Do you take notes on FE games?

[Avarice Shadow]

This question is mostly for the hardcore FE players or those trying to get better at the game. I was wondering, do FE players take notes on specific titles they play? If so, what kind of notes do you take? I want to start taking notes myself, because I want to improve at this game. 

[Jingle Jangle]

Most of the notes I took in Fire Emblem where the pairings for that play-through. So I don't waste time on positioning units later. Also I created a spread sheet for Heroes in order to keep track of my ever growing roster.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12CHVAKDm0l3qVJDhqQimLqTnZ8G7ZOeJmSauZjAn4r8/edit#gid=0

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I actually take notes on a bunch of games I play. Prioritizing the sort of details that may be hard to simply look up through online guides or other resources. But in an age of video walkthroughs and extensive wikis, that doesn't tend to be much.

Looking through my folder of game notes...I've got some notes on how good certain characters are in FE7, including some tips I tend to share with other players, such as saving one body ring or speedwing for the final boss to use on Athos (he'll need two of these items in Hard Mode). Because he just needs a bit more attack speed to double the final boss with Luna and potentially one round him. That's a hot tip that's easy to forget. I've got some notes on Fates, it was mostly a chronicle of things I did to consistently get through chapters of Lunatic/Classic. Mostly notes on reinforcements and what triggers them, since in those games it isn't always just reinforcements on Turn X, but rather them being triggered when you pass a certain part of the map. And my Echoes notes have...pretty much nothing. Just some notes on sidequests. Giving Boey a point of speed from the fountain at the start of Act 2 so he can double the 1 AS enemies immediately is a good tip for helping him perform in the early game.

Edited February 21, 2019 by Glennstavos

[Punished Dayni]

Mainly just compiling stuff that I might miss on a computer (like the items I still hadn't dealt with in SoV), though I've also made out unit lists as well for more out there concepts. I'm quite able to look into something online if need be, but it doesn't hurt.

My most complex is my attempt at ranking the Genealogy pairings by gameplay utility, though I haven't done much with the most complicated listing, hence why I haven't shown it.

[Acacia Sgt]

I definitely take notes. It's something I do with most games, not just FE ones. For FE it's stuff like supports where applicable, item locations, unlockable stuff and how to do it, among other things. Yeah, I take a lot of notes, to the point you'd think I'd just have an outright walkthrough instead. I suppose...

[indigoasis]

Any notes I have would be in my head, but I remember making a list of pairings for FE4 before I played through the game. I generally don't take notes when I play games since I would rather retain the information in my head and work on remembering things better, but notes are always a good idea for anything, especially if you forget things easily.

[Armchair General]

I'm not one for categorizing stuff like this.

 

I just keep track of which class does what and hope for the best.

[Hanes]

My interent isn't the best and having to look up something when I want to whilst playing isn't really convenient so I printed all of Fe6 characters growths, the stats of swords and lances in FE1  and hat all FE5 scrolls do (The last one not really needed.

Also on the 3DS playnotes thingy I drew something that would tell me what the chests in FE7 Chapter 17: "Whereabouts Unknown" would give me.

[starburst]

I have done more ‘logs’ than ‘notes’. For example, I played a couple of campaigns in Conquest logging every landed critical hit, for I was curious to know if my perception of Odin and Ophelia being the crazy critters was indeed true or just a biased perception. (It was true.)

I log the Support Points progression (C, C+, B, B+...) of my units, so that when I resume the game I can still recruit the desired children (or reach A+) in the projected timeframe.

To improve my gameplay, I have written down the number of turns of some chapters (from the credits) and later compared them to those of my latest campaign.

[Avarice Shadow]

Thanks for the responses guys! These are great! I was working so I could not respond right away. I'm liking all the responses. While there are some things that differ, I feel like they're a lot of things in common and now I have a better understanding of the types of notes I need to take. 

 

4 hours ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Most of the notes I took in Fire Emblem where the pairings for that play-through. So I don't waste time on positioning units later. Also I created a spread sheet for Heroes in order to keep track of my ever growing roster.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12CHVAKDm0l3qVJDhqQimLqTnZ8G7ZOeJmSauZjAn4r8/edit#gid=0

That's a good idea to take notes of the pairings you want beforehand. I should start doing that with. And that spreadsheet is really awesome! 

