[FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.99994)

[Rufus]

-) Mideel stocks Remedies - finally:

I didn’t know I could multi target the party with status healing items, status healing has always ben silly in final fantasy, in FF8 for example you have remedy from the start, then about 8 other ones that heal just one status, but there is no point in having the other 8 once you are selling remedy, I really think it should just be remedy from the start and single target only, maybe you can make it so it misses every once and a while to rebalance, it’s just that overall scrolling through a list of 10 curative items can be silly, why not just have one.

But whatever you decide to do it’s your decision as it’s your mod, I’m just offering a suggestion, this particular issue is a very small one anyway, it’s more an issue of inventory management more than anything.

-) new airship merchant field model change:

Well if you like it then keep it, I just think he looks out of place, I don’t think I saw that merchant in whirlwind maze on my run through in V1.2, I guess if I met him there first, it would flow better on the highwind.

-) Physical Attacks as good as magic

It is tough, but I’m pretty sure my playthrough up until that point had magic being 4x more powerful than attacks, on next playthrough I will note my level, and damage dealt with each boss using attacks and magic

-) Huge Materia north Corel timer:

It may have been due to my lower than expected level, although I don’t see how I could have levelled up much more at the time, basically the timer ran out just as I met ATM! Maybe the levelling would be more sorted out in later revisions, I was on 1.2 at the time.

-) 50,000 gil worthless rock

Yeah I’m sure I got nothing, nothing in key items for sure, and in general inventory, I wasn’t looking for comet, if it is meant to be comet though, is there a reason you don’t want to game to just tell you what you got?

-) Fort Condor Skip RTS mini game:

Yeah it’s for the huge materia, these suggestions are in game order so the huge materia in this location is next up, okay I’ll take note of what you said, I always just put that game on auto and fast and wait until the boss comes up to the top anyway.

-) Ultimate Weapon animation in field

Okay great, and yeah looks really stupid.

-) Cloud Subconscious Restoration scene roundup:

Okay I’ll look forward to seeing how these new skips are done.

-) Carry Armor boss

Ah okay so I overpowered myself with tier3 magic, maybe in later revisions I will be a higher level and so things will be balanced out more.

-) Skip submarine mini game:

Yeah If you think it will always be bad maybe finding something  to give you an instant win could work, maybe when you start the game you automatically fire on it, and 1 hit kills it, that could be a temporary fix for now, this would mimic what you did with the CPR mini game, the only issue with that is some people may actually want to play the mini game, but we know those people are crazy anyway.

-) Sunken Shinra ship/Gelnika
Cool, yeah the dungeon is hard but the loot is more normal now, I don’t know if you want to nerf the turks down a little bit as well.

-) Remove easy encounter after tseng in rocket town boss fight:

Removing it would be best, as any regular fight after that boss fight would be anticlimactic.

[Rufus]

-) Better sword for cloud

Maybe mideel got something new in at the same time, on next playthrough I’ll take note of what I bought in mideel each time, along with the names of all the weapons.

-) Instantly force weapon battle/Fight Diamond Sooner

I see that it’s tricky, but don’t you think its silly just standing in front of Midgar for 2 minutes while watching him move slowly towards you for 2 minutes, such odd design.

-) Limit level bug/Limit Levels

Oh right my kill level was on average about 60 between my party members, maybe this will all be sorted on newer revisions, as I said there was next to no point in trying to level up as encounters barely gave enough experience from brass dragon onwards, the northern crator encounters may have given EXP I don’t know I did run away from all of them.


-) HUGE bug: bugenhagen just before the return to midgar

No I always use standard names, not only that but during the scene cloud was about 10x the size he should have been and I could only see his feet which took up most of the screen.

-) Turks boss fight in the return to midgar

Ah off course if the game gives you mystify and added effect guess you could use that, I would prefer the game gave you accessories instead as I find it offers a better layout of your inventory and character status menus.

