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

just got The End twice in the same random battle. A 16-count Doom doesn't seem appropriate for what should be the ultimate finisher

The End still works on all bosses except Undead though, so I would say it kind of still is her ultimate finisher. For random battles, rolling for Calamity is arguably better, as it does high damage to all enemies, ignores enemy Spirit and causes Sleep, Blind, Poison and Silence 100% if enemies are not immune. It will also appear more frequently in the next version of the mod, but will receive a level requirement to keep it out of the early game. All in all, I would say that both spells are very good, depending on the situation.

Amazing work Callisto! Is there an ETA for the removal of the draw cap in the Remaster? Any chance of getting that soon?

Thanks. I hope I can port over some of the missing features the next weekend, including the Draw cap removal.

It'd be cool if weak magic was easier/faster to draw, but for strong magic it's harder/slower to draw.
I think that'd be a nice balance.
Essentially taking more time and effort if you want the best magic in-game.
But that's just my personal preference.

Maybe create a magic tier system, where at the lowest magic level you can draw up to a max of 100, and as you go up the tier list you can only draw a certain amount. Example, for top tier magic you can only draw up to 9 or less at a time.
Maybe even lowering the chances of getting a high draw number as you go up the tier list?
This would make the earlier parts of the game quicker and less frustrating/boring, while keeping the later parts of the game more rewarding to achieve.
Capping everything at max 9 draw or at max 100 draw for ALL magic still have their own positives and "negatives".

Doing it the way i've mentioned up above would be a very nice middle ground. Taking the positives from both sides and putting them together.
Has anyone ever thought of this as well?
I feel this idea could of been overlooked. Or would it be hard to implement?! Idk lol

Hopefully it can come to fruition someday. I REALLY love this idea.
Even if it's just for the hard mode version or as an optional mod, i'll take anything.

It'd be cool if weak magic was easier/faster to draw, but for strong magic it's harder/slower to draw.
I think that'd be a nice balance.
Essentially taking more time and effort if you want the best magic in-game.
But that's just my personal preference.

Maybe create a magic tier system, where at the lowest magic level you can draw up to a max of 100, and as you go up the tier list you can only draw a certain amount. Example, for top tier magic you can only draw up to 9 or less at a time.
Maybe even lowering the chances of getting a high draw number as you go up the tier list?
This would make the earlier parts of the game quicker and less frustrating/boring, while keeping the later parts of the game more rewarding to achieve.
Capping everything at max 9 draw or at max 100 draw for ALL magic still have their own positives and "negatives".

Doing it the way i've mentioned up above would be a very nice middle ground. Taking the positives from both sides and putting them together.
Has anyone ever thought of this as well?
I feel this idea could of been overlooked. Or would it be hard to implement?! Idk lol

Hopefully it can come to fruition someday. I REALLY love this idea.
Even if it's just for the hard mode version or as an optional mod, i'll take anything.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your ideas. What you requested is more or less already part of the base game in the form Draw resist values for each spell. They determine how easy/hard a given spell can be drawn in battle, but this mechanic can't really be utilized because of the Draw limit of 9. In the 2013 version of this mod however, where this limit has been removed, the different Draw resist values show, and drawing 100 Ultimas in one go is not even possible with maxed out Magic stats, while for something basic like Cure, it's easily doable. More information on Draw resist here:

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Draw_(Final_Fantasy_VIII)#Draw_list

On another note, an update for the Remastered version will be released by the end of the week, and most of the missing features will finally be ported over. I just need a little more time to create a patch. Sorry for the long wait to everyone waiting for this update.

Version 1.1 for Remastered has been released, porting over the following features from Steam 2013:

- Draw cap removal in battle
- Alteration to the Draw amount formula that allows for more Draws
- Alteration to the magic damage formula
- Alteration to ATB bar filling speed
- Removal of magic damage division for enemies
- Break Damage Limit for weapon attacks
- Rare Item Ability fix
- Return Damage improvement (now returns 1/2 of the damage)
- Phoenix Down and Life spell HP restoration change to 25% max HP
- Darkside damage multiplier change from x3 to x2
- Darkside HP loss change from 10% to 20% max HP
- Kamikaze damage multiplier from max HP x5 to max HP x2
- Angel Wing damage multiplier from x5 to x3
- Removal of damage reduction for Cover Ability
- Exclusion of X-Potion and Elixir from Auto-Potion Ability
- Penalty removal when using GF compatibility items


