Final Fantasy III: FF6 - Brave New World

What started out with my initial desire to properly case everyone's names turned into a rather innocent discussion between a co-worker of mine and I about ways to improve/fix the original game, which in turn (somehow) became this.

FF6 - Brave New World is a fairly complete overhaul of Final Fantasy VI, featuring...

One thing BNW is not is a difficulty mod. While it is harder than vanilla FF6, we wanted to keep it accessible to newcomers while at the same time giving veterans a new experience. Hopefully, we succeeded.

Curious about what other people are saying about BNW? Like the mod and want to let us know? Hate it and want to tell us how much we suck? Completely indifferent and just bored? Feel free to drop by what's become the official forum for discussing BNW:




Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World - README

TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
1. A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM BTB
2. INSTALLATION
3. CHARACTERS & GAME BALANCE
4. PATCHES & ASSEMBLY HACKS
5. BUGS & KNOWN ISSUES
6. VERSION HISTORY
7. CREDITS & CLOSING

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




1. A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM BTB




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One day back in 2011, a coworker of mine showed me a Final Fantasy VI ROM editor that he'd found on the
world-wide pornography receptacle known as the internet. We got to talking about how the editor could be
used to fix bugs and other issues in the game, like how some asshole left the caps lock on when he was
naming everybody. This soon led to a discussion about how cool it would be if you could restrict certain
espers to certain characters, beyond which the story differs depending on which one of us you ask since
neither one of us wants to assume credit for instigating this mess. What we can agree on, however, is
that the resulting product is something that we're very proud of.

What is Brave New World? This is a question that I've found myself often at odds to succinctly answer
over the last eight years. In short, it's the mechanics and ideas set forth by the original game fully
realized with the assistance of over 25 years' worth of additional technology and design theory - not to
mention that, as a fan project, Brave New World is not bound by corporate deadlines and has thus been in
active development for nearly a decade. What began as a pet project between two coworkers has blossomed
into a massive community undertaking larger than either of us could have possibly dreamed.

Final Fantasy VI presented an unusually large cast for its time: 12 characters (plus two "hidden" ones)
alongside a veritable slew of abilities to use with them. But lurking just beneath the surface of this
illusion of choice was the harsh reality of homogeneity - there was little to individualize characters
who all had access to the exact same magic spells which far outstripped their unique skills in terms of
usefulness and whose statistical diversity was rendered largely moot by the fact that only one of the
four core attributes was even remotely functional. Although the game would often present a variety of
options at any point - Gau's list of 255(*) rages, for example - these options would generally consist
almost entirely of bad/useless ones with a select few ranging from being overpowered to flat-out broken.
Often, entire mechanics would be invalidated, such as Cyan's "SwordTech" skill not considering the power
of his sword so that the legendary blade which split the heavens in twain ultimately had the exact same
effect in battle as the crap he starts out with (which he probably bought on the Home Shopping Network).

*Several are unobtainable due to various bugs, which the original game was also full of

Brave New World seeks to offer meaningful choices to players by means of unique spellsets and multiple
growth options for each character and a challenge sufficient to warrant that investment. But unlike what
might immediately come to mind when the average person thinks of a "difficulty" hack, the goal here is
simply to provide a well-balanced game that acts as a vehicle for players to use the skills that their
characters will acquire rather than punishing (and then mocking) them for taking the most logical course
of action. Similarly, it seeks to avoid the "one road to victory" approach of offering several inferior
choices alongside the one "intended" option that anyone interested in finishing the game should choose.

But far and away the absolute best thing about Brave New World is the amazing community that has come to
surround it. I owe so many relationships with so many wonderful people to this hack that I can say with
no conceit that it's the best thing I have ever done. To everyone who has ever played or livestreamed or
even just told anyone about Brave New World, you have my heartfelt gratitude. Brave New World is what it
is today because of you. And as for those about to play... we salute you.

-BTB, May 2019

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




2. INSTALLATION




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brave New World is distributed as an .ips patch, which is the standard for console mods as it avoids the
legal issues of distributing a fully-patched ROM. To make things as easy as possible for everyone, we've
also included a utility called "Lunar IPS" which will apply the patch to the ROM directly rather than
having to set it up through your emulator.

To install the patch, just follow these easy instructions:

? ALWAYS PATCH A CLEAN ROM - that is, a Final Fantasy 3 US (version 1.0 or 1.1, it doesn't matter)
ROM with nothing else already patched in. This also applies to when you are updating to a newer
version of the mod. IF YOU DON'T PATCH A CLEAN ROM, YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME.

