Author Topic: [FF7 PC] Postscriptthree's Tweaks (1.39) Second Accessory Slot!  (Read 12739 times)

postscriptthree

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The number of features here has gotten to the point where it's pretty intimidating to just list and describe them, so I'll try to give a quick overview of what you can find here and why you should bother. This mod aims to enhance the gameplay of FF7 and make the base gameplay more interesting and fun. It includes features like Battle PHS, separate enhanced limit menu, Multi-linked Materia Slots, a second accessory slot, and many more. If you aren't interested in reading all of the features but still want to try it out, there are a couple preset options that enable certain options for you. One turns on a few that minimally modify the base gameplay called vanilla plus, and the other turns on just about everything that isn't a challenge mod called the works. I'd recommend trying one of these options then adjusting to taste for the simplest experience. If you're into reading all of the options, then go right ahead.

You can download Postscriptthree's Tweaks on the Qhimm Catalog in 7th heaven or at the Nexus Mods page:
https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy7/mods/82


Mod Overviews:

Gameplay Modifications:

True Wait Mode:
True Wait Mode pauses the atb clock whenever any fighter has a full atb gauge. This means that a character with twice as much speed as another character will take twice as many actions, rather than the speed difference being lost during animations like it is in vanilla. It also means you don't need to input commands with urgency like you do in vanilla, which makes battles more relaxing and also makes fighting with speed hacks on not necessarily lead to a swift death. Can be used with Status Speed Multiplier to make statuses work more like vanilla, since stuff like barrier lasts a very long time, and poison and regen are very slow otherwise.

Easy Run True Wait Mode is like True Wait Mode, except it makes running from battles as easy as it is in vanilla. A side effect of True Wait is making it much harder to run, so this fixes that. If you think running is too easy in vanilla, you can use regular True Wait instead.

Break Damage/HP Limit:
Break Damage/HP Limit lets you hit up to 99,999 damage in combat and have up to 32,767 hp. There is also a toggleable restriction to only allow breaking the damage limit if a character knows their 4th level limit break, so you can "unlock" the new damage limit. Breaking the HP limit breaks visually with some UI mods, so there is a toggle for that. There's also an option to increase the damage limit to 536,870,896. It's to be used for academic purposes only. Or do whatever you want, I'm not your dad.

Multi-Linked Slots:
This mod lets weapons and armor have links between any materia slots. Normally, you're limited to A+B, C+D, E+F, and G+H slots being linked. With this, you can have link combos like A+B+C, D+E+F, G+H. What this amounts to is B being linked to two separate materia, without requiring slotting an additional copy of B.

Just enabling extra linking doesn't change any equipment on its own, so there are also settings to modify equipment for vanilla/various mods. Currently supported mods are New Threat 2.0 (supported natively within New Threat now, so just select "Enabled"), New Threat 1.5, Hardcore Mod, Echo-S, and Lost Wing. This mod needs to be above whatever paired mod you use in the 7th Heaven list.

Anyone making their own gameplay mods can add Multi-Linked Slots as easily as adding left-facing links in WallMarket. Any left-facing links will automatically link to the slot on their left. You'll still need my code set to "Enabled."

In-Battle PHS:
This lets you swap party members in battle, like in FFX. Made in a way to try and keep compatibility with any other gameplay mods.

Party Randomizer:
This mod swaps your party members for you at the start of every battle. Now you have to equip and level every character! Finally something to do with all that extra materia you end up with.

Battle Randomizer:
This mod changes random encounters at a frequency of your choice. You can set it as low as 10% or as high as 100%, and it will randomize that percentage of random encounters into a random non-boss fight from the game. It can spice things up, putting you into fights you aren't prepared for and potentially letting you access good drops early if you're lucky.

Solo Challenge:
This mod forces you to use a single character of your choice throughout the whole game. Must start a new game to initialize the character properly. Now includes Sephiroth, but don't unlock Vincent if you're using Sephiroth, since they occupy the same character data slot. Also, there is another setting to turn off Sephiroth's automatic AI.

Control Sephiroth:
This turns off Sephiroth's AI, letting you control him and letting him be damaged in battle. Uses a modified kernel file, so incompatible with anything on the Multi-Linked Slots list, along with MLS itself.

