Messages

1

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1a)

« on: 2019-02-26 21:29:35 »

I only encountered the Vysage after my visit to the Tomb of the unknown king, which I promptly farmed for esuna. Oh well, no tears over wasted curas, bios and antidotes.

Seifer: I would probably replace the Cure/Cura/Curaga by a flat low level Cure or something less useful like Life or Esuna. Seriously, coming to this boss fight without any means of healing is like coming to gunblade fight with a nail clipper.

Edea: My bad, I forgot this was a balance mod for a second. If this she doesn't lock on Zombie in the newest version, then i'm fine with her. The usual rule of thumb in RPGs: The new stuff you've got is usually going to help you beat the next boss. Carbuncle in this case.

I downloaded v1.1a at the very top of the thread. Where can I download the newest version of the mod?

Thanks!

2

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1a)

« on: 2019-02-25 23:50:37 »

Hey thanks for the reply.  I'll be sure to give details of my playthrough details and impressions:

Alrighty, so I am currently at the 3rd dream sequence at beginning of CD2:

- A good knowledge of the game can make strides. The monsters, items and spells are so closely linked that I go from the principle that every monster has a story to tell and something to give. Mugging, Carding, drops all work well if you know what to look for. I got my death spells hunting down Belhelmel for their Circular saw which I refined. I got my Berserk mugging steel pipes from Wendigo. Then I carded them to get Steel Orb refining them to Demi spells. I like this better than playing TT for hours to get cards or drawing boredom.
- Second dream sequence: The last 2 esthar soldiers, I call them esthar commanders, as they are tougher and can do 900 damage. I dealt with them with summons of Quetzal, Shiva and Ifrit. A little Suggestion: The Elastoid and Gesper enemies can only be encountered in Laguna's dreams, that's a pity because they are missable. I would put them in the encounters on the Esthar road along with the Gaylas.
- Minotaur Bros: The biggest challenge that I got was that Minotaur's morningstar induced confuse on hit. I didn't get a good source of confuse or Esuna at this point. I strategized and came up with a plan: Come in battle poisoned (Bio on my characters pre-fight). Yes! This way even if my character was going to act under confusion, the poison damage was going to end the confusion immediately. Tough battle but it worked along with Protect, Regen and Float.
- Iguions: No issue here, I knew I had to watch out for Petrification.
- Seifer duel: Hey, I used the new Ifrit's ability "Return damage". I let the half damage rebound, kept curing myself with draw and laughed. Suggestion: remove cure/cura/curaga from his draw list. Too easy.
- Edea: Her spellcasting damage was impressive (~1500 dam.). Squall was my main DPS, the other 2 were on standby. At one point, she tried using Zombie over and over on Rinoa. I knew a cure spell was next so I kept using spare holy waters. The problem was that she kept wasting her action trying to get the zombie to stick. Might I suggest a different AI for her: Remove dispel from her draw list. Let her cast reflect on herself then let her cast her -ga elemental spell on herself to rebound on to a character, just like a high level Buel. That will actually negate the usual strategy of using Carbuncle for reflect on everybody, then her wasting 3 turns dispelling the reflects.

3

Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.1a)

« on: 2019-02-24 14:43:15 »

Hi,

Having played the PSX version about 5-6 times, I brought the Steam version just to try this mod. I am currently just before the 2nd dream sequence. I can already say i'm impressed. It is somewhat different. You really have to search every nook and cranny of the game again because things may be different. Example: some minor quest like the Dollet bone quest yield a Pet Pals magazine that you can't find in Timber. I like the approach where you remove from one hand but give with the other hand. A few points on my playing experience.

- You can't really break the game early on with Triple Triad. It will give you a nice start but that's it. The spells you will most likely be able to stack to a 100 early are: cure, scan, fire, thunder, blizzard and sleep.
- New: The fire cave can be challenged in a 5 min. run. That's really hard! If you beat it, you get a Elem Atk. J., which is really nice this early. My way of doing it was to draw double spells from the library draw point. Flee from every encounter. Use double it to double blizzards on Ifrit, that in conjunction with summoning Shiva. Even then, I had perhaps 10 sec. left.
- Enemies yield more good items through drops and mug. I have found out that if you know items and the alchemical process of refinement well, this is the way to really get stuff and spells. A few examples. I was able to easily stock hundreads of aero and water spells hunting down Fastitocalon and Thrustaevis for Fish fins and Shear Feathers. Also, refining a whisper from adamantoise now yield 100x curas. Get a few in your inventory and you've got a giant hoard of healing spells. I like that because the game becomes a type of monster hunt.
- Bosses are now tougher and you have to strategize more. Some examples:
- Raldos and Granaldos now all attack right off the bat. They will destroy you if you're unprepared. I had to clear the Raldos early with 2 big summons.
- Diablos now cast pain. I revolved my strategy around blinding him, having phoenix downs on hand, keeping my team hp low and using Squall's limit break repeatedly. If he cast pain, he will kill my character but the bad status will now stick. Then I revive my character.
- Gerogero is now a master of bad status effects and cannot be instantly killed with a phoenix down. On top of that, I hadn't found a good source of Esuna this early in the game. I killed him with 3 hi-potion+ (6000 dam.) which I refined from Biggs and Wedge cards.
- A lvl. 40 X-ATM092 can be challenged if you go up the Dollet hills after the Timber events. The thing is impossible to beat for me this early. I will wait til disc 2.

Overall very good mod, I am enjoying playing FF VIII again. I will keep posting my impressions as I keep playing.