[FF7PC-98/Steam] gjoerulv's "Hardcore" mod (v1.0.7.2)

[Anno999999]

The Midgar Zolom needs to be vamped alot.

the first time i got there i beat him over and over again. he gives alot of xp and ap i kinda abused.

After getting beta i killed the silver chocobo

I have a nice strategy of beating him easily which relys on he only uses physical attacks, Is there any way u can add elemental damage to his attack? alot of it? because what i did was,

Barret - gattling gun ( intial equpit that gives alot of vit), carbon bangle  protect vest (the one that gives 50 to vit)
           Materia 5x cover

Cloud Silver armlet ( got form theo lock or venus) and a talisman ( 50 to spirit ) with the hardedge
       Materia restore and in the armour elemental + fire

Nanaki  equiptment not important
            Materia Bio and sence


Start battle having barret and cloud with full limits

have barret defend

Have cloud heal barret every turn

Nanaki uses bio and sence


every attack the zolom with back row and saddness with defend did 250 reg hit and 500 critical which always hit barret

every time poisen did 650 damage use sence.

At 4000 hp have nanaki attack twice

He stans up and kick  him out,

With ~1200+ hp have barret use a limit, wait for beta then cloud use his limit.

durring the longer animations he takes 1300 damage, barrets limit does the damge + 650, beta makes him take 1300 damage and then clouds limit + 650 more.

Beta did 721 do cloud, he lived and zolom died so did barret, save and fight him again after u heal and he gives like 2500 exp? and 150 ap

i abused this somewhat :-/ if u add elemental damage and more damage or like a hit all attack this plan wouldent work preventing abuse :-X

 

[gjoerulv]

Nice one! It seems you did some leveling before you fought it. I mean, you need 12 000 AP to get Cover to level 3 and 40 000 to level 5. The limits could be easier to gain though.

I've never had Cover beyond level 2 when I got here. As I see it this plan could easily fail with a lvl 4 Cover. Imo too much leveling early makes the game boring, hardcore or not.

 

[Tyler_Wu]

im gonna have to take back what i said about reno and rude being extremely hard on the gelninka.

it took about 8 gameovers but eventually i found out that reno is easily taken out of the fight but just casting stop on him. after this is done the battle isnt too hard, just about right i think.

now as for the trio of turks in sector 8 midgar. i think they should be buffed considerably, i beat them my first try and they didnt even get any of my characters into critical condition. elenas fire attack does like 1200 dmg or something like that lol.

even easier was the proud clod. he seemed exactly the same as vanilla ff7 except maybe more hp?  i dunno but his knee bend and his beam cannon both do less than 2000 dmg.  this boss i could of just held the x button down the whole time and won with one person casting comet 2,one person casting ultima and another casting curaga.  just like that over and over.  of course i did slow him and did cast haste on all my chars but still.

after that i got to that trio of soldiers, locke and whoever, right before hojo.      they slaughter me in like 3 turns,  even if i leveled for an hour i would still get mangled by these guys.  i really think they need to be looked at,  along with these same 3 soldiers back when you fight them on the runaway train.   maybe they are weak to paralyze or sleep and i just havent noticed yet? i dunno, im sure you will tell me if im just being dumb.

so in summary please make this list of bosses harder or at least take a look at them to see if there is anything you might like to change.

- the 3 turks in sector 8
- carry armour
- proud clod (this guy is one of the top 3 easiest bosses in the game along with palmer)
- rude at rocket town
- maybe the birds guarding phoenix (can easily use stop on all of them... easy win)


i also wanted to ask about a couple weapons,  tifas premium heart has an attack of only 48or something like that but the real problem is that it does crap dmg unless tifas limit break meter is mostly full. any way you can change that?   and yuffies conformer only has an attack of 15?!? thats no ultimate weapon! altho i guess if the conformer had high attack like vannila ff7 it would be unfair because of the whol full dmg when using morph thing.

i liked the monsters in sector 8 and the gelninka plane too.  the behemoth in sector 8 was fun to fight with.

 

[Archu]

@Tyler: Could you figure out if your game crashes at Hojo's last form aswell once you get there? I'd like to know if.. and for the sake it's not the mod causing the crash.

