Author Topic: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)  (Read 5149 times)

Ashiel

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Hi there. I've recently discovered the FF7 modding community here on Qhimm and I'd like to ask some opinions on a mod I'm doing currently for my own use in hopes of improving it through the wisdom of those more experienced than I. If I get the mod developed far enough, I'll drop it on my google drive for everyone to use as they desire.  :)

Mod Concept
In Final Fantasy 7, weapons and armor are for the most part just strait upgrades or downgrades from previous pieces, at least through most of the game. There are a few special snowflakes among the weapons and armors but you'll generally just forget about previous pieces of equipment as you get to a newer piece, never having any real reason to pick and choose.

What I hope to accomplish with this mod is to make weapons and armors more balanced with each other. Tweaking their statistics, special abilities, and stat boosts to give reasons to use different weapons throughout the game. This way what you choose to do, and how you play, will be a little more interesting. It will also keep weapons more relevant if you want to use a weapon for its aesthetic appeal.

Current Projected Changes
At the moment the mod is mostly in the drawing board stages. Here are some current ideas.
  • Decide on a standard for materia slots for weapons and armors, which will determine which weapons stand out for their unique slot values. Currently I'm leaning towards 5 slots being the standard, giving a deviation of 3 slots in each direction for weapon uniqueness. Projected standard is 4 linked + 1 single, though 2 linked and 3 singles have also been considered.
  • Weapons (and armors) with fewer slots will generally have better materia growth, with the best materia growth weapons probably being the iconic starter weapons, such as the Buster Sword & Gatling Gun, which will all have 2 linked slots.
  • Weapons will be brought closer together in terms of offensive power, which is more or less a strait nerf to most of the weapons in the game since the expected range for weapon attack power will be more like 29-59 or so (I might narrow the gap further) with emphasis on tweaking other statistics such as stat modifiers, elements, materia slots and growth, and so forth.
  • Similar changes for armors intended. Generally speaking, 5 slots will be the average with variations. Armors with poor defenses will typically have better evade-% stats, while more tanky armors will have lower evade-%s, some armors will be better at resisting certain elements, and so forth. Notes will be included on the item descriptions such as "Resists fire".

As I progress with this mod, I'll likely need to learn how to edit merchants and item prices to further balance things, because it might seem a bit terrible to pay such massive price differences between things like Hardedges and Crystal Swords but it not be such a phenomenal upgrade between the two, but that's not super relevant right now. Right now, I'm more interested in getting some feedback and ideas from everyone.

Any thoughts?

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)
« Reply #1 on: 2016-01-18 23:17:33 »
I've done something like this for my mod NT; if you're looking at stat boosts, then I'd recommend a heavy boost for Vit/Spr (30-50) to make it noticeable and maybe something a bit more sparing for Magic (I found that weapon + armour boosts together can make Magic a bit too strong if you're using +20, etc. so 5-15 seems more stable). I also went with a similar weapon power range; I went with 50 as the cap which shrunk the differences between each weapon.

For effects, you can use Elements & status ailments to give pieces a unique ability, but be wary of using Slow/Stop for armour defence; Time Magic statuses seem to be 'combined' in some weird way so defending against Slow will mean the character can't gain Haste either.

One thing to remember is that defensive stats aren't as weighted as Strength/Magic are, so differences in armour will need to be more pronounced. Problem with that is if the armour defensive values get too high + VIT/SPR bonuses on Weapons/Accessories, you can end up hitting the 255 cap too soon. I tried a build where Iron Armour had 1 slot and 70+ defence but it didn't make as dramatic a difference as you might expect.

Another thingie you can do is adjusting the damage formulas, targeting, etc. You can make weapons that hit everything on the field (including your team) for a 'blender' strategy, or make them deal %-based damage, damage/drain HP/MP, restore HP, ignore defence, etc. Just be wary of HP drain, it combos too well with Counter Attack Materia so maybe give it a low base power or give it Gravity element to keep it under control.

And finally, when editing flavour text for equipment keep in mind that there's a size limit for the kernel so keep it as compact as possible. Abbreviations for stats would be a good idea.

Ashiel

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Re: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)
« Reply #2 on: 2016-01-19 02:03:51 »
Quote
And finally, when editing flavour text for equipment keep in mind that there's a size limit for the kernel so keep it as compact as possible. Abbreviations for stats would be a good idea.
Is that just for the PSX version or the PC as well? :o

Also, thanks for the feedback on everything else. :D

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)
« Reply #3 on: 2016-01-19 02:28:04 »
In this case, there's a size limit for both but I'd definitely talk to one of the PS1 modders around here about kernel editing. While the PC game is quite robust, I think there's additional limitations/pitfalls to watch out for when working with the PSX files.

Ashiel

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Re: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)
« Reply #4 on: 2016-01-19 04:08:12 »
I see. :o

I just recently got FF7 for PC off of Steam. I knew there was a modding scene for FF7, but I've only ever played FF7 for the PSX either on an unmodded PSX, or on an emulator with my vanilla FF7 game. When I got the PC version recently, I figured it was about time to try some mods. When I found the Qhimm forums and the very impressive toolsets here, I realized that it might be feasible to do a little modding of my own. (^_^)

nfitc1

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Re: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)
« Reply #5 on: 2016-01-19 13:29:10 »
I thought of a mod very similar to this, except each weapon would just be considered an attachment to the buster sword. Like sharper blade, additional materia slots, etc. Some would even be elemental and status inflicting.

Kaldarasha

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Re: [FF7] Weapon & Armor Rebalance Mod Ideas (Conceptual)
« Reply #6 on: 2016-01-19 14:43:48 »
I thought of a mod very similar to this, except each weapon would just be considered an attachment to the buster sword. Like sharper blade, additional materia slots, etc. Some would even be elemental and status inflicting.

I have the idea to separate the weapons of the characters into 2 or 3 classes. Cloud as example would get 3:
  • Saber/Buster class -  good attack, cut damage, armor-piercing, medium quantity of slots
  • Hardedge class -  very high attack, punch damage, little chance to inflict slow, medium quantity of slots,
  • Dualedge -  medium attack, cut damage, rise magic, average to maximum quantity of slots

On the top I would love to make some day an blacksmith field script, so you would gain only the three basic weapons, but are able to upgrade them if you have the money and resources.