Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although if I were to complain a bit about the not attacking behavior of the game, it is a little annoying that the game does not consider the +10 to hit attack stance bonus when checking if an enemy is capable of hitting (as enemies will not attack when they believe they have 0% hit as well...). Admittedly this feels more like an oversight than a design choice...

Are you sure? Zoran says that the threshold for giving up on attacking is actually 10% hit, not 0%.

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Are you sure? Zoran says that the threshold for giving up on attacking is actually 10% hit, not 0%.

I am not entirely certain, as you would have to test the edge cases of when an enemy can't get/benefit from an attack stance with less that 10% chance to hit to determine which of these two is the actual answer (and I can't remember if I have ever seen that event occurs...). The difference between these two threshold conditions is small enough that unless Zolan has been digging around in the code, I doubt he has tested for this distinction either...

[Shadow Mir]

6 hours ago, lenticular said:

How do people generally feel about this mechanic whereby the AI will ignore anyone they can't hurt? For me, it's one of those "good in theory, annoying in practice" things. I like the idea of making the AI slightly less stupidly suicidal. That seems like a good thing. But in practice, it just ended up feeling like yet more annoying bookkeeping. If the enemy deals exactly 1 damage then that's scarcely any more threatening or less suicidal than when they deal 0 damage, but they'll still make those attacks without hesitation. Which means that you often have the tedious task of a Price Is Right style challenge of trying to get your defense up to the enemy's damage but without going over. I am fully expecting most people to like this, since most of y'all seem to enjoy the stuff that I think of as tedious bookkeeping, but I am interested to hear thoughts on it even so.

And speaking of things that I like in theory but not so much in practice: this level. My big problem with it was the Stoneborn, and how their ranged attacks can make any non-combat units or frail player phase units feel like an absolute liability. I am generally not a huge fan of long-range enemy units in Fire Emblem, because of how much they distort how you play the level. Which is typically either "use your two or three best units who can tank everything" or "carefully dance around everything without getting into range until you have killed everything else". I don't mind if it happens once or twice per game, but with the combination of Stoneborn, offensive staves, and siege weapons, there are just too many of them in this game for my tastes. I like the idea of having the infinite no-experience reinforcements spanwing behind you to hurry you along, but it just didn't work all that well for me in practice.

Ehhh, I generally check attack and defense of my and the enemy's units anyway, so...

Speaking of, I find long-range spam extremely aggravating, especially when you can't do anything about it because the enemy is in an inaccessible portion of the map (I'm looking at YOU, Binding Blade!) or in cases where there's just too many long-range units (go to the deepest pits of hell, Shadow Dragon Chapter 13). I generally find status staves to be the worst by far, especially since they're generally extremely rare, if the player ever gets their hands on one, and second, outside of Jugdral, they're rarely, if ever, useful... for the player, anyway.

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, starburst said:

I would go even further and let enemies ignore me if they deal less than 10 % (of total HP) damage or so. It discourages baiting, which is the simplest way to play these games. And there is nothing to learn there. Conquest can also be played about 90 % on Player Phase, which, to me, makes it a more fun and more appealing puzzle.

For example, I enjoy Chapter 23 precisely because most of it can be wiped without letting the enemies engage in a single Enemy Phase. It is a thrilling march clearing areas at will. (Again, ten units, no royals, no backpacks.) Will enemies ignore me? I would not know; march and assault them anyway!

My suggestion has always been to have multiple different AIs in the game that are relayed to the player by giving enemies personality types like Gloryhound or Coward. One of the least satisfying things I find about Fire Emblem gameplay is how uniform and predictable 99% of it AI are. In other words I'm saying here I think we should have some AIs who would attack enemies that can't damage much and some AIs who wouldn't.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

My suggestion has always been to have multiple different AIs in the game that are relayed to the player by giving enemies personality types like Gloryhound or Coward. One of the least satisfying things I find about Fire Emblem gameplay is how uniform and predictable 99% of it AI are. In other words I'm saying here I think we should have some AIs who would attack enemies that can't damage much and some AIs who wouldn't.

This is making me think of FE4 AI, where the normal AI is fairly random and unpredictable, but there are some groups of enemies that get the clever AI representing better leadership, which are more ruthless, but by extension more predictable...

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

This is making me think of FE4 AI, where the normal AI is fairly random and unpredictable, but there are some groups of enemies that get the clever AI representing better leadership, which are more ruthless, but by extension more predictable...

I know Genealogy has different AI modes, but it's never been pronounced enough for me to ever notice a difference. And of all the games to try it Genealogy is probably the least suited for it since that game is a lot more about open pitched battles than maneuvering around an area. I feel now with the introduction with Aggro lines in Three Houses it could be much better implemented to clearly show the differences in enemy soldiers without comping off as just plain random.

