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More custom difficulty settings would be great


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To some degree, Fire Emblem already offers some flexibility in its difficulty. It offers difficulty modes. It offers casual and classic.

 

But I would really like to see it go further. I would like the following settings:

 

Classic/Casual

Enables or disables unit permadeath.

 

Easy/Normal/Hard/Maddening/Infernal

Customizes the stats, placement, composition, and density of enemies. Has no effect on other traditional modifiers like ambush spawns, Skills or Exp earned, which would be covered by the below.

 

Ambush spawns - on/off 

Dictates whether enemies move and attack on same turn that they spawn. Off by default.

 

Bonus Experience - on/off

Dictates whether the Tellius BEXP system is available. Off by default.

 

Experience - 50%/75%/100%

Dictates how much experience and (if enabled) bonus experience is earned. 100% by default.

 

Supports - 5/7/9/Unlimited

Dictates maximum allowable supports per unit. Unlimited by default.

 

Shop Prices - Low/Medium/High

Dictates gold economy of the game. Medium by default.

 

Weapon Durability - On/Off

On by default.

 

Enemy Skills - None/Basic/Advanced/Random

Dictates the equipped skills of enemies. None removes all skills. Basic gives them class defaults. Advanced gives then optimized or custom skill inheritance. Random is self-explanatory (and is a great option if you hate yourself). Basic is the default setting.

 

Critical Immunity - On/Off

If enabled, all allied units gain an extra skill making them immune to critical hits. No more frustrating RNG deaths. Disabled by default.

 

Enemy Battalions - On/Off

Enemy may or may not use Battalions. On by default.

 

Enemy Adjuctants - On/Off

Enemy may or may not use pair up mechanics. Off by default.

 

Fog of War - Off/Normal/Always

Fog of War turned off on all maps, turned on for specific maps, or turned on for all maps (it you want to have a bad time). The default setting is normal.

 

Enemy Position Manipulation - On/Off

If on, enemy may use lunge, ensnare staves, berserk staves, etc. to change the positioning of your units. On by default.

 

Divine Pulse - 0-10

Customize the availability of Divine Pulse uses per mission or turn it off entirely. 10 by default.

 

 

 

Can you think of any additional settings you would like to see?

 

Edited by Etheus
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Dude, I definitely think custom difficulty settings should be a thing; just about every other strategy game does them.

A couple I can think of are Iron Man and Save In-Chapter.

Iron Man

Most of you know what this is, but for those that don't the idea is basically that you never rollback to a previous save (you essentially only save in case you need to leave and come back).  This is a thing in XCOM - when a unit dies, they're dead for good, and if you fail a mission, you have to start the game over.  For the longest time FE fans have had to simply emulate Iron Man runs, but never had it as an actual restriction.

Save In-Chapter

A thing in Casual Mode and Valkyria Chronicles.  Choose whether you want to be able to save in the middle of a chapter battle or if saves are limited only to outside of battles and during preparations.  I'd prefer to be able to do this while also keeping perma-death on.  I don't like that Casual and Classic mode come as packages instead of just being given separate options.

 

Hell, these two could probably be combined into one setting category, which would be "save type" (with the options being Iron ManClassic, and Casual).

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I would be all for this sort of thing, as long as the default difficulty modes were still well-designed and worth being the default ones.

Also, random enemy skills would be absolutely awesome depending on the style of game. Many parts of Conquest would completely fall apart with random enemy skills, but in something like Birthright with a better endgame, random enemy skills would be absolutely amazing. Like Lunatic+ except without a metagame revolving around like three people.

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Just now, Alastor15243 said:

I would be all for this sort of thing, as long as the default difficulty modes were still well-designed and worth being the default ones.

Also, random enemy skills would be absolutely awesome depending on the style of game. Many parts of Conquest would completely fall apart with random enemy skills, but in something like Birthright with a better endgame, random enemy skills would be absolutely amazing. Like Lunatic+ except without a metagame revolving around like three people.

Oh, I get that there is absolutely a market for Random skills. Namely, livestreamers.

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10 minutes ago, Etheus said:

Oh, I get that there is absolutely a market for Random skills. Namely, livestreamers.

Hell, just people who want to have to think on their feet and make up strategies on the fly rather than through memorization would love it. I'd play that mode in a heartbeat.

As for settings I'd add...

This is a pretty outrageously psychotic idea I've thought about for a while:

Murphy Mode: On/Off

If Murphy Mode is set to on, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Every single RNG enemies use for their attacks and abilities is 00. That means that as long as there is even a 1% chance of them hitting, critting, or activating a special skill, it always happens. You are forced to account for the worst case scenario in all of your strategies, or see the worst case scenario play out catastrophically right before your eyes. I draw the line at giving the player corresponding terrible RNG though; making the player incapable of hitting without a 100% hit rate would likely make most games impossible.

Edited by Alastor15243
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55 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Like Lunatic+ except without a metagame revolving around like three people.

They also had them in Awakening's Lunatic mode as well, they were just kinda boring skills that the class would naturally get at higher levels. If they did add a random skill mode it should have 4 levels: off, class line's acquirable skills, any acquirable skills, unique enemy skills.

Time for an odd one:

RNG type, with single RN, double RN, and Fates style as your options.

 

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I generally prefer only a few different settings for this sort of stuff. In games that do have a million different options, the majority of them end up being an unbalanced mess. The fewer there are, the more likely they can be made so that they all work well.

That said, one thing that I really would like to see is an option for dealing with unit-death that is somewhere in between classic and casual. The two options that we currently have for what happens when a unit is defeated in battle are at the two extremes: either there are no consequences at all (casual) or the character is completely and permanently dead (classic). I want an in-between option where there are consequences but not death.

It could work something like this: if a unit is defeated in battle, they are severely injured. They aren't available for the following mission/month and can't be trained, brought into battle, participate in activities or supports or do anything else during that time. When they do come back from injury they are a bit weaker than they were before, with each stat having a 50% chance of having a 1 point reduction.

Basically, I want some degree of consequence that is harsh enough that I actually care about keeping my units alive (unlike casual) but not so harsh as to make me immediately reset whenever a unit dies (unlike classic).

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