Dunal

In Rev? I'm inclined to disagree since she isn't even hampered by her base level in terms of EXP; she's actually a LV15 tier 1 in that regard, so her growth is even better than suggested. And being a flier in general more than makes up for weakness in bows. That's how FE has always been. She becomes even better when heart sealed to Wyvern Lord (to remove the hybrid gimmick which gimps her a little overall). Either way, fliers in general are always the best candidate to hog resources, or make the best use out of them. In Conquest, she's the undisputed best unit, for factors already mentioned. Bases are fantastic for her join time (again, for what's essentially a level 15 unit that doesn't need a master seal -- consider that for a second). Granted, dodge tanking is the best way to cheese BR/Rev (aka Ryoma), but in Conquest it's not a reliable strategy. And someone like Takumi is stuck outside of the game where player phase actually matters a lot, which is something against him as well. Considering CQ is by far the more difficult of the three games I think she deserves the most praise as a unit, with Xander very close behind (I'd say he's arguably better than Camilla past his own join time but she has availability). Stat spread or potential is only one aspect of a unit. Instead, bases vs. avaliability is the most important factor for almost any unit. Wouldn't say she's 'OP' though (although could have certainly been a bit weaker than she is, same for Ryoma/Xander). Enemies in CQ actually put up a fight, so unlike say, FE7 Marcus who has a similar niche, doesn't really trivialize a portion of the game or anything; she isn't invincible. Wasn't really a fan of the Royals overall since they are basically the game being designed around using all of these units, which is an indirect way of lowering your deployment slots (otherwise you're low-key gimping yourself). Although I suppose that just goes for powerful units in general (like Mathilda, Orsin or Caeda etc..).

Perhaps so, though I used Jill since I see comparisons between the two most often. Granted, weapon type is the only thing they really have in common. Comparing to Aran or Meg however he does still hold up. He gets a level lead and offense/bulk is very similar to Aran. Nolan has a bit more SPD/RES but slightly less STR/DEF, otherwise it's weapon type and Nihil vs. Vigilance. With the Brave Lance/Horseslayer I think weapon type is in Aran's favour but the Killer Axe should help with this. Extra SPD on Nolan sets a somewhat dangerous precedent with the inclusion of speedwings. On average he should double slower enemies in 1-E, but could use a speedwing to secure that if need be. Dropping Halberdier SPD by 1 point could be very feasible though. Otherwise, it risks him doubling enemies he shouldn't, since at that point the rest of his stat spread would just make him too good compared to others. He already has a level lead over tier 1s, so if he's too well rounded it might end up too beneficial for him to hog resources. Nolan gets +3 SKL on promotion (although that may have been changed shortly after the public release, so that may instead be +2 for yourself) with an 80% SKL growth. So it's otherwise 24-25 SKL. Of course, this does matter a lot for Hand Axe / Short Axe or a Battle Axe, weapons someone like Jill would struggle hitting with on occasion. Soon, the Killer Axe as well. This is where the massive HIT differences come into effect. Between Meg having effective weapons against her (and bad HIT, especially with anything ranged), and Aran not having the SPD to double anything, or more likely to being doubled as a result (Brave Lance aside) Nolan is the most reliable tanky unit you have, with two forms of effective weaponry in Hammer and Crossbow. And unlike those two, gets a prf weapon after 1-E. So with that said, I'll still hold off on further changes for now. If I were to buff further though it would be extra SKL (double down on his strengths or possibly an extra point of STR -- which does situationally help his AS as well) or DEF. Keep in mind, the benefit to having good base STR + promotion bonus over a higher growth is the short term immunity to being RNG screwed. If he had only +2 STR on promotion but a 50% growth... then his STR as a Warrior be around the same on average, but would have a lot more variance and could end up with less STR that would be otherwise secured with a higher promotion bonus. So in that sense, Nolan has some reliability there. Again, dropping Halberdier SPD by 1 should add to this as it helps him excel against them as intended, without affecting other match-ups. Otherwise, the current incarnation of Tarvos actually drops Nolan's SPD by 3 (a flat stat penalty) as does Leo and Edward's prfs, in return for other benefits. So it's designed around never doubling, but has 20 MT and +5 DEF. Nolan just needs to hit 16 SPD to not get doubled by tigers, so any extra SPD above that is unneeded. Again, it makes him reliably good, and makes it so as long as he hits that in Part 1, you can just bench in 1-E and still make him powerful in part 3. Still, I do understand how Nolan's more long-term strengths aren't going to be appreciated in the current release. Between Tarvos, his class (tier 3), Arbelest, skill/crit proc % later on etc... He's very powerful. Any deficiencies in STR/SPD are more than made up for, just less-so early on where his level lead or reliability/bulk are the main factors to his worth.

