ok, as of right now i am just at the beginning of my mod, though it will take a long time before each new release will come out, one, due to the amount i am changing, and going solo will take a while, but is what i prefer
, two, it will be worked on side by side with my ai compression mod, since i will need a smaller base to work with due to the amount of ai editing going on.
i had a release of my compressed ai mod out (up to air buster), but since people weren't really that interested, i decided to start on this instead. if anybody wants a newer version of it, please let me know as i progress, because i doubt it will be posted here otherwise (unless many people become interested in it).
things i plan on adding to this mod are:
1. adding a level-up method for enemies, so that they will continue to grow over time as you do, to keep the difficulty up throughout the game. i already have the base for this, all that needs to be done is to balance out the growth of the enemies, so that they start slow, then gradually get much stronger. the only bad thing is that it is likely that they will not level as well as the party does, smoothness wise, because it already takes a good bit of ai space with the current method, but if i have plenty of space near the end of the project, i will make them progress much smoother. also, it is possible for enemies to go over the lv 99 cap, and if you yourself level that high, pretty much everything you fight will be past that cap, and the damage output increases greatly at that point.
2. on top of the leveling method, they will also be adding more moves as they grow (some enemies are limited, due to me not knowing how to add animations to enemies in the battle.lgp file... if anybody could help me here, it would make many enemies much better in the end), some gaining auto statuses as they level, such as auto haste, or even auto life (still working out the kinks, but so far it will work once a battle, which is good
). elemental resistances will also increase, such as gaining immunity or even absorption from certain elements. this will also include manipulate moves if/when i can find the location in ai.
3. if i can find it in the ai, i will be adding status immunities to them as well, and even causing some of their attacks to inflict immunity to your party, coupled with a bad status, such as death sentence, and immunity to it, to stop removal of it. it will also be possible for the enemy to make you immune to, or absorb restorative spells/items, making phoenix downs miss, or cause instant death, depending on the resistance given, though this (zombification) will be a rare thing to be used, since it can be very bad, very fast, though death could be made to work on those killed with these resistances, unless death immunity was added as well
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4. if i can find this as well, i will be adding more drop/steal/morph items through ai, as well as removing the older drops and such, as they progress in level. for now though, i can at least make them drop a new item when killed in the same way the vice enemies give back your stolen items when they are killed: a dialogue box is shown, and the item is automatically added to your inventory, though this allows you to use it in the same battle if it is usable in battle, when it should be a end-of-battle reward. i can still make them be dropped at random, and have multiple different items that can be gotten, but they will still possibly drop their regular item, and it will have the possibility to be used in the same fight, which is why i want to find the main info in the ai. i cannot currently change the steal/morph items either, but definitely will if/when i get access to them.
5. all party stats will be reduced, and sources will be made a lot harder to come by, made as drops instead of morphs, and i can also cap off stats at somewhere under 255 if i wanted to, so even if they were plentiful, they would still not offer the same amount of help as usual. i will try to make the party members have more unique stats, but i am not sure how it is going to be yet... the first release or so will only have enemies tweaked for the most part.
6. all weapons and abilities will be modded as well, to weaken some, and strengthen others (ultimate weapons will NOT have their normal attack mods, since they are too broken). KotR will take a big hit, being massively reduced, but still being the strongest summon overall (will not be reduced to a pitiful state, but it will not be reaching max damage per hit either
. the cumulative damage will still be much greater than bahamut zero). some enemy moves will be boosted though, and may gain extra benefits as they level as well.
7. as i go, i will also try to make less things missable, especially summon materia (possibly add things to the field files, to make them appear elsewhere if missed, or as limited supply battle square prizes like omnislash). by the end, there should be very little you cannot get if you missed it, if anything (have to do something to get them though, not going to be handed to you if you missed them the first time).
a lot to read, as usual from me, but i hope people will actually have some interest in this mod, unlike my compressed ai mod
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if anybody has any experience in adding animations to enemies, i would like to have your help in that part, because as it stands now, unless the enemy has direct access to magic, they will be unable to use magic in a normal way (have to use a physical animation, which doesn't show the magic animation, though damage is still done). even adding new physical attacks has to be done on older physical animations if no new animations are added, which gets repetitive.
on the same note, but less needed for now, if anybody could make it possible to have new enemies added, i would like that as well, because extra optional enemies are always nice, and adding new battle square enemies could be fun too
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when i do (if people want it) make a release, i plan to make an excel spreadsheet showing all enemy info, such as stats, moves, items, etc. since it will not be able to be seen in an enemy editor like hojo (moves for all levels would be shown though), because it will only list the base stats, and even at the same level (except the base level), enemies can be greatly different stat wise, and even resistance wise if i make them at a random chance to happen, so i think a little spreadsheet to show the min/max stats, and all possible things they can have would be a good thing to have.