Btw, my strategy for fighting the Phoenix bosses was to enter battle with 0 MP and rely on all my healing items. That way they can't absorb your mp when one of their allies die.
It's a matter of patience before all of them run out of magic 

Oh and, try to stock up on LOAD of HP Plusses, Full limit bars and Gravity magic when fighting the trio near Hojo, Tyler. It worked for me. 

 

[Tyler_Wu]

ill try your advice.

i should have time to play today so when i get to hojo ill let you know if i crash.

 

[Anno999999]

Nice one! It seems you did some leveling before you fought it. I mean, you need 12 000 AP to get Cover to level 3 and 40 000 to level 5. The limits could be easier to gain though.

I've never had Cover beyond level 2 when I got here. As I see it this plan could easily fail with a lvl 4 Cover. Imo too much leveling early makes the game boring, hardcore or not.

No i bought 5 covers at the shop, each lvl 1 with 20%, so 5 covers @ 20% = 100%

No Massive leveling required, i dident gain any levers and got annihilated by jenova birth, i had to do some lvleing for her even with  a shinra-alpha from the Junon Patron

Ps You have brought back an amazing game and I LOVE THIS MOD!

 

[gjoerulv]

No i bought 5 covers at the shop, each lvl 1 with 20%, so 5 covers @ 20% = 100%

Ahh! I see! Smart move.

@Archu. Is there a bug in Hojo's last form?

 

[moraelyn]

Can you guys post your character and/or materia levels approximately for each boss? I have different opinions for some bosses and I was thinking it may be the level difference.

- I just beat Lost Number (at level 29) and I found him to be quite hard, since he could two-shot any of my party members when he turned blue. I basically just healed my party till he died from poison. I figured he'd be easier if he turned red but I couldn't get him to and he went down anyway at the 5th or 6th try so..

- Gi Nattak (at level 28) was also pretty hard, he could one-shot Aeris and Aspil was a pain in the ass. I actually had to use 5 Ethers and a few Phoenix Downs/Hi-Potions just in that one fight, cause I couldn't be arsed to run through the Gi Cave again, otherwise I'd have resetted the fight. Without Aeris' Fury Brand I probably couldn't have won at all.

- I thought the boss guarding the Titan materia (at level 26) was piss-easy compared to Gi Nattak and Lost Number. I didn't have Fury Brand at the time, but Healing Wind helped A LOT with the healing.

- Reno and Rude in Gongaga (at level 25) gave me some serious trouble the first time around, cause Reno spammed Turk Light and drained all my characters' MP. Second time I was luckier and they went down without much hassle.

- Jenova Birth (at level 21) was the most all-around challenging and fun boss battle (along with Motor Ball). I even enjoyed getting wiped at Jenova cause it gave me the chance to redo the whole thing I'm looking forward to the other Jenova battles

P.S.1 : Has anyone fought the Hellrider VR2 yet? I encountered him once, but I hadn't saved for a while so when I saw he was unsensable I ran

P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

 

[Archu]

@Archu. Is there a bug in Hojo's last form?

Well, for me the last form of Hojo crashes whenever he tries to do a certain move. I tried several attempts to prevent him from busting a move at me, but his high hp prevents from doing it.

The first try he casted stop for his first attack, then it crashed. Second attempt he combo'd about 2 characters.. and it crashed. Third time i unleashed all of my chars limit breaks.. it crashed, without him doing a move.
I'm not sure what's causing it, but it could be a certain attack that might affect all my chars instead of one in vanilla FF7. Like the same bug i mentioned in Jenova Birth.

@moraelyn: Yeh, i fought the Hellrider VR2, but that was before i did the Huge Materia quest at Fort Condor.  Wasn't much of a challenge by that time 

 

[gjoerulv]

Ok I think it is fixed. He counters magic with Comet. If the crash happens after you attack him with magic that's the problem. Check 1st post for the update. Again you only need to dl the newest kernel + scene ZIP.

I've also updated some enemies based on the latest replies. @Tyler_wu: If you still have problems against the Soldiers let me know.

