Just off night-shift; looks like some stuff to catch up on so let's see:
@sega chief
I just tried to play your nt mod - same here it crashes and in app.log i get this message at the end:
ERROR: failed to find file char/ZZZY.HRC (LGP) (path: )
ERROR: offset error: ZZZY.HRC
ERROR: could not open file ZZZY.HRC
We're missing a new field model from that screen; in the dark cave sidequest, you go through this screen again and have an encounter with the Turks. This means that the ZZZY model, and perhaps the others as well, are either missing from the 7H IRO for NT or the Char.lgp isn't being patched.
Only question is what version would we get, standard or arranged.
As far as any build before 1.4 goes, always go for standard/original. Arrange needs rebalanced.
Edit 2: hah success i saved just past that scene in normal mod, loaded scene after in nt mod and no crash. but if i try to come back to previous scene it crashes again... so i asume something there messes up the game, not any char model as i thought previously...
Hold yer horses folks. Every time you start a new game in FF7, initial settings for characters are loaded from the kernel. In other words, if you start a new game without NT installed then it means you're going to be starting off with end-game weapons for Barret, Tifa, and Aeris (I turned their starting weapons into triple AP ones and gave them their next-in-tier instead to start) and you'll be missing some Materia when those characters join your party; you'll have no Barrier from Aeris, and Enemy Skill will be unobtainable because Red XIII won't join with it equipped.
It'd be better to leave NT for now until the source of this char.lgp problem is identified. I'll let Alyza know about it so she can check NT's char.lgp files in the catalog and we'll go from there.