Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.99994) (Read 4970837 times)

AhBeng2 · « **Reply #11375 on:** 2022-08-27 17:58:50 »

Hi Sega,

I was just playing through the latest version and I found one oddity.

Spoiler: show

NissyHime · « **Reply #11376 on:** 2022-08-29 19:38:15 »

I just read in the forums how to save aerith, if that wasn't done on disc 1 do you permanently lose the ability to get her back?

galax-C · « **Reply #11377 on:** 2022-08-30 05:33:44 »

Dumb suggestions/ideas that are more goofy than useful, food for thought: If you're still toying with the Dark Cave or invented scenarios, I think it would be very funny if the player returns to Hojo's lab, late game, and you have to fight a version of Aerith and Red XIII that are a bizarre romantic couple. Maybe they traveled from an alternate universe to stop the player from breaking them up.

Or fight a version of Barrett and Cloud that fell in love on the Gondola Ride. If Cloud and Barret are in the player's party, they start the battle with confusion status.

When you first go to Aerith's house, and you have to sneak out of her home at night, instead of going down the stairs you can walk into her room. She has a response already, but I think the humor of barging into her room at night could be heightened. Maybe if Cloud walks in he'll have dialogue, "I'm ready for my date." And Aerith gets pissed and you're sent back to the spare bedroom.

It's also strange to me that Cid, being a mechanic, never once expresses any interest or curiosity in the fact that Barrett has machinery grafted to his arm. You'd think he'd have some questions, maybe he'd want to put a propeller on him instead of a gun...I think that's an enemy you fight when you climb sector 7 tower.

It would be cool to have a scenario where you have to actually commandeer the Highwind with Barrett and whoever else when Tifa is in the Gas Chamber. Fight some battles along the deck and interior of the ship before making it to the bridge. Then a Boss, the Turks, guard scorpion, whatever...

It would also be cool if Marlene gets possessed and becomes a demonic child you have to beat up. Maybe, like many children, she pets Red XIII too hard, and blah blah blah, and then you fight her. Then the Guard Scorpion attacks you from nowhere...

Alternate reality where the female characters have to dress up as men to get into Dawn Cornelia's manor in Wal Market. Then you fight her pet Guard Scorpion or something...

A pandemic breaks out in the slums and Shinra puts everyone in quarantine. Battle your way to where the virus originated from: Hojo's Lab...

wdx · « **Reply #11378 on:** 2022-08-31 06:52:30 »

Quote from: NissyHime on 2022-08-29 19:38:15

I just read in the forums how to save aerith, if that wasn't done on disc 1 do you permanently lose the ability to get her back?

No.

Spoiler: show

NissyHime · « **Reply #11379 on:** 2022-09-04 19:53:11 »

Sorry for playing 20 questions but is there also documentation somewhere that has all the details of accessories and what they do such as the cursed ring etc in detail?

BiOMEGA · « **Reply #11380 on:** 2022-09-07 23:24:06 »

Quote from: NissyHime on 2022-09-04 19:53:11

Sorry for playing 20 questions but is there also documentation somewhere that has all the details of accessories and what they do such as the cursed ring etc in detail?

I don't think so.

Most accessories are self-explanatory, or work pretty much the same way they do in the unmodded game. Curse Ring only works slightly differently, i.e. it blocks certain positive effects now in addition to the massive stat boost and Death Sentence it does in the original. You can check a character's stat screen to see that, where you'll see that it'll e.g. make you immune to certain buffs etc.

The only accessory I can remember off hand that is new to this is the Relic Ring, which gives massive stats but makes you

Spoiler: show

.

Wut · « **Reply #11381 on:** 2022-09-15 04:24:27 »

Hey ya,

Can you only use the dialogue revamp from this mod or it's all or nothing?

Sega Chief · « **Reply #11382 on:** 2022-09-21 10:14:54 »

Quote from: Wut on 2022-09-15 04:24:27

Hey ya,

Can you only use the dialogue revamp from this mod or it's all or nothing?

I've got a combat-only version in the works, it just needs testing.

