Qhimm.com Forums

Final Fantasy 7 => Gameplay => Releases => Topic started by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-23 00:39:05

Title: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-23 00:39:05
DOWNLOAD v1.0.7.2 (http://www.mediafire.com/file/c2ffx2ebgods944/Gjoerulv-1.0.7.2.zip/file)


Older version if new one fails (The 1.0.7.1-2 version only includes a fix for restoring backups):
DOWNLOAD v1.0.7 (https://www.mediafire.com/file/id0d01m480uapj7/Gjoerulv-1.0.7.zip/file)


Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/gjoerulv)

For windows. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Your computer should have it, unless you never update (if the program runs, you have it). Info/Downloads .Net framework. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa496123)
The program should be more or less compatible with Wine on any other OS.

Select the ff7 data folder and which files to patch. It's easy.
If it's your 1st time patching you should pick all files, unless you don't want new bosses, equipment tweaks etc. (see the "info" in the patch application). On updates after v1.01, there is no need to patch battle.lgp.
flevel.lgp was updated last in v1.0.5.
Worth playing on new updates? The experience will most likely be very similar, but read the notes and decide for yourself.

Works with re-release (2012), steam release and original release (the 1998 release for the PC). There is an option in the program where you can select what release you have. If you use Kranmer's new-to-old patch on the re-release, then select the "original (1998)" option.

Original (1998) release only:
To fix the MDEF bug in the game I would suggest using Aali's custom graphic driver (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8306.0).
OR
Mdef bug fix by NFITC1 and dziugo. Get it HERE! (http://www.mediafire.com/?omijzegnczt).
How to use it is explained HERE! (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5124.0)

Re-release and STEAM:
You must select the language you play with, or else the game won't be patched. Click "Detect" to find your right language.

new in 1.0.7.1 / 1.0.7.2 (01.05.2019 / 11.04.2020):  : Restore backups fix. No gameplay changes.

Files updated in 1.0.7: scene.bin, kernel.bin and kernel2.bin.
new in 1.0.7 (30.08.2018):

Now also contains a new mod called MonoMod. Read the "MonoMod" tab under information on what it does.

new in 1.0.6s (27.06.2014)
*Added the "Adjust for STEAM" button. No files updated for actual gameplay. Forgot to fix the "1997" type-o.

Files updated in 1.0.6: scene.bin, kernel2.bin.
new in 1.0.6 (22.08.2012):

Files updated in 1.0.5: scene.bin, kernel.bin, flevel.lgp and ff7.exe.
New in 1.0.5 (19.10.2011):

What it does:
Basically boosts the game difficulty. This mod mainly strives to refresh the gameplay by sticking to the original settings, BUT it also tweaks some enemy AI, spell effect, equipments, etc, for different reasons. For instance, there are quite a few bugs in the AI and field scripts. Most of these have been fixed (all I know of). Also, many equipments, spells and enemy skills are useless, gets obsolete and/or are overpowered or cheap. Thus some equipments and attack effects are tweaked in an attempt to balance things out. With the above said, keep in mind I try to keep all things as close to the original as possible while refreshing the gameplay. I don't want a new FF7, I want a refreshed, more difficult FF7.

This mod also add some new enemies and bosses to the game. Basically at every summon materia there is a new boss.
For more information, click the "info." button in the patch application.

Stuck on a boss?
Sega Chief over @ Youtube have uploaded a neat boss play-through that includes this mod.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHycnnWEuVLzv55BKJ88g3h75qmuyU_gJ (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHycnnWEuVLzv55BKJ88g3h75qmuyU_gJ)

Possible issues (for moders):
The patch will not overwrite files in battle.lgp. If you have added new battle models to battle.lgp, models with same names as mine will not be touched. This will make the game likely to crash when you encounter these models in-game. To avoid this, simply rename your models. My models starts with name sn**, and ends with ud**. Which means you can start at ue**.
This will only be a problems if new models were added to battle.lgp, not replaced.

Scene.bin, kernel.bin, kernel2.bin and several field files in flevel.lgp will be overwritten. To avoid inconsistencies with any translation project you may want to not patch kernel2.bin. The field files overwritten by this patch usually don't contain much dialogue (See the log file (after the patch is done) to see which files inside flevel.lgp that were overwritten). For more info.on the files: read the info. in the patch app (click info.). 

There is a new boss here if you haven't picked up that materia yet (Omega):
(https://gjoerulv.com/images/omegai.jpg)

Thanks to:
Qhimm forum members.
M4v3R: Scene Reader and Scene Edit.
Lord Ramza: Scenester
Squall: Hojo
Borde: Kimera
Synergy Blades: Meteor
dziugo: 9999 Limit Breaker (for testing purposes)
NFITC1: Wall Marked and Proud Clod
DLPB and luksy: For spotting file errors
Christian Maas: Hex-editor XVI32
And myself for awesome handsomeness!!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-23 02:29:24
I wouldnt consider this hard.  Its more like normal difficulty.  I only tested a few fightas and they dont' appear hard.   They put up a fight but not hard at all.    And their appears to be some random encoutners taht are extremely hard and can only be defeated later in the game.   I have a problem with that cause the random super enimies appears quite often and extremely hard to run away from.

Nice try though.  I'm always looking for someone who can make a scene.bin file thats reasonibly very hard.

Keep up the good work but for the time being I guess I like my files better since its 1.5x to 3x harder then yours in disc 1.    And during mid disc 2 to disc 3 is so hard(I use alot of HP pluses to max HPs)  I have to run from alot of the fight if I dont have limits ready or I don't have much MPs for summons.  Yeah my mid disc 2 is probably supidly hard but its near the end and I should balance it out alittle more but I got lazy.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-23 03:30:08
Thank You for trying it ARMs. I'm honored. I may have something to add...

...I didn't say it was THE hardest version. I know you didn't suggest it but this wasn't supposed to be as hard as possibe. I edited it to MY likings. How i feel the game should be. And to add I did make it easy in the beginning with purpose. I don't like spending hours in the beginning to progress the story. It don't actually gets "hard" until sector 8 or Gea's Cliff or so +-. In other words when a normal/ first time gamer (or a gamer that don't go too deep) has the resources and level to deal with it. And I also kept in mind that there might be people who'd never tried anything harder before, thus giving the explanation I did (not just keeping the enter button down all the time lol). I know normal/first time gamers'll probably never try this so it might be vague... This being said I do expect only experienced FFVII gamers to try it.

I must admit though, that the bosses (and many enemies) are still way too wimpy. I intend to correct this, and many other things. Like adding status effects to attack, attacks effecting all etch. What I've edited 'til now is just what Scenester "allowed" me to edit.

Please give me more feedback. Appreciate it!!  :-D

EDIT:

Quote from: ARMs
And their appears to be some random encoutners taht are extremely hard and can only be defeated later in the game.   I have a problem with that cause the random super enemies appears quite often and extremely hard to run away from.

Yes I have added some "extremely" hard encounters early in the game. As I said I only expect "skilled" FF players to test this, and those players are sane enough to save often when they know it is harder. So I got the idea of adding 1 (or more) "unbeatable" enemy in each area. And those monster should be next to impossible to run away from. What is the point if not.  Later in the game you can beat 'em and claim the spoils. There are however ways of defeating them early, but that is supposed to be a secret for gamers to figure out. I believe this spice up the idea of random encounters witch FF1-10 are all about.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-23 04:25:04
Actually mines not as hard as you may think.  Making them 1.5 times stronger then what yours is doing still doesn't require much leveling if you got skill.   to make things hard you have to maek them deal enough damage to at least deal 20 percent damage to your characters health up to 75 percent of damage while they are in back row.   How ever if they get a back attack against you sometimes you it will get quite deadly.

When edition you should lay down markers of levels that you think is required when you enter that area.

Examaple is this:

By the time you exit midgar the players character level should be around 16.
Reach junion Level 19.
Jenova Birth level 21.
Dyne level 23
Gi Nattak level 30
Materia keeper Level 34 with HP Pluses Required
Rapps level 40
Demons Gate level 45 with HP pluses Required.

Thing about HP pluses is that If you don't enclude it into the equation it totally breaks the difficulty.

I actually use those levels cause by those points of the game reaching it would reiqure maybe 5 to 10 extra minutes of leveling (after you done searching the dugeons for Treasures) between each dungeions and trying to overlevel would take quite the large amount of time.   And if your skill you should think up strategys to beat the bosses at levels close to the mark.

I'm not telling you to use those level marks but something close to it where it woudlnt be easy to accidently overlevel by a large margin.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-23 05:06:34
U have good points there ARMs. I don't intend making it harder in the beginning. But I consider making it harder after rocket village. 'Cause that is the first time in the game the places you choose to go to are optional. My level chart isn't very different from yours. I think I'm 5-10 lvls below u against Demon Gate. And it is important to consider what is available at all times in the game like the HP plus materia as you stated. But I don't consider damage dealt by enemies the only factor to making it difficult.

I intend to add many status alignments using a hex editor. There are plenty of other factors that can improve battles. example, the enemies Speed and defense can play a major role.

This version is just half done. Maybe not even that. And I haven't even tested it properly. I just used the debug room to check that there wasn any bugs. And I always went with a lvl 99 Cloud, lvl 10 Barret and a lvl 50 Yuffie to check the damage differences with half good armor and weapons equipped.  Both dealt and taken. I haven't actually played it myself yet but I intend to. However i can't atm 'cause I'm visiting my parents and I didn't bring the game :P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-23 08:15:55
Trust me on this I have done all this already that your talking about and well....   Adding status ailments are good an all but ribbon negates nearly everything.   And even if you have put stat ailments if the damage is not high enough it just doesn't matter cause most status ailments can be easily nulled.

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-23 09:57:38
Of course! As i said: You have to consider what is available at all times in the game. In the beginning you don't have anything to prevent any status alignment. In the end you probably have everything there is, thus the monsters must be based on that. You could make things available early on (like Guard scorpion dropping a ribbon), and "calculate" the difficulties based on that, but imo it's better to just use the original pattern the game has. it would be too tedious to make a new system like that, and I don't have the time.

What i plan to do however is to make several items (Grenades, Mute mask etch) available more instead of potions all the time. Something I've done already is to add 'Ink' and 'Dream Powder' as a drop from Marines (one example I remember now. There was more but I kept my notes at home).

One thing I also want to do is to lower the strength of KOTR and change the effect of Ribbon. Lets say Ribbon prevents Poison/Silence/Blind or anything but all effects. That would be an effective way of increasing the difficulty. Still u can just use Added Effect+Hades. Though this also removes the uselessness of many items.

An additional thing I want to add is more MP based damge, so you generally have depend on more items for healing. Thus spending more money. This includes removing the laughable sell rate of the Master All materia. 

And may I add that when all characters have reached lvl 99 you should have a certain control over the game. The only thing left to do at this point is to beat the game, so IMO the hardest part must be the final showdown.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-23 11:20:49
Yeah I'm trying to find out where the data for selling materia is at.   I can't seem to lower the ammount for a mastered materia.  The game has it set at 70x the price at the Shops.   Thats rediculously high.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-24 10:33:07
Yeah I'm trying to find out where the data for selling materia is at.   I can't seem to lower the ammount for a mastered materia.  The game has it set at 70x the price at the Shops.   Thats rediculously high.

Yeah! Didn't find it either. It should be in the Kernel somewhere, but WHERE? Oh and btw ARMs you have a copy of your Scene. Would like to try it. Though I can't before I get home again (ca 2-3 weeks). But I could keep it on my HD 'til that.

I'm still waiting for a tip to get the final bosses (all of 'em) harder. All I did was raising their stats. I bet I'll find out something when i get home but doesn't hurt to get some experienced tip lol.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-24 11:51:36
well sorry but i'm not gonna distribute my scene files anymore.   If someone else here or somewhere has it and is willing to share it with you thats fine by me.   I done some more editing since then but its still close to what I had before.

If you want to see some sweet mods you should check out youtube.  Theirs some great stuff out there that's not listed as any patch here.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-06-24 16:31:03
Lol, one tip to make the final bosses harder might be to add other enemies into the fight.
Not impossible but would take alot of patience with the Hex editor and looking at hex numbers for a loooong time.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-25 04:43:36
well sorry but i'm not gonna distribute my scene files anymore.   If someone else here or somewhere has it and is willing to share it with you thats fine by me.   I done some more editing since then but its still close to what I had before.

If you want to see some sweet mods you should check out youtube.  Theirs some great stuff out there that's not listed as any patch here.

NP ARMs. It doesn't really matter. I've tried plenty but nothing met my satisfaction. Thats (one of the reasons) why i decided to make my own.
Those on youtube are too much for my taste. At least those I've seen. But I saw someone who removed the animation for 'Super Nova' and replaced it with something else. I liked that. Not that I don'r like that move but it's way too long to see many times in a looong fight.

Lol, one tip to make the final bosses harder might be to add other enemies into the fight.
Not impossible but would take alot of patience with the Hex editor and looking at hex numbers for a loooong time.

Thanks for the tip Skill. Though I must say i don't like that idea. Perhaps with another boss but not them. lol It would be funny to add one or more Sephiroths though (the very last one) to the fight.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-06-25 05:09:23
Thanks for the tip Skill. Though I must say i don't like that idea. Perhaps with another boss but not them. lol It would be funny to add one or more Sephiroths though (the very last one) to the fight.
Please don't add more Sephiroths to the final fight. That would be pretty immersion breaking, IMO.

Looking forward to the development of the mod. :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-25 06:28:49
Well i hope you can make a good scene then.   I woudln't mind a normal difficulty setting that i could breeze threw if it was done right, when i'm frustrated with my hard patch or someones hard patch thats actually good.   

I think its stupid to have a hard setting where in first reactor you had to spend time level till your level 18 and guard scorpion still kills you.  I've never seen this one but i did hear it from someone.  when he or she asked for the particular patch.   My first comment was do you actually enjoy something like that?.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-25 07:28:48
Please don't add more Sephiroths to the final fight. That would be pretty immersion breaking, IMO.

Looking forward to the development of the mod. :D

lol that suggestion wasn't serious twip. But it had been fun to test it. Imagine 3 Sephiroths under the real thing he, he. Like his goons or something. And yeah I look forward to edit more. But for now it's vacation and sun time. I'll get back to business in 2-3 weeks.

I think its stupid to have a hard setting where in first reactor you had to spend time level till your level 18 and guard scorpion still kills you.  I've never seen this one but i did hear it from someone.  when he or she asked for the particular patch.   My first comment was do you actually enjoy something like that?.

Well I wouldn't. Others maybe. It could be a challenge to only try the 1st reactor then quit. To do this for the entire game would be way too tedious.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-06-25 09:36:09
Uh, yea adding more Sephiroths to 1 Sephiroth would be overkill.
With previous bosses it is easier, because there are other enemies in the same scene file, so it is easy to copy paste and enemy into the fight.
Bare in mind you need to work out how to position them - I didn't get that far..
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-06-25 15:35:18

lol that suggestion wasn't serious twip. But it had been fun to test it. Imagine 3 Sephiroths under the real thing he, he. Like his goons or something. And yeah I look forward to edit more. But for now it's vacation and sun time. I'll get back to business in 2-3 weeks.
haha, I'm noticing it, now. :D

I got two small questions for you, if you don't mind:

1) Did you use FFSceneEditor (the supposedly bug-free scene editor) for you work?

2) Have you any opinions to share about http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6810.msg84903#msg84903 ?

See you later,
twipley
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-06-25 16:19:43
There are 2 main scene editors and neither are bug free.
One has the famous potion item bug, while the other has elemental properties incorrectly listed.
I did my main editing manually with a hex editor after I realised I had the elemental damage incorrect.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-26 19:13:37
I got two small questions for you, if you don't mind:

1) Did you use FFSceneEditor (the supposedly bug-free scene editor) for you work?

2) Have you any opinions to share about http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6810.msg84903#msg84903 ?

See you later,
twipley

1: I used Scenester. The two of 'em are pretty similar. The main difference is that Scenester lets you see every scene file while SceneEditor shows every monster only. There are drawbacks with both imo. 'Cause if you want some monsters of similar type to be different from each other, you can't do that with SceneEditor (unless you've already edited 'em before). I believe it searches for all similar monsters within the files and displays 'em. SceneEditor is somewhat faster to work with though, if you don't care 'bout this. Scenester got more options than Sceneeditor.

2: Yeah I've urged for that as well. I've actually made some enemies harder based on speed instead of strength/magic. Lets say Speed x2-x3 and HP+STR x 1.5 only. You may not notice it. It depends on your playing style (playing in active you'll def notice). This can get leathal if you alter their attacks as well. This requiter a hex editor.

The general idea (not only with Speed) is to make each fight as "unique" as possible.

And I've already increased the HP a lot towards the end. I added minimum 5x HP in Northern Cavern pr monster.

I agree all bosses must be at least 10 times harder than what they originally were. not Palmer lol, and mabye Emerald and Ruby don't need to be 10 times harder, but harder indeed. The 1st time I played it, ca 10 years ago, I was honestly somewhat disappointed with the difficulty. I think the last time I played it seriously was 6 or 7 years ago. But recently I got a sudden urge to play it and the idea of making it harder consumed me at once he, he.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-06-27 03:20:07
That's great!
I'm looking forward to playing this game again, too. :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-06-27 09:30:46
Which is the editor that lets you see the enemy formation? I remember there was a button to see the enemy "parties" for that scene file?
Thats the editor with the incorrect Elemental properties, while the other one had a bug in that every enemy you edit regardless of the item you can only steal/win a potion. Thats why in Elentor's patch all you would win was potions, made for a truly ridculous difficulty.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-06-27 17:28:07
and what's the editor that produces "random encounters", like seemingly-undefeatable enemies in early game?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-06-27 21:14:32
I think that was corruption, or something on the users part?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-06-28 06:07:38
Hows this mod going along? is it complete... as in can i play the game start to finish on with harder difficulty?

Just a little something that might help.
From what i remember the starting character's speed for each character in the party is 255/3 = 85, with dexterity & agility haveing no recognisable impact of their speed. so imo each monsters speed should be also set to 85... the default monster speed is much lower, even most bosses only get to attack once for 2 of yours.
One other thing that always annoyed me is monsters with spell casting abilities need to have their mp + magic str multiplied by at least 10, as theres nothing sadder than seeing a creature cast demi only to take off 12hp.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-06-28 06:40:52
Which is the editor that lets you see the enemy formation? I remember there was a button to see the enemy "parties" for that scene file?
Thats the editor with the incorrect Elemental properties, while the other one had a bug in that every enemy you edit regardless of the item you can only steal/win a potion. Thats why in Elentor's patch all you would win was potions, made for a truly ridculous difficulty.

In Scenester you can view the formations. I didn't test it. SceneEditor is the one with the item bug (I believe :P). I don't think I've tried Elentor's patch, but I did DL a patch called "hard patch" or something from another topic a while ago. I belive that might be it, but I'm unable to try it now. Had been fun to test it.

Hows this mod going along? is it complete... as in can i play the game start to finish on with harder difficulty?

Just a little something that might help.
From what i remember the starting character's speed for each character in the party is 255/3 = 85, with dexterity & agility haveing no recognisable impact of their speed. so imo each monsters speed should be also set to 85... the default monster speed is much lower, even most bosses only get to attack once for 2 of yours.
One other thing that always annoyed me is monsters with spell casting abilities need to have their mp + magic str multiplied by at least 10, as theres nothing sadder than seeing a creature cast demi only to take off 12hp.

It isn't complete but every monster in the game is edited. You wil notice an increase in difficulty. Not that much in the beginning. At Gea's Cliff (or whatever it was called) and after I believe it would get pretty hard. I'm not entirely sure 'cause I haven't actually game tested it myself. I only tested it for bugs with a party with huge lvl gaps (Cloud lvl 99, Yuffie lvl50, Barret lvl 10).

And those monsters who's fast isn't just 2x in speed but +100 or so. I can't remember clearly.

The enemies magic power isn't decided on their Magic stat alone. It's lvl and the actual attack matters just as much. In each scene there are 28 bytes pr attack. One of those bytes is a power modifier for the attack. So increasing it to 0xFF would help a great deal lol. It is impossible to increase every monsters magic by 10x 'cause the cap is 255 (1 byte). A monster having 70 in magic would turn out to 700. It's better just to double it and increase the lvl. Same goes for strength. However increasing MP and HP by 10x is possible.

See 1st post. I'll make an "what to do" list. I'm going to Germany today, and after that I'll have a little more quality time with my family before I return home and continue with this mod.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-06-28 09:41:24
Seems there maybe a reason to test drive this  :evil:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-06-28 14:59:36
I just finished my first test run of the hardcore mod. First up and i would have to say that it certaintly lives up to the name... its more like a hardcore for cyborgs on crack mode.

This is my mini review of sections: No.1 Reactor(start) up to Sector7 Slums(second checkpoint in game)
- battle difficulty = Excellent but not perfect
- Creature speed should be lower because the player only has 2 party members in this part of the game.
- exp gained was much too low, it felt too much like a mmorpg level grind, it took me a 1hour and 30 minutes to complete just this section. However i probley wouldn't have cared about leveling if i could have just gained enough potions to go fight the boss already.
- potion drops should be set to 100% so the player can build up a collection of them easier... trying to collect 10 potions was the main reason this section took me so long
- Plume Bolt was a nice touch, a tactic i tried to use was to use the plume bolt just to gain another one, by doing so level up quicker, which didnt work because i couldnt get enough potions to keep me healthy. In the end having one came in real handy for escaping the reactor without dieing.
- grenades, considering this is the only part of the game where they can be usefull you probley should make them easier to get & from more enemies.
- assault gun: this can be bought in the very first store the player comes across, hence it should be removed from guard scorpion to give the player the choice of whether he wants to buy it or not... change the reward to something else, perhaps a tent or a couple of those bolt plumes would be handy.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-06-28 23:45:32
Nevermind.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-07-02 04:32:13
I'm using Hay's reasonable mod, and so far it's working great. Just the difficulty I was looking for, and my personal recommendation for newcomers.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-07-02 05:13:29
After the initial hard difficulty of the start of this one, it seems to get reasonable from after the section i was talking about.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-07-03 10:44:44
Thanks for the review Kashmir. you're statements seems very reasonable. I thought the 1st and 2nd reactor may have turned too hard and it can easily be fixed with more exp and higher drop rates.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-07-03 13:43:15
Thanks for the review Kashmir. you're statements seems very reasonable. I thought the 1st and 2nd reactor may have turned too hard and it can easily be fixed with more exp and higher drop rates.

Another encounter you might want to change is hell-house. Trying to fight this thing with just cloud and aeries is dam hard. Currently it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to kill it, and if you have someone in the front row it can kill them in one go.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-07-03 16:31:23
Another encounter you might want to change is hell-house. Trying to fight this thing with just cloud and aeries is dam hard. Currently it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to kill it, and if you have someone in the front row it can kill them in one go.

Keep it coming. I'll jot it down. Is it total overkill or can you survive on full hp? I kinda wanted the Hell-house to be hard. I'll figure out some kind of reward for killing it this early.

One I think also may be too hard is Jenova Life. I'll wait for that.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-07-03 17:15:49
Keep it coming. I'll jot it down. Is it total overkill or can you survive on full hp? I kinda wanted the Hell-house to be hard. I'll figure out some kind of reward for killing it this early.
You have to use cure almost every second round... even when you have 3 people later on its still a difficult encounter. I was expecting a bucket load of exp & gp for killing it, was so disappointed when i got virtually nothing. After the train graveyard you can cut off 1000hp of it by using a grav ball. I've lost against it twice, so yeah its definitely overkill.

I would've just run from it, but i use that particular area i gather gp to buy materia & items in the shops nearby.

A whole lot of gp might make it worth it... like 2000 perhaps? nobodys going to wanna sit there killing heaps of them.

One I think also may be too hard is Jenova Life. I'll wait for that.
Thats the encounter on the boat right? I'll look out for it, but i doubt it will be too hard... normally you have a fair amount of materia (elemental in particular) to play with by then, also its a boss, so its okay to loose against it a few times as long as its possible to beat.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-07-03 17:58:53
A whole lot of gp might make it worth it... like 2000 perhaps? nobodys going to wanna sit there killing heaps of them.

That sounds fair. A heap of gil would be worth it.

I had an odd idea though. If you win 500-1000 gil from it and a 3% chance of winning one of any source besides the luck and mind source. So it's a 12% chance of winning a source (just 1, never more). That would be ok 'cause the only time you encounter it it is this early in the game and after you acquire the sector 5 key. It would be pure luck to figure it out. And when you return you must kill between 5-10 of these to claim 1 source.

You could level up like crazy early just to get these, but that would make the game easy anyway and wouldn't be worth it imo.

Thats the encounter on the boat right? I'll look out for it, but i doubt it will be too hard... normally you have a fair amount of materia (elemental in particular) to play with by then, also its a boss, so its okay to loose against it a few times as long as its possible to beat.

I ment jenova birth. The one on the boat yes. And it doesn't have eny elemental attacks btw. Try sense on it the 1st time you fight it
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-07-25 05:57:48
Heya i only just noticed this had been updated :P

Could you explain why the following changes were made:
    * Flash commando is removed (could easily be brought back if you want this custom made lol).
    * Master Command works as Coin, and Coin command is removed from Throw materia (Could also be brought back).

    * MDef on equipment is fixed. Not by adding MDef but Spirit. : And how does this work in a bit more detail please.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-07-27 19:17:08
Heya i only just noticed this had been updated :P

Could you explain why the following changes were made:
    * Flash commando is removed (could easily be brought back if you want this custom made lol).
    * Master Command works as Coin, and Coin command is removed from Throw materia (Could also be brought back).

    * MDef on equipment is fixed. Not by adding MDef but Spirit. : And how does this work in a bit more detail please.

ok!

The reason for the 1st 2 points is simply cause I don't like those commands. However if you for any reason want my mod w these commands please let me know. I'll put up a alternative download.

Why don't I like 'em? imo Flash is kinda overkill and Coin gives you an easy win combined with Mime. And Master Command imo looks silly IMO. I know many people like this but I don't. Master Command gives you another Mime and Coin as well...

There is a MDef bug in the game (if you didn't know). No equipment gives you any MDef what so ever. Spirit = MDef. Thats why I added the same amount of Spirit bonus to defensive equipment as there should be MDef bonus.
For instance: Iron Bangle has a +2 MDef. But it doesn't add +2 MDef. It does, however, have a +2 Spirit bonus. The Spirit increases with 2 and thus the MDef does as well.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2007-07-27 19:38:05
What is flash command again?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-07-27 20:14:09
Flash command is the command which kills all enemies in 1 go. If it works that is...

And BTW Master Command is now Flash! Not Coin as earlier. Kinda like an Ultimate Command lol.

Edit:

OK, I've tried something without success. Does anyone know how to alter the flash command so it appears as an own command and not just replace the attack command? Is it even possible? I guessed it had something to do with the 1st Kernel file 'cause there are 14 command materias and there seem to be 16x16 bytes there, where 2 are manifestly useless due to the 16 0xFF bytes.

Edit2:
Never mind. It's just 8 bytes actually. I recall 26 different commands (counting Summons, Magics, Enemy Skills and items as 1). So there are seemingly 6 or, more likely, 4 blocks with no use. Just gotta figure which one is the flash command. But honestly I don't think this can be achieved in this file.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-07-28 06:00:52
There is a MDef bug in the game (if you didn't know). No equipment gives you any MDef what so ever. Spirit = MDef. Thats why I added the same amount of Spirit bonus to defensive equipment as there should be MDef bonus.
For instance: Iron Bangle has a +2 MDef. But it doesn't add +2 MDef. It does, however, have a +2 Spirit bonus. The Spirit increases with 2 and thus the MDef does as well.
Okay, sounds good.... i knew there was a bug with it, but i this is the first solution i've ever heard for it, well done :D

And i agree with the changes to materia, i never used coin and i always prefered to use 2x cut instead of flash.

Can i make a request for some changes to materia? currently the way in which materia effects stats is pitiful, for e.g.
Ice:
Strength -01
Magic +01
MaxHP -02
MaxMP +02

is it possible to change them so it becomes like this instead
Strength -10
Magic +10
MaxHP -20
MaxMP +20

The reason i would like everything multiplied by at least ten is because i like to equip different materia based upon the role ive assigned each character, for example.. barret is my tank, so his equipped with nothing but cover materia & put in the back row.. that way he takes all the melee damage in combat at half the value, and i only ever need to heal him. however the bonus to vitality is only +1 for each cover materia, at the moment his only got four... so +4 vitality, thats just lame... now +40 would be excellent.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-07-28 11:20:08
Well... The 9th section of Kernel.bin is the Materia "dump". It starts with 4x WORD which desides the amount of AP pr level. The next byte is the equiped effect. It's just one byte:

Code: [Select]
BYTE STR VIT MAG MDEF MAXHP MAXMP LUCK DEX
00
01 -02 -01 +02 +01 -05% +05%
02 -04 -02 +04 +02 -10% +10%
06 +01
07 +01
08 -01
0A +02
0B -01 +01 -02% +02%
0C +01 -02% +02%
0D +01 +01 -05% +05%
0E +02 +02 -10% +10%
0F +04 +04 -10% +15%
10 +08 +08 -10% +20%

13 possible options. The value 0x01 would give:
STR: -02
VIT: -01
MAG: +02
MDEF: +01
HP: -05%
MP: +05%

The Cover Materia uses 0x06:
VIT: +1

I belive the closest to your example would be from the standard low level materia; 0x0B. You could change that to any value listed above (e.g 0x10), but only those as far as I know. I don't know how to change the effect the different values represents.

And I'll be happy to do it for you. Just make a list (or something) of which materias you would like to change the equiped effect on, and which value you want on them (0x00 - 0x10 as you see in the list above). Then PM, Mail or post it and I'll make it. No prob  :-D.

And btw. The accesory Guard Ring has a +50 VIT in my mod. And the Tough Ring a +30 VIT SPR. Kinda to make the Guard Ring more usefull. There are more changed values on the rings as well, and mabye I should list 'em...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-07-29 06:39:03
Not quite what i was looking for, by the sounds of it it inst possible so nevermind then.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-10 20:08:27
Sorry for the time I use on this one (if anyone cares :P). I'm currently done gametesting the 1st continent + boat. I have updated some enemies (see buttom 1st post). The game testing requires some time, but I'll try to be done next week. The complete mod will rock my balls!!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-11 09:14:35
I never get around to playing it, because i hate the bit im up too... annoying slums bit, climb up to the tower, then run up a million stairs :(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-13 18:34:35
You're after the sector 7 pillar blast? Well if you use the debug room you can skip whatever you want. But this may cause weird bugs in the game and if you're a serious player you wont use that. Anyways I got 1 week before I go back to college to complete this. Not that I won't be able to then. but I obviously will get my hands full with other stuff. Thus I kinda yearn to get this done before I start...

Uhhh, just noticed... In this mod you can't sell previously sellable stuff. Like bangles and sh*t. Will fix that.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Darkever on 2007-08-18 00:27:12
I didn't try the mod, but will do as soon as I have some free time.
Just a couple of suggestions (maybe you already tought about them):
- Don't raise enemy's HP too much. That is ok for bosses, but for random encounters it is a pain, because they would last forever.
- I agree with removing the flash command, but that is because it is usually useless. Slash-All does most of the time the same results and also works on enemies immune to death. I also suggest of removing Coin: that blinking Throw/Coin voice in the menu just makes me headaches. Also the fact that throwing coins deals damage is very very lame (critical lame).
- I suggest of leaving the original Master Command. If you got it, it means that (A) you mastered all other commands or (B) you killed Emerald. The concept is that when a player obtains the Master Materias is because his/her character are almost-unstoppable death machines.
- Sometimes just adding a nasty status effect to some attacks may transform an inoffensive enemy into a destruction machine, at least until the pary obtains 3xRibbon.
- I suggest to allow the enemies to drop just few Star Sources (using a global variable, like it is done with Pandora's Box), to avoid Source farming.
- Is there some way to change the enemy AI? I would be glad to modify it to make the opponents a bit more intelligent. That would greatly raise the difficulty without even changing the stats.

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-18 21:04:56
I didn't try the mod, but will do as soon as I have some free time.
Just a couple of suggestions (maybe you already tought about them):
- Don't raise enemy's HP too much. That is ok for bosses, but for random encounters it is a pain, because they would last forever.
- I agree with removing the flash command, but that is because it is usually useless. Slash-All does most of the time the same results and also works on enemies immune to death. I also suggest of removing Coin: that blinking Throw/Coin voice in the menu just makes me headaches. Also the fact that throwing coins deals damage is very very lame (critical lame).
- I suggest of leaving the original Master Command. If you got it, it means that (A) you mastered all other commands or (B) you killed Emerald. The concept is that when a player obtains the Master Materias is because his/her character are almost-unstoppable death machines.
- Sometimes just adding a nasty status effect to some attacks may transform an inoffensive enemy into a destruction machine, at least until the pary obtains 3xRibbon.
- I suggest to allow the enemies to drop just few Star Sources (using a global variable, like it is done with Pandora's Box), to avoid Source farming.
- Is there some way to change the enemy AI? I would be glad to modify it to make the opponents a bit more intelligent. That would greatly raise the difficulty
without even changing the stats.

This mod is generally made to satisfy me lol. And I consider myself a hardcore FF7 player. I don't think there would be many requests for customisation, so I'll make customized mods if requested. There are random encounters somewhat early in the game (after mythril cave and so on) that are impossible at that time. IMO this spices up the idea of random encounters. Considering this is "hardcore" you should figure out which enemies are worth killing, 'cause some are "die-hard", others just annoying and not worth the spoils received. This goes in general just for the 1st half of the game. Just swallow your pride and flee. I know this might seem frustrating but at least it is "hardcore". Most of the enemies (except 1st reactor, bosses, and towards the end) have 2x or 3x hp.

Coin and Flash are removed. IMO overkill attacks in this mod (if you have lots of gil that is).

The reason I removed Master Command is that it adds another Mime and Coin. I don't know how to remove those alone from it. And I've never liked it. It really won't make much of a difference anyway in this mod. I've changed it to be 1 single command: Flash. Perhaps Flash seemed useless in the standard game, but, trust me, it ain't in this. Towards the end, when it's likely you'll be able to defeat emerald, the enemies will get an HP boost. In northern cave they have at least 5x HP. Some have more than 10x HP. Flash can kill some of these in 1 go. And the battles in general will be much easier and shorter. Trust me! Still if you want it custom made please let me know. I'll be happy to bring it back!  :-D

Enemies aren't just harder by adding STR, MAG and HP. I've also added status changes, speed etch. IMO there is a nice balance.

There are no Source drops beside the standard ones.

And I don't have the slightest clue how to change the AI. I know where it is located but it's too complex to figure out. It would require time I don't have.  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Darkever on 2007-08-19 01:04:25
I like the idea of some "impossible" encounters at low levels (Sense may get some uses), but without "normal" encounter it would be incredibly hard to level up ^_^'

Can you tell me where are located the AIs for monsters? I read Terence's Enemy Mechanics FAQ, and most of the AI codes there seemed quite simple. It was probably a simplified pseudo-code, but the original code should be very similar... or not? As long as there is a way to make it human-readable (not hex or binary or whatever) I may look into it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-19 04:25:58
There are no Source drops beside the standard ones.
It would be good if you could make source drops available on the world map on disk 3, but i don't thinks its possible. Having to morph sources from monsters is too much of a pain for me to ever want to do.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-19 05:21:22
Everyone likes to play their own way but the way i view it if its hardcore there shoudln't be any unlimited sources to make all characters exact carbon copies.

if you get enough sources to boost characters speed to 255 the speed ups on bosses and enimies just dont' matter anymore.   those 50 points in defense matters alot in the end game.   2x dragon force on a 255 character reduces damage to 2 digits attacks while at 212 bosses can still deal 1000 to 3000 damage.   Max luck is jsut as crazy, Double the damage every turn and increases evasion.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-19 07:51:46
Everyone likes to play their own way but the way i view it if its hardcore there shoudln't be any unlimited sources to make all characters exact carbon copies.
Thats why i said leave it till disk 3, on disk 3 you start off in the cave & most people just go straight down... that way you would have the choice for those who want to go searching the world for more source's, for those people not to have to waste so much time doing it. But i dont think its possible anyway, i dont think there is any disk 3 exclusive monsters to fight out on the world map.

edit:
I restarted the game from the start (because i deleted my save game by accident :( ). The balance is much better, and i noticed that there seemed to be alot more use of status effects which was excellent.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-20 08:50:02
Everyone likes to play their own way but the way i view it if its hardcore there shoudln't be any unlimited sources to make all characters exact carbon copies.
Thats why i said leave it till disk 3, on disk 3 you start off in the cave & most people just go straight down... that way you would have the choice for those who want to go searching the world for more source's, for those people not to have to waste so much time doing it. But i dont think its possible anyway, i dont think there is any disk 3 exclusive monsters to fight out on the world map.

It isn't possible to make the game read from different scenes only on disc 3. To make this wish come true you'd have to make that possible, which means alter the game engine (I believe  :-P). The only possible option here would be to add source drops to those monsters in the final cave. Does that sound appealing?

I restarted the game from the start (because i deleted my save game by accident :( ). The balance is much better, and i noticed that there seemed to be alot more use of status effects which was excellent.

Why thank you  :-D. v0.7.1 is just re-edited to the end of 1st continent+boat. currently I'm done editing 'til the end of the Pagoda tower. Oh look at the time. Gotta go  :-D :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-20 10:41:26
Does that sound appealing?
Yeah. Try it... IMO i think its okay.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-20 17:58:14
I like the idea of some "impossible" encounters at low levels (Sense may get some uses), but without "normal" encounter it would be incredibly hard to level up ^_^'

There are places which are easy to level up without too much effort. :-P

Can you tell me where are located the AIs for monsters? I read Terence's Enemy Mechanics FAQ, and most of the AI codes there seemed quite simple. It was probably a simplified pseudo-code, but the original code should be very similar... or not? As long as there is a way to make it human-readable (not hex or binary or whatever) I may look into it.

The AI for each monsters are in the scene files separately I believe. My guess is after the attack section (which is --if I remember correctly-- 24x28 bytes). I dunno how long the AI is, 'cause I haven't even checked yet. :-P

If you, or anyone, could give me some info on it, it would be cool. But I don't think I would edit it too much if possible. Perhaps just some bosses.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-21 07:04:59
The four slots armor adds +18 strength, that shouldn't do that. The player isn't informed that it happens, i only figured it out by accident... if you want it to add to strength, make it add to attack instead. or remove it completely as the four slots is for mage's not fighters.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-21 14:24:37
The four slots armor adds +18 strength, that shouldn't do that. The player isn't informed that it happens, i only figured it out by accident... if you want it to add to strength, make it add to attack instead. or remove it completely as the four slots is for mage's not fighters.

And fixed!!  :-D :-D :-D

Thanks for letting me know!!

Btw Str adds to Attack in case you didn't know.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-21 14:49:39
Btw Str adds to Attack in case you didn't know.
Thats why i said if it was intentional then to add it to the attack instead, because that way the player would be able to see its effect before equipping the item.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-21 19:06:05
It's impossible to add attack to an armour. Not in the kernel at least. But the + to str was a mistake. Thank you for noticing!!  :-D And, as you may know, every armour adds to Spirit as it would to MDef. Thats because of the MDef bug in the game. In the normal version the shown MDef bonus on the equipment wouldn't add any MDef. But now it does. Not by adding MDef, but by adding Spirit. Which is the same as MDef. Think I mentioned this in the 1st post.

Again, any feedback is good feedback!!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2007-08-28 22:08:11
Sorry if this has been said already, but I am busy, and don't have the time to read the entire thread.

When using this, the saves cannot be edited with JENOVA.

I haven't tried any other save editors.

Sorry.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-29 11:08:12
Hmmmm... Jenova works for me... Are you sure it's this mod that causes it? Do you have the newest official patch, v1.02? What is the exact problem? You know the older version of Jenova had a stat problem...

Try creating a new game, save, and then try it. If it really is this mod that causes it then I don't know why. You could try mailing me your saves so i can check them on my computer...

On a sidenote. This HUUUUGE project is finally done (v1.0). I'm yet to test it through, but I don't expect any bugs. It's available for dl as we speak.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-29 12:15:36
Sounds good, im currently at that fort with the huge bird on it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-30 06:28:00
So i'm wondering if the normal enimies got their attack properties edited or is it just bosses now.   
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kashmir on 2007-08-30 08:21:53
So i'm wondering if the normal enimies got their attack properties edited or is it just bosses now.   
Everything is modified from what i have seen.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-30 08:37:57
So more normal enimies are causing confusions, blind, poison, beserk, petrify, blind parylize and so on?   I'm not talking the stats of enimes.   Cause thats the easy part.


Edit: Well i must say,   your hacks got some impressive stuff now that i got to mess with it alittle.   But the scene files are messed up in the ancient temple area and onward it seems.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-30 09:34:23
Damn really?! It was fine in the final cave. Sigh, bug hunting again I guess....
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-30 09:37:27
yeah but maybe its because i was doing it on the psx emulator.   Maybe it works fine for the PC version.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-30 11:53:13
No it was a bug! Thank you for finding out! But it fixed now! It's that damn pagoda tower that screw things up. I had to remove everything I edited in hex in Nibelheim, wutai mouintain + pagoda tower. It really wasn't that much, but it sure as hell annoys me. I've had plenty of problems with the pagoda.

So everyone who downloded the v1.0 download it again. The bug is fixed!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-30 14:01:22
heh i hope your ready for yet another bug cause jenova life freezes the game.   and its not my game its dfeinately a bug in your editing.

Edit: and i'll add that uhhh wellll the underwater reactor area is messed up as well.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-30 14:44:50
lol seriously.... Guess I have my hands full then lol... Sigh...

The ancient forrest is also a mess...

EDIT:
heh i hope your ready for yet another bug cause jenova life freezes the game.   and its not my game its dfeinately a bug in your editing.

All the jenova fights works fine on my computer. I have the 1.02 patch +many other from this forum. I don't know if it's that which causes it or if it's the emulator or something else. You did mean the Jenova where Aeris dies right? Thats J Life.

But there are bugs in the UW reactor and the Ancient forrest. I've checked the whole game pretty much, and thats the only ones I can find.

oh... And there is a bug in the sunken Gelnika plane too.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-30 19:29:31
Hmm,  i guess it is the difference in pc and psx version then.   Cause when ever jenova attacks with her blue light the game woudl continue normally and then she attacks with blue light again the game just freezes.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-30 20:19:56
The bugs are fixed!!

@Arms: I believe I know whats cuausing it. I've added the "dual" status effect to that attck. It works fine on PC but I have no clue on PSX. I'll upload a scene 1 sec...

Try This:
http://www.speedyshare.com/278118849.html (http://www.speedyshare.com/278118849.html)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-08-30 20:49:35
yep it seems that that was the problem.  There no need to make another scene i'm just testing it and searching for bugs and seeing what interesting things other modders can come up with.  Its a shame that the dual status doesn't work on the psx its a good effect.   

you cast regen while dual is in effect?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-08-30 20:56:34
Regen + Dual = Nothing happens!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lag.Com on 2007-09-01 21:14:26
I started playing through with this mod when I reinstalled. Guard Scorpion was hilariously difficult, but with enough levelling (and items gathered) I got past. Airbuster was a piece of cake in comparison. I'm currently at the Shinra HQ, and nothing between Airbuster and now has been any challenge at all, except the Sahagin which I decided were utterly pointless to even attempt to fight. Hedgehog Pies confusing and poisoning Aeris was kind of funny, though.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-09-03 16:30:28
This one for sure is looking nice. :)
But, how does it compare with Hay's Reasonable Mod (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=4759.0) ?

I found Hay's Scorpion Guard to be just the great difficulty for me.
Though, it would be nice to compare both of these mods together.


P.S.:
More on the subject of Hardcore Modes:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6810.0
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-09-03 17:19:48
I´m gonna try this mod out. :lol:

But do enemies have different attacks?
Just wondering. :oops:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-09-03 20:29:39
I´m gonna try this mod out. :lol:

But do enemies have different attacks?
Just wondering. :oops:

The attacks don't have a different pattern or AI, but ca 10% have a differnet effect. Like causing status effect, damages MP, unblockable etch.

This one for sure is looking nice. :)
But, how does it compare with Hay's Reasonable Mod (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=4759.0) ?

I found Hay's Scorpion Guard to be just the great difficulty for me.
Though, it would be nice to compare both of these mods together.


P.S.:
More on the subject of Hardcore Modes:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6810.0

Hays' are more reasonable to the "main stream" I believe. Mine is a bit "unique" if I may say so. Thats is my impression at least. I think mine is harder and can be somewhat frustrating. The 1st reactor is kinda hard, after that it really doesn't get hard 'till after temple of the ancient (The glacier +). But that doesn't mean it's not a challenge to try it. I found Jenova Birth HARD, but I may had too low level on her. The 1st reactor isn't really that hard if you find the right tactic for it.

You could say that Hays' is a plain 1.5x - 4x difficulty (I think), while mine is 1.5x - 10x difficulty... Or something like that.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-09-03 20:36:47
Okay, got it.

If you could give enemies more/different attacks, then this mod would be nearly perfect. :lol:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: RED X on 2007-09-10 10:57:01
What program did you use to alter the kernel.bin file? Could you please upload the program so that I could try to use the them?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-09-10 11:59:59
There are topics 'bout one program. I made my own. I don't want to share yet but here is a link to another.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6201.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6201.0)

FF7 Gzip

It's a commandline program. Have the Kernel.bin in the same folder.

This command decompiles I believe:
an_example_folder\ff7dec.exe d kernel.bin

Edit away...

And this compiles the files back together:
an_example_folder\ff7dec.exe e kernel.bin
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: RED X on 2007-09-10 13:58:08
This command decompiles I believe:
an_example_folder\ff7dec.exe d kernel.bin


I'm sorry. I still dont understand. What did you mean with the red words above? Is it you mean that I should place kernel.bin in the same folder with ff7dec.exe and simply click the file ff7dec.exe?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: twipley on 2007-09-10 21:19:35
Well since I happen to be reading this before the author,
here is what you got to know about command-line programs:

Press the Window key (near the bottom left of the keyboard, I believe) in combination with the "R" key.
Click and drag the executable over the window, or type in its location, then add the proper switch (parameter, argument, whatever you're calling it).

These type of software contrast with the GUI-type programs.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-09-10 21:57:13
Looks like I missunderstood the question lol. Sorry! This program doesn't allow you to edit any of the actual data in the files. But it's a handy tool to extract each section from the file, and compile 'em again. I saw one program that allowed you to actually alter it. look in this topic. It may help you to alter the kernel if you have it extracted.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6986.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6986.0)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-09-10 22:49:23
Okay, I have to say, that you made A good job here.
Enemies like Harpy are really strong now.

But there were also enemies, which were pathetic.
Like Rapps, we was beaten after one Meteorrain. oO

BTW: What are the stats for the dragons in Mt. Nibel?
I only do 30 damage to him, while his horn attack does 20000. oO
I couldn´t sense either.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-09-10 23:09:50
Yep there are pussies left. Mainly 'cause the scenes get screwed up if I alter the files too much in certain places. Like mt.Nibel and wutai seem very vulnerable. Schizo and Jenova Death are pretty lame too (I think), cause the game got messed up if I did too much to them. I know it's sad but I didn't find a nice way to counter it.

For the Dragon on Mt.Nibel... It was supposed too be a bit harder. It's claw attack were supposed to attack all. First I tried to make Flame Thrower do that but it wouldn't work (something with the attack's ID I believe). And no matter what I did in those scenes the game got messed, up so I gave up he, he.

The Dragon is very strong (lvl??? High). You need a pretty high lvl to beat it. And it drops a neat thing. There is a trick to beat it though...

I was able to beat Harpy at a pretty low lvl too. But not 'till after I got Adaman bangle from Adamtoise, which was pretty hard to steal.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-09-10 23:22:00
Hmm, Demi has no effect on the dragon.
And I think Frog Song hasn´t either. :|

I´ll try death and death sentence, when I go back to Mt. Nibel.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-09-25 16:46:11
Hmm, Demi has no effect on the dragon.
And I think Frog Song hasn´t either. :|

I´ll try death and death sentence, when I go back to Mt. Nibel.

SPOILER(it has something to do with it's level ;))

The item received is IMO somewhat worth it.

Anyone gotten to the final boss yet?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-09-25 22:24:25
Well, I didn´t get the the final boss yet.
But yeah, after Jenova Death it got WAY too easy. :|

I hope Emerald and Ruby are a challenge though.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2007-10-09 21:34:19
hi all, i ve just finished to read this topic and I'd like to know other comments about this mod!

Anyone got to the end with it?

Is it really challenging now? or there's problems with it?

gjoerulv are you satisfied or you are trying to modify it again? i have to say that i agree with you about making ff7 very hardcore in the way you said  :-D

waiting for replies.......bye!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-10-10 13:49:29
Well, it is challenging.
But some bosses are still too easy (Rapps is my example again) and after Jenova Death, the game is WAY too easy.
All the bosses are easy to beat then.

Diamond Weapon was time-consuming and yet still easy.
Ultima Weapon was a joke, even easier than Diamond Weapon.
Only one round and he was already at Cosmo Canyon for the final round, where I beat him in no time.

And no, I didn´t use KotR or other cheap tatics.

Emerald Weapon however is frustrating.
Why? Look here (http://sonamyrevolution.sonicforce.org/forums/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=14)
I didn´t fight Ruby Weapon so far, but after getting owned by Emerald, I can barely wait. -_-;
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-10 14:59:42
it would help if we can actually view what it is.  And what could make emmy so hard.  I imagine that multiple counter attacks would break him easily. or w-magic demi+HPabsorb, Demi+Quardra magic and mime should do the trick.

Edit:  I checked the data and Ultimate Weapons HP is at 1,000,000 and his final form is 5,000,000.  Emeralds HP is at 10,000,000.   And he inflicts statuses and what seems like a decent or small boosts to attacks powers. 

Emmy looks easily beatable with damage and HP limit break.  Just takes a very long time to kill since hes immune to gravity.

As far a Ruby goes this is even more of a timke killer.  I dont think the creator tested this fight.   He basically raisen rubies Defense to the point where your dealing less then 5 percent physical damage.  And on top of that he has 10,000,000 HP.  His magical defense isn't high but magics are wastes of time.  He can still be parylized but this fight is not hard, its extremely time consuming.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2007-10-10 16:49:46
this mod could be the only reason to replay ff7, i jumped on my chair when i found out someone made it  :-D
But i think in this condition it isnt worth... i just dont like it....

You are saying that still sephirot is the same easy fight??

what a pity....really. isn't there any way to have a better mod? Or it can cause only more problems (crashes) in the game?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Ragna on 2007-10-10 17:32:54
If we could just edit to our will the battle scripting... then a TRUE HARDCORE MOD would appear U_U

But this one it's so good with the knowledge we actually have, don't you think so?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2007-10-10 19:23:33
I didn't mean to diminish the quality of the mod...absolutely! And i think that there's been  a huge work to make it...
But as others said from JDeath to the end is easy to beat bosses, that it is the point I don't like.
I hope that this mod can become the Ultimate Hardcore Mod for ff7  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-11 09:14:17
lol There seems to be some complaints. Well I haven't played it through myself yet  :-P. Actually I'm almost done with the glacier. When I'm done with the whole thing I'll probably do something with it. THERE ARE NO BUGS. I think  :-P. I honestly believe I managed to clear this mod from bugs. There seems, however, that there is a problem with the dual (status effect) on Jenova Life and Hojo. The game might freeze in those battles 'cause of it. I managed to play through JLife in 3 tries though.

Quote from: ARMs
Edit:  I checked the data and Ultimate Weapons HP is at 1,000,000 and his final form is 5,000,000.  Emeralds HP is at 10,000,000.   And he inflicts statuses and what seems like a decent or small boosts to attacks powers.

I dunno if it's true but it's supposed to be 100 000 on the 1st form on Ultima weapon. The last one shall have 500 000. And both Ruby and Emerald should have
1 000 000 HP each. 10 000 000 HP is way overkill. If this is the case it's wrong and I'll change that pronto.

And regarding Sephiroth. The 1st fight is a wuss, but the last is kinda hard. At least he beat my lvl 99 pty (debug room and Jenova edited). With KOTR he should be easily defeated though.

And I repeat: This mod is really just to please myself  :-D (egoistic freak). And it's "Hardcore" not Hardcore. But I probably will alter it some more if it indeed is so easy as stated (not that I doubt).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Terid__K on 2007-10-11 09:25:45
If anything, the 2 remaining Weapons should be nerfed. I'm tired of having to level-up a bunch of materias just so I can beat them in a boring, repetitive and long fight.

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-11 10:50:28
I just checked. And I was right! They have 1 mill not 10 mill. And Ultima have 500 000 so no worries. And for easy AP just use Jenova man. If you have no problem gaining AP why go the long way.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-11 19:20:00
oops very sorry.   i highlighted 3 of the zeros and it looked like there was still 4 zeros left to me somehow.

Anyways for the ultima weapon fight he still has small ammounts of HP.  He has 20,000 or less HP in the final battle even though you put it as 500,000
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Claude on 2007-10-12 22:44:03
Very nice changes, i like it... :) It's just perfect for me, not too hard nor too easy, i'll report any bugs i may find. Thanks for this!  :-) And you said something about dual status effects causing the game to hang when fighting Jenova Life? Happened to me. :-\ Had to boot my computer, ah well, i'm gonna give it another go now.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-10-12 23:43:49
The computer crashes only come, because of this Anti-Regen.
Jenova-Life and Hojo can cause this.

However, you cannot get past Hojo, unless you get rid of it. :|
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Claude on 2007-10-13 00:45:45
The computer crashes only come, because of this Anti-Regen.
Jenova-Life and Hojo can cause this.

However, you cannot get past Hojo, unless you get rid of it. :|

Anti-Regen? Please be more specific :p What's this anti-regen you're talking about?

 :oops:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-13 01:26:06
dual status is in the game during one fight that had a seperate AI to help control it from freezing the game.   This fight is bottomswell.

however in this patch the 2 mention boosses has this effect and it interferes with other machanics of the system in some way and will cause a freeze at some point.   It appears that the PC version can handle it to a certain extent but in the PSX version the moment the effect is active the game will freeze for sure.

It basically has the same effect as regen but instead of gaining HP you loose HP as rapidly as regen.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Claude on 2007-10-13 02:08:28
Damn, while casting Esuna it freezed again. :(


<E> Yup, when i try to Esuna the anti-regen the game hangs. So there's nothing i can do about it except constant healing?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-10-13 02:43:00
Damn, while casting Esuna it freezed again. :(


<E> Yup, when i try to Esuna the anti-regen the game hangs. So there's nothing i can do about it except constant healing?
Only if you use the window patch, but this cause graphic issues.
Other than that, nope.
Seems that gjoerulv must get rid of this Dual status. :|
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Claude on 2007-10-13 03:46:43
Damn, while casting Esuna it freezed again. :(


<E> Yup, when i try to Esuna the anti-regen the game hangs. So there's nothing i can do about it except constant healing?
Only if you use the window patch, but this cause graphic issues.
Other than that, nope.
Seems that gjoerulv must get rid of this Dual status. :|

I guess i'll go to level for a bit then, this one's hard. :(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-13 09:02:53
This status occurs other places. But it's just those two fights which gives you crash issues. I personally had no problem with Jonva LIFE though, but I can understand Hojo may be way frustrating knowing it is 3 battles. I'll put up a mod where Hojo has no dual effect.

EDIT:

And here it is. Removed dual from JLife as well.

http://www.speedyshare.com/708608682.html (http://www.speedyshare.com/708608682.html)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Claude on 2007-10-13 15:21:22
This status occurs other places. But it's just those two fights which gives you crash issues. I personally had no problem with Jonva LIFE though, but I can understand Hojo may be way frustrating knowing it is 3 battles. I'll put up a mod where Hojo has no dual effect.

EDIT:

And here it is. Removed dual from JLife as well.

http://www.speedyshare.com/708608682.html (http://www.speedyshare.com/708608682.html)

I love you  :lol: Thanks, now i'm gonna beat her. ^^ -->
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-19 22:51:03
So are all the bugs worked out in this mod? I just finished FFVII editing the scenes myself but since I have No Idea how to edit the hex values so I want to try this out. I don't want to install it until its completely finished (bug free) however because I don't want to have to wait for weeks just to pass one buggy part. Will this work for all versions of the game? I have the Asian-Pacific edition of this game and I'm asking because some things that work for the US version of the game don't work for my version of the game. For example, I used Scene Edit to edit Safer Sephiroth's stats and when I fought him in the game his stats were still normal. Safer and Bizzaro are the only monsters that Scene Edit doesn't seem to work for with my edition of the game.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-19 22:53:27
That happens to all versions.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: mav on 2007-10-19 22:57:28
Sephiroth's stats are adjusted at the beginning of the battle by AI Script based on your party statistics, Scene Edit can't modify them.

Also (if You already don't know this) - you need to adjust look-up table in 3rd file from kernel.bin to prevent battles from messing up. There's a proggy that I wrote (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7127.0) that'll do it for You.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-19 23:00:47
Thanks thats good to know. I'll use that program along with this mod.... I just hope it doesn't get too easy after Jenova Death.

After looking at the Scene.bin of this mod I can't wait to try it!

Lol @ Hell House's outrageous 255 defense.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Cid89 on 2007-10-20 13:21:37
hi, I'm a newbie :) (and my english isn't so good, I'm from Italy... I apologize for my errors  :-o)

this mod is absolutely great, I love it. I'm translating it in italian in order to let the ignorant italian people play FF7 with this mod..
But a betatester found an error: he says that he fought with Rufus in spite of the Midgar Zolom  :-o I've not tried to fight it yet

Is this fact happened also to other people, or only to our betatester?  :?

thank you!


(sigh, sob.... my english is so bad)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-20 16:56:28
I suggest you guys add my final battle patch to this mod to get a proper final boss battle.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-21 01:58:18
I added your final battle to this mod after watching the video, it seems great. Do you have some other scenes of regular monsters that you modified to make them into optional boss fights? I was wondering because the video of your final battle was under SaiNTDragon (or something like that) on youtube and he also uploaded videos of bosses that he created himself. For example I saw a video where Ultima Weapon fought as Omega Weapon from FFVIII. Are you (ARMs) and saiNT the same person? If so can you release some of these scenes for "optional boss" fights? (or am I smoking crack because you uploaded your final battle video under a different name?)

And Gjoerulv I'd like to congratulate you on the first reactor, it was hard. I had to use Jenova to give myself 2 more ethers and 5 more potions to beat it. Once you get access to restore materia, however the game gets MUCH easier.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-21 02:24:46
yeah I am the same guy.   But i'm not gonna release other bosses yet.  Safer Sephiroth and blizzaro are the most problematic bosses to mod so i decided to release it.  I'm playing threw the game to make improvements, so maybe in the future i'll release some or maybe others who can mod like me will release some of their work first.

Well safer sephiroth is suppose to be able to handle some cheap materia combos but I don't know if it was done correctly.   safer has about 777,777 HP as his weakest form.   He'll grow to either 1,000,000 or/to 1,400,000 HP and he'll also get stat boosts, but i'm not sure anymore cause it was one of my earlier works.   Originally i wanted to add more moves and more phases to him but the game wont allow me to add anymore attacks without eliminating some of his cenimatic stuff.  Miming KOTR probably will take him down as easily as the weapons.  In my game KOTR max power would only deal 35,000 to 60,000 damage and counter mime is not 100 percent.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-21 20:01:24
So are all the bugs worked out in this mod?

Nothing beside that dual-status-freeze thing if you read above. Not really a bug though.

Sephiroth's stats are adjusted at the beginning of the battle by AI Script based on your party statistics, Scene Edit can't modify them.

Also (if You already don't know this) - you need to adjust look-up table in 3rd file from kernel.bin to prevent battles from messing up. There's a proggy that I wrote (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7127.0) that'll do it for You.

Partly true. I edited every stat on him. Only his HP seem to change drastically.
Gonna check out that prog tomorrow. Looks neat!

this mod is absolutely great, I love it. I'm translating it in italian in order to let the ignorant italian people play FF7 with this mod..
But a betatester found an error: he says that he fought with Rufus in spite of the Midgar Zolom  :-o I've not tried to fight it yet

Is this fact happened also to other people, or only to our betatester?  :?

thank you!

This used to be a problem. It should not occur in this version though. I'll check tomorrow. Tired...

I'll probably release a v2 after newyears. Way to occupied these days.  :-P. I aim to make fun and reasonable mod.  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: mav on 2007-10-21 20:34:14
Quote
Partly true. I edited every stat on him. Only his HP seem to change drastically.

Quote from: Terence Fergusson Battle Mechanics document
Safer*Sephiroth's stats change depending on various factors:
   +30,000 Max HP,  2 Att, 20 Def,  5 MAt, 16 MDf per character at L99
   +80,000 Max HP if you cast Knights of Round on Jenova*SYNTHESIS

Note again that Aeris does not count with regards to characters at L99.

Also, for each time you killed Bizarro*Sephiroth's Head, Safer*Sephiroth's
HP will be 100 lower than his Max HP, up to a maximum of 24,900 HP lower.

At maximum power, Safer*Sephiroth will have:
         400,000 Max HP, 246 Att, 260 Def, 140 MAt, 308 MDf

As You can see nearly all of his stats could be altered by the script - but stats other than HP are altered only if you have characters that are on Lvl 99.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-23 02:38:44
What about the one-on-one battle between cloud and sephiroth? Did you (Gjoerulv or ARMs) mod that sephiroth's stats so that you will acutally have a fight with him or does he still die after one omnislash? I tried to edit his stats so you actually did have to fight with him, he hit me first and cloud counter attacked (just a regular counter attack, not omnislash) and he died. If you did edit his stats to turn him into a regular fight (if that is at all possible) can you use the item command? If I recall correctly, on the PSX version of the game you can use items but on the PC version you can't use items, because the item command is gone. (At least on my Asian-Pacific PC edition of the game you can't use items, I don't know if its that way for all the other PC versions of the game although I would assume so.)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: paladin181 on 2007-10-23 02:54:13
What about the one-on-one battle between cloud and sephiroth? Did you (Gjoerulv or ARMs) mod that sephiroth's stats so that you will acutally have a fight with him or does he still die after one omnislash? I tried to edit his stats so you actually did have to fight with him, he hit me first and cloud counter attacked (just a regular counter attack, not omnislash) and he died. If you did edit his stats to turn him into a regular fight (if that is at all possible) can you use the item command? If I recall correctly, on the PSX version of the game you can use items but on the PC version you can't use items, because the item command is gone. (At least on my Asian-Pacific PC edition of the game you can't use items, I don't know if its that way for all the other PC versions of the game although I would assume so.)
I couldn't use Items on my PSX version. It had Limit and that was it, IIRC. Kinda disappointing.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-23 06:12:46
EDIT: I check a few videos on youtube of the final fight and no one could use items. I guess I was wrong.


Gjoerulv, I believe I have found a bug with materia growth. (Unless of course, you did this on purpose but I don't see why that would be the case.) I was leveling up near Wutai (however you spell it) and fighting against those giant turtle monsters whose name I cannot spell. My revive materia had 1 out of 3 stars. Once I got enough AP to reach the 2nd level (2 out of 3 stars) I actually gained two levels and went from 1 star to 3. The same thing happened with HP Plus materia. I was at 3 out of 5 stars, and once I got enough AP to reach 4 stars I went straight from 3 stars to 5 mastering the materia. This bug is bittersweet however as it can make the game too easy.

I have a question for you Gjoerulv. Why did you remove Flash from Slash-All materia if you didn't take out "remove" from exit materia? Doesn't it do nearly the same thing? I've never used flash and all I know is that it has a chance of instantly killing all enemies. "Remove", removes the enemies from the battle still giving you EXP and AP so its not much different from flash besides it costing 100 mp and being a spell. You can easily learn this before Temple of the Ancients, making the rest of all the random encounters in the game easy for the most part assuming you have enough money to buy ethers. Oh wait, I forgot, some materia skips a level when it levels up which causes it to master instantly, meaning that I can sell my glitchy mastered materia for loads of cash to buy hundreds of ethers so I can just "remove" everything in my sight in between boss fights....    :-D

Here are some suggestions to make the game harder (if these things are possible, I know nothing about hex editing or how the FFVII engine works):

1) Take out Remove from exit materia (you might as well leave it in Master Magic Materia since you've most likely defeated one of the toughest monsters in the game to get it)

2) Change Odin's "Steel Bladed Sword" from instant death, to heavy damage (or piercing magic damage, but NOT BOTH) to regular enemies, while leaving "Gunge Lance" for bosses the same as it is now. That way you can't deal heavy (or piercing) damage to bosses (or things immune to death) but Odin is still effective in regular fights without being too cheap as causing instant death. Why would take out Odin's instant death? For the same reason you took flash off of Slash-All materia and made Master Command flash. If you put a really difficult enemy in every area and you could just OHKO them with Odin (or Remove) that would defeat the purpose no?
For example, I know you intended to make those giant turtles near Wutai hard (I can tell because they have alot of HP and physical attacks do next to nothing on him) but I just OHKO them with Odin or Remove and get a reward of 800 AP. I think the 800 AP is a good reward for killing something that is abnormally "difficult" but Odin and Remove just make it easy AP. Talk about making the game easy, I've mastered things near Wutai before I've completed the Temple of the Ancients using your mod that I normally would not master until after Cloud rejoins your party in disc two. (Such as Restore, Revivie, and HP Plus materia.)

3)Leave master command and slash-all the way it is.

4)Fix the materia glitch I described before to prevent easy money.

Don't get me wrong though, these were just suggestions and so far I LOVE your mod. From what I've played my favorite parts were the First Reactor and Mt Nibel. I've seen the game over screen a few times in those places lol.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-23 07:48:42
Sephiroth in the final battle will die in one hit no matter what you do.  there is a hidden ai script for that sephiroth that ends the battle no matter what.   Its not in the scene file.   so at this time no there is no way of making that battle in to a real one. 

Thats wierd about the materias though.   Remove and odin is much more balanced then flash though.   I think flash has better accuracy then odin (levistan or other level 3 magics with all or even some enimies skills are better at field clearing then Odin.  Hes not very reliable).  It misses accasionally but not very odten.   And your not suppose to get experiences for remove.    At least thats what i remember unless TC changed the effects of remove.   And if your gonna make an enimie that gives loads of exp and ap there should be no easy way to kill them but that just my opinion.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-23 17:35:15
@BlackInfinity:

You figured it out huh?  :-D. I knew there was a glitch with those materias.

I tried to fix it today but I don't think it helped. I'll give a dl when I have something good but for now, this is what I have to offer:

http://www.speedyshare.com/987753842.html (http://www.speedyshare.com/987753842.html)

It's a new kernel.bin. Odin was stronger in my version. He is weakened in this. To get Remove you'll need 600000 AP (if this works :P). And it cost 210 MP not 100.
Fixed the Added Cut and Steal as Well materia's APs. It was way to much before. now you need 150 000 not almost 400 000. There is a new thing 'bout KOTR too but you can figure that out yourself. The rest is like it was.

I, too, like ARMs, thought Remove didn't earn you any spoils. I was apparently wrong.  The stuff I've done this time might be overkill. I'll consider the things you suggested concerning Odin and Remove.

Oh, and Hero Drink doesn't work the same way in this kernel.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-23 21:57:36
Cool a higher MP cost makes remove slightly less cheap, more AP makes the game harder as you won't be able to access it until much later, and without easily mastered materia you won't be able to afford enough tents and ethers to abuse it nearly as much.... works for me. So will replacing this new Kernel with the old one mess anything up, such as materia I've already mastered? (For Example, I mastered exit materia, do you know what will happen to it when I install the new kernel? I'll probably just trash it and equip a new exit materia instead.) Can I use this right away or do I need to start a new game in order to use this new kernel?

Oh and let me clarify, Remove WILL give you regular EXP and AP as if you killed all the enemies normally. Remove WILL NOT give you any gill or dropped items. This is why remove costs 100 MP and Escape (which gives you no items, no GIL, no EXP, and no AP) costs 16.

And when you say you weakened Odin, may I ask how so? Does his Gunge Lance do less MP damage, or does his Steel Bladed Sword no longer deal instant death, or both?

EDIT: I am currently at Gaea's Cliff. When I use your new kernel and walk outside (in the area where marlboros appear) and you enter a random battle the background is wrong. You see the background as if you were still inside the cliff as opposed to the background that is outside. This also means that the monsters you fight outside are the same monsters that you fight inside the cliff, and the monsters you are supposed to fight outside don't always appear. (sometimes the background and monsters are right but mostly its wrong) I've been looking for that marlboro for a while now and I keep running in to Stalivas and and those bats. I didn't think this was a big problem at first, but when I got the th room where you had to fight the giant Icicles to make them fall to the floor below, I fought a single bomb instead. I don't even recognize the background that I fought him in either.

I'll be using the old kernel until this is fixed because god knows what other scenes could be messed up. Until then I'll just opt not to use Exit materia.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-24 18:24:05
lol sorry I didn't keep in mind that I've modified the Scene more since last time. The Kernel you dl'ed doesn't cope with the old scene. Sorry. I could upload the new Scene, but before I do that check this out.

...
you need to adjust look-up table in 3rd file from kernel.bin to prevent battles from messing up. There's a proggy that I wrote (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7127.0) that'll do it for You.

This will easily fix your problem (follow the link in the quote and download the program :D).

Just use this program each time you change the Scene.bin to ensure the fights doesn't mess up.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-30 01:14:39
Has anyone defeated Ruby Weapon using this mod yet? I keep dying of boredom before I get the chance to kill him.  :-D

Does Ruby have a weakness? I don't really feel like spending the next 2 hours W-Quadra Summoning Bahamut ZERO and casting Pandora's Box to kill him. I'm afraid to cast KotR on him because every monster I've thought to use it on gained a full recovery from it.... lol. Giving bosses godly stats and attacks that inflict status effects are a good way to make them more difficult, however this can easily be countered with the right defensive measures. (4x Dragon Force + Resist = God Like) This is why ARMs gave Sephiroth spells to destroy positive status effects as well as spells that inflict status effects that ignore resistance. Don't give Ruby such spells unless he has a weakness!!! lol.

So if anyone knows a fast way to kill Ruby using this mod please let me know. (KotR + W Summon =/= fast, assuming that even works on him) Until then I guess I'll read a book or something until he dies.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-30 02:58:43
So i'm wondering if you defeated safer sephiroth yet lol.  I need to know if hes beatable.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-30 04:49:46
If your talking to me ARMs then no... I haven't even reached disc three yet, and I probably won't get there until Thursday of this week. (Yea from reading my last reply you might figure that I used Jenova to get all the enemy skills from within the North Cave.... once I go in I HATE going back out).  I'll let you know if I can manage to beat him but from what I've heard/seen about him, he seems extremely cheap. Just please tell me that there are no moves you can use against him that give him instant recovery, like a few of the bosses in this mod.

Seriously TC, either make it do 0 damage to them, or make it heal them for as much as it would have hurt them, but to make it an instant full heal is just stupid.
If you make fire fully heal bosses because you don't want them to use phoenix, then just make phoenix so weak it's almost useless. Why not? I already threw  KotR away for its uselessness. Don't punish the player for trying to use one of their resources 30 min into a tough boss fight by fully healing the boss because you don't want them to use a "cheap" tactic. But hey, don't change the mod for my sake, (I look forward to the release of your next project) I never used phoenix all that much anyway.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-30 04:57:07
Nah no such thing exists on my mods.  I don't like any enimy instantly killed by casting a simple fire spell or completely recovering bosses HP just for using an elemental spell.   Its tuff enough to drop their HP, and i dont like to eliminate players resources unless they are completely cheap and theres no going around it.   

since your using the TC's kernel file shadow flare and Beta might be weaker then my versions.   I intentionaly powered those two mvoes up since beta can only be obtained by beating the zolom whos super strong.   and shadow flares are in the end game with strong enimy and boss that uses it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-30 09:39:39
Cool, I'm glad I can actually use materias the way the game intended for them to be used without worrying about instantly healing sephiroth. Does sephy still cast pandora's box, (or was that the move you took out for Beta?) I'm not using dizugo's limit breaking patch anyway so Im sure beta will still hurt like **** .

Gjoerulv, how do you expect people to beat Ruby weapon?  :? One-Hundred Thirty. That is how many times a character with a magic stat of 255 has to cast shadow flare in order to kill Ruby. Two Hours. That is how long I spent casting shadow flares at ruby before I made a slight misjudgment and Ruby finally killed me. I spent so much time fighting Ruby HE actually ran out of MP.  Lets see, what other tactics are there for taking down Ruby? Well the most common would be to cast Knights of the Round 21 times, but with your mod it does zero damage to Ruby. Another common tactic would be to swallow a million Hero Drinks and beat him to death with mimed limit breaks but Hero Drinks act like shield in this mod. The other famous way to defeat Ruby is to abuse 7777 while counter miming a limit break that hits repeatedly. Getting 7777 HP is easy to do with Jenova and basic algebra skills, however, my game always freezes for some reason when I use the save where Jenova sets Yuffie's base HP to 7777. Honestly I believe I can beat ruby using Jenova and the 7777 tactic (it would still take a good hour), if my game wouldn't freeze. But then I wouldn't have the "bragging rights" of saying I beat a hardcore Ruby without cheating.
 
Making a boss hard is one thing, but making a boss with so much defense and HP and no decent way to damage it is just ridiculous. I honestly believe the developers of FFVII made Knights of the Round FOR Ruby weapon. (They even give it to you in the form of Master Summon Materia, before you even fight Ruby.) How else did they expect you do deal 800000 damage to a monster with near max defenses? How do you expect us to deal 1000000 damage to a monster with max defense without cheating? Please enlighten us. (Its too bad I couldn't just poision Ruby, use an elixer, and keep counter miming it while I take a nap....lol)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-10-30 11:12:22
so casting shadow flare on ruby 130 times is the power of shadow flare at magic stat of 255 or the power of magic stat 255 plus hero drinks 2x power increase?   if you didn't use hero drink you should have to reduce the casterings down to 100 or 70 casting if you used the damage break.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-30 14:00:13
@BlackInfinity

Are you using the new kernel I uploaded or the old one? In the new one KOTR is useless against the strongest enemies, and that wasn't the point. in the old Kernel i don't see how he could do 0 damage. It's attack is unblockable and should do the same damage no matter what. However in the new one I made it useless, which I figured out was a mistake. I will release a new version soon enough so relax. I just have to play though the game to see what needs a fix. Perhaps it was a mistake to release before doing that :P.

Concerning Elements healing him, or even recover him, was intensional. One of the point in this mod is to figure out other strategies. Considering that Final Attack+Phoenix is kinda cheap. But as I see the fight is way too long. I will do something 'bout that. I just have my hands full these days.

Thanks for all the feedback! Appreciate it!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BlackInfinity on 2007-10-30 18:05:04
Hey I'm relaxed, just thought I'd let you know how things were from a gamers perspective.   :-)  And yea I was using the new kernel that changed exit materia so I wouldn't be tempted to use it. The new kernel is perfectly fine except for the KotR thing. There is no way to damage Ruby efficiently.

Shadow Flare does about 8000 damage to Ruby Weapon with a magic stat of 255. This is without hero drinks, as hero drinks in this kernel give you the same effect as the "Shield" spell, and do not raise attack damage or defense. I actually tried hero drinks in this fight and the damage was the same as before. Shadow Flare isn't the strongest move you can use on Ruby, Bahamut ZERO is but shadow flares animation is much faster so I use that instead. (Actually that is closer to 125 shadow flares but who is counting?)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-10-31 18:37:33
Time for an update.

I finally managed to make the last bosses hard!  :-D :-D :-D
In this new semi release, there are still some AP glitches. At least on Revive materia. I think on Exit, HP+ and perhaps MP+ and other booster materias. I dunno whats causing this, so any enlightenment on this from anyone would be highly appreciated. Please look at the materia dump (1st page) to know what I initially did. The problem is that the materias level and master too early, making them kinda cheap.

Enough of that...

Additionally the enemies are sightly harder after (and some places before) Jenova Death. Not by much, but it should be noticeable. When I tested it for bugs nothing appeared, but I did I minor adjustments on Jenova Synth which I didn't test. But I don't see how a minor detail could have any effect. All the weapons are harder except Emerald who already is a b*tch. I didn't test Diamon and Ultima. If there are any bugs there please let me know.

Odin only use his lance attack now as well.

That should cover it I think (Hero drink works as it originally did I believe).

http://www.speedyshare.com/236370618.html (http://www.speedyshare.com/236370618.html)

EDIT:

I've edited some more now. Gonna put up for dl soon. I bearly reaced Jenova with my test party. And I wasn't even able to scratch her. Would appreciate if anyone gave me ant feedback on the final fights!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Claude on 2007-11-04 12:05:40
 Has someone beaten Diamond Weapon when it's attacking Midgar? It's too hard :( There's no way i can kill it before the countdown finishes, and when it does, it's instakill.  :?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-11-07 00:09:38
Perhaps a late reply, but try using the characters with least kills. The characters (except cloud) who has killed fewest enemies if there were any doubt.  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-11-07 01:09:46
Lol what an odd attack to use on people.  Did you even change the name of the attack to indicate something like that was gonna happen?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-11-07 19:58:33
Haven't changed any names, no. But diamond might be too hard... I have edited some more now as well, but I wanna be satisfied before putting it up. Anyone beaten Jenova in my mod?  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-11-08 06:10:47
Diamond too hard? You gotta be kidding me.
He is time-consuming, but not hard at all.

Simply kill Dragons in Mt. Nibel to level up quickly (and get Megalixirs).
Once you reached high levels, he is cake.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-11-08 19:24:24
Yup you figured it out huh? Wasn't that hard. However the dragon is supposed to be harder. Harder dragon no easy leveling!  :-D I've actually made him much harder, but it isn't in the release yet.

Everything can be easy if you just level enough. But where is the fun in that? The only place int my mod where it may be hard if you mastered everything is the Weapons and the final battles.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-11-09 01:59:52
Heh well maybe you should have made it a requirement to be at high level by the time of Daimond weapon.   And you did leave the easy leveling method out there.   Even though you knew it.  since you hinted an easy way to kill the dragon.   

So how far are you on your play test.   And i don't get how you can make the final bosses hard.   Jenovas AI basically makes her crap no matter what effect you add to her attack since nearlly all effects can be nulled and if you make it inflict effects even if the player have immunities it can cause major problems.   Blizzaro's AI is crappy as well and safer, hes the most predictable boss.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-11-09 03:37:11
As I've stated earlier I kinda have my hands full these days. I do some tweaking when I find the time but that is generally minor stuff. I barely have time for any game testing. I'm currently being owned by Diamond lol, though haven't played for some days now.

What I meant by the final bosses being hard; I didn't mean mindblowing ridiculously hard, but something more than a pushover, and actually quite an enjoyable challenge (to me at least). I can make all enemies in the game almost impossible to beat if I wish. What I am trying to create, however, is an "enjoyable" challenging mod ("duh").

And concerning Jenova and the rest of the bunch, I haven't added more statuses or anything. This late in the game only the damage makes the real difference considering attack effects.

Also keep in mind that this mod was in the 1st place meant to satisfy me. That doesn't mean my needs won't change as I see people comment it. I appreciate feedback a lot!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2007-11-09 05:19:58
Oh i didn't mean mindblowingly hard.  I mean hard in a fun way.   by this time though players casting dragon force on themselves makes them godly so thats why i ask how these pathetic bosses can be made a challenge if you got all kinds of mastered materia.

I thought maybe you had some way of making it very enjoyable and challenge with thes handy caps that came with the boss.   I would like to rewrite blizzaro and jenovas AI but they looks way too complicated and woudl take way too much time  to mess around with.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: UltimaYoshi on 2007-11-11 20:09:48
Over all you did a great job here, gjo. ;)
If you can, try and make your own enemy scenes.

ARMs actually succeeded in making them, making enemies allys and even making Sephiroth playable (so that you can control him and not the AI).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2007-11-23 06:33:56
OK question:

My Safer Seph has 255+ str and is on lvl 99. Why then does his wing attack, which has an attack power of 150, only cause ca 2000 damage on a lvl 99 character in front row, and with a 150 defence in total? Same with his Shadow Flare and Pandora's Box. Both deals only ca 4500 damage. His Magic is, of course, maxed.
The attacks has no elements... Ruby has SFlare and PBox too. His stats are pretty much the same, but he deals a lot more damage. Iron Man's Sword attack is almost the same as Safer's wing, but deals tons of more damage (32 000+ to a character in front row and no Barrier).

Is it the his level?? Does the script set the damage?? I doubt it, but it wouldn't suprise me. I know the script set his stats based on characters at lvl 99, but I don't see how this could effect the damage. Perhaps it's too much power lol.

On a sidenote I'll be releasing a new mod which contains new enemies as well. And it's harder too  :evil:. Somewhat more Exp and Ap gain, and the materia AP levels are set back to the original. Too many glitches. No one figured out why?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Black-caped Man on 2007-12-24 16:44:39
I guess this is because with some characters on lvl 99 safer(original name: Seraph sephiroth) gets a status boost. He gets 30k hp, 2 str, 5 magic, 20 def, mdef 16 for every character on lvl 99. OK: when you set his status value STR to 255, he would get +16 if all your chars are on lvl 99 ending in 271 but since this value is not possible the value begins from 0 again so his value is set to 16(This also happened in my game).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Elentor on 2007-12-27 08:46:22
Wow, it's been a long way since I started the first hard-mode. Nice to see regardless of all bugs that arise in a mod-creation around people completed their own patches. Nice job.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-01-22 13:19:38
Are people still interested in this? If not I'll give it a break for now and continue when I feel for it. I've planned to make plenty of new enemies and bosses for the scene, but due to vacation, college and work I haven't been able to work on this since mid December. It's not like I don't want to finish this, but if no one really urge me to finish this I'll put it on the shelf and maybe continue in a month or two.

What say thee?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2008-01-22 17:47:14
I'm still interested.  But I know it can be hard to get work done with college, a job, and a life.  Whenever you have time to improve your hardcore mod is fine by me  :-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2008-01-22 19:40:50
I would like to see what you have done but we all understand how hard it is to complete a huge project.   And I think there are tons people who are interested in a well done difficulty mod that isn't half asssed finished.   So just take your time but we would like to be updated if your gonna put it aside or cancelled the project.   

If your canceling it and its nicely done you can post it and and let others add to it by making their own scenes and distributing it seperately with yoru files.
Its a huge project so getting help from others might be a good idea since your planning a release.  When they release their own scenes you can test it out and see if you like it and add it into your own game at home.   Think of it like the mugen character distribution.

From what you posted it seems like you have tons left to do.   I personally wouldn't even make a goal as huge as that.    I find it extremely difficulty to decide what enimies to change and how the change will be done.  I normally take days thinking about what to do and sometimes days to finally get my ass to do it.   And then it may even take days to complete that one enimy.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: lparcshinoda on 2008-01-22 21:59:35
relax and take it easy dude, you're doin great  :mrgreen:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-02-09 15:55:49
I'm gonna finish it dudes, just took a break due to... what I said. I did some tweaking yesterday after spending 8-10 hours programming in C# for a school assignment, so I kinda got in the mood for it. :-D

From what you posted it seems like you have tons left to do.   I personally wouldn't even make a goal as huge as that.    I find it extremely difficulty to decide what enimies to change and how the change will be done.  I normally take days thinking about what to do and sometimes days to finally get my ass to do it.   And then it may even take days to complete that one enimy.

It's not THAT big. I don't switch out enemies. I fill the gaps where there are room for more enemies. In some scenes there are 1 or 2 enemies (as you know). The only "bosses" I've added so far is those on YT. I'm only gonna edit the field to add new boss fights/monster-in-a-box.

Of course if you or anyone want to share files/ideas or help out it would be great.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Ragna on 2008-02-09 16:31:22
I'm waiting for a new release, gjoerulv. (I pronounce your nick G-Joe-Ralph, lol :-P)

Would you make a document or something about editing battle scenes, please? >_<U
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-02 11:25:56
I'm waiting for a new release, gjoerulv. (I pronounce your nick G-Joe-Ralph, lol :-P)

Would you make a document or something about editing battle scenes, please? >_<U

I'll try to make a guide when I'm done myself. I've never done it before but I'll try. Meanwhile get a load on this one lol.

(http://ourworld.cs.com/gjoerulv/Kyuvilduns.jpg)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2008-03-02 19:26:48
Awesome!  You should definitely make a Giant Cactuar as well.   Maybe he could be an optional boss in the Gold Saucer desert before Ruby appears?

Anyways, do you have an idea of when you'll be ready to release this?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-03 08:47:12
Already made a cactuar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhi0a16fREQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhi0a16fREQ).

Perhaps I'll make it a boss.

Regarding the time, I can soonest hope for a release after Easter. I'll probably get most of the work done in the break. As of now I only work on a few occasions when I have spare time.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: killem2 on 2008-03-03 14:25:50
I personally just want the end game sephiroth to not die from 2-3 omni slashes and 1 knight of round :P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Chrysalis on 2008-03-25 01:31:40
all the download links are dead :(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-25 13:58:51
I know. They will be put back on when v2 is done. I promise! Give me a few weeks. Sorry for the lateness.

EDIT: What do you guys think about these changes in v2?:

More enemies + bosses, harder, much more to steal and morph, materia AP somewhat back to normal, Big Guard doesn't cause haste +mp cost, Dragon Force and Hero Drink are changed (must come up with something. Any suggestions?). Harder to get limit breaks. No master magic/summon/command. Sephiroth is controllable.

More suggestions?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-03-25 14:54:48
How you put sephiroth controllable? you mean you can manipulate him? or just control him during cloud's past?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-25 17:02:46
I thought that was obvious. Control him in Cloud's past. He, he wouldn't it be kinda stupid if you could manip him in the final battle?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-03-25 19:38:48
Yeah maybe youre right :D so this can be done even whit other enemy am i right? Anyway this can be done from the exe right?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-25 23:35:01
It can be done by manipulating Sephiroth's AI in the Kernel.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-03-26 00:06:56
KERNEL.BIN or Kernel2.bin? I suppose the first one, am i right ah? ^^. But i when i  convert the kernel in the gzip i cant find nothing inside it, just the same kernel.bin O_o. I never tried this kind of program seems so strange O_o.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-27 00:06:45
Yeah kernel.bin (not 2). I use my own proggy to extract lgp files and other gzipped ones. I don't want to share that. But there should be some available here (http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising#Patches).

EDIT: Actually there isn't. Do you have any progs for it? If not try searching for something like... eh... if I remember correctly "ff7 gzip" or "ff7 dec" (without the quotes of course)...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-03-27 09:00:35
No no i got this program, i used that to change "Ex-SOLDIER" name in kernel4 file.
Finding the correct offset in kernel3 is a little hard, but i will try it ^^.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-03-27 18:54:10
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5759.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5759.0)
Here it is!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-03-27 19:28:28
Loool thx :D Lets see this kernel3 now :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-04-10 23:53:00
Anyone wanna betatest when I'm done?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Sefurosu on 2008-04-11 01:46:08
I hope that you are still going to release this. I've been looking forward to it for a while. I'll betatest if you want me to.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-04-24 21:46:22
Thank you Sefurosu! Anyone else wanna beta test?

And Here are some images. Are they too ugly? Well don't expect too much...


(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8343/Onidoxefant.th.jpg) (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=Onidoxefant.jpg)(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2217/NavyProp.th.jpg) (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=NavyProp.jpg)
(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9523/Conjurer.th.jpg) (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=Conjurer.jpg)(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5839/Morte.th.jpg) (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=Morte.jpg)(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/346/izanaginf8.th.png) (http://img255.imageshack.us/my.php?image=izanaginf8.png)

Don't get fooled by the images. The enemies aren't in scale. They're edited in Kimera 0.84. Nothing advanced.

Concerning release date it's really hard to tell 'cause of my tight schedule these days. I got exams, other projects to finish, work + life.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Sefurosu on 2008-04-25 01:03:52
I'm not worried about when it comes out, so long as you don't give up. And btw those monsters look really good. I hope you have good luck about free time  8-).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bodhisattva on 2008-04-26 16:20:19
I'd love to beta test this.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-04-26 22:55:12
Yo man i can betatest this too :) send me a pm if you want ;)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-04-27 04:44:14
Thanks folks!  :-D I'll pm you when I'm done!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2008-04-28 08:54:36
Can't wait! ^^
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-05-10 09:28:38
can someone re-upload the hardcore mod ?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: *:.Griever.:* on 2008-05-10 10:40:58
If you read his post, gjoerulv  said he is currently working on V2, and will release it when it's done...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-05-10 12:09:15
OK, I hope it get done soon , thanks  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: *:.Griever.:* on 2008-05-11 10:25:23
No probs :-)
Just read peoples posts in future so you are sure you have to make a post yourself. ;-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2008-05-11 14:50:53
Posts like his can still help remind someone that people haven't lost interest in the creation. ^^
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bodhisattva on 2008-05-25 04:42:37
Posts like his can still help remind someone that people haven't lost interest in the creation. ^^

Decidedly so.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-05-26 15:36:10
Good to see people still interested. The mod will be done this weekend or next week. I don't have time to work on it this now. I have exams coming up. I was hoping to be done with it last week, but something came up and I didn't get any time after all. The good news however is that the mod is nearly done. It won't take much time to finish it!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-14 23:54:47
j/w what you're using to modify the scenes and the kernel.bin.
I haven't found a program that lets you edit enemy configurations, or that lets you add new enemies and even new encounters.

Also, how do you add new battles and such? I've seen people add a boss battle when you get the Titan materia, for example, but I haven't seen any way of doing this. I'm glad you'll be writing some sort of guide when you're done (hopefully when you're done v2) because I'd love to learn how to do this myself.
Great work, btw!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Destiny on 2008-06-15 09:40:57
To modify the kernel.bin you need an hexeditor and a brain  :-o but for the scene file you can use Hojo  :wink:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-15 12:46:42
:P Lemme see if I can find my brain. Lol


Scenester and HOJO are working together nicely so far. HOJO is great for its better, imo, user interface and search function, and ability to update the kernel and use the archived scene.bin (no need to unpack it).
Scenester is great because of the formation editor. If only Hojo had a formation editor... :P

Edit: I've been looking for a guide on how to edit kernel.bin (or any bin) and I haven't found anything. Hojo and scenester work fantastic for editing scene.bin, but there's no way to edit kernel.bin without using a hex editor, which I can't figure out how to use and cannot find a guide for. But I'll keep looking. :)
If anyone knows where it is (since I've been told there are guides for these things), could you send me the link? Thanks a bunch!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-17 06:35:34
gjoerulv, I'm wondering how you make odin only use his lance attack.

Anyways, let me comment on the mod so far even though I haven't been able to test it. I've added a lot of your kernel changed to my kernel.bin and I've tested some of them out.

Comments are in blue.

Quote
Attack dump:

    * KOTR does less damage and you do not want to mime it (you'll find out when you play). This is a good step to take because reducing the endgame into a KOTR mime-fest is no fun.
    * The status changing materias are more usefull.How so? Do they have a higher chance of landing on the enemy, or are they cheaper to cast? Do enemies have less resistances?
    * Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan and Leviathan do more damage. Consume more MP. Nice. Just make sure they aren't alternate overpowered versions of Beta and Aqualung during Disc1. :P
    * Odin's Lance attack works as DeSpell and damages MP.
    * Hades damage MP and doesn't inflict Slow, Frog, Mini but darkness instead (+ all the other that weren't removed).
    * Chocobo/Mog and Thypoon are dealing Wind damage as well.
    * Phoenix consume more MP.
    * Fat Chocobo inflicts Confu.
    * White Wind and Angel Whisper do not cure Frog, Mini, Petrify and Slow. I personally think White Wind shouldn't heal any status ailments. It's an amazingly powerful spell. If you keep the status healing, then you should increase the MP cost.
    * Magic Breath damages MP. I'm assuming the power is toned down too, then. :P
    * The curative spells can miss. 120% hit rate, not the standard 255%. Does this apply to Angel Whisper and White Wind as well?
    * Comet2 attack 6 times. Is the damage weaker then to balance it out? That's pretty nasty. :P

Every attack that targets MP is weakened as well.
Other notes: As I mentioned, Beta and Aqualung need to be toned down and balanced for Disc 1. If Midgar Zolom is very tough, then Beta can stay as-is. However, Aqualung is faiily easy to get and should be balanced with this in mind for Disc1. Also, you could simply increase enemy magic defense to make these spells less effective, as magic overall is much too overpowered in disc1.
I've increased Cure1's MP to 10 instead of 5. It makes things really interesting. :) and it makes things less cheap since you can use Cure to heal inbetween battles easily for hardly any MP. I've also slightly increased Bolt1, Ice1, Fire1, and Quake1's mp by 2 as to balance things out during Disc1. Heck, maybe they should cost 8mp instead of 6. I don't remember ever needing to use an ether in disc1.
As I mentioned, White Wind shouldn't cure status effects. It has no problem healing 9999hp to everyone for little to no MP.
Regarding Big Guard, you've said that you've taken the haste effect off of it. This is good. However, this also means that Big Guard is now basically Wall since the barriers will drain at normal speed without haste. If you make Big Guard more expensive than Wall, then all is good. However, I was thinking maybe you can alter Big Guard to have, say, a physical barrier and haste, but no magic barrier (or the other way around). Just spitballing.
I'd change L5 Death to have different effects. Or you can make sure not many enemies have a level multiple of 5.

Also, I think it'd be nice for Cait Sith's GAME OVER to have a slightly less horrible effect. I was thinking DeSpelling and Stopping your party would be cool, rather than giving you a game over.
Quote
Materia dump:

    * All Materia needs plenty more AP to master (250 000 I think it was). Prevents easy Gil (somewhat). I'd make ALL take much more time to master. Hardly anyone needs 5x on a spell, and 250k is pretty low compared to Mime and some other materias..
    * Almost all materias need more or less AP to master. e.g Mime needs 1 000 000 instead of 1 00 000.This is good.
    * Flash command is removed (could easily be brought back if you want this custom made lol). Keep it out. :P
    * Master Command works as Flash. Do you mea you replaced master command with flash, or you replaced flash with master command?
    * Coin command is removed from Throw materia (Could also be brought back). Good call.
Other notes:
I like the steps you've taken to balance out Flash and Remove. Good stuff. Death is pretty cheap, and with more difficult enemies, Death will only be an easy way to kill them. However, instead of editing all of these "death" spells, why not just make most enemies immune to death?
I'd make HP+ materia take longer to level up. Instead of 10000 ap for the first level, it should be twice that (and so forth for other levels). Also, if you can, pump up the price for HP+ materia in the shops. 8000 is way too cheap and it's so easy to fill in empty slots with HP+ materia. It's way too easy to get to 9999hp early on. I'd say HP+ materia is worth 35k gil each. :P
I'd make Mug easier to attain. Maybe 20k AP instead of 40k AP. This is just personal preference, though.
I'd give Enemy Skill materia a magic stat bonus, like other magic materia. A simple harmless one like fire/bolt/ice has would do. You won't see it on the materia screen, but the stats will affect you.
I think a good idea would be to change the %s of materia such as counter attack, counter, magic counter, and cover. Change the ones that level like this - 20%,40%,60%,80%,100% - and make it like this 20%,40%,60%,75%,90%, instead, for example. That'd make things like magic counter and such much less dominating. It'd also shake things up a bit, as I never liked having one of my party members get hit 100% of the time by physical attacks, and countering 100% of the time. It felt really cheap and I think limiting it to 90% maximum would be better.


Quote
Equipment:

    * The elemental rings absorb elemental instead of nullifying damage.
    * Tetra elemental accessory nullifies the given elemental damage.
    * The fire, ice bolt armlets nullifies elemental damage.
    * Minerva Band's and Escort Guard's elemental properties are somewhat changed.
    * Adaman Bangle nullifies water damage.
    * Platinum Bangle's materia slots are linked.
    * Precious Watch has 3x materia growth, but just one slot.
    * Choco Bracelet has 8 unlinked slots instead of 4.
    * Star Pendant and Silver Glasses prevents Silence as well.
    * Headband also prevents Slow and Stop.
    * Ribbon prevents all status change (including good ones).
    * MDef on equipment is fixed. Not by adding MDef but Spirit.
Good idea with MDef. Just make sure you buff enemy magic attack a lot!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-06-18 17:29:39
Nice stuff auxili160. I'll try to give you answers.

Status changing materias have a higher chance of landing, except death. But the enemies have much more immunities as well, especially against death. This being said, I don't want any spells in the game to be obsolete.

White win will cost 'round 100MP in the new one. Big Guard ca 150. Or perhaps it's better to make Big Guard target only 1 and keep the other original stuff.

Magic Breath deals ca 200 - 400 MP damage (depends on stats of course).

Both Aqualung and Beta are hard to get. They're not altered any in power, but in the new version I kinda had in mind to increase the MP cost.

Angel Whisper and White Wind have a 120% hit rate too.

That with Cait Sith sounds cool.

I experience a bug with the AP levels. I don't know why. But this doesn't occur on Mime (phew).

Master Command isn't Master Command, but Flash. And Flash was removed from Slash-All. I intend to keep it this way. I kinda wanted flash to not replace attack though, but don't know how.

I'll take your idea with the counter effect into consideration. I kinda like it.

You'll get less gill in this mod, and the enemies are much harder. In the end you should have more than 9999 HP to survive lol. In the beginning you'll kinda be stuck at using spells. In other words you'll prob get to use some Ethers before the end of disc 1. Prob before the end of the 2nd reactor. Mp cost on lower spells aren't touched, as buying enough potions might be a pain.

And on an embarrassing note: I haven't worked any on this on like forever. But I will finish it someday. The mod is almost done, don't worry.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-18 18:58:33
That's great.
I think White wind and Big Guard cost a little too much though, but it's ok. :P
I think Enemy Skills should cost around 1.5x the amount of their normal spell equivalent (which is why I believe Beta and Aqualung need to be nerfed - they aren't too much worse than fire3 etc and they cost so much less). The default cost for the spells are stupid cause Enemy Skills overshadow normal spells for how easy they are to get, and how easy they are to equip (only takes 1 slot).
I've been working on balancing spells, but Enemy Skills especially. However, I want them to keep their usefulness. This is why I considered keeping Big Guard at around the same mana cost (maybe 70mp) and removing, say, the magic barrier from it.
This is because TIME materia is always useful for Slow and Stop, so forcing players to equip Time materia to haste their party isn't a big deal. They're gonna have Time equipped either way, and casting a haste-all after big barrier isn't a big hassle.
However, by removing Big Guard's magic barrier, you're forcing players to actually equip and level up the Barrier materia. I like this idea better.


I've edited my materia and I haven't had any bugs. What kind of bugs are you getting? If you want, you could send me your kernel.bin and I can finish the materia section.
Also, I'm still curious as to how you made Odin only use Gunge Lance. :P This is one edit I haven't figured out how to do. Also, changing Odin's death effect to something else bugs the game because enemies turn invisible after attacked by the sword attack (I'm guessing this is why you made Odin only use his lance attack :P ). I could simply leave his lance attack the same and make more enemies immune to death. It's not a big deal, and it's a shame to lose summon animations. :P

There are some things I can't do when editing spells and such, because I don't edit the kernel by using a hex editor (I use a different program). I can edit everything else, though. I can't change the effectiveness of certain spells, though, so it'd be great if you could send me your kernel.bin and maybe I can make some updates. If you like them, you can use it. If not, no biggie. :P



Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-06-18 19:33:39
I agree on most of the parts you wrote 'bout the E Skills. But keep in mind that enemy skills can't be linked to get another effect. That is a handicap for those spells.

The bug I get with the AP level is that they level wrongly. I know that The Revieve materia and the Exit materia level wrong, and that all the stat bonus materias level wrongly and even skip levels. There might be more but at least those. Every other materia level as I altered 'em in the kerenel, and ALL materias shows the right amount in the game. I use a hex editor. What proggy are yuo using?

To make Odin use the lance all the time just overwrite Odin's attack with the Lance in the kernel.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-18 20:14:22
I'll check your materias and see if their AP per level is messed up. I'll post back later.

I'm using the editing suite: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6986.msg86503#msg86503

There are some bugs. For Attack.exe - the program that lets you edit magic spell properties - some spells get overwritten by others, but it's easily fixable by typing in the proper values for the spell. Nothing else gets replaced, such as attack animation or whatnot. It just copies and pastes the mp, element, status, and such of another spell (usually 2 or 3 spells up or down in the list).

This could either happen when compiling and decompiling the kernel.bin, but this would mean it's an error with ff7.dec, which I don't think it the problem. I've noticed that this bug occurs in attack.exe when I scroll through spells using letter keys on my keyboard. For example, when I started using the program, I'd press B over and over until I get to Big Guard. However, this seems to have caused the bug I mentioned. Now I just scroll through the spell list manually by either using the arrow keys or the mouse, and I don't think the bug has shown up again.

So, if you decide to try out the program (which I think you have, since you replied in the program's thread), keep that in mind.

EDIT: I found out why some of your materia levels incorrectly. You have level 2 set at 600,000 AP, but level 3/master is set at 200,000 AP. Therefore, it's reaching level 3 before level 2.
With revive, level 2 is set at 100,000 AP and level 3 is set at 20,000 AP.
Gil Plus level 2 is 150,000 and level 3 is 100,000.
The Luck, speed, and magic plus materias are fine, though. You sure they're leveling up incorrectly? It says here they're levelling like this: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 15, 300, 450, 600. Nothing wrong going on there.



EDIT 2:
Regarding curative spells, how often do you find them missing? I haven't tested it out yet, but what is the difference ingame between 255% and 130?
Looking at your spells now. I'm wondering why you made bolt1, fire1, ice1, and quake1 STRONGER (even *Gasp* matra magic). They're very powerful early on as attacking everyone for 200hp for 4mp makes attacking them with your weapon silly. Did you make enemies much more resistant to magic or something?
Also, in regards to your early summons (shiva, ifrit, etc), you made them as strong as bahamut (60~ power) yet make them cost half as much mp. I'd make them cost 80mp rather than 60mp.
Still, though, I'm not sure how I feel about giving the players even more annihilating nukes like Aqualung and Beta. When you can wipe groups of enemies for even 80 mp, it's worth it. Just use magic hammer to get mp back and continue nuking. This is why I feel spells like Beta, Aqualung, and now your buffed early summons need to be tweaked in terms of damage. I like the idea of keeping the early summons useful near the end of the game (I'm assuming this is why you buffed them in the first place), but it makes the early parts of the game very easy.

Again, if you're buffing enemy magic defense enough to counter this, then never mind. :P

Also, regarding mdef on armor working buy adding spirit, do enemies do much more magic damage now?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-06-18 22:10:47
I just had a "slap-head-revelation" if it's true. I thought the different levels were separated and that the total amount of AP needed to master a materia was the sum of all those levels. Ain't it?

Well than this certainly explains it.

The reason I powered up many spells is that the enemies use 'em too. All spells that are loaded from kernel.bin ignores effects in scene.bin. And the reason I've made the early summonings that strong is 'cause they're pretty fast obsolete in the original mod. Bahamut ignores all defense, and will deal more damage than the most earliest. Enemies MDef is boosted yes.

EDIT: I pretty sure there is a problem with the booster materias too!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-18 23:09:51
Why don't you just buff up enemy magic power instead of buffing up the spells? By making the spells stronger, you may be making the enemies more powerful, but you're also making the player much more powerful (and overpowered during disc1, where magic already decimates everything).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-06-19 00:24:06
Frankly I don't care much 'bout the beginning. I've tried it with my mod and it's quite balanced. Some enemies could be harder. And the limit of power is 255. If I can't make the power higher I must make the attacks greater. Also, In the end, your physical skills (4xcut, slash-all, counters etc) will always be better than e.g Comet 2 or Ultima. I tried to balance it out more. That's all. I do not want to make the physical attacks weaker.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-19 00:34:37
I didn't say anything about physical attacks. I simply meant that, since magic makes disc1 pretty boring, I don't see the point in making early magic spells even MORE powerful. I'm only talking about fire1, matra magic, and so forth. They're already very strong early on in the game, and by making them stronger, I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish. I understand making higher leveled spells stronger, but I'm not clear on why you made early spells stronger as they serve their purpose all too well in vanilla ff7.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-06-19 14:12:28
As I said some enemies use fire ice matra magic etc. I could either switch out all those attacks, or simply disable them in all the AIs. Both would be a heavy load. A fire attack would pale in comparison with many other unique enemy attacks. And by the time you get fire2 etch, those attacks will be almost obsolete anyway, boost or not. And, as I wrote, in the beginning you will need these spells stronger to balance things out in my mod. If not the game will start too hard, imo, and then just get easier (though it will eventually get harder no matter what).

Of course my scene mod is in mind when I say this. Some enemies have heavy Def, or MDef or Both. Some got more resistances etc.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-19 15:24:03
Sounds good.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Pezman on 2008-06-25 20:29:31
Does this hardcore mod have anything to do with this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygWXQZiUQtQ) hardcore mod?  It seems unlikely, since the recording of the television and the audio indicate that it's the PSX version.  How would you get a hardcore mod into the PSX game?  Has anyone played this particular mod?  How do you get ahold of it?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: auxili160 on 2008-06-25 22:15:46
You can mod the psx version as well as it uses the same files.

Gjoe has his own videos of experimental things in his mod. That hardcore mod is most likely not his. (There is more than one hardcore mod)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Sefurosu on 2008-06-26 03:06:56
I still cant wait until this is released. I've been waiting for something like this forever.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Marc on 2008-06-29 19:02:45
Does this hardcore mod have anything to do with this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygWXQZiUQtQ) hardcore mod?  It seems unlikely, since the recording of the television and the audio indicate that it's the PSX version.  How would you get a hardcore mod into the PSX game?  Has anyone played this particular mod?  How do you get ahold of it?

WTF ?

I've watched a few of his videos and that guy can do amazing things with this game.

He added new battles, made Sephiroth controllable in flashback sequences and edited bosses to hell - and not only scene files but actually created new monsters. 

Is SaintDragon666 a member of this board ?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Prince Lex on 2008-06-30 18:00:26
I'd like to know how to do some of that too to the PSX version. There are materia edits and everything.

How in the heck do you create extra battles? I so confused....

EDIT: He's added shinra MP's to the aid of sephiroth and Cloud during the flashback. The confusion deepens...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Marc on 2008-06-30 20:16:40
Modifying the psx version is for all intents and purposes impossible due to the fact that it doesn't read file like a pc might but as hardcoded into it each CD sector.  If you change a file on the PSX CD (thus changing its size) the sectors are going to be different and the game is going to crash.  That's what I've learned from the more technically minded people on these boards.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Prince Lex on 2008-06-30 22:44:45
I've also learned that, which is why I want to know how this guy did it, whoever he is...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Marc on 2008-07-01 13:24:29
That's the PC version.

He says so himself.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-07-20 18:44:37
Hey gjoerulv, sounds like you have really made something special. My main reason for the long post is, I want you to read it and think about what I have said compared to the changes you have made and haven't made in your mod. I am hoping my opinion and suggestions could help inspire you to make your awesome mod even better. Everything I say here is my opinion and suggestions for vanilla ff7, it's to give you things to think about, on whether or not your mod is different enough in certain respects. Obviously I respect all your decisions and I know your mod is mainly made for you and your enjoyment BUT I wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully help you to make your mod even better, I don't expect you to listen to everything I have to say, just think about it and compare what I have said about vanilla ff7 to how your mod is in it's current form.

I'd also like to hear what ARMS/SD666 has to say about my comments.

One huge thing that made ff7 much less enjoyable than it could have been was the incredible lack of difficulty in 90+ percent of the game. I know in your mod you have increased difficulty quite a bit (especially in version 2) so that's great!

Some problems in vanilla ff7 I think were:

-Many of the players attacks were overpowered, all magic attacks were overpowered for the majority of the game. Some level 3 limit breaks and most level 4 limit breaks were overpowered. KOTR is obviously just ridiculously overpowered. All death,death sentence, etc type attacks should be removed because they are cheap. The game was already too easy even without barrier, mbarrier, wall, big guard, haste, white wind, angel whisper, pretty much all summons and most offensive attack magic. So I hope things are more balanced in your mod.

- Most enemies were a joke even if you played a no materia game, just use attack and limit breaks and have some xpotions and your set. A few bosses and enemies that I think really needed a buff are, diamond weapon, Guard Scorpion, Aps,  reno/rude in gongaga, palmer,  reno and rude in the gelninka but they are glitched I think,  rude when your at rocket town, proud clod, jenova synthesis,  dark dragon in north crater, movers,  ALL wolf/dog type enemies, doorbull, king behemoth, grangalan,  pretty much ALL shinra soldiers including the ones with guns  with one exception 1rst class soldiers, manhole,   Thats all I can think of that were extremely underpowered... although I do almost every enemy in the game should be buffed.

- Magic pots and movers.  I think they should be removed or drastically changed. I hate how these monsters work. No challenge what soever, you just give the pots an elixer and the movers you just attack once and boom! Instant tons of xp and ap. I personally think you have have a tough challenge almost like a boss fight for such high rewards.


Some ideas I have to make ff7 better:

-Iron man.  What would you think about putting these guys somewhere else in the game as well? I love these guys, I think they should be buffed a bit and then added to another area of north crater that you can turn back from, because right now these guys are right before Jenova and you can't go back after fighting any of them... no fun in that.

-One big thing that I really have no idea about, if you, gjoerulv changed in your mod or if any other modders like saintdragon666 have done but would really like to see is bigger stat changes when you equip materia. Maybe  triple all the positive AND negative stat changes on materia like for example most basic green materia takes away some strength but adds some mdefense and magic, maybe increase those values and IF POSSIBLE change all materia that affects mdefense to make it change spirit instead, because as we all know magic defense does nothing.

- Is it possible to add items or chests on the ground? I think it would be neat to add lots of little secrets like how in ff5 or 6 i forget which maybe even both had elixers hidden in clocks. Maybe you could add a few items or weapons or whatever is various places in the game. For example there are a few unused completely useless spots where there is nothing to do like in bugenhagens home, you can climb up to the top and run around, even go hide behind the big metal dome thingy, you could add an item or two up there.

- Make armor have a bit more variety. Maybe change a few more armors to have more special things about them, rather than ONLY changing one thing like it has double ap growth, maybe make it so it has double ap growth but minus 10% hp,  or triple ap growth but minus 90% experience, etc. I think it would be a great idea to change many armors and accessories and weapons so that some of their positive affects might be higher but they also have a negative attribute to them, like the curse ring! I think it would be awesome if their was a little more end game equipment that was all about equal that way not every single character has the same armor or accessory. I think it would make the game much more interesting, all about choices and options, do I want to wear this sword that has plus 89 attack and minus 30 vitality? Or do I want to wear the sword with 60 attack and minus 10 to spirit?, or just a plain old sword with plus 55 to attack but no negative modifiers? You could also make more character class specific items, some are caster specific, some are warrior specific, some are for a jack of all trades character, I'm sure ya know what I mean. If you can't create new items then modify existing ones.

-In your version 2.0 could you make it so that some of the other patches out there are already installed into your mod? Like the ones that get rid of those blocky hands, give better resolution, smoother textures, better character models etc. That kinda thing. I'm sure the people who made those patches would let you if you asked.

- What would you think about weakening multi hit limit breaks like meteorain,omnislash,highwind etc.  They are so powerful that unless you have 4 times cut command materia your normal attack is so damn weak (compared to your limit break) that you might as well just not even bother attacking, just wait until your limit gauge is filled up and use a limit. 
 My problem is that for example omnislash does 15 hits of 9999 if your strength is high, thats about 150000,  thats like 15 freaken turns worth of normal attacks if you dont have double or quad cut. I think that no limit break should do more than 10 times the damage of the normal attack, its just too unbalanced.  I think that if your normal attack does 9999 then omnislash should only do about 100000 rather than the 150000 it does now. that way if you have quad cut and are doing 40000 dmg a turn with it then omnislash is about 2.5 times more powerful than that... which sounds about right in my opinion.  in vanilla ff7 it does around 4 times that much, rather than 2.5 like i suggested.  also meteorain could be nerfed slightly as well. now everything might be quite a bit different in your mod compared to vanilla, especially with that patch that lets you hit over 9999 but I wanted to give you something to think about.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-07-20 22:18:06
Hey gjoerulv, sounds like you have really made something special. My main reason for the long post is, I want you to read it and think about what I have said compared to the changes you have made and haven't made in your mod. I am hoping my opinion and suggestions could help inspire you to make your awesome mod even better. Everything I say here is my opinion and suggestions for vanilla ff7, it's to give you things to think about, on whether or not your mod is different enough in certain respects. Obviously I respect all your decisions and I know your mod is mainly made for you and your enjoyment BUT I wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully help you to make your mod even better, I don't expect you to listen to everything I have to say, just think about it and compare what I have said about vanilla ff7 to how your mod is in it's current form.

I'd also like to hear what ARMS/SD666 has to say about my comments.

One huge thing that made ff7 much less enjoyable than it could have been was the incredible lack of difficulty in 90+ percent of the game. I know in your mod you have increased difficulty quite a bit (especially in version 2) so that's great!


wow man! Thanks for the interest. I'll try to answer you as good as I can. Actually I started to work on this today after ca 2-3 months of no work. The mod is nearly done. By that I mean ca 90%. But those 10% remaining are quite a bit for 1 person.

Some problems in vanilla ff7 I think were:

-Many of the players attacks were overpowered, all magic attacks were overpowered for the majority of the game. Some level 3 limit breaks and most level 4 limit breaks were overpowered. KOTR is obviously just ridiculously overpowered. All death,death sentence, etc type attacks should be removed because they are cheap. The game was already too easy even without barrier, mbarrier, wall, big guard, haste, white wind, angel whisper, pretty much all summons and most offensive attack magic. So I hope things are more balanced in your mod.

Magic attacks becomes overpowered early in the game. Few people know that weapons actually increase the character's magic power quite a lot. The stronger the weapon the more power too. If we remove this, not only does it help on the power level, but we might make more unique weapons as well. In my mod I've also weakened KOTR. But KOTR may also make the enemies peerless. To use it against regular enemies is a gamble, but works normally on the WEAPONs (they're immune to peerless). Master summon, magic and command are replaced with other spells. I currently don't know what to replace master summon with, but magic and command are replaced by remove and flash. Remove is removed (lol) from the Exit materia and flash is also removed from Slash-all materia. Big guard targets only one and costs more MP. White wind costs more MP as well, and only removes poison and darkness. Angel whisper doesn't remove any status. All summons can only be used once pr battle and some are modified as well.

- Most enemies were a joke even if you played a no materia game, just use attack and limit breaks and have some xpotions and your set. A few bosses and enemies that I think really needed a buff are, diamond weapon, Guard Scorpion, Aps,  reno/rude in gongaga, palmer,  reno and rude in the gelninka but they are glitched I think,  rude when your at rocket town, proud clod, jenova synthesis,  dark dragon in north crater, movers,  ALL wolf/dog type enemies, doorbull, king behemoth, grangalan,  pretty much ALL shinra soldiers including the ones with guns  with one exception 1rst class soldiers, manhole,   Thats all I can think of that were extremely underpowered... although I do almost every enemy in the game should be buffed.

- Magic pots and movers.  I think they should be removed or drastically changed. I hate how these monsters work. No challenge what soever, you just give the pots an elixer and the movers you just attack once and boom! Instant tons of xp and ap. I personally think you have have a tough challenge almost like a boss fight for such high rewards.

Trust me. Toward the end all enemies are badass! And imo to fight many hard fights can get tedious. Specially if you're leveling. I've increased exp and ap a bit. But decreased gil somewhat.

Some ideas I have to make ff7 better:

-Iron man.  What would you think about putting these guys somewhere else in the game as well? I love these guys, I think they should be buffed a bit and then added to another area of north crater that you can turn back from, because right now these guys are right before Jenova and you can't go back after fighting any of them... no fun in that.

Haven't thought of that. I may find a place on the continent for him.

-One big thing that I really have no idea about, if you, gjoerulv changed in your mod or if any other modders like saintdragon666 have done but would really like to see is bigger stat changes when you equip materia. Maybe  triple all the positive AND negative stat changes on materia like for example most basic green materia takes away some strength but adds some mdefense and magic, maybe increase those values and IF POSSIBLE change all materia that affects mdefense to make it change spirit instead, because as we all know magic defense does nothing.

Sorry to disappoint you but the only thing I can do is to switch what kind of effect the materia makes in general. It's only decided by 1 byte in the kernel, and that byte gives all the effects. 13 different kinds I believe.

- Is it possible to add items or chests on the ground? I think it would be neat to add lots of little secrets like how in ff5 or 6 i forget which maybe even both had elixers hidden in clocks. Maybe you could add a few items or weapons or whatever is various places in the game. For example there are a few unused completely useless spots where there is nothing to do like in bugenhagens home, you can climb up to the top and run around, even go hide behind the big metal dome thingy, you could add an item or two up there.

It's possible, but I don't think I'll go int that at this release. I've thought about adding some save points though. One before Aps and one in the ancient forest.

- Make armor have a bit more variety. Maybe change a few more armors to have more special things about them, rather than ONLY changing one thing like it has double ap growth, maybe make it so it has double ap growth but minus 10% hp,  or triple ap growth but minus 90% experience, etc. I think it would be a great idea to change many armors and accessories and weapons so that some of their positive affects might be higher but they also have a negative attribute to them, like the curse ring! I think it would be awesome if their was a little more end game equipment that was all about equal that way not every single character has the same armor or accessory. I think it would make the game much more interesting, all about choices and options, do I want to wear this sword that has plus 89 attack and minus 30 vitality? Or do I want to wear the sword with 60 attack and minus 10 to spirit?, or just a plain old sword with plus 55 to attack but no negative modifiers? You could also make more character class specific items, some are caster specific, some are warrior specific, some are for a jack of all trades character, I'm sure ya know what I mean. If you can't create new items then modify existing ones.

This is possible. Well, I don't remember if it is possible to subtract stats, but plenty of things are possible.

-In your version 2.0 could you make it so that some of the other patches out there are already installed into your mod? Like the ones that get rid of those blocky hands, give better resolution, smoother textures, better character models etc. That kinda thing. I'm sure the people who made those patches would let you if you asked.

I can make patches that goes along with others. I might even make a patch that has multiple patches in one. If the creators don't mind. But 1st I'll release my patch, and perhaps others can upload patches that works with mine. The files I work with are: scene.bin, kernel.bin, battle lgp and field.lgp. Only patches that alters one or more of these files will get a problem with mine. Some patches only alters the ff7.exe, and my mod will have no problems with those.

- What would you think about weakening multi hit limit breaks like meteorain,omnislash,highwind etc.  They are so powerful that unless you have 4 times cut command materia your normal attack is so damn weak (compared to your limit break) that you might as well just not even bother attacking, just wait until your limit gauge is filled up and use a limit. 
 My problem is that for example omnislash does 15 hits of 9999 if your strength is high, thats about 150000,  thats like 15 freaken turns worth of normal attacks if you dont have double or quad cut. I think that no limit break should do more than 10 times the damage of the normal attack, its just too unbalanced.  I think that if your normal attack does 9999 then omnislash should only do about 100000 rather than the 150000 it does now. that way if you have quad cut and are doing 40000 dmg a turn with it then omnislash is about 2.5 times more powerful than that... which sounds about right in my opinion.  in vanilla ff7 it does around 4 times that much, rather than 2.5 like i suggested.  also meteorain could be nerfed slightly as well. now everything might be quite a bit different in your mod compared to vanilla, especially with that patch that lets you hit over 9999 but I wanted to give you something to think about.

Good thing you mentioned the 9999 limit breaker patch. Use it with mine for best result. In my mod you need to lose twice as much HP as normal. You'll feel lucky each time you get a lvl 4 limit. Some of 'em are weakened (like omnislash) but the early ones stay untouched.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-07-21 01:28:01
"wow man! Thanks for the interest. I'll try to answer you as good as I can. Actually I started to work on this today after ca 2-3 months of no work. The mod is nearly done. By that I mean ca 90%. But those 10% remaining are quite a bit for 1 person."

I was really curious about this because I will have way, way more free time than usual from july 25th to august 8th.  I guess version 2.0 won't be out in time for that.  Too bad for me I guess lol.





"Magic attacks becomes overpowered early in the game. Few people know that weapons actually increase the character's magic power quite a lot. The stronger the weapon the more power too. If we remove this, not only does it help on the power level, but we might make more unique weapons as well. In my mod I've also weakened KOTR. But KOTR may also make the enemies peerless. To use it against regular enemies is a gamble, but works normally on the WEAPONs (they're immune to peerless). Master summon, magic and command are replaced with other spells. I currently don't know what to replace master summon with, but magic and command are replaced by remove and flash. Remove is removed (lol) from the Exit materia and flash is also removed from Slash-all materia. Big guard targets only one and costs more MP. White wind costs more MP as well, and only removes poison and darkness. Angel whisper doesn't remove any status. All summons can only be used once pr battle and some are modified as well."

That is really weird, I knew items like wizard bangle make your magic stat higher but I didn't know weapons had any affect on magic damage. Can you tell me what you mean by "peerless"? I have never heard that term used when talking about final fantasy 7 or any video game for that matter. You made it so all summons can only be used once per battle!?! Thats an awesome idea, i'm glad you included that. About replacing master summon... only idea i can think of is, replace master summon with a enemy skill materia THAT COMES WITH a few of the best enemy skills on it. doesnt really have anything to do with summoning, but its all i could think of.





"Trust me. Toward the end all enemies are badass! And imo to fight many hard fights can get tedious. Specially if you're leveling. I've increased exp and ap a bit. But decreased gil somewhat."

That's great to hear, but I hope that when you say towards the end game you arent talking about only the last 20% of the game. one thing i hate about vanilla ff7 is how there is no difficulty at all really UNTIL you get to the snow fields , gaea cliffs and all that. But from what i've gathered in your mod its all a challenge even in the start of disc 1, just the challenge really picks up a lot more once you get to disc 2 and beyond.





"Haven't thought of that. I may find a place on the continent for him."

I think many people would love that, like most people when they play through ff7 they only face one or maybe two battles with iron man involved, its a great enemy in my opinion and should be placed somewhere in the game where you can fight him multiple times if ya want... also that crazy undead dragon that uses pandoras box i think would be great to place in another extra area too but thats just my opinion.





"Sorry to disappoint you but the only thing I can do is to switch what kind of effect the materia makes in general. It's only decided by 1 byte in the kernel, and that byte gives all the effects. 13 different kinds I believe."

I know absolutely nothing about modding so I just suggest things and have no idea if they will work, just voicing my thoughts thats all.





"It's possible, but I don't think I'll go int that at this release. I've thought about adding some save points though. One before Aps and one in the ancient forest."

I don't think adding little random items and stuff around the game is a big deal, just a little suggestion.  About the save points though, I was thinking maybe a good place to add one would be somewhere in the GI CAVE, maybe right before you start encountering stingers, or maybe right after. What do you think?





"This is possible. Well, I don't remember if it is possible to subtract stats, but plenty of things are possible."

That whole thing i typed about changing armor and weapons and having negative stats and all that... in my opinion thats definitely one of the biggest, best, most interesting things you could do to make your mod better, and to stand out among other mods.






"I can make patches that goes along with others. I might even make a patch that has multiple patches in one. If the creators don't mind. But 1st I'll release my patch, and perhaps others can upload patches that works with mine. The files I work with are: scene.bin, kernel.bin, battle lgp and field.lgp. Only patches that alters one or more of these files will get a problem with mine. Some patches only alters the ff7.exe, and my mod will have no problems with those."

I think it would be a good idea, it would really be refreshing and add a little spark to the game if the character models werent all ugly and blocky and no handed etc etc.






"Good thing you mentioned the 9999 limit breaker patch. Use it with mine for best result. In my mod you need to lose twice as much HP as normal. You'll feel lucky each time you get a lvl 4 limit. Some of 'em are weakened (like omnislash) but the early ones stay untouched."

Wow i never thought of that, thats a great idea making it so that charging limit breaks needs twice as much hp as normal. sounds good!





Question for you!  have you done anything about enemy speed compared to players speed? seems to me like players always get more turns than monsters. Sorry if this has been answered before.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-07-22 03:10:53
Yes I thought 'bout adding a save point in the gi cave too. And enemies speed is increased as well. I might get done within that time you mentioned, but I won't promise anything. It depends the time that's given to me he, he!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-07-22 04:14:43
I'll be crossing my fingers.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Sefurosu on 2008-07-22 18:35:52
Gjoerulv, when you mentioned that your patch modifies the battle.lgp and the field.lgp do you mean that it is impossible to use the NPC reconstruction patch without doing so under very weird circumstances? and also, will apz freak's high res buster sword patch work? thanks, and hope you get it finished soon.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-07-22 19:51:17
It might work. My patch alters the field script only. And in battle lgp I add models. I haven't modified any of the original ones. I shall test it out and let you know whe I'm done!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Sefurosu on 2008-07-23 00:18:08
cool, i think i can get it to work and if it does, maybe i could get permission to release it as one patch like you said above.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-07-23 04:42:17
gjoerulv your mod would probably go well with saints high resolution patch and the phoenix rejuvenation patch.

Right now I'm playing with "Hay's reasonable mod" and it's not hard enough. (Currently have to lower stats with an editor to make it a challenge) I'd rather play yours instead.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2008-08-23 10:04:51
How your PROJECT is going? Take all the time you need, but still i can't wait for the release  :-D however try to make everything all right  8-) great job!

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-08-24 21:57:40
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XJ0UZAZJ (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XJ0UZAZJ)

Link to beta version!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-08-25 14:06:54
sweet , I'm downloading :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Sefurosu on 2008-08-25 19:16:59
From what I've played so far it is bad@$$. You rule!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-08-26 07:54:51
sorry for that quote lol.

I updated the kerenl.bin again. Nothing much just tried to balance out the ultimate weapons some more. Download it in the op post.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-08-26 15:51:17
Can I use this mod and NPC patch at once? I used NPC and Sephiroth patches . When I tried to install this mod , it said the version of the file is unknown . So I guess not .

I've just fight some monsters and got complete annihilated  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-08-27 10:18:37
Awesome work so far, Gjoerulv.  8-)
The new mobs, especially one (the "growing" bug) after the Materia Keeper, nearly prevented me going to Rocket Town. Got killed about 10 times now xD

Temple of the Ancients had me worried, but it seemed that the Red Dragon was harder then the Demon Gate itself.
I just barely made it before the final blow  :-o

Right now i'm at Jenova BIRTH, and it's a major pain now that she spams her Blue Light/Flames alot more, and that some of her attacks aren't elemental-based.  :x
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2008-08-28 18:41:30
Great!!! Downloading!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-08-29 02:54:20
gjoerulv's you have made me so incredibly happy now that i can play this. ive been going crazy trying to keep myself busy waiting, creating maps for heroes 3 complete and such. lol its good that my last map was finished last night. cuz i wont be spending much time on it now that i can play your mod!!!!

woohoo
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2008-08-29 06:50:57
awsome man.  You finished the mod.   Now can someone make some vids of newly added stuff.  I dont have PC version but woudl liek to see what is added.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-03 03:22:50
Seems great so far. guard scorpion and air buster actually required multiple tries and some real strategy.

