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Sanctaea Chronicles (SRPG Studio, Fully Playable)


Von Ithipathachai
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9 minutes ago, Waleed said:

I've played your game and It's a really Intriguing project. The story and characters are good too and I'm really looking forward to the further progress. Keep up the great work. :):

Thanks a ton!

Development on the actual game has slowed down considerably, though, mainly because I'm struggling to come up with ideas for Support chains for all the characters that are currently playable.  Once I have all of these Support convos fully written and inserted into the game, I will release v1.1, which should have these and changes to how Supports build.  (Right now, characters only build Support when they are adjacent to each other, but for v1.1, I plan to make Supports be able to build at 1-2-Range, the same range at which Support bonuses are applied.)

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I think it's been long enough now that a progress update is in order.

I'm still trying to come up with ideas for every Support chain to be available in v1.1.  As of this post I currently have 18 Support chains left to figure out before I can start implementing them.  On the upside, implementing them should be relatively fast since by then I'll have a better idea of where exactly I want to go with the conversations.

In the meantime, I've been continuing to polish the game to a high level of quality.  I've gotten some VERY helpful feedback from the /r/SRPGStudio Discord server about how I can improve it.  Many of v1.1's changes include level design and quality of life tweaks, such as visible Triangle advantage indicators and a page on the Unit Menu for growth rates, seen below.

dctap91-54769e16-3386-48fa-b150-79070e3d

If you've played all the way through the current version of the game and have some ideas for Support chains, again, please let me know in a PM and if I like what you have to say, I'll add it to the Supports spreadsheet and give you a contributor's credit.  If you want me to get this thing done and out faster, you can help!

I'm still trying to come up with ideas for the following Support chains:

Spoiler
  • Quixana/Chaucer (max A)
  • Quixana/Omar (max A)
  • Rosa/Petricia (max A)
  • Rosa/Chaucer (max S)
  • Rosa/Dougall (max A)
  • Rosa/Boudicca (max A)
  • Petricia/Drusilla (max A)
  • Petricia/Dougall (max A)
  • Drusilla/Dougall (max A)
  • Drusilla/Boudicca (max A)
  • Lee/Chaucer (max A)
  • Lee/Bill (max A)
  • Lee/Omar (max A)
  • Lee/Damien (max S)
  • Chaucer/Omar (max A)
  • Bill/Drusilla (max S)
  • Bill/Omar (max A)
  • Dougall/Boudicca (max S)

Feedback/constructive criticism is still welcome to help make this game great!

Edited by Von Ithipathachai
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5 minutes ago, Jingilator said:

Hey, are videos of the game allowed? I want to see how others are playing the game in action, nothing more.

Absolutely!  In fact, somebody's doing a Let's Play of v1.1 right now!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 (Note: The video title should say Chapter 1, not Chapter 2; Attila probably hasn't noticed yet.  The thumbnail has the correct chapter number.)

(In case you haven't noticed already, this is the Fire Emblem: Ascension thing you read some time ago, now in playable form and without using the Fire Emblem name.  Attila refers to it as "Fire Emblem: Sanctaea Chronicles" even though the title doesn't have Fire Emblem in it.)

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Hey Von, I've finished through chapter 7 and wow it is fun!

I'm really liking the characters, story and gameplay.

 

Here are my thoughts: 

The intro and scenes with the world map are a little hard to follow, there's a lot of countries and names.

Save files are bugged and stopped being able to be saved over.

Hit rates seem a tad high. I definitely see how some of the characters are differentiated in growths and stats, but some of them feel a bit too similar. Now this could be because they need relatively similar decent bases (for the early game and so no one drops off) and as their levels progress they'll be clearer roles develop. I'm in favor of more generalized units than a unit who has one purpose (hard counter), but it'll be interesting to see how they all turn out with more levels.

If possible, I think it would be nice to have some sort of terrain indicator or piece to show where the goal of the map is (when it's not obvious or seize). For example, in chapter 7 was unclear which exact spot was the seize and considering what happens towards the end of the chapter, knowing you'll be in range of the seize is important.

It'd be nice if in the base screen you can add more character development for some of the units that didn't get much attention.

