[From hack to indie] Path of the Midnight Sun

[xLemmy_KoopaX]

...I don't really think that's a spoiler, but... the rescue mechanic is your friend there! And as it happens, Fa has enough con to keep that renegade from running off. Then you just hoist her off on Menmus later (...or not, depending on who you would rather train).

Thanks! I actually didn't notice Fa had higher Con then her. I just ended up going the other way with Fa so I'd be able to go to Garion earlier, as well as killing everything in her range with Menmus so she wouldn't find a reason to move and just sits on that fortress. Wasn't a chapter that was too hard or long, either way.

[Silith13]

For very bad reasons I have to ask.

What's Faratrass's def cap when promoted?

[Alfred Kamon]

For very bad reasons I have to ask.

What's Faratrass's def cap when promoted?

Who knows?

[Silith13]

30?!?!?Holy moly those are some huge.... ahem.

Too bad that with only 6 base, 1 promo gain and 50% growth she would need 46 levels on average to hit that. And she of course only gets 38 level-ups max averaging her at 26.... which is still a lot.

Now if we count 1 cm a def... hmmm

Oh dear...

That back is going to hurt.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Silith13

[Alfred Kamon]

Now if we count 1 cm a def... hmmm

Oh dear...

That back is going to hurt.

Markyjoe, what have you done... sigh. That "Faratrass' defence is due to her boobs of steel" joke is legendary.

Anyway, I know you're curious, so... have this as well.

[Silith13]

Machienegun Shiori with dat Spd.

Now I just got to draw a Faratrass animation where she levels up.

EDIT: Did some calculation and measuring..... Not sure how this can happen without clothes ripping... No worries. I'll keep it SFW.

EDIT 2: I swear I just asked her Def cap because I was affraid she was going to use the Female Druid cap which is only 20. Would be a waste to het growths. I wasn't asking to draw huge boobs. I swear.

EDIT 3: After 3 hours of work I finished it, It's far from good but it was fun to make. Dunno if it counts as the first Midnight Sun Rule#34 work....

Edited April 2, 2016 by Silith13

[Tribute]

My phone randomly lost my save file.

Time to get the new patch

[LunaticScreamer]

Who knows?

So basically, my Fa's INCREDIBLY speed blessed right now, nifty! This is after the first tower trial by the way.

Sheesh, now I'm curious to see how blessed some of my other units from my screenshot LP (Sae'rah most importantly) are.

[Silith13]

Averages for Level 16....

HP: 31 +3

Str: 7 -4

Mag: 17 +1

Skl: 12 -1

Spd: 10 +6

Lck: 14 +1

Def: 14 +1

Res: 6 -3

Total of 4 more stats then average.

All are rounded to full numbers of course.

[TheNiddo]

Playing through this hack for the first time. I'll leave full feedback once I finished what is available, but I have a question.

The archer and the warrior duo, who are NPCs in the first map they appear in. If they die on that map are you supposed to get them later on (like the wording on the next map kinda suggests), or do you miss them for good outside of story cutscenes? Because I'm at the first monster chapter now and things are getting hairy. Don't have those two.

Edited April 9, 2016 by TheNiddo

[JMaula]

You're supposed to recruit Christoph and Rya in chapter 1.

[Glaceo]

Or just keep them alive.

[TheNiddo]

Bah. I stopped in the middle of the map, probably missed one recruitment combination attempt. And they had the worst luck RNG wise.

Welp, restart time it is.

[Blue Druid]

Bah. I stopped in the middle of the map, probably missed one recruitment combination attempt. And they had the worst luck RNG wise.

Welp, restart time it is.

But I wonder, did the two characters appear in the later cut-scenes, even if you didn't have them?

[Silith13]

Alfred is really good at implementing for different situations. MArkyjoe showed all different options for the chapter 2 Ending.

[TheNiddo]

But I wonder, did the two characters appear in the later cut-scenes, even if you didn't have them?

They did. Even briefly showed up on the next map, but were sent away with a "You need to rest, you're still badly injured from the last fight"

Its the "still" part that made me think that maybe it was just a one map penalty for not keeping them alive, since their "death" quotes were rather lacking in death.

[Blue Druid]

They did. Even briefly showed up on the next map, but were sent away with a "You need to rest, you're still badly injured from the last fight"

Its the "still" part that made me think that maybe it was just a one map penalty for not keeping them alive, since their "death" quotes were rather lacking in death.

Interesting! I didn't know the game had these polishes.

[Wayward Winds]

There's also a couple of variations to the end of Ch. 3 as well. One with Puledra shoving alcohol down Andre's throat, and one that falls back on Cristoph and Rya (they're in the first version, but not to the same extent) if either Andre or Puledra (or both) have been killed.

