zedorfed66

v3.5 is another big update on the mod.

Now there are 2 versions of the mod: Fixed level and Max level. The versions prior to 3.5 all are max level versions with bosses scaling to the party's average level. This is the more casual version while the new fixed version has bosses on fixed levels that are harder if you haven't been leveling enough.

This patch halves the effectiveness of Str and Mag Junction stat and Str+% & Mag+% Junction abilities. With the nerfed magic power now X-Potions, Elixirs and Megalixirs restore 4000 HP instead of 5000.

With the required levels for the bosses upped by 1.5 multiplier now the enemies get to their 2nd and 3rd level x 1.5 later. This also affects what drawable magic is available from them. For example now Cerberus has 'Triple' drawable when he's 30 levelled when before he had it at level 20.

With both versions the final bosses are now locked at lvl 90 and Omega Weapon lvl 100. All enemies get +1 Str, +1 Mag and +1 Agl per level. The enemies that had their hp x3 are now x2 and those that were hp x2 now have their original hp.

v3.1 is an important continuation to the previous update. This patch multiplies bosses' max levels by 1.5. So for example Biggs and Wedge in the Dollet Communications Tower can now be max 15 levelled instead of 10. This helps to prevent being overleveled at the storyline bosses. I also changed the final bosses. Now they're locked to level 100 but with 3 x hp at lvl30 and +1 agl / level.

v3.0 is an important patch to this mod. I've changed lots of things to make the mod better and more enjoyable.

Changes:

All enemies' str & mag + 50 at lvl 30.

All enemies' agl + 1 / level. Except the final boss that remains at +2 / level.

All random encounter enemies' hp x 2 at lvl 30. Exceptions Tonberry and Cactuar which remain at their original hp. All soldiers remain at hp x 3.

Other changes: BGH251F2 (Missile Base boss) hp to original. BGH251F2 (2nd fight) hp x 3. Minotaur & Sacred (Brothers boss) hp x 3. Diablos boss hp x 2.

v2.9 changes later enemies and bosses agility back to +1 / level. Also, now all bosses except Red Giant are immune to Gravity. Since some bosses also show up as random encounters they are immune to Gravity as well.

I've been doing some more testing and I'm not happy with how fights can go wrong with bad RNG even in normal encounters. v2.75 changes all enemies' agl scheme back to original, except Omega Weapon and final bosses which remain the same as before (Omega agl + 1 / level, final bosses +2). Another small change is Brothers boss (Minotaur & Sacred). Now their HP multiplier is 2 instead of 3.

v2.55 changes X-Potions, Elixirs and Megalixirs. Now they restore 5000 HP instead of full health.

I'm hoping this'll be my final patch on the mod but we'll see.

Here's all the changes up to this point:

- All enemies' Str & Mag + 100 at level 30.

- All enemies' Agl + 1 per level except final bosses + 2 per level.

- Boss HP multipliers 1 to 3 depending on boss. Final bosses HP multiplier 5.

- Most bosses are immune to Gravity.

- HP, Vit & Spr stat Junction power halved.

- HP+%, Vit+% & Spr+% Abilities Junction power halved.

- Status Attack & Element Attack Junction strength halved, Element Defense Junction strength / 4.

- 'Card' ability completely removed from the game. Quezacotl replaces 'Card' with Mad Rush. Quezacotl swaps 'Card Mod' with Tonberry's Move-HP Up. Move-HP Up becomes available after learning Mad Rush.

- The Shumi Village card game no longer gives the item to learn 'Card' ability but instead gives 1 Energy Crystal for 5 Shumi cards.

- Heros and Hero Trials grant Protect, Shell & Haste on 1 character. Holy Wars and Holy War Trials grant Protect, Shell & Haste on all party members. X-Potions, Elixirs & Megalixirs restore 5000 HP instead of full health.

- 'Bonus' abilities no longer grant bonus stats when leveling up.

- Permanent stat increase items are no longer Refinable using Forbidden Refine. The Refine grants 'Hero Trial' items instead.

- Stat increments from 'Devour' removed.

- 'Vit 0' ailment removed.

v2.5 adds Gravity immunity to most bosses. Final bosses' HP multiplier is now x5 instead of x3. Final bosses' agility is now +2 per level instead of +1. And last but not least I've removed permanent HP increase from Devour command. So now Devour only works as an AP/No Exp tool. I felt it was unfair to leave Devour as an ability that would only increase 10 HP per use, and I also didn't wanna make it increase more. I think using Card Mod is sufficient enough in making the mod less of a brick wall experience.

v2.35 is a small fix. I just noticed Tonberry learns his Luck+50% immediately instead of being a learnable ability. Therefore trying to replace it with another ability wouldn't remove Luck+50% but instead add new one which would force the last learned ability off the list. Therefore with v2.35 Quezacotl's 'Card Mod' replaces Tonberry's 'Move HP-Up' making Quezacotl learn 'Move HP-Up' after 'Mad Rush'. I'm sorry I hadn't noticed this sooner but it's fixed now.

v2.3 ramps up the difficulty by quite a bit, especially in late game.

