[FF7PC-98/Steam] New Threat Mod (v2.0.999992)

[Sega Chief]

They're needed at the moment but if you can wait until tonight I'll have a few extra issues fixed with updated hotfix patches (including a potential soft-lock involving a certain scorpion in a flower patch).

 

[magictrufflez]

I have a question about the Kalm Traveller too--is he supposed to only activate on "Disc 3"?  I have a guidebook, but he just keeps talking about how he doesn't have much to worry about these days...

I'm also sending you a PM about the possible [SECRET] that changes the ending SC

 

[Skirmish]

ETA is tonight; I've got the fix made, just need to generate the patches and upload them which takes time.

You need to kill him before he uses it altogether. Way it should work is, whenever you hit him it adds 1 to a counter up to 13. Then he uses deployment (but he needs to complete one attack cycle first) and resets the counter back to 0. 2nd time it goes past 13, he flies up and uses Overclock. Then the third time is Mammon Machine so you've got 39 attacks total to bring the guy down if you play it safe and don't attack very often during his attack phase. However, you can get more than 13 hits in before he finishes an attack cycle but this'll be risky. You can also deal damage freely with Counter Attacks too without raising the counter.

Let me know if he's behaving differently in the fight itself.

To clarify a couple of things:

- Is it 39 Hits or 39 Turns? Because if it's 39 Hits then Overclock putting haste on him is just a trap to get you to waste a turn.
- Does 4x Cut count as 4 Hits or 1 Hit?
- Do Limit Breaks count as 1 Hit or the Number of Hits they contain? (Catastrophe = 10 Hits)
- Does hitting Magitek Bit or Byte add to Netzechariah's counter?
- If I'm right Netzechariah has something in the region of around 780,000 HP, can you clarify this? (Testing in previous build)
- Does Mammon Machine do damage based off the ingame clock? (Noticed it doesn't quite do 9999)

 

[Sega Chief]

I have a question about the Kalm Traveller too--is he supposed to only activate on "Disc 3"?  I have a guidebook, but he just keeps talking about how he doesn't have much to worry about these days...

I'm also sending you a PM about the possible [SECRET] that changes the ending SC

It was changed to Disc 3 only, but I'll roll the Game Moment check back so that it's as soon as you get the Highwind.

To clarify a couple of things:

- Is it 39 Hits or 39 Turns? Because if it's 39 Hits then Overclock putting haste on him is just a trap to get you to waste a turn.
- Does 4x Cut count as 4 Hits or 1 Hit?
- Do Limit Breaks count as 1 Hit or the Number of Hits they contain? (Catastrophe = 10 Hits)
- Does hitting Magitek Bit or Byte add to Netzechariah's counter?
- If I'm right Netzechariah has something in the region of around 780,000 HP, can you clarify this? (Testing in previous build)
- Does Mammon Machine do damage based off the ingame clock? (Noticed it doesn't quite do 9999)

-39 player actions that can trigger a counter-attack script.
-4x-cut and other multi-hit abilities count as 1 action; the W-Materias however seem to be two separate actions.
-Hitting the adds doesn't add to the counter either.
-He has 820k HP.
-It is, the hits would have been 9999 but I went with the time formula instead because Mammon Machine is a reference to Chrono Trigger.

 

[Skirmish]

It was changed to Disc 3 only, but I'll roll the Game Moment check back so that it's as soon as you get the Highwind.

-39 player actions that can trigger a counter-attack script.
-4x-cut and other multi-hit abilities count as 1 action; the W-Materias however seem to be two separate actions.
-Hitting the adds doesn't add to the counter either.
-He has 820k HP.
-It is, the hits would have been 9999 but I went with the time formula instead because Mammon Machine is a reference to Chrono Trigger.

The bastard is finally down. By my calculations he would have used Mammon Machine in about 2 more turns, needless to say without the explaination of his AI or knowing his Max HP I wouldn't have stood a chance. This is still with Rank 0 Characters so I had to take a couple of risks here and there.

Spoiler is for my methodology so those who want to work out a strategy for themselves don't have to see it.