Sega Chief · « **Reply #11383 on:** 2022-09-28 18:51:04 »

Mod updated to 2.09991

Spoiler: show

Euron-Crows-Eye · « **Reply #11384 on:** 2022-09-29 03:27:28 »

First off incredible work! Absolutely radiating new life into the game. I've been smiling like an idiot discovering all the new things.

This newest update seems to have broken some compatibility with the excellent music mod ReMusic 1.5. Even with the compatibility option for A New Threat on - It seems like the newest update is preventing the victory fanfare theme from playing after battle. Any chance you and that mod author can get them working properly together again with the latest NT version?

Sega Chief · « **Reply #11385 on:** 2022-09-29 10:31:45 »

Quote from: Euron-Crows-Eye on 2022-09-29 03:27:28

First off incredible work! Absolutely radiating new life into the game. I've been smiling like an idiot discovering all the new things.

This newest update seems to have broken some compatibility with the excellent music mod ReMusic 1.5. Even with the compatibility option for A New Threat on - It seems like the newest update is preventing the victory fanfare theme from playing after battle. Any chance you and that mod author can get them working properly together again with the latest NT version?

Will ask them about it; but just to check first, have you got the field music for battles option toggled on at a save point? That would prevent the victory fanfare from playing as it uses a battle mode that just keeps the field music playing instead of the usual battle theme + fanfare. Certain areas may also have the fanfare off (like the corel train sequence for instance).

Fewtch · « **Reply #11386 on:** 2022-09-29 21:50:31 »

Quote from: Euron-Crows-Eye on 2022-09-29 03:27:28

Even with the compatibility option for A New Threat on - It seems like the newest update is preventing the victory fanfare theme from playing after battle.

What you're describing sounds like the default behavior for much of the mod, where it transitions from field music > battle music > field music.

Could you provide more details, such as where you are in the game and what is happening exactly when the battle ends? Thanks! 🙏

Hexsim · « **Reply #11387 on:** 2022-09-29 23:50:11 »

I actually typed this in the discord earlier but then drown it out with my own raving and discussions lol, figured I'd just ask here instead... Firstly, I LOVE this mod. I'm sure you get that a lot, but I just want to congratulate you and give props for all the effort!

Secondly, what are the chances of an even harder mode in the future?

I know that this mod was intended to be a 'medium/harder' mode, and maybe you and others want to leave it at that, which is perfectly fine. But I am still wondering if you do have any plans of possibly making another version that does the exact same thing as Type A and Type B but with yet more difficult combat and curve?

One that really tests players limits and sanity (or close to it) for those of us masochists who enjoy that sort of thing lol. Would certainly be awesome!

Euron-Crows-Eye · « **Reply #11388 on:** 2022-09-30 00:44:16 »

So I am experiencing it everywhere, but I have been testing in the Sector 5 Slums during the random encounters with the bandits. My save point toggle for changing between field and normal options are there but they don't appear to be actively changing anything. The battle ends and victory fanfare does not play, it just transitions back to the field music seemlessly.

Euron-Crows-Eye · « **Reply #11389 on:** 2022-09-30 02:56:31 »

Okay reporting back - I seem to have fixed it. 7th Heaven recommends that ReMusic 1.5 be placed above A New Threat 2.0 in the load order. However, this seems to be what is preventing the victory fanfare from playing at the end of battles. When I move A New Threat above ReMusic, the battle victory music is playing out correctly.

Euron-Crows-Eye · « **Reply #11390 on:** 2022-09-30 03:20:02 »

Hmm - so a little more experimenting, changing the load order, I can get the victory fanfare to play at the end of battle, but some of the new tracks will not work.

Specific example: in Sector 6 with the Load order having A New Threat above ReMusic, I am getting victory fanfare to playout after battles- but the new field music track from the Remake for Sector 6 does not play, instead the field music remains the same as the remixed version from the adjacent screen (I believe the Sector 5 theme).

With Load order set up the way 7th Heaven recommends, having ReMusic above a New Threat - the new track for sector 6 will play correctly in the field, but then victory fanfare will not play after battle.

The battle music itself, in each instance, works fine.

Any ideas? Not sure what to make of it myself.

