Final Fantasy VII: New Threat Mod v1.4 - README

			TABLE OF CONTENTS:

				1. WELCOME TO FF7 NEW THREAT
				2. INSTALLATION
				3. CHARACTERS & GAME BALANCE
				4. NEW CONTENT & REVISIONS
				5. BUGS & KNOWN ISSUES
				7. CREDITS & CLOSING

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				1. WELCOME TO FF7 NEW THREAT




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Hey there, and welcome to New Threat! I don't like the name, but it appears to have stuck so I just
call it NT for short. What started as a basic palette swap for the game's bosses has slowly grown into
a full-scale revision and content mod, focused on enhancing & expanding gameplay. The original game
had more than it's fair share of problems, chief among them being a very easy arc of difficulty that
can quickly render the game trivial for most players, experienced or not. One of the main objectives
for the NT Mod became tackling this problem, and creating a much more challenging and satisfying
gameplay experience that could be considered fair and interesting.

The NT Mod for FFVII was created using a full array of tools, editing the weapons, armor, items, Materia,
spells, character stats, enemies, events, and models used by the game. Most of the tools were developed
by the hard-working folks on Qhimm, and without which this mod would not have been possible for me to
put together. I also owe the FF7 Hardcore mod (made by Gjoerulv) and the FF7 challenge-run community for
getting me to think about the game in new ways and better prepare me for the the tough job of balancing
the game and creating new content that was challenging but in line with the difficulty arc.

In addition to the tools, the mod was shaped and changed over time by invaluable player feedback which
has helped to further refine the game. Random battles are designed to be quick and fun, with boss fights
providing unique challenges that test a player's knowledge of the game's mechanics in ways that the
vanilla game isn't able to. It's been great fun exploring the game's AI and bringing unused oddities
to the fore that can surprise even the most battle-hardened FF7 veterans.

As far as the game's story goes, there is one feature in NT that needs to be explained and that's the
decision to retain Aeris in the player's party post-Disc 1. While this wasn't done for story reasons,
it does have an undeniable impact on the game's storyline which threatened to derail the mod's scope
as a purely gameplay-orientated mod. I spent a great deal of time, however, fine-tuning the dialogue
in order to keep the impact of this to an absolute minimum. The final result was that only one scene
required any kind of serious revision, and I took great care and consideration in pitching this one scene
so that it a) fit naturally with the localised dialogue, and b) performed it's intended role in the story.
There are also plans in the future to make this part of the mod optional.

As mentioned above, feedback is what shapes this mod and helps NT to develop and grow into something
bigger and better than I could ever hope to make it alone. If you have any ideas, feedback, or bug
reports regarding the mod and any of it's features then don't hesitate to get in touch either through
Qhimm, Insane Difficulty, or through the associated Youtube channel.

Oh, and one last thing:

					    NO REFUNDS

					-Sega Chief, 2015

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					2. INSTALLATION




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The New Threat Mod has two installation methods, with some work-arounds for getting it installed to
currently unsupported platforms such as Bootleg. The two 'normal' installation methods include the
mod's 'Main Installer' which simply patches a default copy of FF7 (either the 1998 version or the
newer releases such as 2012 or Steam) with the NT Mod and the '7th Heaven .IRO' which is used with
the 7H Mod Loader tool developed by Iros and maintained by EQ2Alyza (god bless 'er).

[Main Installer]
To install the patch, just follow these instructions:

      •	First, make sure that you have a regular copy of FF7 installed to your PC. Preferably one that
	hasn't been altered using a program such as Bootleg or similar.

      •	Before patching, go into your FF7 folder and make a back-up copy of the 'data' folder. This
	contains all the files that will be patched by the Main Installer. By keeping this back-up,
	you can swap back to the default version of the game at any time without having to reinstall.

      •	Run the Installer and direct it to the 'data' folder in the FF7 folder. This applies to either
	version of FF7, despite the slight differences in architecture. Make sure that the installer has
	the appropriate writing permissions and isn't blocked by your anti-virus. If you find that the
	Installer is unable to alter the data folder due to security, try moving the 'data' folder to
	the Desktop and then patching it there before moving it back into the FF7 folder.

[French, Spanish, and German Versions]
To install the patch, just follow these instructions:

      •	These versions of the game have different file/folder names that the Installer won't recognise.
	to fix this, go into your FF7 Steam installation and change the following file names:

	Field Folder
	fflevel.lgp, sflevel.lgp, gflevel.lgp -> flevel.lgp

	Data Folder
	lang-es, lang-fr, lang-de -> lang-en

	Run the Main Installer. After it has finished, rename the files back to their original names
	and the game should be ready to play.