[Punished Dayni]

23 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ooh! Well at least I managed to get Laslow's response to the Emblem Shield! He's like “why are you giving this to me!? I won't be able to perform the awakening!”

Does that mean he's canonically not Chrom's son?

He hasn't got blue hair, so I guess so. (And yes, the hair change is in DLC, but I guess this is agreeing with it. Although it could be argued he can't perform it in Fateslandia as well.)

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Another thing about this level that only recently occurred to me...

...Lilith's death is Xander's fault.

Xander made an idiotic call that was even wrong in-universe, because the problem Xander told Dakota to escape from was resolved almost immediately after. Which means Lilith died for an order Xander gave, and that order was for nothing.

Xander made the wrong call. Dakota trusted Xander, and that trust was repaid with failure and the death of one of his closest friends.

Dakota should blame Xander for Lilith's death, or, better idea: Xander should blame himself.

I mean, Xander will remind you justice in an illusion so that's him free of guilt.

Yeah, the idea of Corrin actually getting separated by reason of something other than stupid ideas would be a good starting point. What if it were a line of Stoneborn forcing them to split up briefly, leading to Corrin being alone with just Lilith at the moment she dies protecting Corrin? We know she has Astral Breath in Conquest too, so maybe working off Lilith overwhelming herself trying to keep Corrin safe would add up?

[Jotari]

Does Corrin even need to be split up from everyone? The only purpose of this plot point is to kill Lilith (which didn't need to happen at all let's face it), so a Faceless literally could have just attacked in the middle of a battle in which Lilith saves Corrin. That's like exactly how it happens with Hans if I recall.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Does Corrin even need to be split up from everyone? The only purpose of this plot point is to kill Lilith (which didn't need to happen at all let's face it), so a Faceless literally could have just attacked in the middle of a battle in which Lilith saves Corrin. That's like exactly how it happens with Hans if I recall.

Yeah, it's beyond baffling. It's the most transparent instance I've ever seen of a writer wanting a specific event to happen, logic and sanity be damned. And the writers seemed to only want it to happen for the sake of it, because it's resolved as quickly and ass-pullingly as it's instigated. It reads like a writer was forced to put something in the story an executive wanted, and lacked any talent whatsoever to attempt to do it in a remotely organic way or any desire or patience to do it justice.

[Jotari]

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, it's beyond baffling. It's the most transparent instance I've ever seen of a writer wanting a specific event to happen, logic and sanity be damned. And the writers seemed to only want it to happen for the sake of it, because it's resolved as quickly and ass-pullingly as it's instigated. It reads like a writer was forced to put something in the story an executive wanted, and lacked any talent whatsoever to attempt to do it in a remotely organic way or any desire or patience to do it justice.

I'd say it comes down to they decided to kill Lilith in Birthright so they mandated they had to do the same in Conquest. And while it's still comes across as utterly needless in Birthright, it at least still occurs pretty reasonably there in the mechanics of it. She's killed by a somewhat noteable character instead of a random ass Faceless. She's also killed in like the third last chapter of Birthright while we still have like five or six chapters to go here. Better off having Takumi or someone kill her while they're invading the Hoshido capital, rather than just tossing it in here with somehow even less gravitas than Birthright.

[starburst]

On 4/21/2021 at 3:09 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

(On Nina's chapter)

Could've been a really interesting challenge to require Niles to Capture Nina, in order to keep her alive. ...Because that's the whole point of that power. Not that Conquest, of all titles, is consistent about "people dying when they are killed."

They probably did not do it because it would be impossible to "win" this chapter if Niles is dead by the time one plays it. (In other paralogues, one may not recruit the child if the father is dead, but the chapter can still be "won.")

 

On 4/22/2021 at 1:32 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Conquest Day 27: Paralogue 22

Alright, I've managed to break through the initial forces. Those generals were a massive time-sink, but I managed it. Nina will get taken out momentarily. The other treasures, though? They're not looking likely. The timeframe to secure them is insane, and it took all my heavy-hitters just to breach one area.

Okay, the treasures aren't too awesome. A shining bow, a partner seal, and 3,000 gold. I mean, I'd love to get them, but I don't think I'll be doing any crazy death-risking stunts for them.

This map is way easier when played around Chapter 12, when enemies are still not promoted. Just send Cornflakes and a mounted unit west to get the Shining Bow and chase Nina, and everyone else east to get the treasures. No mounted units or Lunge are needed, just keep on marching. Also, the treasures are way more valuable early in the game.

 

17 hours ago, Jotari said:

My suggestion has always been to have multiple different AIs in the game that are relayed to the player by giving enemies personality types like Gloryhound or Coward. One of the least satisfying things I find about Fire Emblem gameplay is how uniform and predictable 99% of it AI are. In other words I'm saying here I think we should have some AIs who would attack enemies that can't damage much and some AIs who wouldn't.