I would offer 2 rings with confusion ward and 1 ring with berserk ward for this fight, in addition I would also remove the added effect materia, at least that way you as the developer have more control over what the gamer can protect themselves from, but off course it’s your mod and keeping it as is would be fine, next time I will look to see how many added effect materia’s I have at that time, but in general I hate giving myself magic that I won’t use in battle.

-) Add merchant before proud clod

As long as the merchant is easily available before the proud clod fight then that would be great.

-) Heading south in the return to Midgar/knowing where to go

Yeah I know that was quite funny, but I guess now it’s bad game design for the game to let you go down the wrong path so many times and get nothing for it, but it was still funny for anyone familiar with the W-item of the original game.

But overall I agree with you about the w-item placement, it should be something given to you as a reward for doing some tough boss battle, not as a reward for going down the wrong way at some point in the game, at what point do you get the W-item materia in your mod?

-) Prod cloud Boss Battle

What do you think about reducing clod prod’s HP, seriously that battle lasted almost half an hour and I still died, this was 1.2 and at level 36, but again I couldn’t really level up with the encounters on offer in the area… I think.

-) Hojo Boss Fight

I don’t think any battle message came up when he did the move, but it was a clear visual bug.

-) final 3 story bosses:

Oh right I see how you made it there, in that case I think it would be best for your mod to reveal and open up the ‘new threats’ bosses before going down to the bottom of the north crator, and also to offer an order in which to take on the new threats, each new threats boss can give the player a decent amount of EXP so that they level up, assuming there is are 6 bosses that level you up by 3 levels each time then that would take you from level 40 to level 58, and in addition you get better weapons and armour I assume, along with level 4 limit breaks.

If its specced like that, that would be really cool, just make sure I can defeat them within 20 minutes or so, when I tried red XII’s and aerith new threat boss on level 40 I got hammered.

-) 'new threats' boss fights.

I really look forward to trying that when it becomes available, maybe you can make it that the game only lets you do one threat at a time, and on each threat it will give you enough EXP to level up a few times.

-) for yuffie as mandatory member idea

So your saying when you plan to add a mandatory recruit of yuffie it has to be on the field, what would be cool is someone designing a whole new battle map for the yuffie fight, maybe it can be triggered just before myrith mines when the party is looking at the Midgar zolom defeated by Sephiroth, yuffie can jump out onto the field and yell ‘surprise’ then a battle map is loaded with yuffie fighting the party, in the battle map you can see the defeated zolom in the background, rendered in 3D off course.

-) Preserving original boss names

Ah I see, maybe giving the gamer the option of the original names is something you can think on adding later, it’s not really a big issue at the moment, its just that for some boss names, like jenova.BIRTH I prefer to keep the original names as I’m sure they mean something to the developers of the original game.

I really like the name roller ball as well, I think it fits better anyway, and if it can be done I’d like the boss model replacer in anyway which makes it look like the original.

But it’s a small thing anyway, and I’m not sure at what point you can offer it to the player, and even if you would be willing to offer such a thing, at a later date off course when all the important things have been added to this mod.

[Rufus]

-) General advice on the magic system rebalance – remove ‘all’ Materia

That sounds great, would totally love that addition to the game, the whole all materia was a terrible idea, although I’m not sure how you would offer it to the gamer as an option, as some people may prefer to keep it how it was originally.

If it does get implemented I would rethink the units of time that protect and shell lasts, how powerful cure and regen, and how much protection protect and shell give, you don’t want to overpower yourself with this, but ideally remove the annoyance of the all materia.

-) Adding a new magic

Yes I would love ‘dispel’ to be added that does both in one, not sure how you would offer both options to the player though, I hope you do take over the materia in the game, then you can give a materia that does dispel only.

Blink would be cool, I haven’t thought about how that would balance out the game though, but I would make it single target only.