[7H Installer]
This is a bit more complicated, but much more compatible with other mods:

      •	This is best followed from the relevant Qhimm Forum found here:
	http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15520.0
	Installation of 7H can be complex and plenty of things can go wrong so it's best to follow the
	advice given here as closely as possible and to ask questions if you're unsure or run into
	trouble with it.

	The general procedure for a 7H installation is to clear away any and all files pertaining to
	FF7 from your computer and clean the registry. Then, install the default FF7 Steam version
	and convert it using the 7H Game Converter (GC). This will set the game's file architecture
	to support the 7H Mod Loader which can be run instead of the usual Launcher program.

	With this done, a 'catalog' of mods can be loaded which the player then picks from to apply
	to their game, with the NT Mod being one of the included options. The benefits this installation
	has is making the mod much more easily compatible with graphical mods that change battle models,
	field screens, etc.

[Verification]
To check that you've patched it properly:

      •	If you want to make sure that the patch was applied properly, either start a new game or load
	any save file. On a New Game, a text box should appear asking the player to select a difficulty
	mode; this confirms the 'flevel' has been patched.

	The second check is for the Bronze Bangle armor; if this now has three Materia slots and
	an item description (it has no description in the vanilla game) then the Kernel has patched.

	The third check is the first encounter of the game. If the two soldiers fought in the first battle
	have the name 'MP Trainee' then the scene.bin has patched successfully.

	The fourth and final check is the game's models. If Cloud's SOLDIER outfit appears to be a darker
	blue rather than the light purple used by the original game then the char.lgp has patched. If the
	first boss of the game is now black & gold rather than red, then the battle.lgp has patched.

One last thing to note is that it's highly recommended to start a new game if playing New Threat for
the first time, rather than loading a save file made without the mod installed (to skip the opening
intro, for instance). This is to avoid missing out on certain early Materia such as Barrier, Time,
Revive, etc. that come equipped on characters like Tifa, Aeris, and Red XIII when they join.
Save files made on older versions of NT are fully compatible however.

It's also highly recommended to play 'Original' difficulty; this is the intended NT experience for
players. Arrange instead offers something new for repeat/returning NT players.

Oh, and one last thing:

			VISIT THE BEGINNER'S HALL IN SECTOR 7 FOR PRO-TIPS

					No, seriously.

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				3. CHARACTERS & GAME BALANCE




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Whether you've played FF7 for a long time or just once or twice years ago, you'll know that the game
is not the most challenging RPG out there. The game can be cleared with nothing more complex than a
Cure spell or two with physical attacks & Limits. In fact, you can beat the game with lv.1 characters
under a whole variety of restrictions; there's hundreds of exploits, imbalances, and altogether useless
materials in this game that never get a chance to shine. The game was rushed to the finish line during
it's production too, which has resulted in a whole number of glitches, AI oversights, and other problems.
Wading into that mess to craft something resembling a difficulty arc with proper shape, challenge, and
variety has not proven easy and previous NT versions have all failed in some way to achieve this to the
standard I was aiming for.

The fundamental problem with balancing FF7 is that a see-saw occurs with it's physical attack formula.
As Level is called twice, this results in physical attacks suddenly spiking up once your party has
reached a certain level threshold, quickly leaving magical attacks with their longer animations and
MP costs completely in the dust. There's also the issue with characters being very generic in their
stats, with only weapons and Limits really separating them from each other. Finally, Materia can be
equipped in very powerful combos with some being as simple as five Counter-Attacks + Cover.

So there were several 'fronts' to tackle in bringing a curve, or arc, of challenge to the game. The first
of these fronts was bringing some identity to each character through their stats and complimenting these
with stat boosts and special effects for their weapons. This later evolved into producing a brand new
character-development system for stats which would let players create their own 'builds' for each character.
They were also given 'innate' abilities that trigger in-battle, helping to create more individuality for
each character and lend an extra dimension to strategies and set-ups.

Here's a summary of each character and the decisions made when speccing them:

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				     CLOUD
				---------------

A powerhouse in the vanilla game, Cloud enjoyed some great stats, strong Limits, and the best STR stat.
While this was understandable due to him being mandatory for most of the game and his backstory as an
(albeit 'failed') SOLDIER experiment, I've made him into more of a jack of all trades with decent showings
in the primary stats and the option to build those stats in different ways.

\\Character Innate: Second Wind//

After a certain amount of time has passed in-battle, and once per battle, Cloud will refresh his HP & MP.

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				     BARRET
				---------------

The original powerhouse with the highest HP and VIT of all the vanilla characters, this remains true in
NT with Barret being specced to suit a tanking role in soaking up physical damage for the other characters
from the (relative) safety of the Back Row. His SPR has also been greatly boosted and he no longer has the
worst SPR stat in the game. To compensate, his MAG, MP, and DEX are very lacking and his STR has fallen
slightly to compensate for his long range weaponry.