Spoiler

Setup:

Cloud Equip: Masamune, Escort Guard, Curse Ring (As much Strength as possible, Gigas Armlet not viable due to lack of 6 Linked Materia slots).
Cloud Weapon Materia: Mime + Double Cut, Barrier + All, Revive + All
Cloud Armour Materia: Hades + Added Effect, Mystify + Added Effect, Destruct + Added Effect

Aeris Equip: Princess Guard, Minerva Band, Choco Feather (Princess Guard + Slash-All puts Shield on the entire team after "Deployment").
Aeris Weapon Materia Equip: Revive + All, Restore + All, Heal + All, W-Magic + Slash-All (1 Star)
Aeris Armour Materia Equip: Phoenix + Elemental, Gil PLUS + Gil PLUS, HP Plus + Gravity

Tifa Equip: Master Fist, Shinra Alpha, **** I forgot to equip an Accessory after giving Cloud the Curse Ring. I'm an idiot.
Tifa Weapon Materia Equip: Leviathan + Elemental, Double Cut + Enemy Skill, Counter Attack + Counter Attack
Tifa Armour Materia Equip: Transform + Added Effect, Mystify + Added Effect, Counter Attack + Counter Attack, Counter Attack + Counter Attack

Items used:
Yellow Waves
Hero Drink II
Soft
Elixirs
Megalixirs
Graviballs
T/S Bombs
Lucky Pills

Make sure you start the fight with Tifa in the Front Row and an empty Limit Bar (So she can do 4x Cut without trouble) and make sure Cloud has a full L4 Limit Bar (This will be vital). The first part is pray that Magitek Corruptor doesn't hit Aeris and get the following setup as quickly as possible: 2 Yellow Waves on Netzechariah, Dragon Force on Tifa, Hero Drink II (After Dragon Force), Wall (Cast on Party).

At the start of the fight Netzech tends to follow this pattern: Magitek Corrupter, Magitek Ray x3 (1 per party member), Magitek Bomb x2 (Hits all targets), Magitek Shoot x3 (1 per party member), Tank Purge (DeBarrier effect). Then he will do nothing until 13 actions (not including Counter Attacks) have been used against him at which point he will use Deployment and phase 2 of the fight will begin.

If you got Dragon Force/Hero Drink II/Yellow Waves set up properly then Tifa should do several Critical Hits on the boss for heavy damage and also counter for heavy damage whenever hit by various moves. Keep the party alive any way you can but be careful not to let Tifa get Petrified and use a Soft on her ONLY when the timer above her head starts to get low so you can make use of the extra damage of having Slow-Numb with the Master Fist.

Once Netzechariah stops attacking during the first phase (the period before he's allowed to use Deployment) Tifa can then proceed to hit Netzechariah with 4x Cut and the Master Fist bonuses for some hefty (barely adequate) damage. Once Netzechariah uses Deployment have Cloud use Wall, Aeris use Slash-All on the party to grant Shield to everyone and stop using 4x Cut with Tifa.

With Deployment, Magitek Bit and Byte enter the fray and they need to be dealt with, this is done by having Tifa use Graviballs and T/S Bombs on Magitek Bit and Byte, Aeris using W-Magic with Demi and Demi2 and Cloud Miming Aeris's W-Magic since they take normal damage from Gravity attacks.

Now that you've used Shield on the party you'll now absorb a good chunk of Netzechariah's elemental attacks. This has several benefits because absorbing Tidal Wave will actually DeSpell Tifa's Death Sentence from Hero Drink II and also cure her Silence, this allowed her to use Laser to finish off the Magitek Bit/Byte when Demi2 stops doing 9999 and absorbing Geocrush will actually grant Recovery to whoever it targets instead of K.O. Just make sure to heal up when hit by Magitek Ray/Bomb/Shoot from Magitek Bit/Byte when they happen.

Either way once Magitek Bit/Byte are down, Netzechariah should have finished his attack pattern and you'll have some breathing room. You should also at this point have 26 Attacks to finish off the remainder of his health. After 13 Attacks he'll Ascend (Be unreachable for standard Melee attacks) and use Overclock which grants him Haste (This is a trap to get you to waste a turn DeSpelling it) and 13 Turns after that he'll use Mammon Machine and tear your party to shreds.

With 26 Attacks to go you'll need to put out some heavy damage per attack and this is where that Full L4 Limit Bar Cloud has comes in. I forgot that Masamune gives 100% Critical Chance so I gave a Lucky Pill to Cloud (The Auto-Critical hits of Omnislash can still go Critical and deal x2 Damage, unless this got changed or something). Since you used 2 Yellow Waves at the start of the fight Netzechariah should have no defence at this point, now you'll want to use Omnislash and MIME THE EVERLOVING **** OUT OF IT.

With Escort Guard and Curse Ring Cloud has 80 Strength and the +100 Attack of Masamune gives Cloud 180 Attack Power. Even with Yellow Waves I was only doing ~1600-~1700 per hit or rather ~25000 per Limit Break. This means that with the point where Magitek Bit/Byte died I needed Netzechariah to have less than 650,000 HP (26 x 25000 HP) and fortunately thanks to the 4x Cut + Master Fist antics of Tifa along with Counter Attacks at the start he had around 596000 HP when he used Deployment. Meaning I was able to constantly Mime Omnislash and have about 2 turns to spare when he finally dropped.

