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Messages - Callisto

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76
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-22 16:39:43 »
@mackoz: There is a Save Point in the room where the Mobile Type 8 boss will be fought later (elevator path 1). I'm not sure if it's visible without Move-Find Ability while exploring the Lunatic Pandora as Zell. If it's not, I'll change it to visible by default.

@levantine: For Pet Pals Vol.5, enter the sewers through Caraway's mansion after asking him about Iguions, then search for the ladder that leads to the Presidential Palace. From there, head one screen left and wait for several seconds to make the boss appear. After the battle, return to Caraway to receive the magazine.

How to get Pet Pals Vol.6 is explained in the Sidequest document that comes with the DL, but there is a mistake in the description:

Spoiler: show
You need to return to Esthar first and meet Laguna before Rinoa appears at the bookshelves at BG Library. The lost cards from the old man are found at Galbadia Hotel in the same room where Timber Maniacs can be found.
 




77
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-22 00:49:56 »
If you've done the mod installation before, and would like to update because of the latest bugfixes now, it is fine to just do the file replacement again and continue with your previous save game file.

78
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-19 00:42:25 »
The issue with Chocobo Forest controls was caused by the mod after all, sorry for the inconvenience. I managed to fix it as well as a few other things I noticed through Tingcos' stream:

  • Trauma boss now properly enters rage mode after both Dromas have been killed.
  • Standard battle theme reverts back to normal after doing the secret boss in Ultimecia Castle (fixed in 2013 version as well).
  • Cleaned up some dialogue and Rinoa's positioning on the White SeeD Ship.

Also removed the possibility of back attack for the 3 Grats encounter in BG-Training Center. Thanks to JLOUTLAW for pointing it out.

@levantine: Alright, so I'll leave the prison boss fight as it is for now. I was worried about this battle the most, as the pressure increases significantly with another Elite Soldier present. But knowing that you managed to defeat them after some tries is kind of relieving. Whenever you think a certain boss is too easy or too hard, let me know.

@Dealer1993: If you're only missing the default spells the characters start with, and everything else works as intended, then it appears to me that you didn't start a new game after installing the files using zzzdearchive, as levantine said. If you don't, you'd also miss some GF Abilities already learned by default, increased GF compatibility values and Edea starting at level 40 instead of 26, but if you are already past Elvoret, it's probably not worth starting all over again.

Just to make sure, can you confirm that the kernel.bin file (inside main.fs) has been installed correctly? You could easily check by having a look at Break or Pain spells. If Diablos' Pain inflicts damage in addition to status effects, and Break does earth-elemental damage, then all is good.

79
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-17 07:32:40 »
Updated the Remastered version with several bugfixes:

  • Fire Cavern sidequest no longer crashes after the Elnoyle battle
  • Some Draw point contents have been corrected
  • X-ATM092 battle model has been fixed
  • New scripted encounter at Centra Ruins has been ported over correctly
  • Cid's field model no longer disappears right after the SeeD mission introduction in Balamb Garden
  • Lefty and Righty are no longer invisible when appearing together with Vysage
  • SAM08G now uses Wild Cannon Blow instead of Blaze, as intended

@Tingcos: Many thanks for pointing me to your stream, it was really helpful with spotting all these issues. Some of the incorrect Draw point contents actually made your playthrough harder than intended, such as the Draw point at the Tomb of the Unknown King containing Confuse instead of Double, which would have helped against Brothers or Edea at the end of disc 1, for example - sorry for that.

The hidden Sorceress in Ultimecia's Castle is a little harder in the 2013 version, as she removes positive status effects with her normal attack, just like Yunalesca does. Such an attack (damage + Dispel effect) is unfortunately not possible in the Remastered version at the moment, but I hope that this and all the other currently missing features can be ported over in the future.

Whenever you decide to give Hard Mode a try, it would be really interesting to see how it goes. Hopefully it will be enough for more than SeeD Rank 1 next time 8)

@DiscoCokkroach: Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying your current playthrough. If you have suggestions for improvement, don't hesitate to tell.

@levantine: I guess you noticed it already, but no, it's still not possible to draw more than 9 spells in battle in Remastered. I'll try hooking the game to a debugger as soon as I have the time, to see if I can find the new address that controls draw amounts.

It's good to hear that you are enjoying the Remastered version nevertheless. How did the altered prison boss battle go? I've been thinking about making it so that the buffs from the Elite Soldiers don't count towards the GIM52A's Ray-Bomb counter, as it's probably a bit too much.

@Yuey: No problem, your suggestion with the little girl was not only a good opportunity for adding a new sidequest (as the problem with her mother is never elaborated on), it also helped me a lot with understanding FF8's field scripting. To be honest, what I've come up with it isn't very creative after all, but at least it gives another reason to return to Dollet other than just for card-related things, and the reward for completing it should be pretty useful.

@mackoz: I can't really tell what the problem with the buttons is. It's probably not related to the mod, but rather a problem with Remastered itself. The Chocobo Forests are actually the only fields that were altered by the developers (to remove the Chocobo World stuff), so maybe something has been messed up (similarly to Zell's Duel, which also has buttons swapped for some moves). I'll have a look when I get the time nevertheless.

@JLOUTLAW: Was it a back attack against the 3 Grats? If so, then yeah, it's almost guaranteed game over with Squall alone. I guess I should remove the possibility of back attacks for this specific encounter to keep things fair right after the beginning of the game.

