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- 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
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 1. WELCOME TO FF7 NEW THREAT
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 2. INSTALLATION
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 3. CHARACTERS & GAME BALANCE
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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:
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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).
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 4. NEW CONTENT & REVISIONS
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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'.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 5. BUGS & KNOWN ISSUES
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 7. CREDITS & CLOSING
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- And remember to attack when the tail is up.
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