Thank you for putting a very new and refreshing spin on this game. I'm loving it so far,  I'm just about to climb up that wall to get to the shinra company headquarters or whatever its called.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-09-03 17:58:57
I seem to encounter a bug when fighting Jenova DEATH.
Whenver she does Red Light, it confuses everyone.. but the screen continuously blinks red without stopping. 'N there's no way to continue the fight  =O

Could be just a coincidence. I'll try it with ribbons to prevent the confusion later.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-04 00:20:55
No I thint it's a bug. I don't think that animation is ment to target all. I'll check it out! Thanks for letting me know!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-04 15:26:30
Ok the bug is fixed! Download in the 1st post.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-09 17:12:03
So i just got to cosmo canyon.  i havent had any real problems,  i had to level a bit to defeat the jenova on the boat  and i had to level a bit to beat that crazy monster guarding the titan materia

in my opinion bottomswell should be a little tougher as well as reno and rude when you find them in gongaga (some of the random encounters in gongaga are harder than they are)

when is the silver chocobo supposed to be killed?  there is no way in hell i could beat him when i first encountered him thats for sure.


question for ya,  does that trio of 1rst class soldiers ever come back in the game? the ones from the shinra tower? i thought they were interesting, i just wish i had a better chance of stealing, i couldnt get any of their items.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-09 22:04:47
ok thanks! It's still too easy huh? The trio returns yes! And to be honest I though that Chocobo would be easy. hmmm... must have miscalculated lol.

I dodn't think it's that hard in the gi cave either. And I may have forgotten to make the other fights with the Turks harder. Sadly I haven't much time these days to update (as always lol).

whoops, just checked. The chocobo wasn't supposed to have that much hp. And it wasn't supposed to immune to paralyze either. Feel free to fix it with Hojo. Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-10 20:26:32
ok thanks! It's still too easy huh? The trio returns yes! And to be honest I though that Chocobo would be easy. hmmm... must have miscalculated lol.

I didn't think it's that hard in the gi cave either. And I may have forgotten to make the other fights with the Turks harder. Sadly I haven't much time these days to update (as always lol).

whoops, just checked. The chocobo wasn't supposed to have that much hp. And it wasn't supposed to immune to paralyze either. Feel free to fix it with Hojo. Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming!

 

The gi cave, yea i thought it was a little too easy other than the gi nattak boss, he was good.     i just got the tiny bronco and i still cant defeat that big mecha robot soldier thing outside of cosmo canyon, he always uses megaton punch and i get game over before i can kill him,   i just thought i should bring that up because i have no idea when you wanted him to be beatable.       


one question,  are you able to change or edit the reward for looking at all the turtle paradise posters?  i was just wondering, cuz i think it would be a good idea to increase the reward a little.       maybe 2 of each source instead of one.  i dunno its probably not even possible to change it lol



im not trying to be pushy or anything but here is my opinion on some of the bosses so far,

- materia keeper in the nibel cave is too weak,   at least his trine anyways.

- palmer was a joke,  i killed him before he could even get any of my chars into critical condition.  i think that at the very least his HP should be buffed.  i dont think palmer should be too hard or anything but i shouldnt just be able to walk thru him either.

- im too scared to try the wutai quests yet,  without any materia i would be pretty weak, so i think im gonna wait a bit before i try it out. 

right now it seems like the boss that guards the titan materia is stronger/harder than the materia keeper and the gi nattak  and the lost number too.   im not sure if thats how you intended everything, i just thought i would mention it.

id like to hear others opinions of the bosses and other stuff i mentioned, i know theres some that have played as far or further than me in this mod



last thing i wanted to say,  im loving this game so much right now, i loved ff7 vanilla but now its the same thing but an actual challenge and its balanced, it makes me wonder how much more popular ff7 wouldve been if it had a normal mode and then a hard mode that was the same as your mod,  haha i wish.  gjoerulv you did an even better job than i had hoped, i love  how sometimes ill get gameover and have to try again with a different approach/strategy. its a whole different game compared to if you would of just simply buffed all the stats of everything.

i tried to keep this whole msg short so i wouldnt waste your time, lol im sorry i get carried away sometimes when im really into something.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-11 16:57:41
Relax dude. I like to get feedback! I'm kinda embarrassed 'cause I didn't get much time to test this mod myself.

The gi cave, yea i thought it was a little too easy other than the gi nattak boss, he was good.     i just got the tiny bronco and i still cant defeat that big mecha robot soldier thing outside of cosmo canyon, he always uses megaton punch and i get game over before i can kill him,   i just thought i should bring that up because i have no idea when you wanted him to be beatable.       

Well that Golem is supposed to a challenge in the game, that isn't beatable the 1st time around at least.

one question,  are you able to change or edit the reward for looking at all the turtle paradise posters?  i was just wondering, cuz i think it would be a good idea to increase the reward a little. maybe 2 of each source instead of one.  i dunno its probably not even possible to change it lol

Yes that is possible. It's just to repeat the code x times you want the sources.

- materia keeper in the nibel cave is too weak,   at least his trine anyways.

That's quite easy to fix. I'll just give it more magic power. Or anyone else can.

- palmer was a joke,  i killed him before he could even get any of my chars into critical condition.  i think that at the very least his HP should be buffed.  i dont think palmer should be too hard or anything but i shouldnt just be able to walk thru him either.

I just couldn't bring myself to make Palmer hard. Sorry lol.

- im too scared to try the wutai quests yet,  without any materia i would be pretty weak, so i think im gonna wait a bit before i try it out. 

Try it! Others have complained it was too easy there in the previous mod.

right now it seems like the boss that guards the titan materia is stronger/harder than the materia keeper and the gi nattak  and the lost number too.   im not sure if thats how you intended everything, i just thought i would mention it..

He should at least be beatable before you leave rocket town. That was the general idea. And Lost Number kinda sucks if you can't beat him the 1st time around. In my opinion at least. 'Cause then you must wait to get Vincent. You could make another way to get the key and save Lost Number for the Cosmo Memory though. But to be honest that sounds kinda stupid considering Hojo's note.

Have anyone beaten this mod yet. Is Sephiroth Beatable? I kinda wait for flaming stating it's impossible to beat him lol.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-09-11 20:49:55
Titan Materia Boss?
I think i've missed something here. Because once i got the reactor, i simply took the Titan Materia and ran off.
I wasn't encountered by any specific Boss monster.   :|

..Which one is it? (Model, name)  :-o
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-13 01:18:47
Hi, I'm new.

Quote from: gjoerulv
Quote from: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-10 21:26:32
- palmer was a joke,  i killed him before he could even get any of my chars into critical condition.  i think that at the very least his HP should be buffed.  i dont think palmer should be too hard or anything but i shouldnt just be able to walk thru him either.

I just couldn't bring myself to make Palmer hard. Sorry lol.

Could extra enemies be added to this fight? I have tried to add some by hex editing scene151, but the game crashes when the fight starts (either due to some horrendous and amateurish oversight by me or something about that scene that frowns upon extra enemies).

Since one can hardly imagine a man who has lard(!) in his tea being much of a fighter, this might be the best way to make the fight both challenging and believable. They could be the "security" he summons before the battle starts.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-13 01:54:49


And Lost Number kinda sucks if you can't beat him the 1st time around. In my opinion at least. 'Cause then you must wait to get Vincent. You could make another way to get the key and save Lost Number for the Cosmo Memory though. But to be honest that sounds kinda stupid considering Hojo's note.


i completely agree with you on lost number.   



about palmer,  yea i dont think he should be hard either,  he is a joke, and he should stay a joke lol.     i do kinda like the idea of adding a little bit of security (one or two soldiers to help palmer out)

new feedback

- i noticed that lord godo (the top of the pagoda in wutai) gives 5000 ap!!    i like that, BUT i found him to be a bit too easy if you come well prepared with  regen, mighty guard, biaga, and having the elemental-gravity combo in your armour hes not much of a challenge. 

- i loved the jenova battle right after aeris dies,  it was intense, i was all wide awake and on my toes the whole time, took me 4 tries to beat that boss.  it was a lot of fun.  i think that boss battle is perfect. its the most fun ive had out of all battles so far in this mod.  now i should mention i had the water ring but i wasnt using the aurora armlet OR the adaman bangle so that mightve made a difference in difficulty.

- kjata summon materia...   i cannot beat these 3 bosses,  im like level 50 now and have curaga, white wind, mighty guard, comet, etc etc.  and i still cant beat them.   i think i just havent figured out a good strategy yet,  i havent tried psn or demi or parlalyze confuse so maybe ill have to try those next time.

mecha soldier in cosmo canyon,   still cant kill him before he knocks everyone out, even with casting slow on him and haste on me.   i did steal a couple turbo ethers off him tho, is that the only real reason to fight him?


bug?   i just got hyper jump limit break for cid.   i tried it on those bosses that guard kjata summon materia.     it crashes the game everytime! lol
maybe it has something to do with hyper jump having a chance at causing the status death?

im going to the great glacier and all that tomorrow,  ill let you know what i think of all that.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-09-13 06:42:52
I've just beaten the Silver Chocobo  :-D , well I was lucky , it didn't use Death Blow  :-P
So everytime I get a summon materia , I need to fight a boss ?

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-13 15:24:44
Hi, I'm new.
Quote from: gjoerulv
Quote from: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-10 21:26:32
- palmer was a joke,  i killed him before he could even get any of my chars into critical condition.  i think that at the very least his HP should be buffed.  i dont think palmer should be too hard or anything but i shouldnt just be able to walk thru him either.

I just couldn't bring myself to make Palmer hard. Sorry lol.

Could extra enemies be added to this fight? I have tried to add some by hex editing scene151, but the game crashes when the fight starts (either due to some horrendous and amateurish oversight by me or something about that scene that frowns upon extra enemies).

Since one can hardly imagine a man who has lard(!) in his tea being much of a fighter, this might be the best way to make the fight both challenging and believable. They could be the "security" he summons before the battle starts.

No you see, The tiny bronco and the truck are also enemies in that battle, and it's only possible with three different enemies in 1 battle. You must alter Palmer's AI script if you wish to change this battle.

...

new feedback

- i noticed that lord godo (the top of the pagoda in wutai) gives 5000 ap!!    i like that, BUT i found him to be a bit too easy if you come well prepared with  regen, mighty guard, biaga, and having the elemental-gravity combo in your armour hes not much of a challenge. 

....

- kjata summon materia...   i cannot beat these 3 bosses,  im like level 50 now and have curaga, white wind, mighty guard, comet, etc etc.  and i still cant beat them.   i think i just havent figured out a good strategy yet,  i havent tried psn or demi or parlalyze confuse so maybe ill have to try those next time.

mecha soldier in cosmo canyon,   still cant kill him before he knocks everyone out, even with casting slow on him and haste on me.   i did steal a couple turbo ethers off him tho, is that the only real reason to fight him?


bug?   i just got hyper jump limit break for cid.   i tried it on those bosses that guard kjata summon materia.     it crashes the game everytime! lol
maybe it has something to do with hyper jump having a chance at causing the status death?

im going to the great glacier and all that tomorrow,  ill let you know what i think of all that.

Ok Godo too easy!

The Kujata Materia fight was supposed to be beatable in line With Jenova Life. Hmmm... Perhaps they need less HP. You should dispel 'em a lot. Have one ally do DeSpell+all if needed. And the Goons can be slowed. They were supposed to be weak to the opposite element though, but it seems I forgot that. Sorry.

Yeah the Hyper jump has always been buggy. Not just in my mod though. There might be a problems with the elements in the fight though. Or the fact that Levant is immune to everything before yuo kill those goons.

And that Golem is still too hard too. I like it!  :evil:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-13 20:17:01
Quote from: gjoerulv
No you see, The tiny bronco and the truck are also enemies in that battle, and it's only possible with three different enemies in 1 battle. You must alter Palmer's AI script if you wish to change this battle.

I see... well, everything makes sense now.
Perhaps this fight can remain a bit of comic relief.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-14 20:43:39
i finally got to schizo and he wasnt really all that hard once i gave one person a ice ring, one a fire ring,  and all 3 of them a dragon armlet.  just need to make sure they have enough hp to survive the quake3 spell and thats all there is to worry about really.

the gold dragon that guards the neo bahamut materia was so hard that i had to level a bit.  went up 4 levels.  then i tried gold dragon 3 more times and managed to win. was pretty hard.


ive tried jenova death 4 times now,  ill try a couple more times.  two of my hp plus materia only need about 600 more ap to level up so maybe ill go do that then ill try jenova again.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-09-15 13:37:48
Aight, fixed the new bosses. Forgot to replace the flevel file >>;

Anyhow, the Phoenix bosses were VERY tricky. It took me about half an hour at first before i figured out how i could prevent them from reviving.
But it's a very good idea nonetheless gjoerulv.  8-)

The train bosses were hard hitting, and quite hard. But i didn't get to the fight with the soldier trio because my time ran out. So maybe there's a way to give us a little more time instead? =0

Currently i'm at the underwater reactor. Just beaten Carry Armor, which wasn't really that difficult. He hits pretty hard, especially it's criticals, but he's rather slow.

Some random bug i encountered were the mobs at the Mideel Area. The insects with the sleep attack have an instant death attack, but you can't notice it because your damage only decreases with the amount of damage they do.. [Around 2000] Maybe fix that up some more. ; ]


Besides from that, i'm looking forward for the next challenges.  :wink:

EDIT: Oh. By the way.. Hojo's last form tends to crash my game after a certain amount of time.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-16 20:11:09
runaway train-  i tried this quest 6 times.  every single time i would  kill everything until i got to that trio of soldiers, they would completely slaughter me with ease every single time AND it didnt help that i only had 2 or 3 minutes left on the clock by the time i got to them. so eventually i just killed everything up to those trio of soldiers then i would let the time run out on purpose because there is no way i would be getting past the soldiers.


i was just about to come in here and say the phoenix bosses were way too easy  but then i saw archus post so maybe i was just lucky i guessÉ

i just kept casting stop-all  so all of the red birds were stopped the entire fight cuz i just kept recasting it.  then my other two characters would just spam  comet 2  and and freeze.  i think they should all be immune to to stop  or maybe just make it so stop has a smaller chance of succeeding.  because stop made this battle so easy i seriously could of just held the x button down   (im playing with a playstation controller hooked up to it)  the entire fight.

carry armor was also quite easy,  not one of my chars died once,   i think his lapis laser should be waaaaay stronger and then that would probably be good enough. maybe speed him up a tiny bit as well.

rude at rocket town- two turns and it was over,  just casted comet 2 twice and maybe one of the contain spells and that was it,  nuff said.  kinda pissed me off because i accidently killed him before i could steal the ziedrich. 

gelninka rude and reno-  is this battle meant to be done right before you go to midgar to fight hojo and the turks, proud clodÉ        because i just killed diamond weapon  and i cannot kill rude and reno, its freaken hard i actually gave up. and it would be even harder if i was using up turns trying to steal the tough ring and zeidrich from them!

diamond weapon-  i really liked this battle, i thought it was great,  he even gave me 35000 exp AND 35000 AP too.  if you plan on changing diamond weapon in any way i would suggest just making him a tiny bit faster.

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Anno999999 on 2008-09-16 22:02:08
The Midgar Zolom needs to be vamped alot.

the first time i got there i beat him over and over again. he gives alot of xp and ap i kinda abused.

After getting beta i killed the silver chocobo

I have a nice strategy of beating him easily which relys on he only uses physical attacks, Is there any way u can add elemental damage to his attack? alot of it? because what i did was,

Barret - gattling gun ( intial equpit that gives alot of vit), carbon bangle  protect vest (the one that gives 50 to vit)
           Materia 5x cover

Cloud Silver armlet ( got form theo lock or venus) and a talisman ( 50 to spirit ) with the hardedge
       Materia restore and in the armour elemental + fire

Nanaki  equiptment not important
            Materia Bio and sence


Start battle having barret and cloud with full limits

have barret defend

Have cloud heal barret every turn

Nanaki uses bio and sence


every attack the zolom with back row and saddness with defend did 250 reg hit and 500 critical which always hit barret

every time poisen did 650 damage use sence.

At 4000 hp have nanaki attack twice

He stans up and kick  him out,

With ~1200+ hp have barret use a limit, wait for beta then cloud use his limit.

durring the longer animations he takes 1300 damage, barrets limit does the damge + 650, beta makes him take 1300 damage and then clouds limit + 650 more.

Beta did 721 do cloud, he lived and zolom died so did barret, save and fight him again after u heal and he gives like 2500 exp? and 150 ap

i abused this somewhat :-/ if u add elemental damage and more damage or like a hit all attack this plan wouldent work preventing abuse :-X
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-17 01:43:08
Nice one! It seems you did some leveling before you fought it. I mean, you need 12 000 AP to get Cover to level 3 and 40 000 to level 5. The limits could be easier to gain though.

I've never had Cover beyond level 2 when I got here. As I see it this plan could easily fail with a lvl 4 Cover. Imo too much leveling early makes the game boring, hardcore or not.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-17 11:24:57
im gonna have to take back what i said about reno and rude being extremely hard on the gelninka.

it took about 8 gameovers but eventually i found out that reno is easily taken out of the fight but just casting stop on him. after this is done the battle isnt too hard, just about right i think.

now as for the trio of turks in sector 8 midgar. i think they should be buffed considerably, i beat them my first try and they didnt even get any of my characters into critical condition. elenas fire attack does like 1200 dmg or something like that lol.

even easier was the proud clod. he seemed exactly the same as vanilla ff7 except maybe more hp?  i dunno but his knee bend and his beam cannon both do less than 2000 dmg.  this boss i could of just held the x button down the whole time and won with one person casting comet 2,one person casting ultima and another casting curaga.  just like that over and over.  of course i did slow him and did cast haste on all my chars but still.

after that i got to that trio of soldiers, locke and whoever, right before hojo.      they slaughter me in like 3 turns,  even if i leveled for an hour i would still get mangled by these guys.  i really think they need to be looked at,  along with these same 3 soldiers back when you fight them on the runaway train.   maybe they are weak to paralyze or sleep and i just havent noticed yet? i dunno, im sure you will tell me if im just being dumb.

so in summary please make this list of bosses harder or at least take a look at them to see if there is anything you might like to change.

- the 3 turks in sector 8
- carry armour
- proud clod (this guy is one of the top 3 easiest bosses in the game along with palmer)
- rude at rocket town
- maybe the birds guarding phoenix (can easily use stop on all of them... easy win)


i also wanted to ask about a couple weapons,  tifas premium heart has an attack of only 48or something like that but the real problem is that it does crap dmg unless tifas limit break meter is mostly full. any way you can change that?   and yuffies conformer only has an attack of 15?!? thats no ultimate weapon! altho i guess if the conformer had high attack like vannila ff7 it would be unfair because of the whol full dmg when using morph thing.

i liked the monsters in sector 8 and the gelninka plane too.  the behemoth in sector 8 was fun to fight with.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-09-17 12:02:15
@Tyler: Could you figure out if your game crashes at Hojo's last form aswell once you get there? I'd like to know if.. and for the sake it's not the mod causing the crash.

Btw, my strategy for fighting the Phoenix bosses was to enter battle with 0 MP and rely on all my healing items. That way they can't absorb your mp when one of their allies die.
It's a matter of patience before all of them run out of magic  :-P

Oh and, try to stock up on LOAD of HP Plusses, Full limit bars and Gravity magic when fighting the trio near Hojo, Tyler. It worked for me.  8-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-17 12:13:18
ill try your advice.

i should have time to play today so when i get to hojo ill let you know if i crash.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Anno999999 on 2008-09-17 19:04:17
Nice one! It seems you did some leveling before you fought it. I mean, you need 12 000 AP to get Cover to level 3 and 40 000 to level 5. The limits could be easier to gain though.

I've never had Cover beyond level 2 when I got here. As I see it this plan could easily fail with a lvl 4 Cover. Imo too much leveling early makes the game boring, hardcore or not.

No i bought 5 covers at the shop, each lvl 1 with 20%, so 5 covers @ 20% = 100%

No Massive leveling required, i dident gain any levers and got annihilated by jenova birth, i had to do some lvleing for her even with  a shinra-alpha from the Junon Patron

Ps You have brought back an amazing game and I LOVE THIS MOD!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-17 23:12:17
No i bought 5 covers at the shop, each lvl 1 with 20%, so 5 covers @ 20% = 100%

Ahh! I see! Smart move.

@Archu. Is there a bug in Hojo's last form?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: moraelyn on 2008-09-18 00:12:40
Can you guys post your character and/or materia levels approximately for each boss? I have different opinions for some bosses and I was thinking it may be the level difference.

- I just beat Lost Number (at level 29) and I found him to be quite hard, since he could two-shot any of my party members when he turned blue. I basically just healed my party till he died from poison. I figured he'd be easier if he turned red but I couldn't get him to and he went down anyway at the 5th or 6th try so..

- Gi Nattak (at level 28) was also pretty hard, he could one-shot Aeris and Aspil was a pain in the ass. I actually had to use 5 Ethers and a few Phoenix Downs/Hi-Potions just in that one fight, cause I couldn't be arsed to run through the Gi Cave again, otherwise I'd have resetted the fight. Without Aeris' Fury Brand I probably couldn't have won at all.

- I thought the boss guarding the Titan materia (at level 26) was piss-easy compared to Gi Nattak and Lost Number. I didn't have Fury Brand at the time, but Healing Wind helped A LOT with the healing.

- Reno and Rude in Gongaga (at level 25) gave me some serious trouble the first time around, cause Reno spammed Turk Light and drained all my characters' MP. Second time I was luckier and they went down without much hassle.

- Jenova Birth (at level 21) was the most all-around challenging and fun boss battle (along with Motor Ball). I even enjoyed getting wiped at Jenova cause it gave me the chance to redo the whole thing :P I'm looking forward to the other Jenova battles :)

P.S.1 : Has anyone fought the Hellrider VR2 yet? I encountered him once, but I hadn't saved for a while so when I saw he was unsensable I ran :P

P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-09-18 12:49:44
@Archu. Is there a bug in Hojo's last form?
Well, for me the last form of Hojo crashes whenever he tries to do a certain move. I tried several attempts to prevent him from busting a move at me, but his high hp prevents from doing it.

The first try he casted stop for his first attack, then it crashed. Second attempt he combo'd about 2 characters.. and it crashed. Third time i unleashed all of my chars limit breaks.. it crashed, without him doing a move.
I'm not sure what's causing it, but it could be a certain attack that might affect all my chars instead of one in vanilla FF7. Like the same bug i mentioned in Jenova Birth.

@moraelyn: Yeh, i fought the Hellrider VR2, but that was before i did the Huge Materia quest at Fort Condor.  Wasn't much of a challenge by that time  8-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-18 15:49:40
Ok I think it is fixed. He counters magic with Comet. If the crash happens after you attack him with magic that's the problem. Check 1st post for the update. Again you only need to dl the newest kernel + scene ZIP.

I've also updated some enemies based on the latest replies. @Tyler_wu: If you still have problems against the Soldiers let me know.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-09-19 06:45:58
my luck plus went up from LV1 to master after I defeated Jenova-Life O_o

lol I have 2 master luck plus now , only need LV up it to LV2  :-P

Quote
P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

yeah sense is kinda ussless , It's great if you can make sense LV to Scan  :-D

EDIT: I am facing Shizo right now , I gave Cloud Fire ring and each time the right head use fire breath on Cloud , it heals him (of course) but also gives him Stop,Reflect,Barrier ,MBarrier, Regen and Shield O_o . Is it a bug ?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-19 20:14:59
gjoerulv's  i tried the soldiers a few more times (i downloaded the new kernel and scene)  and eventually i figured out the proper strategy,  mini, and sleep, and berserk... so the battle was still hard but not anything too crazy.

i was wondering what kind of changes you made to them in the new files,  maybe they werent overpowered before... maybe its just cuz i hadnt figured out the proper strategy yet, something to think about.

i tried hojo once too,  and his last form killed me eventually,  that comet counter is pretty cool.  i think i could defeat hojo if i try a few more times,  try out some different strategies.  he seems pretty hard but not overpowered or anything.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Archu on 2008-09-20 09:31:01
His Combo is powerful enough to kill one of my chars.. Does about 12k damage to the char with the lowest defense, and 10-11k to the one with highest. (Ziedrich)
On my first time he spammed it ALOT. But theres still hope to it though ; ]
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-09-20 09:49:59
Ribbon is supposed to be immune to all status change but I saw Haste and Death still work .
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-20 19:33:52
my luck plus went up from LV1 to master after I defeated Jenova-Life O_o

lol I have 2 master luck plus now , only need LV up it to LV2  :-P

Quote
P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

yeah sense is kinda ussless , It's great if you can make sense LV to Scan  :-D

EDIT: I am facing Shizo right now , I gave Cloud Fire ring and each time the right head use fire breath on Cloud , it heals him (of course) but also gives him Stop,Reflect,Barrier ,MBarrier, Regen and Shield O_o . Is it a bug ?

Sh*t. Seems I like the Luck Plus Materia is mastered after 10000 AP lol. I uploaded a knew fix. look at 1st post. And regarding that Bug, I don't doubt your word but looking at the data I don't see whats causing it. I must test this myself. Perhaps it's an overflow bug.

Ribbon is supposed to be immune to all status change but I saw Haste and Death still work .

Yes, Death, Slow, Haste and Stop isn't prevented by ribbon. It was intended that way.

@Tyler_Wu: You might want to try the last turk battle in the tunnel and Proud Clod again just for fun. If you saved there. I don't think they're pushovers anymore. Not that hard either.

EDIT: oh and that sense thing... I haven't looked into it but I believe you must alter the exe file. I have no clue in other words.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-20 21:37:51
Gjoerulv, I have recently been hex editing kernel.bin1 (I am new to this and have been relying entirely on the qhimm wiki for information) and noticed that you changed the value of the first byte of some attacks from FF to values like 78 and 4B. What effect does this have? And what determines whether an attack hits a single target by default or always hits all targets?

EDIT:

I think I've found the answer to the first of my two questions on another thread; I now have reason to believe that the first byte determines Attack%.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-21 03:38:55
Gjoerulv, I have recently been hex editing kernel.bin1 (I am new to this and have been relying entirely on the qhimm wiki for information) and noticed that you changed the value of the first byte of some attacks from FF to values like 78 and 4B. What effect does this have? And what determines whether an attack hits a single target by default or always hits all targets?

EDIT:

I think I've found the answer to the first of my two questions on another thread; I now have reason to believe that the first byte determines Attack%.

Yup! The 1st byte is accuracy! 64h = 100% hit. 96h = 150% hit etc. If the attack is supposed to target 1 enemy, the 13th byte in the attack must be 03h. This byte alone determines the target properties. 07h is all enemies (or all the playing characters, of course, if the attack user is a game enemy). The target byte is the byte after the "Camera" bytes. I'll try to explain every byte in an attack just to be clear:

Code: [Select]
AC|IA|TA>--<-MP--|--IS-|-CA1-|-CA2-|TG|ID|TD|PW|RT|SE|AT|NU|----ST-----|-EL--|-SP-->
ff 0b 00 ff 00 00 e2 00 ff ff ff ff 01 ff 11 18 ff 3f ff ff 00 00 00 06 00 04 ff ff

This is the bytes for Safer's "Wing Attack"

AC = Accuracy
IA = Impact Animation
TA = Target Animation
MP = MP used
IS = Impact sound (usually only set if IA =/= FF)
CA1/2 = Camera movement ID for 1/All targets
TG = Target:
        01h - Single / Multiple
03h - Single Target
05h - Multiple Target
        07h - FMultiple Targets
        0Fh - Toogle target (done in the AI)
ID = Animation ID. Standard physical attackts usually never gets an ID.
TD = type damage.
        11 = physical
        22 = magical
        23 = demi effect
        24 = Based on full HP.
PW = attack power
RT=  Restore Type
00 - Restore HP
  01 - Restore MP
02 - Restore Ailment
        3E - 100% cause status change
SE = Status Effect (Remove or inflict %)
  <3Fh Inflict Status
7Fh Cure Status
AT = Aditional Targets?
NA = Number of attack effects (only if AT = 00)
ST = Status Afflictions (4 Bytes)*
0x00000001 Death
0x00000002 Near-Death
0x00000004 Sleep
0x00000008 Poison
0x00000010 Sadness
0x00000020 Fury
0x00000040 Confusion
0x00000080 Silence
0x00000100 Haste
0x00000200 Slow
0x00000400 Stop
0x00000800 Frog
0x00001000 Small
0x00002000 Slow-numb
0x00004000 Petrify
0x00008000 Regen
0x00010000 Barrier
0x00020000 MBarrier
0x00040000 Reflect
0x00080000 Unused
0x00100000 Shield
0x00200000 D.Sentence
0x00400000 Manipulate
0x00800000 Berserk
0x01000000 Peerless
0x02000000 Paralyzed
0x04000000 Darkness
0x08000000 Dual
0x10000000 DeathForce
0x20000000 Resist
0x40000000 Lucky Girl
0x80000000 Imprisoned

EL = Elemental Type (2 Bytes)*
0x0000 Non Elemental
0x0001 Fire
0x0002 Ice
0x0004 Lightning
0x0008 Earth
0x0010 Poison
0x0020 Gravity
0x0040 Water
0x0080 Wind
0x0100 Holy
0x0200 Restorative
0x0400 Cut
0x0800 Hit
0x1000 Punch
0x2000 Shoot
0x4000 Shout

SP = "Special" (4 bytes*)
0x0001 Attack MP instead of HP
  0x0002 ?
  0x0004 ?
  0x0008 ?
0x0010 Drain Damage Dealt
0x0020 Drain HP/MP
0x0040 Blade Beam
  0x0080 Ignore Status
  0x0100 Miss if Not in “Death” Status
  0x0200 Reflectable
  0x0400 Piercing (Unblockable)
  0x0800 Angel Whisper/Pulse of Life
  0x1000 ?
  0x2000 Critical Hits
  0x4000 ?
  0x8000 ?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-21 06:12:01
Excellent!

I've been playing with these, and I managed to have Sephiroth beat Cloud in the final battle (the one-on-one, not the battle with Safer) by changing the attack type from 23 to 24 (although that probably doesn't matter) and the power from 1f to 20. He kills Cloud and "Game Over" comes up.

I cheated my way into the Northern Crater and I must say that the enemies are much stronger; even Jenova puts up a fight now (interesting job with KotR and the ultimate weapons too). I did, however, find something odd. This may have been a result of me messing around with things, but Bizzaro Sephiroth went down with one hit; 3 000 HP of damage finished him off.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-09-21 12:46:15
gjoerulv, do you think you could convert this patch to the PSX version ?
If not, how playable would your patch be, if the only things I'd use were the SCENE.BIN and the KERNEL.BIN files ? Thanks in advance for your reply.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-21 14:19:36
@Leighos Kudistos Megistos: Yes that was a BIG bug. thank you! Bizarro HP is decided in the AI. Same with Safer's. Safer's HP was wrong too. This is fixed in the (yet another) new files.

@Armorvil: Yes it's possible to just upload the Kernel and Scene, but I have to replace some of the new models with the old ones 1st. That means no new boss battles though.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-09-21 14:49:43
No problem about the new bosses  :wink:
I'd love to play your patch on the PSX :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-21 17:00:59
A quick question, where is the data for limit breaks? Kernel.bin1 has a few of them, but not all of them.

I noticed this after looking for the attack data for Fury Brand, which apparently has an element 0x8000 not present in any other attacks. I wondered whether it had anything to do with the unique effect of this limit break, but after putting it into the spell "cure" it seems that it does not, this is caused by the 19th byte.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-22 08:49:31
Actually I don't know. I thought all where in that file too but I was wrong. And the element you tested is the "Hidden" element. To make something restorative, the target must absorb the element. The restorative element is absorb able by default.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-22 11:24:30
ive tried out some of the early to mid game again.

-materia keeper seems perfect now with his newly buffed trine, 

- godo seems perfect too now however i should mention, yuffie was level 35 when i did it. not sure if you would consider that overleveled or not. she also had biaga because i did the quest right before going to the crater and snowfields and such.  i waited until then because yuffie was really weak when i first got the tiny bronco as she wasnt part of my main party and didnt have any good limit breaks.

-right before i was about to enter mt nibel i turned around and went after the midgar zolom to attain beta enemy skill.  it was very hard but eventually i pulled it off, seems good to me.

- luck plus materia is still screwy.   when its mastered it sells for 1million 50 thousand gil.  and it masters at about 9500 ap for me at least.  it was at like 9380 ap total or something like that then i got into a battle in the wutai area,  after the battle it was mastered.

- kujata summon guardian bosses are still a bit too hard i think,  i think if levant was just a tiny bit weaker then everything would be cool (when hes left alone he is pretty hard).  his two sidekicks seem fine to me.

- deathblow materia,   i think you should take a look at it,  in my opinion it takes very little ap to master AND when it is mastered it sells for way too much gil.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-22 12:44:19
Luck materia works fine for me. Do you have the latest kernel?

Thanks for the feedback!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-22 14:41:49
yea i replaced the scene and kernel with your updated files from sept 21.


sometime today tho ill go on my other comp and double check for you tho,  make sure it actually is the updated kernel.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: moraelyn on 2008-09-22 20:57:24
I finally got to the end of disc 1, here's my opinion on the rest of the bosses so far.

In the Wutai quests, Rapps (at level 32) was ok, his Aero3 (Aeroga?) was a one-shot-kill attack but it wasn't such a big deal, I think he's fine.
I tried the pagoda immediately after, and couldn't get past Chekhov, because there was no way I could keep myself alive and outdamage her Absorb, so I leveled to 34-35 and got Regen. After that, all the rest of the bosses (even Godo) were ok.

The Red Dragon was kinda harder than the Demon Gate (at level 38-39), but neither of these bosses was particularly hard. I think you should buff Demon Gate's HP a little. After slowing him and keeping Regen on myself I barely had to cast any cure spells (I kept everyone in the back row of course).

The bosses guarding the Kjata summon were a pain (at level 41-42). It took me about 5 tries to figure out an effective strategy, and another 5 to manage to execute it without them destroying me with Thundaga/Blizzaga... Then I finally realized there was no way in hell I could beat Levant when he was alone. So I just left one of his goons alive and blasted Levant with spells till he was almost dead, then finished them off both with Limit Breaks.
The main idea was to use Odin's Gunge Lance and Magic Hammer to drain all of their MP, while keeping the party alive with Regen (or White Wind if they used Reflect on me), and dispelling at every turn so they'd waste one of theirs to recast the buffs.

Jenova-Life (at level 43) was WAY easier than the Kjata bosses. I basically just used Esuna or White Wind to dispel sleep and Regen to help keep the party alive, while DeSpelling her Reflect and draining her mana with Magic Hammer. After a while she had no mana to use any attacks, so I just hacked away till she was dead.

Moral of the story: Magic Hammer is too strong. It seems to be the solution for a lot of otherwise very difficult boss battles. Make it absorb 75 or even 50 MP instead of 100.
Also, I find myself not using Mighty Guard because of the high mana cost. You probably should revert it back to its original cost, but keep the single targeting. As it stands, I'd rather use Haste-All and Barrier-All.

EDIT: I also think you should increase gil gained, even just from bosses. I actually had to farm for gil to buy equipment/materia, which kinda defeats the concept of not overleveling.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-22 21:34:30
yea the kujata bosses were definitely harder than jenova life,  i actually  just went and killed jenova life first because the kjata bosses were giving me a lot of trouble.    that 3500 ap was a big help.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-23 00:30:16
Quote from: me
A quick question, where is the data for limit breaks? Kernel.bin1 has a few of them, but not all of them.

Update: I found limit break attack data in ff7.exe, and managed to edit it without the game blowing up.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-23 05:32:08
@moraelyn: Thanks. Actually you found the exact strategy I planned out when making these. Draining 'em of mana, and Dispelling 'em. Nice work. But I was more thinking like using Odin once, and then just keeping them attacking while Healing and dispelling. But if you get time to use magic hammer it helps. Also absorbing fire/ice/bolt helps. Levant counters either magic or physical or everything with fire (I don't remember clearly). So Have the one absorbing fire attack it. Also it helps to farm light curtains and lunar curtains of the Foulander in wutai, though it's rare drops. In the wutai area it should by pretty easy to farm gil too.

But debuffing magic hammer. Perhaps I could, but as I see it it's smarter to give bosses more MP. I could degrade it's accuracy though.

I might reduce the MP cost of Mighty Guard a bit. The reason I brought it that high was because of the cheapness with it (Wall 54MP - MG 80MP). Wall is cheaper than barrier and mbarrier and costs a lot more MP as well (16/24MP - 54MP). But MG has a handicap. You can't link it with support materia. Thats the reason I think I'll reduce the MP cost, to lets say 70?

What I'll do in the next update is making demon gate harder and the Kujata boss a bit easier. That's for sure. But I have no time now. :P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-09-23 09:07:38
Quote from: me
A quick question, where is the data for limit breaks? Kernel.bin1 has a few of them, but not all of them.

Update: I found limit break attack data in ff7.exe, and managed to edit it without the game blowing up.

Quick question : do you know what the equivalent to ff7.exe be, in the Playstation iso ? I tried looking for this data in the SCUS_941.63, but to no avail.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-09-23 10:43:50
hmm I don't think the Kujata boss is that hard . my strategy is just kill Levant first . his only weakness is hidden element , I give Vicent all the magic buff as possible and yeah I was able to kill him with Bahamut in one hit  :-D , without Levant , the other two are useless if you cast reflect on your self , then take your time to steal and wait for him out of mana  :-D , they both have power up item so I guess Levant has too  :-P .And I don't remember my LV at that time .
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-09-23 14:52:06
@Armorvil

I found attack data for limit breaks in MENU\LIMTMENU.MNU on one of my PSX discs.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-09-23 18:37:18
@Armorvil

I found attack data for limit breaks in MENU\LIMTMENU.MNU on one of my PSX discs.

Ooohhh, thank you very much my friend ! You're a genius :-D

As a side note, the SCENE.BIN and KERNEL.BIN you provide are way too big to fit in a PSX iso, gjoerulv. I think I can free some space by deleting the spells and materia descriptions in the kernel.bin10 and kernel.bin15 to make the kernel usable, but do you know of any way to free some space in the scene file ? Is there some kind of data one can freely delete without wrecking havoc ?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: moraelyn on 2008-09-23 18:50:29
hmm I don't think the Kujata boss is that hard . my strategy is just kill Levant first . his only weakness is hidden element , I give Vicent all the magic buff as possible and yeah I was able to kill him with Bahamut in one hit  :-D , without Levant , the other two are useless if you cast reflect on your self , then take your time to steal and wait for him out of mana  :-D , they both have power up item so I guess Levant has too  :-P .And I don't remember my LV at that time .
I didn't try using Bahamut on them, although it seems logical. As it stands, Sense reads "Weak against ." so that probably means the hidden element. Anyways, if you just make these guys weak against their opposite element they will be perfectly fine IMO.

But debuffing magic hammer. Perhaps I could, but as I see it it's smarter to give bosses more MP. I could degrade it's accuracy though.
That's a good solution for Magic Hammer, I like both options. Just don't make it annoyingly inaccurate.

I might reduce the MP cost of Mighty Guard a bit. The reason I brought it that high was because of the cheapness with it (Wall 54MP - MG 80MP). Wall is cheaper than barrier and mbarrier and costs a lot more MP as well (16/24MP - 54MP). But MG has a handicap. You can't link it with support materia. Thats the reason I think I'll reduce the MP cost, to lets say 70?
Thing is you can get the same effect for 68(?) MP for all 3 characters with Wall-All and Haste-All, in 2 turns while it takes 3 turns and 240 MP (as it stands) to get the same effect from Mighty Guard. The only upside is that it takes less Materia slots (1 instead of 4) but that's just in case you only use 1 Enemy Skill, and even so, it's not such a big deal. So you can just reduce the cost to 68 MP and make it situational, like when you need to recast the buffs on someone who has died, or when a character is fighting alone etc. That way, no spell is really better than the other, and all of them have their uses.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ARMs on 2008-09-23 21:35:08
E Skill has the advatage of being almost every green materia +support  in 1.  Do you actually think ppl aren't gonna use E Skill because of the extra cost?   Those extra space you save with E. Skill means extra space for more counter attacks, more HP pluses, and more materia combos.  As it stands yes E. Skill is still very much better then most materias out there.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-24 05:15:01
gjoerulvs  can you tell me whats up with those triangular prism monsters right before jenova death in the whirlwind maze?   they like have some conversation in some language that i dont know. but anyways  my team gets killed whenever i attack them, like insta death... except it kills them even if they are immune to death.  and everything does zero dmg to them with the exception of limit breaks and phys attacks,  it says they are weak to holy but alexander does zero dmg.

im just wondering how to beat them because it doesnt seem possible altho i havent tried death sentence or pertrifying them yet.,  and do they give you an item or a decent amount of exp or ap when defeated?

i also wanted to know where i can find the angel whisper enemy skill. my strategy guide says they (the humanish looking women) are in the crater but it seems like you moved or removed them because i cant find them anywhere in the crater or whirlwind maze.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-24 10:55:05
I might reduce the MP cost of Mighty Guard a bit. The reason I brought it that high was because of the cheapness with it (Wall 54MP - MG 80MP). Wall is cheaper than barrier and mbarrier and costs a lot more MP as well (16/24MP - 54MP). But MG has a handicap. You can't link it with support materia. Thats the reason I think I'll reduce the MP cost, to lets say 70?
Thing is you can get the same effect for 68(?) MP for all 3 characters with Wall-All and Haste-All, in 2 turns while it takes 3 turns and 240 MP (as it stands) to get the same effect from Mighty Guard. The only upside is that it takes less Materia slots (1 instead of 4) but that's just in case you only use 1 Enemy Skill, and even so, it's not such a big deal. So you can just reduce the cost to 68 MP and make it situational, like when you need to recast the buffs on someone who has died, or when a character is fighting alone etc. That way, no spell is really better than the other, and all of them have their uses.
(1st of all I correct myself. Wall costs 58 MP)

If you want it this way then the reason I altered it is kinda wasted. I did it to avoid an easy all-haste +  all-wall effect. It has to be used in another way then what you're used to. The main reason people used it was the all-wall effect. The haste certainly is a huge bonus and makes the move too cheap imo. What I wanted was more strategic thinking. That's why I altered the ribbon the way I did too. If you ask me; haste+barrier+mbarrier on all in 1 move should cost over 200 MP 'cause of it's cheapness.

And though you can get the same effect with 76 MP, it doesn't come without a sacrifice. 2 turns + 4 slots. Or with 58 MP, 3 turns and 6 slots. Mighty G uses 240 MP, 3 turns and 1 slot.  As I see it the only handicap Mighty Guard has is that it can't be linked (cause you get the all effect by linking. If you could link it, it would be 240MP, 1 turn and 2 slots). That's why I say it shouldn't be used to create this effect. It works better as a single buffer, and should be used as one.

gjoerulvs  can you tell me whats up with those triangular prism monsters right before jenova death in the whirlwind maze?   they like have some conversation in some language that i dont know. but anyways  my team gets killed whenever i attack them, like insta death... except it kills them even if they are immune to death.  and everything does zero dmg to them with the exception of limit breaks and phys attacks,  it says they are weak to holy but alexander does zero dmg.

im just wondering how to beat them because it doesnt seem possible altho i havent tried death sentence or pertrifying them yet.,  and do they give you an item or a decent amount of exp or ap when defeated?

i also wanted to know where i can find the angel whisper enemy skill. my strategy guide says they (the humanish looking women) are in the crater but it seems like you moved or removed them because i cant find them anywhere in the crater or whirlwind maze.

Those creatures is actually quite hard. Immune to Magic, and HIGH defence. The ? ? ? ES is prob your best bet. They have 1000 HP and immune to every status. They drop X-Potions, Turbo Ethers, Elixirs and Phoenix Downs. They never attack you. But if a party member makes a move, immediately after they kill a random character with full HP or completely heal a character with not full HP.

Angel Whisper is acquired from Pollensalta in the Northern Cave close to the end of the game. SPOILER: you can also manipulate one of the Phoenix Materia guardians to get it. /SPOILER.

EDIT: The language is Latin. It's whats spoken in the One Winged Angel theme.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-09-24 11:33:30
thanks for the info gjoerulvs,  sorry for my incompetence i shouldve been able to figure out that ???? enemy skill strategy on my own.  anyways main reason i posted just now is because i wanted to add in my opinion on might guard.   i think it should stay at 80mp.  like you said it has really great affects AND it only costs one materia slot.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: moraelyn on 2008-09-24 16:53:12
E Skill has the advatage of being almost every green materia +support  in 1.  Do you actually think ppl aren't gonna use E Skill because of the extra cost?   Those extra space you save with E. Skill means extra space for more counter attacks, more HP pluses, and more materia combos.  As it stands yes E. Skill is still very much better then most materias out there.
That's not what I said. I'm using 3 E. Skill Materias myself, one for each character. I was commenting on Mighty Guard only.

And though you can get the same effect with 76 MP, it doesn't come without a sacrifice. 2 turns + 4 slots. Or with 58 MP, 3 turns and 6 slots. Mighty G uses 240 MP, 3 turns and 1 slot.  As I see it the only handicap Mighty Guard has is that it can't be linked (cause you get the all effect by linking. If you could link it, it would be 240MP, 1 turn and 2 slots). That's why I say it shouldn't be used to create this effect. It works better as a single buffer, and should be used as one.
Well my bad, I thought the cost for Wall was 54 MP and the cost for Haste was 14, so I messed up the calculations.

Anyway, I might have spoken too soon about Mighty Guard. Fact is you can get it soon enough, when your max MP doesn't exceed 200-220. At the time, using it drains almost half of your MP pool, that's why I found Haste-All and Barrier-All to be more cost effective, and that's the reason I (almost) didn't use it at all. Later in the game though, it's not that big a MP drain, plus Magic Hammer helps with the cost. Leave it as is, I'll play with it a bit and let you know what I think.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2008-09-25 14:27:54
Stupid question, does field.lgp contains dialogues? I have the cetramod patch http://www.cetramod.it/home.php (http://www.cetramod.it/home.php) that transalte dialogues in italian and i would like to know if this patch overwrites them.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-09-26 08:06:30
I got another bug . It seems if you immune to slow/stop (added effect+time magic or equip headband ) and you also immune to haste too . But when I equip Sprint shoes with added effect+time magic , Haste works .
Also , can you tell me how to beat the boss guards KOTR ? :-P It keep reviving and even when I caste sleep , it still attack as normal .  :-(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-26 09:24:35
I don't think it's a bug. I may have made the Headband immune to haste as well. If that's the case it was a mistake. But I've never touched the time materia. Thanks for letting me know!

You have to kill that boss 12 times to beat it. And it gets stronger if you keep it alive too long at a time.You also should debuff it as much as possible (bad breath works fine). I'll leave the rest to you guys. :P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: ADIDAS on 2008-09-27 09:15:15
you are right , KOTR sucks , 255 magic and they can't even deal 6k damage. Double cut is better , lol
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2008-09-27 10:11:49
Is double-cut in this mod a purple materia as it has to be?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-09-27 22:20:11
Hi there...I have lurked for a while and have been checking out the site and mostly this mod.  I am very impressed with the difficulty of the mod however I do have a few questions/comments.

1.  I was fighting on the beaches around Kalm today and I was having a crash issue that I have not experienced before.  Usually if the game crashes randomly it is after a battle but I was getting a crash when the battle starts.  I was thinking maybe it was a certain enemy that was bugged?   

2.  I am the treasure hunting type and I have tried stealing and grinding some of the new enemies that you have created but I haven't really saw that much in the way of anything other than basic items.  Am I just not trying hard enough or are the new enemies just mostly for difficulty?

All in all its a very refreshing challenge.   :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-09-28 12:04:43
Thanks Auraplatonic!

I know there is a problem on that beach, but I didn't discover it until recently. It worked when I tested it when I made it, but apparently it refuses to work now. And yes the enemies I've created is mostly to refresh the game some and experimenting with AIs. A minor part of 'rm got some neat stuff.

KOTR works best against the enemies that are immune to peerless. Against all others it's kind of a gamble to use. It works well against the weapons.

EDIT: I noticed a big type-o in the 1st post. Of course it's not field.lpg but flevel.lpg. Big mistake. Sorry.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Craig_yeats on 2008-10-02 19:23:55
Hi. I like the mod that you've created and really enjoyed fighting jenova Birth in the shinra building :evil:

I have had a problem though. When I have the soldier flashback with cloud it struggles to load. I see the first pasrt when you see Sephiroth and Cloud on the truck talking but when I try to enter the battle with the dragon my computer crashes. I don't know if anyone is haveing the same problem as me. I have checked every post on this forum but can't seem to find a person with the same problem. If you have anything that might work I'd be very happy to here back from you.

Thanks
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-10-02 22:09:40
hmmm, no never heard 'bout that problem before. Do you have the v1.02 patch? Are you sure you've replaced the old files with mine? I did have a problem with the field script there but I fixed it. It works on both my comps as well. hmmm... Beyond this I don't think I can help you. try to reinstall.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-03 06:39:02
Quick question...master summon is now coin, so how does it work with the huge materia?  Before you had to have all the summon materia mastered and then you got the master summon but it took away all your mastered materia.  The summon materia aren't technically mastered since they don't level up so what would happen?  Would you lose all the summon materia you have?  Or can you even get it there anymore?  Sorry if that sounded confusing lol.

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-10-03 10:54:43
You are limited to 1 of each summon. No master materia exist. If you trade 'em, you'll lose 'em for another Coin materia. Same goes for magic and command just not the same "reward". For magic you'll get remove, and for command you'll get flash!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-10-03 21:26:52
so i finally got to the boss guarding the typhon summon materia.  he looks awesome (black version of materia keeper for those that dont know)  and i thought he was perfect difficulty level, he was a nice challenge  (unlike ultima weapon)

i also killed the boss that guards the quadra magic materia, pretty cool.

i wanted to know in what order should i get the mime, quadra, and hp/mp switch materias.  like when are they first supposed to be defeated storyline wise.   
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-10-03 23:27:03
Try 'em. It's the exact same fight at all those materias except for KOTR. Is the KOTR boss beatable? I think he should be. I've only tried it with max stats on 1 character and still it was kinda hard. It has an attack that might kill all your characters.

Too bad ultima weapon wasn't hard. It's tedious cause his HP is decided by a global variable, thus making it hard to test. But by rising his attack power (not strength) and add effects to his attacks, he could be badass. Thanks for letting me know! 
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-04 00:04:49
You are limited to 1 of each summon. No master materia exist. If you trade 'em, you'll lose 'em for another Coin materia. Same goes for magic and command just not the same "reward". For magic you'll get remove, and for command you'll get flash!


Thanks, I think that makes sense.  So that means the only way to get coin without losing all your summons is by beating emerald?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Anno999999 on 2008-10-04 19:09:41
wait you fightjenova birth in the shinra hq? i fought her on the boat did i not install this right?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: lascapa on 2008-10-04 22:21:22
Hello, I am new to this board and have a question. Sorry to be off topic but I wasn't sure where else to post this. Do you have to use the keyboard to play FF7 or can I use a control pad?

I should receive the game any day now, and I am going to apply all the patch's. So i have been reading a lot of different sites to find out the best way to use them.

I played FF7 when it first came out on PS1 and I got the bug to play it again on my computer this time.
Thanks for your help!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: *:.Griever.:* on 2008-10-04 22:31:16
Yes you can use a gamepad.  i would advise it.  And for future reference, this would go in Completely Unrelated I'd say. :-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: lascapa on 2008-10-04 22:33:59
Thanks for the reply Griever!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-05 08:09:50
Wow.  The battle arena is crazy hard.  I like the challenge but I am finding that it seems to be almost impossible at times.  Anybody else experiencing this?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-10-05 16:35:09
to be honest i just used a save editor to give myself omnislash and final attack as soon as i started disc 3.   BUT only because the battle arena was just simply not possible, for me at least
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-05 19:05:17
Well I don't want to say its impossible but it seems as if you are not given much of a chance.  For example fighting the green dragon....with the enemies already having a ton of extra HP and then a ton extra because of the battle arena, and then the handicaps and having only one person, I can rarely win it seems.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-10-05 23:39:39
I must admit I never liked the battle arena. Well, it's fun once or twice but going on it forever is a pain. It's indeed a challenge in my mod if you're up for it, but if you want omnislash, w-magic and final attack without too much pain I suggest you just use the normal scene. Or cheat with jenova.  :evil:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-10-09 13:44:39
Inspired by some of the new bosses that have been created on this mod, I have pimped my Midgar Zolom:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gsH2lLrJ3Tk

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ1PfveXzgw

Questions and (constructive) comments welcome.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-13 03:02:55
Good times...I just got done fighting emerald and ruby.  I didn't find emerald to be too bad but I may have been built up a bit too much.  As for ruby the fight was long and decent.  Final Attack/Revive, Counter/Mime, and Coin helped the most.  I think I could have sped up the battle by having a mastered cover materia on someone with counter/mime.  Towards the end I was worried because he used whirlsand on my mime(Tifa) but He was really close to death and didn't last much more.  I saw people talking about having to use Pandora's Box like 200 times or something but thats more like the old Ruby.  This one has less magic defense so Ultima and Star Dust did good damage.  On to Sephiroth!!!


EDIT:  To LKM....I checked out the Zolom and it looked pretty beefy.  I don't know if he needs to be that powerful but for fun its not too bad.

EDIT2:

you are right , KOTR sucks , 255 magic and they can't even deal 6k damage. Double cut is better , lol
  With MP Turbo I got mine to do a little over 9k per hit :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-13 05:27:25
Something interesting happened.   When fighting safer sephiroth, he used shield.  I then used coin for 30k damage and then he instantly died.(the first hit!)  I checked in the scene file to see he was supposed to have 1mil hp but ingame that didn't seem to be the case.  Bizarro did have decent hp but I don't think it was anywhere near the 800k the scene says either.  Anyway could this be something on my end?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-10-13 13:36:19
Yeah, my Midgardsorm is supposed to be an optional boss that the player can fight on disc three. I liked the idea of having a few enemies which are too hard to fight first time around that the player can go back to and beat later in the game. I haven't beaten him yet, but I think it should be possible to win without *too* much trouble.

The Midgar Zolom is perfect for this because it is a completely optional fight and because the player can fight him over and over again; Sephiroth's power is also highlighted by the fact that he can beat him on his own.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-10-15 09:44:42
Something interesting happened.   When fighting safer sephiroth, he used shield.  I then used coin for 30k damage and then he instantly died.(the first hit!)  I checked in the scene file to see he was supposed to have 1mil hp but ingame that didn't seem to be the case.  Bizarro did have decent hp but I don't think it was anywhere near the 800k the scene says either.  Anyway could this be something on my end?

It was a mistake in the AI. Do you have the newest scene? See page 1.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-10-18 17:58:48
Oh that makes sense.  I feel like a noob lol.  I had to reinstall ff7 and just put in the org mod install and forgot to update.  Anyway I managed to beat safer sephiroth after a couple tries and I was very impressed with the difficulty.  I felt him to be harder than the weapons as he should be.  My only question is if you plan any more additions or if what we have is the final version?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-10-21 19:44:02
Since we've figured out how to change the prices of things in shops and how to change the x70 modifier for master materia to something more reasonable:

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7939.msg95637#msg95637

will you have any price-related mods in future versions, or are you staying away from ff7.exe?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-10-22 07:19:52
There are many mods that alters the exe. Even I have several patches. I could make a patch that includes what I got on my exe or a mod that only patches the prices. In the 1st case I need to know what patches and modifications people generally wants. Which means they need the original exe to patch a multipatch with mine. But before I do that I would also like to make my flevel.lpg work with other popular patches as well. I can't possibly please everyone though.

@Auraplatonic: This is not the final version. It must still be considered beta. I will work on this some more when I have time to (which gets rarer and rarer these days  :x).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-10-22 10:07:22
I see. I thought that there might be a problem with unpatched executables vs. patched ones. Well, it is a mod that most people could make on their own for now (and to their own liking), so I can see why you'd like to make flevel.lpg a priority if it doesn't work for everyone.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Cloud Strife20200 on 2008-10-31 22:04:51
I was checking out your new bosses and wondered what level you'd recommend being at when you fight them? I'm talking about the three soldier members. Also nice midgar zolom mod leighos.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Rufus95 on 2008-11-02 20:05:36
excellent mod the fights are much harder.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-11-02 20:38:08
I have been playing with Locke, Venus and Theo over the past few days and I have noticed that Theo's standard sword attack is actually a magical attack (i.e. the byte at 0x0e is 22h). Is it meant to be like that, or is it a mistake?

In any case, nice job; Erindre was particularly interesting. I've always thought that the game would benefit from having a few more enemies that could heal or even revive themselves.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2008-11-06 02:15:31
Wow. Guard Scorpion was pretty tricky and I'm up to Air Buster now, who is REALLY hard. Great work!

EDIT: Beat him. It was actually easier than I expected, all I had to do was make sure someone with Cure always had full ATB before I let anyone attack. :/
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-11-09 02:04:23
Guard Scorpion isn't very hard if your timing is good. I usually wait until he is doing his search scope and have the targeted character defend (which is all he can do after being paralysed) whilst the other character attacks. Of course, you have to remember when he raises his tail, because if you don't time that well, things can become nasty. It's quite a good difficulty for a first boss; I actually found Air Buster trickier. Perhaps I'm so used to beating him without thinking very much on vanilla FF7 that I get careless; he can wipe you out quite quickly if you do that. Good luck with Aps and the Hell House.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2008-11-09 19:43:56
Aps and Hell House were pathetic. o_O

The only difference I noticed with Aps was he used the reverse tsunami much more often...

Hell House was actually /easier/ than I remember him being before... the counterattack is new though, right?

Up to Locke, Venus and... what was the other one? now. They're giving me hell, 7 attempts so far and still haven't been able to beat them. Got the third one dead once then Venus revived him, but that's it.

Reno, on the other hand, was kinda a pain... especially with the 200 HP Pyramids...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-11-10 16:54:33
with lock venus and tera or whatever her name is  My strategy is to kill the one that revives , then kill the one that cures, then kill locke the blue one last. mindblow with barret is very helpful in that fight, and cross slash's paralyze can be helpful as well. dont forget to steal the silver armlet, there is also a fairy ring and a x potion too.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-11-10 23:25:51
Aps and Hell House were pathetic. o_O

The only difference I noticed with Aps was he used the reverse tsunami much more often...

Hell House was actually /easier/ than I remember him being before... the counterattack is new though, right?

Up to Locke, Venus and... what was the other one? now. They're giving me hell, 7 attempts so far and still haven't been able to beat them. Got the third one dead once then Venus revived him, but that's it.

Reno, on the other hand, was kinda a pain... especially with the 200 HP Pyramids...

With Reno I found that not trying to destroy the pyramids was the best strategy.  He won't pyramid all three of the party(at least for me) so just fight him with the remaining party member.  He only has 1000 hp so its not too bad. 
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-11-11 02:33:52
Locke, Venus and Theo? Just wait until you fight them in the return to Midgar...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2008-11-11 11:53:13
Aps and Hell House were pathetic. o_O

The only difference I noticed with Aps was he used the reverse tsunami much more often...

Hell House was actually /easier/ than I remember him being before... the counterattack is new though, right?

Up to Locke, Venus and... what was the other one? now. They're giving me hell, 7 attempts so far and still haven't been able to beat them. Got the third one dead once then Venus revived him, but that's it.

Reno, on the other hand, was kinda a pain... especially with the 200 HP Pyramids...


With Reno I found that not trying to destroy the pyramids was the best strategy.  He won't pyramid all three of the party(at least for me) so just fight him with the remaining party member.  He only has 1000 hp so its not too bad. 

He sure did for me. Even if he didn't, he can still Paralyze the remaining member.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Cloud Strife20200 on 2008-11-15 20:33:16
I thought Guard Scorpion was easy, it was a match of endurance to see who could continuously attack but I just spammed bolt and had barret heal if needed then just attack, now air buster is a different matter, he's the hardest boss I've fought (not counting new bosses), I was maybe slightly underleveled but I just got angry because he kept glitching, even though he wasn't facing me when I used limit breaks they still done normal damage, it was a gamble for my limit break to do huge damage or not. He hits pretty hard but as long as you keep someone ready to heal at all times you will be ok. *sigh* Aps as usual was as easy as ever. since I had aerith on my team I used seal evil then spammed bolt, he only attacked me twice before he died. The Hell house was easy, just put everyone on the back row and spam magic seen as you can't deal good physical damage till he uses suicide drop. Next boss was that poison guy, he wasn't hard seen as I equipped everyone with poison protection and spammed fire. them two bosses in the elevator were laughable, the first one died without using his charged beam, second was slightly harder but still laughable. Rufus would've been hard if I didn't keep my bolt plumes, I used a bolt plume which killed his pet then when I got my limit break rufus died so it only took two moves. their wasn't really any notable battles after that untill jenova who I have to say you done a good job with, she was really quite hard and kept me on edge because of stop (she always kept stopping Nanaki my healer  :-() but as for the new trio they were very hard, I took 3 tries, my stratedgy was give barret fury and cover then everytime he had his limit break use mindblow, then it was a case of slowly concentrating on one enemy untill they died then it got alot easier, slowly but surely they all died. I'm currently at cosmo canyon but I can't go any further because I have a bug where if there's a cutscene that my characters are supposed to move in, they just don't move. Like when you go up into the room with all the planets, my guys stay on the ground and I just have to wait untill I can change room to be in the right place but unfortunately there's a cutscene in that room where a planet gets destroyed but my characters don't stay where they should be. the best bit was at junon where you see a cutscene of the cannon and me and the other soldiers were floating in the air lol
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2008-11-19 12:19:06
I get that bug too. :/

I never got it on this PC until I reinstalled windows a while ago, anyone know the fix?

Anyway - Rufus is damn easy without items. Cast Bio on him, throw Cross Slash when you get it, and just heal. Also - his attack is not long range despite using a gun, so BACK ROW.

Btw, I find the names "Biara" and "Biaga" kinda weird... "Biora" and "Bioga" would've been better. :/
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Synthesist on 2008-11-25 13:45:42
So what remains to be fixed Gjoerulv? This seems like a HELL of a mod!

It seems to be playable from start to finish, has anyone had any game-crashing incidents that are due to the mod and not because of faulty installation?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Skillster on 2008-11-26 00:44:35
Is this still going? Congratulations on keeping it up thus far.
I remember when you were starting it out, hell loads of changes though much be hard to keep track of them all.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2008-11-26 01:52:45
The only actual bug on this mod that I know of is on the beach by Kalm, sometimes it crashes when you get in a battle.  But gjoerulv already knows about that.  As for the bug that was just stated in that recent long post, it seems to be maybe its a bad install.  A fresh one might do the trick.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Synthesist on 2008-11-27 01:09:44
Really? Then it's fully playable,thanks mate :-)
It's Hardcore time in Athens then! :evil:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-11-27 18:13:01
Yea i've played up to sephiroth in the northern cave and didnt get any crashes that were permanent.  there were a couple crashes or freezes BUT after i reloaded the game and got to that same point again it didnt screw up that 2nd time through
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2008-12-02 09:32:01
I've been looking through the different encounters with Scenester after applying this mod and I found one encounter against six Adamantaimai enemies.  Can the game even do that?  I was wondering if it had anything to do with the crash on the beach near Kalm...?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-12-03 16:11:56
Which encounter was that?

EDIT: nvm. (scene 7, for anyone who's interested)

In any case, I don't see any reason why the game couldn't do that; I think that one can have any combination of up to six enemies from the relevant scene file in a fight. Of course, if there were a mistake in setting up the fight, the game would crash.

EDIT: gjoerulv has changed very little in that file, and it has nothing to do with the Kalm beach region either, so the crash there must be down to something else.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2008-12-04 10:34:59
Sorry for the lack of detail.  Yeah, Scene 7, Encounter 27, 3 Adamantaimai enemies in the front row and 3 Adamantaimai enemies in the back row.  And the only other enemy in that Scene is a Test Pyramid (again, this is for those who are interested.  If you ever want to fight them, chuck a "27" into the encounter IDs of one of the flevel files with Meteor).

Looks like I was wrong.  Well, I guess if that was the problem, it would've been removed by now.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lucky777 on 2008-12-08 18:59:42
Does it work on the german version too :?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Jonnylossus on 2008-12-08 19:34:46
Does it work on the german version too :?

Never tested it, but i guess it works. Just create back ups in case of unwanted problems.

___

Habs nicht getestet, aber ich denke mal, dass es funktioniert. Erstelle aber Sicherungskopien / Back Ups, falls ungewollte Probleme auftauchen.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lucky777 on 2008-12-08 19:49:14
Es funktionert nicht bei mir da kommt immer diese Fehlermeldung:

http://img525.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fehlermeldungff7mn9.png
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-12-10 06:38:22
It works if you get a hold of the ORIGINAL ENGLISH kernel.bin(2). I can send you a link later.

My german sucks but...

Wenn sie halten ein von der ursprunglichen englischen kernel.bin (2), es funtioniert. Ich kann Ihnen einen link senden. (?) :P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lucky777 on 2008-12-10 13:44:32
Thanks for the help! :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-12-10 21:28:52
Just one little question...

To use your Scene.bin in the PSX version, gjoerulv, I had the idea to completely remove some scene files that aren't used in the first disc, such as the scene files holding the enemies you only meet in Midgar disc 2, and the final dungeon's monsters and bosses. This allowed me to make your scene.bin go below the original's size limit and thus, to make it fit into the game ISO.

It worked great until I defeated Guard Scorpion. But then, while going back to the save point, a random encountered occur in the beginning of which the game just crashed. Impossible to go farther. So, my question is : did you hack one of these random encounters in some way that would crash the game if the last few little scene files were missing ?... ...In other words, is some new enemy supposed to ambush the party, as soon as Guard Scorpion is defeated ?

If not, then this surely sucks - as that would mean that my own scene.bin has chances to randomly crash on the PSX version, too...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: finalheaven07 on 2008-12-10 21:37:24
This mod has made me feel like I'm playing FF7 for the first time, as I have no idea what is coming up next enemy-wise.  Thanks!

One thing - I'm not sure if anyone else has reported it, but when you first meet Aerith and you can push the barrels over to help her out, the random encounters you face with Cloud make running around impossible.  I faced 2...geez, I forget their names, but they're the red blob-type monsters.  Anyway, with one attack, they paralyzed, poisoned and silenced me, causing me to die without another way out.  Is it meant to be THAT hard, or is that an oversight?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-12-10 21:42:41
Just one little question...

To use your Scene.bin in the PSX version, gjoerulv, I had the idea to completely remove some scene files that aren't used in the first disc, such as the scene files holding the enemies you only meet in Midgar disc 2, and the final dungeon's monsters and bosses. This allowed me to make your scene.bin go below the original's size limit and thus, to make it fit into the game ISO.

It worked great until I defeated Guard Scorpion. But then, while going back to the save point, a random encountered occur in the beginning of which the game just crashed. Impossible to go farther. So, my question is : did you hack one of these random encounters in some way that would crash the game if the last few little scene files were missing ?... ...In other words, is some new enemy supposed to ambush the party, as soon as Guard Scorpion is defeated ?

If not, then this surely sucks - as that would mean that my own scene.bin has chances to randomly crash on the PSX version, too...

I don't think that there are any new encounters in the reactor, so I can't think of any reason why the game is crashing. Could there be a problem with the kernel.bin file not being updated? Have your field files been updated as well as your scene files? Have you tried this a few times, or has it only happened once?

If the mod doesn't work for the PSX version, that really does suck :-(

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-12-10 23:17:52
I updated the Kernel, but I didn't touch the Field files. Actually, I have no clue how to edit those (be it to add new "monster-in-boxes" or anything else). Do you think the field files also need to be updated, for this hardcore mod to work ?... ...The truth is, I already experienced this same kind of crash, when I worked on my FFVII AV beta. After much Scene hacking, the game would crash when loading some particular enemy formations - but I managed to solve this problem by removing my changes to some other enemies, in different scene files...

It's really weird.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-12-10 23:31:23
I'm not sure exactly what would happen if you tried to play the mod without the right flevel files, but you certainly wouldn't be able to fight the new enemies, and there might be some other problems with encounters as well, since the field files have all the data on what battles happen in what area.

Hmmm, I've just thought; field files are not stored the same way in the PSX version as in the PC version, are they? That might cause a few problems :-(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lucky777 on 2008-12-11 02:10:31
THX it work perfect. :-D :-D :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2008-12-11 07:08:01
One thing - I'm not sure if anyone else has reported it, but when you first meet Aerith and you can push the barrels over to help her out, the random encounters you face with Cloud make running around impossible.  I faced 2...geez, I forget their names, but they're the red blob-type monsters.  Anyway, with one attack, they paralyzed, poisoned and silenced me, causing me to die without another way out.  Is it meant to be THAT hard, or is that an oversight?

Those are the Hedgehog Pies, and they are hard, but not an oversight.  They have a small chance of inflicting those status effects, and though the chance is not high, it is a good idea to not move at all (and therefore not encounter them) until Aeris catches up to you at the top of the church.  She can fight and defeat the MP and Guard Hound enemies without a problem, especially if you provide her with some materia beforehand.
Those Hedgehog Pies are no longer such a problem once you have more members in the party.  Remember that they are weak against ice, so pair All with the Ice materia on someone and you should be able to OHKO them.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lucky777 on 2008-12-11 11:23:30
There is a problem: The game runs too fast.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2008-12-11 13:55:13
I'm not sure exactly what would happen if you tried to play the mod without the right flevel files, but you certainly wouldn't be able to fight the new enemies, and there might be some other problems with encounters as well, since the field files have all the data on what battles happen in what area.

Hmmm, I've just thought; field files are not stored the same way in the PSX version as in the PC version, are they? That might cause a few problems :-(

I'm not sure the problem lies with the flevel files, since the game doesn't crash when walking on the field, but in-battle, just before the character models are loaded. And since it happened in a game in which I only modified Scene.bin, logic tells me the field files have nothing to do with it... It looks like it's a PSX-only problem, since no one else mentioned this.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2008-12-12 01:24:59
@Armorvil:
I think the problem lies in the fact that some scenes uses new battle models that can't possibly be in the original psx battle.lgp, 'cause I made 'em lol. I've more or less made 1 new enemy in every place. I only made new enemies where it was room for one (or 2) in the scene.bin. And for the sole exception of Jumbo Cactuar I never replaced any enemies with new ones.

@finalheaven07:
Thanks for trying it! :D Actually those pies, like Shadowseer mentioned, have a very small chance of causing these effects. They never occurred when I played. Maybe I'm just lucky or you unlucky, but the chances are not that high.

@Lucky777:
Where in the game do you experience that? If it's in a mini-game that is quite normal. Try dziugo's multi patcher (patches the .exe). Go here! (http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Technical/Customising) You may need the chocobo patch as well. You'll find out when you reach the chocobo races.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-12-12 12:50:34
Quote from: gjoerulv
I think the problem lies in the fact that some scenes uses new battle models that can't possibly be in the original psx battle.lgp, 'cause I made 'em lol. I've more or less made 1 new enemy in every place. I only made new enemies where it was room for one (or 2) in the scene.bin. And for the sole exception of Jumbo Cactuar I never replaced any enemies with new ones.

Ah, that was the robot, wasn't it? They caused quite a few problems.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-12-12 16:35:03
so I've played up until the northern cave,  havent fought sephy or emerald, ruby weapom yet, anyways i cant find the jumbo cactuar, can anyone shed some light on this?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-12-12 18:04:59
I have noticed that some people are having trouble with the battle arena in this mod. At the moment I am investigating how the battle arena works (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8061.0). Hopefully I'll be able to let the player use a full party, which should make things much more reasonable.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Jonnylossus on 2008-12-13 18:09:44
so I've played up until the northern cave,  havent fought sephy or emerald, ruby weapom yet, anyways i cant find the jumbo cactuar, can anyone shed some light on this?

Maybe around the Cactus Island ;)? It is in the far left corner, far south from Cosmo Canyon.

Don't know this mod though, so i am not sure.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2008-12-13 19:10:29
Yea i looked around there, i dunno maybe not hard enough
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BahamutSIN on 2008-12-13 19:18:31
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhi0a16fREQ

This Video shows Jumbo Cactuar's location and the battle! :wink:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: riryoku on 2008-12-14 09:59:34
Awesome, thanks for this. Definately going to try it out!!!

....sheesh, I wonder if you altered the Emerald and Ruby battles.  :evil:

Edit: Yeowch, did you put Guard Scorpions crit rate up? Or am I just extremely unlucky? lol Crit after crit after crit....
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Misunderstood on 2008-12-22 17:04:56
Excellent mod, I amped up Locke, Theo, and Venus so they can be even more powerful and challenging!!(They were already challenging enough xD) Nice work dude :wink:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2008-12-22 19:34:33
Quote from: riryoku
....sheesh, I wonder if you altered the Emerald and Ruby battles.  :evil:

They and their attacks are both stronger, especially Emerald (although there isn't a big HP increase - their HP are high enough already); when the strength and of the monster and the base power of the attack are increased, the effect is massive. And one can't spam KotR against Ruby any more, either...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-01-26 15:39:45
Well then I guess I'm done with this one (not that I've done anything with it lately). As I see it, the only unique thing with my mod is the added enemies and the updated enemy AIs. Everything else should be quite easy to tweak for anyone. What I'm trying to say is that I see little reason to continue this with all the tools and information available. If you're unhappy with my mod but want the new enemies and the updated AI, then I suggest you mod this one however you want with the available tools (or raw editing; whichever you like). Adding enemies and models isn't rocket science either.
There are some minor bugs considering enemy formation though. And there really is supposed to be a new model for the enemy in mt. nibel. Try fighting a bit on the bridge there and you'll see.  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Post_ex0dus on 2009-02-11 03:42:39
Hey! I'm from Germany, too
could you pleasy send me the english kernel.bin? need it so badly :D
thx veery much

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Ultraman on 2009-02-12 08:05:59
I'm aware that ultima edition is frowned on around here, but really made me lol at what happened when i installed this patch on it. take a look
(http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/7/27/2022416/owned.png)
yep, this is a random encounter in the first reactor... first encounter of the game, which is usually the two guards was also replaced by a beach plug (i think it's called) - the beachbound enemy that teaches big guard. Was almost impossible to even beat that! lol. Also instead of guard scorpion, i was forced into a battle with 2 yuffies ('mystery ninja') and got totally owned :O
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: vegetamaker on 2009-03-28 20:52:37
Hello and first @ all: Thanks for do the Mod.

I was tring it only with "kernel.bin" and "scene.bin" and really it is harder! That's Cool!

But... wel..l i saw that you changed some other files (i guess for add graphics and animations) but i cant patch it :S. I have a just-installed data files and the "patcher" say that are "unknow versions". Well, i am playing in Spanish version (that could be the prob i guess).

My files have these names:
    - KERNEL.bin (should be Kernel.bin but i dont think that the patcher care about caps xD)
    - KERNEL2.bin (should be kerenel2.bin)
    - battle.lgp (same)
    - scene.bin (same)
    - sflevel.lgp (should be flevel.lgp)

The Patcher only came patch the "battle.lgp" but if i try it with the "battle.lgp" that i have currently patcher it dosent (normal ofc).

So if i only patch "scene.bin" and "kernel.bin" from the "minipatch" that i said b4 what i will miss from other files? and... Is there any chance for "tie" the patcher and really patch it?

Thanks for your time.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-03-28 21:09:56
Someone else (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.msg96907#msg96907) had this problem, also using a non-English version. It sounds like the patch doesn't work with non-English versions of the game, but maybe I'm wrong.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: vegetamaker on 2009-03-29 05:08:26
Someone else (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.msg96907#msg96907) had this problem, also using a non-English version. It sounds like the patch doesn't work with non-English versions of the game, but maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for it. I missed it i gues :P. Well if i only need the kernel2.bin for do it work i will try find it ^^. Thanks
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-03-29 14:04:57
Hmmm, I'm not sure whether a kernel2.bin would be enough; the flevel.lgp is also different in the non-English versions of the game (since all the dialogue is there). If it works with just an English kernel2.bin, that's great, but don't get your hopes up.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-03-30 18:47:24
Yeah now I added a download for users of non-English versions. Check out the 1st page.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: vegetamaker on 2009-03-30 23:06:47
Yeah now I added a download for users of non-English versions. Check out the 1st page.

OMG!. I guess i will love u alot. Thanks so much gjoerulv! Just downloading :D

EDIT:

Ok, downloaded and patching. But there is still a prob: the flevel.lgp file. The spanish version is called "sflevel.lgp" so i renamed it. The patch cant path it (is where all text are if i am not wrong). What i will miss if i dont patch it?

Thanks!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-03-31 11:00:01
Quite a lot; the data telling the game to take you to all of the new battles is in flevel.lgp, so you won't be able to fight enemies like Locke, Venus and Theo. IIRC, armorvil had a problem with the game crashing in the first reactor when he used the the scene and kernel files with the PSX version, because there was a new enemy in there (although that may have been because he didn't have the battle.lgp file). This mod uses quite a lot of field edits, so you might miss out on quite a lot.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: vegetamaker on 2009-03-31 11:15:54
Jum... So all files are 100% necesary for the mod. Well... then if i am very bored, and with the permisson of gjoerulv,  i could translate all texts to Spanish (just comparing and copy-pasting with the original) and, why not, improving it for a better translation (even if the pc version is better translaten than psx version there are alot bad things translated. Alot confuses with "he" and "she" haha).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-03-31 11:23:56
There are some much bigger problems with the translation; the typos are just irritating, some of these (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8230.0) can lead to real misunderstandings.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: vegetamaker on 2009-03-31 11:57:39
There are some much bigger problems with the translation; the typos are just irritating, some of these (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8230.0) can lead to real misunderstandings.

Now imagine what things can be found in the spanish version when they translated it from english version (if i am not wrong xD). Thanks for the link, if i finally i translate it (even if is only for my own use) it will help alot! ^^

Edit: Anyway i should translate the spanish version first for use it in "normal mode" and after the "hardcore mode". Just for follow a logic order.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-03-31 12:12:20
I hate to think. I've heard that the German translation is awful, which wouldn't be a surprise. Chances are most of the translations are mistranslations of mistranslations.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Post_ex0dus on 2009-04-01 07:12:39
eer.. another question:
HOW can i defeat Jenova on the boat?? omg its so hard. my chars are lvl 31 and the most damage i can deal is 1300 with Shiva (only one time in battle).. but Jenova has 20.000!! and she's doing "stop" all the time which can't be cured.
do i have to train until lvl 50?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-04-01 07:19:48
eer.. another question:
HOW can i defeat Jenova on the boat?? omg its so hard. my chars are lvl 31 and the most damage i can deal is 1300 with Shiva (only one time in battle).. but Jenova has 20.000!! and she's doing "stop" all the time which can't be cured.
do i have to train until lvl 50?

You should sense her and see her weakness... which is "Cut" meaning Cloud's attacks. The two other party members should just heal, and optionally use limits to heal the party or damage jenova. Cloud should have the power wrist on to deal even more damage. The headbands prevents stop.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: dragoone on 2009-04-14 17:59:05
hey, i downloaded the game n the patch n appears a error message is like

   |^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|
   |G(dadada)update data   |
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
n down says
This contain Invalid Data
(Is my  BD¡)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-04-14 18:43:51
This is for the PC version only. if you downloaded it there is a probability for the files not being like the original ones. You downloaded the PC version? You followed the instructions? well it really isn't that hard.

All files that are patched can't be altered in any way before you patch (must be original).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-04-16 18:34:45
man... everytime i put on the hardcore mod, and then the battle cloud model and the npc rc patch, it messes up all the field models... but why? i dont get it, i do it EXACTLY like i do it on xp (my comp now is vista) and there's graphical errors such as missing body parts  :-(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-04-16 22:42:57
hmmm, I've never tested my patch with other patches. I know is that my patch doesn't work if the files are altered. The npc patch patches the flevel.lpg. I guess the problem is that it gets messy if you try to patch on a patched file. I was planning on making a patch that worked with the npc, but as I see the project isn't done yet I figured it would be a good plan to see if they finished it and then make the patch.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-04-20 02:03:07
ya thats prolly best... but i think i remember seeing some1 on youtube having the cosmetic mods along with ur mod
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-04-24 05:39:23
man, i cant wait to put the hardcore mod and the finished npc patch together... VISTA sure is a pain when i try to combine these 2 together  :-(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-04-24 12:34:36
Mabye I'll make a patch soon. Doesn't look like there is much development there anyway. Then what project was it again? The new one or the old one? (the phoenix thing or the npcrp?)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-04-24 23:24:52
i would go with the phoenix thing... also, is there a way to put those and the improved cloud model? like the 1 APZ has? i no it alters the battle.lgp but i think i remember seeing it happen
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-04-27 19:32:27
how's it comin gjoerulv?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: NameSpoofer on 2009-04-27 23:08:11
hey gjoerulv

how about combining my mod with your mod   ( you have seen jumbo cactuar battle :lol: )

i have replaced soldier 1st/2nd/3rd class models with the new ones from CC so your locke, venus and theo will look super cool  :-D

when im done with my mod i can combine my mod + your mod + prp project together in one
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-04-28 02:15:18
damn that'd be one awesome mod! cant wait to see vids with these combos of mods!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-05-12 04:01:56
hey gjoerulv, thanks for the mod! playing this for the first time in 8 years or so and it's good to have a bit of a challenge this time, lol I actually game over'd after applying this mod. well I registered just to say that I'm using this in conjunction with the prp (project phoenix) mod and it seems to be working fine. My understanding of all the .lgp's is a bit n00b but I decided since your mod and the prp mod don't edit the same data files then there should be no problem?
So what I done was:
start from fresh data files (apply saints high res mod),
apply the prp mod, copy the files that get edited (char.lgp, world_us.lgp) and then replace with fresh one's again.
Apply the hardcore-mod, and then put the edited char.lcp, world_us.lcp from prp back in place.
I also applied the high res cloud mod which edits battle.lgp (as does the hard-core mod) and it hasn't had problems yet.
Hope that helps someone  play this great mod with decent graphics aswell :-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-12 07:38:13
do u got XP or VISTA?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-05-12 08:00:48
vista. the install for the hardcore mod was a bit wierd tho I had to do it 3 times, in data/battles, data/kernel, and data/field to do all 5 files. If I tried to do it just into data file it didn't go.

edit: A strange thing happend when I was playing in clouds storey, the mako-monster in 1st visit to the reactor killed cloud and sephiroth, then the game continued as if I'd won. Then when I got to control cloud again he had zero health, and since you cant use items on the field I finished the storey off with cloud "dead" (the only party member) ...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-12 21:21:35
lmao! that's messed up! i bet u the 1st 1 to find that out... anywayz, how did u get it to work on VISTA?i mean, i try it, follo instructions on 1st page and then i try to apply high res cloud and prp and the characters end up missing body parts... i dont get it! on the battlefield and on the field itself! cloud is missing like his arm, chest... i did this several times and im tired of this happening to me... so can u help me out here?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-05-13 11:50:54
hey gjoerulv

how about combining my mod with your mod   ( you have seen jumbo cactuar battle :lol: )

i have replaced soldier 1st/2nd/3rd class models with the new ones from CC so your locke, venus and theo will look super cool  :-D

when im done with my mod i can combine my mod + your mod + prp project together in one

Hmmm, where can I get a look on that stuff.

hey gjoerulv, thanks for the mod! playing this for the first time in 8 years or so and it's good to have a bit of a challenge this time, lol I actually game over'd after applying this mod. well I registered just to say that I'm using this in conjunction with the prp (project phoenix) mod and it seems to be working fine. My understanding of all the .lgp's is a bit n00b but I decided since your mod and the prp mod don't edit the same data files then there should be no problem?
So what I done was:
start from fresh data files (apply saints high res mod),
apply the prp mod, copy the files that get edited (char.lgp, world_us.lgp) and then replace with fresh one's again.
Apply the hardcore-mod, and then put the edited char.lcp, world_us.lcp from prp back in place.
I also applied the high res cloud mod which edits battle.lgp (as does the hard-core mod) and it hasn't had problems yet.
Hope that helps someone  play this great mod with decent graphics aswell :-)

Sounds like a good plan if you want good graphics with my mod.

Right now I'm heavily occupied with my work. I can't really do anything with this mod 'till the 21st, and even then I may be stuck with something else. sigh...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-05-13 12:09:36
lmao! that's messed up! i bet u the 1st 1 to find that out... anywayz, how did u get it to work on VISTA?i mean, i try it, follo instructions on 1st page and then i try to apply high res cloud and prp and the characters end up missing body parts... i dont get it! on the battlefield and on the field itself! cloud is missing like his arm, chest... i did this several times and im tired of this happening to me... so can u help me out here?
I dunno I didn't follow the instructions too well just done what I said above, then when I installed hardcore I ddn't realise you were supposed to have all 5 files in 1 folder so I done it 3 times. I can email you the char.lgp, battle.lgp and world_us.lgp files I using and you can try see if they work for you if you want? don't think I've put any other patches in to change them.

hey gjoerulv.. i'm just wondering if it would be very hard for me to edit ur mod slightly so that the master materia still exist? since I've never got them yet, on my last and greatest game of f7 I was leveling up materia to take on emarald and my little bro overwrite my save  :cry:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-05-13 12:16:12
Sure it should be easy with Wall marked. It's simple if you compare the original Kernel with the one in my mod to see what needs to be done. I did this in raw hex editing so be greatfull for wall marked.  :-D (just in case you dunno what I'm talking 'bout, goto game tweaking and you'll prob see it at once)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-05-13 12:29:10
haha, yup no idea.. was hoping it would be as easy as avatar modding  :-P where
I can just change a few files in lgp-tools. well I'll look into it thanks
(edit: oh yeah now I see what you mean, and it's not an lgp that needs modifying.
and raw hex editing..? I'm greatfull already  :-D )
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-13 17:51:13
that be awesome man, thanx
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-05-14 04:15:14
ok well it was taking to long to upload to email so I just put it here:
http://www.2shared.com/file/5767456/e55f148d/New_Folder.html
hope it goes for you. apply the hardcore mod first then copy those over.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-14 07:46:23
alright i'll download it and check to see if it works... btw how do u do that quote thing? lol sorry if im being newbie
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-05-14 10:14:35
Quote from: drfeelgud88
btw how do u do that quote thing? lol sorry if im being newbie

There's a quote button in the top right-hand corner of other people's posts; you can delete bits of the quote if you don't need them. You can also copy and paste things people have said and use
Code: [Select]
[quote author=person's name]thing you are quoting[/quote]
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-15 00:37:37
Quote from: Leighos Kudistos Megistos
There's a quote button in the top right-hand corner of other people's posts; you can delete bits of the quote if you don't need them. You can also copy and paste things people have said and use
Code:

Quote from: person's name
thing you are quoting
u mean like this?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-15 00:39:57
sorry for the double-post... oldtimeplayer, thanx for the files, but i only got the high res cloud to work... when i use the char, it still has cloud missing his right arm and chest... idk y! and u say it works perfect on urs? why is this? i dont understand...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-05-15 04:39:12
yeh it works fine for me, nobody's missing anything. does it work without the hardcore patch? sorry but I can't help cos I don't really know too much, would try running ff7 in some different compatibility modes or update graphics drivers or something cos it might be some underlying problem
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-15 05:00:12
graphic drivers? i dont think so... my comp's the best and brand new like 2 months ago... maybe compatibility modes? but i neva heard of compatibility modes doing that.. i just hear that it either works or it doesnt
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-05-16 03:43:56
Does it work normally with no mods? If so try installing 1 mod at a time before testing. Then you'll at least get teh gist of the problem.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-16 06:26:39
hmm, i'll be sure to try that after the 0.6 driver thing releases... thanx for the advice
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Allehelgens on 2009-05-16 19:27:54
Phew I cant even win those Venus, Locke and that one guy in Shinra HQ. My characters are lvl 10-12, that can be too low lvl, but leveling with this mod on is too hard and takes too much time. :S

EDIT: Found good strategy already, there is no enough time to steal tough.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-16 22:23:01
i've stolen from those 3 guys... altogether tehy have x potion, silver armlet and peace ring... this mod is brilliant! i luv a challenge
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Allehelgens on 2009-05-17 07:09:50
i've stolen from those 3 guys... altogether tehy have x potion, silver armlet and peace ring... this mod is brilliant! i luv a challenge

I know what you can steal from them, there is just no time to do that. =P I need to have someone always ready to throw new locoweed when 2 of them are not in confuse anymore, otherwise they kill me very fast.

But I think those items are not that important, so I'll continue with story.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-05-18 01:13:40
hey gjoerulv. even when i fresh (max) install ff7 and not apply any patches/mods, in the 1st battle (2 MP's) 1 of them is missing his head and his gun. when i kill the other 1, his head and gun appear... its weird. so its not the hardcore mod like i thought it was. idk wut it is... i should take this over to Tech-related so they can help me out
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Idec Sdawkminn on 2009-05-24 03:40:03
Just wanted to know that I tried out your mod and the 9999 limit one (you recommend both) with Emerald Weapon. I am running it on Windows 7 RC. I produced the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzAffurNF84

(Note: he is much harder with the 9999 limit in place)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-05-30 15:38:08
Just wanted to know that I tried out your mod and the 9999 limit one (you recommend both) with Emerald Weapon. I am running it on Windows 7 RC. I produced the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzAffurNF84

(Note: he is much harder with the 9999 limit in place)

Yeah I haven't really done much to these guys yet. And I've decided to make a new patch, but not until my finals are done. ('round 8th June)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-05-31 08:49:21
Okay i installed this patch... then installed slayer's swords and the APZ cloud model........ they seem to be working fine with this mod.......
however i want to know.. should i expect trouble???
Because i remember reading somewhere.....it might have been here.... that this mod doesn't like to work with other mods??

Thank you,

Broken Crow
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-05-31 09:54:54
Depends on which mods; I haven't had any problems with Apz or slayer's mods using this.

You're only likely to run into problems if you try to install this mod after using a lot of other mods that change files that the hardcore mod changes
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-05-31 10:51:57
Ok thanks.. :D... I'm just worried is all.. because i want the upgraded graphical bits...... but i also want to play FF7 at a challenging pace... so far I haven't been disappointed...:D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-02 04:59:52
ya thats my goal too! to play with this hardcore mod and to have the AC mod on there too so it can be AC characters AND difficult mod haha but vista is too weird and its kinda hard...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-06-02 05:20:54
yeah... lol....... Vista is really weird........ it wouldn't let me patch with the beta...so i deleted the AC mod....thinking id download it when it was complete............ BIG MISTAKE..........xD

I figured out what you have to do if you still have the MOD............ you have to open the files....... and extract them with LGP tools...and implement them manually .. I'm not sure if its possible though....... I don't remember how the patcher works..........

But i did lay my hands on his sample .. its on his site........... and i Implemented in the field model of Cloud and I can also do the battle model if i chose,,,

(sorry for going way off topic)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-02 05:39:52
could u explain how u did all that? lol im such a newbie at this stuff  :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-06-02 05:47:41
First i went to his site,,, and clicked on the link modding school or something like that.....
Then downloaded the sample

Then i made a new folder on my desktop .. calling it "char Lpg"

I then went Fidelcula's Lgp tools and opened the battle lgp..

I extracted all to the new folder "char lgp"

then i opened the folders from the download..... and copy all that is the field model folder and paste it into the "char lgp" folder..

Then i made a back up of my original Char.lgp

then went back to LGP tools and clicked create.... select the folder from you desktop "char LGP"

then go to your Final Fantasy VII directory... Data/filed

and create the LGP there

(again sorry for the off topic-ness........... and my really bad explanation)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-02 16:32:55
you are talkin about the PRP right? or wut download are u talking about?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-06-03 01:27:30
Oh prp......xD........
Just right click on the PRP icon that appears on your desktop.... and click on explore option.

It will take you to a folder...

Find the files title 00.. and 01

rename 00 to char

and rename 01 to world_us

then cut and paste the two to your FF7 directory

char goes into data/field

and world_us into data/wm
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-03 03:14:14
ok i tried AC mod (beta) and along with 1.02, saints, dzuigos, and hardcore mod... result... MISSING BODY PARTS graphical glitch! lol
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-06-03 03:18:18
Wait you have AC mod beta??????? O.O

That is a beta you know..... and it wasn't quite finished from what i hear.... *raises an eyebrow* I am not sure how to fix the graphical issues but.... do your models show up perfectly in Kimera???
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-03 03:34:48
idk i neva used kimera or any of those other programs... i know im sad  :-(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-06-03 15:04:12
Ok, on the 8th my final exams are over, then I probably have some work to finish after that. Which means I can start making the final release (v1.0) around the 10th. I have an idea on a new "ultimate" enemy, but haven't thought of where to place it. Any suggestions where it would be interesting to trigger a knew "ultimate" enemy?

And I also want to make it possible to get those materias you get in the final dungeon earlier, switch 'em with something else (megalixirs, equipment etc.), and make it harder in there as well. This might sound stupid, but I had an idea to make 'em available in the materia caves. For instance you get HP <-> MP materia AND Mega-all in the purple (independent) materia cave. Sounds good?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2009-06-03 15:44:40
the northern crater in disk three could be a good place, multiple places in there that would be nice to place a super boss in, but with lack of save spots, that can be a bad thing (or use up the save crystal near the super boss, to make things easier). the back of the forest opened by killing ultimate weapon (where you find the (i think... been a while) apocalypse for cloud), placing it in the end area there could be nice, but requiring you to trek back through the forest.

it also depends on what your ultimate enemy will be... if it is humanoid, you could have it easily fit into towns and such (create an npc that is actually the enemy), then you could do things like place it in the back of wall market, or in the center of kalm, since there is already a quest dealing with kalm. if it were to be something big (like a recreated omega weapon or something) it would need plenty of room, and unless it were to attack a city, then it wouldn't really fit in too well.

a mako created enemy could fit into mt. nibel, possibly in the reactor itself if you can reenter it later in the game, or just somewhere in the surrounding caverns. if you could make it so that the area where aerith was killed was accessible after doing something (possibly a side quest, or just making it able to be accessed at any time after that event (early game ultimate boss possible O_o)), then that little place could be a great spot for the fight, an ancient monster coming out to play. there are many possibilities, but i need to know the type of monster first, and what you are capable of doing >:D.

making the materia accessible earlier can be good and bad, especially since the places are all available at the end of the first disk since chocobo breeding is open then (i think it starts end of disk one, before the second... i have to check on that).having the end game materia possible early on isn't entirely a good thing. i don't know what all is doable with the battle square, but would you be able to add the materia as rewards from there, which are only available on disk two/three (whenever you think it is the best time to have them), and are only able to be gotten one time (like omnislash). this could also be done with the gp (i think?) from the game corner (or whatever it is called with the minigames >_>), but since the guy at the entrance sells gp, it could be done pretty easily if you have the funds, though it could still be worth it if the battle square isn't as easily done.

it would be really nice if enemies could drop materia, but since that isn't done as easily (can be if you edit the field files for enemies that appear on the field, like boss battles and such, or create monster-in-a-box fights which give the materia when opened/enemy defeated, but making the enemy unable to be fled from), it is probably better to do it another way.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-04 04:56:54
wut item/weapon/material would this ultimate enemy drop?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2009-06-04 23:55:18
*defeats ultimate enemy* yeah... i killed it! wait... wtf? *a black screen appears, showing the words: would you like to save your game?*

game returns to title screen, and you load up your save... the first double MP battle comes up, and they wipe the floor with you... you just unknowingly activated uber hard mode... congrats :-P.

but seriously, ultimate, harder than the final boss fights should not give any kind of reward other than a type of battle trophy with no real use, since you basically would have nothing new to use a brand new weapon, or super materia against, seeing as you KILLED everything. the only way they should have anything is if they are linked to a harder ultimate boss, kind of like the bosses in the gba versions of the older ff games... give a battle trophy from the main ultimate bosses, and useful stuff from the rest.

the ruby/emerald weapons shouldn't have prizes linked with them either, since they are normally the hardest, and not even really hard at that. it should give a useless trophy item, or else i'd be expecting a harder fight to come up at some point, and would be disappointed if it never happened :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-05 04:41:56
so this ultimate enemy would be the LAST boss and fight of the game?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2009-06-05 05:06:44
There is an area in the Ancient Forest (I think) that was rumored to be a way to revive Aerith.  You vear off the path to the right some and then above you you can see a vine leading up into a cave of sorts.  Somehow using that area could be pretty cool as not a lot of people even know the path branches off.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-05 05:09:58
Yes it was in reality a cave that wasnt used in final release...I am not sure if the code is still there for the vine ladder  but could be a great place...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-05 05:09:45
really?! a way to revive aeris? is that true? hmm i need to look into that then.. ancient forest... thats where u get the typhoon summom right?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-06-05 06:12:29
Yes, that materia is in the Ancient Forest, but that's not where the cave is.  It's before the Forgotten City, in the same area as the chest with the Water Ring.

And it was only rumored to be a place where you could revive Aerith.  In reality, you can't even climb up there.  If it were possible to revive Aerith, she would've had a more direct role in Advent Children.

Sorry.  Aerith is as dead as Sephiroth is.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-05 06:54:38
well i just wanted to know wut it was there... aeris was good and all but her death is a turning point of the game and it fits excellent with the game.. but anywayz, i'd like to see that "cave" but i dont remember haha
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-06-05 07:22:14
I saw an image of it on the web once.  Give me a moment and I'll find out where it is.

Edit: Okay, it's eluding me... I think if you land the Highwind right outside the Forgotten Capital, but go back in the other direction, you'll end up in the right area.  There's a fallen tree that you can walk under (and maybe across, I'm not sure) in this area, as well as one treasure chest if not more.  If you run southeast from the north exit to the Forgotten City, the cave should come into view.  But again, you can't reach it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-05 22:57:25
oh... damn i still cant remember lol but anywayz i guess it was all bs then lol  :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium) on 2009-06-06 02:52:27
*edited*
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-06-07 03:47:27
the northern crater in disk three could be a good place, multiple places in there that would be nice to place a super boss in, but with lack of save spots, that can be a bad thing (or use up the save crystal near the super boss, to make things easier). the back of the forest opened by killing ultimate weapon (where you find the (i think... been a while) apocalypse for cloud), placing it in the end area there could be nice, but requiring you to trek back through the forest.

it also depends on what your ultimate enemy will be... if it is humanoid, you could have it easily fit into towns and such (create an npc that is actually the enemy), then you could do things like place it in the back of wall market, or in the center of kalm, since there is already a quest dealing with kalm. if it were to be something big (like a recreated omega weapon or something) it would need plenty of room, and unless it were to attack a city, then it wouldn't really fit in too well.

a mako created enemy could fit into mt. nibel, possibly in the reactor itself if you can reenter it later in the game, or just somewhere in the surrounding caverns. if you could make it so that the area where aerith was killed was accessible after doing something (possibly a side quest, or just making it able to be accessed at any time after that event (early game ultimate boss possible O_o)), then that little place could be a great spot for the fight, an ancient monster coming out to play. there are many possibilities, but i need to know the type of monster first, and what you are capable of doing >:D.

making the materia accessible earlier can be good and bad, especially since the places are all available at the end of the first disk since chocobo breeding is open then (i think it starts end of disk one, before the second... i have to check on that).having the end game materia possible early on isn't entirely a good thing. i don't know what all is doable with the battle square, but would you be able to add the materia as rewards from there, which are only available on disk two/three (whenever you think it is the best time to have them), and are only able to be gotten one time (like omnislash). this could also be done with the gp (i think?) from the game corner (or whatever it is called with the minigames >_>), but since the guy at the entrance sells gp, it could be done pretty easily if you have the funds, though it could still be worth it if the battle square isn't as easily done.

it would be really nice if enemies could drop materia, but since that isn't done as easily (can be if you edit the field files for enemies that appear on the field, like boss battles and such, or create monster-in-a-box fights which give the materia when opened/enemy defeated, but making the enemy unable to be fled from), it is probably better to do it another way.

It will most likely be a huge enemy, with some goons, but I also thought that the place where it is triggered matters. I can pretty much make whatever I want (not 3d models though, I'll use a prev made model and alter it). What I find most fun is making AIs. But I have to think of where to trigger it 1st.

And, yeah, reward for beating the ultimate monster is simply a trophy. I find it stupid in rpgs when you win an ultimate item for defeating the ultimate enemy. Now that item would be a great help defeating this enemy, and now that it is dead, with no more challenges, what do you need it for?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-06-14 16:20:33
ok I made some new vids. Hmmm do this forum support embed youtube video into a post? guess not.

Well here are the links, though the quality of the vids suffered heavily when I uploaded. Sorry 'bout that.

Vid1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=127uwQfxM_Q)

Vid2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1SBzwv0ps)

EDIT: Forget it. The quality sucked after I uploaded 'em. I'll need to record 'em again.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-14 19:38:32
no vids? aww  :cry:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2009-06-15 04:13:51
im currently trying to figure out some of the unknown variables in the ai, specifically the drop/steal items and the stolen flag, so that my ai can be even more customizable :P. i did manage to find something i can use as a temporary replacement though, and that is the set of flags/variables that i found for the gil/item returned by an enemy (such as the vice) that can steal from you, where the reward is given to you upon their death (dialogue box shows your reward).

if i can't find the steal/drop items/rates through ai, then this would be a good secondary thing, as you can still create a random chance of receiving the item, though their regular items could still drop as well, and possibly create a second steal item by doing the same thing, but checking for steal/mug/steal as well effect or such, using a random chance, and turning off/on the dead unit flag (which may or may not trigger the item to be given, not quite sure, as i have done little testing on these, other than to pinpoint their location) to give the item.

probably hard to understand my rambling (i do that a lot  :wink:), but here are the variables to use for each:
4280 - the gil variable, up to 65535 given, two bytes
4290 - item given back, 0-127 is items, 128-255 is weapons, 256-287 armor, and 288-320 is accessories, materia can not be gotten from what i have seen (some over 320 can cause it to crash, others give a bugged item)

these should be a good find for any ai edited mod, as there is more freedom with items, essentially allowing there to be any item dropped. i am trying as hard as possible to find the drop/steal items/rates, but so far it isn't going too well... but i will keep trying anyway :P.

i have an idea for you, which could take some time, but would increase the difficulty some. if you go through all normal encounters (non-ambush/preemptive fights) and set their special battle modifier (offset 0x12 in the setup 1 data) to 08, it would make your party locked in the front row, disabling the change command as well, so that it would force the player to always take the maximum from attacks. the only foreseeable problems would be with regular preemptive and ambush fights (where either you or the enemy is attacked from behind), as changing rows is still possible there.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: DLPB_ on 2009-06-18 17:01:46
(http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/2343/chocoboweaponir4.jpg)
 :lol:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-06-19 01:26:01
i have an idea for you, which could take some time, but would increase the difficulty some. if you go through all normal encounters (non-ambush/preemptive fights) and set their special battle modifier (offset 0x12 in the setup 1 data) to 08, it would make your party locked in the front row, disabling the change command as well, so that it would force the player to always take the maximum from attacks. the only foreseeable problems would be with regular preemptive and ambush fights (where either you or the enemy is attacked from behind), as changing rows is still possible there.

I'm against that idea.  It takes some strategy out of the game and reduces the usefulness of ranged weapons as well as the Long Range materia.  The game is more fun with more options available to you throughout.

As for a new superboss dude, I was going to suggest making a dragon larger in size, coloring it dark grey and calling it Tiamat... but Chocobo Weapon works too!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2009-06-19 01:44:05
I personally feel that if Chocobo Weapon is to be implemented into the game, he should be impossible to beat.  After you deal out X damage to him he immediately destroys your party  AND ERASES ALL YOUR SAVES!!!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2009-06-19 01:58:54
i have an idea for you, which could take some time, but would increase the difficulty some. if you go through all normal encounters (non-ambush/preemptive fights) and set their special battle modifier (offset 0x12 in the setup 1 data) to 08, it would make your party locked in the front row, disabling the change command as well, so that it would force the player to always take the maximum from attacks. the only foreseeable problems would be with regular preemptive and ambush fights (where either you or the enemy is attacked from behind), as changing rows is still possible there.

I'm against that idea.  It takes some strategy out of the game and reduces the usefulness of ranged weapons as well as the Long Range materia.  The game is more fun with more options available to you throughout.

As for a new superboss dude, I was going to suggest making a dragon larger in size, coloring it dark grey and calling it Tiamat... but Chocobo Weapon works too!
it could at least be used in more than the ~10 that it is normally used in... maybe making all battle arena/square fights like that. it seems underused to me at least... it wouldn't have to be against every encounter, though ranged weapons would still be needed, since enemies keep their rows the same, only your back row is prevented, and flying enemies (row 16... unreachable by short range attacks) would still have use for ranged weapons/LR materia, but i do see your point.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-06-19 02:22:39
I personally feel that if Chocobo Weapon is to be implemented into the game, he should be impossible to beat.  After you deal out X damage to him he immediately destroys your party  AND ERASES ALL YOUR SAVES!!!

lol I think that's going a bit too far.

I think Chocobo Weapon should have Deathblow!!, Fat-Chocobo, Chocobuckle, Confu, Haste, and (just for the surprise) Ultima.
Just to be clear, I'm not serious about having Chocobo Weapon in the game.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-06-21 09:02:33
yeah... chocobo weapon... not relle feelin it lol  :|
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2009-06-24 03:47:07
Ok I actually have a good idea for a difficult enemy to fight (though I'm unsure about the trigger)

During the Nibelheim flashback you see the fmv of the mako saturated being fall out of his capsule in the reactor.  It would be cool if you could later go up to that same capsule and fight him.  His model is in Crisis Core and shouldn't be too much trouble to put into FF7. 
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-06-24 04:09:08
Not a bad idea.  And maybe a trigger isn't needed.  Just turn on encounters in that area and make it so that the superboss is the only thing that appears.  But one would need to take care not to make it so that it could be encountered during the flashback.

One problem though.  Currently, with the Hardcore mod as it is now, that monster is already fought (during the flashback - you're supposed to take it down with Sephiroth).  Still a good idea, though.  Supposing many creatures fell out of their capsules, and over time, that reactor became a monster's den.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Deepness on 2009-07-08 21:07:15
Great forum and good job to everyone being so dedicated to modding this awesome game.

I'm trying to get the 9999 limit break patch and this mod working, but having just started my game I'm not sure if they're working. (I'm not a coder, just a game fan) Is there a way I can double check before I get 50 hours into a game and realize I need to start over?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-07-08 21:12:28
It should be obvious from the start whether the hardcore mod is working; the fights will all be much harder and there will be a new enemy in the first reactor. (Also, if some parts of it have installed properly and some haven't, there'll be lots of crashes).

The best way to find out whether the 9999 patch is working is to save twice at the first save point (to different files) and edit one of them with a save editor, giving yourself 9999 HP and lots of mastered HP+ materia, as well as strength and magi stats of 255 and some ultimate weapons. If your HP goes over 9999 with the materia and you do more than 9999 with any of your attacks...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-07-08 22:43:18
This may sound insane but why not make it a side quest? Like after you've beaten Ruby and Emerald weapon, you then get an item that teleports you to this place (some memorable place that you can no longer get access too) And these 3 guys are there (the black gowned guys that only say Sephiroth) with a savepoint and an exit to the world map, then you have a choice, either fight all 3 bad guys one at a time for items (End game materia anyone?) or leave and never get access to that area again. I don't know what you can and can't do because I've never modded FFVII and certainly can't code but I think it would be a really good idea and better than 1 ultimate boss, I think 3 ultimate bosses would be really fun, each being extremely hard for different reasons. Like one could be a status effect death spammer, one could be an extremely powerful mage and the last an extremely strong physical fighter, it would really test how well your party can fight under extreme conditions and require a lot of strategy :)

EDIT: I just thought of something! The 3 guys could be Kadaj's gang off AC, not as in humanoid models but as gigantic beasts and monsters in battle or maybe just have Sephiroth or Safer Sephiroth's battle model but coloured differently? Now that I got that off my chest any idea when the final release will be? Also whatever you decide to do, I reckon Safer Sephiroth should be stronger and more powerful than the ultimate boss! Either that or you fight the ultimate boss after defeating Safer Sephiroth, for example after the credits maybe? *shrug*
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-07-09 07:24:49
... I don't know what you can and can't do because I've never modded FFVII and certainly can't code but I think it would be a really good idea and better than 1 ultimate boss, I think 3 ultimate bosses would be really fun, each being extremely hard for different reasons. ...

EDIT: I just thought of something! The 3 guys could be Kadaj's gang off AC, not as in humanoid models but as gigantic beasts and monsters in battle or maybe just have Sephiroth or Safer Sephiroth's battle model but coloured differently? Now that I got that off my chest any idea when the final release will be? Also whatever you decide to do, I reckon Safer Sephiroth should be stronger and more powerful than the ultimate boss! Either that or you fight the ultimate boss after defeating Safer Sephiroth, for example after the credits maybe? *shrug*

I'm on vacation now, thus no editing will be done. But I'm almost done play-testing my beta lol. I had in mind more than 1 boss. It will be more like the Hojo-battle. Making a new quest sounds tedious. But hey, I just may make it if anyone has a super great idea.

Kadaj... Hmmm I dunno man.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-07-10 02:46:59
... I don't know what you can and can't do because I've never modded FFVII and certainly can't code but I think it would be a really good idea and better than 1 ultimate boss, I think 3 ultimate bosses would be really fun, each being extremely hard for different reasons. ...

EDIT: I just thought of something! The 3 guys could be Kadaj's gang off AC, not as in humanoid models but as gigantic beasts and monsters in battle or maybe just have Sephiroth or Safer Sephiroth's battle model but coloured differently? Now that I got that off my chest any idea when the final release will be? Also whatever you decide to do, I reckon Safer Sephiroth should be stronger and more powerful than the ultimate boss! Either that or you fight the ultimate boss after defeating Safer Sephiroth, for example after the credits maybe? *shrug*

I'm on vacation now, thus no editing will be done. But I'm almost done play-testing my beta lol. I had in mind more than 1 boss. It will be more like the Hojo-battle. Making a new quest sounds tedious. But hey, I just may make it if anyone has a super great idea.

Kadaj... Hmmm I dunno man.
I just re read it after sleeping and I see how it sounds tedius but some hojo style extreme uber boss would be very interesting and hopefully very hard, but enjoy your holiday and I look forward to the update :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-07-10 10:01:04
... I don't know what you can and can't do because I've never modded FFVII and certainly can't code but I think it would be a really good idea and better than 1 ultimate boss, I think 3 ultimate bosses would be really fun, each being extremely hard for different reasons. ...

EDIT: I just thought of something! The 3 guys could be Kadaj's gang off AC, not as in humanoid models but as gigantic beasts and monsters in battle or maybe just have Sephiroth or Safer Sephiroth's battle model but coloured differently? Now that I got that off my chest any idea when the final release will be? Also whatever you decide to do, I reckon Safer Sephiroth should be stronger and more powerful than the ultimate boss! Either that or you fight the ultimate boss after defeating Safer Sephiroth, for example after the credits maybe? *shrug*

I'm on vacation now, thus no editing will be done. But I'm almost done play-testing my beta lol. I had in mind more than 1 boss. It will be more like the Hojo-battle. Making a new quest sounds tedious. But hey, I just may make it if anyone has a super great idea.

Kadaj... Hmmm I dunno man.
I just re read it after sleeping and I see how it sounds tedius but some hojo style extreme uber boss would be very interesting and hopefully very hard, but enjoy your holiday and I look forward to the update :)

Tank you, I will! It will be quite the long vacation. I'll be back home August 18th. Thanks for the interest btw! Keep the ideas comming.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-07-15 04:20:51
wut happened to the new kernel and scene bin files? they arent there anymore...  :-(

EDIT: nvm, it was just my internet acting all weird i guess :\
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Cleanshooter on 2009-07-29 20:54:08
Hey new guy hear but I have been following your forum post for a few months and I thought it was dead when I was reading it last.  I was so happy to know this is still alive and going.  I was even more excited to find out you are considering adding new enemies (ultimate bosses to the game). 

FFVII is hands down the best game I have ever played.  Lots of good memories and every time I play it I get more out of it. 

I am soooo glad you made this mod last time I played it I was maxed out LVL 99  went to the final boss and was completely let down  :cry: .  I am using other mods with this one and have a made an installation instruction guide based on a torrent I found (I own the game just torrented the mod collection don't worry)  If anyone would like a copy of the instructions let me know.

Right now I am on disk two huge material quest and am having trouble with those damn 1st Class Soldiers at Corel, but don't give me hints I love the challenge(gonna try confuse all next). 

I found a couple of problems along the way:
1. One of the random enemy groups outside Gongaga (sp) with with the earth/based, berserk casting thing (sorry it's been a while and I forgot the name) places one of the enemies right in front Cloud.  Not sure this is happening I think I have a current version of the your mod (I think) , it might also be becasue of the other mods I have installed. 
2. The battle with Jenova-Death gets messed-up if you start using reflect or mighty guard I'm not sure which.  It seems like the damage order get messed up, it was very strange...  When he hits you it forms a barrier on you?  Is this intended, I am pretty sure that you didn't want the enemy to put good status things on you?  Also his fire based attacks are no longer fire based (red light I think) the only one that was still fire based was magic breath also unsure if this was intentional.

Again congratulations on the great work!  I know you be out of town until the 17th enjoy your VA K. 

Ideas for new bosses: 

I really like your idea of adding a Hojo-like boss.  I really think that you should put him or something else in Midgar only available after 3rd disk, it would be an outstanding place to hide an "unbeatable".  Something like a a non-Jenova (because the reunion already happened) Hojo clone born from an extreme Mako bath or something bad-ass like that.  I'm not sure where exactly yet once I get back inside I'll give you some ideas.

I had another idea but it's gone... I'll post again when I remember.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-07-30 01:24:38
Yeah I know 'bout those bugs. They are fixed but not released yet. There were other bugs as well, and as far as I know, there shouldn't be anything left.

The biggest bug in the current release is on the phoenix boss. You kinda can't kill them lol.

When I say a boss like Hojo I mean an encounter that doesn't end after you've killed the 1st enemies. The hojo battle is actually 3 encounters ya know.

The final release wont be released 'til the end of august or later. This will be the final release. I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-07-31 02:57:15
The final release wont be released 'til the end of august or later. This will be the final release. I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.

oh man! i can hardly w8! a final release! wo0t!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Karifean on 2009-07-31 11:27:50
I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.

Uh good... but how do you make special encounters like the SOLDIER-Trio when picking up that codecard in the ShinRa-Building. I know that you have to insert BATTLE(00,xx,xx) into meteor and then replace the old flevel.lgp with the new one, but how do you determine what formation ID to use where the x's are?

I tried it like the following: Scene 1 contains Formation ID 0000 to 0003 - for testing I just edited one of its enemies and put it into the third formation i.e. 0002. Then i wrote BATTLE(00,02,00) into the right space in Meteor. It didn't work...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-08-02 03:03:33
I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.

Uh good... but how do you make special encounters like the SOLDIER-Trio when picking up that codecard in the ShinRa-Building. I know that you have to insert BATTLE(00,xx,xx) into meteor and then replace the old flevel.lgp with the new one, but how do you determine what formation ID to use where the x's are?

I tried it like the following: Scene 1 contains Formation ID 0000 to 0003 - for testing I just edited one of its enemies and put it into the third formation i.e. 0002. Then i wrote BATTLE(00,02,00) into the right space in Meteor. It didn't work...

Hmmm... I've might have given you wrong info. Try 1 instead of 0 in the 1st param (01,02,00).

If this doesn't work, then you need to tell me exactly what's wrong. Does the game crash or hang? Or is the wrong encounter that occurs?  You are right 'bout the formation IDs. But only if the 1st param is correct (1 or 0 which I don't remember  :-P).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-08-07 03:37:49
I found a couple of problems along the way:
1. One of the random enemy groups outside Gongaga (sp) with with the earth/based, berserk casting thing (sorry it's been a while and I forgot the name) places one of the enemies right in front Cloud.  Not sure this is happening I think I have a current version of the your mod (I think) , it might also be becasue of the other mods I have installed. 

Again congratulations on the great work!  I know you be out of town until the 17th enjoy your VA K. 

That was the Grand Horn enemy, and I've experienced this also. It spawns right in front of cloud with his back to him, and it always spawns with a gobiln, and I think Gagighandi.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2009-08-10 13:36:16
The end of August or later?  Durnit, I just managed to get my discs working, too.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-08-11 02:24:05
The final release wont be released 'til the end of august or later. This will be the final release. I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.

I've tried the current version of this mod, its hard, lol. I've played ff7 so many times and I tend to rush the story, this mod is forcing me to slow down and train alot more, which is a good thing really...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: oldtimeplayer on 2009-08-13 10:48:22
I personally feel that if Chocobo Weapon is to be implemented into the game, he should be impossible to beat.  After you deal out X damage to him he immediately destroys your party  AND ERASES ALL YOUR SAVES!!!
hah, is that all?? I think he should blow your computer up and burn your house down  :-o  :evil: :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2009-08-14 19:27:19
hah, is that all?? I think he should blow your computer up and burn your house down  :-o  :evil: :-D

I think that instead, Chocobo weapon should have 2 million HP, and deal out 2 million HP damage, but those 2 million should be spread out across 2 million battles, one occuring each step Cloud takes, (after a certain time.)  Sort of a punishment for taking too long, if you will.

It would ruin the game for people for several months.  Especially if they haven't saved for a while, and are about 400 steps from a save point, or the world map.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-15 00:27:08
hah, is that all?? I think he should blow your computer up and burn your house down  :-o  :evil: :-D

I think that instead, Chocobo weapon should have 2 million HP, and deal out 2 million HP damage, but those 2 million should be spread out across 2 million battles, one occuring each step Cloud takes, (after a certain time.)  Sort of a punishment for taking too long, if you will.

It would ruin the game for people for several months.  Especially if they haven't saved for a while, and are about 400 steps from a save point, or the world map.

i think... he should PWN ur party sooo bad and give u EVERY status effect (like bad breath)... but except that attack does like 999,999 damage AND give u a virus on the computer, lmao jk  :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-08-15 01:43:41
um... you guys are weird  :lol:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-15 02:00:21
hah, is that all?? I think he should blow your computer up and burn your house down  :-o  :evil: :-D

I think that instead, Chocobo weapon should have 2 million HP, and deal out 2 million HP damage, but those 2 million should be spread out across 2 million battles, one occuring each step Cloud takes, (after a certain time.)  Sort of a punishment for taking too long, if you will.

It would ruin the game for people for several months.  Especially if they haven't saved for a while, and are about 400 steps from a save point, or the world map.

That's a very evil suggestion. Kudos to you :evil:

i think... he should PWN ur party sooo bad and give u EVERY status effect (like bad breath)... but except that attack does like 999,999 damage AND give u a virus on the computer, lmao jk  :-P

Hey, I think it should give you status effects IRL!

um... you guys are weird  :lol:

You sound surprised :?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-08-15 02:15:28
Hey, I think it should give you status effects IRL!

I can see it now!  "I was playing FF7 with a hardcore patch applied and was fighting a new enemy when it hit me with Bio2 and I had to be taken into the emergency room."
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-15 02:15:35
hah, is that all?? I think he should blow your computer up and burn your house down  :-o  :evil: :-D

I think that instead, Chocobo weapon should have 2 million HP, and deal out 2 million HP damage, but those 2 million should be spread out across 2 million battles, one occuring each step Cloud takes, (after a certain time.)  Sort of a punishment for taking too long, if you will.

It would ruin the game for people for several months.  Especially if they haven't saved for a while, and are about 400 steps from a save point, or the world map.

That's a very evil suggestion. Kudos to you :evil:

i think... he should PWN ur party sooo bad and give u EVERY status effect (like bad breath)... but except that attack does like 999,999 damage AND give u a virus on the computer, lmao jk  :-P

Hey, I think it should give you status effects IRL!

um... you guys are weird  :lol:

You sound surprised :?

haha, imagine... confusion (you'll be spinning around in circles IRL) haha
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-15 02:17:59
Hey, I think it should give you status effects IRL!

I can see it now!  "I was playing FF7 with a hardcore patch applied and was fighting a new enemy when it hit me with Bio2 and I had to be taken into the emergency room."

Now that's what I call hardcore mode!

haha, imagine... confusion (you'll be spinning around in circles IRL) haha

Like a record, baby! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUatnbaNfEo)

That link isn't to meatspin, BTW. I'm sorry if anyone is disappointed :roll:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-08-15 02:20:53
haha, imagine... confusion (you'll be spinning around in circles IRL) haha

Like a record, baby! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUatnbaNfEo)

That link isn't to meatspin, BTW. I'm sorry if anyone is disappointed :roll:

So the way to get that guy to stop singing is to hit him over the head with the Buster Sword?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-15 02:22:55
Yes.  :-P

BTW, it's just occurred to me that Pete Burns has hair like Zack in that vid.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2009-08-15 02:31:33
I was actually surprised the link wasn't meatspin.  :o

Silly interbutts, deadening me inside.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-15 02:41:54
I was actually surprised the link wasn't meatspin.  :o

Silly interbutts, deadening me inside.

Yeah, sorry. I might have posted it, but I think gjoerulv and Halkun will already be angry with me for going so off-topic :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-15 02:47:40
I was actually surprised the link wasn't meatspin.  :o

Silly interbutts, deadening me inside.

Yeah, sorry. I might have posted it, but I think gjoerulv and Halkun will already be angry with me for going so off-topic :-D

just as long as you go back on-topic... so yeah... chocobo weapon huh? lol its image looks weird/funny  :lol:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-08-15 02:53:45
That's still off-topic because it isn't a part of the Hardcore Mod.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-15 03:04:34
That's still off-topic because it isn't a part of the Hardcore Mod.

ah. i apologize then for that  :oops:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-08-15 19:47:38
Finally beat the Kujata boss at lvl 40. Just open with Bahamut and use ???? and you should kill him during your first turn if your hp is low enough. Once he's out of the way you don't have to worry about physical attacks and Odin+magic hammer and after their MP is gone they just stand there and you can pound on 'em until they die. Magic hammer still owns :-P

BTW exactly where do you encounter the Mt. Nibel dragons?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-08-15 23:55:01
BTW exactly where do you encounter the Mt. Nibel dragons?

I believe they're in the caves (at Mount Nibel obviously).  They're evil.  I once encountered one that used Comet2 on me.  That strikes for six times in this mod, not four.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-08-17 01:20:03
Got a bit of a glitch here. I'm at the part where I should go to Corel to stop the train, and I went to go train in Mideel to kill the soldiers. As soon as I entered the random battle at Mideel, the timer popped up and it said 00:00 and I was teleported to the battle on the train with 0 seconds left, and the battle ended right away, and Cid was walking around in blackness a few seconds, before saying OH SH&# and then the train crashed and I was in Corel. I walked to the world map and Highwind was at Mideel! So I was basically stuck and had to restart.

Btw: Does anyone else have trouble getting this to work with dzuigo's 9999 limit break patch? Because every time I get into a battle and try to go to my spells, items, or attack the game just crashes. Any help would be appreciated.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-08-17 09:19:57
Whoa, that sounds bad, I haven't got that far yet so can't help you  :|
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-08-17 09:32:18
Got a bit of a glitch here. I'm at the part where I should go to Corel to stop the train, and I went to go train in Mideel to kill the soldiers. As soon as I entered the random battle at Mideel, the timer popped up and it said 00:00 and I was teleported to the battle on the train with 0 seconds left, and the battle ended right away, and Cid was walking around in blackness a few seconds, before saying OH SH&# and then the train crashed and I was in Corel. I walked to the world map and Highwind was at Mideel! So I was basically stuck and had to restart.

Btw: Does anyone else have trouble getting this to work with dzuigo's 9999 limit break patch? Because every time I get into a battle and try to go to my spells, items, or attack the game just crashes. Any help would be appreciated.

That sounds rather odd. I've never seen or heard of this, and it certainly didn't happen to me. You altered you saves with anything (jenova etc.)? It sounds odd you just randomly got the counter in a random battle and then turned to Corel. If I were to speculate I'd say you've got the counter on somehow in Corel, went to mideel, and as the counter still was active it turned 0. But this sounds quite impossible. A 2nd guess is that you saved at Corel, tried to kill those SOLDIERS, didn't make it, then loaded the game and turned to Mideel.

The 9999 patch works fine if you do it correctly I believe.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-08-17 13:44:52
Got a bit of a glitch here. I'm at the part where I should go to Corel to stop the train, and I went to go train in Mideel to kill the soldiers. As soon as I entered the random battle at Mideel, the timer popped up and it said 00:00 and I was teleported to the battle on the train with 0 seconds left, and the battle ended right away, and Cid was walking around in blackness a few seconds, before saying OH SH&# and then the train crashed and I was in Corel. I walked to the world map and Highwind was at Mideel! So I was basically stuck and had to restart.

Btw: Does anyone else have trouble getting this to work with dzuigo's 9999 limit break patch? Because every time I get into a battle and try to go to my spells, items, or attack the game just crashes. Any help would be appreciated.

That sounds rather odd. I've never seen or heard of this, and it certainly didn't happen to me. You altered you saves with anything (jenova etc.)? It sounds odd you just randomly got the counter in a random battle and then turned to Corel. If I were to speculate I'd say you've got the counter on somehow in Corel, went to mideel, and as the counter still was active it turned 0. But this sounds quite impossible. A 2nd guess is that you saved at Corel, tried to kill those SOLDIERS, didn't make it, then loaded the game and turned to Mideel.

The 9999 patch works fine if you do it correctly I believe.

