Author Topic: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2.3 & v1.1b)  (Read 330834 times)

Quinn212

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #325 on: 2019-08-28 06:45:32 »
Just got to Ultemecias castle when I remembered something that I wanted to let you know. When going to Get Odin and you've just pressed the blue orb thing that activate the stairs that lead up to where Odin is.  There is a forced battle against 2 Chimeras. This fight can be skipped if you activate the stairs then run to the ladder and get on it before squall says "Monsters?" If you do that then go back to the world map and save after skipping that encounter you get like 16 minutes to easily get Odin.

Not sure if you knew of that exploit or not but I wanted to let you know.

Quinn212

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #326 on: 2019-08-29 06:42:49 »
Fighting Krysta in Ultamecias castle and it hits me with "Autodefense" and soft locks the game. I saw that you posted a link with a fix for this bug but the link has expired.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #327 on: 2019-08-29 08:45:26 »
@calderax: Thank you very much for the feedback.

As for the changes made to the Queen of Cards sidequest, I understand your frustration in regards to trying to get the Kiros card from the usual card player in Deling City. I thought it would be helpful to make the Queen of Cards give more information about requested and newly created cards whenever she is in Dollet, but I guess these hints are still too well hidden, so a documentation that covers moved cards, items and spells will soon follow. The reward for the Zell card is still Hyper Wrists by the way. In the case of the Kiros card, yes, Aegis Amulets are quite a downgrade from Accelerators, but for disc 1, having access to 3 Eva-J Abilities is a little too good, so I guess it's fine to leave card holders as they currently are.

Triple Meteor is still quite strong in the late-game indeed, despite Meteor being among the few spells that weren't actually buffed for the mod. I'll look for a way to balance it out by either lowering its base power, make it land less hits or adjust enemy Spirit stats accordingly.

Against Omega Weapon, it helps to reduce battle speed to the lowest or second-lowest setting, and have Speed stats of at least 60. That way, there should always be enough time to react to Omega Weapon's attacks. Other than that, Auto-Protect is very useful, as he occasionally uses an attack that removes most positive status effects. Furthermore, he isn't immune to Vit 0, but highly resistant, so casting Meltdown probably won't do it - Quistis' Ray Bomb can inflict Vit 0 as well with 100% accuracy, as long as the target isn't immune to it. If you see Omega Weapon using Gravija, that's still the sign for using the Defend command to nullify the damage of the incoming Terra Break attack. As for attacking the enemy, I would recommend having Irvine in your team and use Pulse Ammo whenever possible.


@Quinn: Having the possibility to skip the extra encounter at Centra Ruins was not intended. I had a look at it and apparently unit control wasn't entirely disabled when examining the blue orb, which allowed walking around while the textbox is still being displayed. That will be fixed soon. Good catch, thank you very much.

I rechecked the link to the Krysta fix, and didn't have any problems downloading it. Maybe just give it another go, and report back if the problem persists:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12-ni3SZGp8h-6R3DXhsew9TbkFUWwRCy

« Last Edit: 2019-08-29 08:47:51 by Callisto »

Robgatti

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #328 on: 2019-09-06 00:24:52 »
Hey @Callisto any idea if or maybe when this could be applied to the remaster?


Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #329 on: 2019-09-06 16:28:02 »
It seems Field files have changed fundamentally in structure, so Deling Field editor can no longer handle them correctly. Furthermore, the .exe is also no longer present in its previous form, making a quick port to the Remastered version nearly impossible.

I guess we have to wait and see if tools will be updated to be fully compatible with the Remastered version before any of the mods will be playable again. This will probably take a while, so give it at least several more weeks.

Robgatti

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #330 on: 2019-09-06 17:39:26 »
No worries, I was just curious.

Only reason I prefer the remaster sadly is how easy the controller configuration is, no need for mods or button image mods and what not.

Good luck to you and whomever else is working on the remaster!

nesadi

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #331 on: 2019-09-08 14:01:20 »
Is it just me or does the game no longer respect ATB on wait anymore after installing this mod?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #332 on: 2019-09-08 20:03:41 »
@Robgatti: Thank you. I hope everything will go well, and there will eventually be mods for the Remastered version.

@nesadi: Are you fighting the Brothers? They can perform two moves in a row (Auto heal + another attack), so it can lead to the assumption that ATB settings are ignored, but it has always been that way. Furthermore, the ATB bar will go on while selecting targets regardless of having it set to Wait, which is also normal (it's on this mod's to-do list though). Some enemies also use counter-attacks, further contributing to the assumption that something might be off. It really isn't though. 
« Last Edit: 2019-09-08 20:43:51 by Callisto »

THESQUALL93!!

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #333 on: 2019-09-18 01:16:50 »
Hi, Callisto really love what you've done with this mod. I'll probably never go back to vanilla after this play through. I don't know if this is from the mod or not but the game has crashed on me multiple times, i'm on the Ragnarok after saving Rinoa. The game crashes randomly during the propagator fights.  squall will go to attack the enemy and the game will freeze up and I have to alt f4 to close the game. it only seems to happen AFTER  i load a save from death. I'm on windows 10 and running all the mods from the lunatic pandora's installer. Again this mod is amazing I love that you don't have to avoid fighting until end game to make leveling feel worthwhile, and the draw cap being removed should've been in the base game. Keep up the great work i'll post again if i'm able to get past this current segment.   

THESQUALL93!!

