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Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn ReDux (v0.8.72 CH 2-2)


Dunal
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On 02/02/2018 at 4:30 AM, OmegaX128 said:

IIRC, Pelleas is going to use Thunder and Dark?

Actually, the plan right now is just Dark. It allows me to balance him to be more powerful in Resolve range. He previously had Fire but 2-range is too powerful since you could just get his HP low and then nuke harder than Calill/Tormod which is a no-go. 

Instead, he's a Mage Knight like Ilyana. Extra movement and high HP/Defense. Unlike Ilyana he has RES though and can use staves in tier 3. But that's all in return for being under levelled at join time.  His SKL/MAG are worse than Ilyana, but the former is negated by resolve, and his STR is so high that his staff combat is probably the best in the game (He can reach S staves for Matrona).

Thunder's a bit pointless since Carreau/Verrine covers for him in the CRIT/HIT department (switch between the two based on biorhythm). And there's already enough dragon killers in the game (including Micaiah who can potentially use Thoron). 

On 01/02/2018 at 8:24 AM, Carreau Diamond said:

Speaking even more about staves; I've gone back a bit in this topic a bit and read that the Seraph Knights will have access to staves, especially Sigrun.

Do they have the same issue with staff animations as Fiona and Astrid used to, where the game would either crash or display weird poses for them? Or by chance do they share some things in common in the game's code with Elincia that allows them to safely use staves with animations turned on?

Nah, Seraph Knights no longer have Staves. Sigrun does get Blessing though. She's more-or-less a flying variation of Fiona with weaker combat but even stronger utility (higher MAG). She does get access to wind swords (including Alondite) unlike Fiona however, which instead gets the Shining Bow which is more limited (Fiona has solid enough STR though).

On 01/02/2018 at 8:24 AM, Carreau Diamond said:

Also, Is Bastian still going to be primarily a Wind user, and therefore a Strategist?

Still a strategist. He's bulkier than Soren but lacks Soren's fantastic MAG/SKL. Still is a filler unit but certainly not bad. He can use Dark magic more safely for what it's worth. No longer has Corrosion (now exclusive to Calill) but has some innate crit (+10%).

On 01/02/2018 at 5:59 AM, Mr. Mister said:

Dunal, if you have the time, could you try and look into making the longbowman and the non-boss cav in 1-3 switch order? I want the cav to move before the longbowman, else the longbowman moves to the front of the door and blocks the sword-dropping cav from attacking Eddie (who can't move past the door else he enters boss range), holding himself and his red gem hostage and completely blocking that path if you didn't send Sothe to steal all the stuff on the other path first.

 

I ended up playing such a stupid game of chicken with that longbowman today; I just wanted to bait that cav, get his sword and retreat through the other path before reinforcements arrived...

Yeah I'll be doing changes to every map in part 1 based on feedback. This will be one of them.

I'm currently experimenting with new AI that will make some enemies a little more interesting. Mostly AI that causes enemies to cooperate with each other rather than having individually set behaviour (so enemies will form squads and the like). A lot of maps will have this, 1-3 included.

Mostly why the next release is taking awhile. More advanced AI is currently something I'm working on and the payoff will be more than worth it. The longbowman in particular is a notable target for this. For example, by default he will now shoot if you're in range, but if you're not, he'll go band up with the cavalier and then follow the cavalier when he moves. There are other examples as well, but basically, enemies will less likely just stand around and will actually create formations (sometimes after a certain turn count) unless you pull them quickly. There's some other AI types to be added as well but that's the main one. 

On 31/01/2018 at 10:31 PM, Deltre said:

Out of curiosity, how much BEXP each are the Marado Knights/1-8 Prisoners worth?

200 each in both cases. Saving two is almost the equivalent of a full level for an unpromoted (in the 10-15 level range) so worth saving them to fill out stats for a unit before promotion.  

On 31/01/2018 at 10:31 PM, Deltre said:

Speaking about staves though, was it intentional that you can steal the ElSleep in 1-E? I was able to snag it with Sothe when I last replayed 1-E, and I had noticed that the ElSilence guy had his items locked so I thought I'd ask. 

It's intentional that you can steal it if you reach them fast. Elsilence? You should be able to steal/disarm it but it being locked must just be that I forgot to remove that for the public release. Don't think it should affect anything though.

Edited by Dunal
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Can I make a request that you rework mastery skills in the game and make them more interactive if you ever get the chance. Some skill act like crits with bonus effect but you never really get to see that bonus since you'll most likely murder the enemy anyway. Making Aether activate at (5/8)*skill rate while only being one strike would be cool,. I don't know how this would play into game balance but its something I've wanted to try.

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There isn't really a way to make proc% based skills satisfying outside of making them crits or glorified variants of them (otherwise they're rarely going to be meaningful outside of maybe Sol) -- the weaker skills are, the less likely they would have made a different in killing vs. not killing). I'd like to make them command based and/or similar to the way 'Heroes' utilise skills (in order to make them weaker but reliable) but that would take a huge amount of work. They do therefore still function like crits with bonus effects which for the most part is fine. After all, players would otherwise just rather have procced a crit itself. Flare, Corona and Bane being the exceptions of course. 

