Nikkolas

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Posts posted by Nikkolas


  1. So I tried this at least three or four times and it always happened, but if you exit Dollet Tower and go onto the main scree (not the screen with the doors) you will first trigger a random encounter with a solo Galbadia Red soldier/officer, then the next battle will be 2 Geezards and an Anacondaur.  This always happens. This is great because it's the best source of AP and EXP at this point.

    Just to be safe, I always saved, quit the game, reloaded, and then exited the tower again. So it might only happen when you first load up a game but it always worked for me.

    Finally beat Elvoret with a Level 19 Squall, Level 17 Zell and Selphie. About 3 o4 4 or 5 Limits from Squall were needed, though. I think this is a bit too much grinding this early on. Then again, there is always the other version so I dunno.


  2. Elvoret at Level 22? I doubt I have to grind all the way up to that but it's pretty gnarly. Especially with Storm Breath which wipes out my entire party unless they're at max HP. Squall is Lv 13, Zell Lv 12, and Selphie Lv 10.

    Don't really have much in the way of Junctions to help right now, either. You don't have to tell me how to win the fight, just curious if some level grindage is mandatory here.

     

     


  3. 44 minutes ago, zedorfed66 said:

    Hey,

    the Angel Wing change can be applied to the dll file at any point and it changes the game mechanics immediately so it's more than fine adding it later. It's actually just a small line change in code that can be applied on the dll with any hex editor tbh. The Fixed version is harder cause u need to be on right levels for the bosses. I also recommend playing on that cause that's the version i tested the game on. Max level version hasnt been tested yet but it should be fine as well.

     

    I gotcha. I'll keep taht in mind, then. I usually use Rinoa, anyway.

    And I played up through Ifrit on Max so I'll restart with Fixed. I also meant to ask if this requries Triple Tirad grinding? I dunno if you ever played the old Requiem mod but it sure as fuck required A LOT of TT grinding and immediately. So far things seem much more reasonable in your mod.


  4. 9 hours ago, zedorfed66 said:

    Sorry didn't pay close attention to your message. You're right. I just tested and the EFIGS file indeed does not patch. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I tried the 7.0 version's EFIG patch and it works though so try patching with that. Make sure to have 'read only' off from the file otherwise it may not work. It's only the 1 change in the EFIG file and it hasn't been changed with the later versions so it shouldn't matter if you patch with the 7.0 version. 

     

    I did try it with 7.0 but still got the same error. I checked the file and Read Only isn't checked. 

    If all it changes is Rinoa's Angel Wing, though, and she doesn't get that till end of Disk 3, could I start the mod while this is all being figured out?

    And hey no rush. Thanks for the reply and help and all the effort you put into this.

    EDIT:
    Also which would you say is more of a challenge, Fixed or Max Level version?


  5. 16 hours ago, Wrath_of_Pie said:

    You will still need Demi a bunch in the later random encounters, and the final boss is still difficult, so the late-game tedium will still be there. Luckily, most of the random battles are not that hard if you know what you are doing. (Sanctie in particular is going to be a lot less miserable, which is nice.)

    Well the final boss being hard is not a problem at all. I welcome that. But yeah I think he just straight inflated HP on everybody, including the dumb Defender robots. God those fights are boring, especially the two of them in Omega Ruins.

    Still, I did try that Sin Unleashed mod for Steam FFX. All that guy did was add HP to every enemy, something like 60% more HP. That wasn't a challenge at all and actually gave me some appreciation for LR reworking the Sphere Grid in addition to increasing enemy stats.

    I guess I never asked, did you like the mod? You played through multiple versions right?


  6. 8 hours ago, Wrath_of_Pie said:

    Wayback Machine has it here (it is included despite the title).

    Fucking awesome. It even has the older version of International which I think must mean it was before he buffed the Keepers to insane levels.

    That was what I really wanted to be honest. But I got both!

    Thank you so much. I think I might actually try to finish FFX this time. I'll be frank, I gave up last time out of boredom.  I'm weird, I always have the most fun before these games open up and it's grind time, ya know? My favorite parts of replaying FFVII are never everything before you get the Highwind, at least mostly.

    Thank you again now and for your helpful advice all those months ago.


  7. I'm so jaded these days, I can't play older JRPGs without hacks or mods if they are available . I literally haven't played vanilla FFVII since, I dunno, 2009 or before. Often the systems are really good - looking at you FFX  - but it's so easy and I can't stand self-imposed challenges like low-level runs. I want the game to force me to use all tools at my disposal, not for me to neuter myself by restricting things. Part of the joy of RPGs is watching the numbers go up.