Barret has three types of weapons; his standard guns have high accuracy and are long range but often carry
no statistical benefit. His close-range weapons, on the other hand, are inaccurate but carry solid stat
boosts on them. Finally, his cannon-type weapons acquired late in the game are a mix of both; being long-range, middling accuracy, and carrying some stat bonuses.


\\Character Innate: Attack/Defence Stacks//

Barret has a versatile innate that changes depending on which Row he is when hit by a physical attack.
If struck while in the Front Row, he gains a stack that boosts his STR. If hit while in the Back Row, however,
then he gains a stack that raises VIT & SPR instead. He can have five stacks of either Attack or Defence,
but cannot have more than one type of stack at a time; if he gains an Attackstack while in the Front Row
then he will lose any Defence stacks gained up to that point for example.

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				     TIFA
				---------------

Outside of a speedrun or challenge-run making specific use of her Powersoul, Tifa was considered to be
ultimately garbage when compared to the other characters. A shoddy all-rounder with roulette limits
that used random targeting, some drastic work was needed to make her properly viable again. In NT,
she's been given an overhaul and now sports one of the highest STR stats in the roster, with great
DEX to keep the hits flying fast. Her main weakness however is her VIT which leaves her vulnerable
to physical damage on the front row without some kind of mitigation in place.

Tifa's weapons vary between boosting her naturally high DEX or raising her other stats like VIT and MAG.
She has plenty of weapons with special effects like in the original game, such as God's Hand for 255% accuracy
and Powersoul which greatly increases damage when at critical HP and under the Death Sentence status. She can
also be built into a fast caster if players don't want to go the physical damage route.


\\Character Innate: Grit//

Once per battle, when Tifa would normally be KO'd either by her HP reaching 0 or by an instant-death
attack she will instead auto-revive with 1HP (or retain her current HP in the case of an instant death
effect), along with any buffs/debuffs and her Limit gauge intact. Her currently queued action will also
be retained and executed as normal.


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				     AERIS
				---------------

Sporting the highest MAG, MP, and SPR stats of the vanilla game, these remain her strongest stats in
NT with a respectable DEX stat to help her keep up with the physical strikers and their naturally
faster attacks. As you'd expect from a traditional caster, Aeris is quite vulnerable to physical
damage and has an abysmal STR stat which makes her unsuitable for front-line combat.

With the exception of her new starting weapon, the Restore Rod, Aeris' weapons alternate between
boosting either her MAG stat for better nuking or the DEX & SPR stats for faster, safer casting. Most have
also been refitted to provide healing instead of physical damage, with only a few exceptions, and can also
grant positive status effects in some cases.


\\Character Innate: Geo-Stance//

Originally billed as a Geomancer in the game's concept notes, this has been brought back to a degree for
NT by improving Aeris' Defend command to have her temporarily absorb all Magical elemental damage while
Defending. This can be very useful for surviving high damage attacks from bosses that would normally cause
serious trouble for this low HP caster.


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				    RED XIII
				---------------

Another all-rounder like Tifa in vanilla, Red XIII was nevertheless a solid choice for the early game
thanks to his Lunatic High Limit and decent stats overall. His later Limits, however, are quite bad and
fall short of the other party members. With this in mind, Red was specced as a Support character with
great HP, MP, and DEX along with a solid MAG and STR stat to help him keep an offensive edge. Though
not as tough as Cloud, he can fit into multiple roles such as Striker and Caster with his higher DEX
allowing him to keep up.

Like with Cloud, Red's weapons can boost each of his stats, but he has a few that inflict statuses and
sports both a rare Long-Range weapon in the Hairpin and a 8-Linked Slots weapon in the Centclip which
is great for Support roles. His dire late-level Limits were also taken into account and have very short
charge times as a result, with his Ultimate weapon being given the Premium Heart formula to make better
use of that Lv.4 Limit by...not using it.


\\Character Innate: Wild Fang//

Over the course of a battle, Red will gain STR/MAG stacks meaning he becomes stronger in longer battles.
A message will display when these stacks have reached their maximum capacity (+50).


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				     YUFFIE
				---------------

When she wasn't busy warping people to god knows where in vanilla, Yuffie was busy being one of the most
awfully specced characters in the game. With LCK being her only 'good' stat, and DEX coming 2nd to Red XIII,
she was a glass cannon without the cannon. For NT, she's been adapted to fit that role much better and
her abysmal defensive stats are off-set by her incredible DEX and high STR & MAG that let her nuke quickly
as either a long-range striker or a caster.