That said, enemies are generally a lot bulkier later on so masteries will often not be enough to 100-0 for a lot of units, especially for casters. And some classes no longer have their old masteries or tweaked probability of them activating. For example, Heather gets Canto rather than Bane. Reavers have +15% crit and Focus as opposed to Colossus (which would be completely useless for Boyd in terms of proc% and comparatively too good on Nolan) etc.. There are also only three Satori signs in the game, and most Royals no longer start with their masteries.

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I've replaced both map and combat music before, they have different effects if they're different lengths.

In the case that the replacing song is shorter than the replaced one, it will work/loop just perfectly.

In the case that the song is longer, combat songs will completely cut out until another battle sequence starts. Map themes will just loop early.

I don't recommend it in most cases, it can be pretty jarring but it's great if you have one of adequate length. I have Id (Purpose) replacing A Grasping Truth and it's amazing.

Edited by OmegaX128
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I've started playing this yesterday, and so far, the gameplay was way smoother than I expected from video footage. Usually these sort of balancing/differentiating endeavors tend to overdo it in order to provide a challenge, but so far, so good. I just arrived at chapter 4, and have only encountered two one issues so far:

- I got three error messages right when Ch 2's map was loading. The same kind of error messages I'd infinitely get when trying to open a poorly patched iso. Nothing unusual in the chapter, though.

- The Library doesn't appear to have any growths, just the regular descriptions. I am an idiot who didn't load the proper iso.

I am playing off of clear data (no PoR save import) though, if it's any indication? (Also, any suggestions on skill allocation? There's so many I can't choose.)

Edited by Miacis
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16 minutes ago, Miacis said:

- I got three error messages right when Ch 2's map was loading.

Oh, could you provide some more info on that?

Currently ReDux can't be played on a real Wii because it will freeze while attempting to load 1-2. We've isolated the issue to the modified file for 1-2, but until Dunal makes a step-by-step reconstruction with tests inbetween steps of the file, we don't know what it is that makes it do that, because Dolphin doesn't seem to have any problems with it.

Also, any suggestions on skill allocation? There's so many I can't choose.

Gamble is very, very fun with Wao Dao Eddie or Killer Bow Leo; with good biorrythm Eddie can consistently get over 70 Hit with over 50 crit.

Nolan can proc a surprising amount of Cancels, and for 1-E Jill can make good use of Stillness to do some damage behind enemy lines.

Edited by Mr. Mister
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I managed to load an earlier state leading to it. There's only two messages, not sure if conditions have changed, or if I misremembered. It's the same error message twice:

Invalid read from 0x00000ffd, PC = 802910a8

Dolphin version is 5.0-6302. Game's MD5 is for patch A (5D030F0F1B2D893D239227EF639FD7FC). And here's a savestate to the end of the chapter before. Just have Micaiah escape (or her and Leo, same result). Skipping cutscenes or not does not appear to change anything either.

Edited by Miacis
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10 hours ago, Miacis said:

(Also, any suggestions on skill allocation? There's so many I can't choose.)

Celerity on Laura is kind of amazing. I've found a ton of success with splitting my army into 2 teams in just about every map from Chapter 4 onwards, and her having movement helps with that a lot. She can't really use any other skills besides Shade or Stillness but those skills are better used on characters who are really good at going deep and assassinating people.

Speaking of, Shade or Stillness are great on people who can ORKO. I find Jill AMAZING at killing squishy and far away archers and mages. Especially longbowmen and wind mages. Zihark is fun with these too. He's also a good contestant for the Wo Dao and Killing Edge, and using him to easily ORKO mages and other squishies is great when these skills will let him get away with it. I think of them as my assassins, with other units like Nolan and Edward to be the tanky frontliners and duelists.

I'd recommend Blossom on Micaiah. I find it a viable strategy to hold off on killing with Micaiah in the middle chapters, mainly using her for Sacrifice and Resire as a makeshift healer as well as Thani and other magic nukes to almost kill. The enemies in Chapter 1-9 (with the BK) will give much, MUCH more experience now and she should easily be able to get to LV 20 from many, MANY levels down with or without Blossom. Even if she fails to get to 20 somehow, bonus exp should fill out any stats she's lacking in. I use this strategy mainly to last-hit with other units to give them all more experience, as well as to help Miccy's defensive stats and Speed.

Since she'll be able to use all Anima magic after promoting when this project is more developed, using Discipline while she still only has Light and Dark to work with is good too.

I also like the idea of Blossom on Sothe, (though it would probably be a lot better for him when this project is more developed and Parts 3 and 4 are available). He has great growths all around; it's very easy with him especially to get near perfect, if not perfect levels ups. You don't even have to give him kills; just use him as you would normally to steal items and wear down enemies and especially fight bosses. He should earn experience slowly anyways.

Edited by Carreau Diamond
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Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I have gotten like, one hit of Cancel with Alan and one Disarm with Leonardo this entire playthrough, despite there being basically 50% more enemies. Not sure if the formulas changed, or I'm just getting unlucky. Thanks for the tips, though.

