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PATREON: Shademp's Final Fantasy VII Articles

LINK TO SHADEMP'S PATREON​


Since I begun leading the FFVII Mobile Game Initiative (2004-2008 Era), a project that aims to find and preserve the lost mobile games of the time, my hobby has become overwhelmingly expensive. To get the funds necessary to buy cell phones, equipment and tools, I need your help! Funds may also be used to pay translators to make Japanese content available in English.


Goals and projected articles are subject to change, depending on the Patreon's traction and the feedback received from visitors and pledgers.

Send me suggestions either via private message, by posting in this thread or by posting on the Patreon page. Yes, the bland banner will almost definitely change at some point. :wacky:



Many thanks to The Lifestream staff for giving me their blessing to try out the Patreon platform for my projects. ^_^


Articles created as a result from my Patreon:
- Crisis Core Version Guide
- Script: Crisis Core Mail
- Script: Crisis Core Mission Descriptions- & Events
 
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Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
PLEDGE WHILE IT'S TAIL'S UP!
tenor.gif
 
The $20 per month goal has been reached!

:success:

Thanks for the pledges. I will not let you down.

At the very latest, the Crisis Core Version Guide will be up and running on December 19, 2017.
 
Update:
I have made great progress with the Crisis Core Version Guide. Just want to give the heads up that my computer's power supply got fried and I won't get a new one until next week. Add to that I can't confirm until then if any data got corrupted.

If I get the new power supply in good time and everything proves fine upon installation and boot-up, I will almost certainly make the deadline of December 19 for the article. Fingers crossed!
 
Updates & Plans for 2018

Let's round up the poll results. In this multi-choice poll 18 people voted and here are the results.

11 votes
The Hidden Character Models (OG FFVII)
Crisis Core: The Unused & Unseen Material

10 votes
The Unused Field Animations (OG FFVII)

9 votes
The Unused Text Series: Debug Room Articles (OG FFVII)

7 votes
Before Crisis Archive
On the Way to a Smile: Version Guide

6 votes
Dirge of Cerberus: Easter Eggs & Fun Facts
DoC Lost Episode: Comprehensive Article
G-Bike Archive

5 votes
FFVII International Bonus Disc: Dissection
Crisis Core Pre-Release Analysis

3 votes
FFVII Demo Analysis

2 votes
DoC Multiplayer Archive Expansions
Dirge of Cerberus Pre-Release Analysis

1 vote
Dirge of Cerberus Version Guide
Complete DoC All S Rankings Run (Video Series)


0 votes
FFVII Snowboarding Port: Comprehensive Article


So what now?
I will try to reach the previously stated $50 per month goal, which would mark when I begin work on the first three Debug Room articles for the Unused Text Series. I'm fairly confident I can find a handful of additional supporters if I market myself to the max.

Assuming I can reach this mark, I will set no new money bars for the creation of future articles. The hope is to maintain this baseline of donations and to continuously work on FFVII articles: Setting deadlines for the creation of an article, completing it, resting for 2-3 weeks, then announcing the title and deadline for the next article.

The choice of articles to be written will not follow a strict "write the most-voted-for article and then working down from the top" model. I will prioritize articles that received 6-11 votes, jumping back and forth between these article ideas that proved the most popular.

The articles that received 0-5 votes will be mostly ignored, unless I get a SERIOUS ITCH for one or two of these features. :wacky:


About "Crisis Core: The Unused & Unseen Material"
My intention is that this feature would actually be comprised of two or three articles. First of all I would want to get the big challenge cleared: Fine-combing the game's manuscript to distinguish between used- and unused text.

The amount of unused text in Crisis Core is tiny enough to fill a one-page article (two pages/articles if you count the Debug Menu text with the aim to properly dissect and explain it all). I know this to be the case in the English game, at least. Apart from fine-combing the text in an English playthrough, I would have to pay a small sum to get the Japanese font of CC transcribed, thus completing this aspect of JBedford's Crisis Core text viewer and making the Japanese text properly viewable in Lazard. Add to that the cost of getting Japanese unused text translated for the article.

What I'm getting at is that while documenting the unused text is a huge task that can't be one in just a month, I know that the amount of hidden text is small enough that I'd want it to be only part of the full article: The rest of the article would dwell on unused maps, hidden sections of maps, hidden aspects of character models, items etc. All of it in-game stuff, not external material like unused concept art or pre-release screenshots.

Because of the huge amount of work required here, "Crisis Core: The Unused & Unseen Material" won't see the light of day in the first quarter of 2018 but work on it will be a slow burn over a long time.

One good thing is that this gives me a proper excuse to replay the game on Hard Mode, so that I might observe all the differences with Normal Mode. I found that documentation on the matter was quite lacking (either that or there really are next to no differences apart from enemy HP being higher in Hard Mode).



About "The Hidden 3D/Character Models (OG FFVII)"
To prevent confusion, this is not about unused character models. This is about familiar 3D models that are present in the field data, but for one reason or another were made invisible. The reason this isn't about unfamiliar, never-before-seen character models is because, well...there aren't any. :wacky: (Unless you count the higher-poly versions of Jessie and Cloud.)

Some of these have been presented in the Unused Text Series, but not all of them. The above article would thusly act as another complementary feature to fill in the gaps not delved into in the Unused Text Series (without actually being a part of that article series).
 
