Elibean Nights

[Parrhesia]

So in theory, my critiques are still relevant?

About as relevant as usual, I guess.

[Arch]

Really it's wierd that Erk doesn't recognize anyone and no one recognizes him either. You would think Priscilla and Erk would have a talk. Unless I did something wrong and missed it.

Watch the ending. If you skipped it, that'd be a surefire way to miss Erk recognizing people.

The point was that Erk wasn't reachable on the map, but I guess I'll just go add a fuckton more enemies since everybody and their grandmother seem to be talking about how they can get to him.

Edited September 6, 2013 by The Second Archsage

[MarkyJoe1990]

Just fucking do it already. Post it to the public. If you don't want to defend it, I won't force you. I'll just listen to what you have to say.

My approach to gameplay, by the way, is "plop units on a map, adjust stats and hope it works." I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement, I've never taken a very scientific approach to it.

Right...

[spoiler=Critiques]=Prologue=

I can't move the text faster than this? And I can't skip it? Do I seriously have to suffer this little prelude every time I start a new game? What about the people who have already played this game and wish to replay it? This seems like a very inconsiderate design decision, possibly meant to show people "Oh hey! We changed it! Now we're gonna force you to acknowledge this!". Of course, I could just be projecting, and this was just a stupid design idea.

I'm a little off put by the implications of this dialogue. Do the story tellers get killed or something? And why is the prince's father capturing story tellers just to entertain his son? I mean... jesus. This guy's a fucking asshole. Certainly someone is trying to do something about him. Tyranny doesn't just run rampant, y'know. History dictates that many kings were put to death if their people absolutely hated them. But alas, I'm just freaked out by the implications. I don't know if this genuinely makes no sense or not since I've not done much research... perhaps I should.

=Tale Select=

First, let's talk about the achievements. In the past, I believe complained that these were completely trivial things that don't reward the player in any way. It seems this problem has been averted, since getting achievements unlocks "bonus content", thus giving the achievements some actual value. This is appreciated.

As dashing as ever I see, Arch. Seriously, that hair could melt any woman's heart. >_>'

I'm with "Yesman" on this one (the prince whom I named), what the hell is up with Dane's eye armor? Is he like cyclops from the X-men? That'd be fuckin' boss.

...Okay, let's start with Lyn's Tale. Let's see if my complaints have been averted.

Okay. Using the "Kill" command on multiple units after selecting a tale is kind of glitchy. You should prolly just use it on the selected unit unless you can fix the problem.

=Tale: Homecoming=

After doing research on nobles and peasants in the medieval era, I've come to sympathize with Lyn more on her situation. Being a noble sucks. You have loads of obligations, and you can't even parent your own child. Instead, they get raised by someone else. I'm inclined to believe peasants have a better life style than nobles, even if they weren't as wealthy or important.

Prasad doesn't seem to talk all that slow. In fact, he was very quick to convince Rath... I'm just nitpicking.

Like before, the map design is as obnoxiously huge as ever, with very little to justify it. The first turn is

Alright... so here we go. The boss dude's all like "We're gonna attack", but doesn't state the direction of the attack. Let's see if the level designer actually gave two shits about doing things in a fair manner.

I'm relieved to see that Lyn is only two turns away from Rath. By Turn 2, she can be in the exact 6 tile range of talking to Rath. It's clear the designer counted the spaces. However... did he consider what the point was to putting us so far away that the first turn is completely redundant?

Perhaps the reasoning for this is for Florina, who shows up on Turn 2. If you know this beforehand, then you can set Kent and Sain up to rescue chain her so she is close to Lyn...

... However, that would be wasting Kent and Sains turn and leaving them open for when the Kutolah clan ambush spawns you... okay, lemme talk about this.

I believe a while back, I argued with Archibald about the fairness of this ambush spawn. While he is right that the boss foreshadows this event, it's never clear where they will come from, and this is where the problem lies. They ambush spawn ALL OVER THE MAP, and in promximity of where Lyn, Kent, and Sain are likely to be.

You can tell us you're going to do ambush spawns, but the player isn't going to know what the fuck to do unless you give him/her some form of indicator as to where they might come from. Normally, Fire Emblem uses forts and stairs. A solid form of indication, and even if the player doesn't know when ambush spawns will come, they can at least predict where they are coming from. The "When" isn't as important as the "Where".

I believe Arch's justification for this was that it's realistic, since it's a coordinated attack. To that, I say... the boss was fucking gloating out loud a moment ago. I've already thrown some sense of realism out the window. Not to mention that if we apply realism, our characters should have been able to see our attackers, since they were presumably close enough to be able to reach us by the time the boss calls the attack, but because of the mystical plane that exists outside of the map's border, we cannot see them, interact with them, or do anything...

Of course, maybe they were hiding... Yeah right, in the open spaces of PLAINS? Where are they gonna hide? Underground?

Bottom line: Don't put ambush reinforcements immediately in range of where the player would normally be without an adequate indicator of their location prior to the event. Remember. Fairness is a very important part of a game. Realism isn't.

