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April 16, 2024, 09:32:58 am

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Messages - Stilgar

1
Had I known I could make tweaks for my personal use based on your mod (and how straightforward the patcher is) I wouldn't have posted. Others may enjoy a more vanilla tuning though. Perhaps tuning is the wrong word... some added difficulty is welcome especially late in the game but some of the changes effect the gameplay a little too much for my taste. Move+ for example: after playing the game so many times over the years having them removed doesn't make it feel harder, it only makes things feel slow. Pricing Raise JP at ~750 didn't add any enjoyment for me either, it just artificially draws out time spent grinding. I don't mean to criticize, this is all just one man's opinion and I hope the feedback is useful. Your mod adds enough that I wouldn't want to play without it but some of the changes feel more like tedium, and that can be said for a few of the vanilla features too.

I've only played your mod through Chapter 2 and I'm almost caught up to that point with the version I tinkered with. I hadn't played the WotL version previously but I've played vanilla-PSX at least a dozen times over the years. As such some of the things I tinkered with may not be for the best, I'd like the difficulty to remain as high in CH 4 as it is in CH 1. Anyway here's what I changed, mostly just reverting some things back to vanilla. Maybe this will help if you're seriously considering making an "easy-type" or "vanilla+".


-Added Move+ abilities to their normal spots and gave +3 to Dancer too. Lancer got Jump +3 although it's redundant.
I never got much out of these other than convenience. I can see how the extra couple of movement points might allow a character to run away and live when they wouldn't otherwise but I think it's rare that the extra movement has much of an effect on the outcome of anything. Even with all jobs normalized to 4 movement, I'd leave +2 from Thief in at the minimum. Crawling across the battlefield isn't fun.

-Innate Raise JP to all classes/characters and changed (mostly raised) JP prices back to default in order to preserve the vanilla pace.
Considering this frees up the Support slot it could be seen as a buff but Raise JP isn't technically mandatory, although I've never gone without it. This just allows for interesting choices in that slot without excessive grinding.

-AI won't rend or steal equipment.
Either it's so infrequent that I'll savescum when it happens or it's so frequent that Safeguard become mandatory for rare equipment. There's no middle ground here; I'm unwilling to lose rare items.

-Removed the added RSM skills on named characters.
I enjoy the feeling of progression throughout the game, this puts a damper on that. With the added skills a lot of characters would only need to level a secondary action skill and then they're done.

-Removed the added mana costs on skills.
While it provided the potential for some interesting choices in battle, I prefer the versatility of the mana-less skills.

-Raised job unlock requirements back to normal for Onion and Dark Knight. Lowered the JP requirement for Level 8 of a job back to normal.

-Put any removed skills back in and changed Ramza's skills to their default effects.
Ramza's +speed abilities can be abused but they're priceless for anything that involves grinding. I can see why you changed it to haste and it's more balanced that way but I don't abuse it outside of the most tedious of circumstances where there's no danger anyway. Some of the others may have been removed for good reason but I'm not inclined to break the game in the extreme anyway - Calculator could be entirely neutered but I'd miss Beowulf's Drain, for example.

-Removed the redundant Jump Action abilities from Dragoon. It's just +3 and +8 now.

-Added the strongest 2 katanas to shops at the end of chapter 4 at a price of approximately 35k and 50k.
It was always a shame to me that these couldn't be used as skills. Price subject to change.

-Ultima/Zodiark learnable with JP at a price of ~2000.
The price might need to be higher to make it an alternative but equal choice, maybe 3k and 4k for Ultima and Zodiark respectively.

-Undid almost all changes to stats, abilities and equipment including damage formulas, mana costs and item effects.
I left everything to do with enemies alone and kept the buffed hit rates of spells like protect, ct buffs, some minor mana cost buffs and Cloud's buffs.
This actually doesn't seem to effect the difficulty of the mod very much so far as most of the tweaks looked minor and the buffs apply to enemies as well, however I'll probably put the nerfs back in for end-game weapons. Overall this is my most questionable change in my mind. I'll have a more informed opinion on this one as I progress through the game.


Like I said I'm still on CH 2 but so far it seems like it's retained the core feeling and pace of vanilla but with added difficulty. It's noticeably harder but not excessively so with a few of the more tedious parts of the base-game streamlined. For what it's worth I'm enjoying it more than vanilla or your normal mod.
2
Would it be possible to get a version of this with just the extra items, extra battles and quality of life changes? Failing that would you please be willing to make fftpatch the file available so others might implement a different version? I really love the idea of this mod and many of the features make this the definitive version of the game in my mind, but several features add a lot of tedium - move+ skills removed, rending enemies, magic costs on special abilities, etc.

Someone asked for a version with only these changes a while back:

"-SLOWDOWN FIXED!
-Multiplayer items have been imported into Singleplayer by overriding some existing, rarely used items.
-Multiplayer battles have been imported into Midlight's Deep.
-Multiplayer items have been added, and have replaced some existing items. Most can be acquired by beating battles in Midlight's Deep. (PSP)
-Ability to steal from Elmdore.
-Alicia, Rad, and Lavian come with 70 Brave and 70 Faith. (PSX/PSP)
-Cloud's Limits no longer require the Materia Blade, but do require a Sword to be used. (PSX/PSP)
-Braver, Cross-Slash, and Omnislash are now based on PA and WP. (PSX/PSP)
-Aim skills are faster. (PSP)
-1 day errands.
-Move-find items are 100%"

Would you please reconsider some sort of version like this? Perhaps a version with just the main extra content and quality of life changes or alternatively one with few of the more tedious changes removed. Either way... whatever's easier, or I'd be more than willing to try my hand at making these changes if you'd allow it. Thank you.

Edit - I just discovered that patched roms are editable. I've edited a copy of it but the slowdown patch was somehow removed in the process. It can be added back with this version - http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9523.0