 

4 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

I actually take notes on a bunch of games I play. Prioritizing the sort of details that may be hard to simply look up through online guides or other resources. But in an age of video walkthroughs and extensive wikis, that doesn't tend to be much.

Looking through my folder of game notes...I've got some notes on how good certain characters are in FE7, including some tips I tend to share with other players, such as saving one body ring or speedwing for the final boss to use on Athos (he'll need two of these items in Hard Mode). Because he just needs a bit more attack speed to double the final boss with Luna and potentially one round him. That's a hot tip that's easy to forget. I've got some notes on Fates, it was mostly a chronicle of things I did to consistently get through chapters of Lunatic/Classic. Mostly notes on reinforcements and what triggers them, since in those games it isn't always just reinforcements on Turn X, but rather them being triggered when you pass a certain part of the map. And my Echoes notes have...pretty much nothing. Just some notes on sidequests. Giving Boey a point of speed from the fountain at the start of Act 2 so he can double the 1 AS enemies immediately is a good tip for helping him perform in the early game.

 

Saving notes for specific items on characters to reach stat benchmarks, that's really important. Yeah keeping reinforcement notes for games like Conquest makes total sense. These are very good. I love the tips on making characters useful, that is something I will do as well.  Uh... Why did the text turn white...? 

 

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

Mainly just compiling stuff that I might miss on a computer (like the items I still hadn't dealt with in SoV), though I've also made out unit lists as well for more out there concepts. I'm quite able to look into something online if need be, but it doesn't hurt.

My most complex is my attempt at ranking the Genealogy pairings by gameplay utility, though I haven't done much with the most complicated listing, hence why I haven't shown it.

Compiling things you do not find on a computer makes sense. I've been thinking to do that in games that don't have the enemy stats online. 

I haven't beaten FE4 yet but I would love to see it eventually! 

 

4 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I definitely take notes. It's something I do with most games, not just FE ones. For FE it's stuff like supports where applicable, item locations, unlockable stuff and how to do it, among other things. Yeah, I take a lot of notes, to the point you'd think I'd just have an outright walkthrough instead. I suppose...

I take notes for fighting games mostly. "How to do it" is a really good one! Because if I haven't played a game in a really long time I will forget what strategy I used to beat the map. You could write one of those strategy guide books :)

 

4 hours ago, indigocean said:

Any notes I have would be in my head, but I remember making a list of pairings for FE4 before I played through the game. I generally don't take notes when I play games since I would rather retain the information in my head and work on remembering things better, but notes are always a good idea for anything, especially if you forget things easily.

That's really impressive that you remember things in your head like that. I know I definitely forget things easily XD 

 

4 hours ago, Armchair General said:

I'm not one for categorizing stuff like this.

 

I just keep track of which class does what and hope for the best.

That's how I used to do it for this game. But I kinda want to take it to the next level, since it really helped me improve at fighting games. 

 

1 hour ago, Critical Sniper said:

My interent isn't the best and having to look up something when I want to whilst playing isn't really convenient so I printed all of Fe6 characters growths, the stats of swords and lances in FE1  and hat all FE5 scrolls do (The last one not really needed.

Also on the 3DS playnotes thingy I drew something that would tell me what the chests in FE7 Chapter 17: "Whereabouts Unknown" would give me.

I understand that. I don't like looking stuff up online while playing either tbh. Weapon stats seems like a good thing to have on hand. 

 

16 minutes ago, starburst said:

I have done more ‘logs’ than ‘notes’. For example, I played a couple of campaigns in Conquest logging every landed critical hit, for I was curious to know if my perception of Odin and Ophelia being the crazy critters was indeed true or just a biased perception. (It was true.)

I log the Support Points progression (C, C+, B, B+...) of my units, so that when I resume the game I can still recruit the desired children (or reach A+) in the projected timeframe.

To improve my gameplay, I have written down the number of turns of some chapters (from the credits) and later compared them to those of my latest campaign.

Logging support points is really interesting. Too many times I stop playing and complete forget what I was doing with the file. 

