Author Topic: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)  (Read 66134 times)

Goth

  • Guest
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #50 on: 2019-07-04 10:09:13 »
Limits have had the RNG removed from their check, meaning that milling turns will no longer have an effect. If a Limit does not proc when the character's ATB gauge fills, it means they cannot get a Limit until the battle conditions change (HP is lost, status is inflicted). This works both ways, and means that if a Limit does proc it will be available even if you swap control to another character and back again.
This has probably got to be one of if not the most important feature to prevent endless Limit spamming
Yes, it's one of the most important feature IMHO.
To be fair, spamming the circle button waiting for Renzo was part of the fun back in the days, especially when playing with a friend and trying to beat a hard boss or Omega, it was a fun (unforeseen) mechanic, it created tension.
But when replaying the game we want balance, and I've always thought of this feature as one of the most important or at least the first step towards a better balance of the Limits, so it's good to finally see it implemented.

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #51 on: 2019-07-04 13:03:33 »
Hey there, just wondering if the % on squalls hit was reverted back to 255 or if I've managed to somehow mess up the install? Everything else is working as intended from the looks of it though.

I reverted it because the game seems to ignore the hit% and the attack will always land regardless.

Eliscia

  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #52 on: 2019-07-05 17:24:33 »
I reverted it because the game seems to ignore the hit% and the attack will always land regardless.

Thanks!

Topken

  • *
  • Posts: 38
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #53 on: 2019-07-09 18:57:23 »
Glad to see you working on New Threat for FF8 as I love the one for FF7

Dark_Ansem

  • *
  • Posts: 320
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #54 on: 2019-07-22 11:18:02 »
An exciting release for my first FF ever. Sad Edea isn't permanent but oh well.
Have you considered making some spells such as Holy or GF like Bahamut multi-hit?
« Last Edit: 2019-07-22 11:24:28 by Dark_Ansem »

joedram0

  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #55 on: 2019-08-03 07:34:51 »
Hello Sega Chief, you have really done some great work with these New Threat mods. My own mods for PSX FF7 and 8 I made, are based off of the ideas that yourself and others in the forum have made. They are nowhere near the quality of yours but that is to be expected with the PSX versions.

That being said, I uploaded my FF8 mod called Inernational GF Job System here but the hack is missing a few things that I hoped you could offer some insight with.

First, is how were you able to change junction magic to be 100% regardless of stock? I wanted to get that in my hack but am unsure if it is as simple as changing some hex values or if it requires coding. I could change the values if I new the offsets but that would be it.

Lastly would be if you knew of any way to change Squalls hit to be something other than 255 or if that is hardcoded. Thanks!

If you had any interest in seeing the changes to the game I made, it is located here:

International GF Job System

« Last Edit: 2019-08-03 07:37:27 by joedram0 »

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #56 on: 2019-09-06 20:18:41 »
Hello Sega Chief, you have really done some great work with these New Threat mods. My own mods for PSX FF7 and 8 I made, are based off of the ideas that yourself and others in the forum have made. They are nowhere near the quality of yours but that is to be expected with the PSX versions.

That being said, I uploaded my FF8 mod called Inernational GF Job System here but the hack is missing a few things that I hoped you could offer some insight with.

First, is how were you able to change junction magic to be 100% regardless of stock? I wanted to get that in my hack but am unsure if it is as simple as changing some hex values or if it requires coding. I could change the values if I new the offsets but that would be it.

Lastly would be if you knew of any way to change Squalls hit to be something other than 255 or if that is hardcoded. Thanks!

If you had any interest in seeing the changes to the game I made, it is located here:

International GF Job System

Sorry, bud; I hadn't checked the thread in a bit. I'll send a PM.

strife98

  • Global moderator
  • *
  • Posts: 244
  • Doink!
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #57 on: 2019-09-14 06:11:16 »
So I recently finished my Level 100 Run of NT8, and here's a few bugs I encountered. Probably going to reiterate a few that have already been mentioned so forgive me for that.

I couldn't get the HEXT to work right. I was able to get the correct amount of in battle draws, and the ability to skip the intro, but draw points, and a few other things were broken. I ended up using the emergency EXE.

