Messages

1

Announcements and site development / Re: We were hacked.

« on: 2021-07-16 00:21:03 »

Problem with that is the way these kinds of forums are setup in terms of the email capabilities... Sending a mass email to all users tends to send out so many at once that most mail servers automatically end up flagging the server as spam and either don't deliver the email to the address or places it into spam and then future emails also automatically get flagged from the server.

So mass emailing users on large forums tends to require a separate mail server setup so that it can send say x amount of emails per x amount of time, until it's sent out to all users.

On top of this, users can opt out of admin emails too, so this doesn't even guarantee that everyone gets notified. On top of this many users have likely abandoned such account here and no longer care about it at all... and getting an email about the site they'll just opt to flag it as spam or contact admins to delete their account.

In any event, mass emailing a few dozen thousand users can open a can of worms of it's own.

SMF has a built-in Mail Queue system which allows the admin to restrict the total number of emails sent per hour. This just needs to be set to something that is less than the hosting provider's hourly email limit, and then there is no issue. Forums generally allow admins to bypass the user-enabled email opt-out specifically because the admins may need to contact users for things like a security breach. I'm fairly certain that SMF also allows this, although the admins or someone more familiar with SMF would need to confirm this.

Additionally, this is just a recommendation I had. If the people running this forum don't agree then that's fine. I just thought I'd throw my two cents in for how something like this should be handled going forward.

2

Announcements and site development / Re: We were hacked.

« on: 2021-07-15 00:33:48 »

Thanks for the heads up, but I think this note should be mass-emailed to users if possible. I don't allow users to email me, but I would hope that this would be something that administrators could bypass, especially in regards to user security. I use 1Password, and every site has its own password so there is no harm done to me now that I changed my site password. However, I know that most users don't have their email/password setup that way, and I wouldn't want a user to have a compromised email/password on other sites that they aren't aware of because they don't check this site enough. This is just food for thought.

Thanks for getting everything taken care of though!

3

FF9 Graphical Releases / Re: [FF9 PC] Moguri Mod update 8.0 (LIVE ON OFFICIAL SITE)

« on: 2020-06-02 21:34:35 »

Hey, snouz. The Install page on your site lists the following requirements:

Official Steam release of the game
11Go on C:/ (for extraction) + 11Go on install disk
Note: you can install on top of a previous version
If you have a problem with permissions, launch with administrator rights

What is 11Go, exactly? This isn't mentioned anywhere (or, if it is, I completely missed it).

Any information you can provide on this? A lot of people were messaging so I completely understand this getting overlooked.

4

FF9 Graphical Releases / Re: [FF9 PC] Moguri Mod update 8.0 (LIVE ON OFFICIAL SITE)

« on: 2020-05-29 03:15:55 »

Hey, snouz. The Install page on your site lists the following requirements:

Official Steam release of the game
11Go on C:/ (for extraction) + 11Go on install disk
Note: you can install on top of a previous version
If you have a problem with permissions, launch with administrator rights

What is 11Go, exactly? This isn't mentioned anywhere (or, if it is, I completely missed it).

5

WIP / Re: Final Fantasy VIII in Retroarch with additional shaders

« on: 2020-02-26 16:28:10 »

Beauty is subjective. For me, those shaders look pretty bad. Having said that, I'm glad you've found something you like. The important thing is that we all have a way to enjoy playing the amazing games we love.

6

Releases / Re: [FF8R:PC-Steam] FF8 Remastered (Lunatic Pandora) Mods Progress

« on: 2020-02-25 05:14:29 »

Hey Mcindus. Do you have any progress update available for us? Also, do you plan on having a way to NOT enable the gunblade cursor with the SeeD Reborn mod?

As always, thanks for all that you do! 

7

General Discussion / Re: The future of Final Fantasy?

« on: 2020-02-25 05:03:53 »

I wouldn't mind a PC port of Tactics so I could actually play the game on modern hardware. Hopefully one that doesn't suck, but with SE you never know. 

This is all that I want. I haven't been captivated by Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy X. Give me a Final Fantasy Tactics port and close up shop.

8

Releases / Re: [FF8:Remastered] SeeDRemastered-UI v1.0

« on: 2019-10-10 18:19:34 »

After it says 1 file added you have to hit Enter again. Then it'll go through the merge process, and then you'll have the file in the OUT folder.

