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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-17 21:38:30 »

The reason is a combination of what Magntitude 8 replaced and my own burn-out; Dragon Force used to proc against Limits, with the skill not being available until late in the game when you defeat a special boss that uses the skill on your party when it dies. Mag8 was its replacement at the last minute because I was stuck for ideas and saw that there was no Earth-based skill in the E.Skill library. As for the trigger, I left it as-is because by the end of 1.5's development I was badly wanting away from the game. Not the best frame of mind to be making decisions, but the project was already running late.

Ah, yeah, I can understand that. Even just making a small scale FF6 mod like mine I'm working on off and on at the moment, I've had "burnout" decisions and ended up regretting and changing later. Again, it's by no means the worst thing - just perhaps something to point out in the text file in case it's not obvious to someone.
Though just to confirm - Magnitude 8 replaced something in that attack script, not as an Enemy Skill overwriting Dragon Force, right?

Also I want to make a counterpoint to the thing about Sea Worm and the Mideel beaches/general area that can be reached late in Disc 1 (though certainly not an attempt at an argument, please don't get me wrong, just offering an alternate viewpoint) - this is purely optional. The player is in no way guided or forced there. They can choose whether or not they wish to use it for extensive grinding/leveling up - which would make any decrease of challenge a conscious decision they made, not the modder. Those who choose not to use this place for grinding will experience the game without such an advantage, which they should also be able to choose to do. It's not like the Sea Worm is standing directly in the path of the player's route to the Temple of the Ancients. Much as the Junon alarm tunnel is not right in the path of the player just progressing the story (not to mention it even takes a special trigger to see those battles). So anyone doing so is making a choice of their own volition - the right to make a mod even harder or even easier by the choices the player makes is not a bad thing. If I want to make things harder for myself, I can choose to not grind at all, much less visit such areas, and rank up in a different, perhaps less efficient manner. If I want to make things easier for myself, I can choose to grind in areas like that which are out of the way but lucrative (and of course choose a path of rank ups that would better benefit me in the long run). I can understand wanting to avoid situations where the player can accidentally make things too hard for themselves - but this is clearly a situation where the player would consciously and quite obviously choose to make the mod easier, or at least different, for themselves (within the confines of what can be done without directly cheating or the like). I don't think this is a bad thing. I chose to grind early - I wanted to experience the Rank Up system and see the results quicker, as well as to start mastering Materia sooner and faster. I knew it would come at the come of some difficulty - but I didn't come here for a difficulty mod. (You even said yourself this is not meant to be a difficulty mod, right? So this is a good thing.) I came here for a different FF7 experience, not necessarily a hair-pulling one. So I made the choice to grind and Rank Up, out of wanting to experience the player-beneficial changes right away, at least among those I could access of course. Me having Tier 3 magic before the end of Disc 1 is not a poor reflection on you as a modder, by any means. You didn't put those high AP/Exp enemies right in the player's path - they just happen to be accessible if one goes out of their way. It's available as a choice. Players can chose to make things easier or harder on themselves by using some Materia/grinding areas or by avoiding them. The goal of the mod would still be met regardless - the player has an entertaining and familiar yet fresh experience in a classic video game. Is that not true? So I feel that I would adamantly defend such areas/monsters being left as-is (I like that Typhoon Rings drop often, it's a nice equipment reward for dealing with a strong monster like that, at least strong for just barely having gotten the Tiny Bronco anyway - good for both wind protection on the party, then selling extras after you get 3+).
Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt (or a shovelful of earth, it's your choice, heh).

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-17 00:55:30 »

I think Limit Breaks trigger Mag8 on any dragon enemy; I'll check when I get back.

No problem; I'll check on that and see if any of my Limits trigger it from Gaea Dragon, at least. Failing that, I can just wait for your return, so you can check under the hood on that. I don't mind waiting, I appreciate that you keep coming back time and again to answer my questions and musings, heh, believe me, I greatly appreciate your patience with me (and what at times feel like very silly antics on my part).