Oh sorry I meant it would be the main file, not the map data (read your post wrong). The latter can only be used to lock pre-established skills allocated by the former (Like the BK's Nihil/Imbue).

Thank you both for sharing your thoughts. I will list the following stats for Nolan and Jill for comparison's sake (how I'm viewing things currently). This is them both going into 1-E (or midway 1-E possibly): HP | STR | MAG | SKL | SPD | LCK | DEF | RES Nolan 16/8 (1.5 levels per map + 1 level of BEXP > Promoting at the start of 1-6-2) 57 | 19 | 9 | 27 | 18 | 25 | 16 | 10 Jill 17/6 (1.5 levels per map + 1 level of BEXP) > Promoting at the start of 1-7) 45 (-12) | 20 (+1) | 7 (-2) | 14 (-13) | 13 (-12) | 23 (+5) | 15 (-1) | 7 (-3) You also need to take into account that Nolan has Nihil while Jill has no innate. While Jill has extra move in 1-6 and 1-8 + canto. Nolan is more likely to have a higher axe rank to use the Silver Axe by 1-E, and a higher support rank with someone (although Jill can feasibly each an A support by 1-E, you have less time to establish it). Otherwise, Nolan gets crossbows (mainly strong in 1-6 and 1-8) while Jill gets lances (pretty niche aside from extra HIT on Javelin or Horseslayer usage). Taking everything into account, I don't believe that Nolan is in a bad spot here. SPD is a big factor and allows Jill to double a fair few enemies that Nolan cannot. But consider that she has a whopping 52% less hit-rate against Halberdiers without giving her Nihil... That's a substantial difference in hit rate, to the point where Nolan can reliably use say, the Battle Axe to land finishing blows on enemies without retaliation (where Jill would need to take damage and then follow up). Lastly, without Nullify (which means no Celerity, Pass or Stillness) Jill gets wrecked by thunder magic and bishops, while Nolan has no such weakness, with enough HP and RES (with pure water/barrier) to tank magic extremely well. Throw in the Tarvos in part 3 and aside from the mobility and SPD (where Jill won't be doubling Cats anyway) and Nolan is generally better. Of course stat booster prioritisation matters here. Giving Secret Books to Jill doesn't otherwise sacrifice too much. While with Nolan, sparing a speedwing to secure doubling (and therefore one-rounding) Halberdiers/Generals may be a steeper cost. Although I'd argue that double-downing on his high AVO with Ashera Icons is pretty effective since he does ignore 'Focus' as well; increasing survivability even more. In the next update, the Killer Axe should help him (and Jill will seldom be reliable with it in comparison) but I'd even debate that's it's not strictly necessary. Don't think it'll hurt to add though. The former. Skills are inherit to the unit data in the main file. Payoff isn't worth it here. You can buy standard longbows in 1-E as well. Although I could change that for 1-7 or 1-8 as well. I think the general consensus is that Leo is fine. Water affinity + Reliable ranged damage + Low investment (He can promote whenever and still be good) + anti-flier niche (Nolan aside). He lacks SPD but he's designed around it. He hits hard with accuracy. Later on, his huge SKL means high Disarm/Deadeye procs or crits. Lughnasadh is the highest ranged weapon outside of seige tomes. With all that said, he works good for what he's intended for.

