Author Topic: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2.3 & v1.1b)  (Read 330816 times)

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #125 on: 2018-12-02 14:35:46 »
Just finished the prison.

Before Deling city there's already access to Death magic on world map. Perhaps overkill for disk 1?
Another unbalanced magic is Tornado, by converting Abyss Worm cads into windmills. Makes str go way high.
Armadodo and T-Rexaur also give access to Dino Bone which gives access to Quake.

Loved the new battle on winhill. You could add a few dozen more :) it would give more new content. There are quite a few monsters you will only see once in the game (like some castle bosses). Perhaps add a low level version here and there :)

In the prision, the human guards do only one attack (stop). Is this intended? With 3 members its easy, but that screen with only zell it's a coin flip.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #126 on: 2018-12-02 14:56:22 »
The cards you mentioned should refine into Mystery Fluid (Abyss Worm) and Earth Stone (Armadodo) instead of Windmills and Dino Bones. It looks like you didn't replace menu.fs inside data/lang-en folder, so I would advise rechecking that (try deleting all 3 menu files, then paste the modded ones, if nothing helps). These two spells are definitely overkill for that point in the game, that's true. In the mod, Tornado and Quake are supposed to be available after getting control of Balamb Garden at the earliest, and from Ruby Dragon/Abadon on disc 3 at the latest. As for the Death Draw Point on the world map, I'll look into that and make it into a non-refilling Draw Point if necessary. Also into the solo Zell part inside prison.

Well, thank you for sharing impressions, highly appreciated. More battles similar to the new one in Winhill will come soon :)
« Last Edit: 2018-12-02 15:19:55 by Callisto »

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #127 on: 2018-12-02 15:57:40 »
Sorry... my mistake. It's Elvoret card that refines to windmills.
Death is not from draw point. It's from some monster I can't quite remember... Vysage? Or perhaps latter esthar cyborg? It's before Deling for sure.
Also break from iguion is extremely effective against 90% of enemies (including sub-bosses like balamb garden norg vs cid battles). Perhaps adding some resistances would be nice.
Mug also seems to appear to soon in the game (makes item collecting from enemies too easy). Perhaps moving it to alexander would balance it.
Overall, I'm loving the mod. Great work.

goodmorninpluto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #128 on: 2018-12-04 04:46:13 »
Is there a way to acquire Windmill without card modding?
By stealing from lvl 30+ Thrustaevis I get Shear Feathers, and stealing from Abyss Worm nets me Mystery Fluid.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #129 on: 2018-12-04 05:27:46 »
Try stealing from LV40+ Abyss Worm. Windmills become the common steal then. The new level structure for most enemies in the mod is as follows:

LV1-19 = Low level
LV20-39 = Mid level
LV40-100 = High level

@eXistenZe: So you probably got Death from the Cyborgs then. Not sure whether to change this opportunity or not, as Death isn't that effective anymore due to many enemies having higher resistance or immunity against the status effect, and its boost to HP has been reduced too. I'll recheck Break resistances for sure though.   

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #130 on: 2018-12-04 08:25:54 »
From some point you have break, stop and death on each status attack. Very few enemies are resistant to all.

Crossfade

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #131 on: 2018-12-07 07:45:19 »
I just installed this following the way you said to do it and there is no draw point in the library for some reason ... I also have Tonberry installed for some reason, do I need to uninstall that for this mod to work or can I use it as well ??

Edit: Ok I found it but I cant draw it atm so idk if it is double or not
« Last Edit: 2018-12-07 07:48:40 by Crossfade »

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #132 on: 2018-12-07 19:02:16 »
There shouldn't be any issues using this mod and Tonberry at the same time. At least I have played this from start to finish with SeeD Reborn.

The Library Draw Point is the same as in the original game (non-refilling), it just contains Double instead of Esuna. So all it needs it having the Draw Command junctioned. Feel free to report back if the problem persists.

