Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.99994)  (Read 4825552 times)

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #75 on: 2014-07-02 16:17:26 »
No, Proto-Turk Light was just supposed to be a regular attack that he throws around, like Electroprod. I actually saw this in action this morning, when watching someone's playthrough. The Pyramid enemy moves around but the 'effect' stays on the original Pyramid target, from what I can tell. Seems (sort of) harmless but it's too confusing so I'll probably remove the attack.

EDIT: I'm currently making a char.lgp using ULGP that'll hopefully be able to decompile through that program. Could you let me know if you were able to decompile and recompile the battle.lgp and flevel.lgp?
« Last Edit: 2014-07-02 17:08:17 by Sega Chief »

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #76 on: 2014-07-02 18:30:04 »
No, Proto-Turk Light was just supposed to be a regular attack that he throws around, like Electroprod. I actually saw this in action this morning, when watching someone's playthrough. The Pyramid enemy moves around but the 'effect' stays on the original Pyramid target, from what I can tell. Seems (sort of) harmless but it's too confusing so I'll probably remove the attack.

EDIT: I'm currently making a char.lgp using ULGP that'll hopefully be able to decompile through that program. Could you let me know if you were able to decompile and recompile the battle.lgp and flevel.lgp?

Battle.lgp and Flevel.lgp both worked fine on my end.

Edit:  Just cleared the Shinra Tower.  The difficulty really seems to be picking up;  I'm loving it. 

The elevator battle seemed far too easy, though.  Aerith and Barret are definitely back-row characters, and Red XIII arguably is too with his fairly high magic stat.  I only had to cure-all once throughout the fight :/

Motor Ball, on the other hand, was brutal.  His phase-change attack (something Flames, I forgot) was hitting for almost 600 damage on unprotected party members.  Wound up having to give Barret and Aerith Fire-Elemental armor, give Cloud the Talisman, and start the fight with MBarrier.  When I finally brought him down, Cloud was dead and Barret and Aerith were both in critical.  Dunno how the fight would be possible without that second Elemental materia.
« Last Edit: 2014-07-02 20:26:34 by SwordofAeons »

FFman

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #77 on: 2014-07-02 21:24:27 »
Motor ball is the hardest fight so far. Materia keeper can be suprising and Jenova life is tricky.

Did you change the sorceress which is guarding Alexander ? I one shot her.

Found a critical bug : at Junon CD2, the first battle with the guards when Cait Sith puts Scarlet to sleep, this battle crash at the beginning. Maybe a sprite problem because the enemy or the team are not shown.

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #78 on: 2014-07-02 22:54:49 »
I've been following a Youtuber's progress and I saw that the Motorball fight was too much; the combination of Monoxide Smog and Slow Burner is too dangerous if MBarrier isn't up, especially with Rolling Fire on the way. I tuned the damage down on those attacks today, and on Rolling Fire too. It's a lengthy segment to sit through after each Game Over so there needs to be more slack there. But the Gunners fight could maybe stand to be tuned up somehow. I was a little tentative because of the second Air Gunner but I'll look at it again.

I think it's just a regular Snow enemy guarding Alexander, like in the original game. I'll have a look just in case that one still has vanilla stats.

I'll get on that right away; it'll be the wrong enemy IDs in the enemy formation, it sounds like. Easily fixed, but I should have caught it at the time.

EDIT: The patches and installer have been updated. I also put together a char.lgp that should be usable with ULGP (it was compiled with ULGP and then decompiled with it as a test). I'd recommend maybe having this patch to a default char.lgp as it'll be almost identical to the NT Char.lgp: http://www.mediafire.com/download/zih6bb94528ne0w/NT_Mod_char_lgp_3rd.exe

« Last Edit: 2014-07-03 03:19:35 by Sega Chief »

FFman

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #79 on: 2014-07-03 14:53:02 »
Thanks, I didn't remember that the Snow enemy was a normal enemy.
It's working fine with the correct ID now :)

I just got the Highwind, I'm lvl 60 with no grind and 5k-6k HP (1 HP plus lvl 3 each). Since Jenova Life, it seems that the bosses do too little damage : 500 with no element reduce (armors are Wizard Bracelet and Edin Coats). With regen, I'm always full life.