Granaldo and Raldo boss fights didn't scale. My guess is because you do encounter them as normal enemies later on so they'd be a bit difficult to scale, so that might not be a bug. Same with the Iguions as they were only level 18.

Echo Drops only heal Silence and not Blind.

Cerberus camera for the Diablos fight is broken.

A few of the random encounters matched the levels of my characters instead of being at a fixed level. I ran into a few level 100 Funguars in the first Laguna scene, and I think there were a few of varying levels as some died rather easily. Didnt get a chance to scan them first. It seemed that a bunch of the enemies after the 2nd Laguna scene also had matched my level. The enemies around Galbaldia Garden, and Deling City were all also relatively around level 100.

A few of the draw points also don't work. I don't think any of them in the Deling Sewers worked.

All in all I think for a run where the only thing I did was get the characters up to level 100 it was a little too easy. I didn't use card modding, I think I only refined a few spells, and my didn't get level boosted so they only got the levels earned from fighting. I didn't need that much planning for the bosses. I ran through the game with just Confuse protection, and I had my elemental status attacks wrong for a majority of the bosses. I had a harder time fighting the level 100 random encounters that I randomly met. Speaking of, your level 100 Creeps are horrifying. I would rather fight Seifer and Edea than two Creeps. They are super hard to hit, and magic, which always hits, does little damage. I'm talking Selphie with as high of magic stat that I could give her with a Firaga only did about 800 damage against something with like 20k to 30k health. That could be chalked up to the only thing that was really level 100 about me was my level though. I didn't have any abilities that increased my hit rate, I didn't have Squall, and I very much didn't have the better magic Junctioned. So that might just be me complaining about fighting stuff I'm not ready for.

I think my favorite of the runs that I did was the no level gain run. That required a lot of planning and hoping for good things to happen. The level 100 run was quite easy in comparison to both the no level gain, and the normal run. However, I did have a lot of fun, and I can't wait till the next update!

lakecityransom

  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #58 on: 2019-09-18 15:16:39 »
Hello again, just wanted to say I played thru FF8 after FF7 NT merely due to the timing of the remaster. I was completely oblivious it was coming (lucky lol). I found myself respecting it much more than 20 years ago, but holy cow, its pretty broken. By about halfway thru the game I was annihilating everything with ease, save for omega weapon. I figured you might make this game shine. Are you gonna bring it to the remaster or just the original PC version?

Seems like if you could put a lower ceiling on spell quantity and scale up over time + pullback on limit break abuse (including with aura) it could make a lot of difference.
« Last Edit: 2019-09-18 15:23:10 by lakecityransom »

Psymind

  • *
  • Posts: 8
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #59 on: 2019-09-28 01:07:48 »
Hoping this supports FF8 Remaster in the future. Love this mod on FF7 mate, keep up the good work :D

gunner_1207

  • *
  • Posts: 121
  • If your upright an above ground,its a gd day
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #60 on: 2019-10-17 20:01:03 »
I always thought that if the game was ever remade it would be cool if they let you switch between your cloths and SeeD uniforms if it's possible I wouldn't mind seeing it here.
have you given any thought as to how this is even done?, I've wanted this for ages but have no clue, i figure its in the main kernel somewhere. 

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #61 on: 2019-10-17 21:42:04 »
have you given any thought as to how this is even done?, I've wanted this for ages but have no clue, i figure its in the main kernel somewhere. 

There's a variable you can toggle I think. Couple problems: 1) SeeD uniforms have no equivalent battle models. 2) The SeeD and cadet uniforms on field screens are limited to where they're used in default game and it's currently difficult to add new field groups to a screen.

A hard-patch way of doing it would be to replace the regular battle character entries with the cadet ones. As for fields, I think each field has its own set of models (and animation set) rather than pulling them from an archive like FF7 PC does so swapping those out would take a lot more time.

Aerodynamics

  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #62 on: 2019-12-17 03:34:40 »
I loved your New Threat mod for FF7, its the reason i want to play it again.