...And a whole heap of Garion and Djambo dependant ones, including one specifically for Garion joining in Ch. 4, then dying before the map is done. Short version: Djambo gets eaten by a zombie.

And it is more than possible for Cattleya to show up to attack Fa at the end of Ch. 2, and get killed in retaliation because Menmus isn't alive to stop her. There are six different endings to Ch. 2, all set to different alive/dead combinations of the Triumvirate. There used to be three glitch ones as well, in the unlikely event Menmus was alive but unrecruited; Alfred has since dealt with them.

Basically, Alfred apparently thinks of everything.

[Alfred Kamon]

There's also a couple of variations to the end of Ch. 3 as well. One with Puledra shoving alcohol down Andre's throat, and one that falls back on Cristoph and Rya (they're in the first version, but not to the same extent) if either Andre or Puledra (or both) have been killed.

...And a whole heap of Garion and Djambo dependant ones, including one specifically for Garion joining in Ch. 4, then dying before the map is done. Short version: Djambo gets eaten by a zombie.

And it is more than possible for Cattleya to show up to attack Fa at the end of Ch. 2, and get killed in retaliation because Menmus isn't alive to stop her. There are six different endings to Ch. 2, all set to different alive/dead combinations of the Triumvirate. There used to be three glitch ones as well, in the unlikely event Menmus was alive but unrecruited; Alfred has since dealt with them.

Basically, Alfred apparently thinks of everything.

As Ashley said, half of the code I write is basically stuff that no one will ever notice. But as long as there's even the tiniest possibility of triggering one of those situations, I have to code events for them.

Try out the weirdest things in your chapters, you may find out interesting things for the first time, even if the game has been out for more than 2 years now, haha.

Even if Ashley has basically pointed out all the possibilities up to ch.8, IIRC

Edited April 12, 2016 by Alfred Kamon

[TheNiddo]

Alright, so I finished the current version of the hack.

A lot of good things. I like the music a lot in the game first of all. I'm rather music focused when it comes to video games, and I like the selections.

Art work is pretty good for the most part. Hellios' hood top seems off to me, but that general style just... always seems off to me. -shrugs-. Lots of nice custom weapon sprites.

Good amounts of creativity. A few times the creativity lead to frustration in the map design (didn't know in the stealth mission to visit the houses at first because the enemy range included the houses. First fog of war map... those stationary monsters. The fact I couldn't see them meant I kept screwing up my positioning and getting slaughtered.) but overall it was a nice change to the standard FE design. Weapon variety was very nice, stat boost items were creative if oddly common.

A few of the character recruitments could have used slightly better clearing up (My previous misunderstanding with Rya and Cristopher, I completely missed recruiting Cattelya because I didn't even consider the possibility of her being recruitable.) In the end they were mostly on me, but some of the wording or lack of communication I think could have been cleared up.

The plot itself, while basic in some ways, has some good twists to it. I accidentally spoiled the big one when trying to look up the stealth mission stuff, and like somebody else pointed out there's a bit of an interface spoiler that can't really be avoided, but the pacing of the plot is overall well done.

I just really only had one major grip... the dialogue. I read in another post that you didn't feel you could do older english sounding dialogue. I think it would serve your hack as a whole if you gave it a shot. You don't have to go that far with it, FE itself doesn't really, but as it stands right now the dialogue is... distractingly modern. To the point where it hurts the enjoyment of the hack, which is a shame because otherwise its really well done. But there were so many moments where I was rolling my eyes, wincing, or taken out of the moment because of the wording of things. "Brainwashing" was a big one for me, but general flow of dialogue in some parts had problems as well.

Schwarz, he was a big offender. The moment he opened his mouth I hated him. Benched him ASAP. Didn't get a single EXP point. He was beyond modern, he was annoying internet troll. Its just... not funny. Its just annoying and distracting.

Like I said you don't have to go far with trying to make it sound "Middle Ages" like. Its really less that and more de-modernizing. Take out modern phrases, references, and words. Even just getting somebody to read over your script and make the minor edits for you would go a long ways. Probably less all caps when Fa is angry as well. I get the purpose its trying to serve, but it just ends up being distracting again.

Overall I really enjoyed this hack. Its creative. The story is serviceable. The maps are really well done and the gameplay is balanced out well. It just has one really jarring flaw in it.

[Alfred Kamon]

Alright, so I finished the current version of the hack.

A lot of good things. I like the music a lot in the game first of all. I'm rather music focused when it comes to video games, and I like the selections.

Art work is pretty good for the most part. Hellios' hood top seems off to me, but that general style just... always seems off to me. -shrugs-. Lots of nice custom weapon sprites.

