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"SF Ruins Fire Emblem" Hacking Contest


AnonymousSpeed
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Welcome one and all to "SF Ruins Fire Emblem," the contest where we try our darnedest to avoid living up to the title.

If you've ever thought about getting into hacking, this would be a good place to get your feet wet. We aren't here to make epic adventures or highly publicized masterpieces- just to make one chapter every round and hopefully have a good time in the process. Though each round has a winner, this contest isn't really about winning. Getting more hacking practice is the more important part.

Everyone has a Fire Emblem story they'd like to tell, but what's a Fire Emblem game without fun chapters to play? "SF Ruins Fire Emblem" is a chance to hone your map design skills.

On 6/11/2020 at 11:58 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

The Rules:

  1. Each round will last two months, from the first day of an odd-numbered month to the last day of an even-numbered month.
    • The odd-numbered month is the Design Phase, during which you are able to work on and submit your entry.
    • The first three weeks of the even-numbered month is the Judging Phase. During this time, people will play the entered chapters and vote for their favorite submission in a public poll hosted on this thread. This is also a good time to give others feedback on their chapters.
    • The remainder of the even-numbered month is the Rest Period. The winner is declared at the beginning of the rest period, and has until the beginning of the next design phase to pick the theme for the next round.
  2. The host is not eligible to win a round for which they picked the theme.
  3. You cannot vote for your own entry.
  4. No previously made maps may be submitted, even if they have been edited. All entries must be completely new.
  5. Submissions must be a 1 chapter long hack of Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones
  6. Contestants must submit their entry in the form of a .ups file, the download for which is uploaded to this thread.

The Theme of each round is chosen by the winner of the previous round. It is a general idea for contestants to build their chapter around.

The theme is not allowed to force contestants to break the above rules and should be reasonably achievable. Otherwise, it could be anything- make a seize chapter, don't give the player any 1-2 range weapons, implement a certain patch, etc.

It is currently Round 1 Design Phase.

Round 1 Design Phase Countdown

***

As there is no previous winner, I will chose the theme for round 1.

Theme:

On 6/11/2020 at 11:58 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

No custom assets! While you allowed to modify a character's stats, growths, and even class (and you're obviously allowed to alter the maps), you are not allowed to modify items, classes, terrain types, etc. You are not allowed to import any custom portraits or animations either. Refrain from patches aside from Anti-Huffman and patches which FEBuilder automatically applies. In effect, you are building a chapter within the constraints of vanilla FE8.

Entries:

  • Coming within 30 days

***

@Benice@Jotari@This boi uses Nino@Popers1328@Eltosian Kadath

Remember, real life comes first. Have fun!

Edited by AnonymousSpeed
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I'm always one for hacking competitions. However, I do have some questions to ask first. 

First and foremost, do assembly hacks fall under "custom assets"? For example, stuff like the Skill System, Danger Zone, or the Essential Fixes.

If the above are allowed, are brand new assembly hacks dedicated for the chapter in question allowed to be used as well?

Is usage of the LOMA event command, which can load other maps and can simulate extra chapters, allowed?

Would dialogue be considered a "custom asset"?

I'll be keeping my eyes on how this develops.

 

Edited by Darrman
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24 minutes ago, Darrman said:

I'm always one for hacking competitions. However, I do have some questions to ask first.

I'll do my best to answer them. I hope these are helpful responses.

***

24 minutes ago, Darrman said:

First and foremost, do assembly hacks fall under "custom assets"? For example, stuff like the Skill System, Danger Zone, or the Essential Fixes.

They do. No patches.

24 minutes ago, Darrman said:

Is usage of the LOMA event command, which can load other maps and can simulate extra chapters, allowed?

I would say yes, just try to be reasonable about it. The way the games handle final chapters (one part goes into the next) is fine, for instance.

24 minutes ago, Darrman said:

Would dialogue be considered a "custom asset"?

It is not. You can have a custom plot if you'd like.

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Well I am working on a hack of Lyn Mode to make it harder, but of course that's on FE7 and also the Prologue isn't much more interesting. Well then, I guess I'll get to work on some map.

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3 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'll do my best to answer them. I hope these are helpful responses.

***

They do. No patches.

I would say yes, just try to be reasonable about it. The way the games handle final chapters (one part goes into the next) is fine, for instance.

It is not. You can have a custom plot if you'd like.

So basically it's pure map design quality we're looking for. I'll see what I can do. I might be able to finish Fall of Thabes (or at least as much as I can do for it) this month.

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18 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

They do. No patches.

Including the anti-huffman patch, which is basically a requirement for any custom/edited text? I'm also curious as to why you'd disallow the essential fixes which consists of QoL features and bug fixes.

There's also the question of whether this applies to ASM changes applied automatically by tools, such as FEditor's autopatches.

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18 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

They do. No patches.

does this suggest that you expect people to cobble something together without writing any new text? or, worse, go back to the old days of inserting text manually with a hex editor and compressor? because "the anti-huffman text patch" used by every modern text insertion tool seems to also fall under this category (if nothing else, it certainly belongs in the same category as essential fixes).