The changes: Vit & Spr Junction strength weakened by half, also Vit+% & Spr+% abilities strength weakened by half (same treatment as HP Junction). Another change is Vit 0 status ailment no longer applies when using Meltdown magic and Doomtrain summon.

I'm pretty content with the changes I've made up to this point and there shouldn't be much, if any to change from here on out.

Summary of everything that's been changed up to v2.3:

- All enemies' Str & Mag + 100 at level 30.

- All enemies' Agl + 1 per level.

- Boss HP multipliers 1 to 3 depending on boss.

- HP, Vit & Spr stat Junction power halved.

- HP+%, Vit+% & Spr+% Abilities Junction power halved.

- Status Attack & Element Attack Junction strength halved, Element Defense Junction strength / 4.

- 'Card' ability completely removed from the game. Quezacotl replaces 'Card' with Mad Rush. Quezacotl swaps 'Card Mod' with Tonberry's Luck+50%. Luck+50% becomes available after learning Mad Rush.

- The Shumi Village card game no longer gives the item to learn 'Card' ability but instead gives 1 Energy Crystal for 5 Shumi cards.

- Heros and Hero Trials grant Protect, Shell & Haste on 1 character. Holy Wars and Holy War Trials grant Protect, Shell & Haste on all party members.

- 'Bonus' abilities no longer grant bonus stats when leveling up.

- Permanent stat increase items are no longer Refinable using Forbidden Refine. The Refine grants 'Hero Trial' items instead.

- 'Devour' command now only grants permanent HP to characters, and that applies from all 6 monsters.

- 'Vit 0' ailment on enemies removed.

v2.15 changes Devour the way now successful Devour will grant perma HP from all 6 monsters instead of just from Ruby Drakes.

In v2.1 Forbidden Medicine Refine no longer grants Stat increase items, but gives Hero Trials instead.

Another update: v2.0 halves Elemental Attack Junction power and Elemental Defense Junction power is now /4 of the original. Another change is you will learn Devour command from PuPu card again (wasn't happy with changing that) however now only the HP stat can be increased using Devour.

Back again. v1.9 changes lots of things in effort to remove some game breaking stuffs.

Changes in this update:

- The 'Card' ability completely removed from the game. I've made up my mind and I don't like the idea of having low level challenges on this mod since it removes the challenge from the mod pretty much entirely. Eden gets back her Mad Rush that replaces the Card ability that I assigned her in v1.55. Quezacotl still has his Mad Rush and Luck+50%.

- The Shumi Village card game now doesn't give the item to learn 'Card' ability but instead gives 1 Energy Crystal for 5 Shumi cards.

- Heros and Hero Trials now grant Protect, Shell & Haste on 1 character. Holy Wars and Holy War Trials now grant Protect, Shell & Haste on all party members.

- 'Bonus' abilities now no longer grant bonus stats when leveling up. Therefore I suggest not using them.

- 'Devour' command still works and is learnable from Eden GF, but PuPu cards no longer teach the ability.

On 30.6.2020 at 7:43 PM, ScottyTheVideoGamer said:

Have beaten the mod but since had issues with my editing software XD. Was using shotcut but it kept crashing no matter what all of a sudden and now I'm trying olive so hopefully I can resume uploading this week..

Really enjoyed the mod, it brought a fresh new experience for Shadow Hearts

Anyways how do you play covenant with pcsx2 if so what settings?

Thanks

Hey again.

I'm glad you enjoyed my mod. For Covenant you'll want to be using hardware option for the video plugin and then you should be pretty much set. You'll also be wanting to have the last options in Round Mode and Clamping Mode in EE/IOP and VUs in Video Core GS Settings. Then again this is pretty much the standard for most games. There are some earlier versions of PCSX2 that make the game freeze after fights but in some the game works like a dream. Haven't tried the newest version of PCSX2 but it might work well with that one too. I've been playing the game with v1.2.1 and in that there shouldn't be any crashes. Then again I keep getting stuck in the past and don't have patience to test new things. So the newest version might be the best.

v1.75 changes Ultima Weapon's HP from x2 to original. I did the same to Omega Weapon just to play safe. I may end up changing Omega's HP when I get to him but we'll see.

i updated the mod to v1.7. This version changes Jumbo Cactuar's HP to original from x2. I also changed Tiamat's HP from x3 to x2 since I'm pretty sure I upped it too much. I may change it when I reach the boss in my playthrough. Another small change is HP Junction Magic that would up by 2 remains the same. This may help early game some if one chooses to Junction Cure to HP for example. I've been thinking of replacing / removing the level up Bonus Junction abilities but I'm not sure yet.

