Suikoden 1 editor

A forum to ask questions if you are stuck in the The Gate Rune Wars; or wish for more clarity on the gameplay systems.
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STARWIN
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Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:48 am

Suikoden 1 editor

Post by STARWIN »

Suikoden 1 editor: https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1272/

Compatible versions:

SLES_005.27 (PAL)
SLPM_860.17 (one of the J versions)
SLUS_002.92 (US 96)
SLUS_002.92 (US 97)

Usage:

Extract it to some folder. Copy a raw cd image of Suikoden 1 to that folder. For example the .bin in bin/cue or the .img in ccd/img/sub. Edit cdImageName.txt and make sure the image name is there in quotes.

You should be able to operate the following without cmd line (they should pause after completion to show error/done message):

s1extract.bat <- this will generate a "suiko1gamedata_out.txt" file from the cd image
s1insert.bat <- this will insert everything from "suiko1gamedata_in.txt" to the cd image (so you need to rename the _out to _in)
recalc.bat <- this will correct the checksums in the cd image. run this after insertion. (it is generic and should work for all ps1 games if you mod them directly like the insertion here does)

Everything you can edit is between a pair of ; characters in the .txt file - these should all contain one decimal value and possibly whitespace for aesthetics. Everything else is a comment, that you can freely remove or add (and the editor auto-comments a bunch of stuff as help comments). Don't add or remove any ; characters though, or swap them with each other because it just scans the .txt from up to down when it inserts the values back..

You can insert a .txt file extracted from any supported version to any other supported version. Note though that the japanese version has a differing drop probability for the third item of the two Banshee enemies. (and a different price for some book that can't be bought, i guess). Also if you extract from the japanese version, most text will be garbage (but as this doesn't edit text, it is only a visual thing).

Quirks:
-Ted and Odessa share the same weapon and some of the values point to the same thing, only Odessa's values will be inserted in those cases
-Extraction will give one wrong value initially; search for the 3x Banshee, 1x Golem formation and change 2 to 0 to fix, so that when you insert, the game will remain as it was originally, if that is desired (there is a hidden formation size that differs from the formation in this one case, but I ignore it to reduce redundant values in general)

Thanks to Celes for Bestiary/Armor/Initial equipment guides, as these accelerated my work. I used your guesses/knowledge for some of the value meanings.
Thanks to Neill Corlett for having cdpatch source open, so I could make a simple ECC recalc program (although there are other ways too).
Thanks to everyone else who put some details of S1 to the net (although most of it was useless).

I haven't tested the editor much. Something could definitely be incorrect. If something doesn't work, please tell. I can also answer questions about some of the technicalities in the game if I happen to know them. I'll probably add more things to the editor after some months or such, as there are parts I haven't examined at all. I can definitely do small asm modifications as well, for example to make level ups deterministic or fix that rune piece naming thing or whatever is small and useful.

Changelog:

1b
-formation insertion fixed

1
-initial release
Last edited by STARWIN on Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:26 am, edited 3 times in total.
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ninjaluc79
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by ninjaluc79 »

Is it possible to edit the spells, especially the Instant Death spells from the Soul Eater Rune so that they will deal damage if the target is immune against Instant Death, so that Tir will no longer be such a dead weight during boss fights until he gets the Judgment? Say, Deadly Fingertips will deal 100 base damage if the target is immune to Instant Death, while Hell will deal 500 base damage if the target is immune to Instant Death.
It's not all about knowledge, but it helps.
STARWIN
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Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:48 am

Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by STARWIN »

Can't edit spells at all right now, as their data wasn't with the runes. I'll look at them later. Making it conditional like that would probably require an asm change, but that's just a guess.
Jarlaxle
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Location: Australia

Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Jarlaxle »

Legend! Just decided to see if an editor existed for the first game after testing Choirboy's Suikoden II 'Hardcore' edition (from RomHacking.net; he'd have all the data if you wanted to do something similar for the second game). I've now edited up until the point Odessa has her date with destiny, for a more 'manageable' Hard Mode as opposed to an Insane Difficulty project. In saying that, I underestimated the values and now need to tone it down. >_>

Are enemy formations//lineups not meant to be editable? I only tested a few battles but the extra enemies I added didn't show up (which need to be removed anyway, since it's too dangerous for Tir/Ted to gain their first levels). I was hoping to make changes to enemy groups later in the game, but if such things aren't changeable I'll not worry about it. For example, I added an extra Crow to the 3X BonBon encounter, but it didn't show up. The extra difficulty definitely did though, which I'll readjust tomorrow. In any case, thanks for your top effort making this happen, STARWIN!