Thanks for the extensive feedback! I'm starting to see that people don't really value reliability too much. I don't know if that's just how people play (or whether battle saves are part of the issue) but those with a tendency to have high HIT rates regardless of weaponry or biorhythm (Nolan/Aran... Ilyana in the case of Renigade) don't tend to be be too popular currently. I think most would disagree with Ilyana though, being able to one-shot dracos and/or nuke Dragons is pretty huge, and she's bulky enough to do it. Arcthunder crits are generally strong enough to 1-shot a lot of enemies as well and she'll do it pretty often. Obviously has her weaknesses in SPD/RES but that's a light tradeoff for what she's capable of doing. She gets two siege tomes as well so has utility in that regard, as well as access to water affinity / barriers to patch up RES. For Nolan, I'm seeing a trend where people aren't putting a lot of focus into him and then come 1-E finding him 'weak' as a result. His level curve is going to be above every other tier 1 and is a good promotion candidate for 1-6. That gives him 3 (or 4?) maps of being promoted which should sit him at LV7-9 by 1-E (so he'll be ~3 SPD/DEF/RES, 7 SKL etc... better off). I don't think him being LV1 promoted really indicates anything aside from him being benched for a couple maps prior. And of course, a unit isn't going be stellar with that circumstance. Fiona/Jill going into 1-E with no 1-7/1-8 deployment aren't going to be looking too hot either. Still, to Nolan's benefit, he actually gets access to a powerful prf weapon after part 1, so being underlevelled hurts him less. I'll be giving him a nudge in the next update (slightly more SKL and early Killer Axe access) but I'd be hesitant to give him any more. Aran's much the same way, with proper investment he's a great tank, arguably the best one there is -- and consistently great with the Brave Lance. @Miacis I'll certainly take a look at those logs. Thanks for providing those. Makalov lacks a skill slot which comes under 'expanding data' to implement. I'd otherwise provide skills to more units if I could. It's why mage classes no longer have Shove (because alternative skills are just more interesting when they only really have the CON to shove each-other, statue frags aside).

There isn't really a way to make proc% based skills satisfying outside of making them crits or glorified variants of them (otherwise they're rarely going to be meaningful outside of maybe Sol) -- the weaker skills are, the less likely they would have made a different in killing vs. not killing). I'd like to make them command based and/or similar to the way 'Heroes' utilise skills (in order to make them weaker but reliable) but that would take a huge amount of work. They do therefore still function like crits with bonus effects which for the most part is fine. After all, players would otherwise just rather have procced a crit itself. Flare, Corona and Bane being the exceptions of course. That said, enemies are generally a lot bulkier later on so masteries will often not be enough to 100-0 for a lot of units, especially for casters. And some classes no longer have their old masteries or tweaked probability of them activating. For example, Heather gets Canto rather than Bane. Reavers have +15% crit and Focus as opposed to Colossus (which would be completely useless for Boyd in terms of proc% and comparatively too good on Nolan) etc.. There are also only three Satori signs in the game, and most Royals no longer start with their masteries.

She's interchangeable with Soren... in Easy/JP!Normal where she can actually gain sufficient EXP in part 1 to more-or-less be on even terms (without any real detriment to the DB post part 1). Much like PoR their performance won't differ much from there. Soren still has the superior stat spread and skill (Adept), but they'll mostly function the same. The problem in harder modes is that EXP suddenly becomes a lot stricter which hurts units who don't get the luxury of already being pre-levelled from base. IS didn't account for this enough so units like Ilyana get the short end of the stick in terms of how her avaliability/scaling works. If she stayed with the DB, then she'd likely be better. Magic type is largely irrelevant. It's the difference of 1-2 MT and 5-10% hit when all is said and done. Which is the difference between a couple points of MAG and 2-4 SKL. The base stats of units are more important. Yeah, it makes a small difference, and it's not like Ilyana has extra MAG to make up for it, but it's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Magic triangle is largely irrelevant as well. The effectiveness type can be somewhat relevant though, and that's in favour of thunder for what that's worth (Arguably, I mean, the game doesn't leave many opportunities for any of this effectiveness to be relevant; it's a toss up between Ilyana in 4-F-3 and Calill in 4-5, and that's not even exclusive to those units technically. Otherwise, there almost zero opportunity for magic effectiveness outside of the odd Falcoknight/Draco or something). Either way, Soren isn't exactly a stellar unit himself, so that doesn't leave Ilyana in a very good spot.

