Undefined Fantastic Object - Boss Rush Patch

[Drake]

So, this is a project I spontaneously decided to take up a few weeks ago. As the title says, this is a Boss Rush modification to UFO.



Patch Download: https://mega.nz/#!lskyiIzZ!yJB6HLwRQnXs4wO9BmHNxkVtrKrdoKhM-GmMEBRy0ro
（日本の皆さん: 日本語で使用方法と変更点を追加したー　プレイしてくれてありがとう、楽しんできてください！）

Main game: The main game is styled so that it becomes a fairly challenging boss rush mode. The stage sections are removed, including most midbosses, so the game is entirely boss fights. There are no bombs, and no continues. As a boss rush, I wanted to make sure that the player gets a type of challenge that they wouldn't normally experience playing UFO. Ideally, in order to clear, you have to play very well: in other words, capture nearly everything. You're limited to 8 lives throughout the game assuming you make it to Byakuren (each boss drops a 1up), which means you really have significantly less resources than your usual survival run. Plus, since you can't bomb, you have to be able to keep surviving a pattern you may die on. This sort of play doesn't skew your score files, since those are already dependent on captures. Lastly, each card drops 50 Power and 50 Point items. I've had a few complaints about this not being enough if you start dying early on, or say before Shou or Byakuren, but I'm waiting to gauge public opinion.
Through some limited player testing, I've found that this makes a pretty reasonable balance between challenge and capacity to clear for both the lower-level and high-level players. Expect to game over early~!

Extra mode isn't really a point of interest, since Extra is already pretty short and it's just cut to Kogasa and Nue. Having no bombs doesn't provide that much greater of a challenge, and cutting lives here wouldn't make a difference. But it's something different.

Practice mode, however, is probably what many people would use this for. It's simply Boss Practice; that in itself is more than enough to validate this whole thing. No bombs of course, but that only helps for practicing, and you start with 4.00 Power now instead of 2.00. You can practice problematic boss patterns quickly and repeatedly, without having to sit through the stage each time (not that the stages in UFO are bad or anything, they're just in the way).

Replays work perfectly, as far as testing has gone. A separate replay folder is created automatically to read and write from, so the boss rush replays don't get mixed up with the rest.


Instructions:
(Always back up your score files. They should not be affected, but it's always good practice.)
- Place the th12_bossrush folder directly into your game folder. You do not need to move any files around, the patch folder should just be a subfolder of your game folder like this:

Code: [Select]

th12/
  ├─ replay/
  ├─ th12_bossrush/
  │    ├─ data/
  │    ├─ patch_en.bat
  │    └─ patch_jp.bat
  ├─ snapshot/
  ├─ マニュアル/
  ├─ th12.dat
  ├─ th12.exe
  ├─ th12e.dat
  ├─ th12e.exe
  └─ other files- Run patch_jp.bat or patch_en.bat depending on which base files you wish to patch.

A new executable (th12boss.exe) and data file (th12boss.dat) should be produced directly into your UFO folder, and they will not overwrite your old ones.

(Note: Patch does not work with version 1.00a. Go update your game.)

Changes:
- Obviously, the stage sections are removed.
- Most midbosses are removed. S5 Nazrin and EX Kogasa stay because they're the only good ones.
- No continues. Hardcore.
- No bombs. Way hardcore.
- Bosses drop extra lives when defeated. Nue does not drop bomb pieces.
- Every card will drop 50 Power and Point items, unless they normally give more.
- You now start with 4.00 Power in Practice mode.
- A new replay folder for boss rush replays will be created automatically.
- New demo replays.
- Labels at the start of stages and the large Palanquin shadow are removed.
- Other small graphical changes to reflect the game.


Known Bugs:
- Card names are in japanese, even if patch is applied to english version, in which case they become mojibake. This is because I'm too lazy to create two versions of modified stage files. Will not be fixed.
- Choosing to "Continue" after clearing Extra stage will crash the game. This is because ZUN reuses the Game Over menu here, and the continue option redirects to the nonexistent restart option. Will not be fixed.
- Sometimes music does silly things with the demo replays. Please ignore.


Subterranean Animism Boss Rush Patch: http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,14744.0.html

[Serela]

...holy crap. This is -so cool-. I cannot download it hard enough.

Major thumbs up to Drake.

[RNG]

Ok this is fucking godly, thanks dude.

[Sakurei]

I know someone who will be grateful for this :V and I am, too. that's pretty awesome.

I'll definitely give this a shot tomorrow. too late for that now

[Star King]

You are a god amongst men.

[LepLep]

Touhou 12 - Undefined Fantastic Object: Death Label? :3
Thank you very much for the Patch Drake, I think I saw a run of this on your Twitch Account couple days ago.

[PMW]

This is everything I've ever wanted in life.

Getting destroyed by Byakuren and Shou should be 300% more awesome now :V

Thanks a lot for the patch!

[Validon98]

Holy crap, thank you SO much. I wish every game could have this. I want to try this so badly now...

[SuccinctAndPunchy]

This is absolutely incredible.