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #334 on: 2019-09-18 17:40:28 »
Hi, Callisto really love what you've done with this mod. I'll probably never go back to vanilla after this play through. I don't know if this is from the mod or not but the game has crashed on me multiple times, i'm on the Ragnarok after saving Rinoa. The game crashes randomly during the propagator fights.  squall will go to attack the enemy and the game will freeze up and I have to alt f4 to close the game. it only seems to happen AFTER  i load a save from death. I'm on windows 10 and running all the mods from the lunatic pandora's installer. Again this mod is amazing I love that you don't have to avoid fighting until end game to make leveling feel worthwhile, and the draw cap being removed should've been in the base game. Keep up the great work i'll post again if i'm able to get past this current segment.   

I was able to beat them and get past it, definitely only happened when i reloaded after a death tho. I was able to save in between each pair and was fine, loved what you did with those fights you actually have to pay attention to their weaknesses. Also is squall supposed to be doing over 10k dmg with darkside and having the enemy elemental weakness on his weapon? Squall is in his mid 60's levels wise. Im excited to fight bahamut. :)

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #335 on: 2019-09-19 21:27:12 »
Hey Squall93,

I re-checked Propagators with only this mod and SeeD Reborn installed, including getting Game Overs and reloading, but couldn't reproduce the issue. So it's probably something else causing this.

As for the high Darkside damage, especially when hitting an elemental weakness, I think 10k per hit is ok on the Propagators (it's around the same as what Rinoa can do with Double -aga spells at this point). Even though they are now immune to Death and Odin, I wanted to leave a few options to get rid of them quickly, since you have to fight so many of them. Most other late-game bosses will have higher Vitality and of course much more HP than the Propagators, so if you fear that Darkside will break your remaining game, it won't, since there's only one Darkside copy in this mod anyway.

Well, I hope the late-game won't disappoint. Feel free to share any further impressions :)

THESQUALL93!!

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #336 on: 2019-09-20 01:12:10 »
Hey Squall93,

I re-checked Propagators with only this mod and SeeD Reborn installed, including getting Game Overs and reloading, but couldn't reproduce the issue. So it's probably something else causing this.

As for the high Darkside damage, especially when hitting an elemental weakness, I think 10k per hit is ok on the Propagators (it's around the same as what Rinoa can do with Double -aga spells at this point). Even though they are now immune to Death and Odin, I wanted to leave a few options to get rid of them quickly, since you have to fight so many of them. Most other late-game bosses will have higher Vitality and of course much more HP than the Propagators, so if you fear that Darkside will break your remaining game, it won't, since there's only one Darkside copy in this mod anyway.

Well, I hope the late-game won't disappoint. Feel free to share any further impressions :)

It's been quite good so far, I am getting similar  crashes when im fighting jumbo cacutar, My game just might be messed up on my end. It  might also  have something to do with darkside that's when it seems to crash most of the time.  I'm not sure though. I didn't die all that often in the early game. I might test dying in the early game then reloading and using darkside and see what happens.

THESQUALL93!!

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #337 on: 2019-09-21 00:03:52 »
Posting again sorry, How does auto potion work again? I have it on zell along with auto shell, and Med data. Is there something i'm doing wrong? my lowest level potion is hi-potion+ I never used this ability in the original so i have no experience with it.  Does the character in question have to be in critical hp for it to trigger after they've been hit?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #338 on: 2019-09-21 04:32:54 »
Auto-Potion will trigger whenever a character receives damage when their remaining HP are at 50% or less. It will also trigger when a character is currently still above 50%, but is hit by an attack that puts their HP below 50%. This is how it works in the base game as well, but X-Potion and Elixir were removed from the pool for balancing reasons, so Hi-Potion+ combined with Med Data is the way to go if you would like to use this Ability.

THESQUALL93!!

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #339 on: 2019-09-21 14:07:17 »
Auto-Potion will trigger whenever a character receives damage when their remaining HP are at 50% or less. It will also trigger when a character is currently still above 50%, but is hit by an attack that puts their HP below 50%. This is how it works in the base game as well, but X-Potion and Elixir were removed from the pool for balancing reasons, so Hi-Potion+ combined with Med Data is the way to go if you would like to use this Ability.
Yeah i figured it out, I'm enjoying the balance of the late game so far. bahamut was challenging but he wasn't stupid hard. I got lucky and was able to squeeze out two renzokukens before he killed me.

Nesouk

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #340 on: 2019-09-22 14:38:01 »
Hi there, so I'm just passing and wanted to try this mod, after having hard time to install it I run into an issue, the gameplay change seems to work perfectly fine, however I just don't have music at all just the sound effect, so this isn't an issue that make the game unplayable by any mean, but is there someone that run into that issue and know how to fix it ?

On the mod itself I only played up to Ifrit for now, want to say the mod seems quite easy compare to Requiem and Reloaded Mod (the only other FFVIII's mods I've played for now), but I acknowledge that this is a Rebalance Mod not an Hardtype Mod so that's a nice change of pace for me, it feel not hard but not Vanilla easy at the same time for now. I also like the Draw cap removal that's a really nice change here make the early game faster when tring to draw the early magics. Just I think a source of Double might be to early, it completly trivialize Ifrit all you have to do for him is spam Double Blizzard, use Double Cure when he uses Lava Burst and single Cure when he jumps (the damage from fire aren't an issue), I didn't check if the source reload with time, but if it does then it's nice.

Now I have some questions :

-I saw a lot of people play a lot with Card Mod with this mod, and so I'm gonna I am that weirdo that absolutly despise that mini-game and found it boring, so here's my question : How much is Card Mod necessary ? Can we finish the mod without it ?
-I saw you remove the Damage cap for many attacks, but saw on stream that there is still spells capped at 9999 so which spells/ability had the damage cap remove exactly ?