? There are two versions of the patch: one for headered ROMS (H) and one for unheadered ROMS (N).
If you're unsure, check your ROM's file size: headered ROMS are 3073 Kb, unheadered are 3072 Kb.

? If desired, apply one of the translation patches AFTER applying Brave New World.

? The most immediate indication you'll receive that the patch took is the new default window style
when the game loads (the patch doesn't change the title screen - awesome as it would be - to its
official logo). You can also view what version of the patch you're playing in the config menu.

Finally, note that while applying an updated version of the patch to your game will not invalidate your
existing save states, you should save the game the normal way (that is, by using an in-game save rather
than a save state) prior to updating and then reset the game afterward. This is to clear data out of the
SRAM, which often includes shit that we fix in our updates.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




3. CHARACTERS & GAME BALANCE




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The discussion of a subject as broad as overall game balance should probably start at the same place we
did in development, which is at the characters themselves. Final Fantasy VI had a fairly unique system
wherein pretty much the entirety of character development was tied to espers, which carried a few rather
obvious downsides. The first is that, due to bad coding/poor life choices, only one stat (magic) was at
all worth raising in the first place. This led to a lot of munchkining despite nothing at all resembling
enough difficulty to warrant it, especially considering that, because any character could use any esper,
the endgame invariably devolved into an Ultima spam-fest (which would be the other downside).

Thus, two major sets of changes were made to the code. One, we had to change how the game handles every
other stat so that magic isn't the only one with any value whatsoever. Two, we had to take care of that
pesky "everybody can equip every esper" problem. This allowed me to mold each character into a special
flower with unique spell lists and growth options. For further details on the various hacks that make
Brave New World different from vanilla, skip ahead to section four. Otherwise, what follows is a quick
(not really) rundown of each character in the game and the roles that they now fill.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TERRA & CELES
-------------

MAJOR STATS: All but Speed (Terra) / All (Celes)
MAGIC TYPES: All types

Terra and Celes are discussed together because they both still function very similarly to one another.
They're essentially red mages on steroids: Jills-of-all-trades who can easily adapt to any team you put
them in and who can excel in any role that they're set up for. Both lack a directly offensive special
skill, and so their usefulness is largely dependent on their spells and equipment. Lucky for them, they
have access to most of the game's best equipment along with more espers (and thus more spells) than the
rest of the cast. Terra's main advantages are a superior spell selection and a skill that capitalizes on
her beat-stick nature, while Celes is more well-rounded with better stats and support magic.

Runic and Morph have both been through some significant mechanical changes, as well. The former has been
standardized to work on all white, grey, and black magic (any spell that starts with a colored dot), but
not on any "blue" magic (any attack that doesn't). This, along with the fact that many more enemies use
such spells in general, is meant to make using the skill both more intuitive to use and worth your while
to do so. A few assembly hacks (discussed in section four) also fix some bugs it had so that it feels a
lot more like a proper ability instead of a broken mess.

Regarding Morph, it's now a toggled stance rather than a timed one and the first of several skills that
aims to rescue stamina from the "dump stat" heap by allowing it to reduce the doubled damage that Terra
now takes in her esper form in return for the offensive boost that it provides. This makes using Morph
a decision that hinges on more than just a simple matter of Terra being "charged up" for it, and those
who are willing to suffer the drawbacks will find that a morphed Terra is easily Brave New World's most
fearsome warrior and will likely be the first (and possibly only) character to hit the damage cap.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/146-terra-branford-the-power-of-love/
http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/151-celes-chere-dog-of-the-empire/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOCKE
-----

MAJOR STATS: Vigor, Speed, HP, MP
MAGIC TYPES: White, Black

At first glance, Locke appears to be nothing more than an inferior version of Terra and Celes. He lacks
their raw magical power and their massive spell repertoires, instead focusing mainly on physical attacks
and healing magic. But what he lacks in their versatility he picks back up with high speed and evasion.
Neither stat featured very prominently in the original game, and Locke serves as a good example of just
how significant these advantages are now. He tends toward armor of the lighter variety and dual-wielding
is now baked in to his weapon of choice rather than enabled by a relic, so his main defense is just not
getting hit in the first place. Furthermore, his speed advantage will be felt both in his role as healer
as well as his ability to dish out physical damage much faster than most other characters can.

Locke's magical abilities are also aided by the fact that he is now one of the three characters to which
the X-Magic ability is restricted. However, dual-casting with Locke is something of a double-edged sword
and an effective demonstration of how the more limited MP pools for the game's non-primary spellcasters
relegates them to more physical roles. That said, Locke is more than capable of outperforming the girls
on the magical front, but it requires a focus on building and managing his MP in order to pull off.