Interesting. I think that I like this approach, but I also enjoy replaying maps, and it is clear to me that not everyone does.
If the enemy may or may not attack, then one must assume that it does. If the enemy can kill one, one will be inclined to wipe the area on Player Phase; and if it cannot, it does not matter, for one would simply march on. One must assume that the map design will be smart enough to not place powerful enemies far away from one's party, a situation wherein one would have no choice but to hope for the best.

Edited April 25, 2021 by starburst

[UNLEASH IT]

On 4/23/2021 at 5:07 PM, lenticular said:

How do people generally feel about this mechanic whereby the AI will ignore anyone they can't hurt? For me, it's one of those "good in theory, annoying in practice" things. I like the idea of making the AI slightly less stupidly suicidal. That seems like a good thing. But in practice, it just ended up feeling like yet more annoying bookkeeping. If the enemy deals exactly 1 damage then that's scarcely any more threatening or less suicidal than when they deal 0 damage, but they'll still make those attacks without hesitation. Which means that you often have the tedious task of a Price Is Right style challenge of trying to get your defense up to the enemy's damage but without going over. I am fully expecting most people to like this, since most of y'all seem to enjoy the stuff that I think of as tedious bookkeeping, but I am interested to hear thoughts on it even so.

And speaking of things that I like in theory but not so much in practice: this level. My big problem with it was the Stoneborn, and how their ranged attacks can make any non-combat units or frail player phase units feel like an absolute liability. I am generally not a huge fan of long-range enemy units in Fire Emblem, because of how much they distort how you play the level. Which is typically either "use your two or three best units who can tank everything" or "carefully dance around everything without getting into range until you have killed everything else". I don't mind if it happens once or twice per game, but with the combination of Stoneborn, offensive staves, and siege weapons, there are just too many of them in this game for my tastes. I like the idea of having the infinite no-experience reinforcements spanwing behind you to hurry you along, but it just didn't work all that well for me in practice.

I think Conquest inplemented this precisely to stop you from abusing Xander.

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, starburst said:

Interesting. I think that I like this approach, but I also enjoy replaying maps, and it is clear to me that not everyone does.

If the enemy may or may not attack, then one must assume that it does. If the enemy can kill one, one will be inclined to wipe the area on Player Phase; and if it cannot, it does not matter, for one would simply march on. One must assume that the map design will be smart enough to not place powerful enemies far away from one's party, a situation wherein one would have no choice but to hope for the best.

What I suggest is less that the enemies act more randomly, and more that enemies have more individualized AI that alters what they prioritize (between things like hit%, damage dealt, damage% and prioritizing their own safety).

[starburst]

On 4/25/2021 at 7:04 AM, Jotari said:

What I suggest is less that the enemies act more randomly, and more that enemies have more individualized AI that alters what they prioritize (between things like hit%, damage dealt, damage% and prioritizing their own safety).

Oh, I get it now. And I agree with you in that individualised AI would make maps more interesting, for the puzzle would have more depth.

It could also add variety to some skills and classes, like Generals and Paladins's deferring enemy attacks to themselves or Berserkers's provoking the enemy to attack them regardless of their AI.

Edited April 27, 2021 by starburst

[Jotari]

On 4/23/2021 at 11:17 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Interestingly, the bolded part leans on one way to "fix" this paradox - returning to an "all attacks deal at least 1 damage", like we saw in Genealogy and Echoes. A similar "hit floor" of 1 (a la Thracia) could be used to ensure that your dodgetanks aren't so dodgy that they fail to bait out the enemy.

I've been thinking over this, and while I like the idea of a minimum damage rate of 1, something about a minimum hit rate of 1% doesn't sit well it me. And I think it's because 1 damage is a pretty fixed and reliable thing, but 1% hit is wildly unreliably to the extent that it would only ever screw you over if it actually happens. A minimum hit rate to prevent dodge tanking does sound sensible, but 1% just makes it more frustrating than actually less effective. But that got me thinking, especially in a game with a minimum damage cap, dodge tanking is pretty OP compared to tank tanking, as dodging eliminates all damage so if you play the odds your units can be functionally invincible. So what if there was a minimum hit rate to nerf it, but it was much higher than 1%. I'm talking a 50% hit minimum for all units. Dodging half of everything that comes at a unit would make dodge tanking much more comparable to HP tanking.

Of course another argument is that stat inflation should be kept low enough and enemy quality high enough that such extreme ends of the scale should never be relevant.

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 29: Chapter 22

Alright! So! Let's do that support stuff then!

...Unfortunately the closest thing to an actually valuable support I unlocked was the A support between Effie and Arthur. Everything else is just random filler. No Camilla-Keaton, no Leo-Felicia, and (obviously, since I didn't deploy the latter) no Xander-Charlotte. Pity, but oh well. Let's start with Xander-Dakota.

