Insane Difficulty: Starting playing a while ago - comments and questions - Insane Difficulty

Okay, so let me start by saying this has been an amazing hack so far (version 1.7.4). I'm at the point just before tackling the Floating Continent and I love how balanced and more interesting things are. Every character so far has their own uses (and is actually usable now), especially Cyan got a much-needed buff. At first I thought the pop-culture jokes would kinda ruin the setting, but the new dialogue is pretty fun - like everything Ultros says - while lampshading some of the ridiculous stuff in the vanilla game.

Anyway, with how things are changed right now I was wondering if I missed some important items or if they've simply been placed somewhere else. If anyone would help with the following things, that would be greatly appreciated:

- My current tools for Edgar are the bow, bioblaster, drill and soundblaster. I know the chainsaw has been replaced with a Thieves' Glove, but did I miss the flashing tool somehow?

- Any important lores or rages that will not be available in the WoR? I already got Raid and Holy Wind for Strago, but I can't think of any others to get and prefer not to spoil myself too much with the Printme doc.

- Has Ultima Weapon been relocated? I couldn't find it in the cave to the sealed gate.

- Does turning off exp also disables EL and SP gain? It seems that way for me.

And lastly, how are my levels right now? I got Strago and Relm at 20, with everyone else around 23ish (Locke being at 25 due to the amount of time he is forced in the part). I feel like putting off exp gain for a while, but maybe the FC will change my mind on that.

The Chainsaw and Flash are both in the World of Ruin. Tools were difficult to balance since too many of them came too early on, so we split them up more.

No Lores are permanently missable, and Rages only are if the formations have not been unlocked. Only a few rageable formations are in areas that you can't return to, and they can all be encountered on uninhabited areas of the world map should you have happened to miss them.

Atma Weapon has been moved. It is not missable.

Disabling EXP prevents you from gaining EP, since EP is a function of exp. It should not affect SP to my knowledge.

Your levels are within expected range.

Ah, thanks for the quick reply. Once again, great job with the hack!

Glad you're enjoying it. Let us know if you've got any other questions.

just to clarify: all wob rage formations (except those on the floating continent) cannot be found once you get to the wor. there are some formations on the wob world map to make it harder to miss them; but once you get to the wor they are gone for good. the monsters on the floating continent can be found on the wor world map.

Have been rather busy the last few days, but I've finally got around to starting the FC. Liked how the Ultros + Chupon battle was expanded on a bit, actually had to switch my party around a bit to include the physical powerhouses (Cyan, Sabin + Setzer for healing) to get through it. Air Force was a complete walkover in comparison.

I think I've got everything in the WoB all finished up now, really enjoyed the mod so far. About to tackle Atma Weapon again, from what I glanced from the first attempt this one will definitely take some thoughtout strategy and relics to get past.

Welp, got around to venturing a bit in the WoR. Gotten some hints regarding possible new content (espers from the GBA version, dummied ninth dragon and something involving Leo?) so I'm sure there'll be some neat new stuff to find. Despite what some threads here seem to say, I found Atma Weapon very doable once you keep Float up and equip the right relics to deal with berserk / muddle. Celes going completely super saiyan during the escape was a nice touch, shame it didn't seem to carry over to the WoR. I'm usually not a big fan of user-inserted fanon in rom hacks, but that particular sequence always felt kinda boring and it sets her up nicely as the pseudo main character for the next part of the game.

Love the new translation job during Celes leap of faith, I've always thought the original SNES dialogue was pretty cringy. Gotten Sabin and Edgar so far: don't know if the tentacle boss was changed significantly but it felt a lot easier than in the vanilla game.

A few minor nitpicks though, dunno if they've been mentioned before but it might be worth noting:

- Palidors summon seems to be bugged: I fough a sandworm just outside Figaro and Edgar still managed to get hit despite jumping at the time. The strange thing is, his sprite stayed offscreen while the evade animation still played several times. Even though the attack technically KO'ed him, his status in the status screen afterwards showed him being at zero HP but not being wounded (or the text being grayed out). I've healed him afterwards and there seems to be no problem anymore (he promptly died the next battle so everything seems well) but I'm not quite sure if the Palidor summon can lead to bugs.

