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

[Sega Chief]

I've been playing this today nonstop. Have made it to the Wall Market wire climb. I have to say I'm extremely impressed with your mod, my man. The balancing is top notch. I've played so many mods like this for other games that claim to be balanced but go way overboard. This is right in the pocket in my opinion. Plus, the added features and elements feel intelligently considered and implemented. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it in action. Cheers.

Cheers, bud; let me know if there are any problems.

Hi! This is my third time playing New Threat and this time I'm trying it with the 7H mod manager. I've notice the next "bugs":

-Field models are de same of vanillas. Cloud Soldier outfit is not dark for ex.
-When Cloud uses Fire in battle, he uses ir three times: 2 VS enemies and the third VS himself :/
-When Barret attacks, he damages all enemies.

I'm using the last IRO (02/10). Replacing it with de July 2018 remove the battle problem, but the field models are the same.

I think in the IRO I didn't include the field models so it'd be easier to add different ones using 7H. The other two things are from a prototype kernel I accidentally put into the latest scene patch/IRO from a couple posts ago. I replaced the download links, are you still getting the issue? There was some weirdness with Mediafire so maybe it didn't overwrite the files like it said it did.

 

[Schwahn]

Hey Sega,

Quick question.

Do we know if "A New Threat" cooperates well with the recently released HD Upscale mod for all of the pre-rendered background?

I know both mods can be loaded in with 7th Heaven, but both also affect the IRO

Any thoughts or feedback?

Thanks!

 

[ProRevenge]

Hey Sega,

Quick question.

Do we know if "A New Threat" cooperates well with the recently released HD Upscale mod for all of the pre-rendered background?

I know both mods can be loaded in with 7th Heaven, but both also affect the IRO

Any thoughts or feedback?

Thanks!

Im playing through with New Threat and ReMako together, through 7H, with zero issues, you should be good

Saw the above comment about the field models too, how possible would it be to use those with the 7H IRO? I like the NT ones but not the 7H "upscaled" ones, plus its kinda awkward with stuff like the Turks having blue suits in the field and black in battle

Also, I know this has been pointed out countless times before, but im unsure if its due to using 7th heaven or any of the graphical mods ive got enabled alongside NT, but my sources are only giving +1 instead of +5, so im getting minimal stat boosts from the rank ups, is there something I can do to fix this short of using a save editor after every rank up? For reference, im using the IRO from the first post of this topic, dated July 2018, is there a more updated IRO I should be using?

It is also worth noting that I got 7H and the mods to work by simply moving the game files myself out of program files, Steam still has a copy of them in program files/steamapps etc that is unmodded, I get errors when trying to use any ff7_en launcher but launching through 7H is fine, this is because for some reason the option to move the files through Steam was just not there for me for some unknown reason, and 7H doesn't work with a program files directory, or so it says.

The only issue im encountering is the +1 instead of +5, so everything else seems to be in order

 

[Rufaus]

@Schwahn - I'm 20 hours in, using the Remako HD Mod and other visual upgrades and New threat. I can't complain in that regard. The visual results aren't breath taking, but noticeable.

I'm terribly sorry for asking this, but when I'm in the middle of a playthrough (playing with 7th Heaven) - can I update the IRO or will things go haywire?

Fort Condor Minigame

I'm also confused about the "helicopter" guy for the Fort Condor Minigame. I'm now in Cosmo Canyon and since the Junon introduction he hasn't reappeared. Also: What are the exact / or most noteworthy rewards for the Fort Condor Minigame  (if changed from Vanilla). I'm kinda annoyed by the game and backtracking, but the rewards keep me interested.

Gameplay - Difficulty:

For some reason I only get the reduced amount of Sources from Mr Smiles upgrades. The only other gameplay modification I use is Minigame Collection for the Gold Saucer Mini Games and I run the normal (Win98) FF VII exe.

I'm just not sure If i really need the additional sources or not. I'm level 30, and for the most part I'm doing fine. In the Gongaga reactor I really got smashed, not sure If the few stats more would help that much since these enemies seem to be on the next level. My go to strategy would be Regen and Big Guard, but I still miss quite some AP for Regen, so I decided to skip that part for now.

 

[UpRisen]

NT is compatible with every purely graphical mod. The only mods it is NOT compatible with are modsthat adjust the kernel, scene, or flevel.

 

[Sega Chief]

.

.

You need the NT .exe that's provided with the zipped NT IRO folder for sources to give the proper amount. I forgot to include them with the latest IRO upload so I'll upload these now. Once they're up, drop them into your FF7 folder (make sure to rename the old ones as 'ff7 default' or something so you can revert back). I think 7H runs through the ff7.exe rather than the ff7_en.exe which is for steam's launcher.

