Final Fantasy III/VI Nova Hack
Final Fantasy III US Version 1.0
FF3.smc
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
email-supernova@brecnet.com
patch download site-

Welcome, and thank you for downloading my own hack for the game Final Fantasy III US Version.  Before I state what I've changed, I must warn you.  You must have a version 1.0 of the ROM.  To be able to tell this, use a hex editor, and check the first few digits.  If it starts with 80 01 00 00 00 (00s for a long while,) then you are on track, otherwise you might have a pretty screwed up ROM when you patch it.  Without furthur ado, let me get straight into what I've changed/implemented:

I.  Main Characters

a. Most of the main characters commands were changed. There are only a few true magic users.  
Here's a list of what got changed to what:

1. Terra   Morph-->Health.  You'll need this alot.  I thought about using Summon, but 	   decided against it, as it would make the game alot easier.
2. Locke   Magic-->Capture.  Yes, I have a Steal and a Capture.  However, sometimes you want 	   to steal something without killing the enemy.  Besides, there wasn't anything 	   else I wanted there.
3. Cyan    Magic-->Shock.  Makes sense doesn't it?  Who doesn't love Shock?
4. Shadow  Magic-->Capture.  Makes sense.  Hell, look at him.  
5. Edgar   Magic-->Jump.  Edgar in the original FF3 could equip spears, and I always loved   	   the Jump ability.
6. Sabin   UNCHANGED.  You may question why he still uses Magic.  Here's my reasoning.  He's 	   a monk or whatever.  He's in tune with nature and is at peace with himself, so I 	   believe he has the ability to learn Magic.  Don't like it?  Tough.  Besides, 	   nothing else really suits him.
7. Celes   UNCHANGED.  I left Runic in.  However, only the standard spells are Runicable.
8. Strago  UNCHANGED.
9. Relm    Sketch-->Control.  Permanently.  Sketch was stupid.  Control was a little fun.
	   Magic-->Lore.  Sure, she isn't actually Strago's flesh and blood, but I feel she 	   can still learn the stuff by observation.  And once again, nothing else fits her.
10. Setzer Magic-->GP Rain.  I don't particularly care for this command, but it fits him.
11. Mog    Magic-->Jump.  Like Edgar, he equipped spears, and it's funny seeing him jump.
12. Gau    Magic-->Fight.  Gau has Rage.  What's he need magic for?  Besides, sometimes you 	   just wanna use a Fight command with him!
13. Gogo   Has all his abilities set.  Fight, Mimic, Magic, and Item.  You may still change them, however.
14. Umaro  UNCHANGED.  Obviously.
15. Banon  Has a Blitz command now.  Just seems appropriate.
16. Leo    He has a SwdTech now, kinda a copy of Cyan, but you only get him for a few 	   minutes, so why not?

b.  Several of the starting stats were modified.  The women generally have lower physical attack power and HP, but higher magical attack power and MP.  Defense/Magic Defense, and Evade/Magic Evade were based more on a subjective influence.

c.  Starting equipment was relatively unchanged.

d.  Terra and Celes's natural magic were barely changed, just what Celes learns at level 98.

II.  Magic Spells

a.  A bunch of player castable spells were edited/removed.  Almost ALL spells MP cost and power were edited.  Spells cost more, and are SLIGHTLY weaker.  (Magic was simply too powerful in the original)
b.  As stated before, most of the player castable spells are the only spells that are Runicable in the game.  You can no longer Runic enemy spells like Megazerk, Blaster, Giga Volt, etc.
c.  Some specific, major changes to spells, in no particular order, are as follows:

1. Quick is no longer a spell.  It was changed to X-Wall, which is a spell that casts haste, regen, safe, and shell on one person.  It does NOT cast reflect.
2. Flare Star is no longer based on the caster's level, nor how many targets there are. This is a powerful attack now.  Your only plus side to this spell is that it's still Fire elemental.
3. Vanish is now only targettable at your own party.  No more Vanish/Doom for you.
4. If you thought you could Confuse your own party members already using Vanish, so they'll vanish the enemy, you thought wrong.  What's the point of casting Confuse on yourself anyway, besides trying to bypass my first safeguard?
5. Doom's Targetting attack was changed to a Vanish type spell.  He no longer uses it, and it was put to good use elsewhere.
6. Grav Bomb is now Dark Bomb, and is no longer based on percentages, nor does stamina affect it's success.  It's pretty much a regular enemy magic attack now.
7. Disaster now adds Berserk to its myriad of status effects it inflicts already.
8. Goner is now Supernova.  If a monster uses this...you're in trouble.  This bad ass spell targets all allies, ignores defense, doesn't split damage, and cannot be dodged.  It has a 200 power, thereby resulting in an almost guaranteed 9999 damage to all.  I couldn't make it 255, because the monsters that used it would be too powerful, and the damage would actually loop around and reset at 0 after a certain amount was reached.  (Czar Dragon did only 6000 because of this.)  However, trust me, it'll still do 9999 damage no matter what.

III.  Espers

a.  Many of the Esper names were changed.  
b.  There are no more level up bonuses associated with any Esper whatsoever.
c.  Raiden and Odin were swapped for each other.  The story reflects this.  Raiden's attack is now called Atom Edge, and Odin's attack is called Zantetsuken.  
d.  Upgrading from Raiden to Odin is now encouraged.  It no longer results in a downgrade.
e.  Some spells you learn from Espers were changed around, as stated here:

1.  Vanish is no longer learnable from Phantom.  It doesn't make much sense, but I don't think players should have that cheap spell that early in the game.  You now learn it from Fenrir.
2.  Ramuh teaches Bolt 2 faster.
3.  Raiden teaches Quake and Meteor.
4.  Odin teaches X-Wall and Meteor.

f.  Finally, last but not least, Espers' power and MP cost were edited.  Originally they were rarely ever worth casting except for a few of them.  Now they are somewhat useful.

IV.  Items

a.  One of the more time consuming aspects of hacking.  MANY items were changed.  There were, however, no item class changes.
b.  The Imp items are no longer existant.  They have been changed.
c.  Most items, you will notice, carry bonuses.  This is the way I wanted it.
d.  The Ragnarok and Illumina swords are almost identical now, and you no longer have to choose between them or the Esper Ragnarok.  This will be explained furthur in the story.
e.  Certain characters can now equip certain things.  Both Terra and Celes will mainly use rods, but can still use some daggers, and some swords, as they were part of the Empire, and must have had some training with weapons.
f.  Setzer can equip spears, but he does not have the ability to Jump.
g.  There is no more Offering/Genji Glove combo going for you.  Sabin and Gau are the only ones who can equip claws, and claws are the ONLY items that have the two-weapon ability.  There are three more items of importance.  One is the Dragon Horn.  You know what that is.  The other two are items that allow for X-Magic, and X-Fight.  One allows both, while the other allows only X-Magic.  Each one only allows certain people to equip.  Sabin cannot wear the item that grants X-Fight.  Find these items.  Do not lose them.  There is only ONE of each of these two items, and the Dragon Horn in the game.
h.  Safety Bits...these are hard to find, but if you find them, I'd recommend keeping them.
Ribbons only help females, and Mystic Bracers are the male equivalents of Ribbons.  Neither, however, protect from mortal attacks like death, zombie, and such like they did before.
i.  A welcome addition.  ALL items include the sprint ability.  To sprint, just equip something.  Anything.  
j.  Warp Stones are hard to come by.  Yeah, smoke bombs can still be used in battle, but Warp Stones are useful if you want to leave an area quick.
k.  The Cursed Shield is still very much cursed.  You can no longer vanish, nor image someone who equips the Cursed Shield.  It is now weak to EVERYTHING, including Wind and Holy.  (These two elements were normal damage originally.)
l.  There is NO MOOGLE CHARM.  So don't count on it to get you through any area.  Only the Monster Ward (Charm Bangle) is still active.
--Update--
The Moogle Charm has been reactivated.  However, it is named differently (Monster Charm,) and is also very hard to find.  There is only ONE in the entire game.  It can be found LATE in the WOR, and must be STOLEN from a particular enemy.  You figure out which one.
m.  All item descriptions were added/modified/deleted to reflect the new items.