I also found that if you use Gospel Sparks or Planet Protector/Great Gospel, one can survive Mammon Machine but he then counters every attack on him after that with Mammon Machine meaning if you can't keep Peerless going for as long as you need you're screwed. It may however buy you a few extra turns if you think you'll fall short of the mark a bit.

Spoiler

Why does he say "Yah has remembered" upon being defeated? Is that a reference I'm not getting?

 

[Sega Chief]

The bastard is finally down. By my calculations he would have used Mammon Machine in about 2 more turns, needless to say without the explaination of his AI or knowing his Max HP I wouldn't have stood a chance. This is still with Rank 0 Characters so I had to take a couple of risks here and there.

Pretty impressive doing that sourceless; nice work.

Edit: Patches updated.

 

[JLOUTLAW]

Will you be updating the build download? I see its still April 22nd yet the patches are for the 29th

 

[Sega Chief]

I'll try and get that done tonight.

 

[Skirmish]

Pretty impressive doing that sourceless; nice work.

Edit: Patches updated.

Knights of the Round feels like one of those things that "If you're able to obtain it, you don't need it." But it's nice to have Ziedrich and the Magitek Ashes though. First off I've noticed that Ziedrich also halves Restorative making it a bit of a double-edged sword, but on the plus side Ziedrich + Curse Ring doesn't nullify Restorative but rather has it remain at half. Also what do Magitek Ashes actually do, I was secretly hoping from the "Fortifies the Party" description that it would temporarily buff my teams stats but rather it seems to give Peerless, Shield, Regen and maybe Resist?

Just went to the Lost and Found vendor. Why does it put you in a fight with a Tonberry? You can steal Turbo Ethers from it, gain Elixirs as drops and Morph it into a Megalixir. Even if you aren't missing any key items you get put in the Tonberry fight so you can potentially farm these rather easily. Glad to have the X-ATM Core and Pulse Ammo back but I didn't see anything regarding Cloud's Innate Ability or the Micro Engine for Tifa's Ultimate Weapon.

As far as finishing the game goes I actually have only a few things left:

- Turn in Earth Harp for Dragon Force (Necessary for Master Materia, despite already having Dragon Force)
- Turn in Desert Rose for Pandora's Box
- Complete Kalm Traveler Sidequest for Master Materia
- Defeat Nemesis in the Gold Saucer Platinum Battle (With a Sourceless party that probably ain't gonna happen...)
- Acquire remaining Ultimate Weapons for each character
- Complete the Dark Cave Sidequest
- Finish the game and defeat Sephiroth (All characters Level 99, could be problematic).

 

[Sega Chief]

It's the wrong fight; I forgot to +1 on the enemy formation. The crab fight that's supposed to trigger activates the AI for it, otherwise it's the unbuffed +10 innate instead of +30 for Cloud.

Don't worry about being Lv.99; I removed the checks from Bizarro and Safer's AI.

 

[deha0002]

Random opinion on innate changes;

*Cid getting Auto-Crits makes his stat choice from rank ups and gear (aka alot of luck) mostly obsolete.
I suggest that Cid gets luck and str over time that he loses when he uses an attack command. This way you can make sure that build him either as a burst damage dealer (where you dont deal that much dmg if you are too fast) or luck tank (if you let luck build up).

*As for Cloud, the starting +10 is fine since its not supposed to be "activated" properly. But the +30 for me is kinda Red XIII's territory. I suggest a few things 1) If possible Cloud could have limit fill from magic and attacks by a little amount or 2) the opposite of Yuffie (maybe) in the sense that he gains STR when using magic and MAG when using physical attacks. This brings a bit of "all-rounder" aspect to Cloud.

And 3) Cloud could get a "charge" each time he gets hit by a magic/physical attack. Magic increases his Mag and SPR by +X and Physical increases STR and VIT by the same amount, making him still gain something as a caste/physical dmg dealer no matter what benefit he gets.

 

[Sega Chief]

Random opinion on innate changes;

*Cid getting Auto-Crits makes his stat choice from rank ups and gear (aka alot of luck) mostly obsolete.
I suggest that Cid gets luck and str over time that he loses when he uses an attack command. This way you can make sure that build him either as a burst damage dealer (where you dont deal that much dmg if you are too fast) or luck tank (if you let luck build up).