As for field models, I'll upload those.

You can also update the IRO without issues during a run. The files altered weren't related to the game's savemap variables. Same goes with the .exe.

The fort condor guy spawn points are:
-) Junon, for first and second battle (the one before getting into the water and the one just after Cloud gets into the water and then leaves again).
-) I think for the buggy acquired one there isn't a spawn because typically players would head back to Junon area to talk to the sleeping man + acquire White Wind enemy skill.
-) He appears next in Gongaga I believe on one of the paths outside town.
-) Cosmo Canyon, he appears when Bugenhagen opens the door to the Cave of the Gi.
-) Rocket Town, he can be found in Cid's house sitting in the car.
-) No spawns because Bronco has been acquired, which can reach Fort Condor via the shallow water paths.
-) Final spawn is in Forgotten City, on the lower level of the house the party can sleep in.


Edit
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vpmu98jp1yh6wn9/FF7_NT_IRO_12th_February_2019.zip/file

That's what the upload should have been. It contains the IRO and all the documentation, .exe files, etc. I forgot that I used to pack the IRO in this folder. Sorry about that.

 

[Eresus]

I've enjoyed my time with New Threat and I can see that a lot of work was put into it, but I have a question. Is it normal for the game to just end after the final fight with Sephiroth without playing the final FMV and the credits, or is it just my version of the game that is bugged?

 

[Sega Chief]

I've enjoyed my time with New Threat and I can see that a lot of work was put into it, but I have a question. Is it normal for the game to just end after the final fight with Sephiroth without playing the final FMV and the credits, or is it just my version of the game that is bugged?

The ending behaviour was a bit up in the air. As of the latest build, it should be tied to whether Aeris is around or not. You'll get the ending FMV if she isn't, and the old church screen if she is (in older builds it was based on normal mode or arrange mode, or whether a certain item had been acquired).

Sorry if it was disappointing not to get the ending FMV at the end, it was a bad decision on my part to have it not play under certain conditions. I'm planning to do some proper work on the mod's 1.5 build soon to finalise it before I start on a 2.0 rebuild (the differences between 1.5 and 2.0 will be quite major, with a lot of stuff being cut/altered so I'm going to keep 1.5 as a 'legacy' version of sorts). When I finish it up, I'll sort out the ending behaviour properly.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

The ending behaviour was a bit up in the air. As of the latest build, it should be tied to whether Aeris is around or not. You'll get the ending FMV if she isn't, and the old church screen if she is (in older builds it was based on normal mode or arrange mode, or whether a certain item had been acquired).

Sorry if it was disappointing not to get the ending FMV at the end, it was a bad decision on my part to have it not play under certain conditions. I'm planning to do some proper work on the mod's 1.5 build soon to finalise it before I start on a 2.0 rebuild (the differences between 1.5 and 2.0 will be quite major, with a lot of stuff being cut/altered so I'm going to keep 1.5 as a 'legacy' version of sorts). When I finish it up, I'll sort out the ending behaviour properly.

Wow I'm incredibly excited about 2.0!

 

[fab_lorenzi]

I've tried the new IRO you've posted (02/13) and the Triple Fire/All-Attack problem is solved

However the field models remain the same to me, no upscaled. I'm using the new .exe too, from the Reels EXEs NT folder.

 

[Sega Chief]

I've tried the new IRO you've posted (02/13) and the Triple Fire/All-Attack problem is solved

However the field models remain the same to me, no upscaled. I'm using the new .exe too, from the Reels EXEs NT folder.

Yeah I still need to upload them. They're all loose files I need to track down in the archive.

 

[Eresus]

The ending behaviour was a bit up in the air. As of the latest build, it should be tied to whether Aeris is around or not. You'll get the ending FMV if she isn't, and the old church screen if she is (in older builds it was based on normal mode or arrange mode, or whether a certain item had been acquired).

Sorry if it was disappointing not to get the ending FMV at the end, it was a bad decision on my part to have it not play under certain conditions. I'm planning to do some proper work on the mod's 1.5 build soon to finalise it before I start on a 2.0 rebuild (the differences between 1.5 and 2.0 will be quite major, with a lot of stuff being cut/altered so I'm going to keep 1.5 as a 'legacy' version of sorts). When I finish it up, I'll sort out the ending behaviour properly.

Cool, glad to know that you are still working on improving the mod. Removing New Threat from 7th Heaven's active mods and loading the save file before Sephiroth (he dies in a couple of hits anyway) allows you to see the final FMV, so it wasn't that big of a deal, I was just curious why it wasn't playing is all.

