I did a scan for any updates to the patches I use for the improvement, and I ended up finding new fix patches from assassin and Novalia Spirit - one of which I was really glad to find.
After getting the Opera timing pretty much to my satisfaction on my translation test ROM, I played ahead and noticed that the game hung right after the scene that's supposed to be fixed with the King of Vanity patch (regressions, grr!) I had previously applied the patches that FF3usME 6.7 breaks, since I had a similar problem in Zozo when it came time for the Always Jump Left in Zozo patch and re-applying fixed it. But for some reason, the King of Vanity patch still wasn't working right.
Thankfully, Novalia Spirit has released a patch called Blush Disease to address the same issue. I removed the King of Vanity patch and applied this one, and it worked, apparently with no issues - Edgar and Celes were in the party, but only Celes blushed.
At any rate, I'll be doing an evaluation of the new fix patches and will add them in if the playtesting works out.
Something I'm on the fence about - there are two patches by HatZen08 that I would like to consider adding to the improvement (as tweaks instead of fixes, obviously), but I'm uncertain as whether it would be in the spirit of keeping as close to the original intent Square had for this game. In particular:
The Runic Forever patch causes Runic (and as a side effect, Cyan's Retort technique) to stay in effect until it is triggered, while allowing the characters to make command decisions in the meantime. While I personally like this change, and may include it in my personal copy of the improvement, my problem with officially putting this in the project is that I believe this was not the original intent for either action, so changing them will potentially make both techniques overpowered. I'll be testing this patch regardless, but I would like opinions on whether this takes the technique behavior too far away from the original behavior.
The SwordTech Ready Stance patch changes SwdTech/Bushido so that you choose the technique you want up front, and the technique will charge in the background during battle. This patch, in its current state, also changes Retort to an immediate strike once chosen. I really, REALLY like the main intent of this patch, as to me it is a much more elegant solution than the SwordTech gauge - even with the Speed-Up tweak patch I currently have in place - as it (allegedly) preserves the original charge time of each technique without breaking battle flow. The secondary effect of the patch, though, is unacceptable for the improvement as Retort was most definitely designed to counter a physical attack.
I've messaged HatZen08 to see if he would be amenable to modifying the patch. If he is, then I'm inclined to include it (barring any conflicts) because it would improve battle flow with Cyan in the party without (IMO) taking him too far away from his original design. But again, I would like opinions on that.
Please let me know what you think!
