Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.99994)  (Read 4836692 times)

Xileize

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6350 on: 2017-11-14 16:57:01 »
Talking to the guy on the Highwind did indeed fix my issue.

Is that in the documentation? I did take a look through but it's very possible that I'm just blind.

Thank you very much!

Atomictincan

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6351 on: 2017-11-14 17:44:41 »
Yes sir I did, it was probably just because I was 22.

Edit: At Materia Keeper now on arranged (second playthrough after normal)

Any possibility of adding the ability to Sense major creatures after a certain % hp?
Maybe block sense until monsters are at 33%/bosses 25%?
I want to use morph more, but especially in arranged mode, the risk of even trying to morph a boss you can't sense, before the morph-weapons is just too unrealistic.

Or maybe you've made it so you get nothing from morphing said enemies, I don't really know since I don't bother trying (I understand Materia is optional and can pass up until morph weapons.)

This may also allow players who die within that 25% of said bosses health, do so not in vain, and can prepare properly to try again. Would stop people from just jumping in, sensing, then resetting the game to set up a method to stomp bosses and making us have to really try in order to learn the bosses weaknesses, and give us a reason to try and morph more.

Hell with that setup, I wouldn't even mind if all bosses are unable to be sensed until a certain threshold, and I would probably try to morph all of them.
« Last Edit: 2017-11-15 05:23:06 by Atomictincan »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6352 on: 2017-11-15 10:11:14 »
Yes sir I did, it was probably just because I was 22.

Edit: At Materia Keeper now on arranged (second playthrough after normal)

Any possibility of adding the ability to Sense major creatures after a certain % hp?
Maybe block sense until monsters are at 33%/bosses 25%?
I want to use morph more, but especially in arranged mode, the risk of even trying to morph a boss you can't sense, before the morph-weapons is just too unrealistic.

Or maybe you've made it so you get nothing from morphing said enemies, I don't really know since I don't bother trying (I understand Materia is optional and can pass up until morph weapons.)

This may also allow players who die within that 25% of said bosses health, do so not in vain, and can prepare properly to try again. Would stop people from just jumping in, sensing, then resetting the game to set up a method to stomp bosses and making us have to really try in order to learn the bosses weaknesses, and give us a reason to try and morph more.

Hell with that setup, I wouldn't even mind if all bosses are unable to be sensed until a certain threshold, and I would probably try to morph all of them.

Boss Morphs were removed for the most part, because people felt they had to try and Morph the boss if the reward was really good rather than just fighting the boss normally. It might not have been the correct move though, as it undermined having Morph earlier.

Sense and blind runs are a problem; the former has a limit of 30,000 and a hard limit of 60000, while the latter presents a problem with how an enemy should be scaled. If a boss is scaled against a blind party, then an optimised party will bulldoze it. But the other way around means it would be difficult for a blind party to beat a boss efficiently the first time round. The issue gets more acute the further into the game you go because most damage modifiers (crits, elements, etc.) use multiples of 2x; so as damage numbers go up, the gap between optimised parties and non-optimised parties gets larger and larger.

But as far as Morphs go, I'm leaning toward re-including them. The previous version had some very strong morph results on early bosses and considering the effort involved, maybe it's best to put them back in. As for Sense, I'll work on something but there is a tool that can help in the meantime: it tracks enemy HP in realtime (among other things like FPS adjustments): http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14194.0

Atomictincan

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6353 on: 2017-11-15 16:12:03 »
I can understand now after you explain it. The chance of a player beating a new mechanic boss the first time is fairly unlikely, and I experienced it first hand with Jormungandr. It all comes down to one of three results.

-Blind boss stomps the party within a handful of turns (resulting in small optimizations and a likely chance to win)
-Blind boss doesn't destroy party but since party isn't optimized, will take longer. (Loss results in optimizations that will likely faceroll next try)
-Party happens to have a setup to win first time

And like you stated, as you progress further, the chance of having the right setup the first time around becomes more and more unlikely.


On the other subject, I don't know how most players feel about morph, but as for myself, if I find bosses morphing into anything besides weapon/armor/accessory, I will usually end up not bothering with it. Not that we all don't love general items like potions and throwing items (I found myself using them a lot more in this mod), but personally, the want/need of using morph is primarily in hopes of gaining a new weapon/armor/acc that will make me think "Hey, I never use Cait, but this new weapons stats makes me want to toss him in to see it work". So with that in mind and trying to stay empathetic, I can understand some of the issues with this. There simply isn't enough weapons/armor/acc to fill every boss, and you'd probably reach a point where balancing would be a huge issue. Seeing as how sense is only used to either find weaknesses or monitor HP for Morphing, the ability itself will only be used as a "need" for those who lost to a boss or wants a particular item, making it... less desirable in any other capacity.

All in all, I love the mod, I enjoyed the first run and I'm enjoying arranged mode even more, trying new ranking and party setups keeps the replay value high, and most of my ideas are simply because I love a challenge and love "missable" items even more (As much as it sucks when you do miss it).