... Oh. This is a route mission this time. Huh. If we go down the realism route, I question whether our foes would have the morale to keep going after their leader is defeated.

This chapter's really boring... While the bloated map size is a surprisingly irrelevent issue, the chapter still feels utterly barren of challenge. Not much thought is required for unit placement, because the enemies are rather weak to the point of irrelevence, and we are provided with Gates and Trees to turtle one. I didn't even need to heal my units because they recieved so little damage.

In conclusion, nothing about this chapter works. Minimal effort is required to win, and I STILL somehow managed to get an achievement somehow despite my lack of input.

A big problem with this map is that it's kind of a clusterfuck of enemies who aren't a threat. The sad thing is that, the ambush spawn is literally the only thing that could possibly make this chapter difficult, and yet even my carelessly placed Florina was able to survive with 1 HP.

The chapter doesn't feel like effort was put into it's design outside of merely complimenting the rather uninteresting story... that said, I'm going to try to say some nice things for once... here goes.

- I noticed the map is taken from FE6. A nice touch, even if it falls flat on it's ass in terms of gameplay.

- Kent and Sain's new armor looks very nice.

Um... yeah. I think those are the only good things I can say about the map. It's just... really abyssmal, honestly.

=Tale: Lost Resolve=

I... really feel Eliwood could have been handled better here.

The dude lost his parents. That's a really hard pill to swallow. Apparently he's been mourning for two weeks, but right after Marcus is all like "Let's give him more time", the camera scrolls over to Eliwood and he CONVENIENTLY regains his resolve just before some bandits trash the place.

I kind of feel Marcus shoulda came up to him and said "I understand you're upset, but DUDE, you gotta help our people now! Shit's goin' down, and you ain't doing jack shit!"

I'd comment on how the castle's design doesn't make much sense, but honestly, I REALLY like how it looks. =X

Headaches...? Ninian's been having headaches? Hm. This foreshadows her untimely death, I presume. I'm calling it right here.

I like Lowen's new design, but not Rebecca's. It ill represents her personality.

*Looks at the map* ... What... the... fuck...

Despair is trickling down my neck. Is this seriously just an obnoxiously long hallway!? WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE FUN???

Making Lowen a great knight was a nice touch. It fits his growths better.

Alright... Onslow's speech makes no sense. Do these bandits have any idea how nobility even works? From what I know, Kings assign land to people they trust, and they can take it away if the Lord does not adhere to their responsibilities, such as protecting their people. Lycia has no king if I remember right, but Ostia is the dominant territory, and I'm sure something would be done about these bandits. Actually... that makes me realize something else...

Why is Eliwood still in power? He apparently let this bandit problem get so bad that they are OVERRUNNING his own castle! That's pretty fucking poor rulership if you ask me!

Suggestion: Give Natalie a Mend instead of a Heal. The heal is obsoleted by her Physic staff.

Whoa. This chapter is actually kind of difficult. Then again, I'm rushing. Maybe there's a way to turtle this, but for now, I want to rush since I'm pretty sure the treasure chests are in danger of actually being pillaged this time.

Suggestion: Remove the crit from the Berserkers, or perhaps make an alternate berserker class without the crit, and give that to the enemy unit berserkers. Same with Swordmasters. It makes some scenarios luck based.

In conclusion, I'm positively surprised. The chapter is actually quite interesting gameplay wise despite it being a long hallway. Though, I never bothered to open the chests. I can also see this as being interesting to LTC because of the ambush spawn berserkers (WHICH HAVE A REASONABLE SPAWN LOCATION, AND ARE FORESHADOWED CORRECTLY. GOOD DESIGN~).

So yeah. Good job. The story is a bit weak, but the level is actually fun to play, unlike Lyn's.

Eh? There's a part two...? I'll get to that later. I want to do Hector's Tale. I've been told horrible things about it.

Ah. Good. I have access to Part Two when I actually want to play it.

=Tale: The Leader's Trials=

Hey! I recognize this tension theme. It's from FE3, right? This is a rather weak rendition honestly. It lacks the punch and power.

Dawson seems like an interesting villain honestly, but I think his means to his ends is his problem.

Ugh... The level design looks as bad as ever, but Eliwood's tale proved me wrong. Maybe this will as well.

Alright. I really like what you did here with Erik. You made him seem like a very pragmatic leader. Perhaps he deserves being the leader of Laus more than his father does.

... So I literally camped my characters for 9 turns, and I still haven't lost a single unit. I placed Hector on the Castle Gate, with Oswin three tiles above him. Serra's in the mountain to the left, and Erik's with her. Matthew and Orun are sitting in the nearby trees.

Welp. Defeated one of the bosses and a clusterfuck of units by simply turtling, and with absolutely no downsides as far as I'm concerned. That was easy. I must ask. Was any thought put into this level design?

Welp! Time to mow my way through the rest of this chapter. After all, it's just bait 'n switch. Wow. Too very easily executed strategies and I've already won... this chapter sucks.

