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A little progress update, and my plans for the mod in the near future: Yesterday I finished rebalancing Guildenstern, so all 1st play content is done. For the New Game+ areas, I had already rebalanced the normal enemies, which means there's only the bosses of Forgotten Pathway, Snowfly Forest East and IMB2 left to do. That brings me to the point I want to address: while the Rebalance mod is nearly complete, its sucessor, Zenith, is still at its infancy. So my intention is, when I finish Rebalance, I'll release Zenith instead. I'll explain. The main fact is the newborn Zenith is already head and shoulders above the latest version of Rebalance. TBH, it makes the latter look a bit ridiculous. What are the differences between the two? The focus of Zenith is on world building, namely the addition of enemies and encounters to all areas, and transforming them over time. Like the old saying goes, you never step in the same river twice. All this I had mentioned already in the original thread at gamefaqs. What I hadn't mentioned is that the mod also includes a new rebalance of spells, two-handed weapons and Break Arts, the removal of the enemies' "thought bubble", and a number of miscellaneous changes I can't possibly list here. It also does away with the noobishness that's still found in Rebalance. Like having Last Crusaders all over the place, or bosses with super-immunities -- typical bad design by someone who was besottted with what he could do, not minding if he should. In short, one of the reasons for moving onto Zenith is the improvement in design quality. But most importantly for me, it's also much more organized internally (in terms of data), which makes a world of difference when modifying it. Valendian's teachings really paid off in this aspect; now I have a much better platform to work with. It's probably the main reason I want to perform this upgrade. Finally, there is the question of timeframe. You might be wondering, why not finish the new mod before releasing it? The truth is, considering the workload required to give one area the "Zenith treatment", it will take approximately 2 years minimum to get even close to completion. That's assuming I can work on it every day. To be fair I'm surprised myself with how high my standards got, and how far I can run with this idea. As for the present state of Zenith, I'll discuss it when it's time to release it. Which means Soon™.

I see a lot of disparate elements - a future world of magic & technology, an all-powerful alien race, an Empire, an Alliance, an epidemic - it's too much, IMO. I'd suggest simplifying your idea to the bare essentials of what you want to convey. "Outcasts finding hope" is a good starting point. But going from there to this cornucopia of stuff that you've added... you'll get lost in your own creation. And not in a good way. To be more specific, I believe the setting is needlessly complex and involved, and doesn't justify itself. Especially for the main idea (hope and healing), which is a simple and universal message. I'll be frank here, it's almost as if you're building a complex world just for the sake of it. What's worse, you run the risk of disappearing up your own arse very very rapidly. When it comes to storytelling, less is more, I say. Considering this is just your 1st chapter, I can only imagine the following ones will complicate matters further. Not to be negative, but this will eventually lead to a point where you're asking yourself what you're doing, and why. So before you proceed with adding more (and more...), you should take a moment and rethink your material. Bottomline, I suggest editing your idea to make it simpler. The core is good (outcasts, hope and despair, etc), so you have that in your favor. No need for byzantine plots and whatnot. The main characters, the main conflict - focus on those. Hope this helps.

Thanks. I have my moments.

Ok, this should work. It also restores the chest that spawns with the Minotaur Zombie, with the (D)Circle Shield inside. https://mega.nz/#!YJkTRaia!XmhUktzMSH9G0MpB6uOrDInmq41sFBaHGndat5o5xOs

He's right, there is a problem. I'll fix it right away.

Glad you're enjoying it. There will be more to come in the future. Could you try this one for me? https://mega.nz/#!BJE0CArB!jKmShKc-s7JScHC_xHyGE-Ux2MNFnTuaUIt8X_HXnHM

I had a feeling something was off with that file. The previous patch was about 7 MB, while 0.92 was only 230KB or so. I remade the 0.92 patch and now it has the appropriate size (7 MB). Do try it before falling back to 0.91. Here's both patches, just in case: VS_0.92: https://mega.nz/#!FBUVRCAZ!Eu11axAb2113G5ZENdLcATw0MYtXTqcF5IBN7GaBMBo VS_0.91: https://mega.nz/#!EZ9lUaRY!8Rn2e3ql4poajKZR4dgQIJDmNL83p81ozl1MU5kR9Uc I really wonder why that room is so problematic. For now I think I'll revert my changes to it and leave it exactly as in the original.

