Author Topic: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)  (Read 66119 times)

Sega Chief

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[FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« on: 2019-02-21 22:00:30 »
[New Threat Mod v0.3]*

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*Note: This mod is currently still in beta and only Disc 1 has been released; consider everything you see a WIP and keep an eye out for balancing issues or bugs.


[Feature List]
Spoiler: show

[Junctions]
Stock no longer influences the % of the stat boost given by a spell; 1 stock of a spell acts in the same way as 100 stock, giving 100% of the intended stat boost. This allows players to freely make use of their Magic inventory and allows for setting up for more of a resource management system without sabotaging the player character's stats.

The other key change is that spells no longer have a 'best' stat to be junctioned to. Instead, spells have a hierarchy where spells will give higher/lower stat gains than each other. An example is given below:
Scan: +4
Fire: +6
Blizzard: +8
Thunder: +10
Cure: +11 or +200HP

These spells can only be equipped to the primary attributes (Strength, Vitality, Magic, or Spirit). This means you have to decide which stat is going to get the 'best' available stat boost, and which stats are going to get the weaker spells. Placing Thunder on Strength and Blizzard on Vitality will let you hit harder and take more damage, but it leaves your Magic/Spirit stat with Fire and Scan both of which give lower stat gains.

Restorative spells are different in that they generally provide a hefty stat boost, but are also the only spells that can be junctioned to raise MaxHP. This means you can sacrifice a MaxHP boost for an additional boost to your primary attributes. Status magic like Blind, Protect, etc. function in a similar way but are reserved for the secondary stats such as Hit, Evasion, Speed, and Luck.

As you progress through the game, you'll gain access to stronger spells with better stat boosts and shuffle out your older junctioned spells (Scan will typically be the first to go as it provides the lowest boost of all the primary-attribute spells). The difference between spells starts small at +2, but at higher tiers will grow to +4 and +8 difference, making your junction choices more significant.


[Draw]
This has been changed slightly in that a successful Draw will always give at least 9 stock of a spell, and has no upper limit (up to 100 can be drawn, assuming Magic stat is high enough and spell resistance is low). However, spell acquisition is more heavily focused on Refine/Drops/Field Draws than in-battle Draws; the goal is to make in-battle Draws more of a convenience for restocking basic elemental/curative magic, and less of a time-sink.

It should also be noted that GFs no longer need Draw to be acquired in-battle. The GF will be given to the player following the end of the battle, which will allow the Command menu slot to be freed up for other commands like Item, etc.

Draw Points have also been changed; they now offer a choice of two different spells and once a selection is made this spell is 'locked' into the Draw Point. Most Draw Points are also one-draw only and they are to provide useful spells earlier than they might be freely available or to top up useful magic such as Protect and Shell. It pays to think ahead when selecting what spell to Draw.


[Refining]
The required materials and results for Refine abilities have been adjusted. An effort has been made to achieve a sense of balance and eliminate exploits like infinite Gil, but this part of the mod should be considered a Work In Progress; adjustments will likely be made based on feedback. Some of the refines may be too powerful, others may not be worthwhile.


[Limit Breaks]
Limits have had the RNG removed from their check, meaning that milling turns will no longer have an effect. If a Limit does not proc when the character's ATB gauge fills, it means they cannot get a Limit until the battle conditions change (HP is lost, status is inflicted). This works both ways, and means that if a Limit does proc it will be available even if you swap control to another character and back again.

The Limit commands themselves, however, have not been made harder to proc. Instead, they're much more common. In mods where enemy damage is higher, Limits are riskier to use as they often require critical HP to proc and the Aura effect is very rare in this mod. By having Limits proc at around the 50% HP mark (varies by character and other conditions such as status ailments), they become more like character-specific abilities to vary up your approach to the fight.

Base damage & effects of Limits has been adjusted to account for this, so while they will deal more damage than your standard attacks (particularly if Crisis Level reaches 4 and you throw caution to the wind), they won't completely obliterate everything in your path like the base game Limits would.


[Characters]
Each character has had their base stats and growths adjusted, so that they have some favoured stats and weaknesses:
   Squall: All-rounder, with solid stats; spends the majority of the game in the party so he can be built using Junctions more easily.
   Zell: Effective but one-dimensional; has strong showings in Strength, Vitality, and Speed but abysmal Magic and Spirit.
   Selphie: Glass-cannon with solid Strength & Magic + the highest Speed stat in the team. Durability is overall low.
   Rinoa: Highest magic stat in the party and strong Spirit. Is one of the weakest party members defensively and early Limits are strength-based.
   Quistis: Strongest overall defences on the team with decent Strength & Magic to take advantage of Blue Magic. Is also the slowest party member, however.
   Irvine: Luck-based physical damage dealer, reasonable stats across the board but nothing special. High crit rate thanks to absurd Luck stat.
      