Actually, the plan right now is just Dark. It allows me to balance him to be more powerful in Resolve range. He previously had Fire but 2-range is too powerful since you could just get his HP low and then nuke harder than Calill/Tormod which is a no-go. Instead, he's a Mage Knight like Ilyana. Extra movement and high HP/Defense. Unlike Ilyana he has RES though and can use staves in tier 3. But that's all in return for being under levelled at join time. His SKL/MAG are worse than Ilyana, but the former is negated by resolve, and his STR is so high that his staff combat is probably the best in the game (He can reach S staves for Matrona). Thunder's a bit pointless since Carreau/Verrine covers for him in the CRIT/HIT department (switch between the two based on biorhythm). And there's already enough dragon killers in the game (including Micaiah who can potentially use Thoron). Nah, Seraph Knights no longer have Staves. Sigrun does get Blessing though. She's more-or-less a flying variation of Fiona with weaker combat but even stronger utility (higher MAG). She does get access to wind swords (including Alondite) unlike Fiona however, which instead gets the Shining Bow which is more limited (Fiona has solid enough STR though). Still a strategist. He's bulkier than Soren but lacks Soren's fantastic MAG/SKL. Still is a filler unit but certainly not bad. He can use Dark magic more safely for what it's worth. No longer has Corrosion (now exclusive to Calill) but has some innate crit (+10%). Yeah I'll be doing changes to every map in part 1 based on feedback. This will be one of them. I'm currently experimenting with new AI that will make some enemies a little more interesting. Mostly AI that causes enemies to cooperate with each other rather than having individually set behaviour (so enemies will form squads and the like). A lot of maps will have this, 1-3 included. Mostly why the next release is taking awhile. More advanced AI is currently something I'm working on and the payoff will be more than worth it. The longbowman in particular is a notable target for this. For example, by default he will now shoot if you're in range, but if you're not, he'll go band up with the cavalier and then follow the cavalier when he moves. There are other examples as well, but basically, enemies will less likely just stand around and will actually create formations (sometimes after a certain turn count) unless you pull them quickly. There's some other AI types to be added as well but that's the main one. 200 each in both cases. Saving two is almost the equivalent of a full level for an unpromoted (in the 10-15 level range) so worth saving them to fill out stats for a unit before promotion. It's intentional that you can steal it if you reach them fast. Elsilence? You should be able to steal/disarm it but it being locked must just be that I forgot to remove that for the public release. Don't think it should affect anything though.