I didn't bother visiting the villages by the way. In fact, I haven't gone out of my way to get ANY of the prizes the hack offers. Why? Because none of it matters. I'm still going to win. You give the player way too many tools to work with, but you don't make the player consider his/her options carefully. Also, the chapter is way too long, but that's my fault for turtling... but the chapter gives me no reason NOT to turtle, so I chose it because I found it a safe, efficient way to guarentee a victory. Y'know, because GOOD tacticians choose sensible tactics!

Actually... is this the INTENDED method to play? If you try and go out to fight the boss quickly, you'll be running into open field, allowing the enemies to surround you. That would be a really risky tactic to take consider you start with only three units, and the other units you get don't come until after a while. ...Just... what was this chapter trying to accomplish!?

=END=

I think this is all I can stomach for now... so far, only one tale of this hack is fun to play. The stories aren't particularly interesting, but I'm not going to get too mad at that, because ultimately, story doesn't mean much, and... it's not Karel's tale.

[uguu]

Right...

[spoiler=Critiques]=Prologue=

I can't move the text faster than this? And I can't skip it? Do I seriously have to suffer this little prelude every time I start a new game? What about the people who have already played this game and wish to replay it? This seems like a very inconsiderate design decision, possibly meant to show people "Oh hey! We changed it! Now we're gonna force you to acknowledge this!". Of course, I could just be projecting, and this was just a stupid design idea.

I'm a little off put by the implications of this dialogue. Do the story tellers get killed or something? And why is the prince's father capturing story tellers just to entertain his son? I mean... jesus. This guy's a fucking asshole. Certainly someone is trying to do something about him. Tyranny doesn't just run rampant, y'know. History dictates that many kings were put to death if their people absolutely hated them. But alas, I'm just freaked out by the implications. I don't know if this genuinely makes no sense or not since I've not done much research... perhaps I should.

=Tale Select=

First, let's talk about the achievements. In the past, I believe complained that these were completely trivial things that don't reward the player in any way. It seems this problem has been averted, since getting achievements unlocks "bonus content", thus giving the achievements some actual value. This is appreciated.

As dashing as ever I see, Arch. Seriously, that hair could melt any woman's heart. >_>'

I'm with "Yesman" on this one (the prince whom I named), what the hell is up with Dane's eye armor? Is he like cyclops from the X-men? That'd be fuckin' boss.

...Okay, let's start with Lyn's Tale. Let's see if my complaints have been averted.

Okay. Using the "Kill" command on multiple units after selecting a tale is kind of glitchy. You should prolly just use it on the selected unit unless you can fix the problem.

=Tale: Homecoming=

After doing research on nobles and peasants in the medieval era, I've come to sympathize with Lyn more on her situation. Being a noble sucks. You have loads of obligations, and you can't even parent your own child. Instead, they get raised by someone else. I'm inclined to believe peasants have a better life style than nobles, even if they weren't as wealthy or important.

Prasad doesn't seem to talk all that slow. In fact, he was very quick to convince Rath... I'm just nitpicking.

Like before, the map design is as obnoxiously huge as ever, with very little to justify it. The first turn is

Alright... so here we go. The boss dude's all like "We're gonna attack", but doesn't state the direction of the attack. Let's see if the level designer actually gave two shits about doing things in a fair manner.

I'm relieved to see that Lyn is only two turns away from Rath. By Turn 2, she can be in the exact 6 tile range of talking to Rath. It's clear the designer counted the spaces. However... did he consider what the point was to putting us so far away that the first turn is completely redundant?

Perhaps the reasoning for this is for Florina, who shows up on Turn 2. If you know this beforehand, then you can set Kent and Sain up to rescue chain her so she is close to Lyn...

... However, that would be wasting Kent and Sains turn and leaving them open for when the Kutolah clan ambush spawns you... okay, lemme talk about this.

I believe a while back, I argued with Archibald about the fairness of this ambush spawn. While he is right that the boss foreshadows this event, it's never clear where they will come from, and this is where the problem lies. They ambush spawn ALL OVER THE MAP, and in promximity of where Lyn, Kent, and Sain are likely to be.

You can tell us you're going to do ambush spawns, but the player isn't going to know what the fuck to do unless you give him/her some form of indicator as to where they might come from. Normally, Fire Emblem uses forts and stairs. A solid form of indication, and even if the player doesn't know when ambush spawns will come, they can at least predict where they are coming from. The "When" isn't as important as the "Where".

I believe Arch's justification for this was that it's realistic, since it's a coordinated attack. To that, I say... the boss was fucking gloating out loud a moment ago. I've already thrown some sense of realism out the window. Not to mention that if we apply realism, our characters should have been able to see our attackers, since they were presumably close enough to be able to reach us by the time the boss calls the attack, but because of the mystical plane that exists outside of the map's border, we cannot see them, interact with them, or do anything...

Of course, maybe they were hiding... Yeah right, in the open spaces of PLAINS? Where are they gonna hide? Underground?

