Hello.
I played through the game once and realized how easy it is. A variety of recommendations were given about how the game could be made harder... a reigning opinion has been that we gotta edit the script system so that fights will be more strategic. However, I feel that this is not so necessary... While a guard scorpion going into 'scorpion tail' mode more often may indeed be more challenging, neither the original nor the 'smarter' version would stand much of a chance anyway against a skilled player... I feel that an increase in speed, strength, and survivability of each monster will force a player to become more strategic just because he or she now actually has to care about what the monster is doing.
As a result, I decided to utilize the Secene.Bin exporter and Scene Edit given in the 'Compilation of Programs' Topic to have some fun.
Here's what I did:
Editing Monster Stats:
all 0-->10 (in below)
HP: x10
MP: x10
Level x3
Str: x3
Def: x4
Mag: x3
Mag Def: x4
Evade: x1.5
Luck: x5
Speed: x4
Any elemental immunity has been given a step 'up':
Death-->Unavoidable
Unavoidable-->Double Damage
Double Damage-->Half Damage
Half Damage-->Immune
Immune-->Absorb
Absorb-->Full Cure
If no elemental immunity, an elemental immunity that is consistent with its backgrounds have been given (i.e. 'Jumping' has half damage from ice)
For each stat that hits 255 (cannot be put any further because of the byte limit), hp and mp +2x
i.e. for Ruby Weapon, str, def, mag, mag def, and speed will reach 255 by above formula. His HP and MP will therefore be multiplied by (10+2*5)=20x.
Example:
Guard Scorpion
HP: 800-->9600
MP: 0-->10
Level: 12-->36
Str: 30-->90
Def: 20-->80
Mag: 15-->45
Mag def: 150-->255
Evade: 0-->10
Luck: 1-->5
Speed: 60-->240
Ultimate Weapon:
HP: 1000000-->16000000
MP: 400-->6400
Level: 61-->183
Str: 100-->255
Def: 60-->180
Mag: 170-->255
Mag Def: 50-->150
Evade: 3-->5
Luck: 50-->250
Speed: 215-->255
----------------------
no change in win bonus, items etc.
Additional Advice:
Battle Speed-Maximum
ATB-Active
To counter this increase in difficulty, the following has been applied through memhack+dziugo's patches:
Unlimited limit breaks-limit break guage always full
Full hero drinks always applied-At, MAt, Def, MDef mod always 100 (essentially, damage output and def doubled no matter what)
All limit breaks always crit strike
Tifa's limits always hit
9999 limit broken
All limit breaks power adjusted upwards by 2.5
All Magic and Summon power adjusted upwards by 1.5
Access to two spells
1. Ultima
-casting cost 255
-'Recovery' on all allies
-revives all dead characters with full health
-100% chance of giving haste, regen, barrier, mbarrier, shield, peerless, death force, resist, lucky girl (Mbarrier and barrier etc can be recast despite resist through this spell)
2. Comet2
-casting cost 255
-Strength 16x base
-100% chance of inflicting death, sleep, poison, confusion, silence, slow, stop, frog, small, petrify, paralyzed, darkness, DUAL (drain HP like poison)
-hits 6 times
-ignores defense
-absorb damage as HP (100%)
I find it much more interesting that the enemies are actually putting up a fight now.
While some ppl may say this will slow down the game a lot, I enjoy this pace... makes you actually feel accomplished whenever you reach a story point, going across enemy-infested lands, actually defeating a 'weapon' that could have destroyed the entire world... (then again, I also enjoyed those civilization3 'huge world map' games that take two months with 3-4 hours of playing a day to win through conquest...)
any other suggestions?
-comet2