Do we got the replaced materias (like comet, counter or added cut) later in the game ?
Did I miss an encounter with the Guard Scorpion that "following" us between Dyne and the Junon escape ?

I'm really looking forward the added Battle Square bosses or the quests for the 4th level limit/ultimate weapon  :P

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #80 on: 2014-07-03 15:43:39 »
Aw hell, you got a HP Plus? Did you get it from a shop or from the Junon harbour send-off? I was trying to keep Plus Materia in the Crater and specced story bosses for a non-Plus team. Looks like I've missed a vendor somewhere.

Balancing enemies gets tough from around the Icicle area and onwards because that's roughly where differences in play-style hit a point where it's tough to accommodate everyone; there's roughly three kinds of players: people who only fight what they run into, people who grind up for things like Lv.3 Limit Breaks, and 'rush' players who run from most random encounters. It's about that area where I think the widening gulf between these three types reaches a critical point and it gets worse from there on. If you spec up to handle the heavy grind players, everyone below that suffers as a result. I was aiming for that mid-range with the old version of the mod but I miscalculated; it's perhaps made me too cautious but better they're too weak than too strong. I'll test them out with a 'low' team and push their stats/attacks a little bit if they're still lacking firepower.

I don't think there's any Scorpion encounter between Dyne and the Junon escape from what I can remember. There were, counting the two in Reactor No.1, seven encounters with it in all although Fight No. 6 is technically optional.

The Materia like Full-Cure (which now has an Esuna affect attached to it), W-Item, etc. are all being kept either in the Crater or as prizes in the Extra Battle. Once you've beaten a monster from the EB roster, talking to the middle NPC will have him check for which monsters are dead and he'll dispense the Materia associated with them. Comet should be tied up with the Corel Train scenario but failing it means having the find Comet elsewhere.

Morph is being kept by the Kalm Traveller for when you get all three items for him; I set up an area for each source, so every enemy in Mythril Mines for instance will morph into a Guard Source (although I imagine if stat-maxing is going to happen it'll be done through Black Chocobo but I figured it'd be an idea to have a way of doing it easily in-game).

For Cloud, Tifa, and Cid, make sure to have them as party leader when going for their Lv.4/Ult.

FFman

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #81 on: 2014-07-03 15:56:40 »
I got a HP plus from Canyon Cosmos shop. I also got a Exp plus (it was early in the game, don't remember where). Long range twice (one in Mythril Mines and one in Coral Valley Cave).

I'm the kind of people who only fight what they run into so maybe I'm too strong for this point of the game (expecially with HP plus). I know it's tough to balance a game. I'm just giving my thought.

If I max stat (which depend of the need/easyness), I'll do it in-game.

Thanks for your answer.  :D

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #82 on: 2014-07-03 16:13:37 »
I got a HP plus from Canyon Cosmos shop. I also got a Exp plus (it was early in the game, don't remember where). Long range twice (one in Mythril Mines and one in Coral Valley Cave).

I'm the kind of people who only fight what they run into so maybe I'm too strong for this point of the game (expecially with HP plus). I know it's tough to balance a game. I'm just giving my thought.

If I max stat (which depend of the need/easyness), I'll do it in-game.

Thanks for your answer.  :D

I haven't gotten to the rest of that yet, but for me the Long Range materia in Mythril Mines was replaced with a(n enragingly useless) Gil Up.

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #83 on: 2014-07-03 16:19:22 »
The Exp & Gil Plus were exceptions to it (forgot about those two); I added Exp Plus early because I like to keep my party levels roughly equal with each other and it's a way of getting a character back up to speed if they haven't fought in a while.

I'm the same, I'll only fight what I run into. But that was the level of difficulty I was aiming for so I've maybe missed the mark slightly. It's easily fixed, a little boost of 5-10 to the enemy's level might sort it out. I've got an experimental pre-battle AI I might implement though; it would set the enemy stats higher if the player has a party member over a certain level. It needs to be tested though.