I haven't altered any of my saves since before Jenova*Death, but your second guess is correct. I loaded an earlier save and everything seems fine now. TY for the help.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-17 15:30:46
Can you please tell me how to get chocobuckle? Other than leaving Choco/Mog untill you have all four enemy skills. You changed L4 Suicide to only cause mini to enemies so I'm feeling pretty robbed atm lol. Will the new patch change it back or is there a different way to get chocobuckle? ALSO DAMN YOU TO HELL! I just got out of Corel prison and the harpy's kick so much arse there is DEFINATELY no way of getting aqualung before jenova untill after Disc 1 T_T

BTW, can you steal off an enemy, run away and still keep the item you stole? I've never been sure about that. Just wondering if I will have a chance in hell of getting 4 gold armlet's in nibelheim off the dragons ^_^
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-17 16:45:28
Can you please tell me how to get chocobuckle? Other than leaving Choco/Mog untill you have all four enemy skills. You changed L4 Suicide to only cause mini to enemies so I'm feeling pretty robbed atm lol. Will the new patch change it back or is there a different way to get chocobuckle? ALSO DAMN YOU TO HELL! I just got out of Corel prison and the harpy's kick so much arse there is DEFINATELY no way of getting aqualung before jenova untill after Disc 1 T_T

BTW, can you steal off an enemy, run away and still keep the item you stole? I've never been sure about that. Just wondering if I will have a chance in hell of getting 4 gold armlet's in nibelheim off the dragons ^_^

u can just take ur chances in stealing Shinra Alphas (six slots) from the Junon Patron near the Junon area (you should overpower them at this point by now)... altho the items are a rare steal
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-08-18 01:17:41
Can you please tell me how to get chocobuckle? Other than leaving Choco/Mog untill you have all four enemy skills. You changed L4 Suicide to only cause mini to enemies so I'm feeling pretty robbed atm lol. Will the new patch change it back or is there a different way to get chocobuckle? ALSO DAMN YOU TO HELL! I just got out of Corel prison and the harpy's kick so much arse there is DEFINATELY no way of getting aqualung before jenova untill after Disc 1 T_T

BTW, can you steal off an enemy, run away and still keep the item you stole? I've never been sure about that. Just wondering if I will have a chance in hell of getting 4 gold armlet's in nibelheim off the dragons ^_^

This patch mainly targets hardcore FF7 players so I'll try not to spoil anyone. Don't expect your game to be perfect, and, yes, things will be more stable in the final release. L4 causes Dual as well in the new mod.

[spoiler (highlight)]

You don't steal a Gold Armlet from the dragon anymore. And it's removed from the pipe area of mt.nibel. You encounter it in the mt.nibel caves, the materia caves and in the cave of the ancient forrest. The new enemy in the nibel area (not mt.nibel) holds the Gold Armlet for you to steal.

You don't need L4 to get chocobuckle. Any chocobo will counter with chocobuckle if you deal enough damage without killing it. Remember to feed it mimett greens 1st.

You know the Aqualung is an elemental attack. Hmmm... elemental + Leviathan. Or use adaman bangles you can try to steal from adamantaimai. Those bangles makes you immune to water.

[/spoiler]
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-18 01:23:50
gjoerulv may have changed/altered MANY things but everything is back to the way it was suppose to be... "item/enemy skill" wise that is why this mod's brilliant!  :-)

EDIT: oh sh*t! i should not have quoted that cuz now the spoiler is showing... sorry i'll "unquote" it
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Karifean on 2009-08-18 07:59:58
I got a question: how did you get the characters' names into in-battle dialogues (SOLDIER-Trio)?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-18 16:43:42
Do you mean the names of the trio themselves? That's standard AI editing. Getting the names of the player characters is different. From looking at the Guard Scorpion script, it seems that after using the display string opcode you need to put in something along the lines of "EA 00 x 00!, where x is the character ID (i.e. 00 for Cloud, 01 for Barret). I haven't tested this, so I can't be sure; there's a good chance that I'm wrong.

I'm not sure whether Proud Clod can do this.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-08-19 00:40:38
This patch mainly targets hardcore FF7 players so I'll try not to spoil anyone. Don't expect your game to be perfect, and, yes, things will be more stable in the final release. L4 causes Dual as well in the new mod.

What is Dual? I've never heard of this before, and it L4 Death only seems to cast Mini for me.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-19 00:43:57
Dual is like reverse regen; it makes your HP drain away. It's only normally used by Bottomswell
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-19 00:45:23
Dual is like reverse regen; it makes your HP drain away. It's only normally used by Bottomswell
for example, when you encounter that bike guy near the midgar area (idk his name)... when he hits you with a regular attack, he does the usual damage and then when he goes back, you get drained a certain amount of damage (only shows in the hp bar)... would that be an example of dual?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-19 00:54:22
Does he do that in this mod?

As I said, dual is like regen in reverse; instead of steadily increasing your HP, it reduces it. Watch Red XIII's HP (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxWjb-KyPTc#t=3m55s) (turn annotations off).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-19 00:55:48
Does he do that in this mod?

As I said, dual is like regen in reverse; instead of steadily increasing your HP, it reduces it. Watch Red XIII's HP (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxWjb-KyPTc#t=3m55s) (turn annotations off).
yeah, i get you. and yeah, try fighting that bike machine thingy near the midgar area and you'll c wut i mean... unless its my vista lol but i doubt that is the case here
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Luis Aviles on 2009-08-19 06:32:15
hi gjoerulv
is there a way I can re-enable the master materias?

thanks
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Karifean on 2009-08-19 08:38:23
Sure, just use WallMarket.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-19 19:23:16
Can you please tell me how to get chocobuckle? Other than leaving Choco/Mog untill you have all four enemy skills. You changed L4 Suicide to only cause mini to enemies so I'm feeling pretty robbed atm lol. Will the new patch change it back or is there a different way to get chocobuckle? ALSO DAMN YOU TO HELL! I just got out of Corel prison and the harpy's kick so much arse there is DEFINATELY no way of getting aqualung before jenova untill after Disc 1 T_T

BTW, can you steal off an enemy, run away and still keep the item you stole? I've never been sure about that. Just wondering if I will have a chance in hell of getting 4 gold armlet's in nibelheim off the dragons ^_^

This patch mainly targets hardcore FF7 players so I'll try not to spoil anyone. Don't expect your game to be perfect, and, yes, things will be more stable in the final release. L4 causes Dual as well in the new mod.

[spoiler (highlight)]

snip

[/spoiler]

Huh? Don't get me wrong I wasn't really complaining, TBH I'm glad you done that with aqualung as it makes getting one of the best elemental E.Skills harder to get. I'm finding the game very stable and fair especially with my training regimes. I get everyone to level 3 limit breaks before junon which usually get's me to level 30 but this time I just went for level 2 limit breaks and got around 25ish and still find most of the enemies challenging. Although I kicked bottomswell's arse :D

BTW one thing you should change. On the fort condor missions if you let the enemies reach the shack you find commander grand horn as you know but he changes level depending on which fight you're on. Anyway I thought him on the 3rd fight (get in the water with the dolphin but before going up the tower in junon) and he was extremely easy. I don't even think he hit me for 100hp and I slaughtered him with only cloud and physical attacks. I'm not sure whether you just missed him out but to me it looks like he snook through the loop :P

Thanks for the tips, I forgot about
Spoiler: show
Quote

the adaman bangles and would that enemy that has the gold armlet's be the that new enemy around the rocket town area just after mt nibel that is the enemy that drops Tifa's 4 slot weapon in mythril caves but recoloured?


BTW what tool should I use to find out what enemies drop when you steal off them? Just so I don't bother you every five minutes because I can't steal of an uber powerful enemy in time before he dies?
Quote
*cough big thing around fort condor that deals thousands of damage cough*
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Demarest on 2009-08-19 22:36:58
Forgive me if my first glance decieves me, but it appears that in order to play the most current version of this mod, I'd have to comb this thread (every page) and pick and choose files, and hope I don't choose the outdated ones.

Might I suggest continuously updating first post to contain links to either a current unified package, or current links for every file in the mod? Would make newcomers be able to get in the game quicker and can actually make bookkeeping on the end of the author simpler.

This mod's come highly recommended and I'd like to try it. But at first glance, it looks like I'd have to put more effort into hunting down all the links than I'm prepared to do.  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-08-19 22:39:45
Forgive me if my first glance decieves me, but it appears that in order to play the most current version of this mod, I'd have to comb this thread (every page) and pick and choose files, and hope I don't choose the outdated ones.

Might I suggest continuously updating first post to contain links to either a current unified package, or current links for every file in the mod? Would make newcomers be able to get in the game quicker and can actually make bookkeeping on the end of the author simpler.

This mod's come highly recommended and I'd like to try it. But at first glance, it looks like I'd have to put more effort into hunting down all the links than I'm prepared to do.  :-D

Um... He has got all the links in the first post...

You need This one (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XJ0UZAZJ) and This one (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PKUQU9M0)

Once you've updated your files with the exe, replace the kernel and scene files with the newer ones from the second download link
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Demarest on 2009-08-19 23:52:54
I had no reason to suspect that those were current. If a mod replaces 4 files, and it turns out 2 small ones from it were "bad," creating a 2nd link with just the 2 small files is a temporary fix until the whole pack is reuploaded. To leave it as such is both confusing and makes it look (to those seeing it for the first time) like it was abandoned. Or at least that's why I personally wasn't clear that those links are in fact current.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-20 01:43:35
Come on man it even says when the last update was =\

EDIT:
Quote
Hello. I've written many, many mods and had to administrate just as many releases, patches, updates, etc. One simply doesn't offer two download links, with same filenames, when one would do. EXCEPT when an error was found with the actual release; At which point you toss up a TEMPORARY fix while you re-release the actual package.

If you do not understand this, nobody could hold it against you. Now you know. That's just the way it's done. It maintains clarity, services your users, and makes you look like you have it together.

I don't appreciate A) you judging me because you knew something I didn't or B) wasting space in a dedicated thread to do so.

The last updated date is well before the last edited date. It is perfectly rational (keeping in mind what I explained above, and noting that the thread is ripe with multiple links) for a person to NOT know/guess that the links in the opening post are current. The author could easily clean up the text and offer ONE download for ONE mod, or if the mod has FOUR files, but some of them are constantly updated, make FOUR, PERMANENT links to said files and simply note when the ones that were updated in the background were last updated, while keeping a foreground post going to indicate a change was made.

All things to consider the next time you try to use your annonymous voice to slam a fellow human being. Good day.

Gjoerulv I suggest you edit your first post and put in bold and big letters "DOWNLOAD THESE FILES, THEY ARE UP TO DATE" because apparently complete n00bs can't understand it "There's too many links mommy what shall I do?". I'm not pointing fingers at who this is but he obviously can't understand that the first post in a release thread is 90% of the time up to date with the latest files.

P.S Get a life Demarest.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: sl1982 on 2009-08-20 03:07:40
Wow, take it easy guys. Nothing to get all upset over
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Harruzame on 2009-08-20 04:41:57
wow..they're really passionate about this MOD huh? :-o
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: sl1982 on 2009-08-20 04:44:33
Well it is FFVII you know....
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-20 07:06:16
ok... i c ppl are arguing but why?  :?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-08-20 07:52:15
Some people aren't around to make friends, I guess...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-20 08:20:06
u and I are friends right seer?  :-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2009-08-20 08:25:31
Absolutely! :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-20 08:27:13
Absolutely! :-D
yay! I r happy! hehe!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-08-20 12:23:09
@ storm20200

Very Harsh dude  :-o
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-20 19:07:01
Maybe but I don't appreciate being talked down to by someone who thinks they are better than everyone else  :-P. I made sure I gave him a piece of my mind  8-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-20 20:19:38
whoa! u guys need to chill. we wouldnt want another "ATTN: Dumbass" thread posted like we've seen SO many in the past lmao
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-20 22:08:15
I'm perfectly chilled  :-D

Any news as to anything added to the next update? Or it's released date?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-20 22:16:34
I'm perfectly chilled  :-D

Any news as to anything added to the next update? Or it's released date?
the final release will be til the end of august or maybe later after that; well, thats wut gjoerulv said. personally, i cant wait, but then again, im still on disc 1 of this beta lol
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-21 01:03:17
I'm perfectly chilled  :-D

Any news as to anything added to the next update? Or it's released date?
the final release will be til the end of august or maybe later after that; well, thats wut gjoerulv said. personally, i cant wait, but then again, im still on disc 1 of this beta lol

I just pwned Palmer, where are you? I went travelling around the world and got to the sleeping forest only to find the kujata boss is extremely strong T_T
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-21 01:51:33
I'm perfectly chilled  :-D

Any news as to anything added to the next update? Or it's released date?
the final release will be til the end of august or maybe later after that; well, thats wut gjoerulv said. personally, i cant wait, but then again, im still on disc 1 of this beta lol

I just pwned Palmer, where are you? I went travelling around the world and got to the sleeping forest only to find the kujata boss is extremely strong T_T
hmm, i thought u fight the kujata boss in disc 2 or something... well anywayz, i just got out of the corel prison... i went back to get mithril and now im in the junon area trying to encounter the junon patron so i can steal more shinra alphas :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2009-08-21 02:04:05
Huh? I didn't even dare go there, I done one fight and got slaughtered, 1 hit kill for everyone. I'm happy with Gold Armlet's and now Diamond Armlet's seen as I have access to bone village. Just a tip for people, if you need AP fight adamantai's, they have 20k hp, take tiny amounts of physical damage, counter with an attack on everyone causing 2k~ of damage but if you manipulate them and spam magic on them they don't even put up a fight netting you 800Exp, AP and Gil. that's 2400AP with a triple weapon or 1600 with a double weapon :D

The Kujata boss is
Spoiler: show
  a tetra elemental kinda thing, One thunder enemy, One Ice/Water Enemy and One Fire enemy. They have aga's, deal 1k to people in the back row + constantly use haste and like to reflect your party T_T


Wait I just watched the youtube vid of the junon patrons. Enemies have common and rare steals now? No fair :O
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-08-21 02:18:06
well, the junon patron does... idk about any other enemy but i best take advantage and get them shinra alphas :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Cleanshooter on 2009-08-28 21:45:04
Just got back from Va-cay looks like the tread got a little bumpy.

Quote
Yeah I know 'bout those bugs. They are fixed but not released yet. There were other bugs as well, and as far as I know, there shouldn't be anything left.

The biggest bug in the current release is on the phoenix boss. You kinda can't kill them lol.

When I say a boss like Hojo I mean an encounter that doesn't end after you've killed the 1st enemies. The hojo battle is actually 3 encounters ya know.

I'm glad the you got the bugs, as for the Phoenix boss good luck.  I will track down the list of tools you have on the first post.  I am new to modding the game but am a developer so should be able to pick it up quickly.

As for adding multi-encounter bosses that's even better than what I originally thought you were considering.  Despite some of the extreme ideas out there I think that even an "unbeatable" boss should have a weakness... you know unbeatable unless a particular condition is met, for example there are several items that you rarely receive at the gold saucer that serve no purpose.  You might give those items a purpose in these "unbeatable" battles.  Just an idea...



Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-28 22:24:20
As for adding multi-encounter bosses that's even better than what I originally thought you were considering.  Despite some of the extreme ideas out there I think that even an "unbeatable" boss should have a weakness... you know unbeatable unless a particular condition is met, for example there are several items that you rarely receive at the gold saucer that serve no purpose.  You might give those items a purpose in these "unbeatable" battles.  Just an idea...

Hmmm, can enemies be made to react to certain items used in battle by editing their AI? If that's possible, you might be on to something. There could be an enemy that is immune (or almost immune) to physical and magical damage but temporarily loses its immunity when a particular item is used (this would be similar to Diamond Weapon, which is normally immune to physical attack but turns off this immunity when a limit break is being used). Or maybe an enemy could permanently lose its immunity in the battle when an item is used (in the same way that Ruby weapon permanently loses his immunity when it summons its tentacles.

The only problem (if what I said above will work) is that most of the people using the mod will have read the thread and will know which item to use  :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-08-28 23:23:01
As for adding multi-encounter bosses that's even better than what I originally thought you were considering.  Despite some of the extreme ideas out there I think that even an "unbeatable" boss should have a weakness... you know unbeatable unless a particular condition is met, for example there are several items that you rarely receive at the gold saucer that serve no purpose.  You might give those items a purpose in these "unbeatable" battles.  Just an idea...

Hmmm, can enemies be made to react to certain items used in battle by editing their AI? If that's possible, you might be on to something. There could be an enemy that is immune (or almost immune) to physical and magical damage but temporarily loses its immunity when a particular item is used (this would be similar to Diamond Weapon, which is normally immune to physical attack but turns off this immunity when a limit break is being used). Or maybe an enemy could permanently lose its immunity in the battle when an item is used (in the same way that Ruby weapon permanently loses his immunity when it summons its tentacles.

The only problem (if what I said above will work) is that most of the people using the mod will have read the thread and will know which item to use  :-P

Hopefully people won't tell exactly what item (:x), only give subtle hints because the way to beat Mt. Nibel Dragon hasn't been completely revealed yet.

BTW what level were you guys who beat the soldiers before Hojo? I want to level up to 75ish but I don't want to be overleveled.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tyler_Wu on 2009-08-31 18:59:47
those soldiers were damn hard, i leveled up a decent amount and still couldnt win.  eventually had to go all out with status changing spells and enemy skills to actually beat those guys.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-08-31 19:15:17
those soldiers were damn hard, i leveled up a decent amount and still couldnt win.  eventually had to go all out with status changing spells and enemy skills to actually beat those guys.

One of the best things about hardcore mods is that status changing magic actually becomes useful (it certainly isn't in most FF games). It adds a lot more strategy to the fights and means that nearly every spell and item is good for something.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-09-01 23:32:02
OMG I finally beat the soldiers for the third time. Cloud was level 67 and Yuffie and Cid were 64, what level did you guys beat him at?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-09-03 18:59:57
The final release wont be released 'til the end of august or later. This will be the final release. I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.

Any word on the final version?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-09-03 23:44:32
The final release wont be released 'til the end of august or later. This will be the final release. I feel there are enough modding tools available for anyone to make a mod like this one without too much trouble.

Any word on the final version?
Yeah! I truly cannot wait for this one either!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Luis Aviles on 2009-09-05 21:32:21
When I fight in the battle arena, I sometimes encounter red pyramids that whatever I do ( attack, magic, heal it, give potion etc... ) it never does any damage and cloud instantly died after that. Is it a bug or do I have to use a hidden element attack to kill it?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2009-09-05 21:49:50
i cannot say for sure with this mod, but those pyramid enemies are the dummy enemies that you do not normally see, my guess is that the kernel is not in sync with the scene.bin... did you download and replace the scene/kernel.bin with the newest ones in the post? if you can, try and sense the enemy and see what it's name is, if it is a bunch of symbols, then something is off in the kernel  :-P.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-09-05 22:06:41
i cannot say for sure with this mod, but those pyramid enemies are the dummy enemies that you do not normally see, my guess is that the kernel is not in sync with the scene.bin... did you download and replace the scene/kernel.bin with the newest ones in the post? if you can, try and sense the enemy and see what it's name is, if it is a bunch of symbols, then something is off in the kernel  :-P.

This is the most likely explanation.

And if for some reason downloading the newest scene.bin and kernel.bin files doesn't work, use Hojo (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7186.0) and select file -> update kernel file; this will fix the scene.bin lookup data in the kernel.bin and stop things appearing in wacky places.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2009-09-22 17:36:56
Any news about the final version?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-09-22 20:55:57
Any news about the final version?

Dunno, maybe its been forgotten about  :cry:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-09-23 04:32:13
Any news about the final version?

Dunno, maybe its been forgotten about  :cry:

Idk he said he'd be off of vacation about a month ago, maybe he's still beta testing it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-09-23 10:53:06
Any news about the final version?

Dunno, maybe its been forgotten about  :cry:

Idk he said he'd be off of vacation about a month ago, maybe he's still beta testing it.

I am beta testing it, though I'm also quite busy with work. The final version will be released, but it's hard to say when. Thus I won't make any promises. Stay tuned!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Matt2Tees on 2009-09-28 22:18:14
I am beta testing it, though I'm also quite busy with work. The final version will be released, but it's hard to say when. Thus I won't make any promises. Stay tuned!

I'm glad to hear that  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-09-29 00:33:13
Any news about the final version?

Dunno, maybe its been forgotten about  :cry:

Idk he said he'd be off of vacation about a month ago, maybe he's still beta testing it.

I am beta testing it, though I'm also quite busy with work. The final version will be released, but it's hard to say when. Thus I won't make any promises. Stay tuned!
Sweet! Let me know how that turns out! Can't wait for this release!!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-09-29 16:31:53
Uploaded a new scene and kernels. Now it's actually possible to defeat the phoenix boss. Plus some minor formation and AI bug fixes. Also it's a tiny bit harder at some places at the end.

The way I've named some of the attacks in the kernel may not be likable for all, but there's always wall marked.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2009-09-29 16:49:02
It would be nice if there was a version of the patch that doesn't overwrite files.
Instead it unpacks the lgp files, changes the data, then repacks the lgp.
This will make compatible the hardcore mode with the ff7 remix patch, or any other mod that replaces files.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: sl1982 on 2009-09-29 17:00:05
It would be nice if there was a version of the patch that doesn't overwrite files.
Instead it unpacks the lgp files, changes the data, then repacks the lgp.
This will make compatible the hardcore mode with the ff7 remix patch, or any other mod that replaces files.

If you are wanting to do this just take a look at the patch that comes with the 2d mod. It works in similar fashion
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2009-09-29 21:54:59
Its good to see this mod still in development.  Was the bug ever fixed where battles on the beach near Kalm would crash the game?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: teggeta on 2009-09-30 00:00:06
Uploaded a new scene and kernels. Now it's actually possible to defeat the phoenix boss. Plus some minor formation and AI bug fixes. Also it's a tiny bit harder at some places at the end.

The way I've named some of the attacks in the kernel may not be likable for all, but there's always wall marked.

What was wrong with the pheonix bosses? I killed them without even losing one person.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2009-09-30 10:27:26
If you are wanting to do this just take a look at the patch that comes with the 2d mod. It works in similar fashion

I need the list of internal files (after unpacking LGP) that this mod changes
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-09-30 20:36:45
Its good to see this mod still in development.  Was the bug ever fixed where battles on the beach near Kalm would crash the game?

Yup that's fixed.

Uploaded a new scene and kernels. Now it's actually possible to defeat the phoenix boss. Plus some minor formation and AI bug fixes. Also it's a tiny bit harder at some places at the end.

The way I've named some of the attacks in the kernel may not be likable for all, but there's always wall marked.

What was wrong with the pheonix bosses? I killed them without even losing one person.

You didn't lose 1 person. I mean, not even 1? Nah kidding... It was possible to defeat 'em but a bug in the AI made it impossible to kill all of 'em (or any of 'em) under certain circumstances. Circumstances I've now forgotten.

If you are wanting to do this just take a look at the patch that comes with the 2d mod. It works in similar fashion

I need the list of internal files (after unpacking LGP) that this mod changes

I can hand 'em out, but I was planning on making a patch that works with other modded flevels. Right now I can't 'cause my comp is not available for me, and I don't remember every file name by heart. I hope I had a system on it.  :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Myrmedus on 2009-10-06 12:42:29
Is there no standard zip file for this btw? The executable is very robust with allowing its contents to be extracted, to the point where I can't get ANYTHING out of it simply because I'm using a scene.bin already from the Hard Mode project lol ie. all I want to replace is the battle.lgp and it won't let me.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-10-06 13:24:53
AFAIK there's no zip file, but if you put your modded scene.bin in a safe place and put an unmodded scene.bin in your data directory, you'll be able to install the mod and then put your old modded scene.bin back

Beware, however, that this may cause problems; at the very least, you'll have to use Hojo to fix the look-up table in the kernel.bin, unless you do this trick with your kernel.bin as well. If all you want to replace is the battle.lgp, I recommend that you do the "back up modded file -> replace with unmodded one -> patch -> put modded file back" trick with every file that gets patched except for the battle.lgp
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2009-10-07 00:38:51
you can always find clean, unmodded files off your install disc.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-10-16 03:30:00
Yo!

So I started working on the final version some days ago.
1st the good news. It'll be a patch that will work with any mod... Well... More correctly it will overwrite any scene, kernel and any field file I've tweaked. Which means every scene file, every kernel file and 'bout 30+ field files. In other words, it will be exactly like the current version (+ some bug fixes,other tweaks and a new boss), except you don't need the original files any more to install the mod. This patch will basically update any flevel.lgp and battle.lgp without ruining anything (or too much  :-P) to your current tweaks.
Keep in mind that if you added some enemy models yourself (battle.lgp) and still want this mod, you basically have to adjust it to this mod concerning the scene.bin. And, of course, if you removed some of the original field files included in this mod it won't have any effect on your own mod.

The bad news is that I don't know when it'll be released. I don't have much time to spare these days.

BUT, my real deal with this post is: What's up with the AKAO part in the field files? Does the game read the midi only from the filed files? Is the akao section actually a midi? The reason I ask is that I made a crappy program that can import "akao files" into any field file. So if the akao part of the field files are similar to the midi files it'll be much easier to import 'em into any filed file so it can be used for battles etch. (the reason there is no boss battle music in my mod is 'cause there aren't the appropriate akao parts in the given fields).

EDIT: And here are the field files I've moded.
Code: [Select]
anfrst_2
anfrst_5
blin65_1
bugin1b*
canon_1 (I've listed it, but I don't see any changes. Still I put in here just in case.)
convil_4
elmin4_2*
farm
gnmk*
hyou5_1**
hyou13_2**
jtmpin1***
junpb_2****
las2_3
las2_4
las3_2
las3_3
las4_0*
lastmap
losinn****
md8_32
nvdun1
nvmkin21*
qd
slfrst_2
trackin*
trnad_2
zcoal_2
zz3****
zz5
zz6
zz7
zz8
*May disturb translation projects (English). In other words: contains some actual dialogue.
**Bug fix from the original files (there might be more files with bugs. please tell).
***I may not include this one. A minor translation "fix".
****Removed Enemy-Skills materia from these. It'll be optional to include 'em in my mod.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-10-16 13:41:02
I remember doing a bit of research into that AKAO part of the field files about a year ago. Here's the thread (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7980.0).

AFAIK, the bytes after AKAO point to MIDI files in the order in which their names appear in ff7.exe. I remember having the Cosmo Canyon music play in Sector 6 (mrkt2) by changing 0xEBE to 1A. The bytes after the opcodes such as MUSIC point to bytes after AKAO, so if you have MUSIC 00 and AKAO 25 1A 02, the game will play the first song pointed to by AKAO, which, in this case, is "rocket" AKA "oppressed people".

That was a hideously bad explanation of what I can remember finding and some of it might be inaccurate, but that's basically what AKAO does.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-10-17 15:08:21
I remember doing a bit of research into that AKAO part of the field files about a year ago. Here's the thread (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7980.0).

AFAIK, the bytes after AKAO point to MIDI files in the order in which their names appear in ff7.exe. I remember having the Cosmo Canyon music play in Sector 6 (mrkt2) by changing 0xEBE to 1A. The bytes after the opcodes such as MUSIC point to bytes after AKAO, so if you have MUSIC 00 and AKAO 25 1A 02, the game will play the first song pointed to by AKAO, which, in this case, is "rocket" AKA "oppressed people".

That was a hideously bad explanation of what I can remember finding and some of it might be inaccurate, but that's basically what AKAO does.

I pretty much know how to set music and battle music for a field, but you need the appropriate AKAO in the field file to play the midi you want. That's why I made that proggy to insert any "AKAO file" in any field file. Now if the "AKAO files" are similar to the midi files this would make things easier. I could just check of course :P, but if anyone knows it would be great.

If what suspect is true (they aren't similar) then I would like to know how important the whole AKAO part is. As I've seen some dude (don't remember who) posted in another thread you only need to change that one byte to change the entire song and the rest pretty much doesn't matter. This doesn't sound correct, but if it is, the only thing one need to do to insert a song is to insert one byte (or as many the ID reqiures), and then update pointers. But, as I said, I doubt this is true, 'cause the AKAO part is pretty much similar to a script; with opcodes and stuff.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Xelane on 2009-10-18 17:58:38
Perhaps there is a list of songs set to play for certain ID's?

In wallmarket any ID gives a list of possible animations based on its poisition to other ID's

so 1A in any ID would give a much different animation than it would in a seperate one

(i think)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2009-10-18 18:02:03
The IDs correspond to the order of the songs in the .exe

It seems that I didn't make myself clear in my last post, but replacing the IDs after AKAO will change the song being played, and the IDs after AKAO are the IDs of the songs in the order in which they appear in the .exe.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-10-18 22:27:54
The IDs correspond to the order of the songs in the .exe

It seems that I didn't make myself clear in my last post, but replacing the IDs after AKAO will change the song being played, and the IDs after AKAO are the IDs of the songs in the order in which they appear in the .exe.

Yes that makes sense. The field opcodes are relevant to the AKAO in the field, and the AKAO ID is relevant to the .exe.
But maybe I weren't clear... what I need to know is if all of the AKAO section is necessary to play the song or just the ID. If you just need the ID it'll be much simpler to add songs to fields. Then all we need to do is to insert five bytes (or AKAO + the ID bytes) to a field file to add possibilities to play new songs in that field, then update the pointers. I've successfully added some AKAO files in some fields with my "AKAO proggy"; I guess I'm in the best position to test this.

If what I expect is true (you do need the entire AKAO section), that means you'll need to extract the AKAOs you want in a field from another field where that AKAO exists. That's why I initially asked if the AKAO section is similar to other files easier available. You know, to add boss music.

EDIT: Hmmmm... It actually looks like you only need the ID. SCORE!
EDIT2: Yup, seems like you only need the ID (1 byte) preceded by "AKAO" (5 bytes total). But then what are the rest of the AKAO section there for if the opcodes aren't used? ??? Well it doesn't matter much now; I've already added some boss music and fight music where I wanted. If anyone are interested in the program I made just pm me. I don't think I need to release it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2009-11-18 22:17:09
Any updates? Will the final version be downloadablw soon? :mrgreen:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-11-21 14:48:30
Any updates? Will the final version be downloadablw soon? :mrgreen:

I'm working on it, but, as I've stated earlier, I'm quite preoccupied with other stuff. Can't promise any release date.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Rufus95 on 2009-12-01 20:59:03
hey i have a question is the three people you fight (sorry forgot there names) at the shinra building and on a train posible to beat on your videos on youtube they kill you and i had to cheat to get past it  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2009-12-09 21:58:09
Question. Is this mod practical without the 9999 limit breaker patch? Or is that just insane?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2009-12-09 23:00:00
Question. Is this mod practical without the 9999 limit breaker patch? Or is that just insane?
I don't think you'll last very long without it lol.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Boooster on 2009-12-18 03:22:50
Been playing this mod for the past week (and boy is my wife pissed at me  :-D) and I have to say:  Well done!!!  This is taking one of the greatest games of my childhood and made it into a fantastic RPG.   The challenge so far has been fantastic and at some points very #$%^ing frustrating.  I am ashamed to say that I did cheat when dealing with JENOVA BIRTH and DEATH.  I managed to get Birth down to next to nothing time after time but it would always kill me - jenova death was just a slaughter.  I managed to kill the Golden Dragon guarding the Neo Bahamaut Materia, but DEATH just annihliated me time after time (probably because Tifa insisted on coming along and I never touched her).  I even tried cheating facing the Trio on the last car of Mt. Corel Huge Materia but after my first KotR summon 2 of them became invulnerable.  No big loss (except for half of their tents when the train crashed). 

I just got Cloud back and will be heading to pay that dragon on mt. nibel a visit :).    LOVE the challenge and strategy involved here, and I had some fights that kept me on the edge of chair, and a few that almost ended with a smashed monitor (jenova birth).  I love that items actually have a use now, and running out of phoenix downs and ethers and gil is an ever present fact of life here. This is also the first game I ever used Aeris and got her lvl 4 limit - man she is a necessity for this mod! Absolutely loved getting her limit up ready for a battle with those impossible monsters, stealing like a madman and running away! 

I can write pages about what a great mod this is and how much fun I've been having and am up to the Junon reactor with Cloud, Cid, and Nanaki (only trying to get Nanaki's limits up past lvl 2).  Or maybe I'll finally get Yuffie to beat Godo - something I gave up on way back when).

Excellent job again!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Boooster on 2009-12-20 05:42:24
Don't mean to double post, but had a quick question - which program can I use to edit a weapon?  I would like to change Yuffie's final weapon strength back to the original strength.  I love using her and after getting the Conformer she is pretty crippled and would like to restore it to what it used to be.  Morphing isn't really the issue here (since those Unknowns just rip me to pieces anyway), I just really like using her for some reason:)

Thanks
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2009-12-20 19:01:49
Don't mean to double post, but had a quick question - which program can I use to edit a weapon?  I would like to change Yuffie's final weapon strength back to the original strength.  I love using her and after getting the Conformer she is pretty crippled and would like to restore it to what it used to be.  Morphing isn't really the issue here (since those Unknowns just rip me to pieces anyway), I just really like using her for some reason:)

Thanks

The damage formula of that weapon is based on the target's level. The higher the enemy level; the higher the damage. If you want to change it, try Wall Marked.
Thanks for for trying it and for the feedback. All the jenovas (except the very last one) are weak against Cloud's normal attacks. I realize that's kinda impossible to grasp, so I was thinking of simply making 'em weak against physical attacks.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-01 17:04:44
Happy new year !!! :-D
I can't wait to try it :lol:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-01 17:57:57
Ok as usual, when I want to install a mod, I have a problem -_-"
Well, first of all, I'm french, so I have the french version of FF7, then, when I try to install it, it says:

Below log created: 01/01/2010 at 19:18:51
PROGRESS:
Checking files.
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\scene.bin
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\battle.lgp
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\kernel\kernel.bin
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\kernel\kernel2.bin
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\field\flevel.lgp
Patch starting.
Patching: D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\scene.bin
L'accès au chemin d'accès 'D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\scene.bin' est refusé.
Patch finished.
Time spent: 0:08


(l'acces au chemin d'accès est refusé = the acces to the "acces way" ? is denied.....)

So what the hell am I suppose to do ??

I'm under windows seven, but I tried on 2 other computers which are under xp and it says: "The application couldn't initiate correctly (0xc0000135). Click OK to stop the apply.

So... If you have answers, be my guest.
Btw, if there's no way for me to use this, well could you give me the changed files directly ?

Thank you very much, can't wait to try it :lol:



Edit: In fact, it looks like the acces is denied for every ticked thing such as "scene.bin ; kernel.bin ; kernel2.bin ; battle.lgp and flevel.lgp"
Btw I don't even have a flevel.lgp, only a fflevel.lgp...

What should I doooo ??  :cry:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2010-01-01 20:55:00
Sounds like User Account Control to me. Windows 7 doesn't like you editing any files in the "program files" folder. Go to the control panel, user accounts and turn account control off. Also, it might be a good idea to right-click on the patching program and select "run as administrator" if possible.

Fortunately, UAC in Windows 7 is easier to get rid of than UAC in Vista :3
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-01 21:44:39
Well I did what you said, and it still doesn't work :-(
I turned off the UAC and ran as admin and it still said acces denied for scene.bin....

And also, when I move the data folder on the desktop, it still doesn't work --''
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: KnifeTheSky77 on 2010-01-01 22:54:39
well, something doesnt smell right.
You can try changing attributes of the file. Right click scene.bin and uncheck 'read only' if applicable. Then click on the security tab and check all permissions under your name. This isnt a problem dealt by the gods of default settings, you might want to try reinstalling ff7 as something may have messed up the scene.bin.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-01-01 23:35:38
Ok as usual, when I want to install a mod, I have a problem -_-"
Well, first of all, I'm french, so I have the french version of FF7, then, when I try to install it, it says:

Below log created: 01/01/2010 at 19:18:51
PROGRESS:
Checking files.
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\scene.bin
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\battle.lgp
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\kernel\kernel.bin
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\kernel\kernel2.bin
 File check-> D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\field\flevel.lgp
Patch starting.
Patching: D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\scene.bin
L'accès au chemin d'accès 'D:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\Data\battle\scene.bin' est refusé.
Patch finished.
Time spent: 0:08


(l'acces au chemin d'accès est refusé = the acces to the "acces way" ? is denied.....)

So what the hell am I suppose to do ??

I'm under windows seven, but I tried on 2 other computers which are under xp and it says: "The application couldn't initiate correctly (0xc0000135). Click OK to stop the apply.

So... If you have answers, be my guest.
Btw, if there's no way for me to use this, well could you give me the changed files directly ?

Thank you very much, can't wait to try it :lol:



Edit: In fact, it looks like the acces is denied for every ticked thing such as "scene.bin ; kernel.bin ; kernel2.bin ; battle.lgp and flevel.lgp"
Btw I don't even have a flevel.lgp, only a fflevel.lgp...

What should I doooo ??  :cry:

Like Kudistos Megistos stated it's most likely a UAC problem. I'm not too familiar with W7 though so I can't say for sure. Try creating your own data folder:

1. Create a folder in C:\ and name it 'data' (without the quotes).
2. Create 3 sub-folders: 'battle', 'field' and 'kernel'.
3. Copy the original files from the install disc, and place 'em inside the sub-folders (you know what goes where right? If not it's exactly as it is inside the FF7 data folder).
4. Run gjoerulv.exe, select the newly created data folder and click patch.

Run gjoerulv.exe as admin, and make sure the files aren't write protected. If you right-click a file, under properties in the security tab you can edit what user can and cannot access. Make sure your user have access to everything in all of the files. If you try it on another computer make sure Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (or higher) is installed.


Have anyone else gotten an error when opening the program? Like "instance not set to an object" or something like that. I suspect there is a bug. I'll look into it tomorrow. Now I'm effin tired lol.

Happy new year btw!  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-01 23:49:33
Ok I have a big problem now since my install disk say at exactly 15% of the installation that there is an error -114 or something like that (WHAT THE HELL ?????)
And then, it looks like scene.bin isn't protected, so is there a way you send me your scene.bin ? So I can see if it works.
And btw, can you tell me how many files is there in the battle folder ? Thanks a lot.

(OMG I hope my install disk is not dead :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :-o
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-01 23:56:30
No I did what you said, and it doesn't work, and all the files are fine, so is there a way you send me a pack with modified files ? (I mostly mean your data folder in fact)
Because I don't understand...

It never works, I tried everything... --'' I've never been lucky with mods...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-01-06 14:21:45
Installer works great for me, although I have no idea how to select the difficulty settings?
Is it defaulting to Extreme?
I really wanna play Hard, just because Normal is much too easy and Extreme is... well.... Extreme.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-01-07 07:34:39
Installer works great for me, although I have no idea how to select the difficulty settings?
Is it defaulting to Extreme?
I really wanna play Hard, just because Normal is much too easy and Extreme is... well.... Extreme.

Sorry, I forgot to remove the miscellaneous section in the info. There is one difficulty only. But in future  releases there may be more.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-01-07 08:47:24
Installer works great for me, although I have no idea how to select the difficulty settings?
Is it defaulting to Extreme?
I really wanna play Hard, just because Normal is much too easy and Extreme is... well.... Extreme.

Sorry, I forgot to remove the miscellaneous section in the info. There is one difficulty only. But in future  releases there may be more.

Oh ok, fyi Hard mode would be great.
Thanks for all the hard work you put into this mod, this is really the only thing out there that actually improves upon the game itself, instead of just the visuals / sound.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2010-01-14 11:09:25
Hmmm.

Stuck on the Guard scorpion.

>:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-01-14 11:11:18
Hmmm.

Stuck on the Guard scorpion.

>:

If it ever uses tail laser you're doing something wrong.  :-P
Try training in the room where Wedge stands guard and the reactor explosion FMV takes place up to lv6 or lv7. The enemies there are pretty easy.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2010-01-14 11:15:56
No tail laser happening, I just don't have the potions.  I gots 1 potion, 2 ethers, and 2 phoenix downs.  Can I assume grinding will compund the problem?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-01-14 11:17:44
No tail laser happening, I just don't have the potions.  I gots 1 potion, 2 ethers, and 2 phoenix downs.  Can I assume grinding will compund the problem?

yeah, and moving everyone to the back row while fighting it is also a good idea.
Defending after a Search Scope will also help.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2010-01-14 11:39:50
Everyone's in the back row, though why defend after search scope?  It inflicts stop, right?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-01-15 00:02:44
1st reactor guide:
Get Barret as fast as possible. Go outside again and level up to AT LEAST lvl 5.
Fight those sweepers to get bolt plumes, at least 1. Note that those "Robots" (not the sweepers) are weak towards ice. Use bolt plumes on the Boss. You should be lvl 7, minimum, when fighting it.

After you get Tifa, BUY RESTORE MATERIA. Then go fight in the train graveyard to level up 1-3 levels. Make sure you have at least 2 of each materia before you continue. You should level up and buy stuff here, 'cause in the next reactor there are no shops.

It probably isn't that hard after the 2nd reactor. Depends on your level etch.

EDIT: Search scope paralyzes you for a short while.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-01-15 03:29:33
Yeah Guard scorpion was really hard, I just keep on using the bolt plumes on sweepers / robots for instant kill and easy exp, and they will usually drop a replacement plume.
The next battle I found really hard was the SOLDIER Trio in Shinra HQ (prolly coz I was 7 levels below them)

Also Gjoerulv, the fact that there is a boss in Clouds Past with Seph was sooo awesome! :D
Any way to make it look like the creature in the video (Makonoid)?: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/6/61/Mako_Mutant.jpg
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2010-01-15 05:35:01
a makonoid would be very fitting for a boss battle there, especially since the one that pops out of the container never seems to be killed... and for a music choice for the battle... J-E-N-O-V-A (chu2) or Those Chosen By the Planet (cephiros) would be good candidates over a normal boss theme, at least in my opinion (not sure what you did there... as i have not had time to play the mod yet :P).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: AlbusJC on 2010-01-15 14:25:45
gjoerulv, are you going to do another release in the future or this is the final version of hardcore mode? I ask you this to know If I should install this version or to wait to another release  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-01-15 19:47:47
gjoerulv, are you going to do another release in the future or this is the final version of hardcore mode? I ask you this to know If I should install this version or to wait to another release  :-D

There won't be much changes if that's the issue. I plan to at least make one more release with minor changes. I'll only slightly change the bosses in the materia caves and the boss in the final cave (see OP post to see where it is). And if there are any bugs I'll update as well.

There are enough tools to make your own mod; I don't feel I need to go much further with this one.  :-D 8-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: AlbusJC on 2010-01-15 20:19:11
Ok, thanks! You have done a incredible work with this mod  :-)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-01-16 08:02:39
a makonoid would be very fitting for a boss battle there, especially since the one that pops out of the container never seems to be killed... and for a music choice for the battle... J-E-N-O-V-A (chu2) or Those Chosen By the Planet (cephiros) would be good candidates over a normal boss theme, at least in my opinion (not sure what you did there... as i have not had time to play the mod yet :P).

I'm pretty sure it was Those Chosen By the Planet, the music carried on from the video, was really cool :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Asdayasman13 on 2010-01-19 13:11:22
Haha, got past the guard scorp, and got outta the reactor ok, but then it crashed the whole PC (CAPS LOCK wouldn't light up, you know you're in trouble when that happens), upon entering an FMV.

Nyoh well.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bitto_86 on 2010-01-22 12:40:48
Haha !! I love this mod !! :) 

Actually I am not far (in Mount Nibel) but I already had a lot of fun. Here is basically the levels I was during some parts of the game :
out of midgard == lvl 13
jenova birth (first try) == lvl 16 --> total wreck
jenova birth down == lvl 20.
Turks in Gongagua == lvl 26
Gi-Nattack == lvl 30
Lost Number == lvl 31

Actually in the Nibel mountains ... i just faced the dragon ... hum lol, totally insane  XD
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2010-01-24 19:23:32
OK, time to try this mod! Only one question, since I have the psx version, is this mod compatible with it or I must play it on PC? If the answer is yes, is it difficult to apply the patch to the psx version?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2010-01-24 22:31:30
OK, time to try this mod! Only one question, since I have the psx version, is this mod compatible with it or I must play it on PC? If the answer is yes, is it difficult to apply the patch to the psx version?

It won't work on the PSX version, although I can't really see any reason why you couldn't "port" the mod (in theory; in practice it would be very time-consuming)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bosola on 2010-01-24 23:11:31
IIRC, the Scene.bin files should be the very same in both versions, which is where the meat and bones of the changes should be. Of course, it's possible that the modified Scene is larger than the original, but we should be able to get around that by deleting redundant data from each disc's SCENE.

Extra bosses and field changes won't be implemented, but that shouldn't be *too* important, unless gjoerulv has done something radical.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2010-01-24 23:15:04
The extra bosses and field changes are some of the best things about the mod :cry:

Also, the scene.bin file is definitely bigger than the original, and the game will crash during some random battles because there are new enemies. I believe that armorvil had this problem a while ago...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-01-25 10:36:31
OK, time to try this mod! Only one question, since I have the psx version, is this mod compatible with it or I must play it on PC? If the answer is yes, is it difficult to apply the patch to the psx version?

Short answer: Yes, and yes.

Long answer: Because of changes in field files and added enemies it will be tedious work. And KM is right. Considering all the tools available, the added enemies and bosses may be the only reason you'd want this mod. There are tools available to mod scene and kernel. You could patch the scene only, change the enemy models and finally reduce the file size (remove the new bosses and simplify some AIs) to make it compatible with psx. But it would be easier to just make your own mod lol.

I may make a version that works on psx. Only time will tell.  :-D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-01-25 13:31:08
Hrm, i recall that someone here was working on slimming down scene.bin by rewriting every single AI to be as efficient as possible filesize wise. I'll see if I can find the thread...

EDIT: Aha! I found it! It was secondadvent, and looks like he got as far as v0.1 with a filesize of 256kb. Here's the link:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8513.0
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: terrabrake on 2010-01-25 18:58:36
Thanks for the answers! I've forgotten to include "also" in the phrase "since I have the psx version"  :-D If the situation is this, then it's better to play it on PC, although I'd have preferred to play it on playstation! And thank you very much for this work gjoerulv!!!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: secondadvent on 2010-01-25 19:12:45
yeah, i was working on that, and will be again in the future (it also fixes any bugs/flaws i see as i go on with the original enemy AI/abilities, while sticking to the original as much as possible)... but i am currently in the middle of two other psx games at the moment :-P.

i'd like to work on it again here soon, but it depends on what else i am doing... i will eventually get back to it though (i will only post as i make large updates to it, to save people from mah walls of text  :-P)... i only really left because eligor's script was coming up, and PrC at the time took about five minutes to show/disassemble it's script at fastest, which i did not feel like repeatedly having to sit through for ONE enemy. but, now that it is done in seconds, i have more motivation to continue it's massive redundant AI :-D.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-25 23:58:21
Haha !! I love this mod !! :) 

Actually I am not far (in Mount Nibel) but I already had a lot of fun. Here is basically the levels I was during some parts of the game :
out of midgard == lvl 13
jenova birth (first try) == lvl 16 --> total wreck
jenova birth down == lvl 20.
Turks in Gongagua == lvl 26
Gi-Nattack == lvl 30
Lost Number == lvl 31

Actually in the Nibel mountains ... i just faced the dragon ... hum lol, totally insane  XD


How the hell did you beat the air buster ??? And the trio ????
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-01-27 12:29:48
ya know, it's interesting...for me, air buster was easier to beat if I intentionally killed off one of my characters...I can't explain why, I guess it was just easier to keep track of healing with one, attacking with the other rather than trying to juggle all three.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: samourai23 on 2010-01-27 19:13:56
Lol, just let it go, I found a way to beat him easily 5 minutes after posting :-P
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-02-10 19:10:26
Hi gjoerulv, I just tested and found that your mod makes the boss battle Rapps lock up when it starts (This is the boss that Don Corneo calls in Wutai)
Tried without aali driver but it still crashed.
I had to uninstall your mod to get my materia back :(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-11 09:32:19
Hi gjoerulv, I just tested and found that your mod makes the boss battle Rapps lock up when it starts (This is the boss that Don Corneo calls in Wutai)
Tried without aali driver but it still crashed.
I had to uninstall your mod to get my materia back :(

Ok, I'll check it out. Thanks for letting me know.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-02-11 16:33:36
Hi gjoerulv, I just tested and found that your mod makes the boss battle Rapps lock up when it starts (This is the boss that Don Corneo calls in Wutai)
Tried without aali driver but it still crashed.
I had to uninstall your mod to get my materia back :(

Ok, I'll check it out. Thanks for letting me know.

You are welcome, having a great time playing on this mod. Having to use strategy instead of just pressing Enter to attack, it is great.

Is there any news on a 'Hard' mode? I have a friend who wants to play FF7, but being an experienced gamer I know he will find it way too easy.
On the other hand, this 'Hardcore' mode is clearly for people who want a crazy challenge :P
FF7 is already an amazing game, and making it slightly harder shows just how great the battle / materia system can be, together with all these extra bosses, it is godly!

Also just some other bugs / inconsistencies from memory:

- Some items that cast spells do not have renamed spells (I think I saw Demi2 on an item)
- When using morph to get Mighty Guard, it shows up as Big Guard on the morph menu, and I could not select who I wanted to cast it on to learn it, was just random.
- The Enemy Skill 'Laser' says it does 1/2 damage, but it appears to only do 1/4.
- When I used the Sense ability in the battle when you get the Kujata materia some dialog comes up saying 'Weak against .' or something like that.

Hope those make sense.

Also now that I'm getting further in the game I wanted to ask, am I supposed to have the 9999 limit breaker patch?
Did the installer install it?
Or am I OK without it?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-11 18:29:40
- Some items that cast spells do not have renamed spells (I think I saw Demi2 on an item)

lol and I thought I had tracked 'em down. Not that important but annoying nonetheless.

- When using morph to get Mighty Guard, it shows up as Big Guard on the morph menu, and I could not select who I wanted to cast it on to learn it, was just random.

You mean manipulate? I'll check it out.

- The Enemy Skill 'Laser' says it does 1/2 damage, but it appears to only do 1/4.

Probably because some enemies resists gravity.  ;)

- When I used the Sense ability in the battle when you get the Kujata materia some dialog comes up saying 'Weak against .' or something like that.

Not important lol. Nah, I'll remove it.

Also now that I'm getting further in the game I wanted to ask, am I supposed to have the 9999 limit breaker patch?
Did the installer install it?
Or am I OK without it?

That patch is not included. Install it if you wish, but it will become easier. I like it though. I believe it's still available. Try searching for it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-02-12 05:43:36
Sorry yeah I meant manipulate.

Haha yeah I know the other bugs aren't very important, just thought youd like to know.

Here is an important one though:

- The 'Dragon Armlet' says it 'Drains 1/2 [Fire/Cold/Lightning] attack', however it doesn't drain, it just blocks half damage. This was a nasty surprise when Midgar Zolom wiped me out with Beta :P

Also if you are interested you could also change the description of Enemy Skill 'Magic Hammer', as the PC version of the game does not drain MP, just damages. Apparently this is the only difference between the Playstation and PC version.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-12 10:02:43
Here is an important one though:

- The 'Dragon Armlet' says it 'Drains 1/2 [Fire/Cold/Lightning] attack', however it doesn't drain, it just blocks half damage. This was a nasty surprise when Midgar Zolom wiped me out with Beta :P

That's actually the default description.  :P I didn't change it. There are no such thing as absorb 50%. Only 100%. I could change it to 'Resists [Fire/Cold/Lightning] attack'?

Also if you are interested you could also change the description of Enemy Skill 'Magic Hammer', as the PC version of the game does not drain MP, just damages. Apparently this is the only difference between the Playstation and PC version.

No it drains. It can only drain the amount of mp the enemy has left. If the enemy has no MP the damage will be 100mp, but you will not drain anything.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-02-12 12:29:25
Oh you are right, I guess I used it on an enemy that had no MP.

And yeah changing that description is probably a good idea, it's a bit misleading lol.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-02-15 11:26:46
I have a quick question for you, when I use Sense on the Trio on the train, it says weak against restorative magic, so I cast Curaga on them and it just heals them? I don't understand :(
Also the Eagle Gun enemy on the train has a Warrior Bangle, in normal FF7 this is the only one in the game, is this also the case with your mod? Or is it somewhere else too?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-02-15 12:30:34
I have a quick question for you, when I use Sense on the Trio on the train, it says weak against restorative magic, so I cast Curaga on them and it just heals them? I don't understand :(
Also the Eagle Gun enemy on the train has a Warrior Bangle, in normal FF7 this is the only one in the game, is this also the case with your mod? Or is it somewhere else too?

lol! I never thought of that...weak against restorative magic...that's awesome. That means restorative spells do double damage...or double *healing*.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2010-02-15 13:03:05
I have a quick question for you, when I use Sense on the Trio on the train, it says weak against restorative magic, so I cast Curaga on them and it just heals them? I don't understand :(
Also the Eagle Gun enemy on the train has a Warrior Bangle, in normal FF7 this is the only one in the game, is this also the case with your mod? Or is it somewhere else too?

lol! I never thought of that...weak against restorative magic...that's awesome. That means restorative spells do double damage...or double *healing*.

And guess what happens when you select "death" for healing magic in Hojo 1.1? ;D

Enemies that lose health when healing magic is cast on them (the Gi Nattak is a classic example) are set to "absorb" the recovery element.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-02-16 10:19:34
I have found another confirmed bug, entering the final screen of the Ancient Forest (where the Apocalypse is) causes the game to crash. Is there a boss in there?
Also for some reason the Typhon materia shows up as an 'item bag' pickup instead of a 'red materia' pickup in the field, so the boss battle comes as a bit of a surprise. Is it possible to change this?

Also FYI I have some other crash bugs, but i didn't confirm if it was your mod or not:
- At the battle arena, one time when starting the first battle, the game crashed.
- At the chocobo footprints near Gold Saucer, occasionally a battle would start that would crash ff7.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-02-19 00:16:18
My game crashed after beating omega in northen cave battle. here's my log

Quote
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r19334, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
INFO: FF7Music helper plugin loaded
INFO: ATI Technologies Inc. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470   2.1.8794
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1440x900, output resolution 1440x900, internal resolution 1920x960
INFO: FBO extension detected, using fast scaling/postprocessing path
INFO: Fragment shader(s) linked, vertex shader(s) linked.
 
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
set music volume: 127
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\eidoslogo.avi; rawvideo/null 364x353, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 0.066667, frames: 1
INFO: C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\sqlogo.avi; mpeg4/mp3 640x480, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 247.788000, frames: 3717
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save01.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save02.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save03.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save04.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save05.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save06.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save07.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save08.ff7
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\save/save09.ff7
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 891
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_00.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Limit/limit/jo_b03_00.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/eskill/jo_b04_00.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_08.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 885
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_05.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_01.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_03.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_02.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 884
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/ultima/fir_1_00.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 891
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/seffect/seffect1_12.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 886
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 885
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 891
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 889
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
SET VOLUME 5: 95
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 895
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
SET VOLUME 1: 95
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
set music volume: 127
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 20
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
INFO: 24-bit PNG loaded (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\/textures/Spells/despell/dethpe_1_00.png); this is slow, please convert to 32-bit
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
OFFSET ERROR: ENEMY523.D UDAA
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE ENEMY523.D
ERROR: unhandled exception
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-22 19:57:01
My game crashed after beating omega in northen cave battle. here's my log

Quote
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
...
OFFSET ERROR: ENEMY523.D UDAA
ERROR: COULD NOT OPEN FILE ENEMY523.D
ERROR: unhandled exception

It can't find the new model. Did you patch battle.lgp?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-02-22 21:33:42
It can't find the new model. Did you patch battle.lgp?

I just installed 2.5 remix patch on a fresh ff7 install
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-22 21:43:13
It can't find the new model. Did you patch battle.lgp?

I just installed 2.5 remix patch on a fresh ff7 install

Try patching battle.lgp again. With my patch. It may fix the problem.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-02-23 11:56:15
Patched, Fought, Crashed.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-02-23 13:49:44
Do you think there could be an issue with using your new patcher on a battle.lgp from your last release, Gjoerulv?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2010-02-24 02:08:38
Ah...playing through this mod brings back memories.  With the new boss addition I should play through again to see how I fare.  Gjoerulv, have you gotten a chance to play through all the way?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-02-27 12:12:08
Any News? Any Solution?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Marmarflam on 2010-02-27 22:29:02
hi.

i am having alot of fun with this mod. it keeps me on my toes. i am at shinra tower right now, and something is kinda pissing me off.
the 3 soldiers (extra boss fight in de midgar model room) are extremely strong, and i beat them just barely. this was exciting and fun.
but after that the balance for the bosses are just plain stupid.

first the bio boss in the experiment room is weak. i beat it with tifa alone. (the rest of my party was dead, no phoenix downs etc)
then the enemies are retardedly difficult and there is no place i can restore my dead party members. using a tent somehow does not restore life to dead party members what the hell.
okay so everyone gets brought back to life, in the series of events that follow, lucky me.
so i fight the robot in the elevator. pretty easy. too easy for the mod i think.
then i fight rufus with cloud. i cast bio on his dog and then attack him one time. then they both start attacking and i need to keep curing to keep myself alive just barely.
the dog casts barrier barrier mbarrier mbarrier in that order. so i think let me attack once during that time. but noooo the shitty dog skips the last mbarrier, and attacks instead. i died.

guess what my complaint is? no way to level up and no way to win. wth
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Immortal Damyn on 2010-02-27 22:39:28
hi.

i am having alot of fun with this mod. it keeps me on my toes. i am at shinra tower right now, and something is kinda pissing me off.
the 3 soldiers (extra boss fight in de midgar model room) are extremely strong, and i beat them just barely. this was exciting and fun.
but after that the balance for the bosses are just plain stupid.

first the bio boss in the experiment room is weak. i beat it with tifa alone. (the rest of my party was dead, no phoenix downs etc)
then the enemies are retardedly difficult and there is no place i can restore my dead party members. using a tent somehow does not restore life to dead party members what the hell.
okay so everyone gets brought back to life, in the series of events that follow, lucky me.
so i fight the robot in the elevator. pretty easy. too easy for the mod i think.
then i fight rufus with cloud. i cast bio on his dog and then attack him one time. then they both start attacking and i need to keep curing to keep myself alive just barely.
the dog casts barrier barrier mbarrier mbarrier in that order. so i think let me attack once during that time. but noooo the sh*tty dog skips the last mbarrier, and attacks instead. i died.

guess what my complaint is? no way to level up and no way to win. wth

Idk by the sounds of it, you're just having trouble killing things cause you're characters suck. There are ways to level before you got to the tower, and there's even a couple floors in the tower that you can go level on. The point of a hardcore mod is so that you actually try to get stronger to beat the bosses, and use strategy. I'm hoping your a smart person who keeps multiple saves, that way, if you aren't happy where you are, you can go back :P. Oh, and tents never revived  characters, even in the original game...
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-28 13:49:03
Do you think there could be an issue with using your new patcher on a battle.lgp from your last release, Gjoerulv?

There is only 1 release with this patch. I have tried it on several computers and it works perfectly.

@Klaid Liadon, have you turned user account control (uac) off? If you use XP that shouldn't be a problem. Even with the battle.lgp there should be no problem lol. Just in case. The scene look up table in the kernel should also be updated according to the scene.bin.
As I see it the game has problems loading the model. That's why I assumed battle.lgp didn't update correctly. My battle.lgp is 63,5 MB with no other tweaks installed. I suggest patching only battle.lgp on an untweaked battle.lgp to see if any changes occurred at all. If that's the case try fighting some of my new enemies to see if the game manages to load 'em. If not, the problem lies not with my mod (to swiftly check Omega, simply use Hojo to set their HP to 1. They are in file 6).

If the patch didn't manage to patch anything there prob is a problem with my patch or your uac settings.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Marmarflam on 2010-02-28 15:03:18
hi.

i am having alot of fun with this mod. it keeps me on my toes. i am at shinra tower right now, and something is kinda pissing me off.
the 3 soldiers (extra boss fight in de midgar model room) are extremely strong, and i beat them just barely. this was exciting and fun.
but after that the balance for the bosses are just plain stupid.

first the bio boss in the experiment room is weak. i beat it with tifa alone. (the rest of my party was dead, no phoenix downs etc)
then the enemies are retardedly difficult and there is no place i can restore my dead party members. using a tent somehow does not restore life to dead party members what the hell.
okay so everyone gets brought back to life, in the series of events that follow, lucky me.
so i fight the robot in the elevator. pretty easy. too easy for the mod i think.
then i fight rufus with cloud. i cast bio on his dog and then attack him one time. then they both start attacking and i need to keep curing to keep myself alive just barely.
the dog casts barrier barrier mbarrier mbarrier in that order. so i think let me attack once during that time. but noooo the sh*tty dog skips the last mbarrier, and attacks instead. i died.

guess what my complaint is? no way to level up and no way to win. wth

Idk by the sounds of it, you're just having trouble killing things cause you're characters suck. There are ways to level before you got to the tower, and there's even a couple floors in the tower that you can go level on. The point of a hardcore mod is so that you actually try to get stronger to beat the bosses, and use strategy. I'm hoping your a smart person who keeps multiple saves, that way, if you aren't happy where you are, you can go back :P. Oh, and tents never revived  characters, even in the original game...

wtf tents i forgot.

Okay, i beat this asshole rufus, with some strategy.

But i'm now at the reactor and i'm at the extra fight with sephiroth and the mako monster thing.
and well i was low on mp so i kinda died there. but no way to re-do the fight unless i go through all that story again.
My problem is more with games in general: don't make difficult bosses without a save point nearby or the player must go through all that story telling random battles etc again. maybe even a third time. which is highly annoying.
maybe plant an extra save point in the reactor? maybe a retry mod?
it's a game for grownups, not teletubbies, repetition is a no no. and if you disagree, i have add so things get boring quick nya

Also my characters didn't suck compared to the enemies before that. but after the soldier trio the difficulty went waaay up without warning and little chance to save and or level.
leveling to beat a boss yes....but don't expect me to level to lvl 20 before taking on those bosses, because i do want the challenge this mod is giving me, only with the really hard bosses i'd like a save point/inn around to be able to level up. or else i'd might get stuck.

the trio was awesome! i had a savepoint nearby and was able to level, but i didn't. I kept trying and it was the most exciting fight i had in an rpg ever.

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-02-28 19:50:11
wtf tents i forgot.

Okay, i beat this asshole rufus, with some strategy.

But i'm now at the reactor and i'm at the extra fight with sephiroth and the mako monster thing.
and well i was low on mp so i kinda died there. but no way to re-do the fight unless i go through all that story again.
My problem is more with games in general: don't make difficult bosses without a save point nearby or the player must go through all that story telling random battles etc again. maybe even a third time. which is highly annoying.
maybe plant an extra save point in the reactor? maybe a retry mod?
it's a game for grownups, not teletubbies, repetition is a no no. and if you disagree, i have add so things get boring quick nya

Also my characters didn't suck compared to the enemies before that. but after the soldier trio the difficulty went waaay up without warning and little chance to save and or level.
leveling to beat a boss yes....but don't expect me to level to lvl 20 before taking on those bosses, because i do want the challenge this mod is giving me, only with the really hard bosses i'd like a save point/inn around to be able to level up. or else i'd might get stuck.

the trio was awesome! i had a savepoint nearby and was able to level, but i didn't. I kept trying and it was the most exciting fight i had in an rpg ever.

I agree. Repeats are definitely a no no. However, there are many complications by adding savepoints in this game AND maintain my vision on how this patch is supposed to effects the game. It's complicated to explain, but lets say I add a savepoint to a field file. Then I have to add that file to my patch. Now, if a person playing with the French version use this patch, that specific part of the game will contain English dialogue (I know this is true by adding bosses as well; please complain 'bout that  :P). I want this patch to work with as many mods as possible, without adding any custom content that doesn't effect battle difficulty.
I'm actually considering removing that Seph boss simply because it effects too much dialogue.

Now, I don't mean to offend you or anything here, but it's called hardcore for a reason you know. This is meant for hardcore ff7 players. That Seph boss isn't particularly hard. Keep regen up, keep hp at safe level and keep an eye on your mp (and keep up lol). Don't do anything with Cloud. There usually is a savepiont near the bosses. All the Summon materias also got bosses (Not all i.e Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, B-Zero).

I don't know if agree that the difficulty goes way up at that point. I guess I didn't have that much trouble there.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Immortal Damyn on 2010-02-28 20:05:37
You know, I almost want to try this out. The only thing is, I'm not really a hardcore ff7 player quite so much. But it does sound fun, maybe I'll give it a go one day. I wanna see all the new bosses and such and any other new content you've added. It does sound like a lot of fun.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2010-03-01 02:48:40
hi.

i am having alot of fun with this mod. it keeps me on my toes. i am at shinra tower right now, and something is kinda pissing me off.
the 3 soldiers (extra boss fight in de midgar model room) are extremely strong, and i beat them just barely. this was exciting and fun.
but after that the balance for the bosses are just plain stupid.

first the bio boss in the experiment room is weak. i beat it with tifa alone. (the rest of my party was dead, no phoenix downs etc)
then the enemies are retardedly difficult and there is no place i can restore my dead party members. using a tent somehow does not restore life to dead party members what the hell.
okay so everyone gets brought back to life, in the series of events that follow, lucky me.
so i fight the robot in the elevator. pretty easy. too easy for the mod i think.
then i fight rufus with cloud. i cast bio on his dog and then attack him one time. then they both start attacking and i need to keep curing to keep myself alive just barely.
the dog casts barrier barrier mbarrier mbarrier in that order. so i think let me attack once during that time. but noooo the sh*tty dog skips the last mbarrier, and attacks instead. i died.

guess what my complaint is? no way to level up and no way to win. wth



Just to give you some perspective, the first is the easiest of your encounters with the soldier trio :D   

I can say that this mod is frustrating at times being as I have beaten it, however it is hardcore and quite fun overall.  I enjoy the difficulty.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-03-02 11:31:06
My AUC is off.

Hojo check it's ok, there are 3 omega.

My Battle.lgp is 90.336 kByte because of the 3d models installed by the 2.5 patch
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-03-02 19:20:41
Installed 2.5.1, problem solved! Now the question is... where is mega-all materia, counter materia and shield materia
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-03-02 22:40:52
Installed 2.5.1, problem solved! Now the question is... where is mega-all materia, counter materia and shield materia

In the materia caves.
Glad it works. It most definitely had something to do with battle.lgp, seeing how big it is.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-03-03 08:45:11
I searched for them in the location where they are in normal mode...

Shield must be in the 2nd screen of magic pot room, instead of mega-all i found a mp absorb, i beated omega but nothing!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-03-06 02:50:43
I searched for them in the location where they are in normal mode...

Shield must be in the 2nd screen of magic pot room, instead of mega-all i found a mp absorb, i beated omega but nothing!
Installed 2.5.1, problem solved! Now the question is... where is mega-all materia, counter materia and shield materia
In the materia caves.

They are in the materia caves. You know, where mime, magic-counter etch. are located. You pick 'em up WITH these materias. The reason is simple: to make 'em available early.
I don't know if the multi patcher you used includes this. It should, seing how you were able to fight Omega.
Was Omega difficult btw (only the last form. The 1st 2 are kinda ment to be pushovers)?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klaid Liadon on 2010-03-06 12:20:42
Was Omega difficult btw (only the last form. The 1st 2 are kinda ment to be pushovers)?
I found all the "hard" fights in the game very easy after i found my build (cover, magic-counter+fullcure, many counter-attack) and got w-item. The battles are only longer. I made Game Over more often in the random encounters (before putting on protecting against paralysis and stop) than in this boss battles


They are in the materia caves. You know, where mime, magic-counter etch. are located. You pick 'em up WITH these materias. The reason is simple: to make 'em available early.
I have got only the mime, quadra magic, kor and hp<>mp...

Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: darkrandom12 on 2010-03-25 16:43:39
I've thought this mod has been pretty good, not crazy hard but pretty decent. However I'm stuck on Locke, Theo and Venus ahahaha. I don't have a damn clue, besides the one on my right is immune to bolt. And casts Bolt2.
Are there any specific strategies I should be performing, or a staple level I should be at? Average is level 13.
Amazing mod Gjoe, seriously. Well done.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-03-25 22:10:38
I've thought this mod has been pretty good, not crazy hard but pretty decent. However I'm stuck on Locke, Theo and Venus ahahaha. I don't have a damn clue, besides the one on my right is immune to bolt. And casts Bolt2.
Are there any specific strategies I should be performing, or a staple level I should be at? Average is level 13.
Amazing mod Gjoe, seriously. Well done.

I think i was lv 13 too when I did it. Can't remember exactly but I think I killed 2 of them off quickly with limit breaks, and then took my time stealing from the last one (good equipment).
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Xelane on 2010-03-25 22:18:40
To be blunt, this mod scares me.

I once decided "why the **** not?" and tried out my save file at mt. Nibel.

I remember fighting a seemingly regular dragon...but this wasn't just ANY seemingly regular dragon; this was the super-mega-awesome regular dragon.

it's regular attack did damage that well exceeded the damage cap (that is, if i hadn't have used the patch to remove it).

I remember thinking: "omg i'm only lvl 25(ish)! I shouldn't be dealing with an enemy that OHKO's every party member!"

of course, I understood that this type of battle was more of a 'numbers game' where i could just constantly use at least one member to attack, and one to revive. But it still felt overwhealming to have an ordinary encounter be so difficult.

EDIT: In case it seemed like I was looking at your mod as bad, I wasn't.

It just seemed Hard enough to the point where i'd have to put up enough of an effort that it would make it less fun for meh.

Maybe once i have the courage to try again, i'll post back. And my first victory will be against non other than that very same dragon. I'll have a backstory and everything where it will be the same dragon that killed me all those many months ago....
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: darkrandom12 on 2010-03-26 15:42:35
I'll try again now before work. Alas, I'm going to have a to grind a little bit before hand anyway. They're doing around 200 per hit ahaha. And, they cast beserk disabling my ability to cure. Aha, it's been so long since I've got a proper legit Game Over with this game! :D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2010-03-26 15:53:09
To be blunt, this mod scares me.

I once decided "why the **** not?" and tried out my save file at mt. Nibel.

I remember fighting a seemingly regular dragon...but this wasn't just ANY seemingly regular dragon; this was the super-mega-awesome regular dragon.

it's regular attack did damage that well exceeded the damage cap (that is, if i hadn't have used the patch to remove it).

I remember thinking: "omg i'm only lvl 25(ish)! I shouldn't be dealing with an enemy that OHKO's every party member!"

of course, I understood that this type of battle was more of a 'numbers game' where i could just constantly use at least one member to attack, and one to revive. But it still felt overwhealming to have an ordinary encounter be so difficult.

EDIT: In case it seemed like I was looking at your mod as bad, I wasn't.

It just seemed Hard enough to the point where i'd have to put up enough of an effort that it would make it less fun for meh.

Maybe once i have the courage to try again, i'll post back. And my first victory will be against non other than that very same dragon. I'll have a backstory and everything where it will be the same dragon that killed me all those many months ago....

The Nibel Dragon is a "special" random battle; most of the enemies are nowhere near that hard (although they're much harder than they were in the normal game). gjoerulv put in a few special random encounters throughout the mod to spice things up.

Also, it's not a good idea to use a save from the middle of a regular game when playing the mod; you might be at a lower level than you would have been if you had been playing with the mod from the beginning and you probably wouldn't have an optimal materia and item setup.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Xelane on 2010-03-26 16:13:25
True. And I thought about that before I chose to go on.

I did play a little afterwards and it seemed like it wasn't every enemy that was ridiculous.

But I guess I wasn't interested in getting all RAGED up every time I had to do a long series of fights or events because an enemy lit my ass up.

But I think that I may actually try to play the hard mode again.

btw: **** that dragon.  >:(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-03-29 02:22:54
I have a question to you lurkers, but 1st an explanation why I ask:
I was going to release an update, 'cause of the bugs (I found 1 more  :o), but, as usual, when I start to work on something I work really sloooooow lol  :P . And, also, I've begun to develop a bit more complicated patch. :-o  To keep it simple: My vision is not to ruin any other mod with this patch (except any mod that deals with scene.bin, as it will be overwritten). Taken my vision into consideration, you'll quickly see that my awesome mod not-so-awesomly delivers 100%. This have been somewhat bugging me, 'cause I like to deliver as intended (and I also like to code :)). Thus I've started making a new functionality in the patch that doesn't overwrite field files or ignore battle models with similar names (field files contain dialogue, encounters, scripts etch.). This may sound simple, but unfortunately it's somewhat complicated (let's leave it there, I don't want to go deep here.   8) ). In other words: It will take some time to develop since I spend less time on this sh*t these days. The main reason I continue, as of now, is to learn stuff 'bout coding, and 'cause I want to finish as intended. But it's still fun. ;D

So, the question is:
Do you want me to 1): finish the "complicated" patch before I release. OR  2): Make a new release with the fixed bugs. Then (much) later release the "complicated" one.
keep in mind that not much will actually be updated. The final bosses + the materia cave bosses will be a bit harder; that'z it. The "complicated" patch will work with any mod; not effect any language or anything.


Was Omega difficult btw (only the last form. The 1st 2 are kinda ment to be pushovers)?
I found all the "hard" fights in the game very easy after i found my build (cover, magic-counter+fullcure, many counter-attack) and got w-item. The battles are only longer. I made Game Over more often in the random encounters (before putting on protecting against paralysis and stop) than in this boss battles
Those "hard" bosses will be a bit harder (whatever "hard" means lol) I updated them AIs.
I've thought this mod has been pretty good, not crazy hard but pretty decent. However I'm stuck on Locke, Theo and Venus ahahaha. I don't have a damn clue, besides the one on my right is immune to bolt. And casts Bolt2.
Are there any specific strategies I should be performing, or a staple level I should be at? Average is level 13.
Amazing mod Gjoe, seriously. Well done.

I think i was lv 13 too when I did it. Can't remember exactly but I think I killed 2 of them off quickly with limit breaks, and then took my time stealing from the last one (good equipment).

One other method I found usefull was to start the battle by draining Locke (blue one) of MP with Barret's limit, then focusing on healing while keeping 'em confused. Venus (red one) should be defeated 1st as she (lol, yeah, it's a she) revives the other 2. 

..
...
btw: **** that dragon.  >:(

lol that dragon isn't there anymore. It's in Nibelheim, but not at the pipe area.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: darkrandom12 on 2010-03-29 02:41:52
Ah Joe, I thought you'd given up on this topic!
Yeah, after using Mindblow I wasted them pretty easily. Only other boss that gave me hassle was Motorball and that was just because for some reason his Arm Attack/Blow would do around 300-350 damage to whoever it hit, then he'd do it again to the same person. I had to play so that I always had a person with Cure with a full ATB in case he did something. Trouble is also, my character only just had above 600hp by the point (besides Barret with around 700, the man's a tank).

One minor problem, I'm trying to edit the spell names back to their numbers and stuff, I've tried using Wall Market, and the .exe plain won't open. Then when I tried using Teioh, it kept saying my kernel2.bin wasn't a kernel2.bin file. When I opened my original back up kernel2 it worked perfectly, which is a little bit useless, as I assume you've changed not only the spell names, but descriptions of armour and weapons aye?

Do you have a work around? Because the "aga" suffix's are really annoying me. They just don't sit right in this game haha.
ALSO! One more question, what's up with the H0512 you fight in the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor? It took me ages to kill him, and Sephiroth NEVER lands a physical attack on any monster. Nor does Cloud.
Again, many thanks for the mod. And I really don't mind what patch you release first to be honest. This in itself is worth so much.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-03-29 02:49:00
ALSO! One more question, what's up with the H0512 you fight in the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor? It took me ages to kill him, and Sephiroth NEVER lands a physical attack on any monster. Nor does Cloud.
You used Jenova save editor, didn't you? That effs up your save file and makes it so that cloud and sephi don't have any weapon equipped in the flashback. You can fix it by using jenova to equip some weapon to sephi and young cloud.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: darkrandom12 on 2010-03-29 02:52:31
Aha! Yeah I did, to gain an extra Lightening Materia. Cheers though I'll go fix that. I did think that "t vest" was a strange weapon
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bosola on 2010-03-29 03:06:29
I have a question to you lurkers, but 1st an explanation why I ask:
I was going to release an update, 'cause of the bugs (I found 1 more  :o), but, as usual, when I start to work on something I work really sloooooow lol  :P . And, also, I've begun to develop a bit more complicated patch. :-o  To keep it simple: My vision is not to ruin any other mod with this patch (except any mod that deals with scene.bin, as it will be overwritten).

There's the rub. You need to stop worrying about other patches. If you accommodate for other KERNELs, by definition you cannot distribute a consistent Hardcore mod. And as something like this needs must deal with KERNELs, with field item locations, boss battles, item prices, what have you. Any hybrid game would no longer have comparable difficulty, which would defeat the object of your project. Forget about other mods.

Quote
So, the question is:
Do you want me to 1): finish the "complicated" patch before I release. OR  2): Make a new release with the fixed bugs. Then (much) later release the "complicated" one.

Depends. As you've released this as 1.0, rather than a feedback version, the expectation is that you're going to provide a stable version of the mod. On the other hand, adding new functionality will be exciting for *everyone*.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2010-03-29 03:50:28
I would love to see just an update with bugs fixes and such.  The mod you have right now is really challenging and fun to play, so just tweaking it a bit at time passes would be awesome.

At the same time I am intrigued at what you may be coming up with in the more complicated patch.  :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-03-29 04:17:22
I have a question to you lurkers, but 1st an explanation why I ask:
I was going to release an update, 'cause of the bugs (I found 1 more  :o), but, as usual, when I start to work on something I work really sloooooow lol  :P . And, also, I've begun to develop a bit more complicated patch. :-o  To keep it simple: My vision is not to ruin any other mod with this patch (except any mod that deals with scene.bin, as it will be overwritten).

There's the rub. You need to stop worrying about other patches. If you accommodate for other KERNELs, by definition you cannot distribute a consistent Hardcore mod. And as something like this needs must deal with KERNELs, with field item locations, boss battles, item prices, what have you. Any hybrid game would no longer have comparable difficulty, which would defeat the object of your project. Forget about other mods.

You can chose to not patch the kernel (or any other file), but, with the current release, it will not update it accordingly. I've built in a method that updates the kernel, which was a mistake not to include in v1.0. Updating the scene look up table would be the only concern if you patch scene.bin and not kenrel.bin (or vica versa).

So, the question is:
Do you want me to 1): finish the "complicated" patch before I release. OR  2): Make a new release with the fixed bugs. Then (much) later release the "complicated" one.

Depends. As you've released this as 1.0, rather than a feedback version, the expectation is that you're going to provide a stable version of the mod. On the other hand, adding new functionality will be exciting for *everyone*.

Yeah, I know. v1.0 was supposed to be final (at least from my part). My bad. But bugs appeared due to my lack of proper testing, thus I kinda feel I have to fix it. I will release a  -hopefully- bugfree version soon enough. Just needed to know if people are willing to wait / care. If not, option 2 will happen

I would love to see just an update with bugs fixes and such.  The mod you have right now is really challenging and fun to play, so just tweaking it a bit at time passes would be awesome.

At the same time I am intrigued at what you may be coming up with in the more complicated patch.  :)
.

I expected most people wanted this. I'll give it a week before release if there's not a huge amount demanding option 1. But that comes with no bug-free guarantee.

Oh, and by complicated, I mean complicated for me to make. Not complicated to enjoy.  ;D
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-03-29 11:23:15
Personally I'm in no rush for the bugs to be fixed.
I would like to see other mods be compatible with yours, like another difficulty tweaking mod that could still include your extra bosses, such as Shalua Rui rebalance.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-03-30 00:24:25
Definitely a fix on at least the fatal bugs that are inherent to this mod alone (the Raaps and Ancient Forest ones)! That should be released ASAP.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-04-01 22:31:46
Ok, listen up!

I want everyone who have used this patch to uninstall it. I'm going to demand payment from now on for each download. Anyone who installs this mod, without paying ME 1st, will get a lawsuit on their asses. In worst case be put in jail and/or executed.

Remember I OWN this product  :evil:; it's not FREE to use  :x.

The fee for each download will be around 30£  :-D: A small price to pay to get this awesome mod.

I'm going to release a small update soon!  :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: sl1982 on 2010-04-01 22:44:17
I assume you are making fun of someone / some company but i cant figure out what right now. Apple perhaps?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tekkie.X on 2010-04-01 22:47:08
Or because it's April 1st.

He'd just get a C&D + lawsuit from Squeenix anyway.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-04-01 23:48:22
Or because it's April 1st.
...

uhm... whut?
 :wink:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-04-02 00:32:11
Holy crap guys, Gjoerulv just sent me a subpoena. He's totally serious. I have to see him in court on the 7th!
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2010-04-02 01:18:25
Holy crap guys, Gjoerulv just sent me a subpoena. He's totally serious. I have to see him in court on the 7th!
Woah... Copyright. Sorry guys. Show's over (for me, I don't got any moneys)  :(
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-04-02 01:55:27
Holy crap guys, Gjoerulv just sent me a subpoena. He's totally serious. I have to see him in court on the 7th!

I'm gonna get your house!!

Woah... Copyright. Sorry guys. Show's over (for me, I don't got any moneys)  :(

Not anymore!  :evil:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2010-04-02 02:56:09
Not anymore!  :evil:
Oh man..  :'(
You are evil.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-04-11 18:22:07
Ok, I uploaded a new one. Let me know of any bugs. I'm not sure if the gzip method I used will work in every scenario. At least it did all times I tested it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2010-05-18 02:07:35
And I return! Not that I expect anyone to remember  :'(

I stopped playing your mod last year when I got my arse handed to me by the third jenovo after 2-3 hits  :o but since you've released another patch I think I'm gonna give it another try, is this the final patch that you've been working on or is it still to be updated?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-05-19 07:36:59
And I return! Not that I expect anyone to remember  :'(

I stopped playing your mod last year when I got my arse handed to me by the third jenovo after 2-3 hits  :o but since you've released another patch I think I'm gonna give it another try, is this the final patch that you've been working on or is it still to be updated?

No, only if someone finds a bug. There may be updates on the patch engine though. Currently I'm not working on it.

Good luck with the mod!  :evil:
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Ryu88Master on 2010-05-27 13:21:26
 hi,i am interested in your program but i cant use mediafire in china, for some reason is there any other way you can upload, hotfile,megaupload,maybe? my e-mail is [email protected]
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xlsound on 2010-05-27 13:56:34
Hi there i've your patch working on psp(i think it is yours) but i haven't played it yet because i'm finishing the unpatched game so i've one question have you unlocked the ability for to catch the Knights of the round summon? because thats one my favorite summons and since this game is a lot harder you could at least unlock it and if possible make it less powerfull.

its just one opinion because i really like that summon not for the damage but for the sequence it does
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-05-27 14:20:13
Wow this patch works for the psp?? Didn't know that. Can't believe it works. :)
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xlsound on 2010-05-27 14:34:47
if you google final fantasy VII hard mod psp you'll find lots of information about it..

but i'm not sure if it is this mode or a mod based on this one
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-05-27 15:31:24
Hmm so basically the hardcore mod is the only mod applicable to the psp as of now??
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xlsound on 2010-05-28 09:14:24
I don't know, there are few's  tested, i already tested a translated game with Portuguese language also, you have to patch the ISO dumped from your Final Fantasy CD and patch it and next convert it to play in the psp.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-05-28 10:35:52
I think the hardcore mod you're talking about is not these one since it patches some files that are only in the pc version and the psp may have different kinds of files like in the psx. Instead of .lgp it uses .lzs. Not sure if its .lzs since I don't mess with the psx version but I'm sure it has different files.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xlsound on 2010-05-28 10:52:07
Your right, i just make a little more research and the patch was made by Galen Myra.

    * All enemies have stat boost and HP boost
    * DAMAGE BREAK IS BROKEN, MAX DAMAGE PER HIT IS 32000 INSTEAD OF 9999
    * Aps (boss) won't take damage from sewer tsunami
    * Gi Nattak (boss) won't take damage from healing items (i.e. cure, phoenix down, x-potion)
    * Elemental armors and accessories (water ring, fire armlet, etc.) will now take half damage instead of absorbing or nullifying. This prevents certain bosses (Jenova Life, Shizo, Jenova Death) from being too easy.
    * Goblin (monster) must be defeated to get Zeio Nut (cannot be stolen)
    * Vlakorados (monster) must be defeated to get Carob Nut (cannot be stolen)
    * Potion, Ether, and Hi-Potion are now more useful as they heal double the amount (only in battle)
    * Apocalypse (weapon) now have 5 slots
    * Schimitar (weapon) now have 4 slots
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-05-28 10:55:03
I wonder how he managed to edit the psp version. Maybe he could help sithlord48 since he's working a ps3 save game editor. Well I think its the psp is not the same with the ps3 but maybe he can help with sithlord48's research. Though I think he do not know of this forum. You know his e-mail??
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xlsound on 2010-05-28 11:03:28
well he made the patch for PSX version and someone converted those pacthed isos for psp..

I don't know how to contact him i saw also that that patch was released in 2007
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-05-28 12:01:29
2007?? That's probably ancient by now. Maybe that's why I never have come across something like that since its from 2007.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bosola on 2010-05-28 13:32:08
Surprising. I always believed that eboots made from 'touched' KERNEL.BIN files just wouldn't work at all.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-05-29 21:52:21
hi,i am interested in your program but i cant use mediafire in china, for some reason is there any other way you can upload, hotfile,megaupload,maybe? my e-mail is [email protected]

Made a mirror. See 1st page.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tljx on 2010-05-30 20:28:02
Great mod.  This has made the game fun again.  I always felt this game was way too easy.  Been using it in conjunction with the remix patcher and am on disk 3 and I don't see Ruby Weapon roaming the coral desert.  Has that enemy been removed or am I just forgetting something that's supposed to trigger it (If I am, don't tell me what it is please)?
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Lion on 2010-05-30 21:42:58
Great mod.  This has made the game fun again.  I always felt this game was way too easy.  Been using it in conjunction with the remix patcher and am on disk 3 and I don't see Ruby Weapon roaming the coral desert.  Has that enemy been removed or am I just forgetting something that's supposed to trigger it (If I am, don't tell me what it is please)?

yes you need to do something to trigger it.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-05-31 07:54:23
Great mod.  This has made the game fun again.  I always felt this game was way too easy.  Been using it in conjunction with the remix patcher and am on disk 3 and I don't see Ruby Weapon roaming the coral desert.  Has that enemy been removed or am I just forgetting something that's supposed to trigger it (If I am, don't tell me what it is please)?
You need to blah blah blah something to make him show.
Title: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tljx on 2010-06-01 04:25:53
Alright, thanks for the info.  Just making sure I didn't waste my time trying to figure out how to trigger something that may have been removed.   
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Soros on 2010-06-10 15:13:21
Hmm...just how hardcore is this mod? I installed it with the remix patcher and...whoa...I'm finding it pretty damn hardcore to be honest. Trouble is I look on youtube for people with the same patch and they don't seem to be having such a rough time...if you check on my post in the remix patcher thread you'll see I have a problem when running the "normal" mode (my first battle is replaced with an impossible fight with 2 goblins) ever since installing the patch....does this mean something's been messed up or is this patch really that harcore?
To give you an idea in the first battle the soldiers' machine gun attack does around 20dmg and the beat attack is about 40...I've seen people on youtube with this mod (supposedly) that are only taking about 5 or 6 per hit...and seeing as it's the first battle I doubt they've had chance to change equipment etc.

And if anyone has any idea how to fix my goblin problem that'd be great!  :roll:
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-10 19:50:20
To be blunt, this mod scares me.

I once decided "why the **** not?" and tried out my save file at mt. Nibel.

I remember fighting a seemingly regular dragon...but this wasn't just ANY seemingly regular dragon; this was the super-mega-awesome regular dragon.

it's regular attack did damage that well exceeded the damage cap (that is, if i hadn't have used the patch to remove it).

I remember thinking: "omg i'm only lvl 25(ish)! I shouldn't be dealing with an enemy that OHKO's every party member!"

of course, I understood that this type of battle was more of a 'numbers game' where i could just constantly use at least one member to attack, and one to revive. But it still felt overwhealming to have an ordinary encounter be so difficult.

EDIT: In case it seemed like I was looking at your mod as bad, I wasn't.

It just seemed Hard enough to the point where i'd have to put up enough of an effort that it would make it less fun for meh.

Maybe once i have the courage to try again, i'll post back. And my first victory will be against non other than that very same dragon. I'll have a backstory and everything where it will be the same dragon that killed me all those many months ago....

The Nibel Dragon is a "special" random battle; most of the enemies are nowhere near that hard (although they're much harder than they were in the normal game). gjoerulv put in a few special random encounters throughout the mod to spice things up.

Also, it's not a good idea to use a save from the middle of a regular game when playing the mod; you might be at a lower level than you would have been if you had been playing with the mod from the beginning and you probably wouldn't have an optimal materia and item setup.

Don't think it would effect me, seeing how I just finished disc 1 at lvl 70 no cheats and all materia to that point mastered(I used the junon alarm and ALL double equipment :) )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-06-11 03:34:52
Hmm...just how hardcore is this mod? I installed it with the remix patcher and...whoa...I'm finding it pretty damn hardcore to be honest. Trouble is I look on youtube for people with the same patch and they don't seem to be having such a rough time...if you check on my post in the remix patcher thread you'll see I have a problem when running the "normal" mode (my first battle is replaced with an impossible fight with 2 goblins) ever since installing the patch....does this mean something's been messed up or is this patch really that harcore?
To give you an idea in the first battle the soldiers' machine gun attack does around 20dmg and the beat attack is about 40...I've seen people on youtube with this mod (supposedly) that are only taking about 5 or 6 per hit...and seeing as it's the first battle I doubt they've had chance to change equipment etc.

And if anyone has any idea how to fix my goblin problem that'd be great!  :roll:
Maybe you could upload a video about your goblin problem since as far as I know you're the only one having that problem.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Soros on 2010-06-12 21:55:50
Hmm...just how hardcore is this mod? I installed it with the remix patcher and...whoa...I'm finding it pretty damn hardcore to be honest. Trouble is I look on youtube for people with the same patch and they don't seem to be having such a rough time...if you check on my post in the remix patcher thread you'll see I have a problem when running the "normal" mode (my first battle is replaced with an impossible fight with 2 goblins) ever since installing the patch....does this mean something's been messed up or is this patch really that harcore?
To give you an idea in the first battle the soldiers' machine gun attack does around 20dmg and the beat attack is about 40...I've seen people on youtube with this mod (supposedly) that are only taking about 5 or 6 per hit...and seeing as it's the first battle I doubt they've had chance to change equipment etc.

And if anyone has any idea how to fix my goblin problem that'd be great!  :roll:
Maybe you could upload a video about your goblin problem since as far as I know you're the only one having that problem.


Good idea, do you know of any free software I can use to do that? I've never tried to record a game before. I'd use a camera at the expense of a low quality video...but my camera died...which depresses me D=. Anyway, I digress, any ideas? Thankjs =D.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-06-12 22:14:56
Fraps, Camtasia etc.. Although you do not need to include the sound since it makes the video laggy.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-13 02:24:17
Benn trying this out and its great. Im lvl 26 right now in shinra bldg!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Soros on 2010-06-13 12:19:52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hslZJZfCN6o

There's my goblin glitch! Sorry, you have to wait until toward the end of the video, feel free to just skip along there are no (noticable) glitches up until the first battle (like I said, sound problems in another thread, but that's something else). Anyone ever heard of this before?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-14 04:49:35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hslZJZfCN6o

There's my goblin glitch! Sorry, you have to wait until toward the end of the video, feel free to just skip along there are no (noticable) glitches up until the first battle (like I said, sound problems in another thread, but that's something else). Anyone ever heard of this before?

This is not a problem with my mod. I donnu how the remix patcher installs it.

My best bet is there is a kernel problem. Try running my patch. You only need to patch the scene.bin.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-06-14 05:31:20
What's up?  The OP is by ARMs???
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2010-06-14 06:07:35
What's up?  The OP is by ARMs???
This isn't the release thread
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-14 06:18:11
I was wondering if clouds limit learning is glitched in hardcore.
Barret and Tifa have 4 limits, almost 5
Cloud has 2 and I've gotten SOOOO many kills with him.And used braver a LOT.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-06-14 10:22:59
What's up?  The OP is by ARMs???
This isn't the release thread

Oh, right...
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-14 10:52:13
I was wondering if clouds limit learning is glitched in hardcore.
Barret and Tifa have 4 limits, almost 5
Cloud has 2 and I've gotten SOOOO many kills with him.And used braver a LOT.

No, but it depends if you've edited the kernel. I made the Buster Sword have the same effect as Vincent's Death Penalty; the more kills the more damage. In order to not make the damage too low in the beginning I had to alter how many kills he starts with. Cloud starts with 768 kills. 888 kills open the 2nd level; 1088 the 3rd level.
in other words:
2nd level requires 120 total kills.
3rd level requires 320 total kills.

I did it like this 'cause he is the character you use most by default. But when I look at those numbers again, I must admit it's a bit too much compared to the others. For instance, Cloud's 3rd level requires double as many kills as Barret's 3rd level.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-14 19:12:50
Im glad you gave mne info cause I was at 330 kills with level 1. I edited the save with black chocobo cause I messed up my other save and had to remanufacture one, so thats prolly the reason. And the buster sword does damage based on kills? Like how much? I have 500 kills with cloud, would that make it better than hardedge?
Title: Gjoerulv's Hardcore Mod tips....
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-14 21:43:28
Ive been searching the forums and I dont wanna miss anything cool gjoerulv put into the mod.

I am now heading to junon and have found only these new encounters...

Green guard with the shinra guards in the train tunnel to the 2nd reactor.
Locke,Theo,and Venus for keycard 66
Junon Patron here outside junon...

Im sure Ive missed a lot of other goodis and given the junon patrons EXTREMELY low encounter rate I will prolly miss most new encounters if I dont know about em before hand.

If anyone has any tips for me on where the new encounters/ items are, please post em here. As I said I dont wanna miss out.
Title: Re: Gjoerulv's Hardcore Mod tips....
Post by: obesebear on 2010-06-14 23:32:12
stuff that belongs in programming feedback
You are really having trouble understanding what goes in which forum I see.   

Something like this post, based entirely on 1 mod, would go in that program/mod's thread in programming feedback.    Yes it can go in General, but so can most everything else.   If a thread clearly has a specific place, it should go there though.  General is just a catch all for the less specific questions or comments.

 Topic merged
Title: Re: Gjoerulv's Hardcore Mod tips....
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-15 05:55:09
Ive been searching the forums and I dont wanna miss anything cool gjoerulv put into the mod.

I am now heading to junon and have found only these new encounters...

Green guard with the shinra guards in the train tunnel to the 2nd reactor.
Locke,Theo,and Venus for keycard 66
Junon Patron here outside junon...

Im sure Ive missed a lot of other goodis and given the junon patrons EXTREMELY low encounter rate I will prolly miss most new encounters if I dont know about em before hand.

If anyone has any tips for me on where the new encounters/ items are, please post em here. As I said I dont wanna miss out.

There is a new, quite common enemy in the 1st reactor. If you did some leveling there I'm sure you ran into it. It's named "robot" or something.
You met the green guard. Before you meet th dead president (lol), there is a new random enemy at the blood trails. Similar to the hedgehog pie. Also quite common, so if you did a couple of fight here you wouldn't miss it.
Did you fight the silver chocobo?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-15 06:45:12
Yeah I did for choco mog, but I have select spots in the game for leveling, so I skip those that do not pertain... I am now at gold saucer. Can you tell me any rare enemies I may have missed or can look forward to? Just dont wanna miss em, your ai rocks
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-15 13:27:37
Yeah I did for choco mog, but I have select spots in the game for leveling, so I skip those that do not pertain... I am now at gold saucer. Can you tell me any rare enemies I may have missed or can look forward to? Just dont wanna miss em, your ai rocks

Most of the summon materai got bosses, so you won't miss those. There is a new enemy at the beaches at the gold saucer and costa del sol areas: Cazador. This enemy is also located here -> sucky vid. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n0PUIQG2K4)

Also at the train tracks in corel (the area you fall through the floors), there is a new enemy. Toxicadendron or something like that.

There also was a new enemy on the boat. Navy Prop.

You'll meat goblins near Gonganga.
One a bit harder enemy to encounter would be one in the Gi cave. it's exactly like Aps, only red.
On the bridge in mount Nibel also a new one.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-15 16:22:23
Cool I apreciate that, by the time I read this I already missed some, also I am trying quite unsuccesfully to win a battle with junon alarm. Trying to use loco weed to kill the enemies...(My only strategy)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-15 20:50:27
Try encountering 'em with full limit.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-15 22:20:29
I just cant kill them. I so want to level up seriously too much lol. Right now My story is at right before gongaga and Im lvl 32...3 shinra alpha's, 2x hp plus on everyone, speed plus on everyone...

What would be the best area to lvl in atm? Same as the original game?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-15 22:51:40
Basically where you kill enemies faster (xp pr min). If the enemies gives you too much trouble, or if takes long time, even if they give more xp it may not be worth it. As I see your stats I don't think it's necessary though.
I recommend only to level if you're stuck. Too much leveling will make the game easy, but it's entirely up to you of course.  :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-15 23:06:19
Sorry for so many posts but Im gonna grind, I just wanna lvl to kill midgar zolom for beta....

On another note, I love your mod, and it is great!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-16 07:39:01
Sorry for so many posts but Im gonna grind, I just wanna lvl to kill midgar zolom for beta....

On another note, I love your mod, and it is great!

Glad you like it!  ;D
There is another enemy with beta at the coasts next to the forrest/ancient temple.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-23 23:23:52
Gjoerulv, did you happen to keep a changlog when you did this? I am having a problem morphing power sources, can't find the monster that gives em for the life of me.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-24 09:55:34
Gjoerulv, did you happen to keep a changlog when you did this? I am having a problem morphing power sources, can't find the monster that gives em for the life of me.

Try the sunken Gelnika. I didn't change much morph, steal and drop items. I certainly didn't add any source items on random enemies.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-06-24 13:44:33
hmm. . .not sure if this would be the correct spot to put this, if not i'm sorry. :-P

I'm getting an error when going into the Well flashback (with tifa and cloud as kids)
and a dialog box pops up, unable to load ENFF.tak
and in the APP log it says ERROR: unhandeled exception.
and i cannot get any farther.

it is really annoying, this mod is great, except for this lil quirk i'm having with it.  :wink:


EDIT: well i was able to slip by the flash back by using the emergency save, however it happened again once i reached the second mako reactor, and this time the emergency save is not letting me slip by  :cry:
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-06-24 22:01:31
I know that .tak files are animation files but I don't know which character uses it. Have you installed mods that has something to do with the field??
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-06-24 22:41:31
well i just reinstalled FF7 xD
and no more problem  :wink:
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-06-26 02:26:35
well this patch is quite "hardcore" lol
i'm on the 2nd boss, lvls are 10,9, and 8
and Tifa is dead  :cry: and i have no phoenix downs. . .
and i can't beat the boss, he does like 300+ dmg to me, when my team only has around 400 hp
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-26 05:22:49
Just level up and dont forget to steal when ya get it. I made it to level 63 before the end of disc one, and now I am at beginning of disc 2 going for lvl 99's with max stats.

Run around outside junon and steal from the junon patron until ya get some shinra alpha's, and increase your limits.(Dont use summons, I dont lol)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-06-26 05:43:47
yeah, guess i'll just start over then xD
so i can get some potions lol
and i suppose i'll acctually have to lvl with this patch.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-06-29 09:43:06
Hi there

First, thanks a lot for this awesome mod! I wanted to start ff7 over, but was demotivated because of its lack of difficulty... That was before I discovered this!

But then, I have a question. I am running on the french version of FF7 (bought it a long time ago), and when I installed your mod, it said that "flevel.lgp is missing". So i searched for this file in my installation, and it happens that I have a file called fflevel.lgp, a quick search on internet learnt me that this file is for the french version... So, I renamed it to flevel.lgp, ran your patch again and it worked, and I named it back again to fflevel.lgp.

But I'm not sure whether it will work... I've read that patching flevel.lgp adds new bosses/monsters, will they be ok or will I encounter bugs?

Also, the game is half french half english, it is quite strange but I don't really mind (dialogs are in french, items are english...), though if someone knows how to turn everything to english (without downloading the whole game on torrent of course) it would be nice!

Again, thanks a lot for your mod, so far it is a great experience! I would never have believed that I would die one day on scorpion or air buster. The latter was a pain in the a** until I found the proper strategy... I was not using multiple saves, and I should really have bought an extra restore materia!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-29 18:37:10
Hi there

First, thanks a lot for this awesome mod! I wanted to start ff7 over, but was demotivated because of its lack of difficulty... That was before I discovered this!

But then, I have a question. I am running on the french version of FF7 (bought it a long time ago), and when I installed your mod, it said that "flevel.lgp is missing". So i searched for this file in my installation, and it happens that I have a file called fflevel.lgp, a quick search on internet learnt me that this file is for the french version... So, I renamed it to flevel.lgp, ran your patch again and it worked, and I named it back again to fflevel.lgp.

But I'm not sure whether it will work... I've read that patching flevel.lgp adds new bosses/monsters, will they be ok or will I encounter bugs?

Also, the game is half french half english, it is quite strange but I don't really mind (dialogs are in french, items are english...), though if someone knows how to turn everything to english (without downloading the whole game on torrent of course) it would be nice!

Again, thanks a lot for your mod, so far it is a great experience! I would never have believed that I would die one day on scorpion or air buster. The latter was a pain in the a** until I found the proper strategy... I was not using multiple saves, and I should really have bought an extra restore materia!

Oh... I was actually not aware the french verion called it fflevel.lgp.
The only way of knowing if there are bugs is by playing the game I guess. It should work no matter how the flevel files are organized. And some scenes in the game will be in english due to the patch. If you get hold of an english flevel, you obviously need to patch the flevel again.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-06-29 20:35:15
Hi again

I played a bit today and I bumped into the three bosses you added in the shinra building, when you find the lvl66 card (in the room where you have to find the parts). Nice one, I loved it :)

First time I died, second time I tried to steal them all (X-potion... crap... fairy ring... could be nice, but... WOOT! silver armlet!), and third time I came up with the right strategy I guess, removing all their MPs with barret's second limit since they can send fira, thundara, cure, and even revive, then kill the one with X-potion, then the one with fairy ring (I tried to steal it this time but it took ages, I gave up... I hope I won't need it on a boss later), then steal the silver armlet and kill the last one :) But they were quite tough.

So now I'm right outside Midgar, IMO the bosses after these three guys are too easy (the one in the elevator is barely harder than the original if not the same, the sample from Hojo is not hard to beat and rufus is quite weak too... for the final boss at the end of the highway, thunder + the armor with four slots (+30 magic) make it easy :) )

All this writing to say that my manipulation with fflevel works so far, no bug at all (maybe you could include it to your installer, for french users?).
Again, thanks a lot for your mod, I will come here again sometimes to tell you if I find some bugs.


EDIT : jeffdamann, you said that you could get shinra alphas from patrols outside Junon... That's where I am right now, I fought some of them and stole them, but I'm getting hi-potions instead! Are we talking about the same guys, or did gjoerulv modify his patch since?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-06-30 21:12:11
Hi again

I played a bit today and I bumped into the three bosses you added in the shinra building, when you find the lvl66 card (in the room where you have to find the parts). Nice one, I loved it :)

First time I died, second time I tried to steal them all (X-potion... crap... fairy ring... could be nice, but... WOOT! silver armlet!), and third time I came up with the right strategy I guess, removing all their MPs with barret's second limit since they can send fira, thundara, cure, and even revive, then kill the one with X-potion, then the one with fairy ring (I tried to steal it this time but it took ages, I gave up... I hope I won't need it on a boss later), then steal the silver armlet and kill the last one :) But they were quite tough.

So now I'm right outside Midgar, IMO the bosses after these three guys are too easy (the one in the elevator is barely harder than the original if not the same, the sample from Hojo is not hard to beat and rufus is quite weak too... for the final boss at the end of the highway, thunder + the armor with four slots (+30 magic) make it easy :) )

All this writing to say that my manipulation with fflevel works so far, no bug at all (maybe you could include it to your installer, for french users?).
Again, thanks a lot for your mod, I will come here again sometimes to tell you if I find some bugs.

Other people've said Rufus is too hard lol. But, yeah, compared to the new ones I've made, some default bosses pales in comparrison. But most of my new bosses can be defeated quite esily with the right strategy.

EDIT : jeffdamann, you said that you could get shinra alphas from patrols outside Junon... That's where I am right now, I fought some of them and stole them, but I'm getting hi-potions instead! Are we talking about the same guys, or did gjoerulv modify his patch since?

You can steal that item from 'em but it's somewhat rare. All enemies in ff7 can have max 4 steal and drop items combined. But you can only get one item pr. enemy. Meaning if you steal 1 item, you won't be able to steal any other stuff or get a drop. Most enemies in ff7 have only 1 drop or steal item though. And, even though I tweaked some, you won't notice much difference when it comes to drops, steals and morphs in my mod.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-06-30 21:18:32
You can morph a heavens cloud VERY early in the game from a Heavy Tank(the rhino one, original)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-07-01 13:51:02
Rufus? Well I found him rather easy, but as you have only one char on this fight, I guess you can't make him too difficult, since it is hard to heal and attack at the same time.... And I had a silver armlet, that's maybe why I had no trouble with him.  But the two bosses in the elevator are REALLY too easy.

Ok for the shinra alphas, I could not get a single one from them (stole them four or five times, got hi potion each time). But I guess it would make the game too easy, and there is no point to play a hardcore version if you level up too much and get a kick ass stuff too early! Still a good information to be aware of.

So far so good, I will try to kill jenova birth soon when I find some time to play (very important exams soon), I will let you know if I find some parts too easy, or too hard, or if I find any bugs etc... I love your mod :p
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-07-01 20:51:32
...
So far so good, I will try to kill jenova birth soon when I find some time to play (very important exams soon), I will let you know if I find some parts too easy, or too hard, or if I find any bugs etc... I love your mod :p

Sounds good! Even though I intentionally made this mod to suit my "needs", originally, I like feedback.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: pyrozen on 2010-07-02 02:23:08
I just want to thank you for the greatest gift FF7 has given me in a decade....a game over screen...before guard scorpion! you have totally revived my interest in FF7 with your mod, and i want to thank you!

lee
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-02 13:06:22
been a while since I've posted here lol,
but i just got my Shinra alpha's. . .that was a pain  :x
the bosses on the elevator seemed pretty easy, didn't really find a difference from the unmodified boss.
and Rufus was pretty easy, just sat there and had him attack me, for my limit, healed when needed.
and am now at Jenova Birth, or Life...idk. The one on the Ship to costa del sol. and having a bit of trouble there. heh

EDIT: lol JK, Jenova Birth was pretty easy, gotta love Planet Protector ^^ idk what imma do when she dies though... :cry:
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-07-02 20:29:41
WOW guys you are amazing! I would not have such patience... I just killed jenova birth at level 18, I had no lvl2 limit and no lvl2 magic... Now THIS was a pain! I put long range and power wrist to cloud, he only attacked (since she is weak to cut), while tifa and nanaki were the healers... But she inflicts a lot of damage! For me this was the first really hard boss (along with the air buster, but if I had bought a second restore for him I would not have had such trouble). I was very lucky that I bought an accessory that protects from stop at Junon, since she cast several times stop on the same character that was immune to it, wasting a lot of attacks :)

But if the difficulty keeps rising like this, I will have to XP a lot and finally get those shinra alphas!
(oh, and I tried to XP a bit on costa del sol's beaches, I died against two sea horses. I was not expecting those one-shot kills from them! you are evil)

I feel kind of nostalgic for the summons, though... Only one level, costs a lot of mps, and not that powerful... I no longer equip these materias.

Well, I'm going to another town soon (IRL I mean :) to pass some oral exams. I will come back in a week or so to annoy you again with my detailed feedback. I'm gonna miss FF7! Your mod is truly amazing. It is really giving a whole new meaning to this already awesome game!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-02 21:41:40
My tips after the marshes and fort condor is to go to the forsests near the sleeping man.There you can encounter the 5 little tree guys and kill them with 2 lvl 2 spells(or fire fang if you stole many of them from the train graveyard(I got 99 lol)

Or you will fight 3 flying creatures that resemble purple jets.Same deal, easy kill.You can run into MANY junon patrons on Junons beaches, and I would recommend fighting in these forests till you have all 3 lvl 3 limits(only takes like an hour and a half, wayy less than that if you use speedhack,I run at 20 times speed once Im strong enough and just buy tents)Doing this will make the next continent a BREEZE, especially if you go to junons beaches to steal 3 shinra alphas.You should be like lvl 28 or so.

If any one needs any more in depth help, please feel free to ask me, also wait until you get to proud clod and beyond, or fight the materia cave bosses, or gelinka...youll see what hard really is.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-07-02 22:48:10
When I played through this mod, a dog creature in the corel prison used the enemy skill '????' on me and I learned it.
I was happy because I thought you could only learn it at the shinra mansion.

Using that move effectively makes things much easier.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-07-03 00:07:26
gotta love Planet Protector ^^ idk what imma do when she dies though... :cry:

Hm.  Should consider getting life insurance for her ;)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-03 01:06:28
gotta love Planet Protector ^^ idk what imma do when she dies though... :cry:

Hm.  Should consider getting life insurance for her ;)

or perhaps I will just try and finish what hojo tried to start, and hope the off spring will have Aeriths abilities.  :evil:

or just wait till espio, releases his patch  :-P
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-07-03 01:09:57
I'm imagining an army of Planet Protecting Red XIIIs with Aeris hair.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-03 01:19:22
I'm imagining an army of Planet Protecting Red XIIIs with Aeris hair.

oh god. . . .what have i done? :-\
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-03 19:47:02
Im having a problem with th hardcore mod. When I first came to this site, I got the remix patcher, materia fix, and thats about it.
Using the remix patcher I went InstallYAMPhardcore and use it, then RunRemixHardcore and played and was succefully on hardcore any time I played.

Well I corrupted my lgp with lgptools finally(I see what you guys meant now)and had to re-install the game.
Upon re-installation I followed the same steps, only when run remixhardcore opens the cmd dialogue says the files are either duplicated or not found lol. The game then runs HORRENDOUSLY slow(a few fps) but upon closing and opening regular FF the speed is backup.

Needless to say still no hardcore mod, so, I downloaded 1.0.1 and tried it, it says it cannot find scene.bin even though it is clearly there. It patches the rest of the files and I guess since scene.bin went unpatched it didnt work.

All I know is I remember running either installYAMPhardcore or runremixhardcore one time and had the 9999lb patch and goerulvs mod and never worried again

Gotta finish my hardcore game!Lvl80 with 15 master hps, 2 master doublecuts and a non master doublecut, 2 chars at 255 attack, one char with 255 vital, and Im at hojo/jenova(I WILL SLAUGHTER THEM, I did proud clod(used 4 hero drinks then abused meteorain lol, you do like 25k-30k damage a hit so one meteorain easily does 200k damage lol.)

I wanna finish!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 06:15:03
so i just got the tiny bronco, Palmer was a joke, as usual. didn't really see a difference from the original palmer.
and i have a question, at what lvl should i do the Junon leveling trick, currently i'm lvl 38, and they rape me   :|
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 06:39:16
I never successfully utilized it, instead, I took the bronco to mideel and fought in the grass area, run from the growing lizard, as I know not how to defeat it, as for the other enemies, you face a group of 5 small things, and a hippogriff.

Laser the hell out of hippogriff unless you wanna die.This is better than leveling in junon.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 07:07:34
well if the 5 little small things you're talking about are the head hunters. . . thay rape me, don't stand a chance against them.
and i don't seem to be able to run into a hippogriff, unless its with the Growing lizard. :|
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 07:28:24
forget the growing lizard, hippogriff comes alone, but the 5 things are quite easy if you have some hp plusses(you'll need a LOT mastered in hardcore to keep your hp near 30,000, there are some monsters that hit for that much lol.)Just cast some strong ALL magic or preferably lvl 2 spell items like fire fang or bolt plume(much more damage)Kill these suckers a few times with double growth equipment and youll be ahead of the game(for a while anyways.)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 07:31:21
well right now, cloud has just under 4k hp, while my other chars have around 2k hp xD
and each of the Head hunders usually do around 1-1.5k dmg


EDIT: i didn't really stand a chance against the lone Hippogriff either  :|

where would be another good place to lvl up other than the mideel area?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 10:45:12
If you will lvl up some hp plusses, you can defeat those no prob, I think I just had to resort to anything until I could beat those guys, who give WAAYYY more exp than junon leveling trick.

Also morph a heavens cloud from Heavy Tank in Gonagaga
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 11:01:45
then i suppose my next question would be...wheres a good spot get get AP?   ;D
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Mirenheart on 2010-07-04 11:56:03
That's easy (unless the patch changed it)

The northern cave is the best place, (at least, I think so). Especially if you have plenty of elixirs. You can find Magic Pots, and feed 'em Elixirs, they'll give you a lot of AP. Movers give good AP too if you can kill them. I think you can steal elixirs from Tonberry Kings.

But this is only near the end of the game. I think most other places give an average amount of AP. I could be wrong, however.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 12:19:12
I fought the petrify green dragon things and frogs in the forests around cosmo canyon until I could fight in mideel, worked very well.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 13:52:49
forests around cosmo canyon?
only forests i know is ancient forest. Looks like i might have to start breeding chocobos. :|
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 13:55:14
Sort of like the ones NEAR cosmo towards gongaga, not actually around cosmo canyon.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 13:58:12
ahhh, alright, i'll check it out.
at what lvl should i be safe to lvl around mideel?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 14:08:46
In this mod I find its not really level as much as hp and stats. So just get you some hp plusses mastered and youll be good to go.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 14:14:34
well mastering the HP plus's could take awhile xD

and i found that the pumpkin ghost thingies, in the shinra mansion give you 900-1200 exp, and 105-140ap, and are killed pretty easy with all linked with ice/lightning/fire3
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 14:26:18
if you will use the search function and download aali's 0.77b+speedhack(just search for speedhack) you can play much faster. Just extract the dll from the file, not the aali's, and at the bottom of ff7opengl it should say "load_library = speedhack.dll
"

This works in the same way as a turbo function in an emulator.I would only use it at 2 speed unless you are strong enough to kill the enemies using plain physical attacks(because the cursor and battle moves so fast)I can do it at 4x, but it is very hard and I have to stick my battle on wait.

This is also useful for getting through nibelheim flashback. You can set it to like 25 and be done in no time :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-07-04 14:30:43
I think there should probably be two Hardcore mod topics; the one here for feedback on the mod itself, and another one in "General" for things like good places to level up and what not 8-)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 14:39:55
hmm. . . i never even thought about using the speed hack xD
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-04 14:48:19
I think there should probably be two Hardcore mod topics; the one here for feedback on the mod itself, and another one in "General" for things like good places to level up and what not 8-)

I tried that before, look a few pages back, obesebear merged my topic :( sorry for so many posts...and I had some cool vids of the mod to upload...I will do it in completely unrelated me guesses(although that sucks)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-04 14:51:23
yeah, and well it wouldn't really be "Completely" unrelated lol
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-07-05 02:22:17
I think there should probably be two Hardcore mod topics; the one here for feedback on the mod itself, and another one in "General" for things like good places to level up and what not 8-)

I tried that before, look a few pages back, obesebear merged my topic :(

Maybe not, then...
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-07-05 13:52:14
Im having a problem with th hardcore mod. When I first came to this site, I got the remix patcher, materia fix, and thats about it.
Using the remix patcher I went InstallYAMPhardcore and use it, then RunRemixHardcore and played and was succefully on hardcore any time I played.

Well I corrupted my lgp with lgptools finally(I see what you guys meant now)and had to re-install the game.
Upon re-installation I followed the same steps, only when run remixhardcore opens the cmd dialogue says the files are either duplicated or not found lol. The game then runs HORRENDOUSLY slow(a few fps) but upon closing and opening regular FF the speed is backup.

Needless to say still no hardcore mod, so, I downloaded 1.0.1 and tried it, it says it cannot find scene.bin even though it is clearly there. It patches the rest of the files and I guess since scene.bin went unpatched it didnt work.
...


Does it work now? I dunno how the remix patch works, but if you apply my patch after it should go just fine. IF the files are in their originally intended locations that is. Scene.bin should be in ...\data\battle\.

There are bugs prior to 1.0.1, thus I can't recommend it.

I've played this mod 'til Diamond Weapon, and I don't think it's necessary to level that much.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-07 07:08:32
does anyone have ANY idea how to kill Jenova Death???

i can't even get close to killing her, my chars are lvl 57
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-07 15:50:32
You should be plenty high enough, Just level those hp plusses some more and maybe heal so you can get resist, but dont cheat on hardcore!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Klownboy on 2010-07-07 20:13:55
but dont cheat on hardcore!

so says the guy with 99 megalixirs and 99 hero drinks...
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: jeffdamann on 2010-07-07 21:02:00
W-item isnt cheating to me lol.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Armorvil on 2010-07-07 21:11:12
W-item isnt cheating to me lol.

Well, W-item's purpose is to allow the use of two items in one turn, not to get infinite items. Making use of bugs and glitches to fit your needs is cheating.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: nikfrozty on 2010-07-08 13:54:07
W-item isnt cheating to me lol.

Well, W-item's purpose is to allow the use of two items in one turn, not to get infinite items. Making use of bugs and glitches to fit your needs is cheating.
Second this post. Just take a look at glitches of online games like special force. People can go through boxes in some places and shoot there while they are hidden. Glitches are cheating.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Travis on 2010-07-24 20:39:16
I am having a problem...

I can't patch the scene.bin part of my FF7.

I have a feeling that it's because I haven't restarted my pc yet after installing ff7.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: The Seer of Shadows on 2010-07-24 21:28:25
I have a feeling that it's because I haven't restarted my pc yet after installing ff7.

That sounds unlikely to me, but if you're really willing to go to all the trouble of finding out, you could always try... restarting your PC! :P
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Travis on 2010-07-24 21:41:13
I reinstalled it to a new directory, everything worked fine, but now... I CANT FIND THE DAMN EXE!!! It disappeared.

EDIT: I just realized the chocobo patch is doing it and it's because my virus ware keeps containing a trojan...

I need a new chocobo patch apparently.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bosque on 2010-07-24 23:44:19
You don't need the chocobo patch if you have Aali's Driver, which you should have.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Travis on 2010-07-25 00:08:14
Ya, problem fixed.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-08-07 14:22:17
I resumed my savegame, I killed Dyne and went back to junon to get white wind (not that useful on this mod :(  ), and saw an evil rider vr2 (on the rocks near junon). Tried to kill him and came very close to (using laser, nothing else can do 8k damage when you are level24!), but fell short of phoenix down after a 30 min fight and I did not have enough patience to start it over :) will do it again when I am more leveled. Very nice encounter!

Concerning element-W... It is generally not considered as a cheat since it is implemented in the game, it's just a glitch. Its use is up to you, I guess you get more satisfaction when you finish this game without any glitch... But it's not a cheat.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Miseru on 2010-08-07 15:30:25
 LoL @ "glitch implemented in game" XD yeah autors specially glitch their games so people with strange definitions can feel that they don't cheat. xD Buahaha I had a laugh from that. xD Basically cheating is going against the rules, using flaws, glitches and sometimes even specially "implemented" cheats. There are even games you can turn on cheats from main menu without any codes. Rule over W-item is simple - it allows using 2 items at once during fights. Any use of that option outside this rule is cheating:P, and installing hardcore mods just to cheat in them and create another idiot movie about "owning in hardcore" youtube have too much already is just to say delicately... retarded =]. It's like building a wall to show off you can jump over it, then shouting that a plane crashed and walking around while nobody's looking.

 *I feel soo pro I owned WEAPON in 8 seconds using glitch* - lol at kids who feel high doing such things. Cheating is going on easy mode whatever hardcore word you write before the game version=]. If an universal - you*talking generally about cheaters* - is thinking he's "pro" or whatever word kids like to call themselves nowadays then he should think twice. Damn old Mario Brothers nes game is harder(and I mean the original not the insane or whatever it was called) than FF7 on hardcore mod with unlimited Megaelixirs and stuff like that.

 Cheating can be fun, can be usefull, but NEVER call a game hard while you use cheats/glitches/dog food/whatever you call it to feel better. That's just wrong.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-08-07 17:38:21
Never said that the authors implemented glitches on purpose, that's why it is called a glitch and not a feature. It is just your choice to use glitches or not, but it is not a cheat. Cheating is opening your save with an editor and set all your stats to 255... Using glitches is exploiting bugs or stuff. The result is the same, though, you are not playing the game the way it was made for.

I agree with you, I don't see the point of playing a hardcore mod if you use glitch in it, but people are free to do it, right? Just because you don't like it does not mean it's bad...

Concerning all your blattering about youtube and weapons and stuff... It is completely off-topic, and what's more, we do not care. Glitches allow us to do incredible things, and I find it quite fun to see that you can instant-kill a weapon without cheating. Nothing to do with "omg im so pro", just fun. Never smiled at a video showing Barrett do ten times in a row "ungarmax"?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Miseru on 2010-08-08 04:48:56
 Getting back to your "blattering", read once again what I written couse you surely didn't understood half of it. In shorter post I ment that calling cheating non-cheating just to feel better and higher is stupid. You can see I didn't modified my post and you can find exactly such opinion there just in longer description.

 I also wrote cheating can be fun and everybody is free to cheat as he/she likes, read again if you didn't noticed that, it's only stupid to call it by different names for an excuse of feeling all-mighty. Those things aren't incredible, they're cheap and going easy way. What's the difference between making an enemy have 1 hp than making you hit with install kill with other means? None. Same lame and making game easy. Fun? Yeah sometimes can be, I wrote that before, for me to, but does that make me hardcore player? Surely NOT. And talking about xxxx megaelixirs or "increadible things" made by glitching the game is far more offtop to HARDCORE mod topic than explaining that cheating in any way is equal to playing ultra-easy hence opposite of hardcore.

 Cheating is breaking the rules. All stuff like game codes, glitches, editors, trainers, using exploits to make it different than accepted rules IS called CHEATING. If you cut the turns on a racing track that's also cheating even if it exist and is possible. Cheating for whatever you belive in sake isn't a name of a method, but general name of breaking game/race/competition/whatever rules to gain advantage.

 PS. And my words of authors implementing glitches on purpose was just a sarcasm to lame excuses.

 Over and out as I don't care much if my post is readed partially just to bring an answer that puts me in a bad light.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-08-08 10:38:42
To make it short, we are thinking the same things, the only thing I wanted to tell you is the difference between cheats and glitches :) It's fun to instant kill a weapon, but if you can't do it the regular way it's sad. Nothing to do with hardcore players, he is using a hardcore mod with 99 megalixirs, not my problem as he is not claiming to be a pro... (though even with 99 megalixirs this mod is damn hard :p)

Another thing, in speedrunning, glitches are allowed, while cheats are not. Sometimes it results in a VERY bad-looking speedrun (like zelda done in 4 minutes instead of 1h30 before...), but sometimes it fits well in the game (like rocket-jumping in a lot of FPS, glides or wallrunning in Doom... etc etc...)

And some sarcasm : whoa, authors wanted the armors to bring some Mdef, and because of that bug you are not using this bonus! cheater!

To get back to my "hardcore mod experience" : I killed the boss guarding Titan materia, it was very weak :( I wonder why he is taking damage from laser while the tanks around are immune to it? Would have made more sense to do the opposite. But then, even without laser he would die pretty fast, he does not deal huge damage. Stole him for a nice item :)
After that I did some leveling just to get enough gold to buy a second and a third HP-plus (I was quite short of gils), right now I'm going to try cosmo canyon... I hope it is not impossible! And I also hope that you did not hide a unique monster in the cave :p

EDIT : oh, and the encounter with 6 frogs near gongaga... Damn long! but funny. Did you improve their AI? They seemed to always frog song the ones that were not turned to frog (but using the item that protects from frog loopholes the thing, since even if the char is asleep they try to frog song him, leaving the others alone)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-08-11 22:50:52
After getting past Proud Clod and the 3x Soldier fight I realized they're too easy compared with their "surroundings".  I may come with a minor update soon, IF I don't get too much work in the near future. But 1st I'll at least finish the game. There are a AIs in need of improvement as well.

Any other parts that needs improvement? Please make a list.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-08-12 10:16:53
So far (I'm right before ancient's temple [don't know the english for that]), the only part that need improvements is Dyne and after (Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, Nibel...) : I found it too easy, and I did not train at all before (lvl20-25). But even so, I found the game to be really nice, a lot better than the vanilla game :)

I'll keep my feedback going if I find some time to play these days. But really, after Dyne, the game becomes a lot easier (I remember restarting a lot against Jenova birth, air buster... while I killed at the first try Dyne, the boss keeping Titan, the turks, cosmo cave, materia keeper, the boss keeping odin... though I got owned by a dragon in nibel, I could not do anything, comet2, everyone dies :p )

Oh, and a suggestion : at this point of the game, what do you think about making beta and aqualung impossible to get by improving midgar zolom and harpy?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-09-07 03:38:14
Hey gjoerulv, i have been playing this ff7pc for a while now, and started a hardcore game with your mod, and i have to say its so much fun! Its totally gave me a new challenge and its been awesome to see the changes so far.

I'm using break damage limit patch, and i noticed the AI is so much better, and i actually died a number of times, and found some parts pretty easy while others extremely hard!

For you i will leave my feedback so far on certain parts of the game, specially the bosses.

-In the 8th reactor, i found the big machines which drop bolt plumes to be hard in the beginning, specially paired with those other new mobs, after rushing to the first boss, and dieing twice, i decided to level on these fights up til level 17 or so, the spot gives so much AP and exp for that time, and i stocked up a little on potions, ether's and bolt plumes for the first fight.

- The first boss was difficult when i rushed to it, first 2 times i would run out of potions and Phoenix downs, but with some higher levels, and bolt plumes, i was able to destroy it easily :?:

- Next i decided to see what the mobs in the graveyard was like, with just cloud, and i noticed the spot is still similar, not a great exp spot so i carried on my way after a few fights

- After jumping off the train, i ran down purposely to fight the soldiers, and i found a new mob! A green secret officer, which seems to have lowish HP but a lot of attack power, would be nice if this fight gave anything special :-P

- I carried on and the mobs in the tunnel was not too hard, i did some fights on the way to Big Bomber, didn't run into anything too difficult in there.

- Big Bomber boss, i found this really easy, i had limit breaks, and just decimated from both sides, i really expected this boss to be much harder hitting, as its a key part of FF7 for me, and i guess the size of this thing, it should be more of a reasonable boss? Dunno that's just my opinion anyways.

- Aeris solo fights were easy, maybe make this a bit more difficult, so you might actually have a reason to use the barrels?

- Moved onto sector 5 after stopping at aeris house, and i liked how the house monster had more hp and attacked more then one person, but the attack power was lower then i expected, and the little things that come in 4 (cant remember the name) are still pretty much no match, and remain a good place to level limit breaks at this point of the game.

- The solos fight for cloud inside Don Corneos mansion are still pretty easy, wouldn't hurt to boost those just a little bit :?:

- The Aps boss fight, i was looking forward to a good match here, but i seem to destroy really easy, with limit breaks and grenades, he never got close to killing me, and only did 3 wave moves, maybe this boss can inflict some status effects at the beginning?

- The sahagins in the sewer, and the little moths i found really annoying for this part, i liked this addition because these were no match before, and it scared me to see the stuff these monsters were doing so early on in the game lol

- Train graveyard, i found interesting for a number of reasons, the mob which drops striking staff was not much more difficult, and such a pain to steal off, and the new mobs, the little ram creatures, are just really wrong in this area, for these reasons.
1. On one fight, i was able to steal a fire fang off one of these, then i did another fight and they would only drop potions, did my game just glitch out???
2 On one of the fights, there is 2 of these little rams, and one of them is actually floating, levitating higher then the one next to it by quite a way, this new battle needs to be looked into man :?:

- Reno boss, i enjoyed this fight, the pyramid has more hp so it takes 2 attacks to break, but still his attack power was quite low, so still the first encounter of this guy seems pretty lame, he died pretty fast.

