[FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.99994)

[Roden]

I see, no worries, I can wait. I'm doing a class run now for FF7i, I did one for j-org and it was fairly easy, so I'll have to ramp it up somehow. I hope that will adequately prepare me for your mod

[Moonreii]

Hey,
So I've been playing through the mod and I decided to look at the database to see if there were any discrepancies. Certain items didn't appear, like a second enemy skill materia, but that's been explained.

I'm using 7th Heaven to play your mod, but it seems like the enemy skill changes you have listed in your database aren't present in the game, ie; I have flamethrower and magic hammer instead of Antipode and Vital Hammer.

Do you have any idea why that might be happening? Are the changes included in the .iro?
Thanks


EDIT: I just realised that the spells are IN the game, but the names haven't been changed for some reason on the UI. I tried disabling Menu Overhaul, but that didn't seem to do much. They have the same effect (I think), because Magic Hammer doesn't give me MP back anymore (which is sad.).

Not sure if this is secular to me, but it might be worth looking in to?

Great mod by the way, really fun. Keep up the good work.

[Sega Chief]

Not sure, are you using the one from the Catalog or the stand-alone one from this thread? The Catalog one is an older build (I think). Do you have Osmose on the Heal Materia? That's basically the replacement for Magic Hammer. As for the names, maybe it's a conflict of some kind? If MO was installed it might have altered the .exe or something, though spell names should be pulled from the Kernel so I don't think it's that (unless Touph Script for the Beacause retranslation is being run and changing the text of each file; that could explain it maybe).

[Sega Chief]

\\NT News//

SE added an option to disable random encounters in their PS4 release. Not to be outdone in this imaginary arms-race, I've decided to scrap the weather thing and replace it with an option to do the same. The weather thing hasn't worked out too well; tonnes of headaches, rain leaking into fields indoors where they're not supposed to, instant screen transitions due to shading, said shading vanishing whenever you get into a battle or open the menu, etc. It's not polished enough and I don't think I can make it polished, so a random encounter enable/disable thing might be the ticker for it's replacement on the extended save menu. Should be handy for back-tracking, exploring, or challenge-runs (if you were so inclined).

That leaves an issue for Enemy Away; I'm leaving it in basically because I think it's a chocobo racing prize and while changing those prizes can be done, the actual prize text within the minigame can't be without modding up the .EXE which I want to keep optional so that stays in.

I'm also going to see about adding a music theatre to Event Square; might be a bit redundant considering that you can just listen to the soundtrack online these days, but I'll put some other things in there too.

[Aerith-san]

Hm. This is going to sound silly but is it possible so any music you listen to in the "music teathre" can stay for the entire game, even outside the Event Square, until you close the game or something? Can't really explain it :/


I know you can just open an external music player and done, but... Just an "idea"...

[Sega Chief]

That's doable if I add a check into each field's init group, but the script itself to handle every song would likely get too long for all the possible files.

[Gatchaman]

The problem with Enemy Away can easily be solved by changing its function without changing its name! Just make the materia shoo away enemies (but not too far), putting them in the back row - that way they'll have weak physicals, muhahaha!
I was mostly joking, but it would be interesting to hear if this was possible, and now I'm thinking about this kind of thing, I'm wondering if it could give the character who equips it "Out of Reach!" for avoiding non-Long Range enemy attacks, as you added them in the exe patch. (though if someone doesn't patch the exe, the materia then either stops working, or becomes incredibly powerful, or some third, mystery, option)

Edit- Enemy Away will still have some value as is, as being able to flip the encounters on /off with materia rather than just at save points is more controlled (say, for finding certain enemies deep in a hostile dungeon, or getting home safe when you've run out of mp and items), and save points themselves can be quite sparse once you start saving on the world map. So I wouldn't worry about it being redundant.

And I'm glad to see such swift progress in feature escalation! Can't wait for your voice acting patch, I hope you put on different voices for the characters!

[Sega Chief]

The problem with Enemy Away can easily be solved by changing its function without changing its name! Just make the materia shoo away enemies (but not too far), putting them in the back row - that way they'll have weak physicals, muhahaha!
I was mostly joking, but it would be interesting to hear if this was possible, and now I'm thinking about this kind of thing, I'm wondering if it could give the character who equips it "Out of Reach!" for avoiding non-Long Range enemy attacks, as you added them in the exe patch. (though if someone doesn't patch the exe, the materia then either stops working, or becomes incredibly powerful, or some third, mystery, option)

Edit- Enemy Away will still have some value as is, as being able to flip the encounters on /off with materia rather than just at save points is more controlled (say, for finding certain enemies deep in a hostile dungeon, or getting home safe when you've run out of mp and items), and save points themselves can be quite sparse once you start saving on the world map. So I wouldn't worry about it being redundant.