 

[ADIDAS]

my luck plus went up from LV1 to master after I defeated Jenova-Life

lol I have 2 master luck plus now , only need LV up it to LV2 

P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

yeah sense is kinda ussless , It's great if you can make sense LV to Scan  :-D

EDIT: I am facing Shizo right now , I gave Cloud Fire ring and each time the right head use fire breath on Cloud , it heals him (of course) but also gives him Stop,Reflect,Barrier ,MBarrier, Regen and Shield . Is it a bug ?

 

[Tyler_Wu]

gjoerulv's  i tried the soldiers a few more times (i downloaded the new kernel and scene)  and eventually i figured out the proper strategy,  mini, and sleep, and berserk... so the battle was still hard but not anything too crazy.

i was wondering what kind of changes you made to them in the new files,  maybe they werent overpowered before... maybe its just cuz i hadnt figured out the proper strategy yet, something to think about.

i tried hojo once too,  and his last form killed me eventually,  that comet counter is pretty cool.  i think i could defeat hojo if i try a few more times,  try out some different strategies.  he seems pretty hard but not overpowered or anything.

 

[Archu]

His Combo is powerful enough to kill one of my chars.. Does about 12k damage to the char with the lowest defense, and 10-11k to the one with highest. (Ziedrich)
On my first time he spammed it ALOT. But theres still hope to it though ; ]

 

[ADIDAS]

Ribbon is supposed to be immune to all status change but I saw Haste and Death still work .

 

[gjoerulv]

my luck plus went up from LV1 to master after I defeated Jenova-Life

lol I have 2 master luck plus now , only need LV up it to LV2 

P.S.2 : Can you make all enemies sensable? Or make Sense materia level to Scan that can sense anything (or at least have a much higher HP cap)? Seeing bosses' HP ramp up so quickly I'm guessing Sense loses usefulness much earlier in the game than before.

yeah sense is kinda ussless , It's great if you can make sense LV to Scan  :-D

EDIT: I am facing Shizo right now , I gave Cloud Fire ring and each time the right head use fire breath on Cloud , it heals him (of course) but also gives him Stop,Reflect,Barrier ,MBarrier, Regen and Shield . Is it a bug ?

Sh*t. Seems I like the Luck Plus Materia is mastered after 10000 AP lol. I uploaded a knew fix. look at 1st post. And regarding that Bug, I don't doubt your word but looking at the data I don't see whats causing it. I must test this myself. Perhaps it's an overflow bug.

Ribbon is supposed to be immune to all status change but I saw Haste and Death still work .

Yes, Death, Slow, Haste and Stop isn't prevented by ribbon. It was intended that way.

@Tyler_Wu: You might want to try the last turk battle in the tunnel and Proud Clod again just for fun. If you saved there. I don't think they're pushovers anymore. Not that hard either.

EDIT: oh and that sense thing... I haven't looked into it but I believe you must alter the exe file. I have no clue in other words.

 

[Kudistos Megistos]

Gjoerulv, I have recently been hex editing kernel.bin1 (I am new to this and have been relying entirely on the qhimm wiki for information) and noticed that you changed the value of the first byte of some attacks from FF to values like 78 and 4B. What effect does this have? And what determines whether an attack hits a single target by default or always hits all targets?

EDIT:

I think I've found the answer to the first of my two questions on another thread; I now have reason to believe that the first byte determines Attack%.

 

[gjoerulv]

Gjoerulv, I have recently been hex editing kernel.bin1 (I am new to this and have been relying entirely on the qhimm wiki for information) and noticed that you changed the value of the first byte of some attacks from FF to values like 78 and 4B. What effect does this have? And what determines whether an attack hits a single target by default or always hits all targets?

EDIT:

I think I've found the answer to the first of my two questions on another thread; I now have reason to believe that the first byte determines Attack%.

