Author Topic: [PSX/PC] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes (+German version)  (Read 77044 times)

Vir

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Updated 8/18/16: uploaded BaconCatBug's Steam release of FF9.2.2.

Vir did this? Yea... so who helped him?
  • Thanks to Tirlititi--who seems to me to be really a worthy Qhimm user in that his tool Hades Workshop was easy to use and he has replied to numerous questions for me promptly, and volunteered useful feedback.
  • Thanks also to GameFAQs users aladore384 and Atomos199, for their persistent feedback and error-finding. Their questioning my logic made me explain and understand it better. Also, if they hadn't been responding, there wouldn't have been much response, and I would have gone away thinking I must have scrambled the toast somehow ^^
  • Thanks to (GameFAQs users, all of these) BronzeStuff, XtraT, monkeyslinger, Pibugo, and terran3999999 for their repeated inputs.
  • Thanks to Pibugo for saying he liked what I was doing.
  • Thanks MarquisOndore, ertfert, IllusionGamer90, and others for contributing to a discussion of m.stone balance, which I used. WhPlague sparked and inadvertently contributed to this discussion: thanks. M.O. and Atomos brought up the suggestion of adding detail to support ability tooltips, which I did.
  • Thanks to m'lady for sitting listening to a mess of arcane game mechanical algebra to help me figure out... something... well, it was important we knew what it was at that time, anyway. And we solved it! *Also, she told me repeatedly to do iterative testing and I did not do it at all ever so if anything's broken it is not her fault and she told me so. She insisted on and dictated *this addition.
  • Thanks to LandonRay, from whose Unleashed mod Tirlititi got his suggestion to just make Six Dragons single target. I eventually took this advice. Fair dues to LandonRay for thinking of it first. (Also if anyone has a really good idea for another use of this ability slot, let me know!)
  • Thanks Advent on ID for prompting me to clarify what I mean by "balance" so downloaders don't spend time under a misconception.
  • GameFAQs' Zaltera discovered a couple errors in my change log, provided feedback on just about every aspect of the mod, tested to make sure Float didn't increase Wind-damage, and has otherwise been helping by play testing all the way to 99. Many thanks!
  • GameFAQs' pjng99 and YouTube's ng family brought to GameFAQs' attention a typo. I did not search exhaustively, but as far as I know it may have never been brought to light before. The Hot & Cold exchange gives you Phoenix Pinions, not Phoenix Down. Tirlititi confirms this is correctly listed in other translations. I fixed it in this one.
  • Thanks to awesomeuno for feedback and for his inquiries with monkeyslinger revealing that I'd made an error in calculating Amarant's max stats. Thanks to him, we also have max stat setups for ordered-without-final-equipment and combined stats. Check the GameFAQs thread to see if he's posted them or contact him there; I didn't do any work on them, so I haven't taken the liberty to redistribute them.
  • Thanks monkeyslinger for working out those setups mentioned above and for helping proving via computer-checking that the setups I have in this version 2.21 will be final. Human re-re-checking was not good enough.
  • Thanks to Kivikaki's interest in a German version, I wrote up a guide (must be post 13 or so) for what text one would have to change to put the mod in other languages. Also, I would not have noticed the Brave Suit thing without his post.
  • Thanks to Zara9 and Covarr for tips to improve the download accessibility.
  • Kivikaki contributed a German language translation (for the German PAL FF9).
  • BaconCatBug recreated the mod for Steam/PC and wrote instructions for how to use such.

What's this mod?
The first version of this mod was my attempt to correct some small inequities (e.g., why ever use Kain's Lance if you have Dragon's Hair?), nuisances (removed forced exp.), and the Thunder Slash bug without changing the over all balance of FF9. This version got taken down at 2.2 because it also contained the error which 2.2 corrected and I didn't see updating them both. Its changes are still color coded light blue in the change log below, because why not.

This, the second version, includes the first version changes, but takes on less conservative goals, too. FF9.2, here, is my attempt to improve the balance of FF9, making all active and support abilities comparatively viable after their function, systematizing their costs to be less arbitrary, and leveling off most of the most exploitable abilities.