Limit Command Rework:
This does a few things. First, limits no longer replace your default attack command. There is a separate limit command where you can choose your limits. Second, you can now choose any limit you've learned, not just the ones on your current level. Lastly, using a lower level limit than the level equipped uses less than a full limit gauge. Cloud with a full Omnislash ready can decide to use 3 cross-slashes instead, and still have some bar left over. Tifa, Cait Sith, and Vincent have unique limits that didn't easily work like the others, so they can't choose from all of their limits. They still get to keep their attack command with a full limit.

Two Accessories:
This gives each character a second accessory slot. The second slot is fully functional, and you can equip doubles. Double curse ring is probably balanced, right?

More Materia Pairs:
This allows you to pair Double Cut and Slash-All materia with support materia. Now you don't need to use the Master Command materia workaround. Also allows you to pair command materia with all to make things like steal-all before you get mega all.

Quality of Life/Convenience:

Unlimited/Auto Sense and Steal/Morph Display:
Somewhat self-explanatory, this mod lets you sense any enemy regardless of hp. Auto Sense lets you see enemy hp in the help bar without sensing them first. Steal/Morph Display lets you see steals/morphs for sensed (or auto sensed) enemies. Very convenient for mods like new threat or even vanilla if you don’t want to keep looking things up. To use, sense (or auto-sense) an enemy, hover over it with the help window open, then hold switch and confirm/cancel. If you hold switch first, you shouldn't accidentally attack. It's set up this way to be less intrusive if you like to play with the help window open.

Show Effectiveness:
This mod lets you see a preview of how effective your attack will be before attacking. The idea is to make it easier to use magic effectively without trial and error or looking up weaknesses and status vulnerabilities. Also works with physical attacks. Has an option to require sensing.

Battle Animation Skip:
Allows you to skip battle animations to save time. You can use a toggle, skip summon animations, or skip all battle animations. Visually buggy, so be aware. Enemies won't visually die, statuses won't display, but fights should still play out the same. Is even weirder with Sneak Attack, and I've crashed the game with Sneak Attack+4x Cut.

Dialogue Turbo:
Helps get through the game's many dialogue boxes with just a button hold. Only applies while a dialogue box is on screen, so you won't accidentally turbo through menus. Can be configured to use the switch, camera, or switch+cancel buttons. Just switch messes up playing the piano song, so turn it off for that. Let me know if there are any other things like that, and I'll either try to fix it, or add it to the warning list.

EXP Share:
Lets inactive characters receive full EXP and AP from battles. Helps with In-Battle PHS and Party Randomizer mods, since it's harder to level your characters and especially materia effectively with those. It's also nice not to get pigeon-holed into using the same team through the game because it's who you leveled.

No Battle Music:
Removes battle music from random battles on fields (not the world map). Gives the game a different feel by keeping the ambient music of the area during battles. You still get boss music.

Specific Music Fix:
Hard to say exactly what this means without spoilers, but it's a fix for a pretty notorious problem where a certain song during a certain lategame scene doesn't play out correctly on the pc version, leaving a big dramatic moment with no music. It replaces the original music file with a modified and slightly sped up version, so don't use with other music mods that either fix it already or would make the vanilla music feel out of place.

Balance Adjustments:

Enemy Speed Multiplier:
This lets you increase the speed of enemies to make the game harder. All of my other mods technically make the game easier by varying amounts, so this helps offset that. This works especially well with True Wait, which makes speed matter much more. With True Wait, this can be used effectively as a difficulty slider. It goes up to 20x speed, which, surprisingly, is possible. It's totally absurd though, so only do it if you want a real challenge.

Progressive Level Cap:
This caps the levels of your characters based on story progress. This lets you do low level challenges without needing to kill your characters off to minimize exp gain, or play any differently at all. I'm not sure about the numbers on this one at all, so if you think the caps should be different at different places, let me know. Right now, the caps update after leaving Midgar, after getting the buggy, after getting the Tiny Bronco, after Meteor is summoned, after getting Cloud back, and the start of disc 3.

Easier Steal:
Lets you adjust the steal formula. Can add luck to the formula, or just adjust the numbers to make stealing easier.

