So if we leave the school then how will we train our units?

[Ottservia]

Ok so a number of people have been sort of speculating that we're gonna leave the school at some point in the game. Though that brings up the question, how will we raise our units once we do leave the school? I mean judging from the trailer, tutoring and exams and such will be the primary way to get our units to grow, reclass, etc. so if we leave how will we reclass units and level up their individual stats? Something to think about.

[Perle]

A good question!
I'm kind of thinking that the features will still be there, but it will take on a context of a tactician training their troops moreso than a teacher and their students. Or, alternatively, the tutoring might be phased out entirely, making only the class you choose from the start fully customizable, and the rest just being able to reclass/promote to set classes the same way they did in previous games. Though I don't know how willing they would be to do away with all the tutoring, as it seems like a pretty big feature to just throw out part way through the game, so I don't know how likely that is but it's just a thought.

I'm not really sure myself, so I'd like to hear other peoples thoughts on the subject, as it's something I've wondered about too~

[Enduin]

You won't? Like it makes sense thematically that during the school period as their Teacher that you are training your students to become professional soldiers/leader and have full control over their growth from Tier 0 Noble classes to graduating up to Tier 1 Un-Promoted Classes. But after that it would make sense for class progression to just work more or less the same as it has in all the past games, with at best maybe some carry over of teacher systems in a much more limited fashion. 

The whole idea that we will be able to pick and choose what Skills units use and progress regardless of class even after they move on from Noble class seems like a massive departure, a core feature of the FE class system is the limited access to various weapons which plays a major part in how you utilize and build up your units. While they may very well be throwing that out it would be an absolutely huge change for the overall gameplay as any unit could potentially use any weapon type. Which would have profound impacts on encounters.

But I don't think they are as we saw during the Edelgard exam window that passing Class Certification requires the unit have a proficiency in specific Skills. So most likely once you graduate to a proper Class you're going to be locked into that class's Skill set and not able to just freeform pick and choose what skills to use and what weapons you have access to. At best we might be able to demote troops back down to Nobles to then prep them to qualify for a different class. 

[vanguard333]

If we are forced out of the school before we can finish all our students' exams, I imagine that our Byleth would become the guy that oversees all the soldiers' training. 

[Thane]

They focused on the school thing pretty hard. I'm expecting the game to have a structure where you effectively do longer missions, then you'll go back to the school for some filler and character interactions until the next mission. Like in Persona where you've got breaks in the real world before heading back into the dungeon crawling weirdness.

You'll most likely be able to handle many of the leveling aspects outside of the school though; maybe you can "return" to the school gameplay-wise even though it doesn't make sense story-wise, like My Castle.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Thane

[HappyHawlucha.]

I'd imagine that you won't be able to change weapon type after you promote from Noble, so apart from the 8 students I doubt if we'll need swap around assuming the school arc ends after all the students are promoted from Noble, in a sort of graduation sorta way.

[Jedi]

It'll likely still be the home hub, like how My Castle was, except have actual plot relevance. 

But perhaps some  chapters will be multiparters not allowing you back for certain amounts of time.

[Guest Lae]

17 minutes ago, Jedi said:

It'll likely still be the home hub, like how My Castle was, except have actual plot relevance. 

But perhaps some  chapters will be multiparters not allowing you back for certain amounts of time.

I fully agree with this

44 minutes ago, Thane said:

They focused on the school thing pretty hard. I'm expecting the game to have a structure where you effectively do longer missions, then you'll go back to the school for some filler and character interactions until the next mission. Like in Persona where you've got breaks in the real world before heading back into the dungeon crawling weirdness.

You'll most likely be able to handle many of the leveling aspects outside of the school though; maybe you can "return" to the school gameplay-wise even though it doesn't make sense story-wise, like My Castle.

And this

[PrincessAlyson]

Maybe there will be skirmishes like in past games for grinding if need be. I imagine that the chapters will provide plenty of EXP for leveling up. I think that once you get everyone past Noble and into a basic class, you just level up like in any other FE game.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

...what? You guys never heard of field trips? Not all learning occurs in the classroom. Certainly not in a school where you're learning to swing a sword.

