Difficulty mod - Taking Requests

[auxili160]

I'll be working on a difficulty mod in the future and I thought it'd be a good idea to start taking requests for balancing.
This mod will be balanced and not as crazy as the 2x and 3x stat mods. I'm aiming for a 1.5x to 2.5x difficulty mod (not 1.5x to 2.5x stats).
Some encounters will be more intense (such as Harpies, Hell Rider VR2, and other large and special enemies) and random encounters will require you to actually use the resources available to you.

If anyone would like certain changes to be made in terms of specific enemies, specific materia AP, spell properties (making Big Guard cost more MP, for example), and so forth, just tell me here.

[freezingicekirby]

Is it possible to change Super Nova from a Gravity attack to a normal attack?  After you learn that it is a gravity attack, the only thing you have to dread is the 2-3 minutes waiting for it to finish... but actually making it do an attack that could kill, could make people playing actually worry about seeing that attack.

If you do finish this difficulty patch, I look forward to it    Thank you in advance

[Sefurosu]

no offense, but why are you making a difficulty mod when Gjoerulv is already making a really good one?

[auxili160]

If his ends up being what I'm looking for, then I suppose it'd only be smart to use his instead of make my own. However, since I've never had a chance to try out the previous versions of his mod, I have no idea whether it's what I'm looking for.
It's also likely that, when he releases v2, I could simply use that as a starting point for my own difficulty mod. There are certain things I think need to be changed in particular (things in the kernel.bin that come to mind are cure1 being too cheap, beta/aqualung/matra-magic being overpowered early on, and some enemy skills being better than normal spells).

Basically, if gjoe's mod ends up being what I'm looking for, I'll either use that or change it up a tad. Until then, I'd like to know what people would like changed.

[Tsetra]

I think you should just adjust stats and don't touch anything else. I don't like how most of the other mods change what items do completely, remove techniques, remove commands, basically remix the game. You should just make it a pure difficulty mod - increase HP here, increase magic defense there, weaken something here... know what I mean? That's just my opinion though.
I can't remember who it was either, but somebody changed the fight against Safer Sephiroth to where he had multiple forms. That was an interesting concept and doesn't seem to break the game as dramatically as removing commands and such.

[auxili160]

I'm not changing what items do completely or anything, removing techniques, removing commands, and so forth. No idea where you got that from.
However, ffvii's materia system DOES need rebalancing. No remixing is being done, and gjoe's mod simply balances things.

The difficulty and enjoyment of games doesn't simply revolve around enemies, it also revolves around the player.

[Tsetra]

I'm not saying you brought it up, just saying to avoid that because that's what most of the other difficulty mods on here do, which turns me away from them.

[auxili160]

Well Death spells obviously need to be tweaked because they pretty much make difficult encounters easy, and there are other exploitable things in ffvii that make the game easy. Enemy difficulty isn't the only factor. That's all I'm saying.

[twipley]

I'm aiming for a 1.5x to 2.5x difficulty mod

That's a good thing, because the original game IMO is too easy.

[auxili160]

Well I don't think there's any harm in having different difficulty mods. I want certain enemies to be really strong while others are simply buffed up versions of themselves. I don't want random encounters to be a struggle for your life, nor for them to take a minute, but I want the enemies to put up a fight. This doesn't simply lie in stat multiplying, because some enemies still do crap damage if they have 60str and 80spd. They'll get one attack on you before all three of your characters attack them for 400 damage, thus depleting the "buffed' enemy's 1000+ hp.

I've also been thinking of doing an endgame mod, where players can actually do something when they're done the game other than simply fight ruby and emerald weapon. I mean, buffing up your party is fun, but in vanilla ffvii you're really only doing so to defeat the weapons at the end of the game. That's what it all boils down to.