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Messages - Auraplatonic

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1
I think that my general thought about the series is that I have liked all the titles but the difficultly has generally went down since IV.  From an accessibility perspective I guess that you would not want to make it too hard, and there are always the "No item" or "Low level" challenges or whatnot a player can aim for...I just feel like you should be able to get everything the game has to offer and still be able to have some difficulty.  I think it says something about the difficulty of a game if you can beat it at the lowest level, or with no materia in the case of FF7. 

2
Buried in the Snow is one of my favorite FF7 tracks.  You have done well on that so I have confident in anything else you may come out with as well   :D

3
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2011-08-07 01:31:04 »
Back to work. I've been spending a lot of time with my kids since they have been over for the summer but also been thinking about this.  I have made a few tweaks already, increased enemy damage a bit and a few shop edits.

For anyone that has downloaded this, was installation ok?  I am starting to teach myself stuff and something like NSIS may be eventual but I was trying to make something to teach myself and test what I can do.  Also if anyone has any feedback i.e. this is too easy, or too hard let me know.  I am trying to aim for something that is difficult but doesn't make you pull your hair out.  Well, maybe a battle or two I will make that way lol.

For anyone who does start a new playthrough I hope you like the flevel edits.  I am trying to mix it up a bit treasure wise, improving some and changing locations of others.  I am trying to make a good balance where items and materia can be useful simultaneously and not just a couple items getting decent use and spamming magic/summons.


EDIT:  I have made a new video;  all the other video links besides OP in this thread are dead as things changed and new videos needed made. 

Aps battle: http://youtu.be/UzP75GfNsGk

4
Releases / Re: FF7Music Installer
« on: 2011-07-21 16:24:04 »
still finding this a bit difficult lol abit of a noob here

What issues are you having?  It would be easier to assist if you could be more specific.

5
Releases / Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
« on: 2011-07-18 04:35:20 »
I have gotten this display a couple of times before, I just always thought It was a little bit of a graphical glitch, nothing major.  Its just kind of random thing.  I don't know what the special property of the attack is as the only one I can think of doing something similar is Ruby's eject attack.  Its possible the game just doesn't display it property sometimes as its not really the natural attack it was supposed to go with.

6
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2011-07-18 04:25:31 »
Version 0.3 has been released!!

Check original post  for all the details  :-D

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=9470.msg128485#msg128485

7
Releases / Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
« on: 2011-07-16 04:42:38 »
The second fight is pretty beastly.  When I found the trio in the tower I used Locoweeds and I had Sadness on all.  I was able to steal 2/3 of their items which was my main goal.  Its tough because they are pretty fast.  Also, Mind Blow FTW

8
Releases / Re: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth (PSX and PC)
« on: 2011-07-14 23:25:28 »
Although I am nowhere close to an expert at the inner workings of all the files I don't think this would be very easy to do.  I am just speaking from what we see in the game.  Adding items isn't so difficult as there are many unused items in the game, however from a menu standpoint there really isn't a lot of space to display it, and you have to look at if there is actually a way to code multiple armors being equipped at once.  If you are saying just to add other items that could be equipped that were named helms, armor or whatnot that is easy to do, but having multiple ones equipped at once...I don't know.

9
I tend to feel that even though those parents are crazy they have the right to raise their children however they want.   I don't want to say that should be the case 100% of the time however if anyone thinks we will always agree on how parents raise their kids we will be having that conversation forever.   No matter what happens there are going to be some crazy people in this world.  No matter how they are raised some people will just be incompatible with others.   Again this is not a 100% fail-safe theory but can you really regulate something like this?  I feel it would be much more logical to let people live their lives.  I am more concerned with how the government acts in certain situations because they are established and should be held to a certain standard.

If we would try to force someone to do something a certain way that is a really slippery slope.  We are already slowly getting enough of our freedom taken away as it is.

10
I am assuming you are asking a mod for permission, but that would certainly make it easier for me and anyone who wanted to use this tutorial :P

I don't think it would be that much easier.  I don't mind the original remix however with all of the mods getting updated frequently and the sheer size of a package I think it would be easier to just download what you want individually, and unless you are going to constantly make patches to the original package(since no one wants to keep downloading a file of that size frequently) then it will be more harm then help.  That is the downfall of the original remix and why so many people are having problems with it, because everything is so old now and some things are really finicky and won't work unless you have things set a certain way.

All that being said I think this kind of tutorial will be helpful to newcomers, although I guess I have a couple critiques.  Why even install the remix if you are going to re-install everything individually?  Also, the information all seems a bit..cluttered together?

