[From hack to indie] Path of the Midnight Sun

[LightingChaos]

http://imgur.com/9UaekYz

Except his defense... I have the best Andre so far

Uhh, no mate. I have the best Andre. Deal with it. http://gyazo.com/994f7dc7306d0705637751656b7a2d8a

[steroidz]

Just finished Chapter 8, here are my units

Solid Magic and Defense. A little slower than I would have liked, and her Resistance is pitiful (what's her growth in Res and Speed if you don't mind sharing?).


Menmus started off realllllllyyyy slow, but halfway through chapter 7, he got a point of speed (I think it went up to 9 or 10), and after that he was doubling everything and was a very good unit. He got speed like the next 5 levels. I'd like to see a little more strength on him.


Absolute beast. Only thing resembling a flaw is his Def


Really only used her to weaken enemies and kill eyeballs. The magic bows are an awesome idea though :)


Didn't really use.


Didn't use. Didn't feel like babying him.


Horrible skill, but otherwise decent.


A little weak, but a great healer/fighter combo.


God. Nuff said


Good personality and good for weakening monsters.


I like him. Pretty strong for a thief.


Didn't use.


Didn't use.

All in all, awesome hack! I really like where the story is heading. Can't wait for the next release!

Edited June 4, 2014 by steroidz

[LightingChaos]

Absolute beast. Only thing resembling a flaw is his Def

Atleast my Andre is better. Seriously, I already won for best Andre.

[steroidz]

Yeah, Andre's nasty.

[B.Mage]

Wait wait wait

Sae'rah evolves into a solider???

TIME TO USE HER

(Is halberdier a thing in this hack?)

NEPHENEE, NEPHENEE, NEPHENEE!

also screw spoilers this time, Is Fa going to learn Anima magic upon evolution since I know what class it is (3rd time I asked, I dont wanna ask another time ;-;)

[steroidz]

Wait wait wait

Sae'rah evolves into a solider???

TIME TO USE HER

(Is halberdier a thing in this hack?)

NEPHENEE, NEPHENEE, NEPHENEE!

also screw spoilers this time, Is Fa going to learn Anima magic upon evolution since I know what class it is (3rd time I asked, I dont wanna ask another time ;-;)

wait what class does she turn into?

[Alfred Kamon]

Weiss just hit level 20... stud

Whoa, that speed!

I'm glad you liked the hack, anyway.

But... please, USE THE SPOILER TAGS in your other post!

I still want to torture people a little bit and I'd prefer not to show all the recruitable units, you know

Wait wait wait

Sae'rah evolves into a solider???

TIME TO USE HER

(Is halberdier a thing in this hack?)

NEPHENEE, NEPHENEE, NEPHENEE!

also screw spoilers this time, Is Fa going to learn Anima magic upon evolution since I know what class it is (3rd time I asked, I dont wanna ask another time ;-;)

Soldiers can promote into Generals or Dragoons (yeah, the same class you find in Death or Glory).

And no, Faratrass will never get Anima magic. I've got something way cooler for her.

[Ancora]

Yeah, Andre is a beast alright...

<5th playthrough on normal>

[spoiler=>.> Andre 2.5 HD ReMix]

Alfred, are you sure about Andre's growths or is he RNG blessed?
Even Fara can't beat him to being Hector tank 2.0 :(

Wait... Is it me or does Wonder pupil have one less con?

Maybe because I forgot to patch >.<

P.S : Someone tell me why I have numbers below my stats. Please?

Edited June 4, 2014 by Ancora

[Klokinator]

If you mean the B, W, and L, those stand for Battles, Wins, Losses. Losses are retained when a character dies, even if you restart the chapter. The other two reset on chapter failure.

[Ancora]

Soldiers can promote into Generals or Dragoons (yeah, the same class you find in Death or Glory).

And no, Faratrass will never get Anima magic. I've got something way cooler for her.

[spoiler=o.O reply]Dragoons?