Weapons have been adjusted slightly, but not drastically. Instead of using a Strength bonus, a base power is used which starts at 20 and ends at 40 for ultimate weapons. Some have crit modifiers and rising/falling levels of accuracy. These three stats are now stated in the description from their respective weapon magazines.
      

[Enemies]
With a few exceptions, all enemies have had their AI adjusted and their attacks unlocked/altered. Bosses have had a more drastic overhaul, sporting new attacks and behaviour. Stats have also been changed as you'd expect.

Random encounters typically have a fixed level, whereas bosses scale directly from the party level with a slight + modifier. This may be changed based on feedback as there are several ways to set up enemy level based on individual formations.

Regarding formations, enemies that appear alone tend to be higher level than the ones that appear in groups.


[GFs, Spells, & Commands]
Base power and some effects have been altered across the board. Some spells like Pain and Break have been given a base power so they can act as single-target elemental damage options for Earth and Poison (they still inflict status ailments, but Pain only inflicts Poison now). Meteor and Flare were also set up with Earth and Fire elements respectively to differentiate them a bit. Elemental/Status junction effects were adjusted; it'll be tricky to get elemental defence above 100% without multiple slots in Elem-Def.

Some statuses, particularly buffs, have had their timers extended so that they don't need to be reapplied as often. This was done because applying buffs can be time-consuming due to most spells only being single-target.

GFs have had their base power lowered, but their level mod is higher than before; increasing their levels will have a greater impact on their base damage (overall it is higher than what it was in the base game). The way in which Affinity works has been given a twist; you start with 1000 affinity for each GF, but this affinity falls each time you summon the GF in-battle. Excessive use will leave GFs weakened for later in the game, but affinity can be slowly recovered by the use of elemental spells. Using consumables will also raise affinity.

AP requirements for almost all abilties were halved and some quality-of-life abilities start off as learned such as Encounter-None (held by Siren).

Some command abilities have been altered to cover gaps in elemental offence for late-game or to provide a bit
more utility. These abilities typically unlock for learning at GF Lv.50 (lower/higher in certain cases):
   Recover: Merged with Treatment; heals 25% HP and has a built-in Esuna.
   Fortify: Adds Haste, Double, Triple; but as a drawback adds Vit0 and first incoming hit will be a back-attack.
   Aqua Breath: Replaces Treatment, inflicts heavy water damage
   Mad Rush: Unchanged
   Freeze: Replaces Doom, heavy Ice damage with Slow + Petrifying
   Shock: Replaces Absorb, deals heavy Thunder damage with Darkness
   Mini-Flare: Non-elemental damage that ignores Spirit
   Judgeray: Holy elemental damage, inflicts Stop
   Devour: Unchanged
   Card: Unchanged
   Galeforce: Replaces Defend, inflicts heavy Wind damage and inflicts Confusion
   
   Darkside: Power adjustment for x2 damage instead of x3 damage and HP loss is 20% instead of 10%.
   Kamikaze: Power adjustment for x3 damage modifier instead of x6
   Cover: Does not reduce damage when used

   
[Field Scripts & Dialogue]
A number of adjustments have been made to the game's scripted events and dialogue text.
-) General dialogue revamp: this should be considered an ongoing WIP until later builds finalise it.
-) Small adjustments + tweaks to certain scenes for better facing, etc.
-) Majority of scripted tutorials have been replaced with a few windows of text going over NT-specific information.
-) Restoration of deactivated story scenes
-) Various quality-of-life additions such as sequence skips (Opening FMV for instance can be skipped)


[Misc.]
-) Included is a UV fix for the textures on the world map; this should be particularly effective if Linear Filtering
   is disabled in the FF8 Steam Launcher settings (a black line seam issue can be seen if linear filtering is on).



[Installation]
Spoiler: show

[Quick Version]
1) Install Roses and Wine (R07) or drop the FF8_EN.exe in the emergency folder into the FF8 folder.
2) Put all the files in the lang-en folder into the FF8\Data\lang-en folder
3) Read the bottom of this guide for steps to check that game is patched when playing, and also
   start from a new game rather than a vanilla-made save file.

[Long Version]
For an optimal experience, it's recommended to play the mod using the Steam version of the game. The mod is untested with the original 1998 FF8 PC but should work with it; just bear in mind that the original version of the game is unstable on modern machines without maintenance.

The Steam version uses MIDI files for its music rather than the MP3/OGG that FF7 Steam uses. It's highly recommended to download and install Roses and Wine for FF8 to resolve this, it's an Audio mod that replaces the game's music with .OGG: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13715.0

It runs from an installer. Make sure to have unblocked/set admin priveleges for the installer before running it. This mod also provides an .EXE modifying feature that FF8 NT uses to apply changes to the FF8_EN.exe.

Now for installing FF8 NT itself:
Locate your FF8\Data\lang-en folder; it'll typically be in a location like:
D:\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VIII\Data\lang-en

*Note that if your version of the game is not in English, the lang-xx folder may have a different
   name. Chances are that the mod will not work with the french, spanish, and german versions.
   Compatibility for these versions can be provided if a user sends me the files for these versions.