Since the previous bug report seemed useful, here's another one when loading chapter 1-7:

Invalid read from 0x0000199d, PC = 802910a8
Invalid read from 0x0000199d, PC = 802910a8
Invalid read from 0x00001721, PC = 802910a8
Invalid read from 0x00001721, PC = 802910a8

These four (it's two repeats) right before the Prison title card, and the same four right before sending me to Preparations.

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3 hours ago, Miacis said:

Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I have gotten like, one hit of Cancel with Alan and one Disarm with Leonardo this entire playthrough

Cancel has Speed% chance of activating, so Edward or maybe Nolan would be better with it. Maybe you knew that already. However, Pavise with its Skill% chance would be better for Aran to do roughly the same thing.

On Disarm, it has a Skill/2% chance to proc. For me it activated maybe only two or three times across all of part 1 and was only somewhat useful once (the others were killing blows IIRC). Which yeah, is kinda unfortunate. Leonardo should have an easier time activating it as the game goes along, but with all the Laguz he's gotta deal with in Part 3 he just isn't gonna make much use of it at all until Part 4.

We could request making Disarm's activation rate full Skill%, but with his Skill cap and growth being so godly and him easily reaching 50 skill, I'd be afraid of him being way too OP with Disarm alone. So I don't feel like there's much that can be done unfortunately. At least it makes much more gameplay and thematic sense than Cancel. So, Disarm should be thought of more as a bonus to Leonardo's chipping and wearing at enemies, rather than something to rely on. At least in earlygame.

Edited by Carreau Diamond
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I just had one of my funniest/worst ideas ever for this hack.

Makalov with (locked) personal skill Steal. Now you can put stealables in 2-3, the knights’ corridor in 2-E, and 3-Crimea.

 

Plus, I kinda wanna see what his Other AI does in 3-(Crimea+1).

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Hey there, I literally just made a new account so I could comment on this since I'm loving the hack, currently just about to start 1E, first here's what my team looks like (have yet to apply BEXP from 1-8 or 1-9):

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So wow Micaiah is powerful, she's fallen off a bit recently cause she hasn't promoted but she really carried me for a lot of the early game, had to put blossom on her cause of how much I was using her, but that just made her even better over time, the only thing I got unlucky with her is res, she's proced it a lot more recently but she went several levels in a row with 1 res, twas quite scary. Also I used a seraph robe on her awhile back to get better mileage out of her sacrifice/resire (come to think of it that really ended up mattering... there are at least 3 times when I remember thinking "OK she'll almost die but as long she has ruin equipped she should live with 2-3 HP")

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Edward is bae, especially Zihark, speaking of which I've perused some other posters and seen a lot of people saying Edward is poop compared to Zihark but mine is better in literally every way except for res and weapon rank (for now), did mine just get lucky? I don't feel like doing the growth rate math but I guess it's worth pointing out that he's had 1 draco shield and promoted at level 15 (which by the way the draco shield was only used because he was level 8 and hadn't proced def even once, of course as soon as I used it he started procing it a whole bunch...) Also him and Micaiah have an A support that works pretty well for them, and he's very happy to have that shiny new storm sword, he devoured his second wind edge quite some time ago, I really like him with the Wo Dao and gamble, gives him a crit of 70 on average and that's without wrath, which is another advantage Edward has, If I get bored of Zihark I can always give his adept to someone else, can't do that with Edward's wrath. Note: I don't have a Zihark to show you since he has yet to gain any levels.

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Paragon is so good! ...Oh and Sothe is OK too I guess. Seriously though he's done really well for me, his defenses are a bit lacking but his A support with Leo takes away some of the tension (it's saved him at least twice by now) that plus renewal and pavise have given him enough durability to steal what he want when he wants without having to worry about lugging Vulneraries around (BTW I love that I get to give Tibarn's OP skill that he doesn't even need to someone else, Sothe thanks you muchly)

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So... confession? I've played through vanilla Radiant Dawn... I wanna say 4 times? Only two of them went all the way to 4-E, the other two were abandoned in Part 3 for reasons I've long since forgotten, but in all of my playthroughs... I've never used Leo, I think I used him a bare amount in my first ever playthrough but even then not much because I was a huge fan of Rolf AND Shinon from POR and I knew I wasn't bringing three archers to endgame (I rarely bring two) so this hack was basically the first time I've ever seriously used him, and... he's OK, bit slow for my tastes(and that's with a speeding), also he's easily my squishiest unit, he's an archer so it's not that bad but it can be kind've hard to have him stay near Sothe for that defense boost due to his own lacking defense, I will say that it was very smart of you to give him access to bowguns in part 1, gives Leo something substantial to due if their are fliers around at least (Never found the need to use them with Rolf or Shinon in vanilla RD) FWIW Leo promoted at level 15 (Also: since I tried and it didn't work I was wondering; why can't base archers use bowguns? Is it hard coded into vanilla RD or was that a decision you made for some reason?)