80
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-10 18:13:22 »
@Nesouk: Ok, I hope you are getting more of a challenge this time. The new Hard Mode should be around Requiem levels in terms of difficulty (some battles are easier, some harder), but still below Reloaded Mod, mainly because it doesn't limit player resources as much as Reloaded does.

@goodmorninpluto: Yes, all additional content is the same across all versions, with the exception of minor changes to most of the optional enemies themselves (higher stats, AI changes etc).

81
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-10 02:22:46 »
Hard Mode is now available for both versions, called Lionheart Mode for now. Please check out setup instructions for information on how to apply it (the possibility of selecting difficulty after starting a new game might be added in the future).

Main changes:
  • Stat increase for almost all enemies compared to Standard version
  • AI changes for many enemies (example: Diablos will stop using Gravija if all party members are in critical health)
  • Some enemy elemental weaknesses have been changed or have had their severity lowered
  • Status resistance has been increased for some enemies
  • Various changes to enemy attacks, also a few new ones have been added
  • Some formation changes to certain boss battles
  • In Remastered, enemies now use custom versions for Tornado and Quake as well

Standard version adjustments:
  • Critical hit rate for a few late-game physical attacks has been decreased
  • Slight to moderate stat decrease for some enemies
  • Some more enemies lost the ability to spam powerful attacks multiple times in a row
  • Phoenix Down and the Life spell now restore 25% of a character's max HP (up from 12.5%, Steam 2013 only)

New in all versions:

Expanding on the idea in regards to weakening some bosses by drawing their GF, beating those bosses without drawing it will now be rewarded with some additional items after the battle. Keep in mind that every GF in question will be automatically added to the player's inventory after the battle, whether it has been drawn or not. The idea behind this is adding one more decision-making element to the game (in this case, weaker bosses vs better rewards), so unless the boss gives the player serious trouble, it is advisable to NOT draw the GF. Thanks to Nesouk for the incentive to implement this.

Spoiler: Additional rewards for not drawing GF • show

Elvoret: 10 Silence Powders (drawing Siren will make its Magic drop by 20%)
Iguions: 4 Dragon Skins (drawing Carbuncle will make them lose their Auto-Reflect)
NORG: 1 Water Crystal (drawing Leviathan will prevent him from casting the Water spell)
Fujin: 1 Windmill (drawing Pandemona will prevent her from casting Tornado)
Edea: 5 Spr Ups (drawing Alexander will make her Spirit drop by 20%)
Ultima Weapon: 1 Dark Matter (needs to be defeated with Auto-Protect and Auto-Shell on)


EXP for bosses and the option to disable it will be added soon. Haven't had enough time to implement this, unfortunately.


@Dealer1993: Thanks for the interest, I hope it's not too late. If you need advice in regards to how to set it up for Remastered, let me know.

@DrHojo123: Yes, there is a document in the DL that has information about the things that were moved around. Changes to Pet Pals are as follows:

Pet Pals Vol. 3 and 4 can no longer be purchased from Timber Pet Store without Familiar Ability unlocked. Pet Pals Vol. 3 is now one of the items that can be found as part of the dog sidequest in Dollet when doing it on disc 1, while Pet Pals Vol. 4 is now received randomly after staying at Galbadia Hotel in Deling City. Pet Pals Vol. 5 and 6 can be obtained by completing new sidequests in Deling City and Balamb Garden, respectively.

82
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-04-30 07:02:11 »
Making Edea and Seifer permanent party members is possible, but their field models are not present in most of the field maps, so they would not be visible if they are in the active party (battles would be fine). They could be added in via hex edits, but doing so for every field map would mean a lot of work. So I'd rather wait until there's a tool that is capable of adding custom field models to a given field.

I generally like the idea of having them available until the end, especially Edea, as nothing would conflict with it story-wise, as Ayoyo already mentioned. Seifer would indeed need a good reason to join after the events at the end of disc 3, but I guess a custom cutscene after disc 3 could be used to make it appear more reasonable. But as I said above, a tool that supports custom field models would be required before that can be accomplished.

Oh, and levantine, the Remastered version is fully compatible with any graphics mods, like those from Mcindus. Just remove the Gerogero decensors inside textures folder to avoid any conflicts in-game. Sorry for the late reply.

@Hard mode: Needs some more days, as I decided to do a little more than just stat increases for enemies. The standard version will also need a few adjustments. Making good progress overall though.

83
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-04-15 08:49:35 »
Quote from: levantine
Hello,

Are you plan to update the remastered version to 1.2 or the version will still to 1.0?

Hi levantine,

yes, updates to the Remastered version are planned. The version for Remastered will be identical to the 2013 version as soon as the exe changes are in. I don't know when that will be though, as porting them over is difficult due to 2013 exe no longer present in its previous form.

A hard mode for both versions is also planned. It takes priority at the moment, probably releasing in a couple of weeks. Also thinking about making bosses drop EXP in all versions, but at the same time giving the player the option to disable these gains to allow low-level challenges.

84
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-04-08 08:42:07 »
@Union & Robgatti:

After installing Demaster unofficial patch, does your FFVIII Remastered root directory look like this?

If so, then copy the DEMASTER_EXP folder inside the Ragnarok download package, paste it to the game's root folder and select the first option "Replace files at destination" when Windows asks about what do to with the files. Just make sure to not accidentally delete the DEMASTER_EXP folder that is already present in the root folder and then replace it with the one from the Ragnarok package (this one only contains the files relevant to the mod, and is therefore not enough to make the game run).