I liked being able to buy those stat boosters. Is Derrick promoted? He still gets lots of exp, which is nice.

 

Overall great stuff, looking forward to the rest of it!

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8 minutes ago, wslegolas said:

Hey Von, I've finished through chapter 7 and wow it is fun!

I'm really liking the characters, story and gameplay.

 

Here are my thoughts: 

The intro and scenes with the world map are a little hard to follow, there's a lot of countries and names.

Save files are bugged and stopped being able to be saved over.

Hit rates seem a tad high. I definitely see how some of the characters are differentiated in growths and stats, but some of them feel a bit too similar. Now this could be because they need relatively similar decent bases (for the early game and so no one drops off) and as their levels progress they'll be clearer roles develop. I'm in favor of more generalized units than a unit who has one purpose (hard counter), but it'll be interesting to see how they all turn out with more levels.

If possible, I think it would be nice to have some sort of terrain indicator or piece to show where the goal of the map is (when it's not obvious or seize). For example, in chapter 7 was unclear which exact spot was the seize and considering what happens towards the end of the chapter, knowing you'll be in range of the seize is important.

It'd be nice if in the base screen you can add more character development for some of the units that didn't get much attention.

I liked being able to buy those stat boosters. Is Derrick promoted? He still gets lots of exp, which is nice.

 

Overall great stuff, looking forward to the rest of it!

Thank you for the feedback!

  • I may try to add portraits of important characters to world map scenes in the next version, but I don't know how else I can fix them.
  • That is very strange.  Nobody else has reported any issues with bugged save files.  Could it be a problem on your end?
  • I do want most characters to have good bases and be usable from the moment they join, though I do feel there were some characters I made too similar (like Dougall and Omar) or were otherwise a little mediocre.  So far I plan to give Ciceria and Quixana some small base Spd boosts to make them better (this seemed to work well enough with Fritz).  Omar should get a little more Spd and Lck, while Dougall should get a little more Skl and Def.  Dougall may still need more Spd, though, since he's been a little too slow for my liking when I've playtested some v2.0 chapters with him.  But I don't know what to take it out of to keep him balanced.  Perhaps Lck?  He's a tricky one for sure.
  • The indicator is already in place in Chapter 7 at the very least.  When you start Chapter 7, the indicator (a white cursor with a little blue triangle over it) hovers over the exact space Claudius and Carol have to escape into (the upper tile of the bottom boat).  If people are still having trouble seeing it even after all that, I may just have to make the lower boat tiles untraversable by non-Flying units.
  • This is already in place in the form of Support conversations.  It may be that you simply didn't get enough Support points to trigger any.
  • Derrick is indeed promoted, Vandals are basically a replacement for Warriors that is mounted and promotes from either Axe or Bow Cavaliers.

I'm glad you like the game.  The next release (v2.0) will have 15 chapters.  I'm about to playtest Chapter 10 as we speak.

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1 hour ago, Von Ithipathachai said:

Thank you for the feedback!

  • I may try to add portraits of important characters to world map scenes in the next version, but I don't know how else I can fix them.
  • That is very strange.  Nobody else has reported any issues with bugged save files.  Could it be a problem on your end?
  • I do want most characters to have good bases and be usable from the moment they join, though I do feel there were some characters I made too similar (like Dougall and Omar) or were otherwise a little mediocre.  So far I plan to give Ciceria and Quixana some small base Spd boosts to make them better (this seemed to work well enough with Fritz).  Omar should get a little more Spd and Lck, while Dougall should get a little more Skl and Def.  Dougall may still need more Spd, though, since he's been a little too slow for my liking when I've playtested some v2.0 chapters with him.  But I don't know what to take it out of to keep him balanced.  Perhaps Lck?  He's a tricky one for sure.
  • The indicator is already in place in Chapter 7 at the very least.  When you start Chapter 7, the indicator (a white cursor with a little blue triangle over it) hovers over the exact space Claudius and Carol have to escape into (the upper tile of the bottom boat).  If people are still having trouble seeing it even after all that, I may just have to make the lower boat tiles untraversable by non-Flying units.
  • This is already in place in the form of Support conversations.  It may be that you simply didn't get enough Support points to trigger any.
  • Derrick is indeed promoted, Vandals are basically a replacement for Warriors that is mounted and promotes from either Axe or Bow Cavaliers.

