Messages

51

General Discussion / Re: A way to buff monsters in FFVIII to make the game more difficult?

« on: 2010-07-22 15:40:51 »

Welcome on this forum Renegade! I'm a newcomer too, but I share you point of view about FFVIII. It was reasonably difficult for a starting player who understand nothing about the junctioning system, and haven't discovered all the tricks -such as the powerfull water magic easily available at the begining of the game.  But for veteran players, it's way to easy.

There are currently three way of increasing the difficulty :
- editing enemy stats : check out Ifrit program somewhere on this forum. It doesn't require any strong modding level
- editing enemy strategy and moves (ai) : that's what I'm doing from my side, but I haven't seen anyone else on this forum doing that and there are no cool - easy to handle program (I use translhexion, a hex editor)
- changing enemy level : this is quite doable but I haven't seen that documented on this forum. I can provide you the required informations thought. As for your idea, if I remember correctly there could be indeed some monsters which have your level + some value (monsters of deep research center I think, need to check)

There is connection between moves in the kernel.bin and the moves inside battle files. But for me, the moves should be the same, only the strategy should be changed. All enemies has "INT" stat, so increasing it will make game more difficult.
I'm ending my hardcore patch (version 2.0) now and I will release it very soon, for PC and PSX version.

52

General Discussion / Re: Help changing text in FF8.

« on: 2010-07-19 12:52:29 »

That link already gives you info on what to do. Although the 2nd link giving you hexediting is very hard to do. What I was trying to imply was there was no program for ff8 that is as good as loveless or makou reactor for ff7 that is easy to use.

Did you check Moomba? It can edit normal dialogues and texts on world map. You can edit battle dialogues, too, but you have to extract text section with hexeditor (it's simple).

Now I work on the next version of Moomba, which can handle PSX version of the game.

53

FAQs and Tutorials / Re: [FF8] Translation tools + minitutorial

« on: 2010-02-04 09:59:44 »

OK, I looked deeper in the files

1) I extract file from ff8backgrounds.7z, then I have a folder MIM, and in it I have 5 .zip files. Do I have to extract the content of all this .zip files? And after that I have to run a .bat file inside the folder "mimsAll", right ?

At this case, you have to extract only "mimsAll.zip".

2) I extract .mim files with Garden.exe, do I have to put those files in a specific folder to convert them into BMP using .bat files?

Inside .BAT files you have for example:

Code: [Select]

if EXIST bccent_1.mim ..\!ff8mim2  -p  bccent_1  ..\extract\bccent_1.bmp  >aaaa

...So you have to put .mim files into subfolder ("bmp", "mim", "extract"), and move .BAT into it, too (or you can even create new subfolder and name it for example "bats_and_org_mims" and put MIMs and BATs here). You should run BAT file from this subfolder.

If you have any other questions, ask

54

FAQs and Tutorials / Re: [FF8] Translation tools + minitutorial

« on: 2010-02-03 14:49:59 »

I'm sorry, but... Who can tell me how these two programs function? Please
 

Open "mimsAll.zip" and run .BAT file.
Which? It depends on what do you want to do now - look at the names of these .BAT files (and into, if you want).
At first, you have to extract BMP from MIM, you should test it *with* or *without* transparency - some background should be extracted with transparency, some without.
After running, for example "!ff8mimExtractBMPToExtractNoTransparency.bat", open "extract" folder and edit indexed BMPs. After that you should create MIM from BMP and insert MIM to the game.

55

FF8 Tools / Re: [RELEASE] IFRIT - FFVIII Enemy editor 0.9.0.1

« on: 2009-12-17 12:36:24 »

@Colly:

Are you sure the formula is like this: (x * str_b1 / 10 + x / str_b2 - x * x / 2 / str_b4 + str_b3) / 4 ??
I get weird results on some enemies here.
You sure it's not like this: x * str_b1 / 10 + x / str_b2 - x * x / 2 / (str_b4 + str_b3) / 4 ??
It gives more reasonable results imo. But if it's not, it's not.

I'll check it, but I think it's correct. Your modified formula can bring maximum:
100 * 255 / 10 + 100/1 - 100*100/2/(255+255)/4 ->
2550 + 100 - 5000/65025/4 ->
2650 - 0,0019 ->
2650 or 2649 of STR

56

FF8 Tools / Re: [RELEASE] IFRIT - FFVIII Enemy editor 0.9.0.1

« on: 2009-12-16 10:49:07 »

I don't mean to necro or anything, just wanted to say I've fixed some bugs in the program and in the help file. A new version is available for download.

I tried it yesterday, cool

Nice work, gjoerulv.

I'm trying to make a "hard mode", but I think it's impossible to set high values for STR and MAG for low level monsters..
I mean, we can rise HP, SPD, VIT, etc even for monsters at level 1, but it doesn't work for STR or MAG.

