Hello...

[Bosola]

Well, I hope I haven't missed some 'Introduce yourself' board and ended up filling the wrong board with my rubbish, but here goes anyway -

I'd like to say hi. I'm Bosola, who's spent an awful lot of time trying to customize and rejig FF7 for *PSX* the hard way, by using GS hacks. I've done work on Homebrew Hardcore projects, where we create custom enemies.

But options are limited. At best, one can alter stats. I'm the only one who's managed to alter AI, it seems, for the PSX version, as you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6glyaXOpP4Q

Of course, that's not particularly impressive. And you can see how many GS codes it requires - it's rarely stable.

So, the next option - editing FF7 for PC. After finally getting my hands on a copy via eBay, I've now managed to get FF7 running (a little problematic on a WinXP laptop with a bad-tempered graphics card), and I'm ready to go.

Eventually, if things go well, I'd actually like a go at a full modification of FF7 that rebalances the game. Less like a hard mod, more like, say, what Shifter did for Deus Ex: rebalancing the game.

What would a rebalance entail? A few things, though some would be more difficult than others:

1. Reduced enemy 'species', but greater variation: Too often, FF7's enemies don't really seem particularly individualized or memorable. One way around that would be a smaller number of enemies with their own idiosyncracies. Status/ elemental strengths and weaknesses would be made more consistent through members of the species, and also a little more intuitive. Think of a bestiary more like that of the original roster in Pokemon Red/Blue : enemies whose weaknesses make sense, for one thing. Who on earth looks at a Wolfmeister and assumes it has a weakness to water?

2. Eliminating mime chains - i.e. a mime cannot be the 'subject' of another mime. Not sure how easy this would be to pull off.

3. A greater number of Added Effect, Counter and Elemental materia, but stronger enemies, to prompt more strategic thinking.

4. Stress the differences between weapons more - force more choices and compromises between materia slots and attack power.

[Kudistos Megistos]

There isn't an "introduce yourself board", or even a thread, so you haven't missed anything there. 

And you may be interested to know that AI modding can and has been done for the PSX version; the basic principle is the same for both PC and PSX, and NFITC1's Proud Clod program makes it much easier.

Everything you're proposing can be done on both versions (except 2; that's gonna be tricky). 1 should be easy to do with Hojo and 4 can be done with Wall Market.

[Bosola]

Ah, thanks.

I didn't know about the AI altering for the PSX version. Does that entail ISO patching?

[Kudistos Megistos]

Yes; if you want to make any permanent changes to the PSX version of the game, you have to mke changes to the ISO. The best way to do it is to extract files with CDmage, make the changes to the file, and then use CDmage again to put it back in. The only problem is that you can't make the files bigger when editing the PSX version of the game (which is why you don't see any graphics mods for it).

[Bosola]

Well, it's a small step, but I made my first patch. It's pretty unambitious, but here it is: http://www.filefront.com/14057945/FF7_PC_text_patcher.exe

It updates the Spell texts to make them more consistent with the other FF translations. I know, a patch to turn all mentions of Fire2 into Fira isn't anything special, but I wanted to get to grips with the basic programs with a simple exercise. As is, it's really given me a feel for the programs, though I must say I was surprised by just how easy WallMarket is to use.