Messages

1201

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-21 19:06:05 »

It's impossible to add attack to an armour. Not in the kernel at least. But the + to str was a mistake. Thank you for noticing!!  And, as you may know, every armour adds to Spirit as it would to MDef. Thats because of the MDef bug in the game. In the normal version the shown MDef bonus on the equipment wouldn't add any MDef. But now it does. Not by adding MDef, but by adding Spirit. Which is the same as MDef. Think I mentioned this in the 1st post.

Again, any feedback is good feedback!! 

1202

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-21 14:24:37 »

The four slots armor adds +18 strength, that shouldn't do that. The player isn't informed that it happens, i only figured it out by accident... if you want it to add to strength, make it add to attack instead. or remove it completely as the four slots is for mage's not fighters.

And fixed!! 

Thanks for letting me know!!

Btw Str adds to Attack in case you didn't know.

1203

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-20 17:58:14 »

I like the idea of some "impossible" encounters at low levels (Sense may get some uses), but without "normal" encounter it would be incredibly hard to level up ^_^'

There are places which are easy to level up without too much effort.

Can you tell me where are located the AIs for monsters? I read Terence's Enemy Mechanics FAQ, and most of the AI codes there seemed quite simple. It was probably a simplified pseudo-code, but the original code should be very similar... or not? As long as there is a way to make it human-readable (not hex or binary or whatever) I may look into it.

The AI for each monsters are in the scene files separately I believe. My guess is after the attack section (which is --if I remember correctly-- 24x28 bytes). I dunno how long the AI is, 'cause I haven't even checked yet.

If you, or anyone, could give me some info on it, it would be cool. But I don't think I would edit it too much if possible. Perhaps just some bosses.

1204

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-20 08:50:02 »

Everyone likes to play their own way but the way i view it if its hardcore there shoudln't be any unlimited sources to make all characters exact carbon copies.

Thats why i said leave it till disk 3, on disk 3 you start off in the cave & most people just go straight down... that way you would have the choice for those who want to go searching the world for more source's, for those people not to have to waste so much time doing it. But i dont think its possible anyway, i dont think there is any disk 3 exclusive monsters to fight out on the world map.

It isn't possible to make the game read from different scenes only on disc 3. To make this wish come true you'd have to make that possible, which means alter the game engine (I believe  ). The only possible option here would be to add source drops to those monsters in the final cave. Does that sound appealing?

I restarted the game from the start (because i deleted my save game by accident ). The balance is much better, and i noticed that there seemed to be alot more use of status effects which was excellent.

Why thank you  . v0.7.1 is just re-edited to the end of 1st continent+boat. currently I'm done editing 'til the end of the Pagoda tower. Oh look at the time. Gotta go 

1205

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-18 21:04:56 »

I didn't try the mod, but will do as soon as I have some free time.
Just a couple of suggestions (maybe you already tought about them):
- Don't raise enemy's HP too much. That is ok for bosses, but for random encounters it is a pain, because they would last forever.
- I agree with removing the flash command, but that is because it is usually useless. Slash-All does most of the time the same results and also works on enemies immune to death. I also suggest of removing Coin: that blinking Throw/Coin voice in the menu just makes me headaches. Also the fact that throwing coins deals damage is very very lame (critical lame).
- I suggest of leaving the original Master Command. If you got it, it means that (A) you mastered all other commands or (B) you killed Emerald. The concept is that when a player obtains the Master Materias is because his/her character are almost-unstoppable death machines.
- Sometimes just adding a nasty status effect to some attacks may transform an inoffensive enemy into a destruction machine, at least until the pary obtains 3xRibbon.
- I suggest to allow the enemies to drop just few Star Sources (using a global variable, like it is done with Pandora's Box), to avoid Source farming.
- Is there some way to change the enemy AI? I would be glad to modify it to make the opponents a bit more intelligent. That would greatly raise the difficulty
without even changing the stats.

