I'm one of the few old-school weirdos that still loves random battles, so thank you for this mod! Always preferred the surprise element. Just one gripe, I didn't have one random battle till reaching the first campsite. None at Tor, nor the first few sections. Is it really that low of encounter rate the whole way?
Huh. I didn't think it was THAT low when I tested it. Especially with the changes added to v0.0.2 (this increased the overall encounter rate as well as nearly doubling the encounter rate in dungeons vs the overworld).
I know that ametalslimedrawsnear (posted below) was working on a customized version of this mod with a higher encounter rate. You might be able to get ahold of them and see if they're willing to share their version.
I've mostly moved on to other things at this point, so I can't in good conscience commit to making more tweaks to the balancing with this mod. I'm sure based on the feedback that it's at least a little bit low at this point, but it's also very clear that i'd have to do a lot more playtesting than I really have time to do.
No worries. I know it's not a popular mod. Thanks for ALL the work you've done on this game. Shame SE didn't originally do it (Project Rebuild stuff), as they have, you know, ALL THE ASSETS AND SOURCE CODE. They really should pay you for all the work.
Tell ya what Square Enix: just pay me $70,000 and i'll finish DQ8MR and you can publish it on the Play Store as an update to the botched DQ8 port. Then i'll call it even. Boosted sales for you, money for me -- we all win.
(I 100% guarantee you that Square Enix isn't reading this post- they're too busy milking the Final Fantasy money printer).
(apparently my earlier reply to you got deleted due to a Nexus bug)
For sure, man! I highly recommend it- the modding scene has improved tremendously since you've last been around.
Edit: You know, I keep forgetting that you already own the DE version. I'm always thinking that you last played on OG without realizing you were active in the DE scene up 'til like mid-2021.
I would like to request a "Spicy" version of this mod as well. I am talking an after the Golden Claw levels of monsters, well, not quite that much.
I think you contacted me on Discord at one point earlier and have started to try customizing the mod using the "Mod Customization Tools" -- more power to you!
This mod doesn't seem particularly popular (nor would I have expected it, really), so i'm not really inclined to make a ton of extra versions. I may bump the encounter rate again slightly in a future release, but I feel like with 0.0.2 it's a lot closer to what I would have wanted.
There are a couple other issues i'm more keen on addressing, such as: for enemies that are supposed to drop monster mounts, the monster mount will spawn wayyyy below the map. I suspect this is a quirk of the MonsterPopZone BP as opposed to the MonsterPopPoint BP (which I believe any monster mount spawns rely on the later and not the former, however I'm pretty sure the former was necessary to get random monster zones to work).
If you end up taking the reins on making your own improved random battles mod, that may be something else that you can look into. It's not the worst issue because someone could temporarily disable the mod or spawn mounts via console commands for the handful of occasions where this is necessary...it's still not ideal
Some of the earlier monsters miss attacks or fall down in the process of getting ready for an attack. Is there a way in the MonsterDeploy to override those missed attacks or is it hard coded into that specific monster?
This is something i'm not as familiar with offhand. I feel like this would may be in one of the monster action ai tables instead. It also isn't really in the scope of this particular mod.
I wouldn't mind if it didn't crash my game the first time but I also wish we could have more monsters on the playing field.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone was able to make a full overhaul of the game but from the last time, I talked about something it sounded like there was a lot that cant be done.
Umm.... according to what I see, you haven't downloaded this mod yet? (Sometimes this may not be 100% accurate, to be fair)
You might also specify where (what location) were you at in the game when you crashed? There's also a possibility that you have another mod installed that may be incompatible. In which case, you might use the Mod Troubleshooting Tools and paste a link to the output here.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone was able to make a full overhaul of the game but from the last time, I talked about something it sounded like there was a lot that cant be done.
It kind of just depends on what you're wanting. Personally, I'd call Spellcaster Hero the most ambitious character overhaul that i've seen. There are music overhauls, graphics overhauls, gameplay overhauls...
Nothing seems to be "impossible" at this point with this title modding-wise, but creating an overhaul mod requires quite a bit of dedication. That means, more than likely, you'll have to do it yourself.
Modders will usually pick up requests that are smaller and more targeted in scope. If you're asking other people to do something for you- you might break it down into simpler, smaller asks instead of throwing out this all-in-one grand vision.
Also, it's a good idea that if you're making requests- to do so by using the official mod request form. Many times things get lost in the shuffle otherwise: I can't tell you the number of times someone asked me something completely unrelated that they wanted here on Nexus or Discord only for me to completely forget about it. It's one central place for requests to be organized, that every active modder can see and respond to.
First, make sure you're following the instructions with the Mod Customization Tools closely. There's a script that you run with it that will rename all of the files from the pak to their correct ".uasset" and ".uexp" extensions.
Ofc, you can do this yourself, but if there's a lot of files in the .pak then that's a lot of extra legwork. If you're going about it this way, make sure all the files from the .pak have their extensions renamed or else when you repack, it won't work. -- I recommend just following "directions.txt" to avoid this.
Once that is done, then you can drag the .uasset over to DQXIAsset- DQXIAsset will look for a .uexp in the same folder and parse them together.
I managed to get it working. I was indeed missing a step in the mod configuration tools.
Will probably have to script something to make this entire process less tedious as I try to tweak these numbers. But thanks so much for this work. Its brilliant stuff. Finally I can enjoy this game and actually be challenged in a reasonable way.
i love this mod ive always wanted random battles back. is there any way to make them more frequent tho? or if im able to do that how would i go about it?
I will probably be planning on upping the encounter rate in the next update.
