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Curse of the Emblem


Felover3
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Hello, potential player of CotE (50th edition)! Let's run some things real quick before I go over the patch, mk?

This hack is a solo project.

What does that mean? Well, that means that unless I somehow become a savant overnight, things like maps and sprites won't be 100% perfect the moment I make them, and overall this hack will look graphically inferior to the modern "team" project that seems to flood the market of hacks that are actually played. But don't thing that means it's going to be horrible, as there are ways of fixing those things.

This is the second edition of CotE in Fire Emblem 7

What does this mean? Well, that's silly. This hack, way before many of you even starting hacking yourselves or went to forums like these, this hack was done in Fire Emblem 6. Of course, throughout the years (about 5 or so), I was never able to get very far as FE6 hacking had lagged far behind FE7 hacking until about a year back. Heck, the first released versions (which will be posted along with a grand history video eventually), was done using only a hex editor and some of the first FE6 modules. It still had a custom map and such, but was very poorly made overall (I made it around the 6th grade, for time's sake). The reason this hack is finally making the switch to FE7 for now is that certain bugs in FE6 hacking that are caused by using combinations of utilities still exist and will most likely exist forever simply due to the odd nature of FE6's makeup. The only other edition of CotE to exist as a FE7 "hack" was a recolor/text hack made when XVI32 was still the hex editor of choice, and SNES palette was the only way of changing colors. But enough about that.

50th anniversary? Huh?

Well, if you noticed above, this hack has been on and off for many years now. To date, there have been about 50 restarts of this hack, none of them progressing beyond chapter 2. The reason for this was usually advent of new techniques or tools, or simple desire to create a better product. Since this version is the 50th, I decided that this would be it's final remake. For better or for worse, this version will be the one completed (barring some super advent of technique or catastrophe). While individual chapters or sections might be redone, the greater whole of this version will be the final one before I begin on a new project.

That's the end of the boring history for now

So let's talk about the features of this hack overall that would lead people to play it. These are not patch specific, and are merely planned features at various stages of implementation:

1. Custom story spanning 28~ish chapters

2. Custom events

3. Custom maps

4. Custom* Portraits (custom meaning new here, not FC portraits inherently)

But of course, most people EXPECT those features of a hack in today's world it seems. So let's talk more about gimmicks:

1. 0 LCK for all player characters. This ties into the story and brings a new advent of risk and strategy to the game. No longer are criticals only coming from your side, they are now an ever present, if slight, risk.

2. Imported animations over from FE6 and 8 to fill in things that FE7 does not have inherently. While the loss of the mamukute jeigan is unfortunate, other classes can be imported rather easily.

3. GrimDark plot with a touch of humor for good measure (effect may not be that, depending on how well I write a given chapter)

4. One of the oldest ongoing hacks in FEditing history (Ace's hack may superscede it if it is still around)

That's all grand and stuff, but what's in the patch right now?

The current patch is currently NOT a final product in any form of the word. But currently the version is .01 and contains the following:

  • Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2
  • All player characters sprited and palette'd up through chapter 2
  • Limited icon changes
  • Filler Prologue map
  • Mediocre Ch2 and 3 map

What's planned for next patch at the least? Well, it will be planned to have:

  • Prologue-Chapter 10 completed
  • All player characters up to that point completed
  • Some boss character to have sprites
  • Some maps to be finalized
  • Corrections to text
  • Other balance changes based on feedback

Oh, and one more thing before I give a link to the current patch.

Feedback

As you might have guessed by now, I know a lot of things in this hack are not perfect. However, stating things like "Dis hack sux" or "Your sprites/maps are horrible" does not allow me to create a better game. If you cannot be bothered to give meaningful advice (besides "looking at other sprites/maps", which is not specific enough to warrant any response) please don't bother. If you'd like to do better (as I'm sure some of you can), and you don't think I'll ever be able to fix something, feel free to donate a map/sprite to the project. Before you do so, I'd ask you PM me first in case others are doing the same, or if certain things need to stay in tact for map's sake. Additionally, if you'd like to donate, I'd also ask that you'd be willing to donate until the completion of the project, as I'd rather not have to spend a bunch of time removing donations because a person finally decides they don't want to. If it's a minor donation, such as a weapon icon, I'll be more than willing to delete it. If you decide that you'd like to remake all my maps then decide that you hate my guts, I'd rather you not contribute at all. Thanks in advance.