- Characters can still fill their ATB bar while jumping with Palidor, and can directly act after landing if a command has been selected. I don't remember if this was the same in vanilla and therefore intended or a possible bug. Doesn't seem to harmless though.

- A very minor complaint, but when talking to Julian to get the crossbow schematics (great way to keep Edgar relevant, along with the dragon helm and new tools) the word 'genius' is misspelled in one of the last sentences. Very minor yeah, but my inner spelling nazi couldn't resist pointing it out.

The genius typo was pointed out to me awhile back, but it fit the scene so well that I left it in.

Palidor did use to be just an AOE attack until BTB and Synch reverted it back to it's old attack. I'm not sure why Palidor is bugging out but I"m sure BTB or Synch has some answers.

Palidor's always been buggy, even in vanilla. Something in BNW seems to be exacerbating the issue, though.

Finishing up most of the WoR now, just need to get Locke and Gogo and do some dragon hunting. Did most of with my characters at leverl 30 with no EL boost, turned off exp gain now since I think the stat bonuses will make a huge difference now and I don't want to be overleved for the endgame content. Everyone at 30 with Umaro a bit higher seems about right to me.

If anyone's interested I could make a post detailing my experience my experience with the hack regarding balance and other notworthy things. There's so much content that's been changed that I dunno quite where to begin, but it's safe to say BNW trumps vanilla by a LOT.

One thing I'd still like to know is if Relm's Safety Bit has been changed. It didn't come equipped on her when recruited, and while some NPC did gave me a hint about it been in her room I haven't found it yet. If it is somehow related to Shadow's flashbacks, I haven't seen of all them yet though.

SharmatOfLove, on 27 July 2016 - 02:29 PM, said:

I love reading those, so go for it.

SharmatOfLove, on 27 July 2016 - 02:29 PM, said:

There was always a second Memento Ring hidden in vanilla - we didn't move it.

iYeah, turns out I just didn't check thorough enough. Will start making some notes about how I feel characters compare and endgame content. It might be a while though, so don't hold your breath or anything.

I'm interested in reading too. Also, anything important you remember from earlier in the game would be cool too. Take your time.

This post has been edited by thzfunnymzn: 28 July 2016 - 02:27 PM

Quick status update: just got Gogo and assorted dungeon relics. Only things left to do now is tackle the Cultist Tower (flare everywhere, it seems), defeating a few remaining dragons, go 'treasure hunting' with Locke, trading gear at the coloseum and finally Kefka himself. Still not quite sure how to build / equip everyone, nearly all characters got several option that all seem good.

Btw, anyone know where the mover enemy (small red blob thingy) can be found? I ran into it somewhere in a forest on the world map, but can't find it anymore.

Forests near Jidoor. It's a rare encounter.

Another question (didn't find an answer to this in the readme or printme, maybe it's in the unlockable file) but do some characters beside Terra and Celes still learn spells naturally? Just had Shadow learn Rerise without it being available through his Espers. Just another reason why a properly equipped Shadow is amazing I guess, but it did caught me by surprise to see it showing up in the spell list in the vanilla-like grayed-out 'Rerise: 76%' fashion.

Memento Ring teaches Rerise. Unlike vanilla, no other equipment teaches magic.

No character besides Terra or Celes has ever learned magic naturally, even in vanilla.

Any chance that Rerise could be learned after X (e.g. 25) battles like the Cursed to Hero Shield transformation? Then you won't see " rerise 76%" in the magic list and <i>maybe</i> it frees up some space by completely eliminating any code needed for tracking what % of a spell has been learned.

Ah, that explains it. Was wondering if the item text was just for flavor or actually did something as well. Neat way to distinguish equipment!