9

Releases / Re: [FF8:Remastered] SeeDRemastered-UI v1.0

« on: 2019-10-01 14:13:28 »

Is there a way to not use the gunblade cursor? I personally feel like that's more distracting than the normal hand. I like the rest of the mod. That cursor unnerves me for some reason.

10

Releases / Re: [FF8:Remastered] Tripod: Remastered v1.1 - Triple Triad HD Custom Textures

« on: 2019-10-01 14:00:20 »

at least tell me what's the post were everyone can tell you about all the problems related to your program and in general to the compression and extraction of the .zzz archivies...

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=19209.0

11

Releases / Re: [FF8:Remastered] SeeDRemastered-UI v1.0

« on: 2019-09-16 01:15:31 »

I am only upset that I wasn't your first patron!

12

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Project AngelWing v2.0 - Field Upscale

« on: 2019-09-08 20:58:11 »

Thank you so much for the mod, its great!
I have a question since I have been using your mod for really a long time but in FF8 Steam PC, now they just have released the FF8 Remastered Steam PC just few days ago. Can I still use your mod in FF8 Remastered Steam PC? ^^

Not currently. The games have different file structures, and work still needs to be done on the Remastered version before we have mod support for it beyond "simple" mods like Triple Triad that are found in a textures folder.

13

FF9 Graphical Releases / Re: [FF9 PC] WIP reworking Moguri - progress report

« on: 2019-09-08 20:50:33 »

Would you care to take some time to snag and upload some screenshots when you get a chance?

14

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: FF8 Remaster new compression algorithm

« on: 2019-09-08 00:51:22 »

you think that it will be possible to create something that allow to change the spawn location of the monsters and of the bosses? something similar to what is possible to in final fantasy 9 with hadesworkshop , the general editor created by trilititi

I think you're getting ahead of yourself. They still need to properly unpack everything and take a look at it first. We won't know what can be done until we have everything properly laid out to see our options.

15

Releases / Re: [FF8R:PC-Steam] FF8 Remastered (Lunatic Pandora) Mods Progress

« on: 2019-09-07 07:53:25 »

Wouldn't it be the .fs files instead? the .fi files are all really small, some are only 1kb, while the .fs files are much much larger. Shouldn't that be where we should look for the backgrounds?

It's possibly both. I'm just trying to recall what people were referring to somewhere else. Either way, you get the idea.

16

FF8 Tools / Re: [PSX/PC] Save editor - Hyne (1.9.3)

« on: 2019-09-07 02:20:27 »

I've been playing around with Hyne for a while, and it has a lot of neat stuff, however I'm super annoyed with a certain part of FF8 remaster,  losing the sacred card to the queen in dollet she moves to Galbadia every time...

Looking in Hyne the Triple Triad>rules section under Misc...
Last region visited is Galbadia
C.Queen - Dollet
...and then the region was Galbadia, but I changed this to Balamb to hopefully force her to move there.

Nothing I do actually makes her say moving to Balamb.  I doubt anything I'm doing ingame is changing the rng counter, as im in Dollet Pub (move/find save point)

I'll admit I'm not using Hyne 1.9.3 but 1.9.2c but surely that cant be it ?

You might want to look into Cheat Engine. There's a cheat table out on the fearless revolution website for Cheat Engine that has a Queen of Cards location in it. I'm not linking it because I don't know the rules of providing links to third-party websites, but you can Google "Final Fantasy VIII Remastered Cheat Table DrummerIX" and (currently) it is the first link. Using that should edit where she is in-game instead of relying on the save editor.

Not sure how i would actually get intouch with the the person who made it or anyone who would go through the trouble for adding Nintendo switch version of the save.
So i ask does anyone know if this is going to compitabale with the nintendo switch save with hexing or changing bytes ect.

Since they used the weird emulation I'm assuming they kept the save structure the same. If that's the case there shouldn't be a difference in the save file for the PS4, Xbox One, Switch, or PC versions.

17

Releases / Re: [FF8R:PC-Steam] FF8 Remastered (Lunatic Pandora) Mods Progress

« on: 2019-09-07 01:09:44 »

Wait a minute. Are you saying that modding on FF8R is already started and you guys already cracked the file structure?
That was quick. I thought we still stuck because they use a different format.

They are still stuck with backgrounds. They're trying to figure out how to properly access the .fl files. McIndus has up-scaled virtually everything in the textures folder as that was only locked behind a .zzz compression file that the modding community already figured out how to extract.

