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

[Dunal]

Expect part 1 to be delayed a little, but I will be releasing an update for the previous version (all the changes mentioned prior) at the very least. I would like to resolve any Wii issues first.

Also, here's an update for Magi (Tier 2 and Tier 3):

Strategist > Grandmaster

- 1 less movement (5 > 6).

- SS one magic type (Wind or Dark), S in another type.

- A Staves in tier 2. S Staves in tier 3.

- Higher overall stats, whether offensive or defensive.

- Soren/Pelleas

Thor Knight > Warmagus

- 1 more movement (7 > 8)

- No staves.

- Thunder only.

- Huge defense and HP / Lower resistance. Also 50 SKL cap to proc Flare more often.

- Ilyana/Bastian

.

Sage > Archsage

- Standard movement (6 > 7).

- SS fire, S in all others (except Dark).

- C Staves in tier 3.

- Balanced stats.

- Calill/Tormod.

Empress

- 6 movement.

- SS in every single magic type.

- No staves.

- Notably a 50 magic cap.

- Sanaki.

Also, I'm simplifying staff stat bonuses:

Thief: +4 SPD

Barrier: +4 RES

Hammerne: +4 DEF

Rescue: +7 LUCK

Matrona: +3 DEF, +3 RES

Ashera Staff: +10 LUCK

Edited January 13, 2016 by DLuna

[OmegaX128]

Strategist > Grandmaster

- 1 less movement (5 > 6).

- SS one magic type (Wind or Dark), S in another type.

- A Staves in tier 2. S Staves in tier 3.

- Higher overall stats, whether offensive or defensive.

- Soren/Pelleas

inb4 Soren is tanky

This is probably my favorite change to a sage type, gives me a reason to do cool things with Soren, who always happened to turn out worse than even Illyana

[Troykv]

Expect part 1 to be delayed a little, but I will be releasing an update for the previous version (all the changes mentioned prior) at the very least. I would like to resolve any Wii issues first.

Also, here's an update for Magi (Tier 2 and Tier 3):

Strategist > Grandmaster

- 1 less movement (5 > 6).

- SS one magic type (Wind or Dark), S in another type.

- A Staves in tier 2. S Staves in tier 3.

- Higher overall stats, whether offensive or defensive.

- Soren/Pelleas

Thor Knight > Warmagus

- 1 more movement (7 > 8)

- No staves.

- Thunder only.

- Huge defense and HP / Lower resistance. Also 50 SKL cap to proc Flare more often.

- Ilyana/Bastian

.

Sage > Archsage

- Standard movement (6 > 7).

- SS fire, S in all others (except Dark).

- C Staves in tier 3.

- Balanced stats.

- Calill/Tormod.

Empress

- 6 movement.

- SS in every single magic type.

- No staves.

- Notably a 50 magic cap.

- Sanaki.

Also, I'm simplifying staff stat bonuses:

Thief: +4 SPD

Barrier: +4 RES

Hammerne: +4 DEF

Rescue: +7 LUCK

Matrona: +3 DEF, +3 RES

Ashera Staff: +10 LUCK

Those changes in the magicians... I'm unsure what exactly say... I have to try it when the patch arrives.

[Fathomite]

I would recommend changing the name of Thor Knights, as it feels really out of place. There's not many Norse references in this game, aside from Fenrir (which is a series staple anyways). Most weapon/character names reference either Arthurian legend (Pelleas, Ragnell, Alondite, Ettard), or Welsh mythology (the exclusive Dawn Brigade weapons). Dark magic in this game also seems to draw influence from France.

My suggestion would be to call them Alchemists. It fits the flavor, and one of their big things is the creation of energy (which makes them fit Thunder). It might make thematic sense to give them things like fire or staves if you did this, but that's not important if it doesn't fit into your design for the class.

Something else that might be cool is changing Tactician/Grandmaster to Cambion/Wizard. In Arthurian legend, Merlin has access to magic because he's a Cambion, a child sired by an incubus and born from a mortal woman. It seems somewhat fitting for Soren/Pelleas, because of the former's mixed lineage and the latter's spirit mark.

