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Chrono Trigger (SNES) - Level Zero (v0.7c) *Detailed Changes*
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This page includes much of the raw data that is used in Level Zero, as well as the reasoning for it.  If you want to "discover" the changes on your own, don't read this file yet!

The approach to this file is just to dump large chunks of numbers and ramble about them.  It's not the most sophisticated method of describing things, but it should hopefully deliver an idea of what I've tried to do.

 /---------------\
| Character Stats |
 \---------------/

Name	Crono	Lucca	Robo	Ayla	Marle	Frog	Magus	
Hp	592	489	654	626	458	560	523
Mp	51	83	46	41	76	62	89
Power	16	4	30	35	7	13	10
Speed	10	6	6	11	7	9	9
Stamina	66	54	73	70	50	63	58
Magic	32	47	34	29	45	37	50
Hit	15	24	17	28	20	16	31
Evade	21	17	14	35	19	25	28
M.Def	29	51	14	21	56	38	45

Hit Points [HP]
---------------
For starters, the max needed to be 666 or less in order for players to get maximum mileage out of Gold Earrings.

Magic Points [MP]
-----------------
I wanted to have some characters with MP over 60, so that HyperEthers have a chance of coming into play; in fact, it's debatable whether HyperEthers are even worthwhile now, but I'm trying to give them a chance.  As previously stated, these maximums are chosen with some malice towards characters just using the same top-tier technique over and over again.

Power
-----
The main idea here was to get these values pretty low.  This change makes the power of each weapon more important, and it also gives me a higher ceiling with power-boosting equipment.  Because of the nature of Robo's Tackle and Ayla's attack, their values are higher, and Ayla's also increases at four points.  These boosts are unlocked by defeating:

Azala
Giga Gaia
Dalton Plus
Rust Tyrano

She does not need to be in your party to earn these power increases.

Magic
-----
These values have less seperation now, but this decision is well-motivated.  For one, fighters generally aren't so fast anymore, so increasing their magic power is partial compensation.  Additionally, attack spells are magic *and* level based, so the change in magic power reflects that "level" is now zero.

Hit
---
Most of the party use their level 26 Hit values.  Marle and Lucca's ratings are chosen so that their early weapons behave well.

Speed
-----
In a normal game, the Speed disparity between characters isn't such a big deal, because you can give Speed Tabs to your slow mages in order to even things out.  Because I have taken away Tabs, this is no longer possible, so I narrowed the speed gap to even things out.  The most drastic change was cutting Magus's speed from 12 down to 9.  This adjustment obviously strips Magus of a lot of his power, but other factors still leave him as the ultimate magic user, assuming the particular enemy doesn't absorb shadow.

Stamina
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The idea here was to bring mages a little closer to the rest of the party in terms of damage protection.  Attention is paid to this value to make sure Dino Tail and Frog Squash behave okay, but there are other methods of changing their power that can revolve around Stamina.

Magic Defense
-------------
One objective is to make sure magicians hold an advantage here, but another is to make magic defense accessories attractive but not overpowering.

Evade
-----
Ayla's is high, while Robo's is low.  Others are chosen based on gut-feeling, because this variable really doesn't matter that much anyway.

 /----------\
| Tech Power |
 \----------/

These values apply to *all* characters.  As such, any differences between characters are now gone.

Healing
-------
Aura, Slurp, Kiss: 5
Cure Beam: 7
Cure: 12
Cure2: 21

Heal: 4
Heal Beam: 6

Life: 3 (down 70%)
Life2: Max

Magic
-----
Flame Toss: 9
Slash: 13

Laser Spin: 14
Fire/Ice/Water/Lightning: 16

Napalm: 21

Fire 2/Ice 2/Water 2/Lightning2: 25

Dark Bomb: 44
Dark Mist: 44
Mega Bomb: 55
Area Bomb: 55

Tail Spin: 70
Shock: 70
Flare: 70
Dark Matter: 70
Luminaire: 75

Physical (changes only)
-----------------------
Slurp Cut: 11 --> 12 (150%)
Robo Tackle: 21 --> 35 (up 67%)
Leap Slash: 18 --> 19 (238%)

Special
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Frog Squash: 10 --> 13
Dino Tail: 9 --> 10

 /--------------\
| MP Consumption |
 \--------------/

The driving idea here is that each technique should cost what it's worth.

