Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)  (Read 1079207 times)

ADIDAS

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« Reply #250 on: 2008-09-19 06:45:58 »
my luck plus went up from LV1 to master after I defeated Jenova-Life O_o

lol I have 2 master luck plus now , only need LV up it to LV2  :-P

Quote
P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

yeah sense is kinda ussless , It's great if you can make sense LV to Scan  :-D

EDIT: I am facing Shizo right now , I gave Cloud Fire ring and each time the right head use fire breath on Cloud , it heals him (of course) but also gives him Stop,Reflect,Barrier ,MBarrier, Regen and Shield O_o . Is it a bug ?
« Last Edit: 2008-09-19 15:11:54 by ADIDAS »

Tyler_Wu

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« Reply #251 on: 2008-09-19 20:14:59 »
gjoerulv's  i tried the soldiers a few more times (i downloaded the new kernel and scene)  and eventually i figured out the proper strategy,  mini, and sleep, and berserk... so the battle was still hard but not anything too crazy.

i was wondering what kind of changes you made to them in the new files,  maybe they werent overpowered before... maybe its just cuz i hadnt figured out the proper strategy yet, something to think about.

i tried hojo once too,  and his last form killed me eventually,  that comet counter is pretty cool.  i think i could defeat hojo if i try a few more times,  try out some different strategies.  he seems pretty hard but not overpowered or anything.

Archu

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« Reply #252 on: 2008-09-20 09:31:01 »
His Combo is powerful enough to kill one of my chars.. Does about 12k damage to the char with the lowest defense, and 10-11k to the one with highest. (Ziedrich)
On my first time he spammed it ALOT. But theres still hope to it though ; ]

ADIDAS

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« Reply #253 on: 2008-09-20 09:49:59 »
Ribbon is supposed to be immune to all status change but I saw Haste and Death still work .
« Last Edit: 2008-09-20 09:54:50 by ADIDAS »

gjoerulv

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« Reply #254 on: 2008-09-20 19:33:52 »
my luck plus went up from LV1 to master after I defeated Jenova-Life O_o

lol I have 2 master luck plus now , only need LV up it to LV2  :-P

Quote
P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

yeah sense is kinda ussless , It's great if you can make sense LV to Scan  :-D

EDIT: I am facing Shizo right now , I gave Cloud Fire ring and each time the right head use fire breath on Cloud , it heals him (of course) but also gives him Stop,Reflect,Barrier ,MBarrier, Regen and Shield O_o . Is it a bug ?

Sh*t. Seems I like the Luck Plus Materia is mastered after 10000 AP lol. I uploaded a knew fix. look at 1st post. And regarding that Bug, I don't doubt your word but looking at the data I don't see whats causing it. I must test this myself. Perhaps it's an overflow bug.

Ribbon is supposed to be immune to all status change but I saw Haste and Death still work .

Yes, Death, Slow, Haste and Stop isn't prevented by ribbon. It was intended that way.

@Tyler_Wu: You might want to try the last turk battle in the tunnel and Proud Clod again just for fun. If you saved there. I don't think they're pushovers anymore. Not that hard either.

EDIT: oh and that sense thing... I haven't looked into it but I believe you must alter the exe file. I have no clue in other words.

Kudistos Megistos

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« Reply #255 on: 2008-09-20 21:37:51 »
Gjoerulv, I have recently been hex editing kernel.bin1 (I am new to this and have been relying entirely on the qhimm wiki for information) and noticed that you changed the value of the first byte of some attacks from FF to values like 78 and 4B. What effect does this have? And what determines whether an attack hits a single target by default or always hits all targets?

EDIT:

I think I've found the answer to the first of my two questions on another thread; I now have reason to believe that the first byte determines Attack%.
« Last Edit: 2008-09-20 23:46:01 by Leighos Kudistos Megistos »

gjoerulv

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« Reply #256 on: 2008-09-21 03:38:55 »
Gjoerulv, I have recently been hex editing kernel.bin1 (I am new to this and have been relying entirely on the qhimm wiki for information) and noticed that you changed the value of the first byte of some attacks from FF to values like 78 and 4B. What effect does this have? And what determines whether an attack hits a single target by default or always hits all targets?

