Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/PSX] The FFVII AV mod (2010-11-22 Demo)  (Read 66236 times)

Armorvil

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For a description of what this mod does, see the replies below.

The demo is for the whole Midgar section of the game - so it ends as soon as you reach the world map.

Here is the download link (72.6MB) for the PC version. Scroll further down for a link for the PSX version.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1u016l6744zd8kg

And straight from the readme contained in this rar archive :

-Installation instructions (for PC) :
--------------------------

1) Copy your SCENE.BIN, KERNEL.BIN, KERNEL2.BIN, FF7.EXE and FLEVEL.LGP files in the folder you extracted this archive to.

2) Double-click "apply scene patch.bat"

3) Double-click "apply kernel patch.bat"

4) Double-click "apply kernel2 patch.bat"

5) Double-click "apply ff7exe patch.bat"

6) Double-click "apply flevel patch.bat"

Now, the files sceneav.bin, kernelav.bin, kernel2av.bin, ff7av.exe and flevelav.lgp have been created.
Those are the files containing the mod. (EDIT: if one of these hasn't been created, that means that the program overwrited the file you put in directly. So, if for example, you can't find ff7av.exe, that means that the ff7.exe you put in this directory became the modified one). 

7) Rename or move your original SCENE.BIN, KERNEL.BIN, KERNEL2.BIN, FF7.EXE and FLEVEL.LGP files - so you have backups of them.

8 ) If one or all of the files : sceneav.bin, kernelav.bin, kernel2av.bin, ff7av.exe and flevelav.lgp have been created, rename them to scene.bin, kernel.bin, kernel2.bin, ff7.exe and flevel.lgp.
Now, put them back into their respective folder, in \Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\

9) Play the game!

-How to uninstall
---------------

Either delete / move or rename the modded files, and put the originals back in their place.


-Credits
--------

The entire Qhimm community. Sorry, I'm too lazy to type the name of all the people who helped me a bunch (and there are many!) at the moment, but I'll be sure to mention each person in the final readme (the one that will come with the complete mod).


Any feedback is appreciated :)

EDIT:

And here is the demo for the PSX version :

http://www.mediafire.com/?g5a3e93ugqxzrr5

I encountered some issues while testing it, though. Because of hardware limitations, you can't use Water on all enemies anymore, or the game would crash. To keep you from crashing your game by mistake, Water can only target a single enemy, now. Also, since the enemy spells table is different from the PC version, I couldn't use the same animations for the new spells. Water 1 is unchanged (the "Water Gun" animation still works), but no wind animation seemed to work for the Aero spells. Thus, I temporarily left them with the Demi animations... ...If you read me KM, I'd like to know how you managed to make your Aero spell with the Sand Storm animation (among others) on the PSX version. I'm at a loss, here...

EDIT2:

ZekuMusashi and WingedMasamune (on GameFaqs) told me their games crash with the new psx patch, so link removed for now. I'm in the process of creating a new, working one.

EDIT3:

New PSX patch created. It also works with the xdelta patcher (after all, it works great that way), so you'll have to use CDMage to replace the old scene.bin, kernel.bin, mds7pb_1.dat, limtmenu.mnu and shopmenu.mnu with the new ones.
« Last Edit: 2014-07-21 03:40:12 by Covarr »

Tenko Kuugen

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #1 on: 2010-11-13 00:45:00 »
any details of what this mod does? ( I can guess from the files modified but some details would be nice )

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #2 on: 2010-11-13 09:06:13 »
I don't have much time to talk about it right now (gotta go to work in 10 minutes - I'll give a more in-depth description tonight (meaning, in 10 or 11 hours)), but I'll say that this is a mod that tweaks about everything that can be tweaked. But I'm not changing things for the sake of changing things. What drives me is the will of enhancing the gameplay experience, to further increase the customization (and as soon as possible), and to make the game even more fun. I made it so the player has a lot of options, and that all of those are viable. Also, in this mod, no player will have the same team, with the same stats, equipment, and materia. It is also a lot harder - but not to the point of being frustrating IMO. You can play through the game without experiencing a single game-over, but your blood will boil many times. You will have to use items to their fullest - and you'll have to wisely choose how to use your money throughout the game.

But it is balanced. Random battles are tough, but end quickly. Enemies (that have been changed - you, for example, encounter BullMotors, Cromwells, etc in the first Reactor - and instead of the Guard Scorpion, you fight the Iron Giant) were tweaked so they're hard but never a chore to defeat. The game feels like a new game, a different experience...

You can check out my Youtube videos, if you like.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-13 09:16:17 by Armorvil »

xLostWingx

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #3 on: 2010-11-13 15:51:42 »
FFVII AV Demo whoo hoo!  I've seen your videos and your mod looks great.  I don't think I can help you with making a patcher (although I might...let's wait till someone who does this on a regular basis offers some input).  Glad to see that you are making some progress though.  If nobody else helps you with the patcher I can offer you the process I used for my PSX mod...its a little like the Blind leading the Blind, but the underlying concept is the same...

******************

How is your PSP btw?

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #4 on: 2010-11-13 19:08:15 »
Yeah, thanks for the offer Lost Wing =) I see you used ppf patchs. The right move for a psx mod, IMO (and yeah, my psp still works great :D ). I'll also try to make my mod PSX/PSP compatible, eventually.

Anyways, if no one posts after this, I'll have to double-post to describe my modifications in a more in-depth manner (it should be okay to double-post in these kinds of situations, right ?). I bet I'll spend the whole evening / night typing everything, but this is a needed step : no one wants to install something they're not sure will be worth their time.

