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Arch, about the name of the hack: when converting a national proper noun into adjective form, the vowel on the end is not necessarily consistent. In other words, I think "Elibian Nights" could be a proper name after all? Unless if I'm wrong or someone in-canon has spelled it this way. In which case, does the title art reflect the changed name? I haven't played any recent patches because I'm waiting on Igrene's tale.

I do wish people would check the most recent pages more often. At the time the version you are playing was released, several people playtested and reported said bugs. They have been acknowledged and in some cases, have already been fixed in unreleased versions. EDIT: This is in response to Eldritch Abomination, but for some reason, I can't quote him. I blame Internet Explorer. Good thing I don't normally use it.

2016 release, anyone? But seriously, I know that feel when you quash a bug and two more appear in its place. Wastes so much of my time. Although I figure if you need to scout unfinished text tidbits, beta testers are your guys. The more hands, the better.

Eliwood's eyes seem a little close together, just by visually comparing his eyes to the eyes of everyone else around him. I, for one, think Louise's hat is fetching. I figure it could use a little more texture or character of some sort. And be less peaked. Mmm. Well, either way, she still gets the crits. So much crit. I pity their spinal cords. Their heads might fall off some time in the near future. Either way, the more sprites replaced, the better. Super hyped for the next release. It can't come soon enough!

1). What the above guy said. The Wyvern Riders are meant to be a wall of death. Legault can stall them for a while with the OP Luna dagger, but they can easily overwhelm the others. As everyone else said, your rescued characters are meant to haul ass. Don't try to fight the riders with anyone other than Legault. They can take one or two if the riders catch up with them, but not a bajillion. When I played the tale, I made it my goal to kill Dieter when he shows up after the Fangs are freed, and I succeeded...but not without trial and error. 2). The current open beta is glitched in several respects. e.g: Pent's Tale has the victory condition mapped to the wrong tile, Karel's Tale can't be played to the end due to the glitch you mentioned, and Kent's Tale can't be unlocked. These issues are being worked on and will probably be fixed in the next Open Beta, which Arch announced would be in a week or two.

This was addressed a few pages back. The exit point is mistakenly placed a few tiles away from where Pent starts, rather than on the actual exit point. This glitch has already been fixed in an unreleased version as of a few months ago.

Arch, I know you already said you'd do this for Normal Mode, but please don't. They make the chapter that much more interesting. I easily got the Dastards achievement (Big help with adding Dorcas/removing the walls in the way, making the chest sort of optional), even with those guys in the way. It's fairly easy, I find, with Marcus + Espontoon and Isadora + Queensgard (Lady Sword). I mean, hell, even Lowen with a Quick Axe (courtesy of the current version) could take care of them. I feel the other chapters currently present the same level of strategic requirement, and I'd hate for the latter part of Eliwood's first tale to lose its interesting bits. In my view, the chapter is two parts: The first is when you're breaking through the bandits outside the throne room, who now have specialized weapons to deal with your equally specialized forces. The second is when you're in the corridors to the left and right, converging on the lower part of the map, which is where the berserkers (and that annoying myrmidon with a runesword) come in. As I said, removing the berserkers reduces the difficulty significantly, since you're only fighting a couple of puny Warlocks and Brigands.

