1 items
About this mod
NOT UPDATED
COMPATIBLE WITH v1.01 ONLY
This mod is actually two mods: one that turns Order of Ecclesia into an open-ended game (most areas unlocked from the start) and another one that alters many of the glyphs (some are just stat changes, others have mechanical changes).
- Permissions and credits
- Donations
Like I said before, this mod is actually two mods in one (it's modular, which means you can use one, the other or both at once): one that turns Order of Ecclesia into an open-ended game (that requires the use of the two patches that say "open world" in them), where the majority of areas start unlocked and another one that makes a lot of changes to glyphs.
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OPEN-ENDED MOD:
-Inspired by LagoLunatic's classic "open world" hack of the DS rom (but it works differently)
-The game starts with EVERY area unlocked, except: Dracula's Castle, Mystery Manor, Training Hall, Skeleton Cave, Kalidus Channel and the Lighthouse. I chose to do it like this to give "travel" areas like Ruvas Forest a (good) reason to exist still.
-Here's how you unlock each of those areas (basically like the normal game):
-"Why is the Large Cavern unlocked at the start, but not the Training Hall? They both give end-game gear!" cause the Training Hall is easy to complete at the start, but good freaking luck trying to complete the Large Cavern that early. Basically, if you can complete the Large Cavern that early, you deserve the end-game gear.
KNOWN ISSUES: it's difficult-but-technically-possible to softlock yourself if you manage to reach some places that require double-jumping to go back and you don't currently have double-jump (normally, those areas also require double-jump to get into them, so you won't end up in that position). If that happens, you can always reload or rewind (thanks, Dominus Collection!). You can also teleport back to Wygol Village using Magical Tickets (so stock up!), but keep in mind that they don't work unless you've saved Father Nikolai at the end of the Monastery (I'll try to change how this works in a future version). With that said, again, this should be a rare occurence.
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BALANCE CHANGES MOD:
-Familiar levelling was made A LOT easier (1 glyph absorbed = level 1 familiar, 2 glyphs = level 2 familiar, 4 glyphs = level 3 familiar)
-Buffed Morbus so that it has more utility, without just turning it into another damage glyph. It's now a "super curse", doing poison+stone+torpor on top of curse.
-Buffed Dextro Custos: it now does slash+fire damage instead of just slash (still only scales with STR), so it's now slightly different compared to Sinestro
-Buffed Sinestro Custos: it now does slash+ice damage instead of just slash (still only scales with STR), so it's now slightly different compared to Dextro
-Nerfed Acerbatus: it now only does dark+curse damage (no lightning)
-Nerfed Nitesco: it now only does holy damage (no fire damage, but glyph unions are NOT affected, so they retain the fire element)
-Made Fidelis Polkir ALSO drop from Nominon (early game version of Polkir) and lowered its damage multiplier to 3 (instead of 4). Why? Because it's the ONLY familiar that scales with INT and it only comes very late in the game. Now it's an option early on and does similar damage to Fidelis Noctua.
-Buffed Vol Ignis: it now allow 2 casts at once PER hand, instead of just 1 per hand. It's too weak for such a late game glyph that only hits the ground.
-Buffed Umbra: it now allow 2 casts at once PER hand, instead of just 1 per hand. It already only does dark damage (bad), but it's also hard to aim, so you get two so you don't just sit there and wait for it to fly around hitting nothing for ages.
-Buffed Refectio: Refectio no longer deactivates when you take damage, so it's a lot less annoying to use (and a lot better when you consider the buffs to Dominus Anger/Hatred).
-Slightly buffed Arma Felix and Arma Chiroptera: you can now transform while backdashing.
-Earlier Vol Culter: Vol Culter now ALSO drops from the Mad Butcher, so you can access it before getting to Dracula's Castle.
-Buffed Pneuma combo: you can now combine Pneumas while in the air, not just on the ground.
-Nerfed Dominus Agony: Dominus Agony self-damage was halved, but so were the buffs it gives you (so now you take 33 damage per tick and get +33 to all stats, instead of 66 self-damage and +66 to all stats). You're still going to turn it on, spam Glyph Unions and turn it off immediately, but at least a boss or two might survive now.