Sega Chief · « **Reply #11391 on:** 2022-09-30 14:01:51 »

Quote from: Euron-Crows-Eye on 2022-09-30 00:44:16

So I am experiencing it everywhere, but I have been testing in the Sector 5 Slums during the random encounters with the bandits. My save point toggle for changing between field and normal options are there but they don't appear to be actively changing anything. The battle ends and victory fanfare does not play, it just transitions back to the field music seemlessly.

Ah about that; the change won't take proper effect until you leave that field screen; if you toggle it and then get into battles while still on the same screen it won't have updated the music behaviour yet because it's been set to do it on field load instead of when the toggle is made (an oversight on my part at the time when I originally set this up).

Fewtch · « **Reply #11392 on:** 2022-09-30 17:32:59 »

Quote from: Euron-Crows-Eye on 2022-09-30 03:20:02

Hmm - so a little more experimenting, changing the load order, I can get the victory fanfare to play at the end of battle, but some of the new tracks will not work.

Specific example: in Sector 6 with the Load order having A New Threat above ReMusic, I am getting victory fanfare to playout after battles- but the new field music track from the Remake for Sector 6 does not play, instead the field music remains the same as the remixed version from the adjacent screen (I believe the Sector 5 theme).

With Load order set up the way 7th Heaven recommends, having ReMusic above a New Threat - the new track for sector 6 will play correctly in the field, but then victory fanfare will not play after battle.

The battle music itself, in each instance, works fine.

Any ideas? Not sure what to make of it myself.

I believe you're misunderstanding entirely how ReMusic works and what it does, but I'm happy to explain!

In ReMusic, for fields that have both field music & battle music in the Remake, those fields will follow that same music flow from the game, where it switches to the battle track during battles, then returns to the field music after the battle is over. By design, this means that those battles WILL NOT have the fanfare play, as this would interrupt the music flow, since the fanfare plays on the "same track" internally and messes with the sync logic. To summarize:

OG FF7: Field music is interrupted by battle > Battle music plays from the beginning > Battle ends and fanfare plays during exp screen > Return to field music from time it was interrupted

ReMusic: Field music interrupted by battle > Battle music syncs in at same point field music was interrupted > Battle ends and battle music continues during exp screen > Field music syncs in at same point battle music was just interrupted from

The save point option to toggle battle music is inherently incompatible with ReMusic, so you wont notice any change when turning it on, except on fields where the battle music doesnt sync, usually a lot later in the game where there arent any tracks to mirror from Remake

My bad for getting off-topic in your thread Sega, but my guess is I may need to reference back to this post in the future

Euron-Crows-Eye · « **Reply #11393 on:** 2022-09-30 22:52:17 »

Yup! It is definitely a misunderstanding on my part about the function of the mod. As Sega Chief and Fewtch explained: ReMusic is working correctly. I simply did not understand it was not meant to play victory fanfare because of how it handles looping - I thought it was simply a music replacement mod like some of the others I have used, very cool how much more its actually doing. Also like Sega Chief suggested I can now see how the save point toggle works correctly- as long as I travel to a zone with a new music track after toggling.

If it is of interest to anyone I did discover though not the mods intention - ReMusic can also be used as a more traditional music replacement mod. You get the new tracks to play in most zones and keep victory fanfare after battles - you just need to load A New Threat above ReMusic for this effect - You do lose out on some of the new excellent music tracks in specific zones this way - but it works perfectly fine for anyone who wants to be able to have most of the great new music and still have the old school victory theme playout after fights.

Personally, now that I understand how it works I am going to load the mod with the proper order and enjoy all the new features ReMusic has. Thanks to Sega Chief and Fewtch for the detailed explanations. Excellent to see so much love for FFVII mods AND technical support in 2022. Much appreciated, you guys are great!

Fewtch · « **Reply #11394 on:** 2022-10-01 00:08:20 »

That bit about having ReMusic work the classic way by changing mod load order is a really neat trick. I'll have to advise that as an option, thanks for that.

Higgenbobber · « **Reply #11395 on:** 2022-10-07 00:08:16 »

So I want to play on hard mode but I'd rather not grind for steal/morph gil. In fact, I don't really care about gil at all in this game-- is there a way to disable the no gil mechanic? Or is there some cheat I can do to just give myself infinite gil?

