I finished ML+Succession. I like many of the changes you've made, and really thank and congratulate you for this project. I was a bit disappointed that the game didn't get harder until the end (once I faced Adel I realized that my party was much weaker than usual). You have an excellent loadout of varied abilities and character stats, and I wanted some stronger enemies to try them out on. Still, as a party-only mod, it works well and I would recommend it to anyone who likes FF8.
Thank you so much, Jay. If you are looking for better enemies, then I highly recommend the Ragnarok mod, by Calisto. It is available at the qhimm forums. I have finally uploaded my compatibility version of Martial Law, specifically rebalanced to work well with that mod. I've been using his mod, along with both of mine, ever since it was released. Next time you want to play the game, give it a try, here!
I don' t know if you still check this but installing Success & Martial Law before playing FF8 for my 2nd time since the original came out was an absolutely incredible experience. It's one of the few I never replayed since I beat it as a kid in 1999, so I had a kind of version of the game I remembered. We all know going back to old games can sometimes make us go "ooh, this isn't nearly as expansive/magical/whatever as I thought playing this in the 6th grade..."
But with these two mods, I had the opposite response. It felt like the better version of the game and made the characters a lot more themselves. Sort of like how the new FF7 Rebirth did an amazing job (in my opinion) of adding more to an already well known and loved cast.
So yea, great job! I can't imagine how many hours its taken total. All I know is it took me a google search to find and 2 mins to install both before I was off and playing. Like a fine dining chef who works all week to prep this amazing course and I'm just some bozo who plopped down some paper bills (in this case, not even) and got to enjoy the fruits of those labors. We are not worthy.
THANK YOU!!! THIS WAS AWESOME
I'm going to check back in a couple years to see if its Remastered version compatible and then take another spin! I would bet there is an employee in sales at Steam confused as to why copies of the old 2013 version of FF8 continue to sell despite the newer 2019 Remastered version being out. When you do drop that, the 2013 version is going to fall in the charts LOL
Hi! I've been looking for a good mod for FFVIII, and I'm interested in trying Martial Law + Ragnarok, as you've suggested in another post. can I ask how you've rebalanced ML to work better with that mod? or do you already have that listed somewhere and I just missed it?
Sure. The changes are not very elaborate. I mostly just raised how much each spell increased a stat when junctioned. They were lowered by about 1/2 for Martial Law, and that was too severe for the increased difficulty of Ragnarok.
ML+R is still a bit more difficult than Ragnarok on its own, in terms of pure stats. But ML+R gives the characters more options for junctioning, and it provides them much earlier.
Just going to add my voice to "I really wish there was a version of this that worked with the remaster". I know it's difficult and time-consuming, but trying to play the original Steam version requires so much modding just to make it decent and playable that it's a real pain. Also for whatever reason it's very washed out (almost as if it were trying to do HDR on a non-HDR display) on my system, so that sucks too.
Has anybody had the trouble that the ATB will freeze during battle? That is, idle animations still occur. The game responds to input: they try (never succeed) to flee. But nobody's ATB fills, so there's no way out of the battle. It doesn't happen every battle. I'm just at the beginning and so far it has only occurred with Fasticalons (red fish on the beach). I'm using this and Succession on the original Steam version. I haven't been successful googling this issue (I find discussions about Wait and about other freezes), so it may be nothing to do with the mods. I never had this trouble in ~100 hours of playing before, though.
Do you still plan to make a version of this for the remaster or? I saw a post back in 2019 I believe where you said you were waiting on the tools to do so.
You're the first person to ask me this. I have spent far more time working on making Succession compatible. But I could make a version of Martial Law for the Remaster much easier. It won't be too soon, but I'll post a version as soon as I'm able.
Several small things about the character stats are different. But the primary overwrite from Ragnarok are the GF abilities and the stat gains from the magic.
Ragnarok did not alter these nearly as significantly as I have, so Martial Law actually works very well together with Ragnarok.
It is a a bit more difficult than the original, especially at the end of the game. But you have access to a lot more options much earlier, and it is by no means a difficult mod.
I'm sure this is intended for a new game, but I've just applied it to a save file a few hours in following the SeeD inauguration ball, and I was intrigued to see Squall's level has dropped from 12 to 9. The other characters have retained their levels. Do you know why this might be? Also, the AP that was going towards certain abilities before installing Martial Law seems to have shifted to other abilities, but that's pretty much expected so no worries there.
