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

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It happened at the screen immediately at the bottom of the elevator, that holds the save sphere. 2013 version.
 
@Ayoyo: I think your impression that double-casting magic is too powerful partially stems from the fact that you got full stocks of Double and Pain on disc 1 already, as they increase the Magic stat by quite a bit. Do you remember where you found those two spells? It was definitely not intended to have an infinite source for them that early in the game (outside of the very slow Grendel card-modding process to get Doubles).
Don't worry, I'm not quite that dumb actually despite my appearances - by saying "I found" I didn't mean to say I had full stacks of them, just that I came across them at some point. So I didn't actually acquire them myself. Meltdown was refinable from that item you mug from abyss worms, and doubles from dragon fins, neither of which are exactly the rarest items around. Turning grendels into cards is quick & easy since they're susceptible to sleep and don't have much HP and they tend to stand out in terms of encounters in that little forest you cross on your way to Galbadia Garden. Leaving Doubles to be refinable is probably what I'm objecting to the most here overall, as it exacerbates magic being overpowered(which it just is), and undoes the marvelous idea of rationing your Doubles and having a set, limited supply of them. 
I had Demi junctioned to MAG, and berserk for STR for the Edea fight, which I believe is not ahead of the curve at all. I didn't even have bio even though I think you could've gotten those stacks too reasonably easily from venom fangs. My STR and MAG stats have been really close at all times incidentally, because it seems the spell progression without excessive grinding or card modding is quite intuitive & regulated in that sense. And I tend to wait until I can draw new spell stacks from monsters or bosses, ensuring that I'm at the expected power level.

Well, if even after my diatribe it's still definitely a-okay for simply casting magics that are as common as common can be to be stronger than all this other stuff thereby rendering alternative strategies kind of stupid, stronger than your Renzos or most limit breaks usually(and safer, no need to dance at low HP), stronger than any physical attack-oriented strategy even for supposedly "non-magic" characters, and altogether the easiest, most obvious fail-safe method of beating every boss because there isn't a single boss fight where it hasn't been superbly effective(strongest even for bosses WITHOUT elemental weaknesses, let alone if they do) or where there's a heightened risk to spamming magic, and be consistently & practically the best, most approachable strategy for the player to always default to, then I've failed to make my case. But I certainly know for a fact that doing anything other than double(later triple) spamming magic with all 3 characters is knowingly shooting yourself in the foot and being sub-optimal & taking unnecessary risks, but I'm going to have to do it just for the sake of variety. Also I want to believe that maybe magic gets weaker as the game goes on, relative to other methods. I will now forever shut up about doubles, magic and shit(no I won't :P).

As for GF damage being too low compared to double-casting spells, I think it's ok for GF attacks being slightly inferior, to counteract their benefit of usually hitting all enemies. So I guess I would rather prefer making more battles with 3-4 enemies in it than increasing GF base power, to make using GF more worthwhile.
Indeed this doesn't really address my issues, and indirectly implicates that GF's are more suited/meant for random encounters, which is just unprecedented in the history of Final Fantasy. No way that's the right mentality, IMO... Unless you meant boss fights? Yes, there are some boss battles with more dudes but I mean... Summoning the elemental god of fire and brimstone shouldn't feel like shit compared to just throwing 2 Firas... See, here I go again. But my initial gripe wasn't with the damage even, it shouldn't be over the top because that would make them TOO attractive an option. The main thing was always about their effects and status inflictions, which is a really nice niche for them to have in the mod! So addressing that in terms of boss battles will fix the entire GF problem and make them more of a mainstay in the player's arsenal.

- increased status infliction rate for GF attacks
- some measures to ease progress in D-District Prison
- removing early access to Quistis' Shockwave Pulsar Limit Break
- some more tweaks to certain bosses in Hard mode
- rebalancing Selphie's Slot Limit Break
- more precise hints in regards to complete some of the new sidequests
- making certain bosses vulnerable to more status effects
- making physically-oriented characters less proficient in magic-usage (by reducing overall junction effects one more time)
Hell yes. This is such a good thing, 2 birds with one stone. More complexity & tactical choices and depth, and making GF's more attractive an option. It does come with the caveat that you're going to have to buff the bosses to where the fights are balanced around the bosses having those inflictions so they don't just get flat-out "easier" when you land them. At least for hard mode it needs to be that way around.
Oof, so you could've still gotten Shockwave there. Pretty crazy, but I'm just gonna throw it out there once again like I've said before, that keep the "overly regulated and controlled" thing in mind. Part of the excitement and fun of these games is somehow, occasionally, breaking the curve and getting some stuff way earlier than expected. Not just talking about magics that are a bit ahead. I'm not entirely against there being a way of getting Shockwave/similar super exciting stuff super early, but it certainly would preferably be something more cryptic than just mugging trifaces. Maybe like a hard-as-balls sidequest somewhere. Something like a more secretive version of the Irvine duel in FH with the guy to get Pulse ammo, that was AWESOME. Only undercut by being able to make endless pulse ammo from card mod anyways... I'd change that, to make said ammo more prestigious, and making the other kinds of ammo more relevant as a result, at least for earlier parts of the game. You can get Elnoyle cards right from the beginning and X-ATMs come in droves on disc 2 if you like card modding.