This mod is generally made to satisfy me lol. And I consider myself a hardcore FF7 player. I don't think there would be many requests for customisation, so I'll make customized mods if requested. There are random encounters somewhat early in the game (after mythril cave and so on) that are impossible at that time. IMO this spices up the idea of random encounters. Considering this is "hardcore" you should figure out which enemies are worth killing, 'cause some are "die-hard", others just annoying and not worth the spoils received. This goes in general just for the 1st half of the game. Just swallow your pride and flee. I know this might seem frustrating but at least it is "hardcore". Most of the enemies (except 1st reactor, bosses, and towards the end) have 2x or 3x hp.

Coin and Flash are removed. IMO overkill attacks in this mod (if you have lots of gil that is).

The reason I removed Master Command is that it adds another Mime and Coin. I don't know how to remove those alone from it. And I've never liked it. It really won't make much of a difference anyway in this mod. I've changed it to be 1 single command: Flash. Perhaps Flash seemed useless in the standard game, but, trust me, it ain't in this. Towards the end, when it's likely you'll be able to defeat emerald, the enemies will get an HP boost. In northern cave they have at least 5x HP. Some have more than 10x HP. Flash can kill some of these in 1 go. And the battles in general will be much easier and shorter. Trust me! Still if you want it custom made please let me know. I'll be happy to bring it back! 

Enemies aren't just harder by adding STR, MAG and HP. I've also added status changes, speed etch. IMO there is a nice balance.

There are no Source drops beside the standard ones.

And I don't have the slightest clue how to change the AI. I know where it is located but it's too complex to figure out. It would require time I don't have. 

1206

General Discussion / Re: Final fantasy 7 Ruby weapon

« on: 2007-08-13 18:58:15 »

I'm not going to get a gold chocobo. I'm gonna beat ruby.

I know that wasn't the subject, bur really, getting a Gold Chock isn't hard at all. Just requires some patience. You probably read this but heres a "perfect" guide.

1207

Completely Unrelated / Re: The Art Topic

« on: 2007-08-13 18:45:26 »

Very nice work!! 

One of mine.

1208

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-13 18:34:35 »

You're after the sector 7 pillar blast? Well if you use the debug room you can skip whatever you want. But this may cause weird bugs in the game and if you're a serious player you wont use that. Anyways I got 1 week before I go back to college to complete this. Not that I won't be able to then. but I obviously will get my hands full with other stuff. Thus I kinda yearn to get this done before I start...

Uhhh, just noticed... In this mod you can't sell previously sellable stuff. Like bangles and sh*t. Will fix that.

1209

General Discussion / Re: Final fantasy 7 Ruby weapon

« on: 2007-08-10 21:30:50 »

lol it depends who you are and how you play the game bosses are harder depending on strategy. I think out of a lot of bosses Ruby is one of the hardest.

Yeah ruby is at least one of the hardest FF bosses. No dubt the hardest FFVII boss. I still haven't beaten the hardest ones after FFVIII though... The one I spent the longest time on beating however was the ones in FFV.

Btw u got a Gold choc yet?

1210

Completely Unrelated / Re: Tetra Master For PC

« on: 2007-08-10 20:53:47 »

Nice work! I was suprised as h*ll! Think you can make a FF8 version?

1211

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-08-10 20:08:27 »

Sorry for the time I use on this one (if anyone cares ). I'm currently done gametesting the 1st continent + boat. I have updated some enemies (see buttom 1st post). The game testing requires some time, but I'll try to be done next week. The complete mod will rock my balls!!

1212

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-07-28 11:20:08 »

Well... The 9th section of Kernel.bin is the Materia "dump". It starts with 4x WORD which desides the amount of AP pr level. The next byte is the equiped effect. It's just one byte:

Code: [Select]

BYTE STR VIT MAG MDEF MAXHP MAXMP LUCK DEX
00
01 -02 -01 +02 +01 -05% +05%
02 -04 -02 +04 +02 -10% +10%
06 +01
07 +01
08 -01
0A +02
0B -01 +01 -02% +02%
0C +01 -02% +02%
0D +01 +01 -05% +05%
0E +02 +02 -10% +10%
0F +04 +04 -10% +15%
10 +08 +08 -10% +20%
13 possible options. The value 0x01 would give:
STR: -02
VIT: -01
MAG: +02
MDEF: +01
HP: -05%
MP: +05%

The Cover Materia uses 0x06:
VIT: +1

I belive the closest to your example would be from the standard low level materia; 0x0B. You could change that to any value listed above (e.g 0x10), but only those as far as I know. I don't know how to change the effect the different values represents.