EDIT : Continue a bit did Dollet mission, I admit that for now I run away from like 80% of the random fight, maybe I shouldn't do that considering bosses have fixed Level, but for now this isn't an issue at all so as for the bosses :

-Biggs, Wedge and Elvoret : Are a non issue, Zell's limit break is still very powerfull (maybe even OP to be honnest) for this point, you can still chain infinitly and some hit hit hard (mainly Mach Kick was dealing 140 to Elvoret) and the chain with Burning Rave which was dealing over 900 damage, I set Silence (and he had been Blind by the Snake's dark Mist earlier) on him to boost his Crisis Level and with Elvoret still having the predictable breath (every 3 turn) it's really to spam his Limit Break and destroy Elvoret with it.

-X-ATM092 : Very easy, his Clash and Ray Bomb hit hard, but I had spare some Double for him so basically Double on Selphie and Squall, 100 Thunder Junction to Ele-Atk for Zell, I tried 3 time to set Vit 0 with Ifrit but it didn't work so I just put Zell in Berserk and let him be (he hit for around 330), Selphie was spamming Double Thunder (up to around 400 per cast) and Squall was the healer it did go well and despite losing time on trying Ifrit (3 times) and Quetzacoalt (who was dealing 900 by the way but the animation is to long and he can die easily), I still manage to beat and go back to the beach with 10-12 minutes left. Also didn't use Protect cause IMO the statut duration is to short for now.

Still haven't grind a lot for now, so that's good.
« Last Edit: 2019-09-22 19:32:25 by Nesouk »

THESQUALL93!!

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #341 on: 2019-09-22 19:31:08 »
Hi there, so I'm just passing and wanted to try this mod, after having hard time to install it I run into an issue, the gameplay change seems to work perfectly fine, however I just don't have music at all just the sound effect, so this isn't an issue that make the game unplayable by any mean, but is there someone that run into that issue and know how to fix it ?

On the mod itself I only played up to Ifrit for now, want to say the mod seems quite easy compare to Requiem and Reloaded Mod (the only other FFVIII's mods I've played for now), but I acknowledge that this is a Rebalance Mod not an Hardtype Mod so that's a nice change of pace for me, it feel not hard but not Vanilla easy at the same time for now. I also like the Draw cap removal that's a really nice change here make the early game faster when tring to draw the early magics. Just I think a source of Double might be to early, it completly trivialize Ifrit all you have to do for him is spam Double Blizzard, use Double Cure when he uses Lava Burst and single Cure when he jumps (the damage from fire aren't an issue), I didn't check if the source reload with time, but if it does then it's nice.

Now I have some questions :

-I saw a lot of people play a lot with Card Mod with this mod, and so I'm gonna I am that weirdo that absolutly despise that mini-game and found it boring, so here's my question : How much is Card Mod necessary ? Can we finish the mod without it ?
-I saw you remove the Damage cap for many attacks, but saw on stream that there is still spells capped at 9999 so which spells/ability had the damage cap remove exactly ?

I can answer some of your questions. All attacks have had their dmg caps removed i believe. Towards the end game its not uncommon to be hitting over 30k dmg with squall using darkside with max strength. As for card mod I've barely used it and have been completely fine.

Nesouk

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #342 on: 2019-09-22 19:35:44 »
I can answer some of your questions. All attacks have had their dmg caps removed i believe. Towards the end game its not uncommon to be hitting over 30k dmg with squall using darkside with max strength. As for card mod I've barely used it and have been completely fine.

That is good to know, really don't want to go through the cards again for now, Damage Cap remove looks interesting will see how it goes end game (I don't expect to reach this kind of damage this early obviously^^).

miruss89

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #343 on: 2019-09-23 02:42:02 »
is the mod compatible with FF8 Remastered?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #344 on: 2019-09-23 08:05:29 »
Hi Nesouk,

have you checked if the Roses and Wine music files are present under RaW/GLOBAL/Music in your FFVIII parent folder? I can't say for certain what happened, but from your description it sounds like the files aren't actually at their designated location, so I would advise checking this out first.

The Draw Point in Balamb Garden library can only be used once during disc 1, as the Double spell is meant to be a valuable resource in the early-game before it becomes more common from mid disc 2 and onwards.

Card Mod results have been toned down in a way that they merely give you a good start instead of making you invincible for the rest of the game. The overall benefits of Card Mod should not last much longer than early disc 2, at which point you would receive the possible spells from monsters anyway. LV 6 and 7 boss cards still refine into very good items, but their availability has been pushed back to mid disc 2 and early disc 3 respectively (before that, they can only be received as one-time rewards for completing sidequests), but the spells they refine into become available soon through other means as well. So all in all, Card Mod is never really needed and should be seen as a little bonus in this mod, or an alternate method of acquiring spells.

As for the damage limit, it is as Squall93 said - everything can break it as long as it has the potential, mainly to make standard physical attacks and GF more useful in the late-game. 30k damage with Darkside is indeed possible, but not without having the right element junctioned to Elem-Atk, and of course it also depends on enemy Vitality. I guess the stream you watched showed an outdated version of this mod, when this change was not introduced yet.

Other than that, thank you for sharing your imressions in regards to difficulty. They are what I would expect from someone who has played both Requiem and Reloaded mods. The first couple of bosses are indeed quite easy, to maintain a healthy curve, but difficulty should ramp up noticably from Centra Excavation Site and onwards. From that point, getting up-to-date spells becomes important, and monsters should be fought for leveling up instead of running from every encounter.

Casting spells is also way more important than in the base game. The junction effects for many spells have been made rather weak intentionally, so they can be used in battle freely. That's particularly true for basic offensive spells, such as Fira, Blizzara or Thundara - they are rather poor on core stats, and magically oriented characters don't necessarily need them on Elemental Junctions either, as their Strength is low to begin with and their natural Spirit is high enough to reduce enemy elemental damage to reasonable levels. Status-changing attacks are also often the key to winning battles, as well as prioritizing targets, maximizing damage per-turn, or just defensive play before going all in.