Cloudef

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #5 on: 2010-11-13 20:14:56 »
Looking forward for the PSX version, thank you and xLostWingx for both providing me, since I don't really have the time to make own PSX FF7 mod :P

Anyways, this mod adds more choices to the game? Could there be situations that you don't get some party members or lose some party members on certain choices etc? It sounds fun.

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #6 on: 2010-11-13 22:17:11 »
KERNEL.BIN being the skeletal structure of the mod, I'll start with it.

COMMAND tab

* New camera angles for some commands
* Slash all : toggle multiple, can target allies (useful for Aeris and her weapons providing buffs)

ATTACK tab

*Cure/Cure2/Cure3/Cure4 recover set amounts of HP (in battle). They're also not reflectable. Cure restores 500 HP, Cure2 : 2000 HP, Cure3 : 5000 HP, and Cure4 all HP.

* Esuna replaces Poisona.

* Dispel replaces Esuna.

* Defence Break: replaces Resist. Casts Reflect and nullifies Def and MDef. Now that reflect is always a good status effect (healing spells aren't reflected), this is a "drawback" to an otherwise overpowered magic. Plus, it allows enemies immune to Reflect, to also be immune to the loss of defence.

* Life : restores life with 50% HP.

* Status spells have a low MP cost and a perfect accuracy.

* Focus : Replaces Barrier. Doesn't cost MP, and recovers MaxMP*1/32. If a character uses it and has a max MP of 32, he'll recover 1 MP. If he has 960 MP, he'll recover 30 MP for free. Useful when you're in a dire situation and don't have an Ether to spare.

* Cure4 replaces MBarrier.

* Life3 replaces Reflect. Restores all allies to life with full HP.

* Overdrive replaces Wall. Sacrifices the user's limit gauge to fill those of other allies. Costs a lot of MP.

* Blind replaces Haste.

* Pearl replaces DeBarrier. Powerful Holy elemental attack.

* Petrify replaces DeSpell.

* New camera angles for attack spells.

* Some elements are now weaker / stronger than others. Here is the order, from weaker to stronger :
Poison (=Dark) < Ice < Lightning < Water < Earth < Wind < Fire < Gravity (not a % based element anymore) < Holy

So, Bolt is more powerful than Ice, but Ice2 is still more powerful than Bolt (but less powerful than Bolt2, of course).

To go more in-depth about elements, you can now tell which element an enemy is weak to, just by looking at it. Just look at the enemy's color. If black is the dominant color, then it is weak to Holy and halves Poison. If it's purple it is weak against fire and halves ice, if it's yellow it is weak against water and halves lightning, if it's blue, it is weak against lightning and halves water ; if it's brown, it is weak against wind and halves earth ; if it's green, it is weak against earth and halves wind ; if it's red, it is weak against ice and halves fire. And if it's white, it is weak against poison and halves holy. Gravity has no color - it is the "space" element, used for spells like Comet, Ultima, and the Bahamuts. Many enemies are weak to it.

Also, the Poison status also inflicts Dual, now. Think of it as a reverse Regen. It's still considered Poison though - so a Remedy/Esuna/etc will still remove the status. Note that a Bio attack either inflicts all status effects (Poison + Dual + Dual Drain), or none (but if your character blocks Poison and not Dual, he'll only get the Dual status of course).
 
But let's go back to the Attacks tab :

* Water replaces Escape.

* Water2 replaces Remove

* the Aero spells replace the Demi ones. If you want to use % based damage, use the Laser enemy skill.

* Meteo replaces FullCure. More powerful than Comet2, and hits 6 times.

* Water3 replaces Shield.

*New spell : Big Wall. Unusable by the party - can only be used by enemies. Casts Barrier/MBarrier/Reflect.

* Summons ignore the enemies' MDef.

* Enemies skills don't depend on the Magic stat, anymore. Someone with 1 Magic will be as effective in Enemy Skills as someone with 255 Magic. The difference is that Enemy Skills are generally less powerful than normal magics, and that they cost more MP (the price for versatility).

* Power Up replaces L4 Suicide. It inflicts KO on a random party member, but doubles the caster's Strength (max strength: 510). Use this if you feel lucky, because if it targets the caster, then it would have been for nothing.

* Magic Hammer : drains approx ~3% of the target's MP for no MP cost. Some random enemies and bosses have a lot of MP, so it can be useful. Of course, if you use it on a random enemy that only has 100 MP, it's not that good (3 MP stolen, yay...).

* White Wind : heals more status effects, but it has a higher MP cost now.

* Ether Corpse : replaces Big Guard. It restores 1000 MP to one dead ally. Will miss if you target anyone still on their feet.

* Angel Whisper : simply restores life at 50% HP, now. MP cost lowered.

* Refuse: replaces Dragon Force. 1260 Dark damage on all opponents.

* Flame Thrower : 200 Fire damage to a single opponent

* Laser now uses the Poison element, since all Poison attacks use the 'Unknown' one. It has many uses you'll notice. One of which is the fact that, if an enemy is immune against the Poison status effect, it'll also be immune against Laser.

* Matra Magic : 360 Holy damage on all opponents

* Beta : inflicts 1000 Fire damage on all opponents

* Aqualung : inflicts 760 Water damage on all opponents

* Trine : inflicts 500 Lightning damage on all opponents

* Magic Breath : damages MP. Since all rules have an exception, this is the only Enemy skill that increases power with the Magic stat.