Heya Arch, thank you for making this hack and sticking with it so far. You are GAWD. Props also to the other coders, bugtesters, mentors, and everyone else who contributed to this hack directly or indirectly. You made EN what is it today, and if you guys hadn't stepped up, nobody else would have, because the hacking community is teensy-tiny :( Arch, if you're releasing daily updates, us plebian non-official testers can't see them. I can't find it on the front page, or anywhere in the most recent pages, or any other download source. Is that intentional? Anyways, time for my own minor contributions: Pent's Tale: -Your buglist already checked off that the victory condition was misplaced. Current tile location, for anyone wondering, is one tile to the right of where Pent starts in the chapter. -Tessa has Damien's battle quote (From FE7 Chapter 16X) "You're about to die. Scream if you must". Not sure if just lifted for use, or actual glitch. -Minor typo: attrocities->atrocities EDIT: Adding as I go along A mere level 6 sniper with a crappy Longbow thought he could OHKO Pent on a Throne. gg derpy AI Louise's Tale: -When continuing from Pent's Tale, Pent's Forblaze is replaced with a Talisman with 20/1 use. I can use it repeatedly for way, way too much Resistance. Have not tested if this occurs without continuing. -Another minor typo: Unnecessary apostrophe between yours and the comma. -Another minor typo: inconsistency in use of Cedric vs Ceodore in this screen. Priest is currently named Cedric, so you may as well just change what Arcard says to "Cedric". Raven's Tale: I preferred it when the assassin was named "Alastor". Elisedd sounds too similar to Eliwood. -Minor typo: Hector says: "Ostia am in no way responsible", 'am' should be 'is'. -Minor typo: Hector says "you can rebuild your kindom". Kingdom. I vaguely remember someone else posting this typo, so no image this time, just a reminder of its existence (again, if you've already patched this, I can't know because you don't have publicly released daily patches). -Minor typo: Random soldier that spots Raven's allies says "Lord Arcard has ordered this village on lockdown." Sentence structure is off, you could reword it as "Lord Arcard's orders have this village under lockdown", or "Lord Arcard has this village locked down" or something. It's hard to get the right emphasis in there, but...eh. Can't get an image upload of this, for some reason. -Minor typo: House above Raven's allies starting point (red) says "You're fighting against the Etrurian guard?" I just remember some people in-game correcting each other about this being "Etruscan". So either the Western Isles are bleh, or whatever. You could probably get away with this by saying that most people aren't aware of the proper plural. They really aren't. This also applies to the Victory Conditions in the status screen of the second part of Raven's tale, which states "Survive the Etrurian assault..." -Minor typo: House next to Shen's (guy talking about Etruria and Western Isles) says "reduce to mere slavery". Should say "reduced to mere slavery". -The Cave entrance to the far left gives another Pugilist, as does visiting Shen's house with Shen. Not sure if the former is intended. Raven's Tale pt2: -In the opening, Raven's father is named "King Cornwell". Shouldn't it be something like Lord or Marquess? -Minor typo: Heath says "garauntee". Should be "guarantee". Also, Raven looks derpy in mid-blink. But doesn't everyone? Hector's Tale: As some other people have already said: Glitchy NPC palette when visiting Fargus' village. Silver Card has description of Eckesachs Broken House near drawbridge: When entered, displays "Show Objective" in inverted color text at the top left of the screen. If Fargus is killed, the game acts as though Dawson were killed and ends the chapter victoriously Female Mage Knights (Including Lisbet) do not receive additional damage from "effective" sources Lisbet has no death quote After the chapter ends and Hector's Speech, the screen centers on Ostia Castle. After that, the description for Hunter (In Legault's Chapter) shows up in inverted color text at the top left of the screen. The chapter then ends. Eliwood's Tale: Harken and Isadora don't have support levels with each other (they did previously). I have no idea why Nils and a random soldier converse, nor why Nils says "Ninian" and why the random soldier says something about "Lord Hector's guests". But that's the placeholder text for the Natalie - Dorcas conversation. It's freaking weird, since no Tales seem to correspond with it. Kent's Tale: omg black ppl are canon in FE, confirmed. no not really but it's not unlockable atm. Aside from wondering if whatsherface's (Hervor?) portrait palette is still discolored, I can't say much. Rath's Tale: It's getting rather late, but I do have this much from having started the chapter: Toni starts with Rath and co. Previously, she showed up with Lyn at the far left. Presumably, she was going to move downwards with Lyn in tow and meet up with Rath and co when their group headed left. In her talk with Dayan, she first talks about "sneaking away" from a guy "mumbling like a nut about his mother", who can only be Prasad. She then goes on to say that Prasad is north of their current position. All of this implies that Toni's placement in the chapter, in it's current state, is incorrect. Florina says she wants to come with Dayan when Lyn's kidnapping is reported. She appears nowhere in the chapter (given, I've only played 0 turns of the chapter thus far, and will play when I wake up...later). Minor typo: In Niime's talk with Dayan, Dayan says "May I offer you some councel?". The proper spelling is "counsel", but this word is a little awkward. "Advice" would work just as well. In fact, all the better for its informality. Zephiel's Tale: None, other than the already known "No talk between Vaida and Zephiel to indicate why Vaida is around and why everyone just blindly accepts her interference". I love that you gave her the Uber Spear, and even gave it a name and custom 2D icon art, as well as the same stats it had from FE7. Too bad no other weapon in FE really has stat bonuses that broken. Also love the little flashbacks, the vision of the Fire Emblem, everything that contributes to the Zephiel POV. Sort of related: The Nils in the Bonus Content screen has the description of "Knight Commander of Laus. Trusted by blah blah". Presumably, this is wrong. Also, I can't talk to Athos and Igrene in the Bonus Content screen. But Igrene has already been discussed, so mrrgghhh. Guys, how to cheese matchmaker? I'm too lazy to load older versions and make old saves... Legault's Tale: I love it. Legault is such a boss. Although I am curious as to how you got the Thief's Glove in that chapter in that one picture you posted. I only ever found the Double Bow and stole the Iron Rune/Hoplite Guard. Not to mention I can't even steal the Knight Ring from Dieter in that chapter (But I can steal his Elixir). Also, killing Dieter in that chapter should be some kind of achievement. Unless if I consistently Silencer the wyvern spawn spam, I have difficulty getting to him. And even if I do, at that point, there's too many Short Spear spammers for me to escape safely. although using the other units as backup and distractions while blitzkrieging it makes it relatively easy

Thread title.

