[FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2.3 & v1.1b)

[Callisto]

@Aynath: You could upload the kernel to a file sharing site and then send me a PM with the link. Alternatively, I could extract the kernel from the download source and then send it to you. I presume you downloaded it from nexusmods, is that correct?

[Aynath]

@Callisto Yes indeed , I downloaded the mods (Succession, Ragnarok and Martial Law) from nexusmods. I uploaded the kernel into my drive, can you try the link I've PM and see if you can download it from there ? Thank you ! Also, I've managed to defeat Abadon before he tries to cast Arm Slash, I'm wondering if they are other enemies that have this attack.

[Callisto]

There are a few more enemies that use this attack, so sent a PM with a corrected kernel.bin. Thank you.

[Aynath]

Okay, so I've managed to finish the game, and beat both Weapons... What an adventure ! Thank you for that rebalance mod, it made the game a lot more challenging ! A bit frustrating early on because attacks miss a lot ! I've also played with the Martial Law and Succession mod so I believe the sidequests content weren't there but that's fine.

I'll redo it soon enough, FF 8 has an addicting battle system and the mod feels like each battle can be the last.

[SirBlackMage]

I've just had a really strange thing occur. I had just finished the concert at FH. Squall was called up to the bridge and was congratulated on his promotion. I mashed through all this dialogue, talked to Nida, and mashed some more. I apparently got the option to head to the White Seed Ship and immediately clicked it during mashing. At this point I had just Rinoa and Squall in my party. I talked to Zone who went off on Squall for not protecting Rinoa despite the fact she was standing behind him. At this point I realized I was accidentally sequence breaking so I reloaded my save as to not mess anything up. During my second time mashing through the dialogue, I wasn't presented with the White Seed Ship option and the game continued as normal.

[Callisto]

Hm, this seems weird. Triggering the White SeeD option in the library actually requires talking to Rinoa as Squall, which is not possible during the scene you mentioned, because Squall is physically not present at this moment, just on the mic.

Anyway, it is no problem to prevent this from ever happening before the intended point with a little tweak to the script. Thanks for the info.

[NissyHime]

Hey just a heads up, ruby dragon flashback on lionheart mode, wards in battle texture is all messed up and glitched, fight still works and no issues other than that from it

[Deckiller]

What did you do to the Abadon encounter? It one-shot two characters with what seemed to be instadeath moves, and then got to move like 5 times in a row against Squall. I'm not playing the Lionheart mode so such cheap tactics shouldn't exist...

[Tomahawk]

Hi, is there a Devour list somewhere please? Docs say more enemies now increase character's stats by munching them. Thanks

[MrMadakey]

So, I wanna ask something.. Are you aware of how Damage Per Second works?

I've seen that there is limitations on how much you can manipulate a mob to do however, me getting one shot in a menu before I can even decide what to do because every single mob has aoe at the start of a fight is not exactly what I would call... "Balanced."

Now you've mentioned that there is limitations to this.. Why is there limitations? Just reduce the amount of damage that the mobs do across the board.. It's literally that simple, you've got mobs doing 6 attacks to my entire party before I've even got 2 attacks off and they're doing nearly a 3rd of my life in one hit. If they're doing this many attacks, tone it down a bit maybe?

[Callisto]

Hey just a heads up, ruby dragon flashback on lionheart mode, wards in battle texture is all messed up and glitched, fight still works and no issues other than that from it

That's an issue caused by a specific Demaster tool setting. The glitched texture can be fixed by unchecking the character resolution limit option.

What did you do to the Abadon encounter? It one-shot two characters with what seemed to be instadeath moves, and then got to move like 5 times in a row against Squall. I'm not playing the Lionheart mode so such cheap tactics shouldn't exist...

Abadon has a 1/3 chance to use a physical attack that can cause instant death, but only while crouching. That attack itself has a 70% base chance to inflict the status, which is reduced by the target's Vit and status defense. So indeed, with some bad luck, Abadon will spam this attack during the crouching phase (which lasts 4 turns). I think it's ok to have an undead boss that can cause Death, so I'll leave that attack in, as even in the worst case scenario, you can use Mega Phoenix or Full-life (which the mods gives you plenty of, long before a full stack becomes easily accessible) to make a comeback. But I'll prevent it from being used consecutively for Standard mode. Thank you for your input.