V.  Colosseum

a.  The colosseum was changed somewhat.  Many of the tougher battles are fought against Siegfried now.  And he's NO pushover!  He's worse than before actually.
b.  There are no more Chupon battles.  All fights are for something.  The weaker the item bet, the weaker the enemy you fight.  Sure, if you bet a Dirk, you fight a Templar for a Mithril Knife.
c.  The betting system is generally one looooong chain, with a few breaks in the links, as they were needed.

VI.  Dialogue

Almost everything pertaining to words were changed.  Examples:  Town/Cave/Area names, event battle dialogue (battles like Kefka and Sabin at the Imperial Camp,) optional battle dialogue (stuff like Czar Dragon's quote,) battle messages (text that comes up like if you got hit by Cold Dust,) magic descriptions, rare items, Esper descriptions, Esper attacks, Lore descriptions, and finally the main dialogue.  There might be some more I missed mentioning.

VII.  Monsters/Formations

a.  Monsters' stats were upgraded generally to make them harder.  This game won't be a walk in the park.  Most stats I implemented were based on JCE3000GT's hack.  Nothing was copied stat for stat.  For the most part, I kept the stats lower than his in the WOB, and had the WOR harder than his.  Beware of Atma Weapon.  He has an OBSCENE amount of HP for that early in the game!
b.  Some monsters' AI, mainly bosses', were tweaked some.  The layout of most AI scripts GENERALLY looked like this:

Random spell:  battle or battle or nothing
wait until next turn

Well, most of the "nothings" were changed to something, mainly on bosses.  The bosses in the WOR have VERY few of these random "nothings" in their scripts anymore.
c.  Most WOR bosses have a LOAD of HP.  Usually the max of 65535.  More for some monsters.  See HP Loop section.
d.  The major boss fights in Kefka's Tower now have HP loops (for an explanation of this, see the end of this Readme) implemented into their scripts.  They have much more than just 65535 HP, however, you will not truly know unless you document it as you go.
e.  Custom monsters.  I have created some custom monsters, and have also put the Czar Dragon back into the game, as well as Siegfried as a normal battle!  Here's a more detailed look:
1.  Siegfried is on Mount Zozo as a rare battle...inside or outside the mountain, I won't divulge.  His AI is short, but he's still powerful at that stage in the game, if you aren't leveled up any.
2.  Czar Dragon is now in the game.  He uses his dummied quote, and has another quote when he dies.  He takes the place of Katana Soul.  Katana Soul is now the rare fight in the Ancient Castle.  
3.  My three actual custom monsters?  I won't list their names, but you'll find them in the WOR in these spots-Phoenix Cave, Cave in the Veldt, and my true terror, Ebot's Rock.  This monster actually takes Hidon's place on the dungeon floor.  Unfortunately his pre-battle palette doesn't match his battle palette, and I haven't the knowledge to change his pre-battle palette.  Hidon is now the rare battle in the cave.  The story does reflect this change, though.
f.  There are NO monsters that will die from their MP reaching 0.  If you liked killing monsters like this, find another way to beat the monster.
g.  For those of you who though Phantom Train would die from a Phoenix Down, think again, you cheap bastard.  He is not undead anymore.  You have to fight him this time, and he ain't easy.
h.  Morphing enemies is 12.5% harder for most enemies now.  A few were made even harder than that.  Some were unchanged.  Some are now impossible to morph.