I'm trying it, too, I even release one patch, but it's little buggy and not-finished. But soon, maybe after the Christmas, I release the second, better and well balanced patch

We can raise STR and MAG, of course. You should only know, how the game counts this parameters. If I remember correctly, gjoerulv wrote about it in Help manual inside Ifrit Enemy Editor STR formula:
(x * str_b1 / 10 + x / str_b2 - x * x / 2 / str_b4 + str_b3) / 4

57

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: [FF8] .STR movie format variation

« on: 2009-10-22 10:49:40 »

Ertswhile, not too bad, you can see the distortion of the original symbols in the video but it's not enough that I would actually care if I were playing the game. I think most people would be interested in the reinsertion of the video.

I know that there is distortion, but it's acceptable for the people, I think
I thought about English & Polish words together, but it was too many things on the screen and the movie was less "clarity".

58

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: [FF8] .STR movie format variation

« on: 2009-10-21 12:34:42 »

I know what is Type 1 and Type 2, but thanks

Movies are stored inside IMG file on the disc. I translated what I want, you can see effect here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9oss6rX4y4

When I'll finish conversion of Polish translation into PSX, I'll add explanation into Translation minitutorial.

59

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / [FF8] .STR movie format variation

« on: 2009-10-11 17:53:03 »

Hi.

I want to translate intro of FF8. I converted STR to AVI, changed frames and create STR file again by Movie Converter. But STR format especially for FF8 has some variations, most important are:
- Each frame has 10 sectors; first two sectors are for audio, the rest (8 sectors) are for video
- Header for audio sectors are different, but I want audio sectors leave as is, because I don't translate sound
- Header for video sectors are different, this header contains only 8 bytes
- The rest of sector: 2048 - 8 = 2040 bytes are frame data, so one frame has 8*2040 => 16320 bytes for frame data without header.

The most difficult variation is the last listed above. Because after the video header, in the standard STR file, there are 2016 bytes for frame data. Anyone know, how can I change these 2016 bytes to 2040? Or maybe I do something wrong?

60

FF8 Tools / Re: Cactuar - another FF8 Dialogs Editor

« on: 2009-09-18 06:24:02 »

Found some problems I'll need to fix.
Colly how did u handle game variables? Like how many times squall got ko'd , etc?
Can you list these 'special characters'? I don't think I handled all special characters.

I filled all table values from 00h to FFh. When I doesn't know which value are which character, I just wrote value instead, for example: '<08h>', '<d3>', etc.

61

FF8 Tools / Re: Cactuar - another FF8 Dialogs Editor

« on: 2009-09-09 14:21:16 »

Ohhh I see your point! But when I said preview window, I was thinking in previewing the text in the dialog box, not the dialog box(with the text, off course) on the screen. That would need a little bit more work. My primary idea for previewing for the text would be good, as I use Flags for colors, names, terms, like "[YELLOW]yellow text example", this is show in the editor just like I typed, but in the preview would just show the text with correctly edited color.

OK, now I understand. This feature will be useful, of course

You would be impressed if you knew we don't use more than half of these diacritics. To be more specific:
As far as I can think of now.
- we don't use any of ¨ types, lower and upper.
- we don't use ` types, upper cases
- we don't use ^ types, upper cases.
That leaves me approximately 20 letters textures to use.

It's strange for me, because in Polish, we have 9 couples (lower + upper) of diacritics and we use all of it.

62

FF8 Tools / Re: Cactuar - another FF8 Dialogs Editor

« on: 2009-09-09 10:10:30 »

I failed to understand what you mean.
Dialogs positions for me is unknow, is probably inside another file of same field, but not '.msd'. But windows dialogs size is auto-size, afaik. So anymore info on the window dialog won't be really necessary, I think.

Yeah, windows dialogs size is auto-size, but only in the right and down directions. I say about the beginning of the dialog window - it not starts at 0,0 point always; often window is starting on the right side of the screen, in the middle, etc. So, if you on preview set all dialogs at 0,0 of the background, it'll be useless, because sometimes in-game text will go outside of the display screen. I never searched this data inside files... but maybe I should

PS.:

I had to modify texture of the "à" as I don't think I'll use in the entire game,(...)

Some diacritic characters of the Portuguese language could be not used in the entire game? O_O You have 15 couples (upper + lower) of diacritics and some of it is really very rarely used?

63

FF8 Tools / Re: Cactuar - another FF8 Dialogs Editor

« on: 2009-09-08 13:35:04 »

I working on the next version of Moomba and I think that diacritic characters can be changed, for example, inside ini file, where user can change simply table (of course he should change the font texture).
I think it's good solution, because some keyboard preferences don't support some characters. For example, I don't have key shortcut to write "à" and I have to choose it inside charmap.exe. Instead of it, I can write Polish diacritics.

Actually, colors/names/terms are currently working, that includes 'new window' and 'end dialog' characters. I just didn't create a 'friendly' input method on the UI, but It's planned for next update.