Bohepans

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6354 on: 2017-11-15 19:00:25 »
So...according to the "where is the thing" text file, there's an Enemy Skill called "Magnitude8", and it's used by Gaea Dragon, found on Gaea's Cliff. What causes him to usd it, though? I've seen him use these attacks: a basic physical attack, Great Gale, Atomic Buster, Gale Wind, Storm Breath...and that's it. I can't get him to use it voluntarily at full health, mid health, or near death (gave him 15 or so turns at all three health thresholds, just to be sure), as an Earth attack counter, as a death counter, or even as an Earth attack death counter (hey, if the Co...uh...the cat-things in this same cave only seem to use Level ?? Holy as a counter to Alexander/a Holy attack killing them, I figured the possibility was there). He seems immune to Confusion and Manipulate. I don't know what else I can possibly do to make the AI use it on me. Am I doing something wrong? Is this the wrong enemy and that text file has a mistake in it? What's going on?
« Last Edit: 2017-11-16 04:26:56 by Bohepans »

fistoz

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6355 on: 2017-11-15 20:28:33 »
Hey there !

I've recently started NT mod so I wanted to leave at least a little message to thanks you for all the work ^^
Really appreciating the gameplay tweaks, the new content and surprises ! From what I've seen so far (I'm entering Gold Saucer) I can sometimes guess what will happen (ohh, I wonder what's that surprise at end of CD1 hehe)
A huge + is that shortcut possibility for many long speeches. As far as this is a great game.. doing it dozens of times make'em boring.

Btw I was curious : thought I found a typo.. But after some searches since english isn't my mother tongue, it seems it may have been used intentionally to stick to Barret's habits.


That was on purpose, right ?

Anyway, thanks a lot, looking forward for future changes, new game + etc..
Hi from France ;)

Atomictincan

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6356 on: 2017-11-15 21:18:48 »
Hey there !

I've recently started NT mod so I wanted to leave at least a little message to thanks you for all the work ^^
Really appreciating the gameplay tweaks, the new content and surprises ! From what I've seen so far (I'm entering Gold Saucer) I can sometimes guess what will happen (ohh, I wonder what's that surprise at end of CD1 hehe)
A huge + is that shortcut possibility for many long speeches. As far as this is a great game.. doing it dozens of times make'em boring.

Btw I was curious : thought I found a typo.. But after some searches since english isn't my mother tongue, it seems it may have been used intentionally to stick to Barret's habits.


That was on purpose, right ?

Anyway, thanks a lot, looking forward for future changes, new game + etc..
Hi from France ;)


Hahaha, you're good. Likely not a typo, the grammar Barret uses is best described as "slang" or "ebonics". Stereotypical for african americans who grow up in Urban areas. You can see this used a lot by Barret and it adds on to his "Tough" personality.

RascalQueen

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6357 on: 2017-11-16 01:25:57 »
Did 1.5 re-add EXE changes or is the tooltip about 'the NT.EXE Patch' outdated?

ChipNoir

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6358 on: 2017-11-16 07:09:25 »
I think I may have a broken version installed. I just installed FFVII for Steam, and I'm using the 7th Heaven mod manager to run the New Threat mod.

Sooo I was enjoying this mod up till some major departures from what I watched a demonstration of. Instead of fighting a broken Scorpion Guard, the version I've got installed is telling me I need to go save Biggs, but when I try to get anywhere near him, I'm sent into a random fight with an enemy that invariably kills me.

So, what's going on here?

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6359 on: 2017-11-16 08:08:42 »
So...according to the "where is the thing" text file, there's an Enemy Skill called "Magnitude8", and it's used by Gaea Dragon, found on Gaea's Cliff. What causes him to usd it, though? I've seen him use these attacks: a basic physical attack, Great Gale, Atomic Buster, Gale Wind, Storm Breath...and that's it. I can't get him to use it voluntarily at full health, mid health, or near death (gave him 15 or so turns at all three health thresholds, just to be sure), as an Earth attack counter, as a death counter, or even as an Earth attack death counter (hey, if the Co...uh...the cat-things in this same cave only seem to use Level ?? Holy as a counter to Alexander/a Holy attack killing them, I figured the possibility was there). He seems immune to Confusion and Manipulate. I don't know what else I can possibly do to make the AI use it on me. Am I doing something wrong? Is this the wrong enemy and that text file has a mistake in it? What's going on?
I think Limit Breaks trigger Mag8 on any dragon enemy; I'll check when I get back.

Hey there !

I've recently started NT mod so I wanted to leave at least a little message to thanks you for all the work ^^
Btw I was curious : thought I found a typo.. But after some searches since english isn't my mother tongue, it seems it may have been used intentionally to stick to Barret's habits.

It's the way Barret talks in the english version; I kept it as-is.

Did 1.5 re-add EXE changes or is the tooltip about 'the NT.EXE Patch' outdated?

EXE stuff was left out in the end.