Crossfade

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #133 on: 2018-12-07 23:50:33 »
Yeah it was double so the game is working as intended with this mod installed ... I will definitely let you know if I find bugs through out the game man :D

Looking forward to trying this out

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #134 on: 2018-12-08 17:06:16 »
Finished disk 2.
Too much access to high level magic...
Card mod could be moved to after ragnarok (bahamut or eden).
Speed is way overpowered still. After spd j it's just not fun anymore. Auto haste will just make it borring.
Can you delay access to chocobo forests to after ragnarok too?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #135 on: 2018-12-10 08:49:45 »
As for spell availabilty, there's not much more room for delaying it further, as -aga spells should be available before Tornado and Quake, and Tornado and Quake in turn before Holy, Flare, Meteor and Ultima. At the moment, the availabilty for high level magic (full access) is like this:

Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga: Very specific Worldmap encounters after controlling Garden, Galbadia Garden enemies late disc 2, Card Mod: CC-Sidequest or card players in FH
Tornado: Draw from high level Ruby Dragon in Grandidi Forest or Laguna flashback early disc 3, Card Mod: CC-Sidequest or card players in FH (<-- I could change the Elvoret result, but it's unfortunately the only boss with a strong connection to the element wind, so Windmill is a bit difficult to assign to the right enemy. Guess I'll move it to Jumbo Cactuar, who has Tornado in his Draw list, so it would be somewhat fitting)
Quake: Draw from high level T-Rexaur (needs LV UP) or Abadon, Card Mod: disc 3 start
Holy, Flare, Meteor, Ultima: Not available before Lunar Cry for drawing, Card Mod: not available before disc 3, and the refining rate is not as efficient as in the original game

I agree with Auto-Haste being detrimental to the game's difficulty though, as enemy turns seem to be heavily suppressed if all characters have it (similar to the Limit Break priority thing). You got Auto-Haste by modding the Kiros card, right? Maybe it should no longer refine into 3 Accelerators at all. Regarding Chocobo Forests, I think the time they can be accessed is fine. The rewards you can get there can be easily changed though. Which items do you think were too powerful?
« Last Edit: 2018-12-10 09:10:45 by Callisto »

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #136 on: 2018-12-10 10:56:11 »
I got doomtrain on disk two due to item import on boko (just for testing though).
Also accessed holy and some other nice spells. And  stats items.
Item importing is just sort of cheating, and can be abused, but I guess it's mostly a player choice to cheat or not. I don't think people play chocobo world for the fun of it. The same way people can use hyne to cheat stuff in.

Other than that, in my normal playthrough, speed seems to be the most unbalanced stat. Even before auto-haste. It's like str before and after tornado. Huge bump.

I liked the idea of diferent stats for diferent chars. You can actually see the differences in game (spd, str and mag mostly). But magic join makes the diferences be minimal. Perhaps reducing the increase value from join could benefit overall game balance and make chars more unique. Make it impossible to achive 255 for example.

Mcindus

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #137 on: 2018-12-10 20:25:30 »
Alright... here I go.

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #138 on: 2018-12-10 22:33:25 »
Alright, have a good time. I hope it will be less painful than you expected at first. The first tougher battle will likely be the one against the Anacondaur in Dollet, which can kill your team easily if you go in unprepared. Though in one of the latest updates, Blind has been added as a starter spell for Seifer, which is helpful against it. I'm also thinking of adding a save opportunity right before this battle, to safe the player some time in case they lose.

