Author Topic: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2.3 & v1.1b)  (Read 331038 times)

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #150 on: 2018-12-15 20:42:31 »
Sounds nice.

Scai88

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #151 on: 2018-12-16 07:01:05 »
Hi Callisto, thank you for putting your time to such a big project, it´s fantastic. I wanted to use your mod because it sounds amazing, but i am not experienced with using mods. Is it possible to play this mod with the german FF8 Steam version?

Kind regards,
Scai

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #152 on: 2018-12-16 16:52:46 »
The mod is unfortunately only compatible with the English Steam version for now. Making it work with other languages would take a lot of time, as almost all relevant files would have to be adjusted (field.fs, main.fs etc). If you want to play it now, you should be able to change your game language by right-clicking the game in Steam, then selecting Properties -> languages, to install the English game package. Thanks for your interest and feel free to share impressions if you decide to give it a go.

Scai88

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #153 on: 2018-12-16 18:19:35 »
Thank you for your answer. How sad. Bud i know what you mean  ;). I think i will go with Lunatic Pandora Mod, altough the difficulty mod there is only 20% harder than vanilla. For an english playthrough my english isn´t good enough. Am i right when i say that all the other hard mods for FF8 in this forum are also only for the english version?

UPDATE: @ Calisto: I´ve followed your advice and changed my version to the english version to play with the mod. First I thought that it worked because squall and quistis had some spells at the beginning. But now I recognized that the drawpoint in the libary is still esuna instead of double and also the fight versus ifrit and the random encounters weren´t more difficult than normal. So i am confused now if the mod works or not. The point is that I downloadet and installed RaW but there was not an RaW folder after extracting the torrent file whether in the extracted files nor after installation in my FF8 main folder. So I also downloadet the Roses and Wine light Version and took only the RaW folder from there and puted it in the FF8 root folder (i also tried to use the bass.dll and ddraw.dll from the RuW light version but the sound was than the same as the default sound, so I deleted it again) and placed the Ragnarok_mod.txt file in this RaW/GLOBAL/Hext folder. Now it looks like a part of the mod works (cause of the spells in the inventory) and another part don´t work. I have so much obstacles to get up and running one of the mods that I want to use... I hope I can get help here. What can I do?

UPDARE2: I got it!! I made a mistake with the RaW torrent file and now i could fix this and your mod works perfectly. I had to heal my chars against Ifrit, how wonderful :-). I really looking forward to a new FF8 experience. Never made a playtrough because of its low difficulty I lost my interest no later than disc 3 when I was ridiculously owerpowered. Its amazing that you took the time to improve the game in this way, thanks a lot for this :-)
« Last Edit: 2018-12-17 18:31:29 by Scai88 »

Murasame

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #154 on: 2018-12-21 02:49:55 »
Hey there, thank you for this mod. I'm very interested in trying it out but my RaW doesn't have this global folder mentioned. Could you tell me what I need to do please?

Edit: whoops. Looks like the RaW folder needs to be accessed from FFVIII's files after installation rather than directly in the RaW folder itself. Don't mind me.
« Last Edit: 2018-12-21 02:54:04 by Murasame »

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #155 on: 2019-01-06 12:39:02 »
Hello everyone, and happy new year.

It's been quite some time since the latest update, but today I finally managed to finalize a new version for this mod. During the last couple of weeks, I spent quite a lot of time on learning the game's Field script language more properly, which allowed me to do more things than initially planned, and that's part of the reason why it took way longer than expected. Sorry again to anyone who was hoping for an earlier release. And thanks again for all the feedback and ideas. A lot of it was taken into account and is now included, as you can see in the changes overview below.