Her weapons focus on either fortifying her DEX stat, or boosting her MAG stat. By focusing on DEX and using
spells like Haste and Slow, Yuffie can easily get multiple turns before the enemy which can be great for
quickly racking up damage or for providing support & healing. Other weapons she has carry natural elements
and status ailments to compliment a striking role, such as the Wind Slash which is very effective against
airborne enemies.

\\Character Innate: Perfect Dodge//

Whenever Yuffie is struck by either Physical she will temporarily gain 255% evasion which is lost either
after a few turns or when she is affected by any magic command.

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				   CAIT SITH
				---------------

Recipient of a less than flattering nickname, Cait Sith throws a strange curveball in Vanilla with his
poor VIT and bad MP which doesn't compliment his MAG stat at all. His Limits are unique in that a
speedrun category is built around them, but that's not going to fly in a regular run so some major tweaking
was in order. First of all, Cait Sith has a great Luck stat that can be developed to a high level which
allows him to be built into a 'Lucky Tank' role with the right equipment. He also has decent VIT and SPR to
better fit him into a Tank role, but suffers from atrocious DEX and bad STR & MAG. He's a pure tank, with
some Support in him.

Luck is the theme for Cait's equipment, with his weapons providing either a hefty VIT/SPR boost or a
big dose of LCK to compliment these stats. He also has access to an early 8-slot weapon in the
Silver M-Phone for setting him up as a Materia Tank (his traditional role), and for providing some
Support through his Black & White M-Phones which grant handy buffs when used on party members.


\\Character Innate: Innate MP Regen//

Cait Sith will slowly regenerate MP, helping him in support and casting roles.

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				     VINCENT
				---------------

The vanilla gunslinger was a replacement of sorts for Aeris as a caster, sporting a decent MAG stat and
MP for when she kicked the bucket. He was quite fragile though, and his Limits are arguably the worst
in the game as they rob you of any control over him. For NT, Vince is made much tankier in VIT and retains
his high MAG and MP to make him a 'tanky' caster with the drawback of having one of the lowest DEX stats.
His SPR and HP are also still quite low, so he's vulnerable to being nuked by magical damage.

Vincent's weapons are all Long Range, with his guns either boosting his MAG stat or providing a unique
effect such as the slash-all effect on the Shotgun, the 255% accuracy on the Sniper CR, or the Inflict
Slow on his Lariat. His Buntline also has linked 2x growth slots which can be useful for growing Materia
while still being able to retain basic Materia combos.


\\Character Innate: MP Shield//

Periodically, Vincent will rgeain HP equal to his current MP which makes him quite tanky and allows his
MP to be of use as a source of healing during his Limit Forms.

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				      CID
				---------------

The foul-mouthed brawler was often the main pick for parties back in the day, but he was actually
quite behind in terms of stats with only his HP and VIT coming anywhere close to being on par with
the other characters. In NT, he's been set up as a powerful physical striker with LCK rather than
DEX being his edge over the others. Though quite slow and vulnerable to magical damage, Cid is quite
tough with HP and VIT, being able to stand on the front line with a greater degree of durability than
the other physical strikers.

Cid's weapons focus on boosting his VIT for better survivability, or his LCK for a better flow of
critical hits and Luck-based evasion. He also carries some varied effects on some weapons, such
as Water/Lightning elemental on the Trident which is effective against machine enemies or the Grow Lance
which is Long Range.


\\Character Innate: Reactive Guard//

When hit by damage, Cid will gain either a Barrier or MBarrier depending on the type of damage.

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With the character roles and potential builds for them more clearly defined, it was time to tackle the
game's broken balance and start crafting a difficulty curve that was both fun and challenging.

There are two main damage formulas in this game; Physical and Magical. The Physical formula starts off
weaker than the Magical one, but see-saws to being the much stronger formula as the player's levels rise.
By contrast, Magic is the opposite with plenty of power early on but ends up requiring higher and higher
base power in order to keep up with Physical attacks. Balancing these against each other is very difficult,
as different play-styles can result in a level difference of 10-20 (which is huge for Physical attacks
going past Lv.40). One key thing to keep in mind is that Physical attacks are much faster than Magical
ones and don't require MP, so if they are too close to Magical damage then they'll render Magic obsolete
and we'll be back to square one. My initial solution to the problem was a hard level cap, but this didn't
properly eliminate the issue. In the current build, though, I've found a much more discreet way to manage
the game's damage formulas which lets players hit Lv.99 without destroying the game's balance.