.

.

.

Win

If you mean the B, W, and L, those stand for Battles, Wins, Losses. Losses are retained when a character dies, even if you restart the chapter. The other two reset on chapter failure.

[spoiler=Reply - With spoiler warning! So don't look if you haven't finished hack]The thing is, Helios didn't have one and that made me suspicious of the story plot :( Damn it all...

Why does everyone else not have one?

Edited June 4, 2014 by Ancora

[Alfred Kamon]

Yeah, Andre is a beast alright...

<5th playthrough on normal>

[spoiler=>.> Andre 2.5 HD ReMix]

Alfred, are you sure about Andre's growths or is he RNG blessed?

Even Fara can't beat him to being Hector tank 2.0 :(

Wait... Is it me or does Wonder pupil have one less con?

Maybe because I forgot to patch >.<

P.S : Someone tell me why I have numbers below my stats. Please?

Andre's growths are:

70 HP

45 Pow

45 Skl

45 Spd

50 Luck

25 Def

40 Res

So yours is blessed, especially in def (just look at some other Andre's with 5-6 def at the same level of yours...) even if he tends to be very good anyway.

[steroidz]

Can you post Weiss's and Fa's growths as well

[Asumi]

Ciao Alfred sto giocando questa splendida hack in preparazione all'e3 e la sto davvero amando, hai fatto un lavoro incredibile su tutti i fronti. Ho qualche problema con i dilaloghi, ma davvero tutto il resto è perfetto potresti tranquillamente vendermelo come un Fire Emblem originale. Scusa se non ti scrivo in inglese ma mi fa troppo piacere il fatto che un italiano sia dietro questo bellissimo progetto, se ti chiedono che cazz ho detto ringrazia serenes forest e tutte le persone che ti hanno aiutato da parte mia siete fantastici! :D

Continua così e in bocca al lupo

Edited June 5, 2014 by Asumi

[Alfred Kamon]

Can you post Weiss's and Fa's growths as well

[spoiler=Faratrass' growths]HP 85%

Pow 60%

Skl 40%

Spd 35%

Luck 60%

Def 50%

Res 25%

[spoiler=Weiss' growths]HP 85%

Pow 45%

Skl 50%

Spd 40%

Luck 35%

Def 50%

Res 25%

Ciao Alfred sto giocando questa splendida hack in preparazione all'e3 e la sto davvero amando, hai fatto un lavoro incredibile su tutti i fronti. Ho qualche problema con i dilaloghi, ma davvero tutto il resto è perfetto potresti tranquillamente vendermelo come un Fire Emblem originale. Scusa se non ti scrivo in inglese ma mi fa troppo piacere il fatto che un italiano sia dietro questo bellissimo progetto, se ti chiedono che cazz ho detto ringrazia serenes forest e tutte le persone che ti hanno aiutato da parte mia siete fantastici! :D

Continua così e in bocca al lupo

[spoiler=translation for non-Italian members]Hi there Alfred, I'm playing this splendid hack while waiting for this year's E3 and I'm loving it, you've done an incredible work. I just have some problems understanding the dialogues, but everything is perfect and you could even sell it as a legit Fire Emblem game. I'm sorry if I write in English but I'm just too happy that an Italian is working on this amazing project; if people ask "what the heck did this guy say?" just tell them that I wanted to thank serenes forest and everyone that has helped you with this project, you're awesome! :D

Keep it up and good luck

Grazie mille, Asumi.

Sono contento che Midnight Sun ti piaccia. Commenti come questo mi scaldano particolarmente il cuore. E' proprio vero che indipendentemente dalla nazionalità, dalla distanza e dall'età, molte persone si sono trovate grazie a una passione comune e sono state in grado di apprezzare questo progetto. Poter condividere con voi il frutto del mio lavoro è per me un dovere e una responsabilità!