No real problem with all of the above. I don't have a set plan for my team (e.g: Maximize units with Galeforce, or get more of that delicious VVW), so I figure this'll do nicely. The only thing I might do is change Maribelle + Virion to Maribelle + Ricken. I'd feel bad for Virion if I had any sympathy for archers.

He isn't really all that necessary as an offensive unit in Hard mode either. As everyone else said, should be and was used as strength/defensive support bot. Occasionally was sent out as a puppet to draw aggro. I stole his Silver Lance in the prologue (He'll probably do enough damage to finish off enemies with another weapon anyways) so I could pawn it for some delicious Iron, but you may want to keep it in case if you really favor a lance user that early in the game, or if you want added chance to kill someone.

Reclassing is what it is. I liked Fire Emblem when you knew there were defined limits that units could reach, and each character had a defined role, and I also liked Fire Emblem when it introduced more customization of abilities, specializations, and generally gave players free reign over their party. I hated Fire Emblem's RNG at times, and abused or restarted and did all I could to get perfect stats back when you either played the story or abused the arena, and I hated Fire Emblem's stat-maximization through reclassing. Both systems have their merits and flaws. But in the end, archetypes and growths dominate, and my jaunts into other classes are short-lived, as I usually revert back to the promoted class that the character fits, just as the designers at Intelligent Systems foresaw and respected with their previous definitions of certain character roles in games where you couldn't reclass. Unless if they're a child or the avatar, in which case they are utterly broken and destroy all in their path.

I've avoided FE:A and all them newfangled remakes for quite some time, only playing GBA hacks and whatnot. Then I decided to buy it, and have been absorbed into the vortex that is FE:A. I am now some hours into the game and have just beaten "Hard" mode, and plan on entering into Lunatic mode with a female MU, asset Resistance, flaw HP, and need to plan the best team for Lunatic gameplay. Here are some rules I've set for myself: -Cannot play any DLC maps before Endgame besides The Golden Gaffe (Bullion grinding, woohoo). -Can only play through the main story, Paralogues, Reeking Boxes, and single instances of each Spotpass team before Endgame. -No egregious abuse of Reeking Boxes for mass level ups. -Cannot allow any characters to die (lolwat who would do that anyways). -Only use original characters, no DLC characters as role-fillers. Stuff I want to know: -Best pairings? Reasons optional and helpful. Subjective, but what isn't? Here's a convenient pre-made template, with fill-ins for the fathers: Female Avatar + Chrom = Lucina / Morgan Cherche + Gregor = Gerome Olivia + F = Inigo Lissa + F = Owain Maribelle + F = Brady Cordelia + F = Severa Sully + F = Kjelle Tharja + F = Noire Nowi + F = Nah Sumia + F = Cynthia Miriel + F = Laurent -Recruitment times for children. All I can remember from trawling the Internet was that Lucina is the first recruited child and comes in after chapter 12. Or 13. I am otherwise ignorant of the chapter limitations before children paralogues become available, since I hadn't established many romantic relationships throughout the progress of the game. -Class optimization. Perhaps a better question to answer is: What classes DON'T my characters need to become, on account of their skills being useless for that character/their child? I'm particularly interested in long-term benefits and can play around momentary setbacks (e.g: I would continuously Second Seal a character into unpromoted classes to farm stats and necessary skills, against the benefits of a promoted class with better combat survivability). Format I used: Donnel: Villager -> Mercenary -> Fighter -> Bow Knight -> Hero -> Warrior -Inheritance. Some people make the argument that children always inherit their parent's classes, save for gender-specific stuff, so you should pass that. On the other hand, some people say that certain gender-locked skills, like Counter, are situational and unhelpful to certain characters (Counter for tanky Kjelle). In general, what should the mother and father pass to their child? I've tended to lean towards the level 15 promoted unit skills (Pass>Lethality, Swordfaire>Astra, on the basis of minimizing the amount of time a character spends in the dinky classes of Assassin/Swordmaster). -Things to watch out for in Lunatic. Is anything different, aside from the stats and skills? Are certain skills less useful or necessary? Is what I've set down thus far inherently flawed? Thanks for helping, and for any helpful information!

[spoiler=I am a Walrus]It was so sad how Raven died...People with maxed stats should never die. He ran out of swords to stab people with. As for how nobody cared about Heath, nobody cared about Shen either. But they both died on the battlefield (probably), while Raven was hauled in front of Arcard and executed (dat crit). Not sure how that would interfere with them getting buried though. Either way, Erk is just amazing. He just sits in the back and throws Bolting at all the male characters, then steps in and grabs Priscilla when they're out of the picture. Brilliant! (Oh, except for Lucius. But maybe the distance confused him.)