TitaniumWhite

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6360 on: 2017-11-16 22:06:53 »
I started playing this mod and really liked it in the beginning/middle of the game. The end-game however has turned me off of this, mostly due to what, I think, are limitations in the FF7 game/engine itself: in all mods I have tried so far that makes the game more challenging, it always end up being a damage-race, either from the get-go or, in this case, at the end.

I don't think that is intentional from the makers, it's just that FF7 is not a game about tactical decisions and a complete rewrite of the combat would be necessary to archive something like that. The main issue is that everything combat-related in FF7 is essentially overpowered. We all know how easy it was to generate insane damage in the original game, making status ailments useless or a waste of a turn. Lowering the overall damage while increasing the vulnerability against statuses in enemies just breaks the game in another way as each status ailment is incredibly powerful if you think about it. The materia system itself is so flexible that you can become all but immortal if you know what's coming up in future battles. All that makes it incredibly hard to balance for a harder tactical but fair game. The limited scripting the game supports doesn't help either.

Being at the Northern Crater my experience is that the main difficulty spike from the enemies comes from their damage output and that's fine by me. However due to the added (and much needed) character customization I now have characters that are completely useless. Glass canons like Tifa and Yuffie takes between 75-100% their max hp in damage from anything while tanks like Vincent and Barret can stay in the back-row and out-DPS the DPS-classes as you can freely boost their strength/magic.

I will, however, play through this and the Arrange mode and then at least once with a rank-gimmick build like melee-Aeris.

Bohepans

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6361 on: 2017-11-17 00:55:30 »
I think Limit Breaks trigger Mag8 on any dragon enemy; I'll check when I get back.
No problem; I'll check on that and see if any of my Limits trigger it from Gaea Dragon, at least. Failing that, I can just wait for your return, so you can check under the hood on that. I don't mind waiting, I appreciate that you keep coming back time and again to answer my questions and musings, heh, believe me, I greatly appreciate your patience with me (and what at times feel like very silly antics on my part).

EDIT: Worked the first try. Limits do indeed trigger Gaea Dragon, at least, to use Magnitude8. (I'm just not certain about the damage...Quake 3 does more for me. Or is this a case of me having tier 3 spells WAY sooner than anticipated? Heh. Thanks a lot, Sand Worm! All that delicious, delicious AP for my Double AP weapons~) Although if it is available right from the first dragon-type enemy you can fight, I could have had this in Nibelheim, then? That would have been a great time to get it. I'll just have to remember that next time.
But I do want to say - I feel like it's not an incredibly intuitive way to get ahold of it. Why would you use a Limit Break on some random encounter mook? Yes, they're a higher tier than typical random grunts - but not enough to where I'd do that. I always want to save my Limit Breaks for bosses. (Unless I'm grinding/farming and know I'll get my meter refilled again before I'm done and move on with the story.) And I don't see any obvious indication that this is the trigger - given I feel like I ran the gamut of what I thought were possibilities for triggering it. I had no idea Limit Breaks could be specified in monster AI for triggering specific counters. Maybe mention in the "where is the thing?" file that the player must specifically use a Limit Break targeting the dragon, in order to trigger Magnitude8? (And if a dragon sooner than Gaea Dragon can use it, if indeed there is one?). In case this question might pop up again in the future. While I'm not sure if I fully agree with using a Limit Break to trigger it - I would be more than happy to compromise by settling on just a mention in the text file, in case any future players of this mod don't realize the possibility that a Limit Break could trigger a counter, much less specifically an Enemy Skill. Just a thought!
« Last Edit: 2017-11-17 02:17:27 by Bohepans »

RascalQueen

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6362 on: 2017-11-17 01:29:07 »
Alright, so, does Arrange make any changes on the player-side?  Obviously it edits enemy encounters and such, I've noticed new boss behaviors, but does it have the limit changes/materia edits/etc?

Atomictincan

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6363 on: 2017-11-17 01:49:37 »
Being at the Northern Crater my experience is that the main difficulty spike from the enemies comes from their damage output and that's fine by me. However due to the added (and much needed) character customization I now have characters that are completely useless. Glass canons like Tifa and Yuffie takes between 75-100% their max hp in damage from anything while tanks like Vincent and Barret can stay in the back-row and out-DPS the DPS-classes as you can freely boost their strength/magic.

I will, however, play through this and the Arrange mode and then at least once with a rank-gimmick build like melee-Aeris.

I can emphasize with your feelings, especially in my first playthrough. I didn't really think too deeply into the system, but by the end I was able to start understanding how important stats were, which is unorthodox from the original.

If I may suggest, first off yes, play arranged mode after you play through normal. I won't spoil anything, but you will be forced to adapt to a different playstyle, you will run into unexpected situations where you can either painfully grind to overcome, or adapt to using different team compositions.

Though I do think magic casters are stronger at face-value, I learned this to be untrue. Attackers will reign supreme, but only if you take the time to set them up for certain battles. Using elemental with a bosses weakness on a high dex attacker will certainly outperform a caster in a multitude of situations. They can survive longer, react faster to bad situations, and function better than casters when faced against status effects.