And I'll be happy to do it for you. Just make a list (or something) of which materias you would like to change the equiped effect on, and which value you want on them (0x00 - 0x10 as you see in the list above). Then PM, Mail or post it and I'll make it. No prob  .

And btw. The accesory Guard Ring has a +50 VIT in my mod. And the Tough Ring a +30 VIT SPR. Kinda to make the Guard Ring more usefull. There are more changed values on the rings as well, and mabye I should list 'em...

1213

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-07-27 20:14:09 »

Flash command is the command which kills all enemies in 1 go. If it works that is...

And BTW Master Command is now Flash! Not Coin as earlier. Kinda like an Ultimate Command lol.

Edit:

OK, I've tried something without success. Does anyone know how to alter the flash command so it appears as an own command and not just replace the attack command? Is it even possible? I guessed it had something to do with the 1st Kernel file 'cause there are 14 command materias and there seem to be 16x16 bytes there, where 2 are manifestly useless due to the 16 0xFF bytes.

Edit2:
Never mind. It's just 8 bytes actually. I recall 26 different commands (counting Summons, Magics, Enemy Skills and items as 1). So there are seemingly 6 or, more likely, 4 blocks with no use. Just gotta figure which one is the flash command. But honestly I don't think this can be achieved in this file.

1214

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-07-27 19:17:08 »

Heya i only just noticed this had been updated

Could you explain why the following changes were made:
    * Flash commando is removed (could easily be brought back if you want this custom made lol).
    * Master Command works as Coin, and Coin command is removed from Throw materia (Could also be brought back).

    * MDef on equipment is fixed. Not by adding MDef but Spirit. : And how does this work in a bit more detail please.

ok!

The reason for the 1st 2 points is simply cause I don't like those commands. However if you for any reason want my mod w these commands please let me know. I'll put up a alternative download.

Why don't I like 'em? imo Flash is kinda overkill and Coin gives you an easy win combined with Mime. And Master Command imo looks silly IMO. I know many people like this but I don't. Master Command gives you another Mime and Coin as well...

There is a MDef bug in the game (if you didn't know). No equipment gives you any MDef what so ever. Spirit = MDef. Thats why I added the same amount of Spirit bonus to defensive equipment as there should be MDef bonus.
For instance: Iron Bangle has a +2 MDef. But it doesn't add +2 MDef. It does, however, have a +2 Spirit bonus. The Spirit increases with 2 and thus the MDef does as well.

1215

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-07-03 17:58:53 »

A whole lot of gp might make it worth it... like 2000 perhaps? nobodys going to wanna sit there killing heaps of them.

That sounds fair. A heap of gil would be worth it.

I had an odd idea though. If you win 500-1000 gil from it and a 3% chance of winning one of any source besides the luck and mind source. So it's a 12% chance of winning a source (just 1, never more). That would be ok 'cause the only time you encounter it it is this early in the game and after you acquire the sector 5 key. It would be pure luck to figure it out. And when you return you must kill between 5-10 of these to claim 1 source.

You could level up like crazy early just to get these, but that would make the game easy anyway and wouldn't be worth it imo.

Thats the encounter on the boat right? I'll look out for it, but i doubt it will be too hard... normally you have a fair amount of materia (elemental in particular) to play with by then, also its a boss, so its okay to loose against it a few times as long as its possible to beat.

I ment jenova birth. The one on the boat yes. And it doesn't have eny elemental attacks btw. Try sense on it the 1st time you fight it

1216

General Discussion / Re: Who is your most annoying enemy in FF?

« on: 2007-07-03 17:15:29 »

The hardest malboros are in FFVIII cause it's kinda hard to block all kinds of status effects on all in that game. And it's a slow death if you get caught of guard.

The most annoying enemy... Any easy enemy with too much HP is always annoying.

1217

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-07-03 16:31:23 »

Another encounter you might want to change is hell-house. Trying to fight this thing with just cloud and aeries is dam hard. Currently it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to kill it, and if you have someone in the front row it can kill them in one go.