In the FF8\Data\lang-en folder, make a back-up of the following files:
battle.fi
battle.fl
battle.fs

field.fi
field.fl
field.fs

main.fi
main.fs
main.fl

menu.fi
menu.fs
menu.fl

These archives contain the enemy files, field event scripts/dialogue, system data (magic, character stats, etc.) and refine values/text respectively. Store these archives in a folder so you can revert to the default game in the future without having to reinstall the game/verify the files.

Once the back-ups are made and stored safely, add the FF8 NT versions of these files into the game's folder.

The next step is to patch the game's .EXE. Go to the Roses & Wine folder (called RaW) and go to this directory:
   D:\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VIII\RaW\GLOBAL\Hext
   
Place the FF8_NT_EXE.txt file into this folder. What this will do is apply the mod's executable changes to your executable at run-time, leaving it unaltered for vanilla runs. If this part of the process doesn't work, use the FF8_EN.exe provided with the FF8 NT download; just remember to make a back-up of your default FF8_EN.exe.

To confirm that the game has been patched successfully, make the following checks:
1) Field Script Check: On starting a new game, a 'Welcome to FF8 NT' message should be displayed.
   Other parts of the game's dialogue is different as well.
2) Battle Check: Bite Bugs on the world map will make use of their 2 special attacks; Barf and Needle.
   The Ifrit boss fight will include new mechanics/attacks.
3) Menu Check: In your Refine menus, M-Pebbles should refine into 3 of a basic elemental spell instead of 5 and
   the text shown should be updated to reflect this.
4) .EXE Check: Junctioned spells should be giving 100% of their stat boost regardless of stock, Draw will always
   be a minimum of 9 spells and can exceed this limit.
5) Kernel Check: Squall's listed weapon accuracy in the menu should be 100% instead of 255%.

If all of these checks are met, then the game is patched and should perform as expected. But report any oddities and glitches you encounter (along with any additional mods you use, if any).




[Overview]
FF8 NT is a gameplay overhaul mod that's aiming to rebalance the game's systems while introducing new/revised content. The level of difficulty is intended to be accessible to all players, with grinding being optional rather than mandatory. Random enemies and boss battles have been revised with new mechanics, story scenes are tweaked with some deactivated scenes renovated for use, and some quality of life additions have been made. The central idea to the mod is to make the game a fresh experience but to also make it 'more of itself'; that means trying to maintain as much of the core game as possible but with adjustments to make the different gameplay elements work together better.

Feedback is always welcome, especially now as the mod is still in its formative stages. The current build extends to Disc 1 only, and while initial impressions have been positive on streams there are a lot of issues to be addressed and changes to be made. Any suggestions or bug reports would be appreciated.


[Changelog]
Spoiler: show

v0.1
-) Release

v0.2
-) Hext file adjusted and now works with Roses & Wine's hext folder
-) HP adjustment for Biggs & Wedge, Elvoret, X-ATM082, and Gerogero
-) Physical damage downtuned for Ifrit, Biggs & Wedge, and X-ATM082
-) Debug routine removed from Tomb of the Unknown King Draw Point

Current Issues:
-) Refine text (and some results) are incorrect/misparsed - Fixed
-) Card Level Lock for Card Mod is not working
-) Squall's weapon accuracy is treated as 255%, even with Blind applied

v0.3
-) Refine Text fixed
-) Revisions made to card refines (temporary measure as level-locking didn't work imbalances most likely still exist)
-) Restorative/Cure spells now ignore Shell
-) Diablos revamped
-) Multiple enemies revised that were missed in first wave; AI, attacks, etc.
-) Abyss Worm & Chimera modded
-) Added skip option to Opening FMV and to Train Briefing scene
-) Shunsq's controller buttons display mod was added as a variant for the Hext files
-) Revisions made to Selphie's Slots spells
-) Blind status no longer affects Crisis Level
-) Some dialogue revisions
-) Fixed in-battle Seifer line

Current Issues
-) Zell's Duel uses duplicate entries of commands to fill action list
-) Squall's accuracy ignores what the value is set to, so this has been returned to 255% for the time being; magazines still list the 'old' accuracy value


[Credits]
Big thanks to the FF8 modding community for producing their tools, coming up with info/assembly hacks, and maintaining the old/new wiki:
-) Mystre's Field Editor & Archive Extractor/Packer, Deling
-) Gjoerulv's Enemy Editor, Ifrit
-) JeMaCheHi's Formation Editor, Cactilio
-) Maki, JWP & AlexFilth's Kernel Editor, Doomtrain
-) JWP's init.out Editor, Quezacotl
-) JWP's AI Extension for Ifrit tool
-) Alexfilth's mwepon.bin editor, JunkShop

And thanks again to JWP for helping me out with assembly hacks and to Maki for giving info about how the field files work. Thanks to Callisto for advice on using the menu text editor.