This brings me to my second suggestion, the stats of characters plays a much, much bigger role in this mod. First play through for me was very cut and dry, which can bore you like it did myself. I've found a second playthrough in arranged was where the mod really shined.

I set up beforehand, in my mind, what I wanted from each character. Mainly I decided to keep cloud hybrid, starting with 4 ranks into mako, finishing up in the opposing to balance his str/vit. This meant he would be extremely vulnerable to physical, bringing in a tank was necessary. Barret was my original choice, for obvious reasons when it comes to straight damage mitigation, but I have switched over to Cait, with his superior health, magic, and luck, which 100+ luck gives you a surprisingly high dodge chance, not to mention he can heal allies MP with attacks for unlimited mana pools. Last slot called for a fast, reactive character to quickly shut down enemies with status and cure statuses/buff allies. Both Yuffie (Huge dodge chance) and Tifa (Grit passive has saved me countless times) fit this role I was looking for. I opted for Yuffie, for a higher damage output with her insane limit breaks.

That was extremely long winded and I could go more into detail for each character I have set a role for, but my point being, stats do play a huge role when choosing what you want, and when you go to start your arranged mode run. Play as you would normally, and when you get to ranking up characters, take some time to reflect on your first playthrough, get a solid idea of what you want and go for it. There are an endless combinations you can run with, and there are no rules saying you can't go outside the norm. It may surprise you!

boozek

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6364 on: 2017-11-17 10:56:58 »
I can proudly announce that New Threat Mod 1.5 NORMAL and ARRANGE have been completed by me :) That was an amazing adventure and it brought back many memories from my childhood. Thanks goes to 4-8 Productions youtuber for pointing me here and to Sega Chief for creating this a nearly Masterpecie ;)

Just wanted to share with you what I've noticed or what in my opionion might be done different ;)

BUGS/GLITCHES/MISSPELLED/ETC.
(some of these might be already fixed by the time you are reading this document)

CD1

Monster called Formula near Junon can be MORPHED into Boomerang (please update excel documentation).

When I was on my way to Fort Condor after rescuing Priscilla (Cloud goes alone) I got encountered in the bush by Ziegfried. When He used his second hit, he blew me out of the battle. Funny thing is he was still talking and even used Odin while I was still out of the fight so he cut himself in a half and the battle was over with no drop ?!

Beachplug – all Beachplug enemies are casting BIG GUARD at the beginning of the fight. Even when there are 4 enemies they do it all one after one, so generally there are 3 useless moves...

When Cloud gets to Aerith in Forgotten City and want to hit her with his sword there are two chat options to choose one is so long it would not fit to the box.

After Jenova fight in Forgotten City when the team group up in the sleeping room, there is a blue text location name "knowlespole" is it intended ?

CD2

ATM fight before boarding Highwind. There is nothing to steal – excel documentation says you can steal Winchest or AM Cannon. He only drops Platinum Phone. Guess you need to update it.

Materia MP Plus can be sold for 500 milions gil – in my opinion that is too much and it will make GIL useless.

While fighting Sea Worm on the beach in Mideel, last hit was given by Cid's limi Big Brawl. Funny thing is Cid missed every signgle combo hit. There was no dmg and no 'miss' word. Monster did not dissapear when killed but the fight was over with regular drop/exp/etc.

Is it possible to create a skip for the long conversation in the Northern Crater, when Clouds gives
Black Materia to Sephiroth and Weapons are Summoned ?

I received Masamune weapon from Fort Condor NPC after final battle for MegaMateria is it intended ?

Midgar Raid last Turks fight. They have nothing to steal but they have 100% drop of the items that are on the excel documentation as "to Steal". Please update documentations by changing from Steal to Drop.

While Midgar Raid/Dark Cave/ Using key to sector 5 - save points have no Rank Up options.

While Midgar Raid there is invisible NPC Shop on the 1st floor Shinra Corp.

Misspelled Valiant Cloud name in Battle Chat when charging. Says "Clod"

Documentation update – Valiant Cloud drops Ragnarok not Imperial Guard.

When you enter a fight with Hojo, those two underwater monsters are already there I think in Original version they were summoned.

When Vincent died in a fight with Iron Man he did a Final Attack Magic Counter x4 Comet2 (final attack was not equipped) is that natural ?

CD3

Misspelled answer "NO" on Highwind NPC after fighting Mirage boss.

Is it even possible to steal Silver Glasses on the first fight on the train heading to Corel ? I only stole Star Pendants and Hybrid Brace. I tried couple times...

Is the Outer Junnon Weapon Shop ever opened ? The old man always says the same thing over and over on all 3 discs ?

Tyrant (Boss) in Northern Crater drops Warrior Bangle – documentation says Gospel Spark.
Junnon league when choosing bracket "Cancel" - option does not work.

After fight in Dark cave sector 7 on The Pilar, once you go back down you can still go through the fence and do it again and again etc.

When fighting with Yuffie in Dark Cave she tries to steal the materia you can run from that fight but she will be laying on the floor beaten :)

When summoning KOR there is a typo.


