Sudden Restructuring

Sudden Restructuring is a common technique used by the Personalization A.I. reported in numerous copies of Super Mario 64. Sudden Restructuring occurs after triggering a “Terraforming Event”, and results in significant changes throughout the game to areas players have already explored. This can range from adding a new area to a level, to adding new levels in floors the player has already explored, all the way to reshaping the entirety of Princess Peach’s Castle, all in an attempt to appeal to the player, fit their playstyle and create replayability.

Description
As previously described, Sudden Restructuring is responsible for altering aspects of Super Mario 64 in areas the player has already been. It often occurs towards the middle or end of the game, on the second or third floors, assuming there aren’t anomalous floors in the copies that substantially extend the game’s length.

Once activating the associated Terraforming Event, Sudden Restructuring will use the data collected up to that point and shuffle, replace, remove and/or add to the previously-explored locations, mainly focusing on the first floor and basement, as at that point of the game the A.I. would not have enough data to accurately personalize to the player. Of course, Sudden Restructuring also has ramifications for later areas after it has occurred, as the following experiences will match the changes caused by Sudden Restructuring.

Due to Sudden Restructuring’s scope, descriptions of the anomaly have been separated into 5 tiers based on the severity of the alterations, often corresponding to the copy’s overall Wario Approximation. As one would expect, Tier 1 and Tier 2 of Sudden Restructuring are the tiers most commonly reported, with Tier 5 being the rarest and thus hardest to study. As one would imagine, higher tiers also include everything described for previous tiers. The currently-established tiers are described below:


 * Tier 1: Minor changes to the layouts of locations explored by the player, often including Dynamic Level Rearrangement, the replacement of text and music, and real-time Notable Star Relocation, requiring the Power Stars to be collected again via the new mission. At most, some levels may shift locations in the castle or a new sub-area may be added, i.e. Whomp’s Fortress Interior.
 * Tier 2: More levels are moved, redesigned, or outright removed. From here, the game’s difficulty will likely have shifted overall to match the player’s skill, with the required rearrangement and alterations to make the game easier or harder to appeal to the player.
 * Tier 3: This is where Sudden Restructuring begins to become more drastic. Entire levels may begin to be replaced at this point, such as Bob-omb Battlefield being replaced by Bob-omb Village. Some people have also described “floor rearrangement” at this tier, where the existing floors are shuffled around, with accompanying changes to match. For example, if the basement and first floor switch places, they will swap textures and sometimes even levels to match.
 * Tier 4: More new levels begin to appear, roughly replacing or adding up to about a fourth or third of the level count of the game. A small amount of new areas in the castle may begin to appear and replace existing areas, though they are often small, such as the Castle Garden, Castle Dungeon and Minor Anomalous Locations, often to contain the new levels created by the Sudden Restructuring.
 * Tier 5: The highest tier of Sudden Restructuring. This tier includes massive changes, such as Major Level Expansion, entire new floors replacing old ones, the introduction of Alternate Campaigns, and Mass Game Retheming. As one can imagine, this results in not much content to be found after the Terraforming Event occurs as the A.I. spends too much cartridge space everywhere else, and over-all instability, resulting in several glitches.

Terraforming Events
As previously established, Terraforming Events are the catalysts of Sudden Restructuring; they are triggered by a specific action by the player. The A.I. then evaluates the data on the player it’s collected, a tier of Sudden Restructuring is selected, and finally Sudden Restructuring itself takes place. However, the starts of Terraforming Events are incredibly varied. Below is a list of the most common ways a Terraforming Event will begin:


 * Completing or entering a specific level, such as Bowser in the Furious Tempest, the Starry-Night Skies, the Sunken Castle (assuming it is a level in the copy), a Challenge Course, or even the final level in the copy (Assuming Bowser in the Sky has been replaced or usurped).
 * Pressing a special Switch, often found in a Switch Palace. While some say it is a unique Switch that does not match any other anomalies, others have said it is the Lightning Switch, Rainbow Cap Switch, or even the Yellow Cap Switch.
 * Collecting a specific collectible or a certain amount of collectibles. The most common instance of this is collecting either a set amount of Power Stars or a specific Power Star, though a Terraforming Event being triggered by collecting Discolored Stars or a Medal have also been reported.

A Terraforming Event is usually indicated by a text box of some kind appearing, saying that something has changed in the castle. One of the most common text boxes foreshadowing a Terraforming Event, as seen in Jefftastic’s Documentation, says that: “You feel the ground under you start to rumble... Princess Peach's Castle has changed!”

Whether or not Terraforming Events can only be triggered once or can happen multiple times in a copy under different circumstances each time is inconsistent among reports, though it is generally agreed upon that they tend to be repeatable until the A.I. lands on a Tier 4 or Tier 5 Restructuring, after which the changes are permanent.

Some have also said Terraforming Events can be prevented and even entirely reversed if the Options menu is present within your copy, as a setting that can be enabled or disabled, with disabling them restoring the game to it’s pre-Restructuring state. Whether or not re-enabling them brings back the same changes that previously occurred, entirely new changes, or does nothing at all until a new Terraforming Event is triggered is also inconsistent.

Theorizing
Sudden Restructuring, like Dynamic Level Rearrangement, was almost definitely intentionally built into the Personalization A.I. to account for it’s “blind spot” towards the beginning of the game that may not appeal to new players, with the hopes of it ensuring they continue to play the game. However, it has likely gone under the radar in a plethora of playthroughs as some players may not backtrack often or at all, making it’s effectiveness questionable.

The ability to reverse Terraforming Events via Options and trigger new ones to override the previous was likely a failsafe to ensure that Sudden Restructuring does not permanently alter the copy in a way that the player deems undesirable, either by the developers or perhaps even the A.I. itself, as they wouldn’t like the player to be stuck with a game they don’t enjoy. Like Sudden Restructuring itself, though, this is not always effective as players may not stumble upon these as they may not even be in the copy.