wild Man (04), Samurai (06), Ninja (08), Beast Man (0D), Doll Mage (11), Wizard (13), end of list (00). After that you have the knight's options: Fighter (01) or Paladin (03), end of list (00). Then paladin: down to Fighter (01) or Knight (02). It continues on with the promotion list for wild man, evil one, etc."


The class byte information for every special character and several bosses. It stopped making any sense to me after Galf, but there is more class information besides this (I think).

Ashe: 0001ECD4
Rauny: 0001ECD5
Aisha: 0001ECD6
Saradin: 0001ECD7
Lans: 0001ECD8
Gilbert (Might be Lyon...): 0001ECD9
Warren: 0001ECDA
Canopus: 0001ECDB
Yushis: 0001ECDC
Usar: 0001ECDD
Lyon (Might be Gilbert...): 0001ECDE
Kapella: 0001ECDF
Sirus: 0001ECE0
Deneb: 0001ECE1
Porkyus: 0001ECE2
Norn: 0001ECE3
Ares: 0001ECE4
Albelio: 0001ECE5
Mizel: 0001ECE6
Omicron: 0001ECE7
Prochon: 0001ECE8
Dragoon (?): 0001ECE9
Dragoon (?): 0001ECEA
Galf: 0001ECEB



More notes for myself:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/588541-ogre-battle-the-march-of-the-black-queen/40090402

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/588541-ogre-battle-the-march-of-the-black-queen/43853002
« Last Edit: July 06, 2011, 10:07:15 PM by Nephrite »

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #16 on: July 05, 2011, 10:27:15 PM »
Djinn, this is probably something you can assist me with:

I changed offset 4AE61, which is the start of the string for the Witch class. 00 (Begin of string) 0A (Amazon) 00 (End of Witch string)

I tried to insert 22 after the 0A to test it and the game crashes. I'm not sure if I need to modify the tree entirely so that it ends up pointing somewhere else or just change it so Witches can't be un-promoted (which isn't really what I want to happen at all)

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2011, 11:17:38 PM »
I need more information... like "What all does a Witch promote to/from?"

But my kneejerk guess after read both posts is that you can't just overwrite the "00" tag since that ends the string. You can overwrite the "0A" since that's a job ID. And honestly, I suspect that you -can- overwrite the "00" tag there with another job ID ... IF you change the byte after that to a "00" tag *though notably this means that the next job on the list will have fewer promotion options* (and it's possible that you'll need to change the pointer for whatever the next job is to the new address, but I don't have a full disassembly in front of me, so I can't be sure).

Changing text: I suspect that the Nightmare modules can do this? If not, I thought I saw text tbl files on that OB website from your earlier post. Try applying those in windHEX and see what you find.

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2011, 12:17:33 AM »
A witch only promotes down to an Amazon, which is why the string exists such as that. What I think I may have to do is change it so the Amazon promotes into a Witch but I use a different pointer for it, so instead of using the 17 hex value for Witch, I steal another class's tree and change it that way.

So basically as it stands now it works like this: Amazon can go to Witch, Witch can go back down to Amazon but nowhere else.



As for the text-changing, there's an offset in the rom with everything and it's easily changed. So that part is thankfully easy.

Again for my own notes, header vs. unheader is a difference of 200 in hex or 512 in dec for the locations.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2011, 12:55:26 AM by Nephrite »

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #19 on: July 06, 2011, 02:35:33 AM »
Note regarding text-changing: I'm not sure how an offset in the ROM  makes this easy? I'm assuming this means you know where all the text is -located- on the ROM, but if you don't know how each byte translates to a character, I'm not sure that helps you much.

It's also worth noting that often times, the names of things (like Class names) will appear in more than one place in the ROM. For example, there might be a listing for "Witch" on the promotion screen, and there might be a listing for it on the "Witch promoted to Amazon" or whatever textbox that might pop up (Again, not familiar with OB apart from the one time I played half of it ages ago and the various DL stat topics about it). So you'll want to change all instances of those.

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #20 on: July 06, 2011, 04:23:16 AM »
That big infodump I posted to you had "Class names" and I can just modify those to be whatever I want, since the Hex Editor has both a hex and a text editor.

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #21 on: July 06, 2011, 04:30:07 AM »
What program are you using for hex editing?

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile

DjinnAndTonic

  • Genie and Potion with Alcoholic Undertones
  • DL
  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 6938
  • "When you wish upon a bar~"
    • View Profile
    • RPGDL Wiki
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #23 on: July 06, 2011, 05:34:36 AM »
It looks like a good Hex editor, but be aware that (most of the time) roman characters do not normally just appear in a raw ROM file when you open it with a Hex editor. If you've actually opened the ROM with this program and -seen- the in-game/menu text for OB at those addresses, then you're in luck. Otherwise, you're going to need tbl files designed to translate Hex into standard roman characters to read it.

Nephrite

  • Denizen
  • *
  • Posts: 2051
  • President of the Great United States of America
    • View Profile
Re: AMERICAN Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (A rebalancing mod)
« Reply #24 on: July 06, 2011, 05:53:00 AM »
Yes, I changed it in the ROM and saw it in the game, changed to the correct thing.