I have a really deep conection with FF8 but i cant play it because it's not fun at all to me without a major overhaul of the junction and leveling up system.

If anyone can make me play FF8 again after 20 years it's you.

 I can only dream of playing this game again in a few years time. I'd like to say it's in your hands to fullfil my dream :p

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #63 on: 2019-12-17 12:22:24 »
I loved your New Threat mod for FF7, its the reason i want to play it again.

I have a really deep conection with FF8 but i cant play it because it's not fun at all to me without a major overhaul of the junction and leveling up system.

If anyone can make me play FF8 again after 20 years it's you.

 I can only dream of playing this game again in a few years time. I'd like to say it's in your hands to fullfil my dream :p

It won't take a few years to finish, probably a few months. A last update to FF7 NT before the remake comes out in early March is the current plan though. As for FF8 NT, the Summer sounds like a good time.

Aerodynamics

  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #64 on: 2019-12-18 03:38:46 »
It won't take a few years to finish, probably a few months. A last update to FF7 NT before the remake comes out in early March is the current plan though. As for FF8 NT, the Summer sounds like a good time.

It won't take a few years to finish, probably a few months. A last update to FF7 NT before the remake comes out in early March is the current plan though. As for FF8 NT, the Summer sounds like a good time.

Great :)
I haven’t tried the mod, I will only do so when it’s fully complete to disc 4. In paper, I applaud you for the following things that I feel should be great:
-   Junctioning system seems to be finally somewhat balanced now! 1 spell per stat and tiered stat bonuses, I really think it’ll be a good idea.
-   GFs no longer drawn- great, no more anxiety


Onto some suggestions (if you don’t mind):

The only thing keeping me from playing FF8 is the fact that it's not a "normal" game. It’s a broken game, gameplay wise, next to impossible to fix.

 Not sure if anyone has suggested the following, but I’d like to address changes to the main 2 issues that make FF8 broken and not fun: Magic and Enemy Leveling

1- Magic System: Should Work like a MP based system.
Since FF8 doesn’t have a MP system, either create one (this sounds awfuly hard) or use a workaround.
There could be limits to the max spells a character would store. These would be restored by items or sleeping.

 I believe a "tier + magic start" based system to determine the max spells could be a workaround the games non MP system.

Ex: tier 1: fire, blizzard, etc
tier 4: holy
Squall is level 10, magic 20, so he gets: a maximum of 10 fire spells and 2 holy spells (imagine he had drawn holy at level 10 lol). He spends spells and he can't cast anymore until he finds a inn or uses a item, or maybe even draws from an enemy.
If he increases his magic stat he gets more of each spell.

To limit the diversity of spells (like having 10 firagas, blizaga, thundaga, etc, maybe he could only use spells that are junctioned? Who knows.

Obviously this is meant to be a workaround the FF8 magic draw system to make it function as a MP system. If you can add actual MP that would be visible during a battle and just make spells and GFs deplete MP like a normal FF game, that would be amazing, but that seems very complicated for UI reasons too. With a regular MP system, maybe not even draw is needed.

2- GFs are shields and deal crap damage: Should be more like fragile ticking time bomb nukes

I think It’d be interesting if GFs didn’t shield you while charging. Instead, based on their strength, they would take longer and longer to charge, leaving you more and more vulnereable. They could also decrease your defense while charging. Like a risky move that can pay off. Not sure how to integrate this into the magic system though. Maybe only being able to summon a GF once or twice per fight, depending on the number junctioned, I dunno?

If the nuke approach doesnt work properly, maybe try to tie them into the "mp" style system, limit their usage, etc.

3 – All enemies on the same level:

I applaud the regular battles having a fixed enemy level. However, I am not sure I’m open to boss fight scaling with the party level, because, even if you need to level up to be able to beat the regular enemies, the hardest fights are always boss fights, so one still has an incentive to not level up after you feel you can beat the regular enemies.
I do recognize that boss fights that scale with you could be more challenging, but overall it’s not worth the anxiety of trying to not level up.