As always, let me know if you find any bugs. I have double-checked everything, especially the new sidequests, but it could be that something was overlooked. But for now, enjoy :-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Balance changes

Refine results

Code: [Select]
Card Previous Current

Imp 1 = 5 Magic Stones 1 = 3 Magic Stones
Red Giant 1 = 5 Meteor Stones 1 = 3 Meteor Stones
Elvoret 1 = 1 Windmill 1 = 1 Dynamo Stone
J. Cactuar 5 = 1 Jet Engine        1 = 1 Windmill
Tri-Point 1 = 1 Dynamo Stone      5 = 1 Jet Engine
C. Chocobo 1 = 100 LuvLuvG's       1 = 20 LuvLuvG's
Gilgamesh 1 = 10 Aura Stones      1 = 10 Fury Fragments
Carbuncle 1 = 3 Glow Curtains     1 = 20 Dragon Skins
Diablos 1 = 100 Steel Orbs      1 = 20 Steel Orbs
Odin 1 = 100 Dead Spirits    1 = 20 Dead Spirits
Phoenix  1 = 3 Phoenix Spirits   1 = 3 Phoenix Pinions
Bahamut  1 = 10 Megalixirs       1 = 3 Shaman Stones
Kiros  1 = 3 Accelerators      1 = 3 Aegis Amulets
Laguna 1 = 10 Heroes           1 = 3 Friendships
Seifer  1 = 3 Holy Wars         1 = 3 Heroes
Squall  1 = 10 Adamantines      1 = 3 Adamantines


Triple Triad cards
Some cards that previously had no elemental property have been given an element or have their element changed in an attempt to achieve a more evenly distributed elemental representation for the actual Card game (in the original, there is only one Holy-elemental card, for example). The changes are as follows:

Code: [Select]
Card Previous Current

Grand Mantis -- Water
Ochu -- Poison
Death Claw Fire Wind
Torama -- Holy
Adamantoise Earth Water
Elnoyle -- Wind
Iguion -- Fire
Krysta -- Ice
Sphinxara -- Holy

Besides that, the Pupu Card's stats have been slightly improved, as its stat sum is very low compared to other Level 5 Monster cards, no matter the A value on the right side.


Chocobo World
The following items can no longer be imported from Chocobo World:

Hero, Holy War, Power Generator, Dark Matter, Ribbon, Aegis Amulet, Rosetta Stone, Moon Curtain, Steel Curtain, Accelerator, Phoenix Spirit, Gaea's Ring, Hyper Wrist, Adamantine, Royal Crown, Magic Armlet, Solomon Ring

Stat Up items and other items of similar value are still available, but the probability of finding them has been significantly reduced.


SeeD Salary rebalance

Code: [Select]
S-Rank Prev.    Current

01 500G    500G
02 1,000G     1,000G
03 1,500G     1,500G
04 2,000G     2,000G
05 3,000G     2,500G
06 4,000G     3,000G
07 5,000G     3,500G
08 6,000G     4,000G
09 7,000G     4,500G
10  8,000G     5,000G
11  9,000G     5,500G
12  10,000G    6,000G
13 11,000G    6,500G
14  12,000G    7,000G
15  12,500G    7,500G
16  13,000G    8,000G
17  13,500G    8,500G
18 14,000G    9,000G
19 14,500G    9,500G
20 15,000G    10,000G
21 15,500G    11,000G
22 16,000G    12,000G
23 16,500G    13,000G
24 17,000G    14,000G
25 17,500G    15,000G
26 18,000G    16,000G
27 18,500G    17,000G
28 19,000G    18,000G
29 19,500G    19,000G
30 20,000G    20,000G
31 30,000G    30,000G

The lowered amounts in the mid-range might seem harsh at first, but keep in mind that loot generally sells better since v1.0.8, so you can use that as a secondary source for income in addition to SeeD salary. Besides that, the Cottage/Mega-Potion money making trick still kind of works, and in case that all is still not enough, the update also adds some sidequests that rewards the player with Gil (see further below).


Spells and GF
Break now does some Earth damage as well and can be junctioned to Elem-Atk and Elem-Def. Spell damage is between Fire/Blizzard/Thunder and Aero and the maximum Earth damage/protection through Elem-Junctions is 40%. Float also grants protection against Wind in addition to Earth when junctioned to Elem-Def (max. 30% for both). The base damage of all GF up to Brothers has been lowered, but damage is still higher than in vanilla un-boosted.