Well, more detail regarding Pent's Tale: Pent's Tale: First and foremost, when I beat the chapter, the message "A new Tale was unlocked" appeared. Then the game reset, and I can't progress past that.This is in the latest Beta (B-7), and prevents me from accessing anything past that. I think it may have been because I moved the Forblaze around slightly. The Forblaze is still in Pent's inventory, and it's equipped, but I simply can't access the next cutscene in the chain because the Forblaze can't be removed from Pent's inventory, forcing a restart. I've tried leaving a slot empty in Pent's inventory, I've tried beating the chapter with other characters (When I clear with Renault, the chapter doesn't restart. Instead, it freezes me right after Renault disappears from the map tile during the dialogue with Pent). The only thing I haven't tried is retrying the chapter, which I will do in just a second. Erk lacks a death quote in Pent/Raven's Tale (the latter maybe being the cause of the former?). The Rune Bow no longer inflicts Silence. EDIT: The results vary between freezing and restarting. Once, an error popped up about BIOS files missing or something. Also, I restarted the chapter, to no avail. I still get stuck at the garden scene. Maybe patching got messed up or something... Here's a savestate: http://www.mediafire.com/download/rm9ogm76g2qtysd/Elibian_Nights_Beta1.sg1 Secondly, the tale is...well, really nice. All the new items and spells change the gameplay around in new and entertaining ways, the addition of the enemy that triggers Basiliskglance is a nice touch (easily written OC named morph), especially with that Heaven Seal (although I really wish the preceding text was skippable), and the story is plausible and solid. My only gripe is that Ephidel's battle sprite still has hair, where his actual appearance shows him with little to none. But limited resources, take what you can get, etc. I've played this thing several times in the past and several times now, and I've yet to get bored of it. Eliwood's Tale: You guys are definitely right about the Silver Lance and the Espontoon. I just had crap inventory management at the time.

I'm sort of glad to finally get to play a mostly complete version of the hack. I'll say up front that I've played v4, v5, and some of the jacked up v6 beta. So I have some extensive experience with the earlier tales. Lyn's Tale: Too easy. I prefer to think of it as a staging point for training up Rath and Lyn for Rath's Tale. I'm going to praise the Ambush mechanic, for a couple of reasons: 1). The enemies are placed in a way and have stats such that they will provide immediate challenges, but minimal danger. 2). You can control when the Ambush happens. Instead of rushing up to meet Rath immediately, you can move to the right to place Lyn within Florina's range as soon as she shows up, gaining you the Delphi Amulet at an earlier stage. This also places Rath, Prasad, and the allied Kutolah closer to the river, so the crush of red units up north will be broken easier. 3). It's a damn ambush mechanic. Main criticisms: 1). Wallace is useless. I have trouble getting him killed, but he has trouble killing others as well. He only exists for flavor, really. My recommendation is giving him ranged weapons and placing him closer to the bridge. 2). Guy and Dayan should join on the Player Phase right after the ambush. If they're coming up right behind the ambushing Djute, it seems unfitting that they should suddenly launch themselves into range of being attacked, but without the capability to be controlled by the player first. Their first few fights are practically scripted, because they join up right before the enemy phase, making them a nuisance. 3). Some of the talk events aren't immediately obvious, yet some of them necessary for the better survival of some units. Solvable by, perhaps, a brief conversation between Lyn and her companions concerning seeing Florina in the distance, and how Lyn has a niiiice Delphi Shield to give away. Rath's Tale: Now we're onto the serious stuff. Things that make the chapter easier: 1). Rath is OP with his 1-3 bow and his high stats. Unfortunately, he's just as vulnerable to Sleep and Berserk as the next man. 2). Florina. If you started her with the Delphi Shield from the previous chapter, things are a lot easier. Otherwise, she's a total liability against the Warriors with the Longbows, and gets hampered by the Wyvern Lords. She can scout, kill the godawful staff Druids, and get those annoying chests. 3). Lyn gets released in this Beta, something not present in previous versions. She and Toni add much needed muscle to the team. Between the Mani Katti, the Sol Katti, the Amatsu, and the Swift...Well, she's a killing machine. Things that make this godawful hard: 1). I can't see. Oh my god, I seriously can't see. Props to you, Arch. 2). The druids, the longbows, and the Pavor bow. God, they're awful. But they're completely fair, because the chapter is a lot easier now due to the addition of the new characters and the reduction of the numbers of those godawful enemies. The one thing that might make the Druids fairer is a Restore staff on Niime and two Salves on some others. Otherwise, the players are totally at the mercy of the enemies. Kent's Tale: Downright difficult. You only get a few units, and whatsherface is well guarded and doesn't move unless if its with her honor guard. I only played it once, and played to win. Oh, and to kill the hell out of the Marquis of Tuscana, who is downright weak. Plus, the houses are just the ones around Castle Caelin. If only that Heavy Lance were more useful. My main difficulty is with how Lyn and Florina have a hard time getting around, because there's always a damn enemy in the way, but that's more aimless bitching than tactical difficulty. Eliwood's Tale: I still have trouble with maximizing efficiency on this chapter, and winning within 14 turns. Those berserkers, yes. They're definitely a pain in the ass, considering Harken and Isadora use swords, Eliwood, who pairs with Marcus, uses swords, and Lowen downright sucks, but has to always follow Rebecca around. I hate those Swordslayer Berserkers, because there's simply no effective way of dealing with them, then with the Runesword Myrmidon and the druid afterwards. If there were some method of reducing the walking time (aka, less hallway with redundant chests in), I'd be in for it. Oh, and that staircase mechanic is...not as handy as I'd like. Merlinus' Tale: Nothing to say. It is what it is, and not much else. The balancing is pretty good, with Dart being a glass cannon, the snipers being less powerful than before, but still formidable, and the other buffoons being useless fools. My main criticism is with the villages being abandoned at the point they are rebuilt. There's little to be gained by revisiting him, and there are enemies to deal with before villages can be visited. It isn't much of a map, or a chapter. I sort of wish it incorporated some pre-existing elements of Chapter 1 of Eliwood's Tale, but there aren't ruined versions of the villages utilized in that chapter. Raven's Tale: A bloody nuisance at first, and needs obvious balancing at the second stage. Gotta kill off the priests healing Alastor, and wish fervently for Raven to suddenly get a better sword (Berveil becomes a lifesaver). There should definitely be some sort of achievement, or a reward for Shen, for revisiting his damn house. Because I went down there, and all I got was a Silver Bow for my pains, which is practically useless to Geitz. I managed to off both Erk and Arcard. If there were some exceptionally strong units at chokepoints, better than those merely annoying ballisticians. The map and the objectives seem somewhat unsuited to survival, given the positioning, which seems more fitting for a...different sort of map. There are no defined rewards for advancing, other than the sole pleasure derived by killing that which is not meant to be killed. The map is nice, but not the right sort of map. I've replayed too much of the hack to stomach the challenge of the newer chapters. More to come later. These come merely as suggestions, and ones based only on a few replays.