* ?? ?? : Hit-elemental. Some enemies can be weak / halve / or be immune to Hit. So if Barret had 200/1000 HP and he'd hit an enemy who halves Hit, he'd deal 400 damage instead of 800.

* Goblin Punch : Hit elemental and perfect accuracy. Use this if the enemy is weak to physical attacks and keeps dodging your attacks. Depends on the Strength stat.

* Shadow Flare : 3000 Gravity damage

* Pandora's Box : 2000 Gravity damage on all opponents.

-------------------------

INITIAL DATA

Character data

Cloud starts the game at level 1. Everyone starts the game on the Back Row with a full Limit gauge.
No one gains stats at level up anymore. The only things that go up are HP and MP.
Everyone starts with ~10 in all stats and 200 HP / 20 MP, except Cloud that comes with ~15 and 300 HP / 30 MP. Use the sources that all random enemies drop to make your characters evolve as you wish. You shape your own team.
Oh, and you need less kills / limit uses to learn new limit skills. The limit gauges also take more time to fill (it was necessary, because since the enemies hit harder, Limit breaks occured too often. I made Limit breaks rarer, so you'll sometimes want to use them in specific spots - not always as soon as they're available).

Equipment that Cloud comes equipped with :

WEAPON : Buster Sword
ARMOR : Soldier 3rd
ACCESSORY : Strife

Materias that Cloud comes equipped with :

*Medic
*All (mastered)
*Low Level magic
*Counter-Attack
*Seal
*Added Effect
*Poison
*Enemy Skill
*Morph
*Focus

Equipment that Barret comes equipped with :

WEAPON : Gatling Gun
ARMOR : Avalanche Warrior
ACCESSORY : Wallace

Materias that Barret comes equipped with :

*Enemy Lure (mastered)
*Double Cut
*Item
*Steal

Equipment that Tifa comes equipped with :

WEAPON : Wizard Glove
ARMOR : Cotton Shirt
ACCESSORY : Lockheart

Materias that Tifa comes equipped with :

*Luck Plus
*Slash All
*Added Cut
*Steal
*Lightning
*All
*Enemy Skill
*Ice

(I won't go over the other characters, for now - laziness and all that...)

Party Data

You start with these items :

-Potion x10
-Hi-Potion x3
-Super Hero Drink x1
-Mega Potion x1
-Ether x1
-Remedy x5
-Phoenix Down x3
-Mega Phoenix x1
-a bunch of Greens

ITEMS

Almost all magics turned into attack items that have the same effect as the magics. Examples : Cure Stone, Ultima Stone, Meteo Stone, Aero Stone. Attack items deal a set amount of damage, and follow the same principle as attack magic. That means that the Bio Stone deals 80 damage, while the Ice Stone deals 100 damage, the Bolt Stone deals 120 damage, etc.

The most powerful attack item is the Pearl Stone, which deals 5000 damage. Oh yeah, and attack items have their own element (Shout). For example, some enemies can instantly die from being hit by an attack item.

Potions restore 400 HP in battle, 100 HP out of battle
Hi-Potions restore 2000 HP in battle, 500 HP out of battle
Ethers restore 400 MP in battle, 100 MP out of battle
Phoenix Downs restore life with 50% HP in battle

Take note that I kept the Light and Lunar Curtains, as one of the only ways (next to Aeris' weapons and some limit skills) to grant the Barrier & MBarrier statuses. But these items are rare, so I'd advise to use them as last resorts of sorts.

As a final note, forget about Eyedrops, Antidotes, Echo Screens and the likes. Now there is only one item to cure all status effects : the Remedy. It doesn't cost much gil, and it's a good idea to stock some. As for Hyper & Tranquilizers, they don't exist anymore. A certain weapon can inflict the Fury status (it makes enemies lose accuracy), and some Limit skills add Sadness to the party, reducing the damage taken.

WEAPONS

All weapons can be useful. Depends on your playstyle, and what enemy you are facing.
Some weapons give stat bonuses, can target MP instead of HP (some enemies can die if they have no MP left - most of the time, you can defeat an enemy with a huge HP pool a lot quicker by depleting its MP), weapons that have the Demi effect, weapons that ignore defence, that deal magical instead of physical damage, that always deal a certain amount of damage, that inflict status effects, that drains HP, etc... ...and all characters have a double & triple growth weapon. Also, in general, the better the weapon, the fewer materia slots they have. Oh yes : all weapons are now Long-Range. I always hated this advantage the game gave to Barret, Vincent and Yuffie over the other characters.

And I almost forgot to say that each character deals elemental attacks. All of Cloud's swords are Lightning elemental, for instance. And even most of his Limit skills deal lightning damage (the exceptions being MeteoRain which is Gravity/Space, and Finishing Touch which is Wind-elemental). The elements of the other characters are just below, in the armors section.

ARMORS / BANGLES

Each character has his/her armor of choice (all with 8 linked slots) that absorbs a certain element. Cloud absorbs Lightning, Tifa absorbs Holy, Barret absorbs Earth, Aeris absorbs Gravity, Red XIII absorbs Fire, Yuffie absorbs Water, Cait Sith absorbs Ice, Vincent absorbs Poison, and Cid absorbs Wind.