Healing:
Aura ~ 4
Slurp ~ 4
Kiss ~ 4
Cure Beam ~ 5
Cure ~ 7
Cure 2 ~ 10
Heal ~ 7
Heal Beam ~ 9
Life ~ 9
Life 2 ~ 15

A big goal here was to make the cost of healing magic more reasonable.

Attack Magic:
Flame Toss ~ 2
Slash ~ 4
Fire/Lightning/Water/Ice ~ 3
Laser Spin ~ 5
Napalm ~ 5
Fire 2/Lightning 2/Water 2/Ice 2 ~ 7
Dark Bomb ~ 9
Area Bomb ~ 10
Tail Spin ~ 11
Mega Bomb ~ 12
Dark Mist ~ 12
Shock ~ 17
Luminaire ~ 18
Flare ~ 18
Dark Matter ~ 19

The first thing I wanted to do was bring the level 1 and level 2 elementals closer to each other, since their power is a bit similar; the level 2 versions mostly just have the (dis)advantage of being multi-targetted, so reducing some of the MP difference was important.  Slash may seem a bit expensive at 4, but it isn't that much weaker than Lightning, and you can use it to hit multiple targets.  The higher level spells are a little more difficult to get just right, but I'm working on it.

Physical attack techniques:
Cyclone ~ 2
Slurp Cut ~ 2
Rollo Kick ~ 2
Rocket Punch ~ 2
Spincut ~ 4
Cat Attack ~ 5
Leap Slash ~ 5
Robo Tackle ~ 7
Rock Throw ~ 7
Uzzi Punch ~ 12
Confuse ~ 13
Triple Kick ~ 18

The price of these techniques is typically proportional to the damage boost they give, but some considerations are made based on limitations or advantages of the technique.

Special skills:
Provoke ~ 2
Hypno Wave ~ 2
Charm ~ 3
Protect ~ 6
Magic Wall ~ 6
Haste ~ 8
Frog Squash ~ 14
Dino Tail ~ 14
Black Hole ~ 15

Magic Wall is decreased to 6 MP, and I think this is fair considering the spell's value is comparable to that of Protect.  On the flipside, Haste is arguably stronger than both, and as a spell lasts about twice long as Magic Wall and Protect.  I almost wonder if Haste needs to cost even more.

Frog Squash / Dino Tail are somewhat arbitrary.  Black Hole, well, is pretty irrevelant anyway.

 /-------\
| Weapons |
 \-------/

Rather than copy all the data over, I will explain most of the non-power changes I've implemented.

Crono
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The Wood Sword and Slasher 2 are replaced by a Mop and a Kali Blade.  Critical rates of the weapons are higher now:

15%: Flint Edge (from 10%), Aeon Blade (from 10%), Demon Edge (from 10%), Shiva Edge (from 7%)
20%: AlloyBlade (from 10%), Star Sword (from 10%)
25%: VedicBlade (from 10%)
30%: Kali Blade (from 20%)
40%: Swallow (from 30%)

Even though the Rainbow has less of a power advantage over these weapons, it is still generally your best weapon, although the Swallow (and it's +3 Speed) will give it a run for its money.

Marle
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The Iron Bow?  No more.  The only other thing to note is that the Siren's 40% crit rate has been reduced to 20% to fit in with all of the other weapons.  The exception is the Valkyrie, which has a crit rate of 40%, but this is fine, because the Valkyrie has no other special effects.

Lucca
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The Dart Gun has been nixed, but the Graedus is reinstated.  It's not like I expect anyone to use it considering the Wondershot (40% crit rate) does good damage, but it serves as suitable a counterpart for the Siren.  Yes, the Wondershot's power has been cut drastically, but in the long run, the weapon still does more damage than Marle's Valkyrie, even though the listed power is a bit lower (which doesn't take into account the skewed "randomness" of the Wondershot).

Robo
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The Terra Arm and other weapons have a little extra power now, although the Crisis Arm is no longer quite as awesome as before.  This is in part due to the core attack power of the weapon (which is increased to 32, but it's still kinda weak), but more because Robo can't get a max HP ending with a "9" now.  Nor would I want that to be possible; if anything, I'd rather see players resort to more calculated measures instead of just filling their HP to the max all the time.