Bottom line: Don't put ambush reinforcements immediately in range of where the player would normally be without an adequate indicator of their location prior to the event. Remember. Fairness is a very important part of a game. Realism isn't.

... Oh. This is a route mission this time. Huh. If we go down the realism route, I question whether our foes would have the morale to keep going after their leader is defeated.

This chapter's really boring... While the bloated map size is a surprisingly irrelevent issue, the chapter still feels utterly barren of challenge. Not much thought is required for unit placement, because the enemies are rather weak to the point of irrelevence, and we are provided with Gates and Trees to turtle one. I didn't even need to heal my units because they recieved so little damage.

In conclusion, nothing about this chapter works. Minimal effort is required to win, and I STILL somehow managed to get an achievement somehow despite my lack of input.

A big problem with this map is that it's kind of a clusterfuck of enemies who aren't a threat. The sad thing is that, the ambush spawn is literally the only thing that could possibly make this chapter difficult, and yet even my carelessly placed Florina was able to survive with 1 HP.

The chapter doesn't feel like effort was put into it's design outside of merely complimenting the rather uninteresting story... that said, I'm going to try to say some nice things for once... here goes.

- I noticed the map is taken from FE6. A nice touch, even if it falls flat on it's ass in terms of gameplay.

- Kent and Sain's new armor looks very nice.

Um... yeah. I think those are the only good things I can say about the map. It's just... really abyssmal, honestly.

=Tale: Lost Resolve=

I... really feel Eliwood could have been handled better here.

The dude lost his parents. That's a really hard pill to swallow. Apparently he's been mourning for two weeks, but right after Marcus is all like "Let's give him more time", the camera scrolls over to Eliwood and he CONVENIENTLY regains his resolve just before some bandits trash the place.

I kind of feel Marcus shoulda came up to him and said "I understand you're upset, but DUDE, you gotta help our people now! Shit's goin' down, and you ain't doing jack shit!"

I'd comment on how the castle's design doesn't make much sense, but honestly, I REALLY like how it looks. =X

Headaches...? Ninian's been having headaches? Hm. This foreshadows her untimely death, I presume. I'm calling it right here.

I like Lowen's new design, but not Rebecca's. It ill represents her personality.

*Looks at the map* ... What... the... fuck...

Despair is trickling down my neck. Is this seriously just an obnoxiously long hallway!? WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE FUN???

Making Lowen a great knight was a nice touch. It fits his growths better.

Alright... Onslow's speech makes no sense. Do these bandits have any idea how nobility even works? From what I know, Kings assign land to people they trust, and they can take it away if the Lord does not adhere to their responsibilities, such as protecting their people. Lycia has no king if I remember right, but Ostia is the dominant territory, and I'm sure something would be done about these bandits. Actually... that makes me realize something else...

Why is Eliwood still in power? He apparently let this bandit problem get so bad that they are OVERRUNNING his own castle! That's pretty fucking poor rulership if you ask me!

Suggestion: Give Natalie a Mend instead of a Heal. The heal is obsoleted by her Physic staff.

Whoa. This chapter is actually kind of difficult. Then again, I'm rushing. Maybe there's a way to turtle this, but for now, I want to rush since I'm pretty sure the treasure chests are in danger of actually being pillaged this time.

Suggestion: Remove the crit from the Berserkers, or perhaps make an alternate berserker class without the crit, and give that to the enemy unit berserkers. Same with Swordmasters. It makes some scenarios luck based.

In conclusion, I'm positively surprised. The chapter is actually quite interesting gameplay wise despite it being a long hallway. Though, I never bothered to open the chests. I can also see this as being interesting to LTC because of the ambush spawn berserkers (WHICH HAVE A REASONABLE SPAWN LOCATION, AND ARE FORESHADOWED CORRECTLY. GOOD DESIGN~).

So yeah. Good job. The story is a bit weak, but the level is actually fun to play, unlike Lyn's.

Eh? There's a part two...? I'll get to that later. I want to do Hector's Tale. I've been told horrible things about it.

Ah. Good. I have access to Part Two when I actually want to play it.

=Tale: The Leader's Trials=

Hey! I recognize this tension theme. It's from FE3, right? This is a rather weak rendition honestly. It lacks the punch and power.

Dawson seems like an interesting villain honestly, but I think his means to his ends is his problem.

Ugh... The level design looks as bad as ever, but Eliwood's tale proved me wrong. Maybe this will as well.

Alright. I really like what you did here with Erik. You made him seem like a very pragmatic leader. Perhaps he deserves being the leader of Laus more than his father does.

... So I literally camped my characters for 9 turns, and I still haven't lost a single unit. I placed Hector on the Castle Gate, with Oswin three tiles above him. Serra's in the mountain to the left, and Erik's with her. Matthew and Orun are sitting in the nearby trees.

Welp. Defeated one of the bosses and a clusterfuck of units by simply turtling, and with absolutely no downsides as far as I'm concerned. That was easy. I must ask. Was any thought put into this level design?