EDIT:

I think I've found the answer to the first of my two questions on another thread; I now have reason to believe that the first byte determines Attack%.

Yup! The 1st byte is accuracy! 64h = 100% hit. 96h = 150% hit etc. If the attack is supposed to target 1 enemy, the 13th byte in the attack must be 03h. This byte alone determines the target properties. 07h is all enemies (or all the playing characters, of course, if the attack user is a game enemy). The target byte is the byte after the "Camera" bytes. I'll try to explain every byte in an attack just to be clear:

Code: [Select]
AC|IA|TA>--<-MP--|--IS-|-CA1-|-CA2-|TG|ID|TD|PW|RT|SE|AT|NU|----ST-----|-EL--|-SP-->
ff 0b 00 ff 00 00 e2 00 ff ff ff ff 01 ff 11 18 ff 3f ff ff 00 00 00 06 00 04 ff ff

This is the bytes for Safer's "Wing Attack"

AC = Accuracy
IA = Impact Animation
TA = Target Animation
MP = MP used
IS = Impact sound (usually only set if IA =/= FF)
CA1/2 = Camera movement ID for 1/All targets
TG = Target:
        01h - Single / Multiple
03h - Single Target
05h - Multiple Target
        07h - FMultiple Targets
        0Fh - Toogle target (done in the AI)
ID = Animation ID. Standard physical attackts usually never gets an ID.
TD = type damage.
        11 = physical
        22 = magical
        23 = demi effect
        24 = Based on full HP.
PW = attack power
RT=  Restore Type
00 - Restore HP
  01 - Restore MP
02 - Restore Ailment
        3E - 100% cause status change
SE = Status Effect (Remove or inflict %)
  <3Fh Inflict Status
7Fh Cure Status
AT = Aditional Targets?
NA = Number of attack effects (only if AT = 00)
ST = Status Afflictions (4 Bytes)*
0x00000001 Death
0x00000002 Near-Death
0x00000004 Sleep
0x00000008 Poison
0x00000010 Sadness
0x00000020 Fury
0x00000040 Confusion
0x00000080 Silence
0x00000100 Haste
0x00000200 Slow
0x00000400 Stop
0x00000800 Frog
0x00001000 Small
0x00002000 Slow-numb
0x00004000 Petrify
0x00008000 Regen
0x00010000 Barrier
0x00020000 MBarrier
0x00040000 Reflect
0x00080000 Unused
0x00100000 Shield
0x00200000 D.Sentence
0x00400000 Manipulate
0x00800000 Berserk
0x01000000 Peerless
0x02000000 Paralyzed
0x04000000 Darkness
0x08000000 Dual
0x10000000 DeathForce
0x20000000 Resist
0x40000000 Lucky Girl
0x80000000 Imprisoned

EL = Elemental Type (2 Bytes)*
0x0000 Non Elemental
0x0001 Fire
0x0002 Ice
0x0004 Lightning
0x0008 Earth
0x0010 Poison
0x0020 Gravity
0x0040 Water
0x0080 Wind
0x0100 Holy
0x0200 Restorative
0x0400 Cut
0x0800 Hit
0x1000 Punch
0x2000 Shoot
0x4000 Shout

SP = "Special" (4 bytes*)
0x0001 Attack MP instead of HP
  0x0002 ?
  0x0004 ?
  0x0008 ?
0x0010 Drain Damage Dealt
0x0020 Drain HP/MP
0x0040 Blade Beam
  0x0080 Ignore Status
  0x0100 Miss if Not in “Death” Status
  0x0200 Reflectable
  0x0400 Piercing (Unblockable)
  0x0800 Angel Whisper/Pulse of Life
  0x1000 ?
  0x2000 Critical Hits
  0x4000 ?
  0x8000 ?
« Last Edit: 2008-09-21 13:29:24 by gjoerulv »

Kudistos Megistos

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« Reply #257 on: 2008-09-21 06:12:01 »
Excellent!