Suggestions
- In my opionion Boss that drops KOR is too easy, once you get KOR the rest bosses are way more easier to kill
- After obtaing Tiny Bronco you can swim to the beach in Mideel area and fight monsters over there which gives tons of exp. These monsters should be stronger in my opionion. If somebody wants to farm there he would get a lot money, exp and AP very easily. Then when proceeding with game and visiting temple of the ancients or north crater it will bring more fun if you are not so overpowered. Also please decrease drop rate for Typhoon Ring from Sea Worm. It drops like 100% and it is expensive to sell.
- Physical attacks/limits should be a bit stronger. When comparing to end game Magic or Summons the physical limits are weak. Same goes for defense if you go max attack and no defense you deal average damage and getting killed fast, but when you go max def no attack you are super though with not bad damage. Summary  Mag>Def>Att...
- Mime should work only once a fight. If you can use it more times game becomes too easy.
- Gospel Spark item should be removed, with W-item makes the game too easy. Also everyboss can be killed without it :)
- Dark Cave bosses and encounters should be stronger.


Thanks and hope you will do same mod for FF8,9 and 10 !!!
« Last Edit: 2017-11-17 16:20:12 by boozek »

Mithrain

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6365 on: 2017-11-17 15:20:37 »


I received Masamune weapon from Fort Condor NPC after final battle for MegaMateria is it intended ?



Wat. I think the last reward I got was a Megalixir or something.  :o

boozek

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6366 on: 2017-11-17 15:27:32 »
Wat. I think the last reward I got was a Megalixir or something.  :o
I meant the Leader old man wearing a hat sitting near the table inside the FORT.
« Last Edit: 2017-11-17 15:29:53 by boozek »

Mithrain

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6367 on: 2017-11-17 15:53:37 »
Just went back there, and talked to everyone. No Masamune for me, at least. Fairly sure I did all the battles, too. So it's probably some obscure bug, unless I missed one at some point.  :-X

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6368 on: 2017-11-17 16:04:28 »
I started playing this mod and really liked it in the beginning/middle of the game. The end-game however has turned me off of this, mostly due to what, I think, are limitations in the FF7 game/engine itself: in all mods I have tried so far that makes the game more challenging, it always end up being a damage-race, either from the get-go or, in this case, at the end.

I don't think that is intentional from the makers, it's just that FF7 is not a game about tactical decisions and a complete rewrite of the combat would be necessary to archive something like that. The main issue is that everything combat-related in FF7 is essentially overpowered. We all know how easy it was to generate insane damage in the original game, making status ailments useless or a waste of a turn. Lowering the overall damage while increasing the vulnerability against statuses in enemies just breaks the game in another way as each status ailment is incredibly powerful if you think about it. The materia system itself is so flexible that you can become all but immortal if you know what's coming up in future battles. All that makes it incredibly hard to balance for a harder tactical but fair game. The limited scripting the game supports doesn't help either.

Being at the Northern Crater my experience is that the main difficulty spike from the enemies comes from their damage output and that's fine by me. However due to the added (and much needed) character customization I now have characters that are completely useless. Glass canons like Tifa and Yuffie takes between 75-100% their max hp in damage from anything while tanks like Vincent and Barret can stay in the back-row and out-DPS the DPS-classes as you can freely boost their strength/magic.

I will, however, play through this and the Arrange mode and then at least once with a rank-gimmick build like melee-Aeris.

Yeah, the biggest challenge of making this mod was finding a way to make the game's systems work while maintaining what makes FF7 feel like FF7. The core of the problem is how damage modifiers are applied and the formulas; 2x from crits/elemental, %-based mitigation, and how Level is used in damage calcs eventually make it very difficult to manage as numbers start to creep up. I didn't know how to modify the ASM until very recently, so everything in the mod is based on work-arounds using AI and other tricks. But there's a limit to what those measures can do. I also learned very recently that Defence and Magic Defence exhibit very strange behaviour when they reach the 200+ mark. They seem to start scaling much harder than before, though this may be a result of the character defence hack in the AI.

If I could go back in time with what I know now, I'd be able to build the mod using ASM modifications to the damage & mitigation formulas and I'd probably aim to work within a smaller range of values instead of the 9999 range.


But I do want to say - I feel like it's not an incredibly intuitive way to get ahold of it. Why would you use a Limit Break on some random encounter mook? Yes, they're a higher tier than typical random grunts - but not enough to where I'd do that. I always want to save my Limit Breaks for bosses. (Unless I'm grinding/farming and know I'll get my meter refilled again before I'm done and move on with the story.) And I don't see any obvious indication that this is the trigger.

The reason is a combination of what Magntitude 8 replaced and my own burn-out; Dragon Force used to proc against Limits, with the skill not being available until late in the game when you defeat a special boss that uses the skill on your party when it dies. Mag8 was its replacement at the last minute because I was stuck for ideas and saw that there was no Earth-based skill in the E.Skill library. As for the trigger, I left it as-is because by the end of 1.5's development I was badly wanting away from the game. Not the best frame of mind to be making decisions, but the project was already running late.