If you keep all that in mind, you should never really encounter any major problems in this mod. Even though it will probably reach hardcore mod levels only rarely, I hope it will entertain in some way, and offer an experience different from the original version. Feel free to report back any time.


@miruss89: Not yet, but I will look into it once the new version for this mod is done, which will probably at the end of this week.
« Last Edit: 2019-09-23 08:15:43 by Callisto »

Nesouk

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #345 on: 2019-09-23 20:25:38 »
The Draw Point in Balamb Garden library can only be used once during disc 1, as the Double spell is meant to be a valuable resource in the early-game before it becomes more common from mid disc 2 and onwards.

Yeah I check after posting my message, that's good I think farmable Double would have been OP at this point ^^.

Card Mod results have been toned down in a way that they merely give you a good start instead of making you invincible for the rest of the game. The overall benefits of Card Mod should not last much longer than early disc 2, at which point you would receive the possible spells from monsters anyway. LV 6 and 7 boss cards still refine into very good items, but their availability has been pushed back to mid disc 2 and early disc 3 respectively (before that, they can only be received as one-time rewards for completing sidequests), but the spells they refine into become available soon through other means as well. So all in all, Card Mod is never really needed and should be seen as a little bonus in this mod, or an alternate method of acquiring spells.

Yeah that's what I thought I think there's only 3 ways to go about Card Mod, either do it the way you did aka Balance it around the game, the way LandonRay try to do in Requiem which is balancing the game around it (which translate to make every oppenent strong as hell, which didn't work at the end cause abusing Card Mod was still making the mod way easier than it should) or the way Mexico did it for Reloaded Mod which is making Card Mod Disc 4 only and only if you have gotten all the cards before the Disc 4 (this was kind of a huge sidequest), which I think was an interesting approach as Card Mod basically give you the final upgrade you can get from the game (and he disables Triple Triad in Disc 4 so Rare Cards can only be refine once each, which makes it easier to balance IMO) so it come as a nice final reward but not necessary at all and can't be abuse. Will see how your approach turns out, for now tough I don't plan using Card Mod ^^"

As for the damage limit, it is as Squall93 said - everything can break it as long as it has the potential, mainly to make standard physical attacks and GF more useful in the late-game. 30k damage with Darkside is indeed possible, but not without having the right element junctioned to Elem-Atk, and of course it also depends on enemy Vitality. I guess the stream you watched showed an outdated version of this mod, when this change was not introduced yet.

Maybe in the stream I watch the player was breaking damage limit with Flare (with Angel Wing) but Quake was stuck at 9999, so I dunno. But that's an interesting feature, I honnestly always thought that GF were like the absolute worst thing to do in battle in FFVIII Modded or Vanilla, not only cause the damage potential is really not great, but the animations just take for ever (by the time their animation end I could have just cast 2 or 3 spells for overall more damage), I don't think this is possible but if there was a way to make their summoning sequence skippable that would be better.
Speaking of summon, what are the chance of success to their statut effect ? I was genuily hype when I saw while pausing that Ifrit could set Vit 0, but everytime I summon him it doesn't inflict it and just do mediocre damage.

Other than that, thank you for sharing your imressions in regards to difficulty. They are what I would expect from someone who has played both Requiem and Reloaded mods. The first couple of bosses are indeed quite easy, to maintain a healthy curve, but difficulty should ramp up noticably from Centra Excavation Site and onwards. From that point, getting up-to-date spells becomes important, and monsters should be fought for leveling up instead of running from every encounter.

Casting spells is also way more important than in the base game. The junction effects for many spells have been made rather weak intentionally, so they can be used in battle freely. That's particularly true for basic offensive spells, such as Fira, Blizzara or Thundara - they are rather poor on core stats, and magically oriented characters don't necessarily need them on Elemental Junctions either, as their Strength is low to begin with and their natural Spirit is high enough to reduce enemy elemental damage to reasonable levels. Status-changing attacks are also often the key to winning battles, as well as prioritizing targets, maximizing damage per-turn, or just defensive play before going all in.

If you keep all that in mind, you should never really encounter any major problems in this mod. Even though it will probably reach hardcore mod levels only rarely, I hope it will entertain in some way, and offer an experience different from the original version. Feel free to report back any time.

Yeah spell casting wasn't bad in Vanilla but clearly inferior to Limit Break so they need a buff, this is something that every modder even LandonRay (aka the master at nerfing the hell out of the player XD (HS : I'm trolling him a little but genuily enjoy most of the Requiem Mod, hope he is fine haven't heard of him for quite a long time now)) seems to agree on, for now I say the difficulty is between Vanilla and Requiem (Mexico's Reloaded is more tricky to note cause it keeps the Level scaling even on bosses (altough for bosses it removes the cap every boss can go up to LV100 even Ifrit) so it really depend, tough I think some parts where genuily harder than Requiem).
I'm honnestly not seeking hardcore level for now (I have my deal with Requiem and LV100 version of Reloaded XD) but a more relax experience (not a walk in a park mind you) and above all having fun.

I recently beat Granaldo and the Raldos and Diablo, Granaldo and Raldos are a good farming spot for Protect and Shell, once you kill 2 Raldos you effectivly reduce the numbers of attacks by a lot, with Protect they don't hit very hard and so by just healing from time to time it's easy to stock up Protect and Shell but the fact the Raldos attacks and even have an AoE is interesting make the fight more entertaining, so I think this fight is good for what it's suppose to be, I would just buff out Granaldo for when he is alone, he just doesn't do enough damage, I read on this thread he was suppose to gain new ability once alone but I killed him in 2 turns (I had damage him a bit prior to killing the Raldos tough).