Also a big thanks to streamers like Ysangwen, Uprisen, Strife98, Strongbow, Redmon, and others for broadcasting the mod on release; the feedback was invaluable and the support was much appreciated.
« Last Edit: 2019-03-13 05:23:17 by Sega Chief »

Yagami Light

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #1 on: 2019-02-21 23:33:09 »
This looks awesome, I'm pretty sure this is the first mod to fix some of the bugs present in the pc version as well, will give it a try kudos!

jester1610

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #2 on: 2019-02-22 00:39:54 »
Found a bug for card mod. it says 3 Cactuar cards refine into 1 chefs knife while it's possible to refine it with 1 card.
when i refine fastitocalon-f card into a fishfin it took both of my cards while refine even it says that i need only 1 card.
and its not possible to refine 1 fishfin into 10 water, it says i need one but it seems i need more than just one.

I just see there more bugs that come with refine abilitys. need 2 jelleye cards to refine into sharp spike but i get m-stone piece whith one card. almost every card refines into the item it would normally do without the mod.
« Last Edit: 2019-02-22 00:51:16 by jester1610 »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #3 on: 2019-02-22 01:12:38 »
This looks awesome, I'm pretty sure this is the first mod to fix some of the bugs present in the pc version as well, will give it a try kudos!

Callisto's Ragnarok beat me to it on a lot of them; I'm a little late to the FF8 party.

Found a bug for card mod. it says 3 Cactuar cards refine into 1 chefs knife while it's possible to refine it with 1 card.
when i refine fastitocalon-f card into a fishfin it took both of my cards while refine even it says that i need only 1 card.
and its not possible to refine 1 fishfin into 10 water, it says i need one but it seems i need more than just one.

I just see there more bugs that come with refine abilitys. need 2 jelleye cards to refine into sharp spike but i get m-stone piece whith one card. almost every card refines into the item it would normally do without the mod.

Yeah, the mngrp.bin seems to be messed up. I changed the hex, then edited the strings (some were a bit messed up but they seemed to be correct when checking them), checked it in-game, then edited some strings in a different part, and then finally ran it through hextedit again before release to apply some last minute tweaks. Something's went wrong on one of those two steps.

I'm working on correcting it just now but it'll take me a day or two.

Bowser9

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #4 on: 2019-02-22 07:20:22 »
@SegaChief
Thank you for updating people on social media.

I noticed SB Gamers is streaming/capturing their playthrough of the early build on youtube. Would having more people stream/capture their playthrough be helpful? I can also stream to youtube via simple OBS.

Also, I noticed a couple changes were similar to Callisto's Ragnarok. Would you recommend playing Ragnarok as a precursor to New Threat? Both for balance ideas and the player/user experience?

EDIT: I actually own the old PC release of the game. I could test the mod's compatibility with that version if you'd like.

EDIT 2: I was surprised to see the likelihood of Limit increase. 50% HP to influence crisis level as well as the earlier introduction of timed afflictions like slow-petrification really shift the feel of the game based off what I see in SB Gamers' playthrough. I'm also pleasantly surprised to see how this was balanced, with Squall doing markedly less basic attack damage but making up for it with a limit that often rivals a fresh GF attack (with elemental bonus). That's just nifty and I can't wait to jump into the mod myself later.
« Last Edit: 2019-02-22 12:20:07 by Bowser9 »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #5 on: 2019-02-22 14:54:59 »
@SegaChief
Thank you for updating people on social media.

I noticed SB Gamers is streaming/capturing their playthrough of the early build on youtube. Would having more people stream/capture their playthrough be helpful? I can also stream to youtube via simple OBS.

Also, I noticed a couple changes were similar to Callisto's Ragnarok. Would you recommend playing Ragnarok as a precursor to New Threat? Both for balance ideas and the player/user experience?

EDIT: I actually own the old PC release of the game. I could test the mod's compatibility with that version if you'd like.

EDIT 2: I was surprised to see the likelihood of Limit increase. 50% HP to influence crisis level as well as the earlier introduction of timed afflictions like slow-petrification really shift the feel of the game based off what I see in SB Gamers' playthrough. I'm also pleasantly surprised to see how this was balanced, with Squall doing markedly less basic attack damage but making up for it with a limit that often rivals a fresh GF attack (with elemental bonus). That's just nifty and I can't wait to jump into the mod myself later.

Streams are always good. Callisto's mod is complete whereas NT currently has some serious bugs like the refines all being messed up (most text is wrong and some results are wrong/vanilla).

Compat testing with the original 1998 PC version would be handy. If you can, post some screenshots of where the archive files are for battle, main, field, and menu if possible.

Bowser9

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #6 on: 2019-02-22 22:04:46 »
Will do. I'll get the screenshot to you when I can. Gotta dust off the fold-out case and the ol laptop.