The intended way to defeat the Iguions in the sewer is actually hitting them with their elemental weakness, which shifts constantly over the course of the battle.
Oh I'm definitely going back to this one, then. This is more like it in terms of magic usage too, because you're introducing a tactical element as opposed to just spamming whatever and it'll still be strong. It would be perfect if the "wrong" type of spell would be countered somehow.

There is a save point in Zell's room that can be accessed anytime after talking to the Galbadian Soldiers guarding Balamb Hotel. I'm honestly surprised to learn that the battle against Fujin and Raijin can be triggered without entering Zell's room. Always thought it was mandatory to complete this scenario. Anyway, adding another save opportunity right before the battle should be no problem. I'll also look into the Selphie being absent thing you mentioned.
Lol, didn't even remember this is where you go to Zell's room. Yea I just talked to the Ma and ran out to find Raijin. It would still mean you fight 2 boss fights in a row, which might be fine but I'm always in favor of reducing instances where perceived cheapness sends people back a ways, such as with Fujin if you don't know/didn't remember she spams air.

Odin unfortunately doesn't have any animation that could be used for a physical attack such as a sword strike. He basically only has his Zantetsuken animation, and even this one doesn't work well with most enemy attacks or spells (Heaven's Wrath being one of the very few exceptions). It's possible to have him use attacks without him moving at all, but it would look a little weird if damage numbers pop out of nowhere, so I'm hesitant to give Odin any other attacks beside Heaven's Wrath. I'll think about it again though.
That's a shame. Well if there's any way you could throw in just a little curveball at some point in this fight, would just make it that much more exciting. It's pretty awesome already but at the end of the day it's just a loop that the player repeats an x amount of times.

Any ideas for the Selphie thing & low level runs? We've talked about it and I know it's tricky, but if you have any ideas, I'd be interested to hear them. Her uniqueness does suffer a bit in my playthroughs because I see some of her spells so seldomly. Also I wanna quote some of the stuff that you didn't mention and would like to hear your thoughts on as potential considerations for future, namely...

While looking for rare monsters, it dawned on me that it really adds nothing to the game to keep running into starting-area enemies around the world, especially in areas where there's also encounters with interesting/new kinds of monsters. I remember seeing some talk about changing some of the more boring encounters in the overworld but this is something I think could still be made more convenient - during exploration, I usually check up to 4 encounters in any given area to see if I run into rare monsters and then move on, but it's actually quite likely that it's not enough and you might still miss them. My recommendation would be to just remove the bite bugs, geezards, fastitocalons, thrustaevises etc. starter enemies from certain disc 2+ areas, thereby making the more interesting encounters more common. I mean you can find those starting enemies all over anyways. I know their drops and whatnot might change with their level but it's not like there's a shortage of places where to leave them.
 
Weapon progression has been pretty nice and linear, although some characters are still lacking a motive to upgrade the weapon seeing as many aren't physically inclined and magic is OP even for those who are. I wonder what could be done to make the other weapons more interesting. Maybe they could confer small bonuses suited for the character in question? Like they do in terms of crits for Irvine, and the magazines do a good job of detailing that nowadays.

I'd like to have more reasons to get excited for the different Renzo finishers. Blasting zone has looked like a worse fated circle for me. If the other ignores defense, maybe the other could set a status, give a buff... Or in the case of blasting zone you could go for a thematic approach, like I've always joked about the amount of collateral damage it must cause because of the 1000 mile pillar of magic slamming down, so maybe it could actually have sick damage but also damages your team or something, haha.
 
