Shining Force II Hacking: Hacking Resources

Patches and Notes

A place for Shining Force 2 hack discussion, editing tools, new hacks etc.

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SirHedge
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Hacking Resources

Post by SirHedge »

For quite a while now I've been collecting hacking information offered on this forum and figured that maybe if it was more accessible we might encourage some more people to work on a hack. Some of this information is already available in the Hack Library, but much of it is not. I'm starting a new topic solely for the point of visibility.

I've tried to list the original authors for all this stuff, but I'm doing it by memory so I may have made a mistake here and there.


Patches
(click here to view all)

sf2 - peter and jaro no ai
Remove the AI for Peter from battles 9-12 and remove AI for Jaro in battle 32. Can be applied to either a 2MB or 4MB rom. By Earl.

Apply to a 2MB (normal) rom
sf2-searchbugfix-and-j-maps
Allow for searching in battle and changes around a few maps. From what I've seen so far it primarily changes the Elven Village and the Dojo. There is no longer an early Vigor Ball. And getting to the secret bonus stage is considerably harder (see if you can do it without cheating!). I saw no differences in any battle. The Goddess Staff is still dropped like normal, even though that doesn't happen in the Japanese version. This screws up the music for the intro cut scene. Not sure where this originated. I found it here.

sf2_3num_final (hedge)
There are a lot of various patches out there right now that allow you to show three numbers rather than ??, but I believe that this one is the best. BNC/Obob's patch works well, but the alignment on status screen is off. This patch fixes that alignment issue.

sf2_searchfix
Allows for opening chests in battle. Does not change anything else. By BNC.

Increase Max Range to 7
Allow you to modify items and magic so they have a maximum range of 7 instead of 3. AOE can also be increased to 7, though the increase won't display correctly. Note that SF2 Edit does not allow for values above 3, so after applying the patch you will need to hack in the larger values yourself. Note also that this uses some unused space in the default rom for the range tables. I have not tested if this space is properly referenced after expanding the rom using the Caravan. By 68000Fiddler.

Equipping ends turn
Applying this patch makes it so that equipping an item ends your turn (no more using the Running Ring to get closer and then swapping for the Power Ring). This patch also installs the "Increase Max Range to 7" patch. By 68000Fiddler.

Muscle Magic Patch
Makes it so that spell damage (and healing) is increased by 1/3 of the castor's ATT (including weapon bonuses). The +25% spell damage from promotion has also been removed. More information can be found here. By Ronnen.

Monsters and Magic Patch
Gives Claude, Zynk, and Lemon random magic effects like Kiwi's breath attack. Specifically, GLM randomly casts Dao (will hit adjacent), RBT randomly casts magic Laser (Zynk's normal laser is just a critical and won't ignore defense), and RBRN to randomly Desoul (will hit adjacent). More information can be found here. By Ronnen.

SF1-style Level Ups
This patch increases the randomness of level ups. So +9 and +0 are now both possible. The level 30 end points should be similar to before. The exception is with extremely low growth stats, such as Bowie's MP, Kiwi's HP, or Karna's ATT, as they will grow beyond their expected values. By Ronnen.
Note that I haven't tested this one yet, so if someone could confirm for me it works with the 2MB rom, that would be much appreciated!

Show Enemy Level
Replace N/A in enemy level with their actual level. Not sure how it works with 3 digit levels. By Ronnen.


Apply to a 4MB rom expanded by the Caravan
sf2_poisonpercent
Many thanks to BNC for scripting this for me. This makes poison deal 10% of a character's health instead. I haven't bothered to find where the percentage damage is located in the patch, but it's relatively small so I'd imagine it should be easy to find. By BNC.

Bad Maps Fix
This patch corrects most of the issues with the maps in the game. The zip contains a read me file that you absolutely have to read if you're using the patch, as there are still issues. This must be applied to a clean 4MB rom before making other edits. More information found in the forum thread here. By Earl.

Custom Item Drop Rates
This patch creates new custom drop rate tables allowing for greater flexibility in what monsters drop what items. Requires some basic understanding of hex editing to use. Read more here. By BNC.

Shining Force II No Centaur Patch
An awesome patch that makes all of the centaurs humans/elves instead. Very well done, in my opinion. Also updates the script to remove the centaur references. By SonGosun.