EDIT: Worked the first try. Limits do indeed trigger Gaea Dragon, at least, to use Magnitude8. (I'm just not certain about the damage...Quake 3 does more for me. Or is this a case of me having tier 3 spells WAY sooner than anticipated? Heh. Thanks a lot, Sand Worm! All that delicious, delicious AP for my Double AP weapons~) Although if it is available right from the first dragon-type enemy you can fight, I could have had this in Nibelheim, then? That would have been a great time to get it. I'll just have to remember that next time.
But I do want to say - I feel like it's not an incredibly intuitive way to get ahold of it. Why would you use a Limit Break on some random encounter mook? Yes, they're a higher tier than typical random grunts - but not enough to where I'd do that. I always want to save my Limit Breaks for bosses. (Unless I'm grinding/farming and know I'll get my meter refilled again before I'm done and move on with the story.) And I don't see any obvious indication that this is the trigger - given I feel like I ran the gamut of what I thought were possibilities for triggering it. I had no idea Limit Breaks could be specified in monster AI for triggering specific counters. Maybe mention in the "where is the thing?" file that the player must specifically use a Limit Break targeting the dragon, in order to trigger Magnitude8? (And if a dragon sooner than Gaea Dragon can use it, if indeed there is one?). In case this question might pop up again in the future. While I'm not sure if I fully agree with using a Limit Break to trigger it - I would be more than happy to compromise by settling on just a mention in the text file, in case any future players of this mod don't realize the possibility that a Limit Break could trigger a counter, much less specifically an Enemy Skill. Just a thought!

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-15 19:00:25 »

So...according to the "where is the thing" text file, there's an Enemy Skill called "Magnitude8", and it's used by Gaea Dragon, found on Gaea's Cliff. What causes him to usd it, though? I've seen him use these attacks: a basic physical attack, Great Gale, Atomic Buster, Gale Wind, Storm Breath...and that's it. I can't get him to use it voluntarily at full health, mid health, or near death (gave him 15 or so turns at all three health thresholds, just to be sure), as an Earth attack counter, as a death counter, or even as an Earth attack death counter (hey, if the Co...uh...the cat-things in this same cave only seem to use Level ?? Holy as a counter to Alexander/a Holy attack killing them, I figured the possibility was there). He seems immune to Confusion and Manipulate. I don't know what else I can possibly do to make the AI use it on me. Am I doing something wrong? Is this the wrong enemy and that text file has a mistake in it? What's going on?

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-14 00:40:12 »

It might be a row thing; enemies can be 'covered' by each other making them inaccessible via short-range attacks until the enemy in front of them has been killed. The attack might be redirecting because of that.

The SP gain is in the death script, but this is skipped in the case of instant KO, petrify, etc.

Ouch...there go any Odin/Titan strats for SP gains, then. But I suppose it's a necessary evil. At least I'm done with all my Rank Ups for this file, so I don't need to worry about it anymore!
Although I do wonder if you'd ever consider letting there be a use for SP even after hitting Max Rank Up. Maybe spending 200 or 255 SP from a character to earn an X-Potion or Turbo Ether or something. (Obviously not Sources, that'd unbalanced and undermine the whole balanced point of these Rank Ups! But just to toss an idea out there.) No biggie either way, of course - just venturing a thought, so that characters' SP are not a complete waste after the final Rank Up.

Also, I realized that this might indeed be true, blocking short-range attacks via Front/Back Row shenanigans - given I've noticed with with short-range weapon characters when Manipulate is not in any way involved. But...all of Vincent's weapons are long-range (well, those I've obtained so far anyway, but I'd presume you wouldn't drop long-range on his Vanilla weaponry, even on future weapons, so) - and yet Mug still gets blocked off, I realize. (Makes me wonder if other commands will too.) So the game will recognize the "Attack" command as being long-range via weaponry - but not the "Mug" command? That doesn't seem right.

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-12 23:46:48 »

Okay, this one's just weird, no idea what could be going wrong here. On Da-chao, there's an encounter with 3x Bizarre Bug and 1x Foulander. If I Manipulate the Foulander and try to make it use its basic physical attack (Claw) on Bizarre Bug B (not A or C so far, specifically on B), the attack redirects to Foulander and breaks my Manipulate. What's going on there?