Also, each character has better personal armors that cost a lot of gil. For example, Cloud comes equipped with the Soldier 3rd armor. But later in the game, he'll come across the Soldier 2nd armor that absorbs lightning too but has Double materia growth, and adds 30 to both Strength and Magic. As for the Soldier 1st armor, it has Triple materia growth and adds 50 to both Strength and Magic. Of course, only Cloud and Sephiroth can use these Soldier armors. Same thing for Tifa, who has the Cotton Shirt, the Jujitsu Gi and the Brave Suit, etc...

You can also find armors not specific to characters. Like the Gigas Armlet (adds 70 to Strength, Def +200), the Aegis Armlet (adds 70 to Magic, MDef +200), the Dodger Armlet (Dexterity +30, Evade +50%), the Wizard Armlet (Luck +30, MEvade +50%), or the Genji Armlet.

ACCESSORIES

Each character has his/her accessory of choice, that protects against status effects and give additionnal bonuses. These are :

Strife : Repels Death, Death Sentence, and nullifies Bullet attacks (all bullet attacks have their own element)
Lockheart : Repels Sleep, Slow, and nullifies Laser attacks (all laser attacks have their own element)
Wallace : Repels Slow-Numb, Petrify, and nullifies Impacts (like punches, attacks from blunt objects, etc - they have their own element)
Nanaki : Repels Berserk, Frog, and grants Auto-Haste
Kisaragi : Repels Stop, Paralysis, and grants Auto-Haste
Crystal Ball : Repels Silence, Mini, and grants Auto-Reflect
Valentine : Repels Poison, Dual, and grants Auto-Reflect
Highwind : Repels Confusion, Blind, and nullifies Slash attacks (attacks from swords, spears, claws, etc - they also have their own element)

There also are accessories that protect against elements :

Hell Ring : Halves Dark (=Poison) & Fire elements
Heaven Ring : Halves Lightning & Holy elements
Gaia Ring : Halves Earth & Water elements
Blizzard Ring : Halves Ice & Wind elements
Star Ring : Halves Gravity element

And there are accessories that protect against status effects :

Talisman : Repels Poison, Dual, Confusion, Blind
Safety Bit : Repels Death, Death Sentence, Slow Numb, Petrify
White Cape : Repels Frog, Mini, Silence, Berserk
ATB Protector : Repels Slow, Stop, Paralysis, Sleep

...Add to that accessories that give stat boosts, the Reflect Ring, the Haste Ring, the Thief Glove and the Hypno Crown - and I think we're done with the accessories.

MATERIA

All materias give stat bonuses. For example Double Cut adds 1 to Strength and Vitality but removes 1 point to Magic and Spirit. Now you could equip materias with the stat boosts in mind, instead of the effects / magics they give (like putting a bunch of yellow materias to further increase a character's strength, etc).

- the Focus materia replaces HP Plus. Bye bye HP Plus, I won't miss you. Too easily abusable, IMO.

- the Low Level Magic materia replaces the Long Range materia (now useless). The Low level magic materia gives access to the spells Ice, Bolt, Aero, Quake and Water (not in this order though). You only need 100 AP to learn the next spell.

- Flash command removed from Slash all.

- W-Item turned into the Item materia. You can't use items in battle if this materia is not equipped.

- Blank spot under Item : Strength Plus materia.

- Elemental has only two levels, now. It can only halve an element. Not resist or absorb it. If for some reason you want to absorb Fire, for example, use Red XIII.

- Mime turned into the Flash materia

- Blank spot under Enemy skill : Vitality Plus materia

- Blank spot under Vitality Plus : Spirit Plus materia

- Blank Spot under Spirit Plus : Status Ailments materia. Combine this with added effect to either get a Ribbon effect, or to inflict all status ailments on the enemies you hit. A very rare materia.

- Master Command turned into the No Limit materia. Even more rare than Status Ailments.

- Exit materia turned into Water materia

- Gravity materia turned into Wind materia

- Barrier materia turned into Rejuvenate materia. Spells are : Focus, Cure4, Life3, and Overdrive.

- Full Cure materia turned into Meteo materia

- Shield materia turned into Pearl materia

- Blank spot under Master Summon materia turned into Medic materia. Spells are : Cure, Esuna, Life, and Cure2

- Blank spot under Medic is Mid-level magic materia. Spells are : Ice2, Bolt2, Aero2, Quake2 and Water2. Only 200 AP needed to learn the next spell.

- Blank spot under Mid-level magic is High-level magic. Spells are : Ice3, Bolt3, Aero3, Quake3 and Water3. Only 300 AP needed to learn the next spell.

- Blank Spot under High-level magic is Mother's materia. Magic materia, but gives no spell. Aeris comes equipped with it - it's Holy-elemental so combined with Added effect, you can inflict Holy damage / halve Holy, and its equip effect is 10h. Meaning that it adds 8 in Magic, 8 in Spirit, +20% MP - but it reduces HP by 10%.

Kernel mostly done ! ...I'll continue tomorrow, I'm tired x_X
Also take note that even though I'm satisfied with this, it is not set in stone. I've been working for years on this mod, so if you can convince me to change some things, no problem.

EDIT : @Cloudef: no, I'm not doing such field editing (for now, at least). The events will stay the same. I'm only interested in the gameplay, for now.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 00:19:37 by Armorvil »

Timber

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #7 on: 2010-11-14 04:51:58 »
Wow very nice Armorvil, sounds pretty interesting.
With both this and Rebirth coming, I'll have lots of fresh ways to play my fav game :D

xLostWingx

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #8 on: 2010-11-14 05:32:25 »
Looks great Armorvil.  I've seen the youtube vids before and I think your mod will really leave the player with a unique experience.  Let me know if you want my input for a psx patch (what little input I can provide anyway), or if you think a ppf will work for what you are doing (the program I used didn't seem to be exclusively for PSX files).  Glad your PSP still works, and it didn't get stolen, your luck stat must be quite high.