While not having played your mod, here’s some other sugestions/worrying things I’d like to discuss about FF8:

Weapons: I think there needs to be a big difference between weapon used and damage dealt. It’s barely felt on the original game, and in final fantasy 7 too. Final fantasy 9 has a pretty good scaling of weapon tier and damage dealt. Could make that as a guideline. I am not sure the 20 to 40 is enough to differentiate the weapons, but I didn’t try the mod so…

GF and abilities : Some make the characters feel too diferent from each other. Ex: one GF has +40% HP, makes Selfie a tank and a squishy Zell. Weird I know. Maybe a whole rethinking of the abilities is needed.

Card rules : Probably options to change these. Maybe add more events to challenge some NPCs. I really liked playing Triple Triad. Sure, it’s ridiculous to challenge Headmaster Cid in the middle of a Garden assault, but it’s fun.


I know these are a lot of ideas to think about, I’m not entirely sure if these are actually good solutions or if they were mentioned before, but I’d like to point them up anyway. I really would love to play FF8 again, but even with Ragnarok I feel some key issues are not addressed and therefore “deal breakers”, like magic and junctioning

Divatox

  • *
  • Posts: 88
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #65 on: 2019-12-26 05:52:25 »
Nate about the enemies, its a kinda very hard job edit the level of every enemy and put then back into game because are 844 battle locations in the FF8.
Making the bosses at the same level as the party is nice (i started to mod a second time my game)
Bosses will be in the same level as the party
and Ultimecia's Castle will be ALL enemies and bosses in the same level too (i expended about 3 weeks making those changes XD and edited the enemies putting more old bosses in normal battles like GeroGero, Fujin, Raijin)

Aerodynamics

  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #66 on: 2019-12-27 22:04:46 »
Nate about the enemies, its a kinda very hard job edit the level of every enemy and put then back into game because are 844 battle locations in the FF8.
Making the bosses at the same level as the party is nice (i started to mod a second time my game)
Bosses will be in the same level as the party
and Ultimecia's Castle will be ALL enemies and bosses in the same level too (i expended about 3 weeks making those changes XD and edited the enemies putting more old bosses in normal battles like GeroGero, Fujin, Raijin)

Thanks for your feedback ;) Regarding boss level scaling, when you level up do you feel like you probably didnt want to? When playing FF8 originally I tried to avoid levelling up because the bosses scale with you.

I agree it should be hard to edit all battle locations, but Sega Chief plans to edit all monsters to a fixed level, aren't the regular monster battles the biggest chunk of all those 844 battle locations? Shoulndn't be hard to edit the level of 50 bosses based on what the player level should be at that time and place in the game.

I would really like to hear your opinions (including of course Sega-Chief's) on the "MP like" system I talked about before.

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #67 on: 2019-12-28 12:48:51 »
Thanks for your feedback ;) Regarding boss level scaling, when you level up do you feel like you probably didnt want to? When playing FF8 originally I tried to avoid levelling up because the bosses scale with you.

I agree it should be hard to edit all battle locations, but Sega Chief plans to edit all monsters to a fixed level, aren't the regular monster battles the biggest chunk of all those 844 battle locations? Shoulndn't be hard to edit the level of 50 bosses based on what the player level should be at that time and place in the game.

I would really like to hear your opinions (including of course Sega-Chief's) on the "MP like" system I talked about before.

I'm not keen on an MP system; Stock is fairly unique to this game and I'd prefer to work around that system. But Stock and MP aren't a million miles apart in terms of how they work; both restrict the number of times a spell can be cast, so if Stock regenerates in some way then it begins to more closely resemble an MP system.

The game has a field opcode where spells can be added to a player's inventory. Not tried it yet but assuming it's functional (can't recall an instance where it was used in the vanilla game though, as Draw Points do it through their own special function) then an Inn could replenish spells to a certain point. But this requires the following:

1) A way to check what spells were on the character prior

2) A way to check how many of that specific spell are currently stocked to add the correct amount (unless it caps automatically when hitting max in which case this isn't needed)

3) A way of preventing a spell from vanishing when all stock is consumed and being locked from use when this is the case.

