Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.99994)  (Read 5306972 times)

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3575 on: 2016-05-09 10:18:50 »
Questions:
Is it possible to launch NT v1.4 while still passively using "Tifa's Final Heaven Modding"?
In any case, will NT v1.4 be updated to the "Tifa's Final Heaven Modding"?
Is there a new manual for v1.4 that thoroughly explains every modd changes in NT v1.4?

I do have some suggestions for the NT like (Renaming Spell Names Fire3 -> Firaga, having "Super Nova" Materia, and Sapphire Weapon Boss)
but since I am new to the NT version, I still know little about it.
Maybe these suggestions have already been applied or not. So...
Mind if you can help clear things for a bro like me?
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong about certain things, because like I said, new to all this,
and I'm learning everything as much as I can.

As far as I'm aware, NT is being updated in the catalog (it should currently be 1.35 though, not 1.1; maybe the text wasn't updated?)

If you download the Main Installer from the front page of this thread, it contains several folders with documentation (changes in the mod, where certain things have been moved to, etc) and an up-to-date IRO for use with 7th Heaven.

First off, you can find the steps to get 7th Heaven running here if you haven't already: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15520.0

To load an IRO with 7th Heaven (usually called 7H), open it up and go to the Library tab. There should be a button called 'Import'. Click that and a box will appear with three more tabs; click 'From IRO Archive' and then the '...' to select the NT IRO file that comes with the Main Installer folder. The mod should appear in the Library list once it's loaded; click on 'Activate' below it, then go to the Active Mods tab in the top-left and sort out the mod load order (NT should be moved to the bottom of the list, below graphical mods and the like).

If 7H doesn't work for whatever reason, then the mod has its own stand-alone installer that will patch over the game's files. Make sure to back-up FF7's 'data' folder before using this, as patching the game and then trying to use 7H over the top of it will cause problems.

The spell names are the same as the old ones; Fire3, etc. and there isn't a Sapphire Weapon but there are plenty of new bosses and monsters to run into, including a few that are recreations of bosses from other FF games like FF8's Omega Weapon and FFX's Nemesis. There's some new spells as well.

Skirmish

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3576 on: 2016-05-09 19:52:39 »
Where do you get Morph materia at? I think I missed it  :-\
I think it takes the place of the Cover Materia in the garden at Aeris's house.

jpzchaos14

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3577 on: 2016-05-10 08:48:16 »
As far as I'm aware, NT is being updated in the catalog (it should currently be 1.35 though, not 1.1; maybe the text wasn't updated?)

If you download the Main Installer from the front page of this thread, it contains several folders with documentation (changes in the mod, where certain things have been moved to, etc) and an up-to-date IRO for use with 7th Heaven.

First off, you can find the steps to get 7th Heaven running here if you haven't already: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15520.0

To load an IRO with 7th Heaven (usually called 7H), open it up and go to the Library tab. There should be a button called 'Import'. Click that and a box will appear with three more tabs; click 'From IRO Archive' and then the '...' to select the NT IRO file that comes with the Main Installer folder. The mod should appear in the Library list once it's loaded; click on 'Activate' below it, then go to the Active Mods tab in the top-left and sort out the mod load order (NT should be moved to the bottom of the list, below graphical mods and the like).

If 7H doesn't work for whatever reason, then the mod has its own stand-alone installer that will patch over the game's files. Make sure to back-up FF7's 'data' folder before using this, as patching the game and then trying to use 7H over the top of it will cause problems.

The spell names are the same as the old ones; Fire3, etc. and there isn't a Sapphire Weapon but there are plenty of new bosses and monsters to run into, including a few that are recreations of bosses from other FF games like FF8's Omega Weapon and FFX's Nemesis. There's some new spells as well.

OMG! Just read the documentation, and I must say I'm quite impressed!
Alotta cool challenges and changes.
I'm surprised that "Super Nova" is not in the changelog though. Would have been sweet if you added that!
I'm curious though, how do you guys change dialogues and naming of stuff ingame..

