Zelda 3: Characters and Class Construction

[Leviticus]

So, new to playing around at romhacking, and I've been working through the hacking compendium for Link to the Past, building up a library of minor hacks (like, one hex byte changed here, one table rewritten there).  At the same time, I've been playing around with basic sprites.  Again, nothing too fancy; head swaps (including from other games), minor editing, recolouring, stuff like that.


Here's my goal:  Produce a series of five-ish characters.  That is, sprites that come packaged with gameplay modifications, so you can say "I want to play through [LttP, Goddess of Wisdom, Secrets of the Past, whatever], but as a mage", and there you are.  Cheaper magic (by altering item activation costs), at the cost of worse fighting in most other respects, revised enemy and bush drops, etc.

Also to be included in the package, all the components that are bundled up to make each character, so users can use just the sprites, just the gameplay changes, or dig down and build their own 'character class' by stacking on a half-dozen mini-patches.

Anyway.  Project: Ongoing.

September 03, 2018, 07:10:33 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
First sprite:  Anya the magus.

This is Zelda's dress, as brought into full usability by CRIMSON, with a head reconstructed from that of Alya (Chronotrigger) by me.


September 04, 2018, 03:15:29 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Second sprite, Gawan the Stalwart.  Again, nothing ambitious, just pasting link-faces onto a soldier sprite (that was given added poses by Eat The Beef) and then editing them and the area around them to make it work.

[Celice]

I love the idea of modular classes to replay the game with. Would be great for randomizer runs too! Hella reminds me of Dark Souls and would be a great way to replay the game

[Leviticus]

I love the idea of modular classes to replay the game with. Would be great for randomizer runs too! Hella reminds me of Dark Souls and would be a great way to replay the game

Thanks!

I now have a set of five working sprites (mostly simple 'rebuild head, add to body, redraw a little' stuff like the two above), and am messing with palettes for them presently - which may take a while, but they're coming along.

After that, it's just assembling a fresh set of class stuff for each of them out of my giant box of mini-patches, and I'll have something anyone can playtest if they want to.
September 08, 2018, 03:21:46 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
UPDATE: I have an alpha version you can test out if you want to!  It doesn't yet include a "de-gendering" patch to fix the bits where you get called boy and little man and such when playing a femme character, but otherwise should be fully functioning.

View / grab it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f-pWDxd-WZZYvqtVcPLijBZyyv4b5K9w/view?usp=sharing

Aaaaaand, I'm just gonna paste the Readme right in here...


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Part 1: Characters
Part 2: Class Construction
Part 3: Deconstruction

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PART 1. THE CHARACTERS
The basic method for using this package is pretty simple:  Choose one of the five classes included. Using Lunar IPS (or similar), apply to an unheadered US Rom.  Play.  Notes on the five characters are given below.

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ANYA THE MAGUS
Anya is fragile and bad with a sword.  She is, however, slightly faster than average, and spectacular with magic.

BENEFITS
You walk at 112% usual speed. 
Pegasus boots take you half as long to start up. 
You are 'invincible' after a hit 1.5 times as long.
Magic item activation costs (but not ongoing drains) are doubled; the mad batter upgrade will improve this to them being normal instead.

DRAWBACKS
Sword damages reduced heavily.
Most hits on you deal 25% more damage.
Start the game with only one heart (and the beeper for 'you have one heart' turned off).

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GAWAN THE STALWART
Gawan is tough and armoured, and good with a sword...   But is also unlucky with treasure, slow, and bad with magic.

BENEFITS
Sword strike damage increased noticeably.
Start the game with five hearts. 
Most hits on you deal 3/4ths of the usual damage.

DRAWBACKS
Bush drops poor.
Free-roaming fairies heal four hearts. 
Small loot drops 1/2 as common.
Rupees picked up worth 1-4-16. 
Bow damage 3/4.
You walk at 7/8ths usual speed. 
Pegasus boots take you 1.5 times as long to start up. 
You are 'invincible' after a hit half as long.
Magic item activation costs (but not ongoing drains) are doubled; the mad batter upgrade will improve this to them being normal instead.

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HOLT THE HUNTER
Holt is tough, outdoorsy, lucky, and great with a bow.  However, Holt is only average with a sword, and is abysmally bad with magic.