Hi, is there a Devour list somewhere please? Docs say more enemies now increase character's stats by munching them. Thanks

The HP gains might not be 100% accurate, but it should be the following:

-Snow Lion: HP +10
-Ruby Dragon: HP +30
-T-Rexaur: Str +1
-Chimera: Mag +1
-Adamantoise: Vit +1
-Ochu: Spr +1
-Behemoth: Str/Mag +1
-Malboro: Vit/Spr +1
-PuPu: Spd +1

So, I wanna ask something.. Are you aware of how Damage Per Second works?

I've seen that there is limitations on how much you can manipulate a mob to do however, me getting one shot in a menu before I can even decide what to do because every single mob has aoe at the start of a fight is not exactly what I would call... "Balanced."

Now you've mentioned that there is limitations to this.. Why is there limitations? Just reduce the amount of damage that the mobs do across the board.. It's literally that simple, you've got mobs doing 6 attacks to my entire party before I've even got 2 attacks off and they're doing nearly a 3rd of my life in one hit. If they're doing this many attacks, tone it down a bit maybe?

Actually, only very few enemies have a chance to start the battle with an AoE. In fact, AoE usage is more limited than in the base game. Many enemies are set to not use AoE several times in a row, whereas in the base game, they can basically access them whenever they want (Grendel, Cockatrice, Chimera or Bahamut to name a few). Please check thoroughly before spreading misinformation out of anger.

As for your actual issue: Check your ATB speed setting and reduce it if it's on max. I assume it is, as no enemy can do 6 attacks before you get even 2 turns on normal ATB speed settings. I've already explained several times - at one point even to you directly - that high ATB speed settings are not recommended as they give enemies an unfair speed advantage that you can't negate even with supernatural reflexes. The higher the ATB speed is set, the more attacks enemies get compared to you, that's how it is even in the base game - it becomes noticably more difficult then. And I'm not willing to balance the difficulty of this mod around this setting. It's just way too fast.

Guess I'll have to add this information to the opening post and mod documentation until a proper ATB speed adjustment is ready (I know there is a setting for that in the Doomtrain tool, but changing it so that max Speed becomes more managable results in standard speed settings becoming super slow) - too many players fell for it already, without realizing where the issue stems from, rather blaming the mod instead. I'll do my best to finally come up with that long-needed fix (also making the ATB stop when selecting targets), so this issue can finally be put to rest.

[MrMadakey]

Actually, only very few enemies have a chance to start the battle with an AoE. In fact, AoE usage is more limited than in the base game. Many enemies are set to not use AoE several times in a row, whereas in the base game, they can basically access them whenever they want (Grendel, Cockatrice, Chimera or Bahamut to name a few). Please check thoroughly before spreading misinformation out of anger.

As for your actual issue: Check your ATB speed setting and reduce it if it's on max. I assume it is, as no enemy can do 6 attacks before you get even 2 turns on normal ATB speed settings. I've already explained several times - at one point even to you directly - that high ATB speed settings are not recommended as they give enemies an unfair speed advantage that you can't negate even with supernatural reflexes. The higher the ATB speed is set, the more attacks enemies get compared to you, that's how it is even in the base game - it becomes noticably more difficult then. And I'm not willing to balance the difficulty of this mod around this setting. It's just way too fast.

Guess I'll have to add this information to the opening post and mod documentation until a proper ATB speed adjustment is ready (I know there is a setting for that in the Doomtrain tool, but changing it so that max Speed becomes more managable results in standard speed settings becoming super slow) - too many players fell for it already, without realizing where the issue stems from, rather blaming the mod instead. I'll do my best to finally come up with that long-needed fix (also making the ATB stop when selecting targets), so this issue can finally be put to rest.

Okay, so I will agree that you right about the ATB speed adjustment and I would be happy to retract my statement on that.

However, I do want to mention, there are a lot of mobs in this mod that do a lot of AOE, whether I had the speed at full or not, which again was my mistake, there are a lot of enemies in this mod that are doing AOE, I am not just spreading misinformation, I have another friend who's playing alongside me and is having the same issue.

There is even a series on youtube of a person playing the same mod, having the same issue...

With that said, thank you for the update!

[Callisto]

Sure, the mod might be more AoE-heavy than the base game overall, but your initial point was about all enemies being able to open with an AoE, which is simply not the case.

The number of enemies capable of starting with an AoE is a little less than 30% of all enemies, including ones that use AoE only under certain conditions (level threshold, specific battles or number of enemies present). Aside from that, not all of them are meant to be threatening (such as the Geezard's or Raldo's Foul Breath), but can potentially become a threat with ATB speed set to max. With highly damaging AoEs usually being strictly regulated to not be used consecutively and with the new Heal ability + Mega-Potion buff, things shouldn't be too difficult, at least in Standard Mode. I can see some more AoE restrictions in a third difficulty option though.