This is not a difficulty mod: a difficulty mod changes the balance between the players' resources and the monsters' resources. I have touched monsters very little. Under my changes, the game should be slightly more difficult. It shouldn't be less difficult, or you need to let me know. But difficulty was not a goal and any new difficulty doesn't spring from my making it "hard" to kill monsters in a few hits like in vanilla FF9. The balance in my goals was balance within the PCs' resources. Any new difficulty comes from there being a more reasonable cost in MP and M.Stones to playing that simple, high offense strategy. At the same time, other tactics are more viable because I've priced status effects and other not-big-damage moves reasonably, too (I hope!), so if there remains an incentive to just press Attack all the time, that was Square. But that incentive is smaller. That was me.

It's possible (no way to know) I'll also boost monsters in the future. If I do, it'll probably only be D4 randoms, because I'll still want this mod to be viable for persons like me who want to play the rest of the game in a traditional E2PG or Slow E2PG style. But this part of it wouldn't be done so fast (took me about a week, which I had off) or now if I had been more ambitious :)

What're the details?
I believe I have documented everything I did in a rather extensive--and orange--change log. It is in a google doc along with other working sheets, which are not guaranteed legible like the change log. You can't see the notes in google's preview, but you should be able to open it as a spreadsheet (as intended).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bQaj0zRxfw6l-nkJRXMssWN9ZosvTZdpm_fVKEnaE0c/edit?pli=1#gid=330958072

In addition to saying what changed, how it is now, what it was before, and a summary of why, I have made extensive notes to various cells explaining reasoning, advantage, and so forth. The wall of text which was here explaining my first version is there, distributed among various first version (blue text) notes.

Is it compatible with the Excalibur 2 Perfect Game?
That was my intention and I do believe it is so, yes.

If you find any little thing that I have not successfully anticipated that interferes seriously with the E2PG, let me know! I will make a new version of the mod as quick as I can and release it to you. Your save will adjust with the changes and work and you should be fine.

In fact,  please note that for various reasons I insisted my finished work the remain compatible with the Excalibur II Perfect Game as described by that Odysseus of Perfect Game Writers, Atomos199. (It's been 10 years now, right?) For the sake of compatibility with the E2PG, the abilities Night and Charge! are still relatively broken. But if I have done at all well balancing everything else, their broken edge is duller.


Overview:
Rebalanced all abilities' MP and Magic Stone costs, power and other attributes as appropriate, relating to approximately how many offensively- and defensively-spent turns they are worth.

To maintain compatibility with E2PG support ability combos, magic stones are balanced around higher numbers. You will have 45 instead of 14-18 at lv1, each ability will cost perhaps 8 instead of 4, and you will have 99 at max level instead of 68-72. The combinations that took up all your stones at lv1 before will do just that, but the points will be distributed between those abilities in a way that better reflects their relative power. Also, since the max will be 99, that "max stat" will be rounder and the cost of each ability happens to be the percent of your total you're investing there. Note that exactly as in the original game, characters joining at levels higher than one will wind up with lower stats (including total M. Stones) than had they joined at lv1. That's just how FF9 works. If you like the round numbers but don't want to play a lv1 game through Amarant, look at it that if you get any round numbers, it's more than you got in vanilla.

Removal of forced exp. and addition of stat weapons for four characters who had none rebalanced perfect stats in a more intuitive way. (Though they're nothing different to the extent other things have changed: e.g., Amarant isn't 10% weaker than Zidane, Vivi can get as high Mag as Eiko; nothing radical.) All E2PG setups are still sound: only there are +str/mag weapons to equip with those setups for characters who had no stat weapon before. Since it's only +Str/Mag, which do not cap, on those weapons, it does not change the gear/level setups.

All abilities aim to be more attractive in the right scenario (as far as I can do in Hades Workshop and without yet altering enemies), where in the original many abilities were too inaccurate or underpowered to be worth using.  Examples to this end:

  • Comet did random damage, you couldn't raise the minimum, and it had a 33% chance to miss entirely. Why use it over a more reliable spell? Well, now perhaps because it has a(n overall) 30% chance to cause Freeze, as well.
  • Demi, Aqua Breath, and Demi Shock all did fairly low percent-based damage, if they hit. Now, they each have a niche within that function now: e.g., Aqua Breath is cheap and always hits for 25% damage, Demi Shock has a 60% chance to hit for 50% at a higher price. I knew the fair price by making sure they had the same MP efficiency. Also, pro tip: Demi (30% max HP) works and always worked with Reflectx2 (i.e., 60% max HP, as many times as you reflect it).
  • Dragon's Crest has the same MP cost as Shock (48), since they're both pretty much 9999 buttons. Shock's cost comes from a standard price per Atk bonus.
  • Soul Blade inflicts a status based on your thief sword. It's well to use it with Ultima Weapon: 100% chance to sleep an enemy. I put it at 12 MP. If it always did sleep throughout the game, I'd have given it a higher cost, but it doesn't and wouldn't be worthwhile at some weapons. I believe it balances well even at end-game, though, because when you're thinking of using Zidane for a status, you must be balancing it against Annoy (useful against groups), which my system rates at 12 MP for a 75% chance. Further, even at high level, you won't inevitably have Ultima Weapon on anymore, because I made The Tower an elemental sidegrade. Finally, any  small advantage it does have in MP efficiency due to these complexities is outweighed, to my priorities, because without the no-brainer choice of 9999 Thievery for 8 MP, you're now thinking about tradeoffs instead of having no real incentive except hit 'em again.
  • Roulette was very underwhelming because you normally had a larger party than your foe: it was probably going to kill one of you for the cost of your MP. The above is still true, but the spell is now cheap so if Quina is in a 1v1 emergency (the situation appropriate to its function), it will be available and worthwhile.

More nuances if you want to check out the change log for a while.



Fine. Give us the goods.
Download at:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_iQt93JXScuU2txQjlVUi1BdU0?resourcekey=0-ua21juzJT-kHryg9aRBgbA&usp=sharing .

There are instructions there. BaconCatBug's Steam/PC version and Kivikaki's PSX German version have their own folders there.

Please feel free to offer feedback. Also, there was a lot of data-inputting between calculating, re-calculating, updating change log, updating Hades Workshop, re-calculating... I tried to double- and triple-check everything, but please show me my errors.


Updates:
  • 8/18/16-BaconCatBug from Qhimm here took on making the Steam/PC version and its accompanying instructions, which is now released.
  • 3/11/15-Writing up what all text should be changed to translate the mod, I noticed Brave Suit still had its vanilla description. Fixed.
  • 10/28 to 10/30/14-Turned out that a computer could (and did) use my Avenger change to manipulate spare remainders of fractions to max Spirit faster and then push Strength even higher than Amarant's previous max stat setups suggested. I had not anticipated this possibility. We have adjusted to this. See post #10 if you have a previous version and are concerned about Amarant's Strength.
  • 10/2/14-Fixed Hot & Cold's erroneous advertising exchange of Phoenix Downs rather than Phoenix Pinions (which it gives).
  • 9/18 to 9/24/14-Ranted continually on GameFAQs about work on a second version until this became so tiresome that magical trolls appeared in the world and produced the work on my computer to shut me up.
  • 7/12/14-simply uploaded new patches since Hades Workshop can now do the tooltip text for my changes like the game does, e.g., Elem Atk: Wind. If there were anyone using this mod, they could use this patch on some clean ISOs and keep playing the same saves no problem.
  • 7/17/14-on the GameFAQs message board, aladore384 (crediting a French user called spdf) observed that no Physical Attacks have elements and further that Thunder Slash didn't do Thunder damage as a Physical Attack. So I changed it to a Magic Weapon attack: it does Thunder damage now for certain. A Magic Weapon attack is like Cherry Blossom and Climhazzard, opposing MDef instead of Def.
  • 7/18/14-added thanks section.
« Last Edit: 2022-08-11 00:40:53 by Vir »

Tirlititi

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Re: Small mod for FF9
« Reply #1 on: 2014-05-11 14:25:12 »
Good job :D
I've never done the lvl 1 challenge. Think it's a good motivation for me to do so ^^

But why is there only a patch for the disc 1?

Vir

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Re: Small mod for FF9
« Reply #2 on: 2014-05-11 15:32:55 »
Well, you'd know better than I, so you're probably right, but it seemed to me that the same patch worked on each of the discs. I just named the mod (for lack of any name in particular) FF9.1. The monsters and their exp are the difference between the discs, and it seemed to me that when I loaded a disc in Hades Workshop without all the monsters, it just gave me a message that there were no such monsters, but fixed everything else correctly. So I assumed that it would patch the monsters and everything else where they were and patch everything else otherwise. Do tell me if that's not so.