EDIT: Also, do Death/Petrify spells prevent you from obtaining SP? My SP gains have gone to quite literally 0 ever since I started using Titan and Odin to try to speed up the process a bit and finish my last one or two Rank Ups on the two characters I have remaining that have not maxed out. (Which I only just noticed...wow, that's like, an hour or two wasted, ouch! Hoho!)

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-11 19:47:04 »

Super minor, but, some Materia actually sells for less if you master it - that is, the "Price for Mastery" is actually less than the total AP needed to master it (and I know there are several Materia that intentionally sell for only 1 Gil - that was in vanilla anyway, so that part isn't what strikes me as odd or anything, I just mean those that are intended to sell for more than 1 Gil). One example: Sense needs 84,000 AP to Master. When Mastered, it sells for 70,000 Gil - but if you were to intentionally come up short of mastering it, you could get as much as 83,999 Gil for it, instead of 70,000 for Mastering it. Another example, Lightning/Ice/Fire master at...52,500 AP, I believe? But they sell for 42,000 Gil at Mastery. Just seems a bit odd to me.

Also: Both healing weapons I've picked up so far for Aerith have her Attack command default to targeting allies instead of enemies (which makes good sense, I like that much better than being forced to redirect it every time I want to heal that way). But Cait Sith's White M-Phone, the MP healing weapon I have for him, does *not* automatically target allies. Speaking of targeting, when using Throw with Aerith's Healing Rod, it still auto-targets your party - and when Thrown, it doesn't have a healing effect any longer. (Nailed me for over 2600, at that, geez!)

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-10 04:20:38 »

Oh wow! I had no idea, Chief, thanks for shedding light on all that. I'll make sure to be more careful from here on, then. Least it's good to know it's not specifically your mod or anything.
Just got Vincent - definitely glad I took the time to steal that gun you can get for him before you recruit him, love that built-in Slash All effect. And that it took barely any kills at all to unlock his Level 2 and Level 3 Limits. (I was actually heading back to the Mythril Mines/Junon area just to farm kills for him! Hah. What an unexpected surprise that was.) Much appreciated! Might get me one or two more Rank Ups for him before I take on...whatever you did with Lost Number, now that he's been separated from recruiting Vincent, heh. Can't wait to see what sort of crazy creature got locked up in that safe! (And to see if I can get lucky enough to steal anything of note from him, given the list of possibilities in the Item List.)

Lastly for today...

...I should just never be allowed to play mods. Or even, like, jRPGs in general, I'm starting to think. Hah! How do I land myself in these situations, and so often at that... If you or anyone else is asking how I did this - don't look at me! It just...sorta happened. Not real sure what let me walk into empty space like that.

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-09 19:18:09 »

Probably trying to cast a spell ID that doesn't exist or something, or maybe it's attempting to cast Pearl although that doesn't cost 180MP. Thanks for testing the greens as well.

That was my first guess, yeah. It reminds me of casting Berserk on certain enemies in vanilla (where they have no valid Berserk command and so game expects them to have some absurd amount of MP - 65,535, maybe? - and actually throws up an error message if you do hack them to have sufficient MP to attempt casting it, heheh, good times!) - but I didn't want to assume, I'm an expert by no means, I just like to experiment, heh. Still. Hopefully it'll be easy enough to fix. Also Glutton did eventually succeed in casting something on me - Lagomorph, I believe it was?, though it still missed - but that was after several encounters (seeing if he'd do anything different) and him off and on randomly spouting "MP depleted" at me.

And you're welcome, no problem on testing those Greens - I actually did that before I even came back and saw your answer (what luck), just to see if it was some kind of bad luck on my part or if they were just being finicky (it would match their canon personalities in some other FFs, heh!) or if they just weren't gonna cast it at all no matter what I did, so. But I'm certainly glad to help even in small ways.