VIII.  Patches/Bugs/Miscellaneous
a.  I used a few patches on my hack.  Namely Terii Senshii's evade fix, graphics patch, and Rippler fix.  I also now have the original title screen.  Thanks to Cless on that one!
b.  Thanks to Master ZED for telling me how to eliminate the highly annoying searchlight in Ebot's Rock.
c.  I consider my game 99.9% complete.  I will never consider it complete until I can change the dungeon palette of my custom monster in Ebot's Rock.  You'll find out who it is when you notice the colors of his pre-battle dungeon sprite don't match his battle sprite.  Unfortunately changing the palette being used on the pre-battle sprite is still undocumented, and I have not the know-how to change this.  If anyone can, email me, and we'll discuss it.  My guess is that it shouldn't involve any more than six hex values being changed.  (Six different tiles making up the dungeon sprite.)

Word of warning.  There may be many versions of this game floating around on the internet.  I'll tell you why I think so.  Either I patched my original ROM and can't remember doing it, or I found a version not quite 1.0, and not quite 1.1.  I had my bro, Bio, test the game with me, and when he patched his, his version had almost completely different AI for the monsters.  Couldn't figure out why, only guessing something was different about our base ROMS.  I even downloaded another ROM to make sure before I let him test it, and with MONTHS in between, coupled by sheer luck, I somehow found the same ROM I had used for my original ROM.  (With that many months, I don't really keep favorites in my IE folder, so finding possibly the same site was sheer coincidence.)  Make sure you try to find a site that documents the version number.  If you can't, use a hex editor as explained at the top to verify, though this isn't 100% certain, but I'd say it would be a 99.99% chance match if the hex values are the same.

One more thing.  Do not ask me for a ROM image, or where to find a ROM image.  I will ignore all such requests.  Besides, you should've had one before you went looking for patches/hacks.

I've noticed a few bugs, some I have been able to fix/circumvent, others I have no idea.  Before, when a HP looped monster died, they didn't drop their item.  I could only figure out it had something to do with the loop.  To circumvent this, and still kill the monster when it SHOULD die, I had to make the monster kill itself via a vanish/doom combo.  This is in no way the method I wanted to use, but I tried everything (with other nastier bugs presenting themselves,) and this was a last resort.  Yes, this means the monsters are susceptible to vanish/doom, but you'll still have a heck of a time casting vanish on one.  And if you do manage to pull off the combo, congratulations...you are a cheating asshole.  Now beat it the right way.  They aren't that hard.  I'm sure some of the guys at gamefaqs.com's boards could make mince meat of my monsters, by finding weaknesses.
My custom monster in Ebot's Rock allows you to flee.  I have debated whether to leave that option in or not.  The reasons I do this is because you may want to advance that part of the storyline and you don't think you have what it takes to defeat it.  However, the main reason I leave this option in is if you want to defeat it with someone other than Strago in your party.  Should you run the first time, the game WILL act as if you defeated it story-wise.  However you won't get items and such. (duh)  And since the monster will reappear after talking to Gungho a few times after he's recovered, there really isn't a big concern for me.  (He should say "(Monster) has appeared at Ebot's Rock again!  So what it said is true_It can never truly perish_"  After Gungho says this, go ahead and try again.
If you know of a way to make the game not forcing you to take Strago the first time, I would be interested in it, however I doubt it'd be easy, since he's required after the fight to advance the storyline.  (You'd need to change the events and such.)
If you find any bugs, report them to me at supernova@brecnet.com.  If you know how to fix anything that I have mentioned above, then by all means, I would like to know.