2) Enemies

  • There is now more variation in the Granaldo/Raldo boss battle on disc 1: Raldos attack even while Granaldo is still alive and can do an AoE that has a chance to inflict Slow. If Granaldo is defeated before the Raldos, the Strength stat of all remaining Raldos doubles until the battle ends. Likewise, if all Raldos are defeated before Granaldo, Granaldo gains access to Dissolving Acid in addition to his standard physical attack.
  • There is also more variation in the battle against Edea (1st), depending on her current HP. She starts with weaker spells and no longer spams Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga for the entire duration of battle, and the probability of her using Dispel on characters under Reflect has been reduced. Instead, she now uses Astral Punch more often, which has been buffed and has a chance to silence the target.
  • Death Claw now uses a Wind attack on lower levels to justify its affiliation to the element Wind (see above) in addition to it dropping Shear Feathers and it offering the Aero spell for drawing (which has been there in vanilla already).
  • Some alterations have been made to Omega Weapon and Griever.
  • It now takes 10 more turns to make Gilgamesh appear and defeat Seifer at the end of disc 3, to make the battle more challenging if the player got Odin before.
  • The probability of late-game enemies and bosses skipping their turns has been further reduced.
  • The last Ruby Dragon battle before facing Bahamut (the one that is always a back attack) now has another monster in it to prevent being wiped by Ruby Dragon's Breath attack right away, which can feel unfair and needs a very high Vitality stat to be survived.
  • When Zell is chased down by Galbadian Soldiers inside D-District Prison, the only possible encounter is the one against a single Guard (varied between 1 and 2 Guards before - facing 2 can be a gamble, considering Guards use Stop instead of Sleep in the mod).
  • Ultimecia (final form) is now able to use her GF disabling move again (it was absent in v1.0.8 due to an oversight).


3) Sidequests and new content


The old couple in Deling City
The old man sitting at the bench near the sewer gates who lost all his good cards to grandma can now be helped building up his card collection again by finding a bundle of cards he lost somewhere in the city. In the end, the player will be able to choose between 3 different rewards:

- 3 Turtapod, 3 Bomb and 3 Chimera cards
- 1 Granaldo, 1 Abadon and 1 Propagator card
- 6,000 Gil

Furthermore, the couple now plays stronger cards than before, but the old man refuses to play until the quest is completed. The dialogue between the two also changes once the quest is done (after leaving and re-entering the screen once, and only when grandma is walking around).


Dollet revisited
Heading back to the Communication Tower after the SeeD mission on disc 1 now triggers a non-escapable battle against a new X-ATM092 variant that uses a different AI script and attacks (it would normally just fall down a cliff and that's it). The battle will likely be tough when attempting it at first occasion, as he starts nuking the party with strong AoE's if the battle takes too long. It should be easily doable on disc 2 or 3 though.


More items in Fisherman's Horizon
Talk to the man near the elevator when controlling Irvine after leaving the concert preparations. It triggers a short conversation that gives Irvine's character a bit more depth (it is the same as in the original - shame it is so well hidden that most players will likely miss it). After the concert is over, talk to him again with Irvine in your party, and he will apologize for what he said earlier, handing out a Triple Triad card.


Trading in Trabia Garden
There is one NPC in Trabia Garden who sells some of her belongings as her savings have been destroyed as a result of the missile attack. The player can use this opportunity to get good value for just 20,000 Gil: 2 boss cards and 3 different items. Buying or creating these items separately would be much more expensive.


Galbadia Garden
Some time on the way to Seifer and Edea, a non-escapable battle against 4 high-leveled Galbadian Soldiers will trigger: 2 G-Soldiers, 1 Elite-Soldier and 1 Paratrooper.


Centra Ruins
On the way to Odin's chamber, there will be a non-escapable battle consisting of 1 Chimera and 2 Armadodo's that can be challenging when visiting the Centra Ruins at the very first occasion.


Magical Lamps
Leftover Magical Lamps the player may have received by either staying at Galbadia Hotel or through Chocobo World can be traded in for a random Stat Up or an Elixir at Esthar Seaside Station (talk to the old man there). Can only be done after the Lunar Cry.