Yeah, with Fiona in particular I can see that you did give her some extra resource/levels which makes sense as to why she turned out like she did. But at the same time, any unit can turn out really strong given similar treatment. Fiona can be used fairly casually (for example: given one or two levels of BEXP and then set to 99 EXP with Blossom for 1-7 -- promotion after that level) and despite lower investment her utility and combat are both still decent. Same how Nolan or Aran for instance are 'decent' if steadily levelled without too much focus. However, if the same amount of BEXP (as you gave to Fiona) is given to Nolan/Aran/Meg etc... they can snowball and turn out really powerful by the end of 1-E, while still having a decent, if not stellar Fiona. This all comes down to average stats, really. A 15/6 Nolan going into 1-E is meant to be around the same power level as a 15/3 Fiona. Given of course, that similar treatment past 1-6 is given to them. In any case, the player has the resources to either give every unit moderate investment or extra resources on a couple units. In part 1, either option is viable. Past part 1, the intention is that you can only really afford maybe one dead-weight at most, especially since a number of powerful units leave after part 1. Low-manning becomes more difficult. All units in part 3 get free deployment, so spreading resources around is actually recommended to some degree. The DB units are notorious for capping out early in Tier 2 with no Master Crown access whatsoever. So having a ~LV18 tier 2 Fiona + a benched/weak Nolan will be worse off than a level 10-12 of both (since both would be close to capping out anyway). Then once part 4 rolls around you can freely promote them both anyway. Worth mentioning however is that someone like Nolan can still be viable with lower investment (in part 1) due to Tarvos. While Fiona's combat won't be as good with the same. It counterbalances the fact that she may have more immediate potential. But using Nolan a bit more in part 1 will definitely have results later on either way. However, the exception to all this is still... Laura's too easy to snowball with, of course. Current changes being planned are: Heaven affinity instead of Wind (so no +AVO for Laura) E rank light on promotion. Very slight reduction to 'Heal' EXP (down to 14 from 15). Base MAG reduced by 1. Promotion bonus reduced by 1 as well. No more Master Seal before 1-5 (replaced with a Killer Axe?). Considering Micaiah's 'Inspiration' in part 3, this won't be too harsh of a nerf. May even to follow up with further changes if required. Even with just the Wo Dao by itself he performs really well with it past promotion (in which he has the second best promo bonuses, behind Micaiah). Even then, his part 1 performance isn't meant to be stellar. Part 3 is really when the investment pays off. Either way, you don't really need to heavily focus on him. LV13-15 before promotion is usually fine, as much as min/maxing on him is tempting (albeit certainly doable). I'm reluctant to give him any further changes at this point; he's a pseudo-Est that could easily be too powerful reliably. With Part 3 and 4 being notably more difficult than Part 1, then that archetype is far more relevant than the original game. For Nolan the added early Killer Axe should do a lot for him and I may increase his base SKL a bit to support its usage further. Meanwhile, Jill can't utilize it too well early on. Worth mentioning with Nolan is that the game highly incentives you to promote him before 1-6 for Bowgun usage. Then you have two units who can 1-shot the Pegasus. He can help in 1-8 by doing the same. Otherwise, he's reliable in dealing with Halberdiers due to Nihil negating Vigilance. He's consistently quite relevant, which should give him more than enough EXP/resources to scale into part 3/4. Also, try not to judge the game's difficulty/balance through hardmode/ReDux+. It's basically filler until I essentially re-design that mode through a separate version of the hack. Currently just exists for the time being in case you want to challenge yourself a bit more, but a more meaningful difficulty variant will be released later (making the game more difficult in ways that matter, like enemy AI/placement or adjusted scaling/resources, without inflating stats or removing features like the weapon triangle). I'm planning on making staff range fixed (so not scaling from MAG, where healing amounts/accuracy is more than enough). Laura does have good enough combat later on to compensate. At least, that's the design intention for now. Or if you just want a healer that doesn't get ORKOed by longbows or something (or generally be less in danger)... Yeah Rhys is the outright the best healer (outside of 'Recover', which is very relevant in this hack since it's far more difficult to top someone off) but in endgame you have to be careful with him. And outside of that, you can use both on different teams.

@Deltre Thanks for the lengthy feedback! A lot of your thoughts are certainly valid, despite a few of them lacking certain context (but do make sense without those nonetheless). Above all else it's clear that Laura does need some changes and I've been thinking about how best to go about that. Heaven affinity (which does almost nothing to benefit her) as well as E light are obvious first contenders, but a few other adjustments may be required as well. Some of the other feedback could be attributed to variance/RNG. Fiona can be very powerful with enough resources, but so can someone like Aran (who has Vigilance and is unaffected by Biorhythm, both of which keep his AVO consistently high). Nolan, while overall solid yet not particularly outstanding in any way, does have certain things going for him. Innate Nihil is very powerful later on when even generic enemies often have skills, and even negates focus/vigilance early on. Tarvos is super good and Nolan's preferred weapon later on is Taksh or Arbalest anyway (which do not scale from STR) where additionally his huge SKL helps skill procs in general. Otherwise, he's fairly durable to boot. Meg is really powerful from of course, her anti-beast niche along with high durability/damage and sustain (with Imbue). Honestly though, I do agree to an extent; it's why the nerfs to her were rather conservative. Thing with Meg is that she really wants to equip certain skills to patch up her weaknesses (Fortune, Celerity) or bolster strengths (Imbue, Provoke) but can only pick one -- so she's generally going to be left with missing something. Although, a lot of these units are balanced with the entire game in mind. Meg's SPD accelerates rather rapidly past a certain point, and Nolan gets access to weaponry that have huge synergy with his stat spread, even with options like the Killer Axe. What's worth mentioning is that the difficulty curve is legitimately steep to the point where eventually, units like Laura will hit a plateau and you'll just be left with a weaker army during the hardest parts of the game. Not to say that she isn't a bit too powerful early on when used a certain way. Edward is the type of unit that does need a lot of investment and some favourable RNG to shine, although he's intentionally a bit of a wildcard that gets notably more powerful with Caladbolg. That said, playtesters so far either find him to be weak in one run, to being godly in the next. I've continued to steadily buff him over time, but I feel that he's the type of unit where once he's 'figured out' after a stream of buffs, he'll just be insane. It's exactly the same with Laura who got a lukewarm response earlier in development. Again, it does depend on RNG and/or options available to the player. For example, Fiona's combat isn't normally stellar without certain investment or RNG (same with Aran/Nolan with less attention). It's very easy for her to miss out on a couple SPD procs that may prevent her from reaching the 19/20 SPD threshold needed to generally double a lot of enemies in 1-E. So there are a lot of factors here. Sometimes Laura fails to gain MAG which delays her promotion quite a bit. Does happen, even though her best case scenario is too good right now (Edward's arguably is as well, more so for Part 3+; but there's a case here where his worst case can be buffed in return). (Worth mentioning with Fiona is that she only has +2 move over the norm in tier 1. She doesn't actually gain move on promotion, so it's just the +1 bonus at that point. Just means that she has less incentive to immediately promote and then goes down to 8 move in two of the three maps in part 1, which is reasonable IMO) Of course, I'll definitely make some tweaks here and there. What's important is that the game is in a state where each unit feels meaningful and powerful regardless of whether they are or not. Even if someone like Nolan has an unsatisfying power curve in Part 1 as opposed to later on (which possibly more than makes up for it) first/early impressions are always really important for a unit. All I can say though is that I've witnessed a few players play through the game several times now, and their views can shift rapidly through separate runs. Also, I enjoyed watching your LP of FE10 by the way! I've watched a lot of runs of the vanilla game as a means to understand people's perceptions of the original game and how they play etc... Judging by your own run, it's interesting to see your perspectives over the hack so far.