Edit: Okay I just used the Black Chocobo trainer to modify my gil so I suppose that works. Will you consider an option to disable the gil mechanic? Everything else about hard mode sounds great! Thank you for the mod. I'm really enjoying it! I especially loved the "reward" from Heidegger for completely failing the Junon military reception minigame haha.

I did have trouble getting the Key to the Basement in Shinra mansion. I checked all the chests and they didn't have the key as I read on this forum. The chest next to the safe still remains the Enemy Launcher with the note on the lid. Opening the safe gives Odin but no key as expected. This was on Game Type A - Hard mode (started on regular). I was able to get past it by adding the key item using Black Chocobo trainer.

Sega Chief · « **Reply #11396 on:** 2022-10-07 12:07:21 »

Quote from: Higgenbobber on 2022-10-07 00:08:16

So I want to play on hard mode but I'd rather not grind for steal/morph gil. In fact, I don't really care about gil at all in this game-- is there a way to disable the no gil mechanic? Or is there some cheat I can do to just give myself infinite gil?

Edit: Okay I just used the Black Chocobo trainer to modify my gil so I suppose that works. Will you consider an option to disable the gil mechanic? Everything else about hard mode sounds great! Thank you for the mod. I'm really enjoying it! I especially loved the "reward" from Heidegger for completely failing the Junon military reception minigame haha.

I did have trouble getting the Key to the Basement in Shinra mansion. I checked all the chests and they didn't have the key as I read on this forum. The chest next to the safe still remains the Enemy Launcher with the note on the lid. Opening the safe gives Odin but no key as expected. This was on Game Type A - Hard mode (started on regular). I was able to get past it by adding the key item using Black Chocobo trainer.

Yeah, the gil thing hasn't been too popular so will probably be shelved; although will be working on a stand-alone hard-mode mod next year at some point.

About the key, this is one of those things where I'm kind of having to figure out what's been done here as I've completely forgotten; from the script, it looks like Vincent was made mandatory by having the basement key 'unlock' the lab part of the basement instead, meaning he has to be talked to in order to advance (with his own room now unlocked by default). The key used to be in a chest I think in older builds so that Vincent wasn't tied behind unlocking the safe.

If you've not recruited Vincent, I think it should be fine; his conditional checks in the script should all still be intact but if you do encounter problems I'd nip back and grab him.

PokeFaize · « **Reply #11397 on:** 2022-10-13 21:39:58 »

Came back to this for the most recent version, and once again NT does not disappoint! I do miss some of the extra stuff from 1.5, though I haven't touched Game B yet.

A Few things I wanna say

-Hard Mode is barely any different from Normal Mode aside from no Gil and steals being slightly harder until you get ~~Free Sneak Glove~~ Yuffie. Gaining no Gil from randoms was the Real Hard Mode since it made all of your shopping up until Mideel very strict, and making you decide between stocking up on recovery items, new materia, or new weapons, and even who gets new gear. Once you reach Mideel, money becomes abundant via being able to morph a crapton of Crystal Gloves to sell for 8k Gil per glove (which becomes even easier and faster to farm once you get the majestic Mega All Materia).
>I feel like making a Hard Mode with enemies (especially bosses) that are actually stronger that require planning & strategy beyond Wall+All & Haste+All and specifically designed around No Gil from Randoms would make for a brilliant NT Hard Mode.