Hero Palette Expansion Patch
Increases the number of color palettes available for each battle hero sprite to 4. I'm not sure who designed this, though Stor is the one who released the patch. You can read more about it here.

Restore SF2 Sound Test Patch
This zip file contains a patch that restores the sound test to SF2, makes the config cheat enabled by just pressing Up, and a couple of other neat things. Hold Start + Up to view the sound test when starting a new game. Check out this thread for information on what every sound effect is. By Earl.

Frayja in Caravan instead of Party
Frayja will no longer force his way into your party at Moun. By Earl and Special T.

Recruit everyone at Creed's in the first visit
A patch which allows you to recruit everyone at Creed's in your first visit. By Earl.


Hack Information
(click here to view all)

Attack, Boost, Slow effect.txt
By Ronnen.

Battle background associations.txt
How to make battle backgrounds constant for any battle or switch them to use the land tiles for the background, and set which background is used where. By Nightshade.

Critical Sword and Counter Sword bonuses.txt
By BNC.

Edit Chest Contents.txt
A very simple method to edit the contents of any chest/pot/whatever in the game, even in those maps where changes would normally break the game. That means changing the Warrior Pride, or anything in the Elven Village, for example. By SirHedge.

Heal Experience.txt
Everyone gains experience from healing or using items. Found by me by looking at BNC's Halloween Hack.

Item Special Abilities (Life Ring, etc).txt
Change which items have the ability to recover HP or MP every turn. Also change how much is recovered. By Nightshade.

Item Drops
Change which monsters drop which items. By BNC.
If you want to see what monsters currently drop, you can check that out here.

Mithril Weapons.txt
Edit how the Dwarven Smithy works. By BNC.

Monster item drop.txt
Explanation for the default item drop table. By Nightshade.

Monster Map Sprites.txt
Explanation on how the monster map sprites are assigned, including how to use some unused sprites. By Nightshade.

Monster AI codes.txt
If you ever wondered what those AI codes meant, this is my best attempt at it. Note that I already know it's not correct. But it should at least give you a starting point you can build from. By SirHedge.

New Spell Levels.txt
One way to edit what spells are available to use in the game/SF2Edit. This allows for Desoul 4 or even Egress 2, not that Egress 2 would do anything different than Egress 1. While in this I've restricted it to just the same number of spells as existed in the original ROM, I think there was another forum topic that said you could add more. By SirHedge.

New Special Promotions.txt
SF2 Edit already lets you set new special promotions, but if you do the graphics won't sync correctly. This document helps explain how to fix that. By Earl.

Join Times for Characters.txt
Explanation on how to change the join times of characters. Careful with those essential to the story!

Pointer Locations.txt
A variety of simple changes, many of which are now incorporated into SF2Edit. Includes stuff for Kiwi, Sorcs, Promo Spells, Super Mode attack, curse and stun, auto resurrection, taros invincibility, prism flower damage, and burst rock damage. Many people contributed to this.

Remove Peter's and Jaro's AI.txt
Information I've extracted from Earl's patch above. Unnecessary unless you wish to only remove one or the other's AI.

Search Pointer.txt
Just contains the location of the search in battle flag from BNC's patch above.

Spell Critical Hit Chance.txt
Explanation for how to change how often each spell gets a critical hit. By BNC.

Stat Caps.txt
How to change the stat caps. By NightShade.

Weapon and Item Shop Calls.txt
I haven't finished working on this yet, but the basic idea here is that the various item shops in SF2 do not call the item shops in order. So Ketto and Moun both call shop 1D, and while Polca and Bedoe call shops 14 and 15, Hassan does not call shop 16. If you've noticed this problem and wish to correct it, this is a good place to start. I'll finish my notes on it someday. Thanks to Earl for providing the necessary information for working on this.

SF2 Dialogue
Contains all of the dialogue of the game, both as a single list as it appears in the Caravan, and also clarified by story segment, allowing for easier editing. The single list is from BNC and Stordarth. And Earl separated out the dialogue by story segment. Check out his thread here.

Character Voices and Portraits.txt
Information on how to assign voices and portraits to characters. By Nightshade.