Stat-maxing shouldn't be necessary, very few bosses have more than 200 strength/magic. Dragon Force is in there too, but that might be overkill. One thing is that some bosses have very high/max defence and there's a trick to beating these ones. That said, there's some defence-ignoring attacks like Shadow Flare you can use to get around this though. I picked areas that had bountiful enemy formations like Mt. Corel and Cave of the Gi for source morphing, to make it less of a chore.

I haven't gotten to the rest of that yet, but for me the Long Range materia in Mythril Mines was replaced with a(n enragingly useless) Gil Up.
Ah, so it was changed. Must've been the 1.1 Beta it was a (much more useful) Long Range Materia. I think the purple Materia around the back exit of Forgotten City was still a Long Range though. But it looks like I have a few more things to change; thanks for the info, folks.

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #84 on: 2014-07-03 18:07:18 »
Just got through Junon.  Choco/Mog has made random encounters trivial, maybe up the MP cost so it isn't so spammable?  On my first try against Bottomswell, he died to a poison tick right after casting his wave attack normally.  Double waves = 900 damage ouchies.

I got the Rune Armlet from the minigame, did you change the HP Plus and Silver Glasses rewards too?

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #85 on: 2014-07-03 19:31:54 »
I could rein in Choco-Mog to roughly the same power as Fire, Ice, etc; it has that Stop status on it which is very powerful so that should balance out the decreased power. I had high MP costs for summons in the previous version but it didn't seem to help. For the summons you're about to get, Shiva and Ifrit come in roughly around when magic materia starts to level up for tier 2 spells; they have less base power than those spells overall but the damage isn't 'split' over multiple targets and they all have a status ailment attached to them so I'm hoping that'll square them off against Fire2, etc. All that said, the animation of a summon cast has to be taken into account because it takes time to sit through them.

Of course, the unholy trinity of Beta, Aqualung, and Trine outstrip summons and spells at the moment. I'll probably need to move them deeper into the game, maybe Mt. Nibel, Wutai, and the Temple. I think tier 2 spells start flagging a little by Gaea's Cliff so they'd be a nice buffer between them and tier 3 spells.

That's unfortunate with the double waves, but I'm thinking that's a good trade-off for Poison; it leaves you with less control over when he dies.

Rune Armlet replaced Force Stealer as the top prize, and I think you get an accessory (probably Silver Glasses or a Silver Refractor as it was changed to) while the HP Plus prize was removed altogether. I think. I better double-check.

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #86 on: 2014-07-03 20:06:24 »
I could rein in Choco-Mog to roughly the same power as Fire, Ice, etc; it has that Stop status on it which is very powerful so that should balance out the decreased power. I had high MP costs for summons in the previous version but it didn't seem to help. For the summons you're about to get, Shiva and Ifrit come in roughly around when magic materia starts to level up for tier 2 spells; they have less base power than those spells overall but the damage isn't 'split' over multiple targets and they all have a status ailment attached to them so I'm hoping that'll square them off against Fire2, etc. All that said, the animation of a summon cast has to be taken into account because it takes time to sit through them.

Just picked up Ifrit and my most advanced spell materia is about 3000/6000 to tier 2, though I did just pick up some double AP equipment.

Quote
That's unfortunate with the double waves, but I'm thinking that's a good trade-off for Poison; it leaves you with less control over when he dies.

Agreed.

Edit:  The shop in North Corel is still selling the Transform materia.  You replaced the one that'd usually be picked up on the way with a Seal, so I'm wondering if it's supposed to be available here?

Edit2: Cait Sith comes with Transform?  Now I'm confused.
« Last Edit: 2014-07-03 21:00:05 by SwordofAeons »

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #87 on: 2014-07-03 21:27:40 »
Nothing major there, I just put Seal there instead because you end up with another Transform (which has more AP) when Cait Sith joins (and I can't edit his starting materia + equipment very easily). So I figured I may as well swap the 0AP one out for a different materia; besides, Sleep can be handy for Dyne.

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #88 on: 2014-07-03 21:40:33 »
Makes sense.

