Download Game Boy Wars 3 PAL-style balancing ROM Hack

This ZIP file holds 3 patches, all intended for use with the basic Game Boy 
Wars 3 ROM:

*PALBal - short for PAL Balance, this patch involves many gameplay mechanic 
changes. A general list will be provided below.

*LoadET - short for Loading End Turn. Vanilla GBW3 has an oversight where 
loading a unit does not set the moved flag for the unit's cargo, even though 
moving the grandchildren unit(s) becomes impossible. This isn't incredibly 
game-breaking, but it does inconvenience shifting through units with 
Start+Left/Right.

*AutoET - short for Auto End Turn. With this hack active, when a player is 
deemed unable to make any more moves, their phase will be ended automatically 
like what happens in any Fire Emblem from 6 onwards. The AET triggers even 
with Auto-Supply On, though it's unlikely a player will care. All of the other 
conditions are covered, including the Reserve mechanic in Campaign, and the 
changes in LoadET are included by necessity. Keep in mind that the price 
checks are built with the PALBal hack in mind, so here are the addresses with 
the relevant instructions for those who can work with something like GBRead:
-Grunt (HQ/City/Factory): 3816D
-Transport Helicopter (Airport): 3817E
-Tanker (Harbor): 3818F

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The purpose of PALBal

I may as well mention how Game Boy Wars 3 is a game full of ideas that have 
not been put to use in the later games of the Nintendo Wars series. These are 
actually good, from the income development and terrain changing of the Work 
Car, to a stronger variety of unit types, to the subtraction defense for cover 
that favors units with more defensive power or better burst damage (HELLO, 
ANTI-AIR TANK), to balance that is handled around City-level cover, to 
surprisingly intuitive math in battle calculations, to an experience system 
that even rewards overcoming adversity.

Of course, these ideas being stuffed right into a 1MB GBC game, there were 
inevitabily going to be problems. The most glaring in vanilla GBC, by far, are 
the Gold price gaps. How bad are the gaps? On a map with 15 Gold Income 
properties per side with max Strength properties, a freaking Lander requires at 
least a full Day of banking, and a Submarine or Aegis Warship requires 
*THREE*. This is an almost extreme example, but it is nevertheless a good 
indication of how overly subscribed to realism that GBW3 was capable of 
getting forgetting that it's still a game where an air-to-air fighter and a 
dived submarine could block each other. Not to say that the realism was 
necessarily bad in light of the gameplay quirks resulting from attention to 
detail such as the Lite Attacker's VTOL status being why it refuels from 
Supply Trucks rather than Supply Planes, but it could have stood to be more 
wary of some of the resulting problems.

For those who wonder what would happen in PVP in vanilla GBW3? Bazooka spam 
that would use the built up money and inflated numbers to whip out kiter tech 
units such as Artillery. So much for welcome interaction.

The intent of PALBal is to provide PAL-style balancing that would flesh out 
the ideas that Game Boy Wars 3 had to where they could have useful effect. It 
even turns out that GBW3's intended idea of player phase friendliness was 
flanking bonuses, as the player in control is more able to utilize them. While 
the handling was off, it was definitely worth exploring to avoid having to 
change the Focus system, the other elephant in the room about GBW3's sense of 
balance. That, by the way, is getting its own section, because do I have stuff 
to say. 

First, though, the list of changes.

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PALBal changes

*Various unit stat changes - there's quite a few of these, so I'd have to dig 
up a good way to compare. Rest assured that the Gold price gaps have been 
severely nerfed, and while Bazooka units can now range fire on Lite Land 
units, their DEF values have been dropped and they now have to worry about the 
economy the Work Car can provide with the higher amount of "ammo" that unit 
has.

There are also some changes that are a nod to Battalion Wars, by the way.

*EXP gain rates increased all around - EXP gain rates in vanilla GBW3 are just 
atrocious. They work the way they do because of Campaign where units already 
carry over between maps, but otherwise, the level ups are simply too few and 
far between. With the increased EXP, level ups will be a lot more reasonable.

Combat EXP is a lot less reliant on HP damage. Mere participation is actually 
its own reward now, and the underdog bonus is significanlty increased. Also of 
note, there is defensive EXP to be wary of especially when range attacking. 
This simply incentivizes more methodical attacking, without boosting the 
defender too much because the defensive EXP can be lost with the unit itself.

*Air units have 30 Cover - don't worry, stats have been adjusted accordingly. 
Air units get 30 Cover both as a sort of realism factor, and to better 
incentivize good gameplay against them via the adjusted stats.

*Sea has 10 Cover - the whole point of this is to help emphasize sea units as 
Mighty Glaciers. 10 Cover isn't a lot, but it cuts down on MGs dealing silly 
amounts of damage to them with flanking, so it gets the job done.

Oh, and for the record, GBW3 would have better navy warfare than the other 
Nintendo Wars games if not for a certain elephant in the room that the patch 
at least addresses. GBW3 at least tries to provide competent interaction 
between air and sea units, and VERY arguably land and sea units too.