Alright, so, does Arrange make any changes on the player-side?  Obviously it edits enemy encounters and such, I've noticed new boss behaviors, but does it have the limit changes/materia edits/etc?

It doesn't, unfortunately. I wanted to do something with item placement shuffling so that different Materia, etc. would be available at different times but I left it in the end.

When I was on my way to Fort Condor after rescuing Priscilla (Cloud goes alone) I got encountered in the bush by Ziegfried. When He used his second hit, he blew me out of the battle. Funny thing is he was still talking and even used Odin while I was still out of the fight so he cut himself in a half and the battle was over with no drop ?!

Beachplug – all Beachplug enemies are casting BIG GUARD at the beginning of the fight. Even when there are 4 enemies they do it all one after one, so generally there are 3 useless moves...

When Cloud gets to Aerith in Forgotten City and want to hit her with his sword there are two chat options to choose one is so long it would not fit to the box.

After Jenova fight in Forgotten City when the team group up in the sleeping room, there is a blue text location name "knowlespole" is it intended ?

I didn't consider the Ziegfried AI against a solo party member. I'm going to scrap that scripted fight in any case and make it a bit more straightforward, like the initial attack rush and then one character attack ends the fight (which is how it goes in FF6 I think).

I can add a script handler to Beach Plug so that only one of them casts it.

Yeah, I need to resize that box; I'll do it just now before it slips my mind again.

Knowlespole is the name of the Icicle Inn area, which is mentioned in the tapes that Ifalna recorded with Gast. When I was rewriting Seph's dialogue, it felt a bit strange to write Icicle Inn so I went with the 'ancients' name for it. But that meant I had to have the characters refer to it as Knowlespole in the next scene as well when they talk about what Seph said.

CD2

Materia MP Plus can be sold for 500 milions gil – in my opinion that is too much and it will make GIL useless.

While fighting Sea Worm on the beach in Mideel, last hit was given by Cid's limi Big Brawl. Funny thing is Cid missed every signgle combo hit. There was no dmg and no 'miss' word. Monster did not dissapear when killed but the fight was over with regular drop/exp/etc.

Is it possible to create a skip for the long conversation in the Northern Crater, when Clouds gives
Black Materia to Sephiroth and Weapons are Summoned ?

I received Masamune weapon from Fort Condor NPC after final battle for MegaMateria is it intended ?

Midgar Raid last Turks fight. They have nothing to steal but they have 100% drop of the items that are on the excel documentation as "to Steal". Please update documentations by changing from Steal to Drop.

While Midgar Raid/Dark Cave/ Using key to sector 5 - save points have no Rank Up options.

While Midgar Raid there is invisible NPC Shop on the 1st floor Shinra Corp.

Misspelled Valiant Cloud name in Battle Chat when charging. Says "Clod"

Documentation update – Valiant Cloud drops Ragnarok not Imperial Guard.

When you enter a fight with Hojo, those two underwater monsters are already there I think in Original version they were summoned.

When Vincent died in a fight with Iron Man he did a Final Attack Magic Counter x4 Comet2 (final attack was not equipped) is that natural ?

MP Plus is a unique drop, so if it is sold then it's gone. As for shop prices, there's an editor that can do it but it's an .exe change and the editor itself is very deprecated; it broke after I used it once, prob trying to remember directory pathways and bugging out or something.

Cid's Big Brawl seems to be bugged for FF7 PC; I don't recall ever seeing it in action though. My guess is that some important data in the animation file has been lost which results in the hit values not coming up; damage is calculated normally though. The same issue occurs when an attack is set with multiple hits but is only coded to have one hit; it just tallies the actual damage off after.

I could make a skip for that scene, but not just now.

Yeah, the masamune is the new drop for not allowing Condor to lose a single battle; this can be done without actually participating in the fights if you keep them funded. It's about 3000gil per battle, and they start off with enough funds to handle the 'inaccessible' battles that occur when the party can't reach Condor (there are less of these in NT though, due to the teleport NPC; most of the inaccessible battles happen during Junon Raid where I felt it would be a headache to implement the teleport there). Masamune can be equipped by any character and will take the appearance of their default weapon. It can also be crafted using certain items.

It's called Valiant Clod, the original was called Proud Clod. The translation was probably supposed to be 'Clad' but hey-ho.

I had that Hojo problem early on; for whatever reason, I couldn't get them to appear as invisible at the start of the fight anymore. The fight functions so I never returned to it.

Honestly couldn't tell you what happened with Vincent.

CD3

Is it even possible to steal Silver Glasses on the first fight on the train heading to Corel ? I only stole Star Pendants and Hybrid Brace. I tried couple times...

Is the Outer Junnon Weapon Shop ever opened ? The old man always says the same thing over and over on all 3 discs ?

Junnon league when choosing bracket "Cancel" - option does not work.

After fight in Dark cave sector 7 on The Pilar, once you go back down you can still go through the fence and do it again and again etc.

When fighting with Yuffie in Dark Cave she tries to steal the materia you can run from that fight but she will be laying on the floor beaten :)

When summoning KOR there is a typo.

