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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-06-17 04:04:18 »
just got The End twice in the same random battle. A 16-count Doom doesn't seem appropriate for what should be the ultimate finisher
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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-06-12 16:08:01 »@aegisjester: Unfortunately, many scenes throughout the game rely on Squall being in the active party, so excluding him will result in glitches or make the game crash - at least without rewriting most fields from scratch. Could do it for disc 4 perhaps, as there's not much going on story-wise, but even that would mean quite a bit of work, as Squall is supposed to be the party leader in Chocobo Forests, for example.Yea for the overworld he needs to be there, but how about JUST the battle party? In Chrono Cross, after completing the main game there was a way to swap out Serge JUST for the battles on the repeated playthroughs
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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-06-08 23:22:41 »
I am a stickler for these things, but can you put a changelog list in the OP, along with version differences between generic and "Lionheart Mode"? I don't know 100% for sure I'm in lionheart and its killing me.
I've re-read through the posts a couple times now, and I'd say a lot of people are just looking for a "bigger challenge" with the way they like to play. I design games from the ground up, and I'd say this re-balancing is 100% doing the job - all the other stuff is just icing on the cake.
My previous grievance against the cards still stands, however. You should be ashamed.
I've re-read through the posts a couple times now, and I'd say a lot of people are just looking for a "bigger challenge" with the way they like to play. I design games from the ground up, and I'd say this re-balancing is 100% doing the job - all the other stuff is just icing on the cake.
My previous grievance against the cards still stands, however. You should be ashamed.
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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-06-07 15:54:22 »
One last "ask" - let me take squall out of the battle party.
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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-06-01 15:35:41 »
One last "Ask" - let one of the card holders in the Galbadia Garden act as an items shop (similarly to Joker in Balamb)
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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-31 20:47:13 »
Great, I will drop off the hard mode launcher, as physical attacks were just pointless.
Re: Cards - I guess it comes back to the balance of junction vs casting magics. In Balamb/Timber, I was indeed trying to load up on water spells from Fastitocalon cards, but they're not very common at that point in the game, and it still takes a couple to get a fish fin. I spent about an hour card playing and walked away with 20 waters. Meanwhile, I just power through Timber (exactly 1 boss battle later, so having the extra spells doesn't really impact difficulty progression) and I can mug them to my heart's content on the beaches outside Dollet. The loads of potions I'm getting out of my card wins just seems kind of "dummied". Grendel and Tri-Face don't have that issue - the cards are rare enough, and require enough refinements, that its too much of a pain to try to grind them to get junctionable stocks of spells, but can give me some good spells to keep in my back pocket in a pinch (which is how it feels like the card refinements "should" be, to me anyway).
Re: Weapons: I'm not going to complain too much on this, going around looking for random encounters opens up a few more possibilities. But I got my flame saber only to hit another wall for the Twin Lance, which I'm basically locked out of with the current level caps of all the enemies, since I can't get the required materials (as far as I can tell), relegating it to a Disc 3 upgrade (so I get all of 1 new weapon in disc 2). Not really a bad thing, and if I was playing FF8 for the first time I wouldn't think it was weird - I was probably more annoyed that my attacks were so weak from the hard mode mod that I was frustrated I couldn't get that extra 5% out of a better weapon. HOWEVER - if possible (and I can't see if it is the case), it would be fantastic if some weapons boosted magic instead of just strength.
Shumi quake draw: What if you make the recharge for the draw point much longer, but at least set it to flare or something non-elemental (I don't know which is stronger for junctions - meteor or flare)? Or circumvent that whole issue by switching to Full Life/Renew - OP, but in the opposite direction. If it can be done, what I think makes sense thematically for this particular draw point is that it would be randomized out of -aga and above spells (a guarded magic spring that puts out randomized "powerful" spells - and you're taking a gamble with each purchase).
I spent a few hours wandering around the world map, and started the battle of gardens. Love the Shockwave Pulsar without maxed Siren, but seifer and edea are absolutely wiping the floor with me. I get he's desperate, but his attacks are WAY stronger than the earlier battle (and he seems to be draining himself?). I'd say that if you want that maxed-out desperate attack, he should start out poisoned or something (he's going well beyond his limit, which is breaking him).
Re: Cards - I guess it comes back to the balance of junction vs casting magics. In Balamb/Timber, I was indeed trying to load up on water spells from Fastitocalon cards, but they're not very common at that point in the game, and it still takes a couple to get a fish fin. I spent about an hour card playing and walked away with 20 waters. Meanwhile, I just power through Timber (exactly 1 boss battle later, so having the extra spells doesn't really impact difficulty progression) and I can mug them to my heart's content on the beaches outside Dollet. The loads of potions I'm getting out of my card wins just seems kind of "dummied". Grendel and Tri-Face don't have that issue - the cards are rare enough, and require enough refinements, that its too much of a pain to try to grind them to get junctionable stocks of spells, but can give me some good spells to keep in my back pocket in a pinch (which is how it feels like the card refinements "should" be, to me anyway).