Welp! Time to mow my way through the rest of this chapter. After all, it's just bait 'n switch. Wow. Too very easily executed strategies and I've already won... this chapter sucks.

I didn't bother visiting the villages by the way. In fact, I haven't gone out of my way to get ANY of the prizes the hack offers. Why? Because none of it matters. I'm still going to win. You give the player way too many tools to work with, but you don't make the player consider his/her options carefully. Also, the chapter is way too long, but that's my fault for turtling... but the chapter gives me no reason NOT to turtle, so I chose it because I found it a safe, efficient way to guarentee a victory. Y'know, because GOOD tacticians choose sensible tactics!

Actually... is this the INTENDED method to play? If you try and go out to fight the boss quickly, you'll be running into open field, allowing the enemies to surround you. That would be a really risky tactic to take consider you start with only three units, and the other units you get don't come until after a while. ...Just... what was this chapter trying to accomplish!?

=END=

I think this is all I can stomach for now... so far, only one tale of this hack is fun to play. The stories aren't particularly interesting, but I'm not going to get too mad at that, because ultimately, story doesn't mean much, and... it's not Karel's tale.

About as relevant as usual, I guess.

[Robert Stewart]

So...anyone remember this?

Edit: Major bug: After clearing Karel's tale, I no longer have access to Louise's/Kent's tale. O_O

Well, crisis averted(sort of). I only lose access to those Tales after suspending on the Tale Select. As long as I restart the TS, it works out fine.

[Arch]

Some comments and rebuttals.

I can't move the text faster than this? And I can't skip it? Do I seriously have to suffer this little prelude every time I start a new game? What about the people who have already played this game and wish to replay it? This seems like a very inconsiderate design decision, possibly meant to show people "Oh hey! We changed it! Now we're gonna force you to acknowledge this!". Of course, I could just be projecting, and this was just a stupid design idea.

Hence why I changed this in v6.

I'm a little off put by the implications of this dialogue. Do the story tellers get killed or something? And why is the prince's father capturing story tellers just to entertain his son? I mean... jesus. This guy's a fucking asshole. Certainly someone is trying to do something about him. Tyranny doesn't just run rampant, y'know. History dictates that many kings were put to death if their people absolutely hated them. But alas, I'm just freaked out by the implications. I don't know if this genuinely makes no sense or not since I've not done much research... perhaps I should.

First, you're taking the "implications" waaaay too seriously. Second, have you ever heard of 1001 Arabian Nights? It's the collection of stories that Aladdin comes from. That opening, just like the name and premise of the hack, are all a reference to the Arabian Nights.

I believe a while back, I argued with Archibald about the fairness of this ambush spawn. While he is right that the boss foreshadows this event, it's never clear where they will come from, and this is where the problem lies. They ambush spawn ALL OVER THE MAP, and in promximity of where Lyn, Kent, and Sain are likely to be.

That's why those "redundant" turns before that ambush spawn are devoid of anything really important, so you can reset without any real loss in case you get fucked over. There's also the talk chain in the newest one, those first two turns give you an optimal chance to start on that, as well as trade any items, and, as you mentioned, position Florina.

Um... yeah. I think those are the only good things I can say about the map. It's just... really abyssmal, honestly.

♥ u 2.

The dude lost his parents. That's a really hard pill to swallow. Apparently he's been mourning for two weeks, but right after Marcus is all like "Let's give him more time", the camera scrolls over to Eliwood and he CONVENIENTLY regains his resolve just before some bandits trash the place.

You took a meaning from that scene that's completely opposite of what was intended, then. He's monologuing and trying to pull himself together, repelling the bandit attack is what's supposed to knock him out of his melancholy for good. Maybe I'll look at some revisions, if the meaning wasn't clear.

Headaches...? Ninian's been having headaches? Hm. This foreshadows her untimely death, I presume. I'm calling it right here.

She's pregnant.

Suggestion: Remove the crit from the Berserkers, or perhaps make an alternate berserker class without the crit, and give that to the enemy unit berserkers. Same with Swordmasters. It makes some scenarios luck based.

You're telling me that I ought to remove luck from Fire Emblem? C'mon, man.

Hey! I recognize this tension theme. It's from FE3, right? This is a rather weak rendition honestly. It lacks the punch and power.

Agro, this fool be dissin' on you.

Welp. Defeated one of the bosses and a clusterfuck of units by simply turtling, and with absolutely no downsides as far as I'm concerned. That was easy. I must ask. Was any thought put into this level design?

Nope.

Anyways, if you think the gameplay is so abysmal, I'll throw the event source your way and we'll see what you can do with it. I think it'd be an interesting little experiment. We could offer both versions up and put it to a vote, even. I'll totally use your revisions if they win.

Edited September 6, 2013 by The Second Archsage

[Miacis]

Right...

