Jump to content

Staff of Ages (SoAXNA v0.1 out now!)


InvdrZim13

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 1.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

It's beautiful ;-;

I haven't had time to play through this quite yet, but watching the Let's Plays, it looks really amazing! Another good FE coming to life I see. CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY :)

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Minor update:

Work on 1.1 progressing smoothly. just have to change/add a couple more things and it'll be good to go.

What's going to be different:

  • Some of the writing is changed based on player feedback
  • Tweaks to level design for some chapters
  • Edits to bases/growths for some characters who were either not doing so hot or doing too well
  • Narration stuff added before chapters to help inform the player of time skips/general world building type things

And I think that's everything for what will be new, so keep your eyes open for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man this hack is amazing, it's definetely in the same level as Midnight Sun and Bloodlines, mostly the writing, the characters feel so... alive. Also Sawyer's animation's only big flaws are the hair how it's placed, the shading on the boots and it could use some minor proportion tweaks, but it's still fucking amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished playing through the hack, it was pretty fun.

As somebody else pointed out better than I could: while the actual writing itself it top notch, the story itself has some holes in it. Like the basic structure of the story is good but some points feel rushed in order to set up things. I will say Frozen_Blades81 was slightly off about Owen and Regina not having a convo: they do have one if Owen fights her. I do agree about what he said about the Queen, Seneca, and the fort falling in particular. The fort I was completely confused as to why it had apparently fallen, my best guess was that when they made a hole in the wall they had taken out basically the whole wall.

When it comes to fixing the Queen and Seneca stuff, that's probably a bit tricky. I doubt you all want to add more maps to this part in order to smooth out the pacing. The Queen in particular is a problem, and Mangs pointed out the issue pretty well in his LP: we never find her sympathetic. Nothing to even hint that she might be onto something and that Seneca is just too quick tempered to realize it. She just looks like a complete and utter fool that Belle supports because well, its her mother.

The Nero thing is easy to fix: have Lily be there with him at the time, have him send her off to warn Stark of what is going on. Have him say he'll stay there to keep an eye on the situation. But hopefully the narration during map screens will smooth out some of the issues.

---

When it comes to the units themselves, most of them are pretty good. Sawyer was noooot doing good until about the last two chapters, and looking at the growth rates his are noticeably lower than the other two lords: (265 vs 280 and 285). Given that lords are supposed to have a bit of an edge over regular units, Sawyer could probably use a little bump up to 280 for total growths. As he seems to be designed to be the speedier mage of the two, maybe 10% into Luck and 5% into Skill? Would let him fit into that role a bit better I feel, feel more like a "swordmaster" like mage unit.

Eagle... Eagle didn't get a single point of strength the whole time and he nearly hit level 10. His growths say its a meer 35%, and while I undoubtably got screwed on top of that... that's really low for a cavalier. Despite Charles having 25% lower total growths and access to only one weapon type, he felt like the better unit between the two (though by the looks mine got def blessed as he could actually tank pretty well). Eagle I feel should have at least 40% strength, that's the more typical "low but not so low you get screwed over by hitting averages" number.

Speaking of Charles, looking past mine being particularly good... 20% defence growth? On a cavalier? With Owen, a Mage Lord, having more? Cavaliers are supposed to be your front line physical units, something Bella's party badly needs. And while I can see that he's supposed to lean more to HP than defence... 20% is crippling. Compared to Elijah, he's equal or below him in everything in terms of growth rates outside of res, making his only true advantage being the horse and some of his base stats. I'd bump his defence up to 35%. Maybe give him access to swords as well even though with how the early chapters are set up he won't be able to take advantage of that for quite a while. I think it would let him compare against both Eagle and Elijah better that way.

Darius I didn't get to use much, but I'm worried about him compared to Axel. Same join time, Darius only wins in HP and Defence. While knights are supposed to have that speed weakness, they should be winning in the strength department: they're slow, some amount of trouble hitting, but when they hit they hit hard. I don't know if his base Strength is enough to keep him ahead of Axel long enough. I'd probably swap their strength growths around, and then bump up Axel's res by 5% up to 20%. Makes Axel a more well rounded unit while Darius is a true knight type character.

Oona outclasses Aurora pretty hard. Horse + Light Magic vs 15% difference in total growths. I'm guessing you guys don't want Aurora able to attack as that would make Owen's part of the game very magic user heavy, in which case I think Aurora is going to need some kind of benefit. Maybe lower her starting level + increase her base stats a bit so she had more room to grow and take advantage of her higher growth rates, maybe make Oona start off one level higher with her current base stats as well. I think they'll be fairly even if both promoted, but the early game difference as is is fairly noticeable.

---

Fun facts about my playthrough:

-Stark hit his def growth with every level up he got. 10%? What 10%?

-As mentioned above, Charles nearly did the same. Marques also hit it for his one level up.

-Darius hit speed with his first level up. Which kept him from getting doubled by mages thank goodness.

-Neither Belle or Eagle ever hit their 35% strength growth.

-Sawyer was weird. First half of his level ups were all 1 or 2 point ones, and never included skill. Meanwhile Owen was enjoying 10 speed by the end of the game. Last few levels he kicked it into gear though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished playing through the hack, it was pretty fun.

As somebody else pointed out better than I could: while the actual writing itself it top notch, the story itself has some holes in it. Like the basic structure of the story is good but some points feel rushed in order to set up things. I will say Frozen_Blades81 was slightly off about Owen and Regina not having a convo: they do have one if Owen fights her. I do agree about what he said about the Queen, Seneca, and the fort falling in particular. The fort I was completely confused as to why it had apparently fallen, my best guess was that when they made a hole in the wall they had taken out basically the whole wall.