Ayoyo

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #7 on: 2019-02-24 20:02:29 »
First impressions positive. Far as bugs go, only the summoning sequences in Ifrit&Elvoret bossfights (the ones they use)have been messed up for me so far. Really loving the revised dialogue, more flowing, natural and funny too. The stuff on the train right before landing in Timber was hilarious(is this a restored scene or your doing? Hard to believe Square would have this good a sense of humor). Also I think you might've made Selphie my favorite character. That's no easy feat either. #bitcheslovecannons

More or less breezing through the early game demonstrated a potentially awkward difficulty curve with enemies. What easily happens is random enemies become more threatening than bosses, especially with the new cool AoE's they throw at you. This of course is a good thing and I'm really pleased with random encounters so far, for actually keeping me awake instead of hammering A button to kill them. But then you get to the boss and the damage they dish out can be underwhelming by comparison. A potentially unfortunate byproduct of the current scaling method. I'm at the point where I leave Timber soon and so far bosses haven't been too threatening even with their new moves or they've died almost too soon, and I'm doing a really dry run so far without any powering up. One of the worst was Granaldo where I tried summoning Siren and it instantly killed the Raldos, and then a single Renzo finished Granaldo. X-ATM fell obediently too despite my botching constantly.

Still a bit dubious as to the initial GFs coming with elem-atk&def j's completed. Wonder if that was intended.

Loving all the streamlining here with regards to magic stacks and GF abilities. Not needing 100 per stack or grind for stat junctions immediately shaves off like 2 hours of tedium from the early parts of the game. New magic junction mechanic has felt like a really good idea thus far, I find myself swapping junctions around constantly to suit my strategy, upcoming enemies and whatnot.

Character differences apparent and impactful. Here's hoping it remains that way.
« Last Edit: 2019-02-24 21:45:25 by Ayoyo »

Bowser9

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #8 on: 2019-02-24 21:45:27 »
Chiming in on Elemental Atk&Def.

Elemental Atk&Def available early makes sense given that you can't get them to that high of a % without much better spells. Almost all % have been nerfed. Grievances with enemy HP have nothing to do with Elmental Atk&Def, too, since GFs and Limits use their own damage calculations and that's where a majority of damage comes from. Well, at least in early Disc 1. Overall a nifty quality of life change.

Ayoyo

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #9 on: 2019-02-24 21:59:43 »
Yes, I'm not against it. The only thing that threw me off was Ifrit dropping an elem-atk-j item and Quistis promptly explaining how to put it to use, as if this was our first contact with the ability. Maybe it's just me but I found this out of place considering every GF had all the elem abilities already. However I was simply looking to affirm that my installation isn't screwed up.

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #10 on: 2019-02-24 22:09:56 »
.

I was perhaps overly wary about Boss HP and incoming damage. Granaldo/Raldo is a very restrictive fight for available animations so better it ends faster.

Current plan for v0.3 is to implement the repaired refine text and revise the Diablos/Brothers/Iguion bosses. Tweaks to balance are also going in. When Disc 1 is in a better state, I'll advance through the rest of the game; that'll also be when more advanced custom field scripts start to go in.

The Elem/Stat Atk/Def were added fairly late as a way of adding some extra depth to your junction set-up. That's why Ifrit drops that redundant elem-atk-j despite all 3 starting GFs having it learned. The way it's been set up will stay for now but might change when full release comes around.

Bowser9

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #11 on: 2019-02-24 23:29:28 »
Out of curiosity, once you advance into Disc2, should we be worried about chocobo world? A and B rank items from that are pretty busted (Rosetta Stone, Ribbon, etc), and that's not mentioning how powerful Boko can be. Summoning him with some greens can net big damage right away, assuming you're crazy enough to play chocobo world for that long or happen to have an existing save backed up from 2007.
« Last Edit: 2019-02-24 23:58:58 by Bowser9 »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #12 on: 2019-02-25 00:42:15 »
Out of curiosity, once you advance into Disc2, should we be worried about chocobo world? A and B rank items from that are pretty busted (Rosetta Stone, Ribbon, etc), and that's not mentioning how powerful Boko can be. Summoning him with some greens can net big damage right away, assuming you're crazy enough to play chocobo world for that long or happen to have an existing save backed up from 2007.

We'll see what happens.

levantine

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #13 on: 2019-03-01 11:26:17 »
Hey Sega !
I'm glad to see the first release of your new project, i'm sure that it will be as nice as the 7 later on :p
Juste a litle question, are you going to add some battles that doesn t exist but would be good to have in the scenario (like you did in ff7 with for example turk battle in the cave after the ranch chocobo)
Also about characters, what does it mean for rinoa first limit is physical? if she's a pure mage how will you balance it?
As for Quistis, i was a litle dispointed to see she's a slowly tank hybrid, she's the blue mage so i was expect to see her more in a mage role, but it's up to you and i respect it !
I'm not the only one to say it but nice ideas here about junctions, draw magics and cards lvl cap !

Anyway good luck for your work !