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Don't worry, I'm not quite that dumb actually despite my appearances - by saying "I found" I didn't mean to say I had full stacks of them, just that I came across them at some point. So I didn't actually acquire them myself. Meltdown was refinable from that item you mug from abyss worms, and doubles from dragon fins, neither of which are exactly the rarest items around. Turning grendels into cards is quick & easy since they're susceptible to sleep and don't have much HP and they tend to stand out in terms of encounters in that little forest you cross on your way to Galbadia Garden. Leaving Doubles to be refinable is probably what I'm objecting to the most here overall, as it exacerbates magic being overpowered(which it just is), and undoes the marvelous idea of rationing your Doubles and having a set, limited supply of them.
Well, I was just a little surprised at first after you said you found the Pain spell on disc 1, so I assumed you might have discovered an unintended, infinite source for it on disc 1. I'm relieved that isn't the case. As far as disc 1 goes, there should only be one invisible Pain Draw point in Galbadia Garden that does not refill, so it should be completely unproblematic to have it there (Pain is even inferior to Bio damage-wise as a compensation for the various status effect it can cause).

The possibility to farm Meltdown spells in the Dingo Desert is intentional and meant as a way to get ahead of the curve a little, and to reward exploration. Getting full stocks takes long, as the Abyss Worms show up only rarely, so I don't think there is a need to remove this possibility (the Vit 0 status in itself will likely be nerfed in the upcoming version of the mod anway). I agree with your concerns regarding the infinite source for Double via Card-Mod though. The option will be removed to keep the prestige of that spell for longer, and the point in time the Double Draw point in Balamb Garden's library starts to refill will be pushed back to late disc 2.
 
I had Demi junctioned to MAG, and berserk for STR for the Edea fight, which I believe is not ahead of the curve at all. I didn't even have bio even though I think you could've gotten those stacks too reasonably easily from venom fangs. My STR and MAG stats have been really close at all times incidentally, because it seems the spell progression without excessive grinding or card modding is quite intuitive & regulated in that sense. And I tend to wait until I can draw new spell stacks from monsters or bosses, ensuring that I'm at the expected power level.

Well, if even after my diatribe it's still definitely a-okay for simply casting magics that are as common as common can be to be stronger than all this other stuff thereby rendering alternative strategies kind of stupid, stronger than your Renzos or most limit breaks usually(and safer, no need to dance at low HP), stronger than any physical attack-oriented strategy even for supposedly "non-magic" characters, and altogether the easiest, most obvious fail-safe method of beating every boss because there isn't a single boss fight where it hasn't been superbly effective(strongest even for bosses WITHOUT elemental weaknesses, let alone if they do) or where there's a heightened risk to spamming magic, and be consistently & practically the best, most approachable strategy for the player to always default to, then I've failed to make my case. But I certainly know for a fact that doing anything other than double(later triple) spamming magic with all 3 characters is knowingly shooting yourself in the foot and being sub-optimal & taking unnecessary risks, but I'm going to have to do it just for the sake of variety. Also I want to believe that maybe magic gets weaker as the game goes on, relative to other methods. I will now forever shut up about doubles, magic and shit(no I won't :P).
Demi on Magic and Berserk on Strength is indeed quite on curve for the end of disc 1. Still, I don't think that magic is too powerful over everything else if you play the game normally (i.e. leveling up). You are shooting yourself in the foot in regards to inflicting decent physical damage by staying at a very low level. Magic damage doesn't suffer from a rather low Magic stat as much as physical damage does from a rather low Strength stat, which explains your impression of "non-magic" characters being too proficient in using magic. Spells benefit from solid base damage, but scaling with Magic is only linear so they fall a bit behind late in the game when stats are closer to being maxed out. It's exactly the opposite for physical damage - it starts out rather low until reaching a certain Strength threshold, when it starts to rise exponentially to keep up and eventually outperform spell damage. I think this threshold is around 100-130 Strength points, so if you want physical damage to be about on par with spell damage, you need to reach that range as fast as possible, which of course will be much easier if you level up your characters.

Indeed this doesn't really address my issues, and indirectly implicates that GF's are more suited/meant for random encounters, which is just unprecedented in the history of Final Fantasy. No way that's the right mentality, IMO... Unless you meant boss fights? Yes, there are some boss battles with more dudes but I mean... Summoning the elemental god of fire and brimstone shouldn't feel like shit compared to just throwing 2 Firas... See, here I go again. But my initial gripe wasn't with the damage even, it shouldn't be over the top because that would make them TOO attractive an option. The main thing was always about their effects and status inflictions, which is a really nice niche for them to have in the mod! So addressing that in terms of boss battles will fix the entire GF problem and make them more of a mainstay in the player's arsenal.
I meant boss fights as well as random encounters, especially later in the game (2x Iron Giants, 2x Behemoth etc). Even though your gripe wasn't really with the damage, I felt the urge to compare damage numbers against the 2 Oilboyles at MD-Levels, and Ifrit (LV 38, SumMag+10/20/30% learned) outperformed a Fira Double cast from Rinoa (Mag 146, which is around the max she can have at that point) by a slight margin. I admittedly replaced SumMag+30% with the new EXP-None ability for Quezacotl, Shiva and Ifrit, which was probably a mistake. Should go for something else instead, sorry. Anway, the point I want to make is that GF are useful in this mod as long as you invest in their growth a little, also by learning their GFHP/SumMag abilities via items (this is why Silver Mail or Gold Armor appear as steals or sidequest rewards), and I hope the increased status infliction rates will contribute to that.