Good amounts of creativity. A few times the creativity lead to frustration in the map design (didn't know in the stealth mission to visit the houses at first because the enemy range included the houses. First fog of war map... those stationary monsters. The fact I couldn't see them meant I kept screwing up my positioning and getting slaughtered.) but overall it was a nice change to the standard FE design. Weapon variety was very nice, stat boost items were creative if oddly common.

A few of the character recruitments could have used slightly better clearing up (My previous misunderstanding with Rya and Cristopher, I completely missed recruiting Cattelya because I didn't even consider the possibility of her being recruitable.) In the end they were mostly on me, but some of the wording or lack of communication I think could have been cleared up.

The plot itself, while basic in some ways, has some good twists to it. I accidentally spoiled the big one when trying to look up the stealth mission stuff, and like somebody else pointed out there's a bit of an interface spoiler that can't really be avoided, but the pacing of the plot is overall well done.

I just really only had one major grip... the dialogue. I read in another post that you didn't feel you could do older english sounding dialogue. I think it would serve your hack as a whole if you gave it a shot. You don't have to go that far with it, FE itself doesn't really, but as it stands right now the dialogue is... distractingly modern. To the point where it hurts the enjoyment of the hack, which is a shame because otherwise its really well done. But there were so many moments where I was rolling my eyes, wincing, or taken out of the moment because of the wording of things. "Brainwashing" was a big one for me, but general flow of dialogue in some parts had problems as well.

Schwarz, he was a big offender. The moment he opened his mouth I hated him. Benched him ASAP. Didn't get a single EXP point. He was beyond modern, he was annoying internet troll. Its just... not funny. Its just annoying and distracting.

Like I said you don't have to go far with trying to make it sound "Middle Ages" like. Its really less that and more de-modernizing. Take out modern phrases, references, and words. Even just getting somebody to read over your script and make the minor edits for you would go a long ways. Probably less all caps when Fa is angry as well. I get the purpose its trying to serve, but it just ends up being distracting again.

Overall I really enjoyed this hack. Its creative. The story is serviceable. The maps are really well done and the gameplay is balanced out well. It just has one really jarring flaw in it.

Hello, TheNiddo.

First of all, thank you very much for the criticism and the compliments.

I'm afraid that having a modernised language in this fangame isn't an issue per se. It's a style and design choice, and your preference for a less modern language can't be considered an objective flaw, worth spending countless hours on.

As you may already know, I'm not a native speaker, and despite trying my best to write some proper English dialogues, I may still make some mistakes. I do have a proofreader though, it's Wayward Winds. He's just a few posts above you. I trust him deeply, and he's correcting, writing and polishing the dialogues properly, from my point of view.

I will answer to all of your critiques, since you were kind and took the time to write a long feedback.

You don't have to go that far with it, FE itself doesn't really, but as it stands right now the dialogue is... distractingly modern. To the point where it hurts the enjoyment of the hack, which is a shame because otherwise its really well done.

The game has been downloaded by 30'000 people, yet you're the first to report that "the enjoyment of the hack is compromised by the modern dialogue". I have to assume that it isn't a problem for most people, and that you've a personal disliking for modern language in videogames. As a game designer, it is my duty to make sure that the dialogue is appealing for most players, but I can't please everyone. Forgive me if the language I use hasn't met your expectations.

Schwarz, he was a big offender. The moment he opened his mouth I hated him. Benched him ASAP. Didn't get a single EXP point. He was beyond modern, he was annoying internet troll. Its just... not funny. Its just annoying and distracting.

Schwarz is a rather controversial character, so I can understand your issue with him. However, you've solved the issue by yourself: you've benched him.

I also hated the personality of many characters in the original FE games, and therefore benched them. Nothing new here.

Probably less all caps when Fa is angry as well. I get the purpose its trying to serve, but it just ends up being distracting again.

There are only two istances in the game where Fa's dialogues use the caps consistently.

The first one at the end of chapter three, when talking to Shiori. In that case, she was drunk and she was expressing for the first time the feelings she had repressed until then. I think it's just normal for her to talk like that.

The second time she uses caps consistently is in the epilogue. You have to consider how much she has gone through, and how painful it must be to know those revelations from Phoebe, along with being betrayed by her most faithful ally. Again, it doesn't seem strange for me to use caps in that context.

Do you have a hate for caps in general, perhaps?

Because I do as well, but not to the extent I won't use them in proper situations.

Finally, let's take a look to Intelligent System's latest game, Fire Emblem Fates, where modern slang, internet memes and unproper caps are all over the game. I think this fangame is doing a better job at keeping the modernised language to an extent, compared to the newly released original games.