I've been playing with these, and I managed to have Sephiroth beat Cloud in the final battle (the one-on-one, not the battle with Safer) by changing the attack type from 23 to 24 (although that probably doesn't matter) and the power from 1f to 20. He kills Cloud and "Game Over" comes up.

I cheated my way into the Northern Crater and I must say that the enemies are much stronger; even Jenova puts up a fight now (interesting job with KotR and the ultimate weapons too). I did, however, find something odd. This may have been a result of me messing around with things, but Bizzaro Sephiroth went down with one hit; 3 000 HP of damage finished him off.

Armorvil

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« Reply #258 on: 2008-09-21 12:46:15 »
gjoerulv, do you think you could convert this patch to the PSX version ?
If not, how playable would your patch be, if the only things I'd use were the SCENE.BIN and the KERNEL.BIN files ? Thanks in advance for your reply.

gjoerulv

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« Reply #259 on: 2008-09-21 14:19:36 »
@Leighos Kudistos Megistos: Yes that was a BIG bug. thank you! Bizarro HP is decided in the AI. Same with Safer's. Safer's HP was wrong too. This is fixed in the (yet another) new files.

@Armorvil: Yes it's possible to just upload the Kernel and Scene, but I have to replace some of the new models with the old ones 1st. That means no new boss battles though.

Armorvil

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« Reply #260 on: 2008-09-21 14:49:43 »
No problem about the new bosses  :wink:
I'd love to play your patch on the PSX :)

Kudistos Megistos

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« Reply #261 on: 2008-09-21 17:00:59 »
A quick question, where is the data for limit breaks? Kernel.bin1 has a few of them, but not all of them.

I noticed this after looking for the attack data for Fury Brand, which apparently has an element 0x8000 not present in any other attacks. I wondered whether it had anything to do with the unique effect of this limit break, but after putting it into the spell "cure" it seems that it does not, this is caused by the 19th byte.
« Last Edit: 2008-09-21 19:54:18 by Leighos Kudistos Megistos »

gjoerulv

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« Reply #262 on: 2008-09-22 08:49:31 »
Actually I don't know. I thought all where in that file too but I was wrong. And the element you tested is the "Hidden" element. To make something restorative, the target must absorb the element. The restorative element is absorb able by default.

Tyler_Wu

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« Reply #263 on: 2008-09-22 11:24:30 »
ive tried out some of the early to mid game again.

-materia keeper seems perfect now with his newly buffed trine, 

- godo seems perfect too now however i should mention, yuffie was level 35 when i did it. not sure if you would consider that overleveled or not. she also had biaga because i did the quest right before going to the crater and snowfields and such.  i waited until then because yuffie was really weak when i first got the tiny bronco as she wasnt part of my main party and didnt have any good limit breaks.

-right before i was about to enter mt nibel i turned around and went after the midgar zolom to attain beta enemy skill.  it was very hard but eventually i pulled it off, seems good to me.

- luck plus materia is still screwy.   when its mastered it sells for 1million 50 thousand gil.  and it masters at about 9500 ap for me at least.  it was at like 9380 ap total or something like that then i got into a battle in the wutai area,  after the battle it was mastered.

- kujata summon guardian bosses are still a bit too hard i think,  i think if levant was just a tiny bit weaker then everything would be cool (when hes left alone he is pretty hard).  his two sidekicks seem fine to me.

- deathblow materia,   i think you should take a look at it,  in my opinion it takes very little ap to master AND when it is mastered it sells for way too much gil.

gjoerulv

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« Reply #264 on: 2008-09-22 12:44:19 »
Luck materia works fine for me. Do you have the latest kernel?

Thanks for the feedback!