Tirlititi

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Re: Small mod for FF9
« Reply #3 on: 2014-05-11 15:59:55 »
That's true when you use the "Save/Load Mod" command, but the PPF patch format is a generic format for Playstation patches that doesn't handle several discs.

You actually have to create 1 patch for each disc : open your 4 discs with the program, load your mod for each of them and export the mod as PPF patch for each of them also.

To be more specific, the format ".hws" saves logical modifications while the format ".ppf" saves the hexadecimal changes of the file. For example, since you won't find the Mage Staff's attack power at the exact same position in disc 1 and disc 2, you need to have different PPF files for the two discs.

Here, your PPF is made for the disc 3 only.

Vir

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Re: Small mod for FF9
« Reply #4 on: 2014-05-11 16:05:36 »
Thanks for that information! Will be resolved soon.

Vir

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Re: Small mod for FF9
« Reply #5 on: 2014-05-11 17:36:19 »
Ok, thanks again Tirlititi. To be quite sure, I deleted everything, made new ISOs, made the basic patch anew on D1, exported to ppf. Then I loaded D4 and the patch, exported again. D2, patch, added Tantarian, exported again. D3, patch, checked Tantarian, added the other 0 exp battles, exported again.

So I think there's no possibility that it's not right now. I even uploaded the right file to gdocs, this time ;)

Vir

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No Longer Small mod for FF9
« Reply #6 on: 2014-09-23 08:19:31 »
I've made this mod much more extensive: it now includes a rebalance of all pc abilities and magic stones. Abilities you wouldn't have wanted to use before should be worth a go when appropriate, while the best abused abilities have appropriate costs attached, and abilities with duplicate functions now each have their own niche. By way of which, I got rid of the almost useless Six Dragons and replaced it with a new ability, "Dragon Soul," which causes a single target to Trance for 40 mp.

EDIT: This Dragon Soul is no longer a feature of the mod and I forgot this post was here. Six Dragons does its original function to a single target.

I'll be updating the thread with the new version info. soon. If there's anybody here interested either in FF9 modding or just in game balance stuff, I'd appreciate a second eye looking over the changes at least. Anyone willing to discuss and critique over IM or something with me would be really helpful to a new modder?

I've got some threads going on GameFAQs, but I think interest is pretty cursory over there. I've got a spreadsheet going with an extensive change log, and the other sheets are sort of my scratchpad. The latest thing, the magic stones rebalance, isn't in the change log yet, but it's pretty straightforward on its sheet in the spreadsheet. The stones cost doesn't relate directly to turns, but the abilities are all tiered compared to how many offensive/defensive turns they save you. (I rebalanced status effects in the same way.)

Here's the spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bQaj0zRxfw6l-nkJRXMssWN9ZosvTZdpm_fVKEnaE0c/edit?pli=1#gid=1746852555
« Last Edit: 2015-03-15 22:17:36 by Vir »

Vir

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Yay new title
« Reply #7 on: 2014-09-25 07:27:57 »
I hope it's okay if I bump to say the extensive update is done, the first post is completely different, and everything is a go.


Oh, and if a mod happens in here and it isn't too inconvenient, a title like "FF9.2" would be more appropriate to the topic? Whatever is right for this forum? Also, this is definitely now a release, as far as I know what a release is, if that matters.

Thanks for moving/renaming, Covarr!
« Last Edit: 2014-09-25 18:53:08 by Vir »

LetCreativityPlay

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2 - Balance fixes (2014-09-02)
« Reply #8 on: 2014-09-29 15:30:51 »
I'll definitely give this a shot sometime here!
Always appreciate full-out efforts on projects like these  8)

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #9 on: 2014-10-28 08:36:04 »
Bump for error-fixing update which may be significant to persons who have already started.

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #10 on: 2014-10-31 04:09:50 »
Ok, GameFAQs' monkeyslinger has used software written some years ago by another user letao to check that the setups listed in the E2PG guide are still optimal for this mod. With one exception, they are. This mod reckoned its max stats on the basis of the "ordered, with final equipment" strategy, and among its goals was to have gigantic monk Amarant's max potential Strength higher than not-gigantic thief Zidane's (78), but not a new game record, per se. Ergo, equal to burly knight Steiner's 79. monkeyslinger's compuer-based check now confirms the below to be the best way to accomplish this, removing the possibility of future second-guessing.