Currently aiming to release an ATB patch by the end of this week. It's basically ready for the 2013 version, but want to look into Remastered too, as I don't want to separate the two versions again, now that they are almost identical. And it's about an important issue that can potentially ruin the entire experience. Will report back.

[MrMadakey]

Sure, the mod might be more AoE-heavy than the base game overall, but your initial point was about all enemies being able to open with an AoE, which is simply not the case.

The number of enemies capable of starting with an AoE is a little less than 30% of all enemies, including ones that use AoE only under certain conditions (level threshold, specific battles or number of enemies present). Aside from that, not all of them are meant to be threatening (such as the Geezard's or Raldo's Foul Breath), but can potentially become a threat with ATB speed set to max. With highly damaging AoEs usually being strictly regulated to not be used consecutively and with the new Heal ability + Mega-Potion buff, things shouldn't be too difficult, at least in Standard Mode. I can see some more AoE restrictions in a third difficulty option though.

Currently aiming to release an ATB patch by the end of this week. It's basically ready for the 2013 version, but want to look into Remastered too, as I don't want to separate the two versions again, now that they are almost identical. And it's about an important issue that can potentially ruin the entire experience. Will report back.

I feel like I also came across badly in my original post, it wasn't supposed to come across hostile. I have been enjoying your mod thoroughly, especially much more now I'm aware of how the ATB works and sincerely thank you for that. It feels like things have significantly calmed down with the amount of attacks enemies are able to use since I changed the ATB. However I would like to point out misinformation was never my game, more understanding or feedback. Feel like that didn't come across very well and for that I would like to apologise.

[Callisto]

No problem. Didn't regard your post as intentional spread of misinformation - it rather just has that certain saltiness in it, that often leads to unintentional generalization of things.

Anway, I'll take it as a reminder that's there's still unfinished business with this mod, so thank you.

[MrMadakey]

One suggestion could be that when somebody starts the game, you could have a little notification at the top that says "Set your ATB to wait and if you feel like enemies are attacking too much please consider turning down the battle speed." Or something to this degree. Would help a tonne as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has made this mistake.

I'm not really sure if this is possible and I also got the idea from SegaChiefs new threat mod.

*EDIT* If it's not possible however, it might be an idea to have it in the readme section on how to install the mod.
(The same place that mentions the magic in Squalls inventory to check if the mod is working)

One more edit: I would like to mention I've been enjoying your mod a lot, me and my friend have both been enjoying the mod a lot. We only really started to get frustrated with said battle speed around the lunar cry. It was already pretty tough with it full the entire playthrough but then it got to this point and both me and my friend were saying "Are we missing something?" It turns out yes we was lmao

[kakayijo160]

Can UP please explain how the items sold in the store were changed to other items? Thank you!!!

[Callisto]

Updated 2013 Steam with a patch to address ATB related issues. Changes are as follows:

• The differences between ATB speed settings in Config menu are now much more subtle. Highest speed setting should be safe to use now.
• In Wait mode, ATB bars stop when selecting targets (without breaking Selphie's Slot Limit Break).
• In Wait mode, ATB keeps running during escape attempts even when in menus.

A few mistakes present in the previous version have been corrected:

• Rather than just Shiva, Quezacotl and Ifrit start with EXP-None ability learned as well.
• Megalixir and Power Generator have been removed from Chocobo World loot.

Haven't found a way to implement the ATB changes to Remastered yet, but will keep trying. Remastered will receive a notification in the opening post for now, as suggested by MrMadakey. Sorry for the inconvenience.

@kakayijo160: Shop inventories are stored in shop.bin, a file contained in the menu.fs archive that can be extracted with the Deling tool. As there is currently no tool to edit the shop.bin file, you need a hex editor to do so. Every shop is 32 bytes each, with every item using two bytes. First byte is Item ID followed by either 00 or FF - FF means item is available right away, while 00 means it requires Tonberry's Familiar Ability to become available.

[MrBombastic95]

Hello Everyone! I was not sure where to ask so im gonna to answer in this forum altho its alrdy old.. I for some reason can not make own posts as well except replying in a open thread.

I am currently trying to install the mod on the 2019 remaster version. I cant figure out what the step "4. Merge the DEMASTER_EXP folder from the mod download package (found in Standard and Lionheart Mode folders) with your own DEMASTER_EXP folder." means.. i did every step now but i cant find out what i have to do for this..

Help would be much appreciated thank you very much! 

