Dev Branch Changes

The BUCKET_FRAGMENTS flag has been replaced with BUCKET_LIST. Players can configure a set of objectives which will unlock the bucket at the end of time. The bucket will lead to a boss rush of Mammon Machine, Zeal2, Lavos2, and Lavos3. There will be the usual save point inside of Lavos prior to Lavos2. Aside from choosing the number of objectives present and required to unlock the bucket, the following two options are also available.

1. Disable Other Go Modes: The bucket will be the only path to Lavos. The Ocean Palace and Black Omen are accessible (and may house objectives depending on configuration) but access to Lavos and Zeal are restricted.
2. Objectives Win: The game ends immediately when the objectives have been completed.

More details on the flag and objectives are on the Bucket List page.

Gear rando was widely criticized for being too easy and too high-variance. Much of the gear randomization algorithm has changed to try to keep the flag enjoyable while addressing these complaints.

Rather than +/-/?, gear will roll from -5 to +5. Each +1 carries with it +10% (subject to change) damage/critical/defense increase. The negative effects are similar but are chosen as reciprocals of the positive bonuses. For example, a +5 would give +50% stats (x1.5) while a -5 gives -33% stats (x0.66).

There are a few extra rules.

• At +2 and +4 the gear will gain a more powerful stat boost (i.e. pow+2 → pow+4). Symmetrically, at -2 and -4 the gear will lose the stats it has if it has any.
• At +3 gear will gain an effect.
  • Weapons will have a chance to gain an OK effect (+Status, 4x Crit)
  • Armors will have a chance to gain an OK effect (minor absorb, protect from one type of status). Armors can also gain minor elemental resistance.
• At -3 gear will lose or degrade its effect.
  • Major absorb will become minor absorb.
  • Protect All will become protect from one status
  • OK statuses are lost
• At +5 gear is supposed to gain a major effect but this is not implemented yet. At the moment +3 and +5 are identical for effects
  • Doom, Crisis, Wonder, maybe even a low chance of 9999 crit for weapons
  • Chance at Major Absorb, Protect All, Haste, Barrier, Shield (Possibly these should be available at a low chance for +3s too)
  • Chance at Major elemental resistance
• At -5 gear loses all effects.

Every non-accessory goes through the +/- 5 process. Some gear has additional randomization prior to that.

• Haste Helm gets no special treatment. This is only listed here because it’s a major departure from old gear rando.
• Safe Helm will roll randomly between shield and barrier
• Prism Helm rolls a random OK stat boost and a random good effect
• Prism Dress rolls a random good effect and gets a corresponding name change (i.e. VigilDress)
• Moon Armor either rolls a random OK stat boost to replace +10 Mdef, or it loses its stat boost and gets a random good buff and corresponding name change.
• OG Masamune gets a random OK stat boost and OK effect.
• Ayla Fists are exactly as they were in previous versions.
• Rocks are exactly as they were in previous versions
• Ultimate weapons are exactly as they were in previous versions.

Each character only has one weapon in each tier in a gear rando seed. There are a few motivations for this change.

1. In previous iterations of gear rando it seemed inevitable that a good effect would roll on at least one of a character’s weapons. This was especially true for Marle and Lucca who do not rely on the actual stats of their weapons.
2. This may open the door for more interesting party composition. If Crono’s good or high-tier sword rolls poorly, then perhaps you want to kick him off the team in favor or an attacker whose weapons have rolled well.

A side effect of this change is that a character’s starting weapon can be slightly random. For example if Marle’s low tier bow is chosen to be an Iron Bow, then her starting weapon will be also be changed to an Iron Bow.

The quest is still activated by turning in the prismshard to the king in 600 AD. The scene where the king agrees to watch over the shell is shortened. Upon turning the shard in, the Guardia Castle in 1000 AD changes as usual, but the behavior is slightly different.

• Players may enter the basement treasury without visiting the court first. There is no guard blocking the way. Forced encounters with cathedral enemies are removed. Cutaways to the trial are also removed.
  • Players may loot the normal treasure boxes from the treasury and leave the castle.
  • When the key item is received from the rainbow shell (Marle in party), the guards will move to block the exit if the boss has not already been defeated. Then the player must go to the court and fight the boss to leave the castle.
• Players may go directly to the courthouse and talk to the guard with Marle in the party. The Marle crashing through window scene is immediately triggered. After defeating the boss, the player can collect the key item from the rainbow shell (Marle still required to interact) and the Melchior item from the treasury (with sun stone)
  • The cutscene where Marle reconciles with her father is greatly sped up.