Also my game just crashed...or at least froze anyway, damn. I beat the red palette swap of the giant spider in the Cavern of the Gi (Red Stinger, that's right) - successfully Morphing it into an Elixir - my controls stopped working immediately as soon as it faded back into the field map. I tabbed in and out of the window, unplugged and replugged my controller, even tried using keyboard controls to see if it was just my controller acting up or something. Nothing worked. After trying several things, the game stopped showing any image at all, stuck with with a greyed out version of the Steam overlay (which I can't dismiss either, it just grays out and fades back in if I hit Shift+Tab, it won't actually fully leave and return me to the game), with the music even still playing. Hell. That's what I get for not saving immediately after doing a Fort Condor mission again, I broke the cardinal rule of jRPGs if not video games in general, save often, heh. Welp. I guess things happen. Hopefully it won't crash or screw up on me again - if it does I'll let you know. I'm presuming/hoping it was a one-off of Windows just being Windows - but I guess I shouldn't assume.

Edit: Crashed again similarly on my return to Fort Condor - controls locked after the last enemy died in the minigame, and the game never acknowledged my win. But on the third attempt, everything worked out fine - I'm currently at the save point right before the boss of the cavern.

Likely unrelated, but, for some reason, the graphics on Quake3 will sometimes/often completely flip out when you cast them and a Gi Spectre is in battle. (You'd have no reason to cast it on the Spectre itself, of course, being floating and thus immune to Earth damage - but the other enemies in its encounter don't have Earth immunity, so.) By which I mean, the model starts grabbing graphics from random stuff on the screen (including the HUD) and ends up becoming a multi-color mess of garbage blocks (though they go away as soon as the animation ends). Granted, I can't imagine this would be a real big priority, assuming it even is something to do with your mod - I highly doubt this would be a common scenario, heh, someone actually bothering to get the AP necessary to obtain Quake3 by this point. (Unless Gi Spectre can be fought elsewhere - like the Battle Square, at some point?) But I wanted to mention it anyway, just in case.

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-09 16:23:04 »

Is something up with the Gluttons on the World Map around Cosmo Canyon? One of the times I encountered it (the enemy formation back attacked me, so they got their turns first) - on its very first turn, the game displayed this message: "Glutton's MP depleted". No one had touched its MP yet (didn't even get targeted yet). And I checked it after it took that turn - it still had 180 MP. What could it have possibly been trying to use/cast that would cost it over 180 MP?

EDIT: Also, I tried every Greens I could currently buy from the Chocobo Farm at the present time, just to be thorough. So in case you were wondering, Chief, only the Mimett Greens triggered Chocobuckle - all others failed.

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-09 14:17:50 »

I think you do need specific greens; the AI check looks for either Mimmit or Sylkis Greens. Try using those and let me know if it works/doesn't work.

Heheh, sorry, shouldn't have assumed that was different from vanilla - but the wording in the text file made me think that it was a QoL addition or something like several other things in the mod, that is, that any Greens would work to trigger Chocobuckle, rather than only allowing the same specific Green types from base game. My bad. Mimett Greens worked just fine for the cause.
Also got Alpha while I was in the area. Oh man. That Zolom. It'll break hearts. What a haul for Exp/AP. Maybe still not the best way to farm Exp/AP by any means (all that HP bulk - and Sense immunity!), but definitely nice for a one-off (or two-off) prize. (It earned me Curaga, as I recall!)

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-08 22:25:54 »

I'm having a problem obtaining Chocobuckle.
"Chocobuckle: Any chocobo (world map)
Note: Use L5 Suicide after feeding them greens"
...is what the "where is the thing" file says.
Do I need to use a specific type of Greens to get Chocobuckle to be used on me? I've tried three times on Chocobos right outside the Chocobo Farm - once accidentally using no Greens before Level 5 Suicide, the second time using Tantal Greens then using Level 5 Suicide immediately, the third time using Tantal Greens then waiting for the Chocobo to stop pecking then finally using Level 5 Suicide. All three times the Chocobo just fled, no Chocobuckle, no salami, no salt. It took damage - but it just went "Wark! Wark!" and fled instantly, as if I'd used an attack on it that didn't put it into proper range. Did I do something wrong, Chief?