I'm glad you like the game.  The next release (v2.0) will have 15 chapters.  I'm about to playtest Chapter 10 as we speak.

  • That would definitely be cool! I don't think anything is wrong with it, cause most games are kind of like that with throwing a lot at you.
  • Odd, I guess so.
  • Yeah I think Dougall could use a little bit of help or have him start at a higher level. Ciceria and Mitch and Bill are all a little lacking as well.
  • Ah I may have missed that.. That would help.
  • That's probably it, I wasn't support farming lol. I think I got a couple through the base, but talking on the map just seemed to be hints.
  • Very cool, I'm glad Derrick isn't a useless unit!

Awesome! Can't wait

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2 hours ago, wslegolas said:
  • Yeah I think Dougall could use a little bit of help or have him start at a higher level. Ciceria and Mitch and Bill are all a little lacking as well.
  • Very cool, I'm glad Derrick isn't a useless unit!

Awesome! Can't wait

Again, Dougall is a tricky unit for me to balance.  Any base stat increases he gets as a playable character also have to go into his appearance as a boss to preserve consistency.  Giving him a higher starting Level could help him out, though I'd also need to make sure that doesn't make him too hard as a boss, considering he can screw you over if he triggers Pierce when you fight him.

Derrick is FAR from useless, at least during the first half of the game.  He's very good against enemy Flying units and can serve as a good House/Village and Rescue bot with his 8 Mov.  And did you see his growth rates?

Oops.  I misread that last sentence.

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How do you open the chest in chapter 4..?  I did a mad dash to stop the thief, but it looks like I can't open the chest myself: There's no open command, and you can't "use" the skeleton keys: https://imgur.com/a/yVhOPRF

Anyway, game is very good so far! It's the best srpg-studio based game I've played yet. Here's my biggest takeaways so far:

Positives: 

  • Story is good and its presentation is excellent. It's easy to follow and not needlessly wordy, while being interesting. It also does the tutorial "in-game" quite well too. Zero complaints here.
  • Chapter 3 is probably the best "allied army supporting you" implementation I've seen. I was expecting a disaster when I saw the five allied flyers, but no, it actually worked perfectly.
  • Very nice variety on portraits and characters.
  • Gameplay is generally solid: enemies hit hard but are not overwhelming. I had to occasionally stop to ponder, but never had what I feel is an "unfair" situation. You control a lot of characters (which I personally enjoy). Pretty enjoyable on the whole!

Negatives:

  • I felt the timing to save villages was a bit too tight personally: except for the first chapter, the only way to save them was to dash madly at them with your cavalry and flyers. You seemingly have close to zero turn leeway.
  • I know Tearring Saga uses this system, but I'm not a fan of it: Weapon level exp. What weapons you can use is based on random leveling luck instead of training and it can lead to some major annoyances. For example, my level 4 Carol is still at 1; on average, she'll still need about 5 more levels before she can even use an Iron Axe (and even then it's not certain). It also leads to things like the Chapter 4 Armorslaying weapon. The boss is an armor unit, you get an armor slaying weapon. Perfect occasion to teach it's importance to the player! ... except it's Weapon Level 5, and my spear unit with the highest level is 2. Whelp.
  • Some characters feel even trope-ier than the worst Awakening ones: the Clarine cranked to 11 Pegasus knight (brother-loving pushed insanely far) and the "drolling world-famous mercenary that just drops her job due to finding the main lord cute" in particular. I'm not sure both lords having confidence issues as a major personality trait is a positive thing either since it makes them a bit too "samey" (although Carol is a bit better).
  • I know it's engine-related, but it's unfortunate how the shorter weapons animations don't hit the enemies at all. Duels between axe users in particular looks like bad comedy. Arrows appearing a few feet higher than the bow is unfortunate too (I'm not sure why it's like that by default; way back when I checked the Japanese version, the arrow could simply be dragged to the proper level).
  • It's a bit strange at chapter 4 that bosses still neither move nor have ranged attacks: it basically makes them easier than normal enemies. End-of-chapter stationary enemy cleanup is a tad annoying, but "real" Fire Emblem games are often like that too so it's not a big concern.