Of course, if they wanted, they could just reuse the outrealm concept where your base is accessed from a space where time doesn't pass, resources are infinite, and the plot never acknowledges exists.

Jokes aside, understanding how important this location is to the world, I wouldn't be surprised if we spend the whole game there. Heck, universities are a pretty common site for the start of a revolution. I don't even live in that world and I'm ready to believe the crests are to blame.

[Guest Boatcat]

42 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Of course, if they wanted, they could just reuse the outrealm concept where your base is accessed from a space where time doesn't pass, resources are infinite, and the plot never acknowledges exists.

Oh golly I hope not.

Weak world building like that is what scared me away from fates.

Im thinking that act I: you choose your house and get to train their students, tailoring them as you please, then act II: y’all leave the academy for more Fire Emblem-y traveling army stuff picking up students from another house, now in default, first tier classes. Act III, more traveling army, and you pick up students from the third house, perhaps in a second tier class, and you promote your units throughout, putting them in third-tier for act IV and the endgame.

or none of this happens and we just go on field trips for battles and stuff.

[Guest nanashi]

I think the plot will stay at the school the entire time. As a main hub the school is complete focused on training students so it doesn't make sense to just ditch and go somewhere else. I pretty sure a lot went into making it so I don't thinks its practical to leave it early in the game. There is also the potential issue if you leave the school for good without properly training the students or promoting them. 

[Enduin]

24 minutes ago, Guest nanashi said:

There is also the potential issue if you leave the school for good without properly training the students or promoting them. 

The solution to that would be to simply gate the main story event that forces you out of the school to not trigger until all the students have been promoted to a base class. And seeing how each Class Certification has requirements to pass there's really no way to not properly train your students. The only real way to screw up that would be to train them all to be the same class and even then that would only be a real issue if it was a class like Priest or some non-offensive/low-offensive class, which at that point if you do something like that you're kind of hopeless.

[Zihark11]

We probably wont be leaving the school until the very end and of the game inserts "Make sure your prepared before we kill this baddie"

Edited February 26, 2019 by Zihark11

[NekoKnight]

The trailer made it seem like the school would remain the central hub with your party being dispatched as part of "school business". I hope they leave the school but I wouldn't count on it.

If they did leave the school, they could easily replace the framework of the unit management by having them in a camp, however.

[Hanes]

I don't think we would ever leave the school. After all the trailers have focused so much on the school part it's likely that eventually it will become like a base of sorts.

[Cysx]

I like the field trip idea, but yes, it's not boding too well for our grand quest around the world, with the academy being right in its center and this pretty specific system being highlighted. And frankly the more I look at the academy, the more it seems way too intricate for us to ever leave it. I don't think IS has ever put a tenth of that effort into any singular environment before, not when it comes to FE anyway.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Cysx

[BZL8]

Plot and gameplay twist: The few acts of the game involves using the academy to train our units, but once the academy is sacked by the opposing forces in the later acts, we lose the ability to train our units entirely. 

On a serious note,  perhaps the Officer's Academy serves as the base of operations throughout the entire story? Bear in mind Garreg Mach doesn't just include the Officer's Academy, but also the Church of Seiros as well. One would have wonder what would happen if the Academy were to break with the Church in a potential plot event.

Edited February 26, 2019 by BZL8

[Rad]

7 hours ago, Thane said:

They focused on the school thing pretty hard. I'm expecting the game to have a structure where you effectively do longer missions, then you'll go back to the school for some filler and character interactions until the next mission. Like in Persona where you've got breaks in the real world before heading back into the dungeon crawling weirdness.

You'll most likely be able to handle many of the leveling aspects outside of the school though; maybe you can "return" to the school gameplay-wise even though it doesn't make sense story-wise, like My Castle.

I think this is the most likely outcome honestly. I kinda wish it wouldn't revolve so much around the school, but if it goes like this it isn't so bad.