Now for Diablo, I say he is my biggest disappointment so far, I don't have issue with story boss being easy, but this is an optionnal boss, and I think he should put up more of a fight, first off I honnestly think he shouldn't be vulnerable to Demi, this is something that always bug me he is the Gravity GF, all he does is Gravity, even his summoning attack is Gravity it makes absolutly no sense for him to be vulnerable to gravity, furthermore this battle really resolve into having a character Draw/Cast Demi (to avoid the counter) with the 2 other healing and then wait for Gravija to finish him off with Limit Break, Doom and Pain are interesting ideas tough but he seems to prioritize Demi, physical and Gravija over it, also his physical really was nothing impressive (200-220), maybe you could spice him up by having him cast Double or Haste on himself when he is at half HP (or even both one when he is at Half HP and one when he is seriously about to lose) I mean that would justify more the fact he gives the ability to create Time Magic.

Nesouk

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #346 on: 2019-09-26 21:28:06 »
Alright solve the issue with the music, the problem was simple it's just that I thought I already had RaW's latest version while I in fact had the previous version, so now that issue is solve back on the mod :

-Just grind Mid Magic refine and so fill my character with Fira, Blizzara, Thundara and Cura still keeping them for junction tough.

-Laguna's first sequence : There's really nothing noticeable, outside of having encounter an Ochu, I don't remember Ochu being a mob in this place, also the sewer having only Red Bat, unfortunatly, so not worth going down in there.

-Gerogero : Very easy fight thanks to selphie's Limit break, while Zell was just punching him (in Berserk) and Squall was on support, I didn't even pay attention to his attacks to be honnest, saw he has a new attack that's like the Snake's Poison breath, which actually help me more than anything else, and his physical attacks was dealing 400-500, also only Zombie to draw from him, interesting tough as Zombie gives more HP when junctionned to HP than Cura.

-Timber : To put it simply every forced Encounter was deal with Zell's Duel, as a side note I'm still doing pretty much no Random Encounters as for now I don't need to will see.

Did go to Dollet see we can have a little rematch against X-ATM092, however considering the bastard is LV50 with over 32k to deplete, I'm gonna pass on this one for now.

-Laguna's second dream : Well Esthar's robot have Protect, Shell and Dispel to draw from so that's nice as Dispel is the best junction to Magic I have at the moment, Protect and Shell are obviously good, the last fight wasn't that bad, the main danger being Circle Sword however 2 out 3 of my character can survive 2 Circle Sword and once they did Circle Sword with Slow on them and Protect they are basically harmless just heal up and use some of Ward's Limit Break and done.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #347 on: 2019-09-28 10:16:07 »
Quote from: Nesouk
Will see how your approach turns out, for now tough I don't plan using Card Mod ^^"
At the moment, some of the Card Mod results are probably still a little too generous. For example, it's still possible to create Death and Meltdown right after the start of the game. Especially Meltdown is a little problematic, as it is noticably stronger than the -ara spells in this mod, and contrary to other mods, it still inflicts Vit 0 reliably on most non-boss enemies. I guess both spells will be moved to LV 6 Boss cards for the next update, but other than that, I think the results are fine. Of course, moving Card Mod to the end of the game has its advantages, but I think turning cards into items/spells per se was a fun component in the base game, just not very well balanced in regards to results, so I deciced to leave the Ability in the early-game and balance it out.

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Maybe in the stream I watch the player was breaking damage limit with Flare (with Angel Wing) but Quake was stuck at 9999, so I dunno. But that's an interesting feature, I honnestly always thought that GF were like the absolute worst thing to do in battle in FFVIII Modded or Vanilla, not only cause the damage potential is really not great, but the animations just take for ever (by the time their animation end I could have just cast 2 or 3 spells for overall more damage), I don't think this is possible but if there was a way to make their summoning sequence skippable that would be better.
Oh, I see. You were watching v1.1.2 of this mod then, when only the Flare spell had the damage cap removed, so it can do more than 9,999 HP damage under Rinoa's Angel Wing. It was a short-lived experiment though, as I've found a way to generally lift the damage cap shortly after, which I think was important and necessary to make standard physical attacks still relevant in the late-game, to always have a valid option besides Limit Breaks and spells, which often have tedious animations as well (especially Meteor). I would love to make GF summoning sequences skippable as well, but it's sadly not an easy thing to do, as you said.

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Speaking of summon, what are the chance of success to their statut effect ? I was genuily hype when I saw while pausing that Ifrit could set Vit 0, but everytime I summon him it doesn't inflict it and just do mediocre damage.
The base chance for most GFs is 150/256, or ~58%. This gets reduced by a few factors, such as enemy spirit, status resistance and I think also GF Level to some extent. There are exceptions to this rule for some GF though. For example, Alexander will Blind the enemy 100% as long as they are not immune to Blind, and Tonberry's attack always causes Death if the enemy is not immune.

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Yeah spell casting wasn't bad in Vanilla but clearly inferior to Limit Break so they need a buff, this is something that every modder even LandonRay (aka the master at nerfing the hell out of the player XD (HS : I'm trolling him a little but genuily enjoy most of the Requiem Mod, hope he is fine haven't heard of him for quite a long time now)) seems to agree on, for now I say the difficulty is between Vanilla and Requiem (Mexico's Reloaded is more tricky to note cause it keeps the Level scaling even on bosses (altough for bosses it removes the cap every boss can go up to LV100 even Ifrit) so it really depend, tough I think some parts where genuily harder than Requiem).
I'm honnestly not seeking hardcore level for now (I have my deal with Requiem and LV100 version of Reloaded XD) but a more relax experience (not a walk in a park mind you) and above all having fun.
Yes, casting spells in the original was just not fun. And enemy magic damage was even worse than own magic damage, even at identical stats. I know that spells have been buffed even in Hardcore mods such as Requiem and Reloaded - which is absolutely the right thing to do. I played Requiem some years ago, and watched videos for Reloaded. It think Reloaded has many neat ideas, especially in regards to additional challenges and content. Too bad it isn't available in English though.