Drake, you are amazing. Positively amazing.

[Kaze_Senshi]

Drake cool job, does this patch work with ultra mode too? :V

Holy crap, thank you SO much. I wish every game could have this. I want to try this so badly now...

^

[Ikari]

This is beautiful. Every games need this. Thank you so much for letting me practice that game without those pesky fairies!

Okay, after much working around, I don't get what I'm supposed to do if I have an english-patched game. I feel really dumb.

[RegalStar]

Does this work on games that are not English patched, or ones that are patched to some other language?

If so, may I share this with people of other languages?

P.S. Facing midbosses to the start of the stage music rather than the middle unsettles me somewhat, lol. It's very fun, though! I wholeheartedly hope that this will extend to other games as well.

[Drake]

Okay, after much working around, I don't get what I'm supposed to do if I have an english-patched game. I feel really dumb.

th12.exe -> something.exe
th12.dat -> something.dat
th12e.exe -> th12.exe
th12e.dat -> th12.dat
Run patch.bat
Rename back when done

Does this work on games that are not English patched, or ones that are patched to some other language?

It's meant to be applied on the original game. Other languages should work, but I haven't tried anything besides english.

Being applied to games with other patches, such as Nereid's counterstop fix, should generally work as well. Ultra mode however is almost certainly no because it uses different ecl files itself.

[Ikari]

I must have done something wrong the first time, because it worked perfectly. Thanks a lot!

[chirpy13]

Holy shit, I was hoping something like this would be made eventually.  Thanks Drake :>

[Wriggle]

Fuck man, that's amazing. I must try it out.

[Karisa]

Is the patched game supposed to crash (when the title screen is about to appear) if you try to load it in full-screen mode? That's what happens to me, at least. I applied it to the original Japanese version if that matters.

Anyway, I think it could use a free large power item at the start of all the stages (full power for Byakuren maybe since that's what you'd normally get), not just stage 1. I think UFO's power penalty for dying makes the patterns less fun, especially when the lack of stage portion power items means you don't recover between bosses as you would in a typical no-bombs run. And the way it currently is you can't even reach 4 power by Parasol Star Memories.

Also, I don't see the point in disabling continuing, any more than there would be a point in disabling it in the regular games. The point is to 1cc anyway, so why not allow people to use continues if they prefer to practice the bosses that way?

Not to seem like I'm just complaining. It seems like a fun concept overall; I could see myself using this for practice in the future.

[Drake]

It is not supposed to crash, no. I run it fine fullscreen, and at the very least I know Chirpy runs it fullscreen as well. Nothing in the patch should make any difference inherent to fullscreen mode, so I couldn't tell you what the problem is.

No continues is there essentially to separate the main game from the practice mode. The original idea was the boss practice, but if you can accomplish that with Practice mode alone, what's the purpose of everything else? I wanted to make a distinction there. No continues is also there to distinguish that the boss rush is actually a boss rush, and not just "the game with stages gone". The difference between this and the full game is that I want to make it clear that it's intended to be a one-shot attempt, and not something that people can just "clear" if they spam continues (and bombs) hard enough. I guess it's an explicit challenge rather than a self-imposed one. In my opinion, it's also just more intimidating and exhilarating clearing when you know you can't just restart from the stage if you fail; unless they're successful runs, you aren't going to ever get to the end, so when you do get to the end it's that much more rewarding. If you want to practice (esp. Shou/Byakuren), there is no reason to be doing so in the boss rush over the dedicated practice mode. Plus, there aren't any additional stage practice unlocking requirements, and even if you haven't unlocked everything the score files are shared so just do it normally.

As for Power, I'd like to make the point that the gap between 4.00 Power and 1.00 Power is 20% with ReimuA and decreases from there with the other shot types. With an average 20-second pattern that's maybe five seconds extra, without factoring in that you're often not hitting with all four options anyways (exceptions being things like Aura of Justice). In UFO, the apparent power decrease is pretty exaggerated. It's a lot more warranted when you have stages, since the extra options add coverage which is way more important. Not to say "no you're wrong" since you aren't, and I am considering a bit more power, but a lot of it is a perception trick, I think. I might just not let the player drop below 2.00, since that seems to be the point where people start noticing that they're doing less damage. I don't want to hand you 4.00 Power on a silver platter ;P

This thread is ripe for discussion too, by the way, so if anyone wants to question the above or my reasons for doing something else then I'll happily oblige!

[marukyuu]

This might be the push I need to get back to Touhou. Who knows, it might help me clear Normal, at last :V

Thank you very much!

[Validon98]

Well, I just tried this (on Normal). Made it as far as the nonspell after Star Maelstrom on my first try. I died pretty much where I expected to across the run. I like the concept, as it pretty much forces me to do it without bombing out of the things I would normally not do (such as Byakuren's third nonspell or Ichirin's and Murasa's last cards). I'm going to have to learn those in order to actually beat this boss rush. So thanks again for making this, Drake!