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So Nolan... ugh, Oh hey I just realized Nolan can also one shot fliers, is that why him and Leo are kinda bad? but yeah, not sure how much of my Nolan was bad luck and how much was bad bases/growths, but man I didn't even promote him until level 18 and he still doesn't seem that appealing to me, at least his Str boost from promotion will let him hammer armor guys without getting doubled, him and Aran have a bromance support to help him out and more then any other support team I always make sure they're together cause Nolan really needs the boost.

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Aran's alright (his unmooving biorhythm is so perfect, kinda wish only he had it) his promoted skill that gives him plus 20 avo and dodge is especially nice though part of me wishes he didn't have it since I gave him an ashera icon to help out his bad luck only for that to be trivialized cuz of vigilance. Not much else to say, he promoted at Level 15, he's not great but he's not bad, he's right in the middle which is kinda perfect for Aran.

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Laura is... the healer, she heals, she can fight things now too I guess but her magic isn't great and regular Light is super weak so she's usually better off healing someone so they can do the fighting (she promoted at level 15) I forged her a max might Light tome, hopefully that helps her do some real damage, if not then Micaiah can take it off her hands (of note: I used my only coin so far on this, and it gave +1 Mgt, +5 Hit, and +3 Crit, I wanna say that coin effects were never that good in vanilla but I could be wrong, or maybe I just got a really luck card) excited to try out the sleep staff, she has a support with doggo that helps them both be more evasive and they're already kind of evasive so that's nice.

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Me like Doggo lots. Doggo doesn't like me though since refuses to proc Str, he's been pretty good about procing other things though, and upgrading to an S rank Strike recently helped counterbalance the lack of strength, though I'm a bit worried about him long term (of note: I've given him a speedwing, if I ever get an energy drop then he's a prime candidate for that too, so far haven't found any and I've always had other things I've wanted to buy over the ones in the shop) those two Spectre card uses were also very clutch for doggo when his lacking strength put him just short of killing things a couple times, overall excited to see what doggo is like when he can fullshift, but it's also really cool that he'll get to keep halfshifting without losing out on EXP unlike in vanilla RD.

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Jill is so good! I've always found console canto to be kind've broken and arrows don't even phase her and she's so good! I did give her a seraph robe to help her extra survivability ...and an ashera icon to help her low luck ...and a talisman to help her low res ...and I did wait till she was level 17 to promote her.

I think I'm starting to see why she's so good... but seriously though she is, and with celerity that 11 movement with console canto is so juicy, it was a big part of why saving all the civilians in 1-8 was so easy ...and Vika helped out a bit too. FWIW she has a support with Zihark, though she doesn't use it much cause she's always flying every which way and Zihark can never keep up, her low skill has sometimes been a bit of a problem but lances have been helping her hit things more reliably.

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So Illyana... she's pretty bad, I mean I guess she's not terrible but I've seen a lot of posts calling her top tier and I'm just not seeing it, keep in mind this is AFTER waiting till level 18 to promote (and unlike Nolan who I know got a couple 1 staters Ilyana never did) she's kinda tanky I guess but Meg is too and Meg can actually deal sizable amounts of damage while also being tanky, to be a good damage dealer a character usually needs high Speed, high Might, or to be pretty good in both areas... and she is definitely none of those things, also she only get Thunder while Tormod's class gets all of the things, how's that fair? And while sure she gets Crit +15  her crits aren't gonna be that strong if her might stays that low. (also out of curiosity why do generic enemy Mage Knights get shove while she gets Crit + 15? Was the crit bonus just too strong for enemies in playtesting?)

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Oh Meg... she's so Adorkable, I also love how you've fully embraced her joke character status while still making her a good unit, I used her in one of my vanilla RD playthroughs and she turned out pretty good but she took WAAAAAY too much babying, really good choice to give her the inherent butcher and a much needed boost in her first chapter too avoid falling into the same pitfalls as vanilla, overall Meg is really great, she promoted at Level 15 but she already far outweighs Tauroneo who's level 8 (in Tauroneo's defense that inherent resolve is really gonna help him shine, and he actually has a skill stat and luck stat unlike Meg) speaking of which I forged her an iron sword with Max hit AND Max Might (I had a lot of money to burn at the time) and an Iron Lance with Max Hit, that combined with her support with Ilyana has given her some decently reliable hit rates, it also makes her and Ilyana even tankier which is nice, also I find it rather funny that you seem to have butchered her luck stat to make fortune more important on her but then took it away as an inherent skill, obviously I put it on her as soon as I could but the whole thing seems rather backwards, which I suppose is fitting given her status as the joke character.

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Fiona is... better then in Vanilla definitely. hard to say much beyond that cause I've only used her on one map so far and she wasn't that great but she was just starting out so I guess that's alright, I promoted her at level 15, I will say that I definitely noticed her absence in 1-8 with Laura having to provide as the sole healer, starting with 10 movement is really nice but she didn't gain any on promotion and she still has decreased movement on basically every map, will have to see how she performs on 1-E although I'm definitely taking her cause I really do want that second healer. Currently she's not supporting anyone but I'll probably hook her up with Meg when Illyana defects.