And turn count is a great idea for measuring your improvement. 

 

[Hawkwing]

Not really, no. Mostly because I either have the information on one screen while I play the game on the other, or the game doesn't really require outside resources to begin with.

About the only exception was writing my thoughts on Ironmaning Awakening for the first time several months ago. I had a lot to say, and I wanted to keep track of my thoughts, so I wrote stuff down while playing the game so that I wouldn't forget anything.

[starburst]

Now that I think about it, I have also taken some notes before starting the campaign, during preparations. Mostly selecting the two or three pairs that I wanted to use on this run, estimating when they would reach the desired support points to decide who would get which early seal first. But those were simple schematics, more brainstorming than proper notes. And that piece of paper would be thrown away once the campaign started.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

20 hours ago, Avarice Shadow said:

This question is mostly for the hardcore FE players or those trying to get better at the game. I was wondering, do FE players take notes on specific titles they play? If so, what kind of notes do you take? I want to start taking notes myself, because I want to improve at this game. 

i always take notes. although it's mostly about pairings in case there's support conversations and/or children involved.

as for data and infos regarding available units builds from each game, i usually make drafts for myself first, and eventually give advice and/or make topics here on Serenes to share my knowledge for the sake of discussion, in case i think it's worth the effort.

for me, it's not only a way to leave something behind for others willing to learn more, but also a chance to learn something new for myself as well.

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

I like to make notes on pairings for a play through in the 3DS games in advance. I have taken notes in advance for tackling supports in the GBA games (and whatever different promotions I would do in FE8), but that may not be the best idea, especially on the scale I decided to go with (that being everyone).

[Avarice Shadow]

17 hours ago, Hawkwing said:

Not really, no. Mostly because I either have the information on one screen while I play the game on the other, or the game doesn't really require outside resources to begin with.

About the only exception was writing my thoughts on Ironmaning Awakening for the first time several months ago. I had a lot to say, and I wanted to keep track of my thoughts, so I wrote stuff down while playing the game so that I wouldn't forget anything.

I usually play with windows open as well. 

I've only ironmaned Awakening once and it was when I first got the game several years ago.

 

12 hours ago, Fenreir said:

i always take notes. although it's mostly about pairings in case there's support conversations and/or children involved.

as for data and infos regarding available units builds from each game, i usually make drafts for myself first, and eventually give advice and/or make topics here on Serenes to share my knowledge for the sake of discussion, in case i think it's worth the effort.

for me, it's not only a way to leave something behind for others willing to learn more, but also a chance to learn something new for myself as well.

I'm thinking I should start doing that too. I've never really used the children characters in either game much, so it would give me something to try out as well. 

I think that mentality is perfect for learning and improving! You can help others and also compare knowledge and maybe see a different perspective too. 

 

11 hours ago, Azure in a Roundabout said:

I like to make notes on pairings for a play through in the 3DS games in advance. I have taken notes in advance for tackling supports in the GBA games (and whatever different promotions I would do in FE8), but that may not be the best idea, especially on the scale I decided to go with (that being everyone).

I think I'm going to make notes on pairings for Fates on my next run. That is definitely a lot of supports haha. 

[Eltosian Kadath]

I tend to take note on what pairing I want before hand. There have been a few time I have gotten far into a map and gotten into a sticky situation where I felt the need to put the critical portion of the map on paper to experiment with some precise positioning before performing them in game. The late game of Thracia 776 kinda needs some notes on unit starting placement due to how it works in that game. I greatly regretted not taking notes when I went for the Blitzkrieg award on Echoes hard mode, as I didn't actually know how many turns I had to spare if I wanted to grind, and after avoiding all the combats I reasonably could, and being severely under-leveled in the late game I got to the end with extreme difficulty and permanent deaths only to discover I had plenty of turns to spare that could have been used to make things a LOT easier with a little grind.

[henrymidfields]

The only time I took notes was for my part-fanfic and part-LP for my re-write of Fates Conquest. And even then, the majority of gameplay notes were for story-writing purposes; the only pure gameplay aspect was listing the stats for my units.

Edited February 28, 2019 by henrymidfields