Anyways, here's the current patch:

Patch .001

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You have a patch up, which is good. But, more people would be interested if you put some screens up.

he said he wants to improve the mugs and maps and stuff, so he probably doesn't want to post screenshots till they're updated. he did list all the custom things so that oughtta be good enough to give it a try...

I'll probably play it when it gets more chapters/improved maps and such

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^ This is the main reason for it, along with the fact that I am planning to do a huge history video once I get to my recording computer again. However, a member of another forum has donated some screenshot from his playthrough if you simply must know the condition of the hack as it currently stands (these only include from Prologue and Chapter 1, as I'd rather not spoil chapter 2).

2Ar0Z.pngDsWD4.pngPWpZx.png

c1ib4.pngb5c5i.pngXj6lZ.png

BIK9O.pngNdy3P.pngQuTQJ.png

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he said he wants to improve the mugs and maps and stuff, so he probably doesn't want to post screenshots till they're updated. he did list all the custom things so that oughtta be good enough to give it a try...

I'm aware of this, but it would be more beneficial to him to post what he has now, which he already did, and update them later so people can see the mugs and maps. That way they'd be more likely to help.

Anyways, this does look interesting and I'll play it when I get a chance.

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So obviously this hack is still in the planning/alpha (if that) phases, but I played through it and I've got a few things. Feel free to disregard whichever ones you've fixed or are in the process of fixing.

1. The hack seems to be incredible hard. Like, I thought Radiant Dawn Hard Mode was pretty hard, but then I played this. The amount of vulneraries given in Chapter 1 didn't seem to be enough; I think you need to get a healer in by Chapter 2 at the latest, because with the enemies being so ridiculously strong it's hard to have people ever attack at all.

2. I know that Fire Emblem kind of has a tradition of sucky-lord syndrome, but it's usually alleviated by him being surrounded by strong units or at least having WTA for the first few chapters. This was definitely not the case. Most of the time lord-guy had trouble doing more than 4 damage due to the enemies' whopping 6 res. He's also incapable of damaging the Chapter 1 boss (intentional?) and almost incapable of damaging the Chapter 2 boss. At least give him a Prf tome with some more power - he definitely needs it.

3. It seems kind of unfair that bowgirl (forgot her name) starts off with her turn expired. I had to rescue her with the wyvern rider and unrescue her with the bandit so that she wouldn't die on the first turn, which in turn wasted the turns of two other characters. On that note, giving her a Steel Bow was just cruel.

Again, take them as you will. But keep up the hard work, I know exactly how hard it is to do a solo project.

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I'm aware of this, but it would be more beneficial to him to post what he has now, which he already did, and update them later so people can see the mugs and maps. That way they'd be more likely to help.

Anyways, this does look interesting and I'll play it when I get a chance.

if it doesn't have good maps or portraits people are likely to turn it down, even if it has absolutely fantastic gameplay.

Edited by Jubby
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if it doesn't have good maps or portraits people are likely to turn it down, even if it has absolutely fantastic gameplay.

If I saw a hack with screens of terrible mugs and maps I'd be more likely to help that than one without any screens. But whatever, I guess it's just opinion.

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^^

Felover's doing the right thing

it's forcing people not to judge a book by its cover. and people who can appreciate its good aspects will spread the word about how good the hack actually is. Just like Decay of the Fangs, its graphics weren't amazing but the rest of the game was (IMO), so... :P

I downloaded and patched it, started the first chapter, and I laughed, and this is going to be interesting. Ralph's appearance sure has changed a lot from the last version I played (whichever # that was haha).

and to reiterate what I already said

this hack is awesome and I will play it soon and if you need help let me know, you still have that "Blazor Favor" you need to use before I die XD

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1. 0 LCK for all player characters. This ties into the story and brings a new advent of risk and strategy to the game. No longer are criticals only coming from your side, they are now an ever present, if slight, risk.

this has got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever

did you even think about this before you decided on it

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this has got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever

did you even think about this before you decided on it

^ This, more or less. I won't even try it if every single enemy is going to have displayed crit. That's just asking to frustrate your players. I mean it's reasonable for a fair amount of enemies to have displayed crit on some characters early in the game, since your only defense is the cavo you get from luck. But enemies always having displayed crit on everyone unless you have a cavo support? That's not adding a strategic element, it's just making the game over screen/reset button a legitimate threat in every chapter in the least thoughtful way.

You are just heavily emphasizing the concrete defensive stats and making speedy units that much more worthless by removing their avo/cavo supplement.

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I found two things that I find annoying/weird.

Firstly the broken walls in chapter 1 did not disappear when broken.