goodmorninpluto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #139 on: 2018-12-11 04:48:57 »
Finished my playthrough of your mod. In the end you made magic a little too good :)
My final party was lvl 70 Squall, lvl 65 Zell and lvl 50 Rinoa. I kinda regret not swapping Zell midgame for another magic user, since he basically never catched up to spellcasters in terms of damage, so I relegated him to healer role. Other characters were 30-40 levels behind, so were their stats, and to me it seemed like every point in stats mattered a lot more than in vanilla. I like that you made level gain much more relevant.
Now unto balance. There is a brief period (~second half of disk 2) where attack was preferable to magic, but after acquiring Cerberus and Alexander you can get Triple (via GF summon or High Mag-RF) and can supply yourself with level 3 spells from Odyne shop. With bosses being immune to Vit0, not even 255 strength and abusing of elemental weakness could catch up to 255 magic triple casting Meteor. I know you suggested to use Berserk, but it comes with the cost of losing control over character and it's not really an issue of damage on hit (it's comparable to lvl3 spells), but rather the issue of physical attacks being single hit, whereas milticasting can break 9999 damage limit. Limit Breaks should theoretically bridge the gap, but staying on low HP is risky and Aura is very hard to stock up (until disk 4). Considering how potent Triple and Meteor are, I think adjustments for refine formulas of Dragon Fin and Star Fragment are in order.
Auto-Reflect, Counter and Return Damage are really good, especially for a point in time you get them. With these abilities it's basically auto-win against Seifer and Edea.
Regarding command abilities, they are mostly like in vanilla can be easily substituted. Kamikaze got nerfed (and for a right reason, it was broken), Recover, Revive and Treatment like in vanilla are good only until certain point. You lowered the requirements of Whispers for learning Recover, but I still don't understand why it takes so much work for getting this ability at the point in time you can learn it. Defend being available so late made me never even try bothering with it. Bosses attacks are either AoE nukes or can be negated with Protect/Shell. Also by that time you are already such a powerhouse that in just a few turns of attacking you get a victory, so maintaining defense is not that neccessary contrary to how it was during Disk 1 and 2. The hardest battle on disk 3 was against beefed up Elastoid and Esthar soldiers during Laguna's flashback. Level Up/Down don't work on enemies I want them to (like Ruby Dragons or Iron Giants). Darkside being single hit loses to magic. Is there a way for this ability to break damage limit? Perhaps that could be the solution.
Disk 4 balance is heavily in player's favor. By getting to Ragnarok and playing with CC group you can get endless supply of Aura Stones (Gilgamesh cards), Megalixirs (Bahamut) and Holy Wars (Seifer). I don't really think player should have so much convenience for so little trouble. Is there a way to make CC group play only the cards you didn't get yet, but not the ones you refined? Because since you can get the cards again and again it doesn't really matter that the number of items you get through modding is lowered. If you abuse Holy War + Triple Meteor final dungeon becomes pretty much a joke and not posing any challenge at all.
Overall I enjoyed this mod. New additions in sidequests, much more desirable level gain and great balance during disks 1 and 2. It just needs a bit of fine-tuning on disk 3 and 4, because if player keeps up with the best options the difficulty drops down significantly.

levantine

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #140 on: 2018-12-12 12:00:43 »
Hello,
I don't know where to post so i will try here,
I have a huge problem, sometimes when i play the game freeze and i have this message (most of the time, it come when a battle starting, i have the music, but game freeze ) :
An unknow exeption has occured
I passed several days trying to resolve it but still get it ...
I tried this method https://steamcommunity.com/app/39150/discussions/0/666828126743975209/?l=french&ctp=3 but this doesn't change anything
Hope somebody can help me...
Also i'm at the end of cd1, really enjoy your mod, will post my feedback later ;p

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #141 on: 2018-12-12 12:48:03 »
Did some searching and it might be the operating system, some users say that the game crashes intermittently on Windows 10. Others said it might be due to issues running the game on multi-core systems (but don't think it's this; I've never had the base game bomb out on me), or a memory problem that can be exacerbated by other mods like texture overhauls, etc.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/39150/discussions/0/1696046342852378557/
'Now i run it as administrator, in Windows 7 compatibility mode, with only CPU 1 in affinity and with Steam Overlay disabled. Literally every solution of every problem i have read on this forum.'

Seems a bit much, but he purportedly got through game without a crash after all this so maybe it could help.


levantine

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #142 on: 2018-12-12 13:34:42 »
I tried with w7 compatibility,(and all the other options you mentioned) now when i launch the game a message appear and say :
 failed to create useful direct 3d device

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #143 on: 2018-12-13 13:49:29 »
Is there a d3d9.dll in C:\Windows\system32 or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 on your computer? If not, check out this article too:

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-fix-d3d9-dll-not-found-or-missing-errors-2623235

I remember that I needed to put in the file there manually some time ago to make the game work at least with Tonberry.

eXistenZe and goodmorninpluto, thank you very much for your feedback. It made me realize that there are still quite a few gaps that can potentially break the game in the later stages. Chocobo World loot will be nerfed significantly soon, and some more Card Mod results will be changed (Elvoret, Kiros and Carbuncle in particular). The CC-Card players on the Ragnarok could be made easily into not replaying used up cards, but I'm not so sure about really going for it, as it would be quite a drastic change and they are usually the main reason for actually doing this sidequest earlier. Maybe just changing some more of the delicate Card Mod results would do - not sure yet.