[spoiler=Critiques]

Well, I guess I was expecting a bit more research... Anyways, just something that wasn't mentionned: Achievements =/= Bonus content. They're in two separate rooms for that very reason. Bonus content can be unlocked by a variety of means which includes achievement-like requirements sometimes, and just "finish the chapter" some other times.

(You do get an actual tasty reward from one of the achievements, though.)

There's a whole bunch of notes about Dawson and Onslow on the EN blog, btw. You might want to check the Onslow one at least. The whole "King" thing is more his personal power trip than any actual existing position. He's a bandit, he doesn't know how all that stuff really works.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Miacis

[MarkyJoe1990]

Hence why I changed this in v6.

Kinda glad about that.

First, you're taking the "implications" waaaay too seriously. Second, have you ever heard of 1001 Arabian Nights? It's the collection of stories that Aladdin comes from. That opening, just like the name and premise of the hack, are all a reference to the Arabian Nights.

I have only heard of Arabian Nights a few times, but nothing really explicit. I know the hack takes inspiration from it, but I'm not entirely sure how well the story melds in the medieval context.

As for how seriously I took it... well, it just kinda seemed a bit freaky how this kid sends out the guards to makes sure these story tellers "never tell him a boring tale again". It kind of gives off that vibe. Especially the "never again" part.

That's why those "redundant" turns before that ambush spawn are devoid of anything really important, so you can reset without any real loss in case you get fucked over. There's also the talk chain in the newest one, those first two turns give you an optimal chance to start on that, as well as trade any items, and, as you mentioned, position Florina.

It sounds like you're using a faulty design decision to cover up a faulty design decision. I can understand giving the player a chance to have their units talk, but what about the people who just wanna play? If I were to design the chapter, I'd probably just go straight to Lyn and Rath talking it over, then the actual chapter would start after the croonies get sent in. It puts us straight into the action right away instead of making us do a little busy work before hand.

Now with this said, the problem would be that I still need to give the player a chance to chat it up with his/her dudes. I suppose I could give the player a little bit of leeway somewhere in the chapter so they could do this, but some of the dialogues could also be handled in the pre and post chapter cutscenes. If I remember right, Kent has a little "I love Lyn" moment with his talk with Sain. That could be something put at the end of the chapter. It might also have more emotional weight because of such.

You took a meaning from that scene that's completely opposite of what was intended, then. He's monologuing and trying to pull himself together, repelling the bandit attack is what's supposed to knock him out of his melancholy for good. Maybe I'll look at some revisions, if the meaning wasn't clear.

Looking at the end of the chapter, that seems to be the case. Frankly, I think the monologue doesn't need to be there, since I think Eliwood being a usable unit makes the message clear enough for us that he's springing into action. I'd need to think about it more to come up with something I think would be better.

She's pregnant.

Yeah, I saw that at the end of the chapter as well. I really should have made that clear. My apologies.

You're telling me that I ought to remove luck from Fire Emblem? C'mon, man.

I didn't say that. I said remove the crit rates from the swordmasters and berserkers. I don't mind if the player has this, but when you have a slew of berserkers fighting you, that's a lot of 8%s you have to worry about, and since the chapter seems to want you to race to the chests, you can't really afford to take your time beating the zerks and SM's safely. It's kind of conflicting.

There's a certain amount of luck I'm comfortable with in Fire Emblem, and ultimately, I feel the point of the RNG is to add tension, and also give the weapon triangle more weight than just "You do +1 damage". There's a place for luck in Fire Emblem, but it needs to be on a leash, y'know?

Agro, this fool be dissin' on you.

Diss? As in insulting? Cause all I said was that his rendition felt weak, and lacks the punch. That's a criticism as far as I'm concerned, and it also provides a suggestion to make the song more punchy and powerful to enhance it's effect.

Anyways, if you think the gameplay is so abysmal, I'll throw the event source your way and we'll see what you can do with it. I think it'd be an interesting little experiment. We could offer both versions up and put it to a vote, even. I'll totally use your revisions if they win.

Would this be worth my time? I have an iron will when it comes to making a good level - I redesigned all five chapters of the new Fire Mumblem over 5 times, events and maps, just to make it fun to play - but I don't want my efforts to be for nothing.

Besides... this is a vote thing? Arch, I'm pretty sure you're a much more liked member of this community than I am. I'm not exactly trustworthy of people's opinions. I fear that people's opinions will be swayed in your favor, and then what did I spend all of my time on? I don't feel that I have a good chance at this no matter how good I redesign things.

Edited September 7, 2013 by MarkyJoe1990

[Robert Stewart]

Another bug: On Zealot's tale, when the Brigands use the Short Axe at close range and miss, the Axe animation doesn't show. The Brigands throw their axe, but it then disappears and no sound is played. This only happens at 1 range, and only when missing.

Also, a possible script error:

[Shugey]

I don't judge a chapter based on whoever made it. If you can make the chapter better, then I would freely admit it as such. I like Arch, but I'm not going to lie about his game. So don't worry about people basing opinions on who made the chapter.