11
Releases / Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
« on: 2011-07-05 14:26:27 »
From my experience playing this mod there is pretty much a new enemy in every area.  I can think of a couple specific ones but you can always get Proud Clod and look at the scene for the specifics of the monsters and even check out their drops and steals.

12
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2011-06-29 22:54:32 »
I have edited the original post of this thread to reflect the current status of the project.

13
There is no way a final boss could ever be the most difficult....  everyone would be angry at that and some people don't want to spend their lives playing the game or grinding.  It is common sense that the hardest be optional, that's the way it is in virtually every rpg I have played.

I can understand that.  I just wish in that case they would make you finish the main game first before you could become OP. 

However...when thinking about the multidisk games in particularly FF7, the final disk just really has the final boss that you have to do.  For them to make 2 disks filled with story driven events just to have a 3rd disk with just the final dungeon feels empty to me.  Even the optional more difficult content really isn't a substantial amount of gameplay.  In this scenario the game kind of lets you do everything else you want to do before the final dungeon, but if you do that then you are easily OP. 

I also think that if the weapons are more powerful than Sephiroth...why do you even have to fight him?  They could just kill him easily.  For that reason also I feel that the final boss should be the most difficult.  I guess its just preference, though.



FF10 Chocobo Race? SEAGULL IN YOUR FACE MAN. I actually ate-destroyed a pad in rage because I finished at exact 0.0 and I needed -0.1



I remember doing this on my last playthrough and I got a really low time on one of the beginning levels, and I had to beat that time to get the item which was even harder as the first time was a lucky one, lol

14
When I think about difficulty when it comes to games I think mostly about balance.  Balance is really hard to achieve in games because there are different types of players....its hard to find a game that will satisfy both a grinder and someone who would want to quickly pace through the story.

For me I really like when a game makes me utilize as many different characters, techniques, and items as possible.  I hate going through a game and finding things I never had a use for.  With this in mind I really liked FFX in that it made every character useful in some scenario.  The only problem that with the presence of Aeons that were far superior to most enemies that really didn't always have to be a strategy.  Of course Aeons could be one hit KOed in some situations but you could still pull off an overdrive which did substantial damage.  I enjoyed the pacing of that game for the most part and found some bosses who were decent however this game suffers the flaw of all of the final fantasy games since 5...you can without too much difficulty become extremely overpowered before the final encounter.

Now FFX did a decent job with making extremly annoying minigames but when you consider that if you go into the final encounter with normal leveling, doing no sidequests and the boss is really nothing to brag about, it puts it in perspective when in just a few hours you can kill him in two hits if you grind and do a couple sidequests.  I like the added challenge of optional bosses but IMO the last encounter should be the most difficult in the game.  And even Nemesis is not really that much to brag about as has already been stated in this thread. 

If the game lets you get powerful in this way, it should allow you a way to test that power, and it should be able to balance that power in a way that cannot be easily exploitable(i.e quick attack over and over, counter/mime or any other crazy materia combination, the holy war item)

With all that being said, one of the most difficult and rewarding games I remember playing was Final Fantasy Tactics.  You could grind in the game, and it was helpful to do so but the game curved that a bit by making enemies in random encounters scale with your level, and you would eventually not have the equipment to scale with the level of your opponent, making battles more difficult.  I only wish Orlandu wouldn't have been so OP.   



15
Releases / Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
« on: 2011-06-07 15:20:49 »
Well... several. Both in renaming stuff and game flow.

I think he eventually patched to 1.0.3 at some point 'cause the 3rd SOLDER fight glitch is on.

Damn, he cheats at the end and still doesn't manage to beat seph. I guess he is a bit too hard lol.

To be honest I think that he over-exaggerates a bit.  I am wondering how many strategies he really tried?  I know that I was able to get decent damage with physical attacks and some magics but it takes some materia tweaking and testing.  Of course the last time I played the mod it was an earlier version(1.0.1 probably).  I can tell that safer's AI was a bit different but he seems to do about the same amount of damage. 

I do have a question about the Bizarro Sephiroth battle...I see in the video he was fighting with 3 parties but if I remember (It was long ago) I think I just fought with one party on your mod.  Did you tweak the requirements for the multiple/single party battle, or is this even possible?  Also he gets HP boots depending on party level and if you use KotR on Jenova, are these the same small boosts or are they scaled higher based on the difficulty of the mod?

16
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance v0.2
« on: 2011-06-06 06:51:40 »
Well, the project is still around.  I have gone through a lot of computer and life issues since the last time I posted.  In any case I still want to try to work on it.  I have many ideas and will be somewhat starting from scratch(not that I had a terrible amount completed anyway :P). 