Money is an issue that has been tackled several times during major updates to the mod. In its first
iteration, the mod was given the rather unflattering nickname of the 'poverty mod' by FF7 speedrunner
XeroKynos (who the hell buys 99 grenades ._.) and this still held true to an extent in v1.2. For the
latest version, I've taken some steps to tackle the expenses that are thrown at the player, such as
the Gold Saucer tickets and the Choco Lure Materia. Party members also join the party with expensive
Materia already equipped, which should help with costs later. In general, enemies drop more Gil and
a Gil Plus Materia is available early on. Even with all that, don't expect to be able to buy every single
weapon and piece of equipment you see in stores without a little grinding; a better approach is to
carefully manage your money, only buying weapons for characters you plan to use in a particular segment
as it won't be long before a potentially stronger weapon is available for them.

With the game's 'economy' in mind, I overhauled the game's drops, steals, and Morphs available from
each enemy. As of 1.35, a lot of the frustration associated with failed Steals has been pretty much
removed with the player being guaranteed to Steal one of two 'common' items from each enemy, and a
small chance at getting a super-rare item that can greatly impact the way a player advances through
the game. A decent reward was selected for each enemy's Morph, to take into account the difficulties
with Morphing early on in the game. There's also an Uncommon drop ensuring players who don't use Steal
or Morph will still be getting a steady flow of items to make use of. There are also no 'missable' items,
and anything that can acquired early on can be found again later in the game.

The final and most important part of the mod's restructuring is the enemies themselves. There's no sense
in having an awesome team if you don't have tangible threats to pitch them against. Every single enemy
in the game was retrofitted with enhanced AI, fine-tuned stats, and new attacks. I've spent who knows how
many hours meticulosly adjusting each enemy and formation to present the correct level of challenge.
To assist in preparation, consistent elemental weaknesses have been enforced with plenty of status ailments
to make use of in order to make fights more intuitive and strategic, rewarding set-ups that make use of
weaknesses, mitigation, and taking risks with front-line damage.

But as far as strategy and set-ups go, there's hundreds of effective strategies that have emerged from
players gunning through the mod so far. There's no 'correct' way to play, and the NT Mod was never
billed as being a 'Hard-type' mod. It was designed to present a fun and reasonable challenge to both
experienced players and newcomers alike, which judging from feedback it has succeeded in doing. I'm very
proud that the mod was able to strike this balance and I've made efforts to include as many unique and
unusual elements within reason to promote new strategies and set-ups. And a big thanks to people
who took the time to report their strategies and what they found to work, and what didn't.

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				4. NEW CONTENT & REVISIONS




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	New Enemies		The NT Mod features a myriad of new encounters to keep players on their
				toes. These can take the form of random encounters, or newly scripted
				events that trigger a boss fight. There is well over 100 new enemies,
				each with their own model, attacks, and AI. You'll also encounter some
				'friendly' enemies from time to time who will help you during battle.

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	Revised Materia		Most Materia has been moved around in the NT Mod, with the more powerful
				ones being found on Disc 3. In addition to this, the AP required to
				unlock spells has been adjusted to help pace out magic appropriately.

				In Arrange, Materia Equip Effects were altered to make them much more
				double-edged and an important thing to consider when making Materia
				combos. This was lacking in the original game, where the equip effects
				of Materia were mostly inconsequential.

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	Level Synch		A discreet fix for the damage formulas used by the game which prevents
				physical attacks from becoming overly powerful as the character's level
				rises past a certain threshold.

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	Revised Spells		The spells used by the player have undergone an overhaul, with some revisions
				being minor and others a little more extreme. Basic elemental spells have
				slightly higher base power, with a higher MP cost to match and Summons have
				been set-up to be effective but costly nukes that will continue to be useful
				for a large portion of the game. Enemy Skills were revamped, making them
				more unique and double-edged, with some of the more useless ones like Roulette
				being re-done entirely to provide some extra elemental firepower to the player.

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	Revised Equipment	The stat boosts on weapons have been made much more tangible and better
				compliment the nature of each character, with options to create certain
				builds and roles. Armour and Accessories were given the most work, making
				previously useless pieces much more valuable. Every character now has a
				Triple growth weapon, with 2-3 'ultimate' weapons that either use powerful
				effects or have great stat bonuses.

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	Revised Enemies		In addition to the new enemies found in the game, all of the existing ones
				were given overhauls to their stats, AI, and attacks to make for a more
				challenging experience. Bosses in particular remain true to the mod's
				original scope and have been given a different slant to their mechanics
				with a new visual 'look'.

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	Stealing		Every enemy in the game, with a few exceptions, has the following:
				An uncommon drop [16 chance]
				Two common Steals [32 chance each]
				One rare steal [8 chance]

				Stealing itself depends on the character's Level (NOT the Dexterity stat)
				and is applied against the target's level and the item's steal chance with
				the following formula:

					LVdifference = 40 + User's LV - Target's LV

					LV Factor = 512 x LV Difference
						    -------------------
							   100

					Chance = Itemchance x LV Factor
						 ----------------------
							   256

				In addition to the formula, enemies have a 'list' of four items that are
				checked against the Steal formula in order. This means that items appearing
				lower down on the list have a lower chance of being stolen as the items
				above it must fail the formula check first.

