[RELEASE] Golden Sun: The Balance Age

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Seems I was using the wrong version of rom? I tried several different clean (U) roms & same problem, but then I tried a (UE) one and now everything appears to be normal; Wind Slash, Fume. etc are doing reasonable amounts of damage.

I would like to bring up that some rippers actually add ripper credits to the ROM.

I actually have something documented in the GS2 Documentation.

(Bootleg stuff???)
Stuff some ROMs may have that others may not:
08F79650 = MEGAROMS Screen 1
08F8C254 = MEGAROMS Screen 2
08F9EE50 = MEGAROMS ARM code (Press L+R on boot)
08F9EFE8 = Free
Note: The value at 08000468 will be 08F9EE50 instead of the original 0801319D.

A clean ROM is not suppose to have this, but some do. To know if yours did, obviously hold L+R on boot to see if credit information pops up. Assuming Caledor has data in this area, perhaps this could be the problem? (Dunno.)

P.S. = It's also why my C# program saves compressed text data to 0xFA0000 instead of 0xF80000 like the gstoolkit version.

[Caledor]

Seems I was using the wrong version of rom? I tried several different clean (U) roms & same problem, but then I tried a (UE) one and now everything appears to be normal; Wind Slash, Fume. etc are doing reasonable amounts of damage.

I would like to bring up that some rippers actually add ripper credits to the ROM.

I actually have something documented in the GS2 Documentation.

(Bootleg stuff???)
Stuff some ROMs may have that others may not:
08F79650 = MEGAROMS Screen 1
08F8C254 = MEGAROMS Screen 2
08F9EE50 = MEGAROMS ARM code (Press L+R on boot)
08F9EFE8 = Free
Note: The value at 08000468 will be 08F9EE50 instead of the original 0801319D.

A clean ROM is not suppose to have this, but some do. To know if yours did, obviously hold L+R on boot to see if credit information pops up. Assuming Caledor has data in this area, perhaps this could be the problem? (Dunno.)

P.S. = It's also why my C# program saves compressed text data to 0xFA0000 instead of 0xF80000 like the gstoolkit version.

Very intresting. Thanks for the clarification!

[isaac3000]

I play your hack as well, and must say I like it!

What I liked most about it is the fact that some weapons raise something other than attack as well. Light Blades raise agility, staffs raise max PP and Axes drop defense! I like this a lot! Also, the fact that  is the main healer is also nice, since she is fragile, and loosing her means loosing your healer, of course in base classes, I want to see what other classes provide!

Because I have my last exams tomorrow, I can't continue on playing, but I will post again about my experience with it!!!

[Caledor]

The weapon categories system is just the tip of the iceberg... read the opening post for all the info regarding my mod ;)

[isaac3000]

Yep I read through it! I must say I am impressed!! Since my exams are officially over now, I will continue my playthrough!!

[Caledor]

Patch updated to v1.24c. This makes Revive, Raise and Water of Life heal only 50% HP when used outside of battle as well. Many thanks to Lord Squirtle for his Advanced Reviving patch.

PS: atm it's a TLA only thing. In TBS those spells still revive to full hp when used outside of battle and to half hp when used in-battle

[Rolina]

Ah, sweat beautiful balance~♥

[Aurorain]

Not sure if anyone else has been having this problem, but my damage for certain spells(Whirlwind and Flame Wall in particular) seem to be doing ridiculous damage near the start of the game, practically one-shotting even the Mimic in Kandorean Temple. I get that the formula was changed to deal more damage based on how much max pp a character has, but the regular Flare does the damage it should at that point in the game(dealing around 20; Whirlwind up in the 70's at least...it hit the mimic for over 200. Flame Wall on average is hitting 130-140 as well.), yet having around the same base power as Whirlwind, and Jenna and Sheba both around the same total PP. Felix's damage with Growth/Thorn is a bit above average too, though it deals only a bit over half of Whirlwind.

Might be because I'm using a password-enhanced save, idk, but I didn't have this kind of issue in the first game. Any ideas what's causing the damage influx?

[Caledor]

Maybe another case of a bad rom? It already happened, try reading page 27 of this thread, from Seelegewehr's post onwards.
For future reference, my Flare against the first ruffian deals 18 damage.

[Aurorain]

Yeah, turns out it was a problem with my rom. I patched a UE copy, like the person before me, and everything's running fine now.  