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I recently beat Granaldo and the Raldos and Diablo, Granaldo and Raldos are a good farming spot for Protect and Shell, once you kill 2 Raldos you effectivly reduce the numbers of attacks by a lot, with Protect they don't hit very hard and so by just healing from time to time it's easy to stock up Protect and Shell but the fact the Raldos attacks and even have an AoE is interesting make the fight more entertaining, so I think this fight is good for what it's suppose to be, I would just buff out Granaldo for when he is alone, he just doesn't do enough damage, I read on this thread he was suppose to gain new ability once alone but I killed him in 2 turns (I had damage him a bit prior to killing the Raldos tough).
Granaldo starts using Dissolving Acid after the Raldos have been defeated. It's an attack normally used only by Malboro and shoves off 37,5% of the target's current HP as physical damage and has a chance to set Vit 0. I guess you just didn't see it because the RNG went in favor of Granaldo's normal physical attack, so I guess a few AI changes and maybe slight buff for his normal attack should do - I don't think that durability is the problem here, as Granaldo actually takes quite some hits, unless you pound him with Aero repeatedly. As for Diablos, yes, your ideas sound reasonable. Especially the Haste counter when at 50% HP, as it would create a lot of tension. About immunity to Gravity attacks, I'm not sure. I'll try making Diablos counter Draw Cast Demis as well first. If that doesn't work, I might go for it.

Other than that, thank you for the feedback in your latest post. Now that you mentioned you were actually on an older version of RaW, I wonder if all mod changes have been active for you from the start. It could be that enemy magic damage didn't do its full potential before, but on the other hand, you said that you got Doubles and that X-ATM's Ray-Bomb did high damage, which is how it should be if everything is installed correctly. Hmm, weird. Anyway, good to hear you got the music issue solved, and also beat the Esthar Cyborgs by slowing them down. The Slow Draw Point at the beginning of the Excavation site has been placed there for exactly that reason.

Nesouk

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #348 on: 2019-09-28 13:38:03 »
At the moment, some of the Card Mod results are probably still a little too generous. For example, it's still possible to create Death and Meltdown right after the start of the game. Especially Meltdown is a little problematic, as it is noticably stronger than the -ara spells in this mod, and contrary to other mods, it still inflicts Vit 0 reliably on most non-boss enemies. I guess both spells will be moved to LV 6 Boss cards for the next update, but other than that, I think the results are fine. Of course, moving Card Mod to the end of the game has its advantages, but I think turning cards into items/spells per se was a fun component in the base game, just not very well balanced in regards to results, so I deciced to leave the Ability in the early-game and balance it out.

Well I unlock the Card Mod ability recently, I didn't use it yet tough but from the look of it it didn't seem to OP, and well the Card Mod ability kind of justify the Triple Triad's existence, if it wasn't for it Triple Triad would just be a colossal waste of time, so it definitly should stay in the game one way or another, I just become broed of the mini game itself after so many years ^^.

Oh, I see. You were watching v1.1.2 of this mod then, when only the Flare spell had the damage cap removed, so it can do more than 9,999 HP damage under Rinoa's Angel Wing. It was a short-lived experiment though, as I've found a way to generally lift the damage cap shortly after, which I think was important and necessary to make standard physical attacks still relevant in the late-game, to always have a valid option besides Limit Breaks and spells, which often have tedious animations as well (especially Meteor). I would love to make GF summoning sequences skippable as well, but it's sadly not an easy thing to do, as you said.

Yeah I recheck it was XeroKynos's stream, didn't read the description saying it was v1.1.2, lifting the damage cap sounds good, I'm interest as how much damage Ultima can do end game, I saw in XeroKynos's stream Meteor seems to deal around 18-20k a cast on a target with Vit 0 so I'm wondering how Ultima will compare with damage cap remove, same for GF especially the elemental one when striking a weakness could be good.

The base chance for most GFs is 150/256, or ~58%. This gets reduced by a few factors, such as enemy spirit, status resistance and I think also GF Level to some extent. There are exceptions to this rule for some GF though. For example, Alexander will Blind the enemy 100% as long as they are not immune to Blind, and Tonberry's attack always causes Death if the enemy is not immune.

I'll keep that in mind, sound like FFVII New Threat, where GF were good for inflicting statut effect (especially early game) which I like even tough Summons were losing in usefulness end game.

Yes, casting spells in the original was just not fun. And enemy magic damage was even worse than own magic damage, even at identical stats. I know that spells have been buffed even in Hardcore mods such as Requiem and Reloaded - which is absolutely the right thing to do. I played Requiem some years ago, and watched videos for Reloaded. It think Reloaded has many neat ideas, especially in regards to additional challenges and content. Too bad it isn't available in English though.