Don't know when that will be yet, but if you're really eager to see it increased right now, you can take a look at the Mod Customization Tools and DQXIAsset (Google it). Though you will see that there's many different tables it uses, you can "Find in files...." with notepad++ and then find/replace these values for all files in the directory: 14000 (minimum random battle distance) and 22000 (maximum random battle distance)
Lowering those 2 values will increase random battle frequency.
thanks for the response! and yeah i might look into it because the mod is great but it might be a little TOO relaxed haha. ill go through whole areas or dungeons with only 1 or 2 fights :/ i miss the DQ8 style random battles. so hopefully i can figure it out lol
An additional idea would be random encounters that spawns a group of randomly chosen bosses and enemies upon entering the battle. That would make for a perfect challenge New Game+ playthrough.
Interesting idea. Maybe a bit ambitious for me to be going for right now. I do plan on doing some tweaks to this mod soon though.
If you're real keen on that idea, you could use something like the Mod Customization Tools with this mod. It would be possible with a DataTable edit, but the thing is, you'd be doing some pretty extensive edits to a lot of different DataTables to make that happen across the entire game.
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I know that ametalslimedrawsnear (posted below) was working on a customized version of this mod with a higher encounter rate. You might be able to get ahold of them and see if they're willing to share their version.
I've mostly moved on to other things at this point, so I can't in good conscience commit to making more tweaks to the balancing with this mod. I'm sure based on the feedback that it's at least a little bit low at this point, but it's also very clear that i'd have to do a lot more playtesting than I really have time to do.
(I 100% guarantee you that Square Enix isn't reading this post- they're too busy milking the Final Fantasy money printer).
For sure, man! I highly recommend it- the modding scene has improved tremendously since you've last been around.
Edit: You know, I keep forgetting that you already own the DE version. I'm always thinking that you last played on OG without realizing you were active in the DE scene up 'til like mid-2021.
I think you contacted me on Discord at one point earlier and have started to try customizing the mod using the "Mod Customization Tools" -- more power to you!
This mod doesn't seem particularly popular (nor would I have expected it, really), so i'm not really inclined to make a ton of extra versions. I may bump the encounter rate again slightly in a future release, but I feel like with 0.0.2 it's a lot closer to what I would have wanted.
There are a couple other issues i'm more keen on addressing, such as: for enemies that are supposed to drop monster mounts, the monster mount will spawn wayyyy below the map. I suspect this is a quirk of the MonsterPopZone BP as opposed to the MonsterPopPoint BP (which I believe any monster mount spawns rely on the later and not the former, however I'm pretty sure the former was necessary to get random monster zones to work).
If you end up taking the reins on making your own improved random battles mod, that may be something else that you can look into. It's not the worst issue because someone could temporarily disable the mod or spawn mounts via console commands for the handful of occasions where this is necessary...it's still not ideal
This is something i'm not as familiar with offhand. I feel like this would may be in one of the monster action ai tables instead. It also isn't really in the scope of this particular mod.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone was able to make a full overhaul of the game but from the last time, I talked about something it sounded like there was a lot that cant be done.
But I can always wish for it.
You might also specify where (what location) were you at in the game when you crashed? There's also a possibility that you have another mod installed that may be incompatible. In which case, you might use the Mod Troubleshooting Tools and paste a link to the output here.
It kind of just depends on what you're wanting. Personally, I'd call Spellcaster Hero the most ambitious character overhaul that i've seen. There are music overhauls, graphics overhauls, gameplay overhauls...
Nothing seems to be "impossible" at this point with this title modding-wise, but creating an overhaul mod requires quite a bit of dedication. That means, more than likely, you'll have to do it yourself.
Modders will usually pick up requests that are smaller and more targeted in scope. If you're asking other people to do something for you- you might break it down into simpler, smaller asks instead of throwing out this all-in-one grand vision.
Also, it's a good idea that if you're making requests- to do so by using the official mod request form. Many times things get lost in the shuffle otherwise: I can't tell you the number of times someone asked me something completely unrelated that they wanted here on Nexus or Discord only for me to completely forget about it. It's one central place for requests to be organized, that every active modder can see and respond to.
Love this mod.
I know you increased encounter rate in the latest patch. Can you give me a quick tip on how to open the files with Mod Customization tools?
Right now I get a folder like this:
DT_MonsterDeploy_N_F16.ue
DT_MonsterDeploy_N_F16.uass
neither of these can be converted to CSV with the DQ11Asset editor tool. Says 'unable to read beyond the end of stream'
Ofc, you can do this yourself, but if there's a lot of files in the .pak then that's a lot of extra legwork. If you're going about it this way, make sure all the files from the .pak have their extensions renamed or else when you repack, it won't work. -- I recommend just following "directions.txt" to avoid this.
Once that is done, then you can drag the .uasset over to DQXIAsset- DQXIAsset will look for a .uexp in the same folder and parse them together.
I managed to get it working. I was indeed missing a step in the mod configuration tools.
Will probably have to script something to make this entire process less tedious as I try to tweak these numbers. But thanks so much for this work. Its brilliant stuff. Finally I can enjoy this game and actually be challenged in a reasonable way.
Don't know when that will be yet, but if you're really eager to see it increased right now, you can take a look at the Mod Customization Tools and DQXIAsset (Google it). Though you will see that there's many different tables it uses, you can "Find in files...." with notepad++ and then find/replace these values for all files in the directory: 14000 (minimum random battle distance) and 22000 (maximum random battle distance)
Lowering those 2 values will increase random battle frequency.
If you're real keen on that idea, you could use something like the Mod Customization Tools with this mod. It would be possible with a DataTable edit, but the thing is, you'd be doing some pretty extensive edits to a lot of different DataTables to make that happen across the entire game.