Yup! The 1st byte is accuracy! 64h = 100% hit. 96h = 150% hit etc. If the attack is supposed to target 1 enemy, the 13th byte in the attack must be 03h. This byte alone determines the target properties. 07h is all enemies (or all the playing characters, of course, if the attack user is a game enemy). The target byte is the byte after the "Camera" bytes. I'll try to explain every byte in an attack just to be clear:

Code: [Select]

AC|IA|TA>--<-MP--|--IS-|-CA1-|-CA2-|TG|ID|TD|PW|RT|SE|AT|NU|----ST-----|-EL--|-SP--> ff 0b 00 ff 00 00 e2 00 ff ff ff ff 01 ff 11 18 ff 3f ff ff 00 00 00 06 00 04 ff ff This is the bytes for Safer's "Wing Attack"AC = Accuracy IA = Impact AnimationTA = Target AnimationMP = MP usedIS = Impact sound (usually only set if IA =/= FF)CA1/2 = Camera movement ID for 1/All targetsTG = Target:        01h - Single / Multiple  03h - Single Target 05h - Multiple Target        07h - FMultiple Targets        0Fh - Toogle target (done in the AI)ID = Animation ID. Standard physical attackts usually never gets an ID.TD = type damage.        11 = physical        22 = magical        23 = demi effect        24 = Based on full HP.PW = attack powerRT=  Restore Type  00 - Restore HP   01 - Restore MP  02 - Restore Ailment        3E - 100% cause status changeSE = Status Effect (Remove or inflict %)  <3Fh Inflict Status  7Fh Cure StatusAT = Aditional Targets?NA = Number of attack effects (only if AT = 00)ST = Status Afflictions (4 Bytes)* 0x00000001 Death  0x00000002 Near-Death  0x00000004 Sleep  0x00000008 Poison  0x00000010 Sadness  0x00000020 Fury  0x00000040 Confusion  0x00000080 Silence  0x00000100 Haste  0x00000200 Slow  0x00000400 Stop  0x00000800 Frog  0x00001000 Small  0x00002000 Slow-numb  0x00004000 Petrify  0x00008000 Regen  0x00010000 Barrier  0x00020000 MBarrier  0x00040000 Reflect  0x00080000 Unused  0x00100000 Shield  0x00200000 D.Sentence  0x00400000 Manipulate  0x00800000 Berserk  0x01000000 Peerless  0x02000000 Paralyzed  0x04000000 Darkness  0x08000000 Dual  0x10000000 DeathForce  0x20000000 Resist  0x40000000 Lucky Girl  0x80000000 ImprisonedEL = Elemental Type (2 Bytes)* 0x0000 Non Elemental 0x0001 Fire  0x0002 Ice  0x0004 Lightning  0x0008 Earth  0x0010 Poison  0x0020 Gravity  0x0040 Water  0x0080 Wind  0x0100 Holy  0x0200 Restorative  0x0400 Cut  0x0800 Hit  0x1000 Punch  0x2000 Shoot  0x4000 Shout SP = "Special" (4 bytes*) 0x0001 Attack MP instead of HP  0x0002 ?  0x0004 ?  0x0008 ? 0x0010 Drain Damage Dealt 0x0020 Drain HP/MP 0x0040 Blade Beam  0x0080 Ignore Status  0x0100 Miss if Not in “Death” Status  0x0200 Reflectable  0x0400 Piercing (Unblockable)  0x0800 Angel Whisper/Pulse of Life  0x1000 ?  0x2000 Critical Hits  0x4000 ?  0x8000 ?

 

[Kudistos Megistos]

Excellent!

I've been playing with these, and I managed to have Sephiroth beat Cloud in the final battle (the one-on-one, not the battle with Safer) by changing the attack type from 23 to 24 (although that probably doesn't matter) and the power from 1f to 20. He kills Cloud and "Game Over" comes up.

I cheated my way into the Northern Crater and I must say that the enemies are much stronger; even Jenova puts up a fight now (interesting job with KotR and the ultimate weapons too). I did, however, find something odd. This may have been a result of me messing around with things, but Bizzaro Sephiroth went down with one hit; 3 000 HP of damage finished him off.

 

[Armorvil]

gjoerulv, do you think you could convert this patch to the PSX version ?
If not, how playable would your patch be, if the only things I'd use were the SCENE.BIN and the KERNEL.BIN files ? Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

[gjoerulv]

@Leighos Kudistos Megistos: Yes that was a BIG bug. thank you! Bizarro HP is decided in the AI. Same with Safer's. Safer's HP was wrong too. This is fixed in the (yet another) new files.

@Armorvil: Yes it's possible to just upload the Kernel and Scene, but I have to replace some of the new models with the old ones 1st. That means no new boss battles though.