If I may give some feedback, I found summon materia not worth using (except hades for added effect or phoenix to revive Tifa with the cursed ring equiped), enemy skill does the job much more efficiently mp wise, and while the 100% chance to inflict status effect sounds good in theory, I did not find any enemy encounter worth the mp cost as opposed to just kill them. While I think there is a fair amount of enemies that absorb elemental magic, or that at very least force you to use sense to be sure, I found very few enemies that are able to punish you for using physical attacks, I had Tifa with X4cut, 220 strength and 230 luck, with premium heart and about 800mp at the end, and she was hitting for 30-40k per turn, regular enemies and non-optional bosses had no way of dealing with it.

While emerald weapon had me at the edge of my seat, punishing you for trying to rush her down, I still don't know If ruby weapon had any kind of gimmick to it, because it just died from Tifa's physical attacks without doing anything special, so it may need a small buff in that regard.  I know there are superbosses at each one of the materia caves, but I played without breeding chocobos to see how balanced the final dungeon was without some of the most busted materia in the game.

Those are some of my thoughs anyway, while I wish that more enemies would make you think twice before using a specific attack on them, it is still a huge improvement over the original in my book.

 

[Sega Chief]

Cool, glad to know that you are still working on improving the mod. Removing New Threat from 7th Heaven's active mods and loading the save file before Sephiroth (he dies in a couple of hits anyway) allows you to see the final FMV, so it wasn't that big of a deal, I was just curious why it wasn't playing is all.

If I may give some feedback, I found summon materia not worth using (except hades for added effect or phoenix to revive Tifa with the cursed ring equiped), enemy skill does the job much more efficiently mp wise, and while the 100% chance to inflict status effect sounds good in theory, I did not find any enemy encounter worth the mp cost as opposed to just kill them. While I think there is a fair amount of enemies that absorb elemental magic, or that at very least force you to use sense to be sure, I found very few enemies that are able to punish you for using physical attacks, I had Tifa with X4cut, 220 strength and 230 luck, with premium heart and about 800mp at the end, and she was hitting for 30-40k per turn, regular enemies and non-optional bosses had no way of dealing with it.

While emerald weapon had me at the edge of my seat, punishing you for trying to rush her down, I still don't know If ruby weapon had any kind of gimmick to it, because it just died from Tifa's physical attacks without doing anything special, so it may need a small buff in that regard.  I know there are superbosses at each one of the materia caves, but I played without breeding chocobos to see how balanced the final dungeon was without some of the most busted materia in the game.

Those are some of my thoughs anyway, while I wish that more enemies would make you think twice before using a specific attack on them, it is still a huge improvement over the original in my book.

Some good feedback here, thanks for taking the time to post it. I think Summons were nerfed down for the most part. They ignore magic defence so I thought I'd be able to lower the base power a bit and make them less spammable against regular enemies but retain use against tougher ones. I've maybe went too far with the nerf.

Ultimate Weapons are currently one of the big balancing problems that need to be addressed in the mod. They use the same formulas as default ones, which makes them far and away stronger for damage than most other options. Same thing goes with 4x-cut, quadra magic, mime, etc.

Ruby is often criticised as being too easy. I'll need to go back to the drawing board on that one, but good to hear that Emerald is holding up.

As far as rebalancing and the future goes, I learned how to hack the assembly very late and to implement the needed balance changes properly I'll have to rebuild the mod around them. I've been putting off a 2.0 rebuild until some of the new modding frameworks are released because they'll enable a lot of features (direct save-map editing for one, this'll eliminate the need for sources and allow for a rank-reset option if a player isn't happy with how their character turned out stat-wise).

Personally, I can't wait to get started; I've had a lot of ideas for new stuff to replace some of the jankier content in the mod. But I gotta wait for the timebeing :I

 

[Ayoyo]

If I may give some feedback, I found summon materia not worth using (except hades for added effect or phoenix to revive Tifa with the cursed ring equiped), enemy skill does the job much more efficiently mp wise, and while the 100% chance to inflict status effect sounds good in theory, I did not find any enemy encounter worth the mp cost as opposed to just kill them. While I think there is a fair amount of enemies that absorb elemental magic, or that at very least force you to use sense to be sure, I found very few enemies that are able to punish you for using physical attacks, I had Tifa with X4cut, 220 strength and 230 luck, with premium heart and about 800mp at the end, and she was hitting for 30-40k per turn, regular enemies and non-optional bosses had no way of dealing with it.

