Hapanpappa

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Everything posted by Hapanpappa

  1. For the longest time I wasn't interested in SMRPG at all for some reason but recently happened upon a video that just ignited my interest all of a sudden, and now I can't wait to get into it. So now I'm looking for insightful opinions&thoughts from people well-versed in rpg hard mods and the like - which version of Armageddon should I start with? -I got into SNES-era games via emulation as an adult since I never owned one as a kid so naturally their nonexistent difficulty got me into playing hard mods -I've played A LOT of rpgs&hard mods, new and old, generally enjoy going in blind and setting the difficulty to highest possible right off the bat -BUT I know next to nothing about SMRPG, and don't wanna know; from various videos online I've seen how it looks in passing and that you play as Mario and apparently Bowser becomes playable at some point -I expect to die a lot trying to figure out how to beat enemies and bosses; if I can beat a boss I'm not familiar with on the first few tries, then it's not a hard mod Probably the most important thing to know is whether it's possible to completely play yourself into a corner and not be able to proceed in the game due to missing something/doing something wrong(bound to happen as a first-timer) early on that has unknowable ramifications later. Thanks in advance for thoughts on the matter. Hard to gauge something like this myself, not knowing anything about the game or this mod. Also I trust that the mod is in a state where there's no gamebreaking bugs or anything like that to worry about? Just pick up and play?
  2. Sounds good, can't wait. What's with version 8 hard mode? Tad too ridiculous to start off with huh?
  3. You want the player to have to work hard and hurt as you say but party wipes are too much? What's the other option here then, I wonder - not dying or wiping to new things you weren't prepared for seems like the opposite of having to work hard. RNG also seems like a weird way to describe that. Rather, you were just insufficiently prepared. I do agree on the elemental immunity point, though; too bad the game's code is limiting in that respect. I had a massively different experience going into this the first time. I had enough faith in the developers to assume the challenge is fair so there's always ways around everything if you're willing to pay attention and try different things. Calling RNG and unfair difficulty is a misguided way to react to dying.
  4. Daymn... Kaiser seems like the most appropriate choice here; secretly hoping to see him elevated to superboss levels as he originally was probably meant to be in FF6. I feel like BNW has room to have one superboss that you really have to work to beat.
  5. Hopefully this isn't something that's just out of the ballpark of what bnb&co are willing to do at some point. I'd be the first in line lobbing for a hard difficulty here, precisely because it's such a good mod and those are the ones where you really want to push it to the limit, as it were. Not to bash on the mod you mentioned but BNW could probably stand to have a hard more with just a tad more consideration and planning put into it than doubling enemy stats.
  6. Then how do you feel about fights with multiple stages rather than just having a single pattern or puzzle to be solved? As mentioned, it's been such a long while since my last playthrough so I don't really remember if you had any of those in BNW but surely that would be a way to make fights both longer AND dynamic so the 2 dimensions work in unison to create a multifaceted challenge that requires both short- and longterm planning? Because I interpret your words as indicating that BNW bosses are more about that one riddle - albeit complex, no doubt - that you have to solve and after that, there's not much at all except boredom. In that case, I wholeheartedly agree with shaving off some of the fight length.
  7. Indeed; I do appreciate this sentiment as well, having had profound debates irl going to silly lengths&detail regarding this topic. It's a balancing act for sure. And I'd like to believe that just because it's shorter doesn't mean it's easier, even though this has usually been the case in rpgs, in my experience at least... I mean if nothing else, longer could mean more chances to make a mistake, more resource management required and so on. But I'll just take your word for it since you know the fine details best. I'll be optimistic.
  8. I wet my pants... Can't wait anymore, jumped straight to reading through some changelogs and I like what I see. It's pretty exciting to see just how much stuff there is to fix and tune in pursuit of perfection. But alas, it seems my worst fears are coming true: • Lowered the HP of many enemies and several bosses who were deemed to have more than necessary --> Notable nerfs include Tentacles, Chesticle, Hidon, Inferno (a scripting error had previously caused him to have 40,000 more HP than intended), Guardian, Kaiser, and final Kefka Argh, I find it so hard to believe that I'm the odd one out when it comes to enjoying long&difficult boss fights in these "supermods" as I like to call them... Especially since there's more strategic options and it incentivizes to explore the whole game, complete every quest and battle because you know there will actually be a worthy challenge that's gonna put all that epic gear, levels, builds&the party that you've built to the ultimate test. I really hope walking over even more bosses than last time won't ruin the otherwise wondrous experience for me, but what can you do.
  9. Awesome news. Begrudgingly decided to put my playthrough of 1.9 on hold even though I had just started it out when I happened upon the announcement of 1.10 and that it would be a major update, despite waiting for 1.9 for an eternity too. At least I ought to have a ton of new stuff to discover, seeing as my last complete playthrough was with 1.7 IIRC... Now that I think about it, I bet it'll feel like a totally different game. I wouldn't wanna spoil myself too much, and I've gathered some bits and pieces myself by lurking around here anyways (such as the on-equip esper bonus being a new thing) but could I bother someone knowledgeable to hype me up a bit before the release and give a crash course on the biggest changes that have come along in recent versions and/or some of the new cool stuff&features that I have to look forward to, coming off from 1.7? I know I could just plow through the changelogs but I've never been into knowing every bit of detail about a game beforehand and there's just so much stuff. I'm mostly after the juiciest tidbits.
  10. Locke and Midgame Balance