I haven't seen any support yet, but I never support-farm either or pay much attention to them (units go wherever I feel they are more handy, so especially in the gba-style games I end up with extremely limited supports by game end) so it's not a surprise.

Overall, pretty happy with this game. Looking forward to play more of it and please keep it up: I'd love to play a complete version of this one day! Thanks!

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3 hours ago, Ayra said:

How do you open the chest in chapter 4..?  I did a mad dash to stop the thief, but it looks like I can't open the chest myself: There's no open command, and you can't "use" the skeleton keys: https://imgur.com/a/yVhOPRF

Negatives:

  • I felt the timing to save villages was a bit too tight personally: except for the first chapter, the only way to save them was to dash madly at them with your cavalry and flyers. You seemingly have close to zero turn leeway.
  • I know Tearring Saga uses this system, but I'm not a fan of it: Weapon level exp. What weapons you can use is based on random leveling luck instead of training and it can lead to some major annoyances. For example, my level 4 Carol is still at 1; on average, she'll still need about 5 more levels before she can even use an Iron Axe (and even then it's not certain). It also leads to things like the Chapter 4 Armorslaying weapon. The boss is an armor unit, you get an armor slaying weapon. Perfect occasion to teach it's importance to the player! ... except it's Weapon Level 5, and my spear unit with the highest level is 2. Whelp.
  • Some characters feel even trope-ier than the worst Awakening ones: the Clarine cranked to 11 Pegasus knight (brother-loving pushed insanely far) and the "drolling world-famous mercenary that just drops her job due to finding the main lord cute" in particular. I'm not sure both lords having confidence issues as a major personality trait is a positive thing either since it makes them a bit too "samey" (although Carol is a bit better).
  • I know it's engine-related, but it's unfortunate how the shorter weapons animations don't hit the enemies at all. Duels between axe users in particular looks like bad comedy. Arrows appearing a few feet higher than the bow is unfortunate too (I'm not sure why it's like that by default; way back when I checked the Japanese version, the arrow could simply be dragged to the proper level).
  • It's a bit strange at chapter 4 that bosses still neither move nor have ranged attacks: it basically makes them easier than normal enemies. End-of-chapter stationary enemy cleanup is a tad annoying, but "real" Fire Emblem games are often like that too so it's not a big concern.

I haven't seen any support yet, but I never support-farm either or pay much attention to them (units go wherever I feel they are more handy, so especially in the gba-style games I end up with extremely limited supports by game end) so it's not a surprise.

Overall, pretty happy with this game. Looking forward to play more of it and please keep it up: I'd love to play a complete version of this one day! Thanks!

Thanks for giving feedback!  I think that Chest event may be bugged.  The next release should fix it.

  • I may see what I can do to make Villages a little easier to save.  Maybe move the Thieves' starting positions.
  • I agree the WLv system is a little bullcrap, but this is the main thing SRPG Studio uses and this far into development it's far easier to work with than the Japanese Weapon Rank script.  To alleviate it, I'll probably make Manuals (stat boosters for WLv) more plentiful and cheaper than the other stat boosters.  Heck, I might even let you buy 3 from the Base Shop instead of one for the next release.
    • About the Armorskewer Lancer in Chapter 4, I really only put him there to try and teach the player to watch out for anti-Cavalry/Armored weapons, in addition to a Talk conversation between Chaucer and Bill.  Carol can also deal with the boss easily with her Hatchet if Mitch doesn't have enough WLv to wield the Armorskewer himself.
  • I'm not concerned about fixing Glauce because she's actually going to be a full-on villain later.  Think Clarine and Narcian thrown into a blender.  Petricia was my attempt at an improved version of the Tharja/Camilla/Faye-type character who is attracted to the protagonist for pandering reasons.  Unfortunately, you'll have to read her Supports to help me figure out if I succeeded there.
    • Good character development in general is very difficult for me and has been the worst part of the whole experience of working on the project so far.
  • I'll see if I can make adjustments to my ranged weapon animations.  Unfortunately, I doubt there'll be any fixing of melee animations to be had.  :(
  • Maybe I can give the Chapter 3 and 4 bosses some small WLv boosts so they can use Kodachi/Hand Axes.
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12 hours ago, Ayra said:

How do you open the chest in chapter 4..?  I did a mad dash to stop the thief, but it looks like I can't open the chest myself: There's no open command, and you can't "use" the skeleton keys: https://imgur.com/a/yVhOPRF

 

You actually have to be one space before the chest to open it, it was odd and messed me up at first, but I was able to open it standing the tile below the chest.

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Just now, wslegolas said:

You actually have to be one space before the chest to open it, it was odd and messed me up at first, but I was able to open it standing the tile below the chest.

...Yeah.  I couldn't decide if I wanted Chests to be solid like in the 3DS games or flat terrain like in the GBA games.  Either way, I forgot to give them solidity.

Real sorry about that!

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Ah well, too bad about the chest! Hopefully nothing too important was in it. Regarding the thieves and such in chapters 2-4, please note that I'm not an expert player. Conquest Hard is about the most I can manage; I don't touch Lunatic difficulty and I don't do low turn count runs or things like that. So take my comments with a huge grain of salt! Yeah, don't worry too much about the animations: it's unfortunate, but fixing those would be extremely time-consuming since it'd need to be done for every class. Too bad about the weapon exp: I didn't know that was the standard mechanism. Maybe increasing the units default values a tiny bit would help some? At least they'd get to use something better than bronze even if unlucky; that'd leave them relevant longer and leave them a chance to recover. The "more manuals available" is a good option too, of course.

Anyway, I'm up to chapter 7 now. No support conversations available, as expected with my playstyle. Story is definitively interesting. I see Boudica has the Ryoma style of burning revenge rage!

Is the base shop items a one-shot deal, or does it carry over? In other words, if you don't buy the class change items, do you miss them forever? Also, out of curiosity, what's the planned deployment slots for future chapters? I see chapter 7 has all 20 units (makes sense for an escape chapter), but I'm curious what the standard is going to be like.

Chapter 6... I can't say I'm a fan of unfortunately. It's slow, super tedious, incredibly easy and makes little sense. You have those super powerful generals standing at the gates doing absolutely nothing, you take the blue house and tadda, city is liberated? It's... strange, to say the least. Also, the map itself is very constrained and is sometime just one tile wide, but there's nothing going on the map either. You have those three cavalry flanking you to very limited effect and... that's it. You slog through tiny hallways against non-threatening enemies supported by Physics healers (though Omar can snipe them to save a bit of hassle at least).

The objective is also a bit confusing: take the house to finish the chapter. I wasn't sure if the house in question was the blue house (which was named as a village) or the giant building named house (which turned out to be the shop); I thought the blue house with the boss was maybe optional due to a villager stating that the boss had money. Regarding the shop itself, it's annoying that it's right before you get the convoy, and right before the party merge so you don't know that you should shop for the other party too. Possibly there's another shop soon though, so maybe it's not an issue.

Regarding supports... if they are your biggest issue, well... it's just my point of view, but are they really required? Or so many of them? I've played some hacks or other strategy games without them and honestly I rarely find myself missing them much. I mean, supports are nice, but as you noticed, they are a ton of work: support by themselves normally are bigger than the game's entire script. I'm currently playing through Order of the Crimson Arm too which doesn't have written supports (I don't think it does at least; the one I got had zero text), but the game features an amazing main story script which I personally feel more than compensate. If supports are causing you grief, I feel your efforts can be put elsewhere which would benefit the game more overall. Just my personal take on it, of course!

Edited by Ayra
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3 minutes ago, Ayra said:

Ah well, too bad about the chest! Hopefully nothing too important was in it. Regarding the thieves and such in chapters 2-4, please note that I'm not an expert player. Conquest Hard is about the most I can manage; I don't touch Lunatic difficulty and I don't do low turn count runs or things like that. So take my comments with a huge grain of salt! Yeah, don't worry too much about the animations: it's unfortunate, but fixing those would be extremely time-consuming since it'd need to be done for every class. Too bad about the weapon exp: I didn't know that was the standard mechanism. Maybe increasing the units default values a tiny bit would help some? At least they'd get to use something better than bronze even if unlucky; that'd leave them relevant longer and leave them a chance to recover. The "more manuals available" is a good option too, of course.