Rounding out Locke's skillset is Steal, which was reworked to make a bit of fucking sense. Only enemies
who might be actually holding something (i.e. humans) can be stolen from on Brave New World - trying to
steal from a bear will just get you a very dead Locke. The idea is that fewer and more obvious targets
for theft along with better rewards for doing so will make treasure hunting more attractive. The formula
has been reworked to use Locke's speed for both the odds of success and of getting a "rare" steal (which
was previously a set 1/8 chance), while a successful theft now immediately refills Locke's ATB meter so
that attempts can be chained together. This not only makes it easier to rob entire enemy parties, but
also upgrades "Mug" to a tactical multi-strike against human mobs.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/147-locke-cole-treasure-hunter/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDGAR
-----

MAJOR STATS: Vigor, Magic, Speed, HP
MAGIC TYPES: Grey, White

In stark contrast to the above, Edgar is a character whose usefulness is tied almost completely to his
special skills. Although one of our overall goals was to make regular physical attacks more competitive,
Edgar remains the game's one character with a clearly preferable alternative in his Chainsaw and/or his
Drill. In the original game, Edgar peaked early due to his tools being very overpowered initially, but
they failed to scale well and left him with little else to do in the endgame besides dragooning. We've
thus overhauled his tools and their effects in an attempt to keep the skill relevant into the late game,
as well as to reduce the gross amount of redundancy. Of note are his new tools - the Defibrillator and
Mana Battery - which provide a degree of utility and allow for a viable magical/support build.

Of course, making Edgar a physical powerhouse is still very much an option, and his weapons have been
reworked to ensure that they remain an important part of his load-out even if they are only functioning
as stat sticks. Swords provide good basic stat boosts, whereas spears have been retooled into defensive
weapons that boost max HP and allow him protect his allies. Spears now also possess the "hold with both
hands for moar damage" property (i.e. the "Gauntlet" effect), which can combine with the inherent bonus
that spears already add to jump attacks for truly amazing damage. In part because of this, and in part
because of the whole "unique flower" thing, dragooning is now exclusive to Edgar and Mog (...and Gogo).
One advantage of particular note in going the dragoon route is that jumping is not subject to the back-
row damage penalty, whereas the Drill and Chainsaw (see section four below) now are.

Ultimately, Edgar's most notable feature in pretty much any build is likely his ability to tank. He gets
a lot of HP through both his equipment and espers and he likes his heavy armor. He also gets more than
one long-range physical attack (that Autocrossbow may end up more useful in the late game than you may
think), so camping in the back row is always an option for The King. He gets several healing and support
spells to assist him in this role, but he must rely exclusively on his other skills for damage output.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/149-edgar-roni-figaro-hail-to-the-king-baby/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SABIN
-----

MAJOR STATS: Vigor, Stamina, HP
MAGIC TYPES: Grey, Black

Sabin has been through quite a lot of changes in Brave New World in order to make him fit his character
archetype. Whereas his brother is basically Kain from FF4 with Tools and a permanent hard-on, Sabin now
more closely resembles Yang. The mere presence of Blitz originally relegated his regular attacks to the
rubbish bin, and his claws didn't even make for decent stat sticks since the best blitzes all did magic
damage. Taking a cue from Yang, the new name of Sabin's game is a lot of punchy elemental damage with a
lot of added effects: his claws now all deal elemental damage and have random spellcasts attached. He's
then forced to dual-wield them in true monk style by no longer being able to equip shields. He makes up
for this, as well as his inability to wear much other armor, with some truly impressive base stats.

Blitzes have also been reworked, just as Tools were, in an attempt to keep them useful throughout the
game. The result is a varied skillset that provides a choice as to how to develop Sabin's stats. A vigor
Sabin, for example, will focus more on physical blitzes like Pummel and Suplex, both of which continue
his "added effects" theme by setting "sap" and "stop", respectively. The former remains relevant since
sap is a significant presence in boss fights while the latter remains useful to disable random enemies.
On the other hand, several blitzes are now affected by Sabin's stamina, making him one of the best users
of this once-useless stat. A stamina-based Sabin is a more defensive Sabin who assists his allies with
Mantra and its new counterpart (Chakra) that restores his team's MP instead of their HP while relying on
the now stamina-based Aurabolt and Sonic Boom (formerly "Air Blade") for the bulk of his damage.