Character: Amarant
Stat priority: Ordered
Base stats at Lv 1:15 Spirit, 22 Strength, 13 Magic, 22 Speed
Optimal stats:50 Spirit, 79 Strength, 53 Magic, 32 Speed

Optimal equipment setup:
Weapon: 98 Avenger
Head: 40 Green Beret, 58 Mantra Band
Arms: 13 N-Kai Armlet, 85 Power Wrist
Body: 98 Dark Gear
Addon: 98 Black Belt




For anyone interested in the detailed explanation or confused (as I would have been) how just adding Strength, something we do not cap anyway, and not altering Spirit gear at all, could force us to re-optimize his gear setups, here it is. The gear Amarant wore to get his Spirit to 50 accomplished this with some minor slack in the remainder of the Strength's bonus fraction. There was nothing to be done with this slack in the vanilla game. However, when I increased the Strength on his Avenger, this slack became (in theory) usable, such that he could wear a little less Spirit gear, get 50 Spirit, and replace those gear-levels with Strength gear. I was unaware of this slack and indeed didn't consider it as a possibility until monkeyslinger suggested higher Strength setups were possible.


If you have a previous version:

If you downloaded before 10/28/14, your Avenger has +3 Str on it and Amarant has 22 base Str. Use the above setup, except instead of 98 levels up with Avenger, wear Avenger for anywhere between 77-87 (it doesn't matter) levels up. Since his base Str has returned to 22 (as vanilla), your saves are compatible with everything but v2.2 from the past couple days. If you're anxious about all this, simply check his Str at level 77 before leveling to 78.

If you downloaded 2.2 which was only out on the 28th, 29th, or 30th October 2014, your Amarant has +2 Avenger and 23 base Str. Simply use the ordered setup in the main E2PG guide: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/41181 . That's what this release was for. I don't want to repost it here and confuse anyone, but Ctrl+F (without quotes) "72 | m" and you will be right there. This is the only version where his base stats are different, so it's the only version with any compatibility problems.

If you downloaded 2.21 or later, use the setup in this post. Your Amarant has +2 Avenger and 22 base Str, like all Amarants other than in the very-short-lived 2.2.
« Last Edit: 2014-11-01 03:44:59 by Vir »

Kivikaki

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #11 on: 2015-03-11 19:02:49 »
Is this mod compatible with the german PAL version? If not could you make it compatible?  ;D

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #12 on: 2015-03-11 23:07:18 »
Good question. I am happy to try to work that out, as I am happy for any interest in the mod. Hades Workshop works with various versions of FF9, so I think my mod must for that same reason. I think I know how to do it, though I don't have any other version than my American release. Unless my idea how to do it is radically wrong, then effecting the gameplay changes on the German release should be quite simple.

The trick will be somebody's using Hades Workshop (quite straightforward) to fix the German text to match those gameplay changes, as I've done in English. Or else you might end up with mostly German text and occasional English insertions, which is fine for your personal purposes, but I'm thinking we work out that it's possible and if you want to update the text in German to reflect the changes, we'll post the German version here with your name on it.

Download Hades Workshop from the Tools forum here and let me know if you'd like to make a translated version! If not, let me know and we'll just find out what happens with the English version on a German disc.


Either way, I'm going to make a list of all the text that ought to be changed, that way if people with other versions see it and decide it's not too much work, they can let me know and I'll give them the files and help to do it. Anyone who has worked out how to use an emulator or anything at Qhimm is savvy enough to operate Hades Workshop's interface to do the job.

Overview of what you'd have to do
  • Shorten up other descriptions in a group (e.g., spears) if you need to make room when doing the below ~12 changes. Each type of thing has a limit on how many characters its descriptions can hold. If you make the description of a spear longer, you might have to rephrase other spear descriptions to save characters. I have no way to know how much of this might be necessary in your language. In English, the game starts pretty close to the limit, but has ample places where you can shorten the sentence and no one ever have reason to notice.
  • Change 5 descriptions in the Inventory: Items section.
  • Change 2 descriptions in the Party: Spells section.
  • Add the color (easy, but my directions will be long to hope to avoid any possible confusion) changes as noted by µ symbols below for certain items and spells.
  • Decide whether a few other items are clear or unclear in your language. They were wrong or unclear in English.
  • Naturally we're doing all this so the mod blends cleanly into the rest of the game... So I'm going to imagine you'll spell everything right in the language you're working on  :-D