Status Speed Multiplier:
Lets you adjust the speed that statuses tick. Recommended for consideration with True Wait, since statuses tick a lot slower with that mod applied. Double speed combined with True Wait is comparable to vanilla wait with low battle speed, quadruple is comparable to wait with high battle speed, and octuple is comparable to active with fastest battle speed. Also includes speed reductions, if you just think vanilla is too fast.

Morph Damage Adjuster:
Lets you adjust the damage that the morph command does. You can go all the way up to full normal attack damage, or even all the way down to 1/16th normal attack damage. Can help with the tedium of morphing enemies without the Conformer.

If you have any questions, bug reports, or suggestions, you can let me know here, on the Nexus page, or on the Qhimm discord.
« Last Edit: 2024-09-15 00:39:09 by postscriptthree »

Final_Figue

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Hello postscriptthree.

First of all, thank you for this, It´s truly amanzing. I found and Issue when you have activate In-Battle PHS:

Here I have Cloud, Tifa and Red XIII:



But when I want to rest for example at Fort Condor, the group changes, here:



At Wutai I had a problem, I couldn´t start the battle at the tower with Yuffie, I had to disable the In-Battle PHS option to make it work.

About the combinations like Morph+all and Steal+all works fantastic but about steal only works with Mug, if you have this combination with Steal with one star, only steal one enemy.

Well that´s all, thank you again for your mod.

* Sorry for my poor english I just studied basic long time ago.
« Last Edit: 2023-10-07 21:06:27 by Final_Figue »

postscriptthree

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In order to avoid a lot of problems caused by switching out the party leader, I disabled the code that changes your party leader after you change your party. This has the side effect of disabling the code that changes the rest of the party, which has the downsides you stated. It also has the upside of allowing all manner of illegal parties without causing soft locks or other issues, so it's a mixed bag. There is a disclaimer about this in the config menu. I may try to make this work better at some point, but it's a tough one to crack. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I might have an idea to try.

The problem with steal-all is actually a New Threat problem. Steal doesn't work with Mega-All either in New Threat, presumably to avoid problems with weapons with an innate all effect. I brought this up to Sega Chief, so there might be a fix at some point.

Final_Figue

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Hello.

So, in some way I didn´t report any bug, my apologies. I hope you continue working on this mod, you have good ideas. Thank you again for share it.

postscriptthree

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Don't worry about it. It's helpful to know what I should prioritize improving. I wasn't aware how bad the pagoda is since Wutai forces Yuffie out of the party. It's fixed now. Now you can swap to any legal party without having to turn the mod off.

Final_Figue

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Hello postscriptthree.

I was thinking on the effect that has the save point in FFX, recover full HP and MP when you use it, what about to use the same idea in FF7?

Final_Figue

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Hello again.

I was testing "Battle Randomizer" and this happen at Fort Condor area:



Everyone disappear.

By the way, is it necesary to change the background? Would be really nice to have the background of the current area but with the random enemies.

Thank you for working on options like this.

postscriptthree

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Could you run from the fight at least or was it a softlock? And were you playing with any mods like New Threat? It's hardcoded around vanilla pretty hard at the moment, so compatibility would be inconsistent at best. It is also totally possible it's just an oversight by me, but I don't want to try to track down something that isn't meant to be compatible yet.

Right now, the only thing being randomized is what encounter number to pull encounter data from. I want to make this system more intelligent, which would make it easier to figure out how to do things like change the background to the local background. I kind of like the implementation of seeing the background to get a better idea of what encounter you are in and how dangerous it could be, but I get that it does break immersion teleporting around the world.

forkst

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I really like your mod so far, how about adding a boss randomizer on your mod please, would you be able on doing that

keep up the great work

Final_Figue

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Hello postscriptthree.

Sorry for the delay in the answer. I didn´t tried to run and yes, I´m using New Threat. Again, thank you so much for working on options like this, there are really useful and comfortable.

Bdd

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Awesome! Is this mod known to cause Steam Achievements to break? Thank you.

Final_Figue

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Hello postscriptthree.

I have some suggestions:

Infinite laser:



Always short course when you bet:



Random victory screen after battle:



The camera angle depends of the area, right? Would be nice to have access to every camera angle during the game randomly.