Early in the game, Sabin's natural stats will make him one of the most powerful and beefiest characters
available. Later on, his limited armor options will become more of an issue and he'll have to rely more
on his high HP to stay on his feet. One advantage that Sabin has in this regard is that his high vigor
and stamina will help him take much more consistent damage from enemy attacks due to how they function
now as a sort of "natural" defense (see section four below for details), but he still ends up eating a
lot more of it in the long run than characters who can actually wear armor.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/150-sabin-rene-figaro-well-dont-that-just-beat-all/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CYAN
----

MAJOR STATS: Vigor, Stamina, HP
MAGIC TYPES: White, Black

Cyan suffered immensely in the original game for being the most physically-oriented fighter in a world
where magical damage reigned supreme and shitty balance decisions made 7/8 of his special attacks not
worth the fucking lifetime it took to use them. He gets a much-needed overhaul in Brave New World in the
form of a both a new global physical damage formula that renders his style of combat no longer complete
shit, as well as some special attention to his special skills in the same vein as Tools and Blitz before
them. From the undead-vanquishing powers of Mindblow (the "Dies if MP=0" flag is now used exclusively on
all undead foes) to the supreme destruction of Tempest (AKA "Quadra Slice"), every bushido has a purpose
to fill and a chance to shine. Also, the Bushido meter no longer takes a fucking lifetime to charge and
the strength of his sword actually factors into the strength of his sword skills (what a novel concept).

Like Sabin, Cyan is now denied the use of shields in order to force the inherent "can be held with both
hands for extra damage" bonus on all of his weapons, which helps make even his regular physical blows a
mighty force to be reckoned with. Also like Sabin, Bushido techniques that do physical damage will only
be half as strong to those without a brave warrior spirit who cower in the back row. But even with these
drawbacks, Cyan's heavy armor and earlier access to Empowerer ensures that he's just as good at taking
damage as he is at dishing it out. Furthermore, the overall lack of diversity in his esper bonuses more
or less guarantees that he'll end up with more vigor and/or HP than just about anyone else.

Build-wise, Cyan really only has two options. You either pump his vigor to solidify him as the resident
king of physical damage or make him a impenetrable brick wall. Like Edgar, he has several healing spells
so that he can bring his allies back from the brink whenever he finds himself the last man standing, and
the fact that Empowerer also absorbs MP makes him one a good out-of-battle patch-up guy, to boot.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/148-cyan-garamonde-retainer-to-the-king-of-doma/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SHADOW
------

MAJOR STATS: Vigor, Speed
MAGIC TYPES: Grey, White

Being a ninja, Shadow naturally winds up in the role of "fragile speedster" in this mod. He doesn't use
shields because ninjas have no interest in defending themselves when they can instead be dual-wielding
totally sweet ninja weapons, and the armor that he wears is of the "don't get hit in the first place"
variety. Shadow thus tends to die whenever he gets hit, but he almost never does. He does nearly end up
with the same problem as Edgar where his special skill completely outclasses his regular attacks - thus
relegating him to permanent "back-row" status - but the high price of throwables along with the option
for X-Fight later in the game are sufficient to lure him out to the front lines.

Regarding Throw, it's now restricted exclusively to knives, scrolls, and stars (no more chucking swords
or rods), and each type of throwable now functions more uniquely than before. Knives tend to do the most
damage, but are more expensive and only single target, whereas throwing stars can now be "spread" like a
spell to hit a group of enemies. Scrolls, as always, do elemental damage that can be extremely powerful
against a single target since the damage is forcibly "split" against multiple targets. Finally, Shadow
can now set the "image" status (also known as "blink") on his teammates rather than just on himself with
Smoke Bombs (known in the original game as "Shadow Edges"), which along with his handful of healing and
support spells make him an excellent utility character to have on hand.

Shadow's greatest asset by far, however, is his unmatched speed. Pound for pound, Shadow has the highest
DPS potential of any character in the game due (mostly) to just how fast he can attack; this is why he's
balanced by being made of tissue paper. Add to this his above-mentioned support capabilities and you get
an incredible addition to any team - provided you can figure out how to keep him alive.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/152-shadow-real-ultimate-power/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GAU
---

MAJOR STATS: Stamina, Speed
MAGIC TYPES: Grey, White

Gau has always been a love-him-or-hate-him sort of guy, and at least that much hasn't changed here. What
I've tried to do is make it harder to hate loving him by overhauling his Rage list in the same spirit as
the other special skills, thus rendering the 64 remaining rages (down from nearly four times that amount
in the original game) at least as desirable as the select few that were in any way useful before, not to
mention a great deal more diverse. The mechanics of leaping and the Veldt itself have also been fixed so
that those inclined to use him no longer need to invest a lifetime into building him up. Without going
into too much detail, enemies without rages (not to be confused with Men Without Hats) no longer appear
on the Veldt, and you don't actually have to be on the Veldt to learn new rages.