Skirmish

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3578 on: 2016-05-11 20:58:05 »
Is there any other means of getting the Touph Ring and Champion Belt besides Battle Square on Disc 1? Touph Ring looks to be a risky Tank Accessory (Halves Restorative, Vit/Spr +40).

Will be trying various methods for Disc 1 Battle Square and will see if Champion Belt is worth the effort. If there is another way to get these Accessories then let me know, if not then they are technically missable as far as I know.

Kryalis

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3579 on: 2016-05-11 22:43:46 »
Do you think in the next version (if there will be a next version) you could include an optional file where you can replace Cloud's Battle model with that special high res one he has at the end when facing sephiroth?

magictrufflez

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3580 on: 2016-05-11 23:54:05 »
Is there any other means of getting the Touph Ring and Champion Belt besides Battle Square on Disc 1? Touph Ring looks to be a risky Tank Accessory (Halves Restorative, Vit/Spr +40).

Will be trying various methods for Disc 1 Battle Square and will see if Champion Belt is worth the effort. If there is another way to get these Accessories then let me know, if not then they are technically missable as far as I know.

I can confirm there is another Touph Ring somewhere--I currently have 2, and only 1 was from the Battle Square.  I forgot where I got it though, but I'm pretty sure it was a chest, because I haven't morphed much outside the final dungeon.

I'd be curious to see what the Champion's Belt does too.  I always got a few in the original because I never had more than 1 Ribbon, and I liked the stat boosts.

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3581 on: 2016-05-12 06:12:30 »
Do you think in the next version (if there will be a next version) you could include an optional file where you can replace Cloud's Battle model with that special high res one he has at the end when facing sephiroth?

Problem with that model is that it's hi-res whereas the other character models aren't, making it stand out. I think it's slightly bigger in proportion as well. I'll test it and see.

Skirmish

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3582 on: 2016-05-12 09:09:40 »
I can confirm there is another Touph Ring somewhere--I currently have 2, and only 1 was from the Battle Square.  I forgot where I got it though, but I'm pretty sure it was a chest, because I haven't morphed much outside the final dungeon.

I'd be curious to see what the Champion's Belt does too.  I always got a few in the original because I never had more than 1 Ribbon, and I liked the stat boosts.
Champion's Belt prevents Auto-Crit status but gives +25 Str/Vit. So it's best used for a Physical hitter with high luck, in other words on paper it's a good accessory for Cid but since I don't think his passive will activate while wearing it it's best used with a high Luck stat, if his passive bypasses status immunities (needs confirmation) then it would potentially be great.

It's potentially good for other Physical based characters earlier in the game where you don't have access to the Auto-Crit status making the immunity to it redundant, I think it also serves as the best Strength boosting Accessory besides the Curse Ring. However I will say that 32000 BP is pretty steep considering the Curse Ring outclasses it massively when used properly and any character that looks to benefit from Auto-Crits later in game would be much better off with the Auto-Crit status rather than the Strength increase, even with a Rank 0 Party.

As far as Accessories go it's kind of interesting but not really worth grinding Disc 1 Battle Square for unless you want to obtain it as a collector's item (Currently don't know location of Champion's Belt from Disc 2 onwards).

magictrufflez

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3583 on: 2016-05-12 12:32:20 »
Speaking of the Cursed Ring, is there a way to cheese your way out of the curse?  Like, will Added Effect + Destruct or Odin prevent the auto death from affecting you?  My FF7 life might become less complicated if this is the case.

Skirmish

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3584 on: 2016-05-12 18:22:34 »
Speaking of the Cursed Ring, is there a way to cheese your way out of the curse?  Like, will Added Effect + Destruct or Odin prevent the auto death from affecting you?  My FF7 life might become less complicated if this is the case.
Yes, Added Effect + Destruct/Odin will prevent Sudden Death. I think you can also use the Death Force Enemy Skill to prevent the Sudden Death from hitting you aswell. However I think Added Effect + Destruct/Odin won't allow you to re-apply Death Sentence once it expires if you're planning on using Powersoul.

Keep in mind the Curse Ring Prevents Regen and Halves Restorative so it's risky to use.