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Muarim is OK, high strength and HP, kinda like a Fighter in Animal form, better at being a Fighter then Nolan, but yeah his "meh" speed combined with his "meh" defenses have gotten him in trouble a couple times, makes the best use of renewal though (if only he had 1 more HP it could be even better though!) I guess this is the point where I say that I really like what you've done with Laguz in this hack (even if it can be a bit confusing) The Laguz gauges have been made a lot more friendly on top of their untransformed states getting a buff, a tiger's gauge is pretty normal which makes sense as Tigers are probably the most basic form of Laguz, and while untransformed their Def and Str are multiplied by 1.5 if I'm remembering right (if their's any way to show their base stat alongside their altered stat even while untransformed that would help make things a lot less confusing, if that's not something you can do then I understand, but it would be nice)

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Vika is a god! I think I got lucky cause I swear she proced strength AT LEAST three time in a row and I don't think that's normal but I don't care because she is a god! she doesn't even have S rank strike yet but she's already almost as strong as Muarim while being as fast as Volug, her gauge not going down during battle gives her some serious tanking potential, and she very much can tank, at least against magic, wind might give her some problems but wind is also pretty inaccurate and she's currently my dodgiest unit, and her defense isn't terrible either, unless I'm mistaken her speed and skill stay 1.5 even when untransformed which makes a lot of sense (let the tiger that was gonna get doubled anyway keep some extra defense and let the speedy crow keep some of it's speed) I also gave her a support with Tormod, all around it's doing OK for both of them but the main reason they have it is just cause I like pairing the two characters together. All in all I'm not that worried for her when she comes back in part 4, though depending on how Muarim's next couple level go I might be worried for him...

Also I guess I can talk about Rafiel now (who I'm having support Muarim for one chapter, cuz why not?) THANK YOU! I love getting to have the high level galdrars right from the start, the only way to feasibly get them in vanilla is to power grind them on levels that don't have a time limit, which you can do in this hack too, but it's really great that you don't need to. I especially love the galdrar that maxes the Laguz gauge, I already got a couple really good uses out of it in 1-8, and now that I think about it with biorhythm being more impactful in this hack his other other galdrar can probably come in handy too, haven't used them yet and in most cases getting extra attacks is probably better but I can imagine decreasing Jarod's evasion by 30 could prove quite useful.

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last but not least, Tormod, my favourite character in all of Radiance, and probably my favourite Mage in all of Fire Emblem, from what I've seen you've give him some really nice tier 3 promo bonuses so that plus where he is now should make him more then viable for Part 4, Tormod's been doing really great overall, slacking a bit in the strength department but if anything that just means more stratemigy when thinking about what Tome he should wield, you can probably tell by his level that I've given him some favoritism but it was more about training his weapon levels then his actual levels (also each dragon he killed gave him about 80 experience and I think he killed three, so that's part of it) Also because I surprised even myself with how much weapon training I got done here's this:

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Obviously this was largely done with discipline in 1-8, but Man increasing Wind and Light by two ...and I definitely didn't use an arm scroll on him, nope, you can't prove it at least.

 

Wow so... that's everybody. Took a long time to type that all out but here's some general thoughts on the chapters up till now:

P) kinda hard for the prologue honestly... not that I mind, I like a challenge, was just surprising.

1) not that hard if you know going in which enemies will move and which won't, but if you don't then you kinda have to waste time with awkward positioning and artificially make the time limit more restrictive then it should be or just hope certain enemies won't move and that's not really good game design, since it's just the first chapter and restarting it's not a big deal I didn't mind too much but I do see it as a flaw.

2) easy peasie, probably easiest map so far, which makes sense since it's the map you get your healer and your jagen in.

3) a bit harder then 2 but not that bad, was surprised when the long bowman moved, but without the boost to hit from promotion longbows are way too inaccurate from 4 or 5 spaces away so I just used him to get a couple extra exp per turn.

4) wasn't that bad but required some babying to make sure Meg didn't die to a freak Crit (and she did get get hit by one freak crit BTW, left her with 3 HP) other then that had a couple scares when reinforcements showed up and it was kind of a challenge getting the chest on the top right cause of that spastic Cat with Canto (though I am very looking forward to playing around with Canton Cats myself)

5) AAAAAAAAA! The boots! If I just had one more turn they would've been mine! It's cause of those dang wyvern reinforcements! Caused me to lose out on a red gem and that spirit dust as well... if I ever play that again I'll make sure to approach from the middle instead of the north, other then that Jill almost died so protecting her became kind of a thing.

6-1) It wasn't that bad but I must've almost beaten it three times only for more reinforcements to show up and cause me to regroup, I definitely found reinforcements more annoying on this map then any other, and while I'm sure they help with the exp curve I feel their has to be a more elegant way of going about it.

6-2) This map was probably the funnest map for me, their was some rescuing in the north and some walling the west and some ballistas which you actually got to use yourself because of enemy placement, some FUN wyvern reinforcement when it felt like the map was just gonna turn into a boring trudge to the boss and some other unit reinforcements at the end which was cool cause it felt like Fiona was actually helping you on that map instead of just rescuing civilians and running (not that helping civilians is a bad thing but it's nice that they get to help you fight to, if only a little bit).