Before I begin, I would like to extend an apology to everyone who was offended by what I said earlier. I only offered criticisms of the hack in my earlier post. You guys have worked on this project on and off for years now, and the progress shows. Dream of Five stands head and shoulders above many other hacks, some of which are just as incomplete, but less ambitious in scope and still in infancy, and others being full-fledged, with dry dialogue and unoriginal portraits. The complexity, the feel, the...everything. There's a reason why Dream of Five is one of the most viewed threads in the Rom hacking forum: It's damn good, even when incomplete. I have only the deepest respect for anyone capable of creating a hack like Dream of Five. Four turns, maybe, to get to them both, but I had to get rid of the enemies in the way. The chapter had a lot of enemy chokepoints, and whenever you killed someone, another annoying Knight or Steel Sword Cavalier stepped into his place. Then the middle turned into an explosive anthill. I can't take FE8 seriously after playing GhebFE. I guess I shouldn't talk about how FE games and hacks are so fast-paced then, because that's the way FE works. Not to mention every chapter brings in enough reinforcements to constitute some actual small armies. Hooray for healing items and healing staves. Minor tweaks are minor. Hacks take a long time to make, especially because revisions happen. Oh, and today is FEE3...I think. Auguries are rarely helpful, ever. I guess the most helpful thing they could say is "Expect this battle to take a long time". I can understand where your priorities lie (Not with malleable writing dependent on other factors that you don't control). Funny thing, because when you break into people's houses in Chapter 5, weapon steeped with blood (unless if you wiped it on the doormat), the inhabitants say things like "Thieves eyes are good for night fog!", which I assume you've worked out. I'm ashamed I didn't notice things like this, which are actually worthy of correction. Touche. I guess I can't argue that point. What I'm trying to get across is that I like to see Lord of the Rings-type setups: Lots of superficial minor lords who don't do jack squat except get mowed by the protagonists. (Not that this really happened in LotR. Mostly happened in the lore, recounted by the Silmarillion) I doubt Do5 will ever have anything like that. Just bandits, some major enemy lords. Good stuff. Not to mention that LotR-esque rarely works, since it often seems superficially complex and builds so much detail that the audience loses interest, finding themselves incapable of immersing themselves in the story. The cutscenes, as I've read them, take maybe two to three minutes. The battles, in comparison, take far longer. I think there's enough time to squeeze in more dialogue (although FE games tend to keep the talking short and the happenings quick, as everything happens on the world map, then on the battlefield).The principal reason why I am arguing for "more writing, etc" is for immersion. Sure, it's a tale being told by a bard, but I think that the content as is probably constitutes enough for three bard's tales. Frankly, at this point, after reading the counterarguments, I'm not even remotely interested in advocating anything anymore. I probably need a better sense of judgment. I meant no offense when I said that I wasn't enjoying the hack. I felt that I've been playing Fire Emblem games wrong this whole time, relying on high growths and reckless one-man killing machines (namely, I think I've overplayed The Constellation of TLP. Every one of my characters is level 30 and has maxed stats). This hack forces the player to move more slowly and cautiously, else they pay the price. Hell, I should probably thank you guys for reorienting my standards. I seem to be implying that I like to be spoonfed information like a dribbling supplicant. I assure you that this is not the case. The political and social situations of the three nations visited thus far are easily visible via the actions of its inhabitants, with the culture of Vishara no less familiar through Arcus and some houses in Chapter 4. The past of the world of Do5 is equally as evident, with an event similar to The Scouring taking place. Other in-game events were just as obvious through the existing writing, and no real confusion remained. The highest form of writing is that which leaves the reader little to work with, but illustrates a vast world of wonder. A world, when meticulously described, loses its charm of mystery, and leaves no imagination to the reader. When I was writing my previous post, finding legitimate criticisms was as difficult as finding the Master Seal. In the end, I could do neither. Perhaps my grievances lie with the seeming lack of overarching antagonist (which isn't a problem at all). It is an error on my part to tell you that the existing auguries should be changed to reflect that reinforcements will appear at all, since it seems to be an FE fundamental to leave guards for your tent at all times. Much of what I say is done in inexperience, for I've never hacked and have only ever played a few hacks. Thus, my input is less valuable.