-Buffed Dominus Anger and Dominus Hatred: both Dominus glyphs are A LOT more useful now, because they only cost 2% of your max HP instead of 16.66%. So at extremely low levels it can easily be offset by Refectio, but at high levels it still costs a decent amount of HP to use. You might think this is WAY too big of a buff, but I did a whole playthrough with it and... Not really. They only do dark damage, which 1/3 of the enemies in the game resist (and resistances matter a lot in OoE). So there are some areas where they kick ass, sure, absolutely, but it's definitely not everywhere and you can still die if you don't pay attention to your HP (especially in Hard Mode).
So now, hopefully, every glyph has a reason to exist! I tried not to focus on nerfs, but a few things just completely overshadow others in the base game... So I nerfed them just a little bit to make things more competitive in terms of what you choose to use.
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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (short):
-Apply the XDelta patches provided to dra03.dll (in the main game folder) and alldata.bin (in the 'windata' folder). Use a patcher that allows you to ignore checksum validation (eg DeltaPatcher, that you can download from romhacking.net or github), otherwise you won't be able to apply both the open world and balance change patches at once (if you want) to dra03.dll.
-To be clear: the open world mod requires both the dra03.dll AND the alldata.bin patches with the name "open world" in them to be applied at once.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (detailed):
-If you want, create backups of the dra03.dll (in the main game folder) and alldata.bin (in the 'windata' folder) files.
-Get an XDelta patcher. I suggest DeltaPatcher (which you can get from romhacking.net or github), since it has an option to ignore checksum (so you can apply multiple patches on the same file, like you need here, if you want to use both the open world patch and the balance change patch).
-Unzip the .rar file to whatever folder you want.
-Use your XDelta patcher to apply the .xdelta patches provided to dra03.dll (in the main game folder) and alldata.bin (in the 'windata' folder). If they've been modified by other patches/mods already, then make sure to deselect the "checksum validation" option in your patcher program.
-To be clear: the open world mod requires both the dra03.dll AND the alldata.bin patches with the name "open world" in them to be applied at once.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPEN-ENDED MOD:
-Inspired by LagoLunatic's classic "open world" hack of the DS rom (but it works differently)
-The game starts with EVERY area unlocked, except: Dracula's Castle, Mystery Manor, Training Hall, Skeleton Cave, Kalidus Channel and the Lighthouse. I chose to do it like this to give "travel" areas like Ruvas Forest a (good) reason to exist still.
-Here's how you unlock each of those areas (basically like the normal game):
- Dracula's Castle: rescue every villager, kill Albus and then fight Barlowe (if you've ignored him until fighting Albus, you'll need to see a few cutscenes by going in and out of the room to activate his fight).
- Mystery Manor: go through the Argila Swamp
- Training Hall: find the secret entrance in Dracula's Castle
- Skeleton Cave: go through the Misty Forest
- Kalidus Channel: go through Ruvas Forest
- Lighthouse: go through Minera Prison Island
-"Why is the Large Cavern unlocked at the start, but not the Training Hall? They both give end-game gear!" cause the Training Hall is easy to complete at the start, but good freaking luck trying to complete the Large Cavern that early. Basically, if you can complete the Large Cavern that early, you deserve the end-game gear.
KNOWN ISSUES: it's difficult-but-technically-possible to softlock yourself if you manage to reach some places that require double-jumping to go back and you don't currently have double-jump (normally, those areas also require double-jump to get into them, so you won't end up in that position). If that happens, you can always reload or rewind (thanks, Dominus Collection!). You can also teleport back to Wygol Village using Magical Tickets (so stock up!), but keep in mind that they don't work unless you've saved Father Nikolai at the end of the Monastery (I'll try to change how this works in a future version). With that said, again, this should be a rare occurence.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BALANCE CHANGES MOD:
-Familiar levelling was made A LOT easier (1 glyph absorbed = level 1 familiar, 2 glyphs = level 2 familiar, 4 glyphs = level 3 familiar)
-Buffed Morbus so that it has more utility, without just turning it into another damage glyph. It's now a "super curse", doing poison+stone+torpor on top of curse.