*As for Cloud, the starting +10 is fine since its not supposed to be "activated" properly. But the +30 for me is kinda Red XIII's territory. I suggest a few things 1) If possible Cloud could have limit fill from magic and attacks by a little amount or 2) the opposite of Yuffie (maybe) in the sense that he gains STR when using magic and MAG when using physical attacks. This brings a bit of "all-rounder" aspect to Cloud.

And 3) Cloud could get a "charge" each time he gets hit by a magic/physical attack. Magic increases his Mag and SPR by +X and Physical increases STR and VIT by the same amount, making him still gain something as a caste/physical dmg dealer no matter what benefit he gets.

You might be right, I was thinking of doing a Row-based Barrier (front) MBarrier (Back) instead but hesitated because MBarrier can be undesirable sometimes. The problem with Luck is that I'm not 100% convinced I can actually change the stat. The burst damage thing would be tricky to implement as well, as I don't have a way to have the game distinguish who is using the command in pre-action AI which was why Tifa's Sense boost thing could be triggered by anybody.

Red and Cloud are like flip-sides of each other; Red gains attack stats as the battle progresses while Cloud loses his initial burst after a while. But I like the idea of alternating attack types though; gives an incentive to have a balanced phys + mag build and makes it a bit more strategic (I'd ran out of ideas beyond stat/status gains). It would need to be whenever anyone uses a physical/magic attack but it'd still work regardless.

Edit: So I made the changes suggested (Reactive Guard for Cid and Mimesis for Cloud), and space-wise it was within bytes of being too much. Maybe that's a sign.

So the way they'll work is:
-) When Cid is in the front row and he takes damage, he gains Barrier. If he's in the back row, he gains MBarrier.

-) After a story point, Cloud will gain +25 to Strength or Magic based on the last player command used. If Attack/Limit/Deathblow, etc. are used then he gains Strength. If it was Magic, etc. then he gains Magic. He can't have both boosts at the same time.

One thing forgot to mention for Red, the total boost he can get now is +50 instead of +30; that change was made when 1.4 first released I think.

 

[magictrufflez]

OK, I seem to have run into a problem.  How am I supposed to collect the Gold Chocobo from getting the Guidebook to the Kalm Traveler?  He jsut sits at the staircase telling me his scripts aren't ready (I'm on "Disc 3" now, so that's not the problem).  Is there supposed to be some way to get the Shinra guys out of my airship stable I'm totally missing?

Also, the Hidden element--doesn't any purple materia paired with an elemental materia give me some level of resistance to it?  I've brawled with Ultimate Weapon a few times, and this doesn't seem to be doing anything to mitigate the damage he's doing with his hidden element attacks--am I doing something wrong?

 

[Sega Chief]

OK, I seem to have run into a problem.  How am I supposed to collect the Gold Chocobo from getting the Guidebook to the Kalm Traveler?  He jsut sits at the staircase telling me his scripts aren't ready (I'm on "Disc 3" now, so that's not the problem).  Is there supposed to be some way to get the Shinra guys out of my airship stable I'm totally missing?

Also, the Hidden element--doesn't any purple materia paired with an elemental materia give me some level of resistance to it?  I've brawled with Ultimate Weapon a few times, and this doesn't seem to be doing anything to mitigate the damage he's doing with his hidden element attacks--am I doing something wrong?

You can't get it just yet because I haven't prepared the scripts. I've unfortunately deleted the original choco scripts and I can't copy-paste a new set from the default flevel (it won't carry across two flevels) so I need to do it all manually which'll take some time.

Ultimate Weapon doesn't use the Hidden element anymore, Weapons are Holy-element monsters in NT and are weak to Hidden. I think his beam is probably non-elemental.

 

[deha0002]

Edit: So I made the changes suggested (Reactive Guard for Cid and Mimesis for Cloud), and space-wise it was within bytes of being too much. Maybe that's a sign.

So the way they'll work is:
-) When Cid is in the front row and he takes damage, he gains Barrier. If he's in the back row, he gains MBarrier.

-) After a story point, Cloud will gain +25 to Strength or Magic based on the last player command used. If Attack/Limit/Deathblow, etc. are used then he gains Strength. If it was Magic, etc. then he gains Magic. He can't have both boosts at the same time.

One thing forgot to mention for Red, the total boost he can get now is +50 instead of +30; that change was made when 1.4 first released I think.

I actually like this alot ( in regards to the limitations ofc).
Cid being a dmg dealer already has the dmg needed from weapons and stats, thus giving him barrier when he needs to be in the front row makes it perfect for safe dmg dealing, and Mbarrier when u want to build him as a tank! Just one thought, does barrier go through Resists if its applied before Cid gets hit?