Secondly the nomad in chapter 2 starts as grey, but if you press start to skip the conversation she appears as blue.

The walls might be supposed to stay but I don't think the nomad is supposed to turn blue. Is this something that could be changed?

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So obviously this hack is still in the planning/alpha (if that) phases, but I played through it and I've got a few things. Feel free to disregard whichever ones you've fixed or are in the process of fixing.

1. The hack seems to be incredible hard. Like, I thought Radiant Dawn Hard Mode was pretty hard, but then I played this. The amount of vulneraries given in Chapter 1 didn't seem to be enough; I think you need to get a healer in by Chapter 2 at the latest, because with the enemies being so ridiculously strong it's hard to have people ever attack at all.

2. I know that Fire Emblem kind of has a tradition of sucky-lord syndrome, but it's usually alleviated by him being surrounded by strong units or at least having WTA for the first few chapters. This was definitely not the case. Most of the time lord-guy had trouble doing more than 4 damage due to the enemies' whopping 6 res. He's also incapable of damaging the Chapter 1 boss (intentional?) and almost incapable of damaging the Chapter 2 boss. At least give him a Prf tome with some more power - he definitely needs it.

3. It seems kind of unfair that bowgirl (forgot her name) starts off with her turn expired. I had to rescue her with the wyvern rider and unrescue her with the bandit so that she wouldn't die on the first turn, which in turn wasted the turns of two other characters. On that note, giving her a Steel Bow was just cruel.

Again, take them as you will. But keep up the hard work, I know exactly how hard it is to do a solo project.

1. Well, you're in luck as Chapter 3 already has the healer in it! Chapter 2, if the title of the chapter isn't giving the clue it's supposed to, isn't really about your dudes taking on the entire enemy force.

2. In some of the first builds, I realized that giving a magic lord in the first chapter completely destroys the challenge for the first couple levels as most early enemies have almost no resistance. It's intention for the Ch 1 and 2 boss to be almost undamagable by flux, although after Ch2 I'm sure you'll get a lot more use out of him.

3. Story wise this was intentional, as she wasted precious escaping time and also joined the unluckiest party on earth. Since I don't expect there to be too much PvE action in CH2, I decided that the steel bow allowed me to create the intial risk while keeping her stats balanced. Iron Bow is for sale in the chapter 2 armory for this reason as well.

Thanks for the support and the feedback!

I found two things that I find annoying/weird.

Firstly the broken walls in chapter 1 did not disappear when broken.

Secondly the nomad in chapter 2 starts as grey, but if you press start to skip the conversation she appears as blue.

The walls might be supposed to stay but I don't think the nomad is supposed to turn blue. Is this something that could be changed?

It's part of the tile data unfortunately. I'd rather they not be attackable in the first place for this map, but it can't really be helped unless I don't want any breakable walls ever.

That's a little glitch that happens for some reason. It's not high on the list of things to fix as it actually makes turn one of chapter 2 easier for those who want it. It's probably fixable if I jiggle with events for a bit, though.

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salty that his hack isn't being made the way you want it

it's not a matter of "the way i want it," otherwise i could go on for pages and pages. this is just objectively bad game design, and i don't feel that i need to withhold my statement. consider it a favor to the hack designer.

so you can gently fuck off

plus tangerine's reasoning is totally correct, and your knee-jerk reaction is uncalled for. here's some maths to prove my point: if enemies have on average 5 crit (modest assumption since they only need 10 skl), getting attacked only 10 times in a chapter means that the player already has a 40% chance of losing a unit. given how hard people are saying that this game appears to be, not only will the average player get attacked more than to 10 times in a chapter, but there is not likely any unit who can survive a critical hit even from full HP.

raise that figure to 7 crit and now the player is more likely to lose than win just by virtue of sheer luck, given 10 attacks sustained. why not go flip a coin instead?

Edited by dondon151
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it's not a matter of "the way i want it," otherwise i could go on for pages and pages. this is just objectively bad game design, and i don't feel that i need to withhold my statement. consider it a favor to the hack designer.

so you can gently fuck off

plus tangerine's reasoning is totally correct, and your knee-jerk reaction is uncalled for. here's some maths to prove my point: if enemies have on average 5 crit (modest assumption since they only need 10 skl), getting attacked only 10 times in a chapter means that the player already has a 40% chance of losing a unit. given how hard people are saying that this game appears to be, not only will the average player get attacked more than to 10 times in a chapter, but there is not likely any unit who can survive a critical hit even from full HP.

raise that figure to 7 crit and now the player is more likely to lose than win just by virtue of sheer luck, given 10 attacks sustained. why not go flip a coin instead?