She has access to all 5 siege tomes that she's capable of using by that point. Including Blizzard which has additional range. If Micaiah is level ~10 at this point then she'll average about 37 MAG which is some really good damage (45-50 damage against tigers with Meteor for instance). Doesn't one-shot anything by all means but chunks enemies hard enough where they can easily be killed by another unit.

It's also being faithful and true to Micaiah's modern day exposure: FE Heroes. People going into this hack later on may be accustomed to how she's balanced/designed in that game, so it makes more sense to design her how she's intended to be. And honestly, with 'Sacrifice' being her signature skill, it makes just as much sense to delay her access to staves. Because between Mend/Restore, it becomes almost useless. Not to say I would be always faithful to that game or others. Ilyana's new design/identity definitely trumps her old one... which didn't really exist (an otherwise inferior Soren that has... higher STR? On a unit with mediocre SPD anyway?). Plus it's an opportunity to translate Ilyana's character with gameplay (Eats a ridiculous amount of food? >100% HP growth!). Meg? She's presumably a farmer with zero combat experience but can supposedly "lift a fully grown cow". Zero SKL and huge STR. Can't seduce Zihark and on two occasions, being the first unit to be thrown towards the Greil Mercernaries in part 3... Solo...? Awful LCK. So even if they aren't true to their original selves, if it makes far more sense from a gameplay or narrative standpoint, it's being done. Micaiah however was originally changed to band-aid what was perceived as her worst trait (either that or her promotion timing). Instead, it makes more sense to make her original strengths stronger instead of design changes that have no context other than just making her generically 'good'. Granted, Yune's comment in Part 4; "leave most of the fighting to Micaiah" would have justified it to a degree, but there are other ways to achieve that. For example: being designed to counter the final boss.

With that said, Laura still fulfils that design. I think that, amongst other benefits, allows Micaiah to have a unique identity within her own army. And if you wanted a unit who can double with dark magic, then Resolve!Pelleas exists later on. And dark magic can now be balanced with this in mind (making it easier to tweak later on).

@flare9 How does the new Micaiah feel? Also, Laura's a monster considering 'Inspiration' in part 3. 25 MAG / 33 SPD on your run. She's been due for a nerf since the addition of that; just planning the best way to go about it. Seriously, she's Haar tier right now. Core testers are currently playing though (a very early version of) Part 4 right now and Laura (along with Lyre/Makalov) are tearing it up (I suppose Lyre is more justifiable and/or expected since she's the token Est of the game, but otherwise...). Your Vika just needs a few levels of BEXP and she's completely set for Endgame. Nice.