				So with your character attempting to steal an item from an enemy of the
				same level, you will have a 25% chance to steal the first 'common' item,
				followed by another 25% chance to steal the second 'common' item, and
				finally a 6% chance to obtain the rare item (assuming the above checks fail).

				A Sneak Glove can greatly boost your chances of stealing, but in doing so
				you'll become much less likely to obtain the Rare steal as the odds of the
				Common Steals failing become much lower. The same applies with having high
				level characters attempting to steal from low level enemies; Rare steals
				were set up to be infrequent bonuses that the player can acquire rather
				than something to be farmed.

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	Morphing		The Morph Materia is now available much earlier in the game, from the
				garden next to Aeris' house (in place of Cover Materia). Morphing takes
				time and requires that you wear an enemy down and then land the killing
				blow with the Morph command, which significantly reduces attack.
				The rewards they give tend to be quite useful though, and equipment exists
				that can ignore the damage penalty imposed by the Morph Command.

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	Revised Characters	Each character has been given an overhaul to their stats and weapons in
				order to make them more suited to certain roles and to play a more effective
				role in the player's set-up. The general strengths of each character are:

				-) Cloud: All-rounder, slight edge in VIT/SPR
				-) Barret: High VIT, SPR, and HP for tanking
				-) Tifa: High STR and DEX for quick, powerful hits
				-) Aeris: High MAG and DEX for fast and effective spell-casting
				-) Red XIII: All-rounder, slight edge in DEX.
				-) Yuffie: Glass cannon, very quick but fragile.
				-) Cait Sith: High VIT, SPR, and LCK for tanking/evasion.
				-) Vincent: High MAG & VIT, a tough but slow caster.
				-) Cid: High STR, VIT, and LCK for a a durable physical hitter.

				The rate at which Limit gauges fill also depends on the utility of the
				Level Limit. Aeris' LV2 Limits charge slowly, for instance, because they
				are capable of filling the Limits of other characters while Red XIII's
				Lv.4 Limit fills quickly due to it being underpowered compared to other
				multi-hit Limits. In Arrange, Limits are modified to make them more
				useful and balanced against each other.

				Characters have also been given Innate abilities to give them more
				individuality in-battle, and lend some extra depth to the player's strategy.

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	Battle Square		A major overhaul has been made to the game's Battle Square minigame in
				the Gold Saucer. In addition to much more valuable prizes being available
				for the three iterations of Battle Square, you now fight the same 8 battles
				each time which removes a lot of the RNG from this minigame. The battles
				fought have also been modified to include some new formations that are
				better suited to a solo character fight and an early game boss as the
				8th battle.

				From Disc 2 onwards, a new Extra Battle has been added which includes
				ten powerful boss monsters to be fought. Each one has a decent drop,
				including accessories and powerful weapons, but also a Materia reward
				can be obtained by beating each boss for the first time. A lot of the
				game's more powerful Materia can only be obtained in this way.

				Finally, the Special Battle has been respecced with 8 new battles and
				uses the full party instead of just a solo character.

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	Junon Leagues		A brand new sidequest available in Junon's 'Respectable Inn' (otherwise
				known as the 2nd Beginner's Hall), the player sends one of the party to
				compete in a round-robin tourney against seven other fighters.
				Each bracket has two rounds, and if successful with the highest points
				at the end, the player earns a prize of several rare items.

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	Cutscene Skips		One of the convenience features, the NT Mod allows players to skip certain
				story sequences for faster playthroughs. The early skips are a simple
				menu option, but the new ones have been better integrated into the scenes
				themselves. Currently, the following scenes can be skipped:

				-) Jessie's explanation of Midgar's layout on the train.
				-) Cloud & Tifa's Promise flashback.
				-) Elmyra's flashback
				-) Nibelheim Flashback
				-) Corel Flashback
				-) Rocket Town Flashback

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	Save Points & Shops	With the increase in difficulty, certain areas now become more dangerous
				for causing too much back-tracking through unskippable scenes. To remedy
				this, the game now has additional Save Points and Shops to preserve the
				player's progress. The first new Save Point is in the Sewers, available
				just prior to the boss fight with Aps.

				An example of a new shop is the one in Whirlwind Maze, which is an isolated
				area far removed from decent Item stores. Certain shops also had their
				inventories revised, such as the store in 'Under Junon' and Bone Village.

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	Battle Music Mod	The NT Mod has an option to use the currently playing Field music in battles
				rather than the regular battle theme. This can be a refreshing change from
				the same battle theme over and over, and can be toggled freely once the
				player has acquired the Highwind. Boss themes and certain mandatory
				battles are exempt.