Stat-wise, Gau ends up drinking from the same punchbowl as Shadow: he dies in a gentle breeze, he likes
to evade damage instead of taking it, and he's one speedy little shit. Much like Shadow - perhaps even
more so - Gau ends up ludicrously fast by the end of the game largely due to a lack of other stats to
raise. Combined with the fact that his only means of attack requires no user input beyond the initial
selection, Gau can easily be Brave New World's fastest character.

In the end, though, Gau is still the same as he's always been: useful bordering on broken if used well,
but very difficult to use well. As the majority of his effectiveness stems directly from proper/clever
use of his rages, the info found in the printme should prove especially helpful to Gau fans. Otherwise,
he's designed so that even if you only grab a handful of rages, those few are at least still useful.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/160-gau-rage-against-the-magitek/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SETZER
------

MAJOR STATS: Magic, Stamina, HP, MP
MAGIC TYPES: White, Black

Setzer, perhaps most importantly, is one of the game's major healers. He's also arguably the beefiest,
with the potential to gain lots of HP and being mostly restricted to heavy armor. While his selection of
healing spells is obviously important to this role, equally notable are his Slots. Losing spins are now
twice as powerful as they were in the original game and act as sort of a poor man's version of Banon's
Health command, thus making for a quite effective - and spammable - full-party heal.

How Setzer likes to heal will depend in part on where his stats are. Traditional cure magic scales with
magic power, as do his Slots. The Remedy and Regen spells, however, now restore HP in addition to their
normal effects and instead scale in power with stamina. Both are of more use here due to a larger focus
on status effects - particularly sap and regen. Brave New World also features an upgraded version of the
Regen spell which will target multiple allies and is one of the bigger selling points of a stamina-based
build, and Setzer is one of the few characters with access to it.

On the offensive side of things, Slots have been de-rigged to favor skill completely instead of RNG, and
a magically-built Setzer can be a highly effective carpet-bomber if he can reliably nail winning spins.
Physically, he has the option to dual-wield, is the exclusive user of the reworked "X-Fight" relic, and
the fact that he's unable to raise his vigor through espers means that his damage output is completely
unaffected by build choice. And finally there's GP Toss: now a free-targeting stamina-based attack and
Setzer's best available source of consistent single-target damage.

The primary constant across any Setzer build is a heavy focus on tanking damage. But unlike Edgar, who
can counteract his choice of heavy armor with multiple speed-boosting espers, Setzer winds up as one of
the slowest characters in the game. But that's not really a problem for him, since he ultimately cares
less about DPS than, say, Terra or Cyan - both of whom have similar issues with speed - and more about
staying alive and keeping his teammates the same way. He doesn't learn a traditional revival spell like
Terra or Locke do and he doesn't have the speed to play fast and loose like Relm can, so his approach to
healing has to be a lot more proactive and preventative as a result. And that's not to say that this all
doesn't leave any room for fighting, just that it tends to be... well, a roll of the dice.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/153-setzer-gabbiani-the-angel-the-gambler/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MOG
---

MAJOR STATS: All but MP
MAGIC TYPES: Black, Grey

Mog is something of an oddball character in Brave New World. He gets a generous selection of esper stat
boosts and a great potential to maximize them since he's an entirely optional character, but he doesn't
really hybridize well, thus leading to some very unusual and rather extreme build options.

Probably the most obvious choice is to focus on Mog's magic power, which boosts both the potency of his
spells and of his offensive dance steps. With a smattering of offensive and status magic to choose from,
access to the X-Magic ability, and the ability to equip rods, going whole hog into jacking up his magic
power is far from a bad idea. Note, however, that Dance also uses his stamina not only to determine the
odds of stumbling on non-native terrain, but also to raise the effectiveness of the steps that heal the
party. The eight dances themselves have been rebalanced to be more uniquely tailored to specific builds
and situations rather than just being the same thing eight times over, just with different backgrounds.
Water Rondo, for example, is a heavily offensive dance that will be mostly appreciated by a magic-built
Mog looking to deal big damage, whereas Forest Suite is a more defensive dance that can be utilized to
great effect by a tankier build. Both examples are particularly useful in boss battles, whereas other
dances like Love Sonata and Dusk Requiem are more suited to random crowd control.

On the flip-side, Mog can also opt to forgo all of that "magic" crap and embrace his role as the mod's
other potential dragoon. While he may at first appear to be pretty much just Edgar, but cuter, he gains
access to a few things that drastically set him apart from everyone's favorite perv, the least of which
is a weapon type other than spears that make for viable pogo sticks. Generally speaking, Mog most likely
won't be doing much attacking aside from jumping since his physical damage output is otherwise lacking.
Ideally, whenever a physically-built Mog isn't taking a hint from Van Halen, he'll instead be taking
advantage of his spells and dances that don't rely on his raw magic power to be effective.