-Buffed Dextro Custos: it now does slash+fire damage instead of just slash (still only scales with STR), so it's now slightly different compared to Sinestro
-Buffed Sinestro Custos: it now does slash+ice damage instead of just slash (still only scales with STR), so it's now slightly different compared to Dextro
-Nerfed Acerbatus: it now only does dark+curse damage (no lightning)
-Nerfed Nitesco: it now only does holy damage (no fire damage, but glyph unions are NOT affected, so they retain the fire element)
-Made Fidelis Polkir ALSO drop from Nominon (early game version of Polkir) and lowered its damage multiplier to 3 (instead of 4). Why? Because it's the ONLY familiar that scales with INT and it only comes very late in the game. Now it's an option early on and does similar damage to Fidelis Noctua.
-Buffed Vol Ignis: it now allow 2 casts at once PER hand, instead of just 1 per hand. It's too weak for such a late game glyph that only hits the ground.
-Buffed Umbra: it now allow 2 casts at once PER hand, instead of just 1 per hand. It already only does dark damage (bad), but it's also hard to aim, so you get two so you don't just sit there and wait for it to fly around hitting nothing for ages.
-Buffed Refectio: Refectio no longer deactivates when you take damage, so it's a lot less annoying to use (and a lot better when you consider the buffs to Dominus Anger/Hatred).
-Slightly buffed Arma Felix and Arma Chiroptera: you can now transform while backdashing.
-Earlier Vol Culter: Vol Culter now ALSO drops from the Mad Butcher, so you can access it before getting to Dracula's Castle.
-Buffed Pneuma combo: you can now combine Pneumas while in the air, not just on the ground.
-Nerfed Dominus Agony: Dominus Agony self-damage was halved, but so were the buffs it gives you (so now you take 33 damage per tick and get +33 to all stats, instead of 66 self-damage and +66 to all stats). You're still going to turn it on, spam Glyph Unions and turn it off immediately, but at least a boss or two might survive now.
-Buffed Dominus Anger and Dominus Hatred: both Dominus glyphs are A LOT more useful now, because they only cost 2% of your max HP instead of 16.66%. So at extremely low levels it can easily be offset by Refectio, but at high levels it still costs a decent amount of HP to use. You might think this is WAY too big of a buff, but I did a whole playthrough with it and... Not really. They only do dark damage, which 1/3 of the enemies in the game resist (and resistances matter a lot in OoE). So there are some areas where they kick ass, sure, absolutely, but it's definitely not everywhere and you can still die if you don't pay attention to your HP (especially in Hard Mode).
So now, hopefully, every glyph has a reason to exist! I tried not to focus on nerfs, but a few things just completely overshadow others in the base game... So I nerfed them just a little bit to make things more competitive in terms of what you choose to use.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (short):
-Apply the XDelta patches provided to dra03.dll (in the main game folder) and alldata.bin (in the 'windata' folder). Use a patcher that allows you to ignore checksum validation (eg DeltaPatcher, that you can download from romhacking.net or github), otherwise you won't be able to apply both the open world and balance change patches at once (if you want) to dra03.dll.
-To be clear: the open world mod requires both the dra03.dll AND the alldata.bin patches with the name "open world" in them to be applied at once.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (detailed):
-If you want, create backups of the dra03.dll (in the main game folder) and alldata.bin (in the 'windata' folder) files.
-Get an XDelta patcher. I suggest DeltaPatcher (which you can get from romhacking.net or github), since it has an option to ignore checksum (so you can apply multiple patches on the same file, like you need here, if you want to use both the open world patch and the balance change patch).
-Unzip the .rar file to whatever folder you want.
-Use your XDelta patcher to apply the .xdelta patches provided to dra03.dll (in the main game folder) and alldata.bin (in the 'windata' folder). If they've been modified by other patches/mods already, then make sure to deselect the "checksum validation" option in your patcher program.
-To be clear: the open world mod requires both the dra03.dll AND the alldata.bin patches with the name "open world" in them to be applied at once.