Tenko Kuugen

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #9 on: 2010-11-14 11:00:24 »
Lets go a little in detail

Overdrive, seeing how the maximum MP cost is 255 and that you can pretty much throw around megalixirs at the end of the game, a little broken. Technically, you can also Mime it. Which ends in massive Limit spam over and over. If you have even Aerith from ultimas aerith patch, this is basically a ticket to infinite peerless ( overdrive -> grand gospel -> overdrive -> grand gospel -> overdrive ) Even without aerith, its still much more powerful than almost any other spell. I think it's a little too powerful.

Power up is also a little... well. Lets just say you fight a hard boss, use it, it hits someone, you ress him. I dont know how long exactly that effect stays but if its permanent for the battle, this is totally broken. From what it sounds like, you modified the roulette spell into this or used a similiar mechanism to kill, so death force should negate it. ahoy double str for everyone with ease. A little OP.

Most other spell changes are nice, while some really really depend on the HP your enemies have.

The personified armors and accessoires are a nice touch. I did that to my game too.

All in all, it sounds interesting, but I think there might be slight problems with some of the spells being really useless if you level a lot, since they don't scale anymore.

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #10 on: 2010-11-14 11:33:10 »
Quote
Overdrive, seeing how the maximum MP cost is 255 and that you can pretty much throw around megalixirs at the end of the game, a little broken. Technically, you can also Mime it.

You won't be able to throw around Megalixirs / Ethers / Turbo Ethers / Elixirs, because they are either rare or expensive, and WItem doesn't exist anymore. Can't mime it either, because Mime was turned into the Flash materia.

Quote
If you have even Aerith from ultimas aerith patch, this is basically a ticket to infinite peerless ( overdrive -> grand gospel -> overdrive -> grand gospel -> overdrive ) Even without aerith, its still much more powerful than almost any other spell. I think it's a little too powerful.

I'm not creating this patch with Ultima's Aerith patch in mind (meaning you're not supposed to have Aerith after she dies). But because you won't be able to abuse the spell for the above reason, it shouldn't be a problem anyway.

Quote
Power up is also a little... well. Lets just say you fight a hard boss, use it, it hits someone, you ress him. I dont know how long exactly that effect stays but if its permanent for the battle, this is totally broken. From what it sounds like, you modified the roulette spell into this or used a similiar mechanism to kill, so death force should negate it. ahoy double str for everyone with ease. A little OP.

This can't happen. First, because the spell kills a random party member, including the caster. If the spell hits the caster, then he won't get the Strength bonus. The KO status removes the bonus. And Death Force won't be able to protect from it, since Power up ignores any kind of death protection. So no, everyone won't be able to have double strength - it's just not possible. If you're VERY lucky, 2 of them potentially could though - but it would be a dangerous strategy.

Quote
All in all, it sounds interesting, but I think there might be slight problems with some of the spells being really useless if you level a lot, since they don't scale anymore.

I bet you mean the Enemy skills that deal a certain amount of damage... ...Well, they have nice bonuses over normal spells : first they ignore Magic Defence, so they'll always deal this amount of damage (and the damage will be doubled, if they hit enemies weak against their element). Plus, they ignore MBarrier. I admit though, that FlameThrower won't be useful throughout the game (much like the level 1 spells) - it's only a spell useful at the beginning of the game, that you can learn outside the church in the slums.

Anyways, thanks for your replies guys ! I'm glad you like what I did. ^^
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 11:41:03 by Armorvil »

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #11 on: 2010-11-14 13:45:13 »
My modifications to FF7.exe

Thanks to Bosola's LiBrE utility (by the way, fun fact : did you know that libre means free -as in freedom-, in French ? :D), I also edited Limit skills. Here is what I did :

- All Limits ignore defence

- Their power has been balanced, so a Limit that only hits once is not always weaker than those that hit multiple times (I'm looking at you, Level 4 Limits).

- Why I made them inflict status effects : because the strength of limits depends on the Strength stat, and since you have a limited amount of Strength sources, some characters will be left with very little Strength. The status effects ensure that their limits are still useful. Example : you decide to feed Cloud with all of your Strength sources, and to give the Magic sources to Tifa. Tifa's strength ends up pitifully low. Now, her Beat Rush won't do much damage, but it will inflict Slow on an enemy - which is nice.


Braver : Inflicts Death. Lightning elemental.
Cross Slash : Inflicts Paralyze (as usual). Lightning elemental.
Blade Beam : Lightning elemental
Climhazzard : Inflicts Death Sentence. Lightning elemental.
Meteorrain : Gravity elemental.
Finishing Touch : Inflict Death, Wind elemental.
Omnislash : Lightning elemental.

Big Shot : Inflicts Petrify. Earth elemental.
Mindblow : Deals 1000 MP damage.
Grenade Bomb : Inflicts Slow Numb. Fire elemental.
Hammerblow : Inflicts Death. No damage (? Not sure about this).
Satellite Beam : Inflicts Paralysis. Holy elemental.
Ungarmax : Earth elemental.
Catastrophe : Earth elemental.