Alrighty here, let me provide some maths to defend why I'm doing this. Taking into account that 50 hits transpire for BOTH sides, the absolute maximum number of crits that will occur 99% of the time is 7 (same with 95% confidence) with 5% flat crit.

Now these crits are not only for the enemy, as your troops will also be able to crit as they possess skill as well (given that the average mook in FE has 0 luck anyway). Currently, there is only 1 enemy that comes to mind that can kill with a crit with no other way to kill them/approach it. That's the boss of chapter 1, who, if I am not getting 6 and 7 mixed up, still needs to HIT you to even have a chance of a critical.

I hate giving the players tools that only they can utilize. Player characters in FE rarely have to even blink at a myrmidon as their inherently low STR and the Players inherently high LCK make the class rarely seen without a killing edge. A critical provides a chance for a player to have to think to new, rising challenges. You plan to wall off with a character at a choke? What happens if he sustains a critical that needs healing? It's no fun to figure out a chapter three seconds into it and never have to adapt or overcome a new obstacle.

I see where you might be coming from, but you're only assuming the opposite (that only the enemy can critical). Now in addition to having the nice advantage of an occasion critical, you must adapt to an enemy's lucky crit as well.

EDIT: Also apologizes if my maths are a bit off, don't have access to graphing calculator.

Edited by Felover3
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Now these crits are not only for the enemy, as your troops will also be able to crit as they possess skill as well (given that the average mook in FE has 0 luck anyway). Currently, there is only 1 enemy that comes to mind that can kill with a crit with no other way to kill them/approach it. That's the boss of chapter 1, who, if I am not getting 6 and 7 mixed up, still needs to HIT you to even have a chance of a critical.

Hit is calculated before crit in all Fire Emblem games; the exception that FE6 does otherwise is a myth.

I have not played this hack, but I find it exceedingly difficult to believe that there is only 1 enemy who must be defeated against the chance to take a critical hit in a chapter. Are you implying that you're not expecting the player to engage in any enemy phase combat at all (because all enemy phase combat yields a chance at death)? Or that you're supposed to kill enemies 1 or 2 at a time, using an archer or mage unit to chip in every single instance? That doesn't sound like there's much potential for strategic diversity. And what about in later chapters, that are probably much bigger? Are you supposed to do that there as well? Do you get some tanky armor knight that you're absolutely forced to use if you want to guarantee survival?

I hate giving the players tools that only they can utilize. Player characters in FE rarely have to even blink at a myrmidon as their inherently low STR and the Players inherently high LCK make the class rarely seen without a killing edge.

On the contrary, whenever killers are available, the player will use them, high str or low str, SM or wyvern lord.

A critical provides a chance for a player to have to think to new, rising challenges. You plan to wall off with a character at a choke? What happens if he sustains a critical that needs healing? It's no fun to figure out a chapter three seconds into it and never have to adapt or overcome a new obstacle.

What happens if all of the units that you have available are 3HKO'd? Then you're just rolling dice, and the worst part is that you have no other option. Unless you make more than just a handful of units capable of sustaining more than 3 normal attacks, but at that point the game is too easy if enemies only have single digit crit and most of your units are 4+HKO'd.

I see where you might be coming from, but you're only assuming the opposite (that only the enemy can critical). Now in addition to having the nice advantage of an occasion critical, you must adapt to an enemy's lucky crit as well.

I am not only assuming the opposite. The important consideration right now is that player units have a significant chance to die, and when they die, they never come back. Furthermore, whether or not they die is purely based off luck. The integrity of almost every strategy is now damaged because instead of only having to take into account how much damage a unit can sustain based off calculating atk - def, now you have to make enough leeway for 3x that, which never happens in an appreciably difficult game. There is literally no way to adapt to an enemy's lucky crit if it OHKOs one of your units.

The essence of single-player game design is that the player and enemy are not supposed to have access to the same resources. It's not supposed to be uniformly "fair." It doesn't matter if an enemy dies, but if a player unit dies, he's gone forever, and your strategy may break down. How about giving the player an army of faceless units to even out the numbers, or a whole arsenal of silvers and killers to match enemy weaponry?

I personally never enjoyed the fact that in some Fire Emblem games, enemies had no luk. Not only does it encourage more RNG abusing than usual in some circumstances, but there are also strategies where one would not want to crit enemies on accident, and doing so results in a death or game over.

Edited by dondon151
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