Edit : about graphicals mods, wich one is compatible with your ff8 nt mods? wich one do you recommand to play with? thx a lot.
« Last Edit: 2019-03-01 11:28:55 by levantine »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #14 on: 2019-03-01 13:41:14 »
Hey Sega !
I'm glad to see the first release of your new project, i'm sure that it will be as nice as the 7 later on :p
Juste a litle question, are you going to add some battles that doesn t exist but would be good to have in the scenario (like you did in ff7 with for example turk battle in the cave after the ranch chocobo)
Also about characters, what does it mean for rinoa first limit is physical? if she's a pure mage how will you balance it?
As for Quistis, i was a litle dispointed to see she's a slowly tank hybrid, she's the blue mage so i was expect to see her more in a mage role, but it's up to you and i respect it !
I'm not the only one to say it but nice ideas here about junctions, draw magics and cards lvl cap !

Anyway good luck for your work !

Edit : about graphicals mods, wich one is compatible with your ff8 nt mods? wich one do you recommand to play with? thx a lot.

There won't be many new battles, I can only make space for a couple using existing entries.

Rinoa's Angelo limits in the default game are physical-based, which is fine there because her base stats are abnormally high across the board. In NT, re-speccing her to a magic-focused role impacted on the Limit a bit so the base damage for (most) of those limits was left a little higher so they don't get left behind.

Quistis has a mix of physical & magical based abilities so I needed to have her STR and MAG stat fairly decent to make good use of them. I'd already got Selphie, Rinoa, and Zell with decent speed stats so natural path seemed to be for defence; less speed helps to balance out the utility a bit (Quistis can choose what ability to use, but Selphie has to rely on RNG).

The card level thing seems to be kaput. I'm going to tinker with it some more but I might need to change the plan with that.

All graphical mods should be compatible.

Arctic_Phoenix

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #15 on: 2019-03-04 05:20:39 »
Hey Sega Chief:

I first found your youtube channel several years ago when I found out about Tifas Bootleg. I learned about the hardcore mod, which you had youtube videos of each boss. Thank you for that by the way! Then I learned about the FF7 New Threat mod. I started playing I think 1.3 and it wouldn't update to 1.4, and now here you are at 1.5.

Anyways that's not what this is about. Last year I found out about you making the FF8 New Threat mod and I became extremely excited. I wish you nothing but support and gratitude for all the hard work over the years you and others have put into these mods. So allow me to introduce myself by first making it clear how impressed and honored I feel that you let others experience the game in a way that you see it.

Okay now onto the useful stuff. I decided to make an account and post because I have played through your mod up until yesterday. I made it to Galbadia Garden, but have already found a number of things to let you know about.

If you're interested and it's useful I will volunteer to put dozens of hours into it and beta test quite a bit more if you would like. Here is what I've found so far in terms of breaking your game.

Let me start by mentioning that it was actually a challenge to do this. You've changed quite a lot, and so it made me explore quite a lot. Even to the point where I was trying to remember field draws. Like the Esuna in the Balamb train tunnel.

So here's how I broke my game:

1. As you know, there is no working level lock, and the refine items are honestly a give and take. You're never sure which thing you're going to get. It does look as though as the FINAL spell listed is the one that's accurate. So maybe just several text changes will fix that problem. You already know about the refine problem though so I'll waste no more time on that.

2. I really liked being able to get mug going from the start, but it led to some issues. One being that if you mug the bombs in the fire cavern, you can refine those to Firas. That's a MASSIVE stat boost out of the gate.

3. Card Modding the blitz card gives you a Dynamo Stone. This gives you Thundaga before you even leave the garden. That alone boosted my attack to just about 1500 points of damage. Though I didn't have this unlocked until I was ready to leave for Timber.

4. If you card mod a single abyss worm, you will get tornadoes. You already know what that does.

Now you can go and change all that, but I've been thinking about a possible alternate fix. Would it be easier to either A; Limit the amount draw points give you to a sliding scale. For instance, if Squalls under level 10, you get 1, 10-20=1-3, 20-30= 4-5. Or B; maybe instead of only one spell being required to use the spell as a junction, maybe up the amount to like 10. (Not too many, but enough to where you don't become overpowered to all hell just because we managed to acquire one or two powerful spells.)

Anyways, regardless of what you do thanks so much for the time and energy you put into all of your work. You're my FF modding hero!

Additionally there is a glitch in the main game of FF8. When you are on Disk 2 and get control of the mobile garden, you can do the Winhill side quests. Well, for some reason if you change the name of your main character you CANNOT begin this quest. I don't know if it's fixable, but I thought I'd mention it.

I'd also like to give you credit where credit is due. You kinda annoyed me in a good way by how much stronger you made those damn beach fish. Also they only drop like 1 fin every like 2-5 battles. You made me almost lose interest in waters early on. lol

Lastly, No I was or at least have not yet gotten the Lionheart. I reached the Grendals at level 25, and I fought just about 10-20 of them and to no avail did I retrieve Dragon Fangs.
« Last Edit: 2019-03-04 06:10:52 by Arctic_Phoenix »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #16 on: 2019-03-04 15:14:26 »
Hey Sega Chief:

I first found your youtube channel several years ago when I found out about Tifas Bootleg. I learned about the hardcore mod, which you had youtube videos of each boss. Thank you for that by the way! Then I learned about the FF7 New Threat mod. I started playing I think 1.3 and it wouldn't update to 1.4, and now here you are at 1.5.