Healing Wind : Restores 400 HP to all allies.
Seal Evil : No changes
Breath of the Earth : cures all negative status effects, and boosts the whole team's Def/MDef by 50%.
Fury Brand : Restores 800 HP to all allies, and fills the other characters' Limit gauges.
Planet Protector : Casts Barrier & MBarrier on all allies
Pulse of Life : no changes
Great Gospel : Revives / restores all HP and doubles everyone's stats.

Beat Rush : Inflicts Slow. Holy elemental.
Somersault : Inflicts Sleep, Holy elemental.
Water Kick : Inflicts Frog, Water elemental.
Meteodrive : Inflicts Blind, Gravity elemental.
Dolphin Blow : Inflicts Silence, Water elemental.
Meteor Strike : Inflicts Mini, Gravity elemental.
Final Heaven : Inflicts Paralysis, Holy elemental.

Boost Jump : Inflicts Blind, Wind elemental.
Dynamite : Inflicts Confusion, Fire elemental.
Hyper Jump : Inflicts Death, Wind elemental.
Dragon : Drains HP/MP. Wind elemental.
Dragon Dive : Wind elemental.
Big Brawl : Inflicts Paralysis, Wind elemental.
Highwind : Wind elemental.

Sled Fang : Inflicts Frog. Fire elemental.
Lunatic High : Gives the Sadness status to all party members, reducing all damage taken by 33% IIRC.
Blood Fang : Drains HP/MP. Fire elemental.
Stardust Ray : Inflicts Berserk. Fire elemental.
Howling Moon : Gives the Barrier and Sadness statuses to all party members.
Earth Rave : Earth elemental.
Cosmo Memory : Fire elemental.

Greased Lightning : Inflicts Stop, Lightning elemental.
Clear Tranquil : Restores 600 HP to all allies
Landscaper : Inflicts Paralysis. Earth elemental.
Bloodfest : Poison elemental (not blocked by enemies blocking the Poison status).
Gauntlet : Inflicts Sleep. Water elemental.
Doom of the Living : Poison elemental (not blocked by enemies blocking the Poison status).
All Creation : Water elemental.

Cait Sith' limits are mostly unchanged. Toy Soldier is Ice elemental, though.
Vincent's physical limits are Poison elemental (not blocked by enemies blocking the Poison status), and inflict Poison+Dual. They are also more powerful, as are his magical limits.

To finish with my modifications to FF7.exe, just know that I also greatly tweaked all shops (thanks to Titeguy3 for White Choco ^^).
For example, the Sector 8 materia shop sells HP<->MP, Water, Earth, Restore, All, Throw, Elemental, HP Absorb, MP Absorb and Status Ailment. In general, I made it so that many good materia are available very soon into the game - so you actually have to choose what to equip. In the original game, too many materia are available way too late into the game. Now you don't have to play 10 hours before finally being able to customize your party with lots of different materias / equipments. The materia system is great, and as a player, I sure want to play with its goodness as soon as possible.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 14:07:31 by Armorvil »

Tenko Kuugen

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #12 on: 2010-11-14 14:07:24 »
It's scary how your limits for Tifa are 90% the same as the ones I did.  The only difference is that beat rush and summersault are punch / kick and not holy for me.
hivemind.

I prefer not to have a trillion super materia right at the start, but thats REALLY something thats up to the person playing. I assume it can be fun as hell to mash through the entire game while having the entire materia cast to pick from.

Just a lil input
I would make Catastrophe Fire/Earth ( makes a lot more sense to me, unless you changed the animation drastically )
I don't understand why clouds stuff is lightning elemental tbh. isn't there a "cut" element?
Yuffie's limits look a bit iffy with the elements. Bloodfest and End of the Living are more 'cut' than 'poison'. And All Creation is more multi-element ( fire, holy, lightning, gravity, wind likely ) than water.

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #13 on: 2010-11-14 14:19:59 »
It's scary how your limits for Tifa are 90% the same as the ones I did.  The only difference is that beat rush and summersault are punch / kick and not holy for me.
hivemind.

lol. Great minds think alike ?

Quote
I prefer not to have a trillion super materia right at the start, but thats REALLY something thats up to the person playing. I assume it can be fun as hell to mash through the entire game while having the entire materia cast to pick from.

Well, it depends on the player's playstyle, sure. But my logic is : more choices is better than less choices. I want all kinds of players to have their fun. And I can't speak for everyone, but I sure don't like being so limited in materia for a good chunk of the game, in the original. You get status magic very late. Same for spells like Esuna, Revive, etc...

Quote
Just a lil input
I would make Catastrophe Fire/Earth ( makes a lot more sense to me, unless you changed the animation drastically )
I don't understand why clouds stuff is lightning elemental tbh. isn't there a "cut" element?
Yuffie's limits look a bit iffy with the elements. Bloodfest and End of the Living are more 'cut' than 'poison'. And All Creation is more multi-element ( fire, holy, lightning, gravity, wind likely ) than water.

Thanks for this. The logic behind my reasoning is how each character is tied to an element (Cloud being lightning, Tifa Holy, Barret Earth, etc). But my limit breaks edits are not set in stone. As for the Cut element, I used it for something else (the element for the throwable Shurikens you can buy - necessary because since the Throw command increases power with the user's strength, throwing cheap shurikens can become overpowered. Some enemies / bosses halve Cut). I'm also not too keen on the idea of giving any attack spell more than one element - because of the way the game calculates damage (Kjata comes to mind...).