[Arch]

I have only heard of Arabian Nights a few times, but nothing really explicit. I know the hack takes inspiration from it, but I'm not entirely sure how well the story melds in the medieval context.

I guess I'll have to explain it to you. The Arabian Nights are a collection of stories, united by a single framing device. The Sultan Shahryār was betrayed by his first wife, which makes him go mad and believe that all women will, in the end, betray him. So every night for three years, the mad king takes a wife and has her executed the next morning, until he marries Scheherazade, his vizier’s beautiful and clever daughter. For 1001 nights in a row, Scheherazade tells Shahryār a story, each time stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger, thus forcing him to keep her alive for another day so that she can complete the tale the next night.

Makes sense now, doesn't it? The Elibian Nights are a collection of stories being told to the prince, who doesn't actually understand the gravity of making the storytellers go away. He's just a child who wants to be told a good story. This is the framing device for the game, derived from the source of its inspiration (and the obvious titular reference).

It sounds like you're using a faulty design decision to cover up a faulty design decision. I can understand giving the player a chance to have their units talk, but what about the people who just wanna play? If I were to design the chapter, I'd probably just go straight to Lyn and Rath talking it over, then the actual chapter would start after the croonies get sent in. It puts us straight into the action right away instead of making us do a little busy work before hand.

You make it sound like two turns is some excruciating distraction. In your opinion, they're "faulty design." In my opinion, they work well in tandem. I want that ambush spawn, it isn't going away. This setup makes it work better. I could, after all, just start the chapter on the enemy phase. Love to see your response to that. The idea behind the whole attack, ya know, is that it's an ambush.

I don't judge a chapter based on whoever made it. If you can make the chapter better, then I would freely admit it as such. I like Arch, but I'm not going to lie about his game. So don't worry about people basing opinions on who made the chapter.

This. If you manage to make it better, I'll freely admit it. It's not a popularity contest, it's a question of quality. We could try to make it a blind test, if you'd like. You're quite a frequent critic of gameplay, and your critiques of my work have always been particularly scathing. I want to see you put your money where your mouth is and actually make something better. No shame in losing, after all, so long as something good comes from it. Edited September 7, 2013 by The Second Archsage

[MarkyJoe1990]

I guess I'll have to explain it to you. The Arabian Nights are a collection of stories, united by a single framing device. The Sultan Shahryār was betrayed by his first wife, which makes him go mad and believe that all women will, in the end, betray him. So every night for three years, the mad king takes a wife and has her executed the next morning, until he marries Scheherazade, his vizier’s beautiful and clever daughter. For 1001 nights in a row, Scheherazade tells Shahryār a story, each time stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger, thus forcing him to keep her alive for another day so that she can complete the tale the next night.

Makes sense now, doesn't it? The Elibian Nights are a collection of stories being told to the prince, who doesn't actually understand the gravity of making the storytellers go away. He's just a child who wants to be told a good story. This is the framing device for the game, derived from the source of its inspiration (and the obvious titular reference).

You make it sound like two turns is some excruciating distraction. In your opinion, they're "faulty design." In my opinion, they work well in tandem. I want that ambush spawn, it isn't going away. This setup makes it work better. I could, after all, just start the chapter on the enemy phase. Love to see your response to that. The idea behind the whole attack, ya know, is that it's an ambush.

This. If you manage to make it better, I'll freely admit it. It's not a popularity contest, it's a question of quality. We could try to make it a blind test, if you'd like. You're quite a frequent critic of gameplay, and your critiques of my work have always been particularly scathing. I want to see you put your money where your mouth is and actually make something better. No shame in losing, after all, so long as something good comes from it.

I will then. I'm currently plotting down some ideas on how to do the chapter, but I need you to tell me what things must remain consistent. Can I change the map design so long as I use the sacaen tileset? I have a particular idea that takes advantage of bows, but I'll need to change the map entirely.

Edited September 7, 2013 by MarkyJoe1990

[NICKT™]

I don't know who is in charge of story and graphics, but the story is a bit wishy-washy at times and both graphics and story tend to sway in terms of quality and style.

Also, could you please do something about Ninian's mug? Her original looked like she was a shy, nervous little girl, yet now she's supposed to be the wife of the Marquess, after finding her true love and saving the world, blah, blah. She'd have grown so it just seems jarring. Personally I wish you'd have at least gone through and change the mugs each, even if it's only a little, just to show that some time's passed and that the previous story actually had a baring on each of the characters. I mean, take a look at Lowen, he's now a Pheraen Knight and he's got smashing new armour to show for it, Markus has recognized his worth and voila. Even Rebecca, though I say her mug could use some improving, shows that she's a little more mature now.

I mean, just take a look at this:

Does she really look relieved to you? Or does she look like she just came out of a 10 year coma?

[Arch]

I will then. I'm currently plotting down some ideas on how to do the chapter, but I need you to tell me what things must remain consistent. Can I change the map design so long as I use the sacaen tileset? I have a particular idea that takes advantage of bows, but I'll need to change the map entirely.