Tyler_Wu

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« Reply #265 on: 2008-09-22 14:41:49 »
yea i replaced the scene and kernel with your updated files from sept 21.


sometime today tho ill go on my other comp and double check for you tho,  make sure it actually is the updated kernel.

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« Reply #266 on: 2008-09-22 20:57:24 »
I finally got to the end of disc 1, here's my opinion on the rest of the bosses so far.

In the Wutai quests, Rapps (at level 32) was ok, his Aero3 (Aeroga?) was a one-shot-kill attack but it wasn't such a big deal, I think he's fine.
I tried the pagoda immediately after, and couldn't get past Chekhov, because there was no way I could keep myself alive and outdamage her Absorb, so I leveled to 34-35 and got Regen. After that, all the rest of the bosses (even Godo) were ok.

The Red Dragon was kinda harder than the Demon Gate (at level 38-39), but neither of these bosses was particularly hard. I think you should buff Demon Gate's HP a little. After slowing him and keeping Regen on myself I barely had to cast any cure spells (I kept everyone in the back row of course).

The bosses guarding the Kjata summon were a pain (at level 41-42). It took me about 5 tries to figure out an effective strategy, and another 5 to manage to execute it without them destroying me with Thundaga/Blizzaga... Then I finally realized there was no way in hell I could beat Levant when he was alone. So I just left one of his goons alive and blasted Levant with spells till he was almost dead, then finished them off both with Limit Breaks.
The main idea was to use Odin's Gunge Lance and Magic Hammer to drain all of their MP, while keeping the party alive with Regen (or White Wind if they used Reflect on me), and dispelling at every turn so they'd waste one of theirs to recast the buffs.

Jenova-Life (at level 43) was WAY easier than the Kjata bosses. I basically just used Esuna or White Wind to dispel sleep and Regen to help keep the party alive, while DeSpelling her Reflect and draining her mana with Magic Hammer. After a while she had no mana to use any attacks, so I just hacked away till she was dead.

Moral of the story: Magic Hammer is too strong. It seems to be the solution for a lot of otherwise very difficult boss battles. Make it absorb 75 or even 50 MP instead of 100.
Also, I find myself not using Mighty Guard because of the high mana cost. You probably should revert it back to its original cost, but keep the single targeting. As it stands, I'd rather use Haste-All and Barrier-All.

EDIT: I also think you should increase gil gained, even just from bosses. I actually had to farm for gil to buy equipment/materia, which kinda defeats the concept of not overleveling.
« Last Edit: 2008-09-22 22:11:47 by moraelyn »

Tyler_Wu

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« Reply #267 on: 2008-09-22 21:34:30 »
yea the kujata bosses were definitely harder than jenova life,  i actually  just went and killed jenova life first because the kjata bosses were giving me a lot of trouble.    that 3500 ap was a big help.

Kudistos Megistos

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« Reply #268 on: 2008-09-23 00:30:16 »
Quote from: me
A quick question, where is the data for limit breaks? Kernel.bin1 has a few of them, but not all of them.

Update: I found limit break attack data in ff7.exe, and managed to edit it without the game blowing up.

gjoerulv

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« Reply #269 on: 2008-09-23 05:32:08 »
@moraelyn: Thanks. Actually you found the exact strategy I planned out when making these. Draining 'em of mana, and Dispelling 'em. Nice work. But I was more thinking like using Odin once, and then just keeping them attacking while Healing and dispelling. But if you get time to use magic hammer it helps. Also absorbing fire/ice/bolt helps. Levant counters either magic or physical or everything with fire (I don't remember clearly). So Have the one absorbing fire attack it. Also it helps to farm light curtains and lunar curtains of the Foulander in wutai, though it's rare drops. In the wutai area it should by pretty easy to farm gil too.

But debuffing magic hammer. Perhaps I could, but as I see it it's smarter to give bosses more MP. I could degrade it's accuracy though.