And I'm glad to see such swift progress in feature escalation! Can't wait for your voice acting patch, I hope you put on different voices for the characters!

Voices, yes. Different, no.

[Ethario]

Hey man I just found out about this mod and you already blew my mind at the changelist (100+ NEW BOSSES WHAT). I was wondering if I should wait untill you release 1.4 or do you think I should jump right in.

Keep on doing what you doing !

[Sega Chief]

Hey man I just found out about this mod and you already blew my mind at the changelist (100+ NEW BOSSES WHAT). I was wondering if I should wait untill you release 1.4 or do you think I should jump right in.

Keep on doing what you doing !

Yo, bud. It might be a bit more by the time the update is done. I'm not 100% sure that I kept the changelog fully up to date either; I'm preparing a notepad with more detailed info on what's been changed/added area by area that'll go out with the 1.4 release. As for whether to wait for the latest version or not, release is for mid-January or thereabouts so about 1 month. The thing with 1.4 is that it'll be changing up the roster quite a bit and shifting around the Disc 3 bosses to be used/redesigned for new sidequests and the like that'll appear during Disc 1 and Disc 2. It's also refined a lot of the new systems NT uses like Source Points (you trade SP for one of four predefined sets Sources to develop character stats in different ways) and ironed out some old bugs.

So I'd recommend waiting for 1.4; it's more or less the final build so there won't be any drastic changes once it's out. There's a New Game+ add-on I've got planned but because it'll be using a separate set of files and be organised to be used as a stand-alone mod, I'm treating the upcoming version of NT to be the finished one (save for bug-fixes, of course).

[Rufus]

look forward to 1.4.

and yeah for enemy encounters i'd much rather have a reduced encounter rate maybe setup in the same menu, i am thinking by about 30%.

i'd always love to play FF games with reduced encounters BUT you can't run away, that makes way more sense than anything i've seen in the real games.

I know you will say just use enemy away materia, but in my experience that materia is less than ideal in the amount of encounters you get based on it's level.

[Mithrain]

A while back, I said that I'd wait for 1.4, to progress past Midgar, but I couldn't help myself, as the more I read about the mod, the more I had to play it!

I think I'm almost done, I have the purple materia cave, the red materia cave, the dark cave sidequest and Nemesis left. :>

Not sure I can beat Nemesis with the current hp values, but even if that's the case, I look forward to replaying the mod once the next patch hits. It's going to be a blast!

Not sure I can ever go back to the default game after playing NT. <3

[Sega Chief]

look forward to 1.4.

and yeah for enemy encounters i'd much rather have a reduced encounter rate maybe setup in the same menu, i am thinking by about 30%.

i'd always love to play FF games with reduced encounters BUT you can't run away, that makes way more sense than anything i've seen in the real games.

I know you will say just use enemy away materia, but in my experience that materia is less than ideal in the amount of encounters you get based on it's level.

What I could do is look at how Enemy Away works and then have it drop as a 1-Star Materia with the preferred reduction being it's standard value (30%, 50%, etc). Same with Enemy Lure, which would be used for finding fights faster so I may as well make that a fixed high value too.

Not sure I can ever go back to the default game after playing NT. <3

:3

[Zara9]

hey sega chief

how many years did you start working on this mod so far

[Rufus]

good idea sega chief however for some reason i always found it really bad even with a 1 star level, i could be wrong though, i seem to remember always starting a new game then adding in enemy away with 0 star then 1 star or 2 star to see the difference and i think i didn't like any of them, but that could be all in my mind though, when it was mastered it the encounter rate was far too low, and when it had zero stars it wasn't strong enough.

i also like the idea of not being able to run away as well so addign that would be freakin' awesome, seems stupid to let your party run away from enemies, what is the point of an encounter rate anyway if you allow people to run away? it effectly turns into a brief pause in the game.

Another idea could be giving the player some real punishment for running away, in the other FFs you lost money when you ran away, but it just makes sense to not allow it.

[Ethario]

Hey Guys I was playing the PC version of FF7 but noticed slots seem broken (slower than usual ?). Is there an accepted known fix for this that wouldn't conflict with the gameplay overhaul mods ?