“If I train while my enemies are sleeping, I shall always have the advantage.”

Xander, that just means either you're sleep-deprived, or they start training while you are sleeping.

...Okay, I know sword swings are louder in fiction than in real life, but even keeping that in mind, the idea that Dakota could hear Xander's sword swings from her bedroom while she went to sleep is pretty crazy.

Ah yes, so apparently Xander and Garon argue, according to this conversation.

Gee, wouldn't that be nice to see on-screen?

Now for Dakota and Felicia...

...Yeah, I've already discussed it, and I have nothing new to add upon a re-read.

Alright, Arthur and Camilla.

...Ah yes, cringe comedy. This one puts the ridiculous mental image in your head of Arthur conveying for Dakota a message of love from the game's resident big-tiddy-mommy-onee-chan. And then it ends.

...Didn't Silas's support with Camilla do the same thing?

Alright, Effie and Arthur.

…

Yeah, honestly, the B support should've been the A support, and there should've been something else put in between. This support is totally redundant after how the B support ended.

...Except for a really awkward bit of ship tease between them at the end. I mean, I like it when the A support ends in a way that could make the S support more plausible, but that was a bit... on the nose. Like, if every potentially-romantic A support ended similarly to that, it'd be nearly indistinguishable from the garbage that is Three Houses' late-game orgy of ambiguous flirting. No thank you.

...Huh.

Okay, so, this support brings up a potentially interesting dimension to Laslow's character, assuming he's being sincere, where he basically says the reason he constantly sings the praises of every woman he meets... is because he genuinely hasn't yet met a woman he hasn't considered beautiful. If there were a playable female character who weren't conventionally attractive, that would be an absolutely fascinating dimension of his character to explore. “Definitively not being shallow” would be a fascinating and endearing character trait for a shameless casanova wannabe to have.

Now, Camilla says she'll go for tea with Laslow if he promises not to flirt with or woo any other woman ever again, and he declines. The game treats this like it's some huge gotcha moment for Laslow that proves there's something seriously wrong with him, but... really? That is an outrageously ridiculous demand to make in order to go on a single tea date. I'm reminded of the end of his support with Cynthia in Awakening, when the game acts like he's just admitted he's going to go back to his flirting ways when he balks at Cynthia's remark that them getting married means “A future where you don't talk to any girl but [her]”. Take note: she didn't say “flirt with”, she said “talk to”.

Yeah, like I've said, as flawed as Laslow is as a person, the games he's in seem to have some outrageously bizarre ideas about how he should ideally behave, or what he deserves for his behavior.

Alright, time to do the daily castle maintenance.

WOOOO! I got the crescent bow at the lottery! SCORE!

Okay. Let's check on the map. This is a major breather level from what I remember, so my top goal is to get Laslow to ascend to lord of the dance, then after that, I'll train up everyone else I can.

I'm not even going to comment on the story. My issues with Dakota and Azura's “we must do this for the good of the world” spiel should be obvious, as I've commented about them at length. This is why Chapter 15 has the worst instance of writing in the entire game. You can feel its stink everywhere after it.

Alright. Gameplay time!

Okay, so, this is hopefully going to be the last chapter where Laslow needs to fight, and so I'll be giving him plenty of tonics to make sure he reaches level 15.

The main issue here is that we've got two fronts we have to fight on, because the map's heavily divided up by levees that fliers inexplicably can't fly over. So I have to use my best judgment to assemble two teams to be prepared for anything this map can throw at me.

One cute gimmick with this map I only just noticed is that there are several mechanists who all have the inspiration skill, the ultimate level 15 skill of the strategist, heavily implying they're the subcommanders of chief tactician Yukimura, the boss of this map.

What I don't like, however, is the fucking launchers. Now, I already hated these things from a purely subjective point of view because I just don't like dealing with inescapable debuffs, but what I just realized makes them worse is that they don't tell you what their debuffs are. I'm pretty sure it's -5 def, -5 res, and nothing else, but I could be wrong, and if I am, I'm not gonna find out by looking it up, that's for sure.

Originally I was going to put Camilla/Keaton, Xander/Charlotte, Percy and Dwyer on the east side, and Dakota/Gunter, Laslow/Selena, Effie, Arthur, Ophelia and Leo/Felicia on the west side. But then I realized that it's really the west side that calls for tanks, and the east side, with all of its puppets and mages, that calls for player-phasers. So instead I'm going with Xander/Charlotte, Camilla/Keaton, Dakota/Gunter and Dwyer on the west side, and everyone else on the east. I'm also switching out Effie for Mozu, since I've kept Mozu out of the game for a while to make room for Selena. Starting next map Selena will be superfluous with the possible exception of getting her Sol for Soleil, which Lord of the Dance Laslow might be able to help her achieve here.

Yeah, I'm feeling fairly good about this.

Let's do it.