Of course, these are all suggestions. Do whatever you want with them; either way, I know that I'm gonna enjoy your finished product based on what I've seen thus far. ^^

On a different topic, I'm really curious to hear about how you plan to balance characters that have poor availability. Since you're focusing on part 1 atm, that would mean Tauroneo, Tormod, Vika, and Muarim.

One last question. I've seen people saying that the demo pretty obviously ends after chapter 1-6-1, and I was wondering if this was because the game crashes? Is it possible to continue playing past this point, although things outside of classes/skills/weapons would obviously be untouched?

Edited January 13, 2016 by Fathomite

[Dunal]

It's supposed to end 1-6-2. It shouldn't crash (although I think I know why for some people) you cannot proceed anyway. You shall not move.

The reason on Thor Knight:

A) It's the only tier 2 class that can use Thoron. I don't think it's out of place at all.

B) It needs to indicate use of thunder magic in its name, since that's what the class exclusively does. It's knowledge feedback to the player.

C) 'Knight' indicates high defense and/or movement. The term knight will immediately make the player assume this.

Alchemists is pretty vague name from a gameplay standpoint IMO.

Strategist is because:

A) Wind magic is more flexible/tactical as opposed to being outright powerful.

B) Staves are utility. Taking the 'mage' terminology away also points to them having high STR and combat with staves as well.

C) Dark magic is also tactical as opposed to raw power like thunder. It provides a solid durability boost.

It reflects Soren because he isn't a typical mage but more of a support unit. Pelleas much the same.

'Sage' is also perfect from a gameplay standpoint since they are pretty much the same as PoR or earlier games.

It's gameplay focused terminology that I was going towards.

Edited January 14, 2016 by DLuna

[OmegaX128]

Wait
Ragnell has 18Mt
Ike's capped Mag is 30

Ashera's Res is 50 (40????)
What's going on there?

[Dunal]

Wait

Ragnell has 18Mt

Ike's capped Mag is 30

Ashera's Res is 50 (40????)

What's going on there?

I would obviously be changing that.

It's best not to judge things without the full context. With the amount that I'm changing I thought that would be obvious by now. (If you've played the demo, you can see that all class bases/growths have been changed)

[OmegaX128]

I would obviously be changing that.

It's best not to judge things without the full context. With the amount that I'm changing I thought that would be obvious by now. (If you've played the demo, you can see that all class bases/growths have been changed)

I think it'd just be best not to say things any further

I'm an idiot X<

[XandZero]

Out of curiosity, will the Baselard give a stat increase whenever it is equipped like the Ragnell with +5 defense or the Caladbolg with +8 luck?

[Mr. Mister]

I think "Bolt Knight" is better than Thor Knight, if only because Thor Knight sounds like a higher tier than Warmagus.

If not, Raybringer, Shockgazer, Ionhands, Electrovadour, Flashfighter, Electromonk.

[Troykv]

It's supposed to end 1-6-2. It shouldn't crash (although I think I know why for some people) you cannot proceed anyway. You shall not move.

The reason on Thor Knight:

A) It's the only tier 2 class that can use Thoron. I don't think it's out of place at all.

B) It needs to indicate use of thunder magic in its name, since that's what the class exclusively does. It's knowledge feedback to the player.

C) 'Knight' indicates high defense and/or movement. The term knight will immediately make the player assume this.

Alchemists is pretty vague name from a gameplay standpoint IMO.

Strategist is because:

A) Wind magic is more flexible/tactical as opposed to being outright powerful.

B) Staves are utility. Taking the 'mage' terminology away also points to them having high STR and combat with staves as well.

C) Dark magic is also tactical as opposed to raw power like thunder. It provides a solid durability boost.

It reflects Soren because he isn't a typical mage but more of a support unit. Pelleas much the same.

'Sage' is also perfect from a gameplay standpoint since they are pretty much the same as PoR or earlier games.

It's gameplay focused terminology that I was going towards.