You're best hope with the Crisis Arm is to wear a Power Seal.  Uzzi Punch when your HP unit's digit is high, and Tackle (or use a spell) when the digit is low.  Even with these limitations, it's still a strong weapon.

Frog
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His BraveSword and upgraded Masamune actually do 2x damage against "Magic Enemies" now, but there aren't many of those enemies after the Ocean Palace.  To make up for this, the upgraded Masamune now gives Frog a decent +4 Magic, improving his healing a little bit.

Magus
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The attack power of these weapons varies a little more, and they also have higher critical rates (ranging from 10% to 25%).

 /-----\
| Armor |
 \-----/

Crono and Marle start with Karate Gi instead of Hide Tunics, and Magus gets an Aeon Suit.  Otherwise the changes are just careful tweaks to make the armor set more progressive and more in line with the fixed stamina ratings the characters have.

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| Helmets |
 \-------/

Hide Caps, BronzeHelms, Glow Helms, and OzziePants are gone, since it was more convenient to have them removed in order to have higher defense rating increases between upgrades.  The elemental helmets can also be purchased later, but now only women can equip the MermaidCap, so that they now have a counterpart to the men's Dark Helm.  I suppose the alternative was to create a fire-elemental helm that'd be for women only.  This would make some sense in that there are two "Shadow" men and two "Fire" women.  Whatever, I'll take feedback about it.

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| Accessories |
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The idea was to make more of these accessories useful, so several have had their powers increased subsantially.  Generally, characters won't "max out" stats, so power of these items can be fully felt.  The exceptions are the Power Ring and the Power Seal late in the game for Ayla, because her Power stat will reach **.  This cannot be helped without creating new problems.  Still, there are other accessories (PrismSpecs, Gold Stud) that can give her a huge lift.

PowerGlove = Pwr +5
Power Ring = Pwr +20
Power Seal = Pwr +50

Ribbon = Hit +20
Hit Ring = Hit +50

MagicScarf = Mag +10
Magic Ring = Mag +15

Magic Seal = Mag/MgD +10

Defender = Stam +10
MuscleRing = Stam +15
Wall Ring = MgD +15
Flea Vest = Stam/MgD/Evd +10

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| Shops |
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It's time for some spoilers.

Sort of.

Those elemental vests are now for sale in Choras 600 AD.  The elemental helmets and the Vigil Hat are available in Fiona's shrine once you complete her sidequest.  Choras 1000 AD sells a wide variety of special items, including Lucca's Graedus, the three helmets that protect against single ailments (at just 10000 GP a pop), barriers/shields, and (Mega)Elixirs!  Medina's shop has had its armor downgraded, but it does sell Mid Ethers and Lapis now.

Speaking of Mid Ethers and Lapis, those are for sale in lots of other places late in the game.

 /-----\
| Items |
 \-----/

Items and their prices have been changed around a bit.

Tonics: 150 HP @ 100 GP
Mid Tonics: 300 HP @ 300 GP
Full Tonics: 500 HP @ 700 GP
Lapis: 150 HP to all @ 1000 GP

Ether: 600 GP
Mid Ether: 2000 GP
Full Ether: 5000 GP
HyperEther: 10000 GP

The Tabs have been replaced with items that can only be sold, as so:

Power Tab = Emerald @ 1000 GP
Magic Tab = Ruby @ 2500 GP
Speed Tab = Sapphire @ 5000 GP

And no, I didn't rip off two of these names from the Coliseum patch.  It's just a coincidence, and it's not worth the trouble to change them.

 /-----------\
| Enemy Stats |
 \-----------/

There are too many changes to discuss them all.  I wouldn't even know what many of them are anymore.

As a rule, the gameplay is supposed to be moderate, and then get harder.  The stats should generally reflect that, and the changes should be comprehensive, including HP, Attack Power, Magic Power, and periodically adjustments in defense.  The "Lavos Gauntlet" is not terribly difficult, but the enemies in it are *much* stronger than they were previously, so the whole sequence of battles at the end of the Omen will push you pretty far.  Have lots of restoring items.

Most of the charm changes are among enemies that formerly had Tabs or are in the Black Omen.  

That's all for now.