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-08 10:58:40 »

Ah, that explains it, thanks Chief!
Though it's too bad I missed out entirely on Shinra Betas, by the looks of it (I at least didn't notice anywhere on the spreadsheet another instance of them being available for drop/morph/steal - and I haven't yet seen it in any shops, I imagine it's not relevant enough anymore to be sold, so) - I was definitely curious how those were altered. Maybe next playthrough, then! (Though because of that, I think I'm gonna stop stealing from bosses for a while if not the rest of the game, just in case it would cause me to miss out on any more items like that.)

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-07 19:52:00 »

Is Ramuh not supposed to have an added effect when summoned? Choco/Mog has been causing Confusion, Shiva has been causing Slow, Ifrit's in-game description says he inflicts Berserk - but Ramuh has nothing. It just says "Bolt summon". Pairing him with Added Effect also shows no status being added, to attack or defense. Seems unexpectedly inconsistent. I haven't yet summoned him (to see if the attack itself will still cause an effect), only just barely picked him up, but wanted to ask, is this intentional?

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-06 22:22:45 »

I'll add a game-moment check to the gold ticket 'fast-travel' to prevent it from being used before the first visit.

And what's funny to me is...Cait Sith actually didn't show up! That is to say... I poked around a bit more with the bug (what can I say? insatiable curiosity, heh) - I warped to the Wonder Square (I believe that's where you're supposed to go after the event in the hub) - Cait Sith won't show up, not unless you activate and finish that particular event the game locked up on me during - so the game knows not to spawn Cait Sith before your party splits up and you only have Cloud plus [other member], as if there was some kind of plan there...hah. These things amuse me.
Anyway. Good to hear it's gonna get fixed - I might be the only weirdo who gets enough Gil by this point to always buy that lifetime pass first thing, but then I might not, so you never know who else might innocently walk into such a thing if left unchecked. Thanks, Chief!

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-06 01:49:11 »

Heh, oh dear, I was afraid this might happen. I finally ran into a bug that might actually be classed as major - as in the game softlocked on me. That is, my controls don't work, the event won't continue properly, Aerith and Barret are just kind of staring awkwardly at the camera, Cloud is mostly stuck offscreen - and Tifa shuffles around a bit on occasion, but otherwise nothing is happening, and nothing seems able to happen from here. I'm at Gold Saucer - and I got stuck in the event where the party is supposed to split up so you can meet Cait Sith (at least in vanilla, but I'm guessing it wouldn't have changed in this mod). Let me see if I can upload a screenshot of what I'm looking at right now, in case that might help...

...There we go! Yes, see where poor Cloud is? Here's what I did: I bought the Gold Ticket. I left as soon as I heard about the quick travel feature, to see if and how it worked - and it does indeed work. Unfortunately, it works too early - I was able to hop to Squares without actually using this hub area first. When I finally came to this area (by accident, actually, I wanted to explore every Square before committing to advancing the plot) - Cloud was briefly hopping out of the hole he should have - but then the camera suddenly jerked over to the right, showing Barret and Tifa and the rest walking in, while I was able to control Cloud again - briefly. I couldn't take the bottom right exit, nor could I leave any other way, and Cloud made no attempt to snap back to where he was expected to be - Aerith walked towards the screen...and that was it. Game's stuck. Music keeps playing, occasional blinking, but that's it. Can't progress, gonna have to reset. So since I got stuck in this situation - I thought that it might be worth reporting. I also hope the image isn't too big or anything - I can resize it or just link to it rather than having it display in my post if need be. But yeah, this is what happened - and considering it caused the game to lock up on me like this, I thought it was definitely of high enough priority for sure to report to you now.

Oh, and yes, I tried that program you mentioned - worked like a charm, told me I missed my chance for Shinra Betas, I am sad now. (The recurring Scorp seems like it should have dropped it, at least according to the spreadsheet - I'm guessing the fact that I stole from it, though, interfered with the drop, and that's why I lost it, and never managed to pick up a single one. Damn! I did it to myself, though, admittedly, not being as thorough as I thought with Steals/Morphs in the Shinra HQ building.)