BENEFITS
Start the game with four hearts.
Most hits on you deal 7/8ths of the usual damage.
Bush drops great.
Free-roaming fairies heal ALL hearts.
Small loot drops 2x as common.
Rupees picked up worth 2-10-40. 
Bow damage 5/4 (125% of usual).

DRAWBACKS
Magic item activation costs (but not ongoing drains) are quadrupled; the mad batter upgrade will improve this to them being double normal instead.

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SATEBO THE SLAYER
A little quicker than average, and significantly more skilled with a blade.  However, Satebo is also more fragile, less lucky, disliked by fairies, and a terrible shot.

BENEFITS
Sword damage increased heavily.
With master sword, shoot sword beams at any health.
You walk at 125% usual speed. 
Pegasus boots take you 1/4th as long to start up. 
You are 'invincible' after a hit twice as long

DRAWBACKS
Start the game with two hearts. 
Most hits on you deal 12% more damage.
Bush drops terrible. 
Free-roaming fairies heal one heart. 
Small loot drops 1/8th as common.
Rupees found worth only 1-2-8.
Bow damage quartered.

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PARABO THE NOMAD
Parabo is fast, fast, fast, and good at magic... While being bad with the bow and completely abysmal with the sword.

BENEFITS
You walk at 150% usual speed. 
Pegasus boots take you no time to start up. 
You are 'invincible' after a hit 2.5 times as long.
Magic item activation costs (but not ongoing drains) are halved; the mad batter upgrade will improve this to them being quartered.

DRAWBACKS
Bushes drops mostly bad.
Free-roaming fairies heal two hearts. 
Small loot drops 1/4th as common.
Rupees picked up worth 1-3-12. 
Bow damage halved.
Sword damages reduced heavily; not all hits with first sword push enemies back. Level 4 sword and spin attacks required to hurt Ganon.


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PART 2: CLASS CONSTRUCTION

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Each of the five characters is built as a 'class', a package of small modifications that scale up and down, grouped into attributes.  The pieces that make up these attributes are given in the "Class Components" folder, organized by attribute. Most attribute names are self-explanatory except for Kenning, which is "How well does this class know their elf-stuff?" - archery, fairy lore, foraging, and general luck.

High attributes are better.  The attributes are:

Fencing: Sword skill.  Link is fencing 3 (no mod).
Health: Hearts and damage taken.  Link is health 3.
Kenning: Alf-stuff.  Archery, fairy lore, foraging, and general luck.  Link has Kenning 4.
Magic: The cost to activate magic items.  Link has magic 3.
Speed: Mobility in all forms.  Link has speed 2.

(Design note here: The default Kenning of 4 was chosen because being bad at these things doesn't suck all the fun out of the game.  The default speed of 2 was set because reducing speed more than a touch *does* suck the fun out of the game.)

The characters have:

Slayer:   Fencing 5, Health 2, Kenning 1, Magic 3, Speed 4
Stalwart: Fencing 4, Health 5, Kenning 3, Magic 2, Speed 1
Magus:    Fencing 2, Health 1, Kenning 4, Magic 5, Speed 3
Nomad:    Fencing 1, Health 3, Kenning 2, Magic 4, Speed 5
Hunter:   Fencing 3, Health 4, Kenning 5, Magic 1, Speed 2

...All of which add up to 15 (as Link's do) and follow the pattern 1/2/3/4/5 (though Link's don't, obviously).

For more details on the components of the attributes, look at the names of those patches in the class components, many of which contain further information.

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PART 3. DECONSTRUCTION

Rather than using the classes as given, you can apply the patches for each attribute at whatever level to build whatever sort of class you like, one after the other.  If you're trying to keep the same 'balance' as the other classes (that is, to introduce challenges alongside benefits), set your attributes at 5/4/3/2/1, or choose ones that total up to 15. If you're not aiming for the same balance, choose whatever attributes you like.

Naturally, you can also ignore the attribute notations given and just mix and match these mini-patches however you like, or modify a class to make the game (or the hack you're applying the class to) a bit easier or harder on you if it's giving you trouble or lacks a challenge; there are also "health plus" patches to raise your starting hearts up to 6, 7, 8, or 9 for just this use.

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