That leaves us with only a few features still missing (most of them are somewhat covered up by workarounds though):

- Some changed Draw point contents
- Draw points changing contents over the course of the game
- Angel Wing, Vit 0, and Dispel+Damage attack type patch by JWP
- SeeD Rank payment values
- Changes to Triple Triad elemental attributes and PuPu card buff
- Removal of Invincibility items from the Angelo Search item pool
- EXP-None Character Ability


A few balance changes and bugfixes have been made as well, for both versions:

- Elite Soldier no longer gains a Speed bonus at the top of D-District Prison
- X-ATM092 has more HP in Hard Mode
- Fujin and Raijin (Balamb encounter) are a little slower in Hard Mode
- Seifer and Edea (G-Garden) are a little slower in the combined Hard Mode battle
- Some enemy attacks (Shotgun, Counter Laser Eye etc) are less powerful in Standard Mode
- Esthar Soldier (Cyborg) has less HP in Standard Mode
- A softlock that can occur when fighting Behemoth has been fixed


Installation for the Remastered version has changed and now requires a patch to the FFVIII_EFIGS.dll file for the new changes to take effect. See first page for more information. If you already have the Remastered version installed and want to upgrade now, going through the installation process again is necessary, as the kernel.bin file has undergone some major changes. Feel free to ask if any help is needed.

Hey Callisto,

Just wanted to give you a heads up that the download links appear to be messed up. I tried downloading the 2013 version but that keeps giving me the 2019 remaster version and the 2019 link says the file was removed when I tried that as well.

Fixed the links. Thanks for the heads up.

Hello! I’m coming back to replay this mod after a year. I throughly enjoyed the last play through and I’m very much looking forward to another play through with all the little changes that have happened since then.

One question I have is would you consider a clothes change option for the characters that already have pre existing field and battle models? I’m not sure if this isn’t possible because the likes of Seifer and Edea don’t appear as party members where they aren’t supposed to and I don’t know if normal Squall and uniform Squall are just skins or entirely different models.

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you so much Callisto for making and continually working on this fascinating mod! Are there any further updates planned for the future?

So, I installed V 1.1 on the Remastered edition of the game and holy crap! Is it normal that I'm getting my ass kicked in the Fire Cavern fight with Ifrit? ???

@Murasame: Welcome back. As you already guessed, alternative outfits count as different models and they are unfortunately only available for a handful of fields by default. Adding them manually would require extensive hex editing of each of the 800+ fields in the game, so that would be very time-consuming. I hope that the Deling tool will support field model injection some day. I would gladly add alternative outfits then, as well as making Edea and maybe Seifer a permanent party member.

@Solodin: If you are on Lionheart Mode, it could be normal, yes. Especially without using Double from the BG Library Draw point. In Standard Mode however, Ifrit should be very managable even without any prior level or AP grinding. Just don't let your HP drop below 300 and heal with Potions or Cure from own stock - do not rely on Draw cast Cure, as its result is random and can heal only very little HP if you are unlucky.

Also reduce battle speed if you have set it to max - on higher settings, enemies will easily out-tempo your characters as they don't need to spend time on selecting commands and targets.

Both Draw Cast randomization and higher ATB speed settings will be addressed soon. Especially the latter can make the mod nearly unplayable unless you know exactly what you and the enemy are doing - it's just way too fast and can even make the vanilla game quite challenging at times. So for now, I'd definitely advise against using it.

Hi, Callisto.
Enjoy the mod very much.

Just Wondering how to get the sidequest "The lonely girl in Dollet" done.
Which needs to collect three ingredients for helping girl's sick mother.

As I see, two of them are Mystery Fluid and Remedy+.
But I can't find the last key item (an extract of a certain flower).
The only clue I found was the woman in Winhill who can also make medicine with flowers.

Any reply is appreciated.

Hi, Callisto.
Enjoy the mod very much.

Just Wondering how to get the sidequest "The lonely girl in Dollet" done.
Which needs to collect three ingredients for helping girl's sick mother.

As I see, two of them are Mystery Fluid and Remedy+.
But I can't find the last key item (an extract of a certain flower).
The only clue I found was the woman in Winhill who can also make medicine with flowers.

Any reply is appreciated.

Click to expand...

Thanks and welcome to the forums.

The flower that is needed to complete this sidequest is received from a waitress at Timber Pub after the girl in Dollet gave the clues regarding the ingredients. I'll try to make it a little more obvious next time by making an NPC in Dollet Pub hint at Timber, in case the player visits Dollet Pub first.

