An open-world randomiser for Final Fantasy VIII
Inspired by FF4: Free Enterprise, this mode will allow you to travel the world as you see fit, right from the start of the game. You get two party members and two GFs, and the rest is up to you. Each boss you find & defeat will grant major rewards such as new characters, new vehicles, and unsealed powers in Ultimecia Castle.
Free Roam is roughly 10% complete so far. You can fight some bosses around Balamb (step into the black clouds) and reach the western continent by train, but there is still a lot of work to be done: clearing out story-related obstacles, placing new triggers for boss encounters, and so on. Hopefully there's enough to demo the concept at least. Try it out & let me know what you think!
The mod works by patching game files. You don't need to keep the Maelstrom window open after it's finished processing, and you don't ever need to run it again unless you want to re-roll.
Saving and loading all works as it should, as long as you don't re-roll in between. It'll still load, but you'll be on the new roll instead of the one you saved. To go back to a previous playthrough, run Maelstrom with the same seed & settings as before.
The first time you run the randomiser it will make backups (.bak) of various files in the FF8 folder tree -- don't touch those!! If they get lost or corrupted you will need to restore/reinstall the game through Steam before running Maelstrom again.
If "Set Seed" is unchecked, a new seed number will be generated for each run. Checking the box will allow you to enter your own. You can find a list of seeds you've used on the "History" tab, most recent at the top. (There are many explanations online for what an RNG "seed" is, but basically if you use the same number twice with the same settings, you will get the same results from the randomiser both times)
Card locations in the spoiler file are currently incomplete. The field names are all there but the NPC descriptions are largely unhelpful.
Some features aren't fully implemented yet for the Remastered version of the game. These are noted in italics beneath the relevant section.
Efforts have been made to eliminate softlocks and crashes, but this is a work in progress and certain things may be broken or simply not yet complete. If you find yourself unable to progress and do not wish to re-roll:
Close the game and run Maelstrom
Save your settings on the "Presets" tab
Load the "Vanilla" preset and click "Go" to reset the game to normal
Run the game, play past the part you are stuck on, and save
Close it and run Maelstrom again
Restore your settings ("Presets" tab) and seed number ("History" tab), then click "Go"
If you have ideas for new features or improvements, feel free to message me here or on Twitter/Mastodon!
None of this would have been possible without dozens of QhimmWiki contributors and forum posters who are all a lot smarter than me!!
Big thanks to Bosshunter for coming up with ideas, helping me figure stuff out & just generally being a pal!!!