Laslow sadly can't double any of these enemies on enemy-phase, and without Azura that's a pretty annoying setback, but thankfully for me, I can exploit probably the biggest weakpoint of Conquest endgame to still get Laslow plenty of levels.

You see, Conquest endgame, signaled by the absolutely fantastic music “A Dark Fall”, has an extreme fetish for stationary enemy setups. Unlike Revelation where this was an absolute snorefest, Conquest makes up for it by having these enemy setups be really tricky to penetrate due to interesting formations and skills. However, for the time being, these formations aren't too bad, and at least here at the start are easily cheesed, which I'm doing now for the sake of Laslow.

The two onmyoji at the beginning are down, and now he's got two levels to go before level 15.

Ah yes, also, while it's entirely optional so as to avoid softlocking, you can make the paths through these mazes of walls significantly easier by activating dragon veins on the opposite sides, encouraging teamwork to push the advance. Honestly, that sort of “working together on multiple fronts to break through the enemy's defenses” thing would've been really cool to use for a final or penultimate map. Like, if the Sumeragi Revelation chapter had been more like this and less like it was, I think I would've loved it.

Ah yes, shit, this is where Camilla's poor crit evade starts to rear its ugly head as a weakness among her numerous strengths. I'll have to give her the Snake Eyes, or at least make a second bronze forge.

I notice most of these dragon veins make it easier to deal with enemies without stepping into the range of the launchers, which is awesome news for me. Right now I'm going a bit slowly to get Laslow his exp and then prepare to face Hana, who is a nasty piece of work. 37 speed, rend heaven, duelist's blow, armored blow, and of course her personal skill (though that isn't a concern at all unless someone dies). She's really strong and evasive, but I think I should be able to handle her pretty effectively with my tank division that I sent to the west. Once I open up the levy so I can bait her out without stepping in launcher range.

...Okay, I have a criticism of rend heaven's skill description. It doesn't actually say what conditions determine whether the target's strength or magic is used to augment the user's attack. I'm pretty sure it's whichever one the weapon the user's using uses, given my memories of the situations in which it was annoying to use against enemies (I remember high-res physical units pissing me off when I relied on proc-stacking to one-round with tomes), but the description really should explicitly say.

One level left. And Laslow now has golembane, which lets him do a whopping 54 damage to the automatons on this map, nearly enough to one-shot them. Oh yes. Oh yes, that last level is going to be no problem at all. And then we'll have so much room to train my player-phasers.

Yep, just as I remember, rear reinforcements arrive pretty quickly while I'm having Laslow fight some puppets, but I can player-phase them with ease.

Some falcon knight reinforcements arrived as well, and I took advantage of it to feed some exp into Laslow by temporarily trading him Arthur's For Noire. He's now at 14/95. Next combat he steps into will make him lord of the dance. And then it will be everyone else's turn to bathe in blood.

I find it hilarious that Dakota's somehow shocked that one of the Hoshidan retainers wants to chop her had off. She's like “HUH!?” like she can't fathom that amount of hostility from the country she's fucking invading.

Okay, all of Hana's allies are down, so now I just need to take her out. Without backup she's nothing truly dangerous, especially now that she's been hexed. Still, can't be too careful.

...Oh no.

Yeah, uh, I'm having trouble finding a method to safely bait in these enemies around Subaki on the east side. No matter what direction I go in, they seem to want you to get into the range of all of them before you can proceed. That is... a problem, because the east side doesn't have Dakota or Xander.

Thankfully, I found a backup plan: there's a breakable wall to the east I can fight through. It'll take ages to fly everyone up to that cliff, but it's the safest plan I have.

Alright! I've gotten behind Subaki's army, and now Laslow is officially the lord of the dance! In addition, Dakota got defender, and Camilla got trample! Oh boy are we cooking now!

Ah yes, and just as I have the western front breach the rear lines, Sakura activates the dragon vein that undoes all of my own dragon vein uses and-

...Wait.

I could've sworn she used her turn to heal that mechanist manning the western turret. Does...

...Does the dragon vein activation actually happen for free, even if the activator has already moved? I mean it happens after enemy reinforcements appear, so... does it even involve the enemy-phase at all?

But anyway, the reinforcements are something of a problem. A big problem. I'm being swarmed on both sides, and neither side is truly properly equipped to handle them. And I have no idea whether or not the new reinforcements are going to break that wall to get at us, and if they do, Dwyer's pretty much done for unless I “retreat” by charging right into the silver shurikenfaire mechanists and blacksmiths.

YEP! THEY BROKE THE WALL! HOLY SHIT AM I GLAD I RETREATED!

Thankfully my player-phase team is having an easier time. I managed to take out all four falcon knights by having Arthur and Mozu take out two, and then had Laslow borrow the Bowzu and kill the remaining two with the help of his duplicate. Thank goodness for replicas sharing inventories.

