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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.35)

« on: 2015-12-14 11:08:43 »

This post of yours highlights the biggest problem in the current NT build; the end-game on Disc 3 is a cluster of stuff with no clear direction and a big spike in difficulty due to the bosses being specced for different levels of strength (and not helped by a mistake I made with HP/MP arcs which left players with too little Max HP). The new build I'm making right now for mid-January is completely restructuring Disc 3 and distributing the bosses there into new events and sidequests that will be found throughout Disc 1 and 2 instead. The idea is to make NT less top-heavy and streamline it; there's too many end-game boss fights clumped together.

Another part of the plan is to get the player party to hit Lv.70+ by the time they've cleared Hojo in the Midgar Raid from a 'normal' playthrough; I'm progressively upping the EXP given by enemies in each new area which should have the added benefit of encouraging people to keep moving for better EXP/AP gains rather than sitting in an older area for too long. That should help eliminate a lot of end-game grinding and have parties ready to tackle any Disc 3 bosses straight off the bat instead of having to set up shop in the Crater to grind out levels. Materia is a bit more awkward to judge, so what I'll do is set up one screen on the Left-Up path (the hatchery path) to only spawn Movers + Magic Pots for super-quick AP gain, just so people can quickly get what Materia they need for a plan.

I think these two things together should greatly improve NT's end-game, and having more new events/sidequests going through the main story should work out as the game flags a little bit in certain places; I just need to be careful where I put them because I don't want to get in the player's way or create bloat. I'm mostly focusing on pre-existing optional scenes and 'dead' areas that have no events in them. Hopefully it works out, and there should be enough going in there to pique even a returning NT player's interest.

Sounds you are going to have this problem pretty well worked out
Out of curiosity, since you mentioned the "low HP problem" with this version in this same post when you quoted to Mithrain, if I had played an earlier version than 1.35, would I have more HP right now? Cloud is the character with the highest level in my party (lv 57) and his HP right now is around 2800 without having any materia equipped. Barret has a lot more HP though (4000 - 5000), but he is kinda an exception in that matter (which is probably a purpose of course).
But the low HP problem has been quite an issue in the end. I for example tried the normal battle in battle square with Yuffie and got often killed at the latest to the couple of frogs and the dragon-like specie that is with them (which are probably the fourth battle or so). If I didn't run into bad handicaps like removing accessory (was using Curse Ring) or magic materia, I happened to get for example HP 1/2 which put the HP under 1100. The frogs could do an attack that did over 600 damage to the back row (without MBarrier set on) which could kill me in two hits. So it's not like I couldn't have gotten further if I was more lucky with the handicaps. But the battle square was just an example where low HP was an issue.

But yeah - sounds like next release is going to be better-balanced, but also more fun to play. One thing that can make players lose interest (could have happened to me with the current version, but apparently did not) is to have totally new events showing up only quite rarely (like the normal game up to Disc 3 is right now), but just like you mentioned here, this problem will be no more in next release either (at least, not in such a notable manner).

By the way, are you planning to, or have you already added new stuff that won't be accessable in Disc 3 in current release to the current, "local" version you're making? I'm just curious because if version 1.4 (or maybe some release after that if you plan on continuing further) will have new stuff to offer which I wouldn't be able to see in version 1.35 even if I played it through, I might start this mod over again sometime next year.

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Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.35)

« on: 2015-12-13 15:13:38 »

Hi,

I downloaded your mod a few weeks ago and have enjoyed the hack in general. I had fun playing until the end of Disc 2, and didn't have much trouble getting through Midgar and defeating Hojo. But after that, it feels like I'm either not strategizing (if you spell it like that) well, or I'm supposed to grind a lot for no good reason. The average level of my party is now 52 or 53 and I have already been at the bottom of North Cave. I have tried a couple of "New Threats" and although they haven't felt unbeatable, it feels like I would either have to plan out well beforehand how to beat them (like GarlandTheGreat does in all kinds of challenge videos in Youtube), or back to North Cave to grind some more (up to lv60 maybe?).

I'm not sure what is intended at this point, but I personally see the difficulty level of the game raising here too much. And I feel like I'm not the only one who has the same feeling behind this part of the game, so could you simplify this part of the mod a little bit? If you want to keep the enemies the same in the version you have been making, you could make another, easier part of the same mod too. That shouldn't be too much work.
I'd personally enjoy playing a bit easier version of this mod a lot more, and like I said, I don't think I'm the only one. Many players of this mod probably like challenges and enjoy the mod as it is, but there are also those that would much rather see all the neat stuff you have implemented without having to worry about being able to (due to difficulty raise on the way).

I'm a rom hacker myself, and have noticed that making big, creative changes to an existing game makes people really want to play the game and experience the neat things the hacker/modder has implemented. But a sad turnoff for them is when they notice the difficulty level of the mod is way higher than that of the original game and simply can't progress due to the difficult increase. I don't think you should do the same mistake with this mod since the new stuff is creatively done and you're good at modding the game
But yeah - you could still keep the game as it is, but having an easier version out there for rest of the game (and maybe earlier parts as well totally wouldn't hurt).