@levantine: In Remastered, Angel Wing is pretty much the same as in the base-game, so it's quite broken if you set Rinoa up to only use Meteor. Ultima is quite powerful too, as it can break the damage limit, but still not as good as Meteor on a single target. I've been making some progress with checking Remastered game code though, so hopefully it'll be possible to tone it down soon, identical to Steam 2013 version. Physical attacks still can't break the damage limit at the moment, but you should be able to hit 9999 frequently with Irvine's Exeter weapon and a high Luck stat for Irvine. Darkside can help with keeping physical attacks relevant too, of course.
@Dealer1993: Thanks for elaborating on your impressions. So it was mostly the Limit Breaks that made things easy for you.
The issue with Selphie's Calamity still being relatively rare in the late-game is the possibility of it popping up in the early-game, where it can one-shot bosses easily. There's unfortunately no reliable way of keeping this spell exclusive to the late-game, so I was overly cautious of not making it appear too often. I could try making it weaker in the early-game though and make it appear more frequently in return.
As for Lion Heart, I think it's ok as it is. Omega Weapon is one of the few late-game bosses that are actually vulnerable to Vit 0, so against most other bosses with a decent Vitality stat (Jumbo Cactuar, Ultima Weapon, Griever etc), it's not quite as powerful. Angel Wing definitely needs a change in Remastered sooner or later, as even without knowing the game well, it's easy to abuse. If I can manage to make it work like in the 2013 version, then Rinoa's high base Magic should be no problem (damage average is about 20,000 HP per spell in 2013 Steam with Rinoa's Magic stat maxed out).
@aegisjester: Welcome to the forums and thanks for the feedback. I'm afraid that some of the frustation you've experienced so far is indeed caused by the Hard Mode launcher you linked. It decreases all player physical damage by a factor of 1.5, which explains your impression of random encounters taking too long. A Bite Bug should never take more than 2 weapon hits from Squall or Zell as long as they have access to STR-J and a decent spell junctioned to STR. Furthermore, enemy levels and enemy physical damage are also slightly higher than intended with the Hard Mode active, so all in all, I would advise against using it in conjunction with this mod.
As for the other points you made:
- I get that the cards/card mod was excessively over-powered in the vanilla version, but this makes it excessively weak. Playing cards feels like a waste of time with this "rebalancing", both because I am effectively cut off from all the decent spells and because I am completely cut off from higher-level equipment until the game "lets" me. What I loved about the card game originally it it let me "break the mold" and get things earlier than I was supposed to. I agree that I shouldn't be getting curagas before I leave Balamb, but the high-level boss cards shouldn't be as junky as they became. Nothing sparks joy like getting Punishment before leaving the Garden, or Lion Heart on disc 1. No, I'm not expecting to be able to jump up to that level as fast in a properly balanced mod, but I also don't like feeling held back either.
Some of the Card Mod results are quite weak, yes, but I wouldn't say excessively weak in general, as Card Mod still allows getting many spells before they become available by drawing from an enemy. For example, the Water and Bio spells that can be won from Fastitocalon and Tri-Face cards right after the beginning of the game are a great help with getting through the early-game. The same goes for cards that refine into Magic Stones to get early access to the -ara spells, or the Grendel card to get more Double spells that are very valuable until they can be drawn from regular enemies later in the game. I also think that the boss cards are in a reasonable spot, as they also provide the earliest access to high-level spells (-aga spells through LV 6 cards that become available from Fisherman's Horizon onwards, Tornado and Quake through LV 7 cards at the beginning of disc 3 onwards). Not sure if you have noticed yet, but all these spells are way more powerful than in the base-game if you cast with a magic-oriented character, so getting some through Card Mod should always be worth it - most of them aren't even very good for junctions to encourage free use in battle.
I didn't get a mesmerize blade to upgrade my gunblade until the scripted garden encounter, at which point it was almost insulting that the game was now "letting" me upgrade my weapon, rather than being something I earned.
So the weapon in question is the Flame Saber which is the 4th out of 7 weapons for Squall. One the mod's goals is to achieve a sense of progression in regards to become more powerful overall, something the base game is clearly lacking. So the earliest occasion of getting the Flame Saber is around mid-game after the Mesmerize battle in Balamb Garden, to make sure this weapon is easily accessible to all players, without playing Triple Triad or searching the world for materials, which I thought was important to keep in check the physical vs. magical output at this point. If the Flame Saber was available right from the start by just playing a couple of card games, that wouldn't be very balanced, especially not when considering the increased Strength bonus the weapons provide. I think the possible jump from Revolver to Cutting Trigger right after the beginning of the game by playing Triple Triad is fair enough.
Other than that, I understand that this kind of gating things can take away from the feeling of having earned something, but there are still enough weapons that won't fall into the player's hands automatically, among other things such as getting certain steals from bosses (for example, the Power Wrist from Minotaur is very good), looking for spells (drawing the Life spell in Deling City sewers as Laguna already etc) or the rewards from additional challenges like for doing the Fire Cavern in 5 minutes.
- Removing the enemy auto-levelling works great 90% of the time, but then I get railroaded into using one party because my B team is too weak to switch in. My Irvine and Rinoa are struggling to break level 20 because I can never justify having them in my party without spending hours on random encounters to beef them up - especially when Rinoa's Angelo limit breaks are now a pile of hot garbage.
Yes, the level gap between characters can become problematic for sure. For the next version, EXP for bosses are planned, so this should help mitigating this issue. Probably should have implemented this sooner, but I've been reluctant as it takes away the possibility of low-level runs (found a solution though) - sorry for the trouble. Some of the character starting levels will also be changed, which makes sense especially in the case of Quistis. Most of Rinoa's Angelo Limit Breaks are based on Rinoa's Strength stat, so if you raise it enough, they shouldn't be too bad.
- Ultima Draw point in Shumi Village: I think that having basically limitless to access Ultima that early would make most of the upcoming bosses too easy - even 15-20 would already be enough. This Draw point contained Meteor in older versions of the mod, and it was still too powerful according to player feedback, so it was changed to Quake which is still good in the hands of a magic-oriented character, and not easy to get through other means at this point of the game.
- Centra Ruins changes: I see that the instant Game Over after the time is up doesn't add much, so I'll probably revert that back to default, at least for Standard Mode. For Lionheart Mode, I'd definitely like to keep in the inability to leave Centra Ruins after a certain point, as just solving the riddles until the door to Odin's chamber opens, and then returning to the world map and save, kind of defeats the purpose of the timer. Of course, the timer could be changed to begin in Odin's chamber, so it's only relevant for the battle itself, but I like how the scripted battle along with the timer create a good degree of tension. If the Chimera that appears in the scripted battle becomes a problem, it can be easily dealt with using gravity-based attacks or Degenerator.
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