Implementing the Hero Drink / Dragon Force bonuses in a mod

[Armorvil]

I don't like the way the devs implemented these bonuses, in FFVII. It's way too easy to take advantage of them.

The Hero Drink raises one character's Attack, Magic Attack, Defence and Magic Defense by 30% every time you use it. Combined with the W-Item glitch, this is completely broken. Same thing with the Dragon Force (that raises Defence and Magic Defence by 50%)... ...If you have a character with 255 def, casting two Dragon Forces on him will almost make him immune to non-piercing physical attacks (512 blocking 100% of the damage, I'll let you guess how much 510 would block...).

There is always the possibility to completely remove the abilities, but I'm trying to find ways to still implement this function without breaking the game. My first question : can these boosts be removed, in battle ? If a character gets KO'ed, petrified or whatever, after being healed, would he still have them ? If yes, then that sucks.

I've thought about making a Defence Break magic, instead. You know, these abilities in other Final Fantasies that reduce an enemy's defence or magic defence. It's possible with Dragon Force's effect. I can create a spell called Defence Break (that would lower both Def and MDef), by using Additionnal Effects 1C in WallMarket, and input a number below 100 in the Effect Modifier. I think 85 would be nice. Higher and it wouldn't be interesting without casting the spell too many times (it would get boring quickly), and lower would make the spell too powerful (casting the spell one or two times so the enemy's Def and MDef become 0 ?... ...Oh yeah !). But it would once again end up being abusable, just like Dragon Force. Every player would start a boss battle by having all characters cast Defence Break until the enemy's def is zero... Not only that, but there would be no way to cure it (afaik), if the enemy used it on you.

Can you imagine an enemy spell with Hero Drink's effect, that would lower your Str, Def, Mag and MDef ? That would be insanely annoying.

I'd like to know what you guys think (by the way NFITC1, if you're reading this, WallMarket's description for additionnal effects 15 and 1C is wrong. Both say "Raise base damage and defence by (100-[]%) ([] not to exceed 200)", when 15 should say something like "Raise str/def/mag/mdef by (100-[]%)..." and 1C "Raise def and mdef by (100-[]%)...")

[Bosola]

I don't like the way the devs implemented these bonuses, in FFVII. It's way too easy to take advantage of them.

There is always the possibility to completely remove the abilities, but I'm trying to find ways to still implement this function without breaking the game. My first question : can these boosts be removed, in battle ? If a character gets KO'ed, petrified or whatever, after being healed, would he still have them ? If so, then that sucks.

Yes. KO clears the modifier.

I've thought about making a Defence Break magic, instead. You know, these abilities in other Final Fantasies that reduce an enemy's defence or magic defence.

I've already done this, and found a way past the issues of 'stacking' defence modifiers, in Rebirth. I'm going to keep it under wraps, however. You'll just have to wait a couple of months until I make my first release, and try out Shatter for yourself ; )

[Armorvil]

Yes. KO clears the modifier.

Ha, nice ! Thanks.

I've already done this, and found a way past the issues of 'stacking' defence modifiers, in Rebirth. I'm going to keep it under wraps, however. You'll just have to wait a couple of months until I make my first release, and try out Shatter for yourself ; )

Wow, good job Bosola ! I'm looking forward to Rebirth ... ...Until then, I'm fine with very rare items with the effects. I made a Defence Break item, as well as a Super-Hero Drink (Hero Drink effect, but at 50% and it works on all party members). And you'd be lucky to find 2 or 3 Super-Hero Drinks in the whole game. These will work, since I turned W-Item into an Item materia. A character won't be able to use the Item command without it. That will do, until someone fixes W-Item 



And no : if you press the button, it doesn't work.

[nfitc1]

(by the way NFITC1, if you're reading this, WallMarket's description for additionnal effects 15 and 1C is wrong. Both say "Raise base damage and defence by (100-[]%) ([] not to exceed 200)", when 15 should say something like "Raise str/def/mag/mdef by (100-[]%)..." and 1C "Raise def and mdef by (100-[]%)...")

They should actually read:

Increase base damage/defense multiplier by ([Mod]/100) (MAX:2)

[Covarr]

Combined with the W-Item glitch, this is completely broken.

If you think it's broken, don't abuse the glitch, and play the game the way it was intended.

[pyrozen]

Honestly i never even bothered with hero drinks or dragon force, im the play type that almost never uses items. With the small exception of elixers and ethers, i rarely find a need to throw an item out there to make a battle easier.

off topic:
ok armorvil, what exactly do i have to do to get the battle hud that you have, it looks awesome!

lee

[Armorvil]

Combined with the W-Item glitch, this is completely broken.

If you think it's broken, don't abuse the glitch, and play the game the way it was intended.

What do you know about my playing habits ? 

off topic:
ok armorvil, what exactly do i have to do to get the battle hud that you have, it looks awesome!

I put the files to download in Kranmer's Battle Interface Reconstruction topic, in Game Tweaking As for the color, thanks to the newest OpenGL driver, a dark shade of grey will give this sense of transparency.