    Speaking of overleveling, is flat out just reducing exp gains, at least in some critical areas, something worth considering at this point? With overleveling turning out to be such a common problem among players.. At least, many peeps in this community seem to struggle with it to some extent, whether a veteran or not - and even though it gets a bit murky where the difficulty is in the players' hands anyways(turning exp off etc), maybe it could stand to be just a little more conservative?
  11. Is there any sort of ETA on this? Are we talking weeks or months?
  12. Who's everyone? BNW is probably the cleanest mod out there, at least in my books(relative to the base game), and one of the most well-loved&popular, as indicated by download rates. Also with an active community, as indicated by these forums. All in all, you'll be hard-pressed to find a mod with better overarching quality - there's nothing you ought to be 'waiting' for.
  13. Eh, fight length seems like a natural extension or product of higher difficulty, at least when it comes to rpg's with tactical elements. However discussing the philosophy of it further is beside the point, I think. Your words on the matter make it seem like nothing has been done to cheapen the challenge, or in other words, fight length/hp had nothing to do with the challenge these bosses offered. I'm not sure if that's the case either. Assuming nobody had difficulties with these fights past the first 5 minutes and they were simply a boring timesink for most people, then your thoughts would ring more true.. But I remain a bit skeptical, since the impression I've gotten from the replies to my initial question that I directed at veterans hasn't been a unanimous "none of the bosses are any easier than before, the fights were all a drag so it was a net positive to reduce their hp/defense". It's not that I want to artificially make things harder for myself, I'm asking whether the sweet spot in boss difficulty that I once experienced has been tampered with and whether it was done for right/compelling reasons.
  14. I can certainly see why in a case like hidon it gets toned down if most people feel it's just a chore. I must simply be in the minority. And it took me a few tries to beat him too, I remember a few surprises towards the end that I wasn't prepared for at all with my underleveled party so essentially I fought the entire length of the battle at least thrice and still didn't get battle fatigue. Maybe I'm just weird. With regards to the dragons, I appreciate the honest thoughts - my question now is, when were they nerfed? I hope it was before I did my playthrough. Maybe about 1.5 years ago give or take. I'd be reeeally bummed if they've been made easier since.. Especially when considering that, if I've understood right, this current version will be the definitive version for years to come until 2.0 eventually happens or something. Hate to get hung up on this stuff but difficult bosses really are the lifeblood of mods for me. Some bosses were super disappointing already back then, although I've been given valid reasons as to why doomgaze and phunbaba are super easy for example. The warring triad are Gods; why in the world would you ever make them easier? Especially when at that point in the game you have endless options and tools at your disposal to experiment with. Now imagine if you're experienced and know how to gear up - you just walk over the most grand and epic enemies in the climax of the game.
  15. I referred to messages on the previous page mentioning nerfs to hidon and dragons, hence my opening statement. Though to be clear, my post was nothing more than me jumping to a conclusion based on those few remarks.
  16. All this talk of nerfing bosses and people complaining about the difficulty actually has me worried that the awesome bossfights of yore will fall flat and underwhelm me when I start a new playthrough in the near future. I never felt the fights were too long for a second. If it dragged on or I had trouble I simply changed my strategy and that was the whole fun of it. And I'm not a hardcore player or a BNW veteran with only that single playthrough completed 1-2 years ago. Do the veterans also agree that the nerfs were actually called for and it wasn't just done at the whim of some lazy people who expect to steamroll bosses vanilla style without doing any strategizing whatsoever? Not trying to sound like an ass but the heart and soul of the mods on these forums have always been the challenging and epic boss fights, for me at least... Seems weird to jeopardise that challenge that people are looking for when they come to these mods in the first place.
  17. Merton Contemplation