Patch updated (version 0.92). link: https://mega.nz/#!NJ8XxIAK!XO0QEHtryrItrpdaua_Ye_istuzuR0oI8M24OxP-Xl8 A brief summary of the changes from last version: - fixed Minotaur Zombie bug - workaround for Chamber of Fear freeze (needs testing) - Last Crusaders no longer teleport - numerous rebalance tweaks in several areas - Break Arts no longer deal variable damage - IMB2/B3 map is invisible again, like in the original I'm unable to test the Chamber of Fear bug atm, if someone could do it for me I'd be grateful.

Lol, embarassing... I think someone else reported the same problem. I'll look into it. Been kind of busy but I hope to have some free time soon.

This is useful information, thanks to both of you. I'm going to try and recreate the bug on my side, so I can work on it. I have some ideas of what the problem might be.

Personally I use epsxe. Ofc, pcsx also works, but it's too barebones for my tastes. I've been told that the mod is not compatible with the PS Vita, so I assume that's not an option. One user at gamefaqs said Retroarch runs the mod just fine, although I don't know what core he was using. I could try to find out if you're interested.

A Merry Christmas to you as well. I intend to put up links for those interested in donating, along with an official site for the mod. Nothing fancy, just a basic wordpress blog for my updates and stuff. It should be up in the next month. In the meantime, just have fun and report any problems you have with the mod. Nothing really wrong with it. It's just that I decided the data space which the Escapeway occupied was better used in favor of other areas (mostly Temple of Kiltia). That way I could expand ToK's enemy roster and add more encounters to its rooms. I had all these cool ideas, but not the bytes to accomodate them. So I thought, Escapeway is a pretty lousy area. No bosses, and all its enemies are recycled copies from other places. A more subjective point, its location is a bit annoying; merely an obstacle to get the Gold Key. Finally, after removing it I thought the new progression felt more natural than the original, so that kind of cemented my decision. To the point that even if I didn't need the extra space, I'd still remove the Escapeway because it's just better without it. Relevant vid:

Glad to hear it. Seems you've registered just to tell me that? I'm flattered, haha.

I see. Looks like you missed out on those bosses, then. IIRC you can go around the Wyvern room, but without the Hyacinth Sigil you can't fully explore the area. Thanks for the update, I wonder how far you'll be able to go.

Sequence breaking in VS?! Well damn... those are some unforeseen applications of the Quicken spell. I did wonder if the Town Center river could be cleared, I guess it can. Does that mean you skipped Abandoned Mines B1 entirely? As for the Sanctum river, I never thought of crossing it before the Golem fight. Did you land on the inactive cloudstone on the other side? In any case, what surprises me the most is that you jumped the abyss in The Lamenting Mother, Catacombs. It just seems impossible to me. Now I have to try it myself... To be honest, I'm not sure what the ramifications are for bypassing segments of the game. My first thought is you might miss some flags that spawn enemies and perhaps even bosses. For one thing, I'm pretty sure the Ogre boss fight in AMB1 triggers some Crimson Blades in Town Center West. So if you think the area is a little empty, it's probably that. With that said, I'm curious as to how a non-linear, sequence break'd playthrough would hold up. I take it you're still progressing, and haven't got stuck? Do keep me posted, as I haven't got any feedback on this aspect. Glad you're enjoying it, too. Makes it all worth it.

That's the biggest dream of any VS fanboy, myself included. I don't know if it's possible, since I lack coding/programming knowledge. I imagine it would be a fairly involved task to implement it. The straight-to-menu thing does sound more feasible, but again I'd have to enlist the help of someone with the necessary skills. I still dream of learning code just to try and make it happen one day.

No problem. Hope you enjoy the mod.

The patch is designed for a .bin file, so .mdf is no good. But if you're using Vagrant Story(U).bin, it should work. Does the rom load and play normally without the patch? Is it the US version of the game? If yes to both, then I'm not sure what is the issue. Have you tried opening some other psx ISO with ppf-o-matic, just to see if it recognizes it?