-I Love the changes to limits, especially the Lv.4 Limits. Everyone (except Tifa and Aerith) having Physical and Magical Limits is great since it rewards players for stepping out of a character's preferred role (most of these being some form of Physical Attacker lol). I love the additional effects Nanaki and Yuffie get on their Lv.4 Limits, and it makes me wish the others got a little more love to their Lv.4 Limits as well
>I think Nanaki could do with either having Howling Moon and Stardust swapped, or having Howling Moon giving him a boost to his Magic Damage and give MP Regen. His Lv.3 Limit set is kinda very lackluster on the magic side, plus Berserk is too harsh of a drawback against bosses and rather pointless against Randoms when you could use Earth Rave and likely clear out the randoms even faster than with Howling Moon buffs + Berserk.
>Cait having Transform as a Lv.1 Limit and a Slots Limit is very redundant and makes getting the roll for Slots Transform even more disappointing. Maybe swap one of the two to an attack that uses his Current HP for damage? His HP (and his Luck) is his greatest strength for most of the game, so it'd be nice to give him a way to weaponize it other than staying at dangerously low HP for using the enemy skill ? ? ? ? (hell, giving him a weapon or two that uses Luck for damage calc would make for a fun physical attacker Cait build if that's possible)
>Everyone gets new additional effects to their limits except Tifa. I can kinda get why given how her limits work, but it does kinda feel like she got the short end of the stick, especially since none of her limits are Magic based. Is there anything you could do to spice up her limits, especially to encourage other builds for her besides dumping all her SPs on Strength boosting ones?
>It's a massive pain grinding out everyone's limits until you get Slash All. I had gotten up to Cosmo Canyon/Gold Saucer (i don't remember which off the top of my head) and just barely got Cloud's Lv.2 Limits unlocked. I can understand Cloud's kill count needing to be higher than the others to unlock his limits, but I feel the others could do with a lower kill requirement for at least their Lv.2 Limits to encourage shuffling around party members more. (Vincent is the easiest one to get all limits, but Vincent still sucks lol)

-I do want to mention that a few fights that did survive from 1.5, mostly related to Lv.4 Limit quests, have been toned down a little too far for my tastes.

Spoiler: show

and on the other end of the spectrum...

Spoiler: show

A couple issues I've noticed while playing are Renew being affected by MBarrier, making it a Worse Cure 3 (even moreso with Cure 3 being able to be paired with All/Mega All), Mustard Bomb has No Sound at all, and there's a purple materia in Rocket Town post-Rocket Launch that I can't interact with. I assume this is supposed to be where Long Range gets moved to if you missed it earlier (I picked up Long Range as soon as I was able to)

-A smaller issue I noticed was with Added Effect=Materia with positive status effects. I tried having Aerith hit the party with Regen via a normal attack and... Regen doesn't apply to anyone. Tried it with Barrier, MBarrier, and even Reflect. Nothing worked. (also could we maybe get more weapons like Aerith's healing staffs for other characters for fun support things that the splinter materias with positive effects are for?)
-Goblin Song costs no MP, which is pretty OP considering it's Life 2 on the party + Fury on the enemies. Might wanna fix this

-I'm not sure if the extra bosses in this game have extremely high physical defense, or if Cloud's Ultima Weapon isn't working right, because Cloud's Omnislash barely reaches 350 per hit, even with Elemental Materia paired with the boss' weakness. I'm hoping it's the latter, cuz battles have mostly been spamming Turbo MP'd Comet 2's until the boss dies.
-Speaking of Comet, it's really much too strong from the time you get it, and even moreso with Turbo MP. These two Spells basically render all other attack spells moot. even casting Pearl from Aerith with Turbo MP on a Holy Weak enemy struggles to match Comet 2's power.
-Small note, but sometimes when killing Emerald Weapon's eyes, it's mode change causes the pop-dialogue "Carmine is switching to Limit Mode!" rather than the intended "Emerald is switching to Limit Mode!"

I'm still working my way through the end/post-game content, and i'm enjoying it for the most part! I'm about to go against

Spoiler: show

and after I finally beat the weapons, I think I'll try out Game Mode B

EDIT to avoid double posting:

I got around to finishing Game Mode A (sorta. the game softlocked in the Cloud Sephiroth 1v1 because Cloud had Sneak Attack=Wall equipped... whoops...) and I wanted to give more thoughts before diving into Game Mode B

-I finally beat Emerald after accidentally discovering a devastating strategy while taking a swing at Ruby of Party Reflect -> Pandora's Box. It almost felt like it was necessary to be obnoxiously cheap without resorting to Peerless to ignore incoming damage against Emerald while still beating it within the 20 minute time limit given how much time it wastes with its attacks and especially its eyes.
-Ruby felt like a fine battle after I had Pandora's Box to heal my team while keeping up the damage, and it felt like it'd just be a matter of planning out my support materia set-up for Ruby.... until I accidentally discovered Pandora's Box is reflectable when I had put up reflect in hopes Ultima could be reflected. Then this fight turned into bullying Ruby into oblivion

Spoiler: show

-Sephiroth was an understandable step down from the previous boss, though the Safer form was... boring, since it was just Doublecasting Comet + Mime spam until he died since his defenses were far too high to attack him in any other way.