[Sega Chief]

hey sega chief

how many years did you start working on this mod so far

I think it's coming up to one year now from when I made a thread for NT's release here on Qhimm. Probably add a few months before that for it's initial development.

good idea sega chief however for some reason i always found it really bad even with a 1 star level, i could be wrong though, i seem to remember always starting a new game then adding in enemy away with 0 star then 1 star or 2 star to see the difference and i think i didn't like any of them, but that could be all in my mind though, when it was mastered it the encounter rate was far too low, and when it had zero stars it wasn't strong enough.

i also like the idea of not being able to run away as well so addign that would be freakin' awesome, seems stupid to let your party run away from enemies, what is the point of an encounter rate anyway if you allow people to run away? it effectly turns into a brief pause in the game.

Another idea could be giving the player some real punishment for running away, in the other FFs you lost money when you ran away, but it just makes sense to not allow it.

What I can (hopefully) do is adjust the actual potency of the encounter effect in both Materia and set that for it's 1-star effect, that way it doesn't get too 'strong' when it levels up. Escape is important for getting out of an encounter that's not gone your way, or if a player has been in an area for a while and no longer wants to go through the randoms; while I usually fight what I run into, I've never been in the 'can't run' camp.

Hey Guys I was playing the PC version of FF7 but noticed slots seem broken (slower than usual ?). Is there an accepted known fix for this that wouldn't conflict with the gameplay overhaul mods ?

The PC version's battle menu runs at 15fps, as opposed to the silky smooth 60fps of the PS1 version. You get used to it after a while, but I find that a keyboard feels better for navigating it over a controller. There's a prototype mod floating around that might change it and it's an .EXE hack too so it'll work fine with NT, but I think it has side-effects. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: I think this is it: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15403.0

[Mithrain]

Progressing through the Dark Cave currently. I grabbed the Sector 5 key, but in the next screen, there's a dialogue with barret and some unknown dude, Barret is however nowhere to be seen, meaning I cannot move (Barret?), it seems like there's nothing I can do.

Is this a bug of some sort, or am I simply missing something?

I tried to keep it vague to prevent spoilers, but I can upload a screenshot if need be.

[Sega Chief]

Oh, that's a bug I had to fix with a patch. Try applying the flevel hotfix patch available from the front page of this thread. It's applied in the same way as the main installer. If you're playing 7H though (or if you apply the hotfix and it's still busted), then let me know.

[Miksy91]

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).

[Mithrain]

Oh, that's a bug I had to fix with a patch. Try applying the flevel hotfix patch available from the front page of this thread. It's applied in the same way as the main installer. If you're playing 7H though (or if you apply the hotfix and it's still busted), then let me know.

It worked beautifully, thank you. o/ Cheesed the following boss, and somehow managed to kill Binah!
Only thing left now is Nemesis.

Also, I talked to an NPC in Corel and "stuff happened" , anymore of these hidden around the world that I've missed?

Edit: Nemesis was somehow easier, than both Binah and the endboss in the Dark Cave. Next stop, Sephiroth (and Jenova)!

[Sega Chief]

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).

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.

It worked beautifully, thank you. o/ Cheesed the following boss, and somehow managed to kill Binah!
Only thing left now is Nemesis.

Also, I talked to an NPC in Corel and "stuff happened" , anymore of these hidden around the world that I've missed?

Edit: Nemesis was somehow easier, than both Binah and the endboss in the Dark Cave. Next stop, Sephiroth (and Jenova)!

There may or may not be many secrets in NT that have not been discovered yet. There may or may not be more of them in the 1.4 build. Also, sounds like you're going through these guys like a steam-roller. Considering the low HP problem in 1.35, that's pretty impressive :3

[Mithrain]

There may or may not be many secrets in NT that have not been discovered yet. There may or may not be more of them in the 1.4 build. Also, sounds like you're going through these guys like a steam-roller. Considering the low HP problem in 1.35, that's pretty impressive :3

Oh, HP was an issue a lot of times, but there's nothing that a good setup can't fix. That and Aerith <3

[Miksy91]

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.

[Sega Chief]

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 off 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.

For 1.4, HP is around 5000 for the lowest and 7500 for the highest depending on variance, with 6000 being a rough average. All the enemies are being respecced to go with this, which'll be more noticeable later on.

As for differences, 1.4 will have a lot of new content going through the game that 1.35 didn't have, but on the flip-side 1.35 will have had a lot more end-game bosses.