The conclusion is that, while Mog has many skills and abilities available to him, no one build is really
able to take full advantage of them all. Instead, it's better to focus on what you want out of him and
work toward that goal. Failing that, he tends to be a sub-par character with little purpose other than
being the adorable team/corporate mascot and a rather blatant author avatar.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/154-mog-mascot-with-attitude-kupo/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STRAGO
------

MAJOR STATS: Magic, Stamina, MP
MAGIC TYPES: Black, Grey

Strago is essentially Cyan's magical counterpart in Brave New World: he casts the spells that makes the
peoples fall down. He boasts the highest natural (and potential) raw magic power in the game, as well as
an ability which makes great use of it. Lore, as you can probably guess by now, has been given the same
treatment as every other skill before it wherein all of the useless garbage has been pruned out and all
that remains is now more useful. His regular spell selection is a bit less impressive, but he does get
X-Magic to keep it competitive/interesting. As for his equipment, rods (Strago's weapon of choice) have
been reworked as viable magic-based weapons (see "MP 4 Crits" in section four for details). All of this
makes him more dependent on MP than any other character to be effective in battle, and he's thus one of
the few who is able to significantly raise it and one of only two to learn the Osmose spell.

Strago's two main disadvantages are that he's squishy and he's slow as fuck. His natural stats and armor
will provide him with good magical defense, but his physical defense and HP will remain low. His shitty
speed can be overcome with enough of the right equipment and his survivability can be upped by a decent
margin with an all-out stamina build, but you really can't do both and either one will tend to come at
the expense of maximizing his magic power. Which direction you choose will hinge mostly on whether you
prefer to use him primarily as a nuker or to take advantage of his many utility spells/lores to support
the rest of the team. In either case, he probably needs to stay in the back row since the only advantage
of not doing so is better spell damage from his rods (which can, admittedly, be worth it in some cases).

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/155-strago-magus-get-off-my-lawn/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RELM
----

MAJOR STATS: Magic, Speed, Stamina, MP
MAGIC TYPES: All types

Relm may seem like a pint-sized, foul-mouthed version of her grandfather at first, but she's actually a
very different beast. Both are glass cannons with an emphasis on powerful magic, but their similarities
end there. First off, she trades a bit of her grandfather's raw magic power to get back some much-needed
speed. Second, Relm possesses a handful of the game's strongest spells both as her main advantage and as
her main weakness. Relm functions well as both an offensive powerhouse and as a traditional healer, but
the downside is that she has little else going on for her otherwise. Her early-game offense is largely
limited to Sketch - which at least works now - and her primary healing ability outside of end-game magic
is whacking her friends with a paint brush. Definitely a late bloomer, this one.

Because of Relm's strong emphasis - that is to say her outright dependence - on powerful magics, she's
the (only) other character who now learns Osmose so that she at the very least remains self-sufficient.
Just remember that she's still quite squishy, so stick her in the rear and use her speed and offensive
magic as a means to eliminate as much of the enemy threat as quickly as possible.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/156-relm-arrowny-age-is-just-a-number/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMARO AND GOGO
--------------

These two, lastly, end up in Brave New World as largely enhanced versions of what I presume they were
originally meant to be. Umaro is big, strong, hits like a truck and can take a lot of punishment. Due to
this, he'll appeal greatly to inexperienced players that are just looking for a tank to smash shit up.
But because he can't really do anything else, his long-term usefulness is somewhat limited.

Gogo, on the other hand, looks downright horrid on paper due to his shit stats and generally lackluster
equipment options. However, the mysterious pile of rags holds great rewards for the clever player who
takes the time to unlock his true potential. In the original game, Gogo's role was heavily diminished by
the aforementioned fact that, by the time you found him, your team was already full of faceless Ultima
factories. But if we've at all succeeded in our goal to mold every character into a unique being, each
with their own distinct advantages and disadvantages, then there is tremendous value in someone who can
wield any of those advantages at will. In fact, if not for his abysmal stats, Gogo would be hands-down
the absolute best character in the game. And even with them... he still very well may be.

http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/157-umaro-hulk-smash/
http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/158-gogo-slave-to-the-power-of-death/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




4. PATCHES & ASSEMBLY HACKS




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Esper Restrictions This is pretty much the cornerstone of the entire mod; it restricts the
------------------ use of espers only to characters who are compatible with them (refer to
(Synchysi) the printme for a full list), thus allowing us to further individualize
each character due to the fact that espers are basically the only real
contributing factor to character development in Final Fantasy VI.