I saw the First Post... The Thread's Title talk about the New Patch... But the first post still has the old one o.oU

Or I read something wrong? xDU

[arkel]

I think "Bolt Knight" is better than Thor Knight, if only because Thor Knight sounds like a higher tier than Warmagus.

If not, Raybringer, Shockgazer, Ionhands, Electrovadour, Flashfighter, Electromonk.

Ooooh, I know it's not exactly what you suggested but Electroubadour sounds wicked cool.

Edited January 14, 2016 by arkel

[Dunal]

At first I used Thunder Knight (Which I could go back to) but Thor Knight just looks/sounds cleaner.

Other names seem a bit too extravagant. And some names like Electroubadour sounds like they would be Staff/Thunder users or something.

'Thor' just seems to be a reasonable term to me considering Thoron. Do keep in mind that the class name in itself is meant to emphasise the durability/movement of the class. Thunder Knight is the most direct name you could give it. Thor Knight is basically just shortening that. But could be Storm Knight or Bolt Knight etc... I just prefer Thor but it's a reference to the S tome that you unlock from it.

'Warmagus' is completely up in the air though. That could be anything. I suppose.

I saw the First Post... The Thread's Title talk about the New Patch... But the first post still has the old one o.oU

Or I read something wrong? xDU

It's being delayed a bit and will come with part 2 later this month. No further release currently.

I want to resolve Wii issues before then.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

At first I used Thunder Knight (Which I could go back to) but Thor Knight just looks/sounds cleaner.

Other names seem a bit too extravagant. And some names like Electroubadour sounds like they would be Staff/Thunder users or something.

'Thor' just seems to be a reasonable term to me considering Thoron. Do keep in mind that the class name in itself is meant to emphasise the durability/movement of the class. Thunder Knight is the most direct name you could give it. Thor Knight is basically just shortening that. But could be Storm Knight or Bolt Knight etc... I just prefer Thor but it's a reference to the S tome that you unlock from it.

But could be Storm Knight

I might be crazy, but Stormtrooper, maybe? Or perhaps Shock Trooper? Or maybe you can just ignore both of them for being silly puns?

[Mr. Mister]

Wii-testing headsup: I'll have the console avaliable again next saturday, if all is well. Have the six or so patches you want me to test ready (and I would really appreciate it if in all of them Micaiah started with OP stats to speed up the testing process).

In the meantime though, if you want, you could ask the Dolphin devs. Not only might they be able to tell you why it crashes instead of just what makes it crash, but they'll surely be interested in investigating anything that behaves differently through Dolphin and a real Wii.

[Sonicfan]

One last question. I've seen people saying that the demo pretty obviously ends after chapter 1-6-1, and I was wondering if this was because the game crashes? Is it possible to continue playing past this point, although things outside of classes/skills/weapons would obviously be untouched?

It's supposed to end 1-6-2. It shouldn't crash (although I think I know why for some people) you cannot proceed anyway. You shall not move.

If you want an end at 1-6-2 it may be worth making the extra unit the boss instead of Laverton as killing the latter progresses the game but there's no point if nothing has changed.

Vika still has daunt though? And 1-7 has extra items to steal?

Has anything (as of the 2.0 demo) been changed after 1-6-2?

[Dunal]

It's meant to end after 1-6. Map files are not updated past that on the actual release. Enemy levels should give it away (plus, a lot of enemies are promoted past 1-6 on the actual release).

And yes, Vika should have Daunt either way -- it's now her skill.

[Dunal]

Update about the release schedule:

Part 1 and (mostly) Part 2 in full is still on track to be released in a week or two from now. However, part 2's endgame may or may not be included in this, and will be released in a follow up patch.

From then, future releases shouldn't take too much time, since all of the stats and balancing would have been finalized. Meaning that map content and design will be all that's left. It's almost at that stage now.

Planning has also started for Challenger Mode. This is an alternative version of ReDux with the following:

- Stats/Growths/Numbers being scaled down to old-school level (Expect growths to be pretty low with base stats being more prominent in balancing).