In the Inventory: Items section:
  • Add the German version of "Elem-Atk: µWindµ" to The Tower Menu Help field.
  • Add "Elem-Atk: µThunderµ" for Dragon's Hair.
  • Ah! I hadn't updated Brave Suit's text, myself! It should have "Elem-Def: µFireµ damage reduced by 100%" , not "Raises µFireµ Elem-Atk."
  • In English, ultimate weapons all have "Legendary" in their description. Remove this from Dragon's Hair in both Menu and Battle Help, add it for Kain's Lance. Make sure the Dragon's Hair sentence still works, obviously :)

Now, I need to pause to tell you how to do the color, since those items have color in their descriptions. You see those little symbols, Greek mus, in what I typed above? Those tell Hades Workshop to do something like color the text that comes after that symbol, but then of course they don't appear in the game. In the English version, element names like "Fire" appear in red in such descriptions. You have to put those symbols/colors in through the HW program. Of course, just copy/pasting the symbol isn't enough.

In Hades Workshop, when you're looking at an item, you can see Menu Help, and next to it a "..." button. Click the "...." Now, perhaps if you're in a description which has these colors, you see the [.RED] (I'm adding .s or else Qhimm uses those tags, too) and [.BLACK] on the right side. If you're about to put in new ones, go ahead and click on those and use the "Remove" button to get rid of them. HW is a little tricky about putting them in the right place: it always puts them at the first character in the text. So what you do is start at the last place in the text where you're going to change color. Probably you're going to change everything back to being black right after the one red word. So you highlight and cut (Ctrl-X on my English Windows keyboard) all the text up to the end of the word which you want to make red. When the first word that is going to be black again is the first word in the textbox, click the "Add" button, select "[.BLACK]" in the box that pops up, and click "Ok." Paste (Ctrl-V?) the text you cut back in before the symbol you just inserted. Then if you're only going to have one more color change (to red right before the word Fire, say), you do that again. Highlight and cut everything up to Fire (or whatever), Add, [.RED], "Ok," paste the text back in before your little mu symbol. If you click "Apply" in the middle of this window, the text box you want should look right.

In the Party: Spells section
  • Add something like "Causes µNon-elementalµ damage andµ Heatµ to all enemies." to Meteor, making sure to do the steps to make both the element and the status red (assuming it's supposed to be red in your version, I suppose!).
  • Add something like "Causes µNon-elementalµ damage and µFrostµ to all enemies." to Meteor, making sure to do the steps to make both the element and the status red (assuming it's supposed to be red in your version, I suppose!).
  • I changed "Limit Glove" to "Limit Globe" since the spell shows a globe, and no gloves at all. You'd know best about that sort of thing.

In the Party: Supporting Abilities section
  • The mod doesn't change anything functionally in here, just the stones required. But Atomos199 suggested and I agreed that many of the English tool tips were unhelpfully vague. I edited some (didn't write down which ones) to make them more clearly reflect what they do in the game. This required I edit other ones to make space sometimes. I have no idea if the tips are sufficiently helpful in other languages already; your call.

In the Environment: Texts: Chocobo Places
  • Scrolling just under half way down the list, after the High Scores, I see where Mene says What do you want and I see Protect Ring 8500. I click on that line. I changed "Phoenix Down" to "Phoenix Pinion" in Mene's Hot & Cold rewards page, because he gives you a Pinion, not a Down. You don't have to mark the colors manually if you only change the word there.


Again, if you, Kivikaki, or anyone wants to translate the mod, just let me know. I'll send you the mod file which Hades Workshop can open, you'll use HW to open the right disc and then the mod. You'll update the listed bits of text, save the mod and tell HW to export a PPF, and we'll upload it as the German version or whatever. If you just want to use the mod and the existing ppf patch does not work, then we'll do those same steps to put the mod's changes onto the German text version, skip the translating part, and I imagine that you'll be able to play with inaccurate text.
« Last Edit: 2015-03-11 23:23:18 by Vir »

Zara9

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #13 on: 2015-03-11 23:17:13 »
hey

your download link on here is not complete

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #14 on: 2015-03-11 23:22:42 »
You'll have to tell me more of what problem you're seeing. I pasted drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_iQt93JXScuU2txQjlVUi1BdU0&usp=sharing into my browser without being logged into gmail, and I was able to download the files. Perhaps you mean it isn't a hyperlink? I can fix that.

