PC modding community
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Obsidian Fire
Ahk Morn!
- AKA
- The Engineer
GTA and Skyrim are very different beasts then the Final Fantasy series is though. None of the FF series are open-world games, and in the case of Skyrim, the developer has made the game modding program available to the modding community. Essentially, Bethesda has given the modding community their blessing to do whatever they want with the game so long as they don't sell their creations. They've also designed the game itself to not be adversely effected by modding to the point where a large reason people even play Skyrim is because it can be modded.
The FF series is by nature linear and takes advantage of that. Enemies don't level up with characters (as a general rule). Places the party can access later in the game have higher level enemies then early-game places do. Everything in the game-world revolves around the "main story". Modding FFVII like Skyrim is modded would be really difficult. Besides, so much of the FFVII story revolves around pacing (mostly geographic pacing at that) that letting the player do whatever they want right off the bat would wreck it.
Now, do I think people will mod the FFVII remake? Yeah, probably the same way they mod the PC versions of XIII and XIII-2 which has very little in common with the way that Skyrim is modded. But I don't think that SE will ever condone people modding the game or that they're going to take modding into account while they're making the game. It's simply not what Japanese game countries have a history of doing.
The FF series is by nature linear and takes advantage of that. Enemies don't level up with characters (as a general rule). Places the party can access later in the game have higher level enemies then early-game places do. Everything in the game-world revolves around the "main story". Modding FFVII like Skyrim is modded would be really difficult. Besides, so much of the FFVII story revolves around pacing (mostly geographic pacing at that) that letting the player do whatever they want right off the bat would wreck it.
Now, do I think people will mod the FFVII remake? Yeah, probably the same way they mod the PC versions of XIII and XIII-2 which has very little in common with the way that Skyrim is modded. But I don't think that SE will ever condone people modding the game or that they're going to take modding into account while they're making the game. It's simply not what Japanese game countries have a history of doing.
Cthulhu
Administrator
- AKA
- Yop
With Skyrim, yeah, the developer gives them free reign to mod the shit out of it - they actually tried to monetize that (or Valve/Steam did, idk), but that backfired harshly.
With GTA and the original FFVII game though, not so much. I know GTA got the shit modded out of it too using texture replacements and reverse-engineering - to the point where they somehow hacked multiplayer gameplay into GTA 3 and co - and FFVII got the same treatment, but the difference with a modern game is that modern games are much more complicated in terms of code and whatnot. But, I'm sure they'll find a way if they're skilled and dedicated enough.
Things like texture, music, and maybe whole model replacements should definitely be possible. Save game edits too. And if the rumors about it being made in the Unreal 4 engine are true too.. for all I know it can be modded using the engine, too.
With GTA and the original FFVII game though, not so much. I know GTA got the shit modded out of it too using texture replacements and reverse-engineering - to the point where they somehow hacked multiplayer gameplay into GTA 3 and co - and FFVII got the same treatment, but the difference with a modern game is that modern games are much more complicated in terms of code and whatnot. But, I'm sure they'll find a way if they're skilled and dedicated enough.
Things like texture, music, and maybe whole model replacements should definitely be possible. Save game edits too. And if the rumors about it being made in the Unreal 4 engine are true too.. for all I know it can be modded using the engine, too.
Lex
Administrator
Really depends on what you're looking for from the experience. Some things start to look weird if you mod the characters (use battle models on the field - looks good but Elmyra's chairs are the same size as Cloud) so if you're a purist the mods can be challenging.
I've done a mod-heavy playthrough where I installed hundreds. The battle retextures are excellent. I installed the menu mod, battle menu mod (see more of the arena with a FFIX or FFX style battle menu), orchestral soundtrack replacement, field model replacements, weapon retextures, attack effect retextures etc. Upscaled backgrounds and FMV's on their own improve the game a lot.
One of the things I tend to do is use one of the mod programs myself to rename spells to Cure/Cura/Curaga etc., but there are various mods that do this.
There used to be a program that let you pick and choose which mods you wanted to install then installed them all for you (included live previews), but I'm not sure it's supported anymore.
The two mods I'd like to see most of all seem to be pretty impossible. One is true analogue movement (never in the original so probably never happening) and another is true pixel rendering, so instead of stretching to widescreen or giving black bars it would simply render more of the screen (also very difficult). Neither of these things have really been done yet to my knowledge, but I haven't looked at the modding scene properly in years.
The bottom line with modding is that you can give yourself a totally fresh experience of FFVII which is amazing, but you WILL reboot the game a hundred times until you're finally happy with everything. It can be a really frustrating experience.
I've done a mod-heavy playthrough where I installed hundreds. The battle retextures are excellent. I installed the menu mod, battle menu mod (see more of the arena with a FFIX or FFX style battle menu), orchestral soundtrack replacement, field model replacements, weapon retextures, attack effect retextures etc. Upscaled backgrounds and FMV's on their own improve the game a lot.
One of the things I tend to do is use one of the mod programs myself to rename spells to Cure/Cura/Curaga etc., but there are various mods that do this.
There used to be a program that let you pick and choose which mods you wanted to install then installed them all for you (included live previews), but I'm not sure it's supported anymore.
The two mods I'd like to see most of all seem to be pretty impossible. One is true analogue movement (never in the original so probably never happening) and another is true pixel rendering, so instead of stretching to widescreen or giving black bars it would simply render more of the screen (also very difficult). Neither of these things have really been done yet to my knowledge, but I haven't looked at the modding scene properly in years.
The bottom line with modding is that you can give yourself a totally fresh experience of FFVII which is amazing, but you WILL reboot the game a hundred times until you're finally happy with everything. It can be a really frustrating experience.
To me the most interesting elements have been the difficulty mods. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd need 4 hour to complete Reactor 1, but New Threat handed my ass back to me on a cafeteria tray, and told me to eat it raw. It's almost maybe too hard for my tastes, but I may try at it summore over my break.
JBedford
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- JBed
There was some discussion recently on this page. Apparently it seems possible but I don't know if it will be worked on any time soon.