Yeah nulblaze is a pretty smart thing as well, the other issue is trying to figure out how to represent that in the battle hud, check final fantasy dimensions for how that did it, it looked good there, by kill fire rings do you mean it would make them useless or that it would remove them or something, I also can’t remember what null blaze along with shell did in final fantasy dimensions, arguably that would reduce the magic attack by 75%, so you’d need to take that into account.


Other general improvements mods

I’m going to request two things be added to this game that would make a huge difference, it’s not related to your mod, but I’ll put it here first so you can give thoughts.

-) Game Over Screen with modern options

when you die at a boss you get the options
1 retry,             this will load you right at the boss fight as you entered it.
2 edit part & retry,       this will load the menu first, then when you cancel it loads the boss fight
3 load save.         This will bring up the load save menu, and focus on last used save.

This will make a huge difference to the game, it brings it more in line with kingdom hearts actually, skies of arcadia offers a ‘retry’ as well, it really is the best option for the game.

if you die at an encounter it can just bring you to 3 the load save screen, and focus on last used save, so you don’t have to select slot 1, save 1 etc, in this case you skip the intro, continue?, slot 1, save 1 process.


-) rollerball Boss Fight pre-save:

There should be an option to save you game once the mini game is finished, after the save prompt the game will put you to the menu to let you change party details, then the fight can begin, losing this boss battle and having to go through the mini game all over again is a horrible design flaw which was part of the original game.

[Tom]

Its the original version of the game, not steam so idk what the battle issue is.  Could it be something to do with my graphics drivers?  Barret's head appears white too in the field (unsure if this is a bug with the mod or game).  Without NT it appears normally.   However I don't get what graphics drivers have to do with switching in and out of battles

[Sega Chief]

Its the original version of the game, not steam so idk what the battle issue is.  Could it be something to do with my graphics drivers?  Barret's head appears white too in the field (unsure if this is a bug with the mod or game).  Without NT it appears normally.   However I don't get what graphics drivers have to do with switching in and out of battles

It could very well be drivers if Barret's head is missing, and the random crashes could be a result of some kind of instability. What graphics card + version of Aali's driver are you using? FF7 tends to run much better from integrated on-board cards rather than dedicated cards if you can set that up (it's easy for certain cards to switch which is used to run the game, but maybe more awkward with others).


@Rufus

I forgot on some points that you were playing on 1.2, so some features I talked about aren't actually in your game yet. The multi-target status-healing items for instance weren't added until a little time after 1.3's release (I'd clean forgot that I'd added 100GP when Cait Sith joins, though). As for compatibility, I understand what you mean now; X-ATM Scorp uses about 5-6 battle models to show the progressive upgrades/damage it takes over the course of the game, so only the first one would be replaced if a HD model was applied.

I think the cleanest solution would be to decompile NT's LGP and then take the HD Scorp model's 'AA' file, this is sort of like a 'master' file that pulls the rest of the model together, and then copy-paste it to replace each of Scorp model's AA files in NT. If this file was copied several times, and they were renamed to each of Scorp's other iterations (UGAA, UJAA, UKAA, and TAAA) then the HD files would be pulled by these 'master' files to construct the Scorp model in every fight.

[Tom]

Graphics card is RemoteFX vGPU running Direct3D hardware accelerated with the nvidia Riva 1.02 patch.
Not running Aali driver since it uses OpelGL and OpenGL isn't supported by RemoteFX

[Sega Chief]

That's probably the source of the random crashes; I found the original 1998 game to be very unstable when running without Aali's driver. As for the white-head issue for Barret's field model, that's probably related to using an NVIDIA card; I remember there being a tonne of trouble for people following an NVIDIA driver update with white/missing textures about a year or two ago.

[genesis063]

Keep in mind you'll need to pull each one.  Then you'll have to replace the needed parts and add the textures in as some models misses parts.  Else they will all look the same no matter what you do.

[Sega Chief]

So replacing the master file isn't enough? I was hoping it was like field models; oh well.