The dog in Esthar
Stop the dog running around the streets in Esthar to make him return to his owner nearby. If you then talk to the owner while having Pet Pals Vol.3 in your inventory, you have the option to give it to him for free for an item, or sell it to him for 15,000 Gil. If you don't have it in your inventory, he will hint at it. Can be done anytime before entering Lunatic Pandora as Zell and Edea.


Rescuing the girl at Esthar's Shopping Mall
Talking to the crying girl at the Shopping Mall will trigger a non-escapable and unique battle with 2 Behemoths in it. The reward is an item and a card. Can be done after Lunar Cry only.


Lunatic Pandora Laboratory research project
After the Lunar Cry events, Esthar digs out its old mobile weapons and tries to improve them. At Lunatic Pandora Laboratory, the player has the option to try 3 different battles that consist of stronger variants of Gespers, Cyborgs and Elastoids. The battles can be repeated multiple times for no costs, but the rewards are one-time only.



4) Other changes or improvements

  • Early-game Draw Points change their contents on disc 2 to keep them more relevant later. For example, the Cure Draw Point at Balamb Garden's Gate will contain Cura, the Fire Draw Point inside Fire Cavern transforms into Fira etc.
  • The Double Draw Point in Balamb Garden's Library becomes usable again on disc 2 and keeps refilling until the end of the game. The same goes for the Bio Draw Point inside the Timber Maniacs building that never refills on disc 1, but now does so on disc 2 onwards.
  • Julia now actually plays the piano during the first Laguna flashback in Deling City.
  • The elevator in Fisherman's Horizon now operates at a higher speed and the characters' legs are no longer cut in half when riding it.
  • The wounded Dollet Soldier right before the mini-boss battle against Anacondaur in Dollet now acts as a save opportunity (in a similar way as Cid does before entering Balamb Garden's MD-Levels on disc 2). Note that talking to anyone but your team members during the Dollet mission will result in deduction points though, so don't talk to the soldier if you go for the highest possible SeeD score.
  • A "Quit/Never mind" option has been added to the Queen of Cards text box options in case the player accidentally talked to her, ending up being forced to hear some of her longer dialogue.
  • The new Odine Shop has been added to Joker on the Ragnarok in case the player never visited the shop before the point of no return at the end of disc 3. He has been also given a "Quit/Never mind" option for convenience.
  • On disc 4, the probability of CC-Group card members playing rare cards has been reduced.
  • Cid now uses his 3D model during the scene at Balamb Garden's directory before heading to Dollet (it wasn't a hard thing to do, since this screen has his 3D model by default).

ryfee

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #156 on: 2019-01-08 22:29:57 »
First, thank you so much Callisto for making this mod! I started playing FF8 again after ~12 years and decided to try this mod out. So far I've been having a blast.

However, I ran into some issues fighting the Brothers. The best magics I have junctioned to STR/MAG are Break/Aero, and I have some magics like Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Esuna, Haste, Protect, Shell. However, the Brothers fight was really hard for some reason. I know I could "float" them and my whole party, but their physical damage was too high; my party wiped within a few turns especially when they started hammering with physical attack.
My Squall is lv20, Irvine and Rinoa around ~lv15 with about 1,1k~1,3k hp. I am not playing Triple Triad; I only occasionally Carded monsters in battle.

Any tips for this fight? Should I grind some more?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #157 on: 2019-01-09 03:10:38 »
You current spells look good, but if you haven't yet, get Zombie or Regen for HP. This is important for this battle, so everyone has around 1,500-2000 HP to tank some more of the Brothers' damage. Zombie can be drawn from Blood Souls near Galbadia Garden, and Regen from Vysage near the Tomb of the Unknown King on the world map (needs to be at least Level 20). Levels are ok as well, there's no more need for grinding, unless you'd want to increase the probability of facing a Level 20 Vysage.

In battle, go for defense first by casting Double and Protect on everyone (they have both spells available for Drawing). Shell is not that important, as the only magical attack in this battle is Mad Cow Special, which is strong, but predictable, as it's being used in regular intervals, but not very often. Once stabilized, cast Float on your characters against this attack and make sure to defeat Sacred (the bigger one) first, as he has less HP than Minotaur and once one of the Brothers is dead, Mad Cow Special will no longer be used so no more Floats need to be recast, which saves time. Sacred's physical attack, which has a chance to inflict Confuse is another reason to get rid of Sacred first. If you have the time to attack, use Double Aero or Bio, which should do good damage, especially when casting them with Rinoa.

