What are things you want/don't want in hacks?

[ThatGuyDownTheStreet]

Over the past couple of days I was wondering about possibly starting a simple FE7 hack(don't quite know yet) and it got me thinking, what do you guys like in hacks? Or maybe there is something you don't like in hacks? Think of things that you know absolutely catch your attention or things that have the right kind of touch or anything that fits this question in general.

Thanks for your time!

[AstraLunaSol]

Creative Story/Clever engineering of events/Good graphics are things that I generally enjoy, good level of difficulty too.

I generally don't like things that break Canon and unoriginal story.

[Defeatist Elitist]

Interesting added gameplay is mostly what I like. I like it when the way the game functions is changed. Maybe you just use non standard class set ups, or maybe growths are wierd, or you just have more classes, any of that is fine. I just really like gameplay changes.

[Lord Glenn]

Astra hit most of the good key points on the head. Personally, I'm a huge proponent of hacks that are proficient in almost every area:

1. Original story and characters - New continent, new lore, no crossovers, etc. While I'll occasionally support projects that don't meet this, I'm more likely to support ones that do. For instance, Elibean Nights loses points here since it's adding on to what FE7 already has brought to the table. But, it does everything else quite superbly.
   
2. New and consistent graphics - Portraits, icons, templates, maps, world map, etc. Being a spriter, graphics make up most of what I do. A hack that keeps a consistent design in all of its sprite work and actively seeks to change each facet that the base game had will undoubtedly trump anything that has stock graphics in it.
   
3. Gameplay changes - Events, new objectives, new items, etc. This is the broadest category, I feel. Anything that makes the hack stand out and be unique is a plus. Unique names, something that shows a large amount of planning behind it, etc. Seeing something that's been done in twenty other hacks (even ones that have died/failed) only makes it more likely that I'll look at yours and pass on by since it'll only be old news.
   
4. BALANCE - This is an all-encompassing category. If I'm playing a hack, it should challenging and not make me curse the hacker for being a dumbass and throwing level 20 promoted enemies with capped stats at me in every level (exaggerated). An ideal hack has a difficulty around FE6 or FE9 (Normal and Hard, in both cases); it can't be a cakewalk, but it also shouldn't make me want to quit immediately. Also, I expect there to be some semblance of statistical balance in character stats, growths, and item stats.
   

There was something else I wanted to touch on, but I can't remember what it was after typing all of this out. Needless to say, while I expect many things from what I would deem a hack that I like, I don't necessarily expect everyone to hit all of them. And, I certainly don't expect someone to hit all of them on the first go around. Like regular software development, hacks are an iterative process. You make a version, release it, get feedback, fix stuff, add new stuff, and repeat the process. As long as someone is willing to put the effort in and continue to improve what they're offering, then they can eventually produce something that meets what I feel a truly great hack should be.

[Celice]

New gameplay is most important for all the hacks I've played. Everything else can screw off so long as the gameplay is new and fun. I'm not gonna sit through the same game just to see a new story myself :/

I don't like hacks which try to radically change the game into something else--changing Tetris into Panel de Pon. It's cool, but it's pretty wasteful. Panel de Pon's right there--something more creative and useful could be made than remaking something which already exists.

[Junkhead]

What Astra said, regarding the plot. I don't like it when it's based on an overpowered Lord that the character happens to be based on the person who made the hack. This happens alot. I also like a good difficulty to hack. I like it hard. And not just a few tweakings that will make people think it's hard.

[Parrhesia]

A story, first and foremost, and a GOOD one at that. The gameplay's been done, I need something to make me feel strongly about it. Of course, the gameplay itself matters too, but as long as it's entertaining I'll give intricacies a miss. Overbalance itself irks me. And finally, graphics need to be good enough so they don't actively detract from the story. Simple but well-executed three-part splices with recolouring is okay. Putting Zagan's head with FE6!Bartre's 'stache on Erk's torso and using lime green, baby blue and pink is not, nor is calling the finished product an 'Axeon'.

If it fucks with canon INEPTLY then it's a black mark (Elibian Nights, I feel, avoided this). If the world-building is shit, black mark. If nations are defined entirely by 'it has myrmidons!' black mark. If it uses the unused FeMerc mapsprite with the jerky arms and the hunchback, black mark. If it has a female archer with six Con or under, eighteen black marks. This is an extensive list and I could go on for some time.