[X-Naut]

[spoiler=Weiss' growths]HP 85%

Pow 45%

Skl 50%

Spd 40%

Luck 35%

Def 50%

Res 25%

Well, now we know why Weiss is so good.

At this point you may as well release everyone's growths and save us all the trouble.

Edited June 5, 2014 by X-Naut

[tuvarkz]

Can we get Menmus's growths? Also, can I ask again about chapters 9+ enemy power balance? (Seen many statshots with people having 4+ characters at level 20 already, so wanted to know about that)

[Tessie Spoon]

Found a bug. The snag (circled in red here) in chapter 6 regenerates. I destroyed it twice on separate turns, only for it to come back in the next turn or enemy phase.

Also, I'd suggest lowering the difficulty of that chapter a little; on Normal mode at least, it's rather unbalanced. Perhaps putting in Def or Res-increasing items in earlier chapters would help, to compensate for unlucky defensive growths so the unlucky units can withstand the initial assault.

Chapter 5 could use some balance-tweaking, too; since Normal is supposed to be an accessible difficulty level, players shouldn't be forced to do near-perfect gameplay to succeed, at least not in the earlier chapters.

That's my two cents, anyways.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

there are alot more complaints about chapters that aren't 7 then i thought there would be.

its the only chapter that gave me trouble, and i think its agreed on that the boss placement is beyond cruel in terms of how your suppose to prepare for it.

[tuvarkz]

Found a bug. The snag (circled in red here) in chapter 6 regenerates. I destroyed it twice on separate turns, only for it to come back in the next turn or enemy phase.

Also, I'd suggest lowering the difficulty of that chapter a little; on Normal mode at least, it's rather unbalanced. Perhaps putting in Def or Res-increasing items in earlier chapters would help, to compensate for unlucky defensive growths so the unlucky units can withstand the initial assault.

Chapter 5 could use some balance-tweaking, too; since Normal is supposed to be an accessible difficulty level, players shouldn't be forced to do near-perfect gameplay to succeed, at least not in the earlier chapters.

That's my two cents, anyways.

Think of it as FE10 DB levels-normal.

[fuzz94]

finally beat it, and my lord that was great. Very well made dude, love the story, love the characters.

Unfortunately I overused Hellios... and all my stats are garbage compared to everyone elses lol

Except Weis, he was awesome

Edited June 5, 2014 by fuzz94

[Alfred Kamon]

Well, now we know why Weiss is so good.

At this point you may as well release everyone's growths and save us all the trouble.

It's a bit early for that.

I'll release everyone's growths after I balance them accordingly. There are a few changes I need to make.

Also, can I ask again about chapters 9+ enemy power balance? (Seen many statshots with people having 4+ characters at level 20 already, so wanted to know about that)

I still don't know. I'll let you know when I create the gameplay of the chapter. As for now, I'm focusing on fixing bugs/ creating the story and dialogues / implementing the new promotions system.

Found a bug. The snag (circled in red here) in chapter 6 regenerates. I destroyed it twice on separate turns, only for it to come back in the next turn or enemy phase.

Also, I'd suggest lowering the difficulty of that chapter a little; on Normal mode at least, it's rather unbalanced. Perhaps putting in Def or Res-increasing items in earlier chapters would help, to compensate for unlucky defensive growths so the unlucky units can withstand the initial assault.

Chapter 5 could use some balance-tweaking, too; since Normal is supposed to be an accessible difficulty level, players shouldn't be forced to do near-perfect gameplay to succeed, at least not in the earlier chapters.

That's my two cents, anyways.

That never happened to me.

I'm pretty sure you did something wrong there, or the emulator just went crazy. Did you suspend/resume the chapter? Did you use tons of savestates?

Nobody else got that problem so I can't consider that a bug unless it gets replicated.

Chapter 5 is more of a puzzle than an actual chapter, it doesn't need balancing. I also made a video tutorial just in case someone is lazy to use some brainpower to beat it-- because that's just it: you don't need to be RNG blessed to beat that chapter, all you need is logic and patience. While sometimes it might get frustrating, I think it can also be a very satisfying chapter, as many people told me.