Anyways that's not what this is about. Last year I found out about you making the FF8 New Threat mod and I became extremely excited. I wish you nothing but support and gratitude for all the hard work over the years you and others have put into these mods. So allow me to introduce myself by first making it clear how impressed and honored I feel that you let others experience the game in a way that you see it.

Okay now onto the useful stuff. I decided to make an account and post because I have played through your mod up until yesterday. I made it to Galbadia Garden, but have already found a number of things to let you know about.

If you're interested and it's useful I will volunteer to put dozens of hours into it and beta test quite a bit more if you would like. Here is what I've found so far in terms of breaking your game.

Let me start by mentioning that it was actually a challenge to do this. You've changed quite a lot, and so it made me explore quite a lot. Even to the point where I was trying to remember field draws. Like the Esuna in the Balamb train tunnel.

So here's how I broke my game:

1. As you know, there is no working level lock, and the refine items are honestly a give and take. You're never sure which thing you're going to get. It does look as though as the FINAL spell listed is the one that's accurate. So maybe just several text changes will fix that problem. You already know about the refine problem though so I'll waste no more time on that.

2. I really liked being able to get mug going from the start, but it led to some issues. One being that if you mug the bombs in the fire cavern, you can refine those to Firas. That's a MASSIVE stat boost out of the gate.

3. Card Modding the blitz card gives you a Dynamo Stone. This gives you Thundaga before you even leave the garden. That alone boosted my attack to just about 1500 points of damage. Though I didn't have this unlocked until I was ready to leave for Timber.

4. If you card mod a single abyss worm, you will get tornadoes. You already know what that does.

Now you can go and change all that, but I've been thinking about a possible alternate fix. Would it be easier to either A; Limit the amount draw points give you to a sliding scale. For instance, if Squalls under level 10, you get 1, 10-20=1-3, 20-30= 4-5. Or B; maybe instead of only one spell being required to use the spell as a junction, maybe up the amount to like 10. (Not too many, but enough to where you don't become overpowered to all hell just because we managed to acquire one or two powerful spells.)

Anyways, regardless of what you do thanks so much for the time and energy you put into all of your work. You're my FF modding hero!

Additionally there is a glitch in the main game of FF8. When you are on Disk 2 and get control of the mobile garden, you can do the Winhill side quests. Well, for some reason if you change the name of your main character you CANNOT begin this quest. I don't know if it's fixable, but I thought I'd mention it.

I'd also like to give you credit where credit is due. You kinda annoyed me in a good way by how much stronger you made those damn beach fish. Also they only drop like 1 fin every like 2-5 battles. You made me almost lose interest in waters early on. lol

Lastly, No I was or at least have not yet gotten the Lionheart. I reached the Grendals at level 25, and I fought just about 10-20 of them and to no avail did I retrieve Dragon Fangs.

Hi bud, thanks for the kind words; it's really encouraging.

I've fixed the refine text but I'm queuing that with some other changes that I want to put up all together as an update for the Disc 1 beta (which will probably be the last update until the full thing gets released).

At the eleventh hour I realised I hadn't implemented some kind of restructure for cards, specifically which NPCs had access to which cards. I'd done some tinkering with it in the past but not rolled anything out yet. But one of the bytes on the refine entries, I believed at the time, related to GF level as this byte is almost always 01 and the Doomtrain refine that requires Lv.100 had a value of 64 instead (100 in hex). Unfortunately, this byte doesn't seem to be linked to GF level at all (Siren has a similar refine where this byte doesn't equal 64) and the level-lock for card refine failed completely.

I could try setting it up so that it needs 10 of a spell instead of 1 but I'm hoping that a proper distribution of cards and some tweaks specifically to Fire, Blizzara, and Thundara will sort out the issue of overblown stats early on.

The Winhill glitch sounds interesting I'll have a look into that. No idea why a namechange would prevent a script from firing.

Someone mentioned that the fish hit too hard but I don't recall tweaking them again before release; I'll check them out.

I think Grendel gives Dragon Skin and nothing else; no Disc 1 Lionheart yet it seems.

Mr_StarStorm

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #17 on: 2019-03-05 11:28:36 »
Hey sega
Great work so far big fan of ff8 love what you have done. Agree with others bosses need to be tinker a bit so they are more harder, maybe they will be when you fix up card refine a bit. Anyway keep up hard work look forward to next update :D
also if anyone hasn't reported this Gesper caused a solflock when it used degenerator https://www.twitch.tv/videos/390455332?t=03h47m31s

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.2)
« Reply #18 on: 2019-03-06 14:08:54 »
That looked quite funny, I must have knocked the animation ID off or something; thanks for letting me know.