    Anyway, at this time, I have played:  FFIV The Darkness Within,  FFVI: Brave New World, FFVI: Return of the Dark Sorcerer, FFVII: Lost Wing (this was my first ever FFVII game mod. Good times), FFVII New Threat, FFVII Hardcore, FFVII HardType, FFVIII Requiem, first disk of FFVII Ragnarok Rebalance, FFIX Unleashed, FFIX Alternate Fantasy, FFX Punishment , FFX Sin Unleashed up to Mii'hen Highroad, Xenogears HardType.

    I'd have to say VII New Threat is the best by a clear margin just due to the incredible number of changes done to it. And they're great changes, too. It really reinvents and spices up the gameplay.

    I'm not sure after that though. That's why I made this thread, to hopefully get the opinions of posters here.  What are your favorites and why?

     

    I really need to get around to playing Xenosaga HardType.


  8. On 1/1/2019 at 3:54 PM, Gi Nattak said:

    Yo! Sorry for the semi-late response, still getting rid of this holiday hangover heheh.

    Version 2.0 didn't make it in 2018 as was planned, but it's super close to being ready to release. I'm now basically just waiting on one final issue/bug to be addressed and corrected in the next few days hopefully, and that'll be all she wrote for this update. What's been/was taking forever was my buddy James White who does all the spritework for the portraits and monsters etc. took on the mammoth challenge of re-drawing or creating a new sprite all together every single monster sprite in the game that was not his work, such as the record keeper rips etc. But sadly he's unable to continue doing this due to a variety of not-so-good real life stuff. Hopefully someday he'll be able to finish them all, but it won't be for a long time if ever. He was able to bang out quite a few though! So that's good.

    Anyway, 2.0 is definitely gonna drop here soon and is quite a large update indeed!

     

    This is awesome news! I gotta actually finish the game this time. lol I got so close last time but I think I got stuck at the top of the Cult...er, Reptile Tower and I could not beat the boss. I can't even remember why now but I couldn't win and I couldn't see a way out. I don't think you can Teleport or Warp out of there? It's been a while. Either way that was o my old PC which died so I need to start a new game anyhow.

    Here's hoping this new run goes better and I can beat the whole thing.

    Also kinda hoping that the Esper restriction patch might work. Or I might have to put that challenge upon myself.  I was curious if you could beat the game without giving everyone Cure spells or the like but apparently you can so I need to do that.


  9. 20 minutes ago, Nesouk said:

    I didn't enjoy Unleashed personnaly especially toward the end I didn't like the idea of giving Auto-Protect and Auto-Shell at the same time on bosses combine with the removal of stat increase given by equipment and the nerf of weapon's attack power in general it makes the fight more tedious than anything else, and then you have some fights that in my opinion were just straight up bullshit like Lich who can randomely cast All Death in a game where you can't protect against Instant-Death what a great idea -_- or Necron who put Regen and Haste at the same time recovering like 4000HP every 2 seconds when you barely does 3000 damage whch is a stupid way to make a boss longer than it should IMO. 
    I do give him credit for the work he puts in Unleashed but I didn't enjoy it, granted it was some years ago so maybe I should give it a new shot.

    I do agree Necron was a nightmare. I only beat him with luck and I certainly could never beat Ozma.

    And Zidane is kinda useless until he gets his Trance skills because without the stat bonuses from weapons magic is the only efficient way o do damage.

    It's just, after having played several LR mods at this point, it seemed to me like he put in the most effort into Unleashed. I'm still gonna try his Xenosaga mods because I love Xenosaga and finally have a halfway decent PC that can emulate PS2 and beyond.


  10. 2 hours ago, Nesouk said:

    Well you were doing the wrong then in FFVIII even in Requiem you don't need to kill monsters that much you could just Mug them to get item and then just run away, and even if you need to kill Quistis's Degenerator could kill almost every mobs ^^, and when Island Closest again Quistis's LV? Death could Instant-Kill everything since they are LV100 there LV is a multiple of 4,2 and 1 so 3 out 4 chance to Instant-Kill them AND Degenerator works on every monsters in Island Closest To Hell and the only other mobs you want to farm are Elnoyles which guess what can also be Instant-Kill by Quistis really just keep Quistis low HP all the time and with Initiative use Instant-Death immediatly that take care of all the mob fights you need to fight, to be honnest Requiem Mod was in my opinion less tedious than Punishment cause the grind is actually fairly fast in FFVIII compare to X and isn't require that much to be honnest, while in FFX sadly there is not as much possibility to get stronger than FFVIII and overall outside of Omega Weapon which was complete bullshit in Requiem and Ultimecia which wasn't to hard but quite tedious (took a minimum of 30 minutes to beat) I think FFVIII Requiem was the most enjoyable out of all LandonRay's FF mods.