Okay, the tank division made it out of that mess thanks to finding a good place for Dwyer to hide up on the northwestern cliff until the numbers thinned enough for us to stop enemy-phasing. The onmyoji and oni savages that broke out of the center are also headed towards my player-phase group now, and I think they can take them. Especially once they retreat and get some more room to advance.

...Shit, I forgot, they're stuck on a cliff! Okay, this could get messy, so just in case, I'm going to start fighting Yukimura and prepare to GTFO next turn if I have to.

...Yep, the eastern team's fucked, I have to cut my losses, give up on the extra exp and spirit dust, and retreat now.

Oh thank goodness. That got nasty towards the end... but holy shit are we better-equipped for the rest of the game for it.

...Fuck, I just realized that if I had tried to have Dakota kill Yukimura instead of softening him up with Camilla first (which wound up killing him anyway), I could've had Camilla retreat and had Xander and Dwyer take out Sakura for the spirit dust. Damn it. ...Oh well.

Now then... the story.

Xander tells everyone that if they surrender, their lives will be spared, a promise he fully intends to keep...

...but Hans and Iago do not.

They come in in and start killing Hoshidan soldiers left and right, and Xander tells Iago to stop or he'll kill Iago himself.

...But then Garon shows up, and of course, Dakota and Xander both stand down like total pussies because Xander will never, ever, ever do what's right as long as he thinks his father wants otherwise. You've gotta convince him his father is an impostor or possessed, or you're shit outta luck.

Garon says he's proud of Dakota, and he can't even take his snarl off his face when he says it.

So yeah, all the unnamed soldiers die. Though if Hana, Subaki or Yukimura die, they don't show it on-screen, not even in portrait form. And Sakura, of course, is taken prisoner.

Aaaaand that's the end of the map. And we get Izana! The magic rally might be nice, but a whole deployment slot for that? Not sounding too hot.

Support time.

Biggest deal: Xander and Charlotte have reached S rank. Which means we get another paralogue!

So the game doesn't even say what this place they're in is, just that only members of the royal family are allowed to be there. That is... so amazingly lazy. I can see what they're doing with it, with Charlotte always dreaming of being a member of the nobility, but... seriously, they couldn't even come up with an actual example of a place that being royal would let her stand in!?

Okay, I was smiling and chuckling to myself with this support, but... yeah, I don't really like Charlotte as a character that much.

Alright, Keaton and Camilla's A support.

Camilla: I don't run afoul of bandits, dear. They run afoul of me.

Other than that... nothing I can really bring myself to comment on. Similar to the first, just Camilla teasing Keaton.

Okay, I had to go do some stuff for a few hours, and when I got back I talked to Nina, who wanted an accessory. Having none I felt would work for her, I turned her down, and one thing I like about this system is that there's a sort of “sour grapes” attitude the characters have about not getting an accessory, where they're all okay with it and don't make you feel like an asshole for not giving them a present. Nina though, she goes “it's better to wear nothing at all than to wear the wrong thing”.

Wow.

Alright, Leo and Felicia.

Basically she just repeats what she told Dakota: that even though she's a way better soldier, she'd be much happier being a maid because she likes taking care of people. Leo seems to respect this.

Ooh! I got Dakota's A rank with her son Dwyer!

Dakota: I feel like I've failed you as a mother.

You have.

But of course, they're not talking about the obvious thing. They're talking about the previous support, because she realized in hindsight she was basically telling her own son to go fight in a war. Forgive me if I can't take any of these parental relationships seriously. The ones in Awakening were leagues better because the weird premise behind the children being there didn't put a massive stain on the entire relationship.

Okay, let's wrap up. I was initially debating putting Dakota in malig knight for 4 levels to get her trample, but I think her current skillset is fine, and she's reached her malig knight speed cap but not her cap in other classes. So I'll bring her back to Nohr Noble in case we run into any more enemies like Hana who need even more speed than Dakota has right now.

...But yeah, I'd say my team's looking pretty good! I've got plenty of options for what I can do next, so I'll weigh them and get back to you guys tomorrow!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

So what if there was a minimum hit rate to nerf it, but it was much higher than 1%. I'm talking a 50% hit minimum for all units. Dodging half of everything that comes at a unit would make dodge tanking much more comparable to HP tanking.

Isn't that just Shadow Dragon?

I kid, of course. The notion of a "hit floor" is an intriguing one. I do think 50% is far too high, personally. Even if I've decked out my dodgetank, there's still a one-in-eight chance they'll take three consecutive hits to the face. And once a unit achieves that rate, there's no motivation to increase their avoid further.

1% may be too low, though, especially in a 2RN system. Maybe something like 10%, with 1RN or FatesRN? This way, the aforementioned "dodgetank suffering three hits" could be gotten as low as one-in-a-thousand - highly unlikely, but a great story to tell if it ever happens.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Of course another argument is that stat inflation should be kept low enough and enemy quality high enough that such extreme ends of the scale should never be relevant.