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	Dark Cave Sidequest	An expansive new sidequest triggered from Disc 3 by talking to Dio in the
				Battle Square Museum. This scenario requires the player to track down
				their missing party members, fight against some vicious boss monsters,
				and eventually escape.

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	Ultimate Weapons	Added back in for v1.3, the Weapon Shop located on the World Map has been
				retrofitted to handle the creation of powerful Ultimate weapons for each
				character. To make them, players need to track down 'ingredients' to
				synthesise the weapon. They mostly retain their original damage formulas
				with some changed around to be more effective. To compensate for the
				high power of some of these formulas, however, base power has been set
				to 0; they're still markedly more powerful than standard weapons though.

				-) Cloud: Ultima Weapon, Power increases with high HP (original)
				-) Barret: Missing Score, Power increases with high AP (original)
				-) Tifa: Premium Heart, Power increases with high MP (changed)
				-) Aeris: Princess Guard, gives HP + Shield on strike (changed)
						+50 MAG/LCK on equip
				-) Red XIII: Limited Moon, Power increases with Limit gaugae (changed)
					This is a strong formula, and was paired with him due to
					his weak Lv.4 Limit.
				-) Yuffie: Conformer, Power depends on target level (original)
					This also ignores the damage penalty from Morph
				-) Cait Sith: HP Shout, Damage equals MaxHP - CurrentHP
						+100 LCK
				-) Vincent: Death Penalty, Damage increases when Ally = KO (changed)
						+50 DEX/LCK
				-) Cid: Venus Gospel, Drains damage as HP/MP
						+30 MAG/SPR

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	Enhanced Field Models	The NT Mod uses a set of subtly enhanced chibi field models that were
				styled very closely after the originals to bring them more in line with
				the game's original promotional art. Cloud's SOLDIER uniform, for instance,
				is a darker shade of purple with a more defined shoulder pad. These field
				models were made by Kalderasha but were hitherto unreleased as he moved
				away to work on other projects.

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	Elemental Weaknesses	In order to promote intuitive fights, consistent elemental weaknesses
				have been implemented. Weaknesses are assigned by three criteria;
				the enemy's Type (bug, machine, flying, heavy, etc.), natural affinities
				(a Bomb has a natural affinity to Fire for instance), and the area in
				which an enemy appears (Great Glacier enemies resist Ice for example).

				Beast/Vermin Weak: Fire/Ice
				Machine	     Weak: Bolt/Water,  	Resists: Poison
				Flying       Weak: Wind/Gravity 	Resists: Earth
				Heavy	     Weak: Earth		Resists: Flying/Gravity
				Humanoid     Weak: Poison
				WEAPON	     Weak: Hidden		Resists: Holy
				Undead	     Weak: Holy			Resists: Hidden

				Types can be combined, for instance a large flying enemy will be resistant
				to Gravity and only be damaged normally by Wind. An elemental affinity
				will override a Type weakness, and so will an Area weakness; for example,
				if you encounter a bug enemy that uses fire-magic, then it'll be resistant
				to Fire rather than being weak to it.

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	Lv.4 Limit Sidequest	The items used to teach Lv.4 Limits have been moved and incorporated
				into a large sidequest featuring nine bosses, one for each character.
				These are triggered on Disc 3 and each feature a tough boss to beat.
				They can be found in the following locations:

				Cloud: Shinra Mansion Basement (solo fight)
				Barret: North Corel
				Tifa: Nibelheim
				Aeris: Forgotten City
				Red XIII: Cosmo Canyon
				Yuffie: Wutai, Da Chao
				Cait Sith: Temple of the Ancients
				Vincent: Lucrecia's Cave
				Cid: Wall Market

				Cait Sith is an exception in that he doesn't have a Lv.4 Limit to learn.
				Instead of this, his boss fight drops an item used to create a
				Ultimate Weapon.

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	Party Leader Swap	From Disc 3, it's possible to set Tifa or Cid as the Party Leader
				instead of Cloud. This allows for party compositions that are a
				little more focused.

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	Extended Save Points	All the Save Points in the game have had their scripts expanded to
				toggle NT-specific features such as weather effects, battle music,
				and Rank Up. A Quick Tent feature is also available, which precludes
				the need to select it manually from the menu.

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	Rank Up System		The biggest feature of the 1.35 build, the Rank Up System changes the
				way in which characters have their stats developed. Starting the game
				with a set of 'static' stats, the player chooses which stats to build
				for each character. Ranks are gained by progressing through the game,
				defeating bosses and completing new sidequests.

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				5. BUGS & KNOWN ISSUES




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Due to the size of the mod and the nature of some changes, certain bugs and issues have popped up
that can affect the way the mod runs. Whenever a crash or soft-lock pops up though, every effort is
made to correct it ASAP.