Skirmish

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3585 on: 2016-05-12 22:09:08 »
I've been going over a couple of things and I think I know why certain enemy moves don't obey the rules they are supposed to. I'm talking about the Level specific moves and the reason they behave weirdly is very likely down to the Level Syncher placing the party at Level 44.

L2 Confu (Hipogriff) will always hit a Level Synched party for this reason.
L5 Suicide (Mu/Trickplay) and L5 Death (Parasite/Omega Weapon) will always miss the party for this reason.
L3 Def-less (Mimic) will always miss the party for this reason.
This also explains why old moves such as L4 Death (Allemange) and L2 Holy (Cuahl, I think that's how it's spelt) would always hit.

Just curious, how do Level ?? moves work as I know Allemange now uses Level ?? Flare and how would it be affected by a Level 44 Synched party. As of now the level based moves combined with the level synching in this mod do not mix well.

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3586 on: 2016-05-12 22:43:53 »
I've been going over a couple of things and I think I know why certain enemy moves don't obey the rules they are supposed to. I'm talking about the Level specific moves and the reason they behave weirdly is very likely down to the Level Syncher placing the party at Level 44.

L2 Confu (Hipogriff) will always hit a Level Synched party for this reason.
L5 Suicide (Mu/Trickplay) and L5 Death (Parasite/Omega Weapon) will always miss the party for this reason.
L3 Def-less (Mimic) will always miss the party for this reason.
This also explains why old moves such as L4 Death (Allemange) and L2 Holy (Cuahl, I think that's how it's spelt) would always hit.

Just curious, how do Level ?? moves work as I know Allemange now uses Level ?? Flare and how would it be affected by a Level 44 Synched party. As of now the level based moves combined with the level synching in this mod do not mix well.

Lv?? Attacks don't have a level modifier, they're just regular attacks replacing the Lv.4 ones they used to have.

Kryalis

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3587 on: 2016-05-13 17:38:11 »
Problem with that model is that it's hi-res whereas the other character models aren't, making it stand out. I think it's slightly bigger in proportion as well. I'll test it and see.
Alright you have a point nvm. I guess I can just add it myself in my own files.

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3588 on: 2016-05-13 19:02:45 »
If you do, then find all the SI files in the decompiled battle.lgp, copy-paste them out of there, rename them to RT, and then copy-paste them back in to overwrite the default RT files.

magictrufflez

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3589 on: 2016-05-14 03:50:24 »
Is there something specific I need to do to activate the item terminal in the Wall Market?  Is this a thing I can do right now?

The docs say Cid's Lvl 4 Limit is there, but that's not right because I got it elsewhere.

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3590 on: 2016-05-14 08:30:00 »
It's an error in the document; the new one was added late on but I didn't update the text doc.

Kryalis

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3591 on: 2016-05-15 13:56:56 »
Hey man, first I just want to say that this mod is amazing and I really enjoyed it. If there is ever a new update to the New Threat mod then I have to address a couple errors that I came across whilst playing it, and an idea of what could be included.
First I would just like to ask that you please change Tseng's suit colour to black like the rest of the turks instead of red, because it just doesn't seem right and doesn't suit him along with them. Also I'm not sure if your aware of this but the "allies" that help you in battle can actually be attacked, I mean if you have an ability that can attack all enemies in the battle (take slash-all for example) it will also attack and harm your ally, so I think this should be looked over, I mean you could simply fix just by simply not using that attack but it is very useful and people are really going to want to use it.
Speaking of allies here is my idea, you know during the Wutai sidequest where you have you get your materia back from Yuffie? Well I was thinking at the point where you have to fight Rapps (the thing that Don summons to attack you), Reno and Rude will be allies in that fight and will help you, it seems like a good point to have allies and it'll probably be cool to have them fighting beside you.