As for level-scaling; currently, most bosses have level-scaling while randoms do not. The idea was that due to randoms being fixed level, it wouldn't be feasible to grind out to an absurdly high level that would result in a super-powered boss. The EXP given by randoms though still seems to be quite high even with that so if it doesn't work out I'll go for fixed levels on bosses as well.

Aerodynamics

  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #68 on: 2019-12-29 01:10:37 »
I'm not keen on an MP system; Stock is fairly unique to this game and I'd prefer to work around that system. But Stock and MP aren't a million miles apart in terms of how they work; both restrict the number of times a spell can be cast, so if Stock regenerates in some way then it begins to more closely resemble an MP system.

The game has a field opcode where spells can be added to a player's inventory. Not tried it yet but assuming it's functional (can't recall an instance where it was used in the vanilla game though, as Draw Points do it through their own special function) then an Inn could replenish spells to a certain point. But this requires the following:

1) A way to check what spells were on the character prior

2) A way to check how many of that specific spell are currently stocked to add the correct amount (unless it caps automatically when hitting max in which case this isn't needed)

3) A way of preventing a spell from vanishing when all stock is consumed and being locked from use when this is the case.

As for level-scaling; currently, most bosses have level-scaling while randoms do not. The idea was that due to randoms being fixed level, it wouldn't be feasible to grind out to an absurdly high level that would result in a super-powered boss. The EXP given by randoms though still seems to be quite high even with that so if it doesn't work out I'll go for fixed levels on bosses as well.

You are right when you say stock and MP arent that different. However, in my opinion, as i'm fighting a boss, i like to (have to) use all i can to beat it. In my opinion, this is the most fun way, as bosses are challenging but manageable if one tries. Trying to not use your best magic in a boss is rather restrictive.

If i'm saving spells and they dont replenish after the boss (like in a game with MP where your party goes to sleep, etc), then I might not use them? Like, trying to hoard spells for late game :p

BTW, GFs start out with max affinity and one can regain that affinity by casting elemental spells, but what about some other methods?

All I can say is FF8 is such a different game when it comes to its system that making it more normal just seems like building a game from scratch! Which is a shame since the soundtrack and environments are so good.

Rikku

  • *
  • Posts: 42
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #69 on: 2019-12-29 09:44:18 »
Hi everyone !!

I have two suggestion in order to improve the FF8 system. These are two ideas though.

1º) Maybe rethink the magic refine system. I mean, boost the numer of magic and the items location (for example, graves only gives 5 magic, it could be changed to 10 or 20 and give the numer of graves given by enemys or perhaps create concrete shop who just sells this king of items).

2º) For hard purposes, i imagine the game as if you junction a magic then you can´t use it.
With this you need to decide which magic you junction and which magic you left to use it in battle and in the field giving a new level to the junction system and who seems to be justify by the own system.


Thank you all !!

Aerodynamics

  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #70 on: 2020-01-04 18:00:05 »
[delete this post please]
« Last Edit: 2020-01-07 15:50:22 by NateCordova »

Aerodynamics

  • *
  • Posts: 25
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #71 on: 2020-01-07 15:53:15 »
So I’ve finished a no-refine rundown of the NT8 demo. First of all, thank you for allowing us to demo your mod. I specifically bought the steam version just to play it.
I wish to share my opinions about the good things and things that I believe could be improved. First, I’ve read all the posts on this thread so I’ll try not to repeat known issues as I wish that this feedback can actually be useful.
Overall: I enjoyed it! Made me wish for more, for sure. The choices made are definitely improving the game in the right direction.

1- Found a graphical glitch: After fighting the Anacoundaur in Dollet there is a random encounter with a couple of soldiers that always make a really crazy graphical glitch where colored lines are all over the place. It has actually crashed my game once. It's either only related to this mod or the original game since I was playing with no other mods. Happened every single time at the start of the battle.

2- Regarding Gil, I found it easy to get as well, and the only thing they were worth for in my no-refine playthrough was phoenix downs and hi-potions. Maybe remove the tests and add a new mechanic increase your seed level? I find the tests mechanic rather tedious because one can just search the answers. It’s not really rewarding to be rich because one replied all the questions correctly :p. Another idea would be to lock seed test levels by game stages?