    Hmm, it does seem to make more thematic sense. I'm all for it, but as with anything, the gut reaction is to shoot down ideas that change up the lategame in a pretty significant manner, are based on flavor more than anything else, and would require some major work to implement. Also it is kind of a no-brainer that the character with the highest magical capabilities has the strongest spell in the game. Celes should be stronger physically as a knight and a general and Terra should have the strongest magical prowess as a half-esper.
  18. I never played these legendary jrpg's as a kid, but despite having no nostalgia for them, they've still become my favorite games of all time. If I had to name one negative thing that probably stems from getting into these games as an adult, it'd be that they tend to lack any significant challenge. I used to end up not ever using a single elixir/megaelixir because I wanted to stockpile 'em for the real hard bosses that never came. In hindsight, it kills the incentive to fight battles and explore if there aren't any challenges ahead that you'd need to get stronger for. Other than that, Chrono Trigger, among others of its kind, is perfect. Well, suffice to say that that circle has finally closed. Scatterbrained comments incoming. This mod was indeed the fulfillment of the Chrono Trigger experience. Balance-wise, somehow you hit a spot so sweet it made me drool honey. I never once had to grind to beat a boss or a section. On the other hand, I even forgot there ever was a runaway option; all the way through, it felt completely natural to fight every battle. It never got tedious because near every battle and enemy formation required specific tactics or threw something different in your way that kept it engaging. I finally had an incentive to explore the game inside out. Although, I got a little worried about overleveling and had to keep that wallet around; I'd prefer it if there was an option to just turn exp off. Finally there's a legit reason to use different party setups because triple techs are powerful and overall every character seems to hit the spotlight at one point or another, rather than using Crono+sidekick 1 and 2 and spam luminaire all game long. This is all I ever wanted from an rpg - I experimented with all kinds of party setups for hard bosses and my strategies developed naturally by process of trial and error. No googling it, no spamming op moves, only you and your mind vs the game; ****ing beautiful. Seriously. Some doubletechs still way weaker than 2 single techs combined, mainly some Ayla ones. In black omen, too many random encounters felt like gear-checks; they weren't hard, you just had to know which elemental attack they're spamming. Without using savestates, this required a lot of running back and forth and reconnaissance trips just to know which armor to wear for each encounter. Bosses were a thing of absolute beauty. I could tell a long story about each of the bosses and how I managed to beat them in different funny ways after a lot of experimentation and weird happenstance. Every victory was satisfying, thank you for that. One odd thing I'd recommend changing is probably the first boss of the game, who was also the hardest. I damn near stopped playing because I thought I'm not up for this kind of cheap challenge. Maybe I just had bad luck, I dunno, but his counters at least were absolutely random. I got so pissed that I started checking using savestates, and indeed, there was no rhyme or reason to his counters. I ended up having to beat him using savestates, which is something I make a point NOT to do ever, so I almost quit playing. Fortunately, I had the will to muscle on and I never had to resort to that again. I get why you wanted to nerf dark matter, but man... It did less dmg than darkbomb, haha. Maybe delete the whole spell at that point. Otherwise, Magus is in a great place. So glad Ayla wasn't forced on me all game long, though you still miss a lot of good items (even tabs) by not bringin her everywhere. Suppose there's no way around it. I made up for it by farming the hell out of a pseudo-boss in black omen (or ocean palace?)for speed tabs. You know, the one who countered everything with a physical hit that, if fatal, triggered another counter in the form of an instant partywipe. Loved the mechanic, btw, took me forever to realize how it worked. Giga Mutant was the one who gave people the hardest time, apparently. Personally, I thought it was among the best bosses in the game indeed, but not the hardest; maybe I was lucky that my A-team consisted of Crono, Frog and Marle so developing the winning strategy happened naturally and intuitively. I only read through the old forums after beating the game, and the guides had pretty much the same strategy as the one I had used to beat him in a few tries only. I actually felt like a god. Anyways that's just the tip of the iceberg. I know I'm about 68 years late to the party, but if you ever read this, know that your work continues to entertain&bring new satisfying gaming experiences to people around the world. You have my thanks, I'll never forget this mod and will return to it in the future.
  19. @the_E_y_Es_o_0 Kinda surprising to hear you liked my random musings; looking back on it, I feel it came out extremely opinionated and not eloquent at all I guess it does make it feel more genuine, though. @Nesouk I may have failed to convey my point with my ramblings, so I'll try to reiterate. I do understand that what you said must be how it's supposed to work, but for me, didn't. The "Too close, can't counterattack" actually happened at random, and only about 33% of the time regardless of his position on the battle map, proximity to my party members, or the type of attack used. I checked and doublechecked multiple times using savestates at different points in the battle because I got so frustrated.. So either it was a truly weird combination of bad luck and technical hocus pocus that made the Great Yakra bounce around no matter when&where I hit him, or there's something amiss with the code. Only Zombero knows. But holy hot damn, were the other bosses in the game rewarding and satisfying. Hands down, this mod has some of the best boss battles I've ever played in any game, period. Makes me wanna play this again just to relive those experiences..
  20. Party set up advice