I might reduce the MP cost of Mighty Guard a bit. The reason I brought it that high was because of the cheapness with it (Wall 54MP - MG 80MP). Wall is cheaper than barrier and mbarrier and costs a lot more MP as well (16/24MP - 54MP). But MG has a handicap. You can't link it with support materia. Thats the reason I think I'll reduce the MP cost, to lets say 70?

What I'll do in the next update is making demon gate harder and the Kujata boss a bit easier. That's for sure. But I have no time now. :P

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« Reply #270 on: 2008-09-23 09:07:38 »
Quote from: me
A quick question, where is the data for limit breaks? Kernel.bin1 has a few of them, but not all of them.

Update: I found limit break attack data in ff7.exe, and managed to edit it without the game blowing up.

Quick question : do you know what the equivalent to ff7.exe be, in the Playstation iso ? I tried looking for this data in the SCUS_941.63, but to no avail.

ADIDAS

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« Reply #271 on: 2008-09-23 10:43:50 »
hmm I don't think the Kujata boss is that hard . my strategy is just kill Levant first . his only weakness is hidden element , I give Vicent all the magic buff as possible and yeah I was able to kill him with Bahamut in one hit  :-D , without Levant , the other two are useless if you cast reflect on your self , then take your time to steal and wait for him out of mana  :-D , they both have power up item so I guess Levant has too  :-P .And I don't remember my LV at that time .

Kudistos Megistos

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« Reply #272 on: 2008-09-23 14:52:06 »
@Armorvil

I found attack data for limit breaks in MENU\LIMTMENU.MNU on one of my PSX discs.

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« Reply #273 on: 2008-09-23 18:37:18 »
@Armorvil

I found attack data for limit breaks in MENU\LIMTMENU.MNU on one of my PSX discs.

Ooohhh, thank you very much my friend ! You're a genius :-D

As a side note, the SCENE.BIN and KERNEL.BIN you provide are way too big to fit in a PSX iso, gjoerulv. I think I can free some space by deleting the spells and materia descriptions in the kernel.bin10 and kernel.bin15 to make the kernel usable, but do you know of any way to free some space in the scene file ? Is there some kind of data one can freely delete without wrecking havoc ?

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« Reply #274 on: 2008-09-23 18:50:29 »
hmm I don't think the Kujata boss is that hard . my strategy is just kill Levant first . his only weakness is hidden element , I give Vicent all the magic buff as possible and yeah I was able to kill him with Bahamut in one hit  :-D , without Levant , the other two are useless if you cast reflect on your self , then take your time to steal and wait for him out of mana  :-D , they both have power up item so I guess Levant has too  :-P .And I don't remember my LV at that time .
I didn't try using Bahamut on them, although it seems logical. As it stands, Sense reads "Weak against ." so that probably means the hidden element. Anyways, if you just make these guys weak against their opposite element they will be perfectly fine IMO.

But debuffing magic hammer. Perhaps I could, but as I see it it's smarter to give bosses more MP. I could degrade it's accuracy though.
That's a good solution for Magic Hammer, I like both options. Just don't make it annoyingly inaccurate.

I might reduce the MP cost of Mighty Guard a bit. The reason I brought it that high was because of the cheapness with it (Wall 54MP - MG 80MP). Wall is cheaper than barrier and mbarrier and costs a lot more MP as well (16/24MP - 54MP). But MG has a handicap. You can't link it with support materia. Thats the reason I think I'll reduce the MP cost, to lets say 70?
Thing is you can get the same effect for 68(?) MP for all 3 characters with Wall-All and Haste-All, in 2 turns while it takes 3 turns and 240 MP (as it stands) to get the same effect from Mighty Guard. The only upside is that it takes less Materia slots (1 instead of 4) but that's just in case you only use 1 Enemy Skill, and even so, it's not such a big deal. So you can just reduce the cost to 68 MP and make it situational, like when you need to recast the buffs on someone who has died, or when a character is fighting alone etc. That way, no spell is really better than the other, and all of them have their uses.