Soviet_Spyy

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #19 on: 2019-03-14 16:36:41 »
hey Sega
what tool did you use to edit the magic stock stat boost (where having 1 spell is equal to 100). I love your mod so far the dialogue edits are amazing, just curious to which tool because i'm considering perhaps editing my files to re balance the junction/draw system a bit more, any help will be much appreciated

Keep up the good work! :)

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #20 on: 2019-03-15 15:43:04 »
hey Sega
what tool did you use to edit the magic stock stat boost (where having 1 spell is equal to 100). I love your mod so far the dialogue edits are amazing, just curious to which tool because i'm considering perhaps editing my files to re balance the junction/draw system a bit more, any help will be much appreciated

Keep up the good work! :)

There isn't really a tool, it's a hex-edit of the game's executable file (JWP came up with this):

Code: [Select]
#Junction Adjustment: 1 = 100 Stock

#HP
963CB = B3 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Primary Stats
966E5 = B2 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Speed & Luck
96788 = B2 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Hit/Accuracy
96893 = B0 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Evasion
96921 = B0 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Elemental Attack
969D1 = B0 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Elemental Defence
96AAE = B1 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Status Attack
96BC1 = B0 64 90 90 90 90 90

#Status Defence
96C9D = B1 64 90 90 90 90 90

You can either make those edits manually or you can put the above into a notepad file and place it in Roses & Wine's Global/Hext folder. For format, check the hext files in NT's download.

If you want to tune the actual bonuses given, you'll need the Doomtrain tool. This modifies the game's kernel.bin. To get that, you need to get the Deling tool which can open the game's Main.fs archive and extract the kernel file from it. After making edits with Doomtrain, use Deling to replace the kernel in the Main.fs with your modified one.

Soviet_Spyy

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #21 on: 2019-03-16 08:06:15 »
I got it to work, thanks for your help!
Thinking of creating a mod later in the future that reworks the junction/draw system, I might try make it that the stat boosts from junction are based on the character levels rather than magic stock but I don’t know yet. Anyways thanks for your reply and help, keen for disc 2 of new threat

JWP

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #22 on: 2019-03-16 10:28:17 »
If you want them based on level, the following patches should do the trick:

Code: [Select]
#HP
963CB = 8A 5C 24 14 90 90 90

#Primary Stats
966E5 = 8A 54 24 1C 90 90 90

#Speed & Luck
96788 = 8A 54 24 1C 90 90 90

#Hit
9688E = 8B 4C 24 04 31 C0 8A 81 B8 01 00 00

#EVA
9691C = 8B 4C 24 04 31 C0 8A 81 B8 01 00 00

#Elemental Attack
969CC = 8B 4C 24 04 31 C0 8A 81 B8 01 00 00

#Elemental Defence
96AA9 = 8B 44 24 04 31 C9 8A 88 B8 01 00 00

#Status Attack
96BBC = 8B 4C 24 04 31 C0 8A 81 B8 01 00 00

#Status Defence
96C98 = 8B 44 24 04 31 C9 8A 88 B8 01 00 00

kekko1285

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #23 on: 2019-04-19 12:05:26 »
Hey Sega, it's simply exciting knowing you are putting (again) a lot of work into a FF mod. I played thoroughly the FF7 NT mod 1.4 and I found it simply amazing. I am now waiting for your next release for the 1.5+ final version of it.

I'm really keen on giving this FF8 NT mod a shot asap and giving you some feedback.

For now, the only suggestion I have is: do you think adding a "skip option" for GF summoning animations is doable/sensible? It happened to me in the past that playing FF8 modded versions where GF are made more "useful" resulted in a lot of time spent watching the same GF animation.

Anyway, feel free to ignore my request, it's more an idea than an actual request tbh.

Thanks for all the hard work!

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF8PC - Steam] New Threat Mod (v0.3)
« Reply #24 on: 2019-04-19 13:46:36 »
Hey Sega, it's simply exciting knowing you are putting (again) a lot of work into a FF mod. I played thoroughly the FF7 NT mod 1.4 and I found it simply amazing. I am now waiting for your next release for the 1.5+ final version of it.

I'm really keen on giving this FF8 NT mod a shot asap and giving you some feedback.

For now, the only suggestion I have is: do you think adding a "skip option" for GF summoning animations is doable/sensible? It happened to me in the past that playing FF8 modded versions where GF are made more "useful" resulted in a lot of time spent watching the same GF animation.

Anyway, feel free to ignore my request, it's more an idea than an actual request tbh.

Thanks for all the hard work!

Yo bud,

Skipping the animations would be tricky; I tried doing it with the FF7 ones once and got lost in all the functions used to draw things on the screen, etc. The animations are like segments that tie into each other so the assembly would need to be set up in a way where it would correctly skip ahead. I've no doubt that it is possible, just probably beyond what I can do right now.