[Caledor]

Yeah, turns out it was a problem with my rom. I patched a UE copy, like the person before me, and everything's running fine now.  

Glad it works now, but to me it's still a bit strange cause US and UE version only differ in 3 bytes. I'll upload a patch for TLA that should be compatible with US Roms within minutes, could you try applying it to your US rom and see if the problem is fixed?

EDIT: Uploaded patch 1.24d. Can anyone (the more the merrier) test it on clean US roms to see if the damage issue is fixed? Especially Aurorain and Seelegeweh, whom experienced the bug first hand.

[Aurorain]

Can't test out the other reported in spells yet, but just tried it out on a clean US rom, and Flare Wall and Whirlwind do the correct damage with that new patch~

[Caledor]

Thanks then, i'll consider the issue cleared. ;)

[VardenSalad]

Hey Cal,

Just wanted to mention that some of your classes have incorrect base stat multipliers, according to your class table Google doc.

Of the ones I've checked so far, the Holy Knight tree has incorrect stats. I only noticed that one in particular because I was flipping piers back and forth while checking base stats and saw that his HP was too low. it might be worth some time to sit down with the editor and double-check all the classes base stats again to make sure they are perfect.

Cheers.

[Caledor]

Hey Cal,

Just wanted to mention that some of your classes have incorrect base stat multipliers, according to your class table Google doc.

Of the ones I've checked so far, the Holy Knight tree has incorrect stats. I only noticed that one in particular because I was flipping piers back and forth while checking base stats and saw that his HP was too low. it might be worth some time to sit down with the editor and double-check all the classes base stats again to make sure they are perfect.

Cheers.

Hey Varden, glad to see you again. Just checked this issue, it seems i forgot to update the stats when i switched the general and holy knight tree. Thanks for reporting, I'll upload a fix for it soon v1.24e uploaded.

[VardenSalad]

Since the last patch, Fever has now become "Wakelfoul.".

Really not sure how happened. Is it on my end?

Wait...Corona and Fever have been flipped in usage? Or have they had their names flipped? Err...wait, was that something we'd already talked about? Trying to learn the editor on the fly, sorry.

[Caledor]

Since the last patch, Fever has now become "Wakelfoul.".

Really not sure how happened. Is it on my end?

Wait...Corona and Fever have been flipped in usage? Or have they had their names flipped? Err...wait, was that something we'd already talked about? Trying to learn the editor on the fly, sorry.

I see no issue on my end... try patching the game again.
Fever and Corona's names were switched around at some point but we discussed about it and they were reverted back to vanilla.

Don't worry and keep telling me about any other issues you find

[VardenSalad]

I just edited my file back to fix the strange naming issue. No other problems that I can see so far.

Caladbolg is neat, I like the (I'm going to guess) Watery Grave animation. Big multiplier too, I now have to pick between this and the Excalibur for Piers.

[Caledor]

I just edited my file back to fix the strange naming issue. No other problems that I can see so far.

That's fine too ;) How did your playtrough go?

[VardenSalad]

It isn't finished yet. Life got in the way hardcore and I couldn't bring myself back to the game until I resolved what I needed to.




SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T HELP THEMSELVES OR JUST WANT TO BE CAUGHT OFF-GUARD:



Just beat Star Magician. Nice alterations made to his fight Refresh Balls are now gigantic need-to-kill targets, even more than before. In the couple tries it took, I found that smashing all the balls until there were only Thunder Balls was the way to go. Keep buffing Resistance every few turns, heal with Incantatrix Jenna and Pure Mage Sheba (Cool Aura and Wish Well because I'm level 43), and then hitting SM with Mars Djinn from Felix and Piers.

As a note on the balance side of things, I only used the TLA party with the first 9 djinn in each element found in TLA. I never felt that any part of this patch has been so difficult that I needed 8 people (especially since summon rushing is out) and I like it that way. Being tactical has paid off and if that was the goal, it was a success.

Iridial Ring will help a lot. Can't tell if Triton's Ward has a place on anyone, especially since Cursed gear is so good and Piers has all the TLA gear (sans Darksword).

To wrap up my overlong post, it's a top notch rebalance. My word on this isn't perfect because I'd never played Hard Mode on Vanilla TLA, but you've accumulated enough extra content besides just enemy statistical tweaks to make this game worth playing again.

I'll never forgive Sentinel for just annihilating me over and over, though. That was very, very well done. Changes the entire dynamic of the fight.