Pleased to Join

[Silas Crowley]

Hey. I'm Silas; for the past ten years or so, I've just been a roaming roleplayer. I've had good times and bad. My most recent years were spent in BYOND games, mostly just one I poured a lot of effort and passion into, although it didn't pan out.

I've seen this site before and attempted the process of ROM-hacking, but I wasn't very talented and didn't manage much. 
That said- I've had a lot more free-time since I left my prior vices and I thought about trying to make a compelling story through an FE, probably FE8.

But I didn't have the confidence to announce myself here, or really try to make one.
I'm sure it'll be difficult, but I will be making an effort: I have always respected this community just out of my love for the FE games and that, in essence, you've been fulfilling the potential the original games lacked- but could've realized. 

I'd like to thank Alfred Kamon for giving me the inspiration to join, and make a serious undertaking for a project of my own. It's not that I feel like I can manage this on my own or anything because of them, but just that their project Midnight Sun was a hugely inspirational work for me, and I enjoyed it probably more than I can really express. 

About me; I'm more or less a tryhard, and at worst- an edgelord. 
Hope I'm of use of the community somewhere along the line!

[Jedi]

I wish you the best of luck! Also welcome, i'm sure many of us will help you at least test your project

What kind of concepts do you have down? I'm not really super into rom hacking but I do like theories and FE discussion so they interest me in those regards.

[Silas Crowley]

1 hour ago, Jedi said:

I wish you the best of luck! Also welcome, i'm sure many of us will help you at least test your project

What kind of concepts do you have down? I'm not really super into rom hacking but I do like theories and FE discussion so they interest me in those regards.

Thanks, and I'd be happy if so.

I want to do an FE8 where you play a traitor in Grado who steals something precious to prevent it from being used for war.
A quick shot of ideas I had:
Story
- Older protagonist; military veteran, ex-court mage. Not much else going for him. 
- Grittier, less hopeful story. Protagonist is not royalty. Friends are hard to come by.
- Just one path despite the FE8 fork (can change later on if successful) but a different ending for each path, presuming there's ever a 2nd.
- A story where obstacles are more attached to character development; unlike most FE, a problem might emanate from an ally character rather than an enemy, such as resolving a grudge or a mental disorder through a journey. 
 

Gameplay

- The mod is going to focus very heavily on small-to-medium sized maps that are very dense with content. Most of these are interactions for either rewards / loot (challenging the player / rewarding a bold strategy), or effecting the battle map using Magic Rituals, as the protagonist was one of Lyon's scholar-sorcerers. Maps will last longer, focused moreso on new characters introduced, their interactions with the protagonist and how your actions shape their judgement of you. Sometimes, the worst scenarios can't be avoided, but you can be prepared and instill doubt by showing honor.
- "Magic Rituals" are varied. Changing the weather is probably the most basic example. Next up is utilizing Necromancy to spawn Monsters as green NPCs, giving up the potential EXP gain of enemies in order to lessen an enemy wave's threat. My goal is to focus on this and make this sort of 'berserk ally spawn' a dynamic mechanic where the player learns how to control units that you can't directly control.

- The difficulty is going to be very high, but in the sense of punishing rather than trial-and-error. If you're going into a trapped zone- you will be more or less warned, and both the risks + rewards will be intense. Some things will fall to paying attention and player intuition. 
- All-original player cast. However, player cast will not be large; you're a fugitive at worst, and a criminal at best, for most of the game. Even good people usually will not trust the protagonist. The player is not necessarily a villain but rather a vigilante who has stolen a weapon of war to prevent its misuse; a misunderstood vigilante patriot. 
- Interactions with NPCs (Green) units can be mixed; sometimes, talking is really beneficial or outright necessary, and other times you can recruit a rare ally or two. It's important to pay attention to story and dialogue before chapters, even those which passed many chapters before, to have an idea of how these green NPCs will react. But many times- even if someone decides to help you against your Grado pursuers, they won't necessarily be joining your party...
- Many more Enemy (Red) units who aren't necessarily affiliated with your main antagonists can be interacted with. However, it's just as varied as Green interactions, with some "Talk" opportunities being fruitless and most iffy to mediocre. Reds doubting the main army might sometimes join you, but usually on conditions.
- I want to implement Skills if at all possible; ideally, attached to classes, as well as available from rare skill tomes that're a bit pricier than stat booster items. 
- The possibility of Ally Betrayals, where depending on what strategies, rituals or tools you use, your own units might turn Green or even Red when your protagonist's actions cross intolerably against their own beliefs. 

Art
Ambitious, but humble. I can't sprite and I'll graciously accept any aid as I go along. 

Overall
I'm not trying to make a revolutionary experience, but I am definitely going to put people into a situation they haven't seen before- at the very least, it will be different. I got tired of FE games where the protagonist was young, infallible and somehow managed to lead enemy soldiers against their own countries... over piles of their former compatriots. It just didn't feel cohesive with me, and I wondered if other people felt the same; the answer I found is more or less that they do. They just haven't had an experience to contrast it with, though.

My idea is that getting a unit to turn blue isn't the only thing you should be mindful of: it's that, like human judgement, allegiance is going to sometimes be fickle. Now over time and as chapters move on, your recruits will naturally become loyal, determined allies, but only if they make it that far. You'll need to pay attention to what you're doing on the map and how it relates to your characters; something that I really intend to use as a tool to better bring characters and their sub-stories to life, as bricks that constitute the main story.

The hardest part of this is going to be resources and balancing: one because I'm a newcomer with low skills, two because my ideas are nonetheless fairly crazy and I'm going to have to fine-tune bosses, ambushes, recruitable enemies and the like. I need to keep things constantly challenging- and not too abrupt on difficulty anywhere, otherwise my players will feel tilted or outright cheated, which is an immersion-breaking experience I don't want. Nevertheless, you will probably lose and suffer a bit along the way, but my goal is to make it so you can feel "well, that was my fault, more or less" and keep going with keen interest. That's what I want to impart to players.

And maybe, my biggest goal is that if this idea of conditional, tentative alliances jeopardized by your actions really takes off, it might catch the larger public's eye and provoke a new designer choice by professional developers.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Silas Crowley

[Jedi]

The modding community should help you out with the basics, also I think your concept will go places if you can get it off the ground, although the smaller and denser maps remind me of FE12's prologue maps in concept, which people were mixed on.

[Ycine]

Welcome to the Forest, Silas Crowley!

Damn that's a hell of a project you got there, I wish you best of luck with it!

Feel free to share about it in the Concept thread! https://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?/forum/80-concepts/

Have a nice day and enjoy your stay!