If not all of the files pictured above are present, you are probably missing the files from the Demaster patch download package. Make sure to drop them all inside the game's root directory first, then running FFVIII_Demaster_Manager.exe, as stated in the USAGE.txt file.

85
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-04-02 00:28:59 »
Ok, there seems to be a high demand for a real hard mod, so I'll try to come up with something in around a month. Increasing stats shouldn't take long, could also make some minor AI changes while at it, such as removing Elvoret's delay / turn skip before using its Storm Breath attack. But definitely not more than that, at least for now.

@setafd: There's no need to start a new game because of the new version. The changed base stats for the characters will update automatically after putting the new files in lang-en, and there shouldn't be any conflicts with GF Abilities at this point of the game. If Heal appears in Siren's Ability list (instead of Absorb), then all is good.

86
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-03-30 23:20:53 »
@Nesouk: I've sent you a PM.

@Vayne95: No, this hasn't been changed.

If you are playing the 2013 version, make sure Roses and Wine W07 has been installed correctly. Then a folder called "RaW" should appear in your FFVIII root directory (Steam/steampps/common/FINAL FANTASY VIII). Open it, click GLOBAL, then Hext and put the Ragnarok_mod.txt file from the DL there. All the exe changes including Draw points contents should become active then.

If you are playing Remastered, then it's enough to merge the two DEMASTER_XP folders.

87
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-03-30 18:53:02 »
@Ayoyo: I would recommend keeping levels low so you have a more direct comparison to your first playthrough. Keep in mind that this time, the boss battle against the G-Soldiers at Missile Base drop tons of EXP though. To keep the this amount to minimum, you'd need to use the Gaia Drum item (can be stolen from Sacred, for example) to set the Petrifying countdown on them. The success rate isn't particularly high, but can be increased by having a high Magic stat character use it.

Otherwise I agree with what you said above. There's not much point in making a mod that still allows breezing through the game, barely using the tools given to the player. And in the particular case of FFVIII, some players tend to forget or not realize that junctioning spells is comparable to equipping armor in more traditional RPGs, and should thus be updated every once in a while. Still, I felt that the required minimum to beat certain bosses without frustration was set a little too high, which is why some of them have been slightly toned down. Not so much that they become ridiculously easy, just so much that they feel more fair when facing them with less than ideal Junction setups, as said above.

@Rikku: One should never say never, but at the moment, it's rather unlikely that there will multi-language support anytime soon. The fact that every language version uses different executables in the 2013 version hinders this by quite a bit, and some of the additional dialogue in Field.fs would need to be translated to Spanish, which I am not able to. Doing it for Remastered would probably be easier, but at the moment, I can't promise anything.

@Nesouk: Hard to say what the problem is, seems different from last time for sure. What I would do first is making sure that all the .ogg files are present in RaW/Global/Music folder, accessible from FFVIII root directory. If they are not there, you might have picked the wrong destination folder in the RaW installer. If they are there, then I'm quite clueless. Hope you're getting the issue solved.

88
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-03-29 21:53:22 »
Quote from: Ayoyo on 2020-03-29 21:00:33
Well I mean, alternatively the later bosses could've been buffed to sort of achieve the same thing  :-P /jk... unless?
Actually a good point, I thought about that too. But some players on stream in the past few months showed me that some of the earlier bosses are a bit overtuned (mostly damage-wise). They were using suboptimal Junction setups and didn't try to use status effects a lot, and I felt they were punished too severely for that. So I've tried to find a middle ground between "accessible to all players" and "not too easy". Whether it worked or not remains to be seen.

Quote
But now that it's on the table, it's destiny bro - hard mode, that is.
If it's only a stat-increase you'd like to see in a harder version for now, then I could probably set that up in a month or so. Would be helpful if you tried the latest version first though, too see if it indeed became too easy for you after all.

Quote
Corrected as in...? Are you referencing the random check fix that Callisto mentioned just now, or are there other prior changes to later bosses to make them less easy?
If the last version you played is indeed from a year ago, then a lot has changed in addition to reduced random checks, ranging from higher stats, new moves used, complete removal of turn skips etc.

89
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-03-29 19:35:18 »
@Ayoyo: The main reason behind the boss nerfs especially in the early and mid-game is the overall difficulty progression, which can be quite wonky in earlier versions of the mod. Some players felt that the early and mid-game are actually harder than the late-game, so I wanted to improve on difficulty perception, aiming for a steady increase in difficulty, no matter the Junction setup and party levels.

As for the possibility of weakening bosses by drawing their GF: I would say the effects are rather minor in most cases. After drawing Siren from Elvoret, its magic power becomes only slightly weaker than in earlier versions, as its actual magic stat has been increased. And Edea's Spirit stat is naturally very high, so -20% after drawing Alexander still doesn't allow rushing her down with spells quickly.

All in all, these nerfs won't have that much of an impact as you might think. All they do is making things more fair for players that currently don't have the best spells equipped, or don't use the optimal GF distribution, which I think should not be expected at all times. I guess a real difficulty version of this mod should be released separately at some point.

Also note that most late-game bosses are noticably harder than in versions from over a year ago. With a little luck, you could just rush them without ever seeing their special moves at all. For example, Nesouk won the last Seifer battle without Bloodfest being used, because there were way too many random checks in his AI script. Many of these have been removed, and now most of the bosses are balanced around having them use their special attacks at least once, no matter how strong your party is.