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-05 02:46:40 »

I just realized something I thought was off but kept forgetting to confirm. The ChangeLog in the current Stand Alone Installer says this:
"   -) Regen
   One of the strongest healing spells in the game with the right set-up, Regen was
   now requires 70 MP to cast. It has been restored to Slot 3 on the Restorative Materia
   due to Magic Counter + Cure3 being a more desirable combo."
...but my Restore Materia shows this: "Cure - Cure2 - Cure3 - Regen". Regen is still in the fourth slot rather than the third. Is this a mistake in the Changelog - or did you intend to make this change, but perhaps forgot to get around to it, or something? (...Also there's a typo in there, but I didn't even notice that until after I wanted to mention this Cure3/Regen business, heh, oops. But nevermind that, it happens.)

Also if I might ask, since I don't happen to know offhand what kind of program I'd need to open a .xlsx file (and I'm not 100% sure the answer would be in that file anyway, though I believe it might) - am I wasting my time looking for a Shinra Beta from the enemies on board the ship going from Junon to Costa Del Sol, that is, the random encounters before you reach Jenova: Birth? (Or at least that's her name in base game, no assumptions here her name hasn't changed, but at least you'll know who I'm talking about.) I know that in vanilla, the Shinra grunts here carry Shinra Betas for a Steal item - but since I can't be sure if it's my bad luck or if it's actually been moved/removed, I wanted to ask if its now a rare steal or the like, that maybe I'm just getting really unlucky with my Steals. (I've stolen nearly 20 Grenades so far - I just wonder if this is a sign I should quit while I'm ahead here, that Grenade is all the Shinra grunt dudes have available to steal, heh.)

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-04 20:15:01 »

Welp, after getting it to Level 4: My All Materia...oh Minerva, my All Materia! 100,000 total AP to master - there goes my master plan to get money easily. (Yep, that was a good balance, actually - I have to admit that All Materia makes it WAY easy to get large amounts of Gil on Disc 1, at least that's how I do it anyway, hoho!) I wonder if there's a better Materia to raise for money...

Also yes, the biggest reason for me to get into this mod was the Rank Up system you have going on - and I really really like it so far. I've made my Aerith into such a magical beast so far. (Also the fact that Aerith lives - finally! Being able to keep using Aerith after her death, without awkward and occasionally game-breaking moments - solid.) Definitely curious if how I'm raising my characters through Rank Up is gonna work out for end-game and optional stuff...guess I'll find out when I get there!

And yeah, I see what you mean now about that - my Aerith hit Level 41, and she's definitely hit one of those "humps". So at least it makes good sense now!
And last yeah, I can believe Ziggy might cause problems. Fitting that he would even fail to be a proper joke encounter - he can't seem to get anything right, not even his AI script in another game entirely! Hah. I can't help but love Ziegfried, such a silly character, glad to see he got a cameo in this mod.

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-03 09:07:20 »

Sorry if I didn't explain that well before, but yes, that's the only way this is happening to me, specifically in response to Aerith using Seal Evil, nothing else was triggering it. Glad to get that cleared up with you! I hope it won't be a hard fix or anything.
And I admit it's pretty minor as far as AI script quirks go - but I appreciate that you'd hear me our on it and take such a thing seriously. Warms my heart to know there actually are still modders/hackers out there that will listen, and give a damn about the quality of their work, not just say "It's too minor, don't care, live with it", or "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" when it's clearly incorrect and even counter-productive behavior, so, thanks for hearing me out! I'm too used to running into seemingly-friendly game mods that turn out malicious (to the tune of being insanely tedious rather than trying for actual difficulty) and the mod creator just doesn't care. Or even defends it saying "good hack design" or whatever nonsense excuse they might come up with to say that bosses spamming 3000+ damage Luminaires in Chrono Trigger is totally fair and challenging gameplay. Heh.)