As a side note, I've just about finished my Hard Mode version of the original Lufia which was made using JCE3000GT's editor, so this is perfect timing for my next project. :D While my Warsong and Langrisser II Hard Mode projects are on hold to avoid burnout.
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Shilo
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Shilo »

A monster formation editor would be really interresting.
STARWIN
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by STARWIN »

They are intended to be editable. Did you load a save before testing? I'll look into it in 48h if there is a problem.

Note that Odessa and Ted use the same weapon and some of Odessa's weapon values overwrite Ted's. I'll have to add a note to the next version.

Also note that there are some balance affecting things that you can't edit for now, such as starting levels, equipment special powers, spell power/details, chest contents, some special income sources, possibly neclord's after-sword-hit form (depending on how many values it changes), encounter rate and probably more.
Jarlaxle
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Jarlaxle »

Yeah I only gave it a quick test, so I'll try changing the formations again later. Would it 'break' the game if I added more formations in some cases as opposed to editing existing lineups? In any case I'm having a blast so far with the added challenge; nothing silly but it's definitely a lot more fun so far. I'm assuming most people would want to pick up a Prosperity Crystal via the sidequest with Tir and Ted, and that they'd also level up a bit with the rest of the crew prior to Magician's Isle, so I'm going to make the enemies there tougher than those around Gregminster; I already doubled the HP of the Golem and it still went down too quickly. Anyone that visits the place with level 1 characters will get slaughtered, haha.

Edit: I've tried a few different things to try to 'provoke' the enemy formations to change, but still no dice. For example outside Gregminster:

1= BonBon, 2= Mosquito, 3= Crow, 4= Wild Boar, 5= Red Soldier Ant

Formations using the Local enemy IDs of the above enemy list:

; 1 ;; 0 ;; 1 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;
; 1 ;; 1 ;; 1 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;
; 2 ;; 2 ;; 2 ;; 2 ;; 2 ;; 2 ;
; 3 ;; 0 ;; 3 ;; 0 ;; 3 ;; 0 ;
; 4 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;; 2 ;; 0 ;; 2 ;
; 5 ;; 0 ;; 5 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;; 0 ;
; 5 ;; 5 ;; 0 ;; 1 ;; 1 ;; 0 ;
; 2 ;; 2 ;; 2 ;; 0 ;; 5 ;; 5 ;
; 04 ;; 03 ;; 03 ;; 0 ;; 03 ;; 03 ;

I've tried leaving a gap in the first lot to make two BonBons show up instead of just one; nope. Spreading things around makes no difference, as does adding a zero in front of the number (which I hoped would fix it, haha). For the last one, it's still just one boar and two crows, sadly. I also tried starting a new game on my computer in case the game dealt with it like character stats, but again no changes. I've tried adding unique lineups to Mt. Tigerwolf which only has four different encounters, but I get an error message when trying to reinsert the file. I've pretty much run out of ideas. >_>

Edit #2: Deleting the top line and reinserting it at the bottom of the list glitched up the formations as well. :o Strangely I did encounter a Boar and three crows, but not four. And in one battle there were three units and another three glitched character entries. So another sneaky method didn't work.
STARWIN
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:48 am

Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by STARWIN »

I'm pretty sure I just forgot to update the new formation size, which is trivial for me to fix. I don't have my computer available until tomorrow, so i'll fix it around then.