@Nesouk: The changes in defensive junctions are as follows:

Code: [Select]
Spell Vit/Spr v1.1.5 Vit/Spr v1.2

Regen 50/50 46/46
Meltdown 60/60 52/52
Curaga 75/75 56/56
Holy 70/70 60/60
Full-life 85/85 66/66
Renew 80/80 72/72
Ultima 90/95 80/80
The new gains in natural stat growth do not soak this up completely. Some characters didn't even get gains on certain stats at all, such as Selphie or Rinoa on Vitality, or Zell and Ward on Magic - so only a character's natural strengths have been increased (HP growth is even completely untouched from the previous version).

90
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-03-27 08:40:10 »
Most of the missing features in Remastered are rather negligible in my opinion, and only a few a real bummer.

The biggest thing is probably the changes to Angel Wing power and mechanics. In Remastered, the damage multiplier is set to 5 and spells are selected from Rinoa's spell inventory, as in the base game, so endless Meteor spam at five times the power is still possible.

Other than that, your characters' standard physical attacks can currently not break the damage limit, not even with Darkside equipped, which limits the usefulness of your physical attackers in the late game, to some extent.

Not being able to draw more than 9 units per Draw in-battle is a little unfortunate too, but Refining has been made more accessible from the start as a compensation, so I would use that as the main source for acquiring spells (along with the new shop in Deling City).

Other changes that are currently absent and haven't been mentioned before include:

- A new damage type that allows dispelling status effects while doing magic damage
- X-Potions and Elixirs being excluded from the Auto-Potion item pool
- The fix to the Rare Item Ability (don't use this Ability if you want an enemy's rarest item)
- Some alterations to ATB bar filling speed in relation to a character's Speed stat
- An alteration the magic damage formula that allows up to 60,000 HP damage for magic attacks (like Shockwave Pulsar)
- An alteration to the Draw amount calculation that generally allows for more Draws in-battle
- An adjustment to the SeeD rank calculation that allows staying at SeeD rank A for a little longer than usual

Anyway, thanks for the comment. I'm going to implement the features as soon as I found out how to do that.



91
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-03-26 03:28:14 »
v1.2 for Steam 2013 and v1.0 for Remastered are now available.

Note that the Remastered version currently comes without any exe changes. A compensation for some of the missing features has been done, though. See below for more information.


Changes Overview

Balance changes
  • Each party member's core base stats and natural stat growth have been increased.
  • Spell junction values for defensive stats have been reduced in the mid-late game.
  • Hitrate for Irvine's weapons has been increased.
  • Break base spell power has been slightly increased.
  • Aqua Breath availability has been delayed from D-District Prison to Centra Ruins/Kashkabald Desert.
  • Base power for Desperado and Massive Anchor Limit Breaks has been reduced.
  • Desperado has a chance to inflict Confuse on all enemies.
  • Angelo Cannon and Angelo Strike base power has been slightly reduced.
  • Selphie's and Edea's Limit Breaks now proc slightly earlier than usual.
  • Mega-Potions now heal 1500 HP instead of 1000 HP.
  • Remedy+ is now multi-targeting and has been made slightly more common, but can no longer cure Doom.
  • Doom Command Ability inflicts magic damage in addition to causing Doom status.
  • Absorb Command Ability has been changed to Heal, restores HP to all party members for 18,75% of their max HP.

Enemies
  • A slight to moderate damage reduction has been applied to most bosses in the early and mid-game.
  • Evade stats for most flying enemies have been increased.
  • Overall stats have been increased for many high-leveled common enemies.
  • Some status immunities have been lowered for certain bosses, especially in regards to Poison and Vit 0.
  • Enemies now do more damage under Berserk, and some will try to use this to their advantage.
  • Vysage, Lefty, Righty, Elnoyle and Gargantua are now undead enemies.
  • Meltdown can be drawn from the Hexadragons that appear in Galbadia Garden on disc 2.
  • Pain can be drawn from the Tri-Faces that appear in Galbadia Garden on disc 2.
  • Curaga can be drawn from high-leveled (LV40+) Mesmerizes.
  • Many enemies can no longer spam powerful attacks and require a cool down of at least 2 turns before they can be used again.

Spoiler: Boss changes in detail • show

Elvoret: Magic damage slightly increased, but its magic stat drops by 20% after Siren has been drawn
Granaldo, 3x Raldo: Raldos have been slowed down, Granaldo's Poison Gas inflicts less damage
Gerogero: General damage reduction
Esthar Cyborgs: Boomerang Sword can no longer be used right away and can no longer be used in two consecutive turns; damage reduction
Brothers: Confuse hitrate of Sacred's physical attack further reduced; Mower damage slightly reduced; new attack for Minotaur mixed in
Iguions: General damage reduction
Seifer: Slight damage reduction for Fira; uses Silence once after a couple of turns
Edea: Snowstorm is no longer a direct counterattack, she now needs to spend an actual turn to use it; damage reduction for most attacks
Elite Soldier, 2x GIM52A: Damage reduction
NORG: Magic damage decreased
Odin: Magic damage decreased
Seifer (2nd): Can no longer spam Demon Slice multiple times in a row; uses Drain occasionally to keep total damage dealt under control
Seifer (3rd): Noticable drop in defensive stats so he can be dealt with quickly
Edea (2nd): Slightly lower Speed, slight reduction in magic damage
Propagator: Anti AoE spam measures, but general increase in stats
Jumbo Cactuar: Ker Plunk can no longer be used multiple times in a row
Bahamut: Anti AoE spam measures
Ultimecia/Griever: properly edited for the first time; they are much faster and use an additional attack
Final Ultimecia: Something new happens after her HP drop below 30%; uses Vaporize more often