To illustrate how physical damage starts to keep up with magic at Strength values of 100+, I also compared a Fira Double cast from Rinoa with Renzokuken against an Oilboyle who has both moderate Vit and Spr, and Squall (Str 126) outdamaged Rinoa even on the lowest Crisis Level (4 hits = 4000 HP damage, Double Fira did around 3000). Both characters were leveled almost evenly at level 35-40. Results would be much different in favor of magic damage if both were around level 10 for reasons mentioned above (4 hit Renzokuen = 2000 HP damage, Double Fira = 2500 HP damage).

Oof, so you could've still gotten Shockwave there. Pretty crazy, but I'm just gonna throw it out there once again like I've said before, that keep the "overly regulated and controlled" thing in mind. Part of the excitement and fun of these games is somehow, occasionally, breaking the curve and getting some stuff way earlier than expected. Not just talking about magics that are a bit ahead. I'm not entirely against there being a way of getting Shockwave/similar super exciting stuff super early, but it certainly would preferably be something more cryptic than just mugging trifaces. Maybe like a hard-as-balls sidequest somewhere. Something like a more secretive version of the Irvine duel in FH with the guy to get Pulse ammo, that was AWESOME. Only undercut by being able to make endless pulse ammo from card mod anyways... I'd change that, to make said ammo more prestigious, and making the other kinds of ammo more relevant as a result, at least for earlier parts of the game. You can get Elnoyle cards right from the beginning and X-ATMs come in droves on disc 2 if you like card modding.
I planned to just change the item required to create a Dark Matter via Tool-RF, but tying its availability to a new sidequest sounds intriguing. Elnoyle Card-Mod result will be changed, but unsure about X-ATM092. I mean, 10 X-ATM092 cards for 1 Power Generator are a lot. But we'll see.

Oh I'm definitely going back to this one, then. This is more like it in terms of magic usage too, because you're introducing a tactical element as opposed to just spamming whatever and it'll still be strong. It would be perfect if the "wrong" type of spell would be countered somehow.
You won't get punished if you attack them with the wrong element, but almost everything else besides the right element does next to no damage.

Any ideas for the Selphie thing & low level runs? We've talked about it and I know it's tricky, but if you have any ideas, I'd be interested to hear them. Her uniqueness does suffer a bit in my playthroughs because I see some of her spells so seldomly.
Perhaps, Selphie's weapon could be factored into spell selection instead of Selphie's level, or instead of just a random number [0..4] used in the calculation (see here), but I don't know how difficult that would be. On the other hand, making certain spells like Rapture appear more often would be no problem.

Also I wanna quote some of the stuff that you didn't mention and would like to hear your thoughts on as potential considerations for future, namely...
- Worldmap encounters: There's unfortunately no easy way to have different random encounters based on game progress, but removing enemies from certain areas is always possible. Now that you mention it, it might be a good idea to remove the Bite Bugs from the snowy areas on the Trabia continent, as they feel somewhat out of place there (they are not just too easy as an enemy, they are also weak to Ice so their apperance in snowy areas is a little questionable). If you have other ideas for monsters that should be replaced, let me know.

- Weapon progress: Making weapons increase other stats than just Strength is likely too difficult to implement, but it would be easy to create a weapon that ignores defense, uses the step count formula, heals the target, or does magic damage instead of physical damage. Making a weapon that turns enemies into Cards would probably work too :P

- Renzokuken finishers: Fated Circle ignores defense and Blasting Zone has a noticably higher base damage, so it depends on the enemy's Vitality which one does more damage. Again, the difference would be more noticable with high Strength stats. I'll either increase Blasting Zone's damage further or make it cause a status. Not sure if it could be reworked to hit all battle participants. I'll give it a try.
 
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Thanks for taking the time to address my concerns.

It's bittersweet to hear the balance issue is a symptom of my low level game. Probably should've had more faith and assumed it was specific to how I was playing rather than indicative of the mod overall. Of course for me the fact of the matter is still that there's the optimal magic strategy, and then everything else. I might be in the more hardcore end of the player spectrum so I'll automatically gravitate towards other options as soon as they get even close to being as practical, effective or optimal overall. So looking forwards to that happening as I go further.