All in all, killing the right enemy first is key in this battle to release some pressure as soon as possible, and going for Sacred first is the most reliable way to do so. After Sacred is gone, Minotaur will start using Mower more frequently, but this is much more manageable than having both alive as long as you have Protect up. If you keep losing to them, try setting battle speed to low. This can generally help with having more time to react to the Brothers' attacks.

« Last Edit: 2019-01-09 03:41:25 by Callisto »

kekko1285

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #158 on: 2019-01-09 14:30:51 »
First, thank you very much for all the effort put into this mod. Really appreciated.

That said, I am planning to use this mod to replay this amazing game I played for the first time almost 20 years ago. But in addition to a renewed and more balanced gameplay, I'd like to apply some other mods to improve graphic and music as well.

I had a look at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=391096600 and all these non-gameplay mods seem fabulous, but I wonder if there is a way to install all these mods together without messing things up.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #159 on: 2019-01-09 17:07:38 »
There shouldn't be issues with using this mod and any of the graphics or music mods at the same time. I've been using some of them by myself and never noticed any incompatibilities. Maybe even the Hard-mode that is mentioned in the list from your link above works with it, but it would make the game harder than intended, so I would advise not using the Hard-mode on top of this mod.

The most convenient way to get it all installed is getting the Lunatic Pandora Mod Pack first, and then follow the instructions for installing this mod.  Of course you can also install each mod that comes with LP separately - it would just take longer. But no matter how you decide, there shouldn't be any incompatibilities. If there are, just report it and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks for your interest and have a good time reliving Final Fantasy VIII.

ryfee

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #160 on: 2019-01-10 01:56:00 »
Thank you so much for getting back to me, Callisto!

For some reason I never guessed that Zombie would be useful for HP... After getting Regen and Zombie the fight went so much smoother! I beat them. :)
Now just need to finish up Disc 1 and move on to Disc 2.

Thank you for the wonderful work!

kekko1285

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #161 on: 2019-01-12 10:22:38 »
There shouldn't be issues with using this mod and any of the graphics or music mods at the same time. I've been using some of them by myself and never noticed any incompatibilities. Maybe even the Hard-mode that is mentioned in the list from your link above works with it, but it would make the game harder than intended, so I would advise not using the Hard-mode on top of this mod.

The most convenient way to get it all installed is getting the Lunatic Pandora Mod Pack first, and then follow the instructions for installing this mod.  Of course you can also install each mod that comes with LP separately - it would just take longer. But no matter how you decide, there shouldn't be any incompatibilities. If there are, just report it and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks for your interest and have a good time reliving Final Fantasy VIII.

Thanks for your answer!

I used the lunatic pandora installer and your mod. Everything looks fine so far (I've just got Ifrit) but one thing. When I use magics during the battle, they don't decrease. They do though, when I use magics from the menu (to cure for example). Any way/suggestion I can fix this?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #162 on: 2019-01-12 12:12:04 »
Look for the Magic.dll which is part of the Hard Mode and remove it. It is likely stored in your FF8 parent folder.

Ayoyo

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #163 on: 2019-01-13 10:14:13 »
I happen to be in a similar position, recently reinstalling FF8 for a rerun and want to give your mod a go, it sounds right up my alley with added difficulty and balancing things out in a tasteful way. But just wanna make sure that the lunatic pandora package doesn't mess with the balance you've intended, so I probably should delete all the files relating to the hard mode that were automatically installed with the package. So to make sure - do you reckon the following files ought to be deleted in order to play your mod without other gameplay modifications messing it up: "Damage.dll, Hard.dll, HP.dll, Magic.dll and Publish.dll"?

kekko1285

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #164 on: 2019-01-13 11:02:41 »
I happen to be in a similar position, recently reinstalling FF8 for a rerun and want to give your mod a go, it sounds right up my alley with added difficulty and balancing things out in a tasteful way. But just wanna make sure that the lunatic pandora package doesn't mess with the balance you've intended, so I probably should delete all the files relating to the hard mode that were automatically installed with the package. So to make sure - do you reckon the following files ought to be deleted in order to play your mod without other gameplay modifications messing it up: "Damage.dll, Hard.dll, HP.dll, Magic.dll and Publish.dll"?