Drawable GF

Drawable GF can no longer be missed and will be automatically added to the player's inventory after beating the respective boss. Cerberus can be drawn from Catoblepas if missed earlier, and Eden can still be drawn from Tiamat as an alternative to Ultima Weapon. It's still possible to draw all the GF in question though, and doing so will grant the party a certain advantage in battle:
  • Elvoret: Its Magic stat drops by 20%
  • Iguions: Loses Auto-Reflect, as usual
  • NORG: Loses access to the Water spell, as usual
  • Fujin (1st): Loses access to the Tornado spell only (will still use Aerial Slash)
  • Edea (2nd): Her Spirit stat drops by 20%
  • Ultima Weapon: Is now under Auto-Protect and Auto-Shell unless Eden has been drawn
  • Catoblepas: Uses Meteor as its final attack, otherwise Ultima
  • Tiamat: All of his stats drop by 10%

Qol additions
  • Another save opportunity has been added in Balamb Garden during the NORG events on disc 2.
  • The Save Points near the auditorium in G-Garden and the one right before fighting Adel are now visible by default.
  • The very last Save Point in the final dungeon now offers the possibility to warp out of the castle.
  • Random encounter rates have been reduced at some locations, most importantly Centra Ruins.
  • Random encounters are now completely disabled in D-District Prison until the alarm goes off.
  • Caterchipillar has been added to the random encounters in BG Training Center, so Cure can be drawn before fighting Granaldo.
  • The number of button presses required to open the valve at MD Levels has been lowered.
  • Damage variance during the Paratrooper airborne battle has been reduced, outgoing damage has been slightly increased.
  • Party members will no longer be chosen randomly before the final battle (but still vanish if left KO'd for too long).
  • A completely unnecessary Junction reset has been removed after beating the boss at Fisherman's Horizon.
  • The active party will be locked to Squall, Quistis and Selphie after leaving Timber on disc 1 until heading to the forest near G-Garden, as only their spells will carry over to the next Laguna flashback.
  • Edea will temporarily leave the active party in the area between the Great Salt Lake and Esthar, as her spells will not carry over to the next Laguna flashback.

Sidequest changes or additions
  • A new sidequest is available in Deling City on disc 2 or 3.
  • A new sidequest/cutscene is available in Balamb Garden and White SeeD Ship towards the end of disc 3.
  • A hidden boss battle is available in Lunatic Pandora during the 1st visit.
  • A hidden boss battle is available in Ultimecia's Castle.
  • The Elite Soldier at Grease Monkey's house in FH can be challenged to a duel as Irvine.
  • The player will now be informed about the inability to leave Centra Ruins after examining the blue orb.
  • The timer will now show during the new scripted battle at Centra Ruins.
  • A battle against two LV 100 Tri-Faces will trigger after picking up the Solomon Ring at Tear's Point after the Lunar Cry event .

Other changes or bugfixes
  • Each of Ultimecia's minions now guards a specific seal instead of being able to choose which one to remove from a list.
  • All Command and Character Ability tutorial entries are now unlocked from the start.
  • All GF base compatibility values have been increased.
  • Lots of EXP will be gained from the soldier boss battle at Missile Base, to keep the level gap compared to the other party low.
  • The random encounter condition has been changed (corrected?) for field "fhtown1" in Fisherman's Horizon.
  • A hint about how to defeat BGH251F2 (2nd) most easily will be given at the beginning of the battle.
  • Another scripted battle has been added to Galbadia Garden on disc 2.
  • The Light Pillar enemy attack can no longer cause damage overflow.
  • Fixed a potential softlock during the new Fire Cavern sidequest.

Compensation for missing features in Remastered
  • Draw points: Some contents have been swapped around via Field edits.
  • SeeD salary rebalance: Max initial SeeD rank has been lowered from 10 to 6, prices in shops have been increased.
  • Return Damage: Returns only 1/4 of the damage, as in the base game, but AP cost has been halved.
  • Darkside: Doesn't unlock before Diablos reaches LV 40.
  • Enemy magic damage: Enemy magic stats have been increased; enemies use custom versions of Flare, Holy, Meteor and Ultima.
  • Vit 0 immunity: Some enemies have been made immune via AI instructions; Meltdown status hitrate has been lowered, so they can block it more easily with their Spirit stat.
  • Draw cap in battles: Draw resistance values have been reduced for most spells; M-Stone Pieces and Magic Stones drop in higher quantities; the first 3 Refine Abilities are learned by default, and the party starts with 20 M-Stone Pieces in their inventory.

92
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2020-01-04 21:09:32 »
Planning to release a new version that will contain some more suggestions made by Nesouk earlier, among some other things, and also Remaster compatibility soon.

Just finished work on the mngrp.bin file that contains all data relevant to menus. It needed a lot of manual adjustments as it's different from 2013 release. Next are Battle and Field files, which are also different, but shouldn't take that long to port over.  The only thing I'm quite unsure about is certain exe changes (such as Angel Wing, or the new Dispel damage type) and the way of applying the mod changes to the Remaster version. It will probably be a little more complicated than for 2013, but Maki's new Demastered Tool looks promising and could make the process easier. Have to check.