It's not necessarily even stat inflation, but skill combinations. Like in Three Houses, I can combine Sword Prowess Lv. 5, Alert Stance +, and Seord Avoid +20, for an instant 70 Avoid on enemy phase. And that's before accounting for the batallion, terrain, equippables, and the Speed and Luck stats.

10 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay, I know sword swings are louder in fiction than in real life, but even keeping that in mind, the idea that Dakota could hear Xander's sword swings from her bedroom while she went to sleep is pretty crazy.

Can't Siegfried shoot a dark laser beam, though? Maybe that made the noise that woke her up.

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Aaaaand that's the end of the map. And we get Izana! The magic rally might be nice, but a whole deployment slot for that? Not sounding too hot.

Izana's personal also has the lovely effect of... (checks notes)... reducing the damage dealt by nearby allies. Huh. I never got much use out of him. Maybe on a future playthrough, though?

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Izana's personal also has the lovely effect of... (checks notes)... reducing the damage dealt by nearby allies. Huh. I never got much use out of him. Maybe on a future playthrough, though?

If you had Corrin join him in the dance of creation around the marriage pole, you could throw him Sorcerer.

High Skl, nice Mag, viable Def, Nostanking seems feasible. Peacemaker affects enemies too, so that's 2 more Def/Res for him. He has Samurai like Odin, you could get Vantage into his kit too, plus Renewal from Great Master for even more self-healing if he starts a turn not fully healed by Nos.

[Shadow Mir]

42 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ooh! I got Dakota's A rank with her son Dwyer!

Dakota: I feel like I've failed you as a mother.

You have.

But of course, they're not talking about the obvious thing. They're talking about the previous support, because she realized in hindsight she was basically telling her own son to go fight in a war. Forgive me if I can't take any of these parental relationships seriously. The ones in Awakening were leagues better because the weird premise behind the children being there didn't put a massive stain on the entire relationship.

The sad thing is, this isn't even the worst parenting decision made in this series.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Can't Siegfried shoot a dark laser beam, though? Maybe that made the noise that woke her up.

Nah, she specifically talked about the sword swinging through the air.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

If you had Corrin join him in the dance of creation around the marriage pole, you could throw him Sorcerer.

High Skl, nice Mag, viable Def, Nostanking seems feasible. Peacemaker affects enemies too, so that's 2 more Def/Res for him. He has Samurai like Odin, you could get Vantage into his kit too, plus Renewal from Great Master for even more self-healing if he starts a turn not fully healed by Nos.

Tomefaire as well, because for some reason Sorcerer is the only S-rank weapon class that wasn't given the faire skill.

[starburst]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The main issue [in Chapter 22] is that we've got two fronts we have to fight on, because the map's heavily divided up by levees that fliers inexplicably can't fly over. So I have to use my best judgment to assemble two teams to be prepared for anything this map can throw at me.

You could pair-up and deploy everyone on either side of the map. I almost always send my ten units west.

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

What I don't like, however, is the fucking launchers. Now, I already hated these things from a purely subjective point of view because I just don't like dealing with inescapable debuffs, but what I just realized makes them worse is that they don't tell you what their debuffs are. I'm pretty sure it's -5 def, -5 res, and nothing else, but I could be wrong, and if I am, I'm not gonna find out by looking it up, that's for sure.

Are the de-buffs not dependant on the equipped dagger?
If they are not, you can check the de-buff effects in the menu screen right after being attacked. (Not ideal, I know, but you will be de-buffed before you cross the half of the map no matter what.)

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And we get Izana! The magic rally might be nice, but a whole deployment slot for that? Not sounding too hot.

I always train my one healer, but if you do not, Izana will have a greater weapon proficiency, which grants him immediate access to more staves and more accuracy with them.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Tomefaire as well, because for some reason Sorcerer is the only S-rank weapon class that wasn't given the faire skill.

The best Sorcerers in the game already have natural access to Vantage, Vengeance and Life or Death. 😜

[Alastor15243]

20 minutes ago, starburst said:

Are the de-buffs not dependant on the equipped dagger?

Nope, they are not. It's entirely based on the turret, like with the other turret types.

Oh yeah, and I know I could use pair up to put everyone on one side, but it felt like a waste of exp unless I went back around, which sounded... tedious.

 

 

...Incidentally, I thought I'd check out that mod I heard a lot about that lets you play Shadow Dragon hard mode with the prologue and also get all the gaidens without killing anyone.

I, uh...

...Does anyone know if a version of this mod exists... other than the one made by Cirosan? Because, uh...

...I have some issues, shall we say.

I mean no ill will against Cirosan. This was a volunteer effort done for free in their own spare time, which was awesome.