    Really? You would say it's better than  FFIX Unleashed? To me, he clearly peaked with Unleashed. There he made significant changes to gameplay, altering Freya's, Steiner's, Amarant's and Quina's skills. He also gave the bosses lots of new moves and stuff. He didn't just make enemy numbers go up and your numbers go down. 

    I still consider it by far his best mod, especially when combined with No AP. I beat normal Unleashed years ago and I got to the end of Disk 1 of Unleashed/No AP with no problem and quite enjoyed myself.

    Although I still have to say Alternate Fantasy is the best FFIX mod at present, IMO.

     

    5 hours ago, Wrath_of_Pie said:

    Honestly, there are a few changes I would make, probably starting with the Bribe formula. (True story - I found the offset for Mimic gil drops in the NTSC version, then was disappointed to find out that the cap was 65,535 before considering Gillionaire.)

    The inflated HP in the Omega Ruins is actually manageable even at my low stats because Poison damage still has the same multiplier as the base game, quite a few enemies are vulnerable to Sleep, others can be Provoked, so the only difficult enemies are Master Tonberry, Varuna, and Great Malboro. (Demonolith probably would be but they can be Slowed, and Stoneproof is really the only ailment resistance you need because Pharaoh's Curse is basically countered with a Remedy.)

    If you were ever to continue, I would stop at capturing one of each enemy for future Bribing purposes and just finish the game if you can. (60% stat increases are actually rather small compared to what Punishment eventually does, so the hope is that the AI/attacks of the enemies were changed somehow to make it interesting.)

    Your best bet is waiting for a Steam sale which happens quite often (watching the game should work, then you get e-mail notifications when it goes on sale). 

     

    Yeah that was my thinking. Steam has an Autumn sale apparently that kicks off around Black Friday so I'll just wait a week and hopefully get FFX and even X-2 for like $15 or something.

    Thanks for all your help through this thread. I really appreciate it. If I didn't have this other mod to test out I would probably finish Punishment. But I just don't want to totally burn myself out, ya know? I might still finish it, we'll see.


  11. Also there is an FFX PC gameplay mod somebody elsewhere just told me about:

    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1413607626

     

    I am very interested in this but I don't have the PC version right now. Maybe next month. But incase anyone else is interested.

    In fact I might put my playthrough of Punishment on indefinite hold. I just don't know if I have teh patience for LR's mod anymore. Running around the Omega Ruins casting Demi a billion times is giving me hardcore FFVIII Requiem flashbacks. There, Triple-casting Demi was the only way to beat the hyper inflated HP of certain enemies like Chimeras.  Here I have to do much the same, just cast Demi over and over and over and over and over and spend five minutes on each fight.

     

    If there is another mod for FFX, I wanna give it a shot. It helps that the description of teh mod sounds very exciting. It isn't just raising their numbers and lowering your numbers. It changes up gameplay a lot it seems.


  12. 2 hours ago, Wrath_of_Pie said:

    Maxing out stats is not possible because all the stat sphere drops in the Monster Arena were replaced with Wings to Discovery drops.

    Honestly, I think it is difficult to beat the Celestial Weapons with a custom weapon due to their inherent damage properties and innately having Break Damage Limit, although if you going towards Magic then a custom weapon probably wins out. (Break Damage Limit, Magic Booster, and Magic +20% are obvious, and the last ability is probably Magic +10%. In my challenge run, the issue is that I would probably have to replace Magic +10% with One MP Cost, but that might make Overdrive Sin possible. Too bad getting 120 Dark Matter is not easy, probably would involve me murdering Chimerageist repeatedly for them, so ~960 fights required given the 1/8 drop rate as it is a rare drop. Probably would just use a save editor at that point.)

    If you want Overdrive > AP to be as efficient as possible, you really want Triple Overdrive and Triple AP as well, but that requires items and the time taken to get those items. I was suggesting against it because I thought International capped the AP you could get that way, but it seems I was wrong.

    Don Tonberry has a common steal of Candle of Life x3, which should help you out as well.

     

    I appreciate the advice.  I'll see what I can do. As I said, my main party is Tidus, Rikku and Auron. I got Godhand for Rikku and I don't foresee me getting Tidus' full power CW. So that leaves Auron.

