The mods I made were moved to my Patreon page. Still free to download, just in a different place. The guides weren't aging well and no one was upkeeping them anyway, plus people kept complaining about issues with download limits or broken links so.. consolidated my stuff to Patreon for the sake of everyones sanity.

Plus if it gets me the rare donation as well, I'll be happy. (I'm a poor ol' modder person, I'll take what I can get. lol)

A lot of thought went into the structure of the mods, and I wanted to keep everything as modular as possible. It's not automatic in part because it will 100% fail if any other mod is installed prior to using it, and other than the costumes it will still technically work without the reversion. (The weapons and accessories for example will still work.)

It was a sort of compromise to offer as much compatibility as possible. It's not totally ideal but honestly since the readme explains this I didn't think it would matter much. Ultimately this game wasn't designed for modding, so there's a lot of hoops to jump through to make anything work right at all. (And looking back I think it's pretty wild we got away with what we did. lol)

Originally posted by The most stupid bird in history:

Ok I fixed it, you just have to revert to 1.0 before installing the patch, all is done through the .bat in the mod itself.

I would just like to note, that has been in the readme since this mod launched.

Important Notes:
- Reverting to 1.0 is required the first time you install this patch!
- In order to correctly revert to 1.0, you need to be using clean -unmodified- files!

And since someone asked for it earlier, here is a really awful Patreon page that I threw together: https://www.patreon.com/krisanthyme

As an aside, when things quiet down and I pay off a bit of what I need to around here, I'll look into this game again. (And the series as a whole.) Though I don't know when that will be exactly, as expenses seemingly keep piling on of late.

(Also I am aware things are a bit messy in this group right now and there are issues with some links, I just don't have the time or energy right now to sort it all out as I'd like. So yeah, when things start looking up for me again I'll see about that too.)

Originally posted by ZephyrSonic:

Originally posted by Krisan Thyme:

I have considered a Patreon before, but I'm not really sure the things I do are really well suited for that? I dunno, I don't like asking people for things to be honest, and I don't really expect anything either so.. eh! My donation link is still up and has been for years now though, which is basically a less fancy version of the same thing. Like I said though, it's extremely rare anyone donates as it is (and it usually amounts to about $10 total at the height of a projects hype) so I kind of doubt a Patreon would work out better.

Maybe I'm wrong though. *shrugs*

I'm willing to donate at least $50 to help you get in the swing of things and maybe even get back to this project but even then as long as it helped you out personally that's what matters in the end.

If you want to, you're more than welcome to do so. You don't have to, though.

I have considered a Patreon before, but I'm not really sure the things I do are really well suited for that? I dunno, I don't like asking people for things to be honest, and I don't really expect anything either so.. eh! My donation link is still up and has been for years now though, which is basically a less fancy version of the same thing. Like I said though, it's extremely rare anyone donates as it is (and it usually amounts to about $10 total at the height of a projects hype) so I kind of doubt a Patreon would work out better.

Maybe I'm wrong though. *shrugs*

For reference, over three years ago or so I started work on a translation project for a game.. I made some progress on it, but got stonewalled on an issue and couldn't figure out how to progress with it. That project sat shelved for a solid three years before I started work on it again late last year and finished it - releasing it to the public just before the year came to a close.

Basically what I am saying is, I don't consider anything I've worked on as dead. I might start on something and not come back to it for years, it happens, life happens, problems crop up and make things difficult, etc etc.. But I never forget about anything I've worked on. This series in particular is very memorable for me, and modding it is always in the back of my head - it's just a matter of when for me, I guess? Plus there are still some big unknowns about this series, much like how I was stonewalled with that translation project I find these issues have kept me from doing what I want, but maybe eventually I'll figure them out and make progress, you know?

Also as much as I hate to say this, I am pretty much dead-arse broke all of the time.. I struggle to afford a basic living some months, and none of my modding hobbies help me out financially - I get maybe $10 donated per project on average and that's it. So basically it's more for fun and stress-release than anything else, and sometimes I just don't have that luxury.. Lately I've had a lot of major things going on that have sucked, like my water lines freezing over in a recent cold snap, the lines bursting as a result, and a lot of the older pipelines under the house needing replaced due to their age and risk of future bursts. I'm actually going on two weeks without water now, and it'll probably be three before it's working again. And this isn't an uncommon thing, the house I have is old and it feels like every year there's another major expense..

So yeah, I am just some poor dude who does this stuff for fun when he can, and sometimes I need to take long breaks to reflect on the problems I face in order to solve them later. Also yeah sometimes I just move onto other projects in the meantime, but that doesn't mean I forget about the old ones. And then sometimes like right now, I'm just unable to really do anything because I can't concentrate on a project with all the crap going on in life.

If I had the time, money, and luxury of a stress-free life, I'd probably still be pumping out updates for this and every other project I've started in the past, but sadly it's not so simple, and for that I apologize.

Originally posted by seiferzero:

it's ok...i understand. I only hope, one day, to play with the complete cast (including Lebreau, Gadot, Noj...) and of course the summons. I also remember there was a save game editor planned, maybe for XIII that was able to put Lebreau and Gadot as playable, but i think that project vanished. What a pity! the monster mod pack was, at least for me, the main reason i restarted FFXIII-2 and probably one of the best mods i have seen so far

Well if it's any consolation, I've been doing a bit of research lately into the game again. Already figured out one thing I know people have wanted since forever ago, working slowly forward toward some kind of bigger release.

Also just to add onto what Scarlet said, I mod as a hobby - it's a pass time for me, one that I love but not necessarily something I always have time or the patience to do. I should stress patience in particular, because this is not a game with official modding support. Sadly the XIII-series are as anti-mod as they come, with encryption layers and obtuse data storage methods. (Square loves to name files with letters and numbers, using shorthand and what not, making it impossible at a glance to know what half the files are to any of their games.)

So yeah, I try to manage my time between day to day life and whatever free time is left over. I try to balance that free time between friends, games, modding research, and actual modding itself. Sometimes something has to give, you know? XIII stuff has suffered because of a perfect storm of events occurring - Scarlet became a bit busier with work and games, I got a pet kitten, and several new games started to come out that I was really eager for.. We both kinda fell out of it as a result, but we never forgot about it. We reminisce about it quite often actually, in fact.. It made us the friends we are now! I consider Scarlet to be an incredible friend, among the coolest I know, and I have this project to thank for that! But I digress a bit.. We have been talking about it a bit more recently, and I would like to do some new stuff sooner rather than later, if possible.

I don't like making predictions though as to when, there's nothing worse than setting people up for disappointment, and hard deadlines are almost impossible to meet when you're working in such an unpredictable field as modding.