But I just am not enjoying myself at all.

The main thing is that the prologues get harder if you play it on hard mode. That I think is fine, but the issue is the way it gets hard. The difficulty feels way, way more like FE12 than FE11, with ridiculously tight methods to win, especially in prologue 1. But worse still, I genuinely don't think the H5 prologues were even playtested. Because it's entirely possible for the random extra levels of stats the boss of the first prologue is given... to let him one-round Marth at base. And even if that doesn't happen, you actually have to get lucky to kill all of the enemies before your vulnerary supplies run out, at least as far as I can tell.

And it doesn't get any better after that. The entire thing is just a mess of incredibly boring turtling just to survive a handful of enemies with your handful of units, and ultimately I lost my patience for the time being in Prologue III when Jagen, the unit they clearly intended you to use to bait each and every enemy in because the soldiers can one-round damn near everyone else... went town to a 4% crit. Why those enemies even have a skill stat is beyond me. What do they need it for at this point?

So yeah... anyone know of any other mods that do something similar?

Edited April 27, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Tomefaire as well, because for some reason Sorcerer is the only S-rank weapon class that wasn't given the faire skill.

Other than Axefaire, all the -faires are Hoshidan- Swordmaster, Spear Master, Master Ninja, Sniper, and Onmyoji. Berserker is the lone exception.

 

Also, I just remembered that when I sent in my laptop for a fix a few days ago, the logic board replacement meant all memory got wiped out, and I made no backups b/c lazy. It's not a big deal, I barely had anything stored on this computer.

But, my pages of clean and beautifully organized IRL medieval university notes were wiped out in the process. A few sections I shared with others, so I can find them, but the majority of them are gone. I can't share those with you now, I can only go off of memory. Borrowing the book again and repeating my utter madness of note-taking is something I will not do, it was enough insanity for a lifetime. Although hopefully what fragments I've saved and my good memory should give you a general idea the same.

Sorry.😟

Edited April 27, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Eltosian Kadath]

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Ah yes, cringe comedy. This one puts the ridiculous mental image in your head of Arthur conveying for Dakota a message of love from the game's resident big-tiddy-mommy-onee-chan. And then it ends.

...Didn't Silas's support with Camilla do the same thing?

Yeah, I seem to remember that being a common way for Camilla's supports to start. I think similar supports like these are part of why a lot of people think of the Fates cast as kinda one note...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

WOOOO! I got the crescent bow at the lottery! SCORE!

That is a super lucky prize!

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But anyway, the reinforcements are something of a problem. A big problem. I'm being swarmed on both sides, and neither side is truly properly equipped to handle them. And I have no idea whether or not the new reinforcements are going to break that wall to get at us, and if they do, Dwyer's pretty much done for unless I “retreat” by charging right into the silver shurikenfaire mechanists and blacksmiths.

YEP! THEY BROKE THE WALL! HOLY SHIT AM I GLAD I RETREATED!

Those reinforcements really make this chapter intense in the end

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Shit, I forgot, they're stuck on a cliff! Okay, this could get messy, so just in case, I'm going to start fighting Yukimura and prepare to GTFO next turn if I have to.

...Yep, the eastern team's fucked, I have to cut my losses, give up on the extra exp and spirit dust, and retreat now.

and the way they trigger means you are generally a turn away from victory if you try, making for an interesting choice of how long you want to stay

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Fuck, I just realized that if I had tried to have Dakota kill Yukimura instead of softening him up with Camilla first (which wound up killing him anyway), I could've had Camilla retreat and had Xander and Dwyer take out Sakura for the spirit dust. Damn it. ...Oh well.

trying to get some extra xp, or that spirit dust for instance. I guess what I am trying to say is I like these endgame maps because they make things interesting. Shame you just missed it, but it being so close I think paints that optional objective as a difficult, but reasonable thing to accomplish even if you do have to bug out early.

 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But of course, they're not talking about the obvious thing. They're talking about the previous support, because she realized in hindsight she was basically telling her own son to go fight in a war. Forgive me if I can't take any of these parental relationships seriously. The ones in Awakening were leagues better because the weird premise behind the children being there didn't put a massive stain on the entire relationship.

Its kinda ironic given all the Laslow talk above, but I honestly do think Laslow is shown to be the best parent in Fates. Admittedly that is a low bar...

 

[Jotari]

 

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, I had to go do some stuff for a few hours, and when I got back I talked to Nina, who wanted an accessory. Having none I felt would work for her, I turned her down, and one thing I like about this system is that there's a sort of “sour grapes” attitude the characters have about not getting an accessory, where they're all okay with it and don't make you feel like an asshole for not giving them a present. Nina though, she goes “it's better to wear nothing at all than to wear the wrong thing”.

So you don't just constantly trade around the first accessory on the list to absolutely everyone who asks for something?