I'd rather we stayed away from heavy edits of the map, but we'll see how it goes. Using the same tileset, of course (it'd completely destroy the setting if you used a different one). If you go ahead and I veto it, are you willing to revise the map as-is?

Also, could you please do something about Ninian's mug? Her original looked like she was a shy, nervous little girl, yet now she's supposed to be the wife of the Marquess, after finding her true love and saving the world, blah, blah. She'd have grown so it just seems jarring. Personally I wish you'd have at least gone through and change the mugs each, even if it's only a little, just to show that some time's passed and that the previous story actually had a baring on each of the characters. I mean, take a look at Lowen, he's now a Pheraen Knight and he's got smashing new armour to show for it, Markus has recognized his worth and voila. Even Rebecca, though I say her mug could use some improving, shows that she's a little more mature now.

I have limited resources, I take what I can get. Don't have the ability to resprite every single mug (since I rely on the generous contributions of others), I focused on the ones that I felt were most important. You're a spriter, go ahead and make Ninian a new mug. If it's good, I'll use it. Edited September 7, 2013 by The Second Archsage

[MarkyJoe1990]

I'd rather we stayed away from heavy edits of the map, but we'll see how it goes. Using the same tileset, of course (it'd completely destroy the setting if you used a different one). If you go ahead and I veto it, are you willing to revise the map as-is?

Revise as in... just changing the events?

[Arch]

Revise as in... just changing the events?

Tweak unit placement, stats, tailor the gameplay to your design. I'm not taking out the ambush spawn, though.

[MarkyJoe1990]

Tweak unit placement, stats, tailor the gameplay to your design. I'm not taking out the ambush spawn, though.

I'll need you to give me a bunch of specifics. Could you re-add me on skype? I want to be as careful about this as possible, since I don't wanna screw this up.

[Robert Stewart]

Um...since we're talking about Lyn's Tale, could you maybe change when Guy and Dayan spawn? Right now they spawn at the same time as the enemies, which basically leaves them defenceless for the next phase, which doesn't quite sit right with me.

Also, some other random questions:

Is this guy supposed to be somebody important? Also, why is he talking about Crossbows?

What tale is Sigurd located in?

[Ansem]

Who cares, its not like Guy and Dayan are going to die.

The spawnforcements are fine, those that are complaining need to get better at FE.

[Robert Stewart]

Who cares, its not like Guy and Dayan are going to die.

I know, I know. It just feels kinda cheap to me. And I'm otherwise fine with the ambush spawns on Lyn's map.

[Ansem]

The point of an ambush is to catch the enemy off guard. Its kind of hard to do that if you cant hit the enemy(in this case enemy = our units) because they are across the map and unreachable.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Bacteriophage

[MarkyJoe1990]

The point of an ambush is to catch the enemy off guard. Its kind of hard to do that if you cant hit the enemy(in this case enemy = our units) because they are across the map and unreachable.

This doesn't help gameplay. =\

It's like the equivalent of being forced to lose your mushroom in Mario because you were supposed to know that there was an invisible coin block waiting to knock you into a pit of spikes.

[Ansem]

This doesn't help gameplay. =\

It's like the equivalent of being forced to lose your mushroom in Mario because you were supposed to know that there was an invisible coin block waiting to knock you into a pit of spikes.

Is a mushroom equivalent to a few health points that Guy/Dayan /may/ lose(they have great dodge rates)? The only thing you're losing may be one of the Allied Nomads(iirc, there is a warrior with a halberd who could miss) but I doubt there is an accomplishment for keeping them all alive. Even so, allied nomads arent necesesary to beat the tale since you are given great units like Lyn, Dayan and Rath. The other few are decent as well. So basically, your comparison does not work since the player is not losing the equivalent of mushroom. I dont believe the player is losing anything at all.

Edited September 7, 2013 by Bacteriophage

[MarkyJoe1990]

Is a mushroom equivalent to a few health points that Guy/Dayan /may/ lose(they have great dodge rates)? The only thing you're losing may be one of the Allied Nomads(iirc, there is a warrior with a halberd who could miss) but I doubt there is an accomplishment for keeping them all alive. Even so, allied nomads arent necesesary to beat the tale since you are given great units like Lyn, Dayan and Rath. The other few are decent as well. So basically, your comparison does not work since the player is not losing the equivalent of mushroom. I dont believe the player is losing anything at all.

Technically my comparison works because you're still losing some fire power. Additionally, it depends on how you were positioned at the time. I placed my Kent and Sain behind Lyn, and they got hit by a couple of dudes. Also, my Florina got attacked and was brought down to 1 HP.

Edited September 7, 2013 by MarkyJoe1990

[CT075]

regarding hector's map

i'll agree that the map was really a chore to play (even without turtling it's basically hector smash to win and you have no mounts aside from orun, so your progress is slow and the enemy spacing isn't so great)

i had a thought of maybe spawning fargus after a few turns, so you need to hightail it over there to keep him alive