Thank you advance!

best regards,
Mr.Bombastic95

[kakayijo160]

@Callisto：Thank you, UP. I want to ask you something. How does Disk 4 lift the ban on entering cities, and what do the 16 digit codes in the store list represent? Because Albert is also changing the version but will not change the list of stores and how to unlock those sealed cities on disc 4 to enter!!! thank you

[BerikXardas]

Hello community,

I gave this mod a try, and had much fun until now. Sure, one thing or another was not great imo, but I'll save the criticism for the review once I am finished.
Alright, so in a couple of battles the whole game crashed (it was mostly random battles, and oddly always when Squall was about to hit the enemy with his physical attack). The Game froze, and it was stated that "an unknown exception" occured. This was already annoying, but definitely not a deal breaker, as I save often.

But now, I am at the end of disk 3 fighting Mobile Type 8. And there seems to be a glitched attack. When Support Mode is on (probes not being connected to the main part), there is one attack (uses sound of animation of enemy-magic-cating) which locks the battle. The game itself does not freeze - the music is still playing and I can set actions for my characters who have full ATB. But the camera just focuses on Mobile Type 8, and after its "casting" sound and sparkles, the camera does not move, no attack, and the ATB stops as there is still an action going on - except for, well, no action takes place as said. No way to continue/end the battle. I also cannot tell which attack this is, because each time that happens, the name of the attack is not shown. I tried to re-install, which was not helpful.

Playing on Steam 2013 version on a Windows 10 PC.
Any help is appreciated - I really want to avoid using Hyne in order to play disk 4.

[Callisto]

Hello BerikXardas,

The game randomly crashing after attacking with Squall is a bug in the 2013 Steam version and not mod-related. I'm not sure what causes it, but lowering internal resolution and playing in windowed mode may alleviate the issue.

As for the enemy ability that causes a softlock during the Mobile Type 8 boss: I think it's only used if you attack with the Thunder element a few times. So for now, try to defeat it without using any Thunder elemental attacks, until a proper fix is ready. Sorry for the inconvenience.

@MisterBombastic95: Try the following if still relevant: Right-click on the DEMASTER_EXP folder in download package, select Copy, right-click on an empty space in the game's root folder (Steam -> steamapps -> common -> FINAL FANTASY VIII Remastered) where DEMASTER_EXP folder is present, select Paste and finally "Replace files in the destination" when Windows asks how to proceed.

@kakayijo160: Item IDs in shop.bin are in this order, if that helps. I'm afraid I don't have any information on unsealing locations on disc 4.

[albert]

@kakayijo160: Shop inventories are stored in shop.bin, a file contained in the menu.fs archive that can be extracted with the Deling tool. As there is currently no tool to edit the shop.bin file, you need a hex editor to do so. Every shop is 32 bytes each, with every item using two bytes. First byte is Item ID followed by either 00 or FF - FF means item is available right away, while 00 means it requires Tonberry's Familiar Ability to become available.

I notice that Shop.bin doesn't contain the sale price of every item, where I can find them?

[albert]

Hello BerikXardas,

The game randomly crashing after attacking with Squall is a bug in the 2013 Steam version and not mod-related. I'm not sure what causes it, but lowering internal resolution and playing in windowed mode may alleviate the issue.

As for the enemy ability that causes a softlock during the Mobile Type 8 boss: I think it's only used if you attack with the Thunder element a few times. So for now, try to defeat it without using any Thunder elemental attacks, until a proper fix is ready. Sorry for the inconvenience.

@Callisto Have you changed enemy attack abilities of Mobile Type 8? this thing is probably occour on you changed the enemy attack ability ID but doesn't fit with a correct animation ID, or that changed ability ID can not fit this enemy(some of ability need special anim but that enemy doesn't have that).

[albert]

Hello Everyone! I was not sure where to ask so im gonna to answer in this forum altho its alrdy old.. I for some reason can not make own posts as well except replying in a open thread.

I am currently trying to install the mod on the 2019 remaster version. I cant figure out what the step "4. Merge the DEMASTER_EXP folder from the mod download package (found in Standard and Lionheart Mode folders) with your own DEMASTER_EXP folder." means.. i did every step now but i cant find out what i have to do for this..

Help would be much appreciated thank you very much! 

Thank you advance!

best regards,
Mr.Bombastic95

Actually Demaster deachieved files in main.zzz into DEMASTER_EXP folder, and reconnect relevant file to it, it means when you play with demaster the game file will be read from demaster_exp folder instead of from main.zzz.
It's also more efficient for modder to update their product of Remaster version, no more deachieve and reachieve needed.