While emerald weapon had me at the edge of my seat, punishing you for trying to rush her down, I still don't know If ruby weapon had any kind of gimmick to it, because it just died from Tifa's physical attacks without doing anything special, so it may need a small buff in that regard.  I know there are superbosses at each one of the materia caves, but I played without breeding chocobos to see how balanced the final dungeon was without some of the most busted materia in the game.

Those are some of my thoughs anyway, while I wish that more enemies would make you think twice before using a specific attack on them, it is still a huge improvement over the original in my book.

Seconded; there's a lot to be said about endgame balance as a whole, especially with regards to some inherently broken stuff from the vanilla game and how they inevitably compromise the integrity of the mod in terms of interesting&fair challenge and tactical gameplay. Well, I've said my piece on the Mime&Q-magic already and it seems Chief's on the same wavelength, so looking forwards to seeing those reined back to something that doesn't feel just completely stupid. Bahamut Zero might have been the only summon aside from kotr that did find use for me for a while, but quickly rendered obsolete by multi-hit stuff. It'd be cool to see Ruby brought up to snuff so it's not completely overshadowed by the awesome new bosses.

Regarding ultimate weapons, and I suppose endgame numbers as a whole.. Hitting the damage cap near the end always felt dreary, uninteresting&limiting to me anyways, it renders 90% of the player's arsenal obsolete since the only thing that matters is the number of hits; eliminating meaningful choice from the side of the player and severely restricting the spectrum of valid strategies - not to mention the problem of making everything easier than it should. Maybe some skills or spells or summons would be cool if they actually reached that damage cap but they should be few in number and/or require some effort&prep work(for example I always liked how with heavy stat investment&item usage&master first you could buff Tifa's damage to high heavens earlier than others, it feels really rewarding whereas nothing feels like anything if everything deals 9999 anyways). I always figured that shouldn't it make balancing the endgame way esier too if the numbers were more manageable and didn't get out of hand quite so badly. Now that I think about it - isn't there a way to just remove the damage limit in this game? That would alleviate the problem certainly but all the enemies and bosses would need to be buffed accordingly.

From the sound of it, you have your work cut out for you - but I'm pretty damn excited about 2.0 and what it promises so keep up the stellar job man. Good thing I still got arrange mode to hold me over in the meantime, super psyched to see how much more challenging it ends up being.

 

[markul]

As far as rebalancing and the future goes, I learned how to hack the assembly very late and to implement the needed balance changes properly I'll have to rebuild the mod around them.

:'(   "rebuild" ......  You already know that there is no hurry....:/

 

[Yuffie1983]

Hey Chief is this some sort of bug, it seems like I am fighting Tifa's martial arts instructor inside the first reactor, and getting my ass handed to me. Is this correct or is it some sort of bug.   

 

[EQ2Alyza]

That's not a bug. You've mixed together multiple installations without cleaning your registry, so now your lookup tables for the scene.bin are broken.

 

[Yuffie1983]

That's not a bug. You've mixed together multiple installations without cleaning your registry, so now your lookup tables for the scene.bin are broken.

No sorry I assure you, I did not. Yes I did reinstall FF VII and but before I did I did run the FF VII registry cleaner tool found on this forum, and then did a clean install of FF VII and the 7th Heaven mod.

 

[EQ2Alyza]

I haven't played through NT yet, so it could be a part of the mod.

 

[Sega Chief]

I haven't played through NT yet, so it could be a part of the mod.

Hey Chief is this some sort of bug, it seems like I am fighting Tifa's martial arts instructor inside the first reactor, and getting my ass handed to me. Is this correct or is it some sort of bug.   

The encounter isn't intended for that area, and has been loaded because the kernel isn't synched to the scene.bin. This typically happens either if 7H hasn't been installed correctly or there are mod conflicts. From the screencap, you're running the Jessie mod which is incompatible with most gameplay mods as it changes the field script + kernel.

There's been some logic put into 7H's catalog to try and stop incompatible mods from being activated together, but some of the newer ones (or NT's up-to-date stand-alone IRO) don't have these checks. As for which mods are compatible, any visual mods should be fine; field backgrounds, character models, etc. Menu Overhaul should also be OK so long as the ff7_bc.exe is used.

One final thing, make sure you're using NT's latest IRO which isn't in the catalog. It's on the front page of this thread and can be imported through the library tab. In addition to the IRO, the folder contains several .exe files that have been modified with NT-specific changes. Replace the .exe files you have in your FF7 folder directly (but keep them as backups so you can revert to the vanilla 7H .exes when needed). It's a clunky step but I found out recently that IROs can be packaged with hextedit scripts so it'll be gone in a future update.