- Next fighting happens in shinra building, i decided to bust in, i liked how you added the soldiers with hardedge drop on the elevator although the drop rate really annoys me, and they are dam strong lol :?:

- I decided to steal off the red soldier guys, after they lost the armor, to get some shrapnel's, not sure if this was added, but it helped later

- On floor 65 i think it is, with the midgar model, the normal mobs were fine, and getting loco weeds here was essential although they didn't seem to drop much for me.

-New Boss! Locke Venus and Theo, OK I'm going to say this, What a dam funny, but very hard and challenging addition this is, these guys don't just talk lots of funny stuff at the start, but they work together so well and wiped me many times.
I stole a silver armlet off Theo the first time i won, i decided to go back and try again, and steal off the other 2, Locke has X potion, and Venus a Fairy ring.

Now this was one of the hardest things i ever done, stealing both the Fairy ring and Armlet off Venus and Theo, before killing them or being killed, it took me a good 20-30 tries to get the result, as these guys truly destroy, and the drop rate is so dam bad, Venus tends to die too quick, and you need to kill Venus off so the other 2 can die, as Venus uses Erindae and raises them back up, and if you confuse the trio, Locke always casts berserk and 75% of the time lands it on one of the trio, which makes things even harder! lol.

Ok following on from the last post  More feedback on the mod.

- Specimen boss fight, I found this fight to be pretty easy, i had star pendant and fairy ring to protect against poison, the 3 guys at the front of the boss are still easy, and the boss does not do anything new and dies with not much challenge.

- Fighting on floor 68, I got my carbon bangles off this floor, and also i had some major hassle with the team of 3 Soldiers, which do Sleepel, and have very good AI, any Loco weeds for these fights help, but without they can be difficult to fight, specially if you are not fully cured from the last fight or running low on MP, luckily the save point is just down the elevator, making this a good decent exp point.

- Fighting in Shinra building after breaking out of prison, i found this really interesting, one of the mobs actually does an Enemy Skill, Roulette, although its a killer move at this time, i thought it was great to add it now, seen as usually you have to wait a long time to get this, when it becomes obsolete.
I went upstairs to floor 69, and noticed a new mob could push me out of battle, luckily i had saved it, but in one of these fights, 2 of my guys got knocked out of the battle, and the other person died, meaning i had game over again lol

- Elevator boss fight and Rufus - From what i saw, i did not see anything new to these fights, they seemed pretty similar and easy.

- Boss fight after bike game, i also found this pretty easy, boss did not do anything new, and bolt just destroyed it.

- Outside Midgar, i fought the machines for Matra Magic, and i did not notice too much difference, some mobs are slightly higher in hp and attack power.

- Story sequence with Sephiroth and Cloud, I loved this!!! Actually being able to control sephiroth and use killer moves at this point of the game, Cloud is just totally useless and dies every 2 seconds, so you just take this level 90 Sephiroth and destroy things, with Break damage limit a normal attack would take off 27000+ for me.
I also loved the new boss fight, i actually had to cure sephiroth because i was not too sure about what it could do, but after a number of normal attacks it died with no problem  Cloud of course died after i decided to attack it with him for the laugh.

- Back on the world map, outside Chocobo farm, these fights were much harder, the birds do berserk, the elephants and mandragoras don't want to die, and of course the big midgar zolom is even more powerful! :O I managed to get L4 suicide off the Lil squirrel dudes.

- Went into the farm for Choco/Mog, and wanted to watch the dance, i got Choco/Mog, then all of a sudden... Bam im fighting a Silver Chocobo! Im thinking what the hell is going on here, this Silver choco starts doing Choco/Mog on me and doing decent damage, and does Chocobuckle on the guy with Enemy skill materia lol, i tried to give it a gyshal green just in case i could catch it! But for some reason that didnt work, so i started to kill it, and it died not too long later, great addition!

- I carried on and got a choco, and headed into Mythril mines, i found these mobs not that much more difficult, and i got my Flame thrower enemy skill.

- Got out into Junon area, and headed over to the forests straight away, the birds and trees are not too much harder, i stole a Boomerang off one of the birds, then i kept fighting til i got Yuffie, who also did not seem like she was much harder, would have been nice if the Yuffie fight was adjusted, so she was a bit more of a challenge to get as a character.

- Next i headed off to outside Fort condor, i fought the big mob with the guy riding on the back, i tried to steal from it dozens of times, but i got nothing, and it seems to hit pretty dam hard, and all i was doing for 15 minutes straight was curing and stealing, i got fed up and decided to call it a day there.

More feedback for you as i play through the game, thanks for the mod

Sorry for the double post, didnt mean to offend anyone :)

Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-09-07 16:31:31
Thanks for the feedback Kylos, appreciate it.  :)

-In the 8th reactor, i found the big machines which drop bolt plumes to be hard in the beginning, specially paired with those other new mobs, after rushing to the first boss, and dieing twice, i decided to level on these fights up til level 17 or so, the spot gives so much AP and exp for that time, and i stocked up a little on potions, ether's and bolt plumes for the first fight.

- The first boss was difficult when i rushed to it, first 2 times i would run out of potions and Phoenix downs, but with some higher levels, and bolt plumes, i was able to destroy it easily :?:

Hmmm, level 17 is way too high here imo. lvl 6-7 should be enough to beat the boss wit some bolt plumes. If you level too much it will be too easy. When you leave Midgar it could be 17-22 ish.

But I'll look into it when I have time. Thanks again for feedback.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-09-07 19:11:02
monsters give way too much exp to be level 20 when you leave midgar. I dont know how I am supposed to do that, even with running through and without getting wasted on the bosses because of low level and lack of items and spells. I 'adjusted' the exp growth curve so that you need 30,000-35,000 exp for lvl 20, which fits quite nicely in this mod.
as for the actual difficulty, the guard scorpion is really hard without bolt blumes. the air buster a bit later is too easy or too hard depending on your level. it can one-shot a non-defending characters if your level is low. Aps is a joke. You could give aps 5x or 10x the HP and it'd be a challange. maybe. and up his attack power.
Reno... he went down before he got off his second pyramid. Its a joke. He's one of the TURKS, he should be quite formidable at this point.

I havent played farther than this ( started doing private modifications ) so i cant comment on anything else. some mobs are nearly game breaking ( sewer swarms, sweepers in the first reactor. and for all the wrong reasons, mono drives. I had SIXTY , 60!, ether by the time I was level 12 and tackled the guard scorpion. I mean, come on. thats way too much. ) and others are barely changed, it makes virtually no difference from the normal game ( mono drives, aside from the issue above, proto machine gun in reactor 5 )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-09-08 03:15:08
Hmm im trying to think if it was 17 now, but it was a lot higher then 7, i noticed that i was getting awesome exp, and i just kept going because i wanted to stock up, and get a head start in the game if u know what i mean, im trying to test certain spots in the game to see what i can steal, and what i can exp well off.

After leaving the 8th reactor, i found the exp dropped a lot, and i gained levels slowly, but it was fine as i had levelled well enough already, it seems you gave the fights round the save point, maybe a bit too much exp, but yes i tried to kill the first boss at level 5 and 6 and i just ran out of things to cure myself with, so my only choice was to level.

Edit: Im on the game now, im fighting in the junon area, Cloud is level 31 with meteorain, all my characters are ranging from 28-31, its probably a bit higher then what was intended, but as i said im levelling up purposely so i can actually beat some of the hard bosses when they come, seen as i have no idea when you popped in a new random battle lol
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Timber on 2010-09-09 05:23:19
monsters give way too much exp to be level 20 when you leave midgar.

I'm pretty sure I was lvl 13/14 when I beat the Trio in Shinra HQ.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-09-09 09:02:22
monsters give way too much exp to be level 20 when you leave midgar.

I'm pretty sure I was lvl 13/14 when I beat the Trio in Shinra HQ.

I got no idea how you did that. I was level 23 before RENO once. True, if you go for a perfect save without w-item trick, you need to steal 99 ghost hands which gives you some levels, but still... the sweeper in reactor 1 drops thunder plumes really often, so you can more or less throw one every odd fight of sweeper + 2 robots, which is like 250 exp.

I adjusted my exp curves now ( cloud needs 6 million now for lvl 99 ) and it works a lot better than before. I also upped the HP of most bosses and some mobs ( air buster specifically has now 3x as much HP as in the hardcore mod usually )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-09-10 13:22:51
monsters give way too much exp to be level 20 when you leave midgar.

I'm pretty sure I was lvl 13/14 when I beat the Trio in Shinra HQ.

I got no idea how you did that. I was level 23 before RENO once. True, if you go for a perfect save without w-item trick, you need to steal 99 ghost hands which gives you some levels, but still... the sweeper in reactor 1 drops thunder plumes really often, so you can more or less throw one every odd fight of sweeper + 2 robots, which is like 250 exp.

I adjusted my exp curves now ( cloud needs 6 million now for lvl 99 ) and it works a lot better than before. I also upped the HP of most bosses and some mobs ( air buster specifically has now 3x as much HP as in the hardcore mod usually )

I was 15ish when I beat 'em.

hmmm... Except for maybe the 1st reactor I find this mod quite easy with the right tactics. At least 'til a certain point in the game.
The reason I decided to make Aps "easy" is 'cause there is no save after the whole Corneo event. If you face an incredibly hard enemy you can't escape from after such  long event, you'll get pretty sick of it after multiple game overs. But he might be a bit too easy. I'll jot it down.

It's quite funny actually. I feel I've gotten all posible sort of feedback for most bosses: "Reno is too hard",  "Reno is too easy", "Reno is just perfect", etc. it all comes down to how you play the game. This mod was mainly made to satisfy the way I play it. The problem is if I do a fix, it'll actually be a break for some. I can't possibly please everybody, thus I mainly aim to please myself (lol I see the jokes already).
But, of course, I like feedback. Feedback is a great way to see "errors".
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: pyrozen on 2010-09-10 20:08:58
So far the most difficult boss i faced were the 3 shinra soldiers you fight when getting the last key card. It took me leveling up for quite some time before i could even attempt to defeat them, even after knowing the right strategy. It also did not help that i insisted on stealing their items, but they were still extremely difficult to defeat otherwise. After that i walked over Jenova, Rufus, the elevator bosses, and the robot you fight at the end of the road. I think i was around level 22 by the time i made it to kalm.

Im not complaining though, This mod has totally refreshed the game for me. Prior to this i was simply creating mods, viewing them ingame, and never bothering to actually play :lol:

Also, steal 99 ghosts hands? For god sakes WHY?

lee
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Blah on 2010-09-11 12:02:18
Could not play these days, I had to settle down in another town for my studies... Anyway.

I think that those who find the game too easy are those who XP too much. You don't really need to take 5 levels before each boss... and air buster was a tough boss at lvl10, the lvl you should be at this point of the game, I guess.
I was lvl20 when I bet jenova birth, it was hard, if you try to kill it at lvl30 it is a breeze... Like scorpio guard at lvl17 (wtf?!?)

A part of the game that is plain easy is after jenova birth, IMO.

Do you advise me to use the limit breaker patch? I was wondering that...
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kudistos Megistos on 2010-09-11 15:20:59
Use of the HP limit patch has been advised by gjoerulv, yes.

Also, it's hard *not* to overlevel for FF7, especially if you're the kind of person who likes to get every item and explore every area. I've always found that, without any grinding, I'm way overlevelled for most of the game. I don't make a conscious attempt to be at a higher level than is necessary; it just happens :|

For people who like to find everything and don't want to escape from every battle, a hardcore mod is needed to make the game challenging.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-09-11 19:54:43
Ok like i stated before, this is the first time i played on this hardcore mod, so after getting my ass handed to me on a plate by the first boss, twice in a row, i decided to stay and level, and stock up on items and stuff.

I did not know just how easy or difficult this hardcore mod is, so i was probably way too high after the first boss, but even with the high levels, i have still died at numerous points in the game, and i found the Locke Venus Theo fight very difficult, seen as i wanted to beat them and get a fairy ring and silver armlets from them.

I am just outside Costa del sol now, and my guys are roughly 28-32s in level, maybe a bit higher then what is meant too, but im not exactly sure whats round the next corner, so i dont mind that.

If i cleared this mod, and wanted to play again, i would probably try and get through the game like the mod was made, and beat bosses at the lowest levels possible for the most fun.

Anyways im going to give my feedback again, from where i left off, which was just outside Junon in the forests.

-I went to fort condor area, and one mob there, the big beast with the guy on the back is 100 times stronger then before, clearly this has been changed so you can come back later to a challenging fight, it was taking off 6-13k off my characters with normal hits, and it was impossible to steal off or sense.

-I went to the beaches, and tried to steal off the junon patrons, i read you can get shinra betas round this time but could only find hi potions, these 3 junon patrons is a nice challenging fight, and i like the moves they do, very well thought out

-I fought bottomswell and did not see much difference, i was expecting a harder fight, but at no point was i close to being in trouble

-I fought the zemzelett, which does white wind, and i noticed how this is harder then before, seen as the move it does inflicts silence now, i actually got killed by one running between fort condor and junon when i only had cloud after the boss fight in junon, which i found was really funny, luckily i have 2 saves lol.

-On the ship i thought this was very well done, those new purple mobs are fun to kill and bet are a challenge at lower levels with the moves they do, i also found u can steal shinra betas off the soldiers, which is awesome as it gave me another 2 slots for materia, seen as i was using carbon bangles in 2 of my characters.

-The jenova fight was so much fun, at level 28-30s i still found this a challenge, i forgot to cure cloud before the fight, so he had 400 hp and was ready with meteorain, jenova was smart and killed cloud off straight away, so i started the fight badly, i had yuffie and redxiii in the back row, seen as they had most of the magic materia, and i give red long range materia.
Jenova was taking 300-400 off those, and 700 off cloud with the laser, so i still had to cure quite a lot, while trying to dish out damage, jenova was smart and stopped yuffie twice, when she was the only one i didnt have using a headband to be immune to it.
I did many limit breaks and thought she would die after i got meteorain again with cloud, but she still didnt go down! So the hp must have been really increased on this boss, eventually jenova died and i was pretty impressed with the fight, i would hate to do this fight at level 20s lol

-After getting out of costa del sol, i fought on the beach, and found the new seahorse mobs, which i noticed have some badass moves, need to kill them off quickly before they start killing everyone, luckily their hp is not too big.

Should be continuing on in my game today soon, so ill post more feedback for you as i do more :)

-



Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-09-12 01:27:00
Ok like i stated before, this is the first time i played on this hardcore mod, so after getting my ass handed to me on a plate by the first boss, twice in a row, i decided to stay and level, and stock up on items and stuff.

I did not know just how easy or difficult this hardcore mod is, so i was probably way too high after the first boss, but even with the high levels, i have still died at numerous points in the game, and i found the Locke Venus Theo fight very difficult, seen as i wanted to beat them and get a fairy ring and silver armlets from them.

Thanks again kylos.
There is no "right" level to be at. Just play and have fun. I just wanted to point out that much leveling will make it easier (obviously). Some people likes to grind, others likes to advance as fast as possible.

I'm working on a minor update. Nothing much.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-09-12 04:04:02
Ok carrying on in my journey :)

-Found swift bolts and Ice Crystal drops just outside Mt Corel, so i levelled there a little and picked some of those up.

-Did not notice a big difference in Mt corel, mobs were a little harder, specially the seahorse ones, summons really tear into these mobs still, which is nice.

-Stole Diamond pin off the green mobs(cant remember the name), seemed to have been the least appreciated steal so far, as i got a magic comb from Fort condor already for red xiii.

-Stole some Right arms off the bombs, will come in handy later ;)

-I headed out into Gold saucer area, and attempted to fight Harpy for Aqualung, so i put on Chocobo lure and attempted it, it didnt go very well, aqualung destroyed the party easily at this point.
Then i had an idea, i recently got Planet Protector for Aeris, so i formed a strategy, i will start with all limit breaks including that, to go invincible, then add a poison onto it, luckily you still learn enemy skills while Invincible so i managed to have a longish fight and get Aqualung at this point :D

-In Corel prison, i noticed the new tiger mobs straight away, noticed how they do Sneak attack and Final Attack type moves, i managed to get ???? enemy skill on one of my players, nice addition to the area :)

-Fought the Sand worms, who seemed a bit harder, and spammed Earthquake, Planet Protector and Pulse of Life helps so much though lol

-In the area just before dyne, picked up Laser and Matra magic, from those fights round there, which i dont believe are much harder then usual.

-Dyne was too weak, but i can understand why, the trip to get there, and then to lose would be quite discouraging, i killed him with 2 right arms.

-Back on the world map, i got Mighty guard, then tried harpy again, without Aeris this time, and noticed Mighty Guard is only castable on 1 player per time, and not the full party, which made me cry a little inside lol, but yes a big move like that, at this point would have made this mod too easy, so its alright :) I Managed to kill Harpy, and steal an Umbrella... Although i had just done the rollercoaster and on the first go, i got 5034 and went 1/1 on it! Did this thing drop umbrella before??

-Headed back to Junon area, and got my White wind, and Mithril from the cave, off the old man, headed over to fort conder, did that battle, went into Mythril caves, got Flame thrower for the other enemy skill, then headed outside for Midgar zolom.

-Attempted Midgar Zolom twice, at level 33-37 first time with setup Cloud Cait Sith and Yuffie, and i actually defeated it, Yuffie got knocked out of the battle, and Cait sith ended up constantly pheonix down on Cloud while the snake was poisoned, and eventually it died from the poison, but never did Beta on me.
Second time i changed to Cloud, Yuffie and Aeris, and tried to use Planet Protector, get Yuffie knocked out again, then get him to cast beta, but it ended up that once again, Cloud was dieing every move, Aeris was a pheonix down spammer, and then i screwed up and accidently pheonix down aeris instead of cloud, and it killed me off, so i thought yea, im not meant to be here yet :P

Ok editing this post, carrying on from where i left off.

-Attempted Midgar Zolom again, and had a much better strat, using Planet Protector at the beginning, and getting yuffie knocked out of battle, managed to get it to do beta, then kill it off, bio plays a big role in this fight.

-Tried Hell Rider outside Fort Condor, and beat it, Bio played a big role like midgar zolom, taking off 1100 each time poison hit, Planet Protector helped out too of course.
I beat it then tried again, and i eventually figured out it drops X-Potions, which i figured is not worth the massive amount of mp used in this battle lol.

-Got back to Gongaga area, and was killed by the green guys that do berserk lol, so i added a peace ring into the mix, and got my Goblin Punch(Thanks for adding these here) and Frog song of course.

-Attempted Reno and Rude, Renos new weapon comes equipped with a major mp steal and status effects lol, i went all out and they died pretty quick, i am level 35-39s though now.

-Entered the broken mako reactor, and ran into the Titan Boss fight, the red Heavy tank, i stole the Gold barrette for Red XIII, then i went all out with Meteorain and summons, and it didnt last too long, it was hitting quite hard though with regular moves.

-Cosmo area was interesting to me, managed to steal an X-potion off one of the turtles, and Elixir off the big birds, i find this area a real mp sponge, as the mobs like to drain huge amounts, so a lot of tents are needed to fight round here before heading into cosmo canyon.
I tried to steal off the new mob, the little green mob which does Stone stare, but was not able to figure out what it drops yet, will have to do that at a later time.

Entered Cosmo canyon, i but all my money into 2 hp plus and 2 mp plus, think its best to work on these soon as possible. About to head down into the Gi tribe area now. Peace :)

2nd Edit:

-Went down to the Gi tribe area, and was pretty worried as i thought this area could be nasty, i fought around the first area and did not find much trouble.

-Then i ran into that big red Aps like creature with the big long name that i seem to have forgotton.
I liked this new fight a lot, one reason why was because of the Adamant Clip, which seems to have replaced my Gold Barrette i got not long ago lol, the fight itself was not too difficult, i managed to get Fat Chocobo off, and confuse it, then finished it off with magics.

-Carried on in the area, did not notice any new mobs in this area, i might have just not fought for long enough, i was glad the spiders were not changed, they were still easily taken down with Frog song or Mini.

-Gi Boss, i didnt bother to try a pheonix down on this, although im guessing it was probably changed so it cannot be killed so easily, i fought it the normal way, and it does hit slightly harder, and has much more HP.

-Left cosmo canyon, tried the jellyfish on the beach, they were still easy, no change there, moved outside Nibelheim next, and found a new mob! Cant remember the exact name right now, but it hits quite hard, and it lets me steal Gold armlets off it :D So i stayed here til i had 3.
One thing i did notice about this new mob, even if you turn it into a frog, it still does all the big moves, they must be magical, at one point i tried to berserk it just so it would stop doing these moves, but it way overpowered it! To the point it was one shotting my guys , so im not going to do that again lol

-Shinra mansion time, i went straight upstairs for the Odin/Vincent key boss, i did not let this thing breath, i managed to stop it early with Choco/mog, then i ripped into it with Betas, Thundaga, Blizzaga and summons, by the time it become moveable again, and changed to physical form, it died really quick after that, it was hitting me pretty hard though when it had the chance.

-The rest of shinra mansion i tried to rush through, the mobs didnt seem much harder, except the swinging guy on the chain, who seems really resistant to magic and evasive to normal attacks.
I hate the 2 headed thing in the basement, it takes sooo long to kill it pisses me off lol

Heading to Mt. Nibel next, i heard theres a big dragon there, peace <3

Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-09-24 15:56:50
One specific mob is broken beyond belief.
Oh wonder, its the red hedgehog pie in the church. In the short period you only control cloud, if they attack you and manage to hit with paralyze, its game over. you will NEVER recover from the paralyze because it seems once under paralyze, they hit you with paralyze for 100% or simply renew its duration
also, if both characters get hit, its also very possible to get a game over because of infinite paralyze.

I took this nonsense out and voila, its not broken anymore.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-17 14:33:10
Well. When I tried this about 2 years ago, I got stuck on Jenova Birth.

...That's where I'm up to again now, and while I did manage to get her down to 3500 HP once, I still haven't beaten her.

I'm wondering if that battle is just a bit *too* hard... I mean seriously, multiple attacks every turn? Double Tail Laser is especially a pain.



Also, on a slightly unrelated note, is Silver Chocobo glitched? It randomly runs out of MP sometimes, despite having heaps.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-10-17 16:56:29
Well. When I tried this about 2 years ago, I got stuck on Jenova Birth.

...That's where I'm up to again now, and while I did manage to get her down to 3500 HP once, I still haven't beaten her.

I'm wondering if that battle is just a bit *too* hard... I mean seriously, multiple attacks every turn? Double Tail Laser is especially a pain.



Also, on a slightly unrelated note, is Silver Chocobo glitched? It randomly runs out of MP sometimes, despite having heaps.

Try attacking with cloud only, while the others heal. Only use limits with the others if they need to attack.
The Silver choc is supposed to be odd. But I can't remember if that was intentional or not.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-10-17 19:29:36
is there any actual reasoning behind making jenova weak to CUT? I found that to be really really weird.
if anything it should have elemental resistances because, you know, it's jenova. and weak to cut? it's not a plant.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2010-10-17 21:08:53
Well. When I tried this about 2 years ago, I got stuck on Jenova Birth.

...That's where I'm up to again now, and while I did manage to get her down to 3500 HP once, I still haven't beaten her.

I'm wondering if that battle is just a bit *too* hard... I mean seriously, multiple attacks every turn? Double Tail Laser is especially a pain.



Also, on a slightly unrelated note, is Silver Chocobo glitched? It randomly runs out of MP sometimes, despite having heaps.
Yeah, Jenova-BIRTH was a tad tough! I remember I would have Meteorain at the start of battle, and everytime when I was at low HP, I would pray that Meteorain was almost close to charging. So basically, like gjoerulv said, just keep Cloud alive because he will possibly be the one to defeat Jenova-BIRTH.

As for the Silver Chocobo, check the video on my YouTube. I recorded that one match because his formula for attacking is random and odd. Odd as in it may use that flashing light thing and run out of MP immediately after (it has 65,535), and that flashing light thing does nothing!

Either way, that won't stop it from using Choco/Mog.

My question is, what is the purpose of the light-spell?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-18 06:06:58
Meteorain?! I don't even have Blade Beam yet. o_O

Yeah, I am primarily attacking with Cloud, although if I get a free turn (when she's just used Stop on Red, who has immunity, or any attack hitting only one person, which just requires one Cure) I get Red and Yuffie to throw a few attacks at her as well.

And yes, I most certianly am using Lunatic High at the start to give Cloud and Yuffie Haste. (Red has the stop-protection, which also blocks Haste, sadly.)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xLostWingx on 2010-10-18 07:07:30
I haven't played this mod, so I don't know if you are using a custom accessory or something to protect agaisnt stop, but if you are using Added Effect Materia, can't you pair it with Choco/Mog for protection against stop and not haste?  Sorry for not knowing about the mod to know whether this is a bad suggestion or not.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-18 09:03:43
It's an accessory. It doesn't actually show Haste protection, I beleive it's a glitch resulting from Slow protection.

Anyway I finally managed to beat her. I'm up to Dyne now... and my only comment... WTF, 500 damage from Needle Gun?! o_O
I'm starting to think I'm seriously underlevelled... xD Barret has about 950 HP, Cloud's just broken the 1000 mark.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2010-10-18 14:26:39
It's an accessory. It doesn't actually show Haste protection, I beleive it's a glitch resulting from Slow protection.

Anyway I finally managed to beat her. I'm up to Dyne now... and my only comment... WTF, 500 damage from Needle Gun?! o_O
I'm starting to think I'm seriously underlevelled... xD Barret has about 950 HP, Cloud's just broken the 1000 mark.
What the? You serious?

I think by that time I had a lil over than 1100 hp. (kept dying on certain bosses, which was tickin' me off so I started training -- also died on a few randoms). XD
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-10-19 00:52:49
is there any actual reasoning behind making jenova weak to CUT? I found that to be really really weird.
if anything it should have elemental resistances because, you know, it's jenova. and weak to cut? it's not a plant.

Yeah, I know, it's kinda cryptic. The only reason is that cloud is in all those fights. If you find more of this cryptic sh*t let me know. I think I'll remove it.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-19 08:28:10
I generally tend to play RPGs with my levels a bit on the low side... but when you get to bosses like Dyne, which are nothing but pure power in a one on one match, this makes things quite hard. Guess I've got a bit of grinding to do...

Also, a minor thing, but I found the naming of the Earth spells kinda weird. "Stone, Stonara, Stonaga" just seems... a bit odd. :/ Would've preferred "Quake, Quakara, Quakaga" personally (since FFs generally refer to earth spells as "Quake"), but that's just me.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: BloodShot on 2010-10-23 22:07:28
So, just to make sure, the link in this thread -
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.msg84974#msg84974

is the latest release right?

I wouldn't normally ask but its just seeing no posts throws me off.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-24 00:12:03
As far as I know, it is.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-10-24 03:25:15
Yes, the latest release will always be found there.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-10-24 11:14:59
actually, haste, slow and stop are all different effects and have to be set to 'protect' against it. if it nulls haste, then there is a 'nullify' tag on haste in the headband data.

as for the jenova thing
there was some weird stuff on some bosses. Elemental resistances can make them really difficult, for example. Jenova Birth was poison, earth, gravity immune and halves fire, ice, bolt
Jenova life nulled fire, absorbed ice and water, took double from bolt, etc
I overworked most bosses like this. I gameover'd at bottomswell three times in a row now, despite having Beta. ever tried using fire magic against a boss thats water alligned? yeah. it's not a good idea, i tell ya.
This mod might be hardcore for the casual gamer. For the hardcore gamer, it's just a notch up in difficulty. I made my version so hard that you have to stop sometimes and grind exp / materia / gil ( yes, gill, stuff if horrendously expensive now )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-24 14:28:06
That's just stupid IMO.
A hard mod should be hard because it requires strategy, not grinding. Otherwise it's just an extra-grinding mod.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-10-25 00:00:32
Thank god your opinion is about just as good as mine. Thus, I can safely ignore it and move on.
Even with grinding, you need stragety. For example, the diamand weapon is unbeatable unless you nullify or absorb holy element in your armor because it's special skill does [kills x10 damage], is holy element and it has enough HP that you wouldn't be able to kill it in time even if you spam KOTR
and there's enough other stuff like that. Grinding just enables you to have a more.. dynamic strategy because stuff doesn't one-hit KO you and you get access to higher level spells and stuff.

also, what is stupid and what not really depends on the person playing. ever heard of disgaea? Or elona? that must be stupid to you too then, since the gamses are essentially one big grinding sandbox. and yet they're awesome.

welcome to the land of opinions, where yours is worth the same as everyones else: nothing.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: sl1982 on 2010-10-25 00:11:50
Unless you are me. My opinion has much worth.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-25 04:31:58
That thing with Diamond Weapon is an example of *good* stuff for a hardcore mod. Requiring pointless hours spent grinding is not.

You know what I'd actually love to see? An RPG where you learn new attacks at set points, and your stats don't change at all (of course, they may vary from character to character). So that the difficulty comes purely from strategy.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xLostWingx on 2010-10-25 05:50:49
It seems more like Kuugen's mod has the option of grinding if you can't defeat the enemies.  I haven't played it, but based on what is being said.  Fight = Win = No Grinding;  Fight = Lose = Grinding if desired
To grind, or not to grind, that is the question lol.  But it is a question that exists in any mod of the game.

Oh, and if you use wallmarket, or gameshark codes you can make FFVII
Quote
An RPG where you learn new attacks at set points, and your stats don't change at all (of course, they may vary from character to character). So that the difficulty comes purely from strategy.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-10-25 10:06:29
Actually you need both. You do need to grind some times because rushing through the game doesn't net enough exp ( I am using custom stat growth, hp / mp growth and exp curves. you need roughly 4x as much exp for lvl 99 as before, but you get much more hp/mp, while your base stats never really go beyond 100. ) to survive the bosses.
for example, I am lvl 20 at bottomswell, and he rapes me pretty hard unless I notoriously exploit his weakness ( bolt, slow, limit attacks with bolt element attached to weapon, etc ) and it's STILL hard then.
At some point, you ARE maxed out. you have all the strongest materia and maximum level. And at that point, you will still have non-optional bosses before you that will hurt you like crap.

Also, I said it's hardcore for a hardcore gamer. I guess that makes it some kind of over-the-top nonsense difficulty for a normal person. The kind of difficulty the original battletoads SNES game had. ( which was so difficult that it was near impossible to win even WITH INFINITE LIVES )

For example, Emerald Weapon has a lot more than just damage in it's repoirtare now. The eyes all cause several negative status effects, air tam storm is no longer fixed by materia but a 'shout' element attack that pierces def, status barriers and dispels you. Emerald Beam is reflectable now, but if you DO reflect it, it *heals* emerald weapon back to full health.  Also, it cuts the damage of KotR in half by resistance. Not to mention all the other crazy stuff.
Even with maximum stats and best equip, this guy is one hell of a challange.

I would release a patch for my version but I can't because of several reasons.
a) it is based on gjo's hardcore mod and includes his custom encounters ( all beefed up though )
b) I don't even know what changes I made where, so I would have to ship the entire scene.bin and flevel.bin
c) I dont think plagiarism is likely to make a good impression here.

I better stop going off-topic here before obesebear has a field day with me.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: LJH on 2010-10-28 13:31:13
Oh, and if you use wallmarket, or gameshark codes you can make FFVII
Quote
An RPG where you learn new attacks at set points, and your stats don't change at all (of course, they may vary from character to character). So that the difficulty comes purely from strategy.

Yes, but unless you go and entirely remix it, it's not one that's designed for that purpose. An RPG would have to pretty much be designed for that to work well as that.

FFX is a notable exception here; if you play No Sphere Grid (for those who don't know, the sphere grid is the ONLY way to increase stats and abilities in FFX, you don't gain levels in a traditional manner), you can still beat almost everything through good strategy. Only things that require either abusing a loophole (which is that No Sphere Grid doesn't technically prevent you from powering up your aeons - which are the summons, but they act like characters in that they stay on the field until KO'd and you can control them) or Zanmato (FFX's instant-kill-anything-even-if-immune attack, for those who don't know) are 7 of the optional bosses Neslug, Ultima Buster, Nemesis, Dark Shiva, Dark Bahamut, Dark Yojimbo and Penance. When you consider that unlike most FFs which have maybe 5 or 6 optional bosses tops, FFX has over 60, this isn't so major.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-10-28 15:04:19
...
The kind of difficulty the original battletoads SNES game had. ( which was so difficult that it was near impossible to win even WITH INFINITE LIVES )
...

Don't you mean the battletoads for the NES? That's probably THE hardest game to beat (not counting hard games 'cause of bad controllers or bad design). I've never played any BT for SNES though...

There are several tools available for those who's not happy with the difficulty. Feel free to use my mod as some kind of "standard", or whatever, and make your own mod. I can even include it in my patch if you do. It would be ideal for me if you only mod the scene (and kernel), as there are no problems including it in my patch. If you have tweaked some field files however, I need to know exactly what you've done.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xLostWingx on 2010-10-28 19:20:52
Anyway you can make a Kernel.bin and Scene.bin only patch for PSX?  Or idk if that would work.  I really wanted to try this mod, but my FFVII PC is on some old harddrive in an unknown box somewhere at my mom's house, and I'm no pirate.  Is uploading/sending .bins illegal or agaisnt the rules?

Sorry I sound like an idiot in this post, but I've had a sh*tastic day.

Edit:  Battle Toads for nes was impossible.  Granted i was only like 4 years old, but I rented that game like 6 times an never beat it.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-10-29 21:24:41
...
The kind of difficulty the original battletoads SNES game had. ( which was so difficult that it was near impossible to win even WITH INFINITE LIVES )
...

Don't you mean the battletoads for the NES? That's probably THE hardest game to beat (not counting hard games 'cause of bad controllers or bad design). I've never played any BT for SNES though...

There are several tools available for those who's not happy with the difficulty. Feel free to use my mod as some kind of "standard", or whatever, and make your own mod. I can even include it in my patch if you do. It would be ideal for me if you only mod the scene (and kernel), as there are no problems including it in my patch. If you have tweaked some field files however, I need to know exactly what you've done.

Might have messed up SNES and NES there. It's been a LONG time since battletoads. And yes, I mean THAT battletoads. The impossible kind. Because thats the kind of difficulty Kuugen Versions have ( old people here might know of a RVT patch for Grandia I that made the game ridiculously hard to the point where you had to be a jedi master to beat it. thats my patch )


What I did was basically change ALL items, materia, weapons, armors, accessoires, spells, attacks, limits, shops, prices, stat growth curves, and what else the kernel.bin offered. ( limits are obviously in the .exe and so are shops and prices )
I also changed about every enemy, a LOT of drops and stolen items, and so on.
The main problem is that while the kernel.bin and scene.bin can go by themselves, you really will run into problems without being able to buy the additional items from the shops later on. ( finally a use for those billions of gil you make by selling all masters )

I didnt make any significant changes to the flevel.lgp but unless there is also a way to patch the .exe with the necessary info, my mod wont work
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: blankdiploma on 2010-11-01 19:54:47
I made an account here just to provide feedback for this mod.

First off, great job! I got this mod as part of the remix project and it's been a great breath of fresh air for FF7. The difficulty overall has been pretty good, except for a few things I'd like to point out:

1) Random encounters that cause sleep/stop with physical attacks in the early game. Specifically those red hedgehog pies in Aeris's church.

This is a no-no for obvious reasons. When you've only got 1 or 2 party members, getting sleep/stop-chained until death isn't challenging or fun. It's just dumb.

2) Random encounters that are WAY above the average level of the area. Specifically Dragons in Mt. Nibel.

Getting your entire party wiped out instantly at the start of a fight with no chance to run isn't challenging. It's just obnoxious.

3) Mime materia cave

The boss in the Mime materia cave (Amaterasu/Tsukuyomi) is just absurd. First you kill a boss, then another, and then 2 each of the first and second bosses simultaneously, and they're immune to damage? Is there a bug here? What's going on? And how is it even remotely fair to fight two enemies who each have unresistable attacks that deal 50% max HP to all party members? If they both use Gold Dance at the same time (which happens all the time) then you're just dead with no chance to prevent it. At least give it an element or some way to cut the damage down a little. Also they seem to be immune to damage. What gives? I assume there's some secret to beating this fight - having bosses with some sort of shtick is fine, but when you bury that shtick at the end of a 3-stage fight, it's just infuriating having to go through such a long fight just to try again.

In general, I'd say all the materia cave bosses are WAY too hard. You say you put the northern crater materia in the materia caves instead so you "get it sooner", but that doesn't help if all the materia cave bosses are so much harder than anything else that doing the northern crater would be easier and faster than grinding to beat the caves.


Like I said, overall this mod is fantastic, but I feel like you've confused "very difficult challenge" with "totally unfair" in a few places and the mod as a whole would really benefit from a little tweaking.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xLostWingx on 2010-11-01 20:06:13
That seems like a very well articulated set of arguements blankdiploma.  However, you must think about the benefits you would recieve from obtaining the Mime and other Special Materias.

So in terms of "this is a hard mod with hard enemies" those bosses might be very difficult and nearly impossible to defeat.  But in terms of "how much more powerful will my characters become after I defeat these bosses" the difficulty level is probably fitting.  I mean, Mime allows Limit Miming (unless that's been taken out of the game), Counter=Mime exploits, and at least half a dozen other benefits that are basically OP.  Of course I mean no offense, I was just thinking about reasons WHY those bosses might be so difficult.

Also, about difficult enemies like the Dragon at Mt. Nibel, wouldn't you prefer to essentially have an Optional Boss to go fight later?  Or to learn how to defeat in order to obtain some awesome spoils?  Or just to provide a challenge?  How exactly does the Dragon insta-kill the party?  Surely there is a means of preventing this.  (idk what he casts, I think someone said Comet2?  If thats the case try protecting against Earth or Gravity Elemental damage.)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: blankdiploma on 2010-11-01 21:06:43
Agreed about the point of Mime being incredibly powerful. I'm not arguing that Mime should be *easy* to get - I'm just pointing out that adding incredibly powerful bosses that are guarding this materia is in direct opposition with the mod creator's stated goal of allowing you to get the northern crater materia "earlier."

If all the materia caves are supposed to be end-game difficulty, that basically removes any reason to bother with chocobo breeding until the end of disk 3, when you can do breeding as early as disk 2. Maybe have the materia caves ramp up in difficulty and shuffle the rewards from each? Say, have the final cave reward KotR and Mime, and then have the first two have significantly easier bosses (as in "actually potentially beatable on disk 2") and reward counter-cmd or hp<->mp or something like that that isn't as overpowered as Mime.

Also, Comet 2 is a non-elemental, non-reflectable spell that deals orders of magnitude more damage than your party can possibly survive in mt. nibel. Even if you get lucky and the dragon doesn't cast comet 2 immediately, he will melee each of your characters in turn for 30,000 damage before you can escape from the battle. Literally holding down the "flee" buttons the entire time starting at the beginning of the fight will just result in a party wipe. If the Dragon is meant to be an "optional boss" you come back to fight later, it should be guarding a specific treasure chest or something and not just be wandering around waiting to send you back to the title screen.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: xLostWingx on 2010-11-01 21:49:06
Ah I see.  I hadn't actually played the mod so I didn't know the dragon was THAT powerful.  Gah, all the time I spent in Wallmarket has warped my memories about magic attacks!  I forgot, Comet2 is only Earth/Gravity in my mod, whoops!  Well I should probably not post about things I haven't personally had experience with, so good luck.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Bosque on 2010-11-02 02:29:34
Quote
I didnt make any significant changes to the flevel.lgp but unless there is also a way to patch the .exe with the necessary info, my mod wont work

I think you can release the patch as a seperate file to apply to the executable. Did Dziugo ever mention how to make patches for YAMP?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: DLPB_ on 2010-11-02 02:33:31
I use DUP2 (shown to me by Kranmer), that will create patches for you.  It isn't too difficult to use either.  Only bad thing is there are a few false positives with virus scanners.

http://diablo2oo2.di.funpic.de/dup.htm

Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-11-02 11:47:53
@blankdiploma

I've gotten some complaints 'bout those hedgehog pies, so I guess I have to remove those effects. I could also do something with those "impossible" encounters. In the case of the nibel dragon, I could make it do nothing the 1st couple of turns if you're party is low level (like it detects it lol). I must admit this is a bit over the top when it comes to difficulty.

Although I stated one could get those materias early, I didn't say it would be easy to get 'em. Actually, imo, those materias should be the hardest treasures to get in the game. I know of some who managed to get 'em before disc 3 without being over leveled (including myself lol). In the final "mime" fight you must kill the ones in the back row 1st to make the corresponding front rows damageable. There are some ways of doing this quite easily if you have enough counter attacks. The counter attack strategy may be the most efficient strategy against most bosses (never attack, just defend and heal when needed. Multiple counter attacks handles the rest).
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-11-03 10:28:36
I just checked the dragon
thats not difficult, thats stupid
that dragon is the SAME THING that appears as random enc in the KOTR cave. thats a LIIIIIIIIIIITLE bit too hard, dont you think?
I adjusted my dragon ( not even I can beat something that dishes out so much damage and doesnt let you escape, is immune to death and cant be manipulated ) to make it near undamageable but not one-shot-everything strong
And the materia bosses are nowhere near 'hard'
Sorry, but some of them are pathetic.
@50% max hp damage. HAVENT YOU HEARD OF REGEN?
seriously, why play a hardcore mod if you're too dumb to think of the SIMPLEST solutions.
regen on all -> x-potion someone ( or full-cure which you can have on cd 2 ) -> white wind
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-11-08 22:19:18
I just checked the dragon
thats not difficult, thats stupid
that dragon is the SAME THING that appears as random enc in the KOTR cave. thats a LIIIIIIIIIIITLE bit too hard, dont you think?
I adjusted my dragon ( not even I can beat something that dishes out so much damage and doesnt let you escape, is immune to death and cant be manipulated ) to make it near undamageable but not one-shot-everything strong
And the materia bosses are nowhere near 'hard'
Sorry, but some of them are pathetic.
@50% max hp damage. HAVENT YOU HEARD OF REGEN?
seriously, why play a hardcore mod if you're too dumb to think of the SIMPLEST solutions.
regen on all -> x-potion someone ( or full-cure which you can have on cd 2 ) -> white wind

I'm not sure if I should read this as criticism or as an offense. Don't get me wrong, but the way you word yourself make you sound like a douche, imo (no offense).

I get the message 'bout the Nibel dragon. The dragon, and those other impossible encounters weren't meant to be beatable the 1st time around. Later in the game the player can come back and claim the rewards (or just fight 'em for fun). I see the annoyment factor however, and figure I have to do something to lessen the frustration.

If you find those bosses too easy I suggest using Hojo and Proud Clod. As you probably have...  8-)

Edit: oh, and I may make another update soon.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-11-08 23:26:36
Don't worry, I am a douche, but that doesn't mean I can't make a valid point.
So far, the only really "impossible" encounters are the dragon ( which appear way too frequently for all intends )
Also, the rapps battle is completely missing from the h_scene.bin I get from the remix mod. Can you check your files to see if thats a problem on your side?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-11-09 16:49:30
I don't support the remix patch. You should use my hardcore app to patch the scene.bin (it will not find h_scene.bin). There are bugs in the remix version. To upgrade from 1.0 -> 1.0.2  (not 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2), you need to patch flevel.lgp and scene.bin (there are some changes in kernel2.bin after v1.0 but they're not important). Keep in mind that this will overwrite scene.bin and about 20 field files.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-11-09 18:33:04
Not gonna upgrade.
I fixed the rapps battle myself. I heard theres a CTD at the end of the ancient forest, how did you fix that? probably an error in the flevel I'd guess, so I'm gonna fix it myself.
Updating really is not an option. I would have to do all my scene.bin changes over. urg. no thanks. That would take days.
I'd be grateful if you could tell me what changed from 1.00 to 1.02 ( I only really need bugfixes. If you added more optional stuff, I might think about upgrading but even so.. )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: titeguy3 on 2010-11-09 18:48:00
Updating really is not an option. I would have to do all my scene.bin changes over. urg. no thanks. That would take days.
It would take seconds if you used the patch creation feature NFITC1 implemented into Wallmarket and ProudClod to create a "Changes patch" between your scene.bin and a stock 1.0 hardcore scene.bin, then upgrade, then apply the changes patch to the 1.2 hardcore scene.bin
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-11-09 18:58:10
I'd be grateful if you could tell me what changed from 1.00 to 1.02 ( I only really need bugfixes. If you added more optional stuff, I might think about upgrading but even so.. )
Not really much considering the flevel. If the Nibel dragon is in the pipe area or if the game crashes in the ancient forest, you don't have the newest fields. There stat and AI tweaks in the scene.bin. Too much to list.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-11-10 00:47:44
Sigh. I guess I'll get back to this and what tite proposed. I don't keep track of every single function each tool has.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: stealthcamo68 on 2010-11-21 02:26:54
hey, so great mod! but i'm trying uninstall this mod on one of the computer that has ff7 installed;
and keeping the other on;

how do i go about uninstalling the difficulty mod and keep the other goods?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Beavii on 2010-11-21 05:39:01
Try this

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11041.msg153903#msg153903
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-04 02:16:39
Hey i been playing this and i ran into some problems.

Im still on disk 1, just got the stone of Dio in gold saucer, and Cloud is now at level 62.

First of all i am able to beat the fights in the south east near mideel, which is great exp and ap if you can survive, i had to save it before each fight just to make sure in the beginning.

The Kjata boss is really difficult for me, i tried to use Meteorain, Great Gospel and some other limit break to start, then tried my best to take off as much damage as i could, but soon as great gospel effect ran out, they will just kill me off pretty quick.

I figured ill need Omnislash to beat this, i have no idea just how difficult the bosses are the Temple of the ancients, so im not sure whether to continue on in the storyline.

So i decided to get some GP in the gold saucer so i can get Omnislash, but i have to say that even with a level 60+ cloud and good materia for this stage of the game, its so difficult to beat this regularly due to the following problems.

-Some of the monsters do berserk effect, Grand Horns are the worst for this, usually by the 2nd or 3rd fight.
-Certain monsters can be really difficult to get past sometimes:

Flower Prong has a ton of HP like its a big boss, it gets bio on early, then uses pollen to sleep you, then it starts using W-Laser which brings you into critical health, usually ending up with you dieing of poison, this can be avoided but i got caught out with this once, this flower was no match before. Nonetheless its a massive drain for the rest of the fight as it only appears on the 3rd fight.

Sahagin are unusually annoying now in battle arena, they like to take your MP, silence and poison you, not only that they guard well from physical attacks, so if your out of MP at this point, it can be a real pain to do anything for a while.

Valrons, a certain kick of theirs does so much damage compared to anything else it can do, its been hitting me for 3-4k per hit, thats also completely going through barrier, its quite a shock when it happens.

Ying and Yang is by far the most annoying, and hardest fight in the battle arena at this stage of the game, by now your handicapped to hell, and although the moves it does is only doing 500-1000 damage a time, it takes a lot to kill it, and usually by the time you do that, it pulls of the sacrifice move, and there is nothing which can be done to stop this.
I only managed to beat this once so far, i started with Meteorain which mostly hit Yang, then i got Leviathan and Odin out, Yang died, and manage to finish Ying off with Beta before it did the sacrifice move.

-Glitch in the battle arena i had, for some reason i got a Back Attack from a Griffon bird, and it was practically on top of me, all the fights after that Cloud was facing the wrong way, even if you tried to Run away, and stop again, he stayed looking the wrong way to the mobs.. which was quite amusing but wrong lol. Back Attacks in battle arena should not happen :)

-Battle arena crash, i seem to get this randomly, it dont happen so much as i play through the game, but if i start fighting in the battle arena, usually i get to 10-30k BP then the game decides to crash midfight, this has happened 3 times now and no idea why.

Not sure what to do about these problems, would love to continue on in this mod, as its real good fun :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-12-04 19:40:24
The crash is mostly likely a missing enemy or simply a enemy thats not working right. And well, the Battle Arena is supposed to be really hard at CD1
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-04 20:09:48
@Kylos
imo I don't think it's worth it to get omnislash just to beat that boss. It wont make it easier.
The goons will always prioritize to keep your party reflected and boost their own party. To keep 'em busy, you could keep dispelling everyone, or keep the enemies reflected. Yamigor is weak against fire, Hadadigor is weak against earth and Levant is weak against Ice. Attack with magic (not if they got reflect on lol). At least never attack Levant with physicals. It always counter physical attacks, except if you counterattack it (lots of counterattacks is almost always a good strategy).
When Levant is alone, use Leviathan, Bahamut (if you have it), Shiva, Odin, Blizzaga and Aqualung (in this order) to kill it.

The battle arena is supposed to be a lot harder then normal. I recommend switching to a normal difficulty instead of getting frustrated. If you managed to get through all battles once in my mod however, you deserve to cheat to get the prices. Eventually you would get 'em anyway, right?

Those crashes, did they happen as you enter the 1st battle? If not, do you remember after which battles the crashes occurred?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: philman on 2010-12-04 22:03:48
sorry i don't check the other pages of this post but gjoerulv,how i can battle with omega? when i have fancy transparency off,i can have a crash on omega attacks (omega 1 and 2 battles) when the fancy transparency is on i can have a crash in last omega attacks.what i make about this? give omega 10000 hp and use 4x-atk? (joke XD)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-05 15:09:07
@philman
It's definitely a graphic problem. Try without Ali's graphic. I also got crashes, but only with Ali's driver.   :-\

EDIT: Actually there are bugs in the 3 first omega battles. Sigh, I'll make another release.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-06 20:02:24
Ok joe i got an update on my save and the reasons why i may have been having difficulty.

First of all i may have figured out why i was crashing, i was not using Aalis custom driver, i installed the latest version of that and the new GUI 2.07, and changed the settings in the config, including turning off Fancy Transparency (I do really like the new battle interface implemented on the custom driver)

Crashes seemed random before, they happened on the big bird (last round) and the 4 new snakes in the battle arena and other random battles, but it seems after i updated i didnt get any crashes, and the battle arena was not as difficult now, due to some mistakes i had made previous.

First of all, Ying and Yang, a big mistake i seem to have made, is that i just didnt think thats its undead, and you can kill it with Pheonix downs.... Therefore this made my battles a lot easier, the bird, the swinging guy and Ying/Yang can be dealt with.

Also i found a counter for the Flower Prong, use Odin on the first form lol :P

What i noticed is, this battle arena should not be done til after Temple of Ancients, ill go into that later, but first ill say that the most annoying mobs in the arena are:

The new seahorse creatures(1st round) - They cause instant death.. for a 1st round mob that is stupid, Death Force is the only protection.

Grand Horns - Using Berserk, usually i had to use Star Pendant to protect against silence and poison which are the most annoying stats in my eyes, having to equip a fury ring to protect against berserk would be such an inconvenience.
The only way round this, is to make absolutely sure you have a full ATB bar (Kill the mobs with counter attack) and then use Leviathan soon as its possible, so these do not destroy your fight.

Griffons - I got another back attack in the battle arena off this, it seems to appear just behind Cloud, and turns him round for the rest of the fight, even on the next rounds.

Apart from those i dont see much trouble in the battle arena with the right strategy and materia, it takes practice at first though to get used to what all these monsters can do, and without Ribbon to protect you, its required you have items to help cure status ailments, and plenty of Ethers,

After getting Omnislash and my other items, i went back to the sleeping forest and tried again with full limit breaks, All Creation, Great Gospel and Omnislash destroyed this fight, i had to restart and try again to see what can be stolen off these, unfortunately they only drop Sources.

Now that i done this fight and beat it, i realize you really dont need Omnislash, DeSpell-All is a great combo on this, and using any Fire Ice or Thunder elemental armour or accessories helps, getting rid of the 2 front guys soon as possible is the best way to go.

After finally getting Kjata and Omnislash, i thought i would try temple of ancients, and i was disappointed lol, because it was really easy, the 2 bosses here were no match for me, specially the wall, it was no match and i was expecting a lot more of a difficult fight, seen as the real game of FF7, this boss usually scares the average player at this point in the game, i think it should be more of a challenge to be honest.

I got Ribbon in the temple, and i noticed just how less useful this accessory is now, on the real game it was a dream to have 3 ribbons, but not anymore, as this thing not only protects against all the status ailments, but it also protects against regen, barrier and Mbarrier, which is a big sacrifice in some fights i have noticed.

I continued on with the story, and got my 3rd enemy skill, and continued to kill Jenova pretty easily, and finished disc 1.

I noticed the hedgehogs in groups of 4 was a real pain, they hit for a lot and always on the char with lowest hp, i carried on and got onto the world map, where i noticed a new elephant mob :D Which i really like by the way, it fits in well and has nice moves.

After snowboarding, and looking round for items in the icelands, i managed to get to the Snow Queen, and oh my lord this is a very interesting fight for a number of reasons.
I was lucky to make 2 of my characters invalid to Ice, or this would have been over quick, she is a very nice challenge, and i managed to kill her first time round, and get Alexander.

Up Gaeas cliff i noticed the new wizard mobs (Damnation is not nice lol), and that Magic breath now does MP Damage, the icicles are a nice fight now, but not too difficult, and then i managed to easily get Bad Breath off the Malboro, thanks to 2 ribbons :)

From here i decided to try a tank setup, have Cid become the guy with high attack, Cover, counter attack, and because he still have limit 1(not used him much on this save so far) he can spam that, while the other party members do magics and support.

I was worried the dragons that drop dragon armlets would be difficult, but turns out they were ok, so i got 2 armlets and carried on to fight Schizo.
Schizo was not too hard, i stole Protect ring, and managed to kill it pretty easy, i did notice it now does a Quake move, which suprised me lol.

Into the crater, i tried the bombs and giant guy, the bombs are very easy, but the big man is actually a challenge now, which is what i expected :)
Picked up Neo Bahamut, and fought Golden Dragon, i enjoyed this fight, not overly difficult, not compared to whats to come.
Fought Jenova.. and it was really difficult, the Red Light is extremely strong, and can do it up to 3 times in a row, also it can drain all the MP from everyone, and likes to make everyone slow, i had to use Megalixers in this fight at times, just to avoid a game over, after a tough and epic battle i managed to kill it.

After Jenova i did a fight with this triangle mob(what the hell??), and 2 flying monsters, and for some reason the mobs started putting french or spanish dialogue  at the top, and completely wiped my party, it was very shocking as i totally was not prepared for this, i saved it and im going to try again now, and see what that fight is all about. If this is an addition its a pretty confusing one.

Edit: Just tried these new red pyramid style mobs, and they just cause death to everyone, physical attacks barely take anything off it, and they seem immune to all magic, unless there is some kind of trick to beating these, they are unbeatable, even with limit breaks ready.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-07 02:19:14
@Kylos
Thanks for feedback.

Yeah, you seem a bit over leveled for the ancient temple.

I've fixed that back attack in the battle arena.
Against berserk, can't you use added effect + mystify?

Yeah, those red pyramids. Immune against magic. Actually the ? ? ? attack may be the only way to beat 'em if you've lost 1000 HP or more. The deal is they'll kill you if you have full HP. Otherwise they'll fully heal you. And they act after any battle move (calculate before the move). But it's a good thing you brought it up, I'll try to make 'em more beatable.
The text is Latin. Phrases from a very known last boss theme ;)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-07 16:37:36
yea i find having to add mystify and add effect an inconvenience, its 2 full slots of materia, its not impossible to get round the berserk effect, its just annoying thats all. Anyways i beaten the battle arena now at the earliest stage, so thats cool.

I went back on my save last night, and tried to figure out the pyramids, and i could not do it, i tried limit breaks and summons, but they kept killing me, ok now im going to poke a big flaw in the way that these mobs work.

You say they instant kill anyone who has full hp, and they restore hp to anyone who has not got it, this makes it extremely difficult to do anything, because these mobs are pretty fast, and you dont even see them do the move, or who its going to land on, its all pretty random and confusing to me.

The only way i could see beating these from what you told me, is to use Demaga > all on my party then use ? ? ? ? before they cure me back up to max hp, only thing about that though is if your too slow (they often can kill at least one player before anyone can do a move) at getting it out, someones going to die, then you need to pheonix down them, by the time you done that, the next guy is dead and so on, and there aint really anyway of getting back from this, as the mobs are too fast, specially if your doing the fight with the 2 pyramids.

In all honesty i do not think these mobs should be in the game, the latin thing is very confusing, and they just dont seem to fit into the game well for me, i guess they suit the area a little bit better then those strange monkey creatures you usually get, and i could see what you wanted to do with the area, but in all honesty i think i would rather fight slightly stronger monkeys in that area then pyramids with instant death.

See i thought i could counter this move with Death Force, but it seems the pyramids completely ignore that, like i said i think this is probably the worst addition i seen in the game so far, its your mod though and if your going to keep them, at least make possible to kill lol :P

Edit: Just tried to fight the pyramids, i only have one enemy skill with the ????, i used demara to get my players hp down, but they still managed to kill 2 others off before i managed to hit with tifa, i killed one of them off, but then the other one killed me.. although i didnt have full hp.

Ok i also proved that these mobs are very glitchy, i used the same technique in the fight with 1 pyramid and 2 other mobs, i used Bad Breath to start, to deal with the other mobs, then i already had tifa with a possible 3k ???? move, so i did that and killed the pyramid.. Now i get suprised because its still speaking the latin in the dialogue, Cloud was the only character with full hp at this point, i did Beta and was about to finish the mobs off with a summon..
But then out of nowhere, all 3 of my characters died at the same time... instant game over, i managed to kill the only pyramid in the fight, but for some reason all 3 of my characters died although nothing physcially hit me in the fight.

I tried once again, and fought the 2 pyramids, i got ? ? ? ? off soon as i could with tifa, and killed the first off, Cid died, so i used Cloud to raise him, Tifa and Cloud at full hp now, then for some reason, cloud and cid(although he had low hp) died, and tifa lost 75% of her hp and landed in critical, i did one more ? ? ? ? with Tifa, and i actually killed the 2nd Pyramid.. then Tifa died a second after, resulting in game over, like the pyramids were still there.

I seem to have given up on trying to defeat these monsters, apart from the Mt Nibel dragon, its the only monster which i come across so far which seems to be impossible to kill.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-08 18:25:02
Yeah, I kinda agree. They're almost impossible to beat as they are now. That's why I'm glad you brought it up. There are no bugs, they act as I intended, but they're broken and need to be fixed.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-09 18:09:43
Yea i would love to try out your new mod when its finished, currently im stuck trying to get back out onto the world map after you lose Cloud, it keeps crashing before i manage to finish all that part off with Barret, and Tifa escaping the gas chamber.

When i can manage to carry on in my game, ill leave some more feedback :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-12 23:26:41
Ok i managed to get past the bit i was stuck on, and got out onto the world map with Tifa as leader, first place i went was Cactus Island.

I morphed one of these and got a Four Slots! I was pretty surprised but i guess a Tetra Elemental and this point would be too good, so i can see why its been done, pretty much makes Cactus Island pointless though.

I got the Curse Ring, and using this with Tifa and Powersoul is dam powerful at this level, specially combined with Deathblow and low HP, it easily breaks 9999 damage, sometimes i even got 26-30k hits with this powerful combo.

Decided to try and get a colour chocobo with Tifa, for the first time ever, normally i just wait to get Cloud back then get a Gold, but i wanted to try out some materia caves and the Ancient forest before continuing on with the story.

I got a Blue Choco, and went to the Quadra Magic cave, i noticed these mobs are really powerful, Bad Breath and L4 Suicide is a lifesaver against these, i have tried the Blue Adamantoise a few times now, and im not able to beat it, it does its Contain magic a bit too much and im just not strong enough to defend against these attacks yet.

Then i managed to get a Green choco after a lot of restarts, eventually choosing to mate my Blue with a Yellow choco, and getting the result of a Green, so i went to the Ancient Forest.

The regular mobs are pretty tough, i also ran into the Ochu, which was a pain but i got past that, then i picked up Typhon(shouldnt this be called Typhoon??) and went into the battle with the Black Clipper.

This thing is dam strong, i was doing fine until it called its pet out, and then i just could not do much.

I noticed some glitches in the bosses, which seem to be pretty big to notice.

-The adamantoise can be put to sleep, but it continues to do moves even though its asleep, after a few moves the zzZ icon disappears, you can put it back to sleep again, but it will continue to do moves anyways.
Also i noticed this Boss can be put into Mini, but this does not do anything as all its attacks are magic based anyways, i guess you should just make this immune to sleep and mini?

-The black clipper was strange to me, it kept attacking Tifa, but when she died, it started attacking itself til she was raised back up, then when it called its Pet out, it continued to attack itself even though Tifa was alive, even with this happening though, its Pet was really strong and i didn't last long anyways, needless to say this boss confuses me.

Outside Mideel is a great point to level still, which i like, only thing is now im level 70+ with all my characters now, and the Forest and the Caves seem a bit too tough, so i think i may just have to continue with the storyline and pick up some new Materia.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-12 23:56:34
-The adamantoise can be put to sleep, but it continues to do moves even though its asleep, after a few moves the zzZ icon disappears, you can put it back to sleep again, but it will continue to do moves anyways.
Also i noticed this Boss can be put into Mini, but this does not do anything as all its attacks are magic based anyways, i guess you should just make this immune to sleep and mini?

These aren't bugs. The sleep thing is a battle script, and you discovered it. The mini thing is a tease of some sort, as it doesn't help.

-The black clipper was strange to me, it kept attacking Tifa, but when she died, it started attacking itself til she was raised back up, then when it called its Pet out, it continued to attack itself even though Tifa was alive, even with this happening though, its Pet was really strong and i didn't last long anyways, needless to say this boss confuses me.

This is a bug. It shouldn't keep attacking itself. I'll look into it.
Good you discovered it.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-13 00:56:49
Ah i see well i dont see the point in putting something in sleep or mini if it dont work, it might as well just be immune.

I tried to go back into the Ancient forest.. and i went against the Gi Spirits which are now there, and i had no chance against these, they are a lot stronger then the other mobs in the area, also after i did Bad Breath i noticed one of them moved, like it was floating around in the floor, it looked quite odd to me, maybe these mobs need some work, their power and death moves are ridiculous, i died twice now in the Ancient forest, once to the Typhon boss, and also once now to the new Gi's.

I decided to give up trying to do caves and the forest, and carry on with the storyline, i am currently doing the Simurg (Shouldnt these be called Simurgh? Thats what the bird is called in FFXI and other final fantasy)

I just paused it while doing this fight, it dont seem too difficult at the moment, i do think the camera is a bit too far away though, apart from that this new boss fight looks good. :)

Oh they do Angel Whisper!?? Nice move by them, you can tell these are protecting the Pheonix alright.

Ok these are quite difficult lol, i was just about to finish them off with a Hyper Jump i think(must have to kill them all at same time so they dont angel whisper) but then it crashed again :'(

Tried this again with a better strategy, managed to get down to 1 bird, and used Angermax to finish it off, then they all used Submit, was a pretty awesome fight! Good job on this

Next i tried the train fights in Mt Corel, and i totally failed lol, i did not manage to steal the Warriors Bangle, and no chance of stealing of the 3 Soldier's, if they drop anything decent i just dont think there is any time for it, i did manage to kill them but ran out of time as i got to the last fight. Guess ill have to try again lol

Something i forgot to mention before, when i got back onto the World map as Tifa, i did go back to Mt Nibel to attempt the dragon, and it was not too much of a challenge, i managed to steal a Diamond Bangle off it and got decent EXP from the battle, but something confuses me.

There is no way that you can beat this dragon at the stage where a Diamond Bangle is useful to have, therefore this battle and the strength of this monster is useless, its just more of an annoyance, i could understand if you come back later and got something decent from it (Dragon Armlet maybe?) but of course the strength of this monster will need to be balanced to the point that you can beat this and the item you get is actually useful to you, if this cant be done then i do not see a point in making this as strong as it is, it might as well drop a Diamond Bangle, be stronger then what it usually is, but is actually possible to beat when you first get to Mt Nibel.

This brings me onto another point, fights like this may just be annoyances more then rewarding, just like the monster outside Fort Condor, all it drops is an X Potion, true you could fight this later on and collect X potions, but i honestly thought i could come back later on and get a decent piece of gear or a weapon from it, but it does not so this battle was more of a disappointment then anything just like the dragon.

Onto my actual game, i did get past the train bit last night, managed to steal the Warriors Bangle (I expected this to be better then it is, seen as it can be a pain to get, and is the only one i know of you can find anywhere) and beat the 3 Soldiers (only managed to steal an Elixir off Locke, no idea what the other two will drop) with just over 2 minutes left, and i actually managaed to stop the train with less then 30 seconds on the clock.

After getting Ultima and Catastrophe, i went to Mideel and fought the Ultimate Weapon, i noticed the increased strength and new abilites, managed to steal the Curse Ring, this fight was not overly difficult but at least its more of a challenge then the original, after the painfully long cutscenes following this fight, i have just managed to get Cloud back, and this is where ill carry on right now :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-12-14 02:14:25
The mob outside fort condor has a very, very hard to steal item iirc ( aka, out of 1-63, 1 ) and I think it was a precious watch.
You CAN get the warrior bangle somewhere else as well. I looked through the initial scene.bin of the hardcore mod and saw more than one warrior bangle entry.
There was also something weird about the dragon. I think it could drop megaelixirs or something.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-14 05:00:45
Oh yes i remember, i did get a precious watch off that thing, only thing is that its totally useless, its got 0 defensive, 1 slot and Triple AP growth, a silver armlet is better then that junk.

As for the dragon i only fought it once, if it does drop Megaelixirs, its probably too much effort to farm them seen as its probably going to give the diamond bangle majority of the time.

I carried on with my game, managed to get my chocos to S rank, and get a Zeio Nut for when they ready to mate, i decided to try out the battle arena, i thought i would use the Warriors Bangle, but i figure its got too little Magic defense and slots for materia for it to be good enough for this.

This is where i think i might have ran into another bug, on the 3rd fight i fought the Griffon which does L2 Confu, it hit me with that and i started spinning (doesn't ribbon protect against this?) and Cloud continued to keep hitting himself for 2.5k, and would not break the confusion, although im sure usually hitting yourself during confusion cures the effect, Cloud continued to hit himself til death.. and still looked like he was spinning on the floor as the battle ended.

Has this type of confusion always been this way? Either its a bug or i am just simply not aware of this.

I can confirm that i was using a Ribbon in the fight, and i did not break my accessory before that fight occured, so the griffon should have not been able to use L2 Confu.

Also i am still getting crashes, it seems to occur randomly and is extremely annoying, i did leave a message in the tech support part of this forum but had no response yet. :(
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-14 07:05:34
It would help a lot if you remember after which fights the crashes occurs. Or if it happens in a middle of a fight, before the 1st fight etc. I'll look into that griffin. Make sure you're level is not dividable with 2. 
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-15 05:26:22
I think my level was dividable by 2, but shouldnt Ribbon still protect against confusion anyways?

And shouldn't an attack to myself stop Cloud from being confused? At least thats what usually happens when i fight the same monster outside of the battle arena.

Crashes seem to happen randomly, they can happen during fights or in the middle of cutscenes, if it happens again ill let you know where it crashes.

From memory these are the crashes i can remember:
In the battle arena, on disc 1 against the big bird (last fight) and the new snakes (5th or 6th fight?)
During the cut scenes after the save point in the game used by Barrett, it happened during the gas chamber part, and on the Highwind after saving Tifa..
Crashed while trying to get Chocobos near Rocket Town, luckily i just saved it anyways.
Crash during the Simurg fight when Cid used Hyper Jump.
Happened yesterday when i entered the battle arena, did not even get into the first fight (Went in as Cloud after getting him back)

There has been a lot more but cant remember exactly when right now, like i said the crashes are random and never seems to occur during possibly the first 30-60 minutes of play(always crashes after i been playing for a while), after that i keep saving it as im pretty much expecting it to crash at some point.
This has been a pain and i did make a post in the Tech support part of this forum, but it seems no one is helping there, its difficult when trying to do something like Battle arena or a lot of cutscenes in one go.

Edit: Currently in the battle arena, just got to the 6th fight, and theres this giant mob which looks extremely odd, not sure if its supposed to look this way

(http://kylos.webs.com/photos/wtf.png)

What the hell, how is it even standing, wheres its head and legs lol!
Keeps taking my wall away, did the enfeeble move.. and it seems to have put slow petrify on me, and seems to have turned Cloud around and stopped me from making any moves as my bar has stopped... now that is just scary lol.

Crashed again, 30 minutes of play, i entered the battle arena and it crashed there, ill post a log below.
Code: [Select]
INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.9b
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce 9400 GT/PCI/SSE2 3.3.0
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Max texture size: 8192x8192
INFO: Number of texture units: 4
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1280x1024, output resolution 1280x960, internal resolution 1280x960
INFO: Shader limits: varying 60, vert uniform 4096, frag uniform 2048
INFO: main program link log: Fragment info
-------------
0(42) : warning C7050: "texture_color.xyz" might be used before being initialized

INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r21874, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
INITIALIZING MIDI...
selecting device 0:Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, mid=1, pid=102,
midi data type: GENERAL MIDI
using midi data file: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\midi\midi.lgp
midiOutGetVolume returned: ffffffff
MIDI INITIALIZED
set music volume: 127
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 0
MIDI set volume: 127
0% of 127 = 0
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\eidoslogo.avi; rawvideo/null 364x353, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 0.066667, frames: 1
INFO: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\sqlogo.avi; mpeg4/mp3 640x480, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 247.466667, frames: 3712
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
MIDI set volume trans: 127->0; step=60
MIDI stop - OK
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
MIDI set volume: 127
0% of 127 = 0
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 604
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
GLITCH: texture conversion error
[Neo] begin scan ground
[Neo] finish scan ground
[Neo] begin thunder
[Neo] Effect_play3 group 0
[Neo] finished effect play
[Neo] Link ground, dust_manager, rock1_manager
[Neo] link cloud1, sky_mask
[Neo] link cloud2
[Neo] link line_light3_manager
[Neo] white out
[Neo] white-in, link cloudsea, backsky
[Neo] effect play3 group 1
[Neo] finished effect play 3
[Neo] linke ball_manager, circle, line_light1_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 2
[Neo] finished effect play3
[Neo] link breath
[Neo] rock2_manager
[Neo] link flash2, rock3_manager, line_light2_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 3
[Neo] finished effect_play3
[Neo] white-out
[Neo] white-in
[Neo] finish Neo Bahamut
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
GLITCH: texture conversion error
[Neo] begin scan ground
[Neo] finish scan ground
[Neo] begin thunder
[Neo] Effect_play3 group 0
[Neo] finished effect play
[Neo] Link ground, dust_manager, rock1_manager
[Neo] link cloud1, sky_mask
[Neo] link cloud2
[Neo] link line_light3_manager
[Neo] white out
[Neo] white-in, link cloudsea, backsky
[Neo] effect play3 group 1
[Neo] finished effect play 3
[Neo] linke ball_manager, circle, line_light1_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 2
[Neo] finished effect play3
[Neo] link breath
[Neo] rock2_manager
[Neo] link flash2, rock3_manager, line_light2_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 3
[Neo] finished effect_play3
[Neo] white-out
[Neo] white-in
[Neo] finish Neo Bahamut
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
pause_sound
MIDI pause
resume_sound ()
MIDI resume
pause_sound
MIDI pause
resume_sound ()
MIDI resume
pause_sound
MIDI pause
resume_sound ()
MIDI resume
[BATTLE] in while-loop!
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 617
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
ERROR: unhandled exception


Fighting in the battle arena after this crash i have noticed somethings, like Fosforos move is super powerful (7k per hit) even with high defense gear, also certain mobs like Ochu take off 10-30k with a normal attack which seems well difficult to fight against with just one guy.
Im running out of MP all the time, and having to keep Ribbon in to protect myself from status effects (so much more difficult without this) this battle arena seems much harder then the 1st disk battle arena, maybe i just dont have the right materia or something but i only managed to beat this once so far and that had me using a Dream powder and M-Tentacles strategy on the Viper breath monster, and waiting forever for it to die (and i did do an Omnislash), needless to say this is going to be a tough challenge to find the points for W-Summon materia.

Dam!!! Its crashed again when entering the battle arena, think im just going to give up for W-Summon if its going to keep doing this to me :(

Once again another APP log, sorry for the massive post, but i hope my feedback can be helpful to correct the mistakes i seen so far while playing this FF7 Hardcore mod.

INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.9b
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce 9400 GT/PCI/SSE2 3.3.0
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Max texture size: 8192x8192
INFO: Number of texture units: 4
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1280x1024, output resolution 1280x960, internal resolution 1280x960
INFO: Shader limits: varying 60, vert uniform 4096, frag uniform 2048
INFO: main program link log: Fragment info
-------------
0(42) : warning C7050: "texture_color.xyz" might be used before being initialized

INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r21874, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
INITIALIZING MIDI...
selecting device 0:Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, mid=1, pid=102,
midi data type: GENERAL MIDI
using midi data file: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\midi\midi.lgp
midiOutGetVolume returned: ffffffff
MIDI INITIALIZED
set music volume: 127
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 0
MIDI set volume: 127
0% of 127 = 0
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\eidoslogo.avi; rawvideo/null 364x353, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 0.066667, frames: 1
INFO: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\sqlogo.avi; mpeg4/mp3 640x480, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 247.466667, frames: 3712
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
MIDI set volume trans: 127->0; step=60
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI stop - OK
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
MIDI set volume: 127
0% of 127 = 0
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 1
MIDI set volume: 127
1% of 127 = 1
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 2
MIDI set volume: 127
2% of 127 = 2
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 3
MIDI set volume: 127
3% of 127 = 3
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 4
MIDI set volume: 127
4% of 127 = 5
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 5
MIDI set volume: 127
5% of 127 = 6
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 6
MIDI set volume: 127
6% of 127 = 7
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 7
MIDI set volume: 127
7% of 127 = 8
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 6
MIDI set volume: 127
6% of 127 = 7
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 5
MIDI set volume: 127
5% of 127 = 6
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 4
MIDI set volume: 127
4% of 127 = 5
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 3
MIDI set volume: 127
3% of 127 = 3
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 2
MIDI set volume: 127
2% of 127 = 2
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 1
MIDI set volume: 127
1% of 127 = 1
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 0
MIDI set volume: 127
0% of 127 = 0
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 24
reading midi file: HORROR.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 24
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 57
reading midi file: YADO.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 24
reading midi file: HORROR.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 24
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 55
song is already playing...
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 182
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
UNEXPECTED: zero count
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
GLITCH: texture conversion error
[Neo] begin scan ground
[Neo] finish scan ground
[Neo] begin thunder
[Neo] Effect_play3 group 0
[Neo] finished effect play
[Neo] Link ground, dust_manager, rock1_manager
[Neo] link cloud1, sky_mask
[Neo] link cloud2
[Neo] link line_light3_manager
[Neo] white out
[Neo] white-in, link cloudsea, backsky
[Neo] effect play3 group 1
[Neo] finished effect play 3
[Neo] linke ball_manager, circle, line_light1_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 2
[Neo] finished effect play3
[Neo] link breath
[Neo] rock2_manager
[Neo] link flash2, rock3_manager, line_light2_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 3
[Neo] finished effect_play3
[Neo] white-out
[Neo] white-in
[Neo] finish Neo Bahamut
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
MIDI play: 46
reading midi file: FAN2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 614
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 614
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 604
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
UNEXPECTED: invalid blendmode (64)
BLEND MODE NOT FOUND
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
ERROR: invalid version in polygon file ENEMY191.P16
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] next battle
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI play: 55
reading midi file: GOLD1.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
MIDI play: 70
reading midi file: ASERI2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
Field Quit
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 617
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
ERROR: unhandled exception
There's no reason for your app.log to take up 20 computer screens.  Fixed
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Aali on 2010-12-15 14:09:18
Seems like there are some broken data files there, some weird errors you got.

Can I see a crash.dmp?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-15 15:25:33
I think my level was dividable by 2, but shouldnt Ribbon still protect against confusion anyways?

And shouldn't an attack to myself stop Cloud from being confused? At least thats what usually happens when i fight the same monster outside of the battle arena.

Not when the attack ignores stat defense, which this attack does. But it misses completely if your level is odd.

From memory these are the crashes i can remember:
In the battle arena, on disc 1 against the big bird (last fight) and the new snakes (5th or 6th fight?)
During the cut scenes after the save point in the game used by Barrett, it happened during the gas chamber part, and on the Highwind after saving Tifa..
Crashed while trying to get Chocobos near Rocket Town, luckily i just saved it anyways.
Crash during the Simurg fight when Cid used Hyper Jump.
Happened yesterday when i entered the battle arena, did not even get into the first fight (Went in as Cloud after getting him back)
I'll check the bird, the snakes and the chocobo fight in rocket town. Against simurg I guess hyper jump is the culprit. I always get random crashes with Cid's jumps, mod or not. I haven't touched the gas chamber field.

Edit: Currently in the battle arena, just got to the 6th fight, and theres this giant mob which looks extremely odd, not sure if its supposed to look this way

What the hell, how is it even standing, wheres its head and legs lol!
Keeps taking my wall away, did the enfeeble move.. and it seems to have put slow petrify on me, and seems to have turned Cloud around and stopped me from making any moves as my bar has stopped... now that is just scary lol.

It's supposed to look that way lol. So it appears in the battle arena huh? It also appear with the Gigas in the crater.
Not a good enemy to meet here as it manipulates you lol.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-15 21:16:02
Oh L2 confu goes through a Ribbon, well thats dam annoying lol, still dont understand why a normal attack would not break this confusion like it does outside the battle arena (same mob thats outside Mideel, its confused people in my party many times, i just leave them to attack themselves most of the time and it solves it) but it seems like it dont work.

I never did see this monster in the crater, then again i didnt hang around for too long in that part, and if i did come across this alongside the actual gigas it would have been scary as hell, the gigas on its own could be a pain.

Just my opinion, but i do not like that new Giant mob, it just looks.. well half finished, like you stopped working on its graphics half way through or something lol, as for its moves im not sure if its going to be beatable in the battle arena, needless to say i stopped even trying to do battle arena as it seems the Battle Scene 617 crashes.

Yea i did look at the known bugs in the game, Hyper Jump is a culprit which is really annoying, as you Need to use it anyways to get a limit break :(

Also apologies for my code been 20 computer screens long, i didnt know you could put the code into something like that, ill make sure to do it like that from now on.

Aali is it ok if i send the crash.dmp to your email as i cannot open it.

I decided to reinstall my FF7, and used the following mods:
FF7 Remix 2.5.1
Aali Custom driver 0.7.9b
Avalanche Low res (I run at 1280x1024 so i thought this may be best)
Avalanche GUI v2.0.5
Advent children Avatars (Cids avatar never changes for me for some reason)
Blue AC limit v4

I turned off Fancy Transparency, using Avalanche mod in the config file.

I got a crash in the first 15 minutes of play fighting outside Mideel as i got into a battle.
Code: [Select]
INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.9b
INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
INFO: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce 9400 GT/PCI/SSE2 3.3.0
INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
INFO: Found swap_control extension
INFO: Max texture size: 8192x8192
INFO: Number of texture units: 4
INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1280x1024, output resolution 1280x960, internal resolution 1280x960
INFO: Shader limits: varying 60, vert uniform 4096, frag uniform 2048
INFO: main program link log: Fragment info
-------------
0(42) : warning C7050: "texture_color.xyz" might be used before being initialized

INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r21874, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
LOCK UNLOCK TEST
MATRIX INITIALIZE
INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
ERROR: could not open file C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\ff7input.cfg
initializing sound...
creating dsound primary buffer
reading audio file
loading static sounds
sound initialized
INITIALIZING MIDI...
selecting device 0:Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, mid=1, pid=102,
midi data type: GENERAL MIDI
using midi data file: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc.\Final Fantasy VII\Data\midi\midi.lgp
midiOutGetVolume returned: ffffffff
MIDI INITIALIZED
set music volume: 127
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
set music volume: 127
MIDI set master volume: 100
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF CREDITS!!!
INFO: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\eidoslogo.avi; rawvideo/null 364x353, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 0.066667, frames: 1
INFO: C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\movies\sqlogo.avi; mpeg4/mp3 640x480, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 247.466667, frames: 3712
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
MIDI set volume trans: 127->0; step=60
MIDI stop - OK
MIDI stop - OK
END OF CREDITS!!!
Entering MAIN
set music volume: 127
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.TEX
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.tim
stop_sound
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
MIDI cross fade: 71, time: 4
MIDI set volume trans: 15->127; step=4
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
MIDI play: 71
reading midi file: KITA.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
set music volume: 127
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
MIDI play: 7
reading midi file: BAT.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 225
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
GLITCH: texture conversion error
GLITCH: texture conversion error
[Neo] begin scan ground
[Neo] finish scan ground
[Neo] begin thunder
[Neo] Effect_play3 group 0
[Neo] finished effect play
[Neo] Link ground, dust_manager, rock1_manager
[Neo] link cloud1, sky_mask
[Neo] link cloud2
[Neo] link line_light3_manager
[Neo] white out
[Neo] white-in, link cloudsea, backsky
[Neo] effect play3 group 1
[Neo] finished effect play 3
[Neo] linke ball_manager, circle, line_light1_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 2
[Neo] finished effect play3
[Neo] link breath
[Neo] rock2_manager
[Neo] link flash2, rock3_manager, line_light2_manager
[Neo] effect_play3 group 3
[Neo] finished effect_play3
[Neo] white-out
[Neo] white-in
[Neo] finish Neo Bahamut
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
MIDI play: 46
reading midi file: FAN2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.TEX
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.tim
stop_sound
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
MIDI cross fade: 71, time: 4
MIDI set volume trans: 127->15; step=2
MIDI set volume: 15
100% of 15 = 15
MIDI play: 71
reading midi file: KITA.mid
current volume: 15
MIDI set volume trans: 15->127; step=2
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
set music volume: 127
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
MIDI play: 7
reading midi file: BAT.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 226
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
MIDI play: 46
reading midi file: FAN2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.TEX
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.tim
stop_sound
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
MIDI cross fade: 71, time: 4
MIDI set volume trans: 127->15; step=2
MIDI set volume: 15
100% of 15 = 15
MIDI play: 71
reading midi file: KITA.mid
current volume: 15
MIDI set volume trans: 15->127; step=2
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
set music volume: 127
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
MIDI play: 7
reading midi file: BAT.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 224
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
MIDI play: 46
reading midi file: FAN2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.TEX
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.tim
stop_sound
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
MIDI cross fade: 71, time: 4
MIDI set volume trans: 127->15; step=2
MIDI set volume: 15
100% of 15 = 15
MIDI play: 71
reading midi file: KITA.mid
current volume: 15
MIDI set volume trans: 15->127; step=2
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
set music volume: 127
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
MIDI play: 7
reading midi file: BAT.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 225
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[BATTLE] End of current battle
[BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
MIDI play: 46
reading midi file: FAN2.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[BATTLE] endof battle.
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.TEX
ERROR: COULD NOT LOAD TEXTURE DATA FILE clf_lg.tim
stop_sound
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
cross play music: 0
set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
MIDI cross fade: 71, time: 4
MIDI set volume trans: 127->15; step=2
MIDI set volume: 15
100% of 15 = 15
MIDI play: 71
reading midi file: KITA.mid
current volume: 15
MIDI set volume trans: 15->127; step=2
MIDI set volume: 127
100% of 127 = 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
set music volume: 127
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
-=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
MIDI play: 7
reading midi file: BAT.mid
current volume: 127
MIDI is playing SUCCESSFULLY!!!
stop_sound
-=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 226
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
ERROR: unhandled exception
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-16 09:16:57
Hmm, there is nothing wrong with scene# 226 or scene# 617. Did you only use the Remix 2.5.1 or did you use my patch as well? I don't support the Remix version anymore.

I played for 2 - 3 hours now with no crashes in the battle arena (or anywhere else; tried a lot of battles). The crashes may have other sources, or just random. I tend to get some random crashes when I play as well.

Thanks for the feedback btw.
I suggest using a normal scene when fighting in the battle square if you can't handle it. It's supposed to be a lot harder than normal. But it is beatable.
Look at it like this: If you manage to beat the battle square at least once with my mod, you deserve to use a save editor to get the items. It may not feel as good, Of course, but you wold eventually get 'em anyway, so why spend hours on it?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-12-16 09:33:36
I grind and repeat boss battles a lot, but I have yet to EVER encounter an odd crash that was not me messing with the lgps in some way
I also seem to be able to use hyper jump just fine. I tried it 50 times now, not a single crash. I am using the remix patcher version of this mod though and I know it's outdated. ( I did fix some stuff on my own, still have to fix a few other issues but I'm really just too busy with work to do anything nowadays )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-17 02:21:02
I only used remix version 2.5.1 which comes with your mod in it.

I changed some settings in my config, fancy transparency had turned itself back on, and im using the stable timer, since then i aint had any crashes, even when using Hyper Jump, i think the total reinstall and the right settings have helped a good deal.

As for playing through your hardcore mod, the only time i used a normal scene was when i had to fight Rapps in Wutai, apart from that i wish to attempt to complete this game without having to do that, one reason is because i love a challenge, and also im trying to test all i can with this mod so it can help you to finish off the final tweaks in the future, this means doing battle arena fights in the hardcore mod also, i cant leave good feedback on your mod if i do not actually win fights.

I have won only once so far, i decided to level up and get a Gold chocobo(i got my black one last night) so i can get the materias from racing, also enough GP for EXP Plus materia, and after that ill go back to the Ancient forest and get the materia and weapons, after that i may be strong enough to do the battle arena, and win regularly, which will give you a good indication on what a player needs to get W-Summon on the second disc.

I would like to believe in the future this mod will be defined so that its a challenge, but beatable, even in the battle arena, the majority of the mod so far is well balanced, where there are some occasions of bugs and overpowered mobs with no real use.

Anyways im determined to beat that dam battle arena on hardcore, even if it does take me hours to do it, i will get my W-Summon :D

Edit: Continued on with my game, and i got a Gold Chocobo :D Then i carried onto take as much materia, armour and GP from racing as i could, and the only materia which i cant seem to get is the Magic Counter materia, which seems to only show itself very rarely on my game.

I had a great idea from there, i managed to get my EXP plus materia and after getting addicted to winning choco races for a while i managed to get over 5k GP, which i then decided to spend the majority of that on X-Potions and Turbo Ethers, these items are so cheap (80 for Xpotion and 100 for Turbo Ether) so you can buy 5 turbo ethers if you take 500 GP from a Cats Bell reward.

Something i also remembered is that i can now go back to Midgar with a key, going to head there and then attempt the Ancient forest again ;)

Edit2: Been back to midgar, got the sneak glove and Premium heart, which i notice is only 48 attack now and not 99 lol, then i went for tifas limit break 4, im guessing all the ultimate weapons have been reduced in attack power.

Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-17 08:12:31
Of course it's up to you to do whatever you want. I very much appreciate your feedback.

But the remix version does not contain the newest version of my mod. Te newest one is here: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.625 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.625)

I dunno how much the remix patch have messed with flevel.lgp but to update now you should use my patch and, at least, update scene.bin and flevel.lgp. If you want the newest version that is.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-17 09:27:14
Oh i never knew it was not the latest version of your mod lol, does this mean the feedback i left was useless?

By the way i just tried to do the Black clipper boss (Typhon) again and got so far with it, then they did Atomos and Cosmo Memory and i just could not survive that lol, this is a difficult boss to beat.

Just patched it with the new version, what exactly where the differences between the original hardcore mod and this version??

Tried black clipper and its pet once again, tried a different strategy but it just was not working, this is way too powerful for me (although my characters are level 77-82) im not able to do enough damage to kill its pet off and survive the powerful attacks it can do, guess i should just carry on with the storyline.

Also i noticed a bug in the clipper fight again, this time it decided to hit Cloud for 14k although he was already dead on the floor? lol :)

I tried to go back to the Quadra magic cave again to fight the blue turtle, i had no luck because this thing likes to do a Magical Chain which never ends, it did 6 or 7 Contain magics in a row, the only reason i survived that long was because i had Ice absorbed on Cloud, im not really sure how to beat this either at this stage of the game, i guess i should just stop trying to get ahead of myself.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-17 10:52:30
Useless? No far from it. The remix and the new version are pretty much the same, except for bug fixes and some minor tweaks.

You got dragon force from the blue dragon? Dragon force makes that clipper boss fight much easier.
Have Barret as tank (or the one with most Vit), equipped with a Ziedrich if you have one. He must have 100% cover materia, and as many counter attacks as possible. The 2 others cast dragon force 4 times on all (prioritize the tank obviously) and use white wind to heal. Only rely on counter attacks to kill 'em. You should also use death force to counter the death sentence status you eventually get from "Spear of Longinus". The statuses you should guard are paralysis and berserk. Elements to guard are holy and gravity. You should also use wall as much as possible, though it may be randomly dispelled with "Brute", barrier greatly helps against the "Forsaken Cosmos Thule" attack.

Once Armario is on very low health it will start to render your characters useless (remove 'em from battle). Kill it as fast as possible.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-17 11:14:34
Ah i see well i have not got dragon force or a zeidrich yet, im not that far in the game lol :) i guess i should wait til disc 3 to try that area out.

I noticed a typo when i updated the hardcore mod, enemy away is now called Enemy Aviod.

Decided to carry on with the storyline, but i got ambused by some red Soldiers and killed me off, so time to try again lol.

After that i managed to start beating the Soldiers, and i beat the boss and finished the submarine mission, then i attempted to try Reno and Rude in the Gelnika, and they destroyed me lol, so much more powerful compared to me.

I carried on with my storyline, went to Rocket Town, and easily stole the Zeidrich off Rude and this boss was not difficult at all.

Then after coming back down from space, i gave the battle arena a go, i actually managed to beat that strange Giant monster, had to keep using Ultima on it and keeping myself alive, the only problem was that i was then against the ochu, used Bad Breath, it hit itself for 30k, then i thought ill need to sleep it with frog song, but by the time my bar was up it hit me for 12k with a normal attack :(

Tried many fights now in this battle arena, and some of these monsters are just so powerful, i even went up against the Pyramid mobs from the Northern crater, which was just stupid to be honest, i was in Mini, had poison, no accessory, no magic, no items, and all i really had was Beta or an Omnislash, figured i would do the limit break for the laugh because i knew what was coming... Instant death :(

I have only managed to beat this battle arena once, with just pure luck, at this point of the game i do not think its possible to get W-Summon, i guess its something i should come back to later on, like Typhon, the materia caves, and the Reno and Rude fight on the crashed ship.

Also a note, since reinstalling my ff7, and picking the right settings in my config, i do not seem to be getting crashes anymore, i did not get one single crash in the battle arena.

Edit: Since last night i been levelling and i just tried the Typhon boss again, with no dragon force, but i used Barrett as a tank and give him Zeidrich and Peace ring, then used Cloud and Vincent(highest magic) to be supports, keeping barrett hasted, regen and wall.

This was still a scrappy fight, barrett died a number of times, but i kept bringing him back, and i used Vincents limit half way through so the boss would get interested in him, this was a good strategy because now i was treating barrett and vincent like tanks, the boss has trouble beating Death gigas, i managed to beat the pet and carried on from there counter attacking and reviving.

Then i had a bug again, i think the boss could not figure out who had the most enmity, so it decided to attack itself, it hit itself for 30k per hit, two times in a row and then died.
I think i was going to win the fight anyways, so i would say the earliest point of been able to kill this boss is just after defeating the Diamond Weapon at the end of disc 2, as then your assure of having the right equipment and enough counter attack materia to survive this fight.

By the way, the Diamond weapon fight was a real challenge too, i did not survive the first time round just because i did not foresee the amount of status effects and damage it can do, its a challenge but beatable, which is awesome :)

Edit2: I have some more feedback for you, done quite a bit so far today.

Ultimate Weapon fights have been done well, it took a while to beat this for 2 reasons.
1) It kept going over Midgar, at this point of the game there is a cutscene if you go over it, so i had to keep restarting the game.
2) Hard to find it, i wish this thing had a marker on the map so it dont take forever to do this part of the game.
Managed to get Circlet, Shadow Flare and Ultima Weapon after a long while chasing this around the world.
Yes i know those points cannot be changed in the hardcore mod, but they still annoy me :P

Went back to the Blue turtle, and got beat, i had a decent setup but in the end it just spammed Contain magics and i could not do much, guess this is a disc 3 fight.
My opinion is that i dont like the name of the move it does called "Hyper Ether", it should be called something like Refresh or Mana Rejuvenation, as no monsters in FF7 use Ethers, there is no item called Hyper Ether, and Turbo Ethers do the same effect anyway.

I tried the Mime materia fight, and i got beat there too, on the final stage, i tried my best to beat the back 2 but in the end i got overpowered, i did not know what to expect from this fight, and i believe ill have a much better strategy the next time around, it looks beatable.

Next i went the HPMP Swap and MegaAll(!) materia fight, this took me forever to kill, my dad and my sister watched me do this fight for a good 30-40 minutes, and was in awe of the pure battle i had, although this fight was great, it had flaws in it, mainly this one.
It does a move in the final form, cannot remember what its called but it controls the characters and makes them attack other players, this is not so bad when you got the normal characters, but when you turn Vincent into a Limit break.... I used Death Gigas and whenever it did the move on him, it would take him a longtime to attack whoever it was, there was no animation but he turned to whoever he would attack, and this was the main reason why it took so long.

I really liked how many enemy skills this had, im disappointed i did not bring all 3 of my enemy skill materias to the fight, i had 2 of them though and learned a couple of things.
One last thing is i noticed it does a move sort of like death, really strange name what the hell does it mean, and what does this move actually do, sometimes it took me to low hp, and one time it just killed Vincent straight away??
Im going to attempt the Knights of the Round cave next, and win or lose, ill attempt the Mime and Double Magic fight after that, as i think its possible and would be great to have.

Edit3: Attempted the Knights of the Round boss, and had no chance against this, and i laughed at just how quick it managed to kill my characters, then i attempted the Mime boss again two times but i realize that cover does not seem to work in this fight, and its difficult to beat the last stage of this fight.

I think ill attempt the battle arena again (at level 96 Cloud) and try to get W-Summon, if i cannot do this then i strongly believe the battle arena is not beatable on disc 2 (unless your really lucky and get the right monsters)

Code: [Select]
Attempting the arena once again, i have Ultima Weapon, Zeidrich and Ribbon, but this is still difficult, i will note the reasons why.

Scene 617 is impossible, if fight 6 is the 2 pyramids they are not beatable.
If fight 6 is not the pyramids, fight 7 is the Ochu which was impossible, i lost my accessory by accident.
Pollen > Whip sting > Death
3rd attempt on this i lost to the Griffon, thanks to l2 confu having a mind of its own.
Outside the battle arena, this move can be broken by the player confused, by attacking themselves.
2 out of 3 times, in the battle arena, Cloud has not broken confusion by hitting himself, and kept hitting himself til death.
1 out 3 times, in the battle arena, Cloud did break the confusion by hitting himself, on the first hit of the 4x cut.
He carried onto do his last 3 attacks on the griffon. This move is buggy, i do not understand it.
4th attempt on this scene, i noticed the mob which does Toxic barf, actually attacked another mob and killed it, after this fight i got the pyramids on fight 6 and died instantly.

Scene 614 is pretty easy, having 4x cut with Ultima Weapon for this is great, and the last boss is the Sandworm.

Scene 613 has the wizard which can do Damnation, and no defense against it, still waiting to do this again

Scene 182 is ok, apart from the last boss is the Viper Breath mob, putting this is in bio and having dream powders from Mideel is a must have.

Scene 609 can be pretty hard, specially if you and up against the ghost ship with no materia, an Omnislash will not kill it and it does 3-4k per hit and can double attack.
Second time i did this i got the Ochu as the last, and its practically impossible, the Whip Sting still does 12k damage with a Ziedrich on.
Unless Omnislash is ready, its virtually impossible, think i only beaten this once.

Scene 606 did not seem too difficult, ended with the Sandworm again.
Second time i tried this i got the Adamantoise on second battle, only way i could kill was by using ???? at low hp
Did not help for the next fight as i did Full Cure, and it missed :( I really do not like it when Full Cure and Mighty Guard miss the character.
One time on this i managed to get an awesome 12000 BP, as i had lost all my materia on the way to the sandworm, i was in slow for the last fight and having to use Hi potions to keep my hp up(running out of X potions) and finished with Omnislash.

Scene 604 is pretty hard, specially with the new giant on fight 6, (do not get why it can be poisoned, when it takes 0 damage)
Then you run straight into the ghost ship, i only had 4k max hp at this point and had no chance.
Second time trying this i found it really easy, ended with the Sandworm, no difficult mobs at all.

Scene 610 was not too difficult, but i did manage to get the right choices between fights, the 6th fight was the giant which is not so bad when you got 18k hp and lots of MP ready.
After i beat this i had the ghost ship, i noticed it did not do that annoying move when it throws you out, managed to kill it with normal attacks while using White wind to stay alive.

Win/Loss record: 8/9
BP: 65000

As you can see, i eventually got my W-Summon materia on disc 2, it was difficult in the beginning, and some scenes are pretty much impossible, but in the end with the correct scenes and patience, its possible :)

Went to chocobos for Megalixers, Elixirs, GP for X-potions and Turbo Ethers, and to try get Magic Counter again, unluckily Magic counter materia is very rare and the 4 or 5 times i have seen it, out of dozens of races, it never wants to drop for me :(

Time to finish this disc off, Midgar here i come!

Edit4: This part is dedicated to the return to Midgar, this part has been done very well but there are some nasty parts too which needs some work.

Went into this with a party of Cloud Yuffie and Tifa all wielding Ultimate weapons, changed to Cloud Barrett and Vincent at the save point before Hojo.
Going to post what i think about each monster i encountered so far in this part of the game:
Code: [Select]
Behemoth - This is much tougher, something which looks this bad and the history behind it, im surprised this is not a boss at some point in the game.
This monster is used so often in the FF series, after killing this twice i was hoping not to run into this again.

Crazy saw - Has a ton of HP now, i like the toughness.

Cromwell - This seemed like one of the weakest monsters i could find.

Eagle Gun - Loved this addition! Managed to get a second warriors bangle, and the fight was fun.

Grosspanzer - Takes off a lot more damage then before, still it seems like an easy fight.

Heli Gunner - I was surprised to see two of these, was a good fight and managed to get a Fourth Bracelet off one, which is great because i like the stats on it.
This is outdated by the Zeidrich and Mystiles at this point of the game.

Manhole - Immune to Bad Breath, still dont seem too bad.

Maximum Kimaira - After Bad breath, this is easy due to the Silence.

Soldier:1st - I hate these a lot, i encountered them in a back attack, and they were taking off 7-10k per hit off my players, although i had zeidrichs and mystile on.
They attack very fast and there was no way i could defend against them, Bad breath does not work at all.
This needs sorting out because its not good how easily they can kill level 90+ characters.

Xcannon - I hate this too, it stops everybody, does the countdown, and it killed barrett every single time, as he was the only one without a ziedrich.
Its too fast to take any decent damage off it between Dragon cannons, i only managed to kill this with an Omnislash, Cloud only had 3k left and my party was dead, annoying fight.

Any other monsters i encountered were pretty cool, had no problems with them and liked the difficulty, now onto the bosses.

The Turks - First time fighting these i died straight away, Elenas move wiped out 2 of my guys then Cloud got finished off, so i restarted and tried again with a slightly different setup.
Second time round i used Mug(all) and got all 3 items in one swing from Yuffie, then i managed to have an epic battle against these 3, luckily the fight is not a long one, but its easy to get killed if not prepared for what they can do.

Proud Clod - This fight was crazy, it was intense and Proud Clod is very strong, i really believe the only reason why i did not die on my first attempt, was because it attacked itself a few times.
One time it was while Cloud was the only character alive with barely no HP, i was expecting to die right there, but it attacked itself and i managed to come back and finish him off.
This battle needs work, the bug is not cool, and i believe its way too strong for level 90+ if it did not have the bug.

Theo Locke and Venus - I am a big fan of these fights, the first two were awesome and were very well done, on this fight i noticed a couple of things, mainly how Venus needs to be kept asleep and killed first.
Hellmasker is great against these, he does Nightmare and puts Venus and Theo in Mini which is a great help.
In the dialogue at the start, i noticed a typo, one of them says "uss" when the correct word would be "us", small mistake but very noticeable.
I beat these first, and made a separate save, had a feeling that these are holding a good item, and i was right when i tried again, using Barret to Mug(all) i managed to get an Elixir, Safety Bit and a Mystile!
This helps so much as now its not required for me to use the glitch in the north crater to get 2 Mystiles.

Hojo - This was a challenging and fun fight, protecting against stop and making sure you got some form of tank for the second form is a must to winning this.
Hojos last form was crazy on its combo, great job on this!
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-12-24 05:04:13
Got a question for Gjoerulv
How did you 'mash up' the actual scenes in scene.bin? There were some tabs when there were simply MORE enemies than before. Technically, you created entries in the scene.bin that did not exist before.
I want to create a few custom mobs myself ( some special challanges for when you're already strong enough to beat the weapons ) ( Or maybe a special dungeon ) but use your hardcore mod as 'basis' so to speak since I already did a god ton of edits to it and would hate to redo that to an original scene.bin
In essence, how did you create additional mobs in a scene.bin entry tab ( theres 256 tabs and each tab has several monster entries, I wanna know how I increase the number of that. )
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-24 11:58:34
@Kylos
It's supposed to be hard, and I'm actually happy to hear people got trouble lol. I know people have finished Midgar with lvl 70ish parties; the level helps, of course, but most of the enemies needs different strategies to beat. Against the XCannon you need to be immune to both paralysis and stop. It's attack will kill your party.

Hmmm, a bug on PC. I haven't done anything with the AI on it, but I'll check it out.

@KuugenTheFox
http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Battle/Battle_Scenes (http://wiki.qhimm.com/FF7/Battle/Battle_Scenes) <- (almost) all you need to know.
I also made a tutorial (soon 3 yeas ago), but not all information there is 100% correct. It's HERE! (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7407.msg90114#msg90114)

I don't think it's possible to add battles to the last scene. You could try, but I suspect the game will crash.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2010-12-25 05:02:57
Theres enough free spots for what I want to do but it seems it comes down to cumbersome hex editing to do what I wanna do. Well I guess that can't be helped.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-26 13:39:16
Yes i have had some difficulty, those which i felt were maybe a bit too hard, or impossible i posted feedback on.

I might just have a go on this today and see if i can do the battle arena, or get more of the materias from the caves. :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-27 22:00:52
Just got back on the game after xmas and all that, so here is some more feedback.

After getting back on the world map on disc 3, i have done any side quests, and leveled up a bit round mideel, my party is level 95-99 now.

I figured the best thing i can get right now is Final Attack materia, so i decided to try the special battle with a level 99 Cloud, using Mystile this time as my armor.
I found this to be difficult at first, failing 3 times, because i kept getting the wrong handicaps, Proud Clod is difficult unless you got a lot of HP, counter attack materias and an easy way to cure.
Double item and White wind is enough for this, but yes it is a long fight and when i finally did beat it, it took 3 omnislash and a lot of attacks to finish this guy off, very nice.

The fights i have left are the turks in the ship, the quadra magic, mime and knights of the round bosses to beat, not sure whether to go into the crater yet for more materias and enemy skills, suppose it depends if i can do these fights without skills like Dragon Force, Shield, Double Magic etc.

I will give it a go, im sure i should have enough materia, Final Attack will be a great help too.

Edit2: Went to the ship, and figured out Reno and Rude are gone(forgot about that) so i can no longer get a 3rd Zeidrich.

To be honest i thought Reno and Rude were too powerful for disc 2, i went against them and they killed me in seconds, with no way of protecting against it, unless i got the setup totally wrong or something, these guys were like the 1st Soldiers at the Mako Cannon, Impossible!

Went on to get the items from the ship, and fought Aita, the red Marlboro, it was very easy, i cannot understand why this boss is so much easier then Reno and Rude.

I like Hades, how he does extra status effects that Bad Breath does not, makes it somewhat useful, although i hate the way it only takes off MP damage and not HP, but i guess it could come in handy somewhere down the line maybe.

I stacked up on magic defense, and though of a good setup for Adamantai, the protector of the Quadra Magic, this is the 4th time now i attempted to beat it, here is what i used:

Cloud, Vincent and Red XIII (High magic defense). Full Party at level 99.
Ribbons on Vincent and Red XIII, Ice Ring on Cloud.
Mystiles on Vincent and Red XIII, Zeidrich on Cloud.

I tried my best to stack up on Magic defense, and magic stats, attacking is useless in the fight, also Red XIII had Final Attack + Revive, although Final Attack is only on 2 stars.
The result was really bad, because this fight is not even fair for a lot of reasons.
I was fighting this nonstop for 2 hours, total stalemate situation, I decided in the end to just quit because i used all my Megalixers, most of my turbo ethers and X potions, and i was getting absolutely nowhere in this fight.

Adamantai is unfair, the first time ever in this fight i saw it use full cure!
All what was happening was, i learned Shadow Flare, used the few summons i had, it did dragon force on itself, had Wall up most the time (did not bring destruct materia to the fight by mistake)

I was able to do Shadow Flares for 1-2.8k depending on wall and which character, i was surviving the Magic chains ok, due to me giving Red XIII Typoon + Elemental and Vincent Earth + Elemental, i kept curing myself and every now and then having to revive a character, i kept doing Shadow Flare, it would do Hyper Ether(hate the name) and Full Cure and im back to square one....

This carried on for 2 hours straight, and it was not any fun, why this boss is so difficult when you get to this cave as early as half way through the 2nd disc, is a complete mystery to me, unless there is some way to stop it from curing itself over and over.

I tried this again with a slightly different setup, adding Aegis Armlet, Destruct materia and more HP MP Magic and Speed plus materia.
I did debarrier when it got wall out, i was doing shadow flares for 11-13k each, for some reason it did not use Wall again or Dragon Force, i kept doing this and it died in just 5-10 minutes! It was unreal just how quick it died, so i guess Debarrier, Mystiles and Aegis Armlet, along with protection against Wind Earth Ice and status effects is the key to beating this.

Kinda feel silly now i did not try this to begin with, i did use the Debarrier way on the second disc but had no mystles or armlet, so it was hard to defend against the chains, it might be possible to beat on disc 2 but really difficult.

Just went to the Mime materia, and fought the boss there and had an epic fight, the mystles and armlets come in handy, as did quadra magic, magic counter and the use of Cloud, Cids and Barretts strong limit breaks. So i only got one more cave to go :D

I tried the Knights of the Round boss, i survived for a bit this time, and tried to take off some damage, but it got to me in the end, i will come back later for this with better materia and gear.

Also i hate the fight for a number of reasons, the chains of moves are almost constant, and this boss does not seem to look like something which is meant to guard the best summon on the game, it should have been some kind of big knight or robot(like in the summon itself) defending it, or even a Behemoth, not a little red cat, which seems to just look away from you the whole fight.
I find the script at the start to be a bit annoying, no idea what its talking about, and is it not supposed to say "Beware" and not "Bevare", another spelling mistake unless its meant to be that way im not sure. :)

Also i can put this boss into Sleep and Stop, and it carries on with its moves like they don't exist, and i can silence it too but that dont seem to do anything, so i'm not sure why this boss is just not immune to all those stats.

Went into the northern crater, managed to get the dragon force off the dark dragon, then i went down to the next level, and i did manage to beat the new fiest mage, the red devil along with 2 other mobs, but a second time they caught me out, and i died :(

So instead of doing this, i gone back to Mideel to level, get at least one final attack materia on master before i go back there.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2010-12-30 22:27:40
yeah, some spelling mistakes lol. Fønny håw I mange to mispel wen it mæterz. :p

Did you try gravity based attacks against the blue turtle? Ribbon is a bit redundant in this fight.

Why did you wait 'til the final dungeon to get dragon force? ??? You should've gotten it from the blue dragon in gea's cliff.

Against the LOTR boss, equip ribbons and use items to heal once you run out of MP (or use turbo ethers). No need for barrier or dragon force. Kill it as fast as possible, and keep killing i as fast as possible. This fight, and against Seph, Hero drink greatly helps as long as you manage to keep your party alive.

Attacks, names, and monsters are thought through. I won't change any, except for Simurg -> Simurgh for the sake of "FF consistency".
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2010-12-30 22:34:02
Yea i never knew it give dragon force then, would have helped me a lot i bet lol, i was just thinking of getting armlets then carrying on before i got a crash.

No i did not think of using gravity moves on it, usually dont bother on bosses as its a waste of time normally.

Since then all i been doing is levelling materia, although its taking a long time, specially for the summons to get to master.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-01-04 16:35:13
I finally remembered I could apply only parts of the newer hardcore patch to my already patched_to_hell_and_back flevel ( namely, ancient forest ) for bugfixes
Was there any other major bugfix like the ancient forest crash? I'm just gonna extract the files necessary and replace them. I dont think I made any changes to most of those files anyway.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: pyrozen on 2011-01-04 19:31:12
just got to the ancient temple, characters are around level 40-ish. I made my way into the temple by running away from nearly everything until i got to the fat little wizard. After that i've been restoring/fighting/saving and leveling up quite nicely. IMHO, the difference in difficulty from rocket town area, to the temple is pretty staggering! I went from near domination of monsters to being one-shotted by normal mobs. Maybe tone it down just a hair, or make the transistion smoother if possible. Just suggestions, im having a blast anyways :D
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-04 20:34:31
pyro the reason why the temple is so much harder is for a number of reasons, from what i can think of.

You get new gear, materia and limit breaks, including the Wutai area, Bone Village and the battle arena in Gold Saucer.
Also you can now go to mideel and fight pretty strong monsters that will gain you tons of levels and experience.

I leveled up pretty high before going to the temple and found it easy as hell, and did all the extras i could before going there, i recommend at least level 50 for that area, although i went in a lot higher.

Gjoerulv has stated that it does not start getting really difficult til after rocket town, you will just have to level more :)
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-04 23:07:38
Attacks, names, and monsters are thought through.

Actually this is not entirely true. :P The 1st 2 or 3 models weren't thought through at all.

Yeah, the game gets harder after rocket town. The reason is the gears and materias available, as Kylos mentioned. After Wutai and a 2nd visit to the GC you should have a reasonable arsenal of goods to handle the extra groind kicks.  ;D

But a bit smother transition sounds good.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2011-01-06 03:47:19
I just started playing this again before christmas from the start, I made it past jenova death this time (Bloody insane without the right gear) but I come for advice. Clouds ill so I'm using cid, red and barret and I've just done the last fort condor battle. To my surprise I ran straight for the materia to find a boss which surprised me cause I thought you didn't fight a boss for materia if it already had one, I suppose grand horn is optional so I can see why you done it. But 4 birds with 28,000hp, fire causes recovery, 1/2 damage by all elements and according to hojo are not immune from death sentence or reflect yet I can never hit them with it. I got an idea after many give ups to magic hammer every single one till they have no MP left, that worked well until I found they have a physical attack which drains your mp from you. Is there any advice you have on how to beat them? Or is it simply a case of having a non stop barrage of attacking pound them before they get to use angels whisper and fully cure each other?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-06 16:14:16
Wall up and use Dragon Force if you have it. Regen also helps a great deal. White Wind etc. you know the deal.

You could try making all bird low on HP then launch an area attack to kill all at once.

Or simply kill 'em randomly 'til they run out of mp. If your MP is low as well, they'll never stop trying to drain MP from your party.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2011-01-06 20:14:38
Wall up and use Dragon Force if you have it. Regen also helps a great deal. White Wind etc. you know the deal.

You could try making all bird low on HP then launch an area attack to kill all at once.

Or simply kill 'em randomly 'til they run out of mp. If your MP is low as well, they'll never stop trying to drain MP from your party.

See that's what I do, I'm just gonna give it up for now and come back when I'm more powerful packed with hero drinks and zero bahamut for a bahamut > Neo Bahamut > Zero Bahamut summoning for awesome non-elemental damage, my red with 230~ Magic (magic raising gear and magic plus +50%) causes 9k damage or so to them all. Never cared much for phoenix anyway :P
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-07 17:36:53
Storm you should look back on these posts, i made pretty detailed feedback on that fight, as i also had some trouble and was pretty confused at first on just how to beat them, let me see if i can dig that up for you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I decided to give up trying to do caves and the forest, and carry on with the storyline, i am currently doing the Simurg (Shouldnt these be called Simurgh? Thats what the bird is called in FFXI and other final fantasy)

I just paused it while doing this fight, it dont seem too difficult at the moment, i do think the camera is a bit too far away though, apart from that this new boss fight looks good. :)

Oh they do Angel Whisper!?? Nice move by them, you can tell these are protecting the Pheonix alright.

Ok these are quite difficult lol, i was just about to finish them off with a Hyper Jump i think(must have to kill them all at same time so they dont angel whisper) but then it crashed again :'(

Tried this again with a better strategy, managed to get down to 1 bird, and used Angermax to finish it off, then they all used Submit, was a pretty awesome fight! Good job on this
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This fight, its a matter of keeping them poisoned, and your characters hasted, wall etc.
You can tell when a bird is dead (although its still on the screen) as you can no longer target it, its like a race to see how many birds you can kill before they start using angel whisper.

I tried this fight, and it took a while, but i managed to do a string of moves, then i could only target one bird, the angermax was very good on this, so my recommendation is to use your summons, enemy skills and magic which hit all the birds, then when they start to die, finish with limit breaks, as then the birds will not be able to raise each other, when the battle sees that all birds are supposed to be dead, they will all use a 'Submit move' which is basically them attacking and killing themselves off.

A fun fight, but if you really think that is hard, wait til you get to the train part lol.

Also the comment about the grand horn, if you are so bad at the mini game that you need to fight the grand horn, im pretty sure you fail the mission, and you wont be allowed to get pheonix til later on in bone village, Gjoerulv added a boss for all the summons you can pick up along the way (except ramuh).

Also do not waste your hero drinks, they are very rare (unless you cheat with W-Item) and they will become so valuable later in fights like the battle arena (for final attack materia) and other extremely hard fights like the Knights of the Round boss and the weapons.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: storm20200 on 2011-01-09 04:19:56
A fun fight, but if you really think that is hard, wait til you get to the train part lol.
Train part is a piece of cake, everythings pretty easy all things considered, with red, cid and yuffie. Get yuffie to mug with added attack then have other 2 spam aqualung or beta for the first fight. Second fight barrier up, regen up, spam laser. Third fight is easier unless you want the warrior bangle then it can take a massive chunk of time up, anyway yeah keep mugging till you have the bangle, while barriering and regening. Fourth fight is also a walk in the park, wall up straight away, then neo bahamut causing 9k damage to each member (with my 213 magic red :D) followed by big brawl and all creation/doom of the living if you wish, instant death.
Quote from: Kylos
Also the comment about the grand horn, if you are so bad at the mini game that you need to fight the grand horn, im pretty sure you fail the mission
Erm you do realise that if you kill commander grand horn in the final fort condor battle you get an imperial guard don't you? Why anyone would choose to win the mini game on the last match is beyond me when it means you don't get an imperial guard. You also get the huge materia.

EDIT: Also I never realised how close I was to killing the birds, when I could no longer 2 of em I was pretty naffed off cause I thought the targetting was glitching on me, I didn't know when they die they just become unselectable  :oops:

EDIT: Oh my god my game severely glitched on me there, went to play the game again after posting, I went to nibelheim to get yuffie her limit break bar full. Got in a fight with wolves, pressed start on my controller then it took me to the train fight with the bird thing, the timer was on 0 so it then went to a black screen with only cid and 2 dialogue boxes, one blank one said we're gonna hit north corel, cutscene played then I was unconcious in north corel.......Yeah just wanted to share that lol. Don't think I could replicate that glitch XD

EDIT AGAIN: Yeah I went back to fort condor and was suprised how much I slaughtered them, I used sense this time so I knew how much hp they had left. Dunno why I struggled that much, only about 2 levels higher than before.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-10 10:01:25
Yea i knew u got something, but i never bothered with the Imperial guard, played through the game so many times but the guard is just not something i waste time to get, as later on you get mystiles and zeidrichs anyways.

Guess im still learning somethings about this game lol, but yea i found the train fight harder then the bird fight, purely because of the timer, and having to steal off the big bird for the bangle, then having to beat the SOLDIER trio on the last fight lol.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-18 20:30:30
Ok been a while since i played this game, i once again tried to fight the Knights of the Round boss, and failed twice.

Tried all sorts on this, and noticed a really annoying glitch in the fight.

When you go to do a limit break, and you have 2 or 3 lined up at once, if you kill it with one of your limit breaks (it did it to me after 2 limits from Cloud and Cid) it makes the next person, come up with the animation for the limit break, but then it just fails and wastes it altogether, i found this really annoying as i lost barretts limit break.

My strategy seemed ok, more so the second time i tried to fight it today, im on level 99, have one final attack materia master, and i was basically spamming bahamut zero, up to 20 times in a row, just to try and beat this thing, of course it keeps reviving itself over and over.

When i lost bahaumut zero, it was basically up to pandoras box to do any kind of good damage, i forgot to add the useful dispel magic on the second try, but without it i managed to kill it over and over til it got lucky and wasted my characters.

The fight must have lasted at least 20-30 minutes at that point, and that was my 5th or 6th attempt overall.

Im just thinking that maybe i need what i can get from the northern crater, and i need a real good place to find megalixers as they are huge lifesavers.

Also i noticed the move Modron, takes mp off characters which are dead, thats just nasty :(

Do i just have a bad strategy for this? Last time i went down into the crater i got killed too a few times, this disc really is the hardest one of them all on hardcore.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-19 03:03:28
That's not a glitch. A limit will always fire before any enemy action once you've selected to use it. When the cat is dead there is no target to hit, thus the move fails. Using 3 limit breaks to kill it 3 times is a good way to start the fight however. Only target it with a limit one at a time: kill it, wait til it's revived, then target it with ONE limit only.

Use ribbons. If you kill it 3 times fast you it shouldn't be necessary to be immune towards stop, but you might consider being immune to death as it has one sudden death attack. If everything goes as planned you don't need to.

Having a Magic Pus Materia helps. Your defense stats doesn't matter in this fight, but you should have as high magic stat as possible on all. Then basically spam your best magic. Bahamut Zero and Pandora's box is good.

Another way is to use Barret's Missing Score with as much AP on it as possible, then launch a 4xattack. If his strength is high enough, and if you've equipped enough AP high materia on his weapon, you'll kill it every time. A hero drink might help if not.

Or if Vincent has killed a huge bunch of enemies in the game, he is always the safest bet with a 4xattack with the Death Penalty. His damage formula is an absolute constant. The only factor is how many enemies he has killed. And it can only go up. Though it takes time.

Yuffie's Conformer may be good as well, if she has high strength. It's attack power is based on the enemy's level. The higher the level the more damage.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: cloudi on 2011-01-21 06:01:50
Please since kernel2  the modified I dont not use Teioh
I have the French version I want to change in French
tanks
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: cloudi on 2011-01-21 06:49:09
sorry is not good I must not touch a file kenerl 2 and I will change the language level of personal
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: obesebear on 2011-01-21 12:01:32
Please since kernel2  the modified I dont not use Teioh
I have the French version I want to change in French
tanks
tanks indeed.  don't double post
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-21 18:02:56
@cloudi
You've patched the kernel2 on the french ver? Then everything will be in English. Simply uncheck it before you patch, then it won't be touched.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: messiah on 2011-01-24 15:02:47
i just used your mod dude and its tricky so i like it..but i noticed there wasnt the assault gun drop after i beated scorpion..why is that?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-24 18:13:05
i just used your mod dude and its tricky so i like it..but i noticed there wasnt the assault gun drop after i beated scorpion..why is that?

A number of equipment has been changed, mobs have different items to steal, anyways you can buy the gun for barrett later.

In this hardcore version there are a lot more different equipment, materia and items which you would normally never use in a normal run through, you will notice this a lot as the game progresses, and you will need to think of strategies and steal certain items as much as possible to help push you forward laters.

Its like.. Gjoerulv changed the item which a cactuar can be morphed too, from a Tetra elemental to a four slots, this is simply because having tetra elementals at that point is too powerful.

He usually has a reason for everything lol
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Vgr on 2011-01-24 19:35:30
@cloudi (a way you'll understand I hope) : Si tu as une version française et que tu veux avoir les trucs en français et un mod hardcore, ben crée toi-même ton propre mod hardcore ou bien ne patche pas kernel2.bin comme dit plus haut. J'avais le même problème, mais j'ai finalement pris une version anglaise, c'est pas mal plus simple. (cloudi = cactus720 sur jeuxvideo.com ???)

Ok, back to English, not bad to speak my initial language some times here :P
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-25 06:48:27
@Kylos

The gun drop removal from the scorpion came from a request. But it makes sense as it seems as a mistake from square.

The tetra elemental ring wasn't relocated 'cause it was too powerful to get when you have access to the highwind. Well, it may be that too, but more 'cause it was too easy to claim from that cactuar. Of course, I could just make it stronger, but I had already made the jumbo cactuar at another location. I was going to make it at cactuar island, but then there is the problem that there is only 1 encouterable enemy in this desert, meaning you would face it in every encounter. So the decision to move the tetra elemental morph is somewhat justified lol.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-25 20:43:35
SO where is this jumbo cactuar? Northern Crater?

Not done much lately on ff7, been way too busy :P
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-26 11:17:25
It's outside the HP<->MP cave.  :-o
Random battle.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-26 17:50:07
Oh i never even thought about fighting there, whenever im on that small part of sand im on the choco, jump off and go straight in the cave.

Im guessing thats what the majority of other players would do too, would much rather just fight it on cactuar island and make it rock hard lol, because cactuar island is completely useless now on the hardcore mod and a waste of time to anyone who goes there for a tetra elemental, just my opinion.

Also i wouldnt mind if u fought it every battle, having jumbo cactuar on that island would be similar to the jumbo you fight on FF8 and would just make more sense then having it outside that cave.

Edit: Ok just some feedback as i just got on the game for the first time in a bit, heres my thoughts.

Jumbo Cactuar was pretty easy, the moves it did were interesting, but clearly this is not meant to be fought at level 99 with all the materia i got, actually found this easier to get tetra elementals then in the normal game.

After this i decided to try out Northern cave once again, got my dragon force, and i have to say that the red devil thing is so annoying, the only way through this is Bahamut Zero x8

Ran into the Master Tonberry too, and it has such a huge amount of HP. not sure if its been increased or not but it took a while to kill it lol.

Got to the point where the parties split off in different directions, planted my save point and left it there, not sure if the glitch will work here to get extra materias and items.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-27 08:12:59
yeah, I agree it's a better place for the JC. It's the 1st original enemy I made, and there wasn't a good reason to place it there, just to check things out. Later I decided to move the tetra elemental morph. I may switch places with those 2 mobs, if I'm not too lazy.

I do not agree it's easier to get the tetra elemental now however. In the vanilla setting you don't even have to try.

Just so you know: There isn't much to claim in the northern cave. Normal items only.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-27 17:39:51
What about mystile? W magic etc?

I suppose it is easy to morph the cactuar, and jumbo would be quite difficult at a lower level, but when i got to it, it was really no match at all lol.

Might try and do more of the crater tonight, been feeling really ill though so just gonna take it easy.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-27 19:11:24
The materias you get in the final cave are moved to the materia caves. If you picked all up you should have wmagic.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-29 23:48:40
Ok feedback on the northern crater, after splitting up into groups.

Decided to start by going right, and played around with some of the monsters along the way.

-The monster which does Pandoras Box and Shadow Flare is dam strong, but luckily Hades puts this straight into a slow petrify and stop, so it is easily beaten this way.

-I tried to manipulate the woman who does ice breath and fascination, but it seemed impossible, im sure you normally get Angel Whisper from this, how do i get it??

-Marlboro was easily beaten with Hades and attacks.

-The wizards are interesting, and seems more of a challenge now, can be manipulated still for Roulette, but the move recovers the monster now instead of killing it off, and seems to have extra moves, good stuff :)

Got down to the bottom and went through the door on the other side.

-Ran into an Armoured Golem in the next area, it scared me to hell when it forced both Barrett and Cid out of battle, so i used Clouds Bahamut Zero + Quadra Magic + Double Summon, this thing just did not want to die as it kept doing golem laser and getting its hp back, kept attacking it and trying to keep myself cured with Full Cure (when it lands) and after a while the laser just kept missing, so i attacked it for a long while until it died.

Also noticed that although Cid and Barrett were supposed to be knocked out of battle, they were still both stood there on the battlefield further back then usual.

-Behemoth was a tough battle, ton of hp, hades and bad breath has no effect, and the bite recovers a ton of hp, luckily i got Barrett with a strong 4x cut at the moment, and eventually managed to beat it

Went into the areas with pots and movers next

-Movers seemed very easy, hades and bad breath gives them a ton of effects.

-I do not like Pots now, the first fight i did i give them an elixir each and started attacking, one of them ran away... then i managed to beat the other one.

Then the second fight, i did the same thing, and one of them stole my only circlet from me, so i did hades and beat them by petrify, but i did not get my circlet back :( :(

I went on to attempt Omega, got through the first stage, the fight was proving to become difficult but i was hanging in there.... then it crashed, and i aint saved it recently as the save point is back near the intersection :(
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-30 20:45:38
Thanks again kylos. I guess the enemies need a bit more status guards. And I don't think petrifying a pot will help you get the stolen stuff back. Only a normal kill.

Don't try omega yet. Wait 'til 1.0.3. I know some crashes may appear, but not likely. And it helps to have a savepoint nearby.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-31 10:10:48
Oh now thats annoying, pots shouldnt be able to steal things, and then not let you get the items back, its not even fun in the slightest.

What does Omega give? Is it worth it trying over and over to get through that fight?

Where is Angel Whisper enemy skill?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-31 11:31:49
The petrify thing is a present in vanilla ff7 as well. It's not something I edited in. The reason is that it's death script doesn't run if it's petrified (I think  :P).

You could get angel whisper from a maniped simurgh. Besides I thought one could manip pollensalta (or whatever hername was). I'll check it out.

Omega is just a challenge. Nothing else. If you have a drop idea let me hear it.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-01-31 11:39:05
Yes but this petrify thing should not be allowed to happen with mobs which can steal lol :)

Where exactly is this simurgh? i have not seen this so far.

Pollensalta? If this is the women which does cold breath, fascination and other moves, i tried to manipulate her with a Hypnocrown on a number of times, and it never worked, although in the original version of the game it is allowed.

Omega should drop ribbon... Why? Because so far i have 2 Ribbons, and i really really would hate it to hell if i have to morph a tonberry for a ribbon, as they take forever to kill on this version of the game.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-01-31 23:33:18
remember those birds protecting phoenix? That's simurgh(s).

Yes that womanish enemy in the final cave should be manipable. I must've disabled it by mistake.