7) was pretty easy until I had just started rescuing the prisoners only for Levail to show up and force me to abandon all but two, but I like that sort of thing, it gives real incentive to go as fast as you can and kinda artificially increase the difficulty of the map but in a good way, also the enemy reinforcements that showed up at the end of the map almost forced me to reset and took me about an hour to solve a math problem to figure out how I could get though the enemy phase with no one dying, in the end I was forced to rely on a 30%crit, so battle saves for the win!

8) I actually found rescuing the prisoners a good bit easier here then in vanilla despite removing the stipulation that it's game over if they all die. trading out wyverns for crows probably helped, crows are a lot squishier, also having everyone start together definitely helped since I could make really good use of Vigor, now I think of it that was probably what helped the most. And the dragons! So much yes! this is what facing dragons in Fire Emblem should be like! I remember the dragons in vailla RD and especially POR were kind of underwhelming but if this was a taste of what's to come in this hack for dragons then I'm very excited, although wondering what it'll be like when we get to use dragons, I know that's not for awhile but I can't image they'll be as good as enemy dragons, unless the endgame is just gonna be littered with thunder magic and priests.

So yeah I guess those are my thoughts for now, will probably post again when I've gotten up to 2-2 other then that... it'd be nice if all dark weapons said "aura" even if they don't explain it cause right now some don't and the iron knife sais it gives triple weapon experience but I'm doubting that's true and it'd be nice if we could know what a skill does before we buy it from the shop so if there's anything you can do about that it'd be great. Other then that I think you're just a tad generous with money, I feel like with all that I bought this is how much I should've been able to buy had I gotten all the gems, but I missed one so I don't think I should've been able to buy quite this much, if this were my hack I'd give the player access to one less red gem, or up the prices of certain things (for example, make forging weapons that can be super effective more expensive, Max Might Light Tome seemed a bit too cheap to me, I know it's only super effective for priests, but still)

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Thanks for the extensive feedback!

I'm starting to see that people don't really value reliability too much. I don't know if that's just how people play (or whether battle saves are part of the issue) but those with a tendency to have high HIT rates regardless of weaponry or biorhythm (Nolan/Aran... Ilyana in the case of Renigade) don't tend to be be too popular currently.

I think most would disagree with Ilyana though, being able to one-shot dracos and/or nuke Dragons is pretty huge, and she's bulky enough to do it. Arcthunder crits are generally strong enough to 1-shot a lot of enemies as well and she'll do it pretty often. Obviously has her weaknesses in SPD/RES but that's a light tradeoff for what she's capable of doing. She gets two siege tomes as well so has utility in that regard, as well as access to water affinity / barriers to patch up RES.

For Nolan, I'm seeing a trend where people aren't putting a lot of focus into him and then come 1-E finding him 'weak' as a result. His level curve is going to be above every other tier 1 and is a good promotion candidate for 1-6. That gives him 3 (or 4?) maps of being promoted which should sit him at LV7-9 by 1-E (so he'll be ~3 SPD/DEF/RES, 7 SKL etc... better off). I don't think him being LV1 promoted really indicates anything aside from him being benched for a couple maps prior. And of course, a unit isn't going be stellar with that circumstance. Fiona/Jill going into 1-E with no 1-7/1-8 deployment aren't going to be looking too hot either. Still, to Nolan's benefit, he actually gets access to a powerful prf weapon after part 1, so being underlevelled hurts him less. I'll be giving him a nudge in the next update (slightly more SKL and early Killer Axe access) but I'd be hesitant to give him any more. Aran's much the same way, with proper investment he's a great tank, arguably the best one there is -- and consistently great with the Brave Lance.

@Miacis I'll certainly take a look at those logs. Thanks for providing those.

On 11/02/2018 at 11:17 PM, Mr. Mister said:

I just had one of my funniest/worst ideas ever for this hack.

Makalov with (locked) personal skill Steal. Now you can put stealables in 2-3, the knights’ corridor in 2-E, and 3-Crimea.

 

Plus, I kinda wanna see what his Other AI does in 3-(Crimea+1).

Makalov lacks a skill slot which comes under 'expanding data' to implement. I'd otherwise provide skills to more units if I could. It's why mage classes no longer have Shove (because alternative skills are just more interesting when they only really have the CON to shove each-other, statue frags aside).

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ATM I'm save stating at the start of every turn, not that I'm always taking advantage of them, but if I'm on the last couple turns of a map I don't really feel like going all the way back if something terrible happens.

Oh that's right, you can pick up Archthunder in the armory before 1E huh? I don't actually think I checked its stats, I'll have to see if I have something to sell so I can pick one of those up, might help change my opinion of her (although considering Tormod comes with Thunder B I'm pretty sure he could wield it by now if I really wanted him too, of course I have Ilyana for that which is why I focused on training his other weapons but still)

uhh... Nolan definitely wasn't a good promo candidate for me on 1-6, like I said he got two level ups that were just HP which is why I delayed his promotion to level 18, obviously this could be bad luck, but it is what it is, he was still first tier when I fielded him on 1-7 and I didn't field him on 1-8 because... well you have to not field some people and to me the Tormod crew took top priority since they're gonna be leaving for a million years after 1E.