[Gatchaman]

Hey, I reckon that 100GP was from one of the arm-grabber machines in Gold Saucer, at least I think I got a bunch of GP there first time I used it- if it turns out not to be from Cait Sith himself, that could be your answer!

I also don't think the 'all' materia should be removed- it's the most common blue materia and is a big part of what makes linked materia slots valuable. If all magic can be targeted 'all', things like four slots lose a disadvantage versus linked armours. That's all. Mega all loses a lot of its charm, too!

And as for Demon's Gates being too tough, I managed to beat them on my second try, around level 30-35. (playing 1.3, mind) I'm pretty sure I used sadness/barrier to reduce damage. Maybe a summon to get a burst of damage off? Though I guess it would be a bunch more difficult if you were lower level and using limited materia, as you said.

I also made frequent use of enemy skills in my playthrough- giving access to a variety of attacks for just one materia slot. (I think reducing the number of these materia to one was a great choice, as it remains useful, but you can't rely on it alone.) I'd recommend you try using it more next time, Rufus, as it's very versatile. and you don't have to level it/ it doesn't harm your stats at all!

[Rufus]

never thought of giving myself sadness, that would be a great idea given that limit breaks are not even as powerful as magic attacks.

using 1.2 when trying that boss I was level 31, to get to level 32 i would have to do 15 encounters, i barely got 4 encounters worth of EXP from the boss when I defeated him (i had to cheat to do it)

for the 'all' materia, yeah it would be an option whether to play the game like that, It's just to bring FF7 more in line with Final fantasy dimensions, You wouldn't be able to all everything, certain things would be single target like life2 etc.

[Murasame]

Hey Sega Chief,

Installed this mod and from the little I've had the chance to play, I'm really enjoying it. I appreciate the amount of work you put into this.

I'm really not tech savvy with this stuff so could you confirm for me how to install the hotfix scene.bin and flevel patches? I know in your original post you say to put them over the top of the main installation but yeah, I don't want to end up doing something that screws the files. I'm not at home just now so I can't look at the files if it's something obvious. Explaining it to me like I'm an 8 year old is acceptable. And just to confirm, these patches contain the changes that remove level cap etc and won't interfere with a current NT save, right?

[Sega Chief]

Righto:

The main installer patches the following files:

-) Char.lgp (field models)
-) Flevel.lgp (field screens & script)
-) Battle.lgp (battle models)
-) Scene.bin (Enemy Data & Formations)
-) Kernel.bin & Kernel2.bin (Equipment, character stats, spells, etc.)

The files that see the most changes are the Scene.bin & Flevel.lgp, so to cut down on bandwidth for people playing NT these have their own Hotfix patch whenever something needs fixed quickly. That saves people from downloading the main installer over and over, and also preserves mods they might have applied to the Battle.lgp and Char.lgp (the installer is quite robust and overwrites everything).

Hotfix patches are applied in the exact same way as the Main Installer; select the data folder and patch. They have a high degree of compatibility and can be applied regardless of how old the NT installation is, and even if other changes have been made to it on the user's end. Save files should remain compatible, but if the NT installation is very old (say, 1.2 or earlier) then you might notice some oddities with the EXP bar; these tend to iron out on a level up.

The current patches contain the latest features; no level cap, etc. If you're worried about screwing up the files, then make a copy of the following folders and restore them if something goes wrong:

-) Field
-) Battle
-) Kernel
-) Lang-en (if Steam version; the 'en' may change if playing from a different language)

[Tom]

But RemoteFX vGPU isn't an NVIDIA card.  I installed the 0.7 version of Aali custom graphics driver and the game locks up whenever a spell is cast in battle (Icicle Area turks Elena fight when she casts the initial attack).

EDIT: Also whats with the level 41 70.000 exp required to lvl up?  Its usually around 10-15 thousand to lvl up

[Murasame]

Alright, got it. Thanks a lot. I noticed though that Cloud still says there's a level cap in the beginner's hall. I think the patches installed alright. Is that just an oversight?

