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

[Sega Chief]

There aren't many; I guess Mamatolis on Corel Tracks would be one but most people go up there to get the treasure from the bird's nest anyway.

[Nikkolas]

Huh, I see I am already missing stuff. I had no idea about Captain Chocobo.

I'm nearing the end of Shinra HQ and I'm curious about a couple things.

1. Is the "Curator" a special boss for later when you have the option of returning to the HQ when you are stopping Hojo? I tried fighting it, thinking that's how I get the Keycard. Needless to say, it did not go well.

2. I pride myself on my memory of this game's dialogue and plot. Have you altered the script? Stuff like "Midgar is not sustainable so that's another reason to destroy Sector 7" and Hojo saying he intended Red to FIGHT Aerith and not...ya know...are both things I'm almost positive I've never read in any script of this game, PC or PSX.

In any event, things are getting challenging and different and that's what I love. Had to fight X-ATM a second time when he came out of nowhere before the second set of elevators. I didn't Game Over or anything but I dislike wasting resources and using more than one Phoenix Down in a fight like that is a waste IMO. I ended up using a few Phoenix Downs against the specimen thing, anyway. Game is getting serious, I gotta get serious, too.

edit:

Oh! A couple more questions.

3. What does "SP gained" mean?

4. Why does Magic-all sometimes reflect onto enemies?\

edit 2:

Tifa: Is Rufus...?
Cloud: Nah but I stole his shotgun.
Tifa: ...why?
Cloud: Because I can.

You're the best, SC.

[xenofears]

Hi, thanks for all your hard work on this.

One possible bug to report, the second vanilla boss the buster thing on the bridge, his turn graphics aren't working right. Though this could be an issue with the graphics mods I have installed....

Another issue I am having is my characters seem to be getting reflect status. I didn't think to check their armor... is this an inherit status perhaps? I definitely didn't notice it in the description.

Thanks again!

[SunnyD]

Oh! A couple more questions.

3. What does "SP gained" mean?

You'll find out about SP soon enough. You get a good explanation too so don't worry about feeling lost.

[Sega Chief]

Huh, I see I am already missing stuff. I had no idea about Captain Chocobo.

I'm nearing the end of Shinra HQ and I'm curious about a couple things.

1. Is the "Curator" a special boss for later when you have the option of returning to the HQ when you are stopping Hojo? I tried fighting it, thinking that's how I get the Keycard. Needless to say, it did not go well.

2. I pride myself on my memory of this game's dialogue and plot. Have you altered the script? Stuff like "Midgar is not sustainable so that's another reason to destroy Sector 7" and Hojo saying he intended Red to FIGHT Aerith and not...ya know...are both things I'm almost positive I've never read in any script of this game, PC or PSX.

In any event, things are getting challenging and different and that's what I love. Had to fight X-ATM a second time when he came out of nowhere before the second set of elevators. I didn't Game Over or anything but I dislike wasting resources and using more than one Phoenix Down in a fight like that is a waste IMO. I ended up using a few Phoenix Downs against the specimen thing, anyway. Game is getting serious, I gotta get serious, too.

edit:

Oh! A couple more questions.

3. What does "SP gained" mean?

4. Why does Magic-all sometimes reflect onto enemies?\

edit 2:

Tifa: Is Rufus...?
Cloud: Nah but I stole his shotgun.
Tifa: ...why?
Cloud: Because I can.

You're the best, SC.

1. Curator is a special boss that can't be defeated by that point of the game under ordinary circumstances. You return here a couple of times later on when you might have a bit more of a chance.

2. I'm going over the game's script; I think I'm up to Wutai's Pagoda.

3. SP will be explained later.

4. If you were in Reactor No.5, some of the enemies there have attacks that inflict Reflect (Air Buster's Mirror Bomber, and the Special Combatant's Beta Wave).

Hi, thanks for all your hard work on this.

One possible bug to report, the second vanilla boss the buster thing on the bridge, his turn graphics aren't working right. Though this could be an issue with the graphics mods I have installed....

Another issue I am having is my characters seem to be getting reflect status. I didn't think to check their armor... is this an inherit status perhaps? I definitely didn't notice it in the description.