If you're still willing to make me change the game, please bring a petition with at least 3000 signatures (merely 10% of the people who downloaded the game) if you want your preferences to be taken into consideration. I don't want to sound impolite or unfriendly, but as I stated, this is a preference, not a jarring gameplay issue or a glitch that needs immediate fixing.

I'm sure you will understand. I thank you for playing Midnight Sun, and for liking all the features included, bar this one.

Best wishes

Edited April 14, 2016 by Alfred Kamon

[IkeBoyDude]

Midnight sun is coming out very nicely, I'm impressed at the hack's epicness so far, looking forward to the "route split" ch's in the future updates.

Also i couple questions:

um when andre'lv is at 10 does he get to change into a mage/wonder pupil anytime or when the event for him to promote triggers? like when i entered the tower of valni the event for his prom triggered then?

also since both his proms both use anima weapons then which is better for him?

the tower of valini costs 1000gold as the leader dude says that the entering of the tower, um at this "point of time" in ch 9, the gold that i have is 1365g,

and 1000g for one time in the tower is a bit exp,

um how can you/or is there a way to farm for Gold in midnight sun up until ch 9/or in ch 9?

furthermore why are the enemies at valni tower so strong? it seems to me that your guys (chars) do less dmg than them e.g.. the mages etc at the "tower of valini 2"

also can you run only a party of three+two chars that you "specificly" want to lv up and it'll work in the tower of valni? (this way the specific chars can lv up faster to said LV)

and could you use a code to get lots of gold so the 1000gold cost for training at the tower of valini isn't an issue at this "point in time" of the hack?

(am asking cause I'm playing MD on my psp via GPSP emu GBA and if the code file for sacred stones can work for md that would be cool)

ex these are action replay codes for FE: Sacred stones

http://www.gamefaqs.com/gba/921183-fire-emblem-the-sacred-stones/faqs/37095

in future updates of MD, it'll improve as ch's go on, like in scared stones and other FE's. I'm sure :)

Edited April 14, 2016 by IkeBoyDude

[Alfred Kamon]

Hello!

1. Andre auto-promotes as soon as you enter the battle preparations after he reaches lv.10 in battle.

2. The Sage is more of an all-out attacker, while the Spellfencer is more stategical and can hit both Def and Res. Both are good, so pick your favourite.

Sage's skill: "Fast Reader". You deal +7 damage when using a tome against an opponent who wields a tome.

Spellfencer's skill: "Stun Blade". (Str+Mag)/3% chance to deal 1.5x damage and put the target to sleep. Bosses won't fall asleep this way.

3. Gold won't be an issue. You find plenty of valuable items that you can sell in the next chapters, along with some gems and some treasure chests containing gold.

4. Midnight Sun isn't designed to work with cheat codes, but since the base is Sacred Stones, you could try those codes on MS at your own risk-- I'm not responsible for whatever may happen to your game, since - I repeat - Midnight Sun isn't supposed to play with codes or even savestates.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Alfred Kamon

[Glaceo]

Yep, all aboard the Sage train, because my Andre's strength sucks. Also, is there a difference of picking the trainee promotions? Do they get different tier 2 promotions?

[IkeBoyDude]

Hello!

1. Andre auto-promotes as soon as you enter the battle preparations after he reaches lv.10 in battle.

2. The Sage is more of an all-out attacker, while the Spellfencer is more stategical and can hit both Def and Res. Both are good, so pick your favourite.

Sage's skill: "Fast Reader". You deal +7 damage when using a tome against an opponent who wields a tome.

Spellfencer's skill: "Stun Blade". (Str+Mag)/3% chance to deal 1.5x damage and put the target to sleep. Bosses won't fall asleep this way.

3. Gold won't be an issue. You find plenty of valuable items that you can sell in the next chapters, along with some gems and some treasure chests containing gold.

4. Midnight Sun isn't designed to work with cheat codes, but since the base is Sacred Stones, you could try those codes on MS at your own risk-- I'm not responsible for whatever may happen to your game, since - I repeat - Midnight Sun isn't supposed to play with codes or even savestates.

cool, the auto promote for andre is great :)

well since he has two different promos, i can use one for Shiori's path and the other one for Fa's path.

yep, like many fe games the gold gets better as the game advances.

um, the ARcodes could work for MD since it uses SS as base rom, but it isn't reccmened , so i won't use codes finally,

um the save state that i used from v1.2 -> v1.5 it didn't work, but from v1.5 -> v1.6 it did :)

just remained the statesav from midnight sun v1.5 to midnight sun v1.6_0.svs (the state format that GPsp uses).

looking forward to ch split paths!

also does the ch split paths in sacred stones happen at ch 9 or later? i think for SS it was later than chapter 9.