Well Requiem and Reloaded had one thing in common since Aura was really hard to do, it end up like Magic was the safer option for good damage, while Limit Breaks were the high risk high reward (people underestimate Limit Break in Requiem but with Vit 0 Squall could deal up to around 60k with his Renzo, and Irvine was kind of OP between Dark Ammo for statut effect (even better in Reloaded as they can inflict Vit 0), AP Ammo to not give a damn about the ennemy defense, Fire Ammo for good AoE/Elemental damage and Pulse Ammo who could deal over a 100k in one round thanks to them breaking the damage limit (depending on Crisis Level and Critical Hit)), which I think was what makes Requiem fun, and it allow the Crisis Level mechanic to be really huge factor (while in Vanilla you don't give a shit about it because of Aura being so easy to access)

Well I was one of the beta testers of Reloaded, in fact some little stuffs are coming up off my feed back and suggestion, the biggest thing being the creation of LV1 and LV100 version, which accidently came out of me when I started a playthrough of Reloaded with using a Save Editor to stay LV1, I just wanted to see how it would play and mexico got the idea of creating this 2 sub versions out of it XD, so yeah kinda see Reloaded Mod as it was created, gonna say it was a very fun time (the most fun I had out of any mods) and instructive to of how game and modding development in general can be tricky (man how much trouble we had hunting down glitches and oversight like bosses not dying despite being at 0 HP or hitting themselves for some reasons XD and balance things out difficulty wise (like I insist a lot for nerfing Irvine's Pulse Ammo (originally it was possible to get up 200k with them which was ridiculous) and reworked is Limit Break in general (Dark Ammo and Pulse Ammo are now limited througout the game so have to use them wisely, was originally a suggestion of mine ^^), and yeah sadly for non french speakers mexico doesn't plan on releasing an english version and I can't blame him for it as it would take a hell lot of time to translate everything (especially new attacks name, new dialogs....etc....).

Granaldo starts using Dissolving Acid after the Raldos have been defeated. It's an attack normally used only by Malboro and shoves off 37,5% of the target's current HP as physical damage and has a chance to set Vit 0. I guess you just didn't see it because the RNG went in favor of Granaldo's normal physical attack, so I guess a few AI changes and maybe slight buff for his normal attack should do - I don't think that durability is the problem here, as Granaldo actually takes quite some hits, unless you pound him with Aero repeatedly. As for Diablos, yes, your ideas sound reasonable. Especially the Haste counter when at 50% HP, as it would create a lot of tension. About immunity to Gravity attacks, I'm not sure. I'll try making Diablos counter Draw Cast Demis as well first. If that doesn't work, I might go for it.

So I guess I was lucky for Granaldo, yeah as I mention I had already did some damage to Granaldo before taking care of the Raldo, I will keep a save for Diablos then once you modify him ;).

Other than that, thank you for the feedback in your latest post. Now that you mentioned you were actually on an older version of RaW, I wonder if all mod changes have been active for you from the start. It could be that enemy magic damage didn't do its full potential before, but on the other hand, you said that you got Doubles and that X-ATM's Ray-Bomb did high damage, which is how it should be if everything is installed correctly. Hmm, weird. Anyway, good to hear you got the music issue solved, and also beat the Esthar Cyborgs by slowing them down. The Slow Draw Point at the beginning of the Excavation site has been placed there for exactly that reason.

I can guarantee gameplay changes were applied from the get go, what happen is that I had RaW W07 Lite but my main RaW was W06 so I thinks that's why music wasn't working, up until now I was playing with RaW W07 lite (so no musics) so the change of gameplay were effectivly applied, I compare with XenoKyros's stream which I heard wasn't install properly in the beginning resulting in magical's damage from ennemies being way lower than you intended, as I was taking a lot more damage for Magical attacks like Ifrit's Lava Burst than him I think I can be assure that the gameplay changes were applied.

Nesouk

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.4)
« Reply #349 on: 2019-09-28 22:09:37 »
Alright disc 1 complete so quite a lot to say :

-Tomb of the unknown King : Like that you had a little fight during the puzzle, tough you maybe should have immune the 3 Weevil (french name sorry I don't remember the English name the skeletons mob) to instant-death as you can kill them with Life spell.

-Sacred Round 1 : Not much to say here this is just a little preview of the true fight, I don't think I would have been able to kill him so I let him run away, however since he barely act I took advantage of him stock 100 Lifes with my characters and mugged him for 3 Healing Mails, Confuse on his normal attack is annoying but ultimately not dangerous.

-Sacred and Minotaur : This fight took longuer cause I wanted to mug them, and I was right to do so as Minotaur as a Power Wrist to take for a free Str + 20% really nice at this point, all in all an fairly easy fight as long as we are cautious, I use Double here to set Protect and Float as soon as possible, Float allow to avoid Mad Cow Combo and Sacred's new spell Cave-In (Earth damage + Gradual Petrification), I actually never get hit by Mad Cow Combo and this would be my only complain about this fight they take way too much time to use Mad Cow Combo, other than that set Float on them to cut off their healing, then it's just Double Aero (around 1.6k to 1.8k) or Zell's Duel (who is still very good at this point)

-X-ATM092 rematch : Before finishing Disc 1 I wanted to beat this fight, probably isn't suppose to be done at this point but I manage after some try, easily the hardest fight so far this guy is no joke, I have to pull off Shell, Protect and Float and keep them up for this all fight, as all 3 buffs are mandatory, if you don't have Protect he will destroy you with Explosion easily the worst attack of this fight as it does 1500 WITH Protect (at this point the highest HP I have is Squall with HP + 10%, 100 Life to HP he has 2500), Shell is needed for Firaga and Ray Bomb and Float is needed for Quake. Needless to say the beginning is very luck base, then it's a matter of being extremely cautious, keeps the buff up while Damaging him with Thundara (Rinoa does around 3000 damage with Double Thundara), thank god I still had some doubl to spare, this fight wouldn't be possible without them, also Quistis's White Wind is really usefull to counter his Explosion with just Blind it does enough damage for allowing her to have her Limit Break, otherwise it's Double Cura for healing. Must say I'm quite disappointed with the reward (I don't need Gold Armor and can't refine X-ATM092's card cause you need 10 of them) but at least 50 AP is nice to get.