As for Cloud it might work really well, since he could be amplify whatever strat you are using. Alot of casters? Well he gets stronger cause of it, alot of physical? Same there. And if it changes depending on previous action, order of commands make a bigger difference for achieving better results.

Also kinda fits with the story a bit, he "identifies" himself with other people , thus gaining "their" benefits. So anyway well done Sega, I (atleast) am satisfied with the innates atm  :-D.

Edit: When i think about it, this innate (Clouds new one) might need slight buff if its possible to add more stats being affected. Since adding more then 25 Str/Mag might make it to strong when it comes to pure dmg, adding 25 Str and Vit when physical command is used and 25 Mag and Spr for magics might make it quite good in terms of balance but not pushing any aspect to much in one direction.

Ofc only if its possible to add more lines for the stat gains in the code. Just a thought.

 

[Skirmish]

You can't get it just yet because I haven't prepared the scripts. I've unfortunately deleted the original choco scripts and I can't copy-paste a new set from the default flevel (it won't carry across two flevels) so I need to do it all manually which'll take some time.

Ultimate Weapon doesn't use the Hidden element anymore, Weapons are Holy-element monsters in NT and are weak to Hidden. I think his beam is probably non-elemental.

Speaking of Hidden + Elemental. I tried putting HP Plus + Elemental (Mastered) in a characters armour and it didn't let them absorb Hidden. Is this just specific to HP Plus or do all Purple Materia fail to grant Hidden Elemental?

 

[Tavarcio]

is the Junon League bugged? It says I got final heaven and 1 million (puts pinky close to mouth) gil but its not showing in my inventory, did I do something wrong?

 

[JLOUTLAW]

also what exactly does HP plus do in this mod? it didnt raise their HP when i put one on a character.

 

[Sega Chief]

I actually like this alot ( in regards to the limitations ofc).
Cid being a dmg dealer already has the dmg needed from weapons and stats, thus giving him barrier when he needs to be in the front row makes it perfect for safe dmg dealing, and Mbarrier when u want to build him as a tank! Just one thought, does barrier go through Resists if its applied before Cid gets hit?

As for Cloud it might work really well, since he could be amplify whatever strat you are using. Alot of casters? Well he gets stronger cause of it, alot of physical? Same there. And if it changes depending on previous action, order of commands make a bigger difference for achieving better results.

Also kinda fits with the story a bit, he "identifies" himself with other people , thus gaining "their" benefits. So anyway well done Sega, I (atleast) am satisfied with the innates atm  :-D.

Edit: When i think about it, this innate (Clouds new one) might need slight buff if its possible to add more stats being affected. Since adding more then 25 Str/Mag might make it to strong when it comes to pure dmg, adding 25 Str and Vit when physical command is used and 25 Mag and Spr for magics might make it quite good in terms of balance but not pushing any aspect to much in one direction.

Ofc only if its possible to add more lines for the stat gains in the code. Just a thought.

I'm not sure about Resist vs. a flag-induced status; I think it might work regardless, which would be pretty cool, but I've not tested that.

Speaking of Hidden + Elemental. I tried putting HP Plus + Elemental (Mastered) in a characters armour and it didn't let them absorb Hidden. Is this just specific to HP Plus or do all Purple Materia fail to grant Hidden Elemental?

It might be that Independent Materia don't work with Support? I read a long time ago that purple Materia does give an elemental combination for Hidden, but maybe that source was wrong. Do any of the other purple Materia work with Elemental? It seems from JOUTLAW's post that something's up with HP Plus-

also what exactly does HP plus do in this mod? it didnt raise their HP when i put one on a character.

It should raise HP by 25%, like MP Plus does. If this isn't the case then I'll need to look at it right away. Been having trouble with Purple Materia effects since 1.4 went out.

is the Junon League bugged? It says I got final heaven and 1 million (puts pinky close to mouth) gil but its not showing in my inventory, did I do something wrong?

Is it still showing the wrong text? You'll have gotten the intended reward, but for whatever reason the text being shown seems to always be the one for Meteor Invitational. If it was Brawler you completed, then you'll have gotten:
Yellow Wave x1
Lucky Pill x1
Astral Curtain x3
Shinra Bomb x1

Are you playing on the IRO or from the main installer (with or without patches)?

 

[DynamixDJ]

I can't copy-paste a new set from the default flevel (it won't carry across two flevels)

You can now  ;D ;D

https://www.ff7catalog.com/]