Even though your gripe wasn't really with the damage, I felt the urge to compare damage numbers against the 2 Oilboyles at MD-Levels, and Ifrit (LV 38, SumMag+10/20/30% learned) outperformed a Fira Double cast from Rinoa (Mag 146, which is around the max she can have at that point) by a slight margin. I admittedly replaced SumMag+30% with the new EXP-None ability for Quezacotl, Shiva and Ifrit, which was probably a mistake. Should go for something else instead, sorry. Anway, the point I want to make is that GF are useful in this mod as long as you invest in their growth a little, also by learning their GFHP/SumMag abilities via items (this is why Silver Mail or Gold Armor appear as steals or sidequest rewards), and I hope the increased status infliction rates will contribute to that.
I suspect by the time you'd have the theoretical +30sumdmgs and whatnot you're likely a bit further in the game, potentially nearing where -aga spells soon become commonplace. Of course you could prioritise those abilities but magic is hugely strong already early on and there's a lot of other essential abilities. But interesting findings anyway and it's at least respectable damage.

Also I agree that it should require investment, and I love the added emphasis on reward items that give you those better abilities like +30 gfhp/sumdmg and above. If those were quite rare as well and weren't learned naturally, then you'd introduce a decision making element for that as well as to which GFs you want to make stronger. It would also make you more attached to the GFs suited to your strategy, predilection or whatever. You might choose a more guaranteed benefit with a GF that gives a status the bosses are usually susceptible to(this is what I eagerly wait to be expanded) like Shiva or Ifrit, or you might go with the ones that give buffs, or just straight damage with one of the later ones. You could further emphasize these decisions by reducing their natural HP significantly and maybe increasing the buff from the items.

Regarding other stuff, loving what I'm hearing. I do strongly believe the thing with the doubles and removing energy crystals from elnoyles are both healthy decisions for many reasons. XATMs, well they are used A LOT on disc 2 from what I saw... maybe they could yield the energy crystal? Still a strong item for sure, and with some luck you get the cards from ~20 games.

Selphie's weapon affecting slots... that would be AWESOME. What a perfect incentive to upgrade and unique to her, further strengthening her identity and role in the party. I truly hope it's possible. And better yet is that it would fix the thing with regards to a low level game, to some extent, and you have better control when the slots upgrade since you can control when the weapons can be upgraded.

As to other weapon upgrades, pretty cool if stuff like that is possible and they could meaningfully contribute to the character's identity. Weapon that heals for Rinoa? I'd certainly consider her for the team before Angel wing then, lol. You could form an exploration strategy around "free" healing then, with some commands and that. Quistis' whip sounds like it could ignore defense. That thing sounds like it hurts. Could also be exclusive to save the queen to make it super awesome. And it would make it more appealing to gear her for strength rather than magic and take advantage of her natural stats. I'd like to brainstorm these further if you're open to the ideas.

I mentioned the Renzo finishers because I had a friend spectating my game and I upgraded the weapon to get Blasting zone but as we saw them in fights we realized that they're quite interchangeable at the end of the day. More excitement and variety is always better so if they would stand out from each other more, all the better. Blasting zone is pretty hilarious so the thought it harms the other party members a bit was wild, but it could have other unique properties depending on what's possible. If a status, maybe even instant death for killing some regular monsters if it happens to proc, to make it the best at clearing random encounters, or damage that scales with enemy level (reverse diablos).
 
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@Callisto

Great MOD!!!

I thank you for putting a lot of time creating it. I have just finished the D-District Prison area I am enjoying it a lot and it inspired me to start my own MOD. I just have a question.

How did you manage to edit the enemies for FF8R? My programming knowledge is pretty slim so I hope to just create a MOD using the available tools here...

- I tried editing FF8Rs Battle.fs using IFRIT and it's scene.out using CACTILIO but for some reason after compiling it through zzzDeArchive it does not change anything regarding the enemies (Changed bite bugs and Ifrits levels, EXP, AP, HP etc. but nothing happened. It's still vanilla Ifrit and bitebug) Editing files from main.fs works fine though (Doomtrain and Quezacotl tools are working fine). I never had any big issues with this when I was using it for the 2013 version. Help please? :D

***I GOT IT!!!***

Figured out what's wrong!!! :)

Compiling Battle.Fs though Ifrit was a bad idea. I am not editing using Ifrit and replacing monster files using Deling.
 