It'd be tricky; definitely not worth it either.

There's a closed shop? Does he still sell you things?

I'll check the script again; thought I'd fixed that.

Ditto.

I'll add a no-escape flag.

KOTR's summon attack text is the last bit of data in the kernel, and it's prone to becoming corrupt. I re-did the kernel fresh to try and rectify it but was only partially successful; the text needs to be offset to hide the garbage but any changes made to the kernel requires another adjustment for the text. I think as of the last time I checked it was no longer possible to have it appear centred without the names of other summon attacks appearing alongside it. No idea what causes it, just that it's probably too much space used in the kernel.

Suggestions
- In my opionion Boss that drops KOR is too easy, once you get KOR the rest bosses are way more easier to kill
- After obtaing Tiny Bronco you can swim to the beach in Mideel area and fight monsters over there which gives tons of exp. These monsters should be stronger in my opionion. If somebody wants to farm there he would get a lot money, exp and AP very easily. Then when proceeding with game and visiting temple of the ancients or north crater it will bring more fun if you are not so overpowered. Also please decrease drop rate for Typhoon Ring from Sea Worm. It drops like 100% and it is expensive to sell.
- Physicall Limist should be a bit stronger. When comparing to end game Magic or Summons physical limits are weak.
- Mime should work only once a fight. If you can use it more times game becomes too easy.
- Gospel Spark item should be removed, with W-item makes the game too easy. Also everyboss can be killed without it :)
- Dark Cave bosses and encounters should be stronger.

Thanks and hope you will do same mod for FF8,9 and 10 !!!

I'll keep this in mind and add it to my notes. I'm making a mod for FF8 at the moment; hopefully it'll turn out a bit better.

Bohepans

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6369 on: 2017-11-17 21:38:30 »
The reason is a combination of what Magntitude 8 replaced and my own burn-out; Dragon Force used to proc against Limits, with the skill not being available until late in the game when you defeat a special boss that uses the skill on your party when it dies. Mag8 was its replacement at the last minute because I was stuck for ideas and saw that there was no Earth-based skill in the E.Skill library. As for the trigger, I left it as-is because by the end of 1.5's development I was badly wanting away from the game. Not the best frame of mind to be making decisions, but the project was already running late.
Ah, yeah, I can understand that. Even just making a small scale FF6 mod like mine I'm working on off and on at the moment, I've had "burnout" decisions and ended up regretting and changing later. Again, it's by no means the worst thing - just perhaps something to point out in the text file in case it's not obvious to someone.
Though just to confirm - Magnitude 8 replaced something in that attack script, not as an Enemy Skill overwriting Dragon Force, right?

Also I want to make a counterpoint to the thing about Sea Worm and the Mideel beaches/general area that can be reached late in Disc 1 (though certainly not an attempt at an argument, please don't get me wrong, just offering an alternate viewpoint) - this is purely optional. The player is in no way guided or forced there. They can choose whether or not they wish to use it for extensive grinding/leveling up - which would make any decrease of challenge a conscious decision they made, not the modder. Those who choose not to use this place for grinding will experience the game without such an advantage, which they should also be able to choose to do. It's not like the Sea Worm is standing directly in the path of the player's route to the Temple of the Ancients. Much as the Junon alarm tunnel is not right in the path of the player just progressing the story (not to mention it even takes a special trigger to see those battles). So anyone doing so is making a choice of their own volition - the right to make a mod even harder or even easier by the choices the player makes is not a bad thing. If I want to make things harder for myself, I can choose to not grind at all, much less visit such areas, and rank up in a different, perhaps less efficient manner. If I want to make things easier for myself, I can choose to grind in areas like that which are out of the way but lucrative (and of course choose a path of rank ups that would better benefit me in the long run). I can understand wanting to avoid situations where the player can accidentally make things too hard for themselves - but this is clearly a situation where the player would consciously and quite obviously choose to make the mod easier, or at least different, for themselves (within the confines of what can be done without directly cheating or the like). I don't think this is a bad thing. I chose to grind early - I wanted to experience the Rank Up system and see the results quicker, as well as to start mastering Materia sooner and faster. I knew it would come at the come of some difficulty - but I didn't come here for a difficulty mod. (You even said yourself this is not meant to be a difficulty mod, right? So this is a good thing.) I came here for a different FF7 experience, not necessarily a hair-pulling one. So I made the choice to grind and Rank Up, out of wanting to experience the player-beneficial changes right away, at least among those I could access of course. Me having Tier 3 magic before the end of Disc 1 is not a poor reflection on you as a modder, by any means. You didn't put those high AP/Exp enemies right in the player's path - they just happen to be accessible if one goes out of their way. It's available as a choice. Players can chose to make things easier or harder on themselves by using some Materia/grinding areas or by avoiding them. The goal of the mod would still be met regardless - the player has an entertaining and familiar yet fresh experience in a classic video game. Is that not true? So I feel that I would adamantly defend such areas/monsters being left as-is (I like that Typhoon Rings drop often, it's a nice equipment reward for dealing with a strong monster like that, at least strong for just barely having gotten the Tiny Bronco anyway - good for both wind protection on the party, then selling extras after you get 3+).
Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt (or a shovelful of earth, it's your choice, heh).