Anyway, I'm up to chapter 7 now. No support conversations available, as expected with my playstyle. Story is definitively interesting. I see Boudica has the Ryoma style of burning revenge rage!

Is the base shop items a one-shot deal, or does it carry over? In other words, if you don't buy the class change items, do you miss them forever? Also, out of curiosity, what's the planned deployment slots for future chapters? I see chapter 7 has all 20 units (makes sense for an escape chapter), but I'm curious what the standard is going to be like.

Chapter 6... I can't say I'm a fan of unfortunately. It's slow, super tedious, incredibly easy and makes little sense. You have those super powerful generals standing at the gates doing absolutely nothing, you take the blue house and tadda, city is liberated? It's... strange, to say the least. Also, the map itself is very constrained and is sometime just one tile wide, but there's nothing going on the map either. You have those three cavalry flanking you to very limited effect and... that's it. You slog through tiny hallways against non-threatening enemies supported by Physics healers (though Omar can snipe them to save a bit of hassle at least).

The objective is also a bit confusing: take the house to finish the chapter. I wasn't sure if the house in question was the blue house (which was named as a village) or the giant building named house (which turned out to be the shop); I thought the blue house with the boss was maybe optional due to a villager stating that the boss had money. Regarding the shop itself, it's annoying that it's right before you get the convoy, and right before the party merge so you don't know that you should shop for the other party too. Possibly there's another shop soon though, so maybe it's not an issue.

The Chest had an Antitoxin.  It may have helped in Chapter 6 if you got hit with any Poison weapons.

The Merit Crests in the Base Shop should carry over into future Levels.  I still need to test this during my playtest run of v2.0 once I finish Chapter 15 (I'm starting work on Chapter 11 now, have the intro made and that's it).  A typical maximum deployment should be about 10-15 units.

The Cavaliers in Chapter 6 were originally reinforcements, but one person didn't like that they spawned above where you were supposed to enter to chase you and didn't think reinforcements for their own sake made sense, so I made them already present on the map.  The Generals are there to try and stop you from cheesing the map and encourage you to take the long way and visit Houses.  They were originally weaker (Level 9 Sword Knights), but apparently they were too easy to kill.  I may add some dialogue at the end of the chapter of the soldiers becoming afraid after losing Ronstadt (their commander) and running away if it seems strange as is.

I'll try and specify which Houses/Villages you need to visit next time.  My intention was for blue Houses and Villages to function like seize-able Gates and Thrones with lower bonuses.  I thought they'd stand out enough that people would recognize them as the ones they'd need to seize, but I guess not.

Chapter 7 has another shop, but the weapons from Chapter 6's shop may be easier to use.  I can try to figure out how to put a hint in Chapter 5 to make a record of Claudius and his friends' weapons and WLvs so you'll know what to buy them in Chapter 6, but it might look a little weird.

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I can live without an antitoxin easily; that party already had a restore staff (and get a second one from a village plus an antitoxin as a drop?). Considering how hard it was to "get" the chest in time, I'm feeling kind of happy I didn't get it actually!

That's good for the merit crests. I'd hate to immediately have to spend 30000 gold for items I can't use quite yet, so I approve of that. I also think the base shop in general is a good thing: yes, bronze weapons are pretty bad, but I feel it's a very good idea for players not to be completely stuck if they didn't plan well enough. Running out of weapons never happened to me (I'm kind of paranoid about item usage and always buy more iron weapons than I really need), but someone becoming stuck due to lack of weapons after 30+ hours of play would be a massive slap in the face.