I've played DoF twice through now, on both routes (but remember little of the Onduris route, due to time gaps), and now I finally have things to say. I'll start with the auguries. I can only remember two specific examples: In chapter 13A, nothing was said of the enemy tactics. The last message was especially vague. Something along the lines of doing what I've done before, that'll get me through..?I rushed the bosses within six turns and had to wait for Chester and Adrian to putter around to the chests before ending their miserable lives. Suddenly, surprise reinforcements everywhere. Chester had to dodge half a dozen cavaliers and half a dozen shamans for several turns before I could extract him from the situation. (That, and I didn't want to kill them with anyone who was level 20). The druid boss ran away when he got low on health. Not inseparable after all. The auguries were largely unhelpful and anything gained from it could have been just as easily gained by studying the map for ten seconds. They could be rewritten to include more helpful things. We are paying a (refundable) fee of 50 gold, after all. Unless if you want to make her as useless as Renair says she is. The only helpful augury I can remember was 12A, revealing an item I previously hadn't known to exist. I will apologize in advance if I say anything that has been changed by the new writer Eclipse. I don't follow this thread with bead-eye intensity. The writing of the hack is lopsided. You're sitting around, killing plot devices as per all Fire Emblem hacks, when you are suddenly thrust into the midst of things. I would say that the Aukema chapters aren't bad in terms of pacing. The first journal entry (or was it some other text) mentions, right off the bat, that Aukema is in the middle of a civil war. Sets the background well and compliments the following attacks by Farrell. Only nit-pick I can call off the top of my head is the time-skip after Garath is wounded by Sarka. Inserting one of those box things saying "A few days later" helps with the consistency of the hack. Not saying that everyone is an imbecilic moron who can't figure out what's going on within a line of dialogue, but there's nothing more distracting than inconsistency. However, the exposition falls short in the earlier chapters when it comes to Onduris and Musain. Nothing of their situations is mentioned by any text that I've seen (I don't think I've been completionist though) up until the chapter split. I would've liked to know about the tyrannical usurper Guillaume and the Triumvirate behind the foolish Jinsei before clasping eyes on them. After playing both routes, the stories feel too fast-paced and limited in scope. It feels like Musain has no nobles other than Uther and Enjolras' relatives. Many of the chapter bosses, such as Narvanh and Prevalh had little to no characterization and dialogue. This is easily accomplished within the scope of a single chapter. Take Uhai of FE7 as an example. He appears in one chapter (the other one doesn't count, due to total lack of dialogue), but you understand his honor, his respect for the field of battle, and something of his heritage on the tribal plains. We don't receive a total lack of exposition (I was going to say "Denning", but Denning actually has backstory, albeit one that makes him a non-character), nor do we get a two-bit digression into how he grew up in some clan and found the Black Fang. In short, I think it'd be nice if I wasn't constantly fighting faceless foes. As for pacing, breaking the almost absolute hold of tyrants within eight chapters is a bit quick, especially compared to what was accomplished in the preceding six chapters (Pretty much, beating up some bandits then hopping the border). It isn't necessary to add more chapters, because they'd be dead weight if they had as much content as the existing eight chapters. Instead, fill every existing chapter with detail, as to give the illusion of longevity and deep-rooted histories. Speaking of faces, I like everything about the graphics. But I'm not much of a judge on that part. Sadly, I can't say anything about Onduris and don't want to replay it. I think I liked it much more than I liked Musain, although I felt that the exposition was a bit lacking in some respects. It is mentioned once that any swordsman can challenge Jinsei to the throne, and it doesn't sound like he was too bothered by idiots like those. Minor details of what the triumvirate does to get rid of the stream of challenges would fit in easily (A trial of some sort). In addition, I was annoyed that there was a completely uneventful time skip between 7B and 8B (Arrival in Onduris to meeting Seymour in some town). The map scene text mentions that they work as mercenaries for some time until, one day...*queue background of moving forest and blue ribbon with text*. What bothers me is how the group made no money (could have easily spent some on living expenses), and more so, the lack of reference to the time-skip's occurrence. The map scene's text was entirely redundant, because the words could have been replaced with ("After their latest scrape with Aukeman forces and the border watch of Onduris, the group hurried towards the fat and ugly village on the horizon, hoping that their legs would stop aching if they could just rest for more than a minute. Alas, they were to find no respite in a town without an arena, as annoying and stupid bandits that only give 5 EXP lurked beyond the mountains to the west."). Finally, the writing I disliked more than the auguries, and even more than the overarching plot, was everything between the end of the chapter and the chapter title scene. The map scenes. Many are awkwardly written, as the usage of some obscure words contrasts harshly with minor grammatical errors, creating the impression of a narrator who tries to be both dramatic and intellectual, but fails at both. Given, it's pretty hard to write the map scene text (As you can tell by my mangled attempt in the paragraph above), but they would read better if they were direct. Some of their inherent flaws can be attributed to the pacing. Given that all parts of the writing are interconnected, and the fact that the storyline is also linked to the existing chapters, much of what I've seen is difficult to fix without tearing some parts out or modifying what has been written. I might say more, but I can't bear to play this hack any longer (I pity the testers), at least without pay. (Pleasure normally works as payment, but for some reason, it has been somewhat lacking). Specific examples fresh off my Musain playthrough include the text given by the mage brothers after their defeat in 13A. They say "in the memory of the men we once were". But they were never much of anything, given that Guillaume took them off the streets and raised them in the dungeons. Better would be "in the memory of the men we could have been". One of them also says that they were "infused with power, but all it does was drive us mad with power". No need for a repetition of power. Guillaume also says "You should have stayed in capture" to Renair. I'm not sure if what the house guard says ("But the enemy has our king under capture") is quite right either. He then goes on to say "Now let's tear this bastard a new arsehole", which isn't quite right, unless if Renair's motley band is actually one person. I'll post later, showing some screens for how my units turned out and discussing gameplay and such.