[Sega Chief]

But RemoteFX vGPU isn't an NVIDIA card.  I installed the 0.7 version of Aali custom graphics driver and the game locks up whenever a spell is cast in battle (Icicle Area turks Elena fight when she casts the initial attack).

EDIT: Also whats with the level 41 70.000 exp required to lvl up?  Its usually around 10-15 thousand to lvl up

I'm afraid I've not got much experience with graphical set-ups. Not sure why Aali's driver would cause a crash either; I could make a special scene.bin patch to skip you past that battle if it's causing trouble? The animation she uses for the first attack is the Fascination one (used by Jemnezmy, etc). Are other battles working or is it just this specific fight which is causing the crash for you?

About the EXP, I use a custom EXP curve that has 'spikes' built into it every ten levels. 11, 21, 31, 41, etc. each require a lot more EXP to push through than before; the idea being that randoms give enough EXP to reach these spikes while bosses help cut past the spike itself; it helped me a lot with balancing enemies because I could better predict where player parties were going to be, level-wise. When you hit a spike, the best thing to do is push on to the next bosses; the Crater (on 1.3) has been set up to help blast through levels, so has the additional content.

[Tom]

How did you set up the custom battles?  Like the battle with Vincent in the basement  ProudClod?  Then how do you call your custom battle from ingame?  Proud Clods battle numbers and Makou Reactors battle numbers don't match up

Also, its all battle spells that cause Aali driver to lock up, so I reverted to the original Direct3D Accelerated mode where crashes happen rarely.

[Sega Chief]

Here's how battle numbers work; there's 255 scenes, but each scene contains four formations and they each have a hex ID. Problem is, Makou uses decimal. To find a battle in the scene as given by Makou, you need to divide it by four (so Battle 1000/4 identifies the battle as being in Scene 250). This'll give you the number of the Scene in which the battle appears.

For the actual formation itself: If it's a whole number, then it's the first formation in that scene. If it's #.25, then it's the 2nd battle, .50 for the third battle, and .75 for the fourth/last formation in that scene. For an example, if the battle is 1001 then it'll resolve as 250.25, which means Scene 250/Formation 2.

[Tom]

There seems to be a text bug in Fort Condor, after you beat the Shinra at fort condor and talk to the old man that gives you the Huge Materia item Cid says "Lets check on the little fella" (he means Cloud) but when the other 2 team members reply one says
Sephiroth: You mean cloud?
when obviously Sephiroth isn't talking

[Murasame]

For the party leader swapping option on disc 3, is there any plans to make it possible for anyone to be the field leader? Just curious.

[Sega Chief]

There seems to be a text bug in Fort Condor, after you beat the Shinra at fort condor and talk to the old man that gives you the Huge Materia item Cid says "Lets check on the little fella" (he means Cloud) but when the other 2 team members reply one says
Sephiroth: You mean cloud?
when obviously Sephiroth isn't talking

That's odd, but it's probably I added a name for the text box and clicked the wrong one.

For the party leader swapping option on disc 3, is there any plans to make it possible for anyone to be the field leader? Just curious.

It's possible, but the problem is the world map as it's only designed to show one of three party members (Cloud, Tifa, and Cid). It could be added for 7H, and maybe even for the regular installer depending on how stable it is. It'd need a tonne of work to navigate around scripts, but it's on the cards. Maybe even possible for much earlier in the game so it's not just an end-game feature.

[Murasame]

I thought the world map models might have been a problem. Even if Cloud was always on the world map and the other characters could be used in dungeons/towns, that would be really cool.

Have just made it up to Nibelheim but here's some of my observations of some of the things that I've noticed (nothing game breaking at all) :

In the Air Buster fight, you might have done this as a punishment for improper healing, but when one character is left, the tranq gunning can be a bit long. I think either out right killing the party or reducing the sleep effect (I'm not sure if this is a set time in every fight, no other enemy thus far has left me alone long enough to see) would be preferable. This is just my opinion though; it's your mod off course.