10-15 units is pretty good. It's personal preference of course, but I feel that Fire Emblem-like games needs a lot of units to work well. There's another SRPG Studio game I bought for a few bucks on Steam that had 5 to 6 units max deployment, and it was a deal-breaker for me. Final Fantasy Tactics-like games can get around with lower deployment slots due to those games mechanics and much bigger skill pool, but FE-like ones needs the big deployment to have proper complexity I find. But then I'm someone who always uses full deployment no matter the situation or game (Late game Conquest is 16 units? I'm using all 16), so I'm kind of biased :)

The cavalry are fine on-map I feel: they are super easy to deal with, but their presence is a positive. I'd say the other person had a point: if you are doing a sneak attack on the city, why would random reinforcements suddenly show up? Unless it'd be a patrol coming back maybe. My issues with the map is that:

A) Except for the cavalry, nothing happens on this map. The enemy are just waiting for you to slaughter them and due to the small corridors (especially that 1-wide stretch between the buildings), you have very limited ways on how to approach the situation. It felt like the map was kind of beating itself and I had to put zero thought on how to proceed. It also meant I had to bring multiple units that did nothing all map due to the limited space and lack of objective... But since the shop is at the end of the stage and that you don't have a convoy yet, you want to fill their inventories so you actually have to bring them along. 

B) The gate guards don't make much sense. "Sneaking" maps with strong enemies to avoid makes sense during escape chapters. Or if you are infiltrating a place to get something / someone. Sneaking in to conquer a city while not dealing with the already-present enemies doesn't work as well. Both in-dialog and stat-wise, the gate guards are stronger than the party. At the end, the battle is happening extremely close to them, yet none of them do anything. Their commander is actively under attack a mere three squares away? Meh. A small group of rebels weaker than them claims to have liberated the city they are guarding? Meh. Their extreme closeness to the battle is what is most jarring when there's no explanation as to why they aren't doing anything. Maybe they actually hate their commander, but didn't want to betray him outright? You already have an heroic random soldier (which I appreciate a lot), so some being of uncertain loyalty would work. Locked gates due to the rebellion would work just as well though.

C) The lack of clarity on the objective. In normal situations, I fully agree that the blue roof village would be the clear objective. The issue is that there's also a much bigger and much more important-looking house on the map too. The other issue is that the blue roof village is called "Village" when moused over, and the gigantic house is called "House" and the mission objective calls for you to "liberate the house". I was wavering between the giant house being a store or the mission objective; I eventually did a save to check which of the two it was.

I think it's fine for the chapter 6 shop... As you said, there's really no plausible way to have the characters buying weapons for people they haven't even heard of before. As a player I'd have naturally done so if the convoy was available though (inventory space limited me a lot on what I bought), but maybe the game is balanced with that in mind. Some units did get iron weapons too during the chapters, so it's not that bad on the whole. I felt Ciceria in particular had it particularly badly though (especially as one of the few story-important unit): she's stuck with a Bronze Lance (which was already showing its age badly on chapter 5) and the only other lances on that route are Drusilla's. Pegasus Knights are super important, so stripping off her weapons would be a very bad idea. If Ciceria would get a second weapon, I'd say the chapter 6 shop "problem" would be fixed (odds are you'll have at least one spare axe for the lady armor knight so everyone will have got the opportunity to get something). 

By the way, please note that this is your game: you really don't have to tailor everything to my (or anyone else) taste! What I favor is not necessarily what you others do, and what I feel is an issue might not be for you. Making the game you want is the most important thing. If you feel something is fine as is, good! I'm happy to offer some feedback (and I apologize when I push too hard for something; I won't talk about chapter 6 again), but it's all just that: feedback from a random fan.

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23 minutes ago, Ayra said:

I can live without an antitoxin easily; that party already had a restore staff (and get a second one from a village plus an antitoxin as a drop?). Considering how hard it was to "get" the chest in time, I'm feeling kind of happy I didn't get it actually!

That's good for the merit crests. I'd hate to immediately have to spend 30000 gold for items I can't use quite yet, so I approve of that. I also think the base shop in general is a good thing: yes, bronze weapons are pretty bad, but I feel it's a very good idea for players not to be completely stuck if they didn't plan well enough. Running out of weapons never happened to me (I'm kind of paranoid about item usage and always buy more iron weapons than I really need), but someone becoming stuck due to lack of weapons after 30+ hours of play would be a massive slap in the face.

