Rockman No Constancy Weapons Patch v1.0
This patch allows you to play Rockman 2 with the weapons that appear in another ROM hack, Rockman No Constancy, by IKA. The weapons originate from the most recent version of the hack (v1.3) that was released in 2019, however unlike the v1.3 version Mega Man's sprites remain unchanged. A few cosmetic changes were also included, such as Roll appearing in the 'get weapon' screen and Mega Man's green color that is shown in the hard mode version of the hack.
In addition, the patch carries over the reduced post-hit invincibility frames from v1.0 of the hack's hard mode, but can be reverted with a supplemental patch to ease the difficulty if desired.
This patch aims to be compatible with existing Rockman 2 ROM hacks, so the behavior of the items were unchanged to accommodate for stage design that may rely on the mechanics of these items for stage progression (particularly within the Wily stages).
### Patch Info ###
Rockman no Constancy Weapons Patch ver 1.0
Created by Eightscer
First created June 9, 2021
Last updated June 13, 2022
Rockman no Constancy created by IKA
This patch overrides the original weapons of Rockman 2 and replaces them with
those found within the popular ROM hack Rockman no Constancy (RnC), originally
created by IKA in 2007 and recently updated in 2019. This patch only transfers
the mechanics of the weapons to the ROM you apply the patch to - all weapons
will deal the same damage as from the original ROM you patched. One exception
to this is that a fully charged shot from Proto Charge (Heat Man's weapon) will
be able to destroy some destructable walls.
The weapons were ported from RnC v1.3 but Mega Man's sprite remains unchanged.
This patch aims to be compatible with as many existing ROM hacks as possible,
so items were unmodified to ensure that you wouldn't get stuck from stage
design that complemented the behavior of the original items (e.g. racing Item 2
traveling below a platform). I've put a list of the games I was and wasn't able
to complete with this patch at the bottom of this document - generally, this
patch will work on ROM hacks that do not have a significant amount of ASM work
put into it.
To patch, use an IPS patching tool (such as FloatingIPS or MultiPatch) and use
the 'RnCW.ips' file to patch over an existing copy of Rockman 2 or a compatible
ROM hack of the same game.
By default, the patch also carries over the increased difficulty of RnC v1.0
with the greatly-reduced post-hit invincibility frames. If you find this change
to be too overwhelming (especially with Crash Man and Wily Machine), I have
included a second patch named 'imtooyoungtodie.ips' which restores the original
post-hit invincibility frames and also changes Mega Man's color to his original
blue color scheme (as he appeared in RnC's normal mode). Apply this patch only
after you first apply the 'RnCW.ips' to the ROM of your choice.
I hope you enjoy playing this patch as much as I had making and playtesting it.
-Eightscer
### Technical notes ###
For some reason, part of Flash Man's weapon data in RnC v1.3 was rewritten in a
new location within unused space near the end of the ROM. This would cause
problems when patched to other ROM hacks, as they would often use that space
for other purposes (usually music). To get around this, I had shortened it a
bit and rewritten in its original location. As a side effect of this, some
Rising Sun velocities were altered, but they were only ones that come from
impossible button inputs.
In v1.3 of RnC, Heat Man's middle charge was reintroduced and deals 3 times the
damage as a fully charged shot. I did not figure out how to carry this change
over, but even if I could I personally wouldn't want to do so. As you would
imagine, this modification would have made Heat Man's weapon more overpowered
than it already was and would practically trivialize any challenge. With this
patch, the middle charge will just deal 3 times the uncharged shot.
v1.3 also changed some "horizontal weapon offsets" (starting at $3D470) to
compensate for the new sprite. I didn't like the new Mega Man sprite of v1.3,
so the old one was used and I tried to adjust these values to what made the
most sense.
One major problem that comes with weapon patches like these are that anything
that explodes all share the same explosion pattern (a table defined at $3E11C),
so opposing crash bombs will be very difficult to dodge. This makes Crash Man's
fight significantly more difficult, so it is recommended to fight him with his
weakness or abuse invincibility frames with the supplemental patch. I had
attempted to fix this by playing around with the hex editor to make it a little
more dodgeable, but it results in enemy explosions exhibiting weird behavior,
especially during stages.
### Other Minor Anomalies ###
- All items are 'shot' out instead of thrown.
- Delay Flame doesn't disappear when damaging a boss in Gray Zone
- Incorrect animation when Ice Circle is blocked in ONN
- Rising Sun acquires the 'multi-hit' property from ONN
### Test list ###
Working and Beatable:
- Rockman 2
- Rockman 2 Gray Zone
- Rockman 2 Claw
- Rockman Exhaust
- Rockman Deus Ex Machina
- Rockman 2 ONN
- Rockman 2 Min
- Rockman 2 GX
- Rockman 2 Final Mix*
- Rockman 2 TP
*A screen in Wily 2 will force you to jump into spikes to destroy a wall
Broken:
- Rockman 2 Basic Master (all versions)
- Rockman 2 Yender Code
- Rockman CX
Database match: Rockman 2 - Dr. Wily no Nazo (Japan)
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
File SHA-1: FB51875D1FF4B0DEEE97E967E6434FF514F3C2F2
File CRC32: 30B91650
ROM SHA-1: 3E9DC769E1B63E73834786EC7FE9EDE7E706C72F
ROM CRC32: 6150517C