Naphta

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3592 on: 2016-05-15 17:08:26 »
Thank you so much!
I'm standing in the beginners hall right now and read all the stuff that awaits me
revisiting ff7 once again under this circumstances will be great I played ff8 requiem and I loved to develop battle strategies in this old game I like so much
this mod seems to be even better I'm really excited
Looking forward to new versions and will let you know if I find errors, bugs etc.
Spoiler: show
 Barret knocking down cloud after explaining materia was hilarious


Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3593 on: 2016-05-15 17:11:07 »
Hey man, first I just want to say that this mod is amazing and I really enjoyed it. If there is ever a new update to the New Threat mod then I have to address a couple errors that I came across whilst playing it, and an idea of what could be included.
First I would just like to ask that you please change Tseng's suit colour to black like the rest of the turks instead of red, because it just doesn't seem right and doesn't suit him along with them. Also I'm not sure if your aware of this but the "allies" that help you in battle can actually be attacked, I mean if you have an ability that can attack all enemies in the battle (take slash-all for example) it will also attack and harm your ally, so I think this should be looked over, I mean you could simply fix just by simply not using that attack but it is very useful and people are really going to want to use it.
Speaking of allies here is my idea, you know during the Wutai sidequest where you have you get your materia back from Yuffie? Well I was thinking at the point where you have to fight Rapps (the thing that Don summons to attack you), Reno and Rude will be allies in that fight and will help you, it seems like a good point to have allies and it'll probably be cool to have them fighting beside you.

Is that the field model for Tseng or the battle model? Either way, I'll get it sorted out.

For allies, the problem was that in order to get other enemies to attack them they needed to remain targetable. I think some can't be targeted (the Yuffie battle for instance) but for others they can be, like the Brass Dragon fight. Multi-target attacks are problematic there because they will hit them, but Tifa's Limits are the bigger issue as they randomly target and there's one battle with allies in Whirlwind Maze where she's a mandatory party member. I think I changed that fight so they couldn't be targeted though, not sure.

That's a good idea with Reno + Rude; the Rapps fight is quite hard to come up with a thing for because the player won't have a lot of Materia (if any) to make use of. Maybe I could plan a fight around that somehow.

Thank you so much!
I'm standing in the beginners hall right now and read all the stuff that awaits me
revisiting ff7 once again under this circumstances will be great I played ff8 requiem and I loved to develop battle strategies in this old game I like so much
this mod seems to be even better I'm really excited
Looking forward to new versions and will let you know if I find errors, bugs etc.

Cheers, bud; hope it pans out. Glad you found that thing too, it's an easter egg of sorts (people very rarely give the Materia tutorial to Barret because it's so long).

Skirmish

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3594 on: 2016-05-15 19:28:44 »
Is that the field model for Tseng or the battle model? Either way, I'll get it sorted out.

For allies, the problem was that in order to get other enemies to attack them they needed to remain targetable. I think some can't be targeted (the Yuffie battle for instance) but for others they can be, like the Brass Dragon fight. Multi-target attacks are problematic there because they will hit them, but Tifa's Limits are the bigger issue as they randomly target and there's one battle with allies in Whirlwind Maze where she's a mandatory party member. I think I changed that fight so they couldn't be targeted though, not sure.

That's a good idea with Reno + Rude; the Rapps fight is quite hard to come up with a thing for because the player won't have a lot of Materia (if any) to make use of. Maybe I could plan a fight around that somehow.

Cheers, bud; hope it pans out. Glad you found that thing too, it's an easter egg of sorts (people very rarely give the Materia tutorial to Barret because it's so long).
I can confirm that it's the field model that has the red colour and that Tifa's Limit Breaks will still target your NPC allies in the Whirlwind Maze area.

Murasame

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3595 on: 2016-05-15 19:49:42 »
Would making the allies for fights like the Brass Dragon count as a pincer attack fight stop all-attacks hitting them? I dunno if that's possible but just a thought. Good shout on the Turks as allies for Rapps though, that'd be cool.

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3596 on: 2016-05-15 20:50:35 »
Heya!

I'm considering starting up the mod again (got to Junon in 1.35, then 1.4 came out).  Is the current IRO release relatively stable to play, or should I wait for an update? 

RPGLB just finished up, so I'm itching to get back to a classic game.

Thanks!