[zuibangde]

In the first trailer, an unprompted Dimitri is seen fighting some soldiers in a pretty icy looking landscape. I’m assuming that’s his home country since Faerghus is described as the ‘frigid north’. Edelgard also says something about waiting for her to come back.

I think at one point the lords all go back to their home countries due to the start of a war. Like in real life, when war happens...school gets cancelled. 

So I’m assuming that you’ll have to decide on the primary and secondary classes you want your students to be during the school portion of the game and you won’t be able to raise skills you previously ignored afterwards. 

[Ayra]

It can remain very similar even after leaving school. Soldiers on a campaign still gets training, after all. The second class promotion can still require specific skills to get; it just wouldn't be in form of an exam. It'd still make sense: for example, you shouldn't be able to become a dragon lord if you are too bad at flying.

The "class" setup only works for students too. In the first trailer, we saw Mustache Man as an ally unit; it's an old trailer of course, but getting him (or the sexy teacher) sounds very plausible. It wouldn't make sense for you to be able to train them in class, but it would make sense to train him as part of a military campaign. 

The class interface as shown doesn't seem as if it would work that well either when you get more units. Surely (hopefully?) we'll get more than Byleth + 8 students during the course of the game. Right now, we see that Byleth can teach three students in that phase, with each having their own meter. It's fine for a lower pool of units, but for a large pool it seems like it would get unwieldy. So my guess (and hope) is that we'll get something sort-of similar in a post-school phase, but more fitting for non-students and a larger pool of character. 

[Enduin]

1 hour ago, Ayra said:

It can remain very similar even after leaving school. Soldiers on a campaign still gets training, after all. The second class promotion can still require specific skills to get; it just wouldn't be in form of an exam. It'd still make sense: for example, you shouldn't be able to become a dragon lord if you are too bad at flying.

The "class" setup only works for students too. In the first trailer, we saw Mustache Man as an ally unit; it's an old trailer of course, but getting him (or the sexy teacher) sounds very plausible. It wouldn't make sense for you to be able to train them in class, but it would make sense to train him as part of a military campaign. 

The class interface as shown doesn't seem as if it would work that well either when you get more units. Surely (hopefully?) we'll get more than Byleth + 8 students during the course of the game. Right now, we see that Byleth can teach three students in that phase, with each having their own meter. It's fine for a lower pool of units, but for a large pool it seems like it would get unwieldy. So my guess (and hope) is that we'll get something sort-of similar in a post-school phase, but more fitting for non-students and a larger pool of character. 

My thoughts/hopes on the subject as well. The current school systems and mechanics just seem extremely problematic once you scale things up beyond the initial 8 students. If the average games has 50 units, even if we only get half of that, which would be just the characters from the Three Houses, it would still be a ton of units to have to manage and require an inordinate amount of time spent in menus tracking and managing your units and not actually playing the core of the game.

It definitely seems far better suited for the early game when we have a limited number of units in a kind of halcyon days for both us and the students during the opening hours of the game that will eventually come to a close. Not to mention there's huge implications to the gameplay if we have free reign to mold and shape each unit, what skills they have regardless of class, etc for the entire game beyond just the logistical issues of having to actually manage all of that.

[Edelgard for Smash]

16 hours ago, NekoKnight said:

The trailer made it seem like the school would remain the central hub with your party being dispatched as part of "school business". I hope they leave the school but I wouldn't count on it.

If they did leave the school, they could easily replace the framework of the unit management by having them in a camp, however.

I am really thinking the academy will part of the plot the entire game. 

Unless this game does terrible in sales there is most definitely going to be sequel that leaves the academy behind, and I think they planned that all along.

I do really want to recruit a few units at least that aren't part of the academy(and there can be more students and teachers that come to the academy as the story progresses, so we could have all students and teachers in our party and still have a sizable cast), possibly from places outside of Fódlan. I really want to know where Byleth and his dad are from too.

[Armchair General]

I'm kind of hoping that you'll get sent on an trip to deal with an gang of bandits or have a 3-chapter campaign against an invader.

After that, it's time to hit the books and the sanctioned gambling.

...Or there could be another city that you can travel to and it's exclusive to which house you picked.