18

Releases / Re: [FF8R:PC-Steam] FF8 Remastered (Lunatic Pandora) Mods Progress

« on: 2019-09-06 03:52:31 »

Nice job, McIndus! Super excited to see how far you're going to be able to take your mod support vis-a-vis backgrounds. Keep up the good work!

19

FF8 Tools / Re: [PC Remaster] zzzDeArchive 0.11 - Can extract and create new zzz files.

« on: 2019-09-05 13:54:35 »

hey

i am trying to extract the main.zzz files using your program, but it keeps on telling me the file does not exist, so what am i doing wrong then

Did you put main.zzz at the end of it? For example:

D:\FFVIII Remastered\main.zzz

If you do that then it should bring up another option that says "Enter the path to extract contents". Then you can do the same thing. For example:

D:\FFVIII Remastered\main

20

FF8 Tools / Re: [PC Remaster] zzzDeArchive 0.11 - Can extract and create new zzz files.

« on: 2019-09-05 03:18:50 »

Works great! I already imported McIndus' Triple Triad card map into my game. 

EDIT: You might consider adding some sort of "press any key to exit" option for the command window that pops up. If I'm hyper focused I can see where it's saying something about the output file location before the window automatically closes. But most people will miss it. Just a suggestion. 

21

General Discussion / Re: FFVIII Remastered

« on: 2019-09-04 21:26:43 »

python2 script to unpack ZZZ files- just change path in line 5 to either main.zzz or other.zzz

Code: [Select]

import sys
import os
import struct

fd = open('main.zzz', 'rb')

def ReadEntry():
filenameLen = struct.unpack('<I', fd.read(4))[0]
filename = fd.read(filenameLen)
absPos = struct.unpack('<I', fd.read(4))[0]
flag = struct.unpack('<I', fd.read(4))[0]
fileSize = struct.unpack('<I', fd.read(4))[0]
return [filenameLen, filename, absPos, flag, fileSize]

filesCount = struct.unpack('<I', fd.read(4))[0]
entries = [ReadEntry()]

for i in range(1,filesCount):
entries += [ReadEntry()]
#print(entries[i])

for i in range(0,len(entries)):
finPath = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'EXPORT', entries[i][1].replace('\\', '/'))
dirPath = os.path.dirname(finPath).replace('\\', '/')
if not os.path.exists(dirPath):
os.makedirs(dirPath)
outfd = open(finPath, 'wb')
fd.seek(entries[i][2])
buffer = fd.read(entries[i][4])
outfd.write(buffer)
outfd.close()
print(finPath + " saved.")


I don't ever deal with scripting, but I can execute pre-made scripts just fine. Would you be able to create a script that can repack the data? Or would that be as simple as compressing it to a zip file and then renaming the zip file main.zzz or other.zzz?

22

Gameplay / Re: Lunatic Pandora Mod

« on: 2019-04-19 17:26:48 »

I’ve just donated to the maker of the mod and downloaded the lunatic pandora mod into my steam ff8 folder and launched it using the Ulta FF8 installer. The thing is I’m not sure its working as intended as I see now options to change the music or any graphical enhancements. Is there anyone who could tag Mcindus for me so that we can chat and sort this out or maybe someone who has done this recently?.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Have you checked out the Lunatic Pandora Troubleshooting on his Steam guide?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=391096600

23

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.2)

« on: 2019-04-19 17:22:51 »

I guess there's still more potential to this battle, like slightly more randomization of attacks, so his pattern becomes less predictable. I'll think about something for the next update, which should release soon.

The other things you said make the battle sound way better than Vanilla, but less predictable attacks would (in my opinion) be a huge improvement for Omega Weapon. Thanks so much for everything you've put into this! I want to replay FFVIII again!

24

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1.2)

« on: 2019-04-12 06:41:25 »

Hey Callisto. I played this game back in December, and I never realized before that Omega Weapon has a set attack pattern that makes him entirely too easy to beat once you know the pattern. That made the game a bummer for me as I'd always played it with an end-goal of dying over and over until I finally beat him. What does your mod do to Omega Weapon? Is there a way to make his attacks more random so that you can't just cheese him? After realizing how easy he is this game completely lost appeal for me, and I'm hoping this mod can make Omega Weapon a nightmare (like he was when I first played this game and he absolutely mauled me). You know... so it actually feels like you deserve that achievement for beating him.

25

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Tripod - FF8 Triple Triad HQ (v1.1)

« on: 2019-04-04 14:51:25 »

Going to be doing a huge test/overhaul with this mod -- for version 1.3!

This makes my soul happy.