Ribbon is ok. Now it drops battery lol. I kinda needed a trophyish drop.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-02-01 07:21:38
Oh well i past those birds ages ago, and no idea they could be manipulated for angel whisper lol.

Yes it seems its been disabled, or i would definitely have that enemy skill by now :P

The prize is Battery??? Lol thats the most useless prize ever, i said Ribbon because there is no enemy on the game which drops it, and its only found in chests in the game, i was going to say Ziedrich or something, but armour seems somewhat ok at this stage, and already got all the ultimate weapons, im constantly having to protect barrett in battle from status effects which is annoying.

if you really wanted a trophy though, maybe you could make a new piece of gear if thats possible?

I was thinking something like a Ziedrich or Mystile, those kind of stats but with 8 materia slots, as the Ziedrich and Mystile is still pretty much like paper to some monsters in this hardcore mod, they just dont seem enough sometimes
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Travis on 2011-02-03 08:22:07
Lol I can't use my beloved Ribbon... If i want to use it then I must prepare to not use Barrier's on the said character.

Damn you clever gjoerulv you!!!

Oh and can you still morph master tonberries for more ribbons?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Kylos on 2011-02-03 16:57:42
Lol I can't use my beloved Ribbon... If i want to use it then I must prepare to not use Barrier's on the said character.

Damn you clever gjoerulv you!!!

Oh and can you still morph master tonberries for more ribbons?


Yes he is pretty clever, made me think a bit more about it when playing through this mod.

I think tonberrys can be morphed, but they are even harder then before, so morphing them is not an easy task
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: WolfieeifloW on 2011-02-17 01:09:03
Code: [Select]
Below log created: 16/02/2011 at 9:01:14 PM
PROGRESS:
Checking files.
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\battle\scene.bin
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\kernel\kernel.bin
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\battle\battle.lgp
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\kernel\kernel.bin
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\kernel\kernel2.bin
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\field\flevel.lgp FAILED!

Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\field\flevel.lgp'.
Patch finished.
Time spent: 0:16

I've patched to 1.02, and started my game.
It had a bunch of green squares, and there was graphical issues.

I tried to patch your hardcore mod on, and got that error listed above.
I haven't patched Aali's graphic thing yet, hoping that will fix the green squares maybe?
I haven't tried to play again since I tried to patch your mod in, I can get a screenie of the green squares if wanted/needed.


EDIT: Before it finally errors and stops trying to install I get an error popup containing the information from the log.txt.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-02-17 02:47:03
It can't find flevel.lgp. Which version (language) of FF7 are you playing? Check if you actually have flevel.lgp in this folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\field\).

In case you don't know how to check I'll explain (just in case, I'm not suggesting you don't know how).

1. Open "My Computer" start -> Computer.

2. Open C: (you've may have named it something, but it should read "C:" somewhere). Double click to open obviously.

3. Then open these folders in order: Program Files (x86) -> Square Soft Inc -> Final Fantasy VII -> data -> field

4. Once in the field folder you should see a file named something like flevel.lgp. You may not see the extension (.lgp), but that doesn't matter.

To my knowledge the different language versions name it differently. For instance, ackording to my knowledge, in the french version it's called fflevel.lgp. I didn't know this 'til after I've made the patch, assuming the file names were equal in each version.

5a. IF you find a file with similar name (i.e. fflevel.lgp. And, remember, you may not see the extension, the .lgp part. It doesn't matter), rename that file to flevel.lgp (or flevel IF you don't see the extension). To rename a file, simply right-click, select rename and type in the name.

OR

5b. The file does not exist... which does not make sense since you obviously played it. If that's the case you should reinstall the game (uninstall 1st). EDIT: FULL INSTALL!

My mod and Ali's graphic driver is fully compatible. It doesn't matter which of these you install 1st.

Hope this helps. Let me know if it works or not.

EDIT2:

6. Obviously, if you found and renamed a flevel it's name needs to be restored back as it originally were before playing. If not the game will probably crash.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: WolfieeifloW on 2011-02-17 12:47:52
I'm not a total computer noob, so you don't have to explain each step :P
Thanks for the response and care though.

I'm playing the English version, as far as I know.
In my data folder, there's not even a field folder o_O
I have: battle, cd, kernel, menu, midi, music, sound, wm.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-02-17 14:15:12
Hmm... Try to reinstall. You need full install. Or you could choose not to patch the flevel. Everything will be fine, just no new bosses.

If you still not see a field folder after the reinstall, let me know.

Sorry 'bout the noob explanation. I've encountered some noobs before who don't understand computer basic. It was just to stay on the safe side.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: WolfieeifloW on 2011-02-17 17:16:04
Yes, I needed to do a "Maximum Install" instead of the normal one to get the field folder apparently.
The green squares are gone now too, looks like all is good!

Can't wait to get more into your mod, and actually have a challenge now!

If only I can get my PS3 controller to work on my PC now :P


Oh, and no problem with the 'noob' explanation, I used to be a helper on another forum, I know how it is :]
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: eXistenZe on 2011-02-26 21:22:11
Hey there... When cloud is at the top of the church pushing barrels for aeris to escape, one of the random encounters is with 2 red frogs that have stop and poison with each atack, making the battle impossible.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-02-27 03:27:52
It's only a 8% possibility that it inflicts any status. But I've gotten complaints 'bout this one several times, so in the next release it'll change.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-03-04 14:15:19
the point about that one is really that the stop never seems to wear off in time
or rather, the chance that the 8% hits again before it wears off and increases the duration seems to be 100% or almost
thus, getting hit by stop actually = game over
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-17 14:28:24
There is a new revision available with some changes based on the latest feedback. Nothing much.
Omega should be fully playable now without any bugs.
Locke, Venus and Theo's stolen items changed. The last encounter with 'em are harder.
Enemies in the final cave have more status immunities.
The red triangle you encounter in the crater (after geas cliff) is more playable.
The annoying hedgehog pie no longer stops you from acting (game over).
Poison ring also prevents dual drain.
Some typo corrections in scene and kernel2.
The heavy tank morph changed.
+more minor changes, probably not worth mentioning.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: guywithquestions on 2011-03-20 23:59:21
this mod has new boss battles??
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-21 00:03:29
Yup. Even more than you could expect :D
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: KingRevenant on 2011-03-21 19:17:36
I just began this mod yesterday and so far I'm liking it very much.
It's exactly what I was looking for, not an entirely new FF7, but a refreshed version of the game, that's amazing.

But just a couple of questions:
How many new bosses are there? Are they all meant to be faced on the endgame or as soon as you can face them?
Another questions, are there any new materias? (Didn't lay very much yet, sorry).
Thanks.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-21 23:31:52
New bosses...
Almost all summon materias got a boss on pickup. Except Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Odin, Leviathan, Bahamut and Bahamut ZERO.
And there are new SOLDIER battles in the course of the game's story. On in shinra HQ. The train battles. And finally between Proud Clod and Hojo. Also in the flashback there is a new, but easy boss. Finally in the crater you can face Omega. A very difficult fight.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-21 23:58:48
How do you encounter the 4 SOLDIERs between Hojo and Proud Clod?
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-22 10:38:07
You're saying you've been there and didn't see 'em?
It's kinda impossible to miss that fight. Unless somethings wrong...
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-22 21:24:23
No, I didn't got to there, that was just a question... How do you encounter them? You say it's impossible to miss them, so it's basically not a chest... And the fight on the train is totally broken... You can simply don't fight them there.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-22 23:31:39
Ok, then. If you're ever there, You should save after Proud Cloud; before you climb the stairs. You'll understand when you see it.

Broken? Too hard? Bug?

As I've stated many times, I've got several "complains" my mod is too easy (emails and whatnot). I'm kinda between the crossfire here lol. Eventually I'll release more difficulty options.

About the SOLDIER fights, most of their attacks are based on counters. Locke(Blue) counters magical attacks with berserk. Venus(Red) counters twice if physically attacked, while Theo(Purple) twice if magically. In the last fight they'll counter even more, as everyone counters anything twice.
In the 1st fight you can't rely on counters, but you can use several status effects on 'em.
In the train fight you should rely on counters as they don't counter another counter attack (no of your counter attacks are ever countered by general, magical or physical counters. It's engine default not something I added). The tricky part is to kill 'em in the correct order, if you're not overpowered and kill 'em anyway. Venus(Red) needs to die 1st as she can revive the others. Then Theo(Purple) as he can heal. For defeating them on he train you claim a free Ultima, and eventually Bahamut ZERO (which potentially can give you more Coin materias).
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-22 23:39:31
Why "eventually Bahamut Zero"? What I asked is where you encounter them... I found your mod quite hardcore, but that's just me. I am not used to hardcore mods so this is basically hardcore for me :P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-24 15:14:02
Nevermind that... Forgot you could dig him up in the bone village if you didn't get all the huge materia. :P
Anyways, a huge materia and a free ultima is worth the trouble imo.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-24 21:33:23
Yeah, maybe. Also, checked the script and saw this is just after Caith Sith tells us where to go. You are pretty smart :D
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: drfeelgud88 on 2011-03-26 00:49:35
As I've stated many times, I've got several "complains" my mod is too easy (emails and whatnot). I'm kinda between the crossfire here lol. Eventually I'll release more difficulty options.
Wha? Easy? I found it quite difficult when I tried it out a long time ago. Then again I didn't really bother to level because I wanted to see the changes. How silly of me.  :P

Anyways, keep up the nice work; saw that vid on YouTube... Good stuff.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: ESPerion on 2011-03-29 17:43:20
this is a very promising mod to me. lol why promising? cuz i can't seem to get it to work properly. after patching up everything, now enemies appear where they aren't supposed to. like 3rd form Hojo instead of safer sephiroth. and ancient forest monsters appearing in the northern crater. gold dragon encounter crashes every single time. etc. but when i open scene.bin with hojo, all the monsters are setup to appear where they should. so did i do something wrong?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: xLostWingx on 2011-03-29 21:15:12
I apologize in advance if this is incorrect advice.

Have you tried opening the scene.bin in Hojo or PrC and 'Checking' or 'Updating' the Kernel.bin? 
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-30 07:38:10
this is a very promising mod to me. lol why promising? cuz i can't seem to get it to work properly. after patching up everything, now enemies appear where they aren't supposed to. like 3rd form Hojo instead of safer sephiroth. and ancient forest monsters appearing in the northern crater. gold dragon encounter crashes every single time. etc. but when i open scene.bin with hojo, all the monsters are setup to appear where they should. so did i do something wrong?

Hmmm.... No there are no errors in the patch. How exactly did you do it?

The kernel should update correctly no matter what... Did you mess with the scene after the patch?

If it's still not working do what xLostWingx suggested.
If you use windows7 or vista you may need to run the patch in admin mode. UAC may also be a problem. It shouldn't be though...
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: ESPerion on 2011-03-30 10:39:11
thnx for the quick reply :D
i did the kernel update in hojo (admin mode - win7), still no go. i only messed with kernel.bin in wallmarket beforehand n didn't touch scene.bin so i wonder what could have gone wrong... technically i don't need to have virgin scene & kernel BINs to use the patch right? the enemies all show in hojo & PrC, so scene.bin should be ok.. and kernel according to my understanding dont really matter if i just want the extra enemies and bosses right? oh and what is UAC :-s
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-30 10:42:53
Well, you should re-apply the patch without messing with the kernel.bin or else. This should work.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-30 11:34:54
thnx for the quick reply :D
i did the kernel update in hojo (admin mode - win7), still no go. i only messed with kernel.bin in wallmarket beforehand n didn't touch scene.bin so i wonder what could have gone wrong... technically i don't need to have virgin scene & kernel BINs to use the patch right? the enemies all show in hojo & PrC, so scene.bin should be ok.. and kernel according to my understanding dont really matter if i just want the extra enemies and bosses right? oh and what is UAC :-s

UAC: User account control. In windows security center you can toogle on/off.
It should work on a non-virgin (lol) kernel, yes. You could try to patch virgin files to see if it works as it should.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: ESPerion on 2011-03-30 13:34:44
this's too strange. scene.bin has the proper patched data, but the "patched" kernel show old unpatched data in wallmarket after every single patching effort. but technically kernel.bin doesn't need to be patched to enjoy the mod right? sorry if this's becoming tedious to you guys =.,=
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-30 21:15:45
Well, you could always put back an original kernel and choose to just patch this.

EDIT : Don't forget to apply kernel2.bin patch!
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-03-31 03:12:08
@ESPerion

Are flevel.lgp and  battle.lgp patched? Are UAC on? How to turn it off in windows 7! (http://www.blogsdna.com/1815/how-to-disable-uac-turn-off-uac-in-windows-7-beta-1-build-7000.htm) The parch should also run as admin.
You can copy data directly from the install disc if you want the original files. They're inside the data folder.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: ESPerion on 2011-03-31 11:15:58
i turned off UAC, patched everything again, but kernel.bin still appear to be unaffected while scene.bin is definitely changed. aside from finding a patched scene.bin and kernel.bin somewhere i'll be missing out on this damn nice hardcore experience. oh well :p thnx guys! oh yeah and omega is jux insane xD
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-03-31 22:27:18
Try patching kernel2.bin!!! This might be the problem. I can upload mines if you want to.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-04-01 09:39:06
If you can't, for example, use the Master Magic materia in game the kernel is patched.

You sure the kernel checkbox is checked when patching?

Try what Vgr255 suggested. Make a backup of kernel2 1st.

If not...
Try this:
Create folder in C: (root) name it data. Inside that folder create a kernel and a battle folder. In the kernel folder insert kernel.bin and kernel2.bin. In the battle folder insert scene.bin. It doesn't matter what file version you use, the patch should work no matter what.
In the patch app, choose the newly created data folder and only patch kernel and kernel2. If this doesn't work try another location, i.e the desktop (copy paste the data folder). Make sure you select that folder before patching.
If all went well, simply copy paste the kernel back to it's intended location.
If not, let me know.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: moothead on 2011-04-04 18:41:37
Sorry if this has been answered before but I get the error message when I try to patch:

Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\battle\scene.bin' is denied.

It also happens for the other two .bins that require patching.

I have Aali's driver and FF7music installed, do these affect the patch?

Thanks.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-04-04 21:02:45
No, just uncheck the "Read Only" flag under "Properties" of these files.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: moothead on 2011-04-04 21:04:36
No, just uncheck the "Read Only" flag under "Properties" of these files.

I did that and it still didn't work. Any other ideas?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-04-05 14:40:43
I did that and it still didn't work. Any other ideas?

... Are UAC on? How to turn it off in windows 7! (http://www.blogsdna.com/1815/how-to-disable-uac-turn-off-uac-in-windows-7-beta-1-build-7000.htm) The parch should also run as admin...

Turn off UAC, run in admin and whatnot.
It seems some people have trouble patching. I'll look into it and will probably make another release.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-04-05 21:14:43
Well, it could help for some others, but I sent him my kernels and scenes by PM. I told him to not say it because I want to avoid trouble, but I realizes these files aren't copyrighted too much, so...
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: AlbusJC on 2011-04-12 22:52:43
Hi everyone! I found a possible issue when I patch the kernel of this version 1.03 now Sephiroth isn't controllable in the flashback. I did it with a "virgin" kernel too and the result was the same. Did I do something wrong? Thanks
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: yarLson on 2011-04-13 00:06:53
haven't played the flashback in quite a while but if I remember correctly, I don't think Sephiroth is supposed to be controllable in the vanilla game.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-04-13 00:08:31
Is everything else OK?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: terrabrake on 2011-04-13 01:46:39
I also remember that Sephiroth isn't controllable at all. Not totally sure since last time I played the vanilla game was several years ago.

However I'm playing with this mod now and I must say that is great. I don't agree with the ones that say it's too easy, I think it's just perfect. At the moment my first encounter with Jenova ended up with a quick slaughter, obviously it was my team that was slaughtered :P

I had a lot of fun trying to beat the "new SOLDIERs" in the Shinra HQ, without grinding (I took about 10 attemps to beat those fools :D ). However I think Jenova is a lot stronger and I'm doing normal battles to see if enemies give some usefull items (and to raise my level too).

No bugs or glitches found so far. Well tbh only one, after having been beaten by the above mentioned soldiers the game over screen often didn't appear and I had to cntr-alt-del to exit the game. A very minor issue anyway. Great mod.

Only a question, are Ruby and Emerald supposed to be still the hardest battles in the game? I had a quick look at Sephiroth stats (the final battles) and now he seems really the "god" he was supposed to be :P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: AlbusJC on 2011-04-13 09:39:05
If someone want to test what I mean here is the file. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=POZZQ892 (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=POZZQ892)
Load the save number 6 and select one of the two files in the end. The location is in the first reactor in the bombing mission.
The kernel.bin patched with hardcore versión 1.02 have a fully control of Sephiroth. The new versión 1.03 haven't got this control. Do a backup before to overwrite your original kernel.bin file by one of mine.  :wink:
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-04-13 21:20:15
Damn, that's right. Gjoerulv forgot to remove AI script. You can do it by yourself. Here's how :

1 - Open the hardcore mod kernel with Wall Market;
2 - Go to Initial Data tab, then Character AI one;
3 - Go to Sephiroth and "Pre-Battle" and press the "Delete" button;
4 - Do the same as step 3 but for Main instead;
5 - Save and exit.

That's it! Sephiroth will be controllable!
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: AlbusJC on 2011-04-13 22:58:01
It is now fixed. Thank you very much for your help Vgr255.  :-)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-04-13 23:13:19
You're welcome. I sent a PM to Gjoerulv a long ago to ask how he did and he answered me that (although I made it more "n00b proof" because he just wrote :

Delete Sephiroth's AI.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-04-15 11:58:40
Hmmm... I have no idea how that happened. I've always worked on the same files. Now I'm worried I may have f***ed up at some point. After looking over the kernel it looks good. But seph's AI is back. ???

Also I feel like the last soldier fight is a bit too hard. Expect a new release in a few days.

Things to fix:

Sephiroth's AI
The last Soldier fight (before Hojo).
Hojo's 2nd form.
Some enemies in in the assult mission are too weak.

No bugs or glitches found so far. Well tbh only one, after having been beaten by the above mentioned soldiers the game over screen often didn't appear and I had to cntr-alt-del to exit the game. A very minor issue anyway. Great mod.

Only a question, are Ruby and Emerald supposed to be still the hardest battles in the game? I had a quick look at Sephiroth stats (the final battles) and now he seems really the "god" he was supposed to be :P

The game overs creen is not a bug caused by my mod.
The weapons are harder. Bu I think both Safer Seph and the new Omega boss are harder. Safer Seph might not be harder though.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-04-15 17:07:46
Emerald did 32 767 damage (the max) to my characters in a hacked save (stats boosted). Too much hard?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-01 11:23:36
Sorry double-posting, but I found a bug :

A random encounter with Migthy Grunt is glitched : "Grunt Dead" doesn't set the flag Invisible properly, thus resulting in a non-targettable first form Migthy Grunt. Annoying.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: BloodShot on 2011-05-02 00:50:01
Quick question, If I'm fairly early in the game, like say, right before you meet Red XIII in the Shinra building, can I continue my game after installing the mod, or could it cause issues?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-02 00:55:22
Well... It might not cause issues, but you will have missed 6 enemies or so since the beginning (I mean, totally new enemies) including the trio, which is one of the STAR of this mod. So I advise you restarting from the beginning. It's early in the game, you said.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: BloodShot on 2011-05-02 01:15:38
Yeah, I am. It gives me even more of a reason to replay it, since this is the first time in a while I'm actually playing the game, instead of just testing stuff.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.3
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-02 01:17:46
Yeah, I know what you mean... and so Armorvil does.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-02 20:36:45
New release. Sephoroth is yet again controllable, the last soldier fight is fixed and the assult mission 'til the end of game is a bit harder.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-02 22:10:16
Migthy Grunts are fixed?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-03 18:27:20
Sorry double-posting, but I found a bug :

A random encounter with Migthy Grunt is glitched : "Grunt Dead" doesn't set the flag Invisible properly, thus resulting in a non-targettable first form Migthy Grunt. Annoying.

Migthy Grunts are fixed?

Damn, I should read the forum before releasing.
No, I wasn't aware; Never touched it's AI... Or did I?
I'll take a look.

EDIT:
I'm not able to reproduce that bug. Where did it happen? Did the glitch appear when you killed one as red (before turning blue), or did it turn blue before it got killled?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-03 21:52:09
I attacked it while it was red, and then it was reduced to less than 50% of their HPs. Then I heard the "death" sound but the 3D model is still on the screen but is now untargettable. The "blue" Migthy Grunt is active from now on but invisible because I see the target arrow.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-04 11:23:47
Ok

You remember in what encounter/where the bug appeared (floor 59 / elevator etc.)? Or, even better, which scene that encounter/bug is in?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-05-04 11:59:57
I fought like 200 grunts and was never able to reproduce that, not even with poison / gravity or drain
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-04 21:10:10
Floor 59, the mandatory battle (don't remember what scene it is) and by attacking normally.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-05 09:22:31
That was the 1st fight i tested. It went smoothly.

There is nothing wrong with the grunts at my end. After patching you should have the exact same scene as I use. Have you edited anything in scene.bin?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-05 09:34:36
No, huh... That was that scene I used to test the new Proud Clod Alpha, but unless it saves automatically the changes, nothing got altered.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-05 12:37:52
Run the patch again. This time only select scene.bin, as everything else is patched (or not. depends on how you did it before. In any case, select scene.bin only). Remember to back up if you have done some editing.

If you tried this already, or if the bug is ever present, send me a copy of your scene.bin (unless you don't want to). I would like to have a look.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-05 21:43:37
No, that's fine, I don't have to re-run the patch, because I always keep a copy of the files non-modified so I replace them. Will tell ya if any other bug occur :P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: apfelx333 on 2011-05-12 13:29:20
how can in unpatch this mod?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-15 01:45:57
By taking back the files from the disks or backing them up before.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-18 11:32:51
There is no automatic way of removing the mod. That's why I made it possible to make backups of the files. Not very user friendly, I know, but it's the only way. So, yeah, do as Vgr mentioned: Copy the files from the install disc or restore backups. If you did not make backups, then copy from disc. Or do a fresh install.  :-P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-18 21:54:20
Or... pull me off of my laziness and tell me to continue by batch files that will do everything for you :P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-20 19:02:21
Hey, I have a question: Is that Omega boss you mention the same as that thing in that video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj7Hccaa180)? I use your mod so far and it was rather hard so far. But that Omega looks rather easy.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-20 19:04:20
Yes it is. Omega is far from easy. It looks so but isn't.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-20 19:15:32
I imagined Omega looks more like the Weapons but there is no tool to create custom enemy models and make Omega look unique?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-20 19:16:21
He DOES look unique... And yeah, check in the Tool section.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-20 19:22:52
Are not his two latter forms based on the Iron Men, who appear at the Final Descent to Sephiroth, and his first form a copy of the Wolframators from the Corel Train Mission?
So, he does not have a unique enemey model but only a unique variation (size and color) of a non-unique enemy model (or might I be wholly mistaken and his last form is indeed different from the Iron Man enemy model?).
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-20 19:23:40
Yes, you're right, but it is a pain to create brandy new model.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-20 19:29:00
I see. And now to spoil the last remaining surprise ahead of me: To what extent is Safer S. actually supposedly harder than Emerald and Ruby Weapon, as Gjoerulv stated himself? It is the only boss (together with Jenova Synthesis and Bizarro Sephiroth) of the hardcore mod I could not find videos of.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-20 19:30:06
Well... Wait for someone to finish the game and publish a full walkthrought playlist of it...
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-21 18:09:29
I just made the iron giant bigger and green.
But my kernel is not used in this vid. Fun to see someone beat him!
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: moothead on 2011-05-21 18:16:16
Excuse my ignorance but what actually makes him so hard?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: terrabrake on 2011-05-21 20:19:16
I suppose that without the 9999 limit break patch the game is quite harder towards the end than with it, am I right?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-21 20:22:32
You are. What makes him so hard? Well, can't tell, but... he's a pain in the ass.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-21 20:35:15

But my kernel is not used in this vid.

What exactly distinguishes your kernel from the one used in that video?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-21 20:36:12
Master Materias don't exist anymore. There are some name changes.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-21 20:42:50
Right, the master materia replacement I did hear of. But what do you mean by name changes? From what I noticed it seems the Dragon Force ES seems to be somehow changed (at least its description in the video is similar to the one of hero drinks...).
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-21 20:44:25
Can't you point this by yourself? If not, I'll tell you, but if you want to check...
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-21 20:50:23
I do believe several item descriptions are altered (Hero Drink, Lunar Curtain, Mirror). Apart from these changes, which I would not exactly call "name" changes, however, I find myself unable to spot what you seem to be hinting at.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-21 20:51:19
Ok, so I'll tell you, in my next post.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: terrabrake on 2011-05-21 20:51:53
Master Materias don't exist anymore. There are some name changes.

What do you mean? I do have a mastered materia right now, but I can't remember how it was in the vanilla game  ???
What was changed exactly?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-21 20:52:53
Argh, not that. The Master Magic, Master Summon and Master Command I meant.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-21 20:57:57
But is not the master materia swap more than a mere change of names for not only are their names changed but also, more importantly, their very behaviour (mostly to useless commands as I dare to claim).
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-21 20:58:45
The commands names and magic ones are updated (X-Attack, Curaga...). The Master Magic is now Banish (remove). Master Summon is Coin. Master Command is Flash. Summons Materias are mastered at level 2 and each summon can only be used once per battle. The Buster Sword have Death Penality's damage calculation. Big (Mighty) Guard only targets one person. Some MP costs are tweaked too.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vanderlain on 2011-05-21 21:03:29
The spell suffix issue I could have noticed. The rest (apart from the Buster Sword and the Summons) is still ahead of me.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: terrabrake on 2011-05-21 21:05:04
oh, yeah totally forgot about those... too long without playing the game (about 10 years...)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: BloodShot on 2011-05-22 01:25:44
I'm not able to reproduce that bug. Where did it happen? Did the glitch appear when you killed one as red (before turning blue), or did it turn blue before it got killled?

Odd, I was just playing and I got a similar bug on the 59th floor. I fought the mandatory battle and it was fine, then I got in a random encounter against 1 grunt: It went below the health threshold, but when the mighty grunt was supposed to disappear it took a step forward and shot twice, and the attack was called "Grunt Death". I killed it, and it remained in the battle screen while the victory dance was happening. Really odd glitch.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-22 02:40:00
There's obviously something odd with them... I wasn't able to reproduce the glitch either and thought it was something on my side, but...
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: BloodShot on 2011-05-22 02:57:26
Heh, was goin through Shinra building all calm, thinkin "This mod ain't THAT hard" Then i got the 66th floor keycard.   :o

1 slice from them took a 3rd of my health away, and berserk takes away any chance of healing my characters. I was in shock.

EDIT: got the grunt glitch again, it seems to happen only in battles with 1 mighty grunt alone. Also, not sure if this is a bug, but Ghost Hands drain MP out of an enemy, but you don't receive any mp from using them.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-24 10:01:53
Heh, was goin through Shinra building all calm, thinkin "This mod ain't THAT hard" Then i got the 66th floor keycard.   :o

1 slice from them took a 3rd of my health away, and berserk takes away any chance of healing my characters. I was in shock.

EDIT: got the grunt glitch again, it seems to happen only in battles with 1 mighty grunt alone. Also, not sure if this is a bug, but Ghost Hands drain MP out of an enemy, but you don't receive any mp from using them.

I'll take a closer look on that grunt when I have the time. Also, you can't drain mp from enemies with no mp.

Concerning the kernel, read the info in the patch application. It should be sufficient. The name changes aren't documented, but, imo, if you haven't played the game in ages you prob won't remember anyway lol. Anyone can choose not to patch kernel2, thus not change any names or description and at the same time have all the kernel changes.

EDIT: And then to the reason I was posting here:
I figured v4 of .NET isn't a very nice thing to do, so I'll make it compatible with v2 soon enough. Hopefully... :p
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Mrben on 2011-05-25 23:29:57
Well i just completed the first reactor..and i can safely say thats the first time i have had to use jenova to kill the gaurd scorpion...had to give myself an extra 10 potions and 3 phoenix downs and i STILL ran out of potions. With barret dead and GS about to use search scope on Cloud i thought i was dead for sure luckely a final thunder finished him off.I like the 1 turn stop effect the GS gives with search scope great work on this mod it's about the difficulty the game should have been released with (Maybee a little harder)
Just one question is the download link on the first page the latest DL available? i didnt fancy looking through almost 1000 posts to find a newer version
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-25 23:30:56
Yes it is.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Mrben on 2011-05-25 23:38:37
Yes it is.
Great thanks oh btw how is that AV mod u took over from armorville going? If you have a thread about is a link would be great.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-25 23:42:40
No link for now. This project (unfortunatly) is stuck in limbo because of some personnal issues. If you want, search the Projects forum for the AV Mod, which Armorvil made at 65% (the remaining 35% is Square's doing :P ). I *could* release some pre-final release, but... I have to go into it again. Maybe I'll do... Dunno.

(Please PM me if you want to continue that conversation)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Mrben on 2011-05-26 00:02:19
i think im getting some overlapping with this mod and AV mod i patched this hardcore over AV'S and can still buy a mithril saber and many materia for like 10-20 gil in the shop across from 7th heaven bar.i even tryed re patching with a new data folder that didnt have the AV mod on it..think i need a fresh install?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-26 00:03:17
No, you need to replace the executable.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Mrben on 2011-05-26 00:04:13
duh....silly me completly forgot about that.. thanks
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-05-26 01:45:27
Hey, first of all I would like to thank the creator of the mod for publishing it.
Now, my favorite enemy in the entire hack is the Synergy Soul from the Whirlwind Maze. Yet, I found their strength quite unproportional to the rewards for defeating them.
So, I altered both their AI and their spoils. Here is what I made of the fight (I could not resist to use more parts of the One Winged Angel lyrics than were originally used in this battle):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uEuqSPruWE
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-27 10:49:35
@NxK

nice. They can be a pain in the ass. Immune to magic, extreme defense. But there is a very easy way of beating 'em if your character has lost more than, or equal to, 1000hp (example: 999/2000 hp). hmmm... ??? <= enemy skill

Just one question is the download link on the first page the latest DL available? i didnt fancy looking through almost 1000 posts to find a newer version

Yup, the newest release is always on the 1st post on page 1.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-05-27 12:39:43
@NxK

nice. They can be a pain in the ass. Immune to magic, extreme defense. But there is a very easy way of beating 'em if your character has lost more than, or equal to, 1000hp (example: 999/2000 hp). hmmm... ??? <= enemy skill

Yup, the newest release is always on the 1st post on page 1.

I know...^^ But I could not resist to make them morphable into something more elusive than the Dragon Fang in the original game, either...
Still, I wonder: In your version I edited (I believe I must have downloaded it sometime in February), the Synergy Souls could execute their Post-Attack script even if they were already dead. Did you actually intend for this to happen since it renders the battle against one Synergy Soul and two other enemies (an Ironite and something else I cannot remember) nearly impossible to survive given the fact that the Synergy Soul will already kill a character either every turn or every other turn its allies attack one's characters?

(Btw, I hope you did not take offense at my rather audacious comment at Youtube...)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-27 13:28:01
I know...^^ But I could not resist to make them morphable into something more elusive than the Dragon Fang in the original game, either...
Still, I wonder: In your version I edited (I believe I must have downloaded it sometime in February), the Synergy Souls could execute their Post-Attack script even if they were already dead. Did you actually intend for this to happen since it renders the battle against one Synergy Soul and two other enemies (an Ironite and something else I cannot remember) nearly impossible to survive given the fact that the Synergy Soul will already kill a character either every turn or every other turn its allies attack one's characters?

(Btw, I hope you did not take offense at my rather audacious comment at Youtube...)

Yeah, it was a bug I somehow managed to overlook. :P
I think it works better now, as they won't act every turn. They'll actually counter attack you by making you attack yourself too.

None offense taken.  8)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-05-27 14:37:24
That is funny.
In fact, I edited them insofar as one of their "attacks" afflicts a party member with Shield and Confuse (Stat defense ignoring), heals to full HP and raises dexterity to 255 and attack to 510 (Cloud was hit by that attack quite early and Barret finally lost the battle due to this attack). I am afraid that in this case it is close to suicidal to attempt to fight them...
Also, I wanted to use a powered-up version of these enemies in the cave of the Ancient Forest. However, as it turned out they could not be made to use summon attacks without crashing the game, I had to drop that idea. I thought of making them similar to that Conjurer you created for the area around Kalm.

Have you actually come across some of the later videos of veteran0121, the guy who published a LP of your hardcore mod? He was not too fond of your post-game changes...;) (To me he seemed to be exaggerating quite a bit.)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-27 16:42:10
lol no, I haven't seen it yet. I'll take a look. I reckon I've pissed off a lot of people with this mod  ;D
He is probably using 1.0.2.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-05-27 17:20:23
I reckon I've pissed off a lot of people with this mod  ;D

That's the more polite way to phrase it... :wink:
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-27 19:38:49
Actually he uses the remix version (1.0.1). Too bad, there are inconsistencies there.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-05-28 06:31:39
What kind of inconsistencies? But still, even if there are some inconsistencies, it seems to me that he is not exactly emotionally stable or too mature... :roll:
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-05-28 13:35:32
Well... several. Both in renaming stuff and game flow.

I think he eventually patched to 1.0.3 at some point 'cause the 3rd SOLDER fight glitch is on.

Damn, he cheats at the end and still doesn't manage to beat seph. I guess he is a bit too hard lol.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-05-28 13:36:58
I cheat to beat the weapons and am owned too... Nothing is too hard, just unbalanced.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-05-28 14:32:03
Oh, well, some months ago I used your mod for the first time and was shocked by the changes but the only thing I regarded as absolutely inappropriately hard were the hedgehog pies in the church in the slums... Omega was severely overpowered (I loathed Iai Strike(!)) but other than that, nothing was out of the wordly realms in terms of beatableness. In fact, I decided to make the Weapons morphable as well (I am a devoted enthusiast of morphing...).
Now, that I have decided to use your latest version of the mod I sometimes wondered whether is was using your hardcore mod or the original version...^^ Of course, Omega is now much more comfortable to beat (In fact, so much to make his 2nd form morphable as well). But Safer Sephiroth, whom I have recently defeated again (I will probably upload a video of that fight) did not cause too much problems. I only wish he had used his visually very pleasing "Pain" move more often...;)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: BloodShot on 2011-05-29 02:59:52
Damn, just got a crash in the Shinra building on the 67th floor when getting into a random battle. I just got there, and this is my second battle so I can tell you, it was not the 2 shinra MPs + Soldier fight that caused it.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2011-06-07 15:20:49
Well... several. Both in renaming stuff and game flow.

I think he eventually patched to 1.0.3 at some point 'cause the 3rd SOLDER fight glitch is on.

Damn, he cheats at the end and still doesn't manage to beat seph. I guess he is a bit too hard lol.

To be honest I think that he over-exaggerates a bit.  I am wondering how many strategies he really tried?  I know that I was able to get decent damage with physical attacks and some magics but it takes some materia tweaking and testing.  Of course the last time I played the mod it was an earlier version(1.0.1 probably).  I can tell that safer's AI was a bit different but he seems to do about the same amount of damage. 

I do have a question about the Bizarro Sephiroth battle...I see in the video he was fighting with 3 parties but if I remember (It was long ago) I think I just fought with one party on your mod.  Did you tweak the requirements for the multiple/single party battle, or is this even possible?  Also he gets HP boots depending on party level and if you use KotR on Jenova, are these the same small boosts or are they scaled higher based on the difficulty of the mod?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-06-08 00:16:32
@Auraplatonic

Their HP values are calculated the same way, only the values are higher. I did not tweak how many bizz battles you must fight at all. Basically if you're "weak" you fight with one party.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Kylos on 2011-07-04 08:00:06
It has been a long time since i played on my FF7 Hardcore, i got up to Omega but it was not playable.

Can you let me know what has changed since i was last here please? And if patching up to the latest release would be alright for my save, would be cool to finally beat on Omega then head on to Sephiroth to finish it off.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-07-04 17:06:21
It has been a long time since i played on my FF7 Hardcore, i got up to Omega but it was not playable.

What exactly do you mean by "not playable"? And when was that?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Kylos on 2011-07-04 18:29:13
It was not playable because it was a well known fact it would crash on Omega, i attempted multiple times and it did not work, however i am awaiting a reply from gjoerulv, who i am sure would have known what i was talking about.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-05 00:30:07
It's playable and your saves should work fine unless you're loading vanilla. The thing that can get f***ed up are materia levels from a vanilla save.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: nickblames on 2011-07-05 14:04:28
First off, thanks for this awesome mod, gjoerulv!  The last time I tried to play FF7 I couldn't bring myself to finish it because it was so easy and familiar but with this mod I can enjoy a fresh play-through of this awesome game.

I was wondering though, is there a list somewhere of all the new monsters and major changes that you added to the game?  I'm a major completion nut and don't want to miss anything.

EDIT: Never mind, it's all in the info button of the .exe
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2011-07-05 14:26:27
From my experience playing this mod there is pretty much a new enemy in every area.  I can think of a couple specific ones but you can always get Proud Clod and look at the scene for the specifics of the monsters and even check out their drops and steals.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Kylos on 2011-07-07 17:30:02
Thanks Gjoerulv, i figured you didnt change anything too drasticly, might actually finish off my save sometime soon and finish up on my feedback which i gave you as i was playing before.

I see you fixed the pyramid mobs, they were really annoying! :P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Kaco on 2011-07-07 21:36:09
Im interested in few thing
lve been playing this mod for last couple of weeks(when i have time)
i have to say mod is hard and i managed to reach Rocket Town.....
IMO mod is hard but i would change boss in Cosmo Canyon(i think his name is Gi or something) make him immune to health potions even if he is undead cuz that battlee was easy,not only you can kill it with one X-potion(which you can get in box just before you reach it), it also has much less HP than Jenova on ship(that battle was hard)
What i wanted to ask is how many kills Cloud needs to have to get 2nd limit break.... on other chars i got limits normally but on cloud im stuck with lvl 1 limit break :(
i even tried farming a lot and using only Cloud for last hit so he will get kills....i would say that i have over 300 kills and i still dont have 2nd lvl limit....
I think Ive read somewhere that you changed that beacuse you powered up his Initial weapon (cant find that post anymore)
so if anyone can post changes on Cloud limit break......

I must say i was suprised when i got Game Over in a fight against Green dragon in Mt. Nibel....
i was curious how strong it is.....only thing i know that you gave him High Physical Resistance and then it killed me :(((
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-07-09 19:41:30
...You modified your save file, right?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Kaco on 2011-07-09 21:36:01
IDK cuz i used old save file which was just out of Midgar
I used WallMarket to change initial settings on cloud so it is ok now :)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-07-09 21:38:42
No! You did 3 things wrong here!

1 - You used a vanilla save which can messes up with this mod.
2 - The buster sword increases power with the killed enemies, so decreasing it decreases the power.
3 - You modified Gjoerulv's mod! Burn in hell!
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-07-10 06:43:28
3 - You modified Gjoerulv's mod! Burn in hell!

Do you take cyanide or something? I asked him about this a few months ago and he was fine with people modifying the mod and even basing other difficulty mods on his. Like I did.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-07-10 14:57:41
It was sarcasm.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-12 10:21:51
IDK cuz i used old save file which was just out of Midgar
I used WallMarket to change initial settings on cloud so it is ok now :)

Yup, thats the culprit. Old saves can mess things up. I think I mentioned it somewhere...
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: vAddicatedGamer on 2011-07-16 01:19:41
Hi been trying to play with this mod as well... Got stuck in the Shin-Ra 65th floor for a long time with the trio (beaten them now). But I do have a few questions:
1. Never learnt about their counters until I read your post (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.msg159980#msg159980). It makes sense now. But do they counter 100% of the attacks? Isn't that equivalent to a master-level Magic/Command counter materia (ouch)? There was once Locke countered all 3 by casting berserk on all 3, then followed up with a blizzara which wrecked the whole party  :'(

2. What exactly is damage range for their normal attacks?
- [Front row --> Tifa, Cloud, Barret] the maximum I observed is 837 (non-crit)
- [Back row + barrier + enemy under berserk] the maximum I observed is 321 (non-crit) and 374 (crit), the average is 220+ or so [I guess this is consistent since berserk x1.5 damage]
- [Back row + enemy under berserk] the maximum is 1301 (crit)
-> So, taking account of the various modifier, their raw damage can be roughly divided into 3 types: ~170, ~330, ~800 (!)

3. Berserk
- It seems like they are still able to cast spells even under the effect of berserk (e.g. Venus cast Fira while under berserk).

I have uploaded FRAP recording of 3 fights if anyone is interested to look at it -> (mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/?1vkff8bta261t) links)

Is this intended? If they could already do 800+ damage normal attack at this stage, I shudder to think what they are capable of later (from what I've read, seems like they're significantly tougher later on).

Cheers.

p/s:
List of mods/patches I've installed on my current installation - Aali 0.7.11b, FF7Music, Armorvil's SFX, FMVRes, Gjoerulv's, TA Overhauls, sl1982's and yarLson's Field background, kruci's default run. Only Gjoerulv's (as far as I know) modified AI or battle-related scripts. I also had the same thing on a previous installation where I installed Remix prior to updating to latest Gjoerulv's. 
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-16 04:38:01
The info sounds correct.

You have a good strategy, but you should never attack 'em. Empty their mp with Mind Blow (Mind Blow removes ALL mp). Then confuse them with loco weeds. Don't waste ghost hands.

You could also try to only confuse them all the time. In that case keep 'em confused as their attacks are severely strengthened in berserk (against you). This strategy may require less time, but depends more on luck.

You can also unleash other attacks, besides mind blow, when you think it'll be enough to do a one hit kill. ONLY if their mp is drained. Light curtains helps a lot here, but these items are not obtainable in this area. You get 'em from the turtles in the sewer.

All characters should have a restore materia.

The 2nd fight against them could easily be the hardest. Depends on your level and materia.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2011-07-16 04:42:38
The second fight is pretty beastly.  When I found the trio in the tower I used Locoweeds and I had Sadness on all.  I was able to steal 2/3 of their items which was my main goal.  Its tough because they are pretty fast.  Also, Mind Blow FTW
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: vAddicatedGamer on 2011-07-16 06:13:49
The info sounds correct.

You have a good strategy, but you should never attack 'em. Empty their mp with Mind Blow (Mind Blow removes ALL mp). Then confuse them with loco weeds. Don't waste ghost hands.

You could also try to only confuse them all the time. In that case keep 'em confused as their attacks are severely strengthened in berserk (against you). This strategy may require less time, but depends more on luck.

You can also unleash other attacks, besides mind blow, when you think it'll be enough to do a one hit kill. ONLY if their mp is drained. Light curtains helps a lot here, but these items are not obtainable in this area. You get 'em from the turtles in the sewer.

All characters should have a restore materia.

The 2nd fight against them could easily be the hardest. Depends on your level and materia.

Cool. So I didn't mess up the modding after all. Just felt weird since the other parts were tough but manageable. Not knowing the counter-attack mechanism pretty much owned me, plus the fact that I usually attack whichever the cursor points at first (Locke in this case) just make things worse. Admittedly I totally freaked out when they can 2-hit me (or less). Another thing is that casting cure is a PITA due to all player-characters standing in an almost vertical line - sometimes I can only choose 2 out the 3 characters and cure the wrong person (!!!)

Ranting aside... does casting berserk require MP? I guess for your tactic (Mindblow) to work, I should have given Cover materia to Barret? I never paid much attention to mindblow because a lot of enemies seem to have MP-independent skills. 

I managed to beat them by putting everyone in the backrow and feeding them with weed. And just chilling out, curing when necessary haha. As long as none of them pull off a 600-damage hit it's pretty safe.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-16 14:38:29
Yes, berserk cost mp. In this mod, always keep your players in back row. It may be okay - even in shinra hq - to have one or two characters in front row early on for physical attacks. But, imo, if you need it, use Barret. Soon you'll get the long range materia for others.

A pre-emptive tip for all jenovas except the last one. Use Clouds physical attack. They're weak against it. In the next release they'll be weak to all physicals to make it less cryptic.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-07-17 00:21:55


A pre-emptive tip for all jenovas except the last one. Use Clouds physical attack. They're weak against it. In the next release they'll be weak to all physicals to make it less cryptic.

I have been wondering about that property of your Jenova bosses: Why exactly ae they weak to Cut? Is this an allusion to something in particular?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-17 10:14:01
It's something I've forgotten to change since 1.0. The initial idea was that Cloud should know it's weakness. :|
Really stupid, I know.

Them being weak to physical have no real logical reason. The way I vision the jenova bosses are HP beastish. Thus low defence.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: vAddicatedGamer on 2011-07-17 15:46:07
I have another question... what exactly does Needle do (cast by Vargid Police)? Does it paralyze, petrify, or simply kick a PC out of battle?

I'm seeing some weird stuff with this skill (see screenshots below): Cloud and Aeris' weapon seem to disappear. Their names disappear. Cloud remains in the battle scene, although he's not a viable target anymore; whereas Aeris just get kicked out of a battle. When Tifa gets killed, I get a game-over screen...

(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8285/ff72011071705514299.jpg) (http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/5748/ff72011071705515005.jpg)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-17 18:05:01
It's suppose to kick 'em put of battle. Seems like some graphical issue. I'll see if I can repeat this "glitch".

In the picture, Cloud actually is kicked out, but somehow his model is still there. In an attack, target animation (on hit) is set. Doesn't seem like it kicked in properly.

EDIT:
It works fine at my end. Are you able to reproduce it?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Auraplatonic on 2011-07-18 04:35:20
I have gotten this display a couple of times before, I just always thought It was a little bit of a graphical glitch, nothing major.  Its just kind of random thing.  I don't know what the special property of the attack is as the only one I can think of doing something similar is Ruby's eject attack.  Its possible the game just doesn't display it property sometimes as its not really the natural attack it was supposed to go with.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-18 06:49:27
Ruby's whirlsand removes the target, but I don't think it use the "remove-target-animation" on the target (3rd byte). I believe the target is removed due to the animation id (14th byte). Just as the entire party becomes invisible during a summon attack.

I use this hurt animation on many attacks. I've never seen it fail. :P It's the same hurt animation used in the midgar Zolom attack used to eject a character before it uses beta.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: vAddicatedGamer on 2011-07-18 07:29:05
I tried replicating it and it happened again (I even cleared my caches just in case). But that's not my main concern. My main concern is that when there's only one character left in the party (whereas the others have been "needled" away) and that character dies, I get a game-over screen. I've uploaded the video on mediafire here (http://www.mediafire.com/?najoz649q6q1l8j).

As an aside: are you talking about the kernel.bin's attack data format when you mentioned the "3rd byte"? So toggling that byte turns on/off whether a character flinches from a hit?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-18 07:56:25
I tried replicating it and it happened again (I even cleared my caches just in case). But that's not my main concern. My main concern is that when there's only one character left in the party (whereas the others have been "needled" away) and that character dies, I get a game-over screen. I've uploaded the video on mediafire here (http://www.mediafire.com/?najoz649q6q1l8j).

As an aside: are you talking about the kernel.bin's attack data format when you mentioned the "3rd byte"? So toggling that byte turns on/off whether a character flinches from a hit?

Yes, your party get wiped out, thus game over. You should kill that bastard quickly before it owns you.
And, yes, I talk about attack data. Attack data in kernel and scene has the same structure. Changing the attack's target animation (hurt animation), will not change the actual effect of the attack though. The remove effect is set on the 19th byte. This also flags the target as dead if hit. In the midgar zolom fight a slightly different effect takes place. The target is removed but not flaged as dead. The difference is one bit.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: vAddicatedGamer on 2011-07-18 09:28:29
Ok, I thought you only get flagged as "escape" when you get hit by a needle.

Thanks for clarifying that bit.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-07-23 00:50:42
The only thing that I felt was really lacking this hack was an interesting Ultimate Weapon battle (was any form of Ultimate Weapon altered at all?). So, I made my own one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqABK5bessM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqABK5bessM)

I am afraid it is much harder than Omega, unbeatable rather, I think.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: jeffdamann on 2011-07-23 02:11:13
If you mean Dolph Lundgren, apparently there is more than 1 Blonde muscly Dolph.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-23 09:08:11
UW is changed. It could be harder though. I'llprobably make it a bit harder in the next release.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Nightmarish on 2011-07-23 15:00:23
I guess that double ultima weapon will get easier with 9999 limit break, so it's ok.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: jeffdamann on 2011-07-23 22:12:17
Can you make the first ultima fight last longer than 3 rounds?(Mideel)

Also increase his power ridiculously, so that this point in the game is a vert hard fight that HIGHLY threatens to kill you.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: DLPB_ on 2011-07-24 00:14:22
Jeff it is called hardcore mod :P
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Blinding_Solo on 2011-07-25 16:38:35
Do you know how I can uninstall or get rid of it? It has cause problems for me. In the beginning the first thing you fight is a goblin that does 1300 damage and of course that's an automatic KO lol.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-07-25 16:52:48
Open the scene.bin w/ Proud Clod and click "Create KERNEL.BIN". Then click yes an yes.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Blinding_Solo on 2011-07-25 18:32:31
I don't see a Create Kernel.bin on proud clod.   :-\
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-07-25 18:33:45
Sorry, it was SCENE.BIN (under file)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Blinding_Solo on 2011-07-25 19:18:11
Thank you VGR! It was so frustrating starting the game and the first thing you fight is something you'll never win against at entry level. :D
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-07-25 19:30:34
Haha :D You're Welcome
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-07-27 14:33:06
Hmmm, are there problems with the kernel not updating? The patch should update it automatically. Of course, if one use another kernel after the the patch is done, there will be problems.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Blinding_Solo on 2011-07-30 00:46:58
I don't know but that might have been the issue gjoerulv. The patch was perfect until I restarted the game and encountered that issue.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-08-02 02:06:19
When I try to install the Hardcore Mod 1.04 on a 32bit Windows XP machine, I get the error "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application."
I've had no trouble installing any other mod on the XP box.
Is this normal?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-02 08:47:15
That shouldn't happen. I'll look into it. You could try to re-download. Make sure to run it with admin privileges. It's required to avoid UAC issues.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-08-02 11:43:58
The problem was with my setup.  I was running inside a Virtual XP Machine.  There was something about the environment that didn't gel well with the Hardcore installer.  Your installer works perfectly when I boot into full XP.
Thanks,
-PitBrat
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-08-03 16:07:01
Is there a way i can just get the new summon bosses but not make the whole game harder?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-04 09:23:21
Not if you're not willing to do some work. Me and Vgr have been talking 'bout making a "normal mod" with all the new enemies. It's possible to do it yourself without too much trouble, but it takes time. Use Proud Clod.
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-05 03:46:18
Hmm? So I might take back the work now? Well, I don't mind, actually. Would you like me to so it, E1SUNZ?
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-08-05 13:22:25
Hmm? So I might take back the work now? Well, I don't mind, actually. Would you like me to so it, E1SUNZ?

Yes please  :)
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-05 14:31:51
Good, I'm doing it when I get time (= not now, probably this weekend) and I'll send it to Gjoerulv. He'll put it in the installer, so you just have to change the scene.bin
Title: Re: [Release] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-08 19:17:35
Don't rush it Vgr. I still work (very slowly) on v5.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Elentor on 2011-08-17 08:19:39
Just thought I'd post this here for fun. Here's a Level 14/13/13 quick kill of Locke, Venus & Theo that I did as a bonus video for a LP thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFpwJrZG72c

There's also another video in the account with items being stolen from all three soldiers.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-08-17 21:15:55
Nice im on the exact spot playing it right now liked the dialogues  ;)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: bashful6 on 2011-08-18 10:54:35
Ok I dont know if its been said on here but there are some small problems i found. For instance, at times healing wont heal does the action but no heal .Also notice with Mystile equipped, Healing with magic tends to miss and if another person in your team tries to heal you with magic/item misses also. Only way I found myself to heal is by the character using a potion on them himself. Anyone else seen that?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-18 15:19:08
Yup, most magics can miss, including healing spells. The more meva, the higher chance. But spells like cure have a higher hit rate than others.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: bashful6 on 2011-08-18 19:12:25
Oh wow!
I like and hate it at the same time haha! so the best bet for healing then is items.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-19 16:54:16
I'm having a bit of a problem here. I'm getting an OutOfMemory error about 50%, any way to do this manually? (I have MBuffer disabled) It's done it twice now. I have 256 RAM 2.2Gz cpu. I suspect it would help if I closing out all the windows I have open (FF, FF7 Folder and the installer) Also, does this mod conflict with using Black Chocobo 192 and NPC Reconstruction Project? ( Don't think it would with NPCRP but I like using BC192 for acquiring Enemy Skills and Ethers/Potions)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-19 16:55:51
Patch one file at a time and see if it changed anything. Then, if the issue is still there, tell us which file is the problem.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-19 16:59:29
AH! I TOTALLY forgot about doing that. Thanks, I'll let ya know if anything else arises.

Also, would you have any input on my other question?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-08-19 17:10:44
Also, does this mod conflict with using Black Chocobo 192 and NPC Reconstruction Project? ( Don't think it would with NPCRP but I like using BC192 for acquiring Enemy Skills and Ethers/Potions)

No it doesn't i got both myself had no issues so far
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-19 17:51:59
Alright, got it installed, started a new game and is working correctly. And yes...this is a hard difficulty;I haven't even gotten to the first boss before dying o_O Fighting the Wardrobe look-a-likes especially, seeing as they can take off half your HP with one shot when you have 2 other fella's to fight with only a handful of potions. A minor inconvenience but it is oh so much better than the original in terms of difficulty.  Enjoying it so far as on my other save file without this mod, I had gotten to Cosmo without dying once with any character.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-19 18:34:36
Where there's a problem, there's a solution 8)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 00:29:47
Yep - Cheat Engine :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-20 01:11:42
Haha, there's kranmer's trainer too.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 04:07:07
Ah, hadn't heard of that one before. Suppose it WOULD save me time from having to keep alt-tabbing to find 6 values - HP and MP. So far, Ive gotten to the second boss that blows up the walkway after being defeated and...well...it's not going so well. Figured I'd try outhealing his Big Bomber so he runs out of ammo but ffs, Rear Gun and Counter-Ram-Attack is a bitch. and I even have them in the back row! WITH NO MATERIA except for linked Cure-All. I like the difficulty, but damn...this shit is HARD. Or perhaps I just suck at coming up with strategies.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-20 04:11:40
If you get stuck here, prepare yourself for the damn hard SOLDIER trio.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 04:16:03
I'd really love to play it without cheating. Do you have any this for this boss? Also is this http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=9890.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=9890.0) the correct trainer you're talking about?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-20 04:17:24
Yup it's this one. Should really consider releasing an enhanced version of this...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 06:10:07
What would I need to download in order to edit battle.lgp to decrease enemy damage?

I'm guessing Hojo and ProudClod?

Edit: Nvm, found what I needed. Gah....that's alot of enemies to go through o_O
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 12:24:55
Is it safe to use the Reasonable Difficulty mod with this to replace the scene.bin?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-20 12:25:51
No. It will messes up the new bosses. (Crash)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 12:38:27
By new bosses, do you mean the bosses that were already in-game or the ones that he added himself?

If the latter, could I simply replace the new flevel with my backed up one and everything will be hunky-dory?

I don't much care for the new bosses that appear after picking up summon materia.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-20 12:50:55
Yes, new bosses he added himself. You'll get crashes there otherwise.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-08-20 13:05:31

If the latter, could I simply replace the new flevel with my backed up one and everything will be hunky-dory?


I suppose you could.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-20 13:37:49
Well, not so quite, i'm afraid. I also had to replace the scene.bin for the original one for RDM to install. Think I may have just a smidgeon of a problem, though :P I'm in Shinra mansion and I unlocked the safe and I fought 2 Ancient Dragons and as a random encounter whilst in Shinra Mansion, I had to fight Godo, the last boss at the Wutai Pagoda. Not quite a crash but alarming to say the least lol
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-20 13:52:04
Update the kernel by opening your scene.bin and choose to create scene.bin then click Ok 2 times.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-21 19:12:00
Well, not so quite, i'm afraid. I also had to replace the scene.bin for the original one for RDM to install. Think I may have just a smidgeon of a problem, though :P I'm in Shinra mansion and I unlocked the safe and I fought 2 Ancient Dragons and as a random encounter whilst in Shinra Mansion, I had to fight Godo, the last boss at the Wutai Pagoda. Not quite a crash but alarming to say the least lol

If you don't want new bosses then don't patch flevel. Restoring a backup should work too.
If you restore a scene or kernel however you''ll probably get wrong encounters (restoring both will work fine). Same if you edit scene.bin without updating the kernel.
You can fix this by patching the files you want again, or do as Vgr said. I assume he meant Proud Clod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: FFFreak on 2011-08-26 14:10:46
So, I've restarted with renewed hope and I guess you just need to do a bit of powerleveling beforehand and it is still quite challenging but doable. Although I still need the use of a trainer on some area's. Now I know what he meant by wait till I fight the Soldiers >_>
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-27 06:28:15
I really need to include a guide to added bosses (and perhaps the Jenovas). People seem to have problem with these in general.

Spoiler: show


A tactic I used against them (yet another):
Preps: Have Barret and Cloud on limit lvl 1  (Cloud's lvl 3 could also be useful to end the battle) and equip Barret with a cover materia. Start the battle with him at full limit. Tifa and cloud should always stand by with a cure.

You need to poison Venus (RED) and Theo (PURPLE). Locke (BLUE) can't be poisoned. Use deadly waste item to poison. Poison RED firs (important) then PURPLE. When you get a limit with Barret, use Mind Blow on BLUE.  Use Cloud's Cross Slash Against PURPLE. Cross Slash will paralyse him (you can't paralyze the others). When Barret get another limit, use Mind Blow on PURPLE. The third time use it on RED. When Cloud gets a limit, only use Cross Slash on PURPLE and only if PURPLE is not paralysed.
Other than this, defend and cure only. Watch RED and PURPLE die by poison. After that BLUE should be easy to take down by any means.

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Travis on 2011-08-28 15:47:57
Here's a question.

I plan to install 1.02, Aali's graphics, Phoenix Rejuv., and Team Avalanche's mod in that order.

At what point should I install the hardcore patch to avoid conflict.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-08-28 15:50:10
Last one.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Travis on 2011-08-28 16:08:22
So the hardcore patch should be the last one... okay. Thanks.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dieter_ on 2011-08-31 08:35:51
Hi, new poster here! I started playing this mod a few weeks ago, and I gotta say it rocks so much. So many fights that made me almost come out of my seat. Now I've ran into a problem though. I just visited Gelnika for the first time, and it seems the monsters are often doing 9999 damage here with physicals... I didn't read thoroughly enough into this when I started I guess, so I hadn't removed the 9999 damage cap and now it's getting kind of hard to play. I did change it from ff7opengl file now, but it doesn't seem to affect my savegame. Is there any way past this?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-08-31 15:14:57
You're saying you didn't use the 9999 limit breaker until it got too hard?
Relax, if you patched the kernel the HP levels should be the same with or without the 9999 cap remover. Only a few characters naturally breaks the HP limit with no HP plus materia. Unless you're over lvl 90 it shouldn't matter.

If you didn't patch the kernel there should be no difference in HP levels.

What you need to get it "easier" is to use more HP plus materias. If it still says 9999 max hp, try to remove all materia and epuip them again. The HP levels should reset.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Travis on 2011-09-02 17:44:46
I am stuck in Gaia's Cliff lol, the ice sickles... sicles... icicles... whatever.

Anyway I can't beat those guys without almost dying and I just can't make it. I am currently getting everyone's limits and getting Cloud leveled up as well as everyone else. Cloud is level 62 right now.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-09-02 23:12:26
I am stuck in Gaia's Cliff lol, the ice sickles... sicles... icicles... whatever.

Anyway I can't beat those guys without almost dying and I just can't make it. I am currently getting everyone's limits and getting Cloud leveled up as well as everyone else. Cloud is level 62 right now.

If I recall correctly, it is not those icicles but their allies, in particular that Death Dealer version (named Griever(?)), that cause so much trouble. You should try afflicting them with statuses. They are susceptible to Berserk I seem to remember.
By the way, the area following the Cliff, namely the Whirlwind Maze, includes even "nicer" enemies. If you long for fun, acquaint yourself with the Synergy Souls...^^
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Travis on 2011-09-02 23:27:59
So, I just got to Schizo... It took him several turns, but he finally beat me.

His fire attack just completely takes out my barrier... asshole.

Strategies?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-09-02 23:51:29
Lots of elemental materia and appropriate accessories and armors (absorbing/nullifying fire/ice/bolt/earth elements) will help greatly.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Travis on 2011-09-06 00:07:36
Okay, I beat Schizo...

Gold Dragon, so far I know Lazer works against him so that must mean gravity works against him.

Edit: Figures, he was easy once I figured out how his status effects worked...

So... Jenova Death. I am going to have to look up a few things on how to take out this son of a bitch. Worked me good the first time.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-07 07:20:05
If I remember correctly, absorbing fire helps a bit in this fight. Also immune to death and silence.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: pyrozen on 2011-09-07 22:23:34
If I remember correctly, absorbing fire helps a bit in this fight. Also immune to death and silence.
not as much as you might think. The red light attack isn't registered as fire, and that seems to be the way i get wiped out everytime. Normally it'll come in 3 back-to-back rounds, with no chance of recovery(3000+ each shot). That, plus the fact it causes confuse AND 1-minute countdown make it seem a wee bit to powerful imho. I've been stuck at this point for quite some time, and still get stomped everytime i attempt it again.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-09-08 06:45:09
In some versions, the Red Light attack was regarded as a Fire elemental attack though. I am not sure, however, whether this is still in the case in the latest version.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-08 07:43:03
I'm pretty sure I made the Tropical Wind fire (and wind?). The red light is non-elemental, yes, same with JLife's blue light. Jlife's flame attack is water.

There are differences in the releases. I removed all elements from the jenova attacks in the earlier releases, but brought some back later on. I'll check when I get home.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: pyrozen on 2011-09-08 12:33:53
finally got around to messing with proudclod and changed the red light attack. I removed the 60-sec death and reduced its power by roughly 1/2. Was still a difficult battle, but it seemed much more balanced to me. Previously, i would cross my fingers not to get hit by the triple red-light and hope for the best. Cloud was level 53 at this point, with around 5200HP.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-09-08 13:42:21
I think you are having (far) too few HP at this point of the game. I realized that HP Plus materia were crucial for many battles from the beginning of the second disc on.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-08 18:45:49
*cough*deathforce*cough*
...
*cough*dragonforce*cough*
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: NxK on 2011-09-08 19:12:50
*cough* The Blue Dragon finally became manipulable? *cough*
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Mooglethisbyotch on 2011-09-09 04:38:09
Wow, after defeating Rufus in the solo fight with Cloud I ran downstairs to Tifa but before I met up with her, I got caught by a random battle. I was hit with an attack called Needle that automatically ejects you from battle, and that was an instant game over. REAL FUCKING CUTE GUYS >____>
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: terrabrake on 2011-09-09 12:58:04
not as much as you might think. The red light attack isn't registered as fire, and that seems to be the way i get wiped out everytime. Normally it'll come in 3 back-to-back rounds, with no chance of recovery(3000+ each shot). That, plus the fact it causes confuse AND 1-minute countdown make it seem a wee bit to powerful imho. I've been stuck at this point for quite some time, and still get stomped everytime i attempt it again.

yeah for the first time I've been stuck on a boss fight for 1 month, after tried about 10 times I gave up and never played again, but I think I'll use Proud Cloud as you did. The fact is that her Red Light (used very often 3 times in a row) is an instant kill if you don't manage to cast MBarrier quickly, and usually she doesn't give you time to cast it. And even if you do she's very fast and not having proper defences againt death and confusion will lower your chance to win to pretty much zero.
The last time I was stuck was with the first 3 soldiers encounter, but with a good strategy and spotting their wek points it was quite "easy" to defeat them, but Jenova Death is almost impossible, at least for me.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-12 10:36:53
*cough* The Blue Dragon finally became manipulable? *cough*

It's always been. Maniped it pretty easily last time I tried. Maybe I was lucky?

Edit:
lol, actually it's not. Will be in next release. Now I wonder how I managed to manip it? Maybe I reflected it?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: xxxgodz on 2011-09-16 16:02:46
Need a little help. I get an error that says i need to install .NET framework v4.0.30319 in order to run the application even though i already downloaded the .net framework from the link on the first page, installed it, and restarted my pc. I even tried to find the latest .net framework and it was the same on as the link on the first page. So i doubt that i have the wrong .net framework installed.....
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: UGerstl on 2011-09-16 18:58:12
Hi xxxgodz,

maybe "Windows Update" finds the version you need ?

Page 1:  Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 or higher to run.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: xxxgodz on 2011-09-16 20:25:54
well what's the latest .net framework? isn't it the one from the link? I'm still on vista 64-bit.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: UGerstl on 2011-09-16 20:44:48
@xxxgodz: What i exactly mean, are the Updates served through "Windows Update" :
                  (Windows7, 64bit)

(http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u383/UGerstl/Sonstiges/NETv4Updatespng.png)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: xxxgodz on 2011-09-16 22:40:47
Hmmm strange. I thought i just did all that windows update stuff for the .net framework but from the looks of it, i guess i haven't. Well the updates are installing now so i'll have to see once they are done and i've restarted my pc. Thanks for the reply though. Would be funny if the reason why i couldn't get this mod to work is because i didn't do windows update.....
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-17 15:39:15
The 4.0 .NET requirement was a mistake. I switched to visual studio 2010 which had that framework as default, and I forgot to change it before I build it. In the next release only 2.0 will be required. I think most version of windows today support it by default.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-09-17 21:34:39
That's a good idea!
I need to switch my project to .NET 2.0 too (BTW, that was a good movie).

The .NET Framework 4.0 is finicky.  Windows update doesn't automatically select it for installation.  One must manually select it, install and repeat a few times to apply all the updates.  Microsoft cares.

I find some of the enemy encounters in 1.04 REALLY hard!  But it's way better than any of the other difficulty mods available.
Thanks for you continued development of this mod!

Are normal mode and hardcore mode save games interchangeable?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-09-17 22:42:14
No, savegames are NOT interchangeable.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: riryoku on 2011-09-18 11:26:13
Thank you so much for this mod!! I'm having so much fun. I never thought I'd be able to experience FF7 in such a new way like this.

Just finished the first Jenova fight on the cargo ship. Such a great fight! Took me a few attempts to get into a decent rhythm of fighting and healing. Wasn't sure if my levels were too low but I'm trying not to level too much in case I end up making the game easier than it should be. I love a challenge. I'm just annoyed the game continues to freak out if Cloud isn't in my party during story events. I thought I could finally have my all girl team thanks to Black Chocobo but that's off topic.

Also damn that Locke, Venus and (always forget the other one) battle was crazy. I had to use Loco Weed to make them kill each other! I realised after I think they were countering physical attacks? So I was making it more difficult for myself by opening with throwing a shrapnel at them.

Edit: Aww no Ifrit boss but I guess that would be rather cruel after just having fought Jenova.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-18 18:35:04
Are normal mode and hardcore mode save games interchangeable?

Not 100%. If you did not patch the kernel, then they're compatible with each other. The game is still 100% playable by loading a non-patched save game, but thing like materias AP can get screwed up.

@riryoku
Thanks. No, imagine having another boss right after Jenova. Same thing with the Shiva and Ramuh. You can't save before picking up Ramuh, so if you got a game over ont that boss you would have to beat Dyne again as well.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-09-18 19:51:37
Putting a save point right in the Chocobo Jockeys' room to save before. Also make sure that the Shiva Materia is only available in the house (like it is when you have 200 Materias in your invetory). Similar for some other Materia bosses. Also if it would be possible to have the Materia Caves have 2 spots where you pick up the Materias.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-20 12:35:29
They are all good ideas Vgr. The only problem here is the Ramuh materia. My patch don't actually patch field files, it replaces them (not all, only those I changed). If I add a savepoint to the field, add the field to my patch everyone who patches will get english dialogue in this field. I know I have done this with other fields, like the gongaga reactor boss and the flashback boss.

Before I add any field stuff that may alter dialogue, I want to finish the patch, in order for it to actually patch. How long time it takes? I have no clue. I worked on a patch method over a year ago, but I never continued. I'm guessing at least a few months. Most likely more. Not that it's hard to make one; I simply don't have much time to do it.

Having two materias in the caves is a good idea. That, or check if you have 199 instead of 200.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-09-23 18:44:12
Man this mod is too hard for me how do i remove this i selected "make backup files"  now what. Sorry for being a noob but your mod was great but maybe a bit too hard especially the part when you first start the game i couldn't get past the boss in twice
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-09-23 20:17:53
To restore the backups 1st make sure you actually have them. They have the extension bak0, or, if you've patched the same files multiple times, bak1, bak2, etc. bak0 are always the oldest files (In the next release it will only create a backup if one isn't present already; avoiding possible space issues). Basically look for bak0 files.

Lets say you find flevel.lgp.bak0. 1st delete flevel.lgp, then rename  flevel.lgp.bak0 -> flevel.lgp.
If you didn't find flevel.lgp.bak0 there is no backup, and you need to copy flevel.lgp from one of the discs.
Repeat for all files.

 They are located in FF7 data folder if you didn't know. data/kernel, data/field, data/battle.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: DLPB_ on 2011-09-23 20:28:59
When me and luksy have completed the tools, your mods and mine may not clash anymore, at least nearly all problems will be avoided.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-09-23 20:54:02
Thank you soo much gjoerulv
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-09-23 22:43:38
I could post something that would allow you to easily switch between Normal and Hardcore Mods. Look in the Bootleg thread.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-10-04 16:38:04
You thinking of releasing another version for this meaning slightly easier the main thing i like about this mod is it makes the bosses much longer to kill which i love i hate it when i kill them so quick well for me bosses and also dying so quick kos of its unbelievably hard mode
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-10-04 21:06:51
you think this is unbelieveably hard?
lol
you need to learn how to play better. seriously.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Tekkie.X on 2011-10-04 21:42:45
you think this is unbelieveably hard?
lol
you need to learn how to play better. seriously.

You need to stop acting like a dick, seriously.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-10-04 22:44:00
You need to stop acting like a dick, seriously.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-10-04 23:06:48
I find it outrageously hard too... but it's fun!
I'm working with some mod authors to produce a serious of difficulty mods that range from easy to extreme.
You might also try playing Hardcore with Revival installed.
Aeris can really kick 4$$ at higher levels!
Also, read this thread.  There are some really great tips on beating enemies.
Hopefully someone compiles a strategy guide for the Hardcore Mod.
That would be a very useful good thing!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-10-05 14:07:15
Not being terrible at games is acting like a dick now?
This is really only very ( and not ridiculously so ) hard if you try to speedrun it.
it's a lot harder than the normal game, but that one could be finished even by the most casual casuals.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-10-05 19:31:27
No it cannot. You maybe are a good player, but it doesn't mean that anyone else is. Now, stop.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-06 04:08:42
You thinking of releasing another version for this meaning slightly easier the main thing i like about this mod is it makes the bosses much longer to kill which i love i hate it when i kill them so quick well for me bosses and also dying so quick kos of its unbelievably hard mode

Punctuation is a good thing.
Eventually there will be another release. If I make more options depends on how lazy I am.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: -Ric- on 2011-10-06 04:59:55
having lots of fun with this.. just reached the 3rd CD and got Clould's Ultima Weapon.. so far its been damn fun, alot of bosses required me to use strategies and magics/items that i never even bothered with on the normal version (like gravity materias and items and even confuse, berserk, sleep etc.)

thanks alot gjoerulv for sharing this great difficulty mod, will be on the lookout for new releases for sure  :-P
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Bosque on 2011-10-07 09:34:54
Question: How do you get Dragon Force from the Blue Dragon?

EDIT: This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UH9Xz8ITpk&feature=related) says you need to Reflect it so when it casts Dragon Force it bounces back to you. Of all the times I've fought him he only ever used it on the very first time. I even cheated, made Cloud super powerful and just waited until he casted it for about an hour. No dice. Don't you think it's a bit ridiculous?

Some random observations: I seem to be under 10 levels of the averages I'm seeing here. Beat the Temple, Jenova-LIFE and the Kujata boss at around lvl 30.

My best friends:
-The back row
-The Sadness status
-The ???? Enemy Skill
-Barrier-All, MBarrier-All
-2 characters with Restore-All
-Slow-All and Spider Webs when you REALLY want to make sure they're slown down
-Magic Hammer

Also, please, please, increase the amount of gil gained in battles. I just steal Ethers and run away so I don't overlevel, and it's a bit of a pain.

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-10 18:22:18
Question: How do you get Dragon Force from the Blue Dragon?

EDIT: This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UH9Xz8ITpk&feature=related) says you need to Reflect it so when it casts Dragon Force it bounces back to you. Of all the times I've fought him he only ever used it on the very first time. I even cheated, made Cloud super powerful and just waited until he casted it for about an hour. No dice. Don't you think it's a bit ridiculous?

Some random observations: I seem to be under 10 levels of the averages I'm seeing here. Beat the Temple, Jenova-LIFE and the Kujata boss at around lvl 30.

My best friends:
-The back row
-The Sadness status
-The ???? Enemy Skill
-Barrier-All, MBarrier-All
-2 characters with Restore-All
-Slow-All and Spider Webs when you REALLY want to make sure they're slown down
-Magic Hammer

Also, please, please, increase the amount of gil gained in battles. I just steal Ethers and run away so I don't overlevel, and it's a bit of a pain.

You can't just stand and wait for it to use dragon force. It uses it randomly, yes, but with greater chance if It's hp is low. I guess I'll make it manipable however (I kinda thought it was originally).
More gil? Isn't that a part of being "hard"? Not being able to buy everything etc. You basically use gil to get it easier no?

I got some new ideas. I was thinking of making limit breaks ignore defence. This way they'll actually be useful in the end. Additionally, I was thinking the comet spells and the contain spells should ignore defence. Maybe all the summons too...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Vgr on 2011-10-10 18:26:43
For the Summons, leave it for Bahamut already ;D

Also, maybe put the Materia caves' Materias available separatly because it's annoying to have them all in a fight. Just an idea.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Bosque on 2011-10-11 06:19:23
More gil? Isn't that a part of being "hard"? Not being able to buy everything etc. You basically use gil to get it easier no?

Most players will just fight battles to get their gil to get new equipment to tackle the new, big, mighty boss. This results in players overlevelling AND getting the new gear: making the game easier than it is. If people got their new gear, but at lower levels, it becomes even more of a challenge.

I've only got a few levels when I really needed it: first Theo/Locke/Venus battle, and Schizo (which imo is the turning point in this mod... you really need to kick it up a notch in terms of materias).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-11 12:16:43
Most players will just fight battles to get their gil to get new equipment to tackle the new, big, mighty boss. This results in players overlevelling AND getting the new gear: making the game easier than it is. If people got their new gear, but at lower levels, it becomes even more of a challenge.

I've only got a few levels when I really needed it: first Theo/Locke/Venus battle, and Schizo (which imo is the turning point in this mod... you really need to kick it up a notch in terms of materias).

When you play a hard mode, you must tolerate some loss. Besides, there are plenty of ways to gain gil. For instance, stealing ethers from lower level enemies will prevent unwanted leveling. Sell mastered/high AP materia. Sell weaker weapons.

In the later parts of the game, getting gil isn't really hard. Selling one or two master All materias and you're good. In the earlier parts of the game, if you have to choose between materia or equipment, buy materia.

I can understand the frustration, but I don't really see the need for raising gil levels.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: ogd on 2011-10-18 13:50:30
This mod has totally reinvented FF7 for me and I'm loving every minute (well, most of them)!  I've actually had to stop and think about how to beat not only each boss, but each trash  encounter as well. Thank you very much for putting this together - I can't imagine how long  it must have taken.

As I write this I'm about to go to Mideel for the first time. Cloud is level 49, Tifa and  Yuffie (who I used for the beginning of disc 2) are about 46-47, and the others are in the  43-44 range. There have been so many great/memorable moments of puzzle solving along the way  that I really should have started posting here earlier, but I'll do my best to remember them  all. In general, I found that levelling was only necessary in the beginning of the game, and  generally that was only to obtain necessary items. Again, I salute you for a fantastic job  with balance in this regard.

I know I wound up reading at least half of this thread since I started the mod, so hopefully  this post will help others along that want to play this without overlevelling. That being  said, I'm going to spoil the strategies I used on each boss up until now, so read at your own risk. A bunch of people seem to have been asking for a hardmode walkthrough, so I'll try to  provide the beginnings of one. For the later bosses especially, the few videos and strategies  I found online relied on HP pools at least 2.5x as large as what I had.

Note that at many points I talk about using items. With the exception of specific places that I mention, these items were obtained over the course of normal gameplay. For me, "normal gameplay" included returning to Fort Condor for each battle one can fight there, which allowed me to pick up some items; for example, some mobs in the desert area drop Graviballs. This also let me get kills for Aeris (and others) to help work on limit breaks. Still, the only one I really focused on was Aeris; right now, she has her limit level 4, Tifa has all level 3s, while Cloud and all others still are only level 2 (and Cait Sith is level 1).

Here we go.

Sector 1:

Whoa, starting at level 3? I wasn't too happy about this at first but soon realized that a)  the levelling rate was very fast, even on the easy mobs and b) this meant that I would get to  the boss at 7-8 with all the items I needed. That being said, it was annoying that I had to  fight the weak MPs for about 20 minutes - it would have been cool to have a chance against  the enemies further within, and/or those around the save point. It was nice that I had to use  Blizzard on the regular mobs.

Anyway, I got to the Guard Scorpion around level 7-8 and he went down without too much  trouble thanks to Grenades, Thunder and a single Bolt Plume. He had just about drained me of  Potions by the end, so I was sweating on the run out with one extra Bolt Plume just in case  (btw, thanks for the Tent). Overall, it was a much better experience than the original.

Sector 7:

Make sure you buy TWO (2) RESTORE MATERIA from Sector 7!!! I only bought one and it made Air  Buster a b*tch.

Other than that, I love that some of the cut scenes were restored here (along with the Palmer  scene at Wall Market). Not sure if it was you or the remix patch, but either way I was like  "whoa".

Sector 5:

First thing I noticed was an increased droprate on Deadly Waste, so I definitely made a  mental note to pick up a few (I think I got 3). Other than that, I got through the trash here  without too much trouble, again by using magic. But I was not at all prepared for Air Buster.  Part of the reason I had trouble is because of a bug, it's not always clear which way Air  Buster is facing... but this was not the biggest problem.

Playing the original I never knew Air Buster could run out of Big Bombers, but when I learned  that from Youtube I realized I could take him out with a lot of waiting. Once I survived all  of those without attacking (and therefore without getting counter-attacked) I was able to  start whittling away mainly with limit breaks, and he would usually (~90%) counter with Rear  Gun. It took me about 6 tries, and I had to level up once to about 11-12 in order to have  enough HP. I almost put the mod down here... but I'm glad I kept up with it because  everything after this fight was a lot of fun.

Aps:

Thanks for making him easy - like you said, it's a long way since the last save point. I had  bought a Fire materia, so using that plus a Deadly Waste and Cross-Slash was good enough to  kill this guy.

Reno / Sector 7 Pillar:

At my attack it took three physicals to kill a pyramid, so that left about 1-2 turns to  damage Reno... but it was enough. His silence was annoying but Deadly Waste helped, as well  as using Grenades and limit breaks to help on pyramids. This guy was again just the right  difficulty.

Shinra Building:

Still my favorite part of the game, but it was quite challenging this time! I busted in and  didn't have many problems until the surprise I got when I opened the Keycard 66 chest!

The Locke, Venus, Theo encounter was crazy tough! I tried a bunch of things here but the only  one that worked was to toss Loco weeds at them until they killed each other. I did it with  just two, but using 3-4 of them would have been much safer. I wasn't able to steal anything  from these guys, but it's worth trying as you basically can't attack them anyway.

The other thing that gave me trouble here is the trash. I seem to remember that Soldier: 3RDs  are really tough, while there are other enemies here that Berserk you and still others that  cast Roulette but are immune to it themselves! Fortunately, the rest of the bosses in here  (the first Hojo boss, the elevator bosses, Rufus, and the Motor Drive) were all reasonable.

One more thing about the Shinra building - make sure you get the Poison and Elemental  materia! I used poison to win many battles, and I swear certain bosses would have been almost  impossible without Elemental.

To Junon:

I saved outside the Chocobo Farm and got my first summ- oh lolwut? The first time I tried  Silver Chocobo he used Deathblow 4 times in a row on me and I had no answer. The next time he  only used it once (and did this strange attack with no effect a few times). I love the  concept here, but I can't help but think this battle is broken. Still, it forced me to  strategize... I'm pretty sure Cross-slash and Poison won it for me.

From here on, Choco-Mog was something I used almost every battle with 3+ mobs. The stop  effect seems like it hits a lot more often than it used to, and I really needed it until  getting access to Seal, Mystify, and good enemy skills. Speaking of that, in this mod there's  no way to get Beta right now... I challenge anyone to prove me wrong! It's still very hard,  but doable, after coming back from the Corel Prison.

Another royal pain trash mob was the Zemzelett. This guy now has about 1300 HP and his main  attack adds silence and darkness. I basically ran from these until getting manipulate.

Bottomswell wasn't bad at all. Choco-mog actually does Wind damage now, so one use of that  plus having it linked to Elemental causes lots of damage (with Long-range if necessary). The  Waterpolos are weak to lightning and broken by a single bolt, or 1-2 Flamethrower. I also  used Flamethrower to attack the boss on the non-Wind elemental character, and Poison just  sped it up a bit.

Helpful hint - make sure you get AT LEAST the 6 Ethers from the parade, since you need the  gil. Also get the HP Plus, not the Force Stealer, from the sendoff. Finally, make sure you  get the accessories you don't have yet, along with Seal and Revive materia, and 3  Tranquilizers.

Jenova Birth:

Wow 20k HP? Damn. His attacks are all physical and do check your row, so everyone's gotta be in the back. Also, you'll need Haste, so Red XIII needs to be in the party. I had my last character as Yuffie for the long-range attack with the weapon she just got. Once I optimized my setup and had Sadness on everyone, the only thing that could kill me was a 3x Laser. With Haste I was able to heal up after each attack and keep the physical attacks going until it went down. Him casting Stop basically gives you a free turn to recover, which was sometimes necessary.

Note that I did get 1-2 levels on the ship while trying to get 2x Shinra Beta as well as some  Ink, which I thought might help (but it did not).

Gold Saucer / Corel:

Nothing really special to note on the way to Corel, except that I stole two Right arms from  bombs. Shiva helped make short work of the mobs here, and is absolutely worth the materia  slot for now. When Cait Sith joins, he's got Manipulate on him, so be sure to take that off.  Also give his Silver Armlet to Barret.

In the prison, be sure to get Laser on both Enemy Skill materia. Also you may want to fight  Cactuars for gil... but I was never able to encounter one. If you encounter a Land Worm and  want to kill it, Poison + Manip and walk away. I fought three of them before giving up and  getting on with it.

For Dyne, I set up Barret with Poison, Seal, the HP Plus, and some way to magic attack.  Dyne  needs to go to sleep ASAP or he'll Berserk/Silence Barret plus do a ton of damage. Once he's  asleep the fight is pretty easy, just poison him then pummel with some kind of magic attack,  using Ethers as necessary.

Getting Beta:

Now that I had the buggy and a Fire Ring, it was time to give Zolom a try. First I had to get  Mighty Guard which is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS as the Beachplugs always come with double  attacking enemies that inflict instant death, and they have much less HP so you can't use a  summon. Ugh. Then when you do get the manipulate down, you can't actually TARGET the Mighty  Guard, so it's random if he casts it on the right guy. I also made sure to get White Wind,  but there was no way I could get Aqualung at this point. This is also when I got the Mythril  and the Bolt Ring, so I did some light training in the forests, mainly using summons to kill  groups of enemies with Aeris and train limit breaks.

Now for the Zolom. The Enemy Skill materia must be on different characters, and only one will  get Beta at a time. One E-skill user gets the fire ring, the other gets Fire-Elemental on  armor (which may be either 1/2 or immune, either should be fine). To open, the non-E-skill  user needs to poison Zolom, while the other two use Laser. He'll probably kill someone and  stand up. That person needs to be revived, while the person NOT getting Beta does another  Laser. For those keeping score, he should now have taken 3x Laser plus two ticks of poison or  so, which is roughly 18750 damage out of his 20000 HP. He should eject the last Laser user,  then use Beta, which the other E-skill person should survive. Now you need to kill him, which  means at least about 700 damage with your next attack if you count a third poison tick. It's  best to go for the full 1250 and use either Beta or a Right arm. Congrats on getting Beta at  "low levels".

More to come soon!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-10-18 16:13:45
ogd thanks alot will sure use this as a strategy guide :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: ogd on 2011-10-18 18:49:19
Part 2 of the guild below. Mods, let me know if I should put this all in one post (it seemed huge for one post though).

Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon:

The Turks were not too bad. I started with Choco-mog and got one Turk in Stop, then put the  other to sleep, then used Beta. For some reason I remember wanting these two to die at the  same time (I think it's to get both items).

As for the Titan materia boss, he wasn't bad at all. He has a ton of HP but you can use L4  Suicide to put him in drain status, and slow him to prevent some incoming damage. If you have  trouble taking too much damage, try Sadness.

On the way to Cosmo Canyon, be sure to get Frog Song (as usual). This helps with the Cave of  the Gi in the original FF7 and is damn near essential for the hardcore mod. Also just run  from the big bird enemy here, since it drains all your MP!

Once in the cave, Frog Song destroys the spiders as well as a few other enemies. The only  thing I really had to worry about here was Death Sentence, but I found with the right magic I  was able to kill most things before the end of the timer. Be sure to get Added Effect, as I  used it many times from here on out. I threw an X-Potion at the Gi-Nattak and was shocked  that it worked... but this being a hardcore mod and there not being a save point around, I  didn't feel bad.

Oh, you really should buy 2 HP Plus at Cosmo Canyon. Don't buy an MP Plus like I did and  think you'll be okay with just the one HP plus. You won't. Not having HP Plus on all my  characters repeatedly made my life difficult later on. I was also sure to pick up some  Vagyrisk Claws from the green monkey enemies here, which are a lot easier to get than they  used to be (I got two).

Nibelheim:

I went into the mansion to collect treasure, but found quickly that I couldn't beat Lost  Number, so I came back after going up the mountain. As for the mountain itself, I found that  crowd control was again the way to go - if it's susceptible to a status, get that status on  ASAP! I liked the new enemies that cast Demi spells, as they filled up the limit bar really  fast!

The Dragons here are way OP, as there's no way to survive Cometeo and they open with it (but  this point was brought up many times already). I looked in Proud Clod and they're apparently  level 97 with 250k HP and no status weaknesses, so either mod them yourself or save VERY  often. Luckily, the encounter rate is very low and I think they only appear right after the  save point near Materia Keeper. The other enemies I hated fighting were the ones that drained  MP, but I was able to kill the groups using Choco-mog to stop some of them.

For Materia Keeper, one person got the Bolt Ring, another Elemental-Lightning, and the third  got Mighty Guard to deal with Trine. I also needed two Light Curtains to help with the  physical attacks, which I believe would have oneshot me otherwise. At the end of the battle I  believe he starts countering with Cura, so at this point you might want to let the Poison  finish the job (correct me if I'm wrong here - I know I also beat Godo this way).

Rocket Town:

Finally, the Barrier materia! Barrier/All is at least as important as Restore/All in this  game without the old Big Guard. Barrier is what made the rest of the game possible for me so  far, so make sure to get it! Also get the Yoshiyuki, since it helps a ton with the Wutai  event.

With Barrier in hand I went back to Lost Number. I used Barrier and Choco-mog to stop the  boss, then hit him with Slow and pummeled away with Beta, planning to turn him into his  magical form... but then Cait got his stupid limit break and it was the attack that pushed  him over... into physical form! Luckily I was able to keep Barriers up and pummel away on him  with more Beta and equivalent magic attacks. While here, it's definitely a good idea to get the Question Mark enemy skill as well.

Back to Rocket Town, I noticed you kept Palmer's stats exactly the same - I guess he was  embarassed about the Wall Market :). Before going to Wutai I made sure I had plenty of  Hi-Potions, Phoenix Downs, preferably 5-6 Tents, at least 1-2 of each curtain, and a few  attack items including at least 4 Graviballs and 2 Right arms. The only detour I took was to  steal Right arms, which took about 2 minutes. I also had Aeris' level 3 limits from all the  trips to Fort Condor - Planet Protector was ESSENTIAL for the next part.

Wutai:

First order of business is to get to the beach and steal three Adaman Bangles. The  adamantoises are impossible to kill at this point, but they can be slept and manipulated if  necessary. I opened with Mug to get him to counterattack me for 95% of my health, filling up  all the limit bars. Then I used Planet Protector and Mugged until getting the armor, then I  escaped. Rinse and repeat for three.

With three Adaman Bangles in hand (which nullify Water), I went back to get Aqualung at this  point. I poisoned the harpy straight away and stole the Umbrella (important!). Once Aqualung  went out, I manipulated the harpy, then went to the restroom for the win.

I equipped all characters with Adaman Bangles, then put my highest attack weapons on all  characters. This meant Yoshiyuki for Cloud, Umbrella for Aeris and Seraph Comb for Red XIII.  Even with this setup, the monsters on the way to Wutai ripped me a new one anytime I didn't  have Planet Protector up. The Peace Ring was very helpful for avoiding Berserk from the salamanders, but I stayed away from Ribbons because they also prevent Peerless.

In Wutai, I switched Red XIII for Barret and got Mindblow ready for Rapps. Thankfully, this  strategy still seems to work, as I only took one Aerega from the boss (it costs 50 MP and he  has 600, so you need to drain 551 to avoid that attack). Mindblow, Graviball x3, Right arm x2  and I've got my materia back. The weapons for sale here are quite good and worth the trouble  of the sidequest. Magic Hammer is also an essential ability that you NEED to get on every  E-skill materia you have.

Temple of the Ancients:

I didn't have much trouble at all here. Part of this is because Great Gospel is an amazing  limit break, but even without it both bosses are beatable.

For Red Dragon, I got my team immune to Fire and went to work, poisoning the dragon and  getting Barrier/Haste on my guys. This was the closest thing to tank and spank I encountered  in the mod so far. As for Demons Gate, protection to Ice helped for the Cave-in, but since  most of the damage was physical Barrier won again. I simply used a Soft or Esuna if he tried  to Petrify me. He's also susceptible to slow and wastes several turns moving back and forth,  so there's plenty of time to beat him down. He has 20k health but it goes down surprisingly  fast.

Sleeping Forest:

And now for something a little different. The Kjata/Kujata boss is insanely difficult and  took me at least 15 tries to kill. They have an attack pattern and you can beat it with a  good strategy, but only if they cooperate a bit. To prepare, as much of your team as possible  needs to be immune to Berserk. Get Thunder and Blizzard protection on anyone you can after  this. You also REALLY want DeSpell, but if you don't have it the battle is still doable with  just DeBarrier. I also had a Holy Torch, which uses DeSpell on all enemies.

Once in battle, you need to get Barrier and preferably Haste up on everyone BEFORE they put  Reflect on you. Second, if someone dies, you need to spend the next turn getting them up,  putting Mighty Guard up, and healing that person to full with White Wind. People should die  only before Reflect, so make sure you get the barriers on them before Reflect goes up. If any  of this does not go according to plan, reset.

Once reflect goes up, you need to drain the MP of the two guys in front. At this point they  won't be able to heal themselves, so you can start pounding them with spells and enemy  skills, and dispell Regen if you can. They will still charge you, so you'll need to heal with  White Wind or potions periodically. Definitely prioritize one at a time and make sure you're  healed after the second one dies. Once this happens, Levant will attack and Berserk/Mini one  of your characters, then heal himself with Firaga. Luckily, he loses his crazy defense at  this point, but you basically have one turn to drain 5k HP. The best way to do this is to  reflect Aqualung off your party so it hits him 3x, and have another person use Bahamut for  the win.

Once that's out of the way, go SAVE!!! Then come back and go to the next screen, where you  want to win at least one and preferably two Dazers from the Boundfat enemies. Like all useful  enemies in this mod, they only come paired with difficult, new enemies, so be careful. You  NEED at least one so don't slack off here!

Forgotten City:

First things first, get the well-hidden Enemy Skill materia so you have three of them. Then  extend your side trip to Fort Condor to make sure you get Magic Hammer and White Wind on that  materia. You now have enemy skills on all three members of the team. Keep it equipped and  you'll pick up at least Magic Breath, Trine and Aqualung very soon.

As for Jenova Life, veterans know that you prepare for Water attacks here, so I had two  people equipped with Adaman Bangles and the other with a Water Ring. Unfortunately, this  being a hardcore mod, Blue Light is no longer Water based and it causes nasty statuses!  Luckily, you can protect at least two characters against Sleep (1 Ribbon, one Added  Effect/Seal) while still preventing Water attacks, so it's basically just a matter of  whittling him away while healing damage from Blue Light. If he puts the wrong person to  sleep, attack them or use Esuna. Like most bosses, you can and should get Slow on him.

* START OF DISC 2 *

Yuffie side-quest:

I took a detour to Wutai here to finish the Yuffie pagoda, since I had a feeling the Ice Ring  and Leviathan would be useful. I set Yuffie up with the weapon from the store in Wutai and I  forget which armor (I probably switched back and forth). She got the best Enemy Skill  materia, HP Plus, Poison, Luck Plus for extra crit, Counter Attack, you know the deal. Here's  what I did for the individual bosses.

Gorki: He's weak to wind, so I had Choco-mog/Elemental in Yuffie's weapon. I also had  Destruct on to get rid of his defenses. I started with Mighty Guard, cast Choco-mog, then  poisoned him. You only need to stay above 25% of your Max HP to win. If you have trouble, you  can use Time with or without Added Effect to Slow/Stop him.

Shake: Equip a Peace Ring. Rage Bomber hurts, so make sure you keep Barrier up and stay  alive. Take off Destruct, use Time and Choco-mog to Stop or Slow him, then poison him and  just stay alive. If you have armor with high Pdef% you can dodge Rage Bomber most of the  time.

Chekhov: Use the Jem Ring to prevent Paralyze, and Added Effect/Time on your weapon. He's  annoying in that he drains HP with Absorb and kills your MP with Stare Down. Get Mighty Guard  up, then attack until he stops. At that point poison him and beat the hell out of him. You  need to do 7500 damage before he gets out of stop. Summons and Enemy Skills can help here, so  equip what you need to to kill him.

Staniv: Equip the Protect Vest and Earth/Elemental on your armor. Get Mighty Guard up, poison  him, and stay alive. You should be able to attack him to get healed (if you have level 3  elemental), but I didn't need to and just stuck with the poison/slow/stop then beatdown  strat. He's pretty easy.

Godo: He cannot be stopped, so take off choco-mog. You need to be immune to poison, sleep and  mini, so the easiest way is to use a Ribbon. Unfortunately, that also means no barrier and  haste, but that's how it'll have to be. Get Lightning/Elemental on your armor to prevent  Trine, then get poison and slow on him. The main concern is Beast Sword - if you get hit,  heal up ASAP. It seemed to miss me a few times even though Proud Clod says it has max hit%,  so I'm not sure what's going on. When you have statuses on him, cast Laser until he starts to  cure himself as a counter attack. At this point Defend and heal as necessary until he dies  from the poison. Congrats on beating the pagoda!

Before moving on, you really should have at least 25 Phoenix Downs. I ran out on Schizo and  had to hack in some more to continue.

Great Glacier:

I touched the hot springs, saved in the hut, and went to get my Alexander materia. In the  normal game you fight a basic Snow enemy, but here you fight Snow Queen! You need to protect  all three characters against Ice to mitigate her attacks (Ice Ring, Elemental/Blizzard, and  Dragon Armlet/Mbarrier or a second Elemental/Shiva), but she also has Envy which WILL drain  ALL of your MP. Note that throughout this whole area, you should have your team immune to  Ice, so there shouldn't be much preparation here. How do we deplete 32k HP without much MP?  There are a few choices:

1) Use Laser, T/S bombs, etc and finish off with regular attacks, using Ethers to selectively  get MP back. This is what I did.
2) Cast Death Sentence and go make yourself a sandwich.

Afterwards you have Alexander, which is great if you have problems with the upcoming trash as  some of it is weak to Holy.

Gaea's Cliff:

Cimbing up the cliff I kept having lots of trouble with the Zolokander enemy, which liked to  attack in groups of 4, double attack, and use a poison thing that did 7/8 of my 2.6k hp in  damage. Luckily there's a solution, and it's called Every Status in the Book. So use  Transform/All or Frog Song and make them less threatening. I actually started using these  sleeping frogs as Ethers by Magic Hammering them to full MP! Also watch out for the bomber  guys, which use an attack called Extreme Bomber at low HP that will kill your party one by  one.

As for enemy skills, find a Stilva and manipulate it. Then make it use Magic Breath and Trine  on your party. Then Poison it, use Magic Hammer to get all your MP back, and let it die.  Congrats! The alternative is to somehow do 50k damage to it without dying when its physicals  are a guaranteed two-shot and it can drain all your MP (and it's immune to Gravity, cheater).

Next you'll want to put Ribbons on two characters (you DID get the second one in the cave,  right?) and find a Malboro outside. They have 44k health and can't be manipulated, so how do  we kill that? Lots of ways actually:

1) It's weak to water, so Aqualung and Leviathan work.
2) It is level 72, so L4 Suicide works.
3) It can be slept and slowed/stopped.
4) Death Sentence (+ Haste if you're impatient).

Let it use Bad Breath on you, then kill it. Once you get to the recovery pool, save and kill  two Blue Dragons for extra Dragon Armlets (use Poison then defend a lot). Proud Clod confirms  they cannot be manipulated, so unfortunately you can't get Dragon Force. Save and prepare  for...

Schizo:

This was a very hard battle! You need protection against Fire, Ice, Lighting and Earth to  fully nullify stuff... but this obviously isn't possible. Both heads will use breath attacks  (one uses Fire/Lightning and the other uses Ice/Lightning), as well as a Double Breath that  is non-elemental and puts you in drain status, and Tremor, which does an asston of earth  damage (4.5k). The priority here is the one that will kill you, so I used Elemental/Earth and  Elemental/Titan. As for the third character, I gave her a Dragon Armlet and kept Mbarrier up.  With the Dragon Armlet, not only is all breath damage halfed, but it appears the chance to  remove Mbarrier is also cut in half. I used the Fire Armlet and Bolt Armlet as well as  elemental rings to get as many elemental resistances as possible on my stone-immune  characters. For my Dragon Armlet character, I had the Talisman (+50 Spirit) on.

The boss strategy is fairly simple but subject to some luck. I started with Mbarrier and  reapplied whenever it fell off using Mighty Guard. Between keeping Mbarrier up and  reviving/healing characters (usually with White Wind), I hit the boss with Alexander,  Bahamut, and strong single target attacks on the LEFT head (Fire ok, Ice no-no). I used  Firaga and Comet mainly, but Stonega/Thundaga work too. Aqualung is good but it's slower.

You're not out of the woods after killing one head, but it's a lot easier. This is a good  time to start Mugging the right head in the hopes of getting a Protect Ring. Keep pummeling  away and eventually it'll fall. This is the first battle where my lack of 3 HP Plus was a  real problem. Definitely go back and save after this battle.

Whirlwind Maze:

I walked in about 5 feet and encountered a Gigas. He's got 35k hp and plenty of  vulnerabilities... but he was smashing my face. Berserk and Mini is not a good combination!  But even without any statuses there was no way I could kill one, so I ran. In fact, I ran  from all encounters here except the Wind Wings and Gremlin/Sculpture (which was handled with  Bad Breath).

Next up is Gold Dragon, the Neo-Bahamut boss. Luckily he's all physical attacks except for  his breath, which is Lightning. Through various means I got my whole team immune to Lightning  (and linked Leviathan to a weapon) and went in, and it was just a matter of killing him  before his physical attacks killed me. I started with Barrier/All, Haste/All and Leviathan.  Next round I put Reflect on my whole team and started bouncing Aqualung x3 at him. I did this  four times then put Reflect up again and did it four more times. After that the SOB was still  alive so I pounded away with (single) Aqualungs, Bahamut/Alexander, and water-elemental  attacks. Done and done... but this was just a warmup.

Jenova Death:

According to Proud Clod, he's supposed to cast Silence... but it appears he casts Death  instead? But who cares, all his other attacks are Fire, right? Nope, Red Light is  non-elemental now, and if you don't prepare it does about 4k damage, leading to a one hit KO.  The first time I walked up to him he did Red Light x3 before I could act and killed my party.  Oh yeah, he has 180k HP. So I loaded an old save and bought 2 HP Plus materia and got them  some AP.

No just kidding, I would never go back. I couldn't! It turns out the boss has a few subtle,  but critical, weaknesses that allowed me to kill it. First though, remove all unnecessary  materia, including any summons and any magic not called Barrier, Restore, or Time, or linked  to a blue materia for some effect. You need to prevent Confuse, Silence and Death Sentence,  so Ribbons go on two people and Added Effect/Mystify on the third. If the third is immune  (not 1/2) to Fire, I think it prevents the Silence from Tropic Wind, meaning the boss would  need to use Silence to inflict it. This is a great waste of a turn. On that note, make sure  all characters are immune to Fire and/or Wind. Give an Enemy Skill to each character.

Now we need to make sure at least 2, but preferably all three, characters can survive Red  Light. Whichever character does not have a Ribbon should have a Wizard Armlet and a Talisman  on to pump up Mdef. The other two need to be as high HP as possible... for me, I was only  able to get Cloud up to 3.8k while Tifa was in oneshot territory at 3.1k (she was also the  one without a Ribbon, since she should never get Death Sentence). Yuffie had the high Mdef  setup and sat at 3.4k and she was fine. I forgot Sadness at this point, but in theory that  should reduce all incoming damage by 30% so feel free to give that a try.

When you start the battle, immediately throw a Dazers. If it hits, good job! Haste your team  and start using Magic Breath for ~150MP drain per turn. Slow the boss next turn and keep up  with Magic Breath. When you run out of MP, switch to Magic Hammer, then start alternating the  two and mixing in White Wind when you need to heal. If you have a character that cannot  survive Red Light, throw Mbarrier on her. With haste on you and slow on the boss, you will  get 9 turns to its 1, meaning plenty of time to drain away. If you have more than one Dazers  this is much less risky. You need to drain about 6600 MP.

While most other drainable bosses in this mod were given a 0 MP attack, this one was not, so  once you are done draining the battle is won! Tape down the action button and about 65 turns  later, you will have killed it! Thanks for keeping this boss drainable... it would have been  damn near impossible otherwise!

And that bring me to my current point in the game. I bought 2 HP Plus as soon as I got the Highwind, so hopefully the rest of the game will be a little easier. Wish me luck!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-19 03:05:04
That.s some good documentation you got there. Glad you like it!  :-D

A new release is just around the corner.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: ogd on 2011-10-19 21:19:40
Damn the corel train event seems to be impossible at my current levels (can't get enough control of Locke/Venus/Theo). Looks like I'm gonna be getting some AP on those HP plus materia and doing some chocobo breeding. :(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: DLPB_ on 2011-10-20 01:19:23
You have a bug in your code (which will also crash game with your mod) which is crashing touphscript.  Luksy says:

Quote
File: las2_3

He removed the materia entity from the field, but forgot to update the script pointer in the save crystal entity.
i.e.
 the save crystal script calls the save script when it's created, but it points to a non-existent entity (25) which doesn'T exsit as there are only 24 (well 25 including 0)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: luksy on 2011-10-21 03:15:25
Just dropping by to say the same bug appears in las2_4 too, I've put a small check in touphScript so it won't crash now, but the game will probably crash if anyone tries to use the save crystal in either of those fields.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-21 03:16:56
Ok, thanks for letting me know. I'll fix it after work today.

Edit: It will not crash the game, but the save crystal feature will be buggy.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Bosque on 2011-10-21 15:13:03
These are my addendums to that guide, these contain easier strategies or corrections to the guide:

Back Row+ Sadness are your friends. Learn to love them. Use them in EVERY boss battle unless otherwise stated.

Air Buster is a lot easier if you just use Tifa as a kamikaze (have her limit break bar full before the battle, then after she uses it she will get her limit bar filled again by the counter attack, then after the second counter she's dead. Then carefully attack his BACK. Whoever is facing its front should just use Defend. Once he can't turn anymore he's toast. You may revive Tifa at this point.

Cover Materia is essential.

Locke/Venus/Theo at the Shinra Building: First, climb up the floors, get the Hardedge from the SOLDIER:3rds, then come back down. Before starting the battle, have Fury on Barret, Sadness+Cover on Tifa, and Steal on Cloud. Fill up your limit breaks and start the battle. Tifa should Defend, Cloud should Cross-Slash Theo, Barret should Mindblow Locke, then Theo, then Venus. After he's done with Mindblow use two Tranquilizers on him. Meanwhile Steal their stuff, get Theo first as he's more than likely the first to die. If you're panicking, just chuck some Loco Weeds at them.

And yes, definitely get the Elemental Materia.

Summons are pretty much worthless to me. Silver Chocobo used that odd attack that has no effect a bunch of time, I think this is probably a bug.

Get Long Range Materia, it is essential.

Get L4 Suicide while you're around here. No way you can get Beta right now. Matra Magic is also useful for the beginning of the game. Steal Ethers from the Kalm Wolves.

Get the HP Plus from the sendoff.

Use Cloud/Red/Aeris for Jenova-Birth. Equip Aeris with the HP Plus and a Headband. Spam Healing Wind over and over again. Cloud should be your main attacker and Red should focus on supporting Cloud/Aeris, using Lunatic High when it's available.

Beta can wait until the Tiny Bronco... nevermind the Zolom.

Laser, Frog Song, White Wind and to a lesser extent Mighty Guard are essential, along with 2 HP Pluses at Cosmo Canyon.

You don't need to wait until Rocket Town to beat Lost Number. Just outside Nibelheim steal 3 Gold Armlets from the Askendimés (a new enemy!).

Get the ???? (question marks) Enemy Skill as it will be one of your best attack tools for most of the game. If a character needs a heal, wait until it's their turn, cast ????, then heal the character. Works wonders.

Then go tackle Lost Number, poison him ASAP. Sometimes you will have to hold on with dealing direct damage in this battle and just wall up and heal.

Get the Counter Attack materia and use it, it's essential.

Go learn Beta at the shores of Bone Village/Temple of the Ancients. It's a new encounter with a Tonadu and three Yptilos (crab-like enemies). Equip fire resistance, frog song everyone except the Yptilos you want to manipulate so it can cast Beta on you. Kill the Tonadu with the Yptilos' other fire-based attack (will deal about 7k to it!) then just pick them off. Much easier than the Zolom.

Get a few items like Right Arms and T/S Bombs then go do the sidequest at Wutai. Aeris' Limit Breaks are NOT essential. Infact, I pretty much stopped using her at this point.

Learn Magic Hammer, which is also essential. Once you're done you have access to the best AP spot for a good while. With double-growth weapons and armor fight the Adamantoises. Manipulate them and Steal (not Mug) the Adaman Bangles, then just make it kill itself with Light Shell (will take a while...). Then you'll get a whooping 1600 AP.  You will come back here later on for some actual Materia leveling, so just focus on the Adaman Bangles AND the Death Force Enemy Skill, which is also essential.

Learn Aqualung. It helps.

After you're done with the Temple of the Ancients, go tackle the Kujata boss. Get some Fire Veils at the Wutai item shop, and Spider Webs from the Kimara Bugs in Gongaga.  Equip one character with a Peace Ring: he/she will be your main attacker. Get some resistance to Ice and Lightining (Fire is not needed as you will see why). Now as soon as the battle starts, cast Barrier+All, then MBarrier+All, then start depleting the Hadadigor (the Ice horse)'s MP with Magic Hammer. If it casts Haste immediately toss a Spider Web their way.

If they cast Reflect on you start healing with White Wind. After Hadadigor's MP is done then start draining Yamigor (the Lighting horse)'s MP. Then after they're both depleted of their MP toss Fire Veils to kill of Hadadigor. Now with one of them gone, kill Levant with ???? with the person that has the Peace Ring equipped. It will only counterattack that character and will not use Levant Wind on everyone, it will just use Charge over and over which won't be as annoying with only one of the horses alive. It has little HP which won't be a problem for the defense-ignoring ????. After Levant's dead the last horse will be a sitting duck. (no pun intended).

Jenova-Life is annoying. I personally killed it by draining all of it's MP. Adaman Bangles are necessary. You might want to get the third Enemy Skill materia first and load it up with useful skills before you try this.

Snow Queen is stupid. Load up on resistance to Ice-elemental attacks (I did not have the Ice Ring yet but I had two 2-star Elemental materias). I had Cloud, Vincent, Cid as my party (can be done with any party, but just to illustrate...). Cloud got killed, Vincent and Cid were confused by Envy... and besides Vincent and Cid hitting each other for a measly 100 hp out of 1500 hp, she couldn't do anything to them. She doesn't have much MP so she pretty much wasted it on them, while they could just keep healing with Potions and Hi-Potions. After she went out of HP, I revived Cloud and killed her for the win.

Learn Bad Breath, Magic Breath, and Dragon Force (either do it legit, by reflecting it, or hack it in since Gjoerulv's said he thought he made the Blue Dragon manipulable.) If you have trouble with the Icicles just use Bad Breath+L4 Suicide when it's Icicle+Bats, and then Laser the Icicle since it's weak to Gravity (Laser + one single point of damage will kill it). If it's Jokers, Bats and Icicle just Laser the Icicle ASAP.

A trick with Magic Breath: as you know, if an attack has multiple elements, if a target absorbs even just one of the elements, it will absorb the attack. So if you absorb one of Fire/Ice/Lightning, Magic Breath will HEAL your MP. It pretty much refilled my whole MP :p

Kill 2 Blue Dragons, get 2 Dragon Armlets, then trek back all the way to the Tiny Bronco. Schizo is definitely the turning point here,  I couldn't just scrap it through by now as I did. So here's what you do: decide on a fixed party for the rest of the game (as usual, Cloud/Barret then choose between Yuffie or Cid), buy 3 HP Plus materias for each character, then wear Double Growth armor and weapons and kill Adamantoises for AP (800exp/800AP/1600AP with double growth, perfect so you don't overlevel), get a few levels and AP (but don't overdo it) with the Sea Worms at the Mideel beaches (cast Bad Breath and L4 Suicide and it's dead). They net 5000exp/500AP/1000AP with Double Growth. I killed so many Adamantoises I actually mastered one set of HP Plus materias.

By this time it's the best time to get Omnislash as the Battle Arena enemies will be the Disc 1 enemies. Give Cloud a Dragon Armlet, Enemy Skill (with the most skills learned, Dragon Force, Death Force, Mighty Guard, Bad Breath, Magic Hammer, White Wind, ????, Frog Song are essential), Counter Attack, the higher leveled HP Plus materias, Restore materia and Destruct materia for DeSpell, plus Mug+Added Cut (ghetto Double Cut). If you manipulate the slots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNYMHdE4ks) it will be easy to get 10k BP a pop. Also, be sure to buff up with Dragon Force and Death Force on the first battle of the arena, plus wear a Peace Ring, and have plenty of restorative items around (for statuses, Remedies stolen from the Velcher Tasks near Rocket Town are a must)

I also got Angermax for Barret and Doom of the Living for Yuffie. I did the Pagoda by now, probably a bit overlevelled but oh well. Barret should be your tank: Cover+Counter combo is essential, and Yuffie should be your mage, Sprint Shoes work really well because of her naturally high Dexterity.

Take on Schizo, gear up on elemental resists. He'll still be annoying but not as much as before. GET THE PROTECT RING. You'll need it later on.

Gold Dragon: blast it with Laser then kill it ASAP. This battle gets only harder the longer it goes on. Save yourself the trouble.

As for Jenova-Death, gear up on Fire resistance, cast Death Force the first turns, also Added Effect+ Mystify/Peace Ring will be useful. Tropic Wind will heal your MP if you absord Fire! It actually ran out of MP... and as with Jenova-Life, once it does it's harmless.

For the Corel Huge Materia train, you need to be really prepared. I had Cid/Barret/Yuffie. Barret with a Protect Ring. Up battle speed a bit, then just max out battle message speed. Now be prepared for a lot of resets. Get rid of the first set of two enemies ASAP, then get rid of the Wolfmeister with Bad Breath and ????+Aqualung. Then for the Eagle Gun get rid of it with Stop, plus ???? and Thundaga.

Now for Locke/Venus/Theo, they have a long intro so max battle message speed with save you loads of time. Then Bad Breath them, wall up and STEAL THE ESCORT GUARD FROM LOCKE ASAP. There are only 2 in the game! (and one without this mod!) Theo has a Mystile too, but you can get 3 of em anyway. Once you've stole the Escort Guard, finish them off with Limit Breaks and ????.

Phoenix boss, just manipulate one of the birds, have it cast Angel Whisper on your 3 characters so they can learn the Enemy Skill. Now, have someone with a Mastered Cover materia, drain that character's MP, then start draining their MP. Once they're out of MP they will only use an attack that drains MP... but it can be Covered. They cannot drain MP from a character that has 0 MP, so they'll be powerless. If they do have enough MP for an Angel Whisper when they die, they will start to revive eachother, so beware.

Quadra Magic boss: by this time you'll have Cloud and the Highwind, so do the Highwind trick to land on the Quadra Magic peninsula, then go fight it. Equip the Escort Guard on Barret, plus Elemental resists for Fire and Ice. You'll notice that Adamantai's Magic Chain cannot hit Barret: Freeze will heal him, Flare will heal him, Tornado will miss, and Break will miss. Now blast it with Laser: it will start countering with Full Cure when it's at low HP, so just keep using Laser then finish it off with some magic attack.

I'm tired for now, if you people would like any other strategies from me for the rest of the bosses just say so.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: ogd on 2011-10-21 15:30:03
Well I guess I'll go ahead and post what I just wrote for the train event. Those are some great strategies Bosque, I'll be sure to keep those in mind. Unfortunately I didn't get the Escort Guard or Protect Ring, nor did I do battle square with disc 1 enemies... nor did I learn Dragon Force. I guess I could theoretically learn it from the Quadra Magic boss, or I could hack it in, but it seems like it's a necessity for battle square. Also I'll definitely go back to the Adamantoises and get Death Force now... earlier I couldn't figure out how to kill them!

Corel Train:

Before doing this I had to get some levels and AP, so I used the time to breed chocobos. Most  of my random battles between breeding were of the new Sand Worm enemies on the Mideel coast,  which give 500 AP and 8000 g per kill. To kill these, I cast Bad Breath, L4 Suicide, and  Haste on the worm in that order, and then watch them die. I also put double growth weapons on  everyone and got the new HP Plus materia in there (among others). By the time I got on the  train I had between 4.5k and 5.5k HP on all characters. I was about level 50-51.

As for other preparation, I went to Gongaga and morphed two Kimara Bugs into Hourglasses.  This item casts Stop on all enemies and is a huge timesaver for one of the enemies on the  train. I also made sure I had each character resistant or immune to Ice and Lightning, and  all characters immune to Slow and Berserk (two with Ribbons, 1 with Headband and Added  Effect/Mystify). It's also important to have your best magic user have some kind of  reasonably strong (~1.5kish) magic that hits all enemies, and have Demi/All with at least 3x  and Demaga learned on another character. I used Cometeo but Aqualung or Earth/All should also  work just fine.

Now for the train event itself. Each car seems to require either a very overlevelled group or  a very specifc strategy in order to pass it in enough time. Even at 8k HP, many of the  enemies can kill you, which wastes a lot of time. Here is what I did.

Car 1 - Gas Ducter x2: Open with Bad Breath, use Aqualung or other spells to help them kill  themselves.
Car 2 - Wolfmeister x1-2: Open with Frog Song, then use Gravity/Laser three times, then  Aqualung. If you can sneak a mug in before the last aqualung, you might get a Power Source.
Car 3 - Eagle Gun x1: Use Hourglass, use another if it misses. Cast Gravity/Laser and mug it  until its low, then Thundaga. You can get a Warrior Bangle from him.

Car 4 - Locke Venus Theo v2: These guys counter every move you make, wasting a lot of time  and potentially killing you, so you have to kill them with as few moves as possible. Locke  counters with Berserk, Venus with an attack, and Theo with an attack and Thundaga. Open with  L4 Suicide to put Venus and Theo in mini. You'll probably need to heal after their counters  and attacks, so use White Wind. Then you'll want to use Demaga/All, draining 3/4 of each of  their HP bars. At this point they'll use Cura/All, but they do this on their turn (not as a  counter). Wait until your demi user and all-magic user are both ready, then cast Demaga/All  again followed by the all-magic and two of them should die. At this point Theo should be left  since he has more HP, so repeat this same strategy on him (wait for him to cure himself, then  Demaga + strong magic to finish him off). You can steal a Minerva Band from Venus and an  Escort Guard from Locke, but that seems very unlikely. However, getting the Mystile off Theo  at the end is possible, so feel free to go for it if you have time. To be safe, try to finish  this battle with at least 2:00 on the clock.

Car 5 - Attack Squad x1: Kill this speed bump with the strongest attack you have.

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: vdate on 2011-10-21 16:01:04
Hi there! I registered after being informed of this hack, and while my friends and I (playing in parallel) have not gotten all THAT far (like, maybe to Fort Condor), we have some feedback. (It's worth noting that while we've played the original FF7 extensively, it was some time ago, and we are playing this mod more or less 'blind', which is to say we are only consulting available documentation and GameFAQs available for the unmodded version.)

First, we'd like to congratulate you on basically everything you've done to the material that was already there. The increased encounter difficulty does heavily favour magic over physical attacks in the early game, especially since being in the back row is practically mandatory for survivability's sake, but we're a-OK with that.

On a more specific note, the incredible importance of magic early on means that Silence is basically equivalent to Stopping a character- could you possibly see your way clear to hack in a way to purchase Echo Screens at more shops? It's one thing to require the player to stock up on and use status clearing items, and another thing to just add tedium by requiring that they backtrack through two relatively large zones in order to do so.

Every boss we've encountered so far that has been in the original game has been at least hard enough to keep us on our toes, and sometimes hard enough to ensure that we actually have to set up to prepare, and play smart and careful. Well done.

That's 'the good'. On to 'the bad'. Both of the optional boss fights we've seen thus far have been an example of 'bad difficulty'- they basically require you to successfully hit the variance percentages you need in order to win them. In the case of the Locke/Venus/Theo fight, I understand that Loco Weed is necessary to keep them from ripping your team apart, but the propensity of the item to miss means that it's possible to have Loco Weed affect few enough targets that they can clear the confusion and kill your team before you have a chance to try again. (We have not been doing any real amount of level grinding- most of our item stock has come from incidental drops as we've been going through the game. I assume this was the intent.)

The Silver Chocobo fight, due to bugs, is somewhat 'all or nothing'- if it uses Deathblow! and paralyzes two or more party members (or one party member, being Aeris) then it's often a question of prayer whether the party can get healed before it uses Deathblow! again. It can also use Deathblow! twice in a row, which is actually unsurvivable by a party that has not been particularly leveled on the way to this point. (It would be a different story if you had a wind element to link to the Elemental materia on your armour, but to the best of my knowledge you don't.) If its other move did anything at all, the fight would be basically impossible to win on one's first visit to the Chocobo Ranch. As it is, like the Venus/Theo/Locke fight, it's purely down to luck.

To recap, as far as we can tell, all the plot bosses can be dealt with by a modicum of preparation (often involving foreknowledge, but hey, it's a hard mode hack, that's assumed) and playing like you've got a brain. This is good. A party, having obtained an average amount of experience for every zone to that point, could, provided proper preparation, beat that boss on their first try. (In reality this will not be the case because ramming into the boss a couple of times is required to gather the information to properly prepare.)

On the other hand, Venus/Theo/Locke and the Silver Chocobo, even with an appropriate amount of preparation, seem to have the deciding element in the fight be whether the random number generator decides to be your friend on that attempt or not. This removes the question of player agency from the equation; overcoming the 'difficult' encounter just becomes a matter of how many times you are willing to try it.

In the case of the Silver Chocobo, I'd almost say 'fair enough' to it being infeasibly tough when you encounter it. It's an optional piece of materia that you can come back for later. Venus/Locke/Theo, on the other hand, are basically unforgivable, since the keycard chest that triggers their encounter is absolutely required to proceed in the game, and the battle comes principally down to luck.

Perhaps we are being total scrubs and overlooking the obvious in both cases, and were it later in the game, I would be more likely to call this the case. However, as early in the game as the Shinra Tower, when the options available to the player are so strongly limited, I question whether this is true.

I don't mean to come off as condescending or as attacking you, and if I do I apologize in advance. I'm labouring each point just so that our thoughts and logic on the matter are clear and don't seem unfounded. All in all, we are absolutely adoring the mod thus far, as it gives us a good, fair, skill-rewarding challenge to supplant a game we loved dearly during our teenage years. It also gives us a reason to rediscover all the little things that made FF7 such a game-changer with respect to all JRPGs, and marvel at them anew. I've, since starting the game, laughed at the personality that drips from Cloud's snarky 'yes/no' choice options, marveled at the dystopic design of Midgar and the oppressive darkness of the setting, and smiled at the old iconic lines and shots I had half-forgotten. We suggest that you rebalance your added bosses to bring them more in line with the rest of the mod and to reward skill over luck so that the joy we experienced at your changes to existing content can carry over to your original content as well.

Thank you for your time, both invested the mod so far, and in anticipation of any time you might give this post.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: Bosque on 2011-10-21 16:41:15
The increased encounter difficulty does heavily favour magic over physical attacks in the early game, especially since being in the back row is practically mandatory for survivability's sake, but we're a-OK with that.

On a more specific note, the incredible importance of magic early on means that Silence is basically equivalent to Stopping a character- could you possibly see your way clear to hack in a way to purchase Echo Screens at more shops? It's one thing to require the player to stock up on and use status clearing items, and another thing to just add tedium by requiring that they backtrack through two relatively large zones in order to do so.

I beg to differ: Cloud with Long Range equipped is pretty good. Most of my damage in the early game came from him, and Silence certainly did not feel as deadly as Stop.

Quote
In the case of the Locke/Venus/Theo fight, I understand that Loco Weed is necessary to keep them from ripping your team apart, but the propensity of the item to miss means that it's possible to have Loco Weed affect few enough targets that they can clear the confusion and kill your team before you have a chance to try again. (We have not been doing any real amount of level grinding- most of our item stock has come from incidental drops as we've been going through the game. I assume this was the intent.)

I barely did grind for them (got one level so Tifa could have a bit more HP). And when I got through them, I didn't know Loco Weeds even worked. My strategy for that fight is right up there. They are definitely not down to luck, and most of my difficulty in that fight was managing to Steal their stuff.  It's actually rather easy when you know what you're doing.

Quote
The Silver Chocobo fight, due to bugs, is somewhat 'all or nothing'- if it uses Deathblow! and paralyzes two or more party members (or one party member, being Aeris) then it's often a question of prayer whether the party can get healed before it uses Deathblow! again. It can also use Deathblow! twice in a row, which is actually unsurvivable by a party that has not been particularly leveled on the way to this point. (It would be a different story if you had a wind element to link to the Elemental materia on your armour, but to the best of my knowledge you don't.) If its other move did anything at all, the fight would be basically impossible to win on one's first visit to the Chocobo Ranch. As it is, like the Venus/Theo/Locke fight, it's purely down to luck.

Excluding the 'being down to luck' part which I disagree, I do agree the Silver Chocobo fight could use a bit more tuning.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.4
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-10-21 20:30:42
Bosque & ogd impressive :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-22 02:53:06
New release bitches! I made the lvl 4 limit breaks ignore defence. I dunno if it was a 100% smart move, but it will make anything other than Coin usefull in the end lol (no, there are other usefull tricks too). This is because some bosses use the Hero Drink trick, which is annoying. Omnislash + Hero Drinks is now definitely the best move. Summons are less useless.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-10-22 02:55:21
Oh man now you're talking! ;D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-22 04:27:30
@vdate
Thanks for trying it. A agree the silver chocobo is broken.
And I noticed I uploaded the wrong files lol. The correct one will be uploaded soon. Please wait a sec. There is a minor difference in scene.bin.

Edit: uploaded the correct one. Sorry 'bout that. :P
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Dark_Ansem on 2011-10-22 10:33:53
summons are less useless. LOOOOL you are so right!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2011-10-22 11:22:12
Which enemies AI did you tweak beside the Dragon?
Also, care to give a short list of what the bugs you fixed were? I am running my own version that is based on 1.04 but I don't want to lose hundreds of hours of editing
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Dark_Ansem on 2011-10-22 12:33:02
I agree on the bug list.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-10-22 14:04:45
Will your mod work if you create a Wallmarket patch for your kernels and a Proud Cloud patch for your scene; then apply those patches to the Hardcore Mod 1.05 files and validate the lookup table?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-22 15:03:59
@Posted by: KuugenTheFox
The Silver Chocobo AI. Not luck dependable anymore.
The dragon start the fight with a counter stance. It only attacks if you attack it. After 5 turns it changes to actions. If you attack it, it randomly changes to counters for 5 turns, and so on.

Other from the top of my head:
Blue and red Dragon's attacks. Blue in maniable for easier dragon force (so you don't have to reflect it). I also think I changed blue's items. Doorbull's attacks. Demon Gate's attacks. More HP on Schizo's. Magnade attacks. Carry Armor attacks. Killbin HP, attacks, items(?) and AP. Under Lizard attacks. Gremlin attacks. Sculture's attacks. Kelzmelzer attacks. Jemnezmy attacks...

That is all I remember now.

Fixes: As DLPB and luksy found out there were bugs in 3 of the field files I updated: las2_3, las2_4 and las3_2. I removed one materia from each of these fields. I forgot that all fields in the crater have a "mk_save" entity that point to the main script in the "save" entity (upon creating a save via save crystal). This caused the save point to be invisible upon creation + more buggy effects, but nothing severe. I simply changed a pointer in each of these (mk_save entities) to point to the right script; not a non-existing script.

@PitBrat
I have no idea. If the patch method is good it'll work; I've never tested it. It sounds like it should work.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: ogd on 2011-10-23 16:07:26
I gotta ask cuz I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure it out - how do you kill Qwims? I'm totally lost.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-24 00:21:20
Whenever they are taking a break, they are immune to damage. When they counter attack they lose immunity.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-10-24 15:37:08
To apply this new version do i have to put back all the backed up ones or will it work on the already patched by 1.0.4 and also this latest one will it overwrite something in menu overhaul? i got the latest version m004d with the gjoerulv option thing
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-10-24 15:58:04
For the best results, you should install the Hardcore mod first and then the Menu Overhaul.