If there's anything in particular you'd like to see in this mod, don't hesitate to tell :)

93
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-27 18:27:35 »
-Red Giant: Well yes, it's a little cheap that Gravity attacks still work on him, but being able to draw Demi from directly or simply destroy his defense using Vit 0 was even cheaper. Also, he is the only boss after Cerberus that is vulnerable to Gravity attacks, so I thought why not leaving the vulnerability in for a change. He also has as massive amount of HP, so he should always get at least a couple of turns, and damage is quite high if Vitality stats are below ~150, so I think Red Giant is fine overall. Could perhaps increase the hit rate of his single-hit sword attacks though, as they are quite easy to dodge even with only mediocre Evade stats.

-Omega Weapon: Damage overflow shouldn't have happened, as damage is always capped at 60,000 HP in this mod. Do you have any other hext files under RaW/Global/Hext that mess with damage limit? That could explain it.

Otherwise, very well done fight. I don't mind that Pulse Ammo is superior to anything else in this battle (after setting Vit 0), as Omega Weapon is one of the few end-game enemies that are actualy vulnerable to Vit 0, and I think there should be a way to inflict massive amounts of damage on an enemy that enforces defensive play so much that it can be difficult find the right time to attack at all, as you noticed yourself. If anything, I would rather change the resources for getting Pulse Ammo instead of further reducing its base power. If you do the fixed Elnoyle encounter in Esthar repeatedly, it's actually quite easy to get a full stock in no time. As for the overall usefulness of Irvine's Limit Break, yes, Xerokynos' conclusion was a bit hasty (if I remember right, he tried AP Shot when Irvine had a Strength stat of only 32, then dismissed it for the rest of the playthrough) - if Irvine's Strength is high enough, then it's still very good.

I would be interested in seeing the stats by the way, especially Irvine's Luck. Maybe some spell junction effects are still too generous on it.

-Griever: It's honestly quite disappointing that he only got 3 attacks in your case, so I looked at his AI script again and found another, less obvious turn skip, which slows him down considerably. So removed this skip, and now he acts noticably faster. The third form has a similar turn skip as well, but it's difficult to remove without Ifrit enemy editor (the tool doesn't work very well with this enemy in general). I'll give it a try with manual hex editing though.

-Final Ultimecia: The time lapse between "Draw Apocalypse" and actually casting Apocalypse isn't any longer than in the base game. It's just that in this mod, Ultimecia acts at times she normally wouldn't, so she now uses another move between these two actions, when she would normally just skip a turn. Making it so that she casts Apocalpyse immediately after drawing it from her lower half would be quite difficult to achieve due to the complexity of her AI script, and similar to the previous enemy, the Ifrit tool doesn't "like" her file very much, so a lot of manual editing would be necessary, at least if you want to keep her Ability that destroys GF. I'll try to make her use Vaporize a little more often, and Hell's Judgement less frequently when near death. Thanks.

94
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-24 02:26:55 »
The problem with Seifer probably was that his AI script still consists of weighted random checks for the most part, without any pattern in regards to the attacks he chooses. I thought reducing the probability of his regular physical attack being used to about 40% would suffice, but it apparently wasn't enough to prevent him from spamming it, as it happened in your case.

So reworked Seifers script to something more structured with way fewer randomization in it, to make sure all his moves will be seen. The other bosses you mentioned (except Adel) have been buffed as well, but not all that much for reasons you already mentioned (I also don't want to make casting Protect and Shell mandatory for every single boss battle). You can check out a preview here if you like (replace main and battle files in lang-en folder). Any further opinions would be much appreciated.

95
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-21 14:30:16 »
Quote from: Nesouk on 2019-10-21 05:17:09
Or make Elnoyle resistance to statut effect as great as Ruby Dragons, currently Ruby Dragon can be slowed, sleeped and put to Vit 0 however inflicting these with regular Magic is almost impossible you have to use Limit Break (Quistis's Bad Breath, Homing Laser, Ray Bomb or Irvine's Dark Ammo) to have reasonnable chance of inflicting them, which I think it's fine for some of the toughest ennemies in the game.
Also regarding regular ennemies while I like that Statut Effect are usefull overall I feel there is to much ennemies that can be Berserked, which completly Trivialize them most notorious are Blue Dragon and Behemoths which I feel should be strong regular encounter (especially since most of the time they are alone), and overall Berserk + Blind combo has been a pretty consistent strat against regular ennemies.
Ok, will do something to make Elnoyles a little more resilient, but will probably leave the Degenerator back door open, so farming Elnoyle in Esthar won't be overly time-consuming. What I would really like to do is changing enemy status resistance dynamically for the same enemy, mid-battle or depending on battle. It can be done for elemental resistance (see Blobras or Thrustaevises), but in the case of status effects, it looks like a similar enemy AI instruction doesn't exist, unfortunately.

Berserk is indeed quite a cheap way of dealing with certain enemies, as they don't even get the increased Strength when berserked, and just use their regular physical attack unbuffed in almost all cases. It's possible to control which attack enemies use when under Berserk though, and I already managed to make Iguions actually inflict more damage when under Berserk, but a lot more enemies should get that treatment, so using Berserk always comes with a risk, especially if enemies are not blinded at the same time. It will take a little time, but more changes to enemy Berserk behavior will follow soon.