      •	In Junon Leagues, during the 'preparation' phase when the player has options to access the
	Menu, see League standings, etc. mashing Start or another button before the text box appears
	can sometimes derail the script which will cause a soft-lock. Give the game a chance to display
	the textbox before selecting a command, just to be safe.

      •	While a fail-safe was added to prevent it, when changing your Party Leader on Disc 3 to either
	Tifa or Cid you need to be wary of a potential issue that can occur when using the PHS on the
	World Map. The World Map will display the character who has the highest 'priority' rather than
	who is actually Party Leader:

		Cloud > Tifa > Cid

	In other words, if Tifa is Party Leader but Cloud is also in the party then his model will
	be shown instead of Tifa. The issue arises when opening the Menu on World Map, going to PHS,
	swapping in Cloud (or Tifa, if Cid is party leader) and then saving/closing the game WITHOUT
	closing the menu. This doesn't allow the game to 'update' the character who should be displayed
	on the world map, and so when the save file is next loaded the player will be stranded in the
	middle of the ocean at coordinates x0, y0 (which is where models are 'stored' when not in use).

	To prevent this, Cloud and Tifa are 'locked' when the initial Party Leader swap is made to prevent
	them from being placed in the party from PHS on the World Map. But to be safe, when using Tifa
	or Cid as party leader always close the menu after using PHS in order to avoid being teleported
	into the middle of nowhere. Only a save editing can restore the save file by either moving the
	player back to the Highwind or putting the party back to the way it was before the save was made.

      •	At the beginning of the game, a visual glitch can occur on the second screen of the game where
	parts of the background do not load in correctly. This is inherent with the Steam version and
	can occur sometimes. There's also rare issues in which a 'giant upside-down' Cloud can appear,
	though this exists with both versions of the game.

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				7. CREDITS & CLOSING




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	Special thanks to...

	• The dedicated players who helped shape the mod with feedback:

		Neurosephiroth		Alpha Playthrough & Feedback
		Raging Flare: 		v1.0.5 video playthrough
		FFMan: 			v1.1 playthrough
		LetCreativityPlay: 	v1.1 & v1.2 playthrough
		Loseless:		v1.2 Feedback & Testing
		PotatoHandle:		v1.2 Streaming & bug reports
		Bowser9:		v1.2 Troubleshooting
		Cicadian:		v1.3 Streaming & 1.3 bug reports
		Garland the Great	v1.4 Youtube Playthrough
		Redmon89		v1.4 Youtube Stream
		death_unites_us		v1.4 Twitch Stream
		DLPB:			v1.4 Technical Support on FF7's Engine & Scripting
		iDerek759:		v1.4 Feedback & Bug Reports
		strife98		v1.4 Feedback & Bug Reports
		MoCheese		v1.4 Feedback & Bug Reports
		Robo Jesus:		v1.4 Feedback & Forum
		There's a lot more than that but time's ticking and I gotta release 1.5 D:

	• The creators of the tools that the mod was made with:

		Borde: 		Kimera & IMG2TEX
		NFITC1: 	ProudClod & WallMarket
		Myst6re: 	Makou Reactor
		Aali: 		LGP/UNLGP
		Luksy: 		ULGP
		Iros: 		7th Heaven
		Bosola:		Damage Calculator

	• The people who support the mod on a technical level:

		EQ2Alyza:	For supporting the mod's 7H Version and being patient when I messed
					things up :I
		Kalderasha:	For donating his excellent chibi field models & providing lots of
					great ideas for additional content.
		RedManMark86:	For helping with 7H troubleshooting and giving feedback on the mod.
		TenkoKuugen:	For giving me .exe addresses which has helped to make the Arrange version
					of the mod possible.

	And also to:

	• XeroKynos, for the mod's first stream and bestowing the prestigious title of 'The Poverty mod'

	• TheStrahl, for all his excellent ideas like 1-second bomb timers.

	• Lockirby2, for introducing me to the Insane Difficulty forums.

	• BTB, for letting me use his ReadMe as a template for this one <.<

	• Gjoerulv for reviving my interest in this game with his excellent Hardcore mod.

	• Members of ID Forums for being very supportive of the mod and hosting a sub-forum for NT.

	• And finally to everyone who chipped in to help shape the mod with their feedback, bug reports,
		promoting the mod, and other ways they've helped this project reach the stage it's at.


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	Please feel free to get in touch with any questions, feedback, or suggestions.

		You can find places where the mod is supported here:

			http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14938.0
			http://ngplus.net/index.php?/forums/forum/7-final-fantasy-vii-new-threat/
			http://youtu.be/I7JlJHP4xb0

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	And remember to attack when the tail is up.