Some have said that the people making these type of mods should try to get a Team Avalanche type thing going...however at least for me I don't see that as something I would be interested in.  That isn't to say anything against anyone or their mods because I have played other FF7 mods around here and I like the work very much.  I tend to think of it as similar to the D2 modding community where there are several different modifications and they good for just the fact that they are different.  Mods like this have a personal touch and a specific goal.  Many of the mods I have seen choose to add many new bosses, spells, and even change the way the game works in some respects.   I am not opposed to this from the stance as I would play and most likely enjoy it but from the standpoint of how I would modify the game it is not the direction I want to go in. 

Anyway I am just doing this for fun and I figured that I might as well share it with the community just in case anyone was interested.  I will be posting an update in a day or two with my current changelog.  :) 


EDIT:  Here is a list of some of the base changes:

For now I won't alter character stats so much as there will be enough customization with weapons, accessories, and materia.  I'm not 100% happy with the current curves but that is something I will toggle with later. 

My goal is for you to come across 1 of every materia in some way whether it be as treasure or the gold saucer, or if a character comes with it.  Purchasing materia from a shop will be just extra, and it will cost much more because I feel this will allow the player to use other options  such as physical attacks(which will generally be more useful especially early on) and items that have different effects.

I will make items more useful i.e. potions healing a bit more, maybe I will add a mega-potion item as this is nothing new to final fantasy games.

I found that throw materia was pretty useless because weapons cost too much to stock up on in bulk(and stealing is very time consuming), and the damage of throw doesn't really justify that cost.  To make the ability more viable I will make some type of throwing weapon at a cheap cost purchasable in shops.

Speaking of shops there will be some tweaks mostly in costs of materia.  I will gauge other costs as I playtest.

As far as equipment goes I have a couple of thoughts on it, and hopefully some input from the community will help me find the best way to go.  I could just do a general alter of the equipment which really wouldn't change all that much but I was thinking about the concept of initial equipment.  The buster sword and gatling gun are the two initial equipment items that you can't sell because they are story based.  I always found it kind of silly that the weapon that was good enough to be treasured by great members of SOLDIER would be easily outclassed by a mythril sword purchasable at a shop.  With this thought I want my goal to make all equipment more usable, possibly even interchangeable as the game progresses.  Each weapon will have a defined role and will have some use even later on depending on the situation based on stat boosts, materia slots, etc.

I want to make physical attacks more viable which can be achieved a couple of ways: through boosting weapons and making some enemies weak to the weapon "elements" (cut, shoot, etc.)

These are a few of the base changes and I will speak more on enemies later.  I will also update the original post soon to reflect my progress.  Thanks in advance for any input you may have :D

17
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance v0.2
« on: 2010-04-16 08:03:50 »
Looking nice.
In this last run i've been making i've found myself killing bosses almost like regular mobs (until i got the buggy, that is, after that i grinded a bit) so this mod interests me. For starters to the game it might be too much but for veterans it might be fresh new air, since everyone can see people soloing with cloud Ruby weapon (without any materia!!!).

Anyway, it would be nice to add more optional bosses, crystal weapon or pearl weapon for example, with an higher grade of difficulty, but that would demand also a graphic designer and maybe some guy who was able to do some coding to spawn these new mobs in certain areas in a certain time.


At least right now my goal for this is not to create new monsters.  Basically I am trying to keep the game the way it is, but balance things around to make all of the things you come across actually useful, and increase the difficulty curve but not crazy high.  A good example of what I have most recently done is try to make Throw more useful by making 4-point shurikens a buyable item at a lower price.  I always thought that throw really wasn't helpful, especially because weapon prices were a bit high.  I wouldn't want to spend forever trying to steal Atomic Scissors either lol.  I actually decreased all weapon prices, but materia and item prices are generally higher and you don't get as much gil from enemies.  Also there is a good variety of combat items you can get at certain shops.  

Of course all of this is subject to change based on testing, so that is where you all come in :P

Meteor can already do this.  And if you're a hex editing guru (gjoerulv) then it's also possible to do this


His hex skills amaze me.  Nightmarish, you should check out his mod, it is a lot of fun and hard, with all the kinds of things you were talking about.


I am also going to make a difficulty mod :)  And maybe we can share ideas at a later date

Just let me know :)


18
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2010-04-15 18:32:02 »
NEW VERSION RELEASE!  0.2


This takes you all the way to Corel, right before the Gold Saucer. Enjoy!