Also - after applying the last hotfix (not sure if that's coincidence or the reason, just mentioning it for context), as soon as Aerith leveled up (and eventually once Cloud leveled up as well), the "Exp to next level" did something...wonky. I don't know if this was intentional, but it seems strange that it would be happening just as soon as I applies that latest hotfix. (And I'm using the Stand Alone Installer, no the Seventh Heaven IRO...whatever the heck the other one is, sorry, I'm totally inexperienced with this sort of thing - this is the first time I've ever used a mod with a Steam game, but someone with much more experience led me through the install and all. Anyway!)
How do I explain this... Yuffie is Level 31. 95,068 Exp acquired, 27,828 to the next level, that's about 1/3rd of her Exp bar at the moment. Cloud just now leveled up, hit Level 32. 123,031 Exp acquired, 11,948 to the next level, totally empty Exp bar. ...I'm sorry, what? Why did my Exp to next level suddenly drop so drastically upon hitting Level 32? I believe Aerith did the same thing, suddenly needed like, a third the Exp to next level as I would have expected, as soon as she hit Level 32. (She's now Level 34, needs 11,576 to next level, bar has only filled up a little, maybe an 8th the bar or something?) Am I supposed to be suddenly gaining levels a fair bit faster? Is this intentional?

Secondly, the Mythril Diver in in Mythril Mines - this one seems more likely to be game mechanics than anything incorrect with his AI, but I'd rather double-check just to be 100% sure - I'm not a total expert on FF7's inner workings by, like, any stretch of the imagination, so if this is normal and intended behavior, all well and good, just wanted to check it with you, and be sure.
Whenever Mythril Diver dies, he's supposed to have a death counter, that big tidal wave attack (totally taken from Apps, heh!), and it's supposed to hit the full party - is that correct? Well, whenever I kill him with Choco/Mog, he gets Confused as expected - and then hits *one* character with that tidal wave. (Unless he's out of MP, of course, though that much seems 100% intended behavior, that the tidal wave is supposed to charge him MP to use it.) Seems random too - the first two times, he hit the Choco/Mog summoner (so I thought maybe it messed up his counterattack to be single target rather than multi-target - I've seen this when tinkering with FF6's monster scripts, that normally multi-target spells that have no option to single-target will only hit the attack despite the spell's targeting saying otherwise, so I thought it was possible to occur here as well) - the third time, though, he hit Cloud, who had only targeted him once previously, with Steal, and that was at least a few turns prior. Is Confusion supposed to affect death counters like this? Is that totally normal?

EDIT: I just met Ziegfried in the forest outside Junon (my first encounter there). He went through a comical spiel on me. Failed to summon Odin. And then sat there for like, a couple dozen turns saying ": |" at me. After the battle, I was on a totally black screen - but the hand icon was still there showing I had spawned in. I even moved around, and the hand followed me. I was given an MP Plus Materia - I went into my Triangle menu - and when I exited the menu, a field just POPPED in out of nowhere, looking for all the world like the same area you'd see Yuffie in vanilla when recruiting her (minus the Save Point and the appearance of any party members; only Cloud was visible). ...I mention all of this because I reacted to all this with someone I was talking to online - and they said that this wasn't what happened when he encountered Ziggy, that the dude actually completely committed suicide, no real "battle" took place at all, much less the chances I go to Steal (nothing) and Morph (nothing, heh) from the guy, much less steal all his MP about a fourth of the way through his 9000 HP (it was only 50 MP, but still, didn't want to chance the guy suddenly remembering how to be competent and thrashing my party out of nowhere, heh). Did my Ziegfried act up? Did you change Ziggy's behavior at some point in the last year or so?

19

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-11-02 10:19:20 »

There was an AI change there; I don't think I was able to spot what the flaw was last time I checked it, and couldn't replicate the problem. But I'll check every instance of Ghost's AI in the files again in case one is different to the others.

That's weird... I was able to replicate it easily, in any encounter with Ghosts I got into - use Seal Evil at any time, and they never undid their invisibility/invincibility. I was able to do this with both an encounter where the was only one Ghost (and two different monsters accompanying, I believe, but I forget which ones they were, sorry) as well as in an encounter with 3x Ghost and nothing else (all three Ghosts exhibited the same behavior after using Seal Evil, non-stop physical spam and never lifting their invisibility). If my connection was worth a damn, I'd straight up record footage to show the problem without hesitation, so I apologize that it's not really an option at the moment. But yeah, it's strange how easily I was able to get it to trigger multiple times...and whenever I did, I was always forced to flee. Very odd!
And nothing else is striking me as acting unusual or clearly wonky (granted a first time player of this mod, but still), so I don't think I patched anything wrong. At least I can't imagine I did, anyway, if only this one thing is inexplicably going wrong, and seeming nothing else.