I was originally worried that I'd have to make use of Peerless to beat The Secret Boss, but the more I tried, the more I realized that I just needed to refine my strategy and my gear more and more, and I really wish more of NT Hard Mode had that. too many bosses could be brute forced through with Comet/Comet 2 spam without much thought, so much so that I only bothered levelling up Contain, Hydro, Pearl, and Ultima just to get the Master Magic Materia, and didn't even bother levelling up the Core Materia. I think that Comet should be pushed into later into the game because it really is so obscenely powerful it makes even Ultima pale in comparison. Maybe swap its placement with Contain?

Oh also would it be possible to add a 2nd Final Boss for the 2nd Party you make against Bizarro Sephiroth? I always found it weird and kinda disappointing that they never got a fight after Bizarro, even as a kid.

one final thing I wanna add before diving into Game Mode B is that I feel draining moves were nerfed a little too hard across the board, especially in the case of Osmose. Osmose drains so little it's basically not worth using until the extra bosses where it will always drain ~250MP per cast. I totally understand why HP Draining needed to be nerfed, since it really was hilariously broken (my main strat back in 1.5 was Cid Drain Tanking for the team with 2 Covers and 4 Counter Attacks while wielding the Venus Gospel, so I'm VERY aware how broken it was lol), but MP Draining is almost not worth slotting in Osmose/MP Absorb at all, aside from sticking it on the Master Magic Materia.

I'm gonna go and beat Sephiroth while avoiding the softlock, then dive into Game Mode B. I can't wait to see what Mode B has in store!

BiOMEGA · « **Reply #11398 on:** 2022-10-25 03:39:34 »

Quote from: PokeFaize on 2022-10-13 21:39:58

and on the other end of the spectrum...
Spoiler: show
-I'm not entirely sure what's going on in Ozma's fight, but at one point in one attempt, Ozma got like 8 turns in a row obliterating my party. On the positive side, Ozma is no longer the absolute joke it was in 1.5. on the negative side, Ozma feels even more RNG than its original battle in FF9 since it can pull out a devastating Meteor as a counter.
-Emerald Weapon is Excessively Powerful and is W A Y too bulky for a 20 minute timer. I'm even being cheap with Nanaki and Aerith for infinite Limit Breaks, and I still don't think I even got halfway down Emerald's HP pool before the 20 minutes ran out. the Eyes attack FAR too fast, and Emerald being able to Haste itself is way too much on top of being able to remove your buffs.

Funnily enough, those fights are almost too easy to trivialize by using the defense-ignoring weapons. Despite their lower attack power, they increase your damage output so much they make those enemies a joke to fight, especially when paired with multi-attack setups (cuts and/or multiple counters). I've gotten them to 7,000+ damage per hit with fairly little effort or grinding, which is pretty massive for guaranteed damage.

Counter in particular is also too strong in general; especially (but not exclusively) at endgame. It's multiple hits PLUS multiple (virtual) turns, and it even gets around enemy counters as counters can't themselves be countered. Even Super Secret Dude can be trivialized with mass Counter (I used Yuffie with 255 Luck and Conformer, for near-max damage crits). It's definitely a materia that should be considered for limitation, i.e. disabling growth (automatic master) and throttling acquisition.

PokeFaize · « **Reply #11399 on:** 2022-10-25 06:05:41 »

I had honestly forgotten about Defense ignoring weapons LOL
I'll have to keep them in mind for my run in Game Mode B

still, I think Comet should be pushed further back into the game to limit it a bit more (and maybe sorta un-nerf damage boosts when hitting Elemental Weakness?) lol

I can definitely see that Counterattack would be super strong with Ignore Defense weapons (it was stupidly powerful even in 1.5 with Cid Venus Gospel Drain Tanking, hitting back 4-5 times each time he took a hit lol), though it's underwhelming with other weapons (also I think Ozma was able to counter counters? I still don't really know what was going on with that lol).