[the cool guy]

A good story is NEEDED (or fun if you can make it really fun). gameplay is needed. Difficlity gotta be like "you can win without savestates but it's going to be hard (and even worse if you to keep all your characters.) About characters, they need to serve a good purpuse all of them and NO overpowered characters. Portraits needs to be custom, new animations won't hurt too. Reusing characters can be allowed in a crossover WITH custom maps and events, if the characters have the same personality. Also i like when many demos comes out. that shouuld do the trick.

Edited April 23, 2011 by the cool guy

[Anouleth]

Storyline doesn't really matter since I'll skip, but it shouldn't be aggressively bad (with Mary-Sue protagonist or stupid 'plot twists'). Having well-made portraits is pretty important.

I think that what's most important is level design. Dream of Five was weak, for instance, because the map design was bad, with extremely low enemy density. The enemy density in Elibean Nights is much better, but I didn't like the way that enemies spawned almost on top of you in Tale 3 without much warning.

Having a Sword Armour with the ability to Triangle Attack is most important, though. That elevates a hack from merely 'good' to 'perfect'.

[Chocolate Kitty]

I think that what's most important is level design. Dream of Five was weak, for instance, because the map design was bad, with extremely low enemy density.

Having a Sword Armour with the ability to Triangle Attack is most important, though. That elevates a hack from merely 'good' to 'perfect'.

Bold: Expound?

Underline: I'm assuming joke?

Edited April 23, 2011 by Hero of Time

[Anouleth]

Bold: Expound?

Underline: I'm assuming joke?

The maps were too big, too early, with too few enemies.

And it's only half a joke. Having Triangle Attack Arden was extremely fun.

[Chocolate Kitty]

Hrmm, I see I see...

[Mekkah]

What tends to ruin a hack for me is a really obvious splice/recolor. That's not your new oh so creative character you nitwit, that's Raven/Ephraim/Innes with some hair dye!

[Caliban of Sycorax]

I'm a sucker for plots and good ones, at that. Characters who are well-planned, relevant (not "oh, hey! I'm gonna join you now because of X, Y, and Z and never speak again for the rest of the fucking game except when I die!"), and interesting, no Mary Sues. Good grammar and syntax too, because of my grammar nazi status. Something that's new, let's not just see Fire Emblem with some new graphics. I don't care horribly for graphics changes unless they're that good and that consistent.

[weso12]

There are quite a few things a good hack needs

1. Custom Events and Map: I hate when a hack just feels like "Fire Emblem 7 with a new coat of paint)

2. Good Map Design: No tile spam, no "one road, that leads to one castle"

3. Original Plot: I don't like seeing plots that have been a million times before, something new and creative

4. CHARACTER BALANCE: Make sure all the characters are usable but not broken

That pretty much all I can think of I will edit this post if I can think of anything new

[Crimson Red]

new storyline/plot, then new gameplay, then new graphics, to be broad. Since we're all using Elibian Nights as an example... it may use the same characters, but it has a new storyline, new gameplay, AND new graphics. It also has a little new music and other new features, which I find interesting and important to the success of a hack.

Of course, we can't exactly teach to you creative. Most of creativity comes in A) the storyline and B) gameplay. Graphics only get so creative and they get boring relatively quickly, so IMO, as long as they don't distract from the game, they don't need to much attention.

e.g., add sidequests with interesting requirements.

Make unique bosses--either give them a new class, a unique weapon, a very good background story to them (that is developed in multiple chapters), or even a gameplay experience (for example, the Chapter 27 Boss in Tactics Universe likes to warp around). Granted, if you don't know ASM, most of the new gameplay experiences will come from events, which is why people like Arch and I really feel it is necessary to get a good grasp on events and then manipulate them to give your players new experiences--making those new experiences is up to your creativity... just stealing the original game's ideas or other people's ideas (seizing multiple castles, multiple main characters, weather, time of day, sending supplies to villages, whatever) won't get you a ton of points, although it does beat the generic "LET'S GO ATTACK AND SEIZE THE CASTLE WITH RANDOM BROKEN CHARACTERS THAT LOOK LIKE SPLICES MADE IN 2 MINUTES WHO JOIN FOR NO REASON", even if they are not 100% original ideas (then again, it's hard to find original ideas, so don't take me too harshly... XP).

[KingKomodo]

Good storyline and I really like it when you add new stuff, I LOVE it when people add brand new classes, like if someone was to replace every class in the game I, personally, think that would be the most EPIC thing in the universe, because it's brand new. I just love it when something is new.