- Specific units being changed further to accommodate the above (expect high base stat units from the original ReDux to be toned down even more).

- Enemies and map design being changed to be more challenging overall.

- Biorhythm having significant effects and consequences. A unit on 'bad' or 'worse' will pretty much need time out. Enemies will not have biorhythm anymore. However, good/best biorhythm now have even better bonuses.

- No mastery skills with few exceptions (Such as Ike). Skills having harsher requirements with combo-ing being extremely limited.

- Limited resources and gold. You'll be receiving far less 'free' equipment as well. Healing items and staves are especially a part of this. Staves will give even more EXP, but don't expect to be using them every turn if you aren't playing extremely efficiently.

- Limited support options but absolutely zero requirements (There are no C or B supports, just A that can be switched at anytime). These options match the original pairings of the game (before it was set that everyone could support eachother).

Of course, this will mostly wait until the base ReDux is completed and released.

Edited January 21, 2016 by DLuna

[Troykv]

Update about the release schedule:

Part 1 and (mostly) Part 2 in full is still on track to be released in a week or two from now. However, part 2's endgame may or may not be included in this, and will be released in a follow up patch.

From then, future releases shouldn't take too much time, since all of the stats and balancing would have been finalized. Meaning that map content and design will be all that's left. It's almost at that stage now.

Planning has also started for Challenger Mode. This is an alternative version of ReDux with the following:

- Stats/Growths/Numbers being scaled down to old-school level (Expect growths to be pretty low with base stats being more prominent in balancing).

- Specific units being changed further to accommodate the above (expect high base stat units from the original ReDux to be toned down even more).

- Enemies and map design being changed to be more challenging overall.

- Biorhythm having significant effects and consequences. A unit on 'bad' or 'worse' will pretty much need time out. Enemies will not have biorhythm anymore. However, good/best biorhythm now have even better bonuses.

- No mastery skills with few exceptions (Such as Ike). Skills having harsher requirements with combo-ing being extremely limited.

- Limited resources and gold. You'll be receiving far less 'free' equipment as well. Healing items and staves are especially a part of this. Staves will give even more EXP, but don't expect to be using them every turn if you aren't playing extremely efficiently.

- Limited support options but absolutely zero requirements (There are no C or B supports, just A that can be switched at anytime). These options match the original pairings of the game (before it was set that everyone could support eachother).

Of course, this will mostly wait until the base ReDux is completed and released.

Challenger Mode... Wow!... Sounds... hard hehe... I know some people that could be interested in this mode... I will show it to them later.

Old-school stats... FE1/FE3 level?

Edited January 22, 2016 by Troykv

[Dunal]

Pretty much any game before FE10 (with the exception of FE4).

Stats/growths being lower just typically makes balance even tighter by making it so overleveled or underleveled units are closer in power. As well as prepromotes (or higher leveled units) being able to have lower base stats due to the growth of lesser tier or levelled units also being lower. And in much the same way, enemies also grow more slowly so that lower leveled units (or stat screwed units) can stay relevant.

In FE, a few points in stats can make a huge difference. Higher growths are fun, but they make a unit spike in power quite quickly or make that growth too reliant in order to stay relevant. For a challenge mode, making base stats more important than growths is a good direction for a few reasons. Having lower variance in power level is the biggest one.

EDIT: Fun fact! When balancing stats for this mode, Fiona's stats actually came to be almost the exact same as her original FE10 stats (Literally just 2 points of skill and speed more). She's the only to actually be "buffed" in this mode.

It really makes me wonder if stats in FE10 were originally meant to be more in line with PoR. And they just completely forgot to change Fiona when they scaled everything up.

Here are Oscar's stats from PoR as a level 9 unit:

Level HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

9 29 9 2 9 10 7 10 2

Overall a bit better than Fiona's but extremely similar.

It's funny to think that IS completely forgot Fiona existed late in development when they might have done this.

Edited January 23, 2016 by DLuna

[Ace Pelleas]

I have some sugestions for making Radiant Dawn better.