Thanks again!

Air Buster's AI & Animations have a problem where his visual facing won't be his 'true' facing. I tried to fix this for NT but I couldn't figure it out so the tactic for dealing with this should be the same as the default game; whoever attacked him last (or whoever he attacked last) should be considered his 'true' facing.

As for Reflect, that's being applied by either Mirror Bomber (Air Buster's opening attack) or the Beta Wave attack by Special Combatants.

[xenofears]

Hmm ok... seems kind of weird to throw out reflect at that stage of the game when you have no way to counter or dispel it and have no indication it happened... unless I am overlooking something?

[Sega Chief]

You do have a counter against Reflect; it's only real function at this stage is to block Cure (specifically Cure+All), but you have Potions which can restore 300HP in-battle as a viable alternative. The idea with Reflect here was to get people looking at their healing items a bit more before they progress further, because usually Potions get ignored in the default game (in NT, they're more useful for longer due to that fixed 300HP heal, especially with MBarrier becoming available soon).

As for indicating when Reflect gets applied, I renamed Air Buster's opening attack to Mirror Bomber but I should rename Beta Wave to Mirror Wave as well.

[jpzchaos14]

Quick question, if ever you make a v1.5 and I install it while I'm in the middle of progress in v1.4, will it affect the save I'm playing?
Affect as it add-in the updates while the save was created from v1.4
Compare this question if so happen I started the game with v1.3 and updated the game with 1.4.

[Sega Chief]

Hard to say, I don't have a clear-cut plan for 1.5; I'm only bumping NT up to that designation when I'm 100% happy with everything and all the bugs have been sorted out. I might drop the new game+ thing I was going to do for it; what I had planned there would work better as a separate mod.

Save-files should be fine between 1.4 and 1.5.

[Nikkolas]

The secret of SP was pretty interesting! I won't mention it since it seems I'm not the only person here playing this for the first time. Well, this iteration.

I made sure to have Yuffie with me when we looked at the dead Zolom 'cuz I knew you would have to input new dialogue for her. "Geez, Louise!" was good.

When I played NT back in 2014, I remember it being a major struggle to get gil. I believe someone called it "the Poverty Simulator"? Unless I remember incorrectly, money is a lot more plentiful in this version.

Jenova VECTOR was a nice fight but I think you might have made a typo. This is during the recap after the boss:

"I don't much about Jenova. But it's clearly a monster of some kind. Sephiroth said she was an "Ancient", but with what we've seen I'm not so sure..."

I would guess it's supposed to be "I don't know much about Jenova..."

Or maybe it's just informal slang or something, I dunno. Just thought I'd ask.

 But yeah, the extra dialogue and some changed scenes really adds up to something impressive. Now I can experience new story content in addition to gameplay. As much as I love FFVII, I do tend to skip most of the dialogue now and focus just on the gameplay ya know? I can't do that anymore or I might miss something funny or interesting.

[xenofears]

Is there a way to see what statuses are on your characters and enemies? During battle that is. Its been a while since I played FF7... given the emphasis this mod surely has on status effects, it would be a nice feature to add if it doesn't exist. 

[Sega Chief]

The secret of SP was pretty interesting! I won't mention it since it seems I'm not the only person here playing this for the first time. Well, this iteration.

I made sure to have Yuffie with me when we looked at the dead Zolom 'cuz I knew you would have to input new dialogue for her. "Geez, Louise!" was good.

When I played NT back in 2014, I remember it being a major struggle to get gil. I believe someone called it "the Poverty Simulator"? Unless I remember incorrectly, money is a lot more plentiful in this version.

Jenova VECTOR was a nice fight but I think you might have made a typo. This is during the recap after the boss:

"I don't much about Jenova. But it's clearly a monster of some kind. Sephiroth said she was an "Ancient", but with what we've seen I'm not so sure..."

I would guess it's supposed to be "I don't know much about Jenova..."

Or maybe it's just informal slang or something, I dunno. Just thought I'd ask.