Editable Maps.txt
Lists all of the maps that can be safely edited in the Caravan and those that cannot. From what I understand this may not be 100% correct. You'll have to search around for answers if you find a discrepancy. I think generally all the safe maps are safe, but some of the not-safe maps may not be not-safe. Obviously you can break anything so be careful no matter what you do. By Stor.
(Note that Earl created a patch which fixed many of these issues, which I've included in the patches section above. However, you need to apply that patch to a clean 4MB rom.)

sf2 flags.txt
A list of all the known event flags, including flags used for making characters join, if you feel like switching people around. By Earl.

SF2 Event Coding
If you're interested in events, you may also want to check out Earl's topic dedicated to the issue.

Events in Maps
If you're interested in how events are laid out in maps, here's Earl's topic dedicated to that issue.

Map Code Structure
One additional post by Earl talking about how maps are setup.

Map Setups
Map Setups (Older)
Threads where Earl describes the layout of the map data, with pictures.

Guide to Map Editing
A must-read if you're planning on editing maps yourself. By greyskies.

[GitHub] ShiningForceCentral/SF2DISASM
[GitHub] ShiningForceCentral/SF2RE
Want to find something in the underlying hex of SF2 and don't know where it is? While both of these topics are already stickied, here's another set of links in case you were too lazy to check previously!


Hacking Tools
(click here to view all)

Experience Editor
Edit how much experience you earn, based upon level differential to the enemy. Also allows you to edit the amount of experience gained by healing. By Ronnen.

SF2 Text Manager
Allows you to edit any text in SF2 with any characters. No more restrictions like what exists in the Caravan. More information here. By Wiz.

SF2 Font Manager
Allows you to edit the font in SF2. More information here. By Wiz.

Wiz is also creating a pretty nice list of resources that might be worth checking out if I fail to update them in this thread. See his work here.

EDIT: Fixed a broken link
EDIT 2: Added a new link
EDIT 3: Added some new patches
EDIT 4: Added some extra explanations for the links
EDIT 5: Added a new link
Last edited by SirHedge on Mon Dec 04 2023 6:42am, edited 34 times in total.
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Stordarth
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Stordarth »

Definitely worth adding to the Hack Library.
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Milestone: Shining Force 2: Milestone Edition {25/06/11} / 12 Man Marathon {25/06/11}
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LoV-Dark Dominion: Character Stats / Rebel Base Managment / Rebel Base Map/ Spell Damage Calculator
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Drakonis »

And Stor was faster than me again. Dat mod powers.

Thanks for finding all these. I was hoping somebody would gather all the small stuff that was scattered in more or less related threads.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Stordarth »

/flex

;)
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Hacks
Milestone: Shining Force 2: Milestone Edition {25/06/11} / 12 Man Marathon {25/06/11}
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RPG Gallery
LoV-Dark Dominion: Character Stats / Rebel Base Managment / Rebel Base Map/ Spell Damage Calculator
SFCW-A: Durandar, Sedor Silverwing
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Dark Phoenix »

Are you sure the No Centaur Patch actually removes references to centaurs in the game? Because I'm not seeing it in the patched ROM when I open it with the Caravan. I do see the edited sprites and stuff, though.
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SirHedge
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by SirHedge »

You won't see it in the Caravan because the user interface data in the Caravan is based upon static values, not game data. The "references to centaurs" meant any dialogue that mentioned Centaurs in game. So no one refers to Chester as a centaur anymore, for example, and he won't make any weird horse noises.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by RastaOddeye »

*whinny*
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Wetwille »

So is jaro a birdman now? :shock:
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by SirHedge »

I'm fairly certain he's riding a pegasus.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Wetwille »

Ooooh... nifty. gotta give that hack a try...
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Earl »

Hey, uh... I don't know if anyone would be interested in this, but...

Going through the disassembly, there are many chunks of data who's purpose is unknown. I think there are probably also instances where the function of the data is known, but the purpose of individual parts was never really described. If I posted address for these sections, would anyone want to try making sense of them and/or mess with the values and reporting on observed changes? Even if we can't make heads or tails of what the game does with particular data or it's format, the way the game reacts to the changes should inform us as to the function of the routines using that data.

It'd be something that wouldn't require any assembly knowledge, just comfortability with hex and a willingness to go through probably quite a bit of trial and error.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by 68000Fiddler »

Hi Earl, just registered to respond to this

Been tinking with SF2 for a couple of months now - accidently learning 68k in the process - all I wanted to do is make a simple hack but it's turned into an obsession. Anyway, picking over BNC's source and notes and figured out some of the unknown functions, or the gist of them anyway. Any specific areas you want to know more about?