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3597 on: 2016-05-15 21:08:22 »
Thank you. This mod has put new life into this game. So far in progress I have just left Midgard, and fought the Turks in the cave. Some things I have liked:
- The distinction between the characters, does make each character feel different. What I disliked most about the base game was that all that seemed to matter was the material
- The weapons and armor. The choice of equipment really matters, more then any other game I have seen. The choice changes the use of the character. Did I want steel, titan, or mithral armlets? Should Tifa keep the weapon that does more damage, or the one that raises dexterity? Those were all hard choices.
-The special encounter where Jessie fights with you, was a nice easter egg.
- The special designed boss fights. The fight where you first get Red, and you fight a boss that starts off with extreme high defense but keeps getting weaker, combined with Red getting stronger through out the fight was genius. The fight in the elevators where one of the helicopters gets healed from lighting, was an unexpected challenge, especially since I gave Barret elemental and lightning materia in his weapon, Red's demi was ineffective against it, and Aeris was struggling to keep up with healing. I did win that fight on the first try, but I did need to adjust my strategy.
- That was a much better introduction to Yuffie.
- I noticed a lot of interesting dialog change. Did Barret always &%$#?%@ that much? or was that added in?
- Best moment of all:
            Tifa:  "Jessie said we need to hit these three switches at the exact same time."
                     (I pull the switch totally out of sync)
           Barret: "@?#@?#@ close enough."   
                       (and the door opens anyway.)  That was hilarious.   

------------------------
The main thing that I would like to see changed is the difference between the first row and the back row. It seems to me that the difference between the two rows is too much, and it seems like a better strategy is to almost always keep characters in the back row and spam magic. Even melee favoured characters like Tifa, seem to be able to better this way. She has enough MP to spam spells like lighting during long battles. I do keep her in the front row and fight with fists usually for role playing reasons, but it doesn't seem like the best strategy. I do think the back row defense should only be about a 25% bonus. And their needs to be more advantages to the front row, such as limit breaks suffering the same range penalty as default attacks. Or if the front row gave a bit of an ATB speed boost, then it would make even choosing whether to put casters in the front or the back a bit of a choice.  In general I think the game would  be more fun if the front row is usually the better choice, with the back row available for special occasions or builds. Even Aerius generally being considered better on the front row would be more fun. She can use spells most of the time, but then hitting someone with her stick is always a possible choice.  But right now, that front row is the scary line of doom.
And the basic spells might not use enough MP. Life drains MP fast, and  with extended cure spells I can run out. But with lighting and fire, I don't usually have to pay attention to MP at all.

Kryalis

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3598 on: 2016-05-15 21:42:49 »
Is that the field model for Tseng or the battle model? Either way, I'll get it sorted out.

For allies, the problem was that in order to get other enemies to attack them they needed to remain targetable. I think some can't be targeted (the Yuffie battle for instance) but for others they can be, like the Brass Dragon fight. Multi-target attacks are problematic there because they will hit them, but Tifa's Limits are the bigger issue as they randomly target and there's one battle with allies in Whirlwind Maze where she's a mandatory party member. I think I changed that fight so they couldn't be targeted though, not sure.

That's a good idea with Reno + Rude; the Rapps fight is quite hard to come up with a thing for because the player won't have a lot of Materia (if any) to make use of. Maybe I could plan a fight around that somehow.

Alright cool man. But when you claimed to have changed the fight in Whirlwind Maze where you have the two soldier allies so they couldn't be targeted, your wrong on that one because I just went back onto that fight and they could still be attacked, so you may want to look into that (I can understand that this all may be hard to program and all that shizzle, but this is a real good mod and when people encounter problems that are going to annoy them, they are going to want it fixed so I'm just pointing this out for you).
And to answer your question, it's Tseng's field model, his battle model has a black suit though. Also while your at changing Tseng's suit colour, you might as well change Vincent's suit colour to black as well (and I mean him in those flashbacks you receive when he goes to speak to Lucrecia).
« Last Edit: 2016-05-15 22:21:35 by Kryalis »

Sega Chief

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Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v1.4)
« Reply #3599 on: 2016-05-15 23:05:25 »
Heya!

I'm considering starting up the mod again (got to Junon in 1.35, then 1.4 came out).  Is the current IRO release relatively stable to play, or should I wait for an update? 