It would have been great if FFVII calculated damage the same way FFX does. In other words, if an enemy weak against both Fire and Earth would take 3x damage from Kjata. Or if an enemy halved Fire and Earth, it would only suffer 25% or 33% damage from it - not just 50% damage. But with FFVII's current damage calculation method, I don't see multi-elemental attacks as a good idea.

EDIT:

Quote
Bloodfest and End of the Living are more 'cut' than 'poison'.

Truth is, I chose Poison because of the attacks' names. Poison also being the 'Dark' element (as in some kind of 'evil' element). I thought it was fitting for attacks named Bloodfest and Doom of the Living...

Thanks for giving your opinion, Kuugen :D
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 14:59:50 by Armorvil »

Aali

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #14 on: 2010-11-14 14:53:09 »
Did you just make fury brand *better*? It was already like the most overpowered ability ever without the healing effect :P

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #15 on: 2010-11-14 15:02:20 »
Yeah, lol. And since Aeris levels up faster than the other characters (oh yeah, I forgot to mention this), she is a beast in this mod. Her limit gauge takes more time / hits to fill, though. You'll feel the loss, at the end of the first disk.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 15:25:56 by Armorvil »

Bosola

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #16 on: 2010-11-14 16:34:14 »
My modifications to FF7.exe

Thanks to Bosola's LiBrE utility (by the way, fun fact : did you know that libre means free -as in freedom-, in French ? :D),

Good to know someone is actually using the tool. As for 'Libre' = 'free', that was kind of the idea: Libre 'frees' us by removing one of the last constraints on editing mechanics, and quite happily fits LImit BReak Editor.

I guess the source is also open, though why someone would use it I've no idea. It isn't especially well written. In retrospect, it's actually quite embarrassing to re-read the code.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 16:36:11 by Bosola »

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #17 on: 2010-11-14 20:13:05 »
Well, your Limit Breaks Editor is an awesome piece of work in my opinion. Not only does it work perfectly, but it is also entirely bug-free (and trust me, I tested it a lot ^^).

Now that we're on the subject of Libre, and that I think about it (and to get back on topic), do you think you could do the same as NFITC1 on Wall Market and Proud Clod ; in other words implement a patch applier / creator directly into the utility ? That would be awesome, it would allow me distribute a patch file that users could apply to their FF7.exe... ...Is it possible ? Or do you, by any chance, know another simpler way to create a patch for an executable ?

Bosola

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #18 on: 2010-11-14 20:25:04 »
Do you mean create a standalone patch, or are you asking how patching can be done with Libre?

For the latter, all you would have to do is open your new LIMITMNU.MNU or FF7.EXE file, then SAVE AS to a target file - eg FF7.EXE. You can load a PSOne file to patch a PC executable and vice-versa.

Now, if you wanted to create a standalone patch, all you would really need to do is 'patch' limit data to a dummy file, then distribute that and Libre (I'm happy with you distributing the latest version of either the executable or py files). You could create a dummy file however you want. Just creating a PNG called 'limitdata' would be absolutely fine. Libre doesn't really care about filetypes, it just reads and writes raw data.

Kranmer

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #19 on: 2010-11-14 20:37:51 »
Sounds like it could be a interesting mod, I will be keeping a eye on this.
If you want to create a Patcher for FF7.EXE i would personally recommend using Dup2 (http://diablo2oo2.di.funpic.de) which is a free EXE patcher, it compares the original and the patched EXE and notes all the differences and makes a standalone EXE patch, i used the same system to make the New Battle Interface Patch (you used them i believe when you used the patch for No HP bars and no eye opener) and other users now use them for there mods (DLPB and SL1982 both use Dup2 now, DLPB on his Menu Mod and Re-translation and SL1982 on his GUI 2.0), or if you find that to hard you could try CodeFusion3 (http://www.kobik.net/codefusion.asp) which is also free and easy to use (but i prefere DUP2, the only advantage of CodeFusion is that it gives less false positives on certain v-scanners).
And if you want to create a patch for Flevel you could either make a .BAT file for replacing the files or you could make a patch that will only work on the original Flevel using one of the above programs or you could try something like Xdelta (which isn't bad but i don't recommend it for EXE patching)
Also if you want to create a installer i personally recommend Inno, its free and doesn't require any programming knowledge (although if you know Delphi you can enhance the installer like DLPB has to the script that we came up with).
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 20:40:26 by kranmer »

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #20 on: 2010-11-14 20:45:59 »
I meant the former (the standalone patch), you know, kinda like how Wall Market can create a .wm file containing all your changes so you can distribute it.

Quote
Now, if you wanted to create a standalone patch, all you would really need to do is 'patch' limit data to a dummy file, then distribute that and Libre (I'm happy with you distributing the latest version of either the executable or py files). You could create a dummy file however you want. Just creating a PNG called 'limitdata' would be absolutely fine. Libre doesn't really care about filetypes, it just reads and writes raw data.

Ah yes. I just tried to patch a dummy file : I created a text file, named it whatever.exe, and asked libre to patch it. Then, I opened it in Libre and indeed saw all of my changes. I guess I could distribute it, and people would just have to load it into Libre, then ask Libre to save the data into their FF7.exe (I noticed this whatever.exe didn't really become a ff7.exe even though its file size is more than 5MB - it just contains the limit data, which is logical).