It’s awful when the JetsOfTime appear at the Snail Stop or the Lazy Carpenter. Taking inspiration from FF1R, we put the Epoch in a gated location so that an early Jets does not mean early flight. After obtaining the JetsOfTime, talking to the bashers on the Blackbird dock in Zeal will trigger the boss fight on the flying Epoch. After winning the fight, players are returned to the 12k BC overworld with a flying Epoch.

At the moment, this change requires the new experimental UNLOCKED_SKYGATES flag to be enabled.

• Dragon Tank and R-Series are in the boss pool. Prison Catwalks and Factory are in the spot pool. There needs to be some logic to prevent softlock at the Prison Catwalks that isn’t implemented yet.
• North Cape Magus and Mud Imp are in the boss pool.
  • NC Magus is probably too strong/unfun.
  • Mud Imp is so low hp (has a small share of the spot total) that it’s a bit uninteresting right now.
• Minor visual improvements
  • Damage numbers should no longer appear behind boss parts.
  • Many (not all) glitchy animations are removed.

The following flags were designed for use in Vanilla Rando mode, but they may be useful in standard jets. After the description of each flag is some editorialization about whether the change is actually good for gameplay.

• UNLOCKED_SKYGATES: The skygates leading to and from Zeal are always unlocked instead of requiring completion of Tyrano Lair or Magus’s Castle. (With Epoch Fail, see “Epoch Fail Rework” above)
  • This feels like a great change. Access to the Nu Shop does not feel game-breaking. Earlier access to two more speed tabs makes some slower teams more viable, especially if preparing for Mt. Woe.
• ADD_SUNKEEP_SPOT: The Sun Keep in 2300 becomes a KI spot. The Moon Stone will charge into a random item and the Sun Stone will be obtainable independent of the Moon Stone.
  • This makes the Melchior item easier to obtain.
  • With improvements to the Prism Shard quest, this might not be necessary.
• ADD_BEKKLER_SPOT: The clone game in the Millenial Fair becomes a KI spot. Upon obtaining the C. Trigger, Bekkler will offer you a random KI for playing the clone game (no silver points required). The KI is obtained by picking it up in Crono’s room.
  • The clone game presents another interesting choice with money. If you fail the game early, you can still buy the item (more money for earlier failure).
  • The spot is easily scoutable (Bekkler gives the item name at the start “So you want a <item>? Normally I’d never do this…”)
  • The C. Trigger becomes less of a dead item.
  • The big problem is that adding a spot without adding a KI means one more spot that needs to be filled with a high tier item instead of progression.
• RESTORE_TOOLS: Adds the Tools back to the KI pool as a requirement for fixing NR.
• ADD_CYRUS_SPOT: Talking to Cyrus’s grave with Frog will not give Frog a stat boost but instead will reward a KI.
• RESTORE_JOHNNY_RACE: Adds Johnny back to Lab 32. Foot access to Lab32 is blocked without the Bike Key (new KI).
• ADD_RACELOG_SPOT: Puts a KI into the vanilla Race Log chest. Designed to be used with RESTORE_JOHNNY_RACE to make up for the added KI.
• ADD_OZZIE_SPOT: Adds a KI to Ozzie’s Fort after the cat drop.
• SPLIT_ARRIS_DOME: Adds the Seed to the KI Pool. Adds a KI spot to the corpse in the Arris Dome food locker (vanilla Seed spot). Arris dome now has two KIs: One after defeating Guardian and checking the corpse and another after checking the bike champ computer and bringing the Seed to Doan.
  • The idea is that now Arris becomes very fast if you only want to clear Guardian and get the food storage item. If you happen to have charged the pendant or found the seed, then you may want to do the normal route.
• VANILLA_DESERT: Requires talking to the plant lady in Zeal palace to get the Sunken Desert to appear.
  • This makes sense in vanilla because desert is an endgame spot, but this is probably not right for standard jets.
• VANILLA_ROBO_RIBBON: Removes the RoboRibbon as a KI. Adds the vanilla Atropos’s ribbon buff (+3 speed, +10 mdef) after defeating Atropos (not Atropos as Twins). If Atropos is not in the seed, then the buff is obtained after defeating the boss of Geno Dome.

At the moment there is only one new cosmetic option: AUTO_RUN. When this flag is set, the player will move at run speed by default and will walk when the run button is held.

A few scripts have been shortened to have a smoother play experience.

• After Lavos crashes in 65m BC, the scene where the characters are sparkles is greatly sped up.
• There is less dialog when getting mid ethers from Fritz
• When turning in the Toma’s Pop, Toma will ask whether you know where the Giant’s Claw is. If you say yes, the scene showing the Giant’s Claw will be skipped and Toma will immediately shove off.
• The intermediate teleporter on the way to Zeal palace is removed.
• The carpenter will completely repair the Northern Ruins with the first activation.
• Various parts of the Prismshard quest are faster, but this is dealt with in its own section.