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Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
crap i forgot to vote on that

if i were to vote now i would go for

Crisis Core: The Unused & Unseen Material
Dirge of Cerberus: Easter Eggs & Fun Facts
DoC Lost Episode: Comprehensive Article
G-Bike Archive

(i had started doing a little archive of g-bike mainly focusing on the story text, i should see if i still have that file)
 

Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
I am super drunk rn and my dad and uncle keep giving me drinks but Shad send me a pm later because I’ve got something to say about the version diff article

Just make the title obvious because I don’t know if I will remember this in the morning my dude
 
UPDATE

- Patrons, and those who have a history of contributing to my projects, can now download Version 1.0 of an Excel document that places the English and Japanese game script of Crisis Core side-by-side! You can find the download link in the (so far) only Patron-exclusive post.

t669Z0J.png

I weighed the negative of spoiling the unused Crisis Core text versus the positive of giving Patrons a reward and reached the conclusion to share my work. Keep in mind that the document doesn't spoil all the debug menu text and has not separated all the used text from the unused. Ergo, Patrons (and other contributors) are not being *completely* spoiled.

The arduous process of fine-combing the game for which text entries are unused has not yet properly begun, but the aforementioned text document sets the stage for me performing that task.


- In the same vein as with the Crisis Core Mail script reference, I created the Crisis Core Mission Text article because having a Patreon page compels me to give something back. I hope this assists in making current pledgers see their pledge as worthwhile, even though they currently aren't getting the articles they voted for.


- It appears that I can't reach the 50 USD goal. The last word has not been said though, as I'm ruminating on the idea of making a YouTube video where I talk about my mission and my Patreon. To do this I need a new headset, which I was getting anyway. I've chosen a model and it should arrive within the week. My goal is to have the video script written by the end of the weekend.


- I recently bought another P900iV cell phone: One that was proven in the eBay article to still have the animated Cloud Strife face-time avatar.

JTkyBtw.png


The phone also comes with a functional battery, the-ever-elusive charger and an AV cable. Hopefully the package arrives whole and in working order. I had to take the opportunity with this eBay auction despite the cost ending up at 1500 SEK (190 USD). Add to that the cost of the miscellaneous mobile-related purchases I've made over Yahoo JP Auctions, which should be shipped anytime now, and the reason for me setting up my patreon page is only reinforced.

Hoping for some good things to report in the Mobile Game Initiative thread once all these items have arrived.
 
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English subtitles included!



I could not remove the background noise from the voice recordings. You are less likely to be bothered by the ringing sound if you listen through standard speakers instead of headphones.

This is also why I did not raise the volume of my voice recordings, since it only made the ringing noise worse.
 
PATREON ANNOUNCEMENTS

These are the plans moving forward since I did not reach the 40 USD mark.


- My goal is to publish the first Debug Room article, "Debug Room - Startmap" by May 1st, 2018.

NLctKvr.png


I won't be sure of the scope of these debug room articles until I actually work on them but hopefully the 2018-05-01 deadline is reasonable.


- Donation type has been changed from "per month" to "per creation". Ergo, if Patreon works as it should, no money should be drawn from my patrons on the 5th of April. I have no intention to write more than one article per month, so I will not misuse the system as a way to gain more money.


- If there is a topic that my patrons would like me to write a blog post about, feel free to PM me about it and I'll try to make it happen. Perhaps you want me to write about what drives me to pick apart Final Fantasy VII, what other games I'd like to dissect or, I dunno, my thoughts about a random topic. :wacky: Any blog post I write will not count as a paid-for article.
 
Although it is looking very much like I won't make the May 1st deadline, I do not want to let this failure snowball into an eco-terrorist avalanche. Ergo I will write this therapeutic post about why I'm having difficulties with the first debug room article.



Plenty of people here know that I can be plagued by overambition. This holds true for the debug room articles. I have this unrealistic vision in my head of searching high and low for every possible interview with the FFVII developer staff, not just gaining precious complementary insight to add to the articles but also precious photographs of the developers to give each article much appreciated personality.

Example: Photo from Dengeki PlayStation Vol 40 showing six people from the staff

agxrOd7.png



The logistics of this dream (in its MOST realized form) for the debug room articles is beyond my ability. Even if I could ensure that I found all the developer interviews I wanted, getting all the interviews translated would bottle-neck the project, with the risk also that some interviews may hold nothing of value for the debug room articles.



I have actually written a decent part of the skeleton for the first debug room article. But my years-old dream of what I wish the debug room articles COULD BE makes me feel tainted when I write the article and boot up FFVII. I feel disappointment both because I can't realize my vision and because the readers may end up disappointed at how short and colorless these long-awaited articles may end up becoming.



I need to let go of my overambitious dream. Doing so will remedy much of the "laziness" I experience with the debug rooms of FFVII. I need to convince myself that it is okay to just get these features done on a grounded, realistic level.

This defining mental block of mine holds true for tons of potential FFVII articles. I refrain from making articles because "if I just wait a month, or a year, or a decade, I will have SO MUCH MORE stuff to post in one go. If I make the article now then I will have to gradually update the article as I accrue more knowledge over the years". This is just an imperfection I have to deal with. There is much I'd like to add to the Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer Archives, but I can't arse myself to do it at the current time. :wacky: Even so, there is virtue in posting something rather than nothing at all.


So what I need to keep in mind is...
- Let go of the overambitious vision
- Give yourself permission to just "get it done" regardless of who may find it disappointing
- See the value in posting something rather than nothing




I need dreams to thrive. Without dreams I don't have meaning. However, meaning without reality and application isn't meaning at all.
 
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