Allowing Darkside to Break the Damage limit could probably be done by creating a new attack type that would then be assigned to a character's weapon, which could then do more than 9999 damage universally with a standard physical attack, not just with Darkside (which is based on it). That's my current plan for making the Ultimate Weapons stand out more which is one of my main goals for the mod that have yet to be realized. Anyway, thanks again, also for playing the mod until the end :)
« Last Edit: 2018-12-13 14:28:42 by Callisto »

levantine

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #144 on: 2018-12-14 08:17:15 »
Yes there is a d3d9.dll in C:\Windows\SysWOW64
I fallow this yesterday : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=391096600
I tried the part For issues in Windows 10:
 - Download the DirectX9c June2010 End User Runtimes and Install the most recent package, do NOT use the 'normal' Web Installer.
GO HERE: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

I played a litle and did not get anymore my bug, i have to try much longer to see if that solved my problem, but i lack in time this week end, i'll post my feedback later on if that solved the problem

Anyway, thx for helping me, big up !

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #145 on: 2018-12-14 18:10:10 »
I've been thinking about Refine results changes for v1.0.9. Here is what's planned:

Code: [Select]
Card Previous Current

Imp 1 = 5 Magic Stones 1 = 3 Magic Stones
Elvoret 1 = 1 Windmill 1 = 1 Dynamo Stone
J. Cactuar 5 = 1 Jet Engine        1 = 1 Windmill *1
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 *2
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

*1 Note that J. Cactuar is a LV 7 boss card and not LV 6 (Elvoret) - that means the Windmill availabilty through Card Mod will be delayed to disc 3 (excl. Pandemona). Dynamo Stone has been moved down to the LV 6 range to match the Red Fang and North Wind availability.

*2 10 Fury Fragments are worth 2 Aura Stones or 2 Aura Spells; 2 Fury Fragments are also needed for Zells 3rd weapon, to give the transformation a bit more value.

As for the drop from 100 items down to 20 in a few cases, I think is necessary to prevent an infinite source for Demi and Death spells (especially easy 100 Demis for everyone in the early-game is quite powerful). These items also sell much better since the last update - so refining the Diablos card into 100 Steel Orbs right after getting him and then selling these would be overkill too.

If anyone would like to make suggestions, don't hesitate to share. Otherwise, I'll go with that.

Levantine, I hope you are getting your issue fixed.
« Last Edit: 2018-12-14 18:19:48 by Callisto »

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #146 on: 2018-12-14 21:10:28 »
Jet engine from tri point?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #147 on: 2018-12-14 21:29:04 »
That would be back to the vanilla result, just with a much less insane refine rate (40 Tri-Point Cards = 1 Jet Engine in vanilla). At least I think the item fits the nature of the boss well. Do you think it's too good or too bad as a reward for modding the Tri-Point card, value-wise?

eXistenZe

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #148 on: 2018-12-15 08:28:41 »
Doesn't jet engine allow some nice refines early on?

Callisto

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Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.0.8)
« Reply #149 on: 2018-12-15 15:01:19 »
Quote from: eXistenZe
Doesn't jet engine allow some nice refines early on?

They can be turned into Rocket Engines (teaches Spd+30%) and Spd Ups, but Tri-Point cards aren't available before disc 3 as they are LV 7 cards. And even with the lowered requirements, it would still take long to actually get Rocket Engines and Spd Ups that way. Furthermore, turning them into Rocket Engines requires GF Abl Med-RF from Eden, whereas the Spd Up refinement needs Forbid Med-RF from Doomtrain, so not much can be done with the item until late disc 3 (other than just teaching a GF Spd+10% with the item itself).

By the way, the earliest availability for LV 6 and LV 7 boss cards in the mod is as follows:

LV 6: CC-Group and FH card players disc 2 (vanilla: Galbadia Garden disc 1)
LV 7: Edea and Cid disc 3 (vanilla: CC-Group and FH card players disc 2)

This was a necessary step in my attempt to balance Card Mod out without nerfing the results to the ground or just moving it to Eden, an idea I never really liked to be honest. I am firmly convinced that it's ok to leave Card Mod at Quezacotl as long as the mod results are reasonable and the availability for the better rewards is delayed.