[Chipboy]

So, I am no hacker nor modder. I am strictly a consumer. But a passionate one! And, about the same time I discovered this site, I found a link to a mod this dude made for ff7 called FF7: Rebirth. From what I gather, it doesn't seem like it's "Insane Difficulty" in nature, but I wonder if you guys have any thoughts/know any details on it.

I'm also slightly nervous that I might be shaking a beehive just by asking.

[Archael]

Why would you be shaking a beehive?

I've never heard of it till now. Any good?

[Chipboy]

Since GalenMyra's already got an FF7 Mod up. Didn't know if different full-scale mods for the same game cause any rivalries.

As for its goodness, it's currently only available as a Disc 1 demo, and there seems to have been radio silence since its release in April of 2012. But, it is certainly enjoyable so far! If focuses more on redoing equipment and abilities than it seems to on the enemies themselves. Weapons and armor "upgrades" aren't necessarily better than their predecessors, just different. For example, a large boost in ATK might mean no materia slots; or maybe slightly less ATK, but has elemental damage that's doubly useful on certain types of enemies.

Speaking of, that seems to be the biggest thing done to enemies. He's divided most of them into types (Dragon, Beast, Mech, etc.), and each type has consistent weaknesses, resistances, and status susceptibilities.

It's fun. Not exceptionally difficult, honestly, but fun. And there are still a few bugs throughout. The biggest one being that I stole from Airbuster, and got an unequipable accessory that sells for over 2,000,000,000gil. Sooo...

[Archael]

We try to host the best mods here. If there's 2 great FF7 difficulty mods then they are both welcome!

[Chipboy]

Archael, on 11 March 2013 - 09:31 PM, said:

We try to host the best mods here. If there's 2 great FF7 difficulty mods then they are both welcome!

Equitable AND high-quality! I enjoy this place very much. Thanks for building it.

[Bastard Poetry]

I bought a copy of FFVII PC and downloaded Tifa's Bootleg (fan-made "HD remake" with tons of customization options), and it has several different options for making the game harder, including "Nightmare" and "Hardcore" modes. I think Rebirth is an option as well. It also removes the 9999 damage cap.

It's not too tough to install. I ended up downloading a torrent for over 20GB of mods--for every option of customization--and spent an entire afternoon going through a step-by-step installation guide, but nothing went wrong, so I considered it an easy experience overall. Also, I had to buy the 2012 re-release of the PC version, but Bootleg is nice enough to convert it to the moddable, non-shitty 1997 version before it starts the H4X work.

I haven't tried any of the difficulty settings yet, since I'm currently playing HardType on my tablet, but I am doing a Vanilla playthrough on this Bootleg version specifically to enjoy the better character models / spell animations / better-quality music / graphical overhauls. Well, and also to have a reference point for comparing the changes in HardType.

Archael, you especially need to check this shizzle-whizzle out!

http://www.youtube.c...3794695EC5A2382

[auraplatonic]

Chipboy, on 11 March 2013 - 08:24 PM, said:

So, I am no hacker nor modder. I am strictly a consumer. But a passionate one! And, about the same time I discovered this site, I found a link to a mod this dude made for ff7 called FF7: Rebirth. From what I gather, it doesn't seem like it's "Insane Difficulty" in nature, but I wonder if you guys have any thoughts/know any details on it.

Rebirth is a project by Bosola which will most likely enhance the difficulty but is touted mostly as a rebalance. I don't think it is anywhere near finished though. Gjoerulv came on ID a few months ago talking about his mod which has long been finished, but is for PC only as far as I know. There are some differences between the PC and PSX as far as applying patches go so I don't think all of the things would fully port over to the PSX(I could be wrong on the specifics about this though)

The questions you have are best suited for Qhimm.com...it is a site devoted to modifying FF games with a large focus on 7. Not so much difficulty but everything else as BP was talking about. I posted there sparingly a few years ago and was trying to develop a FF7 PC mod myself but suffice to say the community there is nothing compared to this one IMO. Not very supportive, sort of elitist and easily annoyed. I didn't really enjoy my time there too much but it does have some good tools and information.

http://forums.qhimm....hp?topic=9600.0

http://forums.qhimm....hp?topic=6818.0

[auraplatonic]

Chipboy, on 11 March 2013 - 08:24 PM, said:

I'm also slightly nervous that I might be shaking a beehive just by asking.

Archael, on 11 March 2013 - 09:12 PM, said:

Why would you be shaking a beehive?

This site is unique in my experience in that it has a great community that isn't full of itself and to add to that it is welcoming of new people. What I mean is that even when we have trolls we will still try to help them as long as we think we can. Even though there are some heated debates on here people still respect each other. One of the best forums I have ever been to which is why I have remained here.

To give examples when I announced my mod on Qhimm I got a response by Bosola basically saying I am already trying to do what you do but much better, and he actually felt pressure to fully announce his mod on the site because apparently he thought this was some type of competition. The general consensus on that site is they would rather have one project that the community backed that was the "one true" FF7 rebalance. The want everyone to work together to make one...which in some respects sounds ok but when you think about it would be too difficult to pull off IMO. I say that because everyone is individual and has there own opinion, and when you make you mod it is in a way an expression and a form of art at least to me...its hard to give the development of that away and share it with someone.


I am not trying to slam the site(Qhimm.com) but at the same time I never found someone there that I legitimately liked that much, everyone seemed so uptight and annoyed by newcomers...in fairness though there is alot of noobs. Its just that we are so accepting of new people here even if they ask noob questions, is it really so hard just to be nice? Its easy to expect someone to act how you would act but people are people and we are a community.

[XtraT]

I've played the whole disc 1 of FF7 Rebirth (since nothing else of the game is modded) and it's well balanced with a moderate difficulty, so I only died a handful of time despite not having played FF7 much. So if you're in for a really tough and difficult playtrough, it's probably not the mod for you.

Also, Rebirth has been in development for what, 3 years now?

[Chipboy]

auraplatonic, on 12 March 2013 - 06:03 AM, said:

I say that because everyone is individual and has there own opinion, and when you make you mod it is in a way an expression and a form of art at least to me...

Totally agree. And I love what I've seen here.

XtraT said:

So if you're in for a really tough and difficult playtrough, it's probably not the mod for you.

See, I do appreciate difficulty, but what I appreciate more is change. Change that makes new tactics necessary. So, I am really enjoying Rebirth. Even though it isn't the hardest thing in the world.

Thanks for the awesome responses, everybody!

[Bosola]

Seems only fair that I should reply to this thread. I'm Bosola - I'm the developer of FFVII Rebirth, and I'm also a moderator on the Qhimm.com FF reverse engineering forums.

Rebirth has been on something of a hiatus for the last year or so; I've had a lot of commitments with work and other things, and it's been hard to commit time to the project. The clunky PSX mod build process and incomplete reverse engineering has made developing Rebirth rather time-consuming, and my own tendency to scope-creep hasn't helped things. Nevertheless, I do want to complete this project - if only so I can say I finished it. I want to find some time this winter, but I can't promise a release date for the next two discs. Hopefully next Spring.

I do appreciate the time that we've had to wait for this work; I probably didn't appreciate the scale of the job when I announced the mod back in mid-2010. Rest assured that it's still on my mind - in fact, I recently developed a damage calculator specifically to help plan Rebirth's enemy stats. I agree they need bumping up to keep things challenging.

@Auraplatonic - I'm sorry we gave you such a poor impression. I'm not sure what made you feel pressured to 'share' your mod (Shalua Rui?), but I am sure that if you've made any further progress our members would be very excited to see it.