 But yeah, the extra dialogue and some changed scenes really adds up to something impressive. Now I can experience new story content in addition to gameplay. As much as I love FFVII, I do tend to skip most of the dialogue now and focus just on the gameplay ya know? I can't do that anymore or I might miss something funny or interesting.

'Geez, louise!' is actually present in the original game; it was just impossible to see because Yuffie is usually unobtainable before that point of the game. Thanks for letting me know about that missing word on the Cargo Ship too; I'll add it in.

Is there a way to see what statuses are on your characters and enemies? During battle that is. Its been a while since I played FF7... given the emphasis this mod surely has on status effects, it would be a nice feature to add if it doesn't exist. 

Only some statuses have a visual cue; all of them can be seen though if you select a status-healing item and then hover the cursor over a party member; a small box should appear displaying the character's name and toggling through all of the statuses they're currently under (not ideal, but it can help with the 'invisible' ones like Reflect).

[mexico]

I made sure to have Yuffie with me when we looked at the dead Zolom 'cuz I knew you would have to input new dialogue for her. "Geez, Louise!" was good.

This was translated in "Louise supeeer!" in french, which means totally nothing, thanks to the translators....

Sega, do you think the 1.5 will be the last version ? I'm thinking about translate it in french but I'm waiting for a final version.

[Dahaka]

There aren't many; I guess Mamatolis on Corel Tracks would be one but most people go up there to get the treasure from the bird's nest anyway.

Okay then, thanks.

Another question - how much (if at all) have you changed the fort condor battles? I mean, are the prizes after each battle different than in the orignal? Do the battles happen at the same time as in the orginal or is the time frame for some of them different?

[Sega Chief]

This was translated in "Louise supeeer!" in french, which means totally nothing, thanks to the translators....

Sega, do you think the 1.5 will be the last version ? I'm thinking about translate it in french but I'm waiting for a final version.

Louise supeeer! I've heard that the european translations for the game were...special. Please form a political party of three.

A translation would be epic; but it'd be best to wait for the mod to be completely finalised. I don't know when that would be, but as it'd just be optimizations and last-call revisions to what's already in there it'll probably be done sometime this year.

Okay then, thanks.

Another question - how much (if at all) have you changed the fort condor battles? I mean, are the prizes after each battle different than in the orignal? Do the battles happen at the same time as in the orginal or is the time frame for some of them different?

The minigame itself is the same, but the prizes given are different. You also get 300gil per surviving soldier which makes the overall cost a bit cheaper.

[Sega Chief]

Another person on Steam told me that they thought reflect was a glitch/wasn't sure where it was coming from. I'm going to admit defeat and remove that mechanic from Reactor No.5 altogether ;-;

[mexico]

A translation would be epic; but it'd be best to wait for the mod to be completely finalised. I don't know when that would be, but as it'd just be optimizations and last-call revisions to what's already in there it'll probably be done sometime this year.

Well, the real problem here is the flevel. For the rest, it's just some copy/paste and translation of the new attacks of the mod. For the flevel, I think I will apply all your modifications to the french flevel, it should be easier. Is ther some files you think you won't change ? So I could begin this work.

[Nikkolas]

So in all my many runs of FFVII, both modded and vanilla, I've never, ever used Cait Sith. (shocking, I know) However I want to try something new and given how you've thoroughly made each character their own special thing, I figured now was as good a time as any to try out CS.

Only, unless I missed something, I didn't get an Innate explanation for him/it?

And hardest boss yet was just now, the Lich or whatever it was guarding Titan. Status effects beat out damage every time for making a boss challenging. Leech of the Land was quite a genius move, I must say. Frustrating but genius. Cloud was eating dirt when Cait Sith brought it home at last but who cares. He already got his 2/8 Rank Up.

[Dahaka]

Another person on Steam told me that they thought reflect was a glitch/wasn't sure where it was coming from. I'm going to admit defeat and remove that mechanic from Reactor No.5 altogether ;-;

I kinda liked it. I mean, I had no idea where was it coming from, but I liked it in a "nice trolling" kind of way, lol. The idea is not bad, it just isn't clear enough for the player to get what is going on. Maybe simply triggering the reflect effect animation after the attack would fix the problem (if it's possible to do)?

