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I took a break after completing my first spot check run of Shining Force 2 but have picked it back up in the last week. Here are some screenshots and discussion of changes in progress. This is only a small portion of my edits - limited as they are by what SF2Edit and the Caravan can currently do.
Enemy formations are the most obvious ways to modify the difficulty and flow of battle. The above screenshot is from Cameela's battle out on the Nazca plain. It is currently designed so that the group of 3 devils closest to the force charges out and attacks at the outset. Meanwhile the 4-person group right behind them slowly moves forward ready to pounce if the player tries to zerg rush Cameela's advance troops. They're strong enough that unless dealt with quickly Cameela's main force - the line of red dots through the center - will arrive to wreak havoc on an unprepared force. As if that wasn't enough Cameela is keeping some troops in reserve within the Nazca ship.
Peter attacks and finishes off a Devil Soldier. In this hack such soldiers are tough as nails with high defense and resistance to most elements but have lackluster attack power. This is an old screenshot. I'm no longer using ALL CAPS for unit/character names and have redrawn the game's standard font.
This screenshot does illustrate another problem inherent in system messages: differing name lengths. Devil Soldiers and Chaos Warriors have the longest names in the game. In order to prevent runovers all system text has to be written with this length in mind.
This better conveys the current state of things. My intention is to shift from passive to active voice and thus consequently shorten the needed text strings.
This screenshot also illustrates one of the many graphical errors in the original game. If you look closely at Chester's hand you can see he is holding the lance in the wrong place rather then keeping his hand behind the guard.
This shows off more of the font and how the text window could be better utilized if more attention is paid to character-by-line limits. (Sadly, as of this post all script work had to be redacted as it produced errors in the game's sound engine. I'm going to wait until everything else is at a satisfactory state before returning to this.)
Odd Eye has received an upgrade in stats (this is on Normal), a custom weapon just for him, and a Life Ring to slowly regenerate lost health.
Arch Demons are also a bit more intimidating with Bolt 4 as their primary arsenal. Unfortunately the AI cannot use the Attack, Boost, and Slow spells nor can it use inventory healing items except for Healing Rains. However the slow situation can be remedied by instead giving select devils the ability to proc slow. Arch Demons are one such devil which is part of the reason why their attack power isn't so great.
The special Healing Rain-toting Blue Shamans have become Shugenja whose job it is to defend and heal greater devils. They get two turns each rotation and have enough health and defense power to stick around for a long time.
Enemy formations are the most obvious ways to modify the difficulty and flow of battle. The above screenshot is from Cameela's battle out on the Nazca plain. It is currently designed so that the group of 3 devils closest to the force charges out and attacks at the outset. Meanwhile the 4-person group right behind them slowly moves forward ready to pounce if the player tries to zerg rush Cameela's advance troops. They're strong enough that unless dealt with quickly Cameela's main force - the line of red dots through the center - will arrive to wreak havoc on an unprepared force. As if that wasn't enough Cameela is keeping some troops in reserve within the Nazca ship.
Peter attacks and finishes off a Devil Soldier. In this hack such soldiers are tough as nails with high defense and resistance to most elements but have lackluster attack power. This is an old screenshot. I'm no longer using ALL CAPS for unit/character names and have redrawn the game's standard font.
This screenshot does illustrate another problem inherent in system messages: differing name lengths. Devil Soldiers and Chaos Warriors have the longest names in the game. In order to prevent runovers all system text has to be written with this length in mind.
This better conveys the current state of things. My intention is to shift from passive to active voice and thus consequently shorten the needed text strings.
This screenshot also illustrates one of the many graphical errors in the original game. If you look closely at Chester's hand you can see he is holding the lance in the wrong place rather then keeping his hand behind the guard.
This shows off more of the font and how the text window could be better utilized if more attention is paid to character-by-line limits. (Sadly, as of this post all script work had to be redacted as it produced errors in the game's sound engine. I'm going to wait until everything else is at a satisfactory state before returning to this.)
Odd Eye has received an upgrade in stats (this is on Normal), a custom weapon just for him, and a Life Ring to slowly regenerate lost health.
Arch Demons are also a bit more intimidating with Bolt 4 as their primary arsenal. Unfortunately the AI cannot use the Attack, Boost, and Slow spells nor can it use inventory healing items except for Healing Rains. However the slow situation can be remedied by instead giving select devils the ability to proc slow. Arch Demons are one such devil which is part of the reason why their attack power isn't so great.
The special Healing Rain-toting Blue Shamans have become Shugenja whose job it is to defend and heal greater devils. They get two turns each rotation and have enough health and defense power to stick around for a long time.
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