Yeah, good point.

I didn't know that Lunatica Pandora was also adding this HardMod that substantially changes the gameplay.

Any advice from more experienced modders it's highly appreciated.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #165 on: 2019-01-13 11:27:06 »
Quote from: Ayoyo
So to make sure - do you reckon the following files ought to be deleted in order to play your mod without other gameplay modifications messing it up: "Damage.dll, Hard.dll, HP.dll, Magic.dll and Publish.dll"?
The first four would definitely interfere with this mod's intentions, so I would advise not using them on top of this mod, by moving them somewhere else, as a backup. Publish.dll just removes the Squaresoft logo on startup, but I guess it needs to be removed too as I've heard of incompatibilities with the latest version of Roses and Wine music mod.

So yeah, you're better off removing them all. They would probably work just fine alongside this mod, if you wanted to further increase the game's difficulty, but there might be unexpected bugs or glitches I'm not aware of (haven't tried these dll's myself yet). No matter how you decide, just report back in case you face any issues and enjoy :)

kekko1285

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #166 on: 2019-01-13 16:29:28 »
I'm a bit confused about a couple of things:

I'm right now in the training center (Where you meet T-Rex for first time). Party is just Squall and Quistis. I have 100 Curas (already!) from Siren ability. I noticed that if a junction these 100 Curas with VIT, my vitality goes from 7 to 37. Weirdly though, physical damage inflicted...increases! I tested with Grat enemies in the training center only, but when they whip my Quistis (LV11) when I have no magic in junction on my VIT, average damage is 35/36. If I junction 100 Curas and therefore get my VIT to 37, average damage inflicted is...45!! (Both Grat tested in these 2 scenarios were lv 9).
Any explanation? Suggestions how to fix this?

Another 2 points:
1) I play with ATB on "wait". But differently from FF7 and FF9, ATB keep going when I am on the "select target" phase e.g. it stops when I am selecting a spell, but it starts again when I have to select the target for the selected spell. I know this is not a mod issue and it's how is intended to originally work the game, but I wonder if someone released any mod to fix this annoying issue.

2) On the same point, is there any mod out there that allows to skip/reduce the GF animations? GF are quite strong with this mod, and I am relying on them heavily, but the length of the animation is really annoying.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #167 on: 2019-01-13 17:31:59 »
I have just tested this under the exact same circumstances as yours (LV11 Quistis, Cura junctioned to her Vit, facing LV9 Grat) and the results were as follows:

Average damage when Vit was 7: 34 HP
Average damage when Vit was 37: 30 HP

So in my case, higher Vit did reduce the damage inflicted by Grat's standard physical attack, even though the differences within these ranges are rather negligible - the difference was there. Did you remove the Hard.dll from the Hard Mode? I can imagine this being the reason for your findings, as this one modifies both player and enemy melee damage.

As for your other two suggestions, I would really love to implement them, especially shorter GF summons, but it's not an easy thing to do, sadly. I think it hasn't even been achieved for FFVII either, and FFVII has been modded for quite a bit longer than FFVIII. Maybe it will be possible at some time, but probably not anytime soon.

« Last Edit: 2019-01-13 17:41:03 by Callisto »

kekko1285

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #168 on: 2019-01-13 18:19:59 »
I have just tested this under the exact same circumstances as yours (LV11 Quistis, Cura junctioned to her Vit, facing LV9 Grat) and the results were as follows:

Average damage when Vit was 7: 34 HP
Average damage when Vit was 37: 30 HP

So in my case, higher Vit did reduce the damage inflicted by Grat's standard physical attack, even though the differences within these ranges are rather negligible - the difference was there. Did you remove the Hard.dll from the Hard Mode? I can imagine this being the reason for your findings, as this one modifies both player and enemy melee damage.