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


Also, Jenova-BIRTH video is up.  Thanks Timber for the info, I think it looks a bit better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k2956EIRvY


19
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2010-04-11 04:27:19 »
Two new videos up!!!

Aps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsNSZiqRzGA

Bottomswell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAVlwNaYDIY



I am pretty much done up to Jenova BIRTH, so I will have that video and a playable version soon.

Thanks for the update Aura, looks like it's coming along nicely.

Also I dunno how you are encoding your videos, but it looks very strange.
Give Avidemux a try, with x264/AAC/MP4 settings http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/



Thanks, I'll give it a try.  I'm using camstudio right now, kind of sucks because it records slower than real time.  I am using windows media maker to add in the song, basically just with the default encoding settings.

20
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2010-04-10 07:44:28 »
Two new videos up!!!

Aps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsNSZiqRzGA

Bottomswell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAVlwNaYDIY



I am pretty much done up to Jenova BIRTH, so I will have that video and a playable version soon.

21
Releases / Re: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth (PSX and PC)
« on: 2010-03-30 02:56:10 »
I like the stuff you have going on with this mod Bosola.  I had actually seen this article on ModDB before but I don't remember how I came across it, lol. 


What is your opinion on Shield materia?  I found it pretty useless in my playing experience mostly because you got it so late in the game.  I was thinking in my mod of changing Shield to giving you the peerless effect.  At first that might seem a little too powerful but I guess it would require some testing.  Also it would make it more useful overall.  Its a matter of trying to balance it out I guess.

22
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2010-03-30 00:46:00 »
all of these rebalance mods sound interesting, but my i suggest a bit of unification? everyone seems to be doing some things the same and other different, but working against each other. Not to sound condescending, but a bit of Team Avalanche spirit could help all of you. I can think of 3 or 4 mods like this around here now, but not a single one gets it "right", or packages multiple levels in a single installer.

I LOVE these mods, but there are too many that are too similar.
Join forces, together you are more powerful than alone.

ps... i will play this mod no matter what action you take ;)

lee


I don't think joining forces is a bad idea but I don't think it would work.  The reason being is that the mods themselves are different and the mod makers are different as well as far as their goals of what they want.  With Hay's mod it is more of just an edit on the monsters to make the game reasonably difficult.    Gjoerulv's mod is really(I mean really) hardcore difficulty with new monsters and bosses.  Bosola is working on new mechanics and spells while also adjusting the difficulty.  For my mod in particular I am not adding any new monsters, spells, or items.  I am changing monster stats, drops, attacks, and changing materia and spells.  There will be the same spells just altered to rebalance them.  A good example would be Beta which will become a Fire/Gravity elemental spell.  This will help curve its overpower and also make sense with its animation.  I want to stay true to the game but also rebalance it, thats why I don't want to add new stuff to it.  I also want to make it interesting and make you incorporate new strategies.  I am making the bosses with strategies to go along with them that you will have to figure out.  I want the boss encounters especially to be memorable because they are just that: bosses.  My hope is that when you play it that it doesn't feel like the same battles you have already been through, but you know that it is still the game you know and love.


Basically what I am saying is that I am always willing to collaborate but I think its good to have different mods because someone may be looking for different things when they look for a mod.


Also, I added patching for FF7.exe to alter the shop prices!  This is another important part of the mod as shops are pretty different.  This will patch any FF7.exe but it will revert it to just a plain 1.02 patch with the new items/prices.  Just use YAMP again to put whatever patches you want, it should work fine.


http://www.mediafire.com/?om22mwja3mj


23
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2010-03-29 16:20:29 »
I haven't really thought about that aspect yet.  I want to get a finished one first :P  Work is slow as life is busy.

24
Releases / Re: [WIP] Shalua Rui: A rebalance
« on: 2010-03-29 16:16:24 »
Sounds interesting.  My main goal is not to add alot of new spells to the game, its mostly to take the original game and balance its difficulty.  I think it would be cool to see new spells but I don't think its a rebalance to add a lot of new stuff, that would be more along the lines of a remake. I would also say that what you are doing won't necessarily do what mine does because it seems we have different goals as far as what we consider to be rebalanced. Im interested to see the results though and would definitely play it.  This project is mostly for my enjoyment but I figure I would share it with the community and hope someone else could enjoy it too.  I'm not a really good programmer or anything so I am thankful for all of the great work others have done to help me with what I am doing.

25
Releases / Re: [WIP] The "not-so hardcore" FF7 mod
« on: 2010-03-29 03:54:56 »
So anyone have anymore opinions yet?  Im working on getting to the end of the first disk because I am personally pretty happy with the progress thus far. 

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