3- After playing through this mod I don’t think a MP system like I mentioned would be worth it. It’s perfectly fine right now regarding magic ;)

4- Characters:
+ I love the new limit break way of proc’ing. They are a nice risk to reward. Feels great to pull them off.
Zell, Quistis and Irvines LBs seem a bit underpowered. Zell could do a slight damage increase on the base moves, maybe 20%. Irvine could do with a small increase too in normal and shotgun ammo damage. No idea what to do with Quistis here.  Selphie LB is surprisingly fun to use
+ I love the super-fast Selfie and the tanky mage Quistis. Overall I still wished for Quistis to be a bit more tanky.
- Squall’s physical attack is ridiculously overpowered with the hit at 255%. Because of this, Zell and Irvine’s auto attacks are very underpowered.

5- Enemies:
+ Ifrit fight is great. I was surprised when he used his summon attack on my team
- Elvoret was a little too easy and could use some surprise moves.
+ X-ATM092, the robot fight in dollet is nice, perfect difficulty. I would like it if it surprised the party like the Scorpion Bot did on NT7 hehe.
- Granaldo was a little hard at first but super easy using siren to kill the 3 rock dudes. Killing the Armadodo’s makes the fight boring. It’s not that Siren’s op, it’s the armadoldos extreme water weakness. Probably can’t be fixed because they are random encounters.
+- I liked Diablos fight, but in my fight he didn't capitalize on my low hp and kept using gravity attacks instead. Only attacked phisically once or twice.
- Gerogero is just a little too tough offensively
- Minotaur and Sacred fight in my humble opinion could use some tweaks. They have too much HP or the characters don't have enough wind damage at that point. Maybe it’s because I had no Aero at this point? Ps: they can be slowed and if you use protect the fight is super easy, long and tedious. I like the float thing you did though ;)
- Seifer and Edea are tough as balls. I had to use everything I had, haste, shell, protect, dispel, everything. Then again, remember: I did not use any refines. I struggled most with the poison

6- Mecanics:
+ Junctioning is great. Cannot think of a better Junctioning system. Major thumbs up here.
- Hi-Potions with the med-data abilty, is basically a full-heal (1500hp). Intentional? Maybe reduce med-data to 50% instead of double?
- What’s your stance on Cure/Esuna/etc being able to assign to be used as a elemental attack for holy? Would that be boss breaking?
+ Draw system is actually interesting this time
- If you choose Water over aero in the first draw point with that choice, you never get to draw aero again. I would suggest changing the Timber bar entrance draw point to Aero/Water.
- Leveling up is too easy. Is there anyway to make level or EXP be gradual? Instead of being 1000p each level?
- Shell, Protect and Haste seem to last forever. Is this intencional?

7- Dialogues and story:
+ I enjoyed the few lines you added to some characters. It clarifies the story and makes the person feel more engaged. I would really love to see more of these lines on certain parts of the story. I do know it's a WIP.
-I wish there were more reminders to equip the Gfs and junctions in the game. Specifically, before the Iguion’s fight with Rinoa.
- I think players would benefit from a reminder after fighting the iguions, as squall enters the hallway, to search for the hatch.
+- Quality of life improvements are great and I hope you include more if possible. I would've liked be able to skip the sequence in which Rinoas farther explains the whole plan to attack the sorceress, for example.

Overall, I really enjoyed your mod. This is your mod, your decisions. If the feedback provided was useful in any way I would be really happy. I’ve got to admit I’m pretty excited to play the full version.

Cheers ;)

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #72 on: 2020-01-09 08:53:57 »
So I’ve finished a no-refine rundown of the NT8 demo. First of all, thank you for allowing us to demo your mod. I specifically bought the steam version just to play it.
I wish to share my opinions about the good things and things that I believe could be improved. First, I’ve read all the posts on this thread so I’ll try not to repeat known issues as I wish that this feedback can actually be useful.
Overall: I enjoyed it! Made me wish for more, for sure. The choices made are definitely improving the game in the right direction.