I didn't put Fiona in 1-8 largely because I saw a bunch of Axe users, granted they were using magic Axes but I didn't know that from the prep screen cause the description for Dark Axe reads the exact same as Venin Axe I believe, so I wasn't sure if the name or the description was incorrect and just went with the odds.

But Jill was fielded in 1-7 and 1-8... due to some awkwardness in 1-6-2 Jill lost out on a bit of experience which is why I held off on promoting her to the end of 1-7, and in 1-8 she gained 180 experience, for whatever that's worth, she probably would've gotten more if she wasn't my best way of saving the civilians and had her time preoccupied with that.

Early killer Axe sounds fun :)

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1 hour ago, Dunal said:

Thanks for the extensive feedback!

I'm starting to see that people don't really value reliability too much. I don't know if that's just how people play (or whether battle saves are part of the issue) but those with a tendency to have high HIT rates regardless of weaponry or biorhythm (Nolan/Aran... Ilyana in the case of Renigade) don't tend to be be too popular currently.

 

I think its mostly due to lack of context, plus it takes a few runs to adjust to it. My first run I thought nolan and aran were bad, but now after playing through it like 6 times haha that I can see more what their role is and how to use them, I think they are pretty amazing and do their job well.  It took me some time to value aran's vigilance and nolan's nihil in their true glory and Im sure there is even more context in part 3 and 4 where these come in real handy. 

 

I even thought fiona was garbage too but spirit dust plus blessing is just so good. Aoe healing ftw.

 

Edited by Zihark72
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2 hours ago, Dunal said:

I'm starting to see that people don't really value reliability too much. I don't know if that's just how people play (or whether battle saves are part of the issue) but those with a tendency to have high HIT rates regardless of weaponry or biorhythm (Nolan/Aran... Ilyana in the case of Renigade) don't tend to be be too popular currently..

Interesting that you would say that, and even though I can really only speak for myself I do think that this is actually explainable.

Take Nolan vs. Jill for example. Now, I know there's obviously a pretty big difference between the two, but before even looking at enemy composition, movement scores, or anything like that, Jill just has a better stat spread. She's more likely to hit things harder and is also more likely to attack twice while doing so, and because she's more likely to be attacking things twice she's actually roughly on par with Nolan, or at least not substantially worse than Nolan in terms of reliability since she'll be getting two attacks to his one. Unless he's pulling 100% hitrates, his one statistical advantage is nullified. Perhaps he may survive one more hit, but he will likely expend that one extra hit immediately by virtue of the fact that he can't kill anything on his own in one round. For example:

Nolan attacks Enemy A -> Enemy A retaliates -> Enemy Phase -> Enemy A attacks Nolan -> Nolan retaliates -> Enemy A dies

vs.

Jill attacks Enemy A -> Enemy A retaliates -> Jill finishes -> Enemy A dies

Enemies on the whole are tougher in this hack than compared to vanilla, so leaving them alive for enemy phase is rarely the preferred option unless it absolutely can't be helped. Even then, when enemy phase rolls around the problem then becomes the fact that you want your hard hitters to be getting as much action as possible so that you have an easier time cleaning up on Player Phase. It's just better to have them on the front, then follow up with weaker/reliable characters on the following PP rather than doing the opposite.

Adding to that, I'd rather have Unit A that can potentially deal ~70% damage to an enemy in two hits roughly 75% of the time than Unit B who can deal ~40% damage to an enemy in one hit 95% of the time, especially when Unit A still has the chance to deal 35% damage should one attack miss, with effectively about the same reliability as Unit B. It just makes things that much easier come time to actually finish the enemy off, especially if Unit A should connect both attacks. Unit B on the other hand, doesn't have the potential to deal as much damage, and is therefore less favorable when deciding who should aggro the next group of enemies. This means that Unit B is less likely to be getting EXP compared to Unit A, and that's likely a large part in why you're seeing a lot of cases where Nolan in particular is behind where you might expect him to be come 1-E. He just needs a lot of in-chapter combat favoritism (I.E kills) that units with better combat or other utility simply don't need. For what it's worth, I also think that my example is a little conservative. If we replace 'Unit A' with say, Jill/Fiona/Edward, and Unit B with Nolan, it only gets worse since Jill/Fiona/Edward can actually ORKO things sometimes, and Nolan never will without effective damage and several above average levels.

Another factor is that it's comparatively easy to fix bad hit rates as opposed to fixing bad STR/SPD. Hit boosting supports, switching to a more accurate weapon, intentionally targeting an enemy on Worst Biorhythm, +Hit on forges, etc. are all viable options. Meanwhile the only way to fix lackluster damage output, effective damage notwithstanding, is through +MT forges and some very highly contested stat boosters. Meanwhile, the boosters for Hit are much less contested, and can be distributed to units who are already strong, but would like a bit more reliability. In fairness, some of these low hit/high mt weapons that these reliable characters make good use of haven't been released yet, so that's something to consider. 