Thank you again for your effort.

ZeppyDingus

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Loved playing a full playthrough of this mod, but I was curious about a potential variant to True Wait mode. I played an entire playthrough with the mod change and it was a very strategical experience, but I definitely had to tweak other aspects to make it work for me. The ATB system was one of the things I loved about the original FF7, and while True Wait mode was a refreshing take on it, I miss seeing the battle constantly progress without it.

I'd love if there was a "False Wait Mode", where once a character reaches full ATB, rather than pause the rest, it reduces the speed of battle to like, 25-0% speed, similar to how the Remake slows the game down significantly in Tactical Mode. This would allow players to react and take a bit more time than normal to decide on how to respond when it comes to their turn, but it wouldn't pause the game.

That's my only suggestion. Otherwise, this is an amazing mod! Thank you so much for your work on it.

Squall_Strife

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Hello postscriptthree! I love your mod, I would never play without it! I ran into an issue however with the Limit Command Rework, Doing the final battle with Cloud and Sephiroth the Limit Command is missing, meaning Cloud cannot perform the Omnislash.

Final_Figue

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Hello Squall_Strife.

Just in case: Do you have the last version?



Right now It´s 1.27.

postscriptthree

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For the "always short course" and "random victory screen," they could work, but it'd take time to figure them out since I haven't looked into those systems at all yet. For "infinite laser," it's pretty far from the type of stuff I usually like to do.

For steam achievements, I have no idea how those work, but I haven't heard any other reports of it having a problem, so I don't know.

For "false wait mode," it'd be a lot of trouble to make something that can slow the speed of battle dynamically, for what I think would just be a halfway point between regular wait and true wait. Honestly, I'd make remake combat fully stop in the menu if I could.

For the boss randomizer, the way I'd do it I don't think would be that fun. It'd be a different fight every time you retry, and there wouldn't be any kind of scaling, so you'd just die until you get an easy boss early game, then wipe everything even easier than normal late game. If I come up with a way to do scaling though, this would likely be on the table.

For the omnislash problem, I fixed that in one of the latest patches since your post. Thank you for the report.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback and suggestions. Even when getting repeat reports and suggestions, it helps me to understand what problems people are having and prioritize things to change and update.

RocketWizard2075

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Re: [FF7 PC] Postscriptthree's Tweaks (1.29) Play as Sephiroth!
« Reply #16 on: 2024-04-25 06:11:01 »
Hello PostScriptThree,

I just want to say thank you for making such an awesome mode since a lot of the things that I've always wanted to see in FF7 but never thought i get to play (Limit command, True wait mode, more materia slots, and etc) have finally been done thanks to you!

As for suggestion of new stuff? Best I can think off is choosing final boss difficulty. I'm sure you know but in the final fight both forms of Sephiroth are powered up by accomplishing certain conditions  (Using KoTR, defeat in less than X turns and other stuff) So maybe you can make the final boss toggleable between Easiest, Medium, and Hardest. To make some challenge runs harder.

Anyway Thanks for making such an amazing mod and goodbye.

javisanchez1234567

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Re: [FF7 PC] Postscriptthree's Tweaks (1.29) Play as Sephiroth!
« Reply #17 on: 2024-04-28 08:25:20 »
Hello, I am interested in your mod but I have a problem. I want to make my own modifications, but when I use 7th Heaven, the modifications made in the .exe disappear so in the end I have to discard 7th Heaven. How can 7th Heaven .exe modifications be included?

gamercado

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Hello postscriptthree.

I’ve tried the mod and I like it so far! However i think i ran into an issue with the level cap.

I set mine to 40, however after reaching level 10, it now shows 4million exp to the next level!

Not sure if that’s intended. I’m playing on SteamDeck btw, if that helps.

postscriptthree

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Two months late, so you probably figured this out by now, but in case it helps anyone else out, the level cap increases as you progress in the game. The 4 million exp required thing is an unfortunate side effect of the level/experience system being really confusing and weird. The solution I found was to change the hardcap of 99 to a lower number, so the game thinks you can't level up anymore. That doesn't stop it from being confused about it.