Have Renault stand in front of the sword-thing in Pent's Tale. By sword thing, I mean where the Druid with the Fimbulvetr was. You'll know you're doing it right if Renault says a text thing after waiting there.

I believe I clicked on the old thread first. I didn't even know there was a new thread until a while later. After reading the last few pages of the old thread in frustration, I assumed you had moved shop to the blog, or Cafe, or something. Then I found out about this thread and was happy when I saw what was in it. It was probably for the best that I played both 4.0 and 5.0, since 4.0 and some stuff that 5.0 did not. I saw that, but pretty much failed to comprehend it. Unfortunately, I had no clue which tales were which. As I read through the thread, names and numbers continuously jumped around, and so I gave up. However, I should've understood from "1-4 and their Gaidens" to mean that there were only seven to eight chapters in the existing release, tops. So that was a mistake on my part. Thanks for pointing that out. I would have enjoyed reading about the project, if it weren't for the lack of a guide, the time of night, and the amount of time I'd spend looking for one. This is an understatement of my interest, since I was a fairly engaged History student. It appealed to both the intellectual and the social aspects of me, since the intellectual analyzed the recursive development of history, and the social enjoyed the life stories of historical figures. In a sense, it was like a reality TV show (words that I hesitate to use). Again, the lack of a guide is my primary problem. I think I've been coddled by TLP's guide, since it tells you how to unlock the gaidens, the secrets, the characters etc. The only thing it doesn't have is the location of the secret shops, which don't have anything important and are found within a Google search. I'm glad to hear that the upcoming v6 release (something to look forward to this summer) will be a mostly finished product, with creative liberties coming in for patches afterwards. To be frank, it was sort of hard to come up with something that you didn't cover. Maybe I need to replay FE7 and play FE6, as there are a lot of unused name drops that could be exploited, or something. Even if they're not mentioned, they could be created. However, I feel that you've covered Elibe pretty well, speaking from "I'm looking at a map" perspective. No problem, glad to have helped. I'd also like to add that I appreciate the blog posts. Building from my previously stated standpoint, they're a glimpse into the changing development of this hack, and give deeper insight into some of the characters (such as Dawson or ideas for Efta). Also, it would be amazing if I knew how to add names to quotes (or knew how to quote segments of what someone was saying with the Quote at the bottom).