But I just found another method, a lot faster and easier : the ouinja patcher. I made a ff7.exe patch with it - so people can just patch their ff7.exe with with it (by selecting "Ninja - binary" in the ouinja patcher ; the patch has the .rup extension). Works perfectly, and it has the advantage to also patch my changes to the shops.

Now all that's left is a way to create a patch out of my flevel.lgp...

EDIT:

Ah, I just read your post, Kranmer :D Thank you very much for the great insight !
Since Dup2 is an exe patcher, I assume it won't work with an LGP archive, right ?... ...I'll try CodeFusion3 to see if it can work with LGP files.

Or now that you gave me the tip of Inno, I'll try to make an installer ^^. It would be much easier to install, than having to use Wall Market, Proud Clod, the Ouinja Patcher / Dup2, and CodeFusion3.

EDIT 2:

I tried Inno Setup Compiler, and the least I can say, is that is isn't as user-friendly as I thought. I'll need some time to figure out how to make it work the way I want (meaning : replace ff7.exe with the one I provide in the Program Files\Final Fantasy VII\ directory, replace flevel.lgp with the one I provide in the Final Fantasy VII\Data\Field\ directory, etc...).

Meanwhile, I tried CodeFusion. Verdict : it won't do. I can choose the file to patch, but the utility then asks me what is the data to patch. It wants me to enter the offset addresses, the data, the size... :lol: Yeah, right.

As for dUP2, looks like it doesn't want to work with lgp files. I get an error message after a while, when comparing the original with the modded one. Perhaps the file is too big.

The last one was the right one : Xdelta works great. It created a patch of 76.2MB (a bit much for the little modifications I made), but it does the trick. Maybe I'll make xdelta patches for the other files too ; that will make installing the mod a lot faster and easier (I'll create a bunch of already configured bat files in the patches' directory, so the only thing you'll have to do is put your originals in it and launch the bat files one at a time. Beats having to use many different programs).

I'll make all the patches and upload them tomorrow ;) It's getting late in my time zone.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-14 23:27:06 by Armorvil »

Kranmer

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #21 on: 2010-11-15 10:08:45 »
Meanwhile, I tried CodeFusion. Verdict : it won't do. I can choose the file to patch, but the utility then asks me what is the data to patch. It wants me to enter the offset addresses, the data, the size... :lol: Yeah, right.

As for dUP2, looks like it doesn't want to work with lgp files. I get an error message after a while, when comparing the original with the modded one. Perhaps the file is too big.

The last one was the right one : Xdelta works great. It created a patch of 76.2MB (a bit much for the little modifications I made), but it does the trick. Maybe I'll make xdelta patches for the other files too ; that will make installing the mod a lot faster and easier (I'll create a bunch of already configured bat files in the patches' directory, so the only thing you'll have to do is put your originals in it and launch the bat files one at a time. Beats having to use many different programs).

I'll make all the patches and upload them tomorrow ;) It's getting late in my time zone.
If Inno is to hard for you to use you could try a free install creator like "ClickTeam Install Creator" or "CreateInstall" (i don't use either anymore since i started using inno but i have used both in the past and both are really easy to use) but your probably better off sticking with .BAT files and patch's if you can't get figure out a installer.
Well for Codefusion it does have a compare function so you don't have to enter the address's manually,
And yes DUP2 does have problems with big files (i only tend to use it as a EXE,DLL or TXT patcher because of that),
I am glad to see XDelta works for you, yes the patch's do tend to be a little big but it does have a internal compressor which can make the patch's allot smaller if you use the right switches (assuming you haven't already used its compression) or you can always just try a external compressor like RAR,ZIP or LZMA etc to see if you can make it smaller.
« Last Edit: 2010-11-15 10:11:09 by kranmer »

Armorvil

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #22 on: 2010-11-15 14:18:02 »
CodeFusion couldn't compare the two LGP archives, as far as I can remember. But it's possible I didn't use it correctly.
Anyways, thanks for the tip regarding "ClickTeam Install Creator" and "CreateInstall", though I think I'll keep the bat files for the demo (a child could install the mod, with them).
And yeah, I'll create a rar archive containing all the needed files, so this compression should further reduce their size.

I'm looking forward to leaving my workplace, so I can make the archive and upload it on my Mediafire account.

Tenko Kuugen

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #23 on: 2010-11-15 14:31:57 »
I think the whole character=elementalligned thing is a nice addition. but not to ff7. Maybe very few exceptions. Nanaki could be earth attributed because of his race and where they lived before. Cat Sith could be lightning attributed because he's a frign robot. Everyone else is really just human, so they might have a prefered elemental attribute, but to make their limits that attribute as well is a bit...
If you really want to make elemental alligned spells out of them, I'd suggest some changes. Really, the attacks itself should have elemental attributes based on the design. I won't go into detail here, but to apply a general elemental allignment to a character is usually not a good idea, unless you find a way to give them something extra beyond the point of limits. like, elemental resistances. Imo, final fantasy characters aren't pokemon.
I am not really a fan of the "no natural stat growth but enemies drop stat items" thing. If you farm the right place you could get ridiculously overpowered. ( lets say, farm the earliest source of strenght items ). At some point, you are strong enough to just hold X, watch everyone one-shot the enemies, run around for the next battle, etc.

Beavii

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Re: My FFVII AV mod - the demo...
« Reply #24 on: 2010-11-15 21:08:12 »
Intreging idea's,

But like all mods on here i reserve judgment untill i've tried and tested for myself. I do like the concept and look forward to trying this out. Thanks in advance for the upload of wkich i eagerly await. ;D