-First of All,buff Lyre Strenght by 1

-Underlevel Ranulf a bit,common he joins at level 26 and Skrimir who joins 7 chapters later is level 25

-Buff a bit Rafiel and Leanne growths to match Reyson's growths on total

-And probably the thing that I would love seeing.Make Blood Pact third option and all other second playthroug things acheivable in the first playthroug.

-Try do do some real support conversations to tge characters.Try asking us the people following this post some good supports.

I know that the some of this suggestions are extremely hard to do.But it would be cool seeing those things.

[Ace Pelleas]

I had an idea of a new function that could be put on the game.What about forcing treasure chests if you haven't got a rogue near it.Forcing the chests would give you a 50% chance of breaking the item and the other half of adquiring it.I also thinls that Rolf needs a free skill to be used more instead of everyone using Shinon or even Leo.Give him Shade.Because it would be a totally different strategy using him compaired to how you would use Shinon. Shinon has provoke and Rolf has shade,it would be pretty cool.

[Fathomite]

Some of those ideas are extremely difficult to implement. I'd say that they're pretty much impossible atm, based on what I know of how far FE10 hacking has progressed.

Here's a general rule of thumb. If you can't implement a change through structures already in place in the game (i.e. your Lyre, Ranulf, Heron changes), it's probably not possible. This is because it's extremely difficult to add things into the game (i.e. a third blood pact option, forcing chests). Like, with the blood pact, you could alter what the existing two options do, but it wouldn't be possible to add a third option to the GUI. Same with forcing the chests; that can't be accomplished within the existing game mechanics, meaning that it would require new code to be injected into the game.

I could be wrong about this, but I suspect that I'm not. Don't get me wrong, these changes are definitely possible to accomplish. It is just obscenely difficult to do so, and seeing as this is the only hack of FE10 that I know of, I'm pretty confident when I guess that the hacking scene for the game hasn't progressed far enough for that yet.

If you're interested in seeing an example of a Wii hack where changes like this were made, you should check out Project M for Super Smash Bros Brawl. They managed to add entirely new assets into the game in a feat of coding wizardry, such as two new characters (Roy/Mewtwo). And to give you an idea of how difficult it was to make that hack, its development time (iirc) was 2009-late 2015. 6-7 years. The fact that they were able to do these things at all is simply astounding.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Fathomite

[Dunal]

@Ace Pelleas: I don't think you realize how extensive the changes are in this hack. Herons are getting a complete rework. Heck, all stat values in the game are being made from the ground up. This is mostly because enemy stats are very different, as well as weapons and well... pretty much everything. So minor balance tweaks to many characters would not cut it.

Laguz in particular are completely different. Ranulf is pretty much the GM's Jeigan (It was going to be Titania, but now she's scaled down along with the rest of the bunch -- She's currently testing as level 10?). His growths are kinda bad and EXP gain is still terrible but like Sothe his bases outshine everyone in part 3. He's the clutch unit but falls off later.

Lyre is now level 1 and gains about 80 EXP a kill upon joining in 3-1, and her growths are solid. She also has the best laguz gauge of any Laguz in the entire game. So long as she enters combat twice every turn, she won't untransform. She still has weaknesses when trained (bad skill and defense) but is very strong overall.

Here's a general rule of thumb. If you can't implement a change through structures already in place in the game (i.e. your Lyre, Ranulf, Heron changes), it's probably not possible. This is because it's extremely difficult to add things into the game (i.e. a third blood pact option, forcing chests). Like, with the blood pact, you could alter what the existing two options do, but it wouldn't be possible to add a third option to the GUI. Same with forcing the chests; that can't be accomplished within the existing game mechanics, meaning that it would require new code to be injected into the game.

There is however a lot more that's possible than people would expect. Triggering events and knowing how to create them is the solution to a lot of barriers.

[Elite Lord Sigma]

I'd like to comment on how Thaumaturge is a fitting name for one of Micaiah's classes, even considering some of the dialogue changes you have made and might be making. The only few changes that I have reservations about are the magic weapons and Warmagus being locked to Thunder magic, but I'll have to play the new version of this hack first.