(Special thanks to KingMike for help with optimizing this hack)

Esper Bonuses Aside from the above, and complimentary to it, the most sweeping change
made in Brave New World is transforming the esper level-up stat bonuses
from an apparent last-minute afterthought in the game's design into the
core of character development and customization.

Espers now offer the following (cumulative) stat bonuses:

? HP +60
? MP +40
? HP +30/MP +15
? HP +30/Stamina +1
? MP +25/Stamina +1
? Vigor +1/HP +20
? Magic +1/MP +15
? Vigor +1/Speed +1
? Magic +1/Speed +1
? Vigor +1/Stamina +1
? Magic +1/Stamina +1
? Speed +1/Stamina +1
? Vigor +2
? Magic +2
? Stamina +2
? Speed +2

Esper Experience We encountered several obstacles regarding esper stat boosts, the least
of which was that almost every stat sucked (see "nATB System", "Physical
Damage", and "Stamina Overhaul" below) and the most persistent of which
was that FF6's leveling system was clearly not designed with esper stat
boosts in mind. This ultimately resulted in an environment where, after
everything else was all said and done, players were penalized for not
keeping levels as low as possible in the early game because every level
gained without espers was "empty". Late-game characters like Setzer and
Strago were hit particularly hard by this, as was any character build
which relied heavily on World of Ruin espers.

To balance this, stat boosts from espers were given their own leveling
system independent of regular levels. Each character starts out at an
"esper level" (EL) of 0 - regardless of their regular level - and gains
esper points (exp. for esper levels) according to the following formula:

Esper points = (spell points * exp.) / 8

(NOTE: Spell points were renamed from "magic points")

Note that esper levels use the same experience table as regular levels
and cap at 25. Also note that a character will not gain any esper points
if (s)he has no esper equipped, which is no longer an issue because...

Esper Bank The newfound advent of character builds eventually found itself at odds
with the fact that they still had to equip espers to learn spells, which
meant a lot of battles on the Veldt and/or micromanagement of experience
gains to avoid gaining unwanted esper levels. To alleviate this concern,
esper points earned in battle now go into a "bank" for each character,
and spells are now learned by spending them in the esper menu without
needing to actually equip that esper and fight with it on. The learning
rate for spells on espers is now the cost of that spell; the maximum
amount of spell points that any character can bank at a time is 30.

Similarly, esper levels are "banked" in the same manner as esper points
are rather than being granted immediately upon earning them in battle.
This completely eliminates the need to micro-manage equipped espers for
the purposes of stat gains, and it also allows for a "re-spec" feature
later in the game that reverts all of your spent ELs to the bank so that
you can rebuild characters with different stat boosts. To spend a banked
EL, just click on the EL bonus in the esper menu.

Esper Junctions The only problem with the esper bank system removing the need to micro-
-(Think/dn/Seibaby) manage espers was exactly that - players no longer had a reason to care
(...and Nowea >.>) who had what equipped since the only functional difference between them
at that point was summoning them in battle. To address this, espers now
provide an "on equip" bonus just like a piece of equipment - such as a
stat boost or reducing incoming elemental damage - that is completely
separate from that esper's EL bonus.

For example, Kirin offers a +5 bonus to Magic when equipped, but raises
HP and Stamina for each EL spent. The former is a static bonus that's
only present so long as Kirin remains equipped, whereas EL bonuses are
permanent, cumulative, and not contingent on the esper being equipped.
Characters may also mix and match EL bonuses from their available espers
to their liking, whereas only one may be equipped at any given time.

The equip bonus for each esper is displayed in the esper menu where the
summon effects were shown previously; summon effects are now shown only
in the EL/spell acquisition submenus for each esper.

(Special thanks to SirNewtonFig for getting this working)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Levels & Experience Character levels are now capped at 50 with a "soft" cap starting in the
------------------- late 30's (expected end-game levels are mid-30's). Growth is otherwise
(Synchysi/BTB) linear except for three "humps" after levels 10, 20 and 30. For more
details, consult the experience/level chart in the printme.

Level Averaging In the original game, characters were brought up to the team's average
-(Bropedio) level at set points throughout the game. This was a feature we initially
removed entirely due to the above-mentioned issues with stat boosts from
espers as well as to encourage using a variety of characters rather than
just the same four while everyone else sits on the bench. The EL system
has since removed the first problem, so we've reinstated level averaging
in a manner that only addresses the second.

