New Mod – Ansehelm's FFT Expansion Open Beta! (PSX)

[silenthill27]

Great question, and well timed.  After an unexpected months-long hiatus, I've gotten back to work, and a new update should be live within a day or so.  Overall I've made CH 1-mid 2 significantly easier, and have switched a lot of the hardest random battles such that it's still possible to roll them, but they only appear late in the game.

well damn dude thats awesome, i'm looking forward to checking it out. mods that go to such lengths to add stuff always amaze me. will be f5'ing this page eagerly

[Ansehelm]

Alright, update is live, check the original post.

spoiler: Summary of Changes:

-Made Goug Plot Battle somewhat easier & generally made chapter 1 easier and 2 until Zaland
-Made many random battles easier by switching availability of the hardest battles to late game.
-Removed innate two hands from samurai
-Special Units now have improved class rewards for propositions
-Gil rewards for mining propositions increased
-JP rewards for combat propositions increased
-Ramza base class growths improved slightly (PA, MA, HP, SP) so that he isn't as disadvantaged in duels if you keep him in his base class for many levels.
-Lucavi units now absorb dark element (instead of cancel), but are weak against holy (except Altima)
-Squire's wish ability restored to its original function (healing)
-Moved the inviteable Kreuzritter to the Zalmo battle.
-Gave Malak and Mustadio 1 extra ability each.
-Created a new sprite for a playable Rune Knight, which can be invited in one of the library battles
-Increased Agrias' PA growths/multiplier so that she is almost as strong as male knights, but decreased hp multiplier slightly.
-Deep Dungeon is now available much sooner, after the battle at Bervenia Free City.
-Beowulf is retooled as a monster slayer with some status abilities, rather than an uber-oracle. 
-Changed several of the poach abilities: will soon put a list of the best poaches in Hints
-Reworked Bomb Family into Elemental Family (Water, Wind, Fire).  Fire elemental is much like the old Explosive
-Changed Music for a few of the battles.

Also updated the Missable Content section and added a small Hints section, with more info to be coming soon.

[silenthill27]

Great, I will absolutely check it out today!

[silenthill27]

Early impressions so far heading into chap 1 final battle:

I love the low gil thing, I think it's awesome, pretty much perfect. Gil was never something you really had to worry about before, so actually being cognizant of it and not just being able to always buy the absolute best gear for everyone the second it becomes available is really awesome and a fantastic way to make the game more challenging in a way other then lawl moar dmg and 4k health

Random battles felt really off, maybe intentional. going into mandalia at level 3 or so and fighting dragons with 9? move, and range 3/4 abilities that were a guaranteed one shot, and human units with auto potion when youre still struggling to constantly deal 20 felt bad. the tonberries and the early game doggos having a ranged attack with what seems like a crazy high chance to just inflict death felt really rough too, especially so early on

Job progression in terms of jp you earn and cost of abilities feels good, i love the unique things i've seen on jobs so far different from vanilla, however the job unlocking does feel slow, i felt like i was stuck on squires and chemists for a while, which gameplay wise is a little boring, but i may just not be used to psx style progression vs psp

story battles have a really good balance of difficulty, not really much more to say here. nothing crazy OP, nothing too steamrolly

new sprites look good, havent run into any weird kind of bugs so far. looking forward to pushing it further. hoping as i get levels the random battles are a bit more manageable

[Ansehelm]

Solid assessment.  Randoms can be pretty tough, but I'm working on smoothing the difficulty curve, especially early on.  I imagine you're referring to one of the Mandalia East battles, since Mandalia north and Sweegy are (mostly) safe. I'll probably give that one a tweak, or move it to later in the game.  I'm doing a runthrough right now to tweak randoms and generally make battles in the CH1 geographical area a little easier. Also looking at reducing multipliers for some monsters as the ramifications for giving them new skills/more move only become apparent through testing.  But I still want beasts to be...well, beasts.

Job progression is intentionally slower than vanilla because higher tier jobs have better equips & skills (e.g. knights being able to equip spears, samurai equipping bows) that I don't want to be available too early.  Even so, Ch1 can be beaten with just the squire/chemist skillsets, and you get 2 free knights in chapter 2.  Getting skills from crystals and jp from propositions is more important than ever.

Working on an update with random battle adjustment, skill & bugfixes, to be out in a few days.

[Tytytoast]

Hey! found a slight annoying and somewhat game breaking mechanic based on the players perspective.  I'm not sure if other characters can learn it, but bounty can be used by Gaffgarion on Ramza and succeed, immediately ending the battle.  Just a heads up!

[Ansehelm]

Hey! found a slight annoying and somewhat game breaking mechanic based on the players perspective.  I'm not sure if other characters can learn it, but bounty can be used by Gaffgarion on Ramza and succeed, immediately ending the battle.  Just a heads up!

Yep, this is intentional - not a bug.  Bounty is a low hit-rate instant treasure attack that is unique to Gafgarion's job, although Ramza can learn it from Gafgarion's crystal.  This type of ability is rare throughout the game, although some high level monsters have a similar one. There is at least one rare item which can prevent you from being susceptible to its effects, but more on that when I add the Poach list in a day or so.

[Tails_Doll_Prower]

I might give this a try, I understand this is a BETA Ver. But maybe some tries and see what I can find. Perhaps when I get around to it tonight. So far this does look really well made, or refined if I should say.

[Tytytoast]

So I just unlocked the ninja class and what does the MiW ability do for the movement portion??

[DeJ]

Hello there - this mod sounds sweet and I'd like to give it a try, however, I am having trouble finding where to download it... Am I missing something here? Could someone please direct me to the patch download and instructions (IE: what version of FFT does this use?) Thanks!