Anyway, I'm about to upload a new version right now.  Answering the previous question, I noticed Brave Suit's description isn't changed. The gear works, just the description still says it boosts fire instead of making you immune. That'll be the only change; all saves will still work and all.

Covarr

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #15 on: 2015-03-11 23:50:09 »
He means there's no http so it's not clickable. Was this on purpose? Tryin' to avoid Google seeing where the traffic is coming from? :P

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #16 on: 2015-03-12 00:00:02 »
I thought that's what he might mean. Just yesterday someone brought this issue up to me on GameFAQs that I'd posted a link and should have left the http on it. I never thought about it; don't know about traffic. I do it on purpose when I happen to think about it just because I thought it was clutter which makes no difference. If someone hadn't mentioned it to me yesterday, I wouldn't have had even that idea that Zara wanted a hyperlink. I'll put the http in there in a few minutes.

Updated and credits all around. Thanks.
« Last Edit: 2015-03-12 00:15:59 by Vir »

Kivikaki

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #17 on: 2015-03-12 12:41:07 »
Well, the problem is that the patch doe not really work with the PAL version.

Although it needs to be said that i play on Epsxe and with the Protection Fix for FFIX. Sadly i do not own a working PSX anymore and therefore cannot test it on the console.

On the imgur link you can see all the errors i get.

http://imgur.com/a/FJIot

Kefka

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #18 on: 2015-03-12 13:58:25 »
Nice work, Vir!

I'm also currently working on rebalancing FF9, but mine is also aiming at increasing the game's overall difficulty a bit (since vanilla FF9 was way too easy). Some of my goals are similar to yours, I'm also looking to make other lesser used skills and magic more useful, to give the player a real reason to use some skills. I did so by increasing the accuracy for most status spells, Matra magic or Demi, for example, while at the same time lowering the power of some clearly overpowered skills like Shock or Zidane's Dyne Skills, and also increasing the defense and magic defense of most bosses so that you don't reach 9999 damage that easily.

I also agree that a low level game should still be possible, for those that want to try the challenge. This was one of the things that always bugged me about FF7, that you can't do a true low level game because bosses give EXP.

I never really bothered with Excalibur II, and I know I never will, mainly because I don't like rushing through RPGs. To me, a "perfect game" includes talking to every NPC in every town (usually multiple times, until they've got nothing new to say), but having to skip this and rush all the time ruins the entire atmosphere for me, and no piece of equipment can justify that, no matter how powerful it is. Which is too bad, because I'd like to possess Excalibur II at least once, for the sake of completion. So my idea would be to simply remove the 12:00 hour requirement and make it so that Excalibur II is always there, no matter your playtime. I don't know how to implement that yet, but if it's possible that would be great. It would enable a perfect low level game while taking away the time pressure from the player. What do you think about that?

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #19 on: 2015-03-12 15:30:02 »
On the imgur link you can see all the errors i get.

http://imgur.com/a/FJIot

Oh yes, I see. I will need to remember when I get home to send you the mod files that Hades Workshop makes. Esp. with that binblock error, I'm thinking what you need to try is opening your own PAL disc in HW, then opening the mod and making your own patch.  That binblock business happens when you try to put a D1 patch on D3 and such, too. The solution is to open D3, open the mod, and save a D3 version. This way HW will find the data it is supposed to go with on your German disc and then you'll make a file with it like that.

I have my computer and some time, actually, but I can only get internet on another computer than mine at the location where I'm working today, and I have no flash drive. So that we don't wait in vain, I'm going to ask Tirlititi to look over my little scheme here. Also, I haven't seen graphical errors like that, myself.


Kefka, I'm keen to see more FF9 mods. I think Hades Workshop is a great tool and I had fun making mine. Firstly, if I can answer any questions or sound any ideas for you, please feel free to try me. If my spreadsheet equations for modeling and balancing might help or save time, let's get you a copy. If you want to use any of my modifications in your mod, go ahead (one imagines a credit if it's anything he took time to figure out ;) ).