After playing some other touted Fire Emblem hacks, of which I shall make no mention lest derailing happen, I come to this. If you don't know who I am, that's because I'm a nobody in Serenes. Where do I begin with this. After reading about thirty+ pages of the old thread and the new thread, I am extremely weary. There is no defined guide, the game is changed per release (I played 4.0, realized it was outdated when Zealot's chapter bugged out, then progressed to 5.0), and I've spent as much time actually playing the hack as I've spent looking for answers to questions about the hack. This speaks enough about what I think of the hack. I agree with the TV Tropes page when I say that this hack is ambitious, both in terms of writing and coding, probably a result of Arch's rightfully high standards. Original (at least to Fire Emblem afaik*) innovations and passable, logically reasoned bridging between FE6 and FE7? Incredible. My version is "v 5.0", UPS file last edited date 7/2/2012. I downloaded it from the download page in the Elibian Nights blog. My main questions are: Also, to unfortunately comment on the most recent episode of bickering, I've got to say that the whole thing could have been resolved with less ad hominem. But then you'd all be soulless automatons and not the colorful posters of Serenes with a history of verbal violence. I'd say "Child of the Tenth Month" (ack, extensive name that is probably shortened by people who know him/her) explained the situation the best to Nayr, who had questions that would be valid for a poster with an incorrect characterization of Hector and Dawson. This and the other Nayr conflict I've read (back on the old thread, to do with replacing Nayr's contributions), really highlight a trade-off in detail: I either get hugely annoyed by the unnecessary info I have to sift through to find stuff about "how to unlock so and so", but get a better idea of the project's history and close-to first hand experience of the development of the hack, or I read a synopsis that outlines salient points but is comparatively shallow in evidence. It's the difference between seeing Robespierre's Reign of Terror and reading about it. Back on topic here, I'd like to close with suggestions about the hack's direction. I agree with Arch's sentiments on keeping the project short and focused, lest it get bloated with increasingly outlandish ideas. The main problem with most Fire Emblem hacks is that they're incomplete quality hacks, or complete rubbish hacks (Not complete rubbish, but completed and rubbish). I'd say that Arch's hack afaik* extends the greatest prospect of timely completion and high quality. What concepts have been introduced cover FE7 canon pretty well. The continents and countries are fairly well documented. The only thing I could find amiss is the development of the St. Elimine church, which I largely suspect is due to me not having played FE6 *gets shot*. The asterisks mark places where I make statements based on my knowledge of all of Fire Emblem. At the moment, my knowledge is confined to FE7 and FE8, and some hacks. Therefore, my knowledge is fairly limited, and statements derived from that knowledge are probably faulty. I apologize for anything that I've said that is offensive or demonstrative of ignorance. I mean only to streamline information flow to people who aren't avid members of the Fire Emblem fandom, and to also understand what I'm playing.

I am really starting to get a sense of the depth of this hack after looking at the Secrets. Incredible work, Blazer. By the way, I'm getting this weird glitch on 13B where I wait too long (28 turns) and a Sage and two Mages show up, and then my game freezes. I restarted, and the next time it happened, I got something about BIOS? I'm assuming an event was supposed to happen, but didn't. Anyone know how to fix this? Why 28 turns? Was getting EXP. My Eduardo was going to be the next Siegfried.

ohmahgawd that should be renair's promoted sprite. yesplz. Speaking of which, this return to Aukema re-combination of the two arcs is looking promising. I can't believe we still have to go through Gral Sethes and Vishara. And maybe Aukema. It's such a shame that there's only going to be 30~ish chapters, but I'm sure you guys will compensate with really big maps and lots of story events. Seriously, imo, the maps are huge, and the way things are turning out, I doubt intricate, micro-management based maps, possibly indoor, with unique gimmicks, will be featured.

Quoted Thanks for the info. Messing around with all the renamed classes really gives a bunch of interesting results. I'm not going to ask for "WHO GETS CUSTOM ANIMATIONS DURRR" because that's a tedious task and a long list and a whatnot. This project has already given me plenty of pleasant surprises, so let it give me some more! Also, Saskia?