When using the Hardcore mod with ReTranslation, you will lose some of the ReTranslated text.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2011-10-24 16:16:01
To apply this new version do i have to put back all the backed up ones or will it work on the already patched by 1.0.4 and also this latest one will it overwrite something in menu overhaul? i got the latest version m004d with the gjoerulv option thing

the gjoerulv option is for the reranslation.  I suggest not using that when using the hardcore mod as you will not get a full translation.  It is best for now to try them separately really, although there is nothing stopping you.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-10-24 16:20:12
In your re-translation readme
some field files will not be updated, scene.bin and kernel2.bin will not be updated.
So the main dialogue like when they speak they wont be affected?

edit:
stupid of me forgot to read some more

Quote
\FF7.exe.  This holds the 9 main character names, Chocobo names and menu text. 
 
\Data\Field\Flevel.Lgp  This holds field dialogue and field place names.

\Data\Battle\Scene.bin  This holds enemy texts and battle dialogue. 

\Data\kernel\Kernel.bin  This holds 2 texts "Sephiroth" and "Ex-SOLDIER"

\Data\kernel\Kernel2.bin  This holds text such as materias, weapons, armours.

\Data\wm\World_us.lgp  'mes' holds world map dialogue and area names.

\Data\wm\World_us.lgp  wm0.ev/wm3.ev hold the positional data of the world map dialogue windows.
                                    wm2.ev is not edited as it does not contain any dialogue box data.

Since it doesnt patch flevel it should be alright shouldnt it? The main retranslation i want is when they speak but also with toughscript can i still edit the Kernel2.bin and scene.bin?..sorry for wasting your time just wanted to be sure that's all thanks again
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2011-10-24 16:25:13
With the hardcore option ON, only fields that gjo has not touched will be altered. Flevel holds those fields.  But translation has only just started anyway so mostly no change.  Kernel2 and scene bin are not changed with that option on...

only some fields and the ff7.exe are changed.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: PitBrat on 2011-10-24 20:33:02
Hardcore 1.05 alters ff7.exe to change limits.  I've installed Menu Overhaul with retranslation using the Hardcore ff7.exe and the game appears to work.
I'm testing a lot of mod combinations to determine what works well with Hardcore and ReTranslation.
As a last resort, installing Hardcore over ReTranslation replaces the affected parts of the ReTranslation.

On another note, can someone create a Proud Cloud patch for the Hardcore scene.bin?  Proud Cloud still crashes during parch creation on all of my systems.
I'm attempting to combine Scene Redux and Hardcore for an 'easy' version.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-25 03:00:18
My mod replaces some files in in flevel.lgp, basically to insert encouters, alter encouter rates, insert AKAO sections and delete entities (and in some cases insert texts). Most of these doesn't contain much text, in other words, doesn't mess much with the re-translation.
Exceptions are: The gongaga reactor, bottom of northern cave and the truck scene with sephiroth.
I am working on a patch method that will be compatible with anything.

The HC patch does not touch anything in the .exe besides limits.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2011-10-25 03:21:19
The patches I made for ff7.exe will have no problem with the limits.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: ogd on 2011-10-25 17:04:25
I think I just had my second or third "Whoa, not cool" moment.

So I was able to kill the Quadra Magic boss and Carry Armor (both cheesed slightly by Aeris but would have been possible without her). Then I went for the HP<->MP boss and was able to kill it after a few tries using lots of Demi spells and well-timed heals. So of course I figure I should go for the Mime boss, why not?

The first form seemed pretty easy, and when I killed it I said "whoa, there's another form!" After putting ribbons on two chars and elemental/ChocoMog on the other, I went back in and was able to kill the second form! Yay... but wtf now I have to fight two of each, together?! Considering all of these guys seem to hit for exactly 1/2 max HP on all their attacks (or more for Susano'o) I have no idea how to win this, aside from crazy evasion and luck. Oh, and I haven't even seen Pandora's Box yet. Am I missing something or do I need all chars at max evasion and immune to wind to have a chance?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-10-26 02:51:03
Regen and haste are a good friends. You need to look out for confusion, silence, sleep and berserk. Prioritize silence and berserk. Added effect + mystify or seal. They use a wind attack. An Escort Guard helps.
To remove the dual status you must use dispel. A Poison ring prevents it.

In this fight it's important to time you attacks. You should assign 2 characters for healing, and pretty much spam curaga/fullcure/white wind/x-potion/angel whisper/Elixir.

Rely on Gravity attacks to get their HP down. When they're on low HP, they will try to heal by different means.
To kill 'em you should use limits or summons like the Bahamuts or Alexander when their hp is low enough. They got around 100000 HP each.

Tsukuyomi will only use Pandora's box if it's the last enemy you kill.

Edit: You could also rely on several counters, but they have high def and mdef.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-11-22 09:56:19
Does anyone have any good, general tips for the battle arena? I'm using Cloud, lv 59. Crystal Sword/Mystile/Ribbon, with a bunch of mastered HP Pluses, Added Effect-Destruct, a nearly complete Enemy Skill, Added Attack-Mug, Time, and Heal. And I'm still pretty much getting my butt kicked. Getting 1/2 HP in the slots is basically a game ender.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-11-22 11:07:33
You may want to drop the ribbon. Added effect + Hades or Added effect + Mystify and/or Seal works well (with prevent x status accessory, or a stat (str) boost accessory).

I always use several counter attacks in the battle arena (at least 4). This way you may never need to attack, unless they get disabled.

Mighty guard + regen is win.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2011-11-23 00:05:01
this is an ungodly difficult mod to start the game with, especially as I'm used to just rushing through past the Scorpion Guard....

so far so good though, I'm liking the addition of extra effects (like stop to the robots that shoot blue lasers), and the inclusion of (random?) new enemies XD
'tis more fun now, for sure. well done!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-26 15:55:12
OK, so I started this mod about 2 weeks ago and I have to say I am loving it I've managed to struggle all the way up to reentering midgar on disc 2 (not the raid, the sector 5 key) and I have just acquired tifa's "Premium Heart" weapon and the power is set to 48 with a hit% of 112. my question is does this mod touch the ultimate weapons and alter their numbers or am I just being paranoid? because I thought Tifa's Premium Heart had 99 power... Either way great mod. I love how the enemies are hard due to status effects and not just starts increased to a godly high number.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-11-26 19:26:33
The mod touches the weapons, but I can't tell which ones. It is safe to assume he tweaked the Premium Heart.

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-27 20:14:24
Just beat "Carry Armour" angel whisper helped a lot here. I found it easiest to target the right arm with thundaga while your highest hp character covers with mighty guard on him. one of the easier battles so far.

Shame about Tifa's premium heart but eh it kinda sucked anyway goodhand was much better.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-11-28 21:10:47
@Livesey
Don't be fooled with the low values on the ultimate weapons. They're still (potentially) the best weapons. In Tifa's case, damage depends on how full her limit bar is and limit level.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-29 00:18:16
Yeah I noticed after using Cid's I thought id give it a try thinking it might be similar to FF X's celestial weapons and ignore their defence at first it hit for a pitiful 400 then I remembers Cid's is based on his MP filled him up and it went up to 1400. So yeah I see they're still useful.

A warning to those who haven't trained much.. Do not underestimate the enemies at the sunken gelnika I'm actually finding them harder than JENOVA Death and well.. that's an impressive feat.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: tylerkschrute on 2011-11-29 00:30:24
Tifa's premium heart would be a great weapon if there was a way to allow the player to choose to attack when a character's limit gauge is full instead of forcing them to use the limit. I think the idea the developers were going for with the premium heart was to maximize the potential damage tifa can deal with her chain of limit breaks. Other than that though it is in my opinion a very disappointing ultimate weapon.

EDIT: Wait haha this just came to me literally right after I posted that, what about mugging? Although that still doesn't allow for the execution of a 4x cut. IMO I much prefer the master fist to the premium heart though. It's potentially the most interesting and unique item in the game and if used correctly can easily become the strongest.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-29 01:47:01
Yeah I agree the Premium Heart is disappointing, but its at least one of the more interesting boosts I mean compared to HP/MP capacity IMO they seem kind of dull.

Also mug + added cut can get you a version of 2x cut which woul be pretty good on Tifa's Premium Heart.

Any tips on beating Diamond? he keeps wiping the floor with my party and I can't seem to dent his diamond-like exterior I omnislashed him once and it did more than I could do to him in 10 minutes it would be more but diamond flash wipes me out. Also Zeidrich doesn't seem to offer as much protection from him as I thought it would have so I'm pretty sure status resistances linked to armour are the better option.

EDIT: Nevermind I did it thank god I never used Cait Sith I just diced him down veeeerrry slowly. But wow what a challenge it was.

Jeez after beating Diamond Weapon I proceeded to trying to take on Ultima and he killed my party before I had a chance to move, after that failure I try the mime cave and all goes well until the final bout then They seem to just pick their moment to instakill me I've tried regen but it seems like it's up to them if they win.

So then I try to do the Noxianacardiceae Toxicondendron, it all seems surprisingly easy, and then he transforms into his third form drains all my mp and inflicts every status effect on me and watches me die. He doesn't hit me after he just watches me slowly but surely die from Dual Drain, I tried him again this time with a ribbon and 2 characters immune to petrify and all nullify poison, I use Demiaga 10 or 11 times and notice it is still hitting for 30,000 (just how much health does this thing have?) and then he just seems to over power me, I'm not sure if I'm just trying to do these things at a low level or if I'm not using the right strategy or something but it seems like you really didn't want people to have Mime or the other guarded materia, not that I blame you.

Anyway I believe these monsters are beatable at my level but extremely difficult so if anyone would be kind enough to give a few tips?

EDIT: Okay so I just beat the plant with the help of quadra magic I was on my way out of the cave when BAM "IMA DRAGON" cometeo = Dead

I hate those dragons -.-
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-11-29 22:27:58
I'm almost to the point of fighting those guys- I'm level 71 with Cloud, everyone else is 65. I'll let you know what goes down.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-29 23:33:40
My clouds 66 everyone else is around 59-60

OK, So after beating that plant I went straight to the mime cave equipped everyone with cure all and Cid with hast all as well as 4x attack and 3x counter, it seemed high health didn't matter in this battle so I went into the fight with everyones health at around 3000-4000 making sure my max health for all characters was an odd number (so that I die in 3 hits without Regen rather than 2) and I had counter magic > ultima equipped on Tifa, she also had elemental chocomog on armour with everyone else having the escort bangle.

My plan was to have everyone just keep healing on the final bout unless one of the things at the back uses the wind move in which case I would have one character use a summon or limit or have Tifa use ultima anyway it was going great, despite the 3 megalixirs lost during the fight, that is... Until the end both the front row things died followed by one of the winged things and just after I land the killing blow on the winged beast he used Pandora's box and all of my full health characters died.

I guess I'll try it again having one character with buffed up health ( though it will be a lot harder considering more health = harder to heal) or maybe I'll just cast wall when the last things left. *sigh* I hope when I manage to kill these things a dragon won't kill me...

EDIT: Success boosting everyones HP to about 700 with HP plus and walling at the end was a success, I had to use 4 megalixirs in the fight but I came out with 2 people knowing pandoras box.
R.I.P - Cid
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-11-30 03:04:20
That's basically what I did. Yuffie was my healer- she had the Mystile & a Choco Feather on, as well a Speed Plus materia I had maxed out. After hasting, she went pretty often.  8-) Gold Dance & most of their physical attacks would miss her, and I had two characters with elemental/Choco-Mog. Pretty much just beat on the back row guys until they drained their front row counterparts, at which point I switched over to killing them. Haste and regen is important, obviously. Pandora's Box killed Cloud, but only because he wasn't fully healed at the time (sucks, but I had an Omnislash ready and I had to use it).

Now to tackle that boss with the damn auto-Dual....

Edit: not all that hard, surprisingly. Did it first time. Lasered him down throughout the fight, then when it got to the third form, Quad Magic & W-Magic/Gravity, Mimed when possible, with an Omnislash at the end to finish him off. He used L5 Death at one point, which got one character. Again, I kept everyone healed with superspeed Yuffie and White Wind.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-30 13:18:52
I find white wind to be... risky at best It always misses the damned character I want healed.

Currently sturggling on the final fight with Ultima Weapon I have two people with resistance to hidden element but he still hands my ass to me ( wish I got that second ribbon right about now).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2011-11-30 13:22:58
So I know you guys are bemoaning the difficulty of later-game fights, and this is gonna sound pathetic...
but I'm stuck at the 3 soldier guys (Theo, Venus and Locke) at the box for keycard 66 the first time you go through the Shin-Ra building. I've been gathering notes on how they attack, and how to attack them, but they just do too much damage. anyone got any tips?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-11-30 17:10:47
So I know you guys are bemoaning the difficulty of later-game fights, and this is gonna sound pathetic...
but I'm stuck at the 3 soldier guys (Theo, Venus and Locke) at the box for keycard 66 the first time you go through the Shin-Ra building. I've been gathering notes on how they attack, and how to attack them, but they just do too much damage. anyone got any tips?

^ This is the reason I stopped playing that mod. I'm stuck there too.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-11-30 18:40:51
So I know you guys are bemoaning the difficulty of later-game fights, and this is gonna sound pathetic...
but I'm stuck at the 3 soldier guys (Theo, Venus and Locke) at the box for keycard 66 the first time you go through the Shin-Ra building. I've been gathering notes on how they attack, and how to attack them, but they just do too much damage. anyone got any tips?

Gather Loco weeds and have Barret mindblow the one that revives. I'm sure you've noticed that they counter attack everything. having everyones limit when the match starts is a good idea, have Cloud cross slash Locke or Venus hopefully it'l paralyze. this fight took me a long time to do too. The mod gets better later and better as in the fights seem like a challenge rather than just flat out impossible, this fights intimidationg because it feels like they get 10 turns to your one but this isn't the case later.

EDIT: Sorry I neglected to mention where you get Loco weeds. IIRC you steal them from the things that look like saws I beleive you can fight then on floor 66 or 65. Can't remember which one.

Hope this helps because the mod really picks up during Junon.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-01 00:56:07
...
EDIT: Okay so I just beat the plant with the help of quadra magic I was on my way out of the cave when BAM "IMA DRAGON" cometeo = Dead
...

lol I just realized I forgot to update those dragons in the caves. >< In mt. Nibel they are a bit different.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-01 12:41:57
I'm sure the dragons will be a fun fight when I'm ready for them.
And at least my failure brought light to this.
Oh also in one of the caves (might have been mime) there were alterations of the beach plugs a fight with them for me = instant death not sure if they are supposed to be there but I believe it would be worth looking into.

I.. Hate.. Aita... That damn Abode of the Dead I can't see any way past it, does it have an element? I can make cloud and Barret survive it but yuffie dies in one hit of it and Cloud and Barret are always in critical he also seems to use this move very frequently.
I thought the protect ring might help but it removes barrier.
also it seems you HAVE to dispel his Regen which means carrying 2 dispels with you or stocking up on holy torches because he always seems to remove the guy who dispels him (or I'm just unlucky)

My current strategy is having Barret white wind after yuffie dual casts demega full cure on him and cloud 4x attack and Phoenix when he needs too (which is usually after the second Abode of the Dead

Anyway any tips guys?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2011-12-01 16:48:45
Gather Loco weeds and have Barret mindblow the one that revives. I'm sure you've noticed that they counter attack everything. having everyones limit when the match starts is a good idea, have Cloud cross slash Locke or Venus hopefully it'l paralyze. this fight took me a long time to do too.

The one that revives? You mean... one of them casts life? 'sob' why?! X)
also, I've noticed that Tifa's limits always hit the red one (Venus, I think it is) and he counters physical attacks with a physical attack and fira, so he does a sh*t-ton of damage.... so I'm just not using her limits XD
I'll try out the loco weeds though, should be rather useful :D cheers!

EDIT:
Ace! That worked perfectly, cheers! :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-01 18:36:48
The one that revives? You mean... one of them casts life? 'sob' why?! X)
also, I've noticed that Tifa's limits always hit the red one (Venus, I think it is) and he counters physical attacks with a physical attack and fira, so he does a sh*t-ton of damage.... so I'm just not using her limits XD
I'll try out the loco weeds though, should be rather useful :D cheers!

EDIT:
Ace! That worked perfectly, cheers! :D

Glad to hear it, the game gets a little easier after that fight, though personally I struggled on the fights after escaping your cell.

I hope you have the minigames patch applied or else escaping Midgar will be hard, First time I tried it I didn't have the minigames patch , got to the end of the highway in about 20 seconds with no health and instantly died from the back attack.

Also for the love of all that is holy get the elemental in the building, it is invaluable in this mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-12-01 21:24:36
Aita is pretty rough. Abode of the Dead has no element that I could discover. It does less damage the more members of your party are standing, so...there's that.  ;D

I'm assuming you're using the break 9999 patch in one form or another- if so, get everyone hasted at the start of the battle (I don't think that gets dispelled by Styx or anything else) and just blast him with Laser/Demaga as fast as you can, swapping over to Shadow Flare (or Cometeo) once he's down low enough. You've got to keep his regen dispelled, also, like you mentioned, and also keep everyone at full health (I had everyone at around 15k hp in order to survive a couple of hits). I didn't have W-Magic when I fought him, but using that with Quadra Magic/Demaga would be very effective. If he ejects a party member early, just reset, haha.

I ended that fight with a Shadow Flare from Cloud, with one party member ejected and the other dead. It was pretty tense.  8-)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-01 22:36:21
Aita is pretty rough. Abode of the Dead has no element that I could discover. It does less damage the more members of your party are standing, so...there's that.  ;D

I'm assuming you're using the break 9999 patch in one form or another- if so, get everyone hasted at the start of the battle (I don't think that gets dispelled by Styx or anything else) and just blast him with Laser/Demaga as fast as you can, swapping over to Shadow Flare (or Cometeo) once he's down low enough. You've got to keep his regen dispelled, also, like you mentioned, and also keep everyone at full health (I had everyone at around 15k hp in order to survive a couple of hits). I didn't have W-Magic when I fought him, but using that with Quadra Magic/Demaga would be very effective. If he ejects a party member early, just reset, haha.

I ended that fight with a Shadow Flare from Cloud, with one party member ejected and the other dead. It was pretty tense.  8-)

I have W-Magic and quadra magic I think I need to get more hp or possibly dragonforce x 2 everyone, I'm trying it with one person ribboned maybe I could give a go at using other means of Status effect negation as to allow haste + regen and to an extent wall, I guess I'll try it after the midgar raid. Thank you for the tips.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-12-03 08:49:57
Beat Theo, Locke, and Venus for the 3rd time.  :P It took awhile to figure this one out. The strategy that finally succeeded: Cloud with maximum HP, a Protect Ring, defending, with a mastered Cover on. Vincent & Red 13 (my mages) hit them with Quad/W-Ultima and
W-Summon Neo and ZERO Bahamut. That pretty much ended the fight.

They aren't affected by status effects anymore (except for Stop, but that seems to be pretty rare), and they counter counter attacks, so take your counters off. The purple one (can never keep that straight in my head, haha) will counter with Tornado, but Elemental-Wind in the armor of my mages took care of that.

Oh, and the purple one has a Ribbon, the red one has a Hero Drink, and the blue one has an Elixir (I think).

Stuck on Hojo for now. His 3rd form hits everyone with Stop and I didn't have anything to prevent it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-03 14:24:54
Beat Theo, Locke, and Venus for the 3rd time.  :P It took awhile to figure this one out. The strategy that finally succeeded: Cloud with maximum HP, a Protect Ring, defending, with a mastered Cover on. Vincent & Red 13 (my mages) hit them with Quad/W-Ultima and
W-Summon Neo and ZERO Bahamut. That pretty much ended the fight.

They aren't affected by status effects anymore (except for Stop, but that seems to be pretty rare), and they counter counter attacks, so take your counters off. The purple one (can never keep that straight in my head, haha) will counter with Tornado, but Elemental-Wind in the armor of my mages took care of that.

Oh, and the purple one has a Ribbon, the red one has a Hero Drink, and the blue one has an Elixir (I think).

Stuck on Hojo for now. His 3rd form hits everyone with Stop and I didn't have anything to prevent it.

Doesn't added effect + time prevent stop? also I'm not sure if esuna removes it. if it does esuna-all added effect +time and thats kind of a work around it.

This is why I haven't sold any accesories.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-12-03 14:47:50
Hi all of you,
so far I see you all enjoy this mod a lot.
I would too, but I don't like playing on the PC much.
That's why I ask for permission to perfectly convert this mod to the PSX version.
This isn't a one-man job, so if anybody is willing to help me, let me know.
Here is what is needed to do :

1. Convert the animations of scene.bin to a plain PSX file.
2. Merge both kernel together and convert animations.
3. Modify the limits and their animations with LiBrE to a working LIMTMENU.MNU for the PSX version.
4. Include the scripts thanks to Makou Reactor.

That's it for the easy part. Now, there are the 3D models.

The PSX FF7 uses LZS compression for the 3D models. Some programmer (sorry to not being able to tell who, I can't remember exactly Edit: NFITC1) made a program to convert the LZS files. While this might seem easy, it is clearly not. This needs to be in a specific file type before converting and I don't know how. So, unless some people can help me with this, the only issue is to use already-existing models from the game.

This really is the only problem so far. Putting the scripts in the PSX version require precise manipulation but is doable. The models though...

So, anybody willing to help me, let me know!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-03 15:14:17
Hi all of you,
so far I see you all enjoy this mod a lot.
I would too, but I don't like playing on the PC much.
That's why I ask for permission to perfectly convert this mod to the PSX version.
This isn't a one-man job, so if anybody is willing to help me, let me know.
Here is what is needed to do :

1. Convert the animations of scene.bin to a plain PSX file.
2. Merge both kernel together and convert animations.
3. Modify the limits and their animations with LiBrE to a working LIMTMENU.MNU for the PSX version.
4. Include the scripts thanks to Makou Reactor.

That's it for the easy part. Now, there are the 3D models.

The PSX FF7 uses LZS compression for the 3D models. Some programmer (sorry to not being able to tell who, I can't remember exactly Edit: NFITC1) made a program to convert the LZS files. While this might seem easy, it is clearly not. This needs to be in a specific file type before converting and I don't know how. So, unless some people can help me with this, the only issue is to use already-existing models from the game.

This really is the only problem so far. Putting the scripts in the PSX version require precise manipulation but is doable. The models though...

So, anybody willing to help me, let me know!

I heard soewhere that the PSX version of te game is not as easy to modify due to the limited space ( I think) Wouldn't the new battles interfere with the conversion?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-12-03 15:17:23
That's a good point, of which I didn't think. However I'm not talking about space issue, as this is for my PS3, for instance, and space isn't really an issue. I'm not sure if the battles would interfere, but the major problem is really the models, although sometimes only a few stuff added in the scene.bin can result in an unplayable game. I hope NFITC1 could get around and help us.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-03 15:28:35
Hmm, I would love to help although I know nothing about modding / converting, is there any guides on this place to helppeople get started?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: sl1982 on 2011-12-03 15:30:15
Space is an issue on the ps3. It emulates the psx, so if it will not work on the original psx it will not work on the ps3 either.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-12-03 15:36:30
You need Wall Market and Proud Clod to edit kernel.bin and scene.bin respectively.

Thanks SL, I didn't know that. So maybe we'd have to forget about new models. Already, new scripts and enemies take too much space for the PS1. This mod is fun BECAUSE of the new enemies, so we're not going to delete 'em, but their models could be a workaround. I remember Bosola making a patch for this.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-03 15:43:23
You need Wall Market and Proud Clod to edit kernel.bin and scene.bin respectively.

Thanks SL, I didn't know that. So maybe we'd have to forget about new models. Already, new scripts and enemies take too much space for the PS1. This mod is fun BECAUSE of the new enemies, so we're not going to delete 'em, but their models could be a workaround. I remember Bosola making a patch for this.

Maybe if the new enemies take up too much space is there a way to remove some of the more tedious random encounters to save up a few bytes? Also the new models of enemies are mosly resizing and recolours do they really take up more space than the model they are based upon?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-12-03 15:48:01
The models, yes they take as much if not more space than the previous ones.

Bosola made a patch where more space is allowed for modding and thus more scripts or enemies. Although I don't know if it'll work for everything.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-03 15:53:59
Hmm, I guess it's worth a try also another idea that may work is replacing some models for previously used ones, it won't be the same experience seeing as a lot of enemies would look like duplicates of another but I'm pretty sure it might work if there is too much space being used up.

Also I have been using Proud Clod as a reference to the enemies in this mod so I am slightly familiar with it  well except for the AI script I took one look at it and well I was confused,
Wall I Market Will download and have a little play around with it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-03 16:56:45
All new enemy models are based on pre-existing models. In every case it's obvious which model they're based on. The easiest, and most obvious workaround would be to change these enemies' models to the original ones (not all have new models).

What you can do in the scene is to reduce the more complex AIs and delete enemies that are never used. If I'm not mistaken the original scene size is 264kb.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-03 17:26:38
What's the size of your scene Gjoeruvl?

Also I just beat the 3 soldiers for the 2rd ime with the tactic listed above and wow it was a pretty tense battle I survived with only Cloud left on 2000 Hp.

Great fight.

Okay so I just tried Hojo cruised up to the 3rd form then he does combo and well I don't really know how to protect I know someone has to have cover so the MP attack doesn't drain a magic users MP but the damage and status ailmments are what are getting me, I'm going to try it with cloud holding ribbon Tifa with headband and esuna all and barret added effect time and maybe ribbon.

EDIT: It worked I just had cloud cover and counter everything healing him with full cure and reviving with angel whisper when needed.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-04 20:01:12
@Livesey it's 296kb.
It will not work on psx even if you change the new enemy model pointers and correct the animation IDs. I believe it needs to be exactly the original size. It's not as hard as it sounds as it's size will always be divided in blocks of 8kb.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-05 11:41:54
So in order for it to work we would have to cut out 32kb. Hm thank you for the info.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: xLostWingx on 2011-12-05 21:40:30
So in order for it to work we would have to cut out 32kb. Hm thank you for the info.

If you end up attempting this, you should make a thread for it.  A lot of people would be interested if they could play gjoerulv's Hardcore Redux for psx.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-12-05 21:50:21
If you end up attempting this, you should make a thread for it.  A lot of people would be interested if they could play gjoerulv's Hardcore Redux for psx.
Im happy enough with your mod with the psx so far :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-05 22:42:16
If you end up attempting this, you should make a thread for it.  A lot of people would be interested if they could play gjoerulv's Hardcore Redux for psx.

As I've stated I would need to learn an awful lot about modding in order for me to participate in the pc >psx transfer and I'm willing to learn. But I honestly have no idea what I'm signing myself up for. again if anyone can point me to anything I might find helpful for learning (modding for dummies) I will greatly appreciate it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-12-06 09:11:02
Man, the Typhoon boss is irritating.  :-P It keeps using an attack that causes Stop (and for some reason Added Effect-Time isn't helping) & Death Sentence, and another one that causes Berserk. It brings in a friend once you knock it around some, and then it starts spamming Cosmo Memory (well, the attack is actually called Forsaken Cosmos Thule). The friend ejects a party member on death, also. Rough stuff.

It can be poisoned, though, so maybe I ought to poison it and then just wall up and heal until it dies. Also, I note that Tifa's Dolphin Kick consistently does double damage to it- has that been a water-element attack this whole time without me noticing? If so, perhaps an Omnislash with Elemental-Water in my weapon is in order.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-06 13:13:15
I beleive Tifa's dolphin blow is a water attack yes. I will be facing typhoon boss later today so I will give you my feedback then.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-06 17:16:01
... (and for some reason Added Effect-Time isn't helping) ...

It's a paralyse attack, not stop. Your characters are paralysed if they act like they are weak (low on HP, poisoned, etc), kneeling or sitting. If they are slowed or stopped the characters don't have the same idle animation, they stand normally. It's kinda crucial to know the difference. Added effect + time obviously won't work against paralyse.  Stop stays on much longer than paralyse.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-06 20:13:11
So I have been farming power sources for Cloud since my last update he now has 170 strength and I have an undying hatred for unknown's. after doing this I proceeded to trying to take on Aita again and he blew me out in 3 moves. I mean that lieterally he blew my party out of battle in 3 moves...

I have to ask is there any way to prevent Aita from doing this by editing his AI? Him having the power to 3 shot any party ruins the fight by which Imean it is kind of up to him if he wins. unless your party is so strong you can kill him before he ejects you.

EDIT: Just beat Aita luckily he ejected nobody and only used Styx I just used demaga + quadra magic + dualcast and had cloud omnislash him while barret disabled.

I know I said I'l document my experience of the typhoon boss but I am having trouble.. well getting there not only do I not remember my way around the forest but I keep getting insta killed those Ni things in a scissor formation... I have yet to find there weakness and if I did find it I don't think it would help because if I get that formation I seem to have maybe 1 move with 1 person and the others dead so unless I revive - all or pheonix I get one turn.

Just managed to find the typhoon boss and got owned, it was all going well until he summoned his minion then things got ugly and they just slowly plowed me down going to attempt again soon and hopefully find a weakness I can exploit. The annoying thing about this fight is the travel time to get back to him... Stupid issue with save points.

.. Second time in this mod I just beat a powerful boss and got destroyed by a random encounter... I beat the typhoon boss after some experimentation and proceeded to trying to get the hell off of the treetops when those gi things came down and instakilled. In foresight I even equipped a mastered sneak attack with exit materia to attempt to escape (not sure if it actually works or not I may have got unlucky and been in the 20%) Now while I do love these impossible encounters as a sub boss to come back too. I hate it when they lurk in the same area as a powerful boss.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-07 01:35:37
Did you try to use a mastered enemy away materia? It should help. Also, dragon force/hero drinks are almost mandatory in the hardest boss fights.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-07 02:12:10
Actually I've wondered just how long it would take to master enemy away.. it seems hard to master given that it makes random battles more rare. Also the problem with the random enc isn't that They do too much damage because on encounters where it isn't a scissor attack they do alot but it's managable it's during the scissors where they hit you in the back and insta kill, dragonforce would lower the damage but on back attacks they do 30,000.

Quick question does dragonforce stack? and just how much does it reduce damage by on each stack?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-12-07 05:47:01
I actually have not been using Dragon Force at all. It doesn't seem to last very long, and the time it takes to cast on everyone is time I could be using to end the fight. Maybe I'll have to rethink that once I take on the Weapons.

Also, and this may reveal me for the terrible cheater I am, but it takes about 30 seconds to master an Enemy Away materia (or any other) if you just do it with Black Chocobo.  8-) My logic is, I have a finite amount of life to live and I know how to get them mastered- all it takes is time, not skill, so I might as well save myself the hassle.

Thanks for the info about paralyze, I completely forgot it was a separate status affliction- it's been a long time since anything hit me with it.

Edit: got past the Typhoon boss finally. It died to a tick of poison. Kinda anticlimactic. Tried the boss for KotR and damn, that thing is annoying. It doesn't have much HP, though, if the poison tick is any judge. I'm betting if I come in with a few good limit breaks and a decent sneak attack summon, I'll take it out.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-07 13:35:50
Does dragon force not last the entire battle?

Also I see no problem with your logic, all of my ap gained has been doubled while grinding as well as the xp so it does not take as long (kind of cheating but I prefer it over your method as I get EXP too the trade off being the grinding)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2011-12-07 22:55:16
it doesn't on the vanilla psx version, but no idea if gjoerulv has edited it.

Slade, I agree with you in essence... but I'll stick to grinding away to get it mastered. the only thing I've changed with Black Chocobo is to allow Cloud in the PHS, to make Young Cloud even more epic than Sephiroth, and to make the Yuffie relationship with Cloud 255, cause I cba to figure out how to get the date with Yuffie and I want it  ::)

oh, and if you want to master enemy-away faster, whack on 2 enemy-lure's for each enemy-away, or maybe just one. they should cancel each other out (;
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: tylerkschrute on 2011-12-08 00:24:13
Been having alot of fun with this mod. Pretty much at the end of the game right now. All I have left to do is fight Sephiroth. Right now I'm working on maxing stats though and finishing all the little side quests.

Emerald Weapon's revenge stamp is absurd in this mod, holy shit. Since it ignores defense it's hitting everyone for like 25k every time + almost every status in the book. If it weren't for final attack this fight would suck. Still managed to defeat him 3 times though (with black chocobo).

By the way, the battle arena... yea, it was already frustrating in the original but now it's basically impossible. I had to downgrade my scene just to finish it legit. I beat it a couple times without downgrading but it was really, really hard.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-08 01:03:14
@Livesey & Slade
Dragon force lasts until you die, just like hero drink. Not changed from vanilla. Some attacks ignore defence. This way it may seem as if it's not working. Same thing with death force, but death force can be dispelled.

The enemy lure + enemy away trick is a good way to master enemy away.

...
Also, and this may reveal me for the terrible cheater I am, but it takes about 30 seconds to master an Enemy Away materia (or any other) if you just do it with Black Chocobo.  8-) My logic is, I have a finite amount of life to live and I know how to get them mastered- all it takes is time, not skill, so I might as well save myself the hassle...

I agree.  8)

@tylerkschrute
yeah... The battle arena. If you manage to beat it once with my mod, I would not consider it cheating just switching to a easier scene. As stated above: you've proven that you'll eventually get the items, all it takes is a sh*t load of time lol.

I always use several counters in the battle arena. And, of course, dragon force + death force + haste; added effect + time on the armour. It would be a good idea to stock up x-potions and turbo ethers as well. All you need is to defend and heal.
You can also try to skip the ribbon and use resist. This way you can use regen, shield and barriers as well. Having a tetra elemental equipped isn't half bad.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-08 01:29:18
Honestly I tried the battle arena a few times with the mod on and I was like "jeeze yeah these random encounters were hard with 3 people and now I only have one?" so I downgraded to do it too.

Off topic random question - is it possible to mod the game so you have a party in the battle arena?

Also does Dragonforce stack with itself? will 2 dragon forces make me live more than one?

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-12-08 09:29:53
I actually did manage to get through the battle arena once. I think I was level 60 or so. Waited till after I had Hades for Added Effect-Hades, so that I could use Mighty Guard and Regen. Put on 2 or 3 counters, kept my buffs up, and hit everyone with Bad Breath (or Frog Song if it was a single enemy) at the start of each fight. My last enemy was one of those big serpent guys that you fight down in the Gelnika- unfortunately for him, he was not immune to sleep.

Tried Mabionogion a couple of times. Killed him, felt very proud. "Death is not the end!"

...oh.

Looked it up later- apparently you have to kill him 11 times. HAHA NOPE

(Also, in the process of looking it up, I found out that that boss is named for a collection of Welsh legends- saw a couple of attack names that showed up in the list of characters. How literary.  :lol: )
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: tylerkschrute on 2011-12-08 14:07:49
Whoa. The dragons at Mt. Nibel have a gravity based physical attack. gjoe, was this on purpose or was it an oversight? This makes them extremely easy to kill.

Start out with sneak attack + mystify to get him berserked. Have a female character equipped with minerva bangle with about 4k or so current HP and 30k max HP, with mastered cover materia. As soon as possible, cast dragon force X2 (or 4 if you can) on the female character to make sure she can survive his other physical attack which apparently isn't gravity based. Pair a mime with command counter on female party member and have her cast ????. The minerva bangle ensures his gravity attack won't hurt the female character (I chose minerva bangle since you can't ABSORB the gravity, or it will render ???? useless), and his other physical attack actually helps since it increases the effectiveness of ????. The 4k HP is important, since you will suffer about 1.5k to 2k damage or so from his physical attacks total by the end of the battle. If you have the game cursor set to memory, all you have to do is hold down X and he's dead.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Bosque on 2011-12-08 18:52:33
The Battle Arena is not impossible, but knowing how to manipulate the slots and knowing enemy weaknesses are essential to get through.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-08 20:48:13
Honestly I tried the battle arena a few times with the mod on and I was like "jeeze yeah these random encounters were hard with 3 people and now I only have one?" so I downgraded to do it too.

Off topic random question - is it possible to mod the game so you have a party in the battle arena?

Also does Dragonforce stack with itself? will 2 dragon forces make me live more than one?



Dragon force is stackable. I think max 4 times.
I believe it is possible to mod the whole party inside the battle arena. Actually, it shouldn't be too hard.

Whoa. The dragons at Mt. Nibel have a gravity based physical attack. gjoe, was this on purpose or was it an oversight? This makes them extremely easy to kill.

Mistake. I must've done that by mistake and not noticed. :P Damn... annoying. I also forgot to update those dragons in the materia caves. This probably means there will be a 1.0.6 fix too.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-12-08 23:48:36
Ah Gjo,
do you still want me to make an easier version?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-09 04:23:10
It's up to you. Wouldn't hurt.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2011-12-12 10:49:20
So, are those infamous dragons generally much less threatening now or are they still as strong as they were in the original release but release their full capacity only when certain conditions are met?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2011-12-12 10:55:47
Ah Gjo,
do you still want me to make an easier version?
If you do make the slightly easier version can you make sure its still abit challenging but just a bit easy but abit hard if you know what i mean. (don't know what im saying feeling droozy..))
Never mind what i said thats what i get with lack of sleep :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Schoolgirl on 2011-12-12 23:00:27
Hey I just wanted to pop in to say how much I enjoy this mod. I had probably played through the game 6-7 times before playing with mods and this mod really adds a lot to the game.

I like that this mod has humbled me, I really thought I had this game figured out till I played it with this mod. I will admit I revert to the backups for some parts. One reason for this is... I don't know where to get power/magic/guard sources to morph as this has apparently been changed.

Has anyone done a FAQ on the game with your mod running ? Would be helpful hehe. Well thanks a ton (^_^)

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: tylerkschrute on 2011-12-13 19:27:24
Anyone else getting a crash during the KOTR materia boss when the hyper jump animation activates? At least I think that's what was happening.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2011-12-13 19:33:36
Hyper Jump is known to crash the game now and then.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2011-12-13 19:33:38
Yes, this is happening to me occasionally. The same thing occurs from time to time when Cid uses that Limit Break. I am afraid that the cause of this problem is not directly related to Gjoerulv's mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-14 19:21:37
So, are those infamous dragons generally much less threatening now or are they still as strong as they were in the original release but release their full capacity only when certain conditions are met?
If the party is below lvl 50 it will stay in counter mode longer in the beginning. Easier to escape from.

The Hyper Jump is a known problem with the PC version. It can randomly crash the game. Nothing to do with my mod.
Anyone know he cause?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Schoolgirl on 2011-12-14 20:55:31
I haven't gotten KOTR yet... Just beat the new boss to get the quadra magic. He was srsly scary with that magic chain till I got him figured out (^_^)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: tylerkschrute on 2011-12-15 09:21:36
Oh how I wish ribbon prevented stop and instant death. Man that would be convenient.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2011-12-15 09:46:55
That's why the good lord created Added Effect-Hades, plus a Safety Bit (or Headband depending on which annoys you more, or AE-Time plus a Safety Bit if both are a problem). That way you can still put up Mighty Guard, too.   :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Schoolgirl on 2011-12-16 15:42:30
zomg i hadn't thought of added effect hades... I am at hojo and get him to his 3rd form but by then my poor party is so F'd up they stand little chance. tifa is lvl 86 and aeris and cloud are mid 70's. The status effects are pillaging me :(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-16 20:17:32
zomg i hadn't thought of added effect hades... I am at hojo and get him to his 3rd form but by then my poor party is so F'd up they stand little chance. tifa is lvl 86 and aeris and cloud are mid 70's. The status effects are pillaging me :(

Try having somone with high HP cover the 3rd form and counter make him equip a ribbon and have your healers resistant to frog and paralyze if possible (jem ring helps here) Just have your high hp character defend every turn and counter attack him till he's gone.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Schoolgirl on 2011-12-17 19:17:13
Thanks for the reply ! I did manage to beat him, just held out cloud and tifa's limit breaks till the 3rd form. Now i am trying to get the hades materia and that boss is proving tricky but i am sure i will get it sorted (^_^)

I gotta add that not being able to sense these guys HP in the Gelnika is a srs pain when it comes to morphing. :( I have just been quadra casting demaga then demara then morphing but some are immune to gravity :(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-18 08:33:47
Use Yuffi's Conformer when morphing. No damage penalty.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-18 13:34:07
Thanks for the reply ! I did manage to beat him, just held out cloud and tifa's limit breaks till the 3rd form. Now i am trying to get the hades materia and that boss is proving tricky but i am sure i will get it sorted (^_^)

I gotta add that not being able to sense these guys HP in the Gelnika is a srs pain when it comes to morphing. :( I have just been quadra casting demaga then demara then morphing but some are immune to gravity :(

Woo Tifa lover we don't care for no tier list! =P

For the hades boss I reccomend just trying to blast him down as fast as you can he is resistant to gravity but he only 1/2's the attacks so for me it was still the most significant damage I could do to him.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2011-12-18 15:33:11
You know, just reading this topic... I get the impression Gravity is gonna be a lot more useful than it is witha  vanilla playthrough XD
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-18 18:23:23
Gravity's a funny spell.. in the vanilla all the bosses were immune because taking 1/4- 3/4 health from it in one turn was way too powerful and on the normal enemies it's just not worth it because you can attack for more.
In a hardcore mod it is invaluable.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-18 21:07:32
WELL. After two temporarily-gave-up-then-lost-the-save-before-having-a-chance-to-resume playthroughs (at Jenova-BIRTH and Dyne respectively), I think I've finally gotten far enough to give some decent early-game feedback.

I don't remember my levels at every point in the game, but I do remember I got to about level 8 for Guard Scorpion, I was about level 17 on reaching Jenova-BIRTH but grinded to about Level 20 to be able to beat her, and I'm currently, just before Nibel Mountains, using Lv31 Cloud, Lv28 Yuffie and Lv30 Barret.

I've beaten all optional bosses I've found up to this point except Midgar Zolom (so, Silver Chocobo, the guy guarding Titan (forgot his name), and Lost Number), and wherever I've seen one, I've beaten any new enemies I've found (Ryoka Xenophobic was quite interesting, if not too challenging) at least once. Overall, I have to say it's really good. I've actually found myself using Sadness, the Barriers, and even Defend - things I almost never do in a regular play (but am quite familiar with the concepts of thanks to excessive challenge plays of FFX).

** WALL OF TEXT WARNING - Reviewing pretty much the whole game so far. Note that there may be some strategy-related spoilers ahead, so don't read if you wanna come up with your own ideas!!! **

The 1st reactor, I have to say, I think there was little need to make Lv1 the starting level. It just makes this place require a bit of a grindfest... which itself is made easy (but tedious nonetheless) by simply beating a Sweeper once, then using the Bolt Plume (or was it Swift Bolt? I always get the two mixed up) you get against another Sweeper (even better if they appear alongside other enemies, then you may get a couple of Potions as well). They're also very effective against both of the first two bosses (I ended up using my spares from grinding against Guard Scorpion but had none left for Air Buster). The lack of healing items also leads to a similar matter of abusing the Bolt Plume cycle to get potions (since you're likely to lose more than you gain any other way). However, I will emphasize that the 1st Reactor is pretty much the only major criticism I have - everything else is just small things here and there, and most of my feedback is actually pretty good.

The 2nd reactor was pretty fun. Air Buster is actually a challenge now, but still a reasonable introduction-period boss. I like how you can pick up a few pretty neat items (Deadly Wastes for one) if you put a bit of effort in, yet unlike the 1st Reactor, they are far from mandatory.

The slums are really nothing special, but I have nothing bad to say either. Maybe making Hell House just a tad tougher would've been nice, I remember when I very first played the game finding them to be quite a frightening enemy (even if they didn't really hold up to that impression as well as you'd hope) and had been quite interested to see what this mod would do with them. But I think that's more a personal thing than anything else.

Train Graveyard is perhaps the place I have to say has the best degree of difficulty adjustment. Not so hard that you have to grind insanely or see Game Over every 2 minutes, but not so easy that it appears untouched. Good work here.

The Reno fight, I have to say, was somewhat a letdown. The only difference I noticed was the Pyramids took more to break.

Shinra HQ... hmm. The random encounters weren't that much improved until the few highest floors (where they were quite good), seemed to be just a bit of HP buffing. Sample was a bit more of a challenge than usual. The elevator fight wasn't that interesting, but there again, it never was in the first place. The real highlight here is the Locke, Theo & Venus battle... on all 3 times I've played through, I've found this battle very challenging yet mostly one of strategy - I have never had to grind or rely on luck to beat it, just refining my strategy has worked well enough. A huge thumbs up for that one. Motor Ball is pretty good, but nothing too special.

Upon reaching the world map, the encounters seem alright. Not going to touch Midgar Zolom yet at the damage he's doing o_O. Silver Chocobo had me stumped for a while until I realised he never attacks except as a counterattack. It was made easier again when I realised he was vunerable to Mindblow (although it does take 3 hits to get rid of all his MP), pretty much getting rid of all his attacks. My only comment was that, since you're meant to *need* a Chocobo at this point, and you have no way of preventing Beserk, it was a bit unfair to give one of the tougher enemies that appears with chocobos a way to inflict it. Random encounters around Junon seemed to be pretty decent. Yuffie was still painfully easy to beat though.

Bottomswell seems pretty unchanged, apart from using Big Wave less than what I remember - in one of my runs, he only ever used it as a final attack, not during the battle.

Jenova-BIRTH is probably my biggest complaint apart from the 1st reactor. As I said before, in one of my saves she was my quit point, I got sick of trying. Both of the other two I have the same issue - she is not hard, just cheap. I like how she has a weakness to physical attacks, but unfortunately, her difficulty pretty much just comes from that she inflicts around 4 times as much damage per turn as anything else you're used to by this point. Keep in mind that the last really major boss, Motor Ball, had 10000 HP and at worst could do about 400 fire-elemental damage to everyone in one turn, or about 200 non-elemental. IIRC, the single-character damages are about the same. Skip to Jenova-BIRTH, she can potentially do nearly 1000 non-elemental damage to everyone in one turn, as well as having over twice the HP. To a single character, she can do 1200 in one turn (triple W-Laser). Not only that, but you don't even know how much damage you're going to be up against - since it's random how many times she attacks per turn. This is a point where you have to either get lucky or majorly grind.

Random encounters for Mt Corel were very well balanced, I felt. Probably would've been quite challenging (but still reasonable) had I not had to grind for Jenova-BIRTH (which would've put me 2-4 levels lower at this point). Desert Prison's ones were somewhat disappointing. Dyne was a very good battle. As opposed to the last one which was pretty much a matter of brute power and survival, I found Dyne to be interesting - while at first it may seem like grinding Barret to insane levels is the only way, so that you have time to defend and attack, a bit of experimenting revealed a vunerability to Poison. This takes the offence side out of the way, leaving you to focus on survival, which at the level I was at, worked out quite nicely - two attacks (which later he starts doing in one turn) would be about equivalent to what you'd heal from a single Cure2, and you'd usually have a spare turn to throw a bit extra damage or if needed an Ether.

After that I did a bit of enemy skill hunting. Didn't try Beta yet but got Aqualung - needed Sadness and Big Guard to survive that at this point, and even then it still killed Yuffie and left the others with under 100 HP each! I also Mindblew the Harpy after it used it, luckily it didn't use Aqualung again - I didn't actually notice until it was nearly dead that Mindblow only took half its HP. Also, for some reason, when hitting from behind, Barret's Big Shot did over 10000 (not a typo) damage on a Cazador, at a point where it's usually doing about 600 on a front hit to most enemies. Glitch, or do they just take HEAPS of back damage?

Turks battle in Gongaga was pretty standard. The battle for Titan was a bit too easy, just a matter of keeping your HP up and dishing out damage.

Cave of the Gi was quite interesting. The enemies were a decent challenge (although the Stingers still being vunerable to Mini made them a bit too easy... once I remembered that they were, which wasn't until I fought the last one xD). As I mentioned before, Ryoka Xenophobic was quite an interesting enemy. I'm guessing there's no way to change his death animation to the normal enemy one though? Gi Nattak itself was quite easy, although his damage was quite formidable - but unfortunately, even if you've fixed up the Phoenix Down loophole (which I'm assuming you have, I didn't actually try), he still takes very high damage from Cura, and taking that away would pretty much kill the whole concept of this boss.

Lost Number was actually the first boss I didn't manage to, in the end, beat with all 3 characters alive. I lost to him once - noticably, the first time he went into physical form, the second time into magical form, so I can provide a bit of feedback on both. Overall, Lost Number was a really good and challenging battle. I needed to Poison him to defeat him, and ultimately I did end up relying on that for the last 2000 or so damage once he had me down to one character and no spare revival items - before this I was barraging him with physical hits from Cloud (doing about 600 each - he had Long Range, Murasame and Power Wrist) and Aqualung from Yuffie (about 1400 a hit vs Lost Number IIRC), while Barret healed. Was also keeping Yuffie (but not the others as they could survive everything except Lost Blow outright) under Big Guard. Very intense battle, but I do have to mention that physical and magical forms are very unbalanced to each other. While magical may inflict Poison once in a while, physical does nearly four times the damage... I'm also going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that Lost Number isn't intended to be fought the second you get to Nibelheim on this mod, just like with Midgar Zolom? I actually suspected that before even fighting him, only to pretty much consider it confirmed once the fight started - but with how close I got, I thought I may as well keep trying anyway.

Well, that's as far as I've gotten so far. I'll give more feedback once I'm a bit further (may be a while, I tend to get a bit procrastinative whenever I reach Mt Nibel as it's probably my least favorite part of the game until the boss) - looking forward to what's ahead, especially Materia Keeper as he's usually the point I start running into trouble in a regular game.

Overall, my highlights so far would have to be Train Graveyard, Locke Venus & Theo, and Lost Number. Downers would really have to be the first reactor and Jenova-BIRTH. Hoping the rest of the game will be good!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Mythologick on 2011-12-18 22:45:30
Just wondering, is it recommended to get the break limit 9999 mod in order to stand a chance later in this mod? Read quite a few pages and didn't see anything on it, but I feel like it would probably be needed by watching some videos on later bosses.

I'm trying to grind around in Reactor no. 1 but the lack of potions is killing me =\.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-19 00:18:56
I would very much reccomend the break 9999 patch as the hades boss has hit all of my characters for over 10,000

Also kill a tank and use the bolt plume you get from them use ice on the battery looking things.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-19 11:54:52
Once you can beat a lone Sweeper, you're set. It'll drop a Bolt Plume (if it doesn't, reset and try again). You can use this against the encounter of a Sweeper, a Robot and the Shinra guy to win it in one move. You'll usually get 2 potions and another Bolt Plume from this. If you don't get the Bolt Plume, reset, if it's just the potions missing, keep going (you'll still get EXP after all). If you encounter any more lone Sweepers, try to take them out without the Bolt Plume so you can have more than one - it's a really good item early-game, and Sweepers by themself are not hard to defeat.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Tuxedo on 2011-12-22 04:03:53
Hey guys, I'm just wondering, does this affect the growth rate for the party's stats? I installed the mod on a playthrough and I'm being annihilated so I'm wondering if I just have to grind or restart the game.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-22 08:15:05
Grind.... but honestly, you should play it from the start... there's differences when what stuff is available, and some completely new bosses...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-22 08:32:52
Not to mention if you start halfway thorugh you're missing out on some truely intense boss fights and gameplay.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Tuxedo on 2011-12-22 09:37:39
I started replaying as soon as Cloud's first flashback was finished, in that town after you leave Midgar. Did I miss that much? I honestly don't feel like restarting the game, as much as I love the Midgar parts.

And I figured I had to grind more, the amount of exp I'm getting in relation to how much I need for the next level is fairly high. I grinded for a bit and now I'm strong enough to survive The Materia Keeper on Mt. Nibel but not kill it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-22 22:32:20
You've missed a shocking fight with a guard scorpion and the first Venus Theo Locke fight the fight against Reno was interesting but I wouldn't have called it strategic i don't think a 1 on 1 fight in a final fantasy game can be strategic. But missing the first Lock Theo Venus fight is fairly big.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2011-12-23 13:45:42
I don't think a 1 on 1 fight in a final fantasy game can be strategic.

you really think this? I am shocked. I always thought these were where the better strategies were needed.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2011-12-23 17:30:38
Well my reasoning is simple during a 1 on 1 it's all about set-up, if your materia config is good and you're around the right level you can win, where-as in the other fights you need the proper set-up as well as the right battle strategy, and there is undeniably more options if you have more people.

I really found 1 on 1 fights to be mainly about sadness and big guard. as well as just not being reckless and keeping your health up
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-24 17:00:24
Dyne is a good one-on-one fight. Unless you're quite overlevelled (unless gjoerulv intended a significantly higher level than I had by this point), you're not going to be able to do much damage and keep your health up, so poison and/or counterattack is a must.


Anyway, I've played more from where I left off last time, my feedback from Nibelheim.

Mt Nibel actually seemed more fun and less tedious than I'm used to in this mod. Those MP-sucking bastards were a huge pain though. I think in general there's a bit of a problem in this area - enemies that attack MP do so way too strongly. It's nice to see them actually hit MP, but the damage needs to be toned down a bit IMO - one attack is often enough to completely shut down a mage for a turn or two, and using an Ether doesn't always do anything since they're likely to hit you with it again before the next turn. Materia Keeper sadly wasn't anything too special, but not bad. I have to ask - did you do ANYTHING to Palmer? It seems he was the same as in vanilla. I know he's meant to be a bit of a joke, but upping his damage or throwing in a status effect or two couldn't hurt. I didn't try (or even run into) the infamous Dragon yet, might go back and have a go before I wind up with Disc 1, just to see what he's like.

I had a couple of tries (beyond the compulsory one) in the battle square while I was there. Didn't manage to beat it. Will try again at some point, but it's finally the sort of challenge it should be IMO. Good work here.

Temple of the Ancients was quite good. I found the random encounters here to have a very good level of difficulty - not so high that you virtually need a recovery after every one, but not so low that they're boring. The bosses... I have to say, Red Dragon was insane. I didn't expect such a huge jump. I had to grind a bit for him, and use Poison (along with attacks, it wasn't my sole source of damage unlike with Dyne). Good fight. Compared to that, Demon Gate was actually quite a disappointment... he was little more than a matter of having Barrier (no need for MBarrier, so you can just use Barrier+All, and get the full power of Cura while you're at it) and Sadness up at all times to keep the damage manageable, and attacking away. To be honest, the both-sides attack with the Ancient Dragons was more trouble for me... until I noticed their weakness to Gravity. xD

Since I'm often running into trouble with some bosses (and even occasionally random encounters), I'm wondering if I'm at a lower level than you intended... I'm at around level 35 now, after just finishing Temple of the Ancients.

Anyway, looking forward to the Kjata boss (who I've heard nothing about bar that there *is* one) and seeing what Jenova-LIFE is capable of. Probably gonna go back and try Midgar Zolom before I wrap up Disc 1 too.

EDIT: Haven't done Wutai yet either, so I'll do that before finishing Disc 1 too.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-24 18:00:07
...
 - enemies that attack MP do so way too strongly. It's nice to see them actually hit MP, but the damage needs to be toned down a bit IMO -
...
- did you do ANYTHING to Palmer?

Thanks for feedback.  :)
The MP attacks stays. It can be considered a way of preventing magic use and spending more ethers. It also makes you wonder if it's worth using ethers between battles.

Palmer is very much the same. Only he do a more damage.

There is no "correct" level at any point. If you're stuck you may want to do some grinding, but it should be doable without any grinding. The only grinding one need is leveling up materia and getting items like ethers and remedies.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-25 03:12:01
Magic attacks generally haven't been that useful against MP drainers; it's the lack of Cura that makes it a major issue.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-25 11:59:01
Not necessarily against these guys. It could go cross battles. Anyway, there are items too, and one should expect some handicaps playing a hard mod. Besides, they're not that difficult to beat.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-26 13:02:41
Hey, I'm just giving my opinions. =P

I've played up to the base of Gaia's Cliff now (including the Wutai sidequest). As usual, my feedback:

Wutai was decent. I actually expected Raaps to be a lot harder given the no materia handicap, but I see you actually adjusted quite well for it. Good work. The tower was somewhat challenging. I'm not sure if it's something you've done or something that's always been there, but I like how if you try to get rid of Godo's MP, he spams Beast Sword. xD

At first, I thought Adamantamai was a bit on the overpowered side. The whole "attack him and he nearly wipes out your whole party while taking very little damage" thing... until I noticed a few weaknesses he had (vunerability to Stop, and the fact that Light Shell is magical meaning you can manipulate him then just have him use it over and over on himself). Nice to see a battle that can't be won by brute force. =)

The Kjata boss was, IMO, a bit too much on the easy side. For one, a single summon of Bahamut will take out Levant, while Beta makes quick work of the blue one, leaving only the yellow guy who, by himself, is easier than some random encounters.

Jenova-LIFE was a nice challenge. I'm not liking this Dual status effect too much though - mostly due to the lack of any obvious way to heal it (however, I noticed that it and Regen cancel each other out, so I've been using Regen as a countermeasure). She's still a bit over-reliant on elemental attacks, but at least it's more than one element and she does have a non-elemental attack now.

Spent hours walking around Great Glacier trying to find the Alexander fight (did you move it? Maybe my memory was a bit on the bad side), and to be honest... it was far too easy. Unless I got lucky and she never used it, it appears she can't do any HP damage that isn't ice-elemental. The MP-attacker problem also comes up again (both with her and some random encounters in this area) - I mean, it's one thing to be attacking it, but >1000 MP damage at a point in the game where your MP is barely 300? Just a suggestion... it seems all the MP attacks are either "get rid of 100% of your MP" or "do way more MP damage than your MP would be at this point" (with the exception of MP Hammer and Aspil), don't you think attacks that actually take part of your MP (and thus, instead of just being "f*ck you, no magic for you!", they're more "you're goign to have to be careful about which/how much magic you use" - which could allow for more interesting battles, as the wider variety of magic means it'll always be more interesting than a plan Attack-fest).

One other comment - those guys on the beach near Bone Village, don't you think that's making Beta a bit *too* accessible (although I noticed you slightly nerfed it in that it's now reflectable - I never quite understood why previously it wasn't yet Aqualung was)? It was actually somewhat annoying to finally put in the effort and get it from Midgar Zolom, only to immediately find a much easier source... and on the same note, Beta makes insanely quick work of the Great Glacier enemies, Snow seems to be the only common one that can survive it... I wasn't really surprised with Aqualung making quick work of everything back when I got it (since I kinda got the impression I wasn't meant to have it that soon), but maybe these enemies should've been a bit tougher?

EDIT: Also, has Laser been modified? It did 1/2 HP damage to an enemy that Sense reported as being weak against Gravity, so that'd suggest to me that it now only does 1/4... however, the description still says 1/2...

ANOTHER EDIT: I forgot to mention I fought the Mideel enemies a bit. They're nice, although Kwim seems impossible to hit... or is there just some trick I'm missing?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: taterz on 2011-12-29 00:21:31
quick question regarding steal: do enemies have 2 items or just 1 item to be stolen? i seem to recall that each enemy in vanilla only had 1 item to be stolen, yet the little enemy in the train graveyard gave both a potion or a fire claw. made for a bearable reno fight, that fire claw :P
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-29 08:17:15
That was always the case even in Vanilla. Not every monster has multiple options but quite a few do.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2011-12-30 18:35:28
@taterz
You can only claim one item at a time from enemies, but they can hold 4 different items to drop/steal. If you steal something it won't drop anything. Some items can only be dropped; some items can only be stolen.

@LJH
Thanks again!
The Kujata boss can be fought right after you get the tiny bronco, when no bahamut can help you. I actually had bahamut in mind when I made 'em.  ;) Also, here is no need to wait for the Wutai quest.
Everything should be beatable as early as possible, but those materia cave bosses may need some materia mastering.

I didn't touch laser. In some cases enemies have this "can't avoid" property to some elements, thus the sense materia says it's weak to given element.

The Qwim enemy is immune to damage every time it rests (taking a break). After it counter attacks it's susceptible to damage. It's damage immunity is off every time you attack it, but it only counters attacks about 50% the action taken towards it. Not necessarily against the attacker. It also counters with hell charm some times, in other words, it may be difficult to know when it actually counter attacks. But it's immunity is off. To damage it effectively, you'll need to time your attacks in a way all (at least 2) of your characters attacks it before get it's turn. Basically after every action it takes have at least 2 characters ready to damage it. The 1st attack will be ignored, but the 2nd will damage it. Note that it may counter between the attacks, but it won't gain immunity with a counter.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: taterz on 2011-12-31 03:45:10
just a shot in the dark, but did you increase the amount of items to be stolen from enemies compared to vanilla? being an increased difficulty i know how important items will be, and as such i've been stealing like a dirty criminal every chance i get. so far it doesn't look like the bosses at the least haven't been changed, except the ones added in.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2011-12-31 11:09:02
Wow... that's quite a complex for a random encounter. That would've actually been quite nice as a boss.

Also... IMO the great glacier enemies give a bit too much AP. EXP is good but AP is a bit over the top. Just my three cents (cause I'm not stingy so I give more than two).

I'm just before Schizo now (haven't actually fought him yet, just at the save point before him) so I'll let you know how that one goes. He's another one that gives me HEAPS of trouble even in a normal game (and was one of the few bosses that gave me trouble in a No Materia game, along with Motor Ball, Midgar Zolom, Carry Armor and Bizzaro Sephiroth) so I'm really looking forward to it.

EDIT: One more thing: The joker-type enemies in Gaea's Cliff, it's a bit annoying how they use Remove on your guys leading to a quick, unblockable game over (or does Death immunity block it? I didn't actually try that, just thought of it now). Perhaps it could've been like Midgar Zolom's tail flick (ie: it counts as escape, not death), or like Shinryu from FFX with his Eraser (in that he won't use it if there's only one character left - I believe Ruby Weapon on vanilla FF7 is the same with Whirlsand?).

EDIT: Very disappointed with Schizo; far too easy. Death Gigas'd Vincent with absorb Fire and Ice is cruise control for victory. Also, his attacks seem to be somewhat buggy - his earth counterattack, half the time Vincent absorbed it and half he didn't. He also absorbed the lightning final attack even though he had no reason to. Also, why does the ice breath attack sometimes give me positive statuses?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-01-02 15:34:50
EDIT: Very disappointed with Schizo; far too easy. Death Gigas'd Vincent with absorb Fire and Ice is cruise control for victory. Also, his attacks seem to be somewhat buggy - his earth counterattack, half the time Vincent absorbed it and half he didn't. He also absorbed the lightning final attack even though he had no reason to. Also, why does the ice breath attack sometimes give me positive statuses?

He he, that's a 1st. I think about everyone who have given feedback on schizo say it's too hard. Same thing about Jenova death.
The key to winning this battle (schizo) is to guard against fire, ice, lightning and earth. You do that you win.
I can't explain why you get positive status effects. The single breath attacks should remove any positive effect. Maybe because you absorb the element?
Btw, i did not change the elemental properties of schizo's attacks, except removing fire and ice from double breath (the only non elemental attack).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-02 20:44:22
.. Why didn't I think of that for Schizo?
I ended up making tifa resistant to everything but sometimes she'd randomly take damage, it was really confusing I assumed he had a few non-elemental attacks. and he was using them a lot I also had the same thing with the breaths giving good status' and sometimes removing them, also same thing with the earth elemtal half the tme I absorb half the time I get damaged.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: taterz on 2012-01-03 03:54:35
i had the same thing with schizo, his ice breath gave me both barriers and apparently each breath he hit me with healed me and sometimes damaged. i spent so long on that fight simply trying to steal that stupid ring. none of the boss fights have been particularly hard, but i'm right around the point with the corel train so i'm sure that part would be difficult.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-03 11:59:02
Jenova Death was, I wouldn't say hard, but very decent. The key here, I found, was to focus on one character instead of trying to keep all 3 alive (Fire-nullify armour, Added Effect-Destruct and Ribbon nullifies the worst of her attacks, then it's just about making sure you heal enough to survive the damage).

I'm up to the Corel Train now. Can't beat Locke Venus & Theo, as before they seem to dish far more attacks out than expected. But I haven't looked for any potential weaknesses yet, so I'll let you know when I put more effort into it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-03 12:02:59
The train fight was by far the hardest fight with them for me, so many times I almost won to be wiped out by the final attack... So many curses.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-01-03 16:01:49
Spoiler train fight.

Theo (purple) and Venus (red) can be mini, slowed and poisoned.
Locke (blue) and Theo can be berserked, but that isn't very smart unless you blind them with ink (venus can't be berserked or blinded).
Theo can be paralysed (dazers).
All of 'em can be death sentenced.  :p

Locke and Theo counters magical attacks, while Venus counters physical attacks. They counter these with magic.

Theo and Venus also have a general counter, meaning they counter anything with an attack (not magic). That's why it may seem as they get way more turns than you. For instance if you attack Theo with magic, he'll first counter the attacker with thundaga then counter attack a random target. And if it's his turn he'll throw in an additional attack. Then imagine you have a character on standby, ready to magically attack Theo  :o

Here is a decent strategy. Make sure you're resistant to ice, everyone should be able to heal and have one character with added effect + bio and added effect + mini on the weapon. You should be long range and hight attack power.
Start the fight by maigcally mini Venus (red) and keep Theo paralysed with dazers. Cast bio on venus until she's poisoned. Then attack Theo (purple) physically. Since you have added effect + bio + mini he should eventually be mini and poisoned.
If you manage to do this the fight is pretty much over. But you don't have much time.
1st kill Venus with magic (not fire based), then theo with physicall attacks and finally locke with physical attacks.

/spoiler
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Sid on 2012-01-03 17:40:30
Nice to see that ff7 has a community after all this time!  it along with diablo 2 are the biggest games in my life, so this is great.

I just started using this mod today, and I have to say, wow this is tuff!!  I've defeated this game so many times, so im in for a challenge.  Years ago i tried to install a hard mod and failed miserably for days, then gave up to try later. well here I am.

So yeah, I died 2 times so far before making it to the first save point, Lol.   I Finaly saved it, so no more watching Aeris walking through the streets.   I did die in my first battle after I saved it though...  The monsters are Quite resiliant so far and do high damage!  along with status affects this is one challenge!  But Im up for it!

I just wanted to say thanks for revitalizing the most nostalgic game for me!

Im now going to attempt to improve the Character models and get some high quality music. Thanks again!!

edit:

Before I have to stop at a point because I dont have a 9999 breaker mod, can someone direct me to one?  I'm looking all over but I cant find one... and I read in these comments that you basicly need it becuase later enemies can go over 10k damage. 

ps: Im stuck at air buster so I have a ways to go, LOL.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-01-04 05:03:53
The easiest (but fairly time-consuming) thing to do is to go to this thread: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=12008.0

and follow the directions. It includes the hardcore mod, all currently updated character models, and DLPB's Menu Overhaul which has a 9999 limit breaker.

Takes a while to download everything though. I think someone in that thread has it all up on a torrent.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-04 11:39:06
Just use Aali's Graphic Driver, it's built in. You just have to enable it in the config.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Sid on 2012-01-05 04:25:37
The easiest (but fairly time-consuming) thing to do is to go to this thread: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=12008.0

and follow the directions. It includes the hardcore mod, all currently updated character models, and DLPB's Menu Overhaul which has a 9999 limit breaker.

Takes a while to download everything though. I think someone in that thread has it all up on a torrent.

Oh nice!! All char models built in and a new menu, cant wait!! working on that right now.  Thanks Slade!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: taterz on 2012-01-07 10:39:42
that's a rather complicated strategy for the trio of n00bs. i destroyed them using L4 suicide and demi 3 (really, really dislike the name change for that. gravity/gravira/graviga would be my own preference lol). the hardest part of that entire train section was stealing the armors: the warrior bangle from birdy mclolsauce and the minerva/escort/mystile from the trio. i only managed the warrior bangle and mystile before they bit the dust. curse you steal modifier :(.

i'm considering retrying it for the other 2 armors, but i'm reluctant to do that drawn out sequence in hopes that all 4 steals happen within the first couple of tries.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-07 17:16:52
that's a rather complicated strategy for the trio of n00bs. i destroyed them using L4 suicide and demi 3 (really, really dislike the name change for that. gravity/gravira/graviga would be my own preference lol). the hardest part of that entire train section was stealing the armors: the warrior bangle from birdy mclolsauce and the minerva/escort/mystile from the trio. i only managed the warrior bangle and mystile before they bit the dust. curse you steal modifier :(.

i'm considering retrying it for the other 2 armors, but i'm reluctant to do that drawn out sequence in hopes that all 4 steals happen within the first couple of tries.

That is what I also did but Gjoe's strategy seems like it would be more viable at a lower level or with worse equips, mind you it does involve getting dazers... Which some don't know where to obtain.

Also agreed on the gravity name change. I also dislike the names of quake but, hey , minor quibbles.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-07 21:15:17
Got past them, nice fight.

I'm up to the Simurghs battle now, and holy fuuuck they are annoying. But I have a plan... I'll get back to you. ;)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2012-01-07 21:30:44
Got past them, nice fight.

I'm up to the Simurghs battle now, and holy fuuuck they are annoying. But I have a plan... I'll get back to you. ;)

Tell me once you enter the materia caves for the battles awaiting there are much more interesting and entertaining. ;]
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-07 21:58:48
Okay, annoying as they are, I have to say that was one of the awesomest battles yet. When I first attempted it, it seemed like simply a matter of grinding more then overpowering them... with some more work, I've found that that was a very cunningly designed battle. The usual strategy in a multiple-enemy battle like this would be to take out one at a time (so that there's less attackers on you), after any defensive setups (I went for Barrier, MBarrier and Regen but didn't bother with Haste cause of them constantly inflicting Slow). Of course, this leads to them using Angel Whisper (even on KO'd Simurghs), so I needed a way around that. Initially I tried Reflect, but found out that Angel Whisper is still not reflectable - and at any rate, that wouldn't help against KO'd Simurghs. So my next trick was Magic Breath, failed pretty quickly due to their Recovery-absorbtion of one of the elements. Magic Hammer it was. So with them at MP 0 (which had the nice side effect of getting rid of Hom as well), I wore them down... and what happens? They have an MP absorbing attack! I'm about to try the "weaken them then take them out in one blow" strategy when suddenly, a bulb lights up...

So I go into the battle, get my defense set up, Magic Hammer them down, as usual. Then this is where my great idea comes in. Get the setup - everyone to full HP, fresh Barrier and Regen up (MBarrier isn't needed since they don't use Hom at 0 MP), I also used Bad Breath to Poison the Simurghs. And then... Enemy Skill > Magic Breath > All Allies. To be honest I was half-expecting them to be prepared for even that strategy, but nope, it worked like a charm. =) No MP for them to absorb, so no Angel Whisper. =) The rest was just a matter of wearing them down - thanks to the fresh Barrier and Regen set up before, I didn't need to heal.

I like battles that take this much thinking, rather than speedy command input and getting lucky. =)

By the way, my characters are at Lv50 to 52 at this point, which I notice is a lot lower than most enemy levels, how does this compare to other players?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-01-07 23:20:32
that's a rather complicated strategy for the trio of n00bs. i destroyed them using L4 suicide and demi 3 (really, really dislike the name change for that. gravity/gravira/graviga would be my own preference lol).

...

Ye, I would hardly call it complicated though. This mod is not for n00bs lol. L4 suicide is perfect for this fight, only problem would be the counters on low levels. Even then it's a great 1st attack.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-07 23:50:16
Carry Armor seemed like he had potential to be problematic, but the take-one-arm-out-at-a-time-then-go-for-the-body strategy still works perfectly fine.

Just for the lulz I had a quick look at Emerald Weapon (needless to say I died VERY quickly)... ouch. o_O
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-08 02:53:42
Carry Armor seemed like he had potential to be problematic, but the take-one-arm-out-at-a-time-then-go-for-the-body strategy still works perfectly fine.

Just for the lulz I had a quick look at Emerald Weapon (needless to say I died VERY quickly)... ouch. o_O

Just wait for ultima weapon, luckily he doesn't heal between bouts or I was in for a lot of trouble.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-08 03:00:45
I'm guessing he's a lot more powerful in the actual fights than he is in Mideel then?

Also, I just beat Adamantai. Very nice battle, and I like how you made Reflect risky.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-08 03:02:37
Yeah he is, unless I was underpowered, though in mideel I only managed to hit him once lol.

EDIT: Please tell me someone else struggled with diamond. I couldn't find a reliable way to hit him so spammed dice. I have to say though, most use my Cait Sith has ever got.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-08 09:07:27
The guys guarding Mime are freaking crazy... o_O

The solo ones are bad enough, but then two of each all together?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: royalmurder on 2012-01-08 11:29:58
HAhaaa had you come to expect anything else with this mod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-08 12:56:07
I actually loved the mime fight, If I recall correctly this is one of the fights you can beat at pretty much any level provided you have a sound strategy, maybe a bit of luck too.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-01-08 13:27:52
I think limit breaks works well against diamond.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-08 20:38:57
It's the intermittent Reflect on the second guy that really gets me. How it's not always there but you never know when exactly it comes back. Although I'm guessing there's some trick to this that I'd catch on to if I paid more attention? (I know you can DeBarrier it but that means you're wasting a turn whether you actually need to or not).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-08 21:00:51
Are you talking about the second phase of the mime boss because I had no idea his reflect wore off.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Sid on 2012-01-09 07:17:46
question:

once I beat one of the random boss type dudes, can I encounter them again?

Im asking because my poison killed the beast rider guy near the condor reactor by junon before I was able to steal his item. :(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-01-09 09:05:27
That is not a boss. Of course you can. Fight it as much as you want.  :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-10 05:53:49
Are you talking about the second phase of the mime boss because I had no idea his reflect wore off.

It does, but it also comes back. From what I can tell, it seems at the start he can reflect one spell; afterwards, he can reflect 4 each time. It regenerates on his turns.

I've taken a break from them and gone to explore the Gelnika. The Turks fight was good, but Aita is freaking insane. Shuffled my setup around a bit now that I have Yuffie's ultimate weapon (previously she was my mage). The random battles are very good here IMO.

On the note of random battles... what the hell is with the random encounters in the Mime cave? o_O They're insane... (or I'm underlevelled, not sure which)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-01-10 06:21:03
The random encounters in the materia caves are pretty much all insane.  :-P

To people fighting the Weapons- I actually found them really easy. (Aside from Emerald & Ruby, who are beasts.) It's pretty simple to make all your characters immune to the various elements Ultima throws (I think it's just hidden and earth?). Finding him over and over was by far the hardest part.

Diamond Weapon is very susceptible to limits. By the time you fight him you ought to have Omnislash and Final Heaven- hit him with both of those, plus summon one or two of the Bahamuts, and he's pretty much done for. He didn't even get the chance to hit me with Diamond Flash. I forget what level I was at when I fought him, but it wasn't a totally unreasonable one.

I've given up on the Hardcore mod for now- got frustrated upon descending into the Northern Crater and getting killed by every random encounter. One day I'll power level and be back.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-11 10:32:42
Wait, there's encounters in all of them? I didn't run into any in the blue materia cave.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-01-12 08:50:22
No boss?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-12 11:19:06
No, there was a boss (and I found it to be a very good fight) but no random encounters.


Also, in the Gelnika... is it just me, or are the Unknowns back to front? I remember Unknown 3 always being the hardest and Unknown 1 the easiest. On this, it's the other way around.


EDIT: Still can't beat the f*cking Mime boss. The HP<-->MP one was a very nice fight though, and in fact, I might actually see potential use for HP<-->MP against the Mime one.

... That f*cking Silver Dance attack is also %-based? Dude... I honestly can't see any way of beating these guys, short of powerlevelling and brute forcing them down... and I don't even know how well THAT would work. The one at a time are fine, but when there's four of them at once, potentially capable of taking out two characters and leaving the last one at 1 HP within one "round", with all their attacks being %-based meaning that no amount of raising your HP works (indeed, I dropped the HP Pluses for this fight to make healing more economical)... What am I missing? I did click to Susano'o being Wind-elemental, but that's still only a minor help...

The KOTR boss is also somewhat overkill, but at least in this case it's somewhat justified by what its guarding. Was a bit surprised to see Gravity absorbed after the other materia cave enemies being vunerable... but my biggest annoyance is how he can heal far quicker than you can dish it out. I'm guessing Shadow Flare is a must for this one? (I didn't bother to get it from the Quadra Magic boss... guess I'm waiting for Ultimate Weapon now.)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-01-23 06:36:42
Did Diamond Weapon and Ultimate Weapon. I have to say, they were both very good. Challenging, but not insane like some of the optional ones... (well okay, Ultimate is optional... haha)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-01-23 10:14:47
Don't know if you're still having trouble with the Mime boss or not, but my strategy was to take my fastest character (in my case Yuffie) with a Mystile/Choco Feather equipped and a maxed out Speed Plus materia, and have her spam White Wind (or whatever healing spell you'd rather use) every turn. Haste & regen for everyone when it's convenient, with haste taking priority. When you get to the last part with 4 of them, focus on the back row guys, because when they get to low HP they'll start draining the front row guys and possibly kill them for you. You already know about the wind element thing. It takes a while, but it's very doable.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-01-23 17:24:41
No, there was a boss (and I found it to be a very good fight) but no random encounters.


Also, in the Gelnika... is it just me, or are the Unknowns back to front? I remember Unknown 3 always being the hardest and Unknown 1 the easiest. On this, it's the other way around.


EDIT: Still can't beat the f*cking Mime boss. The HP<-->MP one was a very nice fight though, and in fact, I might actually see potential use for HP<-->MP against the Mime one.

... That f*cking Silver Dance attack is also %-based? Dude... I honestly can't see any way of beating these guys, short of powerlevelling and brute forcing them down... and I don't even know how well THAT would work. The one at a time are fine, but when there's four of them at once, potentially capable of taking out two characters and leaving the last one at 1 HP within one "round", with all their attacks being %-based meaning that no amount of raising your HP works (indeed, I dropped the HP Pluses for this fight to make healing more economical)... What am I missing? I did click to Susano'o being Wind-elemental, but that's still only a minor help...

The KOTR boss is also somewhat overkill, but at least in this case it's somewhat justified by what its guarding. Was a bit surprised to see Gravity absorbed after the other materia cave enemies being vunerable... but my biggest annoyance is how he can heal far quicker than you can dish it out. I'm guessing Shadow Flare is a must for this one? (I didn't bother to get it from the Quadra Magic boss... guess I'm waiting for Ultimate Weapon now.)

With the Mime boss it's a good idea to have your characters hp end in odd numberss so it takes 3 hits instead of 2 to take out one character, also regen helps keep your health above half also making more hits for your people, quadra magic is very helpful but not neccesary. It could be argued luck based but with a sound strategy its not too hard a fight. With the right trategy you might need 1-2 restarts.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-02-10 21:05:28
Ha, I'm having trouble as early as the second boss.  He kills everyone in 1-2 hits. XD

That, and the berserk-ing cats keep me from leveling very easily. <_<

It's a fun mod, though.

EDIT: Yay!! I won.  It was difficult because I only had one Restore materia and no Phoenix Downs.

Sewer boss didn't appear any harder than last time.  After the first two bosses being !hard!, I don't know if this is intentional.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2012-02-11 11:14:53
Who likes to fight a hard boss after such a long cutscene than Corneo's? I don't think anybody likes doing so. So it was most likely intentional.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-02-11 22:04:51
What Vgr said. The previous cs can be very long. Then there is a boss fight you can't escape from. The random fights in the sever may be harder than the boss, but at least you can escape from them.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-02-12 17:16:36
It's annoying that you can't really go back and grind anymore after you beat Bottomswell (AFAICT).  I did it because I wanted an inn, and now I need to play from an earlier save to pick up the various Enemy Skill materia and such to beat Jenova-BIRTH, who can basically kill everyone in a single round if I get unlucky.

Are there any particular goodies to EnemySkill/Steal around this time?  I'm just using FlameThrower on everyone right now, but I wonder if there's something else...

Plan for Jenova-BIRTH will be RedXIII+Yuffie with Clear Tranquil.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-02-13 09:09:27
Physical attacks works good against Jenova. Have cloud with as high attack as possible and equip him with the long range materia. Yuffie and Aerith are good choises for their healing limits. Have headbands on your healers to prevent stop.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-02-14 19:02:41
The Jenova boss was difficult.. IIRC I had cloud physically attacking without any materia and Tifa and Red both with cure > all just incase something bad happened as Gjoe has already pointed out Headband helps, also some have said getting the hp plus from the ceremony is essential but I have to tell you it's a lot easier to buy 3 from CC, I managed to do it with only 2 but wow I wish I got 3.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-02-15 02:55:33
I was really easy this time.  Granted, I ended up grinding to level 24 getting my early materia to level 2, but still. :P

It looks like the next thing people complain about is Dyne.  We'll see how it goes. ^^
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: strife98 on 2012-02-19 09:16:56
One thing that would be amazing, if it were possible. Was maybe in the Ancient Forest or possibly a special event in the Battle Arena in the Golden Saucer was if there was a way to fight like, doppelgangers. Like maybe in the Ancient Forest have the Cloaked NPC's dotting the area here and there, and each one you defeat would give you the good items in the Ancient Forest. I know all of them can't do that, but they could just be there to fight them if you want or you could have them hold a nice little item or something like that. For example of what I'm talking about, you could have a doppelganger of Vincent for the Supershot ST or a doppelganger of Red XIII for the Spring Gun Clip, and holding the Typhoon Materia would be a Clouds Past Sephiroth doppelganger. I just think it would be an awesome little addition to the sub quest of Ancient Forest. I mean, if Yuffie can be a fight, is there a way to make the other characters a fight?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2012-02-19 11:50:48
Yes, it is possible to fight doublegangers. However, as far as I can tell, these battles are prone to glitches.
For example, fighting against Sephiroth from the Nibelheim flashback is possible.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: strife98 on 2012-02-19 20:41:49
fighting against him IS possible? well, previously playing around with the Jenova save editor I was able to run around with 3 Clouds in my party so I thought it wouldn't be too glitchy to do the doppelgangers. but i guess having 3 clouds is different than fighting a cloud while cloud is in your party
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-02-19 21:13:44
Is there a way to steal or otherwise obtain a spare piece of armor in Corel prison?  Barrett's stuck with a Mythril Armlet, and I can't give him the Silver Armlet unless I can get it off of Cloud... <_<
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-02-20 10:03:13
@strife98
I once tried to do this. There are some problems with the animation, but I think it is doable. If I get some inspiration to work with it I'll definitely try it.

@Iecerint
Can't you just switch with cloud? I mean, equip something else with cloud then equip the silver one on barret. Or, if you're stuck, you can use a save editor to switch their equipments.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: strife98 on 2012-02-20 10:29:47
@strife98
I once tried to do this. There are some problems with the animation, but I think it is doable. If I get some inspiration to work with it I'll definitely try it.

That would be awesome! If you want some idea's on it I have alot, like each character have 1 summon and status attacks that would make sense with that summon (like Shiva and Slow/Stop) and maybe have each one have a certain elemental attribute that goes along with the summon that would help them in the fight (but not make it help too much possibly) I mean, it might turn Ancient Forest into more of an end game side quest than at the earliest a late game second disc side quest, but I think it would give Ancient Forest more of a mysterious feel to it and have the player feel a bit more accomplished about getting through the entire thing, cause I don't know about you, but getting through Ancient Forest is me just wanting to go get the Apocalypse and the Slash-All materia. I dunno, I just feel it should have a bit more to it, and I think Doppelgangers would be a perfect fit for it. Like a feeling of left over Ancient magic? Just a thought I mean it doesn't -have- to be in the Ancient Forest, I just figured it'd be the best spot for it. If you'd like help on it.....I know absolutely nothing about how to do it, but I'd be willing to learn =D.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2012-02-20 13:42:49
fighting against him IS possible?

Yes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0YR_B4kXwg
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: strife98 on 2012-02-20 22:48:04
Yes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0YR_B4kXwg

Ah, yeah I can see where the animations are a bit buggy. Like when he casts magic he lays down for a split second before and still doesn't do his casting animation. Well, pretty much anything that would trigger a different animation than just standing there makes him lay down. I would figure if he can make Silver Chocobo do the chocobuckle animation for chocobo's to use Deathblow it might be possible to do the same with the doppelgangers, but then again, like I said before, it's probably completely different to have a battle against a character than it is to just change a normal monster a bit. Also, would it be possible to take the same coding for the fight with Yuffie and incorporate it into the doppelganger fights so it won't be as buggy?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-02-20 23:33:03
@Iecerint
Can't you just switch with cloud? I mean, equip something else with cloud then equip the silver one on barret. Or, if you're stuck, you can use a save editor to switch their equipments.
I sold all my excess armor getting gil for a lifetime Gold Saucer pass.

I have a save I can go back to, but it's before I grinded out some limits.  It's not a big deal.

Maybe Bronze Bangles or something could be added to the bar's item list to get around this issue, if you perceive it to be one.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-02-21 13:36:25
yeah, simplest way around it with least amount of cheating would simply be to add a bronze bangle to your inventory.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-03-04 05:51:56
I'm just before Jenova-LIFE, but I've decided to get Omnislash during Disc 1.  However, I've never done this before, and I can't get the Gil-GP guy to appear.

Was he removed from the Hardcore mod, does he only appear later, or am I just unlucky?  What's the most efficient way to get enough GP for Omnislash this early?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-03-04 06:30:06
That GP exchanger doesn't show up until after the Gold Saucer has closed down and reopened in disc 2.

It's kind of a moot point anyway, because you can only buy Omnislash with BP from the battle arena. Unless you're talking about getting the GP you'll need to run that over and over and over and over...

I'll give you the same advice I've given others (and I think gjoerulv agrees)- if you can beat the Battle Arena in hardcore mode even once, just cheat Omnislash into your inventory. You earned it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Boooster on 2012-03-04 10:37:09
Wow - last time I played this was around 1.5 years ago and it's still going strong!  No surprise there really, as this mod is takes what a relatively easy mainstream RPG and turns into a masterpiece - kudos to the amazing job!  I think it's time that I give this another run through.

I'm also happy to see that with the new bootleg program installing mods is a piece of cake.. I remember it taking a few days of research to get the game to run properly, but from what I've seen in the tutorials this automated everything.  A few quick questions:

Looking forward to getting my butt kicked again :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-03-04 13:03:53
Aali's custom driver is among the mods integrated with the Bootleg process, yes.

IMO, Vincent is higher-tier for his good stats and long-range weapons, but his limits are still kind of not so great.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-03-04 13:42:16
If I was you I wouldn't worry so much about character viability, all the characters are viable in this mod, I'm using a team of Cloud red XIII and Tifa.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Boooster on 2012-03-04 18:09:49
Thanks for the replies - I'm coming along with teh bootleg download - tons of files to download which conveniently tells me where to find anything.  LAst time I playe was only with the hardcore mod and a few minor graphics enhancers.. this time it should look amazing!

I'm still not fully clear on whether or not to patch to 1.02 before running bootleg or if that is done automatically...  The version I have is 1.00 - should I patch beforehand?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-03-04 22:18:46
I'm still not fully clear on whether or not to patch to 1.02 before running bootleg or if that is done automatically...  The version I have is 1.00 - should I patch beforehand?
My recollection is that the patch is implemented by Bootleg, but this should be clear from the files it has you download....

Try the "Easy Installation via Bootleg" thread in the FAQ section.  It should make this point clear.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-03-04 22:22:09
I would get 1.02.

Vincent's limit breaks are ok. Chaos works very well.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Iecerint on 2012-03-06 01:24:28
-
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-03-06 10:41:23
I think it means an already YAMP patched ff7.exe, not a 1.02 patched ff7.exe. I think YAMP actually requires 1.02 to work correctly but I may be wrong.

This is how you should do it from the beginning:

Install ff7 maximum/full install.
Get the 1.02 patch.
Add mods (by any means).

Please, anyone, correct me if I'm wrong here.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: UGerstl on 2012-03-06 20:27:53
@Boooster:

I'm still not fully clear on whether or not to patch to 1.02 before running bootleg or if that is done automatically...  The version I have is 1.00 - should I patch beforehand?

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-03-23 07:30:36
Messed around a bit in the Ancient Forest, wasn't getting very far so I continued with the story for a while. Completed Disc 2 now.

A common problem I noticed in Midgar is that enemies seemed to be very "glass cannon"-y. They can dish out insanely high damage, but they fall with very little damage themself.

Anyway, for the bosses... the Turks were pretty much the best example of the glass cannons. They pack a punch, but fall far too quickly for this to be a worry.

Proud Clod seemed to be the exception to this. He took quite a while to take down, but was practically harmless. Nothing special really.

The fight against Theo, Locke and Venus was a bit easier than their other two were, I think. Again, glass cannons.

Now, Hojo gave me a good run for my money. His first form doesn't appear to attack (except Capsule), but the samples are deadly. But, also vunerable to Sleep. One Bad Breath and you're basically free to buff up your characters, drain back some MP, then very quickly beat Hojo down. Helletic Hojo was another glass cannon - hitting me for around 13000 damage in Sadness, when I only have about 14000 HP. A torrent of 2xCut and Ultima quickly takes care of him though. Now, Lifeform was where things got interesting. It took me a while to realise his counterattack had Dispel, even longer to realise that this even extended to dispelling Resist. His MP Drain was also annoying, until I realised it could be Covered; since Yuffie is a purely physical attacker, I gave her Cover. I also had Counter Attack and Counter-Morph on her to get some counterattack damage in; eventually I let this become my primary method of offense once I realised how efficient it could be (Combo can lead to up to 8 counters). It was only once I got that idea I was able to beat him. Very nice battle.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Boooster on 2012-03-23 07:47:45
Could anyone give some advice on how to advance in the battle arena?  I've collected 3 of 4 huge materias and would very much like to get Omnislash but I can;t even get past the 3rd or 4th round most the time.  Hell, sometimes I wipe at the first with the grand horn enemies.  I have Cloud at 12k HP, lvl 63 but I can;t earn more than 40 GP per battle.  Saving 1k for the pre-emptive materia seems like a very long time, and Omnislash a near impossibility.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-03-23 18:04:12
Okay so this is my 5th time trying out this mod with Bootleg (keep on uninstalling kos i suck) but now i am sure i will stick to this no matter what (to help from bombing mission i gave myself 10 Hi-Potions and 5 bolt plumes + 3000gil) and won't do this anymore unless i desperately need to later on :D if you get what i mean :) this mod is awesome now when i play ff7 it just feels much more different to play and not the same thing all over again :D
so my question is if installing this mod does it automatically fix the "mdef fix"  or do i have to manually in ff7opengl.cfg set it like this
# include armor in magic defense calculation
mdef_fix = yes ?   
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Jayke on 2012-03-23 19:11:15
Hey guys,

I feel really stupid for asking this, but is there a way to uninstall this mod? Doesn't it overwrite the original vanilla?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: sithlord48 on 2012-03-23 19:13:56
generally the best way is to restore the backup of your files that you made before you installed the mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Jayke on 2012-03-23 19:19:55
Thanks for the quick response, I'm pretty sure I've lost my original files, since I messed around with other backups - are they archived anywhere?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: sithlord48 on 2012-03-23 19:53:05
Thanks for the quick response, I'm pretty sure I've lost my original files, since I messed around with other backups - are they archived anywhere?

sorry idk about this mod in particular, i was just giving you some general advice.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Jayke on 2012-03-23 19:59:10
Ok thanks anyway, I had a look around the ff7 directory and I do see some files that haven't been changed recently, however I'm not sure which ones to touch >_<

Maybe a reinstall would just be simpler xD
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Jayke on 2012-03-23 20:39:38
Sorry for double post, got it working by renaming the necessary patched files with the n_ ones, my weekend is sorted!!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-03-24 08:05:22
I'm pretty sure the installer for this has a revert option... :/ Just sayin'...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-03-24 10:31:41
I think I found a bug in a battle at shinra 65e floor (the one where you first encounter Venus, Locke and Theo).

In one of the random battles, you fight a hammer blast and two sword dance. The battle "crashes" each time I kill the hammer blaster first. If I kill one of the sword dance first, it's fine.

I put "crashes" in quotation marks because the battle freezes, as if the script was waiting for something. I can give orders to my characters, but nothing happens (as if someone was going to attack, but the attack never comes, so basically I can't continue the fight and have to alt+f4).

I'm using last version of this mod, Aali's driver, and that's all. I have a savegame where the first random encounter is always this specific battle, I can send it to you if it helps.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-03-24 17:24:25
Im on the bit on Disc 1 where i raid Sector 5 and i must say Air Buster is so f***in hard! his attacks are just too bloody strong any help?
Cloud lvl 11, Barret lvl 11, Tifa lvl 9 + i cheated and put at least 2 guard sources on each and 5 luck sources on each with Black chocobo and having a hard time :/
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-03-24 17:47:35
I killed him using mainly limits. Use your limits on back attacks and he will take about 600 hp each time. He has 5000 hp.
Be careful, you can "back attack" him when he attacked someone on the other side, not when he turns around. I mean, he can be facing you and still receive a back attack: what matters is the last person he attacked.

When you are not using your limits, just heal yourself. Don't attack him using bolt or normal attacks, it is not powerful enough compared to limits, and you receive counter-attacks when doing so, which means extra-healing...

It's a shame you already cheated, though... You are not supposed to "give up" that early :p
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-03-24 19:53:10
I killed him using mainly limits. Use your limits on back attacks and he will take about 600 hp each time. He has 5000 hp.
Be careful, you can "back attack" him when he attacked someone on the other side, not when he turns around. I mean, he can be facing you and still receive a back attack: what matters is the last person he attacked.

When you are not using your limits, just heal yourself. Don't attack him using bolt or normal attacks, it is not powerful enough compared to limits, and you receive counter-attacks when doing so, which means extra-healing...

It's a shame you already cheated, though... You are not supposed to "give up" that early :p
Hmm hey thanks this seems like it could work kos i was wondering about how that counter attack occurs, well cheers will do this next time i play and well i would'nt say i am cheating lol think of it as some help since i didn't over do it and make them too powerful or give them stuff they're not meant to get yet ;)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-03-24 20:20:38
One way to deal some nice damage to Air Buster is save some Bolt Plumes from the first reactor. You can win them off those Sweepers, which when you encounter them alone, are fairly easy to beat. (And when you encounter them with others, you use a Bolt Plume to one hit KO all enemies, and you win another one off them plus EXP and maybe a couple of Potions).

That aside, back attack him with Limit Breaks. I do think Bolt is worth casting when you don't have limits, though. But only have one person using it, the other two should be ready to cast Cure as needed.

Really, I think my one piece of advice for this mod is don't underestimate white (healing) magic in it. Its usefulness is limited at best in vanilla, but it's very hard to live without here. You want Restore-All on everyone ASAP, and whenever possible put the combination into a double or triple growth piece of equipment, certianly never on a None (unless they're already mastered). Revive-All and Heal on at least one character is also pretty much essential, again, you want to be levelling these up ASAP. I wouldn't go out of my way to put All with Heal, but once you get Mega-All you may as well put Heal on the character you give Mega-All to. (This is mostly because against anything that can status everyone at once, you're probably going to want to be dealing with it via Resist rather than Esuna anyway, and Resist can't be all'd). You also want to learn White Wind as soon as possible; you can get away with dropping some of the Alls on your restores once you have it (but I'd reccomend still keeping at least one Restore-All combo, if nothing else for Regen-All). Do keep in mind that you still want to have Heal once you get White Wind, because in this mod White Wind no longer heals most status effects (except for Sleep and Confusion). However, if you're using Resist, make sure you cast any positive statuses you want (mostly Sadness, Haste and Regen, barriers have limited usefulness against bosses where you need Resist as they run out) before you cast Resist as it also makes the target immune to *positive* statuses too (Dragon Force and Hero Drink still work after resist, though).


...on that note, I actually have a minor technical question. If you cast Resist and then Death Force on a character already under Death Sentence, they won't die when the death sentence runs out... but what causes this? Does Death Force still work even under resist, or does Resist just protect against death too? (I always thought it didn't, but I haven't actually checked.)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-03-25 01:34:47
I think I found a bug in a battle at shinra 65e floor (the one where you first encounter Venus, Locke and Theo).
...

Yup, a bug. I can't remember  putting a hammer blaster in this fight. I think I may have added an encounter... Thank you for noticing.

@e1sunz
LJH posted something helpful above. Cure on all characters is a must at this stage. Only attack him from behind with limits. Everyone should stand by healing (eventually defending). I find that on some occasions the big damage from behind doesn't happen, but it's still the best strategy. Remember that it counter attacks.

@Jayke
The installer has a "restore backups" button. If you made backups when you patched you'll get a list of available files when you click it. Unless if there only are 1 backup of all/some of the files available. In that case you'll simply have to confirm (I think I did it like that). And, obviously, if you did not back up the files you can't restore them.

@LJH
I know what you mean by "glass cannon". Still, I feel some battles have to be this way to avoid an overkill of strategy. However I'm not satisfied with these enemies yet. I must admit.
I wouldn't classify  The soldiers as "glass cannons" though.
Remember, some people complain about too much HP on the enemies.

Since there is a bug there will be a fix. Do people still get that glitch against Mighty Grunts? I was never able to reproduce it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-03-25 07:19:45
Which mighty grunt glitch? I could not find any in pages >= 50

Maybe you are talking about this glitch where you win the battle but there was no death animation? It happened to me when they don't "morph" to their second form.
If you want me to check some known issues, since I'm starting the mod all over again (right now I'm leaving midgar), tell me.

EDIT : btw, what's wrong with Reno? He is damn too easy! I mean, I understand why you made an easy Aps (long cutscene), but you can save right before Reno, and he only has 1k hp? Hell houses have 1450 and you kill them easily with only Cloud and Aeris, plus they hit harder than Reno... Seriously?
Hojo's specimen is also too easy if you grabbed all the accessories available so far (they all prevent from poison, that means only RedXIII can take heavy damage in this fight).
Other bosses are OK, you can't make fights too hard at this point of the game anyway since you don't have enough materias or items to come up with a decent strategy.
But please fix Reno ;)

LAST EDIT : do you have some kind of "level planning"? I mean, at which level are you expecting players to beat each boss? Right now I left Midgar, my party is lvl13 to 15, was wondering if it was too high or too low?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Jayke on 2012-03-25 10:04:11
@Jayke
The installer has a "restore backups" button. If you made backups when you patched you'll get a list of available files when you click it. Unless if there only are 1 backup of all/some of the files available. In that case you'll simply have to confirm (I think I did it like that). And, obviously, if you did not back up the files you can't restore them.


Yeah I did that but I messed up the backups so I was just restoring the same setup.

All has been fine so far, however I've hit a bump! When I try to enter the rocket at Rocket town I crash, the APP file displays this:


Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
UNEXPECTED: zero count
GLITCH: missed palette write to external texture field/rcktbas2/rcktbas2_15
WM_CLOSE
ERROR: unhandled exception

Any ideas? Thanks!


EDIT: I went to the directory where that message displayed, and saw that each image had a _00 after it, and since the message didn't display that I went ahead and deleted the _00 from rcktbas2_15, I then tried again and got the same crash however the log file displayed the same error but with rcktbas2_16, so I repeated the process and it wanted the same for 17 too so I did it.

After doing this the crash was still the same, but the log showed this:

Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Field Start
UNEXPECTED: zero count
ERROR: unhandled exception


So my stab in the dark proved unsuccessful! I've restored the rcktbase2_ that I edited.

EDIT: fixed by reinstalling mods, on to the next one xD
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-03-25 14:37:38
Cheers Blah and LJH i finally managed to beat it ;D this boss took me at least 3 whole days man i suck :/, any tips on how to spot patterns?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2012-03-25 15:50:45
...on that note, I actually have a minor technical question. If you cast Resist and then Death Force on a character already under Death Sentence, they won't die when the death sentence runs out... but what causes this? Does Death Force still work even under resist, or does Resist just protect against death too? (I always thought it didn't, but I haven't actually checked.)

Resist prevents Death Force and Death, so Resist protects against the instant death status caused by Death Sentence.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-03-25 17:49:49
Anyone up for making a strategy guide for the Hardcore mode?
here is an official strategy guide for vanilla ff7
http://www.mediafire.com/?tlgeu4561u61qx4 if only someone could so something similar and yes it would take time but for this mod it would be perfect as it is much needed :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: PitBrat on 2012-03-25 18:13:03
There is already a strategy guide for the Hardcore Mod within this thread.
The Hardcore Guide starts HERE. (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6818.msg173361#msg173361)
You'll have to read through a few posts to get the entire guide.
I've included a compiled version of the guide with Bootleg.
It's located in the game folder after installing Bootleg:
    ..\Original_Readmes_Bootleg\Hardcore_Guide.txt
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-03-25 18:33:06
Thanks Pitbrat never knew there was one in there :) should come in handy
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: teniaava on 2012-03-29 17:07:32
Re: Airbuster, he is always facing the way he just attacked.  Which means everything is fine, except for Rear Gun.  When he uses Rear gun, he is actually facing the opposite direction of how he appears.  So following that attack, you'd want to attack him from the opposite side of the person that was hit.

And for the bug with the hammer blaster on 65th floor of the Shinra Building, I found a work around.  Just kill the two other enemies before the hammer blaster and it won't freeze after his death.  Helpful for not adding resets as Theo/Locke/Venus kcik your ***

Great mod so far btw, really enjoying it
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-04-01 07:50:56
Good news everyone. Sqeenix contacted me the other day. They said they're gonna remake ff7 for the PS4!! And there is gonna be an option to play with my mod in it.  8)
They're gonna pay me a hefty amount of cash. I'll finally be rich lol. $$$

A user on youtube uploaded a clip from a squeeny press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0knsGUHmQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0knsGUHmQ)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-04-01 09:31:54
Hehe, too much good news for one post :)

I should attend to a square press conference someday, it seems to be highly entertaining :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2012-04-01 14:01:38
Good news everyone.

I hate April...   ::)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Vgr on 2012-04-02 12:46:36
Common gjoerulv, everyone knows it's April fool day! You're not fooling me ;D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-04-02 13:12:41
Good news everyone. Sqeenix contacted me the other day. They said they're gonna remake ff7 for the PS4!! And there is gonna be an option to play with my mod in it.  8)
They're gonna pay me a hefty amount of cash. I'll finally be rich lol. $$$

A user on youtube uploaded a clip from a squeeny press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0knsGUHmQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0knsGUHmQ)
i am such a clutz i actually believed this then remembered it was April -.- lol
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-04-07 17:43:28
OMFG!!! This was just pisstaking im on the Bit on Shinra bridge going up floors completing the really time-consuming mini-games and when i got to the 65th floor and was gonna get the last chest "Chest F" Randomly 3 f***** strong soldiers come out which i think was included in the mod (loved the quotes between them and Cloud in battle lol) but seriously i was not ready for this and they just f***** me up now i have to do that 65th floor mini game again -.-, so basically i wouldn't mind fighting them again since it was fun any tips to kill those soldiers and what will i get in return?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-04-07 22:25:50
Actually, the fight start as soon as you grab the key. You are forced to fight them. I strongly suggest you to take all the chests except this one, and save the game right before opening the chest. They are tough, especially if you want to steal them all.
As for tips to beat them, there are many infos scattered in this thread or on youtube, you should try a couple times by yourself before consulting a strategy ;)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-04-07 22:47:00
Ah that makes alot of sense thanks alot :D, especially never thought about saving just before the last chest now this will be really helpful as i can fight them many times, looks like your some expert on this or probably completed the game with it :), anyways thanks you and also thanks gjoerulv for this mod now fights seem much more fun and different :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-04-08 00:38:36
Well, I've played a bit more. Left the sidequests and gone to the Northern Cave, I've reached Jenova-Synthesis but haven't beat her. Had a go against Omega as well, very nice fight, can't beat it yet.

I have to say, the random battles here are VERY nice. The Iron Giant took a little bit of thinking - also at one point, everything I did to him started only doing 1 damage, is this intentional?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-04-10 06:29:11
...
I have to say, the random battles here are VERY nice. The Iron Giant took a little bit of thinking - also at one point, everything I did to him started only doing 1 damage, is this intentional?

It use the dragon force/hero drink effect with adrenaline. To damage it you need to use defence ignoring attacks: lvl4 limits/bahamuts/typhoon/kotr/p's box.

@e1sunz
There are many strategies posted here. They counter a lot.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: dkma841 on 2012-04-10 13:01:11
@e1sunz
There are many strategies posted here. They counter a lot.
yeah sorry about that i was just too lazy to read through most of the posts il make sure not to do it again :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: LJH on 2012-04-12 12:08:50
It doesn't seem to always happen, though? Usually once Peerless wears off, I can damage them again just fine...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2012-04-16 23:13:06
I am going to try and add support for this for retranslation project, but I will need to be kept updated as to any developments this may have in the future.

From what I can see, this mod does not alter any of the text that matters.  It doesn't alter any text at all in flevel, therefore, more or less, the retranslation already supports this due to touphscript.  Somebody try installing menu overhaul with retranslation as a test WITHOUT the hardcore option ticked.

edit: scene and kernel do have issues.  ts cannot decode the hardcore mod ones, and I will get luksy to look into this.  It may be the author of this also needs to do some tweaking.  It looks as if the kernel2 and scene files have been poorly compressed or something.

edit 2: suggest author opens kernel,kernel2 and scene bin in proud clod and wallmarket and saves, then uses the resulting files in the mod to figure out why they differ to the hardcore versions.  The current 3 after patching by this mod are incompatible with touphscript.

edit 3.  Proud clod wont even save the scene... some error with the scene?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: luksy on 2012-04-17 01:15:08
The file at scene.bin offset 0x5364 seems to be one byte too long when uncompressed; ts (and presumably PC?) checks to see if the gzip stream is finished so the extra byte causes it to fail as it always expects 0x1e80 bytes.

It could be changed to be more lenient but I'd prefer to keep it strict. I'll have a look at kernel2 now.

Ok kernel2 defines its size as 0x35c2, but the actual file size is 0x38c4, so either there's junk at the end of the file past 0x35c2, or the header size is wrong. Again it's something that could be relaxed in ts but I'd rather not have to :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-04-17 22:36:26
edit 2: suggest author opens kernel,kernel2 and scene bin in proud clod and wallmarket and saves, then uses the resulting files in the mod to figure out why they differ to the hardcore versions.  The current 3 after patching by this mod are incompatible with touphscript.

edit 3.  Proud clod wont even save the scene... some error with the scene?

It's a while since I looked into the compression method. I guess I didn't imagine someone would try to work with these files. I'll look into it, but I'm pretty busy atm  :'( so I can't promise a swift response.
Keep in mind that the user can choose to not patch kernel (or any other file). The application updates the lookuptable accordingly.

@edit3. Saves fine at my end. Both with PC 1.4 and 1.5. Is there a newer release?

For kernel2 I used theio. I haven't touched it in at least 2 years.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2012-04-17 22:39:23
When your files can be opened with touphscript I will support this in the retranslation.  When you get time have a look at the things luksy mentioned and see if you can fix them :)  You can always send the new scene and kernels to luksy to see if you have it right.  If you simply replace kernels and scenes in the game, surely you can just open/save with proud clod and wallmarket and then use those?

Dan
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-04-18 10:07:26
In the later releases that is what I've done.

I'm guessing the problem is when the patch checks the lookuptable in the kernel. It's not needed to check this if the user patch both scene and kernel, but there may be a mistake in there somewhere, meaning it'll check anyway.  :P

I'm going on a trip today. I'll bring the files with me and maybe sneak some time in to take a look.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-05-16 09:14:16
I've picked this back up lately. I went ahead and got everyone up to 99, and now I'm working on fighting some of the weirder enemies before trying the Northern Cave again. I killed the dragon in one of the Materia caves, but the dragon in Mt. Nibel is a tougher customer. I figured out pretty easily that Guivere's Aquarius is a water attack, and you need to be prepared against Confuse/Berserk. After that it's just figuring out how to survive the insane physical damage it dishes out. No luck so far- knocked it down pretty well and then it attacked me 3 times in a row. (Also, one time I had hit it for maybe 35k- not much at all, really- and it killed Cloud and then died for what seemed like no reason. Is this a bug?)

Are there any other boss-type monsters running around the world that I've missed? I have decided not to even try to deal with the boss for KotR. (Saw a youtube video for it...ugh.)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-05-19 00:38:59
There is the Jumbo cactuar. Also the golem in cosmo canyon.

The dragon may be harder than the KOTR boss. On the KOTR boss in the video I was slacking of on purpose to show of it's attacks. If you, for instance, have barret with a missing score with high ap materia and 4x attack, you'll probably 1-hit kill it every time. The trick is to prevent it from attacking while it's visible and time the attacks accordingly.

The dragon counterattacks in counter mode. It may have countered your attack before it died.
How much HP total had you dealt? It has around 250 000 HP.

Also, the dragon in the materia caves was supposed to be like the one in mt.nibel. Will be updated in next release.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: NxK on 2012-05-19 09:21:26
Also, there are the Synergy Souls in the Whirlwind Maze. In the version I was using when I played through the hack for the first time, they were  invincible when they appeared in groups of more than two... I do think, however, this was changed in later releases, right?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-05-20 04:55:53
When it randomly died? Not very much at all- I think I had hit it for maybe 35 or 40k damage. It was in action mode at the time. I keep trying it, but I get to a point where I've done a lot of damage and then it starts attacking over and over again without changing turns until my whole party dies.

I'll look for the Jumbo Cactuar (I assume on Cactuar Island) and the golem in Cosmo Canyon, which I hope is out on the field and not in the Gi dungeon.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-05-22 06:57:55
The dragon have a 50% chance to do additional attacks when it's HP is < 10% of max HP. It can turn over to counter mode if you attack it.
One trick you could try is to absorb holy elemental and buff your characters. I haven't tried it myself, but it may help.

The jumbo cactuar is outside the purple materia cave. The golem is outside cosmo canyon. There is also the turtle on the beaches outside wutai and the dragon rider on the rocky area outside fort condor. All appear in random battles.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-05-23 06:05:10
Took out the dragon, legit this time. An all-covering, max HP/defense Barret, a max magic Vincent hitting it with Pandora's Box when not healing, and Cloud healing/Omnislashing took care of business.

Killed the Jumbo Cactuar (so that's where the Tetra Elemental is!) and the Golem (which was probably scary back when I was level-appropriate). Now working on Omega. If he has a form after green, I'm going to cry...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Kelios on 2012-05-30 01:36:17
Hi, I recently got your mode as part of the "Remix" pack, it was all running well until I got to the first Jenova fight (in Shinra HQ), instead of fighting Jenova I fought the boss you fight in the elevator (with Aeris, Barrett & Red) and then suddenly Rufus appeared and I fought him as well. Since then the boss fights have been all out of sync:

Instead of Cloud fighting Rufus it's Cloud versus the boss after the Motorcycle minigame
Instead of that boss I got a random encounter in a cave
In the cave after the Midgar Zolom marsh I fought the beach boss at Junon (random encounter no less)
At that boss I fought a random encounter.
Currently I'm on the way to Costa Del Sol and the same issue occurs, (Boss is a random encounter, random encounter instead of boss)

I checked the version I was using and found it was out of date, so I upped it to 1.5, tried it again and I got another random encounter instead of Jenova (and the setting was the cave under Cosmo Canyon).

I read the first few pages of the thread and some people had the same issue with your earlier versions but you seemed to think you'd fixed them. I haven't read past page 6/7 (at 55 pages I don't think you can blame me) so if you have got a fix I'm sorry for wasting your time. However if you aren't sure of what's causing the issue could you let me know how to remove the mod safely as it is really jarring.

Thanks for your time.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-05-30 17:12:25
Intresting...

I assume you used my patch when you updated. I don't support the remix version.

Did you patch all the files? If no, what files did you leave out?
What FF language are you playing (if not english)?

Wrong encounters = error in the kernel lookup table. The patch should update this for you. If you edit the scene without updating the lookup table, the encounter will be messed up like this.

You can try Proud Clod if nothing else works: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0)
Open scene.bin with Proud Clod. Edit anything you like(optinal). Then file -> save (create scene bin). You will probably be asked to check the kernel. Click "yes" if so.

Is there a option in the remix to turn of the hard mod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Cozzer on 2012-05-30 18:30:25
I'm having a strange issue with this mod, somehow similar to Kelios' one.

I installed it with Bootleg 0038, using the "multi-mode" option.
So, I started BootLoaded and started a new game with the "Hardcore" option selected. But the game was normal (Cloud starting at lv06 and the normal weak enemies in the reactor). So, I saved, closed the game and restarted.
The encouters were strange: I met red panthers and other enemies I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have found until later. I assumed the higher difficulty was part of the mod, but they still felt "off" (the enemies models were completely differen from the ones you normally find: even the first scripted encounter with the two soldiers somehow turned into a fight against four red panthers).
Then, I suddenly met Air Buster as a random encounter.

I closed the game and started a new one, and again it's completely normal, as if I didn't select this mod.

I don't know if it's an issue with the hardcore mod or bootleg, so I'm posting this here hoping the problem has already been found and resolved by someone else...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-05-30 18:35:11
Have you tried running my patch? I have never looked into the bootleg, but I guess it doesn't hurt to see if someone else has similar problems using bootleg.
As I said, I've never used it. I can't really give a good answer.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: PitBrat on 2012-05-30 18:37:37
In Bootleg 0038, Hardcore mode switching is broken when using Menu Overhaul.
This is fixed for 0039.

Kelios' issue may be due to the UAC/DEP problem.  Is it a Windows Vista system?
Run the Hardcore installer as administrator.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-05-30 20:22:08
The patch requires you to run as admin (it can't not run as admin), but it doesn't hurt to right click -> run as admin.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Cozzer on 2012-05-30 23:09:16
Quote
In Bootleg 0038, Hardcore mode switching is broken when using Menu Overhaul.
This is fixed for 0039.

Thanks!
But... it's probably me, but I can't find a download link for version 0039...  :-[

Also, do I have to make a new clean install of FF7 and then use Bootleg 0039 on it?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-05-31 09:51:41
Hasn't been released yet, and probably yes (once it does).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Cozzer on 2012-05-31 13:24:51
I understand.
For now, I solved the problem by reinstalling bootleg without the mode switching.

Loving the mod so far! Had a few difficulties with the first boss, but after I went back to the first area and gained a few potions, I defeated it without many problems.
Now that the materia system is open, I'm looking forward to a more strategic gameplay!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2012-05-31 14:52:30
That dep problem be fixed soon with an update to MO. (fixed with MO at least)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Kelios on 2012-06-01 01:43:27
Aside from patching to the 1.5 version I was unable to choose what was installed as part of the Remix Patch. I'm using the  English language.

Reading further on into the thread however I get the impression that I was playing a completely different difficulty mod, I did not start at level 1, enemies weren't much tougher and item drops aren't much different. I suspect the problem comes down to the packaging and mixing of patches for Remix. Seeing as you don't support that version I can only assume it was down to a conflict.

I have since reinstalled and I am giving Bootleg a try.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Kayleytha on 2012-06-09 06:34:52
Hey guys,

im new to this mod and i think i will really enjoy this. i just got one problem, all my characters and enemys are just plain yellow. i updated to the new HD models and even they are just yellow (except for barret where just his weapon appears yellow...)

i didnt read through the whole thread cause i didnt want to get spoilered too much so i thought i should just ask here.

here a screen of a battle: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/836/yellowtextures.jpg/

help would be much appreciated <3

PS: this is my 2nd attempt to get this working, 1st with just the gjoerulv mod and it was the same
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-06-09 15:54:59
Now that is strange.. Have you correctly installed Aali's driver?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: obesebear on 2012-06-09 16:19:21
Very strange indeed.   It almost looks like the battle is using lighting, but I know for a fact the models all have their lighting baked onto them.  Sorry, no idea what your problem could be.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Kayleytha on 2012-06-09 17:22:11
i installed everything via booteg. and the 1st time i did it like i should.. at least i think i did it as i should :) maybe i should look up that thread and look if anyone there has a similar problem or even a solution :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-06-09 19:11:28
Can't hurt to try.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Kayleytha on 2012-06-09 21:06:23
yep solved it :) was a problem with the shaders and my nvidia graphics card. but now i have a new problem :) when i enter a battle theres a huge lag and even infight it starts to lag all over the place for most attacks
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: racompave on 2012-06-14 14:04:05
Im stuck in Gold Saucer at Dio´s Challenge. I managed to beat all single enemies and bosses before, but this time is just impossible. My Cloud is at lvl 33, i´ve tried to equip counterattack,restore and super pg/pm to boost my stats, however the monsters killed with two or three attacks. Any strategies?? ( I think this battles are optional, but I want to win...)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-06-14 16:41:55
All battle Arena challenges are insane, if you beat it once you deserve omnislash.

As for Dio's challenge.. I can't say I ever tried to beat it with this mod so I wouldn't have any strategies however back row + sadness is your friend. other than that just try to cover as many deadly status effects as you can and keep your health up.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-06-14 17:10:48
I highly doubt the battle arena is supposed to be beatable in this mod. If you want omnislash, just add it with an editor, or earn it with the editor disabled.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: racompave on 2012-06-14 17:38:19
All battle Arena challenges are insane, if you beat it once you deserve omnislash.

As for Dio's challenge.. I can't say I ever tried to beat it with this mod so I wouldn't have any strategies however back row + sadness is your friend. other than that just try to cover as many deadly status effects as you can and keep your health up.

Thanks man, with your strategy (backrow + sadness) i managed to reach the fifht battle... i hate the handicaps!! But now, i know that Dio´s challenge is beateable in this mod, maybe i have to level up a bit....
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: racompave on 2012-06-14 18:25:05
Im tired of wasting my time on this... is there any way to uninstall this hardcore mod, beat Dio´s challenge on vanilla mod and then reinstall gjoerulv´s hardcore mod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-06-14 18:41:22
The mod comes with an installer that also can desinstall the game. Just launch again the installer, click on "revert" or whatever it is called, beat the arena and then install it back again.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: racompave on 2012-06-14 21:41:08
Ok, thanks Blah i finally made it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Slade on 2012-06-15 05:54:16
Yeah, I didn't get through the arena until I was about level 60 with Cloud, and I had the Hades materia to combine with Added Effect. Even then it took me quite a few tries. It's rough.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-17 11:16:39
The battle arena is vicious.
Sadness + multiple counterattacks + back row + long range + defend. This way you don't need to attack. Ever. Unless purple materia is disable, your weapon is broken or you meet an enemy with high physical defence.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-06-17 19:44:56
True, but for Dio's challenge, you are not supposed to have many multiple counterattacks. I did not spend a lot of time figuring a solution at this point of the game anyway
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: jinrok on 2012-06-18 02:09:45
Just some question from a french player:

 Ive got a french version, i use bootleg for install the patch but when i do like that, nothing happens, the patch is correctly done but there is no difference and no new boss on each materia and no improved difficulty.

If i manually install the patch, it works, but game is not anymore in french, is it normal?

And even if i manually install the patch AND running bootleg with or without apply it, there is no change. Same issues than up above.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-18 07:03:07
I can't answer for bootleg, 'cause I haven't actually tested it myself.

Is the entire game English when you only use my patch? It shouldn't be. All battles, materia names, commands etc, becomes English, but most of the dialogues should still be French (some places dialogues too change to English).
As I said, I don't know exactly how bootleg works, so you probably want to ask in that thread.

@Blah: At least you have 1 counter materia at that point. :P
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Blah on 2012-06-18 19:36:13
Jinrok : I am using a french version of the game too. With this mod most of the game turns to english, but some parts of the game remains in french (dialogs, mostly), just as Gjoerulv said.

But I can't tell anything about the bootleg because I'm not using it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: jinrok on 2012-06-19 10:40:21
yes, after seeing it, the big part of history in the game stay in my original language, sorry.
Battle textes are in english. Is there a possibility to edit it for translate it in french? (i can translate in french, german, and spanish)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-19 13:10:38
I would suggest Touph Script (ts http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11944.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11944.0)) to easily change all text, but there seems to still be some problems with some of the opcodes in my scene.bin file. Also kernel2.bin have a wrong length indicator at the beginning. Most of these things are fixed, but not released. In other word: Don't use ts to translate my mod in this release (1.0.5).

You can change battle text with proud clod: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0)
Item, commands and summon text with Wallmarked: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7928.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7928.0)
And field dialogues with Makou Reactor: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=9658.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=9658.0)

Wall Marked and Proud Clod can only work on 1 file so they're pretty straight forward in this regard.
Makou reactoor too, however, inside the flevel archive there are several files. These will be listed once you've opened flevel with Makou Reactor. Here are a list of files where the dialouge is changed by my patch:
Code: [Select]
zz5
 zz6
 zz7
 zz8
 qd
 blin65_1
 trackin
 nvdun1
 nvmkin21
 farm
 convil_4
 gnmk
 slfrst_2
 anfrst_2
 anfrst_5
 hyou5_1
 hyou8_2
 hyou13_2
 trnad_2
 zcoal_2
 md8_32
 las2_3
 las2_4
 las3_2
 las3_3
 las4_0
 las4_4
 las4_42

It may look like much, but most of these files do not contain much dialouge.
Of course, translation takes time.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Secret255 on 2012-06-20 00:21:21
I really love this mod even after a number of frustrating occurrences, but those are also part of the fun lol.

My main concern though is about missable things since I tend to be a completionist when I play this game. Are there any missables in this mod? I noticed that I was able to steal umbrellas from the monster in the gold saucer desert area.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-20 08:59:42
No things are "missable" concerning vanilla settings. It's pretty much how it used to be. One difference is that the materias in the final cave are moved to the materia caves.

The real "missable" things are my new random enemies. There should be one new enemy in most places.
Exceptions are, that is, areas without new enemies (from the top of my head):
5th reactor.
Train graveyard.
Mythril mines.
Wutai.
Temple of the ancients.
Ancient city/sleeping forest.
Glacier (the snowy maze-like area before gea's cliff. Not including gea's cliff)*.
Underwater reactor**
Rocket town

*In gea's cliff there is one new enemy as you climb. A new one where you encouter giants and black bombs. And finally a new one in the crater (red pyramid).
**Not in the reactor, but before the elevator to the underwater area there is one along with the sweepers.

New enemies on world map.

Beach outside midgar/kalm. Beach junon. Beach gold soucer or forest path costa del sol. grass area outside gongaga, nigelheim, rocket town and mideel. beach temple ota. outside icicle inn. And outside purple materia cave.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: AlbusJC on 2012-06-20 10:28:20
I've seen all the new enemies you've done with kimera. wooh! You've created more enemies than I expected. Great job! Are you going to include some more? If your answer is affirmative, are you accept any suggestions? If your answer is the same, I had thought of a final boss like Ozma (FFIX) or Gilgamesh (he would be interested in the cloud's buster sword) Maybe some human enemy too? (with the same bones and animations that cloud or sephiroth) on that basis could include a character in crisis core (Angeal, Genesis ...) Well, are just some ideas.  :P I'm sorry for my bad english and again, great job with your mod. :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Secret255 on 2012-06-20 12:55:56
No things are "missable" concerning vanilla settings. It's pretty much how it used to be. One difference is that the materias in the final cave are moved to the materia caves.

The real "missable" things are my new random enemies. There should be one new enemy in most places.
Exceptions are, that is, areas without new enemies (from the top of my head):
5th reactor.
Train graveyard.
Mythril mines.
Wutai.
Temple of the ancients.
Ancient city/sleeping forest.
Glacier (the snowy maze-like area before gea's cliff. Not including gea's cliff)*.
Underwater reactor**
Rocket town

*In gea's cliff there is one new enemy as you climb. A new one where you encouter giants and black bombs. And finally a new one in the crater (red pyramid).
**Not in the reactor, but before the elevator to the underwater area there is one along with the sweepers.

New enemies on world map.

Beach outside midgar/kalm. Beach junon. Beach gold soucer or forest path costa del sol. grass area outside gongaga, nigelheim, rocket town and mideel. beach temple ota. outside icicle inn. And outside purple materia cave.

Sorry if I was a little vague   :-[

What exactly I wanted to know was if the missables were similar to vanilla.

Ex: Enemy skills such as Trine, weapons and armor like Missing Score and Escort Guard, and Materias such as summons.

Things like that  :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Livesey on 2012-06-20 22:04:00
Oh god please don't include Angeal or Genesis...

Also As far as I know there are no new enemy skills though some enemy skills have changed, as I'm sure you found out with "mighty guard".
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-21 07:39:35
@AlbusJC I'm not sure how much I'm going to work with this further, but I don't mind suggestions or requests. Just don't expect them to be swiftly made.
Concerning the CC characters I have have no idea who they are. For me the original FF7 is the only one that really counts. The other ones don't exist.

@Secret255 As I posted above. There are no missable vanilla stuff. Except those materias I mentioned. No new skills or items have been added, but the master materias have been removed. Or replaced rather.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: luksy on 2012-06-22 04:37:45
I've had another look at the scene again, the problem is indeed a dodgy opcode but it looks like a bug on your end, script 0 of enemy 2 (Atsel) in file 208 starts off with 0xFF, unless this is intended and I will modify touphScript accordingly.

Also files 19 and 230 have an extra byte at the end when uncompressed.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: smokaz on 2012-06-24 22:41:11
Hi,

Just reached the chocobo farm on CD 1 and met the chocobo summon boss. This one seems to be seriously bugged as all it did was perform an attack which had the animation of the life spell, dealing 0 damage. After this its skilled power was used up, even though it has max mana? Very, very strange encounter...

Is this boss even finished yet?

UPDATE:
This only happens occasionally. If I proceed to give it an ether, it will start using the deathblow / chocobuckle / fat-chocobo attacks as normal. Seems as if this particular spell is bugged.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-25 11:23:04
@smokaz
The silver choc only counterattacks. The only action it does unprovoked is to restore it's own mp. If you attack it several times in one turn it may run out of mp before it gets the chance to restore it. The attack you refer to is a lucky spin for the player and is meant to do nothing.

@luksy
Yes the problem is probably at my end. I'm sorry if I gave another impression.
I have fixed the file sizes.
As I see it, at 1st glance, the Atsel AI looks correct. The pointer table (of atsel) points correctly. Script0 starts at 0x20, script1 at 0x2F and script2 at 0xAF. There is an adjustment byte (0xFF) before atsel's pointer table to make it start on an even byte.
Did you get the files I sent to DLPB? The files sizes are fixed in those (unless I sent the wrong files...). Or do you look at the 1.0.5 scene?
To clarify: The pointer table of atsel should start at 0xFE6. The Scripts at 0x1006. The 1st few bytes in the scripts are (hex) 10 00 00 60...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: luksy on 2012-06-25 12:02:36
Yeah sorry this is all based on 1.0.5

anywhoo this is what atsel looks like to me:

(http://i.imgur.com/VsU9V.png)

Atsel AI script pointer table is 1 byte too long, proud clod seems to confirm

(http://i.imgur.com/ICB4R.png)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: smokaz on 2012-06-25 12:29:26
@Gjørulv
I didn't know that this boss behaviour was intentional, seeing as a boss which does nothing is easily brought down. However, that being said, I so far find your mod very entertaining and challenging.

Is there a list of enemies/boss battles that were added to the game, besides the materia summons?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Bosque on 2012-06-25 18:18:55
I highly doubt the battle arena is supposed to be beatable in this mod. If you want omnislash, just add it with an editor, or earn it with the editor disabled.