Overall the mod is looking very interesting so far. I was planning a run without junctioning magic to the main five stats, but I imagine that might get a bit too hard later on so I'll try this instead.
Yes, it is possible to start using my mod mid-playthrough. But I absolutely would NEVER recommend it, for one primary reason.
I have changed almost every GF ability in the game. If I haven't changed it to something else entirely, then I've at least changed its order on the learn list, along with the abilities that are prerequisites to learning others. I have also changed many of the starting abilities of each GF. This drastically affects the strategy behind how you must equip your GFs for at least the first half of the game. And, depending on how early or late you install my mod, you may inadvertently lock yourself out of learning certain abilities entirely.
Take note: any changes by my mod to the starting abilities of a GF is initiated at the start of a new game, NOT whenever you acquire the GF. But which abilities are learned and how they're learned can be changed at any time during a playthrough, meaning as soon as you install or un-install the mod.
While I'm quite sure that the game will still be playable, and possibly very enjoyable, not starting a new game will destroy much of the design and therefore the intended player experience for the mod, especially in the early game when you have fewer GFs and fewer options.
And for Squall, I've slightly increased his total XP necessary for each level. This because he's usually required to be in the party, and therefore he quickly gains much more experience than the rest of the team. The increase makes it less likely that Squall will reach level 100 before some characters are even level 50.
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Is that correct? I don't see these listed in the changelog.
But with these two mods, I had the opposite response. It felt like the better version of the game and made the characters a lot more themselves. Sort of like how the new FF7 Rebirth did an amazing job (in my opinion) of adding more to an already well known and loved cast.
So yea, great job! I can't imagine how many hours its taken total. All I know is it took me a google search to find and 2 mins to install both before I was off and playing. Like a fine dining chef who works all week to prep this amazing course and I'm just some bozo who plopped down some paper bills (in this case, not even) and got to enjoy the fruits of those labors. We are not worthy.
THANK YOU!!! THIS WAS AWESOME
I'm going to check back in a couple years to see if its Remastered version compatible and then take another spin! I would bet there is an employee in sales at Steam confused as to why copies of the old 2013 version of FF8 continue to sell despite the newer 2019 Remastered version being out. When you do drop that, the 2013 version is going to fall in the charts LOL
ML+R is still a bit more difficult than Ragnarok on its own, in terms of pure stats. But ML+R gives the characters more options for junctioning, and it provides them much earlier.
You're the first person to ask me this. I have spent far more time working on making Succession compatible. But I could make a version of Martial Law for the Remaster much easier. It won't be too soon, but I'll post a version as soon as I'm able.
Ragnarok did not alter these nearly as significantly as I have, so Martial Law actually works very well together with Ragnarok.
It is a a bit more difficult than the original, especially at the end of the game. But you have access to a lot more options much earlier, and it is by no means a difficult mod.
Overall the mod is looking very interesting so far. I was planning a run without junctioning magic to the main five stats, but I imagine that might get a bit too hard later on so I'll try this instead.
Yes, it is possible to start using my mod mid-playthrough. But I absolutely would NEVER recommend it, for one primary reason.
I have changed almost every GF ability in the game. If I haven't changed it to something else entirely, then I've at least changed its order on the learn list, along with the abilities that are prerequisites to learning others. I have also changed many of the starting abilities of each GF. This drastically affects the strategy behind how you must equip your GFs for at least the first half of the game. And, depending on how early or late you install my mod, you may inadvertently lock yourself out of learning certain abilities entirely.
Take note: any changes by my mod to the starting abilities of a GF is initiated at the start of a new game, NOT whenever you acquire the GF. But which abilities are learned and how they're learned can be changed at any time during a playthrough, meaning as soon as you install or un-install the mod.
While I'm quite sure that the game will still be playable, and possibly very enjoyable, not starting a new game will destroy much of the design and therefore the intended player experience for the mod, especially in the early game when you have fewer GFs and fewer options.
And for Squall, I've slightly increased his total XP necessary for each level. This because he's usually required to be in the party, and therefore he quickly gains much more experience than the rest of the team. The increase makes it less likely that Squall will reach level 100 before some characters are even level 50.