Keep it coming. I'll jot it down. Is it total overkill or can you survive on full hp? I kinda wanted the Hell-house to be hard. I'll figure out some kind of reward for killing it this early.

One I think also may be too hard is Jenova Life. I'll wait for that.

1218

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-07-03 10:44:44 »

Thanks for the review Kashmir. you're statements seems very reasonable. I thought the 1st and 2nd reactor may have turned too hard and it can easily be fixed with more exp and higher drop rates.

1219

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-06-28 06:40:52 »

Which is the editor that lets you see the enemy formation? I remember there was a button to see the enemy "parties" for that scene file?
Thats the editor with the incorrect Elemental properties, while the other one had a bug in that every enemy you edit regardless of the item you can only steal/win a potion. Thats why in Elentor's patch all you would win was potions, made for a truly ridculous difficulty.

In Scenester you can view the formations. I didn't test it. SceneEditor is the one with the item bug (I believe ). I don't think I've tried Elentor's patch, but I did DL a patch called "hard patch" or something from another topic a while ago. I belive that might be it, but I'm unable to try it now. Had been fun to test it.

Hows this mod going along? is it complete... as in can i play the game start to finish on with harder difficulty?

Just a little something that might help.
From what i remember the starting character's speed for each character in the party is 255/3 = 85, with dexterity & agility haveing no recognisable impact of their speed. so imo each monsters speed should be also set to 85... the default monster speed is much lower, even most bosses only get to attack once for 2 of yours.
One other thing that always annoyed me is monsters with spell casting abilities need to have their mp + magic str multiplied by at least 10, as theres nothing sadder than seeing a creature cast demi only to take off 12hp.

It isn't complete but every monster in the game is edited. You wil notice an increase in difficulty. Not that much in the beginning. At Gea's Cliff (or whatever it was called) and after I believe it would get pretty hard. I'm not entirely sure 'cause I haven't actually game tested it myself. I only tested it for bugs with a party with huge lvl gaps (Cloud lvl 99, Yuffie lvl50, Barret lvl 10).

And those monsters who's fast isn't just 2x in speed but +100 or so. I can't remember clearly.

The enemies magic power isn't decided on their Magic stat alone. It's lvl and the actual attack matters just as much. In each scene there are 28 bytes pr attack. One of those bytes is a power modifier for the attack. So increasing it to 0xFF would help a great deal lol. It is impossible to increase every monsters magic by 10x 'cause the cap is 255 (1 byte). A monster having 70 in magic would turn out to 700. It's better just to double it and increase the lvl. Same goes for strength. However increasing MP and HP by 10x is possible.

See 1st post. I'll make an "what to do" list. I'm going to Germany today, and after that I'll have a little more quality time with my family before I return home and continue with this mod.

1220

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-06-26 19:13:37 »

I got two small questions for you, if you don't mind:

1) Did you use FFSceneEditor (the supposedly bug-free scene editor) for you work?

2) Have you any opinions to share about http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=6810.msg84903#msg84903 ?

See you later,
twipley

1: I used Scenester. The two of 'em are pretty similar. The main difference is that Scenester lets you see every scene file while SceneEditor shows every monster only. There are drawbacks with both imo. 'Cause if you want some monsters of similar type to be different from each other, you can't do that with SceneEditor (unless you've already edited 'em before). I believe it searches for all similar monsters within the files and displays 'em. SceneEditor is somewhat faster to work with though, if you don't care 'bout this. Scenester got more options than Sceneeditor.

2: Yeah I've urged for that as well. I've actually made some enemies harder based on speed instead of strength/magic. Lets say Speed x2-x3 and HP+STR x 1.5 only. You may not notice it. It depends on your playing style (playing in active you'll def notice). This can get leathal if you alter their attacks as well. This requiter a hex editor.

The general idea (not only with Speed) is to make each fight as "unique" as possible.

And I've already increased the HP a lot towards the end. I added minimum 5x HP in Northern Cavern pr monster.

I agree all bosses must be at least 10 times harder than what they originally were. not Palmer lol, and mabye Emerald and Ruby don't need to be 10 times harder, but harder indeed. The 1st time I played it, ca 10 years ago, I was honestly somewhat disappointed with the difficulty. I think the last time I played it seriously was 6 or 7 years ago. But recently I got a sudden urge to play it and the idea of making it harder consumed me at once he, he.