As for your other two suggestions, I would really love to implement them, especially shorter GF summons, but it's not an easy thing to do, sadly. I think it hasn't even been achieved for FFVII either, and FFVII has been modded for quite a bit longer than FFVIII. Maybe it will be possible at some time, but probably not anytime soon.

Thanks for your answer!

Weird, I did remove all the dlls from the hard mode patch, so I should not have anything interfering with dmg calculation from your mod. Any further suggestion? Do you recommend to start a clean game removing hard dlls before starting?

Yeah, I can imagine shortening GF animation being a pain. I have to say though that it would be the least significant change amongst the two I mentioned in my previous message. I find incredibly annoying having to play at slower battle speed possible to mitigate the fact that the ATB is not actually frozen when choosing the enemy. Any hope for that in the future?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #169 on: 2019-01-13 19:11:18 »
Have you checked the troubleshooting section on the Lunatic Pandora mod page?

If none of that helped, try replacing your current FF8_en.exe with a clean one - it could be that it was altered by the LP Pack installer to apply the Hard Mode changes. If you didn't backup a clean exe before installing all the mods, you can redownload it from Steam.

Making the ATB stop when selecting targets would probably be easier than shortening the GF summons, but right off the bat, I wouldn't know how to do that either. I'll keep that idea in mind though. It would be a convenient change for sure.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-13 19:27:03 by Callisto »

Ayoyo

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #170 on: 2019-01-17 02:21:20 »
Having an absolute blast with this mod so far. Trying really hard not to get carried away by side stuff so as to not get too powerful, would hate to spoil the difficulty. Dunno if it's been mentioned, but an option to turn exp off would be in order if possible. Overleveling often becomes a problem with these mods if you enjoy fighting, and the last thing I want to do is end up ahead of the curve, but I like to take my time too so not having to fear leveling up would be nice.

Other than that, really digging the added little stuff like Selphie giving me something nice at the prom for joining the committee, Zell just donating me his inauguration money on the train(lol) or what I presume was an additional reward for not getting caught during the train mission. If these existed in the original game, I had no recollection whatsoever so I assume it's new extra stuff for being attentive, which is nice.

One of the best things you have going on is the vast differences in natural stat growth for characters, absolutely the right choice to give them an identity and their own strengths. However it does seem that some characters take a longer while to bloom though, seeing as Rinoa just joined the party and evidently as the leading lady of the story gets to trump the other girls in every possible stat despite being 2 levels lower than them, lol. I do hope it evens out eventually, seems detrimental to the idea of unique identities and different strengths to have someone just be hands down better.

Speaking of which, I'm interested to see which direction you've taken the ladies in. Boring and homogenous in vanilla, I'm really hoping to see some differences between them here so there's actually a choice to be made as to what kind of magic user you want. Selphie always felt to me like she should be a fast but fragile glass caster, with Quistis on the other end of the spectrum sporting some strength and more sturdiness to go with that magic(I mean come on, she goes around whipping the crap out of dragons and stuff) while Rinoa would be the heavy hitter with highest magic stat but average everything else. Am I way off or how have you assigned their roles/strength?

This turned into quite the random rant but I'll have some feedback of actual substance later. Now off to play some more.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #171 on: 2019-01-17 14:16:59 »
Good point regarding the stat balance between Rinoa and the other girls. My thought behind giving Rinoa the better overall stats was her Angelo skills likely being the weakest Limit Break in this mod, and also her Sorceress bonus (somewhere it's stated that only females with a high natural affinity towards Magic are capable of becoming a Sorceress). So in her case, high stat gains should be limited to Magic and Spirit - there's no real reason to make her surpass the others in other areas as well. After all, she's not a SeeD and never had any training, contrary to the others. I'll change that soon, thanks for bringing it up, and also for your overall feedback.

As for disabling EXP, I like that idea too, but it's likely a bit more difficult to implement. Can't promise anything yet, but I'll look into it.