In the Rufus fight, Light Nation used its Hydro move on Rufus himself halfway through the fight which essentially clinched my premature victory.

In Nibelheim, in both the flashback and present day, there's a model of Tifa stuck in her room. (Nice touch tweaking Cloud and Sephiroth's stats and making Sephiroth controllable btw)

The evening effect in towns disappears after the menu is visited.

This last one I don't know if it's just due to altering of how stats work but I've had summons miss my target relatively often, is that intentional to avoid spamming? Also related to battle, I'm pretty sure my Cloud has killed a large amount of enemies but he is still stuck at level 1 limit breaks. Did you change the requirements or am I just misremembering (which is possible; I haven't played the game for a few years)?

Also, is it possible to have the battle/field BGM some sort of option in the menu so it is interchangeable at will? Like I said, I know nothing about the details of this stuff so I don't know if this would require more trouble than it's worth.


So yeah, really nothing game breaking at all and I'm really enjoying the mod thus far. I hope I don't sound negative, if I listed all the things I like about this mod too, the post would be overly long and sycophantic.

[Sega Chief]

I'll maybe set the tranq gun to be physical damage again, that way it won't 'lock' the character if they're last man standing.

That's an oversight on my part, I think he's trying to use a spell like Poisona but several were re-purposed to add some end-game elemental attacks to the player's arsenal, like Hydro. I'll change/disable it for the next update.

That Tifa model in her house is like a ghost; every time I remove it, it comes back a little while later. Not sure why; I'll definitely get it this time. (definitely)

I can fix that I think, but it means setting something up that'll be running in the background which might interfere with certain scenes. I could use the current set-up for rain instead and code in a separate switch for time of day. Thanks for letting me know.

Seems that a number of summons have been set to have 75% accuracy instead of 255 (which is problematic, as level also affects magic accuracy). Might be I started changing that to experiment with it then forgot to restore it. I'll set it back to 255.

I'm not sure if it's possible to have it in the actual menu, but what I could maybe do is have Save Points display an option to change it (maybe a button prompt like Square) to switch the music option. Whenever a save point is touched by the player, it displays a message so I could have it display a second window with the prompt.

Cheers for the feedback + error reports, I'll have these corrected fairly soon.

\\Edit: Plan for Next Update//

Currently, I've been reviewing the difficulty settings and I think I've approached it wrong (saw a stream of AA; it wasn't pretty). What I'm going to do is condense it down into two 'difficulties' as originally planned, but instead of calling one 'harder' than the other I'm going to instead put both versions of the mod together: Original and Arrange (not released). This'll kill two birds with one stone, and I'll only have one set of game-files to manage rather than two. Arrange fits more with what I wanted to do with another difficulty setting anyway, which was more about re-shuffling the game about a bit rather than just upping stats (that and AA difficulty has proven to be very poorly optimised; there's likely bugs associated with both that need to be turfed out as well). Both modes will be compatible with the pending .exe patch in any case.

I'm not 100% convinced about the changing time of day either (it needs to be re-done anyway to get around the menu problem). I think I might disable that for now and instead go with the rain. I want to start with expanding the NPC scripts in any case, starting with the player party and then working on the actual NPCs themselves at a later date. There's a subtle script revision going on too, just fixing up certain things here and there. While I'm doing that, I'll be keeping an eye on how things are laid out for potentially making party leader swap available much earlier.

[Rufus]

having original difficulty sounds interesting, so will that be identical to the original game, and if so how will you handle the added bosses and the new threats bosses.

have you had much time to look into my suggestions made before hand, especially about the Modern game over screen.

[Sega Chief]

What I mean with Original is it would be standard NT; not the actual default game. I'll maybe call it Standard instead.

I've got all the suggestions filed away, and ordered in priority. A retry option for certain bosses that are at the end of lengthy scenes is high on the list as it's an inherent problem in mods like this.