1221

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-06-25 07:28:48 »

Please don't add more Sephiroths to the final fight. That would be pretty immersion breaking, IMO.

Looking forward to the development of the mod.

lol that suggestion wasn't serious twip. But it had been fun to test it. Imagine 3 Sephiroths under the real thing he, he. Like his goons or something. And yeah I look forward to edit more. But for now it's vacation and sun time. I'll get back to business in 2-3 weeks.

I think its stupid to have a hard setting where in first reactor you had to spend time level till your level 18 and guard scorpion still kills you.  I've never seen this one but i did hear it from someone.  when he or she asked for the particular patch.   My first comment was do you actually enjoy something like that?.

Well I wouldn't. Others maybe. It could be a challenge to only try the 1st reactor then quit. To do this for the entire game would be way too tedious.

1222

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-06-25 04:43:36 »

well sorry but i'm not gonna distribute my scene files anymore.   If someone else here or somewhere has it and is willing to share it with you thats fine by me.   I done some more editing since then but its still close to what I had before.

If you want to see some sweet mods you should check out youtube.  Theirs some great stuff out there that's not listed as any patch here.

NP ARMs. It doesn't really matter. I've tried plenty but nothing met my satisfaction. Thats (one of the reasons) why i decided to make my own.
Those on youtube are too much for my taste. At least those I've seen. But I saw someone who removed the animation for 'Super Nova' and replaced it with something else. I liked that. Not that I don'r like that move but it's way too long to see many times in a looong fight.

Lol, one tip to make the final bosses harder might be to add other enemies into the fight.
Not impossible but would take alot of patience with the Hex editor and looking at hex numbers for a loooong time.

Thanks for the tip Skill. Though I must say i don't like that idea. Perhaps with another boss but not them. lol It would be funny to add one or more Sephiroths though (the very last one) to the fight.

1223

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-06-24 10:33:07 »

Yeah I'm trying to find out where the data for selling materia is at.   I can't seem to lower the ammount for a mastered materia.  The game has it set at 70x the price at the Shops.   Thats rediculously high.

Yeah! Didn't find it either. It should be in the Kernel somewhere, but WHERE? Oh and btw ARMs you have a copy of your Scene. Would like to try it. Though I can't before I get home again (ca 2-3 weeks). But I could keep it on my HD 'til that.

I'm still waiting for a tip to get the final bosses (all of 'em) harder. All I did was raising their stats. I bet I'll find out something when i get home but doesn't hurt to get some experienced tip lol.

1224

Releases / gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod

« on: 2007-06-23 09:57:38 »

Of course! As i said: You have to consider what is available at all times in the game. In the beginning you don't have anything to prevent any status alignment. In the end you probably have everything there is, thus the monsters must be based on that. You could make things available early on (like Guard scorpion dropping a ribbon), and "calculate" the difficulties based on that, but imo it's better to just use the original pattern the game has. it would be too tedious to make a new system like that, and I don't have the time.

What i plan to do however is to make several items (Grenades, Mute mask etch) available more instead of potions all the time. Something I've done already is to add 'Ink' and 'Dream Powder' as a drop from Marines (one example I remember now. There was more but I kept my notes at home).

One thing I also want to do is to lower the strength of KOTR and change the effect of Ribbon. Lets say Ribbon prevents Poison/Silence/Blind or anything but all effects. That would be an effective way of increasing the difficulty. Still u can just use Added Effect+Hades. Though this also removes the uselessness of many items.

An additional thing I want to add is more MP based damge, so you generally have depend on more items for healing. Thus spending more money. This includes removing the laughable sell rate of the Master All materia. 

And may I add that when all characters have reached lvl 99 you should have a certain control over the game. The only thing left to do at this point is to beat the game, so IMO the hardest part must be the final showdown.

1225

Releases / Re: [Release] Slayersnext's Customized Models

« on: 2007-06-23 07:44:23 »

lolz I had a laugh viewing this. Nice work! Aerith looks awesome btw. Woudn't mind her looking like that at all