Some pretty cool stuff in there - lots of redundant code, especially in the AI - most AI types are functionally identical, and AI attack and boost spells are disabled.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Lucifer »

I think that the sf2_3num_final (hedge) [3-digit stats] patch is faulty. I have tried it every which way: .smd, .bin, switched emulators, etc. I have used .ips patches many times before, so I know it's not a problem in the application of the patch. The game will start up, but every time I try to view stats, switch out a party member, trigger a battle, or even enter a character name to start a new file the game will completely freeze except for the background music. The only thing i can do is roam around the map. I have a recent backup, but I thought that the issues I encountered should be made known in hopes that the patch may be tweaked into working order.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by SirHedge »

Thanks for the note. I use my 3-num patch on my own game the only issue of which I'm aware is that it doesn't show ??? properly when HP values exceed 1000. I probably just have the wrong patch uploaded somehow. If you wish, I'm guessing BNC's 3-digit patch is still floating around somewhere. It has no errors and shows ??? properly. It's only issue is that I don't like the stat screen layout, which is why I attempted to make my own.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Stordarth »

Lucifer wrote:I think that the sf2_3num_final (hedge) [3-digit stats] patch is faulty. I have tried it every which way: .smd, .bin, switched emulators, etc. I have used .ips patches many times before, so I know it's not a problem in the application of the patch. The game will start up, but every time I try to view stats, switch out a party member, trigger a battle, or even enter a character name to start a new file the game will completely freeze except for the background music. The only thing i can do is roam around the map. I have a recent backup, but I thought that the issues I encountered should be made known in hopes that the patch may be tweaked into working order.
Have you tried the two different sizes? What I am referring to is the standard 2mb rom, and a caravan-expanded 4mb rom. Some patches only work on particular versions, and that may be causing the issue you describe if you haven't ruled that out yet.
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Hacks
Milestone: Shining Force 2: Milestone Edition {25/06/11} / 12 Man Marathon {25/06/11}
------
RPG Gallery
LoV-Dark Dominion: Character Stats / Rebel Base Managment / Rebel Base Map/ Spell Damage Calculator
SFCW-A: Durandar, Sedor Silverwing
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Lucifer »

Stordarth wrote:
Lucifer wrote:I think that the sf2_3num_final (hedge) [3-digit stats] patch is faulty. I have tried it every which way: .smd, .bin, switched emulators, etc. I have used .ips patches many times before, so I know it's not a problem in the application of the patch. The game will start up, but every time I try to view stats, switch out a party member, trigger a battle, or even enter a character name to start a new file the game will completely freeze except for the background music. The only thing i can do is roam around the map. I have a recent backup, but I thought that the issues I encountered should be made known in hopes that the patch may be tweaked into working order.
Have you tried the two different sizes? What I am referring to is the standard 2mb rom, and a caravan-expanded 4mb rom. Some patches only work on particular versions, and that may be causing the issue you describe if you haven't ruled that out yet.
I had not considered that, I'll give it a shot.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Earl »

I was thinking about the flags a few days ago, and...

This is only a fun thing to think about.
But given how many are unused in even a game as large as SF2, it would be entirely possible to do a Mass Effect style deal. The only thing the end user would have to do is rename the .srm before starting the next game in the series. That would be impractical on real hardware, but would still be kinda badass in a 16 bit game.

I never really thought about how Mass Effect did what it did, but it's so easy it's kind of disappointing it doesn't happen more often. The only thing that seems annoying is having to generate multiple chunks of mutually exclusive content. But that's not difficult in itself.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by jordanelias »

Bumping this since I keep losing it.

Not all the information in this thread is reflected in the Hack Library thread.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by Lucifer »

jordanelias wrote:Bumping this since I keep losing it.

Not all the information in this thread is reflected in the Hack Library thread.
There is a link to this thread in the Hack Library if you're having trouble keeping track of it.
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Re: Hacking Resources

Post by jordanelias »

Lucifer wrote:
jordanelias wrote:Bumping this since I keep losing it.

Not all the information in this thread is reflected in the Hack Library thread.
There is a link to this thread in the Hack Library if you're having trouble keeping track of it.
Apparently I lead an embarrassing life.
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