Megalixers are showing up as rewards for C-class chocobo racing.  I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen...

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #89 on: 2014-07-03 22:11:13 »
Don't know anything about that; I left chocobo racing alone. In fact, I think prizes are only handled on the field screens when it dishes out the rewards. Have you installed any other mods through Bootleg that could have made alterations to the game's .exe?

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #90 on: 2014-07-03 22:51:16 »
Don't know anything about that; I left chocobo racing alone. In fact, I think prizes are only handled on the field screens when it dishes out the rewards. Have you installed any other mods through Bootleg that could have made alterations to the game's .exe?

Possibly one of the bug-fixes messed with it.  Thought you might've removed the Enemy Away materia which'd otherwise be winnable then.

Kaldarasha

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #91 on: 2014-07-03 23:47:28 »
The prize you win is hardcoded in the exe. It was wrong in German for ages until Dan made his great tools and Kompass63 has used them to fix it.
I guess it is in the exe somewhere at 0057B3D0 onwards.

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #92 on: 2014-07-04 00:29:56 »
Thanks for the heads-up, Kaldarasha. The installer doesn't go near the .exe anyway, it's just overwriting files in the data folder (unless changes to the kernel or Field can influence it in some way; the Kernel, Field, and Minigame modules are linked, right?)

In any case, if Class C is dispensing Megalixirs as a prize then I've got no problem with that; it's tough to bet on a winner in the CPU races. The only thing that'd be an issue is if the prizes themselves were bugged in some way but I think the actual inventory additions are handled on the related field screen and those weren't changed.

SwordofAeons

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #93 on: 2014-07-04 00:51:16 »
Thanks for the heads-up, Kaldarasha. The installer doesn't go near the .exe anyway, it's just overwriting files in the data folder (unless changes to the kernel or Field can influence it in some way; the Kernel, Field, and Minigame modules are linked, right?)

In any case, if Class C is dispensing Megalixirs as a prize then I've got no problem with that; it's tough to bet on a winner in the CPU races. The only thing that'd be an issue is if the prizes themselves were bugged in some way but I think the actual inventory additions are handled on the related field screen and those weren't changed.

It's just a temptation to waste a ton of time ^.^

Cleared up to the Buggy.  The X-ATM fight was extremely easy with Bolt2 which I learned from the random encounters in the area preceding, but my heavy use of Double AP may not be the norm.  Dyne was a pushover since Choco/Mog inflicted him with Stop and his Molotov attack kept missing, but that may have just been luck.

FFman

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #94 on: 2014-07-04 08:03:36 »
The HP plus materia is also sold in Mideel.
Megalixers are winnable in C-rank chocobo racing but so far (14 races) no luck. Wondering how much GP it worth.

Goblin does not have Zeio Nut anymore, I suppose that the only way to have a Gold Chocobo is by defeating Ruby.

Beta is the spell I used the most, the fight against Zolom is easy now with the change you've made so it's easy to got it.
I didn't manage to learn Aqualong, Harpy did not cast it and it is not showing while manipulated. Jenova Life does not use it.
Same thing with Stilva and Trine. Materia Keeper does not use it. I had to fight Godo to learn it.

EDIT:
Just did the fights at materia caves :
The battle for Mime is tough which is nice.
There is a good idea behind the fight for Quadra Magic but it is just a matter of waiting.
I only try once for the purple materia and died. I'm sure the Quadra Magic + Comet + Mime will help.
« Last Edit: 2014-07-04 12:27:24 by FFman »

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #95 on: 2014-07-04 13:23:42 »
It's sounding like I back-pedaled on the HP Plus shops and then forgot about it. They'll be fixed for the next update.

The Goblins now morph into Zeio Nuts, with the Materia for that coming from completing the Kalm Traveler's stuff so I think the progression is: Weapons -> Kalm Traveler -> KOTR Cave. The Kalm Traveler doesn't give a Gold Chocobo anymore, but he does give a Chocobo of sorts. Make sure to take some E. Skill Materia and maybe an assortment of Greens with you.