 

on a broader note, how exactly do you intend to enforce this? do you know precisely which tools apply patches before which operations? does this suggest that anyone who ever opens their ROM in FEditor is disqualified, because of its autopatches? What if they opened FEBuilder and clicked through a bunch of prompts without knowing what they meant? if this is a competition designed to attract beginners, this seems to disqualify basically everyone.

Edited by CT075
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Here is my submission. 

Spoiler

 

onVWrxytKW.gif.535f2ae31e74bd3ddd8df4a807ae4f67.gif

(Yes, before anyone asks, this is entirely vanilla behaviour. You can even play through the rest of the game after completing this chapter.)

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V6iZarm8EAEqdZp8vM8CGidCHAwUJM3q/view?usp=sharing

Best of luck to everybody else. 😎

 

In all seriousness, I think there are good intentions behind the stated rules. It's supposed to be a contest without fancy custom ASM, just good old FE8 content. But I also feel that there are many small modifications to the game over the years that are pretty crucial to hacking. 

Bug fixes (These should be allowed)

  • Anti-huffman (for text editing)
  • Prevent freeze on camera movement out of bounds 
  • Essential Fixes
  • Etc.

Quality of life (Possibly should be allowed)

  • Skip intro/opening etc. 
  • A standardized ModularMiniMug Box (no RPS, Leonarth!)
  • Many of the 'addevent' patches in FEBuilder
  • Etc. 

QoL simply allows for more room with creating a fun hack, but shouldn't change core gameplay. 

New Systems (Banned for the contest)

  • Skill systems
  • Special command for each unit 
  • Capture enemy
  • Etc.

 

While it is difficult to organize each and every patch into a specific category, you could start by listing some examples of what's allowed and what isn't, and simply respond to specific questions for patches you haven't commented on. 

 

 

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9 hours ago, CT075 said:

on a broader note, how exactly do you intend to enforce this? do you know precisely which tools apply patches before which operations? does this suggest that anyone who ever opens their ROM in FEditor is disqualified, because of its autopatches? What if they opened FEBuilder and clicked through a bunch of prompts without knowing what they meant? if this is a competition designed to attract beginners, this seems to disqualify basically everyone.

Goodness gracious man. I get the Pheonix Wright avatar, but don't be such a lawyer about it.

Anti-Huffman and FEBuilder autopatches are fine, forgot about those.

6 hours ago, Rew said:

QoL simply allows for more room with creating a fun hack, but shouldn't change core gameplay.

I probably wouldn't implement the QoL patches, because the point of the prompt really is to work with the strict constraints of FE8 and that includes the way it presents information.

That said, WYBO has never really been big or strict on theme enforcement and I don't really intend to be that way here either. You can technically submit whatever you want and it's usually the "duty of the judges" to factor your keeping with the prompt in their assessment.

Edited by AnonymousSpeed
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  • 3 weeks later...

So anyone actively making anything for this? I am interested but my extremely poor time management and higher priorities makes it highly unlikely I'll be pulling anything out in this last week. 

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22 hours ago, Jotari said:

So anyone actively making anything for this? I am interested but my extremely poor time management and higher priorities makes it highly unlikely I'll be pulling anything out in this last week. 

I had something I was working on, but I've slowed down a little bit since it didn't seem like anyone else was interested. I may still hammer it out, but it's probably a bit late by now.

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4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I had something I was working on, but I've slowed down a little bit since it didn't seem like anyone else was interested. I may still hammer it out, but it's probably a bit late by now.

Well maybe the deadline can be extended to until we have two entries XD

 

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On 7/1/2020 at 7:37 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

No previously made maps may be submitted, even if they have been edited. All entries must be completely new.

I feel like interest was lacking due to a few factors, including some stringent rules. 

My suggestions: 

- I encourage you to make something new for the contest, but previously made content may be submitted, as long as it hasn't won a previous round. 

On 7/1/2020 at 7:37 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

No custom assets!

Many of the vocal people in the feuniverse discord felt this was "hacking without hacking" or "no fun allowed". As FEU is the primary gbafe hacking scene, it would be worthwhile to cater to that demographic as well. I know the idea is to encourage more people to try out hacking, but usually new users in #febuilder_help are pretty self concious about their hack and have no intention to be ready for a contest. 

Perhaps having a parallel thread on feu would be a good idea, too. 

 

On 7/1/2020 at 7:37 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

The odd-numbered month is the Design Phase, during which you are able to work on and submit your entry.

This is a pretty short time-frame for submissions. 

 

On 7/1/2020 at 7:37 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

The first three weeks of the even-numbered month is the Judging Phase. During this time, people will play the entered chapters and vote for their favorite submission in a public poll hosted on this thread.

I think having someone do a let's play of each submission and having users vote on their favourite one would work better. Even without the voting, people will submit just to have their work shown in a video. Most users don't take the time to try out many hacks, so I think you'll have a very difficult time having people vote this way. 

I think the MAFC series is similar to this, but there's room for more than just the one Ghast hosts. 

Finally, with FEE3 right around the corner, that might be what some people are focusing on instead. 

 

All that said, don't be discouraged at the lack of submissions. This can be reworked into something valuable. Best of luck with hosting these contests - let me know if there's any way I can help. 🙂

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