Re: Weapons: I'm not going to complain too much on this, going around looking for random encounters opens up a few more possibilities. But I got my flame saber only to hit another wall for the Twin Lance, which I'm basically locked out of with the current level caps of all the enemies, since I can't get the required materials (as far as I can tell), relegating it to a Disc 3 upgrade (so I get all of 1 new weapon in disc 2). Not really a bad thing, and if I was playing FF8 for the first time I wouldn't think it was weird - I was probably more annoyed that my attacks were so weak from the hard mode mod that I was frustrated I couldn't get that extra 5% out of a better weapon. HOWEVER - if possible (and I can't see if it is the case), it would be fantastic if some weapons boosted magic instead of just strength.
Shumi quake draw: What if you make the recharge for the draw point much longer, but at least set it to flare or something non-elemental (I don't know which is stronger for junctions - meteor or flare)? Or circumvent that whole issue by switching to Full Life/Renew - OP, but in the opposite direction. If it can be done, what I think makes sense thematically for this particular draw point is that it would be randomized out of -aga and above spells (a guarded magic spring that puts out randomized "powerful" spells - and you're taking a gamble with each purchase).
I spent a few hours wandering around the world map, and started the battle of gardens. Love the Shockwave Pulsar without maxed Siren, but seifer and edea are absolutely wiping the floor with me. I get he's desperate, but his attacks are WAY stronger than the earlier battle (and he seems to be draining himself?). I'd say that if you want that maxed-out desperate attack, he should start out poisoned or something (he's going well beyond his limit, which is breaking him).
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Releases / Re: [FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2 & v1.0)
« on: 2020-05-26 05:54:02 »
I've been playing this pretty much non-stop (I believe on Lionheart mode, but honestly I can't tell for sure) for the last few days. I've always enjoyed the FF8 system and was looking for more of a challenge - I'm not a hard-core player so this is my first non-vanilla foray. My previous experience has been (many) play-throughs on vanilla - getting punishment before leaving balamb, lion heart disc 1, basically "rule breaker" out there, I've done.
I have been mostly enjoying the adventure with the welcome rebalancing and huge difficultly bump until getting the mobile garden, then immediately hit a wall.
These are my personal notes, which I am sure will have some disagreements from others who have been deeper into the re-balancing than myself over the last 20 years.
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- I am using this mod along with the "hard mode" launcher (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15354.0), I'd like some clarification if they are SUPPOSED to be used concurrently. As things are now, I feel like melee is a complete waste of time compared to magic, which seems like an over-correction. But this is my first attempt into modding the game, so it very will could be that I'm handicapping myself more than the rebalancing intended.
- I was pissed that Ultima at the shumi village was replaced. I'm already paying a fortune to draw, just let me have ultima. If I want to waste 6 hours running in circles to fully stock all characters, that's my problem (but its really the principle of the thing). After all, this is a single player game - there's no real reason to cap what I get out of pure grining.
- A lot of enemies just feel like damage sponges for no real reason. I shouldn't need multiple full-strength attacks to kill a bite bug on disc 2 - the random encounters just eat an obscene amount of time.
What inspired this rant was trying to get Odin. I have no idea if I'm under- or over-levelled compared to others at this point in the game, but it is extremely frustrating to get a moving garden, head over to centra, and get timed out on random encounters because I can't kill the enemies fast enough. I haven't had a crazy time with any encounter before this (unless I was being greedy with draws), but that is mostly because I was free to go on the defensive.
I can't do that with a time limit, and I really hate effectively having an "invisible wall" around that part of the game until I feel like grinding. Until this point, I haven't encountered anything that I would consider "unbeatable" (brothers took a few tries, the Garden Master series of souped-up enemies took a few tries, but nothing I didn't think I could do), but now it feels like the doors opened on exploring the world, only to slam shut because I'm not "at the level" this area requires.
I have been mostly enjoying the adventure with the welcome rebalancing and huge difficultly bump until getting the mobile garden, then immediately hit a wall.
These are my personal notes, which I am sure will have some disagreements from others who have been deeper into the re-balancing than myself over the last 20 years.
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- I am using this mod along with the "hard mode" launcher (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15354.0), I'd like some clarification if they are SUPPOSED to be used concurrently. As things are now, I feel like melee is a complete waste of time compared to magic, which seems like an over-correction. But this is my first attempt into modding the game, so it very will could be that I'm handicapping myself more than the rebalancing intended.
- I was pissed that Ultima at the shumi village was replaced. I'm already paying a fortune to draw, just let me have ultima. If I want to waste 6 hours running in circles to fully stock all characters, that's my problem (but its really the principle of the thing). After all, this is a single player game - there's no real reason to cap what I get out of pure grining.
- A lot of enemies just feel like damage sponges for no real reason. I shouldn't need multiple full-strength attacks to kill a bite bug on disc 2 - the random encounters just eat an obscene amount of time.
What inspired this rant was trying to get Odin. I have no idea if I'm under- or over-levelled compared to others at this point in the game, but it is extremely frustrating to get a moving garden, head over to centra, and get timed out on random encounters because I can't kill the enemies fast enough. I haven't had a crazy time with any encounter before this (unless I was being greedy with draws), but that is mostly because I was free to go on the defensive.
I can't do that with a time limit, and I really hate effectively having an "invisible wall" around that part of the game until I feel like grinding. Until this point, I haven't encountered anything that I would consider "unbeatable" (brothers took a few tries, the Garden Master series of souped-up enemies took a few tries, but nothing I didn't think I could do), but now it feels like the doors opened on exploring the world, only to slam shut because I'm not "at the level" this area requires.
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