Speaking of E. Skills, I think Trine is available from the new Thundercracker enemy on Mt. Nibel and Harpy's AI is to use Aqualung after a certain number of turns. I'll look at all these and Zolom again; I specced him quite quickly when I realised he still had default stats during the 1.1 Beta so he can maybe stand to be either tougher or maybe just a little smarter.

Congrats on the cave fights, the purple cave gives Mega-All which can be handy.

Tenko Kuugen

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #96 on: 2014-07-04 13:53:04 »
Thanks for the heads-up, Kaldarasha. The installer doesn't go near the .exe anyway, it's just overwriting files in the data folder (unless changes to the kernel or Field can influence it in some way; the Kernel, Field, and Minigame modules are linked, right?)

In any case, if Class C is dispensing Megalixirs as a prize then I've got no problem with that; it's tough to bet on a winner in the CPU races. The only thing that'd be an issue is if the prizes themselves were bugged in some way but I think the actual inventory additions are handled on the related field screen and those weren't changed.

Yeah, the actual won items are handled by the field script of the chocobo racing cell. (And boy, there is a lot of possible outcomes) The displayed item in the race is linked to that but uses text from the .exe - It was such a gigantic pain to make this fit in N7.  The other minigames are pretty self-contained but item rewards and GP rewards are always handled via the field script.

FFman

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #97 on: 2014-07-04 13:59:04 »
It's sounding like I back-pedaled on the HP Plus shops and then forgot about it. They'll be fixed for the next update.

The Goblins now morph into Zeio Nuts, with the Materia for that coming from completing the Kalm Traveler's stuff so I think the progression is: Weapons -> Kalm Traveler -> KOTR Cave. The Kalm Traveler doesn't give a Gold Chocobo anymore, but he does give a Chocobo of sorts. Make sure to take some E. Skill Materia and maybe an assortment of Greens with you.

Speaking of E. Skills, I think Trine is available from the new Thundercracker enemy on Mt. Nibel and Harpy's AI is to use Aqualung after a certain number of turns. I'll look at all these and Zolom again; I specced him quite quickly when I realised he still had default stats during the 1.1 Beta so he can maybe stand to be either tougher or maybe just a little smarter.

Congrats on the cave fights, the purple cave gives Mega-All which can be handy.

Thanks for the advice.

I fight Zolom during the 1.1 Beta that's why he was easy.
I probably did not let Harpy enough turns to cast Aqualung.

Sega Chief

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #98 on: 2014-07-04 15:01:07 »
Yeah, the actual won items are handled by the field script of the chocobo racing cell. (And boy, there is a lot of possible outcomes) The displayed item in the race is linked to that but uses text from the .exe - It was such a gigantic pain to make this fit in N7.  The other minigames are pretty self-contained but item rewards and GP rewards are always handled via the field script.

That's why I left the chocobo prizes alone; I'd planned to move Magic Counter and Counter Attack but that would leave the wrong prize names in the minigame itself. Hex editing's/.exe editing is something I've not gone into yet though I'm wanting to do that before I start another project.

I probably did not let Harpy enough turns to cast Aqualung.

Harpy should cast Aqualung every 7th turn that it has.

EDIT: I'm revising the enemy skill locations for Beta, Aqualung, Trine, and Magic Breath so they fit in better with the regular spells (otherwise they just replace both them and summons at that level). New locations for the next update will be:

-) Beta: Jemnezmy (Temple) + Maximum Kimera (Battle Square)

-) Aqualung: Acrophies (Forgotten City) + Calamantra (Ancient Forest)

-) Trine: Garuda (Da Chao) + Godo (Pagoda)

-) Magic Breath: Malboro (Crater, not the Icy Oscar on Gaea's Cliff) + Abyss (Battle Square)
« Last Edit: 2014-07-04 16:08:37 by Sega Chief »

PapSnatchBrim [SwornEnemy] (DMR)

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Re: [REL/FF7] New Threat Mod v1.1
« Reply #99 on: 2014-07-04 23:40:11 »
just played through the first reactor quickly,, and its awesome... loving it so far keep up the good work