1.5 (2013) / 1.1 (Remastered) released.
Steam-2013:
NexusRemastered PC/Switch:
NexusVersion-specific
2013:
- The party's Command and Character Abilities will no longer be unequipped when transitioning to and from Laguna dreams.
Remastered:
- Increased Darkside's HP penalty.
- Fixed errors with the counter behavior of the following enemies:
*X-ATM092 (rematch)
*Cerberus
*Edea (Sorceress Memorial)
*Seifer (final)
*Adel
*Ultimecia (second)
- Fixed bug in which certain some enemies' models wouldn't appear when fighting alongside Elite Soldier.
- Corrected Caterchipillar's low-level item drops to no longer include Spider Webs.
- Fixed issue in which one of G-Specialist's abilities was set incorrectly.
- Fixed issue with Ultimecia (second)'s Helix behavior.
- Added Adamantoises to Deep Sea Deposit.
- Changed coloration of Remastered version's title screen.
Content:
- A new battle has been added, accessible by using the Seven Virtues item after buying it from the secret shop.
- On Disc 3, Zell's party will now fight the Mobile Type 8 before being ejected from Lunatic Pandora.
Characters:
- Increased GF damage.
Squall/Bahamut:
- Increased Crisis Level value of Defend from 20 to 25.
Quistis/Shiva:
- Reverted statistical changes to Fire Breath, Aqua Breath, and Electrocute.
- Ultra Waves is now a physical attack.
Zell/Ifrit:
- Fixed bug with My Final Heaven.
- Increased Mag growth; no longer learns Mag+20%.
Selphie/Tonberry:
- Adjusted Slot table.
- Lowered Crisis Level HP modifier.
- Double status now boosts Crisis Level by 25.
Irvine:
- Adjusted stats, weapon stats, and Shot stats.
- Fixed issue in which empty ability spaces appeared in Cerberus'/Cactuar's GF menu.
Enemies:
- Caterchipillar: Increased drop rate of Spider Webs; added high-level Caterchipillars to the forests in southeastern Centra.
- Cockatrice: More likely to be mugged for a Coral Fragment at low levels.
- Grand Mantis: Lowered HP and Vit; increased Spd.
- Edea (1): Can now Dispel Aura; fixed bug with Blind casting behavior.
- SAMo8G: Lowered Vit; increased Spr.
- Edea (Sorceress Memorial): Fixed error preventing Edea from acting.
- Abyss Worm (aberrant): Increased appearance rate.
- Mobile Type 8: Lowered power of Twin Homing Laser and Megiddo Flame.
- Ultimecia (second): Altered GF-targeting behavior.
- Helix: Lowered HP.
- Ultimecia (final): Altered GF-targeting behavior.
Misc.:
- Corrected AP Ammo's price to 350 gil.
- Esthar Shop now sells Cottages.
- Esthar Pet Shop now sells an item that teaches GFHP+30%.
- Changed mod files' folder structure for easier installation.
I'll fix any other bugs that may crop up, but if I ever develop this mod any further it won't be for a long time. I appreciate everyone who gave it a try and left their feedback.
There were a few major things I had wanted to add before hanging this up, but in the end I chose to implement only the one I wanted to do most. I didn't say much about the content additions added up to this point, but I wanted to elaborate on this one a bit
and talk about FFXI.
Once you've bought the Seven Virtues item from the secret shop (located
here btw), you can use it to fight Virtuous Weapon, an enemy based on the NM Absolute Virtue from FFXI. With this fight I attempted to translate certain FFXI mechanics to FFVIII.
FFXI's enemies auto-attack until they've built up enough TP, their primary source of which is being attacked by players, to use a special ability. The fight with VW works similarly, with different player abilities contributing different amounts to VW's "TP" total. When "TP" reaches a certain value, it will use one of its special attacks. I also gave it a way to build some "TP" on its own to help keep things interesting.
In FFXI, when players combine their weaponskills (TP-consuming special attacks tied to the weapon the player is using) in specific ways based on their elemental properties, they can create a Skillchain, which deals additional damage to the enemy. Similar to FFXI, VW is able to trigger Skillchains when using its abilities in specific combinations within a certain timeframe. Due to movelist limitations I've only adapted three types of Skillchain; however, the combinations are true to FFXI's Skillchain chart.
Finally, each class in FFXI has what's called an SP Ability or 1-Hour Ability (formerly 2-Hour), which are
supposed to be powerful exclusive skills with long recast timers. Absolute Virtue could use many of them, and so can VW. I've adapted several to FFVIII (though in the end I had to use a couple that Absolute Virtue doesn't) and VW will use one such ability at specific intervals or under certain conditions. There are 10 total.
The reward for beating VW is three GFs: Siren, Diablos, and Doomtrain. I've given them the following properties:
Siren: Non-elemental damage that inflicts Silence and Doom; heals the caster; highest HP of all GFs.
Diablos: Deals Spr-ignoring non-elemental damage; stronger than Bahamut.
Doomtrain: Poison-elemental damage that inflicts most status effects in the game, including Death and Curse.
All three come with the GF command and Siren and Doomtrain come with Boost while Diablos has Boost+.
There were a couple of things I wanted to do but couldn't. The first was to give it an altered version of the beach battlefield that resembles
Al'Taieu. The second was to give it the following Scan description: "A notorious monster from a distant world. Its strength is impossible to gauge." With regard to the latter, I couldn't implement it because VW replaces the Garden Faculty enemy, and by default its Scan description is "NOT A TARGET." as with almost all enemies you're not meant to Scan and I couldn't fit anything longer than that message. On that note, there is a minor bug with VW: when it uses its normal attack, there's no sound effect. I assume the game assigns enemies' basic attack sounds based on the number of their c0m file and they didn't assign Garden Faculty one since it doesn't attack. I tried to find a solution to this but couldn't. It's annoying, but oh well. (Actually, I didn't notice it until after the fight's scripting was more or less finished because I usually playtest with the sound muted.)
I've also added a version compatible with the Switch version of Remastered. It's identical to the PC version with two exceptions: the FFVIII_EFIGS.dll edits and the Angel Wing ability. Since vanilla Angel Wing would be far too strong in this mod, I changed the ability to instead give Rinoa a few buffs, including Double. I've also changed certain things about the "Sorceress" (phantasm)'s AI to accommodate this change. The Switch version's folder structure is made for Atmosphere.
This is really late, but as for what you're supposed to do with the Aberrant Keys...
You go to Trabia Canyon. The word spelled out by the Key items is meant to be a hint. Glens and Canyons are both types of valley.