To the point, level averaging now occurs at only one point in the game
aside from initial averaging that's done for each character when they
join (or, in Shadow's case, every time he joins up with you in the World
of Balance). Everyone gets re-averaged to a static level (see below) at
the game's halfway mark, which is distinct from how they were originally
re-averaged upon (re)obtaining them; with it done this way, there's no
longer any benefit in putting off getting anyone back.

CHARACTER(S) LEVEL
---------------------
Celes & Sabin 18
Edgar 19
Setzer 20
Everyone Else 21

(NOTE: esper levels can't be gained via re-averaging)

Concerning the initial levels that characters join up at, that has also
been changed. In the original game, most characters joined at slightly
above the party average, whereas now everyone except Gogo (average -3)
and Umaro (average +5) now joins at the exact average.

NoGainz Finally, there is now an option in the config menu to disable exp. gains
(and, by extension, spell point and EP gains) from battle. This feature
is mostly intended for challenge gamers trying a low-level game, but can
also be useful for someone who wants to farm GP without over-leveling.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

nATB System The short explanation of what this hack does is that it pauses the ATB
----------- timer during attack animations and while the player is doing anything
(Think) (the original game did not pause during "Fight" targeting or while the
Bushido meter was charging). This has two effects: one, it makes speed
contribute more significantly to how fast and often a character acts in
battle, as well as preventing it from effectively soft-capping at around
60 or so; two, it removes the exploit of camping in the item menu under
the "wait" setting to gain a huge speed advantage. The resulting system
is basically a modified version of "wait", which I mention because there
is no longer an "active/wait" setting, nor a "battle speed" slider.

Speed Balance Removing the soft cap from speed and thus allowing faster characters to
-(Seibaby/Nowea) get more turns over time turned it into something of a DPS god stat, if
not just a god stat in general. In response to this, the overall effect
of speed was lowered at high levels while slightly raising the effective
speed of slower characters. Refer to the below benchmarks, comparing the
number of turns gotten by several characters over the same timeframe.

CHARACTER TURNS (OLD) TURNS (NEW)
--------------- ----------- -----------
Strago (30 SPD) 4.0 4.0
Terra (48 SPD) 5.33 5.0
Celes (72 SPD) 7.0 6.0
Shadow (128 SPD) 10.66 8.5

---------------------------------------------------

OLD FORMULA: (1.5 * (75 * (SPD + 20)) / 16)
NEW FORMULA: (1 * (75 * (SPD + 51)) / 16)

First Strike Contrary to the above change, a major intended feature of speed was to
-(Seibaby/Bropedio) allow faster characters to act first in battle. The original formula to
determine characters' initial ATB fill in battle took speed very little
into account and was instead largely randomized. Speed is now factored
more heavily, with faster characters like Locke and Shadow now getting
first strike in battles much more often than not.

---------------------------------------------------------

Initial ATB fill% =

OLD: ([Spd...(2Spd - 1)] + ([0...9] * 8) + 16X) * 256 / 65535
NEW: ([2Spd...(3Spd + 29)] + ([0...9] * 4) + X) * 256 / 65535

X = (10 - Number of entities in battle)

---------------------------------------------------------

For pincer and back attacks, initial ATB for characters was a modified
version of the original formula above that didn't factor in speed or the
number of entities in battle, typically resulting in a very low number.
In Brave New World, the new formula above sets the first bracketed range
to a fixed "2Spd" while also setting initial monster ATB values to full.

Status Timers Several status effects utilize a timer to determine when they wear off;
their durations have been reduced across the board to compensate for the
fact that their incrementation is constantly being interrupted:

NEW TIMER SETTINGS OLD TIMER SETTINGS
------------------ ------------------
Stop 5 Stop 18
Sleep 10 Sleep 18
Freeze 10 Freeze 34
Reflect * Reflect 24
Condemned ** Condemned **

(*No longer a timed status - see "Rflect Timer" further below)

Note that cutting the timer for sleep in half renders its duration about
the same as before, whereas stop and freeze were further shortened as an
executive balance decision. Condemned is a little bit tricky, since its
timer is generated by the following formula:

Random Number = [Caster's Lv...((Caster's Lv * 2) - 1)]

Timer starts @ higher of 10 or ((79 - Random Number) / 2)

This formula is largely identical to the one from the original game; all
that's been changed is that both the end result and the minimum starting
time have been cut in half to compensate for nATB.

Slow & Haste Because even small speed differences are significant in nATB - and also
because the "slow" status is now a major element of boss fights - it was
necessary to narrow the gap between the two speed-impacting statuses:

NEW MULTIPLIERS OLD MULTIPLIERS
--------------- ---------------
Slow 60x Slow 32x
Normal 75x Normal 64x
Haste 90x Haste 84x

Quickfill A notable resu