Ayoyo

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #172 on: 2019-01-17 16:31:19 »
Glad to hear my rant could inspire some new changes. I tend to get passionate about the idea of creating unique identities and distinct roles in the gameplay for characters that also compliments their story or personality or overall disposition as it's depicted in the game. I think it not only makes the game more interesting from a strategic standpoint but also makes sense from a story&immersion standpoint exactly in the way as you, for example, explained the rationale behind why Rinoa who has the Sorceress affinity should easily have the highest magic and spirit scores. It's just awesome stuff and makes sense in the story.

I already brought up some points regarding how Quistis and Selphie might be characterized in accordance with their features&profiles, but to reiterate in gameplay terms: I strongly feel Selphie is suited towards magic&speed as primary stats and probably luck as secondary stat so the lack of defensive stats would make the player work carefully to keep her alive and make use of that speed; Quistis is the most physical of the girls so I'd like to see magic&strength as primary stats with vitality as secondary to make her kind of allude to a battle mage role of sorts, that'd be cool. Do those sound like sensible ideas to you? And of course Rinoa with magic&spirit. That would certainly make them all truly distinct, interesting, and have different uses. I'm already starting to theorycraft as to party setups, boss strategies and which one of them works best in any given scenario.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-17 19:48:00 by Ayoyo »

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #173 on: 2019-01-18 09:08:08 »
Making Selphie have an advantage in Speed has been in my mind all the time, actually. Somehow I always forgot about it when working on updates.

Anyway, here's a smaller update that changes character base stats even further. Replace your main files in lang-en; changes are in effect immediately, no need to start a new game (mod installer coming soon).

This also alters some stat gains from Junctions (for example, Regen's effect on Vit and Spr has been reduced) and Rinoa's Limit Break can now be triggered slightly earlier than that of the other characters.

Ayoyo

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.9)
« Reply #174 on: 2019-01-18 17:53:18 »
Wow, that was fast. Appreciated; gonna install it right away.

Trying really hard not to get too powerful and keep levels low. Still not sure if I want to try and beat the entire game without card refinement, so far there certainly hasn't been any need to. Just drawing whatever magic I come across as I progress, the mod still generously gives you major stat upgrades if you take the time to draw full stacks.

Far as bosses go, so far nothing too threatening: Elvoret went down quite easily. X-ATM couldn't handle lightning summon+double thunder combo although it took a few tries to keep quetzalcoatl alive long enough to deal major damage.  Diabolos has a nifty new spell in "pain" but blinding him still works and gave me ample time to draw full demi stacks in between heals. Gerogero didn't feel any harder than in vanilla, didn't try to phoenix down him though, I wonder if it still 1 shots him. The two cyborgs in the Laguna sequence were handily made harmless by silence+blind, allowing me to get full death stacks - a major upgrade to stats.

Old tricks still worked on Minotaur&Sacred, drawcasting double on myself lets me float+protect everyone quickly, mitigating their damage so free double stacks for all. Getting occasionally confused turned out to be the only real threat in the fight as my characters took to casting death on my own party and other cool stuff, so that was fun. Still, I managed to recover and beat the boss on first try. I can see why the story bosses are a bit on the easy side but Minotaur could stand to be a bit more complicated IMO, being an optional boss? Of course, if you for some reason don't use float (even though the game gives you a clear-as-day hint about it and even scanning straight up tells you to use float) I suppose the fight can be a bit harder, but by this point you've gotten regen from vysages on the way to the dungeon, or at least zombie from Gerogero so you have easily enough health to tank even the combo attack. Personally I didn't even bother with float towards the end, the combo attack of theirs damaged me just enough to cycle through limits before healing back up.

By this point I was about level 15 with Squall at 18 so maybe I'm already overleveled.

Trying to keep my levels to a minimum from now on to see if I run into trouble at any point. Excited to see if the difficulty amps up with Edea.

Edit: interestingly, shear trigger doesn't give me access to fated circle. First I thought it was just randomly not triggering, only rough divide, but then I checked the status screen and it doesn't show up there either so it definitely didn't unlock. I don't know if this bug existed in vanilla since I always went straight to lion heart. Or is something wrong with my game?

« Last Edit: 2019-01-18 21:31:55 by Ayoyo »