Sorry I didn't see this before. The Sanctum Dragon has 850 HP. It might be a bit excessive, TBH. The one-shot thing is intentional, however. Kind of a skill check. I've made an optional patch that gives Ashley the Tier 3 Warlock spells (Tornado, Acid Flow, Gravity, etc). Here's how it works: Explosion Lv4 becomes Tornado Thunderburst Lv4 becomes Thunderbolt Flame Sphere Lv4 becomes Fire Storm Gaea Strike Lv4 becomes Gravity Avalanche Lv4 becomes Acid Flow Radial Surge Lv4 becomes Judgment Meteor Lv4 becomes Apocalypse link: https://mega.nz/#!gIUQ1YpB!27WFQsehyMbkwtAlwtvGG0u1K64gf8sxCTsoUgwRI2Q

This might be relevant: "Future Plans The most immediate future plans for this hack are to do a quality control sweep of bosses and full kagatsuchi encounters. I would say more than half of both of those could stand to be improved. I also want to see if there's anything more that can be done to make randomized skill inheritance from fusion less painful. My secondary plans are to consider adding/changing more skills and mechanics. Some of these additions and changes (such as Heat Riser and the 1/2 turn cost on Summon and Swap) have significantly altered and broadened how this game can be played, admittedly to a larger extent than I expected they would. So having more of that would definitely appeal to me. My more distant (and less certain) plans include: -Completely rebuild demon conversations from the ground-up -Allow the player to choose their inherited skills Both of these would be tons of work, and I generally don't see them as being as important as the other changes, but they'd certainly be neat to have. Timeline Unfortunately, the odds of any of these plans happening soon are slim. I am currently working on the battle design for a commercial game project, and that will have to be my primary focus for the next 9 months or so. The evenings and weekends may give me some time for hacking, but that time has to be shared with things like relaxing, having something that could arguably be called a social life, and working overtime on the commercial project. And then even for whatever time is left after that, one of my other hacks could wind up getting that attention instead, depending on what sounds the most appealing at the time. So yeah, just wanted to let everyone know what's going on with this project right now. I'm trying to increase my level of community interaction for all of my projects during this time period "away" from focusing on hacking. I tend to have a bad habit of basically just finishing a project, posting it, and moving on to the next one with minimal promotion and outreach. It means a lot to me when people comment, post, stream, etc. their experiences and thoughts about the projects I create, so it would be behoove me to do what I can to foster it." Full post: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/582958-shin-megami-tensei-nocturne/75943094

No problem. Out of curiosity, are you new to the game or revisiting? Yes. Agility and Risk determine your % chance to hit something. High AGL and low Risk will increase the %, low AGL and high Risk will diminish it. This applies to the enemy's hit % as well. Since you can't boost your AGL through magic yet, just keep your Risk low using Vera Roots, and attach the Braveheart gem to your weapon's grip, if possible. It raises your hit % by 20%. Very useful. The distance between Ashley and his target doesn't affect his chance to hit it. Either something is inside your weapon's range or isn't. So you don't have to worry about that. You're the second person to say that. Thanks.

The enemies' base damage was increased for the mod, and IIRC those Lizardmen carry 2-handed weapons which are quite powerful. So even if you apply a partial decrease to their STR, their damage multiplier and their arsenal are against you. So don't count on Degenerate for taking less damage, but for dealing more damage to the opponent's weakened defense. Ofc, depending on the feedback I get, I might reduce the damage multiplier for enemies.

Make sure you Degenerate him, that will help taking him down. Try using a Blunt weapon, he's weak against that. You'll soon get a spell (Analyze) that lets you view the enemy's stats and plan your strategy accordingly. I'm considering making that spell available earlier, to avoid these situations.

I'm the same sometimes, so you're definitely not alone there. So many mods, so little time.

I noticed. >_> The latest patch (v.091) should fix that. Yep, that's it. That Last Crusader (and a couple of others) appears at different locations depending on where you are in the game. IOW, before you reach a certain place (or point in the story), it appears at site A. After that, it moves to site B. I like playing around with such things, and that's something I intend to expand on for the next version of the mod. Like having enemies move around the dungeon, or even migrate across different regions. IMO it would add another level of authenticity to the world, make it more interesting and less static. Thanks! Aye, it's all part of the plan. There is one LC sighting that is more obscure, I wonder if you'll find it.