    Tell me truly though, how screwed am I that I used up all my Fortune and Luck Spheres? You get a couple in Zanarkand and tehGagazet Cave and I used them both for Miracle Drinks against the Keepers. Everyone says Luck is very important, especially against the Dark Aeons, but I have no idea what that is all about. It helps with Evasion or something? I just have Rikku in teh Quick Pockets section right now and am looking sadly at those nodes I can't activate because I used up all my Luck Spheres.....

    But right now I figure top priority is filling out the three grids. Then comes Gil grinding then comes item grinding. Then I can start beating stuff, hopefully.

    Honestly, Triple AP seems wasted with the Don Tonberry trick. It would make things go a tad faster but so what? It's very simple and easy and fast enough as is. The main problem is, and this is something you maybe didn't notice because you played the North American version with the Standard Sphere Grid, is that apparently the Expert Sphere Grid is full of empty nodes. So I'm gonna be traveling around the Grid getting a lot of nothing a decent bit of the time. But oh well.

     

    EDIT:

    And I keep meaning to ask, are the final story bosses leveled for people who could beat the Arena and Omega Ruins? I have to max Sphere Grids and have the best equipment to beat the regular story, too?


  13. 1 hour ago, Nesouk said:

    When I was playing I realise that if you buff this way :

    1 character with Haste and Reflect
    1 Character with only Haste
    1 Character with only Reflect

    And add nothing else he will not use Desperado (or very rarely) you have one character left vulnerable but the others are protected against his spells making them basically unkillable provide you have enough potion to heal but the only attack left that can damage you are Shattering claw, as for damage the aga spells are the best as well as the damage he takes from reflected spells.

     

    I didn't even have the Aga spells at the time but I thought Auron did respectable damage with just his normal attacks.


  14. So I just learned of the Don Tonberry trick. I tried it out with Tidus and got 13 levels in about a minute or two. So I think I'm gonna be doing this for at least my main trio. I'm sorry dude but I don't see how you could stand to level normally when AP > Overdrive gets you levels this quick and it is gonna take so long to max out even one grid.

    It is my understanding you need that to defeat the Dark Aeons and probably also the Weapons since you didn't fight the Dark Aeons.

    And I assume the final story bosses are leveled for parties that beat optional content.

    Honestly, with Don Tonberry, I don't think grinding will be too bad. This is a No Aeon run so I'm not going to be boosting their stats which seems like it would take FOREVER.

     

    I used all my Mimic grinding money so far to get Yojimbo at 3x the prize. I hope the Teleport Spheres are worth it. That's Evade and Counter for two more people. 

     

    I got a four empty slot weapon for Tidus from a random fight in the Omega Ruins and I have the Flexible Arm just now from the Fayth Cavern.  Hopefully those will serve me well when I have tons of awesome items and thus abilities to put on them. I don't think it's possible to max out stats in this, is it? So Stat+ is still worth a slot ,s right?


  15. So I wanna talk about Seymour Natus as earlier it was noted the game was fun or properly challenging up to him. I consider him the most fun and challenging boss in the game. Unlike Yunalesca who was just...ugh.

    Anyway, the main problem with Natus is the Mortibody and its Desperado. So far as I could tell, Desperado triggers if everyone in the party is buffed. He'll still do it on occasion if they aren't but it only immediately triggers if everyone has a buff on them, especially Shell.

    Natus always starts with ice spells so I could protect against that with my Arctic Winds or whatever creating three sets of Iceproof armor. The problem is, how to survive if we can't have Shell on everyone? My solution was Mega Vitality. I had 2 Stamina Tablets from grinding Rikku up to decent levels on the Moonflow because there's no other real choice. Anyway, my buf layout was this: Haste on Tidus and Auron because Rikku doesn't really need it. And Shell on Tidus and Rikku because Auron with 8000 HP doesn't need Shell. Incidentally, this has been my boss team ever since. I've given up on everyone else except for Yojimbo because physical attacks don't work there and a mage team can actually survive his attacks.

    Anyway, this was my setup for victory. Auron even Overkilled him with a Crit. 

    I noticed the first phase is substantially harder than the second or third phase.  I figured it had something to do with the way X's battle system works. Certain actions elay your next turn more, right? If the same is true for bosses, than Seymour Natus casting Flare and the Mortibody casting Cura cost them more turns than when they were doing the elemental spell attacks. It just felt like Seymour especially was getting less turns once the final phase kicked in.