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Can't resist writing a little followup regarding the weirdest & hardest undertaking in my playthrough thus far. Spoiler-tagging the whole thing - it pertains to mod-exclusive sidequest battles.


So, X-ATM makes a comeback in Lunatic Pandora! Always exciting to find new bosses, only new one I found before this were the Iguions in Deling sewers. I scanned it and it revealed a respectable 97k healthbar - needless to say, it made me smirk devilishly. This was gonna be good. Of course my enthusiasm was short-lived as I started poking the hornet's nest and found that even my best spells (flare, thundaga) and abilities (shockwave pulsar) dealt a whopping 200-400 damage to the thing. I was certain it had to be some crazy, dispel-able buff but it wasn't. Then I thought it had to be a bug because the whole thing seemed fishy, but I haven't received confirmation from Callisto so I figured f@ck it, I'm doing this thing if it's the last thing I do.

So, Zell lvl9, Quistis lvl14, Edea 41. First order of business was to figure out how to damage this thing. I have knowledge of very few things that ignore defense entirely, but I did remember step mine dealing a set amount of "true" damage, and sure enough - it worked. Good thing I've grown quite fond of the ability in this playthrough and both Brothers and Tonberry had it completed. Quistis and Zell would spam it, with Edea supporting as the ruling MAG queen.

Second order of business - how to survive through the galactic-level mass destruction the boss was quite liberally throwing around. Initially only Edea had the raw stats to live through Ultima with a shell on, and I think only Zell had enough VIT to last Explosion with a protect on. Pretty crazy, so just for this one time I made an exception and lifted the ban on card modding. I got a Full-Life stack, a Flare stack and Quakes to boost people's HPs so Curagas could be junctioned to VIT, with elemental protection against fire and earth. Turns out that was enough to usually have 2 people live through the worst attacks if I had shell & protect on everyone, and Full-Lifes would be used by Edea to recover. Auto-Potion with Med Data on her was the rock-solid foundation my strategy was built upon.

I have to admit that one wombo-combo from hell almost became my undoing - X-ATM threw the Dispelga - Ultima combo, followed by Explosion, followed by the AoE physical ram attack. An absolutely unholy combo that overpowered even Edea with 4k heal Auto-potions and protection spells, but a Rebirth Flame got me back into the fray. Talk about a clutch save. Haven't seen that thing appear almost ever... Well, it was a long grind and made really annoying by the regular Dispelgas, but a Friendship item hastened the process by quite a bit. Yea I ended up trying out just about every item in my inventory and found one that apparently ignored defense. Pretty great for this fight.

Have to say though, this stuff tends to be the most memorable and weirdly enjoyable for me - you keep trying and trying and eventually come up with like the ONE strategy that's feasible enough to theoretically attain victory, and only barely at that. The reward certainly wasn't worth it, IMO - an item you can get 3 of any time you want via card modding, a card that's been ubiquitous since early disc 2 and a power generator which is yielded by the aforementioned card, meaning it's "outdated" in that regard by quite a margin. But it's never about the reward for me anyways, it's about the experience & challenge, and this was the most memorable one yet.
 
hi. any dates for when you'll post the next update?

and could you suggest at which level the party is recommended to be at some points in the game, like the way you have intended?
example: level 10 at ifrit, level 15 at gerogero, lv 30 at iguions, etc.?
i really want to play a 'recommended' level playing of this mod without being overpowered / underpowered. (right now i'm fighting NORG with squall lv.44 and my ass is being kicked hard... i'm still trying to find strategies to beat it!
 
Hey guys i hit a bug and i'm wondering if anyone can help figure out whats wrong. I have the mod installed correctly, alongside some other graphical improvements. I'm back at balamb garden , looking for cid upstairs, haven't ventured into the lower levels of the garden yet. I'm level 39 with squall, and i'm noticing im still hitting the 9999 damage cap.....i thought that was raised? I'm hitting it by summoning shiva against Bombs in the main garden hallway. I'm super bummed out, i've always wanted to play FF8 without the damage and hp caps...

Ok so i figured out what i did wrong, i had the wrong version of roses and wine :(, i used the version you supplied and shiva just hit for 13k. My question now is, do i have to start a new save game?? Being that i played all the way through disc 1 with the mod only half way active, im really hoping i didnt' miss out on anything and don't have to restart again x.x
 
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Hello everyone !!

I played the Remastered version of FF8 some time ago and want to play it again, but, for some reason, the Remastered version works awfull in my PC and i prefer the 2013 steam version (i think Ragnarok 2013 is one step ahead of the Remastered version and i would like to play it from the beggining :)

I never used tombery mod with the graphic updates so, here is my question ... Is this mod compatible with Tombery mod ????