I asked Tirlititi about editing the E2 clock rollover time. He told me that in a future release (future from that time; judging from some posts in the editor thread, maybe it's up now?), it would be easier to add custom conditions to E2 (like your own timer) rather than edit the unintended rollover. That's what I've got for you on that subject. It looks like you've been to the HW thread, so you may know more about editing scripts than I do. Or if you read this paragraph, we know the same amount :)

Tirlititi

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #20 on: 2015-03-12 17:47:20 »
@ Kivikaki : Some protection fixes are indeed incompatible with HW. The only one I know is Paradox's patch for the french version. Do you have a screen displaying "Well done, Paradudes" with your protection fix?

@ Kefka : Yes, modifying Excalibur II's obtention is now possible. What you have to do is to go on the Fields' panel and edit the script of Memoria/Gate to Space.
The initializer of the weapon's spot is in the main function :
Code: [Select]
    if ( GetTime <= 43200L ) {
        INIT_IMAGE( 3, 0 )
    }
You can simply remove the "if" block if you want to remove the condition.
You'll have to remove it in the spot's function also, as there is a check in it as well (if you enter the field before 12:00 and stay too much time there, the spot will be disabled. So go in the function func_3_1 ; the first line is :
Code: [Select]
    if ( ( ( ( IsMovementEnabled == 1 ) && ( VAR_C5_7730 == 0 ) ) && ( VAR_A6_145 == 0 ) ) && ( GetTime <= 43200L ) ) {Remove "&& ( GetTime <= 43200L )" and it'll be fine.

Kivikaki

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #21 on: 2015-03-12 19:21:19 »
@ Kivikaki : Some protection fixes are indeed incompatible with HW. The only one I know is Paradox's patch for the french version. Do you have a screen displaying "Well done, Paradudes" with your protection fix?


I use the Paradox Patch. So this one is incompatible with the mod? Is there another protection fix that i can use instead?

Another question i got is, if and how i can import the Mod in your Hades thread that allows Steiner to use the Save the Queen weapon? :D

Thank you all for your quick and helpful replies btw.  :-)

Vir

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #22 on: 2015-03-13 03:44:07 »
Ok, Kivikaki, I have private messaged you a link and instructions to be sure you can save a German-disc-version if that's what you need to do.

You can easily make Save the Queen work for everybody. I haven't tried it to know if the animations will look right. But here is all you need to do:

With a disc (and any mod you want this to be part of: don't use the same copy of mine if you decide to make a German translation for us ;) ) open in Hades Workshop, click the tab "Inventory. " Click in the list of items. Press 'S' a couple times to get you to Save the Queen. See the names and check boxes? Probably only Beatrix is checked? Check Steiner and whomever else you want. Export a PPF to apply to your disc, and/or save this as a mod of your own if you want to reopen it later or anything, too. You should do this for whatever discs you might use the sword on. That's it for that.
« Last Edit: 2015-03-13 03:46:35 by Vir »

Kefka

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #23 on: 2015-03-13 09:03:03 »
@Vir: I agree that Hades Workshop is amazing, I'm using it too for my FF9 rebalancing (and increased difficulty) mod, but I'm also playing the German version, so I don't know how compatible this will be with other versions since I've also changed the names of a couple enemies and abilities. Maybe I will release a ppf patch someday, without any name changes. Right now my focus is on enemy AI scripts, but I still have a lot to learn about that (so many variables that can be really confusing).

@Tirlititi: this is great news about E2, I'll try it out right away! Thanks a lot!

Edit: It worked! I just got Excalibur 2 with a playtime of 75 hours! Nice!
« Last Edit: 2015-03-13 10:33:53 by Kefka »

Kivikaki

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Re: [FF9PSX] FF9.2.2 - Balance fixes
« Reply #24 on: 2015-03-13 14:02:56 »
Alright so the Patch actually works now with the instructions Vir gave me. :)

I'll try to make a german Translation but in Order to do that i'd need to know which Spells respectively their descriptions you changed because if i import the text files too, all Spells are in english.

I'd also like to add some features i like for example the excalibur II no condition and the save the queen mod. I can upload them here too if anybody wants it.

At last i got another question but i think there is no solution to this.. Can i play the PAL version in 60hz and without borders on an emulator? I know there is a tool called Import Player for the original playstation that lets you play PAL games in some sort of NTSC mode but that doen'st work with epsxe. I also tried to convert the iso in ntsc with a tool named pal4u but then my sound would play faster too.

Edit: I assume the Ability points change only takes effect if i start a new game?