[Ikari]

It helped me realize how painfully bad I am at Touhou. I can't even clear Easy...

Oh well, I'll practice and practice until I can do it on normal! Hell yeah!

And as for the power thing, I do agree that giving a +1 on the beggining of the later stages (4~5) would be a good thing, and a full at the start of Byaku, since as stated, the game itself gives one to you.

[cactu]

Good job. I will definitely be trying this on Lunatic.

[ふねん1]

At first I thought I was also running into problems opening this with full-screen, but apparently it won't open windowed either. I don't have an English patch for UFO, so I don't think I needed to do any renaming before running the patch, but if I'm wrong let me know. Other than that, I'm not sure what else might be screwing this up. The only thing I can think of is changing my system locale, but that's already set to Japanese.

I disagree with only including some of the midbosses in this. I would prefer to show consistency with that feature, either have them all in or not at all. They can all be reached easily enough in Stage Practice anyway, even Stage 5 Nazrin. This is a Boss Rush mode, but it seems silly to include only some of the midbosses based on such a subjective judgment of what constitutes a "good" midboss.

Otherwise though, I still really like this idea. Perhaps other games could get this treatment too? Touhou does need more Boss Practice instead of Spell Practice.

[Kaze_Senshi]

I disagree with only including some of the midbosses in this. I would prefer to show consistency with that feature, either have them all in or not at all. They can all be reached easily enough in Stage Practice anyway, even Stage 5 Nazrin. This is a Boss Rush mode, but it seems silly to include only some of the midbosses based on such a subjective judgment of what constitutes a "good" midboss.

^

[Bang Jan]

Could you do this for the other games as well?

[Zengeku]

Thank you so much for making this.  :3

What a wonderful wedding gift. So UFO Boss rush it is!! Yeah, how we've needed that for a long time. We'll I've taken it for a spin and I got to Devil's Recitation. Would've cleared but then Complete Clarification happened and I somehow lost three lives.

Also, i agree with Drake's decision on cutting out the extra bosses that aren't midboss Nazrin and Ex Kogasa because outside of those, the midbosses in this game really suck.

[I have no name]

Stage 1 Nazrin is cool.
Stage 2 Kogasa sucks yeah.
Stage 3 Ichirin is half suck half awesome.

[Zil]

Well, I haven't tried it myself, but I'll try to give my opinions anyway.

I think midboss Kogasa (stage 2) is the only one crappy enough to warrant exclusion, though from the sounds of it you cut out the first Nazrin and Ichirin as well. Nazrin's admittedly pretty dull, but hey, it's stage 1, and I never saw anything wrong with Ichirin. Personally I feel like you may as well just have all of them, since they are pretty much bosses, with spells of boss-level qaulity. They just aren't glued together with the other spells at the end of the stage. That, or have none of them, I guess. Like Funen said, I don't think you should base it on something subjective like that. (Unless you want to exclude Murasa for being a shitty boss altogether. I'd back you up with that.)

About the power thing, iirc losing power barely makes a difference, and according to what you just said that is in fact the case. I haven't tried it though, or played the game in forever, so I won't try to argue one way or the other there. I think it's really just a matter of whether or not you want it to be slightly harder/easier anyway.

I agree with leaving out bombs and continues. Especially bombs.

Also this is totally awesome. I have my reasons for not wanting to try it anytime soon, but still you deserve some serious respect for making this, Drake.

[Naut]

I disagree with only including some of the midbosses in this. I would prefer to show consistency with that feature, either have them all in or not at all. They can all be reached easily enough in Stage Practice anyway, even Stage 5 Nazrin. This is a Boss Rush mode, but it seems silly to include only some of the midbosses based on such a subjective judgment of what constitutes a "good" midboss.

I think midboss Kogasa (stage 2) is the only one crappy enough to warrant exclusion, though from the sounds of it you cut out the first Nazrin and Ichirin as well. Nazrin's admittedly pretty dull, but hey, it's stage 1, and I never saw anything wrong with Ichirin. Personally I feel like you may as well just have all of them, since they are pretty much bosses, with spells of boss-level qaulity. They just aren't glued together with the other spells at the end of the stage. That, or have none of them, I guess. Like Funen said, I don't think you should base it on something subjective like that. (Unless you want to exclude Murasa for being a shitty boss altogether. I'd back you up with that.)

Originally all the midbosses were left out. I opted for Pagoda Nazrin to be included because fun. Extra Kogasa was included because she's probably harder than Nue anyway.

[ふねん1]

Like I said, subjective stuff here. And not just about Stage 5 Nazrin mind you, because you already know how much I hate Greatest Treasure. :V Point is, other people would clearly hold other opinions for why they'd view a midboss as "fun", or perhaps "worthy of practicing" in such a patch. EX Kogasa certainly makes sense for those trying to get better at Extra, but what about players making jumps from lower difficulties to higher ones? They would appreciate being able to get used to Nazrin's Busy Rod or midboss-Ichirin's faster lasers on Hard, or having a better chance to finally figure out the trick to capturing both of midboss-Nue's appearances.