Yeah essentially, untransformed Laguz retain a fixed amount of a couple stats based on type (except Nealuchi who is just old -- being remotely competent in his human form would be funny but not realistic; at the very least it's impossible for him to de-transform in enemy phase). This creates a middle ground where untransformed units can survive and fight, but not strong enough where you would rather just fight in that form for extra EXP, considering the difficulty of the game. It does make stance dancing a viable option. As in, you can deliberately just untransform to save some gauge but still fight on enemy phase. Mordecai doesn't have much SPD/RES to begin with, so in situations where he'd get doubled when transformed anyway, the STR/DEF that is maintained leaves his performance almost the same. What you're rewarded with for actually figuring this out is a full gauge come player phase and some extra EXP. Yeah, he'll still ~35 ATK as opposed to roughly ~45, but that might still net you a kill anyway. Cats may be the exception to one of those things since their gauge actually benefits being transformed, in a sense. Also, the reasoning behind Nealuchi makes sense when you consider that his viability in combat comes from his life experience / knowledge / technique (he's designed with the concept of "If he were younger, he'd be the best unit in the game") rather then physical prowess. But he has little experience fighting in human form, like other Laguz, so that idea behind him doesn't reflect there. And even in Raven form he hasn't fought in years so is incredibly rusty, but has Paragon + really good growths because he's re-learning combat, as opposed to having brand new experiences. Which also just happens to work really well for gameplay considering his availability.

The 'e_common' file. Speaking of descriptions, I'm likely to do a full pass on those in the future. So those are very much subject to change. Also, the staff changes previously specified won't be until the next update. Not that that really affects much for you guys currently since Laura isn't exactly doing much with them anyway (aside from counterattacking Dracoknights).

Oh gods no (one of my primary goals of the hack was actually to prove that the Magic Triangle can actually be relevant)! What's being removed is certain magic having bonuses against the standard weaponry (Anima > Swords, Light > Axes, Dark > Lances) that granted +2 MT and +10% HIT. While having a small effect on the game, it could cost the player if they forgot about it. It's also why Edward was notably weak to the mages in 1-1 for example. Ilyana would go completely off the rails without being weak to wind/dark magic... *shudder*

I can do so although this would be specific to only the latest patch (so if you missed a patch, like those who might wait until the next map release to re-patch) then that wouldn't work either. Therefore, to avoid any complications I've only released patches for the original version (to also avoid people thinking that those in particular would work on the original game as well). Yeah this would seem to be the case. I can PM you later and investigate this if you want. What I can do is rebuild 1-2 adding/changing one thing at a time (creating like 8-10 different versions) and by process of elimination as to what works and what doesn't, we can figure this out. If it's something very specific (Like a Thief existing outside of a reinforcement), then fixing other maps should be doable as well. It's just extra required knowledge that the player would need that isn't immediately obvious. And out of any unit, Micaiah probably gained the most out of it. Her rework was designed around it no longer existing. It is a slight nerf to Ilyana or Tormod but that's perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned. Yep, she now only gives a Torch (not a huge loss if you don't get it -- Rhys already has a Torch Staff). While the hidden treasure is a Seraph Robe.

She does. Makes Laura/Fiona really powerful to say the least It doesn't. Although, if I knew how, I'd probably implement that! New patch is up by the way. Not a huge one by any means. Just releasing something before 2-3 so Micaiah can be updated sooner rather than later. May end up releasing 2-3 / 2-E together since with 2-E, there's not much to be finished there. 3-P and 3-1 will follow shortly together after that (3-1 is actually done).

Here is Sanaki currently: Stats are fairly similar to Micaiah offensively although keep in mind that Sanaki's HP is extremely poor (lowest in the game) and her SPD/STR can easily cause her to get doubled and killed. Cymbeline is a 30 MT tome that she of course gets right off the bat (albeit having 60 HIT and 15 WT...) and also innate Rally (+5 STR/SKL to adjacent allies) with a high chance to proc Flare. Also, she ties Kurthnaga with having the highest Capacity in the game at 100. With 4 open skill slots that's a pretty big deal. Micaiah's mastery skill is actually Aurora itself. You'll eventually see how the interaction works... Yes. Although physical units are overall needed to take down Ashera as well (Ike cannot solo her). Yes -- it's a prf tome as opposed to having a rank. By the way, there will be a new patch tomorrow that includes Micaiah's update amongst other changes.