The boss at Fishermans Horizon on Disc 2 is ridiculous. I barely even get a chance to get my party in order before he wipes me out. Have tried numerous setups. All out attack. Total defense. Stop which misses all the time. Each enemy and boss is well beatable up until this point.

Yes, the damage output of this boss is extraordinarily high, but it only lasts for a set amount of turns. It will peak on the bosses' 5th turn with the powerful Explosion attack, and becomes gradually weaker after that. So surviving until turn 5 is top priority.

All attacks execpt Beam Cannon do physical damage, so it helps to raise Vitality as high as possible before the battle and to equip Abilities like Vit+20%. In battle, quickly cast Protect on your team, prioritizing your lower Vitality characters, and use Mega-Potions or Siren's new Heal Ability to soak up some of the damage. Alternatively, you can use your GF as a shield, preferably those with lower compatibility values to ensure longer charging times.

I think I found a bug. The game crashes when fighting the Elnoyle battle triggered by talking to the injured soldier on the wall after the lunar cry. The exact spot it crashes is RIGHT before the appearance of the Elnoyle in battle.

I am using the 2013 steam version along with the latest version of the Lionheart mode. I've narrowed it down to the files changed in lang-en; If I restore these from the defaults, the game does not crash. It looks like the standard mode lang-en files also causes the game to crash.

Here's a bit more info (for some reason I cannot edit my post?)

The game simply crashes with a window saying 'An unknown exception has occurred'. If I look into the windows event viewer, I do see 'Application Error' lines being logged, but there doesn't seem to be any useful info in them. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with steam to know where else to look for logs.

Version 1.2a/1.1a is now available for both Steam 2013 and Remastered versions, further separating Standard Mode and Hard Mode difficulty-wise by making Standard Mode a little easier especially in the mid-late-game. A few general changes have been made to both versions. See below for more information (contains spoilers).

Standard Mode changes

• Enemies that appear in the new scripted encounter at Centra Ruins are now at a lower level
• Stop status infliction rate of Heaven's Wrath enemy attack has been reduced
• Vit 0 status infliction rate of Ray-Bomb enemy attack has been reduced
• Physical attack damage of high-leveled Creeps has been reduced
• SAM08G's damage output has been generally decreased
• Cerberus generally does a little less damage
• Edea (2nd) has had her Magic stat slightly reduced
• Maelstrom enemy attack no longer requires 100% protection against Slow to prevent its Slow effect
• All enemies that appear in the Laguna flashback at LP Laboratory are now at a lower level
• High-leveled Esthar Soldiers (Cyborg) and Elastoids now have lower Speed
• Hidden bosses in Deling City sewers are now at a lower level
• Propagator (red) uses Firaga instead of Flare
• Propagator (orange) uses Radiance instead of Holy
• All Propagators do less damage with physical attacks
• Jumbo Cactuar has less HP and Strength
• Bahamut's Mega-Flare does less damage
• Adel has less HP, drains less HP from Rinoa and generally does less damage
• Trauma's resistance against physical attacks has been lowered

Hard Mode changes

• Many high-leveled common enemies have had their Vitality increased to keep Ultimate Weapon damage in check
• General stat increase for several enemies

Changes to both versions

• All -aga spells can now be drawn from high-leveled Elite Soldiers (G-Garden and onwards)
• Most sub top-tier weapons have had their base power increased as well (only applies to Attack command damage)
• Rinoa's weapons have had their accuracy increased
• Initial Strength and Magic stats have been slightly increased for physically and magically orientented characters respectively
• BGH251F2 in FH now also loses Vitality and Spirit over time, in addition to Strength, Magic and Speed
• Edea (2nd) now also casts Dispelga in case the entire party is under Reflect (in addition to Maelstrom and Ebon Wave)
• Elem Atk, Status Atk, Med Kit, Doc's Code, Barrier, Hungry Cookpot and Mog's Amulet have been removed from the Chocobo World item pool (mainly to prevent easy access to Megalixirs, Shaman Stones and Renew spells)
• Mog's Amulet can now be stolen from high-leveled Tonberries as a rare steal

@tyler_will: Thanks for reporting the issue regarding Elnoyle. It is fixed now, sorry for the inconvenience.

As for editing posts, I think you need a certain amount of posts to do so. Not too many though, just 5-10 if I remember right.