I'm gonna make a New Game+ anyway

[nfitc1]

It just occurs to me that this might work. I'm envisioning an application that takes an already existing save game and resets all the progression variables to NULL. That way, when the game tries to load the game it'll think it's a new game, but all the equipment will still exist. If I understand the sequence properly, when "New Game" is selected the game just dumps the contents of the fourth KERNEL.BIN piece into a more-or-less blank memory slate and begins the game.
Could this work? Has anyone tried it and I'm just out of the loop?

EDIT: I have come to the conclusion (see below) that this would probably not work properly as an external app. As a patch it would require significant recoding. Something I'm terrible at. Sorry. Pretend you never saw this.

[hay]

This could work. I've seen hacked saves, maxed out starting the game right from the train. The app would be pretty cool but I think the difficulty would be a bit to lame with 40lvl+ so this app could be even better when it would apply some insane difficulty level to set some challenging foes at the same time. I think this may work and could be pretty cool idea.

[dziugo]

There was an old discussion here. Basically, it has been attempted but abbandoned.

As for technical stuff - I added some part of code which enabled a new option in the main screen so it would let you choose the saved game and then started a new game loading the selected file instead of the one from kernel.bin. IIRC I only blocked the stats and inventory/materia resetting.

[nfitc1]

I understand the complications of putting a New Game+ directly into the game's code itself, but I was thinking of an external app that just modified a save game.....Oops. I foresee a problem with this already... Vincent and Cait Sith. Since their information isn't in the KERNEL.BIN their data is overwritten as soon as you get them. So any upgrading you might have done to them would have been lost. This includes VINCENT'S KILL COUNT which is, of course, crucial to his Death Penalty working well and probably something everyone would want in a New Game+. Consequently, since we're not loading from the KERNEL, Young Cloud would have the Cait Sith's previous stats and Sephiroth would have Vincent's previous stats. Hmm. I guess an external app won't cut it.
Dang. I guess this just isn't feasible. Sorry...

[Tsetra]

There was an old discussion here. Basically, it has been attempted but abbandoned.

As for technical stuff - I added some part of code which enabled a new option in the main screen so it would let you choose the saved game and then started a new game loading the selected file instead of the one from kernel.bin. IIRC I only blocked the stats and inventory/materia resetting.

That makes me wonder, how difficult would a bestiary be? I can think of a ghetto method to do this in field script, by having the option take you to a field which brings up a dialog. By selecting an option, you are taken to another area which maybe shows a rotating graphic of that enemy and displays dialog presenting the information on it. That of course is a very swiftly thought out idea and surely could be refined, but it could be possible.

[nfitc1]

Ya know. I've been brooding over this and I decided that I'm going to make an external app for it anyway. At the very least, items and materia can be carried over. Stats can too, but I'll probably add buttons to transfer over Vincent's and Cait Sith's stats later.

Things planned to transfer:
Items (should I allow Weapons/Armors/Accessories?; No Key Items)
Materia (with levels)
Stats (as stated, Cait Sith and Vincent will wait 'till later)
Gil
Game Clock
GP
Gold Saucer High Scores
Chocobos

That's about all that could to be transferred. I'm going to have to play with the Chocobo pens and such since they're not supposed to be available until Disc 2 and I think the action of buying a pen activates that guy's dialog about feeding/breeding/riding Chocobos.

[Opine]

Would you be able to use New Game+ while installing new mods in between games?
For example, I play the game through once, then save as New Game+ at the end. Then I decide I want to use apz's cloud when I start my New Game+.
Would it be possible to install a mod before starting the next round of gameplay without losing the New Game+? Or would I have to use a clean install?

[nfitc1]

The only(safest) way to make a New Game+ in this game is to make it an external app. What I plan to do is allow the user to open a save state (maybe enforce the fact that it's in the North Cave) and just copy bits and pieces from it and construct a new save game that starts out at the beginning, but has all those stats. The only problem I run into is Cait Sith and Vincent. Their info can't be copied at the beginning since it's occupied by Sephiroth and Young Cloud at the beginning and only gets added to the game once they are recruited. This is (relatively) easily solved by allowing the user to transfer Vinnie's and Cait's data to the "new game" from the "old game" after they are recruited and change nothing else.

This app is on my lower priority list at the moment. Once WallMarket makes it to version 1.2 (allowing AI script editing) and subsequently "Heidegger" evolves to "Proud Clod" (when I allow it to alter Enemy AI), then I'll start this. WallMarket's currently in hiatus because I'm nearing the end of my Japanese class and I have a final coming up.