Yeah, you can't add or remove ; characters, so you can't add or remove formations, and their internal order can also matter. Monster/formation lists contain world map random encounters, dungeon room random encounters and scripted encounters. The internal structure shown in the editor can give some hints about what is what. First you should have a list of world map areas, followed by the rest, and for the rest you often have random encounters first, and a special list second. There could be something unused too.
Jarlaxle
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Location: Australia

Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Jarlaxle »

Awesome, it would really come in handy to have some larger enemy groups in Magician's Isle and Mt. Seifu, so I'll hold off for now instead of making the smaller groups a lot more challenging. For example the battle against six enhanced Soldier Ants is basically perfect now; but two Bandits (red) still fall too quickly even toughened up. I can make it work either way though. Take your time; I should really wrap up my work with Lufia before starting another project anyway. :lol:
STARWIN
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Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:48 am

Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by STARWIN »

Replaced the link. You can just replace s1edit.exe if upgrading. Added a note about one formation in the game that has a size of 3 with 4 opponents in the list.

If there is something you think you might want to edit later, feel free to ask for that part. I know that the recruitment levelups are "hardcoded" all over the place in the bytecode and that spell damages are hardcoded in asm. I'll probably add spell damages next, whenever that is.

About a S2 editor, I will wait and see if someone else makes one, as it is the most popular game in the series.. once I've added enough to this, I'd rather check S3 instead.
Jarlaxle
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Jarlaxle »

Champion! I've edited up until Panna Yakuta Castle, and made notes along the way regarding formations I was keen to change (and will retest once I've finished the project via a fully-voiced Let's Play; a thorough second-pass for my Lufia Hard Mode proved well worth it). I'm pretty happy with spell damages considering the limited MP characters have (nothing to be done if folk cheat anyhow) although I've compensated where possible. Thanks for your ace work, STARWIN; I'll get back to it on the weekend.

Suikoden 3 would be bloody heaven. >_> It would be very nice if those rare 'mini-boss'-esque battles that are apparently in each area of the game could be made less rare (from memory, I only ever found one of the special Boar encounters). Or if they could sneakily be added to a regular encounter in a Hard Mode. :D
Xenor
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Xenor »

Thank you for your work on this editor, starwin, looks great. Would it be possible to add the dumping and reinserting of the dialog texts? I realise that that comes with it's own challenges (text length restrictions, script commands etc.), but it would enable people to create new translations for the game. For example, the EUR version of Suikoden I was not translated into several local languages (Suikoden II on the other hand was). Your editor could enable such translations, since text inserting on psx games is always a steep hurdle for most people.
STARWIN
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by STARWIN »

Sorry, I'm only interested in game mechanics really. I don't have any special information that would help me in that either. Some of the regulars here most likely have tried touching the text at some point though.

All I know is that the game has a custom encoding (cheat sites have a partial list) for the english characters, and if you view the game data with that, you will see lots of dialog in many places, along with all kinds of name tables and fields. I don't think the problem is any different because of this being on PS1 though.
Antimatzist
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Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Antimatzist »

For fan translation, just approach a romhacking group. There are already a French, an Italian, a Polish and a (wip) German fan translation available.
Jarlaxle
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Location: Australia

Re: Suikoden 1 editor

Post by Jarlaxle »

I've finally finished editing and testing my Hard Mode version of Suikoden, and will post the download link on Friday alongside my fully-voiced playthrough which will be added to every Friday and Sunday.

In any case, I can now cross Lufia and Suikoden off my list. >_> Now to finish off Warsong and Langrisser II Hard Modes, which I've had at around 70% complete for far too long.

@Starwin: There were a few things I wouldn't mind adding to the Hard Mode in the future if possible besides what I already contacted you about:

~ Regarding the Water Rune, the level 3 and level 4 spells both heal everyone up to 300 HP; would it be possible to make the level 4 spell heal up to 500? The 'level 5' spell heals everyone completely and revives any knocked out characters, so it seems pretty silly that there's nothing in the middle. Aside from the fact that you never took damage in the original game. >_@

~ Dragon Seal Incense heal up to 50 HP for everyone; could this be increased to 300 HP? It's a pretty useless item otherwise for Hard Mode purposes//compensation.

Cheers.
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