1- Found a graphical glitch: After fighting the Anacoundaur in Dollet there is a random encounter with a couple of soldiers that always make a really crazy graphical glitch where colored lines are all over the place. It has actually crashed my game once. It's either only related to this mod or the original game since I was playing with no other mods. Happened every single time at the start of the battle.

2- Regarding Gil, I found it easy to get as well, and the only thing they were worth for in my no-refine playthrough was phoenix downs and hi-potions. Maybe remove the tests and add a new mechanic increase your seed level? I find the tests mechanic rather tedious because one can just search the answers. It’s not really rewarding to be rich because one replied all the questions correctly :p. Another idea would be to lock seed test levels by game stages?

3- After playing through this mod I don’t think a MP system like I mentioned would be worth it. It’s perfectly fine right now regarding magic ;)

4- Characters:
+ I love the new limit break way of proc’ing. They are a nice risk to reward. Feels great to pull them off.
Zell, Quistis and Irvines LBs seem a bit underpowered. Zell could do a slight damage increase on the base moves, maybe 20%. Irvine could do with a small increase too in normal and shotgun ammo damage. No idea what to do with Quistis here.  Selphie LB is surprisingly fun to use
+ I love the super-fast Selfie and the tanky mage Quistis. Overall I still wished for Quistis to be a bit more tanky.
- Squall’s physical attack is ridiculously overpowered with the hit at 255%. Because of this, Zell and Irvine’s auto attacks are very underpowered.

5- Enemies:
+ Ifrit fight is great. I was surprised when he used his summon attack on my team
- Elvoret was a little too easy and could use some surprise moves.
+ X-ATM092, the robot fight in dollet is nice, perfect difficulty. I would like it if it surprised the party like the Scorpion Bot did on NT7 hehe.
- Granaldo was a little hard at first but super easy using siren to kill the 3 rock dudes. Killing the Armadodo’s makes the fight boring. It’s not that Siren’s op, it’s the armadoldos extreme water weakness. Probably can’t be fixed because they are random encounters.
+- I liked Diablos fight, but in my fight he didn't capitalize on my low hp and kept using gravity attacks instead. Only attacked phisically once or twice.
- Gerogero is just a little too tough offensively
- Minotaur and Sacred fight in my humble opinion could use some tweaks. They have too much HP or the characters don't have enough wind damage at that point. Maybe it’s because I had no Aero at this point? Ps: they can be slowed and if you use protect the fight is super easy, long and tedious. I like the float thing you did though ;)
- Seifer and Edea are tough as balls. I had to use everything I had, haste, shell, protect, dispel, everything. Then again, remember: I did not use any refines. I struggled most with the poison

6- Mecanics:
+ Junctioning is great. Cannot think of a better Junctioning system. Major thumbs up here.
- Hi-Potions with the med-data abilty, is basically a full-heal (1500hp). Intentional? Maybe reduce med-data to 50% instead of double?
- What’s your stance on Cure/Esuna/etc being able to assign to be used as a elemental attack for holy? Would that be boss breaking?
+ Draw system is actually interesting this time
- If you choose Water over aero in the first draw point with that choice, you never get to draw aero again. I would suggest changing the Timber bar entrance draw point to Aero/Water.
- Leveling up is too easy. Is there anyway to make level or EXP be gradual? Instead of being 1000p each level?
- Shell, Protect and Haste seem to last forever. Is this intencional?

7- Dialogues and story:
+ I enjoyed the few lines you added to some characters. It clarifies the story and makes the person feel more engaged. I would really love to see more of these lines on certain parts of the story. I do know it's a WIP.
-I wish there were more reminders to equip the Gfs and junctions in the game. Specifically, before the Iguion’s fight with Rinoa.
- I think players would benefit from a reminder after fighting the iguions, as squall enters the hallway, to search for the hatch.
+- Quality of life improvements are great and I hope you include more if possible. I would've liked be able to skip the sequence in which Rinoas farther explains the whole plan to attack the sorceress, for example.