boozek

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6370 on: 2017-11-18 08:08:25 »
Also I want to make a counterpoint to the thing about Sea Worm and the Mideel beaches/general area that can be reached late in Disc 1 (though certainly not an attempt at an argument, please don't get me wrong, just offering an alternate viewpoint) - this is purely optional. The player is in no way guided or forced there. They can choose whether or not they wish to use it for extensive grinding/leveling up - which would make any decrease of challenge a conscious decision they made, not the modder. Those who choose not to use this place for grinding will experience the game without such an advantage, which they should also be able to choose to do. It's not like the Sea Worm is standing directly in the path of the player's route to the Temple of the Ancients. Much as the Junon alarm tunnel is not right in the path of the player just progressing the story (not to mention it even takes a special trigger to see those battles). So anyone doing so is making a choice of their own volition - the right to make a mod even harder or even easier by the choices the player makes is not a bad thing. If I want to make things harder for myself, I can choose to not grind at all, much less visit such areas, and rank up in a different, perhaps less efficient manner. If I want to make things easier for myself, I can choose to grind in areas like that which are out of the way but lucrative (and of course choose a path of rank ups that would better benefit me in the long run). I can understand wanting to avoid situations where the player can accidentally make things too hard for themselves - but this is clearly a situation where the player would consciously and quite obviously choose to make the mod easier, or at least different, for themselves (within the confines of what can be done without directly cheating or the like). I don't think this is a bad thing. I chose to grind early - I wanted to experience the Rank Up system and see the results quicker, as well as to start mastering Materia sooner and faster. I knew it would come at the come of some difficulty - but I didn't come here for a difficulty mod. (You even said yourself this is not meant to be a difficulty mod, right? So this is a good thing.) I came here for a different FF7 experience, not necessarily a hair-pulling one. So I made the choice to grind and Rank Up, out of wanting to experience the player-beneficial changes right away, at least among those I could access of course. Me having Tier 3 magic before the end of Disc 1 is not a poor reflection on you as a modder, by any means. You didn't put those high AP/Exp enemies right in the player's path - they just happen to be accessible if one goes out of their way. It's available as a choice. Players can chose to make things easier or harder on themselves by using some Materia/grinding areas or by avoiding them. The goal of the mod would still be met regardless - the player has an entertaining and familiar yet fresh experience in a classic video game. Is that not true? So I feel that I would adamantly defend such areas/monsters being left as-is (I like that Typhoon Rings drop often, it's a nice equipment reward for dealing with a strong monster like that, at least strong for just barely having gotten the Tiny Bronco anyway - good for both wind protection on the party, then selling extras after you get 3+).
Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt (or a shovelful of earth, it's your choice, heh).
I understand your way of looking at this. I just showed my own opinion and I did not say to remove mosters or block the area but just make them a bit stronger ~+25% and the ring to downgrade drop to maybe 33% ? I think that way it will bring more fun and challenge.

boozek

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6371 on: 2017-11-18 08:09:37 »
Just went back there, and talked to everyone. No Masamune for me, at least. Fairly sure I did all the battles, too. So it's probably some obscure bug, unless I missed one at some point.  :-X
Maybe you did not give them enough money for these couple fights they fought without your help ?

Mithrain

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6372 on: 2017-11-19 13:45:34 »
Maybe you did not give them enough money for these couple fights they fought without your help ?

Yeah that seems to be the reason. I had no idea that was a thing, I just figured I had to go back for every fight and it was all good, but oh well, I'll just nab a Masamune or two, the old fashioned way. o/

TheDragonKing82

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6373 on: 2017-11-24 14:15:49 »
Hi Sega Chief, First great work on the mod, well done sir!

I have encountered a loop-bug with the NT Technician guy on the Highwind, he allowed me to refight the Dark Cave boss Mirage since I didn't seem to get the Mystile but no matter how many times I defeat it there is no rewards screen and the option to fight him is still there. It also repeats asking to convert the Micro-Engine to a key item.

I have searched for info and added the Hotfix but nothing. Any help would be appreciated.

rc2112

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)
« Reply #6374 on: 2017-11-24 15:31:39 »
Hello!

I just started playing NT this week and I have a few things that might be bugs?

So first thing. Cloud has a defense stat of 60 (I'm early on, reactor 5) and Tifa has a defense stat of 44. Both are in the front line, yet Cloud is taking more damage for some reason. Am I not understanding something with the new rules? I had the Chocobelt equipped to him for a couple battles but switched back to the armor you but in sector 7 (Iron?). Not sure why he is taking more damage.

During the Air/Plasmabuster fight, the boss seemed to keep glitching back and forth so you could never really tell which way it was facing.

And I gotta say I loved the "F-it.Close enough" line right before that fight when you have to hit the switch. Been playing for almost 20 years and I still can never get that timing right. Glad that was improved ;)