20

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.5)

« on: 2017-10-31 05:03:12 »

(New here, created an account just to leave this post on the thread for this mod!)

I've heard good things about this mod, saw bits and pieces of GarlandTheGreat playing this on YouTube (as well as my boyfriend through streaming, though that was a fair while back) - so I wanted to try it for myself, downloaded it maybe two weeks ago or something, I'd say (so I'm quite sure I'm on the latest version). And I'm definitely not on Arrange mode or anything, normal standard mode for me, please! (Let me play this once or ten times before I try anything challenge, get used to what I'm seeing and doing, heh. But anyway.) I don't wanna say I'm far enough along yet to form a completely fair opinion on the whole thing - but I have yet to run into anything I genuinely dislike so far (one or two base game mechanics are still coming back to haunt me - Stealing, such a love hate relationship! - but nothing specific and new introduced by the mod, I'd say) - definitely good things are what I'm seeing here.

I'm currently at the Train Graveyard, the save point right after beating Apps. I'm just messing around right now in this area seeing what I can get from Morph, and how low these enemies need to be before Tifa can Morph them in as few hits as I can. So yeah, I'm not taking my fights too seriously. But I did run into something a bit...awkward! Hardly something that needs to be a high priority fix, I would think - but it does seem to have rendered this particular random encounter I'm in unwinnable, almost hilariously so. The Ghost enemy in this fight won't undo his invisibility! I can't hit him with anything - physical, magical, even healing items miss him (as per base game, I imagine, but just to make sure that's clear). "Give him more time!", someone might be saying? Well, I'd like to - but he's been invisible long enough for him to almost completely refill both Cloud's and Tifa's Limit gauges from empty (I tried using Tifa's Limit Break just in case somehow those might get around his invisibility - no luck!). "But how is that necessarily a lot of time?" might also be asked. Well - they're both at Level 3, that's surely a LOT of necessary damage taken to get back that much gauge. Especially given he's using only physical attacks (I'd say about 80-something to 90-something per hit, no matter who he hits) - he won't use any other abilities or commands whatsoever, that I can tell anyway. Even more baffling since, unless my luck was just aligned like that, Ghost wouldn't physically attack me AT ALL in this mod, before this incident!

I think I know what triggered it - I used Seal Evil on him just in curiosity if Stop might somehow work (that would be a resounding negative!) - Silence seemed to work, though. And then he did his invisibility counter. And then that was it! He's non-stop spammed physical attacks on me since then. Tifa's gauge wasn't even full before then - but it got full after a few hits or so - and since then, it's had time to all but totally refill (it looks to me like there's maybe 3 to 5 pixels missing for full? but I'm not an expert or anything, that's a total guess). That seems to me like I've given him far more than the necessary amount of time to become visible and vulnerable again. So I think the Ghost's AI messes up a little when you put them in Silence. Or I might have just found some unique one-off situation where Silence somehow triggered this. (Silence doesn't seem to have a timer for wearing off, either - I don't recall if it did in base game, but it definitely doesn't seem to here, Tifa and Aerith were Silenced before I used Seal Evil, and they're still Silenced, so I'm guessing the Ghost is still Silenced as well.)

...I let it run a bit longer just now. Yep, everyone's got a full Limit Gauge now. I think I have no choice but to flee this battle - I seem to be quite stuck, hoho! While I can't imagine this is of high priority - I also can't imagine this is exactly how you intended this enemy to work. Can anyone else confirm/deny what I'm seeing here, and what I'm speculating is the cause of it? (There goes my 0 Escapes file! Sadface! ...actually no, I don't care too much, I might have run before this point and just forgotten anyway. I'm more just amused by the silliness of this thing I seem to have accidentally triggered.)