Cool

I'm focusing in implement comp/decomp of field files directly in the editor. Also I'm thinking in making a preview window, just like Loveless for ff7. But currently I can't seem to find a vb.net control that behaves like I need (multi-colored with background).

I think that preview window is useless in FF8 editor, until we don't know, where is stored data about the beginning of the dialogues' windows on actual scene... or maybe only I don't know it

64

FF8 Tools / Re: Cactuar - another FF8 Dialogs Editor

« on: 2009-09-07 15:57:18 »

Seems nice

Will you implement colors, names and delays to the editor? What about special characters like 01h or implementing own language diacritic characters by user?

PS. After converting my Polish translation to PSX, I will edit my Moomba to support PSX platform.

65

FF8 Tools / Re: [RELEASE] IFRIT - FFVIII Enemy editor 0.9

« on: 2009-08-20 10:12:47 »

i have the .img file for the psx version of FFV8, but i don't know what program can extract the .img file.

I would really like to take a break from ff7.

There is no program which can extract files from the IMG Square format. You just should extract these files manually. Please try any hexeditor, for example Translhextion.

66

FAQs and Tutorials / Re: [FF8] Translation tools + minitutorial

« on: 2009-08-12 09:44:35 »

Just wondering... does anyone are willing to improve the compile method?
The released progs that compiles makes the files WAY over the original size.

Just extract all files, overwrite some by modified files, choose "replace many" and replace all files inside archive.

67

Releases / Re: [FF8] Plug-in Manager 1.1

« on: 2009-08-04 09:44:18 »

Does this work for the psx version?? can someone confirm this?

Of course, if you can find "C:\Program Files" inside your PSX:

Installation:

• 1. Extract the files to your Final Fantasy VIII directory (i.e. C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VIII).

Phun, great job!

68

FAQs and Tutorials / Re: [FF8] Translation tools + minitutorial

« on: 2009-08-01 12:28:21 »

I extracted all the files of ff8 PSX version of the scripts files, of 4 CDs (that have some files in one and other don't have) and extract scripts too, I can send you to help you... not tested yet the insertion... I don't want to translate, only curious the system of the PACK file

I extract all, too and inserted 2CDs already I have one limit - offsets to the begining of the files. I don't know how to change it and have to limiting inserted files, if compressed size overwrites the begining of next file. Do you know how to change it?

69

FF8 Tools / Re: [RELEASE] IFRIT - FFVIII Enemy editor 0.9

« on: 2009-07-30 12:07:48 »

Oh awesome thanks colly I wasn't sure if it was or not.

c0mXXX.dat files in the PC version are exactly the same as in the PSX version. And these files are even not compressed on img file.

70

Archive / Re: FF8 Hard edition?

« on: 2009-07-30 11:57:28 »

I just tried this yesterday. Pretty awesome  

But I have one suggestion/request - can you make "Omega Extreme" LVs/Stats with "Ultima Hard" HP?
I mean, it's not by increasing enemy's HP that the game will become more difficult, just more boring... Specially at the beginning...

20'000HP bite bug it's lot of time... for 1AP!! aahhhh....  

I think 3x enemy's stats and 10-20x HP will be hard enough  

Yeah, this is one of the less important modifies, which I have to apply before I release 1.0 version

But some monsters will not have decreased HP, such as Omega, Ruby Dragon, Omega, etc. Extreme should stay extreme I want to increase monsters' intelligence, too.

71

FF8 Tools / Re: [RELEASE] IFRIT - FFVIII Enemy editor 0.9

« on: 2009-07-30 11:35:45 »

Awesome work Gjoerulv any chance off compatiblity with the psx version in the future?

It's compatible with the psx version now, but you have to know, where is stored this data on the PSX discs

72

Archive / Re: FF8 Hard edition?

« on: 2009-07-29 13:04:37 »

Do you know what is causing that bug?
I was looking forward to pass the full game on Extreme 

Of course I know, but I don't have time to correct this, because of my job

73

Archive / Re: FF8 Hard edition?

« on: 2009-07-29 10:42:53 »

See here:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8264.msg100728#msg100728

Some people are annoying, because this patch is too hard I suggest Medium difficulty. Hard and Extreme you should try later And, of course, don't forget to make a backup of "battle.fs", "battle.fi" and "battle.fl" files from the "Data" folder.

74

Archive / Re: FF8 Hard edition?

« on: 2009-07-29 10:28:15 »

Break-up limit patch and hardcore patch can be installed both – these patches modify different data

75

Archive / Re: FF8 Hard edition?

« on: 2009-07-29 09:59:59 »

Try "search" function
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8264.0

I released alpha version (for English version of the game), which has some bugs. Most important bug is that you can't draw GF's from bosses. Version 1.0 will be soon available.

PS. To win with Omega Weapon you will need even 3 hours on Extreme difficulty (without using "The End", of course)