Here are the changes from original in v1.7:

- All enemies' Str & Mag + 100 at level 30.

- All enemies' Agl + 1 per level.

- Boss HP multipliers 1 to 3 depending on boss.

- HP stat Junction power halved starting from 3, rounded up.

- HP+% Abilities Junction power halved.

- Quezacotl's Card ability switches with Eden's Mad Rush. Quezacotl's Card Mod ability switches with Carbuncle's Luck+50%. Quezacotl learn's Luck+50% after learning Mad Rush.

1 hour ago, ScottyTheVideoGamer said:

Awesome thanks very much for your likes very much appreciated.

I was conflicted with the exp because i see what you were doing and i thought that, it was sense of reward it felt strange at first. Honestly I don't mind as much now.

Still loving the mod anyways, thanks for your save it helped for that 10 mins i forgot to record was able to get the team equipment etc... almost identical so at least it wont look too strange.

I am actually doing final sidequests etc... beat albert simon earlier today, on course for good ending also, I may either combine parts or upload more frequent once i beat the game, i have a lot of footage to go through!

 

Hey thanks for another video! So you're that far already  I hope you've had fun time playing through this mod.

Another update. v1.6 halves the effectiveness of Status Attack Junctions.

I just updated this mod to v1.55. This version swaps Quezacotl's 'Card' command with Eden's 'Mad Rush'. So to get 'Luck+50%' on Quezacotl you'll need to learn Mad Rush first. I should've made this change way before but better late than never.

23 hours ago, ScottyTheVideoGamer said:

Hey thanks for another great video!

I read your blog post about the inconsisties of the experience rates in battles. In these Shadow Hearts mods some areas give more exp than others for a reason. For example in the sewer dungeon you needed to gain 7 levels to be in the recommended levels for the start of the next area. While in Dalian you only need to farm 2 levels. This is why Fengtian sewers give 3x the og exp while Dalian 2x. And the recommended levels are not something I've made up from my head but are from the code based on the agility levels of the characters. And since the exp increase in battles is forced and something I wouldn't add if it wasn't required I don't up the exp gained from bosses as it is. It also helps in keeping players from gaining too much exp in one battle and also doesn't enforce the thought of having to have all party members alive before making the finishing blow.

This is my reasoning and the design choice i chose for the 3 Shadow Hearts games. Looking forward to your next video btw, and I liked all of your videos on youtube ^^.

Hey again.

I guess I was a bit of an edgelord with the HP Junction nerf from before. v1.5 changes the Junction power to HP stat from /3 to /2. The game should feel better with this change.

On 7.6.2020 at 6:15 PM, ScottyTheVideoGamer said:

Just wondering after beating Dehuai there is no way back to Shanghai correct? Forgot to do a couple of things in SHanghai although if its not possible it doesn't matter too much.

Granted I have been playing through the game with a couple of notes rather than a guide

anyways it is going well hope to beat asia part soon then onto europe then i'll have a lot of footage to organise!

Yes that's true. Once you leave Asia there's no way back at any point. So make sure to grab the Erotic Book from Kuihai Yower so u can get Seraphic Radiance and also do the Pitfights if you want to do them. Good luck with the videos and rest of the mod.

Great thanks for these vids. They are funny and it's interesting to see how you tackle my mod ^^

14 hours ago, SirShaggy said:

Yeah it would really throw off your system... You'd really have to redo everything from the ground up. I see what you're saying about the exp rate it's really hard to balance around dungeon size and exp earned, especially because you want to keep it fair that each dungeon gives progressively more exp. Makes me wonder what an exp multiplier would do for the experience and how much would be too much, you know, but trying to casualize a hard mod seems like a pretty counter-intuitive concept haha. I'm curious what the agility multiplier does and how that effects the enemies. Would bumping agility with seals be detrimental in the long-run because of that?

Ah ok. I thought I got through it pretty fast. I must have missed some areas.

Ah, it's all good man! I knew what I was getting into going in. From what I remember from last time the grinding slows down a bit in the later parts of the game, so I'll just power through for now. If it gets to be too much I'll probably cut myself a break and run with technical ring to makes things a little "easier" for myself.

Don't feel like a cheater unless you use actual cheats. I want my mods to be enjoyable so using any of the rings or applying Seals is more than ok. This is a pretty tough mod at this point afterall :D.

15 hours ago, ronlyn said:

One option could be ajust the bonus exp You get for doing good in battle (no damage, high combo count) to both reduce grinding time and give an incentive to git gud with the timings

I don't personally see that as a good thing to do. I often get ring perfects in the normal encounters and if I'd get extra exp for every time that happens I would get way too much xp. There are already rewards for doing well in the fights and I don't like the idea of changing them.