Overall, I really enjoyed your mod. This is your mod, your decisions. If the feedback provided was useful in any way I would be really happy. I’ve got to admit I’m pretty excited to play the full version.

Cheers ;)


First thing is an AI glitch that causes the file to run on into its textures; one of the enemies in that formation must have not had the fix applied to it, causing the error.

Gil I think was going to be balanced up once I got notes on how SeeD rank wages are calculated, it's more or less how it was in vanilla at the moment.

Squall's physical attacks seem hard-wired for 255% accuracy; I think I read in SmallDirt's reverse-engineering thread of the animation data that the flags for that are stored in there. Couple of approaches could be:

a) adjusting the crit-rate for trigger down from 1.5x damage to something lower like 1.25 or 1.33 and splitting his weapons into two categories, one with high base power and one with less base power but a high crit% modifier. Squall can actually land normal critical hits that deal 2x damage but only if the trigger isn't used; this even applies to Renzokuken so at high Luck you might be better off not using the trigger at all and hoping for natural crits to land. His weapons also split naturally into two categories as he has a revolver and pistol variant for each tier so that might be a way to go. This would mean he still has 255% accuracy though.

b) Altering the animation data so that trigger is no longer used and Squall's physicals are the same as the others. This would hopefully get rid of the 255% accuracy thing but it would also mean getting rid of a fairly unique battle mechanic (Renzokuken should be unaffected).

Granaldo is a difficult fight to make interesting; neither he or the Raldos have a magic-capable animation (that I'm aware of) so it's mostly restricted to physical attacks and you only have 2 party members vs. 4 enemies which restricts how aggressive you can make them without it getting annoying.

I was told that the Edea fight is one of those fights that, if you lose, it just proceeds to the FMV but it doesn't seem to be the case. I might try and make that be the case so that winning is a bonus of some sort.

I'll take a second look at the healing items. I think I wanted med-data available early so you can have one character act as a 'chemist' of sorts with an advantage when using items. Hi-Potion is probably too potent because I was wanting to future-proof it a bit.

Could set Cure/Esuna for Holy element attack junction, assuming the spells that can be equipped aren't hard-coded somewhere.

I wanted to try and make the Draw Points offer a choice that has impact. Aero is handy for Elvoret and Granaldo, while Water is good for X-ATM (and I think Gerogero, not sure). I'll see about adding Aero to one of the Timber draw points though I think Thrustaevis in the Galbadia area world map has it by that point.

EXP is too high, I've since adjusted it a lot. I overestimated the adjustment that's made for characters being lower/higher level than the enemies.

I did set protect/shell/haste to have the max possible duration time, which isn't infinite but will last a super long time on wait ATB. I'm not sure whether to keep that or not, I personally never liked Protect/Shell being finite in this game because there's no visual cue for when it happens. If they had gauges or a visible cue like Haste then it'd be better.

I'll add a Junction reminder + menu call before Iguion and maybe set an event line so that if you go past the hatch, Squall will turn around to look at it. Will also add an option to have a short version of the briefing instead of the full guided tour version.

Thanks for the feedback, gave me some things to think about.

smalldirt

  • *
  • Posts: 23
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #73 on: 2020-01-09 12:37:57 »

b) Altering the animation data so that trigger is no longer used and Squall's physicals are the same as the others. This would hopefully get rid of the 255% accuracy thing but it would also mean getting rid of a fairly unique battle mechanic (Renzokuken should be unaffected).

Actually What can be done is to Change his attack scripts by weapon
1) Make his attack at start to be a regular one
2) Make his regular attack non missable
3) Implent triggering for His ultimate weapon.

This Way his weapons Will be more unique and gives more reasons to upgrade.

Sega Chief

  • *
  • Posts: 4086
  • These guys is sick
    • View Profile
Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #74 on: 2020-01-09 13:08:59 »
Actually What can be done is to Change his attack scripts by weapon
1) Make his attack at start to be a regular one
2) Make his regular attack non missable
3) Implent triggering for His ultimate weapon.

This Way his weapons Will be more unique and gives more reasons to upgrade.

It can be done on a weapon per weapon basis? That's great news.