*Flanking stat changes favor attacker more - flanking boosts encourage the 
player to manage, well, flanking. Unfortunately, the defender gets boosts too 
depending on the attacker's own position. As a result, the defender's benefits 
have been completely halved, and the attacker's support boosts have been 
doubled as well.

*Range fire comes with an attack penalty - for every space between the units 
in combat, the attacker, who wouldn't have to fear counterattack, instead 
loses 10% of their base attack power. This makes sure that there is some 
incentive by guaranteed necessity for closer range attacks that can just as 
easily leave the attacker exposed if it's not backed by a healthy sense of 
skill.

*A few bugfixes - resupplying the secondary weapon charged based on the 
primary weapon, which didn't make sense. Additionally, there's a bit of 
idiocy involving the Bomber that gets patched out--just because its influence 
in vanilla GBW3 was too miniscule doesn't mean I'll say what it is.

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Player phase friendliness points

Turn-based strategy games are slower than other genres because they are built 
to allow players to take their time and figure out how to utilize the 
potential of their resources. It's the reason Chess Clocks exist: to provide 
a time-based challenge where players can start making mistakes, while also 
stopping spiteful stalling. The point of player phase friendliness is to make 
doubly sure that gameplay can get to stay kinetic rather than allow turtling.

What the Advance Wars games do to provide player friendliness is accommodate 
the Nintendo Wars series' attack power proportional to HP system with first 
strike. This provides added defensive power for the attacker as a result of 
reduced counterdamage. With the standard 55% matchup, the attacker's units 
take 2-3 HPs of damage with first strike compared to 7-9 without.

GBW3, by contrast, uses the Focus system, where the unit with higher Focus by 
enough strikes first, and doesn't think to give extra Focus to the attacker to 
counterbalance the reduction of Focus they get from moving. This system is 
intended to reward units sitting closer to the action, but there are quite 
a few ambushes that are going to happen anyway.

How, then, does vanilla GBW3 have decent player phase friendliness that 
helps directs?

One of the big reasons is subtraction defense on boosts. Unit variety helps by 
also upping the standard to 7 HPs of damage, but subtraction defense on boosts 
allows units to go after targets with only moderate counterdamage against even 
when they do get the ambush off. A 5 HP unit is far less threatening than a 
10 HP unit because there is less damage to even reduce.

Flanking boosts also help. Technically, they're penalties for the flanked unit 
aside from invisible support boosts, but even units such as the Supply Truck 
can still help set up the flanking boosts, silly as that sounds. Once they're 
set up, the opposing unit suffers a sharp drop in offense, in addition to the 
extra damage they can just as easily take. Suffice to say that chip KOing is a 
lot safer despite the ambush shenanigans.

GBW3 also has higher standard mobility among the combat-capable units. Not 
only are there faster land units that can, natch, flank better, but Movement 
Costs aren't as high because GBW3 is not afraid to use mixed number MCs. And 
of course, mobility is actually directly controlled by the active player, 
which speaks for itself.

There is also, believe it or not, the EXP system. The patch tones it up 
because it's too abysmal in vanilla GBW3, but the toning up generally 
emphasizes the game's original intent: to punish thoughtless and especially 
uncaring behavior by the opponent. Range fire involves defensive EXP because 
it punishes mere existence of opposing units if not checked well. The thing 
about EXP is, its usefulness is tied to that of the unit's, which hurts 
defensive EXP because the unit can still be removed from play. Offensive EXP 
rewards methodical attacks by contrast, as they can estimate survival on 
enemy phase that lets the unit escape to where it can get repaired. It is 
quite natural that the active player can control the flow of EXP.

What I ultimately want to point to, is how first strike becomes questionable 
in its method of providing player phase friendliness. Yes there is some sense 
of raw power. That's the thing: relying on raw power in a strategy game. Just 
because I personally take issue with games rewarding kiting from how a 5YO 
can come up with it, does not mean that brain-dead melee rushing isn't even 
more mindless. This is also where I take issue with the way Days of Ruin 
handles the CO Unit system, which punishes the opponent for daring to consider 
the mere concept of flanking. Really, the similar enough manual unit system of 
Battalion Wars amplifies the weaknesses of the manual unit, as the Recon can 
attest to in its inability to directly contest armor well while lacking 
sufficiently unique strong points.

I'm not saying first strike under the attack power proportional to HP system 
shouldn't be used, but it should be at least better understood in order to 
avoid needless favoritism of Fragile Speedster units, as it's the Mighty 
Glacier who tends to draw the short straw in game balance, often I find 
because law of diminishing isn't accounted for by developers. Accommodation 
of bravery, the MASTERY of fear rather than the absence of it, is how players 
evolve better, not practicing the same tired thing and exploiting any safety 
to be had with it.

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Closing stuff

Here are the version notes:
*0.9 - most stuff done.

And for those who want to contact me, here's my IM info:
*Skype - mknightdh
*Discord - MasterKnightDH#2492

Please use these if you want to report any bugs to me. There shouldn't be any 
left despite the ASM changes, other than aesthetic things, but I never know.