And is there any step or is the installation the same ?

Thank you :)
 
Hello everyone !!

I played the Remastered version of FF8 some time ago and want to play it again, but, for some reason, the Remastered version works awfull in my PC and i prefer the 2013 steam version (i think Ragnarok 2013 is one step ahead of the Remastered version and i would like to play it from the beggining :)

I never used tombery mod with the graphic updates so, here is my question ... Is this mod compatible with Tombery mod ????

And is there any step or is the installation the same ?

Thank you :)
i think ragnarok mod needs tonberry mod to be installed first.
it's all on the first post, you can read it carefully.

...where is Callisto? i want the new version!!!
this topic is becoming forgotten, almost no one posts here now :( i hope this mod have more visibility to return in full form!
 
waiting on update to try this one :D, only thing i never liked about ff8 was that it esentially punishes you for using magic :(   shame the mp system is gone,   a combination of of the 2 would have been fine.  spells cost mp to cast & you can still collect 100 of each spell for the sake of junctioning alone, but casting only uses mp, not taking away from the total.  could make acquiring spells super more limited that way for balance buttttt wouldn't feel bad for every cast and wind up just using physical attacks and gfs lol....   

never the less, awaiting new version! :D
 
I've been doing a casual playthrough, without a deep knowledge of FF8, and without either grinding or running away from many fights; a proper normal playthrough. I'm having a great time so far. The mod is amazing. The Brothers fight was perfect.

That said, I might need to restart. I'm at the Edea fight in deling city and it seems like losing this one results in a Game Over now. She opens up with maelstrom which severely weakens and slows the whole party, then I can't heal fast enough to keep up with all her turns and spells, especially since she's silencing people constantly with Astral Punch. This one might be impossible currently.

I haven't been stealing anything or seeking out many side quests or extra stuff up to this point. Diablos hasn't learned Mug yet. Maybe I'm underpowered.
 
gotta ask does this mod still need the rose and wine mod for the 2013 re-release?
 
gotta ask does this mod still need the rose and wine mod for the 2013 re-release?
You do still need Roses and Wine to use this mod.

If you want something more minimal, there a lite version of Roses and Wine that doesn't change the music, but still allows for mods like this to be used.

Go here and scroll down to find Roses and Wine Lite: https://thereunion.live/software.html
 
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You do still need Roses and Wine to use this mod.

If you want something more minimal, there a lite version of Roses and Wine that doesn't change the music, but still allows for mods like this to be used.

Go here and scroll down to find Roses and Wine Lite: https://ff7.live/othersoftware.html
Thank you for the reply i will check this out once i've done my playthrough of another gameplay/story mod
 
Hello everyone, and sorry for the longer absence. During the last few months, I couldn't focus on mod development too well because of the declining health of a family member. Things have settled down a little lately though, allowing me to work on the mod more often again.

A new version should be ready in about a month with a lot of additions and an increase in hard mode difficulty, but I better say in advance that I probably won't be able to release it for 2013 and Remastered simultaneously, as there are several new changes to the 2013 executable that need to be ported over to the Remastered EFIGS file first, which can take time. So the ETA is currently for the 2013 version only. Sorry for the inconvenience.

If you are curious about the upcoming changes, check the opening post. I've added some kind of progress report there.

Now back to some things left unanswered:

Not sure if this bug is with your mod or not, but after defeating Elvoret at the Dollet tower I paused the game and went to go eat dinner with 29:19 on the timer. When I returned and unpaused the on-screen timer read 0:00, the menu timer reads 99:59, and it stays that way even after re-opening the game.
It's probably no longer relevant, but I figured that this is likely an issue with any kind of timers not freezing when pausing the game in the Steam 2013 version. After having the game paused for more than 30 minutes after defeating Elvoret, the menu timer won't stay at 00:00 after the time is up, and will display the max possible game time instead (using a different color). I guess this is what happened in your case. The issue will resolve itself after returning to Balamb though, so it's nothing too serious and can be possibly even abused if you are after the highest Conduct score in the SeeD exam.

and could you suggest at which level the party is recommended to be at some points in the game, like the way you have intended?
example: level 10 at ifrit, level 15 at gerogero, lv 30 at iguions, etc.?
i really want to play a 'recommended' level playing of this mod without being overpowered / underpowered. (right now i'm fighting NORG with squall lv.44 and my ass is being kicked hard... i'm still trying to find strategies to beat it!
In the current version of the mod, character levels aren't all that important in the early-game, so it's a little difficult to give level recommendations. Stat-Junctions are way more impactful and unlocking the HP-J Ability soon is essential. If you have it on all 3 characters by the time you reach the Tomb of the Unknown King, you shouldn't have too much trouble from there onwards if you keep your junctions up-to-date. So instead of only level recommendations, here's a little advice on what else you should have when facing a certain boss:


Ifrit: initial character spells, starting levels
Elvoret: Cure, Fire, Blizzard, Thunder; starting levels
X-ATM092: spells as above; starting levels if you are careful
Granaldo: spells as above; HP-J unlocked for at least one character; starting levels
Diablos: Protect and Shell from the previous boss fight, HP-J unlocked for two characters, level 10-12
Gerogero: All spells mentioned above, HP-J unlocked for two characters, level 12-15
Esthar Cyborgs: Aero, Break, Slow, Blind, Silence, Protect, Shell; HP-J unlocked for at least 2 characters; level 15-20
Sacred/Minotaur: Zombie, Double, Float, Protect; HP-J unlocked for 3 characters; level 20-25
Iguions: Life, Drain, Esuna, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Cura; level 26-28
Seifer/Edea: as before + a few Haste spells
Biggs/Wedge: as before
D-District Prison top: Water, Bio, Regen; level 28-32
Missile Base soldiers: as before
BGH251F2 (1): as before
Oilboyles: spells as before, level 33-35
NORG: HP/STR/VIT/MAG/SPR-J for all characters (mostly), level 35-38
BGH251F2 (2): level 35-38
Fujin/Raijin (1): level 38-42
Odin: Meltdown, level 38-42
Tonberry King: Double, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga; level 38-42
Cerberus: Meltdown, Pain, Curaga, Dispel; level 42-48
Seifer (2): as above
Edea (2): as above, SPD-J for 1-2 characters
Abadon: Quake, Tornado; level 49-52
Propagator: as above
Jumbo Cactuar: Holy, Flare, Meteor; level 53-60
Bahamut: as above
Ultima Weapon: level 61-70
Fujin/Raijin (2): level 53-58
Mobile Type 8: Renew spell, level 59-64
Seifer (4): level 59-64
Adel: level 65-70, SPD-J for at least 2 characters
All remaining bosses: Ultima spell, SPD-J for the entire party, level 70+


I've been doing a casual playthrough, without a deep knowledge of FF8, and without either grinding or running away from many fights; a proper normal playthrough. I'm having a great time so far. The mod is amazing. The Brothers fight was perfect.

That said, I might need to restart. I'm at the Edea fight in deling city and it seems like losing this one results in a Game Over now. She opens up with maelstrom which severely weakens and slows the whole party, then I can't heal fast enough to keep up with all her turns and spells, especially since she's silencing people constantly with Astral Punch. This one might be impossible currently.

I haven't been stealing anything or seeking out many side quests or extra stuff up to this point. Diablos hasn't learned Mug yet. Maybe I'm underpowered.
Edea can still prematurely end the battle without a Game Over in this mod, but in order to make her do so, she needs to have lost at least 50% of her max HP (on Standard difficulty) with at least one KO'd party member present. If you remove the Curse status on Squall directly after Edea's Maelstrom opener, you could try rushing her down with his Renzokuken (it's usually the most powerful attack against her) to reach this threshold quickly.

If you want to defeat her the normal way, draw-casting her Shell magic and protection against Ice in Elem-Def is recommended. The Slow status caused by Maelstrom is most easily countered by Haste. Esuna can do the job as well, but slows down recovery in comparison to using Haste. All in all, I feel sorry for you to hit a wall in this fight. I guess Edea needs to be toned-down a little more, at least in Standard Mode.
 
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Hey Callisto, good to see you back. I was getting a bit worried but I'm glad you're okay. I hope things get better for you and your family.

As always, thank you for the continuous work you put into this mod. The upcoming version looks super exciting!  :)
 
I did everything stated and when i start the game it looks like its running from the mod.
But once in game i dont have magic in my inventory and the draw point in library is still Esuna.
Merged with hard mod btw
 
Just a little shout out to everyone playing. I updated to W10 version 21H1 and the game's speed continues to be slower than the base framerate.

To fix it, use an auto-clicker with the following settings:

Set clicking area inside the window somewhere (like the black pillarboxes on the sides) to avoid clicking on an unanted area

Set it to left single click with an interval of around 80ms

You can play around with the settings as you wish, but those seem to keep the framerate stable and at the game's spec.
In my experience it doesn't look like SpecialK is really needed (I set everything to off and only the autoclicker made a difference), but your mileage may vary.
 
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