10-15 units is pretty good. It's personal preference of course, but I feel that Fire Emblem-like games needs a lot of units to work well. There's another SRPG Studio game I bought for a few bucks on Steam that had 5 to 6 units max deployment, and it was a deal-breaker for me. Final Fantasy Tactics-like games can get around with lower deployment slots due to those games mechanics and much bigger skill pool, but FE-like ones needs the big deployment to have proper complexity I find. But then I'm someone who always uses full deployment no matter the situation or game (Late game Conquest is 16 units? I'm using all 16), so I'm kind of biased :)

The cavalry are fine on-map I feel: they are super easy to deal with, but their presence is a positive. I'd say the other person had a point: if you are doing a sneak attack on the city, why would random reinforcements suddenly show up? Unless it'd be a patrol coming back maybe. My issues with the map is that:

A) Except for the cavalry, nothing happens on this map. The enemy are just waiting for you to slaughter them and due to the small corridors (especially that 1-wide stretch between the buildings), you have very limited ways on how to approach the situation. It felt like the map was kind of beating itself and I had to put zero thought on how to proceed. It also meant I had to bring multiple units that did nothing all map due to the limited space and lack of objective... But since the shop is at the end of the stage and that you don't have a convoy yet, you want to fill their inventories so you actually have to bring them along. 

B) The gate guards don't make much sense. "Sneaking" maps with strong enemies to avoid makes sense during escape chapters. Or if you are infiltrating a place to get something / someone. Sneaking in to conquer a city while not dealing with the already-present enemies doesn't work as well. Both in-dialog and stat-wise, the gate guards are stronger than the party. At the end, the battle is happening extremely close to them, yet none of them do anything. Their commander is actively under attack a mere three squares away? Meh. A small group of rebels weaker than them claims to have liberated the city they are guarding? Meh. Their extreme closeness to the battle is what is most jarring when there's no explanation as to why they aren't doing anything. Maybe they actually hate their commander, but didn't want to betray him outright? You already have an heroic random soldier (which I appreciate a lot), so some being of uncertain loyalty would work. Locked gates due to the rebellion would work just as well though.

C) The lack of clarity on the objective. In normal situations, I fully agree that the blue roof village would be the clear objective. The issue is that there's also a much bigger and much more important-looking house on the map too. The other issue is that the blue roof village is called "Village" when moused over, and the gigantic house is called "House" and the mission objective calls for you to "liberate the house". I was wavering between the giant house being a store or the mission objective; I eventually did a save to check which of the two it was.

I think it's fine for the chapter 6 shop... As you said, there's really no plausible way to have the characters buying weapons for people they haven't even heard of before. As a player I'd have naturally done so if the convoy was available though (inventory space limited me a lot on what I bought), but maybe the game is balanced with that in mind. Some units did get iron weapons too during the chapters, so it's not that bad on the whole. I felt Ciceria in particular had it particularly badly though (especially as one of the few story-important unit): she's stuck with a Bronze Lance (which was already showing its age badly on chapter 5) and the only other lances on that route are Drusilla's. Pegasus Knights are super important, so stripping off her weapons would be a very bad idea. If Ciceria would get a second weapon, I'd say the chapter 6 shop "problem" would be fixed (odds are you'll have at least one spare axe for the lady armor knight so everyone will have got the opportunity to get something). 

By the way, please note that this is your game: you really don't have to tailor everything to my (or anyone else) taste! What I favor is not necessarily what you others do, and what I feel is an issue might not be for you. Making the game you want is the most important thing. If you feel something is fine as is, good! I'm happy to offer some feedback (and I apologize when I push too hard for something; I won't talk about chapter 6 again), but it's all just that: feedback from a random fan.

More weapons will be available from the Base Shop as you progress through the game, usually once certain kinds of weapons no longer appear in chapter Shops.  For example, Iron weapons (including light and heavy versions) become available from the Base Shop after Chapter 9, which has a Shop where you're first able to purchase Steel weapons.  Certain special weapons like Killer weapons will only be available from chapter Shops, though.

...Crap.  The blue House terrain being labelled "Village" is another oversight.

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