IX.  The HP Loop. 
The way this game is programmed, there is only a certain number of HP you can give any monster:  65535
To bypass this, and give a monster even "more" is to give the monster "lives."
To do this, one must implement a variable check.  when you kill the monster once, it adds one to that particular variable.  If the variable reaches a certain number, then you make the monster die.  
The only flaw with this is that the HP you can say it has is NEVER certain.  you can hack off 65534 HP, and not kill it, and then take off another 9999 HP, and technically, you've only killed one of it's lives.  Say it has two lives of 65535 HP.  A total of 131070 HP, correct?  Well, in a sense, yes.  But since it's AI is based on lives as well, if you take off 65534 HP (any combination,) then another 39996 from an X-Fight command, you still only take off 65535 HP, not 105531 HP.  The game won't check to see if it's dead after that first 1 HP damage is dealt.  It checks after the entire X-Fight.  If the monster is "dead" then it "reappears" one time, and the HP is reset to 65535, and thus the term HP Loop.  
So in a way, if you had a Genji Glove with two Atma Weapons coupled with an Offering, you could deal 79992, plus 65534 that you've previously dealt, and you think it should die...but it's only went through the first variable.  With this flaw, with two "lives" of 65535 HP, and a character with the combo going for him above, you can do 291052 HP damage when you finally actually kill the monster.  (You can deal 19998 HP more when you actually kill the monster with the original FF3 using a different method.)
If this has confused you in any way, sorry.  I tried explaining it the best I can.  Don't worry about it, and the monsters will die when they're supposed to die.


X.  Credits
To whom do I owe credit?
First off, I'd like to thank JCE3000GT.  If I hadn't played his hard type, I'd have never gotten the hankering to make my own hack.  I also have to thank him for making such a well balanced hard type hack.  Though I didn't copy anything, I did use his hack for a basis on how hard a monster should be in my own hack.  This saved so much time, it's unbelievable.  Thanks also for telling me where the ROM's name was stored.
site:  http://home.attbi.com/~jce3000gt/
Shiro Mesa for hosting the patch.  Without him, you wouldn't be playing this!  Check his site out if you haven't.  It's got a good number of cool patches, including the infamous "SuperAtma" patch created by The Grand Lord of Chaos!  You want a challenge?  THIS is it!
site:  http://sharkgaming.web1000.com
Master ZED.  This guy knows almost everything you could want.  Most of the things I asked him, he came through with an answer.  I wish I knew half as much as this guy did.  If you are looking into making a hack, be damn sure to visit his page.
site:  http://sharkgaming.web1000.com/Masterzed/index.htm
Terri Senshii.  Thanks for some great patches.  Your Sprite Editor was a major help as well!  What a great program!
Note-If you are a Gau lover, Terii has a program to help you find the rages you are missing!  You just need an .srm or .zst file!  I've tried it on my hack, and it works.  Won't guarantee anything for you guys though.
site:  http://teriisenshi.web1000.com/
GameFAQs Message Board.  There is the greatest FFIII board I know of.  Alot of people helped there, and though I can't remember who helped me with what, you are all thanked.
site:  www.gamefaqs.com
Some MAJOR thanks goes to Lord J, Yousei, and Eizneckam.  Lord J for his FF3usME, and Yousei  and Eizneckam for the program FF3Edit.  Without these programs, absolutely NONE of this would've been possible.
Yousei's site:  http://www.lfx.org/yousei/
Lord J's site:  http://www.angelfire.com/pq/jumparound/
Eizneckam's updated version of Yousei's FF3Edit is at http://www.zophar.net
Thanks to Brian Weiss for the program PatchRom.  It wasn't the best program, but it did have its uses.
site:  http://www.geocities.com/noprgress/patchrom.html
Another big thanks to Cless and Yousei again for their documents on the locations of certain things within the Rom.
Thanks again to Cless for his original title screen.  It looks awesome!
site:  http://cless.lfx.org/
One final, and certainly not the least, my brother, Biological Weapon (Bio) for helping me test for bugs/errors.  A major help when finding out I had a strange original ROM.  (Woulda sucked if I'd released a bad patch!)  Thanks, bro.
