Installation:

Unzip the files and place in a directory of your choice (leave the embedded ff13tool.zip as a zip file). There are a number of batch files (.bat) that begin with "Mod_", these are the actual mod files to run. All the others are supporting files. The first mod file you run will cause a couple of one-time events to occur.

1) The Steam Final Fantasy XIII game directory will be located on your hard drive. The mod will first check the default Steam location and if the game directory is not found there, it will begin a relatively crude method of searching all the hard drives to locate it. This may take several minutes depending on how many and size of your hard drives. Once the game directory is found, it will store the path in a local .txt file so it will not have to search for it again on subsequent mod installs.

2) A local copy of a couple of the FF XIII game files will be made and these file will be unpacked in order to retrieve the original .wdb files. A copy of the .wdb files will be kept in a subdirectory (wdb_files) and these will be used for this and future mods. These "original" wdb files can also be used to restore your game to the default state. All unneeded local files will then be deleted. During this process you will need about 2-3 gig of free space on your hard drive, although final amount used will only be about 10 meg once the temporary files are removed.

The selected mod will now be installed. During the install process, an uninstall file will be created allowing you to back out the each mod individually at any time. While these mods all play nice together, should you get a mod in the future that changes some of the same values as these, you will need to uninstall in the opposite order that you installed if you wish to keep mod integrety. Alternately, the install files give you the option to just revert back to the original game file, effectively stomping on any mod that made a change to the file. One other item to note. If there is already an uninstall file present (you've already installed this mod once), installing it a 2nd (or multiple) times will overwrite this file effectively preventing you from cleanly uninstalling. If you wish to install for a second (or third) time, make sure you uninstall first before you re-install. Uninstalling multiple times without reinstalling is fine.


Notes:

These mods are based on the information provided in the FF XIII Modding Resource. Hopefully I can expand this selection with additional ones in the future.

As always, you should make a copy of your game file before installing any mods. I should mention that while I have done some minimal amount of testing on these mods, it was not exhaustive, so if there are any issues, please let me know so I can correct them.


Brief description of the mods:

Faster Monster Attacks (Mod_FasterMonsters.bat) - This increases the ATB recharge rate for monsters by 30% allowing them to attack more frequently, increasing the game difficulty. The actual increase in attack rate will be dependant on the attack animation time so the real change will be less.

Tier 3 Weapon Level Increase (Mod_Tier3Weapon125.bat) - Tier 3 weapons can now be increased in level to 125 (base game 100). This makes them somewhat more powerful, although the experience cost is not cheap as the higher levels follows the normal experience progression.

Improved Catalog Drop Rates (Mod_CatalogDropRate.bat) - The drop rate increase for equiping the Collector's and Connoisseur's catalogs have been increased. The collector's catalog now doubles the common drop rate (from +50%) and the connoisseur's catalog increases the rare drop rate to +50% from +10%. For reference, trapozohedrans will still be difficult to acquire from 'toises as the drop rate for a 5 star battle will only increases from 5.5% to 7.5%. Platinum ingots a little better at a 50% drop rate.

High CP Crystarium Nodes (Mod_Crystarium.bat) - The crystarium has been modified in the 9th and 10th stages to open some nodes for some high CP nodes. The intent of this change is prevent the maxing of the crystarium and losing CP when either grinding at the end of the game or trying to max your weapons (CP limit of 999,999). This mod combines adjacent "like" nodes (str & str, HP & HP) into a single node freeing up the 2nd one. These new nodes are high CP, low attribute nodes and are not meant to be game breaking. Cost is 20,000 CP per stat point and 4,000 CP per HP. Total additional CP required to max the crystarium is increased by 22 million for a total additional stat increase of 600 points (breakdown between strength and magic is dependant on the character) and 2,500 HP. All of the modified nodes are outside the normal progression path so it is possible to "complete" the equivilent of the original crystarium without ever acquiring one of these nodes. For reference, modifications to the crystarium only affect future nodes, so if you've already maxed your crystarium, this mod will be useless, unless you revert to an earlier save. I usually lose interest in a game when I can no longer improve my characters, so this is a way for battles and CP to still have some use.

Vanille: Higher Magic (Mod_VanilleStr.bat) - This mod converts 200 strenth into 200 magic in the upper levels of Vanille's crystarium (and also reduces her total HP by 50). The only purpose to this mod is that I generally don't like to use Hope as a primary character but didn't want to lose out on his higher magic stat.

Lightning: Synergist Change (Mod_LightSynAbility.bat) - This mod shifts some of Lightning's synergist (enhancer) role abilites. It doesn't give her any new ones, only moves existing ones, mainly Haste is acquired earlier. Lightning is almost always used in my party and I thought this might provide a different dynamic for gameplay if she acquired Haste earlier. As the synergist role is a secondary role, it won't affect the early to mid level gameplay.

Commando Strike Abilities (Mod_CommandoStrike.bat) - This changes the strike abilities (Flamestrike, Froststrike, etc.) into Commando (Attacker) skills. There was a request or two for something like this so that Ravager (Blaster) characters don't charge into battle and get hit by area physical attacks. The abilities are still acquired through the Ravager crystarium, but show up in the game as Commando skills. I can't really recommend using this mod as it essentially prevents any character other than the party leader (which you control) from using the strike abilities, as the AI doesn't seem to know how to use these skills anymore (either as Ravager or Commando). I hope to find a better way to implement, but it is provided should you wish to give it a try.