So no go to end of disc 1 have a couple of fight to go through :

-Iguions : I make this fight harder for myself cause I wanted to mug them as we can mug Dragon Fin from so up to 2 Dragon Fin which can be refine into 20 Doubles, so couldn't let this chance pass, for some reason the one on the left is a lot and I mean a LOT harder to mug than the one on the right, in all of my try I manage to mug the right one in 1 or 2 attempts, but end up killing the left one before I succeed at mugging I had to resolve myself to heal the bastard in order to finally mug him, anyway the thing with this figh is that none of the 2 forced character is a good caster, therefore my healing and magic damage potential was severely reduce, but Squall with 100 Break to Ele-Atk can deal around 750 damage (1100 when Berserked), I set Shell on both Irvine and Squall cause Magma Breath and Resonance hurts quite a lot, the draw Carbuncle, Mug the right one and kill him with Squall was Irvine is on the support, once the right one is down Resonance is out of the fight which is good, then I mug the Left one and finish him off once I succeed.

Must say I was expecting some new fix fights with Zell, Quistis and Selphie bt it didn't happen so that part is just like Vanilla then onto the final fights :

-Squall VS Seifer : Not a push over this time around, his physical can hurt if he crit and later in the fight is Fira hit for 1000, and I forgot to protect Squall against Fire like a dumbass, fortunatly Seifer need 3 turns to kill Squall and seeing how Slow he is it's not gonna happe, as long as I don't take useless risk this is a manageable fight well done considering how 1 v 1 fight are tricky to balance in turn base RPG.

-Edea : Probably the biggest let down of Disc 1's ending, the start was great I was genuily afraid of her Maelstrom setting Slow on all my team, but then she doesn't have the speed to back it up, I had all the time necessary to heal Slow with Haste, set Double and Shell on my characters, she is slow and can only attack 1 character at the same time, which makes her easy even in the last phase where she uses aga spell, Shell is mandatory so that she doesn't 1 shot, but if it happen it's pretty easy to recover, as for damage I was relying on Double -ra cast and Renzokuken, I think she need a little buff in speed and some AoE options, as of now she is the easiest fight of Disc 1's ending IMO.

So Disc 1 over with Squall LV17, Quistis LV15, Zell, Selphie and Linoa LV14 and Irvine LV13.

EDIT : Progressing :

Laguna's third dream has a little fight against 2 Grendels, the can be berserk and slow which make them harmless, and I got lucky by turning them into Card I got 1 Catoblepas Card, which can be refine into a Black Hole to learn Degenerator to Quistis not sure if this intended.

Now for the Prison, I want to say Zell's Duel is still extremely good with No Crit I can still pull of over 6000 damage in 1 turn enough to kill any mobs in 1 turn (I'm quite interst to see how it will turn out late game), Quistis's Water Breath can break the 9999 limit on the Robots as they are weak to Water and she can kill pretty much anything with Degenerator anyway XD, so really the Prison was a walk in the park, this include the Final Fight which Quistis single handedly destroy with Water Breath she can kill the 2 Robots (they barely even got the time to act) in 2 turns then the Galbadian soldier is easily finish off by Squall using Darkside, Squall currently does 2000 damage with Darkside with no Junction to Elemental Attack by the way XD.

EDIT 2 : Progressing further, Missile Base was fun, on the Commander + 2 Guards fight I take out the Guard first, then manage to Draw 100 Reflect with both Selphie and Quistis (my team was Selphie, Quistis and Zell) which make the Commander annoying tough as he can set Confuse on us, Regen on himself and deal high damage with Bio.

For the big tank things at the end I Junction Water to Zell attaque and he was dealing over 2000 with Darkside, Selphie was dealing 1700 with Water spell same with Quistis, he hit like a truck tough his Gatling hit for over a 1000 and set Slow and his Laser deal over 2500 damage so pretty much a one shot, he also set Mighty Guard at a moment but I just Dispel it right way, and I finish off the soldiers after him with Zell's Duel and magic.

Now before starting the Garden I upgrade Irvine's weapon, now the garden part was for the most part well done since I was around LV15 with Linoa and Irvine and 18 with Squall the fix fight at LV45 were providing good challenge and I like how you change them so basically :

-Tri-Face : Very farming spot for Pain just put him to Sleep and you can draw Pain from him, I draw 100 Pains with Linoa (Irvine and Squall's magic were to low) and Mug 6 Curse spikes for 60 more pains, so just keep him under sleep and hit him with Fira until he dies, watch out for the Poison Gas before he died. 100 Pains gives a massive boost to Linoa's magic she now has 131 in magic.

-Grendel + Bomb : Kill the bomb with Blizzara, Linoa can deal around 3700 to it with Blizzara, for Grendel put Berserk on him makes him much manageable.

-Ochu : Haste to cure the slow of his Ochu dance, then he is weak to Fire so Fira spell and Squall with Darkside and Fira to Ele-Atk-J does really solid damage.

-Death Claw : Berserk + Blind = GG otherwise this guy would be a pain in the ass as he can counter with Sleep Gas and has Explosion who deal ridiculous damage.

-2 Mesmerize : Just Blind them and they become a non issue as all of their attack are physical/

-1 Glacial Eye + 1 Bomb : Kill the bomb with Blizzara and the Glacial Eye with Fire.

-Granaldo : Can be Slow and is weak to wind, honnestly he didn't even get 1 turn.

Then for the MD Level, has Tri-Faces been remove from here ? I couldn't find any wanted to get some Pains from them, so I just rush to Oilboyles, who I completly destroy, Oilboyles is definitly Irvine's time to shine as they are weak to Fire Irvine can deal 1300 (double if crit) per Fire Shot and he can easily pull off like 4 or 5 shots per round, I killed them in 2 turns this way, just one of them got the time to cast a Sonic Wave.
« Last Edit: 2019-09-29 20:52:08 by Nesouk »