I posted the best way to get Omnislash in this mod a few pages ago:

Head to the battle arena JUST BEFORE you fight Schizo at Gaea's Cliff. The enemies will be Disk 1 enemies, still tough, but you've got plenty of good equip by now (such as the Dragon Armlets from the Blue Dragons in the room before Schizo).

Give Cloud a Dragon Armlet , Enemy Skill (with the most skills learned, Dragon Force, Death Force, Mighty Guard, Bad Breath, Magic Hammer, White Wind, ????, Frog Song are essential), Counter Attack, the higher leveled HP Plus materias, Restore materia and Destruct materia for DeSpell, plus Mug+Added Cut (ghetto Double Cut). If you manipulate the slots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNYMHdE4ks) it will be easy to get 10k BP a pop. Also, be sure to buff up with Dragon Force and Death Force on the first battle of the arena, plus wear a Peace Ring, and have plenty of restorative items around (for statuses, Remedies stolen from the Velcher Tasks near Rocket Town are a must)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-25 18:37:25
@luksy
Hmmm... I must have fixed this sometime after 1.0.5 'cause it's correct now.
But It seems ts still stops encoding (hangs) at scene.bin with these fixes. If you're intrested I can send you a dl link in a pm with the new scene. These errors are from the time I hex edited everything. I still think a bad opcode is the culprit.

@smokaz
Most summon materia got a boss. Also the materia caves has 1 each. And there are 4 new story bosses. You should have encountered 2 already.
3 of the story boss encounters are against the SOLDIER trio. 1st in shinra HQ, 2nd on the corel train and 3rd after ProudClod but before Hojo (save before you go up the stairs). Also the boss in the flashback is obviously new. All new bosses are unavoidable unless you skip some of the materias.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: luksy on 2012-06-25 22:06:14
Yeah please send that link, I'll try and figure out what's going on.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: smokaz on 2012-06-26 03:10:51
The bio-sample in the kalm flashback completely obliterated my sephiroth (and young cloud obviously). I tried placing Sephiroth in back-row, with sadness status and regen, but even that defensive play was not enough. I'm really wondering, since it is a flashback, what exactly can you obtain from that boss, other than the glory for defeating it? ;)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-06-26 09:14:18
Isn't that guy pretty easy? Stand by with Cloud. Cast regen with seph (only on seph) and attack (only with seph). Curaga when needed. But it has come to my attention that seph's attack animation sometimes skips, which is odd.
It's only for glory!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: storm20200 on 2012-06-29 23:13:50
Hi gjoerulv. I popped in to say hello and praise the mod yet again. I decided to go through the game with your mod and upload high quality videos of each of the boss fights in the game. I'm currently up to Venus, Locke and Theo at the Shinra HQ! I forgot how tough you made them, I just winged it and got completely destroyed on my first time. It took me six tries to beat them and steal all of the items and thought I would post my first attempt for everyone to laugh at. ;D I don't think I've ever faced a boss that has wiped the floor with me so much. I just fear the Jenova Life fight on disc two, I remember you making that pretty damn hard too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L2k1A6jFfA
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: DLPB_ on 2012-07-03 19:54:42
I am trying to improve compatibility with your patch and Retranslation Project.  Obviously 100% compatibility will not be possible until you have fixed scene/kernel.

Until then I am making the dialogue work. As far as I can see only the following have text changes (i almost wrote sex changes):

las2_3
las2_4
las3_2
las3_3
las4_0
las4_42
zz5
zz6
zz7
zz8

Can you confirm?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-07-03 20:19:12
Yup that's all.

I think all problems that could hinder ts are fixed. ts, apparently, can't encode AI that is heavily tweaked (if I'm not mistaken).  Luksy is making a workaround.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: Cozzer on 2012-07-04 07:21:20
During the fight against Schizo, I found something strange. I don't know if it's a bug or it was intended, but I'll write it just in case.

Schizo's breaths remove a bunch of statuses, mostly positive but which include Stop (I confirmed it with ProudClod); but if a character absorbs the element of a breath (for example, my Tifa had a fire ring), the breath will inflict all those statuses instead.
I can't say if it makes the battle easier or harder (I found myself with a fully buffed character that was rarely debuffed, but she was also out of commission for a while because of Stop), but it doesn't seem "natural"...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.5
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-07-05 20:05:52
Thank you Cozzer, I'm aware.
I wasn't before 1.0.5 though. On the reason why that is. I will removed the status effect from those attacks, as it causes too much confusion. If anyone know a workaround I would like to know. :P
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: eliwolfe92 on 2012-08-26 23:50:47
Backstory for my problem (skip if its boring you :) )

Hey everyone. this is my first post i just joined. I had a question though, I ABSOLUTELY love this hard mode (You're awesome gjoerulv!). pardon the comparison but I feel like im playing ninja gaiden its so tricky. My only problem is im at the end of shinra hq and i finish the bike mission every time with flying colors (thanks to my childhood ;) ) but when i get to the hell roller thing at the end i get creamed on impact. my chars are around lvl. 17 which isn't good for this mod at that point im told? anyway he kills at least one person right off the bat and i have NO more phoenix downs. doesn't normally happen to me but there was only the one shop that sold them and that was only when you first arrive at the HQ. plus like no emenies i ran into there dropped them :(

Anywho, I was wondering if I use kranmer's trainer (forgive me if i misspell someone's name) would i safely be able to teleport back to a shop or a group of enemies who drop them, stock up, and teleport back and start the minigame? or is there a simpler way to simply add at least 1 maybe 3 into my inventory directly JUST so i can overcome this obsatcle and leave stinky ol' Midgar?

Thanks in advance, happy modding!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-08-26 23:55:32
Use Blackchocobo to edit your save game
And I always end up stumped how people manage to run themselves into problems like this
this mods difficulty is far from ninja gaiden btw
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: eliwolfe92 on 2012-08-27 00:33:06
Thanks for the reply, and the tip. and maybe its because its significantly more difficult than vanilla FF VII. and really? thanks, i didn't know that. I mean I've beaten both and that comparison came completely from experience. it's really not much different in difficulty unless you flat out suck at ninja gaiden.

EDIT: Also, doesn't this mod enable you to control sephiroth's actions during the flashback sequence? I just got to it and during the battle with the dragon he simply revived cloud twice as he died and then automatically attacked the dragon for like 22000 damage. I didn't even get a turn :'(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-08-27 05:28:08
Hmmm, did you patch all the files? Seph's AI is in kernel.bin.
I'll try to check it out later today if there are any screwups from my side.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-08-27 09:15:35
with a standard install of bootleg, Seph is not controlable
well not that it matters much
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-08-27 23:35:02
Great mod this Hardcore, but... not too hard ?
I'm at the second boss, the 'air-breaker', I'm something around 470 hp max with Clad / tifa / barret, but he hits me at 300 +, and it's so HARD to stay alive..
Did you succeed ?
Need farming xp same at the beginning ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-08-27 23:40:03
I played through this mod at ease once or twice. Could be that I stopped the second playthrough somewhere on CD3 because i just couldn't be assed to farm materia anymore.
If you grind even a little, it's not that hard.
you don't speedrun hardcore mods. you just dont.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-08-28 00:30:43
Great mod this Hardcore, but... not too hard ?
I'm at the second boss, the 'air-breaker', I'm something around 470 hp max with Clad / tifa / barret, but he hits me at 300 +, and it's so HARD to stay alive..
Did you succeed ?
Need farming xp same at the beginning ?

Keep curing 'til it has used up those bombs ("operation 2" or something like that), and try to use the defend command at full hp. Attack it with limits from behind. Make sure you only hit it from behind, as it does plenty damage (sometimes it's facing direction may fool you). Lightning also works.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-08-28 11:14:16
off I see. I didn't had the good strat. Thanks. It's good to have challenge cause the normal mode is very too easy
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-08-28 11:37:45
btw Gjo, after messing with the enemy and then looking at the AI, I think a specific enemy you added might be permanently invulnerable
that thing is called Qwim and its setting physical/magical immunity flags in the AI frequently. when I checked and looked for when it de-sets the flags, I still dealt 0 damage with absolutely everything, even attacks that ignore defense and status defense on top.

The enemy in question is called Qwim, formation info 01EF, present in scenes  54, 55
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-08-28 18:25:26
Whenever it's "taking a break" its protection is on. It is beatable, I just defeated it. Try to attack it after it attacks you.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Saintyweb on 2012-08-28 19:57:16
Oh, hello there qjoerulv!
Im currently downloading a bootleg0039 and curious about the version of your mod, used in that modding programm (it sounds like it's 1.0.5 currently, or maybe i take it wrong somehow), so i wonder about the way i can replace 1.0.5 to 1.0.6, which you done already, if possible, can you help with an advice, please?
And big thanks for all the work you done with that modding stuff and for opportunity to freshen the most loved game of my childhood, really cool! :-)
GL!

Upd: Also, would it be playable (it terms of beating game fully) when mixed with "difficulty items" mod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-08-29 13:29:46
I think bootleg uses 1.0.5, but I'm not sure. I don't use it. For update to newest you could dl the patch from this thread and update scene.bin (and kernel2 if you wish). I'm not sure how bootleg does things however.

What do you mean by mixing with "difficult items"? Mixing the files (ie, my scene and DI kernel)?  Simply mixing files are possible if you make sure you update the lookuptable in kernel.bin. Else the encounters will be messed up. The easiest way of doing this is to 1st mix the files then open scene.bin with Proud Clod (see "tools" section in the forum). In PC after scene is open go file -> create scene. Then select yes when asked to update kernel.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Saintyweb on 2012-09-05 09:19:42
For previous thanks, i patch game to 1.6 normally :-)
And one more question, where can i get info about all overpowered custom monsters (not bosses), like HELLRIDER VR2 (which lurks around junon and has pretty much hp for the moment)? I just want to fight them all at first chance to meet them.
Or do you remember their "game names", then i just look by myself via hojo 1.1 programm. (but it would be gooder to just know their locations, not the characteristics, so ^^).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-09-05 19:51:55
hmm, so far theres one at the kalm beach
one at the condor mountain
one at nibelheim area
at rocket town area
and nibelheim area
havent checked further than that but theres prolly more
just fight a couple of fights everywhere you go in every type of location and you'll find them
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-09-06 05:59:19
The Golem outside cosmo canyon has been beefed up. Also the Adamantaimaitaitai on the beaches of wutai.
Don't forget the Dragon on mt.nibel. The Dragon is not beatable the 1st time around. Run like hell.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-09-06 06:53:17
I didn't notice the golem being more meaty
How much did you pep it?
And the adamantaimai is pretty useless since you can manipulate it
Maybe add a different adamantaimai to the land encs?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Saintyweb on 2012-09-06 07:10:19
Got it, gonna check those spots.
Thanks, guys!)

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-09-08 03:03:21
I didn't notice the golem being more meaty
How much did you pep it?
And the adamantaimai is pretty useless since you can manipulate it
Maybe add a different adamantaimai to the land encs?

Golem may be beatable 1st time, but not likely. Maybe before 2nd disc.

That turtle gives you death force thus manipulatable.

I may want to make a workaround to not make the adamantaimaimaimaimai such a grindfest though.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: omega res novae on 2012-09-08 03:53:01
how did you make your installer? inno nsis?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-09-08 04:00:57
Visual Studio C#. Pretty easy actually, but some work involved.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: omega res novae on 2012-09-08 04:02:59
thank you. ill have to try and learn alot faster than i am
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-09-08 04:09:07
If you find a decompiler for C# you should be able to see the source.
Edit: there should be a C# online decompiler even.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: xenotrunksx on 2012-09-15 04:58:41
Let me start by first saying thank you for all the time and effort you have given to allow me a chance to relive a game I had cherished in my youth.  I have spent the last few weeks bashing my head against the wall of your hardcore mod.  A few challenges still remain to be conquered, I have yet to kill Emerald Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Sephiroth, and the strange red cat that guards KOTR.  Here are my thoughts thus far;

The very first boss encounter remains memorable, a very hard hitter, being wiped out repeatedly on the first boss definitely set a new mood to the game.  After a little leveling I noticed the 2nd level lightning items the enemies would drop which made the first and the second boss much more doable.  It seems to be a prevalent theme in the game - items or materia nearby are often key to overcoming some of the more difficult challenges.

After the Air Buster boss I didn't find the rest of Midgar very difficult with two exceptions; the trio of named SOLDIER enemies in the chest (they killed me many times, I think I finally beat them by using status effect items on them) and the random encounters on hojo's 2nd floor lab (they seemed ALOT harder then the other floors of Shinra).  The trip from Kalm to Junon was reasonably difficult though nothing stands out in my mind as truely challenging, unless you count the Zolom which crushed my face just like a 40 foot serpent should - but I think you made him basically unbeatable at this point in the game.  I came back 3 more times trying to kill the Zolom and learn Beta the first was after the boat ride, the second was after getting the buggy, and finally after Cosmo Canyon I finally emerged from the swamp victorious.

The next fight that REALLY felt tough was Dane in the prison, apparently Barret would rather die dozens of times than let Cloud and the others help - to my endless frustration.  It was finally a combination of poison elemental on my weapon, limit breaks, and just plain luck when he starts attacking twice in a row.  All smooth sailing all the way up to the cave of the GI, which was one of my favorite areas the difficulty of the random encounters here was perfect, deaths were my own doing when forgetting to heal after a battle.

After Cosmo Canyon I powerleveled a little in the Shinra mansion (perfect place the axe guys are weak to gravity and a single summon can kill all other encounters) with the goal of getting Vincent.  Eight levels later and the Missing Number in the safe was still picking his teeth with my bones so I gave up, easily beat the materia keeper and plowed through Rocket Town.  Wutai was great, heading there right after Rocket Town is a good challenge though I have to admit walking there with no materia is not fun AT ALL, LOL.  Once there the encounters were good but the boss wasn't as difficult as I expected.  After Wutai I was finally strong enough to get Vincent.  I also got Kujata before the Temple of the Ancients which I think my earlier powerleveling helped me survive.

Disc 2 started out pretty fast, Beta wiped the floor with everything in the Glacier and still was a force to be reckoned with in the Whirlwind maze.  I hate the wind barriers it takes me about 20 attempts to successfully pass through the 2nd and 3rd barriers, maybe I just suck  :| . 

Jenova-DEATH was a huge challenge not much I can say, she hits like a truck, fire elemental doesn't help, and I can't guard everyone from death, you just gotta hammer her down and heal through her punishment, I had Tifa spamming Deathblow and Cloud casting when he could.

I immediately went to chocobo breeding after getting Cloud back and tried my luck at the Quadra-magic cave.  The boss was a beast the first few times a tried to down him, but soon his spell mechanics became apparent and I discovered the damage gravity could do to him and, after adding 1-2 different elemental absorbs to each character, crushed him.  Feeling slightly ahead of the curve with my new Quadra-magic I went back to the story.

The Shinra guards at the underwater reactor impressed me, I like the way they use the grenades for massive damage but are glass cannons almost as they die easily, the last two in the L shaped hall are particularly tough and killed my party the first time as I wasn't really expecting them to do so much damage so quickly.  Carry Armor boss was hard but it didn't feel unfairly hard since I had Quadra-Magic and Lightning :) .

Midgar was the hardest part of disc 2 by far - powerful random encounters, the SOLDIER trio, and Hojo.

Now on disc 3 I went to battle square for omnislash and 2xsummon.  Smoke bombs work great to get out of the last battle and keep the points.  Next was Ultima weapon, not so hard by disc 3.  Back to battle square for the special battle.  I really hated the Blaster attacks the cats did and the oar move the ghost ships use to throw you out of the battle the Blaster attack misses often enough but the oar move always seems to hit :( .  Ultima Weapon and 4xcut makes the special battle very manageable.

The Mime cave was a bit tricky but I read here about their % based attacks, with wind resist and saving the double summons and omnislash for the final 4 i managed to kill them.  HP-MP cave boss was probably the easiest of the 4 caves - Poison Resist and Gravity kills him.

The KOTR cave is still giving me trouble, I thought I had a good strategy with Double Summon Hades then Bahamut Zero then Mime until death.  It seemed to work well enough, Hades poisioned/silenced/frog/sleep on him every turn and B. Zero did about 25K dmg per turn.  Ran through this cycle for about 15 turns, problem is he continues to cast his spells even with status effects so his regen keeps popping up.  I can't tell if my Hades summon cancels out his regen since he flashed green from the poison.  I got him down to where he says "death is not the end" and gains 30K.  Kept killing him -- again he says "death is not the end" and comes back.  Eventually he gets enough spells off in 1 turn to kill me.

Anyway great job I really enjoyed the mod.

One side note battle square handicaps might be broken if the wheel lands on independent materia my hp pluses still work same goes for it landing on the command materia my 4x cut will still work.  The Red, Green, and All-Color Materia seem to work, not sure about the blue.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-09-15 10:00:27
I noticed the battle square materia problem as well but figured it was an issue with my modified kernel
apparently it isn't. that's interesting actually.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: feldkhon on 2012-09-16 22:50:03
Hello!

I registered in Qhimm only to congratulate and thank Gjoerulv for creating this mod.
I didn't think that FF7 could be a challenge and a surprise for me anymore. Well, I've been proven wrong!  :D


I just want to point out a strange little glitch with the Enemy Skill Materia. I learned "Roulette" from the monster in the lab (Morte, I think). Later I learned "Matra Magic" and after the battle no Enemy Skill was shown in the menu. So I entered a fight again, learned Matra Magic again (with its "learnin" animation and message) and after that I had "Matra Magic" in my list, but not "Roulette".
It's not a big deal, but I thought I should mention it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-09-21 23:27:16
Gjoerulv, in your first post, yo usay : 'This mod also add some new enemies and bosses to the game. Basically at every summon materia there is a new boss.'
You mean, at each found of a new summon materia( red so ? ), a new boss will pop-up ?
Cause I haven't encountered it at the 4th summon materia found. Nevertheless, I'm sure cause the better difficulty that the hardcore mod works for me. But not the new bosses..
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-09-22 01:42:37
there is no boss at Ramuh because you're there with Cloud solo
It's also a non-battle occurring area and the mod was done before we could add music to fields
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-09-22 02:14:35
No, I mean : not at the 4th summon( Ramuh ), but I'm at the 4th, and I never had any new boss since the beggining at the 4th( Ramuh ). Choco/mog, Shiva, Ifrit, etc ... no boss for me  ???
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-09-22 04:34:24
shiva and ifrit have no boss because there is right one before them
choco/mog has the silver chocobo and thats a boss
ramuh has no boss
titan has one
odin doesnt have one
leviathan doesn't have one
bahamut doesnt have one
kujata has one
neobahamut has one I THINK, not sure
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-09-22 12:03:59
Thanks Kuugen. So I missed the choco/mog boss
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2012-09-22 22:28:07
It could be something to do with the French version of the game you're (probably) using. Try applying the patch on solely flevel. The patch should detect your fflevel automagically. It *may* be the issue.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-09-22 22:32:09
Hm thanks for you response, but I don't think so, cause I'm using a fresh new install of re-release 2012, installed in English language voluntarily, converted to 1998, ( but used re-translation patch in fr in bootleg settings ), and then hardcore mod 1.6 applied. So you think the re-translation( so new re-encoding of flevel.lgp ) at the end of bootleg installs causes this ?

(http://imageshack.us/a/img839/3492/capturegly.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/capturegly.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

So I don't care about fflevel.lgp, but just the normal flevel.lgp
PS : I would mention too that when I ran bootleg, I didn't install the hardcore patch with it( cancelled the install cause it installs the 1.5 version ). After running bootleg, I installed manually this 1.6 version. Maybe it's something to see with that ?
Edit : Tested again now with Titan, I take the materia, nothing ennemy or boss happens..

EDIT : You were right, I re-installed all the game and bootleg but without retraduction checked in bootleg and.. of course a boss appeared that time at Titan's materia !! Grrrr.
So, it's impossible to have it working with my fr traduction checked ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ajthedj747 on 2012-09-23 07:48:33
I have tested the "FF7 Load Saved Games" by @Kranmer and it worked flawlessly with the 2012 version of Final Fantasy VII. I will test other applications like @gjoerulv's Harcore mod version 1.0.6. The "FF7 Load Saved Games" is important due to the fact that one will have to reload from their last save constantly if one is using the hardcore mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-09-23 08:05:45
loading saved games works with any mod, it's pointless to test it
however, no matter which mod, it fucks up the internal clock. it adds another clock every time you load. load once, double time. load twice? triple time
this makes the bombing mission and the shinra mansion safe impossible
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-09-23 11:51:26
Well, my problem is solved, I have now the new bosses with the fr retranslation.  :)

EDIT : The ramuh's boss has 10.000HP and hits me at 800+. At this point of the game, I have only 900 - 1050hp max. Does I have to 'farm' a little ? Or am I supposed to get it now ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: NxK on 2012-09-24 16:37:29
EDIT : The ramuh's boss has 10.000HP and hits me at 800+. At this point of the game, I have only 900 - 1050hp max. Does I have to 'farm' a little ? Or am I supposed to get it now ?

You mean the Titan boss? Try buying HP+ materia at Cosmo Canyon. Also, you should have your characters in the back row and under Sadness about all the time during the first disc. You could also give the Cover materia to a character and have that character use Defend to reduce damage.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-09-24 17:25:03
Yes, Titan's boss I mean, sorry for the mistake. I have all in the back row yes, but not sadness.
Cosmo Canyon ? I'm not here yet, it's at gongaga
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: NxK on 2012-09-24 19:24:06
Yes, Titan's boss I mean, sorry for the mistake. I have all in the back row yes, but not sadness.
Cosmo Canyon ? I'm not here yet, it's at gongaga

Yes, but you have probably done all the story events at Gongaga? In that case, you could go to Cosmo Canyon. If you do so, remember to leave your buggy FAR AWAY from Cosmo Canyon for it will break otherwise and prevent you from returning to Gongaga and other places until after the Cavern of the Gi.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-10-04 09:28:23
I just realized something... The PC version of ff7 was released in 98, not in 97. oh well, people understand I guess, but it's kinda embarrassing.  :P

The Titan boss could be a pain at low levels. Have you tried Defend + cover + backrow + sadness?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-10-04 10:01:50
I succedded, I just farmed at level 23/24, and with spacesuit ennemy skill, all was very easy( 1000hp + damage / attack )

EDIT : But the boss for having Vincent, Lost number, is a pain for me, cause I'm level 28, I have 1600hp, and each it of him hurts me et 2000...
So, it's one shot.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: sil3ntsnak3 on 2012-10-10 01:23:37
Hi gjoerulv

big fan of ur work real big fan but for some time now all i can do is watch xc ive modded my FFVII with only the remix 2.5.1 version and the harcore mode doesnt work on it and i have downloaded ur hardcore mod because it looks like a great challenge but everytime i extract the patch it shows this skull like face then disappears b4 i can do anything and if i do happen to click on it it ends up disappearing regardless HALP plz?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: omega res novae on 2012-10-10 01:39:06
the remix is outdated and broken. if youd like to get your pretty models and install different game modes like the one here then use bootleg. remix already has a version of the hardcore mod in it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-10-10 07:10:10
Hi gjoerulv

big fan of ur work real big fan but for some time now all i can do is watch xc ive modded my FFVII with only the remix 2.5.1 version and the harcore mode doesnt work on it and i have downloaded ur hardcore mod because it looks like a great challenge but everytime i extract the patch it shows this skull like face then disappears b4 i can do anything and if i do happen to click on it it ends up disappearing regardless HALP plz?

Glad you like it.
But, sadly, I can't help you with this problem. I've never used the remix patch or bootleg. My patch should install nicely on it's own.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: sil3ntsnak3 on 2012-10-11 23:36:32
oh nvm got it to work its cuz i deleted winrar cuz it was interfering with my iso files and when i reinstalled it then it extracted just fine and patched up nicely thanks for replying tho :D started a new file and currently going towards shinra building and already grinded to Lv 32 :p
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2012-10-13 23:30:58
oh nvm got it to work its cuz i deleted winrar cuz it was interfering with my iso files

When such things happen, double-click on the file in question, Open with > Select default program (or something like this) and select your desired program.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: suavethekid on 2012-10-21 03:28:33
Hey guys boss question here. I am fairly far at Jenova Death in the crater right before you lose cloud for a bit. It took me a lot of grueling leveling but I finally beat the boss to get the neo bahamut materia but Jenova is ridiculous.

Has anyone beat this boss? If so please some insight..I have done over 100k damage and it wont die!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-10-23 16:32:27
Jenova DEATH:

Use death force to avoid death and death-sentence, or use safety bit accessory. Also, guard against fire or wind (or both, but not necessary). She also silence and confuse you so you may consider ribbons.
Front row. Use physical attacks to damage her. Get your str as high as possible and use weapons with high attack power.

You can paralyse her (Dazers or Cross Slash).
Always have one on standby to heal. White wind is very useful. Spam it. If you drain fire/wind, Tropical Wind will heal your MP.

Oh, and remember Luck Plus materia!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-10-24 20:07:22
I try to beat the 4 ennemies in the dojo tower in Wutai, the Yuffie's solo quest. I'm around level 38, I trained her a little, approximatively 2500 hp, limit level2.
I fail at the second ennemy, his 'rage bomber' attack hurts me at 3k +, so instant die. And his basic attacks hits at 1300+, so one attach, and heal required immediately cause the second would make me die.
At what level am I supposed to do that quest ? Cause now, no way personnaly..
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-10-25 22:32:45
From the top of my head...
Barriers, regen + counters.
They should be doable at lvl 38 I think.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Croyles on 2012-10-25 22:54:36
Hey gjoerulv, first of all, amazing work on this mod! FF7 is probably my favorite FF game but always wished it was a little harder.
I've just started using the bootleg and finally got everything to work. But because i have to run FF7 through the FF7Music application (otherwise the music mods from finalfantim don't seem to work) i am unsure if my game is actually currently in hardcore mode.
Is there any definite way to tell in the early stages of the game if it is indeed the hardcore mode? any specific enemies that do something completely different? I know you said you didn't up the difficulty very much at the beginning, but would love for a way to tell if it's actually working.

Thanks in advance! :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2012-10-25 22:58:07
Ah, yes, I haven't regen yet, thanks gjoerulv
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: wussupwussup on 2012-10-26 20:38:02
I must say, I really really hate not being able to sense all monsters. It makes fine-tuning strategy difficult.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: wussupwussup on 2012-10-26 23:24:16
The final fight with locke venus and theo in midgar is REALLY kicking my ass, any tips? I can't even seem to get a turn off...

I have barret as my tank with 10khp, maxed cover, peace ring, tranq, and backrow and they just destroy me before I get more than 2 turns.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-10-28 17:41:23
Hey gjoerulv, first of all, amazing work on this mod! FF7 is probably my favorite FF game but always wished it was a little harder.
I've just started using the bootleg and finally got everything to work. But because i have to run FF7 through the FF7Music application (otherwise the music mods from finalfantim don't seem to work) i am unsure if my game is actually currently in hardcore mode.
Is there any definite way to tell in the early stages of the game if it is indeed the hardcore mode? any specific enemies that do something completely different? I know you said you didn't up the difficulty very much at the beginning, but would love for a way to tell if it's actually working.

Thanks in advance! :)

Thanks! If you remember how difficult it was originally, it should be pretty self evident that it's harder. You may encounter a new enemy I made in a random battle before the guard scorpion. It's name is robot.

The final fight with locke venus and theo in midgar is REALLY kicking my ass, any tips? I can't even seem to get a turn off...

I have barret as my tank with 10khp, maxed cover, peace ring, tranq, and backrow and they just destroy me before I get more than 2 turns.

They counter almost everything TWICE, that's why it seems they are getting many turns. 1 Strategy would be to not attack them, just counter (8 counter attack materias help). Buffing up with dragon force twice on every character helps a lot. Do not attack them unless you're properly buffed.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Croyles on 2012-10-29 16:21:59
Thanks! If you remember how difficult it was originally, it should be pretty self evident that it's harder. You may encounter a new enemy I made in a random battle before the guard scorpion. It's name is robot.

Thank you, it was indeed on normal difficulty, I would have noticed straight away had it been on Hardcore It is not an issue anymore however as everything that i had problems with before now works using the bootloader, so I am playing on hardcore.

I am currently up to the Gold Saucer and enjoying the new difficulty immensely. I only have 1 minor gripe so far, and that is the erratic difficulty spikes (the first Jenova fight for example), but i was so happy when i managed to beat it (using all my ethers and bolt plumes etc in the process though). Nothing I can complain about, it's a mod made by 1 guy giving it out for free (and doing a fantastic job at that), so i am very grateful! :)

I am wondering, did you change the kill counts for learning new limit levels? It seems no matter how many enemies Cloud finishes off, he just won't learn Blade Beam, while my Tifa and Red XIII have already learnt their 4th limit breaks quite a while back. I think originally it is 80 or 120 kills with Cloud before he learns Blade Beam, I am pretty sure I have killed way more than that (i was level 24 when i started trying and am now level 33).
Did you change anything related to that?
I am using Ifrit on Cloud to finish off the monsters outside the Gold Saucer in one go. I checked on websites and everyone says that Summons DO count towards the kill count but i am starting to have doubts.

UPDATE!!!!!! Just to check if something was wrong, I switched back to normal mode for 1 fight to see if it was bugged. And guess what, i got both Blade Beam and Meteorain by just killing one enemy, without even first getting Climhazzard, so there must of been some kind of bug in the game.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-10-29 22:03:16
Cloud starts with more kills to make his buster sword do normal damage. I changed the damage formula on it. Meaning if you convert back to normal mode he'll get  blade beam and metoerain right away.

I don't know why your Cloud does not learn it in hard mod though. It should work like normal. Do you combine this mod with other which alter the kernel?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Croyles on 2012-10-31 00:35:09
Cloud starts with more kills to make his buster sword do normal damage. I changed the damage formula on it. Meaning if you convert back to normal mode he'll get  blade beam and metoerain right away.

I don't know why your Cloud does not learn it in hard mod though. It should work like normal. Do you combine this mod with other which alter the kernel?

I have heard it many times before but i still don't have a clue what a kernel is, so couldn't tell you lol.
I had a few mods selected on the bootleg install so maybe one of the messed with my game. It seemed that the limit breaks were literally stuck, because i tried loading the game on Normal (without getting into a fight) save and then reload on Hardcore, and i got both limit breaks after killing one enemy. I know I wasn't literally 1 enemy away from getting any limit break because i had more fights a while ago without saving.

Anyway, its not a problem anymore so not too worried, seemed like it was quite a unique fault.

I was so annoyed when I realized you had majorly debuffed Mighty Guard, but after a while I realized how stupidly overpowered that enemy skill was to begin with. I'm glad i didn't know how to get it the first time i played FF7.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-11-01 16:44:14
The kernel contains static data, like weapon and armour stats. Materia ap levels, starting items, kills needed for limits, stat curves, etc.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Alathon on 2012-11-11 18:38:49
Hi there,

Thanks for such an awesome mod. Its been a long time since I played FF7, but this has given me the motivation to dust it off :)

I have a question about the Theo/Locke/Venus encounter in Shinra HQ, though. I'm level 14 with Cloud/Tifa/Barret, and I've managed to steal 3 carbon bangles and a Hardedge from the 67th floor. And even starting with limit breaks, mindblowing Locke, cross-slashing Theo etc, I still basically get ripped a new one. Am I vastly underlevelled?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ShadowzI on 2012-11-12 16:02:45
Is there plans to be adding anymore new bosses?
REcently dusting off some Final Fantasy games I saw Gilgamesh with the fake buster sword and I was like.
OMG Cloud should totally battle Gilgamesh.
So yeah... Any Gilgamesh side story plans to be inserted?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-12 16:48:24
There don't seem to be any plans to extend this mod further ( at least there were none when I asked a while ago ) but I'm ready to stand corrected.
There is no gilgamesh battle model in this, so that'd need to have to be created from scratch. The current additional mobs aren't entirely new models
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-11-13 16:08:40
I have a question about the Theo/Locke/Venus encounter in Shinra HQ, though. I'm level 14 with Cloud/Tifa/Barret, and I've managed to steal 3 carbon bangles and a Hardedge from the 67th floor. And even starting with limit breaks, mindblowing Locke, cross-slashing Theo etc, I still basically get ripped a new one. Am I vastly underlevelled?

They're beatable at that lvl. Have you tried to confuse 'em with loco weeds? The enemies there drop it.

@ShadowzI
I have no current plans for this mod. I'm still young (kinda) though. You'll never know. I have fixed another bug not released yet. The "mighty grunt death" bug.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Alathon on 2012-11-13 18:25:50
They're beatable at that lvl. Have you tried to confuse 'em with loco weeds? The enemies there drop it.

Yeah. I managed to beat them with 3-4 Loco weeds. Was just bummed out that I didn't really feel like I had time to steal from them, or I'd get pruned :) But ah well!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: tylerkschrute on 2012-11-15 23:35:50
Replaying through this mod again. MUCH easier the second time through since I knew how to prepare. The first Locke battle though is still scary. If you don't have a decent supply of loco weeds you're basically cooked. Also gonna try to actually beat the KotR boss and Omega this time.

Something I noticed though: a couple of the battles you encounter around midgar (specifically, one with a devil ride and kalm fang and another one with kalm fang and I believe the bandits) are kinda screwy. The devil ride is stationed almost right in front of the characters yet is labeled as back row, and if you try to attack him it says "can't reach". Any thoughts on this? Pretty sure it's related to this mod because this is the only thing I have that alters the .scene files.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-15 23:58:29
I looked at that as well. Something changes the row data of that devil ride to 16 ( aka 10 hex ) which is 'can't reach'
As for the postion, thats just enemy object position data being a bit weird
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-11-17 13:24:07
It's in scene8. The devil ride's position and row is all 0xFFFF. There used to only be 1 devil ride in this battle, but apparently I added a kalm fang at some point. I can't remember doing it... 
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Bosque on 2012-11-19 02:34:56
I'm thinking of tackling this on a No EXP run. Wish me luck if I do end up trying it, but first I need to see if FFVII runs on this craptastic laptop integrated graphics card...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2012-11-21 12:56:41
This isn't FF8, a No-EXP isn't possible. It would be possible if you edited every single enemy (or boss, if you prefer) to give 0 XP.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Bosque on 2012-11-22 01:56:09
This isn't FF8, a No-EXP isn't possible. It would be possible if you edited every single enemy (or boss, if you prefer) to give 0 XP.

You can just easily edit everyone to give out 0 exp with Hojo. I've done it before.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-22 03:34:07
Easier to do it with proudclod than hojo
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Mirrorman95 on 2012-11-22 04:58:46
Is there a way to just add the new enemies without boosting the diffficulty?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-22 05:17:17
in theory? yes. but its really annoying
you'd have to make several softened up versions of the hardcore only enemies since they only come as 'hardcore' difficulty
I'm not gonna do that and I'm not sure Gjoe will bother either
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-11-22 14:06:29
Is there a way to just add the new enemies without boosting the diffficulty?

It's quite easy to use Proud Clod to adjust the difficulty. It just takes time.
I may do this sometime, but don't wait for it too badly. Actually, I originally intended to.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2012-11-22 14:11:03
I have begun to do this before. I gave up because I lacked the patience to go through 250-or-so scenes and about 600 enemies. If you DO have the patience, then go for it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-22 17:10:24
1) find scenes with new enemies
2) export scenes
3) take vanilla scene
4) import scenes
5) adjust enemies

done

No need to go through 600 enemies
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2012-11-22 17:18:24
Didn't think of that at the time. Will definetly be faster.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Croyles on 2012-11-22 19:31:39
How are you supposed to beat KOTR? I kill him so many times until he uses Vagrant on everyone for 30000 damage, instantly killing everyone.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-11-22 20:06:50
I can list scenes with new enemies (as seen in PC):
1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 19, 22, 23, 27, 28, 35, 37, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50
54, 55, 58, 61, 80, 91, 97, 101, 110, 111, 113, 121, 124, 126, 129, 132
135, 142, 145, 146, 152, 153, 179, 180, 187, 198, 208, 212, 218
248, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254

As you see, even with import export it takes a little while. Even in scenes without new enemies there may be formation changes etc.

How are you supposed to beat KOTR? I kill him so many times until he uses Vagrant on everyone for 30000 damage, instantly killing everyone.

Use ribbons. Always time your attacks so that you always kill it in 1 hit. Use ultimate weapons. Barret has the best 1 Imo, but if you want KOTR before last mission use Conformer + 4x cut, or kill A LOT of enemis with Vincent and use death penealty for one hit kills. It may inflict stop and/or death on you, but don't bother to protect against it. As long as it doesn't get a turn (by turn I mean when the battle model for the boss actually shows some animation), you should be safe.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-22 20:48:31
How are you supposed to beat KOTR? I kill him so many times until he uses Vagrant on everyone for 30000 damage, instantly killing everyone.

Final attack + phoenix?
Final attack + life 2?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Croyles on 2012-11-22 21:29:58
Final attack + phoenix?
Final attack + life 2?

so mastering both final attack and pheonix is a must? i doubt he will only cast it once..
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Mirrorman95 on 2012-11-22 21:41:12
Which scenes have new enemies?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-23 16:11:01
Which scenes have new enemies?

Dude, READ.
Literally three posts above yours did the mod author post a list of which scenes have new enemies.
holy hell -_-

so mastering both final attack and pheonix is a must? i doubt he will only cast it once..
i dont know how many times he casts it but its not like mastering it takes very long
i also see no attack of his restores his own MP so if you just decimate his HP, he can't cast Vagrant ( or most of the other annoying attacks )
so MP-kill him first then attack normally
he is also suspectible to: sleep, poison, silence, slow, stop, frog, mini, d-sentence, paralysis, darkness according to the stats tab.

well at least that is what I get looking at the enemy data
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Mirrorman95 on 2012-11-23 19:16:15
I made that reply in response to the post on the last page, not this one.

Anyway, will those scenes need to be edited to set them back to regular difficulty?

Also, can I use the same method to put Genesis Copies into the game?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-23 19:58:05
Genesis... Copies?
do you even know how this game works?
you might want to read up on the wiki
because I can't be assed to explain
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Mirrorman95 on 2012-11-23 21:10:17
Genesis copies CAN be inserted as enemies. I'm only asking because this person already altered some scenes to put one in the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEtKNyx7F4c
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2012-11-23 21:25:28
you will need to rip the model ( and this forum will not support you on that ) or make the model entirely from scratch
you will then need to put it in the game and create an AI and stat set for it
not to mention animations which you'd need to make
so no, this cannot be done with just proudclod

now go and read up on the wiki
because I sure as heck can't be bothered to explain these things beyond this point
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gribenda on 2012-12-04 21:32:43
Hi all and thx to gjoerulv for lots of hourd of fun. I love ou man!
I'm making my second playthrough fairly, cuz i broke my first attemp with a save editor and i didn't feel good.
I've managed to kill most enemys with reasonable lvls and i've just got cloud back from mideel.
I've beaten quadramagic boss and picked up all gelnika and cosmo mountain items except for the summon materias.
Question to all of you... What should I do now? Midgar, hades, typhoon, mime, mrga all, kotr???
Im lvl 53 with cloud barret cid and yuffie ( i use cid because of limit lvl 4 ignoring defense)

Best place to learn limits without overlevel is corel. There are fights of five enemys ( mushrooms and birds) dying with a single chocomog.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-12-06 19:37:55
What to do next? I usually do Midgar last and pretty much jump to the crater next.
Hades and Mega All are probably the easiest. Then to Typhoon -> Mime -> kotr.

They don't require high level, but may require some materia lvl grinding.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Eleventeen on 2012-12-29 06:53:22
Hi, i'd like to use your mod for increased enemy stats, but not change spells/mp cost/equipment/etc.. Just enemy stats.
From reading the info in the installer, it seems like just patching scene.bin should do that, tho it mentions battle.lgp is required too, so I did checked those two only.

But that doesn't work. Also tried with those 2 and flevel.lgp.. No difference.

What happens is the battles get all messed up. The stats are right for hardcore (extremely hard, some have 10x stats or more...), but I fight enemies that shouldnt be there.
EG: In great glacier most of the encoutners were Palmer.. Sometimes back attacks. Sometimes I could win and proceed, but some of them would stall or crash the game.
Tried it again later in the mideel area.. I was fighting stuff with mountain backgrounds in grass areas, eg: Under Lizards..

Really only wanted it to make the boss battles hard, as imo it makes the trash battles too tedious.. So I went to try it against ultimate weapon, but that just crashed the game when he engaged.

Running the full mod tho, with the patched kernel and kernel2.bin works fine.. Just as soon as I change those back to default to get rid of the changed spells, everything else gets messed up.

Also would be nice to have something inbetween this mod and reasonable difficulty as they are insanely far apart.
EG checked a bunch of enemies
Reasonable difficulty: Most things are 120% hp/dmg/etc of normal, but you can steal better items to make up the difference so its barely harder overall if you steal things.
Hardcore: Varies from 400% to 1000%, and they can hit for much more hten 10x harder due to the massive increaese in attack/level.. Items are way harder to steal,, even some weak beginer enemies have crazy status inflicting effects they dont normally have (EG: At lvl15 a regular trash enemy berserked and killed my whole party in about 10 seconds, and at that point in teh game, there are no items to prevent or remove berserk).. and to top it off, my enemy skills are weaker.

So yea would be nice to have something thats more like just 150-200% stats inbetween the two.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2012-12-29 15:48:47
Open the scene.bin with Proud Clod. File > Create SCENE.BIN > Yes > Yes. Problem fixed.

I wonder if that fix is even stated at some place other than 20 pages deep of a topic...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2012-12-31 08:30:41
@Eleventeen
thats an errorwhen the scene lookuptable arent updated in the kernel. I didn't know it didn't update as it's supposed to. I've tested it plenety of times (not patching kernel) and it works every time for me. I'll look into it when get back home.

When it comes to this patch it seems like a got some kind of bug ghost stalking me lol. Old and fixed bugs reappear from nowhere.

EDIT:
Do you use the original or rerelease?
And btw, to get new bosses you much patch flevel.

Kernel:
None of the skills are weakened concerning damage (unless mp damage). If anything they are stronger. One exception are big guard which only targets 1 ally. Read the info in the patch app to see more detailed.
However, the default magic boost on weapons is gone. Except for Aerith and Vincent. The others got other boost that replaces the magic boost. Like dex, vit, etc. Thus it may seem some skills are weakened.


Steal rate depends on your level vs enemy level. It's easier to steal from enemies with lower lvl obviously. Sneak glove does not help much on low lvl enemies. The steal chances are in scene.bin.

EDIT2:
I have now been able to test both releases for kernel lookuptable error. The bug never occurs to me, but I've only tested with english in re-release.
It seems to work as it should. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2013-01-18 06:17:17
Forgive me if this has been stated here already or stashed away in a read-me, but I am short on time to go searching. I just want to ask if the Ultimate Weapons have been changed in any way?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-01-18 14:02:23
Emerald and ruby are beefed up, but not as much as normal.
Diamond is much harder than original, but not extremely hard.
Ultima is beefed up the most but is still the easiest one.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2013-01-18 15:38:32
Oh, I meant the main character's Ultimate Weapons.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Luceid on 2013-01-18 22:05:29
Did you actually alter the rates concerning Chocobo-catching?
I actually told my GF it's a very funny part of the game... so she watched a while... and left the room after my first rage-quit.
Oh, several came after that.

So, I got the Mimett Green from the Chocobo-boss and bought another one.
These greens did last forever on "classic" - atm it's a joke :(

Every constalation seems to be hard as hell.
The birds toss my party into frenzy mode, Elfadunks are simply a fuggin' wall and Mandragora's take time to kill.
I need goddamn help here...

PS: I found a typo on Theo's "Heiliger Krig" - it's "Heiliger Krieg" (as "holy war" in german)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2013-01-18 23:56:49
Mimetts never held up long, not even in vanilla. your memory serves you wrong
the cheapest ones hold out the longest
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-01-19 01:56:20
Oh, I meant the main character's Ultimate Weapons.

Oh, ha ha, misunderstood there.
Attack power is lowered, but don't be deceived by that. They're still the strongest. Arguably Tifa's isn't her strongest.

@Luceid
Go with Gysahl Greens. If I remember correctly, they last the longest. The expensive greens are good for beefing up your chocobo's stats.
I have not altered anything related to catching chocobos. But it's obviously harder since the enemies are tougher.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2013-01-19 04:06:49
Okay, good. I only wanted to know if the old formula's still applied. I knew the attack power was lowered, but that doesn't matter in this case.

I like playing around with Powersoul and Master Fist for Tifa as well.
Title: Help meee
Post by: Post_ex0dus on 2013-02-17 10:26:19
Hey Guys,
i played the hardcore mod one year ago and it was just awesome.. i got until the end of cd1 (precisely: to the kujata-boss) and had to pause there because of my study etc. .. now i wanted to continue but (SHOCK) my savegames are gone.. i forgot to transport them to my new laptop...
does anyone have a savegame-file around this point? could be a little bit earlier, too..
i dont even know which level i was or what materias I already got =/ so it would be hard to just modify a savegame-file to match my recent one.
it would be reeally nice if somebody could help me. Thx alot and greetings from germany


Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Post_ex0dus on 2013-02-26 17:10:23
nobody? :D
edit: oh sorry for double-post
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2013-03-05 16:29:26
nobody? :D
edit: oh sorry for double-post

http://www.mediafire.com/?443j771a3bzsez4

Game 12 - Tifa, Cloud, Yuffie - lvl 50 - Time 49:17 - Gongaga Area

Aerith just ran away to the Forgotten City.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Post_ex0dus on 2013-03-10 22:09:57
http://www.mediafire.com/?443j771a3bzsez4

Game 12 - Tifa, Cloud, Yuffie - lvl 50 - Time 49:17 - Gongaga Area

Aerith just ran away to the Forgotten City.

Thx ALOT, mate =)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-03-19 10:58:21
Hi. I've seen a video with thew fight against Sephiroth and I noticed that the Supernova attack wasn't used. I mean I know it's nicer and all, specially because it's a really long fight and I haven't even tried that with this hardcore mode but... what about people who would still like to see the Supernova attack? :(
So my question is, is the Supernova attack really left out with this mod? :(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-03-19 20:34:26
It's simple. Chanage Supernova's Animation ID to -> 8F with Proud Clod. (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0) Scene 231
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-03-19 22:58:13
By doing this, will it replace or delete any attacks or anything else made for this hardcore mod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-03-19 23:14:14
I've just seen how the program is. I guess it won't replace anything after all. :D
Thanks gjoerulv.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-03-24 05:27:51
Hey, so I just recently started playing this. Awesome mod, insanely fun. I have to ask, is the limit breaker mod required to do some things in things or no? I haven't needed it yet. I'm up to the Midgar Raid and I've done some side stuff (quadra magic cave, sunken plan turks fight are some of the hardest I've done so far but I beat them. Probably only difficult because I want to do as much as possible with as little grinding as possible to keep it challenging) with average levels of around 65 and no real materia grinding yet. Want to avoid the grind as long as possible. I'm using the 2012 re release and didn't turn it back to the 1997 version because I didn't really feel like it. It seems like with some grinding I should be able to do everything though but I'm afraid the 9999 limit might end up hurting me in the end. Just curious about the matter.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-03-24 06:47:12
No, it's not required. If anything it becomes easier with the limit breaker. More HP and more damage.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-03-24 11:35:31
No, it's not required. If anything it becomes easier with the limit breaker. More HP and more damage.

Dude, glad to see you're so active still. Thank you for the quick response and I do have to say it's really fun. I bought the 2012 re release specifically to play this mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-03-26 21:12:01
So a couple of questions. I am coming up on the end of the game now with some side stuff left to do yet (Mime cave, HP <-> MP cave, Knights of The Round cave, Emerald Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Forest of the Ancients, Hades boss) before I go in to the North Crater. Just finished up with the Midgar Raid (that last Locke / Venus / Theo fight was awesome btw. Such a pain to steal everything and beat it).

Anyways, question one. Where is a good place to farm sources with the Morph materia? I noticed the tank things by the Gongaga reactor no longer morph in to power sources so they are out and the main thing I am after is power sources.

Question two, where is a good place to grind AP before north crater? I know this mod changed AP values from mobs. I remember the forest outside Mideel being the best place and it still seems to be pretty solid but if there is a better place that would be good. I want to make sure I have all the low AP materia I want mastered before North Crater (extra counter attacks mainly)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-03-28 11:42:34
The sunken gelnika is the place for source morphing.
AP levels are seldom lowered. If you found Mideel good to grind before it should still be. The important thing is to find a place you easily kill the enemies and get much AP for it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: talpyka96 on 2013-03-31 20:28:42
Hello, this mod is really great and i enjoy playing it alot, but i have been stuck for some time now.

sorry if this has already been asked but looking throught 60 pages will take more than a hour i recon, strategy for the Jenova Death? all previous battles i have managed some way or another but dam this b!tch is crazy! multiple status attacks and very strong non elemental attacks really bend my lv 54 party to their knees. i should have bought a TON of hp materias right away..
What is your suggestion for showing her whos the daddy?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-03-31 22:02:11
Death force is a good friend in this battle. The tricky part is to apply it to all your characters before she uses Death, and then stay alive through all the beating (if you die you must apply it again). Or you could use destruct materia + added effect or safety bit.

One way to avoid MP rape is to absorb fire/wind.

You also have to deal with confusion and Silence some way. Prioritise Confusion. The dual status can be avoided with Poison Ring. If you have Resist, use it.

Jenova is weak towards physical attacks and have no physical attacks of her own. Which means back row/long range materia is unnecessary. If you have Dazers you could try to keep her paralysed. Cross Slash works too, but you obviously can't use that all the time. You can also use Slow on her.

And, of course, regen, haste, mbarrier (unless you use ribbons; only haste works).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: PaMcD on 2013-03-31 23:30:53
Hi Gjoerulv,

just recently bought the 2012 rerelease just to play this mod, thanks for it, its great so far.

Just wondering is there any document that goes into more detail as to exactly what has changed, where the new enemies/bosses are, what glitches have been fixed if any, or even any tips for this version i.e. i've seen a youtube video where the guy is spamming dragon force enemy skill against a boss, i've no idea what it does but im sure there's good reason for it.

kinda hard to read thru all 64 odd pages here to gleam info from.

Thanks
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-04-01 10:10:02
@PaMcD

There is a "info" button in the patch application.

There are 40+ new enemies. Most of them should be easy to discover by chance alone. Check beaches etc, and every area you know of there are distinct encounters. Many areas have one new enemy.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: spibbly on 2013-04-03 22:06:50
So if there is a part of the patch I don't like, can I remove the affect by removing the kernel bin? Or will that just messed up the game?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-04-05 07:50:39
That's the point.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: rewriter on 2013-04-08 03:00:50
So I installed this with Bootloader and once I was all up and running just got killed repeatedly at the beginning of the game. So then I ran Bootloader a second time to uncheck the hardcore mod and replace several other features. It seemed to replace everything correctly and the difficulty was at vanilla once more.

Fastforward to Shinra HQ floor 65 as I'm assembling the Midgard replica. I complete that and go to the chest where the next keycard is. I get that and then boss music plays and I get some message along the lines of "Something bad happened blahblahblah"
I'm assuming that while the hardcore mechanics were removed, the encounters remained and the game was trying to pull up assets it no longer possessed. Anyone know how I can go about fixing this?

Tried this again and the last few things from my APP file are:
Quote
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
Swirl sound_effect1
stop_sound
End of Swirl sound_effect1
Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
Entering MAIN
Exiting MAIN
[BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[BATTLE] Scene# 1000
[BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
ERROR: unhandled exception
Which makes me further think it's a trigger left over from the mod that just isn't going through now
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-04-08 14:33:05
You should probably ask in the boot (lol) thread/topic. It sounds like the field files are in sync with my mod but not scene.bin. I have never used the bootloader thus I can't be much help here.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: suavethekid on 2013-04-08 19:38:52
Hi everyone. Let me start by saying this hardcore mod is awesome, and really tough at points. So I am at the very end of disk 2 about to go into midgar but I have only acquired one ribbon from the temple of the ancients. The ribbon that is usually in the gaea caves is not there anymore. Where else can I find ribbons besides just trooping it out to the crater and morphing some tonberrys?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: AndrQ on 2013-04-09 17:21:33
Just joined to report Glitch i came across during my playtrough.

- The Bike rider outside Midgar cannot be targeted by melee attack.

- Inside Gaea's Cliff Icicle room, the third Icicle battle with the 2 Jokers.
    When you kill the Icicle first, the Jokers do not die then the battle Freeze.

- Not sure if its a bug but you can steal an Imperial Guard from the boss that attack the HQ during Fort Condor sieges, making it possible to steal 7 Imperial Guard after obtaining Yuffie's weapon, the Super Ball.

- The Gigas-like Magi monster inside the Crater (After Gaea's Cliff) have a weakness to Curative magic when you Sense them.
(Btw Great new monster there, had problem dealing with them until i used Reflect-All \ Aqualung.)

Also 2 little Questions about *Ultimate* Boss fight :

Did you defeat all of them without Break HP Limit & Break Damage Limit ?

Do you need to Farm Source to Beat some of them or you can beat all of them at Lv.99 With no Source Farming ?


Thanks for your hard work, i'm enjoying it more than the Vanilla game.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Initial Reality on 2013-04-12 01:47:11
I found another battle that seems to cause a freeze in Shinra HQ. 1 Hammer Blaster and 2 Sword Dance.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-04-12 12:41:22
@AndrQ
I'm not able to rebroduce those bugs. I target the biker fine and the icicle fight never crashes or hangs (I tried several different possibilities). What version are you using?
Personally I like to use the damage limit breaker, but it's not required to beat the game. It's harder without it obviously.

@Initial Reality
That bug is fixed but not released.

@suavethekid
??? The ribbon is not removed from geas cliff.
You can steal one from Theo in the trio-soldier fight after Proud Clod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: AndrQ on 2013-04-12 15:38:43
I use FF7 Re-release latest update with version 1.0.6 of your mod.

Edit : Reached the Turks at Midgar raid and they are...  unkillable ?

Spoiler : They start the battle with a Grenade (3000+) & the 3 of them CritHit 9999 each of my party member, i died instantly.

Is there some sort of trick\Strat ? This battle seem impossible to me and i can't exit Midgar.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Lynx_7 on 2013-04-20 23:49:21
First of all, I would like to thank you for this mod. It really makes the game much better for more experienced players.

However, I'm not sure if my game is bugged or if this was an intentional modification that you did, but I'm under the impression that my characters are taking longer than they should to learn their level 2 limit breaks. I have done quite a bit of grinding with Cloud since the beginning of the game and even went out of my way to kill enemies with him to see if he would learn his next set of limit breaks, but so far I've killed a LOT of enemies and he's still stuck with Braver and Cross Slash, and I'm already past the Midgar Zolom. I'm starting to worry that my game may be bugged or something.

I'm using your latest patch with the 2012 rerelease. Is there any way for me to check the files to see if something is wrong and try to correct it? Or did you really raise the number of enemies you need to kill in order to learn new sets of limit breaks?
Thanks for your attention.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2013-04-21 07:30:53
I use FF7 Re-release latest update with version 1.0.6 of your mod.

Edit : Reached the Turks at Midgar raid and they are...  unkillable ?

Spoiler : They start the battle with a Grenade (3000+) & the 3 of them CritHit 9999 each of my party member, i died instantly.

Is there some sort of trick\Strat ? This battle seem impossible to me and i can't exit Midgar.

higher def gear, install something for break hp / dmg limit and HP plus materia, permanent wall + haste, one or two dedicated healers
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-04-21 12:13:20
However, I'm not sure if my game is bugged or if this was an intentional modification that you did, but I'm under the impression that my characters are taking longer than they should to learn their level 2 limit breaks.

From my own experience with the Hardcore patch, Lv2 Limits didn't start appearing for Cloud until a good bit later in the game, a lot later than they'd usually start surfacing for the vanilla game. I've been doing all the extra stuff, grabbing all the E.Skills, etc. so there's been a healthy amount of murder going on. Barret in my game has only just learned Grenade Blast at the ripe old age of Lv65, with others still waiting for theirs so it might be the case that you need more kills now.

You say you've done some early grinding though, which is worrying. You know that the character him/herself has to land the killing blow for it to count, right? My advice is that if Lv2 Limits for Cloud haven't appeared by about, say, Forest Temple (or when he hits Lv40) then your game might have a problem. Reinstalling the patch might do the trick (if the values have gone over what's needed then I think it just gives you the Lv2/3 limits at the end of the very next fight). If that doesn't do the trick, then as a work-around you could maybe use the Black Chocobo save editor tool to manually add the missing Limits to your party. Not ideal, but it's better than restarting the game due to a glitch.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Lynx_7 on 2013-04-21 15:45:48
From my own experience with the Hardcore patch, Lv2 Limits didn't start appearing for Cloud until a good bit later in the game, a lot later than they'd usually start surfacing for the vanilla game. I've been doing all the extra stuff, grabbing all the E.Skills, etc. so there's been a healthy amount of murder going on. Barret in my game has only just learned Grenade Blast at the ripe old age of Lv65, with others still waiting for theirs so it might be the case that you need more kills now.

You say you've done some early grinding though, which is worrying. You know that the character him/herself has to land the killing blow for it to count, right? My advice is that if Lv2 Limits for Cloud haven't appeared by about, say, Forest Temple (or when he hits Lv40) then your game might have a problem. Reinstalling the patch might do the trick (if the values have gone over what's needed then I think it just gives you the Lv2/3 limits at the end of the very next fight). If that doesn't do the trick, then as a work-around you could maybe use the Black Chocobo save editor tool to manually add the missing Limits to your party. Not ideal, but it's better than restarting the game due to a glitch.

Oh, so it does requires more kills then? In that case I'm relieved it's not just me. I'll continue with the story and wait till I reach that portion of the game/lvl to see if it will be unlocked by then. My party is currently around lvl 20~25 just after Mythril Mines, which is more or less the point where I would be unlocking lvl 2 limits for everybody in my team in a vanilla game. Yes, I know the character himself has to deliver the killing blow for it to count. :)
Thanks for the help!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-04-22 08:39:19
Hmmm, do you guys start from a savegame? It's not intended for Cloud to require more kills.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-04-22 11:35:43
No, started from scratch. If it's the same number of kills needed then it must just be the increased difficulty changing the dynamic of the game, making kills less frequent and more scattered across the team because of the special tactics that are getting used (a tank or dedicated healer wouldn't be attacking a lot, for instance). I'd never usually run from a fight in the vanilla game either but I've run from plenty during the Hardcore mod. Must just take it for granted how many enemies get milled through on a normal game.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-04-22 12:15:31
Cloud's Buster sword got the Death Penalty effect in this mod. In order for him to start with normal damage I added kills in a new game (same as adding kills to a savemap) then added kills required from level 2 and 3.

Check how many kills Cloud got with Black Chocobo. If he has done more than 888 kills and yet no level 2, something is wrong. Keep in mind Cloud should start with 768 kills to even out the difference.

All this is in the kernel, meaning there can't be any messups from required kills vs starting kills in a new game. But if you start a new game, save, then patch, it will be f***ed up. Also if you alter Cloud's kills with black chocobo early on.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Lynx_7 on 2013-04-23 16:56:48
Cloud's Buster sword got the Death Penalty effect in this mod. In order for him to start with normal damage I added kills in a new game (same as adding kills to a savemap) then added kills required from level 2 and 3.

Check how many kills Cloud got with Black Chocobo. If he has done more than 888 kills and yet no level 2, something is wrong. Keep in mind Cloud should start with 768 kills to even out the difference.

All this is in the kernel, meaning there can't be any messups from required kills vs starting kills in a new game. But if you start a new game, save, then patch, it will be f***ed up. Also if you alter Cloud's kills with black chocobo early on.

Yes, that was the problem for me. I started a new game in vanilla and saved at the first savepoint before I discovered this patch and applied it. Then, I continued it from there.
I opened my save with Black chocobo and Cloud had 219 kills. I adjusted the number accordingly (219 + 768). When I came back to the game and got into a fight he learned his limit breaks normally.

Thanks.for warning me about it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: mizz on 2013-04-28 03:41:46
Hoping someone could answer a question for me, sorry if its been asked, I looked around and couldnt find anything. How do you get the enemy skill chocobuckle? I gave a mimmet green to a lvl 16 chocobo and then used L4 suicide, but he just runs away without countering me with it... Any help is appreciated, Thanks.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-05-02 22:03:35
I had the same problem with Chocobuckle. I think it's been made exclusive to the Silver Chocobo you fight when picking up the Choco/Mog Materia from the Chocobo Ranch. I remember it using the skill during that fight, and I've not been able to get the regular Lv.16 chocobos in the area to use the skill. It might not have the same damage formula either; if I recall, the Chocobuckle used by Silver actually did damage where it should've been zero so maybe it was converted to the Japanese version of the damage formula? Just speculation; Gjoerulv will know for sure.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2013-05-02 22:32:59
you can just check the skill with wall market and when/how a chocobo uses it with proudclod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-05-03 07:45:27
Any chocobo may perform chocobuckle. They only do it as a counter attack if their HP is above 0 and below or equal 1 + 1/32 of their max HP. You just have 1 shoot pr. chocobo obviously, and remember to feed it a mimett green 1st.

Silver chocobo may use it in any counter attack it performs.

The reason it does not work with L4 suicide is because that action no longer reduce the targets HP to a critical level. In my mod it causes dual drain instead.

Chocobuckle works the same way as vanilla.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-05-03 21:51:47
And here was me thinking that it was L4 Suicide itself that triggered Chocobuckle. It'll be nice to add it to the E.Skill roster for completeness; thanks for the info.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: suavethekid on 2013-05-12 03:16:10
I'm grinding out at the battle arena and man is it tough! I finally beat the return to midgar now I just need to get w summon omnislash and final attack to move on.

Here is my questions though, the red pyramids in the battle arena how the heck do i kill them? Anytime i attack them with physical or magic it does very low damage and then it forces me to attack myself using causing a one hit kill.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-05-12 20:16:36
Those red pyramids only counterattacks (to ANY move). They will heal you if your hp are not full and kill you if your hp is full.

The easiest way to kill them would be to use the '? ? ?' e-skill when you have lost more than 1000 hp.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: suavethekid on 2013-05-14 03:58:11
I noticed something weird in the northern crater where the "mega all" is supposed to be i picked it up and it says received mega all but the materia i get is an mp absorb. Where is the mega all?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-05-14 14:10:48
It's in the purple materia cave.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Bigmac on 2013-05-16 22:51:05
Can anyone recommend me a good way of farming sources in the crashed plane without cheating or other mods? Progress wise I am just before the raid in Midgar at the end of disc 2 and have a gold chocobo.


Very good work with the mod by the way, always wanted FF7 to be a lot harder and now I got my wish! :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-05-18 11:20:13
Speed and Luck sources can be gotten from the Bad Raps & Poodlers in the Gelnika's corridor (where you fight the Turks). Problem is, they've been beefed up considerably and are usually accompanied by a new enemy called Basilisk (which doesn't morph into anything). As Speed and Luck are the quickest to farm for, and provide some excellent benefits when it comes to surviving a certain super-boss, you'll want to start there.

First off, equip yourself to guard against Earth and Fire (Elemental Materia or Escort/Minerva armour are good bets). Have Yuffie holding Morph with a Conformer and Slash-All/Mega-All if you have them; also give her a Gigas Armlet and a Power Wrist to boost her damage. Have a tank with Cover and maybe a Protect Ring (or Protect Vest) while your third has Gravity-All equipped; if you have W-Magic then this is a great plus as well. I think Quad overrides the All effect (not sure) but if so then All is the better bet as Quad is unfocused.

First, have the tank use Defend as he'll be getting hit for a lot of damage. You'll want to hit the enemy group with Demi3-All until they're weak enough for Yuffie to sweep them with Morph. If Basilisks are in the enemy team then they'll counter with a tail attack that I think deals damage equal to 1/4 of your max HP. If you're low level then this might be tough going but these enemies offer up a lot of EXP which'll help. Also, take plenty of Tents down there with you, have an Exit Materia equipped, and save often; there is a pincer encounter you can run into which can be very dangerous even for a max-level team.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Bigmac on 2013-05-18 21:49:56
Cool thanks. Any tips for the other sources?

Also what enemies can I learn dragon force from? I can't get back to the cliffs to learn it from blue dragon.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-05-19 23:12:12
The Unknowns (1-3) on the Gelnika are all vulnerable to Sleep, Poison etc. so stick them with Bad Breath/Frog Song/Sleepel to start. Then hit them with Quadded-Demi/Demi2 to break their HP down quickly. If you have W-Magic on top of that you can hit them 8 times. Either way, once their HP gets low enough hit them with the Conformer to finish them off. Nastier status effects to watch out for are Paralysis & Confusion (Unknown 2), Instant-Death (Unknown 1) and Poison (Unknown 3).

As for Serpent, he's immune to Gravity but he's not immune to the Dual-Drain status that LV4 Suicide inflicts. This might take some timing; stick it on Active ATB and try to get a feel for when he's about to die (count the number of turns he gets, for instance) then hit him with the Conformer. It's not 100% reliable but it's much faster than whittling him down from 90,000HP. If you don't have LV4 Suicide, then Poison is a slower alternative.

Finally, Dark Dragons in the North Crater have Dragon Force; they're sort of common in the first spiraling area of that place. Try to manipulate them quick; they hit hard. Blue Dragon has dragon force but he's immune to manipulation if memory serves. It might be available elsewhere from other enemies, lot of new guys running around in this mod, but I never ran into that e.skill anywhere else.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-05-21 10:37:48
Hello evrybody.
I'm level 50 approximatively, and I can't beat Jenova death, with Tifa, barret & cloud.
At the begginning, I go with Tifa max lvl3 limit( 6 hits at 3k ~ ), so 18k damage.
Clad, has ruban accessory( immunised against all negative effects ), so no death problems.
But Tifa and barret dies alaways at jenova's death spell. And the red lighting hits me at ~3k, and I don't have time to maintain them all alive and full life. Tried so many times.
I have approximatively 4 / 4.5k hp on my characters.

Do you have tips for beat her ?  ;D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-05-21 11:35:11
Yeah, she's a tough one. When the fight starts she can open with a Death spell which'll knock someone out more often than not. Red Light hits with Confusion, Fury, and D. Sentence while Tropic Wind hits with Silence, Dual Drain, and generally wipes out MP on the entire team.

Jenny Death is vulnerable to an element called 'Cut' which is on a lot of Cloud's weapons. Equipped with a Gigas Armlet and a Power Wrist (with Mystify+Added Effect in the armour, as well as some Long Range Materia) you can be hitting for about 4000-5000 a hit depending on the weapon; kind of a necessity as she has roughly 180,000HP.

Your other two party members should focus on healing and defence. Give one a Fire Armlet and the other Fire+Elemental (it'll negate/absorb Tropic Wind), along with some Peace Rings (anything that can protect against Confusion but NOT a Ribbon unless there's nothing else). These two should work on maintaining MBarrier on the team (switch to Wall when the 'All' runs out), Death Force, and healing. Note that Barriers won't work on anyone equipped with a Ribbon. They should also throw Slow at Jenny to buy some breathing space between attack waves.

For healing, White Wind and Regen can be effective in tandem, with the latter fighting off the Dual-Drain that Cloud will be taking from Tropic Wind (the other two won't get hit by it if they're immune to/absorb Fire).

An alternative strategy might be to deplete her 1700MP. Gear someone up with a Wizard Bracelet/Four Slots, Magic Plus, and an Earring then have them chuck out Magic Breath (with the other two supporting him/her) to deplete Jenny's MP in no time. Haven't tested it, but she doesn't absorb any elements that I can remember so it should work. Should disable all of her attacks, just like in the regular game.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-05-21 12:03:58
Thanks for your answer. But : Mystify+Added Effect in the armour, what's the goal ? Why not in the weapon but the armour ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-05-21 12:11:32
Placed in the armour, Mystify+Added Effect will give you protection against Confusion (and Berserk). It's a good way of rounding out status protection or freeing up the accessory slot for something else. You can try Destruct+Added Effect in the armour too, to give yourself protection against Death but Confusion is probably the status effect you should guard against for this fight; Red Light is too disruptive otherwise.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-05-21 12:24:18
Okay, thank you again. Yeah red light is a big problem, it hits so hard... But with protection against confusion, it would be nice.
But I didn't understood how can you hit so much with cloud.
I have Tifa who mortal strikes at 2k( 1k at normal ). But cloud, not hits very much.. So my unique nice way to deal damage today is Tifa
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-05-21 18:57:52
Jenny Death is vulnerable to an element called 'Cut' which is on a lot of Cloud's weapons.

This is true, but in the newer version Jenova are weak to all physical elements (weapons). So anyone could be used as a dd against her. The best way to damage her, as you suggested, is to get your attack as high as possible. And long rage or front row of course.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Bigmac on 2013-05-21 19:09:49
If I remember correctly Jenova Death does absorb magic breath so if you are going to drain mp away then use magic hammer (grass creatures on the wutai island to the south, grass area).

I think the tactic I used was to use the item Dazers to induce stop while I set up Wall, Haste (or big guard), Regen and death force (turtles from wutai beaches I think). Then induce Slow on her. I also stocked up on a few hp plus materias, at least 1 per character and leveled them a bit so they have at least 6000 hp.

This is the only boss that I had to back track to get enemy skills as I didn't have death force, magic hammer, big guard or white wind when I first encountered her. Getting these 4 enemy skills will make the fight much easier.
   
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-05-21 23:17:47
Okay, thank you bigmac. I haven't those ennemy skills yet, and I'm only at ~4500hp, so as you can imagine the fight is pretty hard  ;D
But I re-run from the beginning of ff7 now, but in english( with american spelling ), for working my english, and evict that so horrible french translation from japanese( ahhh thoses frenchies who don't know anything ekse than french..  :mrgreen: )
The first boss in hardcore is just an horror ! lol.
I only have 3 potions and 1 phoenix tail's, and I fight hard :D

Edit : The solution was to kill some sweepers to have the bolt item :)
Is it normal that the scorpion doesn't drop the weapon for barret as usual ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: krockus91 on 2013-06-03 01:47:02
Dude just wow. I've been watching guys like you,  brutal,  garland (I even made a youtube video about him once ha ha) ett and a few other people for years now I finally have a pc version and had the balls to patch it and I am amazed. Thank you so much for making this.


*Spoilers alert*

 nibelheim flashback was much more fantastic, the reactor scene especially,  I was sitting there thinking please be a boss battle please be a boss battle and you had indeed put one in, and even with sephy there were a few parts where IIthought id had it.. simply brilliant.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: jalmpitt on 2013-06-23 23:21:46
First, thanks for the enormous effort gjoerulv, the mod makes this a new game.

I'm quite advanced and so far I have not had serious problems (in mind the difficulty, I mean), but now it is making me very frustrating. Consulting the Sega Chief videos really seem to be a different game or very different version(the videos have two months, so I dismissed the idea).

Example, video 36, Adamantai combat, the Light Attack inflicts about 2500 damage points, to me up 4000. Ziedrich armor imagined what I would reduce this attack, although Sega says use the Minerva Armor, but I've tried it, and does not change the damage taken.
But no way, I could go up a few levels and face, but is the feeling that something is wrong, it is probably something I do not know, but I'm lost.

Any idea?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-06-24 16:40:11
There is a version difference. I used the older v.1.0.4 while the newest one is v.1.0.6. I was curious about version differences so I've got myself two data folders, one with the v.1.0.4 and one with the v.1.0.6 so I could compare the two. However, when I compared both Adamantai between versions using the Proud Clod tool they appear to be identical; Lv60, 180 Strength, 220 Magic, and Light Shell has 48 power (on a magic calculation) with the Shout element.

I've included the stats of Tifa that affect defence here so you can compare. If you're using the old version of FF7 PC (without other mods like Aali's Custom Driver or YAMP patches) then it might be that you have the MDEF glitch still kicking around. Otherwise it might be a difference in characters, but I can't see the difference in stats being pronounced enough to cause a 2000-ish damage discrepancy.

Tifa's Stats
Kaiser Knuckle
Minerva Band (57 Magic Defence)
Reflect Ring
Lv: 57
Vitality: 46
Spirit: 65

Defence: 106
Mag Defence: 122

On a last note, I didn't pick Minerva Band because it gives better defence. In fact, the Ziedrich would effectively half the damage of Light Shell because it has an element (Shout). I picked the Minerva Band because it nullifies Earth and if you nullify an elemental attack that has a status ailment attached to it, then the spell misses you instead of dealing 0 damage, and that means it isn't reflected back (Adamantai is fully healed by the Earth element so had to avoid reflecting Break back).

Let me know what your stats are and what version of FF7 PC you're using so we can work out why the damage is different.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: jalmpitt on 2013-06-24 18:31:31
It is clear, the problem is, my character has almost exactly the same stats, Tifa Lv56, same everything except magic defense is 63 (counting with Minerva Armor already equipped, 59 base of Tifa). Physics defense is correct (105 with  Minerva Armor, 45 base of Tifa).
The problem is that magical armor the Minerva(63) does not add to the character's base armor (59), leaving only 63 overlaps the base magic armor. 59+63=122 , agrees perfectly with your magic defense 122.


I have ONLY 1 mod plus gjoerulv besides, it makes the characters look less big heads and improves chocobo, only affects "WORLD_US.LGP", "CHOCOBO.LGP" and "CHAR.LGP", anything that may be affecting. I have FFVII PC 1997(not 2012).

Yes, I understand the choice of Minerva Armor, a magnificent idea, interestingly, when I wear ziedrich armor this reduces the physical damage so incredible, but magic damage is exactly the same, imagine it's the same problem.



Thanks for your help and videos ;). Will investigate the problem, now that I have identified.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-06-24 19:10:47
No worries. There's definitely a patch for the Magic Defence glitch floating around somewhere; Aali's Custom Graphics Driver has it enabled by default in the version I have (0.7.10b). If not, it can be enabled through it's CFG file in the FF7 folder once it's installed.

Good luck with the rest of the mod!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-06-24 19:39:21
There is a link to the mdef bug fix patch at page 1. Use Ali's cgd or the other one. I doubt it's harmful to use both.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-06-24 20:52:16
Little problem here with the new bosses added by the mod.
When I install bootleg, the console command says to me( error message popup ) : couldn't find gjoerulv's.exe. No problem, I click ok, I finish bootleg install, and then apply gjoerulv1.06.exe manually.
In game, the difficulty is effectively hardcore, but I haven't the new extra bosses added by gjoerulv. I picked choco-mog materia, and nothin' happens.
Somebody encountered same issue ? I have a gjoerulv.exe in windows path, but still this error message at bootleg install( never had it in bootleg0039 ), but with the last 0040, always had it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: jalmpitt on 2013-06-24 22:05:45
Oh, yes, I have solved the problem, and now it works perfectly.  ;D

Gjoerulv, maybe you should further specify the problem does MDEF(not only the solution, I mean), for someone newcomer as I have no way of knowing that the game is almost impossible without this, it is just a suggestion, thanks for the help and hours of fun.

I completely ignore everything that does not have a proper description, so I ignore also the Ali's Custom Graphics, no description, zero attention, hehehe.


Greetings to all!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: jalmpitt on 2013-06-25 11:21:47
I precipitate my finding, although such values ​​appear perfectly correct, there are still discrepancies, now Adamantai Light Shell hits me 3500 damage in Tifa, significantly lower than before 4500, but far from the 2500.

I continued and I have faced Aita (video 47), his attack of "Above of the Dead" harms me 9999 points in every character except Cloud that with the Warrior Bangle(total, 168 physical defense) stand suffering around 9000 damage.

Is this perhaps deliberate? Or my game is definitely buggy?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Oddish on 2013-06-25 20:13:33
I've been enjoying this mod alot. I've been playing it as Solo Cloud Challenge. I just defeated Hojo and I gotta say it was really tough.

I still got bunch of stuff left to do and I'm not sure if they're all doable.

-Emerald, Ruby and Omega Weapons
-Battle Arena for W-Summon and Final Attack (Definitely doable)
-Typhoon materia boss
-KOTR materia boss
-Sephiroth (It's been ages since ive actually done the final boss in any ff7 playthrough, forgot the mechanics but I think it required multiple parties?)

One thing thats really bugging me is magic evade. When playing solo I have to rely on magic counter+full cure alot which means I can't really stack luck or evade. I'm pretty sure some of these bosses will require me to do so. Maybe it'll be different when I get final attack and phoenix combo.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-06-26 03:07:16
Little problem here with the new bosses added by the mod.
When I install bootleg...

I'm really sorry. I don't use bootleg, and I don't feel it's my responsibility to answer any bootleg related questions. I understand the challenge to support as many mods as possible, as bootleg does. I can nothing but admire the determination and effort put into it.  :)   

...
Gjoerulv, maybe you should further specify the problem does MDEF(not only the solution, I mean), for someone newcomer as I have no way of knowing that the game is almost impossible without this, it is just a suggestion, thanks for the help and hours of fun...

I'm happy to hear you like it!  ;D I could make it clearer that you would want the mdef bug fix, but imo it's right there at the 1st page, thus very clear. Maybe in the next release, I'll be include the bugfix in the patch.

One thing thats really bugging me is magic evade. When playing solo I have to rely on magic counter+full cure alot which means I can't really stack luck or evade. I'm pretty sure some of these bosses will require me to do so. Maybe it'll be different when I get final attack and phoenix combo.

Interesting to hear you doing challenges. Keep in mind that this is not really suited for challenges. More power to you if you pull it off though.

On another note (if I havent't been clear), this mod is not aimed for the "perfect game" lovers. That is, getting a 100% score when you finish the game (stealing every item, getting all e.skills as early as possible etc.). But, of course, play the game as you want. My main goal (besides making it as I want it) is to make a refreshed gameplay that stays true to the original.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: scix on 2013-06-28 12:08:45
I love the mod gjoerulv; it's been refreshing to play a JRPG with genuine difficulty. One possible tweak is to add the Blue Dragon enemy into some later areas in the game so one has the option to acquire dragon force if they happened to miss it in Gaea's Cliffs. I mostly played without a walkthrough so I was unaware that such a mandatory spell was available there. I ended up adding it in with Black Chocobo but it would be nice to have another opportunity for those that don't know the game inside out.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-06-28 12:58:11
You can pick up Dragon Force from a Dark Dragon in the Northern Cave on Disc 3.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: scix on 2013-06-29 05:02:02
You can pick up Dragon Force from a Dark Dragon in the Northern Cave on Disc 3.

Yeah, I knew about that. I was speaking more for the time between leaving the Cliffs and reaching the North Cave. But perhaps it is already reasonable as it is; it's a hardcore difficulty mod after all.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tray on 2013-07-01 02:09:32
Hey, I just beat the midgar raid and I was a little curious how the final boss stacks up to some of the some of the sidebosses.  Like if I played to the point where I could beat emerald and ruby weapon before I finished the game would it make the final boss relatively easy or is he about as powerful as the two weapons?

Thanks for the great mod by the way, I've played ff7 so much I could beat the regular game with no problem and this has given me a run for my money at some points so it makes it a lot more enjoyable.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-07-01 11:04:53
@Tray
I believe the final bosses are on par with the weapons. Some people find the Materia cave bosses harder though. Imo Emerald and Ruby are tougher. The materia bosses should be beatable as soon as they are accessible (before Midgar); the weapons are not. It depends on how much you grind etc.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Xuiryus on 2013-07-06 10:35:23
Is there support for the 2013 Steam release of FF7? Or a way to get the current methods to work with that release?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-06 13:08:33
Yes, just tick "2012 Re-release" in the installer.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-07-06 13:50:52
Gjoerulv, did you increased the difficulty / and or max HP of emerald and ruby weapons in your mod ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-06 15:46:24
Yes.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2013-07-06 18:18:50
How many HP for emerald approximatively ? I believe than in 'normal' game, it is about 1.000.000 is it ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-06 20:59:10
HP is unchanged (1,000,000) but other stats are greatly increased.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Xuiryus on 2013-07-07 09:10:05
Yes, just tick "2012 Re-release" in the installer.

I tried this it doesn't work. It can't find most of the files.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-07 14:29:30
Oh, the Steam release... Well, you can't mod it as long as it's under the Steam folder... You need to separate it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: FFman on 2013-07-07 17:21:46
Hi, i have trouble installing this mod. I download the file from the first page (several times), run the exe as admin but i've got this error :
"The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)."

I'm under windows 7 64 bits.

Any ideas ? Thanks.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-07 17:44:56
You need to install the libraries, as stated in the first post.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: FFman on 2013-07-07 17:48:30
I already had .net framework installed but I downloaded the last version (4.5) to be sure before executing the exe.

Edit :
I managed to made it work by changing mscoree.dll under C:\Windows\system32.

I played this exelent mod until Kalm with an half patched game. I didn't have any new encounter like Venus, Theio and the 3rd one as I read here.
Did i miss many battles ?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-07-08 16:17:12
Did you patch flevel.lgp? What language are you playing and do you use other mods?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: FFman on 2013-07-09 14:03:25
It is working now.
I patched all files on US version using bootleg.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-07-13 14:06:51
Will the mod work fine with the new patch to Final Fantasy VII, v 1.0.8.8? I assume it will seeing as it didn't change the game aside from the functionality of the saves (you can finally turn off cloud saves which should of been in from the beginning!). I would just like some conformation before I reapply the mod to my game. I'm not really in a rush to put it back on anyways as I'm still working on just a casual run of the game.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-13 14:25:02
The new patch? Do you mean the Steam version? If you plan on installing either Bootleg or this mod alone, I suggest moving the contents of the game into another, non-system (and non-Steam) folder before applying the mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-07-13 14:58:54
No, I mean the new patch that came out not long after the game had been released on Steam (which btw is identical to the Square Enix store version except it can be played without needing an active internet connection). I got the 2012 re release off the Square Enix store and just a few days ago it had a patch, V1.0.8.8. The last version was 1.0.7. I just want to make sure the mod still works with it and that it didn't somehow make it so it doesn't work.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-13 20:46:25
You need to remove that "patch" and apply Aali's custom graphics driver instead. It is by far better.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-07-13 22:02:47
I don't care about modding the graphics...this is the only mod I care about using and I just want to know if it works with the newest patch to the game. I like being able to shut off the stupid cloud saves.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-13 22:29:52
Aali's custom graphic driver does not put new graphics. It is however a requirement for the mod to work properly.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-07-14 00:05:34
No it's not...i played it fine when the PC version was on 1.0.7 and nothing else. Everything worked perfectly.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-14 00:51:28
Having no experience with the re-release, I can only make guesses, and my guess is that it would be a good idea to use Aali's driver.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Template on 2013-07-14 01:00:42
I'd have to guess, too. But I'd guess yes it works fine on the STEAM release without aalis driver. They moved the kernels to separate folders each for the 4 languages so you need to patch the right one, other than that I guess it would just depend on YAMP working. I heard it does but haven't tried it yet, you need to be able to patch the exe and add the mdef fix.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-07-14 01:31:04
The steam release is identical to the PC 2012 re release from the Square Enix store. The only difference is you can play the game without an active internet connection if you get it on steam.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-07-14 03:31:41
To be completely honest, I had no idea FF7 was released on steam (the only game I have played on steam is Civ5). I somewhat understand how steam works; updating the patch wouldn't be much of a problem if I get to know how the Steam ff is pt together..

If you are not patience, or don't want to wait for me to come with an update, you could create your own patch environment (which I believe is explained in the "info" part). Otherwise I would just like to say I'm very drunk right now and hardly know what I'm typing. Peace and love you people!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Alexandrious on 2013-07-15 05:07:44
I gotta ask.  I went and followed Tifas Bootleg to install a buncha mods on the 2012 version using the Hardcore preset. I changed the game mode to your Mod in the bootloader. So now I gotta ask.  The enemies at the very beginning of the game, are they supposed to have 3-5x times the health?  Also the scorpian robot boss, is he supposed to have enough HP to withstand 20 Thunders and still be alive?  If not then I wonder if I somehow installed two difficulty mods at once. 
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Template on 2013-07-15 05:52:35
I gotta ask.  I went and followed Tifas Bootleg to install a buncha mods on the 2012 version using the Hardcore preset. I changed the game mode to your Mod in the bootloader. So now I gotta ask.  The enemies at the very beginning of the game, are they supposed to have 3-5x times the health?  Also the scorpian robot boss, is he supposed to have enough HP to withstand 20 Thunders and still be alive?  If not then I wonder if I somehow installed two difficulty mods at once.
Sounds normal.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-07-15 17:59:03
installed two difficulty mods at once. 

While that indeed seems like it would make it harder, it wouldn't actually work (it would actually mess up encounters) or even make it harder. What you described is the normal behavior of this mod.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Alexandrious on 2013-07-16 02:05:37
Ok, next question, does this mod make Vitality and Spirit completely useless?  Seems that way to me.

Also, did you mod do anything to Yuffies appearance rate? Im at friggen lv 24 now and have yet to get Yuffie to appear in the forests before Junon, and I remember clearly in the PS1 version I would normally find her after 6 to 9 battles. So far its been about 45 battles and still havent seen her.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: zuloph on 2013-07-16 17:40:53
Ok, next question, does this mod make Vitality and Spirit completely useless?  Seems that way to me.

Also, did you mod do anything to Yuffies appearance rate? Im at friggen lv 24 now and have yet to get Yuffie to appear in the forests before Junon, and I remember clearly in the PS1 version I would normally find her after 6 to 9 battles. So far its been about 45 battles and still havent seen her.

Vitality and Spirit are still good but the mod did change stat growths somewhat I noticed. Barret has a high natural Vitality as usual and he does take less physical damage than other characters. As for the Yuffie encounter rate, still seems to be the same to me. You are just getting bad RNG. The encounter rate around Junon is 12.5%.

Also I figured out the answer to my own question just so everyone know. The mod still works fine with the PC 2012 version having patched to 1.0.8.8. Had a friend with the game try the mod out himself to see if it worked mostly because he was interested in trying it too.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: racompave on 2013-07-28 15:23:57
Do limit breaks ignore back row in this mod?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-08-01 19:42:48
All limits ignore rows... If I remember correctly. That goes for vanilla as well.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: jrbgarcia on 2013-08-18 02:48:38
Hi, please help me name your mod properly. i downloaded it as is and bootleg still can't find the proper file
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-08-18 11:27:06
I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. If it's a bootleg related question maybe you should ask in that thread. I've never used bootleg.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Secret255 on 2013-08-19 03:13:54
Hello gjoerulv

Is there anywhere I can find a list of information regarding your mod? Like exact changes from vanilla, weapon stats, materia stats, etc.?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2013-08-19 12:32:13
In the installer, click the Info button.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-09-18 23:11:05
Gjoerulv, I've been meaning to ask but do you still have copies of the old/original versions of your Hardcore mod anywhere? I've been itching to try them but haven't had much luck finding them (sorry if I've asked this before and forgotten).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-09-19 22:02:01
If you got 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 there aren't any reason to try the older ones. They are easier and contains more bugs. The lvl 4 limits ignoring defence is one of the few contributors to actually making it easier in the later versions.

In other words: they are more or less exactly the same.

If you still want to try I'll post some links. The problem is that I don't know what versions they are since I didn't label 'em in mediafire. :P
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-09-20 15:22:33
Really? Damn. I'd heard from a few people that the very early versions of the mod were ungodly hard so I'd been hunting around for them. If they're more or less the same as the later versions then no worries.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2013-09-23 23:01:56
If you want ungodly hard there is a mod thats perfect for you
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: silamon on 2013-10-04 03:09:06
I apologize if this has already been answered somewhere but... What do I need to do to get this to work with (Link removed. Let's not give this mod thief traffic.) coudystrife's graphic overhaul? Or is there another compatible graphics mod with steam? I know you mentioned renaming the files added to battle.lgp, however I do not have a way to open that file, unless there is a free program I can get for it?

Edit: the game crashes after getting a battle near where guard scorpion boss battle occurs. It works alright up to that point. I assumed there was a new model added that your mod doesnt seem to agree with
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2013-10-04 04:00:45
Don't use Cloudy Strifes (hijacked) mod. I have seen many of these models in detail and they are far away from looking acceptable beside of the texture.
Also some of these models are ripped and he isn't even giving credits to the original authors of the models. So some people thinks he has done a real great job.
Anyway here is a legal one: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14405.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14405.0)

If you install the hardcore mod at last it should work with it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: silamon on 2013-10-04 04:07:43
Oh really? Well that's good to know... I had no idea he was not the maker of that mod :x Thanks for the fast response, I will try the one you mentioned
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2013-10-04 04:23:06
He had his work with it, but it is actually a tweaked version of the UltraHD Fan Made Remake.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: silamon on 2013-10-04 04:35:08
It works  ;D
Thanks a lot
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: dkma841 on 2013-10-04 10:40:51
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=158899751#107522
Wow no credit whatsoever...he sucks
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: silamon on 2013-10-04 15:52:43
Out of curiosity, are there any hd models based on Advent Children that would work with the hardcore mod? I rather liked the AC models, although the ones posted by Template are not bad either'

Edit: I only really care about having the AC models for Sephiroth, Cloud, Vincent, Barret, and Aerith so if there is a specific mod for those it would be great. I am also seeing if I can do it myself with that uLGP thing, so I might get it going on my own  ;D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-10-04 17:44:21
I am also seeing if I can do it myself with that uLGP thing, so I might get it going on my own  ;D

I think your best bet is the LGP thing, that way you can insert mods manually and have greater control over how your game looks/runs (which can come in handy in the future if you see a better model for a character or if you want to mix and match models). Just remember to use Gjoerulv's battle.lgp when inserting the character models as it contains new monsters that the mod needs in order to work (none of the old monsters/battle models were overwritten though so for the most part replacing a character's battle model should work fine).

If you don't have this bookmarked already, then this will be invaluable: http://www.alhexx.com/documents/other/battle_database.txt

It lists all the battle models in the battle.lgp. Basically, battle models are grouped by the first two letters (so every file starting with 'RT' in the battle.lgp belongs to Cloud's regular battle model). So to insert a new Cloud model, you'd basically 'unlgp' the battle.lgp, copy-replace all the new Cloud parts in, then 'lgp' the file again so that it can be read by the game. If you can get it working, Borde's Kimera tool can let you see battle/field models before and after you've moved them to see if you've done it right.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: silamon on 2013-10-04 17:59:04
Got it working perfectly now  :-D

Thanks for the help everyone
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-19 02:26:59
Hi there. First of all I want to congratulate Gjoerulv for this FANTASTIC mod. I think it's the best mod there is, and I'm enjoying it very much! However, I'm right at this part of the game in Midgar where I'm supposed to fight Locke, Theo and Venus, but they just don't appear! O.o What could I be missing??? I really want this fight. :(
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-10-19 16:59:55
In the shinra HQ? DId you patch the flevel?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-19 17:51:46
In the shinra HQ? DId you patch the flevel?
It's before the Hojo fight, in the stairs. Well if I'm using this Hardcore Mod since the beginning of the game so I suppose those guys should've appeared. I've also heard I can encounter them on other parts of the game but I don't think I ever did, and I don't remember what other parts of the game they should appear. Only thing I know for sure is that they didn't appeared here. :/
Could it be because somehow I never have fought them before?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-10-19 20:40:29
How did you apply this mod? Did you use the patch I made (downloaded from this thread)?
Do you have the new or old release?
It sounds like flevel.lgp isn't patched, or you have applied another mod on top of mine.

Try to run the patch again, and only patch flevel.lgp.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-20 00:17:38
I did it with Bootleg. And from what I've seen from EQ2Alyza's Youtube videos everything is just like her game. These 3 guys are the only exception. xD
Anyway, since I'm already at this part of the game I want to try and finish the game first as it is. It's not like these guys will make a difference now. :/
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-10-20 08:40:26
Have you met any of the other bosses? There is a new boss on most summon materias.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-21 16:47:05
Yes I did. The White Chocobo (correct me if I'm wrong) and a few others... but I can't remember them. x)
Talking about it I haven't seen any new enemies or bosses in a while...
Is there some kind of list about the new enemies & bosses? That way I can have 100% if I'm missing something.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-21 17:03:48
Confirmed. I'm not finding any new bosses. Because I never fought the one on Hades materia. -.-
I don't like to follow walkthroughs because I prefer to play games on my own no matter how difficult they are, so that's why I've only noticed now. I've checked EQ2Alyza's videos on youtube a few times however, but only when I was really stuck, so I haven't seen any new bosses I might have missed. But I do know for sure that my game is just as hard as her's. I even have the equipment tweaks and materia tweaks like only being able to summon 1 summon per battle, etc.
I dunno how I could've gotten this difficulty and not the new bosses. O.o Anyway, to fix this I just need to re-install this mod again, simple as that, right? Dammit...
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2013-10-22 08:38:23
Confirmed. I'm not finding any new bosses. Because I never fought the one on Hades materia. -.-
I don't like to follow walkthroughs because I prefer to play games on my own no matter how difficult they are, so that's why I've only noticed now. I've checked EQ2Alyza's videos on youtube a few times however, but only when I was really stuck, so I haven't seen any new bosses I might have missed. But I do know for sure that my game is just as hard as her's. I even have the equipment tweaks and materia tweaks like only being able to summon 1 summon per battle, etc.
I dunno how I could've gotten this difficulty and not the new bosses. O.o Anyway, to fix this I just need to re-install this mod again, simple as that, right? Dammit...

materia, equipment etc is kernel based
enemy stuff is scene.bin based
new enemies need models in the battle.lgp

> only being able to summon 1 summon per battle
I don't remember THIS being part of the hardcore mod at all. How would he even code that?

the new bosses are based on just the flevel, so if you're not finding them, your flevel isn't patched.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-22 19:16:43
materia, equipment etc is kernel based
enemy stuff is scene.bin based
new enemies need models in the battle.lgp

> only being able to summon 1 summon per battle
I don't remember THIS being part of the hardcore mod at all. How would he even code that?

the new bosses are based on just the flevel, so if you're not finding them, your flevel isn't patched.

Yeah I've just re-installed and I have the new bosses now. I also thought I already had them not only because I've fought the White Chocobo but also because there's a monster near Rocket Town that gets bigger in size right after the battle starts, and another monster does the same in the grass area near Mideel. So I thought those 2 were part of the hardcore mode and thus I thought all bosses & monsters were already added since everything else I had was part of the hardcore mode.
And yeah, 1 summon per battle, you can see all the materias only have 2 stars.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-22 19:29:44
Note that by saying 1 summon per battle I don't mean 1 summon use for the entire battle, I mean 1 use for each summon materia equipped.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2013-10-23 21:02:46
worldmap encounters are handled by a different file than the flevel ( which handles field encounters ) and new bosses are specific new battles that were previously debug or unused scenes.
I'm honestly too lazy to explain why exactly you can meet new monsters ( like size growing ones ) but not new bosses if you install the mod but dont patch the flevel
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2013-10-23 21:25:14
Squall, I'm curious. Did you see this pop-up during your Bootleg install? If so, did you select the options exactly as the image?

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/3586/gjoerulvhardcore.png
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-25 00:51:17
Squall, I'm curious. Did you see this pop-up during your Bootleg install? If so, did you select the options exactly as the image?

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/3586/gjoerulvhardcore.png
Hi. Yes I did see that pop-up during installation, and yes I'm pretty sure I selected everything just like it's showing in your pic there.
I've tried to look just now for any .txt that could show the procedures it took during installation but I'm not finding it, or maybe I just deleted it.
Although I've already fixed the problem by re-installing the mod I'll be glad to help on finding out what could've gone wrong during install.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-25 01:07:32
Hum. Now that I think about it I still have the originals .lgp files on a separate place in case I needed them. I could have used the original flevel.lgp for some reason to install some other mod or something. Well, this is a "what if" anyway. I don't suppose I did this, not after I started using Bootleg. It was many months ago.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2013-10-25 03:08:21
Yeah, there's no way of knowing at this point. In any case, good to see you solved it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-10-25 03:48:29
If you're only adding the hc mod you should be fine. Like myself, I don't care about that
Use bootleg if you want multiple mods. If you're in for difficulty, there are other mods that may sooth your needs.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-10-25 04:00:11
To ease my curiosity, did you try with different partysetup?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-25 10:06:03
To ease my curiosity, did you try with different partysetup?
Nope, not for the boss on the Hades materia at least. I personally don't think that anything on character models could mess up with the bosses appearing or not, if that's what you're thinking. Btw, ff7.exe is also patched, right? What if it was something missing there, or not patched right? Or maybe some other mod that needed to do something on the ff7.exe too during the installation and somehow messed up a code on ff7.exe that enabled those new boss battles? xD Lol dunno, just saying. x)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-10-25 18:59:24
I wan thinking about the last soldier fight before Hojo. I accounted for a party with or without CaitS as it is his event that triggers the fight.
The extra bosses are in flevel.lgp. The exe is only patched for the limit breaks.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Squall_1904 on 2013-10-26 20:34:52
Well I fight with Cloud, Cid and Yuffie, so I don't think Cait Sith could have been the problem there. :/ 
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: licc85 on 2013-11-12 12:01:46
Hi, I would really like to install this mod, but I'm having issues getting the patch to work. I'm on Windows 7 and I'm playing the Steam version. I ran the app as the administrator. I checked the 2012 remake box and navigated the "dir" to my FFVII folder in steamapps.

I also set the language to English, which is the version I'm playing.

When I click the button to patch, it immediately gives me an error. Here's what it said in the log:

Below log created: 11/12/2013 at 8:59:05 PM
PROGRESS:
Checking files.
 File check-> C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\lang-en\battle\scene.bin FAILED!

Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\lang-en\battle\scene.bin'.
Patch finished.
Time spent: 0:03

I navigated to the folder it said, and the scene.bin was there . . . how can I fix this and get the patch to work?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-11-12 21:18:38
I don't own the steam version. But I guess it at least should be possible to copy the data folder to another location and try.
Was that the entire log?

Try this:

1) Create a folder in C: named anything, or something or yadayada (for example: C:\anything)
2) Copy the data folder, ff7_en.exe and lang.dat to C:\anything from your FF7 install folder. (The contents of C:\anything will be the entire data folder and those other files).
3) Select C:\anything\data in the patch application. Select re-release, the files you want and click patch. Run as admin.
4) If everything went fine copy/cut the files back.

However, I'm not sure how the steam version is, which means I'm not sure if this works.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: licc85 on 2013-11-13 10:48:22
Oh, nevermind, I figured it out. I didn't navigate the directory to the FFVII/Data folder, just the FFVII folder. Problem solved. Thanks for the quick reply anyways :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: terrabrake on 2013-11-29 14:40:50
Hi gjoerulv,

do you think the changes in the Steam version may affect your mod?

You can check them here http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII/Version_Differences

Thanks.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-12-12 19:14:45
Yes, as far as I know it's fully compatible. Remember to select the FF7 data folder not the main ff7 folder. The data folder is in the same folder as the .exe file (ff7_en.exe etc.).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Blah on 2013-12-20 23:15:24
Hello there! Got my hands back on this game with hardcore mod *again* (I think it is the third time I start it over), one day hopefully I'll manage to complete it before life gets in the way yet again!

So, I have a question here : I'm trying to get L5 death from the Izanagi (in wutai, scene 152/153), and I just don't understand how the AI works on this. So, I'd like to know just when this guy uses this attack.

But I'd also appreciate if anyone could explain how the script works on this! Because I've opened the script with Proud Clod, and I don't understand how the LocalVar is managed. I get the part that it is only used as a final attack depending on the state of the localvar, and the increments on his other moves, but I don't get the part when the random is used to decrement it.

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2013-12-23 01:49:19
Right, first off the LocalVar needs to equal 0 for Izanagi to use Lv5 Death as his final attack. His AI adds 1 to this value each time he uses Tsu or Yume. Then he'll use Kyu, and the AI is supposed to randomly detract 1 or 2 from the LocalVar: 0000 (50% chance of it becoming 0 or 1). It needs to be sitting at 0 when you land the finishing attack so only try to kill him after he's used Kyu (if you kill him after he's used either Tsu or Yume then it's guaranteed that LocalVar:0000 will be either 1 or 2, rather than 0, and you won't see Lv5 Death).

But, I've not fought Izanagi that I can remember so I gotta ask: does he stop attacking after using Kyu or does he do anything else unusual? I've had trouble getting monster AI to subtract values and to my knowledge the game doesn't naturally use subtraction commands in a default game (it instead pushes a new value into variables in most cases). If Izanagi stops attacking or starts using the same move over and over then there might be an issue with the AI that'll prevent you from getting LV5 Death from him (outside of killing him before he has a turn). If he's attacking normally, using a mixture of moves, then his AI is probably okay.


Now for scripting-

I've only a working knowledge of AI (I know how to get things to work but not necessarily how or why they work). From what I know, Random MOD (#) makes the game generate a number based on the one specified. So Random MOD (5) will have the game generate 0-5 as a number (so six possibilities in all); this'll then direct the AI to the correct 'chain'. The (Not) thingie in there though changes how it works slightly. The number has to be the same as the number of options (it perhaps eliminates 0 from the generated numbers) and it'll choose one or the other; a 50% chance in this case.

LocalVar itself seems to be a set of temporary variables that the game uses to store numbers that the game can use to direct monster AI to particular attacks and code. In some cases though they get used to store target information, enemy/character ID, animations, moves, and other information. They're quite versatile, and they go in 20's for some reason, so LocalVar:0000, then LocalVar:0020, 0040, etc. rather than LocalVar:0000, 0001, etc.

Someone with more experience can definitely explain it better, though.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-12-24 23:21:55
Yes, landing the final blow after it uses "Ku" is the only way of triggering it besides killing it before it acts at all. There is still only a 50% possibility though.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Blah on 2013-12-27 10:28:03
Got it! Actually I was using an old version of ProudClod that messed up the indentation, it looked like the substraction thing was happening after each attack. With the latest version it is clearer though; and with your explanations its allright. And I got my L5 death right on the first try after he casts Ku, now I can laugh at these Griever in Gaia Cliff :)

Just one thing, I think you are wrong when you say that random MOD 5 yields any value from 0 to 5 : in mathematics, 5 modulo 5 will return 0 and not 5, so random mod 5 will return something from 0 to 4. But I could be wrong, since it could be different in FF7.

Anyway, thank you folks!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2013-12-30 00:38:52
Yes a random mod 2 will be 50%. random mod 5 = 20%.
% = 100 / random mod(x).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Blah on 2014-01-08 20:38:54
Hello, back again with yet another stupid question to ask! Did you change anything in the chocobo breeding part? I've this black chocobo and this great chocobo (or whatever this fkin chicken is called in english version), they are both class S, and they will never produce a gold chocobo for me, they only give birth to another black or another yellow, I don't get it.

I've done it countless times on vanilla, from what I recall you get a gold chocobo 100% of the time if the sum of the victories of the two parents are greater or equal than 12, in my case they have 9 victories each, got a very fine and fresh zeio nut, its a male and a female, what's wrong?

Not that I need a gold chocobo right now, I've yet to beat the mime and hp/mp bosses lol, but I'm quite puzzled at that

(the carry armor was bloody easy, what happened there? Nailed it on first try with no preparations whatsoever, was lvl55ish, no fancy materia yet, only good ol'comet, he hits like my grandma! but the mod is overall awesome so far)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-01-08 21:44:51
I can't remember specifically which glitch this is but there's two; one is where the game has a coding flaw and you have to talk to the Black chocobo first when selecting which chocobos to mate in order to stand any chance of getting a Gold. SuperAcro has a video on the Black/Wonderful breeding glitch: http://youtu.be/PpSdTxFRlfU

Or it might be the RNG problem; to fix the RNG, basically load the game and get into a fight somewhere on the world map, save the game, and then try breeding. If it fails, then load again and fight another battle to change the RNG. That's more for fixing the 'always green male' problem though.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Blah on 2014-01-10 08:29:19
Ok so I swear I never encountered this bug in my numerous playthrough of the vanilla game. It fixed it. What is strange is that I checked the chocobo quest on SuperAcro's website, and he does not mention this bug there. I owe you one lol

As for the "always green male", I actually had "always green female" and no matter how much fighting I did, it never changed. I did all the junon reactor quest to change the rng and it would still give me a green female. I went to grab some enemy skills here and there and they would still give me a green female.

I eventually had to capture two other chocobos to get a blue male, this worked, but even after all that the two fking chickens I had captured first would still give me a green female. Go figure.

Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Zara8 on 2014-01-20 16:03:05
hey

i am having some trouble getting this hardcore mod patch to work for me

so please take a look at the screenshot

because everytime i press Detect, that small error box comes up

thanks
http://postimg.org/image/3vkb0is0f/
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: cmh175 on 2014-01-20 16:31:24
Are you running the patch through bootleg or separately? It'll run fine either way, but you'll probably have better luck with bootleg. Also are you running Windows 8? I've seen others get the game and mods to work fine on Win 8, but it seems more difficult. In my professional opinion Windows 8 is a POS. 
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Zara8 on 2014-01-20 16:34:31
Hey

I am running the patch under bootleg on my windows 8 HP Laptop

thanks
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: cmh175 on 2014-01-20 16:45:44
I see in the Tifa Tutorial you have to click "pick folder" make sure it shows the games install directory, think it needs to be to final fantasy\data. You also have the 2012 Remake selected, the tutorial says you need to select the Original 97. That's probably what's wrong, always double check directions while you're going through the steps.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Zara8 on 2014-01-20 17:08:34
Hey

my ff7 steam version game crashed on me

when selected new game

thanks
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: cmh175 on 2014-01-20 17:31:24
You need to post this in the Tifa Tutorial than with your app log. Make sure you post in the correct threads with the necessary information so you can be helped correctly. Otherwise your post will be over looked.

app log = main game install directory, find the applog.txt file. Post it as code. It's the button that looks like this #.

Hey

my ff7 steam version game crashed on me

when selected new game

thanks

No one can help you with this amount of info.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-01-22 03:15:07
Hmmm... You have the .Net framework installed, right? I guess you do, the patch wouldn't even have opened if not.
Try to uncheck multibuffer  and patch 1 file at a time (click restart after each file is patched).

You could also try to make a .txt file in the same directory as the Gjoerulv.exe named "log.txt" (without quotes), and then run it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: purple.platypus on 2014-04-04 22:48:21
I'm sorry if this is covered elsewhere, I tried searching but it has been "temporarily" down for at least the last few days, possibly much longer to judge by some of the other messages I've seen.

I hope this is a simple question but I suspect it isn't: How do I REMOVE this patch? So far it just makes the beginning of the game tedious and frustrating, and I think I'd rather try the "reasonable difficulty" version. Unfortunately I did not check the option to make backups (why isn't this checked by default?) so I don't have that option.

EDIT: I decided to just uninstall and reinstall the whole thing, but I'm still curious, for future reference, if there was an easier way.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2014-04-06 14:30:34
you 'remove' this patch by replacing kernel.bin kernel2.bin scene.bin flevel.lgp and ff7.exe with the vanilla versions

this is easy to deduce if you actually look at the patcher
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-04-06 20:14:25
If you did not make any backups then you could still copy the files Tenko mentioned. If you did make backups, there is an restore backups button in the patch app itself. Restoring backups is, of course, also possible to do manually.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ff7_mania7777 on 2014-04-10 05:31:27
Hello. First off, thank you for this mod. I wanted to replay ff7 after I found out about all the mods and stuff on the pc version, but hesitated bc I beat it like 10 times before and it was getting too easy. This is definitely a fun challenge.

I just have one question. I was using the save anywhere option, and stupidly saved while in the middle of climbing down a ladder. I then proceeded to turn the game off, and when I turned it back on I was standing on the ladder(not climbing it) and can't move at all in any direction. I've gotten pretty far so I was just wondering if there was any hope of somehow getting out of this situation before I started a new game and made sure not to turn off the game while on any ladders :'(. if you've heard of this before and know any way I can get out of it I'd really appreciate it.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Vgr on 2014-04-10 12:58:44
Change your location with Black Chocobo or use the Teleport Trainer to get directly in the beginning of the screen.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ff7_mania7777 on 2014-04-10 13:39:04
Thank you!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: tjd212 on 2014-04-18 00:46:03
Hi there,

I apologize if this has been covered already in the 68 pages of this thread, but in doing a quick search I have not been able to find an answer to my issue.

I'm trying to install the gjoerulv Hardcore mod to my FF7 game using Tifa's Bootleg. Using the Bootleg Front End, I am selecting "Gjoerulv's Hardcore Mod" as the difficulty I would like to play on. If I go and check the Mod Listing, it shows a green bar for the Gjoerulv-1.0.6.rar file in my game folder (C:\Games\FF7MODS\Tifa's Package [Bootleg040 Mods]), so it appears that everything should be fine. However, when I actually run the bootleg program, I am receiving three lines of error:

"Installing Hardcore Mod . . ."
"Gjoerulv-1.0.6.rar is missing!"
"Completed Disabling Hardcore Mode."


I've tried to go ahead and play the game anyway just as a double check, but it does in fact appear that the hardcore mod hasn't properly installed. It's bizarre to me that the error I'm getting is that it is unable to locate the .rar file when I can see if plain as day in my directory?

In addition, I have tried running the .exe file in the .rar hoping that patching would help me bypass this error, but to no avail. I've tried installing the mod where I can choose my own difficulty from a list in the BootLoader (Mode Switching - All Mods), but it has left out the hardcore mod and everything else is available.

Something I'm wondering about is that I was playing on "Reasonable Difficulty" mod before trying to move on to Gjoerulv's Hardcore mod. That mode seemed to play fine (it was taking more than one hit in the Opening Bombing Mission to kill the guards). Could there be some sort of problem in that I am trying to install the Hardcore difficulty patch after installing the Reasonable Difficulty mod? Would I have to uninstall everything and start over from scratch?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I can provide more information if I have not been clear enough with the technical difficulty I am running into.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: fatsacktony on 2014-04-20 01:06:02
Hey Joe, I'm just curious as to how you altered Stat leveling with this mod? Stats seem to grow at a faster rate and since i started your mod when i was already level 20 i seem to be out classed with where i'm at in the story (gongaga).
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-04-20 07:51:28
@tjd212
You may want to post in the bootleg thread. Did you try my installer? And make sure UAC (user account control on windows vista and after) is off.

@fatsacktony
The stats do not increase beyond what's normal. It may seem like it because I have changed and switched the growth patterns for some of the stats. HP and MP is somewhat increased on a few characters though.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: ff7_mania7777 on 2014-04-26 05:07:34
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question, but I searched everywhere and can't find anything about it. I'm at the nibelheim mansion, trying to open the safe...and the 20 seconds goes down in something more like 10 seconds. it's pretty much impossible to open the safe within the time limit...I think it's a result of the mod, because when i switch it back to normal mode it goes back to normal. if need be I can just beat it on normal and switch it back, but if possible i'd like to try to boss fight on hardcore mode. Do you have any suggestions on how I can fix this?
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2014-04-26 11:52:27
that's a timer issue related to aalis driver from what I remember
I had the same problem and fixed it somehow. I think with YAMP and the minigame limiter or something? it's been years so I don't remember too clearly
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: NovusAnimus on 2014-05-04 02:45:28
Does this mod do anything to rebalance the limit breaks, so all characters remain useful?

I've looked but haven't been able to find details on what was rebalanced.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6 FF7 PC
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-05-07 09:14:21
@NovusAnimus

Concerning attack/equip effects: I try to keep the mod vanillaish, but there are changes in an attempt to make the game a bit more balanced (not on difficulty, but to make fewer things obsolete). When it comes to limits, I made the lvl 4 ignore defence. Nothing more.


I'm planning on releasing a patch that works with steam. If anyone have some suggestions, improvements or bugfix in mind I would appreciate it!
EDIT: Steam patch released. 1.0.6s works wih steam. At least it works for me, let me know otherwise.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: arclitewut on 2014-07-11 19:27:09
this is the first time im playing a modded version of FF VII and i must say i really enjoy it so far :)

Any suggestions for grinding when im now at the north crater (the monsters there kicking ass :D), i got 3 materia caves (every cave except KotR)

also a thing which i wanted to ask, to grind sources you still need to morph the gelnika monsters or are there other monsters which also drop/morph to sources?

Regards
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2014-07-12 20:59:55
I grind the Blue Worm on the beaches near Mideel.

I believe for this mod, sources are still from the Gelinka.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: arclitewut on 2014-07-13 09:03:33
I grind the Blue Worm on the beaches near Mideel.

I believe for this mod, sources are still from the Gelinka.

alright thanks alot :) i was watching your playthrough when i needed some tips :D
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: arclitewut on 2014-07-15 21:09:36
Actually I just found out that you can steal Sources from the Armario's in the materia caves :)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2014-07-15 21:15:37
Well that's good to know. I stayed away from any random battles in the materia caves because they were tougher then the materia boss.
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: arclitewut on 2014-07-15 21:23:06
Well that's good to know. I stayed away from any random battles in the materia caves because they were tougher then the materia boss.

Yeah the only spell which damage them is pandoras box, same with the dragon there, though the dragon doesnt have anything good on him (just found a diamond bangle by stealing from him) was kinda dissapointing cuz that dragon takes a beating lol

also from the jinx you can steal a lot of different nuts and they can be 1 shotted by odin

EDIT: Still i think morphing the monsters in the ship is way more efficient since the monsters in the cave are really though like stated.
The Setup which i found works pretty well to morph sources (equipping yuffie with conformer + mega all and morph, barret has cover + magic counter/gravity, final attack + revive in case he gets critted a few times and cloud which basicly is using white wind for healing)
Title: Re: [REL/FF7] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod. v1.0.6s FF7 PC
Post by: Loseless on 2014-07-17 20:56:00
Hello everybody. New guy here.

I just tried the mod. Love some of the changes. Didn't like the materia and equipment changes so much, so I ended up not patching them.

As for the mod, I pretty much gave up before the scorpion robot. Got killed by the encounter with the machine thing, the blue guard and the tombstone thing. Used all my four potions and cast 6 spells before running out of MP and dying. Had to start the game again and died at the same point, before the save point. Tried a third time and managed to save, only to run out of potions before reaching the boss.

So I decided my strategy wasn't working. Tried to gain a few levels near the elevator, where the enemies are easier. Gained two levels but kept loosing after that. I only had two potions and whenever I ran into the three blue guys, it was game over. I can manage them in a straight fight with a few spells to back it up. But if they inflict darkness in one of my characters, its game over... I don't have enough potions to hold on and one character alone can't fight the three of them.

So yeah, the mod its pretty much broken as it is. I reckon there must be something I'm missing, or that perhaps not patching the materia and equipment deprived me of something I was supposed to have...

Any thoughts would be helpful. I think I'm gonna try "buying" potions with the save editor, as well as some accessory to ward of darkness. Maybe then I'll get past this part.

But from my experienced in RPGs and modding in general: changes should be made gradual. The player should have time to get the feeling and start experiencing the increased difficulty in a way they can actually managed. Right at the beginning there are no stores or inns. If the players screw up or are unlucky they're done for. That's not really something "difficult", but rather unfair. Rising the difficulty after sector 7 would make more sense, as the players has had the opportunity to buy materia and itens, along with getting Tifa.


PS: this is the most annoying forum I've ever seen when it comes to posting. There are many options to four check-up questions during registration, confirmation emails and more four check questions after each post. This is 2014, not 1999. Spambots aren't untouchable anymore. There are better security methods out there.
Title: Re: [FF7PC98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-07-17 22:56:38
The first reactor can be tricky because you start quite weak and can quickly run out of potions reaching/fighting Scorpion. I'd recommend camping up on the catwalk just outside the Reactor (where Wedge is) and fighting the MPs and Mono-Drives that appear there. They're quite weak and drop Potions, Grenades, and even Ethers. Once you've reached about Lv.7 and have a stockpile of, say 10 potions (this'll take time because you're using them to heal; try to get the most out of each potion) try venturing down and killing a Sweeper or three; they drop Bolt Plumes which can be very helpful against Scorpion (3000HP).

Once you get out of that Reactor, and maybe get past Air Buster who's also quite tough due to his counter-attacks, things'll open up a lot more. I'd recommend patching the Materia + Equipment though, it's part of the experience but then it's up to you. It's a great mod, it needs a commitment of time but I feel that it's definitely worth it. Felt like waging a campaign, something to really get your teeth into. There's some surprising status weaknesses for some bosses too so it's worth experimenting with items/spells/Lv.1 Limits if you get stuck later on.
Title: Re: [FF7PC98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Loseless on 2014-07-18 00:17:49
Thanks for reply, Sega Chief

That's what I've been trying to do, fight those little guys back there and avoid ones before the boss. I managed to hold them, but its not that profitable.

I do like hard RPGs. i've written a published Star Ocean 2 Universe Guide, for gods sake... And that hurts. But the game mechanic makes it so that if you really know what your doing, you can get past the early challenges. Here the same principle doesn't quite apply. Mainly because you have access to stores after you get through some difficult enemies. But still.

FF7's materia system provides a rather unique tactical framework to get past challenging enemies. Unfortunately, the more useful materias are only accessible by the end of the game, and that makes them, otherwise extremely interesting, quite pointless. Look at Magic Counter, for example. Amazing materia. Only useful for the third disc (or very late second). Same goes for Sneak Attack and a dozen more.

Sneak attacking with strong spells to damage though enemies at the beginning of a battle could be a great strategy. More if we had access to Mega-All (right know I'm not sure that ST spells hit all enemies in Sneak Attack with Mega-All. Life2 works with Final Attack this way if Mega-All is present, so it might do the same for Sneak Attack).

Anyway, forgive me late hour thoughts. I wrote a published FF7 guide in my country back in the days and worked a lot with materia strategies. I was one of those guys who managed to beat the weapons without KOTR, Mime, Limit spamming or source farming. My only regret was that the greatest combos and strategies could only be used against the giant tin cans, as we didn't had access to said materias before them, and had no one to use the combos on (maybe except for Master Tonberries).


So here goes a suggestion for the developers: many of these materias are very interesting early on. In a normal play-through they could be overpowered. But here that principle doesn't really apply. So promoting strategy would be a great way to hook old time players. Why not spread some of those great materia around disc one caves and optional treasure boxes and/or Gould Saucer? Have the players earn them.
Title: Re: [FF7PC98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: arclitewut on 2014-07-18 13:16:39
Yeah it takes awhile to get used to it, but hey it's a hardcore mod, there are other mods out there which dont have that much of a difficulty increase ( i imagine the nightmare mod is even better haha) but hey its the beginning of the game some more nice parts will come for you if you decide to continue on ;) Also note that demi is really useful in this version of the mod and if youre stuck on a boss you can still watch Sega Chief's youtube playlist which is linked in the first post of the thread.
Title: Re: [FF7PC98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-07-18 14:33:27
@Loseless
If you haven't tried already, try grinding at the suggested spot (outside the reactor at the bridge) 'til lvl 8, or 'til you have plenty of grenades. The granades are only usable in the 2 first reactors. At least when Shinra HQ is done, grenades are pretty useless. After Air Buster, the need for any grinding should be gone.

Concerning kernel changes etc, it's up to you of course, but there isn't really that much of a change. However, it's worth noting that the early game may suffer from not patching kernel, and mid-late game actually getting easier (Ribbon, Big Guard overpowerd etc.).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Loseless on 2014-07-24 21:26:05
Well, no one can blame me for not being sadistic. I managed to get to Shinra building and there two things driving me nuts.

1 - The ecounter with the two Shinra soldiers and the SOLDIER 3rd class. The guy pretty much killed me a dozen times. Plus having him put people to sleep before theres medicine to cure sleep and accessories to prevent sleep is just unfair. Add enough MP to cast Bolt 2 and Ice 2 like there's no tomorrow, plus a long range attack and the thing is harder than the bosses. I wanted to steal the Hardedge from him (supposing he still carries it) but with his level being 22 or 24 its pretty much impossible for me to have enough tries before he kills me.

2 - The fights seem to lack some balance. There are enemies that just deal too much damage for no reason. 250 per hit is too much for this part of the game without some grinding. The bosses deal less damage. Its just unreasonable. It feels like every fight might be a boss if the strong enemy comes and the bosses are just pushovers... I end up thinking that I would be better off just running from everything and rushing through the bosses. It's the same principle used in D&D games. Some DMs like to make each fight a boss fight. But that ends up ruining the experience, because when there's an actual boss fight, there are no surprises or challenges. The player already went through hell and survived. There should be a build up, where players get comfortable, then face challenges, then surpass something difficult, rinse and repeat, culminating in something really challenging. I can think at the top of my head of tree games that did this perfectly: Legend of Dragoon, FF8 and Chrono Cross. There were bosses, sure. But sometimes there would be a different kind of boss, with a different kind of music. More dark, more frightening and you just KNEW you we're in for some pain. If everything's difficult, there's no surprises. No difficulty peaks. It begins hard and stays hard.


Sorry for being blunt, but if there's one thing I like about games is balance. Theres something called a learning curve. Theres also another thing called difficulty spikes. A basic principle of RPGs is that enemies should become difficult at points when players have options regarding fighting them. In the first hours of any RPG there's hardly a difficult enemy, but that's because the players are still supposed to be learning and getting familiar with the mechanics. Throwing off a boss like Air Buster, wich made me level 'till 14 to beat it, has no point. The player can't go back and buy more materia. Also can't buy items. Can't have access to equipment or damaging items that would really help (except maybe Shrapnels, but they are a pain to get). So, it just comes to dying half a dozen times, figuring it out and then leveling to the point of having enough HP to survive it.

Now if we were talking about the boss in Junon, or others beyond there, that would be a whole different story. The player could change equipment, materia, use items or try using other party members. There's real strategy there.


I don't want to make all the work put into this seem like wrongly done. Its not that. I understand that some people like this kind of challenges. Even I used to love them when I was young and in other games more suited for strategical thinking (Front Mission 3, Star Ocean 2, etc). But even from a simple storyteller's point, there's an objective lack of balance.

Best regards
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-07-25 03:55:55
Cheers Loseless, thanks for feedback!

Sorry for being blunt, but if there's one thing I like about games is balance.

This mod is not for you I think. This is a hard mod not a story mod which main focus is balance.

Not to sound like an elitist, or to be rude  :evil:, but it's kinda hard to take your critique seriously. For instance, the Soldier 3rd also cast Sleepel and was noticeable harder than normal trash even in vanilla FF7. For the greater part, this mod basically is a stat scale from vanilla, which means your critique is valid for vanilla FF7 as well. Also, FF8 balanced? Seriously? It's probably one of the least balanced games (at least FF) ever created. I don't blame the creators much though. To make the enemies level with you and mix variables such as junction and GF in the equation, it's pretty damn hard to keep it balanced. No wonder it turned out like it did.

There should be a build up, where players get comfortable, then face challenges, then surpass something difficult, rinse and repeat, culminating in something really challenging.
Hmmmm... well, again not what my mod strives to do. I had a more dynamic approach.

It sounds like, from most of your sentences after this one, that you expected a complete new or different game. These sentences can easily be countered by: "Yes, you are right, but this is a mod".

For instance:

Theres something called a learning curve. Theres also another thing called difficulty spikes. A basic principle of RPGs is that enemies should become difficult at points when players have options regarding fighting them. In the first hours of any RPG there's hardly a difficult enemy, but that's because the players are still supposed to be learning and getting familiar with the mechanics.

Yes, you are right, but this is a mod.

This mod's focus is to boost the game's difficulty. I have no problem admitting it's not optimally balanced. I find the dynamic difficulty curve much more entertaining imho. Even then, this mod is pretty balanced all things considered.


In any case, it doesn't sound sound like this mod is for you. Unless you convert to your younger self, you may want to check out the Reasonable Difficulty mod or Sage Chief's mod named New Threat. They're more user friendly I believe.  ;)

On a slightly different note, I have gotten all sorts on feedback on this. From "waaaayy too hard" to "waaaayy too easy".  :-o

Again, I don't want to sound like a bitch here, sorry if I did.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tenko Kuugen on 2014-07-25 06:57:41
I'm one of the "too easy" people and you see where this has led me, heh.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: codemonkey on 2014-08-05 16:38:42
I really like the mod.  It's the first time I've modded FF7 having completed it several times in the past, it's a refreshing change.  I'm currently stuck on getting Beta from the Zolom right after acquiring the buggy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KGn3orGmCw (using the same method as Sega Chief).  I've fought him dozens of times now and managed to get him to 6hp in one try, which was incredibly frustrating... But I'm sure it'll feel great when it finally works!

I think I've found every variation of this method failing, including Yuffie landing a hit for 7777 damage and killing him, not sure how I got 7th heaven considering she was on ~300 health.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Iceboundphoenix on 2014-08-06 00:57:50
I have tackled everything in this mod except sephiroth and jenova. I can say that the mod takes know how grit and quite a bit of luck. All the fights I ran into had a strategy or peculiar method to coming out on top. You have to weigh the benefit of healing now or later and in most cases its not always one way or the other. The mako reactor was a thrill to go through when first tackling the mod. I quickly grasped the cost benefit of using my bolt plume to kill a formation to not take any hits and receive a bolt plume in return all the while getting hp pots back as well. I didn't gain a bolt plume but I did not lose one either and also came out with some healing potential for later on. This is a recurring theme for the majority of the mod you have to play smart and really weigh your choices. I personally did not enjoy the replacements for the master materias though as by the time you can get these materia they don't appear to have any practical use for me at the stage in the game your at when you get them. The materia would have been incredibly useful playing through the mod mid way point. The materia doesn't do anything to really help you in the final encounters such as the weapons fights including omega which I will touch up on more here in a minute. Now for jenova and sephirtoh the master materia replacements don't bring anything either. Don't get me wrong the ideas are good but I feel are just poorly implemented do to the point at which you obtain them they bring no practical use because by the time you get to this point in the game the only fights you have left are fights where this materia can't one hit kill them or even banish them. The omega weapon fight is honestly from what I can tell a rng fest from hell. Max stats don't do anything for you when you tackle this beast as with a party of 9999hp limit will get utter owned and quite thoroughly might I add. Omega has many party wide sweep attacks that are bound to hit at least one person or sometimes even your whole team. Your tank also can't stand a chance against him as even with back row + sadness+ dragon force+ barrier + Ziedrich + even Shield status can't save them from some of his attacks which ignore all defense boosts that are possible in the game. This creates a problem though the fight deviates from being creative and yields itself to are you lucky enough to dish out the most damage possibly in the least amount of time for you to kill him. alienating the tank role which seemed to be a very prominent and important tactic to hold onto and use throughout the mod and dismiss and throw out the window for this fight is disappointing. With KOTR dealing a butt ton of damage and omnislash respectively along with other limits you had to put something in there to protect omega from getting owned. So I understand the invincible mode that omega employs when getting hit with too much damage too fast. This act though turns the whole fight into a can you survive just long enough for you to hit him again? I would say its a no even with 3 final attack materias and all kinds of materia set ups the fight yields to nothing but are you lucky enough? I can understand if the fight was a very skill and very know how of the games mechanics but its not its all up to rng and what the boss uses because at the end of the day your tank will not survive long enough for you to really come out in the end unless you get there based off rng. I would know this though and speak through experience as I attempted this fight well over 200 times. With traditional methods I never came close to when I just used 4 hero drinks on cloud used his omnislash + mime through the whole fight getting to the green omega and hitting him 3 times before I died. Enough rambling though the mod is a very enjoyable experience and you have to be on your toes the whole way through hence hardcore. Except that omega hes just a u mad bro? ps. save yourself the trouble and make sure to play on break hp limit or your going to basically be crying about half way through when things just start killing your tank for one hit most of the time.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-08-08 22:39:59
@Iceboundphoenix
I wouldn't say Omega is purely rng. It's intended for a maxed out party. Although rng and luck admittedly is a significant part of the battle, having proper stats, timing and strategy is the way to win. With max stats and, for example, a mystile omega will miss most of the time.