    My 1.9 run is still waiting to happen so it's been awhile since I played, but my gut reaction is to say that your builds all lean on the squishy side. I'd at least include one tank build per party, seeing as your glass cannons Locke and Shadow are both brown bread when they miss a dodge in the final parts of the game. Stam Setzer yielded godlike results for me in a stam oriented party, indeed due to regenX and sheer ability to tank hard hits. Gets more valuable than pure dps come endgame, IMO..
  21. Celes Chere: Dog Of The Empire

    Cheers for the technical briefing, clearly I construed "allow stamina to influence counter-attacks" in the patch notes erroneously. Are these kinds of specifics written down so I don't have to stumble in the dark like a total tit?
  22. Celes Chere: Dog Of The Empire

    Yea, this is just me overthinking it.. But since the relic gives both counter&cover, and stamina does the same thing, theoretically there's some redundancy there.
  23. Celes Chere: Dog Of The Empire

    As we draw closer to 1.9, one more thing I've pondered, not being too well-versed on the technical stuff.. Doesn't Celes' ??? relic make an abundance of stamina a bit redundant? If I've understood correctly, it seems their perks overlap somewhat.. Is there any lost value there?
  24. Celes Chere: Dog Of The Empire

    Neat stuff; at the very least, it seems my concerns have been amended somewhat, which is.. Well, suffice to say I didn't expect to be able to love this mod even more than I already did. Truly appreciate the changes. Trying really hard to hold it in my pants until 1.9 gets rolling in earnest. Thzfunnymzn: any thoughts on going 50/50 with Ramuh&Crusader instead of Phantom? Or in other words, trading 5 stam for 5 speed.. Any value in it?