Previously, she would receive this tome earlier in part 4 but now Lehran drops it when you defeat him. It's incredibly powerful at 40 MT (Micaiah can reach 100 ATK with it) but it's specifically designed around the final map. The intention is that Micaiah is key to taking down Ashera's auras since she deals significantly more damage to them than any other unit in the game (immune to being doubled and has 50 DEF, 40 RES along with reducing physical damage by half), with Sanaki only coming comparatively close. Safe to say that she's the most powerful unit in endgame, with Ike/Sanaki/Kurthnaga following behind. At least, that's the intention. However, Ashera herself is immune to magic, so your physical units have the spotlight there. You pretty much need to rely on magic otherwise though.

The feedback discussed was basically: A) Micaiah doesn't feel good when she doesn't double, because her MAG is gated by the fact that she can often double. This means that she's weak against say, Cats in part 3. She's also kinda bad if she fails to grow SPD. The general lack of consistency isn't ideal for a MC. B) The satisfaction of Thani one-shots is gone if Micaiah cannot double (usually the case with Duke/Arch Knights) since she lacks the raw power to do so, what with HP being far higher in this hack (weakening effective damage). Thani also therefore falls off hard later on since 27 MT against armor/cavs isn't spectacular when things like Bolganone have 48 MT when effective. However, straight buffing Thani is hard to do if Micaiah can double with it against other foes. C) It doesn't feel characteristic. Micaiah's identity was/is having immense power over having high SPD. Stat spread was also too similar to Laura or Calill (with the latter just feeling like an inferior version long-term). Now more similar to Sanaki which makes more sense thematically. D) Power curve has issues due to her forced promotions. This relates to her SPD caps and how those tie in with her other stats. The new direction makes her more consistently good during the latter parts of Part 1 or Part 4 (before endgame). The only problem with this direction was that inflating her MAG makes her too good as a staff user compared to the Bishops or other staff users. Therefore, that had to change since she should still feel combat focused. It provides a good opportunity to have effective damage against the Laguz as well (without being game-breaking since she can't double them). It also makes Sacrifice actually relevant for healing past part 1.

I suggest waiting for the next update due in the next few days. Micaiah is receiving a rework which will be require a restart anyway (unfortunately -- wanted to avoid any forced restarts but based on feedback it was worth changing her IMO). Here are the unit changes in particular: You don't necessarily strictly require a restart. But Micaiah's weapon ranks would be incorrect in tier 2. Just load a save before the end of part 1 though and it would be fine. So you won't even need a full restart if preferred. Her stats may be a little weaker as to what they should be but that's about it. Of course, other changes are accommodating this. Thani's being changed as well (higher MT/WT) along with a global nerf to dark magic. In fact, I'll probably release a new patch before 2-3's release just so people can choose to restart sooner than later if they want to. (Also, while the change list for Micaiah seems like a massive buff, you'll be surprised how removing the ability to double affects a unit. It's more of a power shift than a buff; nerfing her previous base case scenarios while improving worst case)

Correct. Although, even if there were (much like the character used for 'Elite' foes), those characters would need expanded data which I'd be unwilling to go to lengths to implement, based on outputs. It may be to do with the 'Mess' file for general text that's causing the issue. I could provide a version of the hack with the original file for this and see what happens.

Hard mode isn't going to be the official 'max difficulty mode' for this hack. It has the same effect on the game as the vanilla game. But it's still there if you really just want a scaled up version with no WT. Another version of the hack will instead be released that will cover a proper higher difficulty mode. With further map changes, unit changes, mechanic changes etc... Expect updates around every 2 weeks, with the release of 1 or 2 new maps and other changes. Skills are unfortunately based on army subclass or the class itself. So can't really be done on an individual basis. Enemy units in part 4 will have skills, but not before then. 1-E's top floor is currently easier than intended (as an error) but consuming Bolting uses is a sacrifice you need to make to do this, either way.