I think the problem is specifically with Nolan though. A unit like Aran, for example, actually has things going for him compared to your other characters besides 'probably won't miss'. He's tankier, about as evasive, more stable thanks to no Biorhythm, can fix his offense WITHOUT statboosters thanks to the Brave Lance and hits harder even disregarding that, has effective weaponry readily available (tbf, Nolan has the Hammer and can use Crossbows early at the expense of your first Master Seal and levels that he may desperately need), and is pretty open to fixing problem stats through BEXP once STR/SKL are capped. All of these factors combined make Aran a fairly solid pick that allow him to be used in a broad sense, rather than waiting for a specific set of circumstances to really shine. Meanwhile, Nolan needs to wait for a very specific set of circumstances (I.E maps with Fliers and Generals) to be useful, and once those enemies have been dispatched he's not capable of keeping up offensively. Now, if the Tarvos can give Nolan a relevant niche he so desperately needs, I feel as though people will be kicking themselves for not raising him a bit more seriously. From a Part 1 perspective though, anything he can do can be done by someone else (Jill w/ Hammer, Leo for Fliers), and they'll probably do it better. 

I digress, the point of this post isn't to poop on Nolan, just to explain why reliability isn't enough for most people, at least from my perspective. With no other outstanding features it makes the "Reliable Unit" very underwhelming once units with an actual niche start to appear. Aran and to an extent Muarim are the obvious examples of reliable units with other defining features that I'd argue contribute just as much, if not more to them being rated more favorably than Nolan. For example, if I'm looking at Aran it's because I want a tank first and foremost. His particular set of idiosyncrasies (hit rates/mobility/weapon type, etc.) might persuade me to use him over Meg, but those traits are secondary to his main role which is that of a tank. If you were to remove Aran's ability to tank, I'd wager people would sour on him a lot more than if you just dropped his Skill by a few points. 

This last point is a bit of personal bias I admit, but I think that if reliability alone is supposed to sell me on a unit, then they better not miss an attack no matter what, highly inaccurate weapons notwithstanding. Biorhythm be damned, Nolan shouldn't be going below 70% in a Worst/Best Biorhythm match-up even on 1-E unless he's at WTD or ledge disadvantage, and I'd prefer to not have to use an Iron Axe to do it. His offense is just that much worse than everyone else in the DB in Part 1.

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I do want to vouch for Nolan, kind of. Since I love him as a unit so much. If he needs any buffing at all, I'd say 1 more point of Spd and Skill, especially speed so he can more realistically reach a couple of decent caps around lv 15.

I believe his base level is being lowered from 7 to 6, judging from one of the recent streams? Even with that, I will say his bases seem unremarkable and boring. Not that he really needs huge work, just a couple of more points in his favorite stats I think. I do greatly appreciate him being incredibly reliable. I always have. But at the same time, maybe it is worth considering that being reliable doesn't necessarily mean fun and satisfying to use. So in that way, perception alone can have a huge effect on how people will use a unit. Perception, varying experiences, and different playstyles (mine being very defensive) can mean a lot for the feedback in this topic.

He's totally tons of fun for me! Although maybe I'm biased because he's always been my favorite unit in vanilla, even if he was outclassed by other axe users at the time.

I'm sure what seems to be the popular opinion of him will change though, when his stats grow higher and we can finally use Tarvos with him. If it turns out to still have 20 MT like the weapons info says on page 1, that means it only loses out on 2 MT compared to Urvan in addition to boosting defense. Absolutely godlike. An item that begs to be blessed by Yune. I don't see him being out of the question for Part 3/4 and endgame at all.

I do also think it's worth pointing out that Jill is affected by biorhythm much more harshly than Nolan is. If she can hit twice? Great! But Worst, Bad, or even Normal biorhythm make her hit rate kinda shaky. Plus with her not being anywhere near as durable as Nolan as well as not having as much Skill or Lck even with stat boosters, her usefulness varies in a single chapter so much more than Nolan's. Beyond one-rounding sometimes and doing a lot of damage, her weaknesses mean that she can never commit to a fight at all. So while she is a fantastic unit, I do think she's a bit overrated. Her usefulness and comes and goes very in large swings, while Nolan's is very constant. That's my perception at least.

PS: I think Leonardo could use a little help. Besides the Heavy Longbow in the endgame shop, unless I missed something I believe you only ever get access to one Longbow that an enemy drops in 1-3. That's only 20 very precious uses, but with his niche for being the Longbowman I feel he should get one more before endgame. Did I miss one in a shop somewhere?

If I'm right and that really is the only Longbow he gets until endgame, I feel disappointed. I do feel like him being super (physically) squishy and pretty slow is perfectly justifiable by having very long range. However if I can only take advantage of range like that 20 times before endgame, then I feel like I just have an average archer who happened to get speed-screwed and isn't even allowed to take advantage of the unique niche he was designed around in the first place. Having either another Longbow at some point, or having his base speed increased a bit would be nice. Both wouldn't be necessary.

Also, I hope you're doing well and this project isn't too taxing for you. It might be a lot to take on and listen to all this feedback, so I'm thankful for you doing all this.

Edited by Carreau Diamond
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