It's also assumed you have plenty of megalixirs, hero drinks, final attacks etc. Thus Omega is meant to curbstomp any setup.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Iceboundphoenix on 2014-08-09 09:48:25
Oh believe me I got plenty items to do something against this guy but even with a party will all mystiles and 3 final attack materias this guy is a no no for a 9999hp party. He is rly annoying since he is always smacking me for max hp.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2014-08-09 13:55:26
You can beat him with a 9999 party. In fact, Sega Chief does it in his video links (OP) with only one member at 9999. This fight definitely requires the most refined strategy of any other bosses in the mod, but it's not impossible at 9999.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-08-09 14:59:23
Thing is, I was very, very lucky in that fight and the strategy was mostly cutting out the RNG as much as possible and making the tactic streamlined so I could react faster on Active ATB and also reduce fatigue from re-tries. From what I've seen, a 30,000HP team seems to be a much better fit for both that fight and the last two bosses of the game (and maybe the two optional WEAPONs as well). Both Bizarro and Safer's attacks usually go straight past 9999 unless you have a full compliment of damage-reducing modifiers up, and if they land a critical then it's usually not enough. Omega is slightly worse in that his Adrenaline has a Hero Drink effect so that quickly pushes it past the tipping point.

I don't think any fight can be said to be purely RNG, the player's set-up always makes an impact. But the Omega fight has a lot more than the others. Most of the counter-attacks are triggered at random, and his use of attacks is also dependent on randomised variables. Add to the mix the defence-ignoring attacks that are coming from a 255 stat with a 30-100% stat modifier and you have a scenario where you need to go the dodging route, which is never 100% due to the priority order of Lucky Hit and Lucky Dodge.

Another thing with 9999 teams is that their damage output is effectively 1/3 of what a 30,000 team can put out. A 30,000 team can potentially defeat the Green Phase of Omega in 2-3 attacks, which makes a fairly consistent strategy possible. A 9999 team needs to hit him 6+ times but that's considering an Omnislash that's hitting for 9999 damage each time; in a fight like this, that limit break Mime chain will be lost at some point with the possibility of successfully recovering it several times over being very unlikely due to the high disruption. As you need a defence-ignoring attack to effectively combat his inevitable 510 defence, the alternative is KOTR, which can deal either 4000-9000 damage per strike depending on how you've set yourself up (or if he has Wall active), which translates as even more successful hits needed on Green Omega. This means with a 9999 team you're going to be fighting a maxed Omega at some point and that you're going to be fighting him for much longer; you'll be seeing a lot more attacks and counter-attacks, half of which have that defence-ignoring flag requiring a dodging set-up; so that's where the odds of a successful fight start to really rack up. The longer you fight the guy, the longer your odds get.

One thing I was never sure of; was the mod meant for 9999 teams or 30,000 teams? Based on the last two bosses I was thinking it was 30,000 teams but I never see any mention of the break HP/Damage limit being required or recommended. Dziugo is credited for his mod in the credit section, but it's got in brackets 'for testing purposes'. Unless it has already and I've missed it being mentioned, I reckon that mod or similar should be recommended on the front page or in the installer. I just feel that it seems to be a more natural fit for the end-game of this mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Iceboundphoenix on 2014-08-09 18:24:36
Sega pretty much summed it all up in a bow for what I could have said in response lol. But yes this fight is one hell of a knockout and definitely gets worse the longer it draws out. I had fun in getting my arse kicked and that was the beauty of the hardcore mod. Omega is indeed the most hardcore fight I have ever exp. ps. The defense ignoring move doe whoosh.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-08-09 19:24:31
One thing I was never sure of; was the mod meant for 9999 teams or 30,000 teams? Based on the last two bosses I was thinking it was 30,000 teams but I never see any mention of the break HP/Damage limit being required or recommended. Dziugo is credited for his mod in the credit section, but it's got in brackets 'for testing purposes'. Unless it has already and I've missed it being mentioned, I reckon that mod or similar should be recommended on the front page or in the installer. I just feel that it seems to be a more natural fit for the end-game of this mod.

Limit breaking is definitely recommended for people with a more casual approach, other then that it's obviously easier with limit breaking. It's NOT meant for limit breaking. But it's tested with limit breaking to see how much damage actually is dealt etc. With a visual representation of damage I found it easier to "calculate" what necessities there were to make it drop below 9999.

I can understand a need for a recommendation from me however, as I created it lol.
Basically:
NO LB = For people who wants a challange.
LB = For a more casual approach (but still hard endgame).

With LB, there is a point where you basically can curbstomb any enemy. As they still deal less than 9999 and you doing 10 000+ with more than 10 000 HP. But, as mentioned above, the endgame(ish) will still be hard as the enemy damage ratio increase. Still with LB, this mod is meant for the FF7 veteran type of players. Doing a "lets play" will be frustrating in any case I think.

If you made it to the last bosses and Omega without LB, I would suggest trying with LB if you're stuck. No shame in that. Safer is, admittingly, extremely hard without LB. I have only beaten him a few times without LB myself. One good trick (but hard to do), is to cary over Omislash from Bizz, and mime it as much as you can before Cloud dies. Cloud will eventually die unless you are extremely lucky. Finally finish him of with KOTR.

And just for fun: A find a fun strat vs Bizz is Vincent's final limit break + 4 Hero Drinks. And hope for no crits (crit = instant kill).

Finally, as most people probably not are FF7 nerds, LB would be recommended. I'll see if I can include it in the OP. Just need a good way to word it.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Iceboundphoenix on 2014-08-09 20:12:49
Yeah I tried soo many strats its unheard of like seriously omega knows me by name at this point. I have tried and the amount of more tries just makes me cry. Omega is just that annoying for me personally I just want to strangle the damn guy. Breaking the damage limit is definitely more casual and I honestly only did it once or twice on omega just to for the hell of it and that got me nowhere lol.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Genosh on 2014-08-14 17:50:49
Hello, i cant to patch a battle.lpg with Unshaded models 1.64.
I have a PC version of game.
Problem in patching of battle.lpg file. It stoped on 67%. Who anybody had same problem? I tried on several computers and it not helps. My main PC with 12 Gb RAM + 20 Gb swap file.

Settings: (http://content.screencast.com/users/genosh/folders/Jing/media/d30284ca-32e1-47fa-b3ed-84c91429fc17/2014-08-14_2148.png)

I want to play in FF7 with cool models and hard mode  :cry:
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-08-14 22:11:19
have you tried doing it in reverse order? 1st patch this mod on an original file, then patch with the other (the model one).

I see you also have the ff7.exe checked. Try without.

It may be a problem if the other mod add some files to battle lgp, but the patch is supposed to work around that.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Genosh on 2014-08-16 08:05:41
have you tried doing it in reverse order? 1st patch this mod on an original file, then patch with the other (the model one).

I see you also have the ff7.exe checked. Try without.

It may be a problem if the other mod add some files to battle lgp, but the patch is supposed to work around that.

Hello :)  my problem was is solved by other way.
I patched game with hardcore mode without hd models. Then i launched my game via 7thHeaven software + Models pack. This works fine :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: WolfMan on 2014-09-12 22:01:03
Can anyone who has recently installed the current version of Hardcore mod please do me a huge favor. PM me the flevel.lgp from the FF7\Data\Field?? It has to be done from someone who has manually installed the gameplay mod. If you used 7H it won't work. I need this so I can patch some animations that have problems when using my red werewolf mod. This would be soooo helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Vgr on 2014-09-13 02:29:31
Why don't you install it manually? You can install one file at a time if that's the issue.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: WolfMan on 2014-09-13 02:37:04
I'm trying to make this user friendly for everyone without harming any of their gameplay mods. There are only a few edits I am requesting to make. NONE of them effect the mod's purpose or integrity. They are a couple of animation edits to 4 field scenes in all. They are due to the fact that Red Werewolf stands up.
1. blin68_2 - Reds 1st appearance - I change the "Attack Aeris" animation and the "Attack Hojo" animation
2. blin70_1 - Put Red in handcuffs
3. blin70_2 - Put Red in handcuffs
4. Unknown - Adjust the attack mode when Schizo approches

That's it. The rest just uses the all of the regular animations that game already contains
I've tested it in vanilla and this doesn't effect anything else.

Point is, installing everyone manually is going to take a lot of time and I was looking for assistance from someone who has it handy. :) That's all
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's &quot;Hardcore&quot; mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: WolfMan on 2014-09-13 06:05:42
I got it figured out
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Artemis on 2014-10-28 21:00:22
Hi there, i´m playing again with ff7 and i finally decide to use bootleg and mods so i install also hardcore mod. But I have a noobish question, how can I know if it´s working? I dont really see the difference...
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Vgr on 2014-10-28 22:33:20
Check in your FF7 folder. If there are folders such as mods, shaders, then it was installed most likely. If there's only save and data, it wasn't.

Also, the hardcore mod had to be manually installed during the process (an installation box pops up, and you have to select to install), so if you skipped it, it wouldn't have installed.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Artemis on 2014-10-28 22:49:26
Thanks for answering! I install it manual but I cant see if there is something i can see. I pass the scorpion but still to easy and I read that you have low potions and is hard to get full life in that boss so... Also I read you have different start equip but still i dont have changes x_x

Edit: Ooookay, Is a problem of the languaje installation, I have spanish over english and I install english mod but the game is spanish, now it´s difficult, using limit on first battle ^^
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-10-29 09:54:20
If it's working, you should see/feel the harder difficult immediately.

Edit:
Oh, there was another page.  :-D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-11-14 04:01:26
And that's that.

http://youtu.be/bpSf30QPVys
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: eternal248 on 2014-11-14 19:57:02
Hey, I've been browsing these forums for ages now (I thought I had an account, but apparently I didn't...) and I came upon this mod. I'm attempting to get it working but I'm encountering some issues. I patched everything, but when I select New Game, it takes me to a black screen. Nothing happens afterwards and I need to Ctrl+Alt+Delete out of it. I probably made some noobie mistake or something, but any insight would be appreciated!

EDIT: This is for the original PC release, not the Steam version.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-11-21 01:56:17
Still having problems? I'm assuming you're using the English version. Try Ali's cgd? http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14910.0 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14910.0) and play in windowed mode. At least then you don't need to ctrl+alt+del every time. S for what is the problem I have little to go on. Have you tried re-installing the game? Requires full install.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Robgatti on 2014-11-25 02:44:47
Is there a list of OTHER mods COMPATIBLE with this?
Getting into Bootleg for the first time and such and I'm highly interested in this, but I don't want to have conflicts and such.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Vgr on 2014-11-25 11:02:03
If you install it with Bootleg, it makes sure that it's compatible.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-11-26 03:53:15
I'm thinking of another release. There are still some things that bugs me. For example KOTR materia guardian attack animation that might crash the game. Are there any suggestions on anything else (fix, improvements, etc)? It will in any case not be a heavy update. If you beat it once before you're not missing much.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-11-26 05:33:17
Are there any suggestions on anything else (fix, improvements, etc)?

Well, it's possible to run/escape from the Noxiancardicae fight, ending the battle and letting you keep the Materia; that's the only real glitch/oversight that I remember. There might be a typo or two in the SOLDIER Squad dialogue, but I can't remember what it was specifically.

As far as improvements go, I reckon there could be a reduction in the number of pincer attacks, converting them into regular/back attacks. Maybe certain physical attacks like the counter-attacks used by the SOLDIER Squad could have their critical-hit chance removed. Basically a little RNG trimming here and there.  Demon's Gate and Carry Armor could maybe stand to have a slight boost though; people didn't complain enough about them.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: seenfullr on 2014-12-08 19:14:04
is their anyway to change the animation or something like that for the KOTR guardian crash bug because i cant defeat him because of this crash
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-12-08 19:42:27
If you download the Proud Clod editor tool, you can change the animation for Modron manually. After downloading the tool, give it admin permissions and then open the 'data' folder inside the FF7 folder. For Steam, you're looking for:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\data\lang-en\battle

For the original 1998, it's:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\data\battle

Open the .bin file called 'scene' with Proud Clod. Go to entry 254 (this contains the data for Ma Bino Gi On) and then click on the attack 'Modron' toward the bottom of the list. You want to change this attack's Animation ID from BC to something else; 5A is a safe one.

When you've done this, click File then Save/Create Scene.bin and click No when asked to check the Kernel (it shouldn't need to be synched after such a minor change).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: seenfullr on 2014-12-08 20:25:37
i did all that but its not saving the changes keeps reverting back to the original and the problem might also be their is no save/create bin just create
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-12-08 20:53:27
Create & Save are the same function, it's just that in newer PrC builds I think it was re-worded from Create to Save. Try setting PrC to run as admin (and unblock it if that option is there) and check if the scene.bin has writing permissions (right-click it then go into Properties. From the Security tab, set Users to have full permissions). Just to make sure, move the scene.bin to the desktop as well and edit it while it's there before moving it back into it's original folder.

One last thing, make sure you're editing the right scene.bin. If you have more than one instance of FF7 on the PC then make sure you're editing the correct one. There was a problem that popped up once for another mod where the guy was patching his files but launching another instance of the game from a different directory.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: seenfullr on 2014-12-08 21:02:50
ok i did all that and its still not working apparently its giving me an error that im trying to load with an incorrect format 0x8007000B
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2014-12-08 21:34:42
Never heard of that before, I'll PM you a patch with the fix.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: seenfullr on 2014-12-09 08:54:39
ok i got your patch but the animation remains unchanged when i opened PrC to look at the file the hyper animation is still configured for the move which is i believe is the culprit for the crash. just to be clear its the steam version the file is under my D drive im running as admin but it refuses to change the scene in i even replaced a new PrC changed both data folders scene bins, im literally at a dead end
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2014-12-12 08:38:28
If you're willing to wait a few days I'll have a new release ready that fixes that "bug". I kinda facepalm at myself for choosing that animation. I knew it was buggy.

EDIT: Actually, new release will have to wait 'til after newyears. I'm on vacation now and away from my "mod office".
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-01-05 22:03:52
Hello all.
Is it normal that in the 65th in shinra's building( where there is the Midgar puzzle ), when I open the last safe, a boss appears ? Composed of 3 very strong shinra guards( whith spear weapons ).
I hadn't had this bosse before with hardcore mod.
He hits me at 400, and I have 550 hp max on each character  :-D :o
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-01-05 22:15:43
That's normal, those guys are a new boss fight that surprises the player when they open that chest. You have a few options; you can either confuse them with a Loco Weed grabbed from the regular enemies in that area, or you can use Barret's Mindblow to drain out their MP and give yourself some breathing space. Sadness, Back-Row, Cross Slash, and some use of Defend/Cover will mitigate damage.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-01-05 22:17:09
Thank you fort the fast response sega chief :)
Yeah I tried loco weed, it helped, but not enough. I will try your advices :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-01-07 14:03:00
Just a heads up: they counter everything. Recklessly attacking is an instant game over. 

EDIT: The next releasehave to be postponed yet again. Too much to do at work.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: DeliciousWhales on 2015-02-26 13:30:04
Hello,

I am using version 1.0.6 of this mod on 1997 game version and are experiencing a problem in Shinra building level 65. Currently I am fighting in the area collecting Loco Weed to defeat the new boss.

The issue is with the enemy formation 1x Hammer Blaster and 2x Sword Dance. If I kill Hammer Blaster first, the battle seizes up and I must exit with Alt-F4. It isn't a game freeze up since animations and music still run. But battle time freezes so no player character or enemy can make a move and running away is impossible. If ATB mode is Recommended or Wait, the timer gets stuck on "Wait". If ATB is Active, the timer still says "Time" but time still stops nonetheless.

I am not sure if this is a FF7 or Hardcore problem. From what I can tell this isn't a default FF7 enemy formation? At least according to the formation list on final fantasy wikia, Hammer Blaster and Sword Dance shouldn't appear in the same formation normally.

Sorry if this has been reported before, 70 pages is a long thread...

Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-02-26 15:21:54
That problem has popped up a few times, but it's a bit odd because I remember looking for the cause and not being able to find it. If I had to guess, it's got something to do with Hammer Blaster's 'base' which is treated as a separate enemy and has it's own formation settings (though it can't be targeted).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Klash15 on 2015-03-02 01:48:07
Hey I've been playin this mod for a bit now and I just finished the submarine quest and got the submarine. So I'm currently in gather everything possible mode and I notice the few ultimate weapons I've gathered are well completely shit...is this normal do they get better or should I just not bother with them in this mod?

Also the materia cave bosses surprised the fuck outta me because i thought it was only summon materia that got an extra boss. Fu sir for adamantai. <3
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-03-04 15:35:40
Hey I've been playin this mod for a bit now and I just finished the submarine quest and got the submarine. So I'm currently in gather everything possible mode and I notice the few ultimate weapons I've gathered are well completely strawberries...is this normal do they get better or should I just not bother with them in this mod?

Also the materia cave bosses surprised the fern outta me because i thought it was only summon materia that got an extra boss. Fu sir for adamantai. <3

The ultimate weapons are still the best weapons. They all have damage modifiers.

Barret's depends on how much AP the weapon is equiped with (ie Master mime gives 1000000 AP).
Tifa's relies on her limit gauge and limit lvl.
Cloud and Cait depends on current HP / Max HP.
XIII and Cid like above only MP.
Vincent is the most reliable as it only depends on how his kill count. Kills by summons do not count.
Yuffie depends on enemy lvl. Damage is pretty constant for each individual enemy.

@DeliciousWhales
I'll be...
I was sure I fixed that. From the top of my head I can't remember exactly what the problem was, but I'll look into it. Thanks for the report :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: DeliciousWhales on 2015-03-12 09:11:35
I must say this mod is super awesome. Finally the game is actually hard. Especially good for a mob farmer like me who tends to end up way overpowered. I'm only up to Nibelheim on level 35, and I have Beta, Laser, Mighty Guard and still I can get thrashed sometimes. Without those it would take me several minutes each battle using normal level 2 magic heh. I like that enemies do a lot of status attacks and have a range of high defenses and immunities.

Though I have been tinkering around in kernel.bin and scene.bin to change things to my liking. Not having master materia is a deal breaker for me, it's just too fun to get them after all the effort levelling AP. I did give sephiroth 3.3m HP and 225 def/magdef to make up for it. I wonder how many KOTR summons it will take to kill him....
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-03-12 21:45:48
Glad to hear you like it! Also great that you edit it to your own liking. This mod is more of a casual(ish) hard mod for those who are familiar with the game. That being said, I know the ending has caused several headaches. 3 mill sounds a bit much... imo that is... In my head, 1 mill sounds good as a highest tier max HP. But that's just me.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: DeliciousWhales on 2015-03-13 04:17:06
Yeah 3m probably too much, I will see how it goes. In the original game I was always annoyed at Emerald Weapon being stronger than Sephiroth. I thought it would be better that killing Emerald and getting the Master Materia is like the prerequisite to killing Sephiroth. I'm hoping this way the battle will be ~30 to 45 minutes.

I have found that the game was super hard at first but past about Junon or Gold Saucer it's become a quite a bit easier, probably because of grinding for gil and AP. If it's not hard enough I guess I could edit the enemies to make them a bit harder. Or perhaps you have more difficulty surprises down the road a bit.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: DeliciousWhales on 2015-03-18 11:25:27
One other thing to report, for me getting killed by Hadadigor/Yamigor/Levant causes the game to crash to desktop. Not always maybe half of the time.

Edit: Well it stopped happening after I died a few times. Weird.

Finally killed them so I guess it doesn't matter now heh.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-03-25 20:36:58
There shouldn't be anything particular crash prone about that battle. I guess it's just random crashes. I tend to get a lot of random crashes periodically.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Vir on 2015-05-26 03:25:59
I presume this isn't a bad reason to bump the topic.

"# The character's stats are somewhat changed to make 'em more unique."

Is there any chance you could elaborate on this, or direct me to some post where I can get a long view of the characters' relative stats? I hope I didn't miss it while searching. Or if I use Black Chocobo to level my hard mode save's characters up (to test their stats: I like the difficulty as it is), will that level them in the same way modded play would?

Very much enjoying the new balance, thank you.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-05-26 13:35:13
Don't know if it's hardcore mod related, but when I got the first limit 2 level of cloud, I had the first level 3 limit too, meteorain, without having the second limit of level 2  :o

Did you have that issue too ?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-05-26 15:28:34
I presume this isn't a bad reason to bump the topic.

"# The character's stats are somewhat changed to make 'em more unique."

Is there any chance you could elaborate on this, or direct me to some post where I can get a long view of the characters' relative stats? I hope I didn't miss it while searching. Or if I use Black Chocobo to level my hard mode save's characters up (to test their stats: I like the difficulty as it is), will that level them in the same way modded play would?

Very much enjoying the new balance, thank you.

I don't think the save editor will take the adjusted stat curves into account, but when you level them up once in-game those stats should (mostly) correct themselves...except the game can't decrease a character's stats so if the Hardcore mod stat is lower then the game won't change it. For instance, if Cloud got 70 strength from lv.50 using Black Chocobo, but his Strength in Hardcore for Lv.50 is 40, then it'll stay at 70 when he levels up, rather than being adjusted down to 40. Might be wrong about that, but that's what seemed to happen when I tested a change in stat curves recently.

As for character stats, you could compare them directly if you can get the Wall Market tool working. Opening the default kernel (assuming you kept a back-up) and the hardcore mod's kernel (have two instances of Wall Market running) would let you do this from the character data/initial data tab. There's also a slider so you can check the stat range for each level, which would let you compare them as they develop throughout the game.

Don't know if it's hardcore mod related, but when I got the first limit 2 level of cloud, I had the first level 3 limit too, meteorain, without having the second limit of level 2  :o

Did you have that issue too ?

That's not an issue, it's possible to unlock the next Limit level without getting the 2nd Limit on each level. You won't be able to learn the Lv.4 Limit though until all Limits have been unlocked, however.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-05-26 15:30:37

That's not an issue, it's possible to unlock the next Limit level without getting the 2nd Limit on each level. You won't be able to learn the Lv.4 Limit though until all Limits have been unlocked, however.

Thanks ! But I used only the level 1 limit, without setting the level2 limit before deblocking the level3
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Vir on 2015-05-26 15:50:54
Thanks for the tip about Wall Market, Sega Chief. I'll try that soon.

For the record, I haven't had any limit oddities, ManuBBXX.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-05-26 16:21:58
Thanks ! But I used only the level 1 limit, without setting the level2 limit before deblocking the level3

You don't have to have Lv.2 Limit set in order to unlock Lv.3; you can unlock Lv.2 and Lv.3 without ever changing from Limit Lv.1 (though you can't unlock the 2-2, and 3-2 limits until you've used 2-1 and 3-1 the required number of times).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-05-26 18:48:13
Okayy, I got it !  :)
Thanks Sega chief ! Will try your great NT Mod when I would finish the game in Hardcore mod  ;) ;)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-05-26 22:26:49
I presume this isn't a bad reason to bump the topic.

"# The character's stats are somewhat changed to make 'em more unique."

Is there any chance you could elaborate on this, or direct me to some post where I can get a long view of the characters' relative stats? I hope I didn't miss it while searching. Or if I use Black Chocobo to level my hard mode save's characters up (to test their stats: I like the difficulty as it is), will that level them in the same way modded play would?

Very much enjoying the new balance, thank you.

On stat increase, Sega Cheif explained it pretty well. All character have curves attached to their stats. There is some randomness involved, but basically every stat will strive to follow set curve. If you do some save editing and increase the stats by, lets say, 10, you will have to do some leveling before the stats will "naturally" evolve. But they will never decrease upon leveling.

What I mean by making them more unique is just that. Make their stat stand out more. Barret = good tank; bad mage. Aerith = good mage; bad tank. etc. The actuall effect on gameplay is somewhat meager though. In the end, any character could have any role in battle if set up properly.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-05-27 01:49:03
I quite liked the character strengths/weaknesses in this mod. Later on in the game, Cait Sith is godly as a 'Lucky' Tank, Vince makes for a great but squishy mage, and Red/Yuffie are fantastic for dominating ATB.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Vir on 2015-05-27 04:27:06
Thanks for the input, guys. I made a spreadsheet of stats as seen in Wall Market. I didn't know I could see the stat curves with that program, but I've got all the data I want, now!

I'm all for the stat specialization: I preferred to build the characters to specialize their stats anyway.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-06-10 13:06:09
Hi guys.

i try to fighr the lost number boss( for having Vincent ) .
I'm around level 26, with 1500hp each on my characters, and this boss hit me at 1900 lol..

Does I have to farm level 30, or boost super HP materia before fight it ? Or a lot of mighty guard ?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-06-10 16:07:42
Is the 1900 damage coming from the Physical form's Lost Blow? I always found the Magic side to be easier to fight, both in this mod and the default game. What you could try though is a Poison strategy; use Sense on Lost Number and then Poison him. Your team should bring him down close to half HP, and then stop attacking. After 16 or so ticks from Poison, he should die without transforming. If you don't use Poison, then Slow + Stop can give you a significant edge. Going in with Seal Evil or some Hourglasses (I think you can get them from Kimera Bugs in Gongaga) should give you some breathing space.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Bowser9 on 2015-06-10 19:11:56
@ManuBBXX If you really must tank, use sadness. It will bring the damage down to where you will survive one hit.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-06-11 03:52:15
@ManuBBXX Are you using Sadness? If not, use tranquilizers. Can be used outside of battle if you didn't know. Sadness = less damage taken and slower limit accumulation.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-06-11 08:28:11
Yeah, I knew that, thanks for the tip Gjoerulv.

Otherwise, I alwas fight in the rear line with your mod, cause ennemies hit too strong :D
Do you succeed playing in the first line ?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-06-11 23:09:23
From time to time I have characters in front. Mostly in the beginning of the game. Faster limit breaks that way. Only against trash though, bosses usually hits too hard.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2015-10-16 19:04:06
So I was thinking about doing Nightmare but if that's so incomplete this looks like a good alternative.

I'm just curious about one thing. Does this mod alter stat growth to give everyone clearly defined roles they can't power through with materia? I like job classes more than "everyone can do anything."
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-10-17 00:07:06
So I was thinking about doing Nightmare but if that's so incomplete this looks like a good alternative.

I'm just curious about one thing. Does this mod alter stat growth to give everyone clearly defined roles they can't power through with materia? I like job classes more than "everyone can do anything."

Kinda... Barret is the best tank for instance. Aerith best caster. You are slightly more restricted in this mod. To a certain degree. Using Barret as main caster is not smart.  In the end (that is, at the end of the game) anyone can have any role if set up properly. But checking your characters stat in any case is smart.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-11-04 14:37:21
Little 'problem' here.
I'm around level35 and I decide to go exp at mideel region.
But, all enemies here hits me at 2500 and received 0damage.. ( the ennemies who grow at the very beginning of the battle ).
Is it normal ?  ;D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-11-05 04:40:57
@ManuBBXX
Those are the Qwim type enemies? Yes they grow big and are immune to damage. Whenever they "take a rest" they become immune. When you attack them, they should temporarily lose immunity until they rest again. They rest when the message box says so. I can't recall the exact wording but it's something like "Qwim is taking a rest".
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-11-05 11:55:09
Yeah, it's exactly that message :)
But why are the so hard to beat ? ^^
I want to farm a little before goign the Yuffie's Wutai quest, and Mideel is a great region for that.
Otherwise, where, at lvl 30 ?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-11-05 14:32:19
Beat all other enemies 1st, if any. Then time your attacks. To damage it you must have 2 attacks lined up. for example: Tifa use a normal attack to remove immunity, then Vincent has a Ultima queued right afterwards. 3rd character should stand by to heal, etc.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-11-07 17:23:00
Thanks you but in fact, the real problem, is all ennemies in mideel area one shots me ^^ Hits betwenn 2500 and 3500 damage, and all my party members are in the back line...
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2015-11-07 21:43:04
Thanks you but in fact, the real problem, is all ennemies in mideel area one shots me ^^ Hits betwenn 2500 and 3500 damage, and all my party members are in the back line...

Try a combination of Sadness + Barriers; together with Back Row, that'll mitigate physical damage down by 30%, 50%, 50% respectively. Defend can reduce it by another 50%, if you have someone with a maxed Cover use it (with a Counter Attack Materia maybe) then that could help too.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-11-09 08:56:39
At lvl 30 there should be other places more suitable. For instance wutai area. Just don't go up to the bridge to start the yuffie quest. Or outside temple of the ancients.

If you consistently die in 1 area, then leveling in a lower lvl area would be faster. Less exp but at least you won't have to reset due to game over all the time.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2015-11-09 09:56:34
Yes, thanks Gjoerulv, and Sega chief( HS, but really can't wait to test too your NT Mod in the next 7H catalog update ) :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Ethario on 2015-12-11 01:03:51
Does this mod include damage limit removers ? Or is it balanced around 9999 damage.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-12-11 16:52:52
@Ethario
No it is not included. I recommend using Ali's custom graphics driver for that.

Note that it isn't necessary to break damage to beat the game, but if you prefer a more casual approach on the endgame (end of disc 2+) you'd want it. The last bosses are a real pain in the ass without (unless you do it the easy way, as shown in Segachief's lvl 1 playthrough)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Ethario on 2015-12-11 17:24:59
casual..... CASUAL ? If you give you your word this game is "decently" beatable (we are not talking about 4 hour long fights right ?) with no damage cap, I'll give it my best shot without :p
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-12-11 23:05:34
A MORE casual approach lol. It's still hard (some über hardcore player still thinks it's easy though).

If any fight last longer than an hour you are doing something wrong haha. The hardest bosses should take 45 mins at the most.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Ethario on 2015-12-12 00:00:30
I'm not that hardcore and playing the game up to junon has given me enough challenge already  :lol: . This damn hellrider VR2 (or whatever its called) near junon is giving me a rough time tho. I managed to silence him and get into a position where I can steal from him but I think my steal chances are 0% must have spend an hour stealing from him, its hard to let go of that unknown loot. Do you know what i'm missing out on or is it to hard to check what he has :p

Having a lot of fun so far btw. Some nice suprises, the difficulty is certainly enough for me. The silver chocobo fight was abit weird tho felt bad for killing the poor thing.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-12-12 01:19:11
That rider has X-potions. Nothing to fret over.

Yeah... that Silver Chocobo fight... I can't recall exactly what I was thinking. I guess I just wanted a bizarre fight to reflect on the silliness of chocomog. But it didn't turn out too good. In hindsight I should have done something else.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Kaminathemighty on 2015-12-27 02:34:07
Hate to bump a thread, but I'm having two specific crashes that I'm wondering how to fix. These two locations: The Shinra building after Sephiroth massacres the Shinra employees, and the Cargo Ship from Junon always crash the game when I get into a battle. I've had to change the files back to FF7's normal files to get through these areas, but I want to know how to fix this for future playthroughs. I'm playing the Steam version. Thanks.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2015-12-27 09:48:52
Are you using any other mod? And what language are you playing? I have never tried to play through the steam version but I'll take a look.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Kaminathemighty on 2015-12-27 16:05:10
I'm not using any other mods. It's not that big of an issue though as these seem to be the only two areas that do this. I'm playing the English version.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: walkinghawking on 2016-01-12 14:50:45
Gjoerulv, I've encountered an issue with the Kyuvilduns enemy in Mt. Nibel.  When battle scene #581 (three Kyuvilduns) tries to load, FF7 crashes.  I have mods installed via 7th Heaven (including Hardcore mod), however I've tested multiple scenarios and narrowed it down to either The Reunion R03e or the Hardcore mod as the culprit.  Has anybody else reported this issue?  Thank you for the hard work!  Loving the changes in Hardcore mod!

EDIT:  It's an issue with The Reunion - Beacause + Hardcore mod together.  After testing with Hardcore mod and no Beacause, I was able to enter battle with scene #581.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2016-01-12 15:16:18
@walkinghawking
Phew, glad it wasn't my mod haha! I'm still checking out the other bug reported. Currently I've reached jueno on new game ('cause why not do it that way :P), which means I'll find out soon.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: walkinghawking on 2016-01-14 01:35:11
@gjoerulv
Any chance you have a list detailing the individual changes, additions, etc. made by the hardcore mod?  I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find anything.

By the way, you're a sadistic man.  Those dragons at Mt. Nibel are no joke...  I spent a good hour trying everything I could think of to put a dent in them to no avail.  I'm not a glutton for punishment so I figured they're not meant to be beaten unless you're maxed out, if at all.  It's a good thing there's a save point right next to them because they wiped the floor with me, lol. 
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-04 11:24:45
And so I have started this game. As per Sega Chief's advice, I got lots of Potions and stuff before fighting he Scorpion. The Scoprion however was nothing  compared to Air Buster or whatever its called. I died so many times there.... I used up about 11 of my 12 Potions, 1 of my 10 Ethers and 1 of my 2 Phoenix Downs. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me... I really don't want to fight that thing again. I'll keep multiple saves just in case.

Also, is your mod designed for any ATB speed? Like, many FFIX mods are made for Wait becase Active can totally screw you up. I myself had to change from Active to Wait for Air Buster because I was getting destroyed. I dunno what "Recommended" is.

But I do intend to beat this. It just looks like I have a long road ahead of me and full of reloading.

EDIT:

Well it took a billion more tries but on my second successful match against AB, I walked out with 13 Potions. Barret was dead and I had no more Phoenix Downs but I think I'm far more content with this victory than the last.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-05 09:33:28
I thought I could get by on two Mythril Armlets. Gotta conserve that Gil, ya know. The surprise boss fight with Theo/Locke/Venus corrected me on this score. Halled my ass all the way back to Wall Market to buy anther one and some more Tranqs.

I hope my strategy of "use my last Deadly Waste and then turtle up with healing until two of them are dead from Poison' isn't considered wrong or cowardly. They hit so hard and so fast. A lot of it is luck, hoping Barret can Mind Blow away Locke's and Theo's MP. It is Locke and Theo with the super magic attacks, right?

In any event, it's Final Fantasy IX all over again. Gotta steal EVERYTHING from bosses. It's part of the boss' challenge. Well I got my Silver Armlet, Fairy Ring and Headband. I'm happy.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-08 14:44:35
And I just beat Lost Number. He killed me so fast the first time, and I looked at his Level which was 59 compared to our 39 and I was thinking "maybe I just have to wait to do this.'"

But the problem wasn't just how hard he hit but how fast he was. And then I remembered I have this nice Time materia I made sure to get in Gongaga.

Were status effects always this good in VII? It's like, I was so anxious about spending so much Gil on the Seal materia way back, but then I learned how amazing Sleep was on the Cargo Ship.  And of course Poison has saved my ass several times, including here.

It's like, the enemy hits like a truck, what can I do about that? Sleep/Slow/Mini/Poison/etc.. I really dig that. Makes fights more strategic.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-10 15:51:01
So I don't think anyone is reading these but oh well.

The Battle Arena...it's not as hard as in New Threat. Or I'm better at the game than I was in NT. I've come so close to winning so many times. I know I don'thave to win to get the Keystone but it's a matter of pride at this point. I can't let all those hours be for nothing.

But goddam, I'm so tempted to just give up. I have had nothing but fun with this mod until now. But this repeated failure is soul-crushing.

EDIT:

I did it! So I was like "this attempt is another bust" because the only slot handicaps I was getting were Materia is Broken. This right after an attempt where I kept getting "Yes no handicaps!" slots but eventually "busted" when I got "All Materia is broken" halfway through. Anyway, wouldn't you know it, the one successful attempt was the one where I kept getting stuff like Independent materia is broken, Support materia is broken, etc.. Eventually, as I knew it would, it landed on Magic materia is broken...right for the final fight. Only, the final fight is with one of those dudes on the swinging things from Nibelheim Mansion. Leviathan did a total of 114  damage to it. So needless to say, magic attacks are not  effective. So I turtled up, removed Sadness and instead got Fury, and just clung to life, defending and healing and killed it with Limit spam. Used up all my X Potions, a Turbo Ether and 2 Elixirs but I did it.

And...for what? A Protect Vest and Choco Feather?

Okay, I'm reloading and not even trying. I'll let myself lose. I have all of those items already and they are not worth the investment of 2 out of 3 of my precious Elixirs. All I wanted to do was prove I could do it and I did that.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-10 20:06:43
Heh heh heh.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-12 18:59:55
How much HP does friggin' Jenova DEATH have? I thought Jenova WAR was a pain but jesus, I'm using up all my Elixirs, all 3 of my Megalixirs, dropped at least 3 Meteorains, Neo Bahamut, Bahamut, Tifa's Limits, Tifa Deathblows and Cloud Comet + Added Attack and I still lost.

Cloud's Comet/Added Attack does about 5000 thanksto Gigas Armlet and Magic Plus. Neo Bahamut and Bahamut do another 14000, Tifa is constantly hitting for 3000 or 4000 with Limits if I'm lucky and get Yeah's...  After summons I just have Vincent on constant healing duty because you need it.

But it still wasn't enough.... I might have won with the last Meteorain but she musthave some  cheap "goes before everything else" gimmick that beats even Limits because she got off 3 Red Lights while I had selected Meteorain after the first one.

Maybe it's time everyone starts packing Restore materia. I have used only two healers for the entire game and have managed well enough. I made it here, didn't I? I had Barret, Cid and now Tifa just concentrate on physical attacks and Time magic. But now, I'm really feeling the lack of a third healer. Curaga-All is worthless to keep up with the damage here.

EDIT:

A clinch win if ever there was one. I was all out of Phoenix; Downs, Vincent just got KO'ed by Red Light and Cloud just took a Red Light which gave him his Limit. Meteorain won me the day.

Used up all my Elixirs and my last X Potion. Luckily, I have been discovering that "Morph", while annoying, is absolutely amazing. I can Morph those Harpy's in the Gold Saucer desert into Elixirs.  I only did it once, because I 've been trying Morph on everything just to see if it's any good, but I resolved not to grind for Elixirs like this because I'm playing a challenge mod for a reason. But I feel fully justified in at least replenishing my stock a little. I didn't want to use Tifa anyway. My party should have Cid in it. Stupid Tifa and her slot limit breaks....
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-12 20:08:26
She had a mere 180,256HP :3
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-12 21:20:47
Let's see.... Meteorain seemed to do about 2500 a pop and a guide says it hits 6 times and I did it at least5 times so that's...75,000, give or take a few points. And I guess the rest was from  Tifa Limits, Deathblows, Comet/Add Attack and teh two summons.

Geez were you being facetious about that being a "mere" 180K?  Maybe I'm really bad at the game. lol It wouldn't surprise me.

Also I hope nobody faults me for using Ochu to save right before the fight and not at the actual save point. I just really hated having to run through those two areas  and the stupid "wind obstacles" ove and over and over and over.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-12 23:09:18
Nah, it's a huge amount of HP. You won't see anything higher in the story until Proud Clod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-13 20:44:54
Hm good to know.

So, did anybody ever manage to actually steal any of the items from the SOLDIER Trio on the train? I mean, that's just not fair! I'd be all up for defending and nothing else until I stole everything but the success rate is ass and there's a time limit.

What did they have? Something I'm going to regret missing, I bet. Ultimate weapons, accessorries with Str + 50.... Dammit. But the fight isn't easy. I can blitz them to death with Neo Bahamut and Big Brawl but there's just no time for working on defense and trying to steal with only a 3 or 4 minutes left.

edit:

So I mentioned earlier I love how  status effects are king in this game. Mideal's enemies initially worried me until I realized they were all vulnerable to my lovely new Bad Breath Enemy Skill. I even went to Ancient Forest pretty early and beat some enemies there with it. I didn't go in far, just wanted to test the waters.

But I was thinking, "this annoying Dual status effect, can we ever use it?"  It seemsthe answer is yes. Cloud is back in the party and I figured it's time for my first AP grind session. Not too much, I just want to level up some HP Pluses and Magic Pluses. Vincent's HP is taking a huge hit since I pack him with all the summons, Contain and Comet. Anyway, I was fighting the Adamantoise or whatever it is they are in this game and I Sensed it and saw its HP constantly dropping after testing out my lovely new Flare spell. It doesn't look like a 100% sure thing it will land but it has decent odds. I am very happy.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-15 07:50:02
Been Chocobo Breeding all day and decided to see what obstacles awaited me in the Materia Caves.

I was happy to see Amaterasu looked easy....and then you have to fight four of the things?! I can only assume I have to be infinitely tougher. They do about 4000-5000 damage to me right now. There's no way I could tangle with four of these things when they can each hit me that hard.

Oh well, no Mime orW Magic for me. I'll live.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2016-03-15 15:57:35
Been Chocobo Breeding all day and decided to see what obstacles awaited me in the Materia Caves.

I was happy to see Amaterasu looked easy....and then you have to fight four of the things?! I can only assume I have to be infinitely tougher. They do about 4000-5000 damage to me right now. There's no way I could tangle with four of these things when they can each hit me that hard.

Oh well, no Mime orW Magic for me. I'll live.

All those materia bosses should be beatable with minimal amount of grinding as soon as they're available, but they may be a bit cryptic. :P
And just a warning/tip: Very few people manage to beat the final bosses without breaking damage/hp limit (there is an easy way out thuogh...).

With Barret's ultimate weapon you can easily do 100K+ damage each round if you have the damage limit broken (but no, this is not what I meant by "easy way").
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-15 17:41:10
So are there gimmicks to each fight? Like there's an easy trick to killing the flower boss guarding the Mega All materia and the rest?

Also are they vulnerable to Dual? It is Dual that Flare can inflict in this, right? 'cuz when I was going at the flower boss, it just kinda randomly switched to form two and I hadn't attacked it so I can only assume Dual had been draining its HP.

As for break damage/HP Limit, I thought I read a post of yours when someone inquired as to if that was included in your mod and you said no because everything should be beatable without doing that. I was kinda going with that and didn't install anything to allow above 9999.

As for Barret, I kinda like sticking with one party in my games. I'm already annoyed I'm probably going to have to swap in Yuffie for Conformer and Morph. I mean, I like Yuffie, but I had settled on my party of Cloud/Vincent/Cid and I think they should be able totackle anything. Well, they can, it's just that killing enemies and dropping them to .2% HP without killing them are very different propositions.

But I dunno, I just beat Reno and Rude on the sunken airplane and was kinda settling in for some serious grindage for Sources but if you don't think that's neessary, I'll reconsider.



edit:

This is giving me deja vu, though. In New Threat, one of the bosses guarding one of the materia caves was like a trio of ghost pirates or whatever. To win, you were supposed to cast Regen on the two assistants or something. Dummy me, I just powered through it and killed them all.

I'm not the smartest or most creative gamer.  If we are dying fast, throw status effects at them. Maybe Defend or use Tranquilizers. Otherwise, attack ,attack, attack.

I did notice that Amaterasu does seem to ignore defensive magic. And off course the flower boss cave has Dual automatically on you. I didn't really think these were important beyond being a challenge. Maybe there's more to it than that.

Wait, is the flower effected by the auto-Dual effect, too? I hadn't even considered that till now.

I'm rambling now, sorry. I just figured I had to power my way through but nowm, if there is an alternative, I should try to find it.

One thing I do nee dto grind for is Elixirs or Turbo Ethers. Everything loves to drain your MP at this point.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-15 20:06:20
There are optimal strategies for beating the four Materia caves; they each have key weaknesses like elemental/status vulnerabilities or quirks that can be capitalised on using certain Materia and equipment.

As for source grinding, you can definitely manage without them but the last three story bosses are packing huge stats and crucially have defence-ignoring physical attacks that make things very tough for 9999 parties as it kills off the defence gain you would normally get from Dragon Force/Hero Drinks. You can just about mitigate the damage using a combination of back-row, Barrier, and Sadness but in Bizarro's case you'll be killing off his parts which unfortunately leaves him with only one attack; his physical, which hits the entire party and will often land crits (which your mitigation won't be able to help with). Having high Luck and/or Speed for evasion, though, can give you a better edge for things like this, and they're also the quickest sources to farm as the enemies that Morph into them are:

1. the weakest on the Gelnika
2. always appear in their designated area (the connecting corridor where the Turks were fought|)
3. appear in groups to give multiple sources each fight

And one thing to remember is that Luck/Speed Plus Materia can boost these stats by 100% if you stack two mastered copies onto a character. That means you only need to get a stat to 127-8 (which can also be helped with the hefty stat-boosts a lot of equipment give, check out the Luck gain on Cait Sith's HP Shout) in order to cap it at 255. Cid and Yuffie both have naturally high Speed and Luck stats to start with, so they tend to be the best to build on to cut down source-grinding time (that and they have reliable Ultimate Weapons).

But you can beat the last few story bosses without sources. As for beating the optional super-boss, Omega, that's a different kettle of fish. This guy is packing high Luck and defence-ignoring attacks which means you'll be seeing 9999 damage a lot during the fight. He also has a lot of random variance for multiple attacks packed into his AI and counter-attack script, making him very unpredictable. Best bet for that is to grind the RNG out by maximising your chances with Final Attack, maxed Speed/Luck (for the best possible dodge chance), and Life + All to help the team recover when Final Attack charges run out.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-15 21:55:44
I want to Source farm because, quite frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of running into encounters that hit me for 9999 before I can do anything. You said those guys who give Speed/Luck are the easiest on the Gelnika? Maybe they have  the lowest HP but they're the enemies I fear the most on there. Some of them are not vulnerable to Sleep.Anything weak to Sleep is easy, like the pointy enemies who give Guard Sources.

They also love to swarm and kill me before I can even do anything, like I said.

Same problem with the Wutai materia cave. There isthe dragon of cours ewhich I just ignore and don't even try to fight but then there are jellyfish things which, while vulnerable to Bad Breath, are likely to kill my party before I can get it off.

Then there was also the big cactuar over by the Corel materia cave.... Talk about immediate annihilation.

So, yeah. I want to Source farm because this isn'teven fair. There is literally nothing I can do. My Level 70 party with, as far as I know, the best armor I can get right now, are just pathetic and keep getting annihilated.

Sorry, I'm just feeling dejected and frustrated because there's nothing I can do. Everything is kicking my ass and apparently it shouldn't be.

Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-16 17:17:06
Okay, Vincent has probably been officially retired. Yuffie actually makes the fights with the Bad Reps and Basilisks and Poodlers a very simple task, as opposed to a desperate struggle to survive.

Either that or she might replace Cid, I haven't decided yet.

Also, if it isn't apparent, I'm not really good at FFVII. I've beaten it but the reason I'm playing a difficulty mod is because it was too easy, not because I mastered it. I never knew about how amazing Morph was until now, for example. Also I had no idea there were Luck Plus or Speed Plus materia in this game. Don't tell me where they are, I just am curious if they are easy to find? Like if I explore enough, I'll happen upon them?

They aren't rewards for the Rollercoaster thing at Gold Saucer I hope. I suck at that.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-17 02:04:08
Okay, Vincent has probably been officially retired. Yuffie actually makes the fights with the Bad Reps and Basilisks and Poodlers a very simple task, as opposed to a desperate struggle to survive.

Either that or she might replace Cid, I haven't decided yet.

Also, if it isn't apparent, I'm not really good at FFVII. I've beaten it but the reason I'm playing a difficulty mod is because it was too easy, not because I mastered it. I never knew about how amazing Morph was until now, for example. Also I had no idea there were Luck Plus or Speed Plus materia in this game. Don't tell me where they are, I just am curious if they are easy to find? Like if I explore enough, I'll happen upon them?

They aren't rewards for the Rollercoaster thing at Gold Saucer I hope. I suck at that.

Yuffie is a good pick; she's fast, has decent natural Luck, and her Conformer hits like a truck. I actually used Vincent a lot for his natural Magic stat which is easy-ish to build up to 255 but he has low base HP. Red XIII was in for a while for similar reasons; high natural Magic. As your levels increase though, you'll want to start exploring Strength set-ups as physical attacks start to escalate with higher levels (and crits are always nice).

For survival, Sneak Attack + Exit can help you explore areas much more safely but it caps at an 80% maximum chance so maybe have two of them handy just in case. Pincer attacks are lethal, as they'll generally deal max damage + act first due to their ATB gauges starting off full (Ancient Forest is bad for this, the new specter enemies can appear in a pincer); Enemy Away should be handy too. For actual damage mitigation, if you can get Dragon Force then that can help you immensely in boss fights (same with Hero Drinks; a character with 200-ish defence can become almost invulnerable to standard attacks). Shield is also a good thing to pick up; this nullifies anything with an element, and plenty of attacks have one; using that on a Cover tank can give you a lot of breathing space.

If you need firepower, maxing Magic and then using Comet2 + MP Turbo will net some great damage but physical attacks should be the way to go once you get 4x-Cut. As for Speed and Luck Plus, if you don't have Luck Plus then you may have missed it permanently. Speed Plus isn't missable, and it doesn't drop from the Rollercoaster so don't worry about that. Where you do get it from, however, may potentially be worse ;l
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-17 02:37:26
Huh, I never knew Luck Plus was in Temple of the Ancients. I thought I combed over every area I could there. Oh well.

Luck Sources are the easiest thing to get in the Gelnika anyway.

Right now I got a party of Cloud/Yuffie/Vincent because, as you said, his natural Magi stat is sky high and I like that. Yuffie with 2xCut and Conformer has been a huge help in terms of physical damage though and I'm glad to see that is finally a real help. This game has been all about magic up till now for the most part.


But man, I am getting wrecked by the W-Magic/Mime bosses. You have no idea how long I spenttrying to figure out the gimmick of the fight. I figured "there are four enemies. Four enemies you simply cannot survive since they largely deal percentage-based damage so you can't build any real defense." So I thought "maybe there is a status effect I can use that will keep them all from desroying me." I tried every status I could think of. Nothing.

Okay, the Amaterasu now take zero damage from everything. Are they perhaps zombies or something? No luck there. Are they only vulnerable to one element? Nope.

Finally I caved and found a video from some amazingly skilled, and possibly crazy, person who did a Level 1 run of the mod. Don't I feel like a strawberriesty gamer now that I have to watch a guy do a tLevel 1 what I can'tdo at Level 75....

Turns out Susano'o is Wind elemental. It has the Aero animation but that didn't strike me as mea was Wind-based. Well, I used what the YouTbue guy suggested and paired Elemental with Choco/Mog to protect Vincent. Cloud has the...Escort Guard I think it was which nullifies Wind. That leaves Yuffie. Her Zeidrich or whatever it was I stole from Rude was really good up until now but now it sucks. Haste/Regen and hoping the Tsukuyomi's waste time casting their now ineffective move is the only way to keep up with the damages but Yuffie is still vulnerable to Dual, Poison, Confuse, Sleep, whatever else. Putting Resist or Ribbon on her doesn't help matters as she's still left out of the fast healing.

Shield sounds like it's my only hope. That or spend a day grinding the 96000 AP I need to master Choco/Mog. Even at Triple AP, that would take forever with the enemies I have now.

I dunno, this fight just seems impossible right now unless I can find a way to completely invalidate that one move while getting Haste-Regen on everyone.

I remember Shield in your mod was really good but it was now a prize from the optional Gold Saucer fights. I have no idea where it is in the original game. I looked at a list of materia and I had no idea several of these materia even existed. Needless to say, I don't have a clue  where a lot of them are. I just need to hope I can findthem in my travels. I really hate looking at guides. I want to figure stuff out on my own. But I was at wit's end with the Amaterasu/Tsukuyomi fight. A day of getting Speed and Luck Sources and swapping in Yuffie and I still couldn't survive the third stage or figure out what to do.

Maybe there is some good materia in the Ancient Forest. All I can remember was there was Cloud's Apocalypse I think and Typhon, neitehr of which will help me here.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-17 03:02:53
Well, Typhoon is Wind-elemental I think; that'd get you your third piece of wind protection (assuming you have two Lv.2 Elemental Materia). That fight is tougher at higher levels due to high HP, but if you lower your Max HP then it becomes easier to heal up the damage with more immediate spells like Cure2/3. Also, this game rounds down on decimals meaning that if your characters have an odd number of Max HP it'll take three hits to kill them instead of two; that'll make a big difference here.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-17 18:21:42
I got Typhon for all the good it did me. I am all set to just give up on beating Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. I come packed with Wind protecting stuff and they never use Susano'o. Just the halve max HP physical attacks.  I made my HP odd - which was no mean feat for Vincent. I had to really fix his materia to get an odd number of HP - and even that reprieve wasn't enough. Either normal Regen isn't fast enough or Regen wears off too quickly with Haste.

The only thing I can think to do is go level up a Restore and All for Yuffie so she can help with the healing too in a pinch. But that leaves no one to actually attacks the boss.

I have been on this fight...for three days now I think. No progress. Got levels, got new materia, got about 20 extra Dexterity and Luck, and all thatadds up to jack and strawberries.
 

Maybe I just suck but I really think I need Full Life/Life2 at this point. Phoenix Downs are just not cutting it anymore.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-18 01:24:05
So, teh turtle boss guarding the Quadra-Magic and Counter Materias is confusing me.

1. What can you do about Dragon Force? I've tried Debarrier and Dispel. Nothing. It makes previously 9999 hitting spells like Shadow Flare do more like 3000 or less. It doesn't seem to wear off, either. Or if it does, it takes an obscene amount oftime to do so.

2. The "Chain Stored" mechanic doesn't work. Sometimes it stores stuff and responds correctly - I attacked it twice so it responds twice - and other times it will do five or so attacks in a row when I know I never hit it that much.

This fight is extremely simple and doable, which is why I'm more confused by my inability to win than anything.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2016-03-18 04:03:31
Dragon Force raises defensive stats by 50%, and can't be removed. Your party can lose this buff though if they're killed then revived. I can't remember what triggers him to use Dragon Force; but if he does use it, then defence-ignoring attacks will be needed. I can't remember what you have that ignores defence, but there aren't many player-available attacks with that flag.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-18 04:08:07
I got the vague idea it might do it if you take too long attacking it or whatever. That was justmy guess though and was proven wrong a few times I think.

As for ignoring defense, the Bahamuts seem to do just fine even with Dragon Force. At least I think so.

But miracles really do happen.  I was beginning another attempt, ready to lose again. But then out of nowhere...I saw a message I've never seen before. Lucky 7's. Vincent shot the thing to death while I sat there agape. This has never happened to me before. It just kept going and going and I was clutching my controller thinking ithas to end sometime and then I'll still lose. But it didn't end until the thing was dead.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: mexico on 2016-03-18 08:42:24
You didn't know the ff7 lucky 7777 fever ? It happens when one of your characters has 7777 HPs.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Nikkolas on 2016-03-18 13:55:31
I've heard of it, just never seen it.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: JonJon412 on 2016-03-26 18:18:43
Classic mod, everyone should experience it.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2016-03-28 17:00:55
So, teh turtle boss guarding the Quadra-Magic and Counter Materias is confusing me.

1. What can you do about Dragon Force? I've tried Debarrier and Dispel. Nothing. It makes previously 9999 hitting spells like Shadow Flare do more like 3000 or less. It doesn't seem to wear off, either. Or if it does, it takes an obscene amount oftime to do so.

2. The "Chain Stored" mechanic doesn't work. Sometimes it stores stuff and responds correctly - I attacked it twice so it responds twice - and other times it will do five or so attacks in a row when I know I never hit it that much.

This fight is extremely simple and doable, which is why I'm more confused by my inability to win than anything.

If you patched the exe, lvl 4 limit breaks should bypass any defense buffs. Also Bahamuts ignore def. Neither of these are reliable in this fight though.
Easiest way:
Spoiler: show
Gravity based attacks


The chain thing is not a mistake. It always starts with a random (1-3 iirc) number of chains.

Imo the purple materia cave is the easiest one, but that boss has too much HP I admit.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: PetrucciJohn on 2017-02-04 22:14:31
Alright. Some obesrvations after having dipped about 80 hours into this, and I've played lots and lots of turn-based/ATB style RPGs in all my years of gaming. It's a great mod and I like it, but this mod's fundamental, lethal flaw is curative moves having a chance to miss. It adds absolutely zero to the challenge because it's completely luck-based and I don't understand the decision behind such a puzzling (to say the least) design choice, quite honestly.

I can MAYBE understand the massive Mystile nerf that comes with it, but it actually makes the whole thing much less strategic, simply because the more RNG elements you have, the less strategic the game becomes. Is there any way to remove this and revert back to the normal accuracy for curative moves? I really have no other problems with the mod except for that.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-02-06 09:40:08
If you want to remove it you could use wall market.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: PetrucciJohn on 2017-02-06 13:23:17
Could you tell me what do I have to edit, exactly? Is it the kernel.bin file located in FFVII's directory in the "kernel" folder? If yes, what do I edit? I also wanna make buffs to always apply, like Mighty Guard.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-02-07 23:49:52
It's been a while since I've used it (it doesn't currently work on my computer), so I don't remember what it's called. There should be a attack/action tab in wall marked. The filds should be rather self-explanatory. What I've done to the cure spells is reduce hit-ration from 255% -> 120%. In steam/re-release the kernel is in "...FINAL FANTASY VII\data\lang-en\kernel" folder. If not it's simply in "data/kernel." It's the kernel.bin file.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: PetrucciJohn on 2017-02-08 01:16:55
It's alright, I found it. You actually need to unpack the iro file through 7th Heaven, find your kernel files through that, then repack it, otherwise you're simply editing the vanilla kernel. Thanks though!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Celzic on 2017-03-11 21:39:08
gjoerulv.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for making this hardcore mod, breathing more life into this game. By far, I have enjoyed this hardcore mod more than the base game itself, what with its unpredictability and rampant difficulty that can hardly be cheese'd. Doing hours upon hours of grinding to try and beat the next/oncoming areas has been fantastic, boss fights have been frustrating but extremely fun.
I registered just to tell you all of this, lol.

I really appreciate your work, keep doing what you love ;)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-03-24 18:56:36
Thanks, appreciate it. Glad someone likes it.  ;D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: soku on 2017-03-30 10:50:51
Hi folks,
first of all: great mod, gjoerulv, props for that.

I have some questions on materia. I am now at the end of the game (Disc 3), and I already picked up everything* from the Northern Cave. However, there are still some materia I didn't find yet:

Shield
Counter
W-Magic
Mega-All
+ The 4 Cave-Materia

I read somewhere that there are up to 2 materia per cave, so is Mega-All now at the same place as HP<>MP, Counter at Quadra-Magic's place, W-Magic at Mime's place and Shield at KotR's place?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-03-30 17:02:36
Yes they are in the caves. All can be obtained as early as you are "allowed" to enter.

EDIT: They are guarded by bosses in case you didn't know.
Title: Re: gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod
Post by: Tetra on 2017-04-17 22:18:43
Hi gjoerulv, I'm currently playing your hardcore mod and I've to admit, it's great and makes fun to figure out strategies for those various bosses. Now, I have to quote an old post here regarding getting Chocobuckle:

Spoiler: show

You don't need L4 to get chocobuckle. Any chocobo will counter with chocobuckle if you deal enough damage without killing it. Remember to feed it mimett greens 1st.


So this is what I did:
Spoiler: show

I encountered a Chocobo at Chocobo Farm at level 13 in front row, Sense told me it has 130 HP, I used the Mimett Green, the most expensive one I get from Chocobo Farm and attacked it with Cloud's sword, it did 126 HP damage and it simply run away not casting Chocobuckle on Cloud. What's wrong here?

How can I get the skill now?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-04-18 17:38:31
From https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197341-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/31903 (https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197341-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/31903)

Code: [Select]
If ((Chocobo's HP <= [Chocobo's Max HP / 32] + 1) AND (TempVar:ChocobuckleGreens == 1)) Then
{
     Choose Chocobo's Last Attacker (General)
     Use Chocobuckle on Target
}
I checked with the AI; the pseudocode above seems to be correct.
Its HP was 130 - 126 = 4.
The condition 4 <= 130 / 32 + 1  is true. If you used a Mimett before it should have triggered.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-04-18 18:48:15
From https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197341-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/31903 (https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197341-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/31903)

Code: [Select]
If ((Chocobo's HP <= [Chocobo's Max HP / 32] + 1) AND (TempVar:ChocobuckleGreens == 1)) Then
{
     Choose Chocobo's Last Attacker (General)
     Use Chocobuckle on Target
}
I checked with the AI; the pseudocode above seems to be correct.
Its HP was 130 - 126 = 4.
The condition 4 <= 130 / 32 + 1  is true. If you used a Mimett before it should have triggered.
Thank you for investigating it, you are right. By mistake I was assuming to fight a Lvl 13 Chocobo, but instead I was fighting a Lvl 16 one with 160 HP. I found a Lvl 13 one, did my 126 HP damage and it used the skill, finally.

Thank you very much! :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-04-18 19:36:16
Yes, there are different level chocobos there. The lvl 16 ones were generally considered the only way of getting that enemy skill by using l4 suicide, but you probably knew that.

Props for investigating the thread for info btw.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-04-23 09:48:05
Hurray, I managed to learn Beta from Midgardsormr (Midgar Zolom) early on. Without Fire Ring, but with weak stats and a portion of luck. Tried it around 10-20 times ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8qChWmTcEU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8qChWmTcEU)


Thanks for the great mod, it's super fun. :D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: ManuBBXX on 2017-04-24 15:31:11
10 years for this super mod !
And still always so fun to play when you die so often with bosses  ;D ;D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-05-14 19:50:29
Hey gjoerulv,

today I just continued playing your mod again, but I don't get further. When I enter Mount Nibelheim and going to encounter Kyuvilduns enemies, the game freezes and I have to crash it.

After the swirl the black screen persists, music is playing. APP.LOG:

Spoiler: show
[00000000] INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.8.1b
[00000000] INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
[00000000] INFO: ATI Technologies Inc. AMD Radeon (TM) R9 200 Series 4.5.13447 Compatibility Profile Context 16.300.2311.0
[00000000] INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
[00000000] INFO: Found swap_control extension
[00000000] INFO: Max texture size: 16384x16384
[00000000] INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 2560x1080, output resolution 1440x1080, internal resolution 2560x1080
[00000000] INFO: Shader limits: varying 128, vert uniform 16384, frag uniform 16384
[00000000] INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
[00000000] INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r25886, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
[00000000] INFO: VGMStream music plugin loaded
[00000000] INFO: Loading external library Multi.dll
[00000000] LOCK UNLOCK TEST
[00000001] MATRIX INITIALIZE
[00000001] INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
[00000001] initializing sound...
[00000001] creating dsound primary buffer
[00000001] reading audio file
[00000001] loading static sounds
[00000001] sound initialized
[00000001] set music volume: 127
[00000001] set music volume: 127
[00000001] Entering MAIN
[00000001] Exiting MAIN
[00000001] START OF CREDITS!!!
[00000001] INFO: C:\Program Files (x86)\SQUARE ENIX\Final Fantasy VII\data\movies\eidoslogo.avi; truemotion2/pcm_u8 320x240, 15.000000 FPS, duration: 10.133333, frames: 152
[00000016] set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
[00000081] END OF CREDITS!!!
[00000081] Entering MAIN
[00000081] set music volume: 127
[00000081] Exiting MAIN
[00000081] START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
[00000213] END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
[00000213] Entering MAIN
[00000215] Exiting MAIN
[00000215] -=-=[START OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
[00000215] stop_sound
[00000215] cross play music: 0
[00000215] set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
[00000218] set music volume: 127
[00000220] stop_sound
[00000221] -=-=[END OF WORLD MAP!!!]=-=-
[00000221] Entering MAIN
[00000223] Exiting MAIN
[00000223] Field Start
[00000511] Field Quit
[00000511] Entering MAIN
[00000511] Exiting MAIN
[00000511] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
[00000511] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
[00000514] Swirl sound_effect1
[00000514] stop_sound
[00000514] End of Swirl sound_effect1
[00000593] Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
[00000593] Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
[00000593] Entering MAIN
[00000595] Exiting MAIN
[00000595] [BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[00000595] [BATTLE] Scene# 583
[00000595] [BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[00000657] [BATTLE] Begin main battle loop
[00000980] [BATTLE] End of current battle
[00000980] [BATTLE] Begin end battle stuff
[00001047] stop_sound
[00001048] [BATTLE] Entering FRAME_QUIT
[00001048] [BATTLE] endof battle.
[00001048] [BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_QUIT
[00001048] Entering MAIN
[00001048] Exiting MAIN
[00001048] START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
[00001232] END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
[00001232] Entering MAIN
[00001234] Exiting MAIN
[00001234] Field Start
[00001234] cross play music: 0
[00001234] set music volume trans: 127->0, step=4
[00001237] set music volume: 127
[00001674] Field Quit
[00001674] Entering MAIN
[00001674] Exiting MAIN
[00001674] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
[00001674] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE SWIRL
[00001677] Swirl sound_effect1
[00001677] stop_sound
[00001677] End of Swirl sound_effect1
[00001756] Entering FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
[00001756] Exitting FRAME_QUIT SWIRL
[00001756] Entering MAIN
[00001758] Exiting MAIN
[00001758] [BATTLE] Entering FRAME_INITIALIZE
[00001758] [BATTLE] Scene# 581
[00001758] [BATTLE] Exitting FRAME_INITIALIZE
[00001758] ERROR: unhandled exception


I use your mod in 7H, together with The Reunion. I minimized my 7H config to this:

Spoiler: show
Gameplay - Difficulty and Story
   ID: af709876-588e-4865-84e3-0ac0bd662fb2
   Version: 2.391
   gameplay = 10
Gameplay - Tweaks and Cheats
   ID: 3dbdfa3b-d97f-4cfc-9db8-223dbe0152bc
   Version: 2.2
   ar = 1
   cf = 1
   dm = 0
   isl = 1
   i = 0
   li = 0
   lcs = 0
   lt = 0
   nrb = 0
   spa = 0
   sc = 0
   sbo = 1
Media - Music and Sound
   ID: 2bdd4a94-4b06-46ca-af0a-37b9dfef25aa
   Version: 2.1
   music = 3
   sound = 2
The Reunion - Beacause and Menu Overhaul
   ID: 3ee8d570-ac8b-471e-ad3f-53de21248652
   Version: 2.1
   beacause = 1
   menu = 1
   break = 1
   hand = 1
   nbb = 0
   ncb = 0


If I disable the Gameplay Difficulty and Story mod, thus disabling your Hardcore mod, the game can load all encounters. I don't want to disable your mod for Nibelheim, since many things would cause unexpected results, like early limit levels.

What can I do?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-05-15 07:15:01
Hmmm, I've never used 7H; I have no idea how it works. If I'm not mistaken it's a mod manager. In that case there seems to be conflicts with other mods, or how the mods are handled.

In any case, there is a problem with scene 581 it seems. I'll take a look at that scene.

EDIT:
There are no problems with that scene as far as I can tell. It works fine in-game with only my mod applied at least. What is the story mod?
There is a new enemy model there that may be causing the conflict. Its ID is 0x01EA. That is the SW* entry in battle.lgp.
You may want to report this to 7H as well.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-05-15 17:15:33
Hmmm, I've never used 7H; I have no idea how it works. If I'm not mistaken it's a mod manager. In that case there seems to be conflicts with other mods, or how the mods are handled.

In any case, there is a problem with scene 581 it seems. I'll take a look at that scene.

EDIT:
There are no problems with that scene as far as I can tell. It works fine in-game with only my mod applied at least. What is the story mod?
There is a new enemy model there that may be causing the conflict. Its ID is 0x01EA. That is the SW* entry in battle.lgp.
You may want to report this to 7H as well.


Thank you for looking this up. I just reported it to: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=17612.msg250291#msg250291 (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=17612.msg250291#msg250291)


The Story mod is the IRO package that contains any story mods like your Hardcore mod or New Threat together with base mod combinations like The Reunion. Basically, this is where you select your mod in combination with The Reunion or not.


As of your self test, I was sure you would not find any issue if you test only your mod, since I believe it's a conflict between your mod and The Reunion. Indeed, it is better to report this to the creator of 7H, I just thought you were teaming up with the creators of The Reunion to make it compatible in the first place.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-05-16 16:58:22
Gjoerulv, I've encountered an issue with the Kyuvilduns enemy in Mt. Nibel.  When battle scene #581 (three Kyuvilduns) tries to load, FF7 crashes.  I have mods installed via 7th Heaven (including Hardcore mod), however I've tested multiple scenarios and narrowed it down to either The Reunion R03e or the Hardcore mod as the culprit.  Has anybody else reported this issue?  Thank you for the hard work!  Loving the changes in Hardcore mod!

EDIT:  It's an issue with The Reunion - Beacause + Hardcore mod together.  After testing with Hardcore mod and no Beacause, I was able to enter battle with scene #581.


Oh it seems we share the same issue, did you find any solution to this? EQ2Alyza gave me a hint on how we could fix the problem here: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=17612.0
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: walkinghawking on 2017-05-22 02:38:27

Oh it seems we share the same issue, did you find any solution to this? EQ2Alyza gave me a hint on how we could fix the problem here: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=17612.0

I never found a solution but it does look like the exact same error.  Looks like it is a known bug at least.  Any luck?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-05-22 22:39:23
I never found a solution but it does look like the exact same error.  Looks like it is a known bug at least.  Any luck?
It's the exact same issue for sure. Nah, luck won't help. I'm not very into it, so I bypassed the scene by using "No random encounters" and "Save/PHS everywhere". Got past the screen and saved, later I still encountered the same monsters on other scenes, so the issue has nothing to do with the monster, but rather with the exact scene 581.

I searched up all the threads with some customized Google Searches but found nothing that would help. Eventually, I just accept it for now and hope it will be fixed on the next 7H catalog update, so future player can enjoy all scenes without issues.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-05-23 01:08:06
Maybe I should do some research before I post this, but do you know how 7H works? If it simply replace files you can try open scene.bin with Proud Clod and see if there are any errors in the AI.

If it's a story mod the only thing I see they could do in that scene is to edit Kyuvildun's AI where it displays strings. ie "A Chocobo!", "Caught a Chocobo."
If they altered the length of those strings the AI may point to bad locations in the new enemy.
But that is just from the top of my head, I'll need to look into both 7H and the other mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Saijenode on 2017-05-23 19:01:25
How would you guys compare this mod to the New threat mod? Im probably going to use Hardcore mod cause it is compatible with Reunion. just curious though.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-05-24 02:16:18
New threat has lots of new stuff. My mod is a "simple" hard mod, closer to the original. I dunno how compatible it is with reunion: see posts above :P. I don't know if this is a 7H thing exclusively, that is, if you use these mods without 7H it may work. Haven't tested. Will as soon as I've got some spare time.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2017-05-25 07:59:39
Maybe I should do some research before I post this, but do you know how 7H works? If it simply replace files you can try open scene.bin with Proud Clod and see if there are any errors in the AI.

It doesn't replace files. It uses memory injection on original game files, which are applied in real time as the game runs and accesses the files. When you exit the game, the memory injections are cleared and your original game files are still intact. If you were to use Proud Clod, you would need to use the unpack tool in 7H to unpack the IRO file that contains the scene.bin, modify the scene.bin, then repack the IRO file to use with 7H.

I don't know if this is a 7H thing exclusively, that is, if you use these mods without 7H it may work. Haven't tested. Will as soon as I've got some spare time.

You don't have to do any research or testing. Files used for the memory injection are not modified. They are taken straight from the download links found in the mod OPs. You would be wasting your spare time trying to check on issues that are almost always a simple user error with the 7H setup (e.g. load order or mod incompatibilities).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-05-25 12:28:48
...You would be wasting your spare time trying to check on issues that are almost always a simple user error with the 7H setup (e.g. load order or mod incompatibilities).

Haha too late xP.

I tested applying this mod and Reunion (without Weapon) and was unable to reproduce the error. Everything went smoothly in Mt. Nibel, and other areas I tested (didn't test everywhere).

For people who are only interested in the story mod and this mod, I suggest patching R05c (without Weapon checked) first, then use my patcher without kernel2.bin checked. The story mod will not be 100% this way. There will be 2 scenes in the game without retranslation: Sephiroth's first appearance in the truck, and the scene with Sephiroth and young Cloud in the Mt.Nibel reactor. +A few spells/items descriptions will be wrong.
If you don't care about item/spell/equipment name and descriptions being retranslated, you should use my patch WITH kernel2.bin checked. This way the names and descriptions will match the effect they have but not match how they are named in the field (for example when picking up a retranslated item from a treasure chest).

Edit: However if this is the only bug, then using 7H should be fine if you're willing to deal. It's a small part.
I'll eventually get around to check out 7H but it seems I need to re-install the game to a different location in order to use it.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Tetra on 2017-06-12 18:39:12
It doesn't replace files. It uses memory injection on original game files, which are applied in real time as the game runs and accesses the files. When you exit the game, the memory injections are cleared and your original game files are still intact. If you were to use Proud Clod, you would need to use the unpack tool in 7H to unpack the IRO file that contains the scene.bin, modify the scene.bin, then repack the IRO file to use with 7H.

You don't have to do any research or testing. Files used for the memory injection are not modified. They are taken straight from the download links found in the mod OPs. You would be wasting your spare time trying to check on issues that are almost always a simple user error with the 7H setup (e.g. load order or mod incompatibilities).

So in other words: 7H is a memory modder. You did not change any files, you did not make any new rules, you just inject the mods in the given order and only packed files will be overridden, not whole packages. So there must be an incompatibility between Hardcore mod and Reunion if you did not change any files at all.

I tested applying this mod and Reunion (without Weapon) and was unable to reproduce the error. Everything went smoothly in Mt. Nibel, and other areas I tested (didn't test everywhere).

For people who are only interested in the story mod and this mod, I suggest patching R05c [...]

7H does not use the latest files of the mods. The latest catalog is using R03c and maybe even an older version of your mod. Since Alyza is telling us those files in the IRO catalog are not changed for compatibility, I think the incompatibility is already fixed, because your test has succeed.


If you don't care about item/spell/equipment name and descriptions being retranslated, you should use my patch WITH kernel2.bin checked. This way the names and descriptions will match the effect they have but not match how they are named in the field (for example when picking up a retranslated item from a treasure chest).

And this, my friend, is the exact reason why mod injection is our seventh heaven (now I understand why you called it after Tifa's bar, Alyza). It would be a strong limitation to define any patched package for one mod only and patching by hand would be a real mess.

Sometimes I don't get people complaining this takes long on other platforms such as YouTube. I remember when I was getting into GTA San Andreas modding, it had its tools, but most things had to be done by hand.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Lopes on 2017-06-23 16:41:23
Hi there :)

I have played this mod long ago, along with some others from here. (separatedely)
I dont remember, is this mod completed for the entire game?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Lopes on 2017-06-23 17:35:52
I suppose it is, from what ive been reading :)

Does someone have a list of Steals and Morphs? Im kind of a completionist and i dont want to miss anything
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-06-28 10:05:15
The steal/morph is 90%+(ish) the same as original game. Sadly I have no list. If you used my patcher you could use ProudClod (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0) as a bestiary.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Lopes on 2017-06-28 19:55:27
Thank you for the info :)

Guess ill check it
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Leeloo on 2017-07-17 12:05:24
-
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Balgias on 2017-11-21 03:57:51
I can't even get your patcher to find my steam install version of the game that has been treated with 7nth heaven. It also can't locate my raw, clean steam install.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2017-11-22 04:15:33
I can't even get your patcher to find my steam install version of the game that has been treated with 7nth heaven. It also can't locate my raw, clean steam install.

That's probably because the game converter used with 7H will change registry locations after its use. It's meant to make your computer think you have the original copy installed, which had to be done for compatibility with certain mods. Try selecting the other option in the HC mod installer. I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head (1997/Original Copy?).

But, if you're using 7H, why use this installer? It's already an option to select from the Catalog.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-11-24 16:27:42
Is this mod balanced around the idea that people are going to use the w-item dublication glitch or does that make any difference anyway?

No, you should be able to beat the game without, but I don't consider it cheating if you replace grinding items by exploiting the glitch. If you can grind items in an efficient way, just use w-item to save time.
The only boss that assumes you have maxed everything is the super-cheap mega boss of this mod. See screencap in 1st post.

I can't even get your patcher to find my steam install version of the game that has been treated with 7nth heaven. It also can't locate my raw, clean steam install.

See answer above. Select the original (1997/8) option.

Why you want to run this patch with 7H? It's already included in 7H.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Balgias on 2017-11-25 05:48:59

Why you want to run this patch with 7H? It's already included in 7H.

AAAAaaaa

what the heck is it called in the 7h installer?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2017-11-27 09:34:45
Download the Gameplay and Difficulty category, Activate, Configure to use Hardcore Mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Balgias on 2017-11-27 10:51:25
It seems that the ultimate weapons for the various characters have been modified somewhat? I'm using this mod alongside ro5, conformer has like 14 damage, and vincents death penalty is at 42 damage despite him having around 5000 kills?

And what's the deal with heals missing more and more often?

Also is the "recovery" adamantai gets from his own break hitting him healing him back up to FULL? His mana as well?

I killed adamantai before my post got moderator approved- with lvl62 cloud, heavens cloud, reflect ring, MANS armlet, gravaga+hp absorb, and a mix of casting magic hammer and white wind to heal as any other heal needs a potion or reflectable spell. Break is the spell that needs to miss you, it takes a while but once he starts healing himself you have to brave the prospect of spamming the small self heals you get from hitting him with gravaga in order to constantly deal 9999 damage until his ai breaks the chain of self healing/lightshell spam attacks with a forced cast of elemental chain that will almost most certainly kill him with the reflected damage.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Rikku on 2017-11-27 11:32:17
This mod is awsome.

Is this mod compatible with the psx version ?? Maybe using CDMage in order to replace Kernel.bin and Scene.bin or this can cause crashes in the game ??

Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Balgias on 2017-11-28 04:12:58
As far as aita goes any encounter that has a HIGH RNG component of an unblockable i-win button is just bad, sorry joe. This fight is trashy and annoying  >:( >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(

I did manage although to kill him in about 2 minutes after optimizing my crap, BUT STILL DAMN HE WOULD KNOCK OUT VINCENT EVERY TIME I TRANSFORM HIM.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2017-11-30 00:03:17
This mod is awsome.

Is this mod compatible with the psx version ?? Maybe using CDMage in order to replace Kernel.bin and Scene.bin or this can cause crashes in the game ??

Not without some work, no. The problem is the new enemies with new battle models. As far as I know the models are not compatible. I suspect if you, for instance, only use the kernel and scene (saw your PM), whenever the game encounters a new battle model, it will crash.

It seems that the ultimate weapons for the various characters have been modified somewhat? I'm using this mod alongside ro5, conformer has like 14 damage, and vincents death penalty is at 42 damage despite him having around 5000 kills?

And what's the deal with heals missing more and more often?

Something is wrong if that damage is consistently low. Was it against an enemy with high defense? What is ro5? I'm guessing it's the re-translate mod. if you use the installer then install the re-translation first, then use my patch after. Else things may get messed up. Also, if you apply the patches, then load a save that was used without the mods, things will be a bit messy.

Healing spells has a 120% hit rate. If your magic evasion is high, they will eventually miss. If equipped with a mystile, don't rely on healing magic.

As far as aita goes any encounter that has a HIGH RNG component of an unblockable i-win button is just bad, sorry joe. This fight is trashy and annoying  >:( >:(  >:(  >:(  >:(

Yes, well, I admit there is a bit too much rng things i this mod. If you get frustrated about that just wait lol, some fight are much harder. In hindsight I would have done things differently. That particular attack has a < 16% chance of happening. When I fight him he maybe use it once a fight, if at all. He has never spammed it against me. But I've seen vids on youtube where he spams it over and over again. That is unlucky; the rngods aren't kind. If that happens try getting in an encounter, do 1 attack, escape, save, then do the fight again. It'll hopefully scramble the rng in your favor.

People really don't like getting their characters expulsed from battle. Apparently it's a grave sin haha! I understand, and agree from a game-design perspective. To my defense: It's called "hardcore" for a reason. It's not an attempt to "fix" the difficulty, as I've heard several people explain it as.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Mr Cochlear on 2018-01-22 16:46:11
Hello.

First of all, Thank you for your hard work on this awesome mod!  I never have so much frustrated playing with your mod since I played this FF7, 20 years ago!  :-D

Okay, I want to report a little bug, so, sorry if this already report. 

I am on disk 3 and am in Battle Square, I use Red XIII, I used 4 hero drink in the first round, then to third rounds, on seconds slot it stops at "weapon broke". I used 4x attack on these, a big red blob with many eyes monster.  One hit and that it!  It stops but the background music and animation are still ongoing, Red is just standing there right next to that monsters thing.  I'd waited like 5mins and it still the same so I have to reset, cost me 19k battle points =(  I'd tried again to double check before I report but I haven't come across this again (Weapon broke and the same monster again) for last hours or so.

Oh and I use this mod, The Reunion, for this "Beacause" and this mod of yours.  Nothing else.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-01-25 09:27:51
...I'd tried again to double check before I report but I haven't come across this again (Weapon broke and the same monster again) for last hours or so.

Oh and I use this mod, The Reunion, for this "Beacause" and this mod of yours.  Nothing else.

Just to confirm: it happened only once? I'll take a look at the AI of those monsters. The "Beacause" mod shouldn't interfere with this at all.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Mr Cochlear on 2018-01-28 16:19:24
Yes, it happened once.  I had spent last couple days doing battle square try to find it again, plus gather BP as well and I still haven't come across that :(

Speaking of the battle square, this mobs "Synergy Souls" is DRIVING ME MAD!!!!  How can you kill that thing?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-01-28 20:45:16
That enemy kinda sucks, it's actually mistake that it is in the battle square.
Avoid having max HP as it will shamelessly 1 hit you at random. To make it worse, if your HP is not full, it will randomly fully heal you. Best option is to use the ? ? ? ? mark ability to swiftly deal 2000 damage (or was it 4000, can't remeber). Then you kill it in 1 hit.

And the battle square is probably the worst part of this mod. I didn't plan ahead when adjusting the enemies. That wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't' for the fact that all the stats for the enemies are boosted further in the battle square. Iirc all enemies gets HP doubled; STR and magic +50%.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Mr Cochlear on 2018-01-29 13:15:55
Ha!  It works!  Never thought about using that!  And what more, it heals me after I kill it (over 5000hp when i kill it)!  Thank very much, I better be careful not to lose the command materia.

Still, there another 2 more mobs that you didn't plan ahead for battle square.  Cheetah and Griever.  Them two can knock you out the fight =/

Anyway, thank you very much.  Now I go back to the battle square and scream my head off again!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: samourai23 on 2018-01-29 21:18:23
I’ve been enjoying this mod since the first time I’ve installed it, like 6-7 years ago?

I was wondering if some serious updates happened since then ? :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-02-05 18:19:27
...Still, there another 2 more mobs that you didn't plan ahead for battle square.  Cheetah and Griever.  Them two can knock you out the fight =/

The cheetah type enemy only does that as a counter. It should be easy enough to 1hit KO, so avoid hitting it unless it's for the kill.
The other enemy, iirc, uses it randomly early in the fight. Hmmm, I cant remember that one being in the battle square to be honest :P.

@samourai23
If I'm not mistaken, the endgame should be somewhat tougher. Still I think it's fair to say the experience is pretty much the same.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: KittyJaws on 2018-02-27 05:36:07
I have a question. I have new threat installed but i beat it and want to die alot more so i want to down load this. If i copy the ff7 folder and paste it somewhere else will it backup my saves so i can delete local data and start over with this mod, or not. I want to be able to return to my old new threat mod save if i ever feel so inclined, but i also want to try out this mod
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-02-28 09:33:21
It depends if on what version you use.
In the original PC version that would work, but on the new steam version the saves are located in:
C:\Users\<user>\Documents\Square Enix\FINAL FANTASY VII Steam\user_<id>

But having backup of the entire ff7 folder is nice if you quickly want to switch between mods and are unsure how (and don't use any mod managers).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: terrabrake on 2018-03-11 18:31:24
I'm enjoying this mod again after a few years and now I'm playing withh the Steam version.

However I encountered two bosses with no boss music and I wonder if that was intended. The first one is the boss you encounter with Sephirot with you (Cloud telling the others about the journey on Nibelheim), the second is the Choco boss to gain the Choco materia.

I don't remember any particular problem installing teh patch but maybe something went wrong.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-03-13 07:53:30
It's not intentional pr se. more due to lazyness. To be honest I cant recall exactly what I was thinking. But those should be the only ones.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: terrabrake on 2018-03-13 12:19:46
Well glad nothing is wrong with my game then.

To be honest, about the battle on Nibelheim with no music, it just adds to the atmosphere on that particular situation in my opinion, so no problem at all.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: KittyJaws on 2018-03-14 06:05:57
Hi, i've been playing the mod and i checked on black chocobo and cloud currently has 270 kills, yet is stuck with his level one limit breaks. Have you changed the amount of kills it takes for cloud to get a limit level up, or have i broken cloud?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-03-15 11:14:29
The buster sword has it's power increased the more kills Cloud has (same as death penalty). In order to get the damage to a decent level in the beginning I increased the kill count. But you achieve limits normally.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: KittyJaws on 2018-03-15 16:45:07
So then i guess i should just mod in the limits, sense i'm over half the way to limit level 3, but haven't gotten level 2
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-03-19 07:45:16
So then i guess i should just mod in the limits, sense i'm over half the way to limit level 3, but haven't gotten level 2

Not sure what you mean here. You should have enough kills for level 3 but haven't got level 2 yet?
Since another person on Youtube reported the same thing (ish) I got a bit worried. What I did now was applying the patch to a vanilla steam install and the limits progress normally. In other words, I can't reproduce that bug (if it is a bug).

How did you patch the game? Was it with my patch application or another way? Did you patch the game and started from a save game? If you start from a save game Cloud's limit progression will be screwed. :P

EDIT:
Hi, i've been playing the mod and i checked on black chocobo and cloud currently has 270 kills, yet is stuck with his level one limit breaks. Have you changed the amount of kills it takes for cloud to get a limit level up, or have i broken cloud?

If you start a new game with this mod, Cloud should have 760 kills from the start.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: KittyJaws on 2018-03-20 01:03:56
My game lost all its data when i installed new threat mod, and when i beat that mod i installed The hardcore mod without deleting my past data. So what i have right now are some NewThreat mod files in case i feel like revisiting the mod, along with my saves from this game. I also want to say that i didn't combine these two mods, and there seem to be 0 remnants left from new threat except of coarse the save files, and the names of certain custom magic such as pearl from new threat mod, but it is  shown in game as the normal spell names, and i can only see the old magic names from the Wall market application that can be used to change what certain spells cast (I havn't saved anything i have changed on that application either.) I used the patcher thingy that has that loading bar, and i started a new save file for this game. Now i feel like mabye i screwed something up with black chocobo idk
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-03-20 20:55:33
It sounds like you haven't done anything that could screw up Clouds limits when starting a new game (by "starting a new save" I assume you mean new game?).

Only ways I can think of atm that can make this happen are:

1) You patched the game with the application (the one you download from 1st post in this thread), and loaded a savefile instead of starting a new game.
2) You started a new game, then patched kernel.bin before achieving any new limit levels with Cloud.

In any case, if you use Black Chocobo set Cloud's kills to about 1080. That should make you close to 3rd level. Or just simply give yourself the limits.

Another sign that Cloud has too few kills as you start a New Game is that he does very littly damage with his Buster Sword (assuming you patched kernel.bin, but if that is the case non od this should have happened on New Game).

But don't feel bad about using Black Chocobo at this point, as something apparently went wrong.  8)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: peepo2399 on 2018-03-21 15:59:27
is there like a text file or google doc of all of the changes (and additions) made for this mod? like a list of new enemies/bosses, any changes in the percentage of items drops or just changes of drops in general, what materia have been renamed or changed, what materia have different AP amounts to master, etc etc. I tried looking at the info box that came with the installer but for one, it crashes 87% of the time I try to open it (which is probably an issue with my garbage computer), and it didn't really answer all of the questions that I had.

I'm not sure how much of this stuff can be answered y'know, for like spoiler reasons, but if there are things that can be answered I'd be very happy
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-03-27 16:50:49
This mod is close to the original FF7 when it comes to drops and steals. Any enemy editor should work fine as drop/steal documentation. For example Hojo v 1.1 or Proud Clod. However, this wont work if you use 7heaven as the editors reads file from disc while 7H is memoru injection.
All the "big secrets" are on New bosses.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: peepo2399 on 2018-03-27 17:05:24
This mod is close to the original FF7 when it comes to drops and steals. Any enemy editor should work fine as drop/steal documentation. For example Hojo v 1.1 or Proud Clod. However, this wont work if you use 7heaven as the editors reads file from disc while 7H is memoru injection.
All the "big secrets" are on New bosses.
Ah alright thank you very much!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: KittyJaws on 2018-03-30 07:31:47
So I was grinding for diamond weapon, and seeing how hard the fight looked i decided to see if i could handle any materia caves... I tried the desert materia cave for hp<->mp and the boss was incredibly impossible to beat at that point in the game for me, but then i realized when i tried to run no message came up, but i could never run away. I then flew to rocket town, bought exit materia, tried it in the battle, and it worked. I got the mega-all and hp<->mp materia, without even needing to fight the boss. Is this a glich?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Osprey on 2018-03-31 22:24:07
Hi, thank you for a great mod! I like that there is this huge variety in difficulty throughout the game. Nothing feels generic. :) I also appreciate the many surprises. I have stayed away from the forum until now, because of potential spoilers. I am at the exact same point in the game as KittyJaws. And the "Exit" materia trick/glitch? works for me too. But only in this particular cave. I also have a question regarding "Guidebook". Is it obtainable from the "Ghost ship"? I tried morphing it by calculating its health by casting poison and multiplying it by 32. However, the enemy seems to "die spontaneously" when its close to 0 HP.(no poison) Not letting me morph it. Am i doing something wrong? So I temporarily turned of HC mod and got the item, and turned it back on. Until i know it is obtainable. I am planning on kicking Emeralds &%* the long way. :)   
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-04-01 15:39:58
So I was grinding for diamond weapon, and seeing how hard the fight looked i decided to see if i could handle any materia caves... I tried the desert materia cave for hp<->mp and the boss was incredibly impossible to beat at that point in the game for me, but then i realized when i tried to run no message came up, but i could never run away. I then flew to rocket town, bought exit materia, tried it in the battle, and it worked. I got the mega-all and hp<->mp materia, without even needing to fight the boss. Is this a glich?

Yes, it is not intentional, aka bug, but I left it in just for the lols after I found out. But the boss should be beatable. All the materia cave bosses are beatable before Diamond. They require some planning and strategy is all, but there are ways of defeating them very early if you find the right strat.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.6s)
Post by: Raoulduke on 2018-08-04 18:54:59
Eidt: After writing this I realised what the problem was, I don't see a way to delete this message.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-08-30 22:52:44
Ok, after a million years there is finally an update. Unless there are serious bugs this will most likely be the final update. (kernel2.bin contains more text but got noticeably smaller for some reason; kinda worried. :P )

A new mod is in this time. Nothing much really. It's called the FF7 MonoMod. Yes I know, name sucks but who cares.
Party starts at level 1. Base stats never exceeds 1. HP and MP starts very low (10 :O) and maxes out at level 30 (or was it 31). Max HP base is 270, max MP is 90.
The game starts you off with most accessories, materias and armors too.

Again, nothing much, and it's not intended to be a hard mod. So if you have nothing better to do, what are you waiting for?
Keep in mind that you should patch on original files. If my patch application was used to make backups it should be enough to restore all oldest backups before patching.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2018-08-31 01:25:29
Ok, after a million years there is finally an update. Unless there are serious bugs this will most likely be the final update. (kernel2.bin contains more text but got noticeably smaller for some reason; kinda worried. :P )

A new mod is in this time. Nothing much really. It's called the FF7 MonoMod. Yes I know, name sucks but who cares.
Party starts at level 1. Base stats never exceeds 1. HP and MP starts very low (10 :O) and maxes out at level 30 (or was it 31). Max HP base is 270, max MP is 90.
The game starts you off with most accessories, materias and armors too.

Again, nothing much, and it's not intended to be a hard mod. So if you have nothing better to do, what are you waiting for?
Keep in mind that you should patch on original files. If my patch application was used to make backups it should be enough to restore all oldest backups before patching.

Given the monomod a whirl and through the first reactor; having 1 in every stat makes the fights a lot different, and even having the maxed equipment isn't a guarantee of success. Had a few close shaves here and there; Guard Scorpion was still managing to deal damage through a Ziedrich, Protect Ring, and Defend command to a front row Cloud.

Doing a screenshot LP of it on the NGPlus form, if interested in keeping tabs on it: http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/topic/786-ff7-monomod-by-gjoerulv-screenshot-lp/

One thing as well, I don't know if it was because I was juggling files between data folders but the kernel wasn't synched with a default scene. If your installer patches the scene.bin though, then it means I must have messed up when moving files over.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-08-31 13:08:11
  :-D Nice screenshots!

The kernel should be compatible with normal scene, but I'll take a quick check.

EDIT: Yup, they are compatible as far as I can tell. Tried first without the patch (copy paste original scene and moded kernel), and after with the patch (patch on original files). The byte-order is identical in both cases. I'm always worried on new releases 'cause I somehow always screw something up lol, but please let me know if something is wrong. I'll do another check now just for fun :P.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2018-08-31 15:38:43
 I think Trifa would have been a better name then Dolby.  ;D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-08-31 17:43:50
I think Trifa would have been a better name then Dolby.  ;D

Haha, ye, I didn't notice the names. Hilarious xD. As expected of sega.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: UpRisen on 2018-09-01 01:05:46
Im have an issue setting up Monomod. I run the patch under the original option and it patches. But the kernel that it gives me causes the exe to freeze on launch. I did a fresh install of ff7 and set up 7th heaven again from scratch to make sure that I hadnt messed it up somehow but even on a clean starting file the kernel does not work. Any Ideas?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-09-01 03:32:15
Im have an issue setting up Monomod. I run the patch under the original option and it patches. But the kernel that it gives me causes the exe to freeze on launch. I did a fresh install of ff7 and set up 7th heaven again from scratch to make sure that I hadnt messed it up somehow but even on a clean starting file the kernel does not work. Any Ideas?

Sounds scary. What language you patch? Can you confirm that if you, for instance, replace the patched kernel with original kernel the game works? If not can you email me the patched kernel?

The application (patch) also changes the .exe, but only if a certain byte order is found.

Edit: The files used for this mod are not used by 7H because they are very recent.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: KittyJaws on 2018-09-06 03:20:26
Monomod seems really fun so far!

Edit: made my way out of midgar, and i love everything except for the fact that W-item almost completely renders most magic usless, because you can use 2 items per turn, that can either heal for 100+, revive a character, or use grenades dealing way more than magic, without the limitation of low mp.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-09-18 13:35:58
... i love everything except for the fact that W-item almost completely renders most magic usless, because you can use 2 items per turn, that can either heal for 100+, revive a character, or use grenades dealing way more than magic, without the limitation of low mp.

Yeah, the lower tier materias such as restore, fire, etc. are completely useless. I choose to view this mod as a "find-your-own-challenge" of sorts (example: no items, initial weapons only, ...), as there are -in many/most cases- at least one way to render any fight trivial.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: soku on 2018-11-04 16:13:14
So after more than a 1 year break, I decided to finally complete my playthrough. Went well so far, I beat Omega and the Weapons, and Jenova as well. Now I am stuck at Bizarro. I did not have a Game Over per se, but before I will be caught in a X-hours-long battle loop for nothing, I want to ask inbefore:

So normally after killing the Magics (arms), you can hurt the core. I fought Bizarro in Gjoerulv's mod three times so far - and whenever I killed the arms, the core was still immune to damage. I tried both orders (first killing the left, and the next time first killing the right), but everytime I was only able to attack the stomach or the head (whenever it revived). I tried physical damage, and magical (even Pandora's Box) So - was the order changed? Or did I do something wrong? I have found a youtube video of Sega Chief fighting Bizarro on Gjoerulv's mod- on his battle, I saw that after he killed the arms, he was able to deal damage to the core. It was uploaded 2013, so idk, maybe Gjoerulv actually changed this one again.

Can someone please tell me what to do / if I missed something? I really do not want to continue a tedious battle for hours only to find out that I either missed something, or if I just did it for nothing if it's a bug. Thank you.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: UpRisen on 2018-11-05 23:59:03
you have to kill the 2 sides before you can kill the middle. When it gives your the first chance to switch, take it and make sure you kill all of the parts before shifting to the third team, then repeat with them.. this is your 2 man squad so better be ready to DPS the strawberries out of him. Then when you swithc back to the original squad again you will be able to damage the core and win the fight.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2018-11-06 21:29:34
So after more than a 1 year break, I decided to finally complete my playthrough. Went well so far, I beat Omega and the Weapons, and Jenova as well. Now I am stuck at Bizarro. I did not have a Game Over per se, but before I will be caught in a X-hours-long battle loop for nothing, I want to ask inbefore:

So normally after killing the Magics (arms), you can hurt the core. I fought Bizarro in Gjoerulv's mod three times so far - and whenever I killed the arms, the core was still immune to damage. I tried both orders (first killing the left, and the next time first killing the right), but everytime I was only able to attack the stomach or the head (whenever it revived). I tried physical damage, and magical (even Pandora's Box) So - was the order changed? Or did I do something wrong? I have found a youtube video of Sega Chief fighting Bizarro on Gjoerulv's mod- on his battle, I saw that after he killed the arms, he was able to deal damage to the core. It was uploaded 2013, so idk, maybe Gjoerulv actually changed this one again.

Can someone please tell me what to do / if I missed something? I really do not want to continue a tedious battle for hours only to find out that I either missed something, or if I just did it for nothing if it's a bug. Thank you.

It depends if you get a 1, 2, or 3 party battle. If you get a 1-party fight then you can just kill the parts and expose the core, but if multiple parties are involved then you instead have to swap teams to destroy their side of the Core before Team A's core becomes exposed.

2-Party Fight
-) Kill a body part (head is fastest, but arms will stay dead when killed and need to die anyway). Swap teams when prompted.
-) Team 2 needs to kill all their body parts to make their side of the Core damageable; kill the Core here, and then swap back to Party A
-) Party A now needs to kill the arms (and possibly the head if it revives) to get damage down on the Core. Once the Core is down, you're free to damage the torso but beware; the less limbs Bizarro has, the more he'll start to spam-cast his physical attack which ignores defence, hits the party, is non-elemental, and has a high chance to crit due to Bizz's luck stat.

3-Party Fight
-) The most complex, you need to kill 3 Cores and one of your teams has only 2 people on it. This team will need to be reasonably equipped in order to deal with their side.
-) For Team B and C, you're only dealing with one arm but this arm has 2 parts to it so watch out for that. Also, if the head revives then it makes the core immune again; I can't remember exactly but I think the arm itself for these two teams may also revive so timing may be needed. Try to save your big burst for when that core-side is exposed; if you need to reset summon uses, swap teams and re-attempt.
-) When you've killed the Core sides for B and C, it's back to team A to do what you'd usually do; kill the arms, the core, then torso. The 3-party fight can last a long time if you get locked into attrition with parts reviving before you can get decent damage down on the core-side so be prepared.

If any of your teams are struggling then you can use the Hades summon to apply the dual-drain status (or Flare spell); this'll greatly speed up the battle. If you want to get the most straightforward battle of 1-party, then you'll need to let Jenova Synthesis get 13 turns before Countdown is initiated (unless the AI here was changed). You can also make Bizarro + Safer weaker in terms of HP if you avoid using KOTR in the Jenova Synthesis battle.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: soku on 2018-11-07 18:57:16
Thank you for your answers. I had a 3 party fight after all, but that wasn't too hard. Also I updated the game before I took on the superbosses, so Bizzaro's attack wasn't ignoring defense anymore. So I beat the mod... and I would have written a proper review if I haven't took the uber long break. So I can't remember too well to write a rewiev. But all I can tell is that I had fun, it was a very entertaining mod, thanks for that.
Well, in fact, I still remembered one thing that bugged me a little: the balance between the characters. Just like in vanilla FF7, in the end game Cid (only one with 5 materia double grown, AND possibility to triple growth), Barret (By no question the best and most consistent final weapon) and Yuffie (consistent final weapon - kinda must use to farm sources) outshadow every other character. Tifa has still has a bad weapon and not a very good limit break, Vincent has a bad weapon (for everyone who doesn't have a lifetime to spend killing so many enemies to make death penalty somewhat useful) and the worst limit break, Cait Sith... well, either his limit break is bad, or broken, depending on if you want to / can manipulate the reels.

So changing Limit Breaks would be too much to ask for, I admit. But at least Weapons can be rebalanced. Many weapons which had little to no use in Vanilla still suffer the same fate.

This is the only sort of negative thing I remember. Thank you gjoerulv for this mod.

Sega Chief, I'm gonna play your NT next, whenever I have the time!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-11-09 13:42:15
Ye, Tifa's ultimate weapon is the most annoying imo. It would be ok if you weren't forced to use your limit. 4xcut Platinum fist Tifa with full limit gauge at lvl 4 would be nice to use (mime?). But every time she dies here ultimate is just as useless.
I wanted to keep the mechanics as similar as vanilla as possible, in other words, the same "flaws" will naturally follow. In the case of Tifa however I would be willing to change it, considering this is "hardcore" meaning you'll die a lot more, rendering her ultimate useless.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: soku on 2018-11-09 16:43:53
Got ya - although I say personally, I would have better experience with more things changed/balanced, I can clearly understand your point of not drifting too far away from vanilla. It's your mod after all - and also judging from other testimonies, you did a great job. It's also nice to address things your reviewers mentioned.

By the way, there was one more peculiar thing I experienced during Bizzarro fight which I forgot to mention. I'm not completely sure, but I think I experienced a smiliar/the same thing on another battle with a new enemy, or a new enemy attack, or at least an altered enemy attack. So here's the deal:
When Bizzarro uses Aurora Fence, it is supposed to eat your MP up, and additionally remove positive statuses. So I noticed, even when it stated "Miss" on a character, the MP "damage" was "dodged" as expected, but the statuses were still removed. Is this intended to work that way?

And another thing about Aurora Fence: It also removes Sadness, even when you are immune to Sadness and Fury (=equipping Peace Ring and give your chars Sadness before the Battle). Is that intended too?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2018-11-11 13:54:58
By the way, there was one more peculiar thing I experienced during Bizzarro fight which I forgot to mention. I'm not completely sure, but I think I experienced a smiliar/the same thing on another battle with a new enemy, or a new enemy attack, or at least an altered enemy attack. So here's the deal:
When Bizzarro uses Aurora Fence, it is supposed to eat your MP up, and additionally remove positive statuses. So I noticed, even when it stated "Miss" on a character, the MP "damage" was "dodged" as expected, but the statuses were still removed. Is this intended to work that way?

And another thing about Aurora Fence: It also removes Sadness, even when you are immune to Sadness and Fury (=equipping Peace Ring and give your chars Sadness before the Battle). Is that intended too?

To be honest I'm not sure I knew about that dodge thing. Dispel attacks may not have been meant to be able to miss in the 1st place. Iirc you can't specify that status effects apply even if the attack misses (pretty sure you can't), ie the devs didn't bother to deal with that mechanic since they weren't supposed to miss, or it's a bug.

It is possible to make attacks ignore status defense though, but that flag is not on aurora fence. The sadness and fury flags are not on that attack either. When I look at the attack data I can't imagine I meant it to act like how you report here (but it's many years, who knows what I thought back then lol). I have to check this myself.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: DFR66 on 2019-03-02 19:18:21
Hey guys,

Started playing the Hardcore+Reunion mod through 7th heaven.

I´ve got a few questions about it. First, I like to know which version the Hardcore mod from 7th heaven is. Second, I noticed that Phoenix and Neo Bahamoth gives you a +50 stats boost for certain stats, I assume this is not right, I like to know what I can do to make this right. Also, the base materia like Restore, Fire, Ice etc. gives you a +15 for Vitality and Agility, and -15 for intellect and luck.. I like to know if its still like this in the mod. Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-03-06 13:12:12
That doesn't sound right at all. The materia stat changes, when equipped, wasn't changed in this mod. If it is true what you say it sounds like something is wrong; it actually sounds like the kernel got mixed by another gameplay mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2019-03-06 13:44:31
Sounds like the wrong executable is being used; I had some .exe files packaged with FF7 NT's IRO to be dropped into the ff7 folder by the user so maybe these have been used to replace the ones created by 7H as some of the stat changes sound familiar (albeit on different materia types cause it's a Hardcore mod kernel).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-03-06 14:38:41
Yes, I forgot, the kernel doesn't control the actual stats, rather what index is used by the materia.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: DFR66 on 2019-03-08 14:56:05
Sounds like the wrong executable is being used; I had some .exe files packaged with FF7 NT's IRO to be dropped into the ff7 folder by the user so maybe these have been used to replace the ones created by 7H as some of the stat changes sound familiar (albeit on different materia types cause it's a Hardcore mod kernel).

Your right the exe. is mixed up.. what I need now I suppose is get a standard ff7.exe to execute the Hardcore mod through 7th heaven.. do you know how I can get this?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-03-13 00:56:35
If you use steam I believe you there is some method (in the steam library, not the game) to check for file integrity. It should convert any moded files back I think. However, as you're using 7H I'm not sure if this can screw thing over with 7H (never used it myself).
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Cerberusyuri on 2019-04-23 01:52:19
hey there, i tried to install the mod but i got an error message "ERROR: Couldn't patch ff7.exe. Unexpected byte sequence. Make sure you have newest version of ff7."
I should have the newest version cause i just installed the game before i tried to install the mod xS
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-04-28 10:41:15
hey there, i tried to install the mod but i got an error message "ERROR: Couldn't patch ff7.exe. Unexpected byte sequence. Make sure you have newest version of ff7."
I should have the newest version cause i just installed the game before i tried to install the mod xS
This could be solved by not patching the .exe. Uncheck the exe before clicking "Patch"
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Cerberusyuri on 2019-04-28 19:52:03
While the error doesn't happen if i do that, the game won't start anymore.. or rather i can start but i won't even get to the squere logo. it doesn't even give response anymore so all i can do is close it afterwards. (same happened when i renamed the ff7_de.exe tp ff7.exe, and renamed it afterwards again cause it sadly has to be named ff7_de for me xS)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-04-29 02:22:06
Hmmm, I can't recall if I checked all the language executables. Did you chose correct language? Or is it possible for you to switch to English, aka ff7_en.exe? When I get back home tomorrow  I'll try to remember to see how I handled the different executables.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Cerberusyuri on 2019-04-29 17:47:06
dunno how to change the game language to english xS
but yes i made sure the language setting was german
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-01 07:38:17
Assuming you're using the steam version on windows it should be possible in steam: Go to your game library and right click ff7 -> properties -> language tab.
If I have time later today I'll check out how the different .exe works with this mod.

EDIT: You should also verify files integrity to make steam install the original files: Properties -> local files tab -> verify integrity of local files...

EDIT2:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/xerrube6em70eeg/Gjoerulv-1.0.7.1.zip/file (https://www.mediafire.com/file/xerrube6em70eeg/Gjoerulv-1.0.7.1.zip/file)
Here is a new one. It should work with all languages now.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Cerberusyuri on 2019-05-03 03:14:01
thanks for the updated file, but still gives me an error when i try to install again for the ff7.exe so it doesn't rly seem to notice that its called ff7_de.exe in german.

for your first edit, i'm not sure what you mean by that, shouldn't it install the right files if i install the game?

oh right, i thought i said that but it looks like i didn't, i tried to install the "mono mod" part of the installer. (i couldn't find a own Topic for it here so i asked where i got the launcher from xS i dunno if that makes much of a difference for you.)

and just to check, for the hardcore mod part it works fine there it noticed that it's ff7_de.exe  (sorry that i missed to mention that its the mono mod installation that makes me problems.)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-06 15:31:24
for your first edit, i'm not sure what you mean by that, shouldn't it install the right files if i install the game?

What I mean is that there is a functionality in steam that allows you to check if files are correctly installed. This can be useful if, for example, you're not sure if the patcher screwed up the game, or if you want to patch on a clean install (which you should).

The MonoMod does not require you to patch the .exe (uncheck ff7.exe), but keep in mind that vincent and caith sith will be somewhat stronger than everyone else. All starting character data is in the kernel, but for some reason the game gets data from the .exe when those characters are recruited. Probably 'cause they are multi-purpose characters </offtopic>
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Cerberusyuri on 2019-05-07 04:48:03
okay, so far: (patching with unchecked ff7.exe)
i tried without changing the language first, checked for errors (4 errors found) patched. game wouldn't rly start. checked for errors again, (1 error found) started, and the mod didn't seemed like it would work.
then i changed the language, checked for errors (nothing found), patched again and it started, and it finally worked^^

thanks for the help, even thought its sad that it won't work with other languages...
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: technaustin on 2019-05-07 21:01:00
If I really want the increased difficulty, but not the materia changes, can I just install everything except the kernel.bin & kernel.bin2? Thank you for this tool.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-08 13:10:37
Yes, that should work. But all other kernel changes will not be applied as well. Read the kernel tab in the info.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: technaustin on 2019-05-08 16:23:24
Awesome. Thank you!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Maverick4031 on 2019-05-13 12:10:52
heya gjoe! in case nobody else asked.....what are the chances of you releasing an IRO for this mod?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-13 12:51:29
iro? Restraining order?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Maverick4031 on 2019-05-14 01:08:14
iro, as in the format that 7th heaven uses? lol
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-14 11:18:33
lol, yeah my bad. Someday I'll try 7H, just need some motivation to play the game again haha.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: LordUrQuan on 2019-05-14 12:56:08
just need some motivation to play the game again haha.
Tifa plus an HD battle model  ::)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Maverick4031 on 2019-05-15 00:21:20
ahh. ok then lol. hopefully the inspiration finds you soon enough. didja see the trailer for the remake? pretty nice i must say lol.

as far as your mod as well as Sega Chief's, my appreciation for modding and ff7 proper isn't likely to die off any time soon. both you have given new life to a classic in your own way. thanks guys lol.

only wish certain smaller-scale mods still existed. that DoC themed vincent model set was pretty beastly, no pun intended (or is it?) i think kazama did that one....where even the limit forms were edited to match what DoC could've been.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Ty_JY on 2019-05-21 04:06:03
Could someone explain what that monomod thing does? I would check myself but don't own a computer or laptop... back when I used to play this mod years ago I still lived at my parents and used their computer
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-21 07:09:15
in mono mod your base stats stays at 1 and your HP/MP levels are very low and grows very slowly. And you start with all equipment (not weapons) and all of each materia (not summons and master materia). The idea is that you can use more strats from the start of the game while still being somewhat challenging.

You can use equipment and materia to raise your stats but base stats will never exceed 1. Sources do not work.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Ty_JY on 2019-05-21 14:31:38
Well that's certainly creative, thanks for the quick response.

I'm looking forward to trying out this mod again once I finally buy my first ever laptop or computer.  Last I played was about 5 or 6 years ago
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Seph88 on 2019-05-23 17:31:41
Hi gjoerulv, i started to play your hardcore, but i have a question: i have Cloud with Blizzard and Thunder, there is a way to have them called Ice and Bolt? Like in the original game.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-26 19:25:32
Yes, the names are in the kernel2.bin. If you patched that file and made backups, try and restore it.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Seph88 on 2019-05-27 13:22:13
It don't work, i don't know why :(
Can you send me that file via email? Thanks.

And another thing: i don't know why, but musics are not the original, they seems like a newest version.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-05-31 09:26:16
Sorry for the late reply. Did you figure it out?

If you use steam you can validate the game files integrity to restore all of the original files. In your library right click your game -> Properties -> change tab to Local Files -> click Verify integrity of game files... With this, you can completely reset the files. After that, wait 'til steam has downloaded all files, then patch again with Kernel2.bin unchecked.

On a side note, I think there is a bug in the app that won't restore steam version backups of the scene and kernels. I've made the fix, but not officially released it. The fix is in the link a few posts back.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Seph88 on 2019-06-03 18:00:49
I use a cracked version of the steam's one (i'm waiting for steam sales).
I tried to reverted the patch and to update with the kernel2.bin unchecked, but nothing changed.
I still have thunder/fire/cura/blizzard and still have the newest soundtracks.
Don't know how to fix it.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: EQ2Alyza on 2019-06-08 02:14:15
Can't help you until you get a legit copy. Come back after the Steam Sales.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Seph88 on 2019-07-03 11:36:06
Ok, i bought the Steam version.
But i have a problem, when i use you program, i click on "Steam" and it appear an error: "Couldn't find FF7 Steam installation path. Have you installed FF7 on Steam?". Of course i did, don't know why it give me this error.
After this error, i click Ok. Then go on "Patch", click it and it give me another error: "Type or select a valid path", but the path i selected is the right one.
After this, it appear: "An error occured while patching. Do you want to see the log file for details?"

I don't know how to fix all these problems.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: JonOzzie on 2019-07-03 19:49:01
Hey everyone,

New here. Just want to start by thanking you for making this mod. Loving it so far. Having a more difficult FF7 is a dream come true.

I have a few questions:

I can't seem to find any guides out there for this. Can anyone point me toward one if it exists?

Why can't I learn Chocobuckle in this mod? I gave the chocobo mimmett greens and casted L4 suicide and he just flees. I verified he is lv 16.

How the heck do I learn death force from the adamantaimai? I can't figure out a way to kill him. I've just gotten the tiny bronco. Do I need to be very high leveled or is there a trick to bring him down?

Sorry if these questions have been already asked or answered here or elsewhere as I am new to these types of forums and modded games in general.

Thanks!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: Airavat on 2019-07-05 15:38:23
Hey guys, great mod.
I have an issue at the "Temple of the Ancients" where the game consistently crashes during Tseng's dialogue in the cutscene after navigating the rolling boulders.
This is the latest APP.LOG:
Quote
[00000000] INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.8.1b
[00000000] INFO: Auto-detected version: FF7 1.02 US English
[00000000] INFO: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 1060/PCIe/SSE2 4.6.0 NVIDIA 430.86
[00000000] INFO: OpenGL 2.0 support detected
[00000000] INFO: Found swap_control extension
[00000000] INFO: Max texture size: 32768x32768
[00000000] INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1920x1080, output resolution 1440x1080, internal resolution 3840x2160
[00000000] INFO: Shader limits: varying 124, vert uniform 4096, frag uniform 4096
[00000000] INFO: postprocessing program link log:
Fragment info
-------------
0(133) : warning C7050: "refractedColor.w" might be used before being initialized

[00000000] INFO: FFMpeg movie player plugin loaded
[00000000] INFO: FFMpeg version SVN-r25886, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
[00000000] INFO: VGMStream music plugin loaded
[00000000] INFO: Loading external library Multi.dll
[00000000] LOCK UNLOCK TEST
[00000001] MATRIX INITIALIZE
[00000001] INITIALIZE DD/D3D END
[00000001] initializing sound...
[00000001] creating dsound primary buffer
[00000001] reading audio file
[00000001] loading static sounds
[00000001] sound initialized
[00000001] set music volume: 127
[00000001] set music volume: 127
[00000001] Entering MAIN
[00000001] Exiting MAIN
[00000001] START OF CREDITS!!!
[00000001] INFO: C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII\data\movies\eidoslogo.avi; h264/pcm_s16le 1280x960, 30.000300 FPS, duration: 11.133222, frames: 334
[00000001] set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
[00000066] END OF CREDITS!!!
[00000066] Entering MAIN
[00000066] set music volume: 127
[00000066] Exiting MAIN
[00000066] START OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
[00000174] END OF MENU SYSTEM!!!
[00000174] Entering MAIN
[00000178] Exiting MAIN
[00000178] Field Start
[00000178] : [00000178] : [00000178] : [00000178] : [00003215] : [00003215] : [00003215] : [00003215] : [00003215] : [00003215] : [00003842] set music volume trans: 127->0, step=60
[00003878] set music volume: 127
[00003878] : unhandled exception
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: So I didn't find a real fix but I used Black Chocobo to skip that scene. I was then able to play until I caught the Ancient in the tunnel maze.
However as soon as I enter the locked door and Sephiroth's dialogue begins, my game basically sticks. To elaborate the music is still playing, there is no "crash" or error log, the characters are just standing around and I am unable to register any button presses.
It is possible that by skipping the earlier scene I may have locked this current scene. I can try and skip some more scenes but that would mean missing out on some boss fights, etc, and lends to the issue if this is something that carries forward.
I have a feeling there is some conflict with sound drivers possibly, since 7th Heaven refuses to work for me as well and crashes on game startup, and the APP.LOG hints at that sort of issue.
Once again any help or advice is appreciated.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2019-07-20 04:28:20
Sorry for late reply. I'm currently on vacation, aka, not really replying. I'm alive gois relax. I'll be back in 2 weeks for 100% support  :mrgreen:.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: satsuki on 2020-01-25 11:13:47
Hello.
Thanks for your work.

I'd like to try the mono mod but the game crash at launch.
If i replace the patched kernel.bin with the original one, no more crash but of course the mod isn't applyied ^^'
Here's the crc32 of the modded kernel.bin : 35EF9E94

Thanks of any help
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2020-01-31 10:18:57
.

Hello, sorry for late reply (again)

All I can think of atm is to try and replace your files with original ones and try again. If you use the steam version on windows you can do this by:

1: Right click FF7 in your library
2: Properties
3: Local Files (the tab)
4: Verify integrity of game files

Alternative is to uninstall/install but that would take more time.

Alternative 2
The "Restore backups" doesn't work on the current version for steam. I have a new version here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/xerrube6em70eeg/Gjoerulv-1.0.7.1.zip/file (http://www.mediafire.com/file/xerrube6em70eeg/Gjoerulv-1.0.7.1.zip/file)
The restore backups should work with this version.

EDIT:
Oh, snap it was only the kernel. Welp, in that case, are you sure all the other files are original/unmoded? At launch huh. That kinda indicates that the whole file is corrupted and the game can't work with it (ie tries something impossible). You can test this by trying other moding tools, such as wallmarked. https://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7928.0 IF this tool can open it, it shouldn't be corrupted.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.1)
Post by: satsuki on 2020-02-08 13:47:32
Thanks.

Done with the kernel.
Tryied from a fresh steam install with no luck.
Tryied from another computer and it worked, don't know why but now it's ok ^^
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.1)
Post by: kotecome on 2020-04-11 15:33:20
I saw that 7th 2.0 is currently using 1.0.6s in the gameplay mod.
May I know if it will be updated to 1.0.7? (Not sure if I am at the right thread to ask...)

(At the time if 1.0.7 is to be played I may need to patch the file probably rendering incompatibility with the other mods downloading from 7th 2.0? I am not sure)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2020-04-15 08:25:46
As lazy as I am, I haven't really tried 7h that much yet. I tested out v2 some days ago. If it uses 1.0.6s then it's basically the newest version. You can look at the change log on opening post to see differences.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: brolyss3 on 2020-04-24 13:28:31
Hello everyone,

I was able to test the FF7 DX with hardcore mode, it's really enjoyable, congratulations for those who did a sick job on it  ;D

I'm on the panther-shaped boss when we get the knight's material from the round table, and every time it dies it says "dead is not the then end ... mother god ..." and it comes back to life. So I killed him maybe 10 times, I tried to give a megalixir but nothing works. A little help?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Sega Chief on 2020-04-24 21:53:20
He resurrects (kinda) but it's finite (about 12 times or so?); each resurrection has 1 of 6 special attacks, some of which are deadly as they have special damage formulas (one is damage = amount of HP lost which will hit for 9999 once he's taken this much damage). You can make things easier with status ailments; things like Stop and Sleep should all work. Hades Summon should work well, or Cauldron items if you have any. Otherwise the conventional status spells should do the trick.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2020-04-25 12:31:35
Frogs are fascinating creatures.

Killing him in 1 move each time is what you want. Best thing is to get into a rhythm, not allowing him to act at all. He always revives as a reaction to anything, that is, after he is killed, he will revive after the next move, be it your own or not. Try timing accordingly. He has 12 lives iirc.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: brolyss3 on 2020-04-25 23:41:10
He resurrects (kinda) but it's finite (about 12 times or so?); each resurrection has 1 of 6 special attacks, some of which are deadly as they have special damage formulas (one is damage = amount of HP lost which will hit for 9999 once he's taken this much damage). You can make things easier with status ailments; things like Stop and Sleep should all work. Hades Summon should work well, or Cauldron items if you have any. Otherwise the conventional status spells should do the trick.

Ah thks bro' you are so cool  ;D
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Seph88 on 2020-05-17 23:51:25
I'm playing it on Twitch (don't know if i can link my channel), i'm at the third fight againts Locke, Theo and Venus. I'm training a bit because they hit hard :c
Btw i want to ask: Ruby and Emerald are killable without KOTR?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: blankdiploma on 2020-08-29 23:57:32
Hello,

I've played through this mod several times, and I recently reinstalled it using 7th heaven with the "hardcore" gameplay mod setting (which I was led to believe was equivalent to installing this the old-fashioned way.)

Everything SEEMED to be fine - I fought the extra boss in Shinra tower (locke, venus, theo) and the other bosses were as hard as I remembered them, but when I got to Cloud's story in Kalm, I was not able to control Sephiroth during the fight with the green dragon, and he auto-killed it in a single crit. That's not how I remember that sequence going. Is something wrong with my copy of the mod? Is the 7th heaven version not actually the correct version?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2020-08-30 17:24:21
It may be some conflicts in the kernel via other mods perhaps. Hard to tell, but do you have any other gameplay mods on in 7H?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: blankdiploma on 2020-08-30 18:47:57
No, I had no other gameplay mods installed of any kind. Fresh ff7 install with 7th Heaven 2.0 on top, a few model/texture mods, and the Qhimm gameplay suite with your mod selected.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2020-08-31 11:41:45
7H may be using a version that had that "bug".
In any case, the only changes worth talking about is in v1.0.7, and even those are quite minor (except that final boss nerf).
The flashback was never hard in this mod. There is an extra boss at the reactor, but that one is quite easy.

I'm guessing it's the same, but it does sound weird you don't have control of sephiroth.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: blankdiploma on 2020-09-02 23:59:24
Got it, thank you!

Do you know who I could bug about getting the 7th heaven modpack version updated to the correct one?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2020-09-07 14:26:42
That would probably be me. But, imo, these versions are ~99% identical.
One other thing from the top of my head though, iirc, 7H can crash/hang on certain encounters at Nibelheim mountains with this mod. Not sure if that's still true.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Seph88 on 2020-09-29 18:56:20
Where can i farm sources? I can find them only in the gelnika. There is some other monster some where that can be morphed into sources? I need expecially power sources!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Seph88 on 2020-12-07 08:11:30
I FINALLY DID IT! After tons of attemps he died!
It was really hard, but i did not really enjoyed this fight, it was too much based on rng because he used lot of adrenalines and i needed to miss his attacks (i farmed luck and speed sources, 255 stat for everyone in the party).
Now i can go finish it!

https://clips.twitch.tv/HilariousEagerRhinocerosGingerPower (https://clips.twitch.tv/HilariousEagerRhinocerosGingerPower)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Maverick4031 on 2020-12-19 17:55:54
Heya! so i feel like maybe i missed something. is there an IRO for hardcore yet or is it still the hard install only?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: kellueHaze on 2021-09-01 18:39:09
I did the battle square and killed the final monster there but i didnt get any final attack materia, i also want to source farm but thats hard because some morphs must've been changed i think, the nibel mountains dude (with the ball and chain) next to the reactor doesnt morph into power sources :c
Is there any documentation on what drops what and where to get certain things ?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2021-09-13 11:07:30
That doesn't sound right. The battle square mechanics and field aren't changed at all, so I'm not sure what to say there.
You sure it was the "special" battle?
From wiki:
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Attack_(Final_Fantasy_VII) (https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Attack_(Final_Fantasy_VII))

For documentation on drops etc, an enemy editor is perfect, like Hojo or Proud Clod.
https://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0 (https://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8481.0)
Hojo is a bit easier at first as you can see the drops at once, but the links are dead, so getting it may be a bit hard.
Prod Clod is a more comprehensive editor, so a tiny bit more work to see the drops.

In any case, you need to open the scene.bin file in your .../Final Fantsy VII/data/battle folder.
Both programs have a list of scenes.
If you use Proud Clod, in order to see drops, goto: Enemy Management -> Enemy Stats. You must do this for each scene.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: JonJon412 on 2021-11-28 21:34:05
This mod was pretty insane when I played it years ago. Brings nice memories seeing this thread :)
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: random on 2022-01-24 18:11:48
I have a question. Is it possible to mod the steam version of the game and stil unlock the vanilla achievements playing the ''Hardcore version''?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2022-01-28 06:57:46
Should not interfere with achievements. Those achievements aren't much to write home about though...  :P
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: coflash on 2022-05-14 07:06:38
Is this mod compatible with 'Satsuki Yatoshi Mod - SYW V5' at all?
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2022-05-23 23:37:29
Is this mod compatible with 'Satsuki Yatoshi Mod - SYW V5' at all?

Seems like a tight fit; not likely. If you use the installers for each mod, use hardcore last. If I'm not mistaken, this will most likely break the immersion, because the hardcore will overwrite some field files to trigger custom encounters. So those filed files that are replaced will not be HD. I don't think it will be a problem with battles though.

But it depends on how SYW does it's modding; I'm not too familiar.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Damy on 2022-06-13 20:59:37
I love this mod! Also using the remove "9999" limit up to 30k including enemies who can damage me... because why not  :mrgreen:

I found out that soldier in Junon forest area sometimes spawn with Shinra Alpha as stealable item. Wow I gotta grab 2 more so thank you for the fun mod!!
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Damy on 2022-06-20 20:24:04
Oh well there's one thing I really hate this mod. The first battle square you can fight and try to win for rewards iirc. It's only RNG and no challenge at all.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2022-06-21 15:24:19
Yes, worst thing about this mod is the battle square. It adds 2xHP, str, etc. on top of the extra difficulty. I did not change that, it does in vanilla too, and I didn't keep this in mind when making the mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Pure_Mind_Games on 2022-06-26 12:54:04
Is MonoMod available as it's own IRO? I don't really wanna have to reinstall the game everytime I wanna play something different or work on my own mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: gjoerulv on 2022-07-07 21:47:14
Sadly no. I've never looked into that; haven't really been active for several years. But mebbeh one day I'll make some.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: surat.chim on 2023-08-22 02:04:44
Which mod in 7th heaven can compatible with your mod.
Title: Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)
Post by: Heru on 2024-02-10 12:46:03
Sephiroth loses his turn without any actions being taken during the Nibleheim flashback against the dragon and the new boss you added if you have Ochu open.