[Sega Chief]

Well, the real problem here is the flevel. For the rest, it's just some copy/paste and translation of the new attacks of the mod. For the flevel, I think I will apply all your modifications to the french flevel, it should be easier. Is ther some files you think you won't change ? So I could begin this work.

It's unlikely that the scene or kernel will be changed from here on out, and if they are then it would be something minor like a base power change here or a flag there. One thing to watch for with translating the kernel though is the text compression; it's already at its limits as far as size goes so it'd be a good idea to save now and then, create back-ups, and quickly check for any text errors that might appear after each save.

So in all my many runs of FFVII, both modded and vanilla, I've never, ever used Cait Sith. (shocking, I know) However I want to try something new and given how you've thoroughly made each character their own special thing, I figured now was as good a time as any to try out CS.

Only, unless I missed something, I didn't get an Innate explanation for him/it?

And hardest boss yet was just now, the Lich or whatever it was guarding Titan. Status effects beat out damage every time for making a boss challenging. Leech of the Land was quite a genius move, I must say. Frustrating but genius. Cloud was eating dirt when Cait Sith brought it home at last but who cares. He already got his 2/8 Rank Up.

Cait Sith's innate is that he will randomly regenerate HP equal to his CurrentMP (or half his CurrentMP, I forget). His main thing is that he can build his Luck stat really high, which is great for tanking physical attacks by outright dodging them or for attacking to get lots of crits. He also learns Transform on Limit Level 1 which can come in handy sometimes (but is mostly for fun).

I kinda liked it. I mean, I had no idea where was it coming from, but I liked it in a "nice trolling" kind of way, lol. The idea is not bad, it just isn't clear enough for the player to get what is going on. Maybe simply triggering the reflect effect animation after the attack would fix the problem (if it's possible to do)?

I could call the attack Reflect Wave but I can't get the Reflect animation to proc when it's used, I don't think; the way the game is, I can have it read from animation indexes that are stored above but not below; so a player spell can use an enemy animation, but an enemy animation can't be set to use a player spell animation. I was thinking of just dropping Reflect from that area entirely.

[xenofears]

Maybe just put the status box that pops up when you use a healing item on screen all the time?

[mexico]

It's unlikely that the scene or kernel will be changed from here on out, and if they are then it would be something minor like a base power change here or a flag there. One thing to watch for with translating the kernel though is the text compression; it's already at its limits as far as size goes so it'd be a good idea to save now and then, create back-ups, and quickly check for any text errors that might appear after each save.

OK so I'll begin with the scene and the kernel. Could you advise me by PM if you change something please ?

[Bowser9]

Another person on Steam told me that they thought reflect was a glitch/wasn't sure where it was coming from. I'm going to admit defeat and remove that mechanic from Reactor No.5 altogether ;-;

I loved it and the sudden change kept the battle interesting by forcing the item mix-up. I personally don't want to see it go away and would be fine with the name change, but I know it's bound to continue to confuse people who aren't as gung-ho. How about adding dialogue like when Guard Scorpion raises its tail?

Barret: "Just great. Looks like we got hit with a reflect barrier. We did pack potions, right?"

[Sega Chief]

Maybe just put the status box that pops up when you use a healing item on screen all the time?

It wouldn't have anywhere to go except for in front of the menu bar; the screen is already cramped.

I loved it and the sudden change kept the battle interesting by forcing the item mix-up. I personally don't want to see it go away and would be fine with the name change, but I know it's bound to continue to confuse people who aren't as gung-ho. How about adding dialogue like when Guard Scorpion raises its tail?

Barret: "Just great. Looks like we got hit with a reflect barrier. We did pack potions, right?"

I'll go with the name change for the attacks and if I still get 'glitch' reports then Reflect is getting dropped from that Reactor altogether.

[magictrufflez]

Just to toss my 2 cents in, I thought the reflect schtick was a nice touch.

I just say let people figure it out.  It's easy enough to deal with once you know what's going on, and it's not like you don't have save points pretty close to the bosses that utilize it.  Especially early game when players are still getting a feel for the mod, I think the reflect shenanigans minus hand-holding are a good way to prepare them for the horrors to come.