RPGLB just finished up, so I'm itching to get back to a classic game.

Thanks!

It's been pretty stable so far; no bug reports for a while. I think the IRO available from here is slightly more up to date than the main installer currently is.

Thank you. This mod has put new life into this game. So far in progress I have just left Midgard, and fought the Turks in the cave. Some things I have liked:
- The distinction between the characters, does make each character feel different. What I disliked most about the base game was that all that seemed to matter was the material
- The weapons and armor. The choice of equipment really matters, more then any other game I have seen. The choice changes the use of the character. Did I want steel, titan, or mithral armlets? Should Tifa keep the weapon that does more damage, or the one that raises dexterity? Those were all hard choices.
-The special encounter where Jessie fights with you, was a nice easter egg.
- The special designed boss fights. The fight where you first get Red, and you fight a boss that starts off with extreme high defense but keeps getting weaker, combined with Red getting stronger through out the fight was genius. The fight in the elevators where one of the helicopters gets healed from lighting, was an unexpected challenge, especially since I gave Barret elemental and lightning materia in his weapon, Red's demi was ineffective against it, and Aeris was struggling to keep up with healing. I did win that fight on the first try, but I did need to adjust my strategy.
- That was a much better introduction to Yuffie.
- I noticed a lot of interesting dialog change. Did Barret always &%$#?%@ that much? or was that added in?
- Best moment of all:
            Tifa:  "Jessie said we need to hit these three switches at the exact same time."
                     (I pull the switch totally out of sync)
           Barret: "@?#@?#@ close enough."   
                       (and the door opens anyway.)  That was hilarious.   

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The main thing that I would like to see changed is the difference between the first row and the back row. It seems to me that the difference between the two rows is too much, and it seems like a better strategy is to almost always keep characters in the back row and spam magic. Even melee favoured characters like Tifa, seem to be able to better this way. She has enough MP to spam spells like lighting during long battles. I do keep her in the front row and fight with fists usually for role playing reasons, but it doesn't seem like the best strategy. I do think the back row defense should only be about a 25% bonus. And their needs to be more advantages to the front row, such as limit breaks suffering the same range penalty as default attacks. Or if the front row gave a bit of an ATB speed boost, then it would make even choosing whether to put casters in the front or the back a bit of a choice.  In general I think the game would  be more fun if the front row is usually the better choice, with the back row available for special occasions or builds. Even Aerius generally being considered better on the front row would be more fun. She can use spells most of the time, but then hitting someone with her stick is always a possible choice.  But right now, that front row is the scary line of doom.
And the basic spells might not use enough MP. Life drains MP fast, and  with extended cure spells I can run out. But with lighting and fire, I don't usually have to pay attention to MP at all.

Back Row is a problem because it's a %-based decrease to incoming physical damage that doesn't have a drawback for anyone using either a long-range weapon or spells. As damage numbers scale up, the benefit of it increases so by late-game it's very tough to balance around.

But there should be a way to change it in the .exe, along with the other things you mentioned (and more). Limit Breaks can be given a range flag, and enemies can have their use of long-range flags re-enabled for projectile attacks. Adjusting the modifiers on buffs/debuffs isn't something I've done before, but I'll be looking to change them if possible. 30% or thereabouts would be better for Barrier, maybe 15% for Row, and 5-10% for Sadness so that it's more of a negative status than the go-to for damage mitigation.

Alright cool man. But when you claimed to have changed the fight in Whirlwind Maze where you have the two soldier allies so they couldn't be targeted, your wrong on that one because I just went back onto that fight and they could still be attacked, so you may want to look into that (I can understand that this all may be hard to program and all that shizzle, but this is a real good mod and when people encounter problems that are going to annoy them, they are going to want it fixed so I'm just pointing this out for you).
And to answer your question, it's Tseng's field model, his battle model has a black suit though. Also while your at changing Tseng's suit colour, you might as well change Vincent's suit colour to black as well (and I mean him in those flashbacks you receive when he goes to speak to Lucrecia).

I thought I'd changed it, but I guess not. Maybe it was Cell Smash I disabled.