  16. Okay so I figured out the Cactuar Sandstorm stuff and did all that.

     

    ...for nothing. The reward in the village is the Venus Sigil. I now have Lulu's Crest and Sigil, not Rikku's. My hopes for getting Gillionaire are dashed. I can only assume he switched them around and made me have to dodge 200 lightning bolts to get Rikku's full powered Celestial Weapon.  I guess I just have to try and find what item is needed to put Gillionaire on equipment. I would be blessed to dodge 100 bolts, let alone 200, especially so long as I don't have No Encounters.


  17. 44 minutes ago, Wrath_of_Pie said:

    Here are my challenge notes for the Zanarkand area which I forgot to mention was also No Summon except the forced battles (Warning: for NTSC game, not sure if International changed any of this):

    Defender Z: Easy, Provoke him with Tidus and you can't die.
    The undead monks: Show them Life. Steal some Candles of Life if you can, they are useful against Mimics. (As an aside, they are vulnerable to Sleep.)
    YKT - 11: Be sure to kill them first to avoid Thrust Kick.
    YAT - 97: Same trick as the similar enemies in Bevelle, deal damage to them to avoid their full-party attack. (Attacks like Demi do count.)

    In case you are wondering, the YAT - 97 cannon enemies use an unevadeable full-party attack unless you deal damage to them before their next turn, which forces them to do an evadable single-target attack instead which works with Evade & Counter. (You can also Flee if you want, they don't have anything special except maybe their rare drops.)

    Auron is good against the Mimics, more so the Zaurus doesn't kill you before you can get the gil. (My notes say that they are also vulnerable to Provoke and they do nothing when provoked, so that could be an option as well.) There are four different types of Mimics, and three of them hit hard and they are all quite fast, so Candles of Life are much easier at getting the job done. Zaurus can be dealt with however after you Steal from the chest, I recommend a Petrify Grenade because that is their steal.

    Worst enemy in Omega Ruins is easily Great Malboro, because the ailment resistance setup he demands goes against the elemental absorption setup that helps with many of the other enemies. It also has boss immunities and always ambushes, so I would just Flee.

    Overdrive > AP would help with filling the Sphere Grid, but the enemies give enough AP that I would recommend against synthing it. (Best enemy to farm AP against is probably Adamantoise, because it only uses a full-party fire attack when Provoked. Too bad it is immune to Demi and Poison is slow, but I prefer not dying over something riskier like Master Tonberry. Also has a nice common steal in Healing Water, which is a full heal for the party.)

    EDIT: Some of the enemies are immune to Sensor in the Omega Ruins, but they should all be vulnerable to Demi, so using a Break Damage Limit weapon you multiply the HP damage dealt by 40 to figure out the right starting point for Bribe. You will need a lot of gil, though.

     

    It's good to hear the Omega Ruins are still good for farming AP. This mod demands a ton of grinding so I was dreading the endgame in a way when I had to finally start trying to fill out the grid. But if even in the mod AP is still plentiful here, that'll help a lot.

    But man, I wish I had done monster capturing earlier. For catching the three fiends on Besaid I got 99 Stamina Tonics. Insane. I could sit on those for the entire rest of the game. I could freely use them for Mix in boss fights for Hyper Vitality. Could have had them for Yunalesca, had everyone at 9999 HP. Oh well. And the 60 Three Stars, One MP Cost for my entire party, could make Quick Hit a viable move now for Auron and his pathetically small MP pool.

    This game doesn't really tell you a lot I'm remembering. Like, the sandstorm in Bikanel blocking off the one area? It gives you no info on what to do about that. And those Cactuar Statues in the Thunder Plains, I have no idea what to do with them. I figure the two things are related but anyway I hate having to look things up.  But when the game gives you no assistance, what can you do? Some games just require a guide.

    I appreciate all the help you're giving me is the point. Thanks again.

     

     


  18. Thank you for the info on Bribe. This explains why my testing it out on Gagazet yielded dismal results for everything but a couple enemies. The one Mech at least I was able to Bribe to get a single Door to Tomorrow. That apparently can be made to Customize equipment with Overdrive > AP. It sounds like it could be useful, especially for Tidus with Warrior and Demi at the Omega Ruins. Of course, I have no idea how many Doors it takes to learn that ability. I was just testing.

    I did discover the Mimics giving 50K, though. I beat it with Auron w/Sentinel + Evade and Counter. Your strategy sounds a lot faster though. Thank you. I should really go and stock up on Candles of Life. It was just that, by Zanarkand, I was getting really tired of random encounters being a struggle. I especially hate robots in this mod because the only status that works on them is Slow and it often misses. Those Cannon and Kick Robots are just BS. The cannons especially because they can hit the whole party and that move seems to ignore defense. My Protects never help.