Quote
Regarding Angel Wing honnestly this is the Limit Break that beneficiate the most from the Damage Limit being remove, outside of Meteor it was a useless Limit Break cause none of the other Spell could break the damage limit of 9999 due to that outside of Meteor it was always better to do a triple cast than Angel Wing, I wasn't sure about removing any sort of control the player have over it by making Rinoa's spell selection independant of her magic inventory, but considering this is a relativly safe offensive option (you lose control of Rinoa but the fact that it immune her to most crippling statut effects and unlike other Limit Break you can heal her and not give a damn about Crisis Level somewhat make up for that), on Ultima Weapon the lowest damage Rinoa could do was 8800 with Bio (didn't get any Pain tough) so from 8000 to 20000 per turn is fine considering it require 0 input on the players part.
Yes, especially the last point you made is actually very important in tougher battles, as no time needs to be spend on selecting Commands or targets, so the enemy won't be able to interrupt your actions as often. So I think Angel Wing is currently in a reasonable spot overall. I'll probably remove Demi from the table though, to make it slightly more useful. I can imagine it's quite frustrating if Rinoa uses it against bosses.

As for the new sidequest in Esthar, you have everything you need to find the Adamantoises inside Tomb of the Unknown King (the Goddess Bell is rather just a variable than a real item; too bad there's no inventory for key items in this game). Have you already looked at the middle tower from all possible angles?

96
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-21 03:41:17 »
-Ultima Weapon: Light Pillar has been changed from 9999 fixed damage to the most powerful single-hit physical attack in the game with a 100% crit chance. So it can be survived, but Vitality requirements are very high. Vengeance won't be used before turn 17 to give players more time to draw Triple or Ultima spells. After turn 17, it will be used at set intervals (every 4th turn), so Ultima Weapon won't be able to spam it to keep things in check.

-Iron Giants have around 190 Vitality no matter where they are encountered, so most physical attacks will be next to useless against them. They retain their weakness against Gravity attacks though, so using one or two Gravity Bombs (new item), and then some Thundagas is a good alternative to finish them off. But of course, Shockwave Pulsar works very well too, due their naturally low Spirit stat.

-Lunatic Pandora Laboratory battles: It's really good to hear that you found a use for Quistis' Ray Bomb here. I never liked that it was next to useless in the base game, so it now reliably inflicts Vit 0, as long as the target is not immune to it. But using AoEs is actually quite risky against the 3 Cyborgs, as in this particular battle, each one has a 50% chance to cast Ultima upon defeat.

-Fire Cavern sidequest: Bomb using Suicide on himself at the end was not planned. I wanted it to target the character who last attacked, and in case it dies from a Counter or Return Damage, do nothing and just die. Guess it isn't as easy though, so I'll make it target a random party member instead.

Thanks for all the feedback again. It's interesting to read about the various strategies you've tried, like Angel Wing working for you against Ultima Weapon, which I'm pleased to hear. Also always good to get some feedback about the additional sidequests - so I guess the battles at Lunatic Pandora Laboratory could be made a little more difficult, and Elnoyle could be made immune to Vit 0, or perhaps be made an undead enemy to raise its natural defense against physical attacks (at least it would fit quite well).

Spoiler: show
The spell with the 1/256 probability is Apocalypse.

97
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-17 21:57:43 »
Thanks for the latest results. You seem to be quite fast with the inputs, and it honestly took me quite some time to reach the same number of hits when checking it out myself today.

Of course, more than 100k damage is way too much on an enemy that has a decent Vitality stat. So for now, I further reduced Duel time limits and Dolphin Blow base power, also made Meteor Strike respect enemy Vitality (but increased its base power) and got the following results on Jumbo Cactuar:

Zell with 255 Str and 104 Luck:
3.66 seconds: 21202 (8 hits)
5.00 seconds: 29182 (11 hits)
6.33 seconds: 38529 (14 hits)
7.66 seconds: 46713 (17 hits)

That's still more than most other characters can do, but if you keep in mind that Duel is the most skill-based Limit Break in the game, and also that it requires a good Luck stat to achieve above results, I think it's ok that it's superior in most situations, depending on input speed and finding a good move sequence. Feel free to check it out yourself by putting these main files in your lang-en folder.

As for AP Ammo vs Pulse Ammo, there is a good number of end-game bosses that take more damage from Pulse Ammo (and probably even from Demolition Ammo, due to its higher critical hit rate):

Fujin
Mobile Type 8
Adel
TC Sorceresses
Sphinxara/Sphinxaur
Catoblepas
Tiamat
Omega Weapon
All final boss forms (except Griever)

The Angel Wing spell table currently looks as follows:

Code: [Select]
Flare 64/256
Meltdown 32/256
Meteor 24/256
Ultima 23/256
Holy 20/256
Quake 12/256
Tornado 12/256
Firaga 12/256
Thundaga 12/256
Blizzaga 12/256
Water 8/256
Bio 8/256
Pain 8/256
Demi 8/256
??? 1/256

98
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-15 18:39:42 »
Updated the latest version with a Documentation folder and few changes recently discussed:

  • Raijin now uses a dedicated healing ability after his HP drop below 50% (also heals status effects; Balamb encounter only)
  • Fujin's Vitality stat and Raijin's Spirit stat have been slightly increased (Balamb encounter only)
  • All player actions will now add towards Tonberry King's Junk counter attack (except Scan and Draw)
  • Odin Steal success rate for Luck-J Scroll has been increased from 25% to 50%.
  • Windmills can now be stolen from the mid-level Abyss Worms in Kashkabald Desert (not a guaranteed Steal though)
  • Fixed an issue with Jumbo Cactuar not attacking
  • Increased Strength of Propagator's standard attack, Righty and many other common higher leveled enemies

@Nesouk:

Thanks a lot for all the testing and numbers. Jumbo Cactuar's Vitality stat is at 148, and many of the upcoming bosses will have around the same Vitality, so it should be easy to make general adjustments based on your recent damage test on Jumbo Cactuar. Irvine's Shots don't seem to differ in total damage a lot, but differences should become more noticable as you increase Irvine's Strength further. Canister Shot has in fact the highest critical hit rate of all shots to give it an edge over Armor and Hyper Shots in certain situations (in the base game, there's hardly a reason to use it at all).

As for Duel, yes, it seems to be in need of a change, as it does way more damage than the other Limit Breaks even on higher Vit enemies when repeating certain combos fast enough. Your ideas about how to change Meteor Strike and Finishers sound good, but I guess something about move sequences should be done as well (I've been quite hesitant about the latter as changing it can result in glitches - sometimes even game-breaking ones).

Other than that, I understand your worries about Rinoa's Angel Wing, but if you use it a little more, you will notice that she casts non-elemental spells most of the time (Flare is the most common one with a 25% probability), so this Limit Break should be most useful on enemies without any major elemental strengths or weaknesses. I left Demi in as it has the ability to actually kill enemies when used under Angel Wing, but I see using Angel Wing against normal enemies is hardly worth it, so maybe it will be replaced or removed from the spell table soon. I'll post the whole table later so you can make more suggestions if you like.

 

99
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-14 14:57:08 »
@Nsandro:

I assume you got Odin on disc 3? If so, then I think being able to rush him down with an appropriate setup is alright. He is supposed to be a challenge when attempting Centra Ruins right away after getting control over Balamb Garden, when there are no Speed Junctions or high-tier spells available yet. It's unfortunately very difficult to keep an enemy challenging for the entire game, no matter your setup (at least if you want to keep him beatable on disc 2). But I'll see what I can do to make him be at a higher level for discs 3 and 4, without enabling level scaling. Thank you very much for the donation by the way. Much appreciated.


@Nesouk:

Tornado and Quake are available on disc 2, but getting them takes time. For Tornado, you can steal Windmills from the Abyss Worms in Kashkabald Desert on Centra, but they don't appear very often. One Windmill refines into 20 Tornados using T-Mag RF, as usual. For Quake, you would need to get the Tonberry GF first, and then use LV Up on an T-Rexaur on Balamb or in Balamb Garden Training Center so you can draw it from him.

The Aura Stones from the Propagators are actually not an oversight, and rather meant as an opportunity to get a few for those who are patient. They should drop only rarely, with a chance of about 5%. How many did you get? If it's too many, I'll change the drops for sure.

Thanks a lot for the progress report otherwise. Cerberus can use Break when under Triple and will only target characters without Break status when using it and yes, his tail attack still hurts. So he should be dispelled as soon as possible, but maybe you noticed he counters Dispel with a standard physical attack since the latest version. This has been implemented so he can no longer be staggered easily after using Triple on himself. As for Duel, it looks like it's still performing very well for you, as you rushed Seifer down so easily using it, so I guess something needs to be done about it sooner or later. Also Righty's physical attacks should be a little stronger indeed. Well observed. 

Just to say it in advance, there is an issue with Jumbo Cactuar not attacking. It'll be fixed by tomorrow.


@HeavensFury:

Thank you. Yes, it will be added to the Remaster version, unless I end up in a dead end in regards to file editing, as file structure is a little different compared to the 2013 version. Can't say when though. Probably takes a few more months.

100
Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.5)
« on: 2019-10-11 02:08:02 »
@Nesouk:

That's some interesting observations regarding Irvine's Limit Break, especially the handling as AoE for counters. I didn't knew that. Sounds like an oversight to me, but I don't think it can be corrected easily. I managed to change Tonberry King's counter behavior though, so that all kinds of Limit Break will add to his counter, and not just a few, like Squall's. Probably wouldn't have noticed this without your help, so thank you. It's always surprising to learn something new about this game after all these years.

Raijin doesn't have any random turn skips in his script, but he will idle if there's only one female party member alive while Fujin is alive, and if Fujin is above 50% max HP (otherwise, he would occasionally heal her). I think you didn't see his healing as you finished him off too fast with Double Bio, and also because of the fact that he uses his healing only once when near death. I haven't noticed the latter until very recently, so I will change the moment he uses his heal to something sooner, and will also increase their defenses a little, so their weak spots aren't as glaring anymore (but of course still weaknesses worth abusing). They can still be slowed down by the way, but their resistance is higher than before, and Aerial Slash was added to have something stronger than Aero, but yes - when at 70% Wind resistance from Aero and Float, it's no problem at all. But better to not go overboard, as you said.


@Nsandro:

I hope so too, and it looks like I can work with most of the files that are relevant to gameplay. Still unsure about a few because of tool incompatibility with the new files (like mngrp.bin that has all the refine data) but in case of doubt, I'll have to apply the changes by hand. I'll send you a PM regarding donation, thanks.

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