[Nallrad]

I am having trouble finding where to download it... Am I missing something here?

Same.

Could the modder have hidden it intentionally?

[Nyzer]

Not sure, but with no update for a month and no explanation, I'm moving this to Archives for the time being.

[Ansehelm]

Howdy,
I'm back and so is the mod, hosted in original post. For those wondering why it was gone for a while, I encountered an error in March when trying to update, whereby I could remove the original file to the title post, but not upload a replacement.  Between this and some life events I wasn't really able to prioritize this mod.  Anyway, I'm back to working on the mod and will be providing further updates and more info on the current state of the mod.  The March update, never seen before, is now hosted with more coming soon.
Happy to be back,
Ansehelm

[Akashachi]

I finally decided to try it out this mod, and I saw that both Rad and Ramza unique jobs have hidden "on-hit" abilities they can learn. Any chance of sharing what or where (or from who) those spells can be learned for those of us who do not want to miss those out?

[Ansehelm]

I finally decided to try it out this mod, and I saw that both Rad and Ramza unique jobs have hidden "on-hit" abilities they can learn. Any chance of sharing what or where (or from who) those spells can be learned for those of us who do not want to miss those out?

I'll probably do a guide eventually on all hidden stuff, but for now, Ramza has two abilities that can either be learned from Gafgarion's crystal (not guaranteed), or from other units of his job class (random battles mostly).

Rad's mystery abilities can be learned on hit from dragons/hydras.

In general, I try not to have abilities that the player has only one chance to learn, so most abilities will not be fully missable (although it may be a while between opportunities).  Items on the other hand, can be missed, but most of those are under the spoiler tag, with more to be added.

Also it's worth noting that I'm 2 weeks or less out from the next update, which uses Pride's latest item hack, and as such will involve the shuffling around of several rare items.  Feel free to continue on your current playthrough if you want to become familiar with the new aspects of the mod, but I highly recommend starting fresh once the new update is out.

[Akashachi]

Also it's worth noting that I'm 2 weeks or less out from the next update, which uses Pride's latest item hack, and as such will involve the shuffling around of several rare items.  Feel free to continue on your current playthrough if you want to become familiar with the new aspects of the mod, but I highly recommend starting fresh once the new update is out.

Awesome! I'm probably gonna wait a bit then, still have some other mods to try it out

[Ansehelm]

Hello, just wanted to offer a brief but major status update on this mod.  At the time of last posting I was close to releasing a new patch, however this coincided with Pride fixing bugs in his Attribute rewrite hack, and making it compatible with the Synth Shop.  The awesome synergy of these two hacks (making items that can do basically anything + making synthable items) was too much to resist, so in lieu of releasing the earlier patch, I've been putting a lot of work into making item changes that take advantage of these excellent hacks.  An optimistic deadline for the next patch release that incorporates all of this is within the next two weeks, although even in the worst case scenario, I should have it by the end of the month.

For those who have tried/want to try this mod, thanks for your interest, and stay tuned for an upcoming new release.

[Celdia]

Just in case you didn't catch it on the Discord, Glain dropped me a modified Synth Shop sheet that plays nicely with more emulators and I'm using it alongside Pride's Attribute Rewrite 2.041 and it works beautifully. I'll attach it to this post or you can grab it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OFbRV5QlDjRH9udclPlyh5qh82vQUPST/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108117944314653076421&rtpof=true&sd=true

[Ansehelm]

Alright friends, after much ado, delays, and the squashing of bugs unnumbered, I am back with a Mega Update to this mod, found in the Original Post.  This is by far the biggest update, now featuring:

-Xifanie's Synth shop, which allows for the creation of many powerful items (e.g. Philosopher Stone).  Rare stones, metals, and other materials are now useful for fabricating powerful items.

-The newest version of Pride's Attribute Rewrite hack, which allows for new/expanded support + Movement abilities, such as Heresy, Swiftness, an Intermediate teleport ability, and others.

-Further consolidation of standard/common items to create more room for rare/unique items.

-New item classes, such as Fell Swords/Gear, Arcane Stones, Dragonkin Relics, and Noble Gear, which can only be equipped by certain units.

-Stuminator's hacks, which allow for status infliction abilities that only target monsters or units with certain statuses.  As part of this, the Bard job class has been replaced with the Ranger, and most of the Bard's abilities have been moved to the Dancer (now Entertainer).

-Other job tweaks include renaming the Oracle as Alchemist, with added earth magic, and the Mediator as Cleric, with expanded equipment options (e.g. Staff, Book).  The knight's high unlock cost has been further justified by moving Arrow Guard and Two hands to the knight skillset. Beowulf has also been retooled as more of a Monster/Demonslayer than just an über oracle.

-New enemy units, such as Trolls and Dark Dryads, and new recruitable units - the Einherjar and Astral Demon.

Going forward, my priorities will be as follows:
1. Fix any bugs/balance issues that may exist currently.
2. Add graphics/charts of all obtainable units and items, featuring their stats and abilities, and other information that may be useful.
3. Explore the possibility of porting this mod over to the latest TLW version (it currently uses 1.06). There is a fair chance that I will not do this, as I may find that the work of doing so is prohibitive relative to the benefit.  But I will look into it, and may at least include components of later TLW versions that I like and that are compatible (e.g. the Agrias' Birthday stat boost instead of the perfume).

As always, I'm open to feedback.  Try it out, and let me know what you think!

[Xios]

bromander, forgive me.  but if this was an escape room, and finding the download link was winning?  i would be trapped.  i'm not sure if i'm missing something, but it looks like i'm not the only one.