When it comes to fixing the Queen and Seneca stuff, that's probably a bit tricky. I doubt you all want to add more maps to this part in order to smooth out the pacing. The Queen in particular is a problem, and Mangs pointed out the issue pretty well in his LP: we never find her sympathetic. Nothing to even hint that she might be onto something and that Seneca is just too quick tempered to realize it. She just looks like a complete and utter fool that Belle supports because well, its her mother.

The Nero thing is easy to fix: have Lily be there with him at the time, have him send her off to warn Stark of what is going on. Have him say he'll stay there to keep an eye on the situation. But hopefully the narration during map screens will smooth out some of the issues.

---

When it comes to the units themselves, most of them are pretty good. Sawyer was noooot doing good until about the last two chapters, and looking at the growth rates his are noticeably lower than the other two lords: (265 vs 280 and 285). Given that lords are supposed to have a bit of an edge over regular units, Sawyer could probably use a little bump up to 280 for total growths. As he seems to be designed to be the speedier mage of the two, maybe 10% into Luck and 5% into Skill? Would let him fit into that role a bit better I feel, feel more like a "swordmaster" like mage unit.

Eagle... Eagle didn't get a single point of strength the whole time and he nearly hit level 10. His growths say its a meer 35%, and while I undoubtably got screwed on top of that... that's really low for a cavalier. Despite Charles having 25% lower total growths and access to only one weapon type, he felt like the better unit between the two (though by the looks mine got def blessed as he could actually tank pretty well). Eagle I feel should have at least 40% strength, that's the more typical "low but not so low you get screwed over by hitting averages" number.

Speaking of Charles, looking past mine being particularly good... 20% defence growth? On a cavalier? With Owen, a Mage Lord, having more? Cavaliers are supposed to be your front line physical units, something Bella's party badly needs. And while I can see that he's supposed to lean more to HP than defence... 20% is crippling. Compared to Elijah, he's equal or below him in everything in terms of growth rates outside of res, making his only true advantage being the horse and some of his base stats. I'd bump his defence up to 35%. Maybe give him access to swords as well even though with how the early chapters are set up he won't be able to take advantage of that for quite a while. I think it would let him compare against both Eagle and Elijah better that way.

Darius I didn't get to use much, but I'm worried about him compared to Axel. Same join time, Darius only wins in HP and Defence. While knights are supposed to have that speed weakness, they should be winning in the strength department: they're slow, some amount of trouble hitting, but when they hit they hit hard. I don't know if his base Strength is enough to keep him ahead of Axel long enough. I'd probably swap their strength growths around, and then bump up Axel's res by 5% up to 20%. Makes Axel a more well rounded unit while Darius is a true knight type character.

Oona outclasses Aurora pretty hard. Horse + Light Magic vs 15% difference in total growths. I'm guessing you guys don't want Aurora able to attack as that would make Owen's part of the game very magic user heavy, in which case I think Aurora is going to need some kind of benefit. Maybe lower her starting level + increase her base stats a bit so she had more room to grow and take advantage of her higher growth rates, maybe make Oona start off one level higher with her current base stats as well. I think they'll be fairly even if both promoted, but the early game difference as is is fairly noticeable.

---

Fun facts about my playthrough:

-Stark hit his def growth with every level up he got. 10%? What 10%?

-As mentioned above, Charles nearly did the same. Marques also hit it for his one level up.

-Darius hit speed with his first level up. Which kept him from getting doubled by mages thank goodness.

-Neither Belle or Eagle ever hit their 35% strength growth.

-Sawyer was weird. First half of his level ups were all 1 or 2 point ones, and never included skill. Meanwhile Owen was enjoying 10 speed by the end of the game. Last few levels he kicked it into gear though.

What do you mean by Nero thing ?

We're working on it for the Kalvesta issues (mainly, we'll make her appear less stupid and have her intentions and motivations to act that way clearer. The thing is that both parties of the Seneca vs Kalvesta conflict had good intentions but behaved badly: Kalvesta had good intentions but wasn't fit for a possible wartime, and as such had the people endure arynden's shenanigans. While Seneca had good intentions but did wrong things: Regicide & coup d'état, chasing Belle everywhere, scaring some of the citizens out of paranoia)

We've done quite a few gameplay changes already (growth, aurora vs Oona, etc) so I'm afraid your version is a bit outdated

Thanks for the feedback !

Edited by Chastlily
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Might have the wrong name. Green dude who notices the uprising planning but just gets caught and doesn't really add much to the story with his two current scenes. Previous guy mentioned it.

Thought you guys might have updated the stat stuff already, decided to throw in my two cents anyways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Might have the wrong name. Green dude who notices the uprising planning but just gets caught and doesn't really add much to the story with his two current scenes. Previous guy mentioned it.

Thought you guys might have updated the stat stuff already, decided to throw in my two cents anyways.

That's the right name yeah

The tricky thing is that I can't really explain to you why we think it's fine without spoiling things

Also, sorry for the ninja edit of my last comment lol

Edited by Chastlily
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the feedback!

Some changes have been implemented, and don't worry, we're working on giving Aurora something nice to make her an attractive unit to field.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I have this weird feeling the writers watch Fullmetal Alchemist. Just a feeling. This game is awesome though, LOVE THE STORY.

Possibly, but users picked character names, not us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Possibly, but users picked character names, not us.

That's cool! I just noticed that one of the chapters names were "Equivalent Exchange" (basically the theme of the show), then the bandit having the name "Mustang" (Colonel Mustang/Roy Mustang, one of the capital's main units). So perhaps I am wrong, but it would be cool!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's cool! I just noticed that one of the chapters names were "Equivalent Exchange" (basically the theme of the show), then the bandit having the name "Mustang" (Colonel Mustang/Roy Mustang, one of the capital's main units). So perhaps I am wrong, but it would be cool!

Maybe they did lol, who knows

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...