About the difficulty in chapter 6: I don't think it's *too* hard to endure the initial assault, and that's the most threatening part of the chapter too. You can restart right away if you get unlucky and/or you don't position your units carefully. It's all but impossible or excessively nasty: you have Faratrass that can 1HKO the Knights, you have the Devil Blade for Monks, or even the Agile Estoc, you have the Bonecrusher, you have the Napalm Shot (if you got it in the previous chapter). Just manage your units well, there's no enemy that can 1RKO you, I don't see a problem there. Perhaps if more people complain about that I could consider to make some changes, but as of now I think it's okay...

Also:

Normal is supposed to be an accessible difficulty level

I balanced Normal to make it accessible, but not easy or forgiving. I always say that my Normal mode is harder than Awakening's Hard mode, and that's how it is supposed to be.

finally beat it, and my lord that was great. Very well made dude, love the story, love the characters.

Unfortunately I overused Hellios... and all my stats are garbage compared to everyone elses lol

Except Weis, he was awesome

Thank you fuzz!

I'm glad you enjoyed the hack.

And yes, Weiss is awesome. He has to be that.

[spoiler=chapter 8 end]After all, he has to replace that guy... haha

Edited June 6, 2014 by Alfred Kamon

[The Iron Rose]

I would still recommend easing up on the time limit in chapter 5. It's stringent, with precisely one way through. Unique, certainly, but after a certain point it just gets boring. Adding even five extra turns would make it a lot easier for new users who could care less about a video buried deep in the thread.

[Siuloir]

It

About the difficulty in chapter 6: I don't think it's *too* hard to endure the initial assault, and that's the most threatening part of the chapter too. You can restart right away if you get unlucky and/or you don't position your units carefully. It's all but impossible or excessively nasty: you have Faratrass that can 1HKO the Knights, you have the Devil Blade for Monks, or even the Agile Estoc, you have the Bonecrusher, you have the Napalm Shot (if you got it in the previous chapter). Just manage your units well, there's no enemy that can 1RKO you, I don't see a problem there. Perhaps if more people complain about that I could consider to make some changes, but as of now I think it's okay...

I agree, Alfred. I thought it was not bad at all. Like you said, you have more than enough tools to deal with it. The Bonecrusher and Faratrass take care of the Knights, Rya can bait and tank all of the monks with her resistance (Or Schwartz can Estoc them out of existence). My Menmus could even blow up a lot of the monks. Saai basically handles half the map for you, and what he doesnt Weiss can clean up without breaking a sweat.

Chapter 6 is fine.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I would still recommend easing up on the time limit in chapter 5. It's stringent, with precisely one way through. Unique, certainly, but after a certain point it just gets boring. Adding even five extra turns would make it a lot easier for new users who could care less about a video buried deep in the thread.

I was thinking 30 was plenty, as I got all the items in 23 turns or so. That's ~7 extra turns.

Edited June 6, 2014 by L95

[Wayward Winds]

[spoiler=Ch. 5]I believe I managed about 24/25 turns, all items collected, and that was with a few turns of backtracking to get certain problem items on the last turn before seizing the tavern. I'd say that's enough spare time, especially as just finishing as "newbies" should be attempting (as opposed to the completionist run) would require less.

The trick is to be strategic, which is the whole point of FE anyway. You've just got to be strategic with positioning rather than strategic with things like the weapon triangle. Really though, the way forward is pretty linear and easy enough to find anyway. About the only way I can think of to make it easy for "newbies", would be to implent a "danger" display, and while FE Girls did it, that might be a bit much for one chapter in Midnight Sun (and I never used the FE Girls version anyway).

Besides, it's not like the RNG or the AI can scupper things here. If you lose, you know what not to do next time. Simple as that.