Augestein

Yeah, if you don't make each mage able to use all magic types and keep that, it could be more interesting. I'm fine with that change.

I don't know, I just find that really funny. It's definitely one of the strangest things to come out of RD though.

Don't forget the random gameplay bouts of insanity. Male Swordmasters can SS rank but female ones? They aren't as good with swords.

Are you changing the mights of the tomes? They were pretty low in RD...

There are quite a few reasons for that: The primary one being advertising. Seriously, I had no idea that there was even a Dragon Quest X being made, and even worse than that, I had no idea that there was apparently a mobile version of VIII. That's pretty lousy. Timing: the first 2 Dragon Quest games are admittedly very, VERY flawed games, when the games finally started to hit their stride, III, the NES was gearing towards its final years. III not so much, but IV definitely. Spare Releases: The series just disappeared for the entire SNES generation. That killed any momentum it ever could have had. Combine that with the lack of advertising, and it was a lost cause for it to become popular when the PSX game was released. Sure, the game boy ones were still around, but it was the GAME BOY-- outside of Pokemon, there really weren't many popular titles for the handheld. Even if it was, it's up against Pokemon, another RPG which completely eclipsed and dwarfed any real chance it had to blossom.

This is going to sound kinda wild, but hear me out on this: I'd say Micaiah but the writers' favoritism desperately wants Ike to be the protagonist. Kind of like they wanted in Path of Radiance IMHO. In PoR, nothing really happens in the plot if it's not for Elicina. Without Elincia, Ike doesn't actually have a goal, or anything to work towards. Even if you bring up the Black Knight, the only reason he could even find Greil is because of the whole ordeal with Elincia. Even worse, is that when Ike joins Elincia on her quest, it's just doing a job, that's it. Even if you can argue that the GMs support Elincia through convenience, it's still not really them being the driving force of the plot. Sure, Ike becomes a "hero," but really the story is just as much, if not more, Elincia's story of her reclaiming her kingdom. Even worse, is that by the time RD happens, what they built up for PoR is disposed of off screen and Ike reverts back to a mere mercenary, so even the "rags to riches" story they may have been going for is kind of unable to be salvaged by RD's time. For RD, Most of the actual important aspects of the plot either involve Sanaki or Micaiah. Blood Pact? Turns out that this involves Sanaki and Micaiah. Ike is just kind of *there*. The Black Knight arc is there, but certainly no where near the importance of anything else going on. Take a look at even the path to the tower in RD. All of the interesting reveals and character arcs/developments are with Micaiah's group. I can definitely see where they were trying to go with Ike being the main character in RD, but it's just so poorly done IMO. Better luck next time writers.

Oh wow. So how many chapters is this supposed to have total? This game sounds like it's going to be huge.

Looks nifty. That video made me think of something though: are the requirements for the other Galdr going to still be as ridiculous? The levels I mean.

It didn't really sound like it from how you were talking. Hence why I was asking questions. This is also why I said "finish it first and then I'll talk more about my point." But being higher in level with lower stats isn't a good thing if the DBs have more levels to gain with growth that will pretty much ensure them to be higher and the curve to reasonably pull it off. And here, it sounds like those promotion bonuses are going to be problematic. Hence I was like "why not just fix leveling curve instead?" Maybe in your mods, but honestly? No. Level is not merely just a number. It's meant to be the relative power for each unit that joins. And it determines the maximum potential of each unit. But it wasn't just a question of DB matching up with GMs, it was a matter of both feeling right. Some of the changes I've seen in FE6: Redux made me a bit worried about that. Like say... Wendy. I felt like you OVERtuned Wendy in that and made her too good. She was miserable in the original, but now, she's pretty much unquestionably the best of the knights here based off of her bases, level, joining time, growths and stat spread. Too be honest, it's still kinda tame. 1 for that exact reason and 2, because that's quite the quest to go on for SS ranking. A fun little detour I suppose, but even if you did, what are you getting from it besides stat bonuses for every weapon you use? Not much. It just sounds like you more so put it there to make Sanaki not ANNOYING for being forced. That's a good thing.

Dude, I had an entire paragraph typed out, but it got eaten as I was typing it. Not retyping it, so I'll leave it at this: The method you're using doesn't sound like it's solving the biggest problem with RD: the absurd leveling curves demonstrated for each team until part 4. It's not just about the DB team having higher stats or lower stats. It's about the effort required to get higher stats in conjunction to how effective there are in comparison to their higher leveled parts. The reason why I was saying "just level Fiona up," is because I'm assuming you'd fix the leveling curve so part 1 tier 1's are all pretty much or already tier 2 at the end of part 1. THEN have the handful of chapters for the DB to hit say... 20/8-20/12 to make them on par with the GMs-- I thought that was your goal on the account that you decided to lower the tier 2 unit levels for the GMs. But the more I read, the more it sounded like you weren't. I honestly don't see the point of having super promotion bonuses for the DB so they can promote at 13 or 14 in level when you could just make the curve... Have them hit level 20 at the end of part 1. Not only does that make more sense, but it doesn't specifically demand bizarre things from the player. Explain how a person that didn't have a guide would know-- oh, if I promote a unit at level 14 they'll get super bonuses? That's the sort of stuff that you want to avoid in a hack/mod because it's really counter-intuitive to playing. Zihark was brought up because he's the definitive example of a unit for relative power. He joins both teams potentially, he starts out really good on the DB and then gets outshone by other units but still solid. On the GMs, with the same strength, he's not a particularly good unit. Even with the whole --/1 master seal things going on for units, this does not solve this problem. The reason Fiona was mentioned is because she demonstrates that absolute WORST case of this. Horrible availability and the maps seem to go out of her way to hate her for the first couple of chapters she joins. DB: Worst leveling curve. Lowest levels. Most of the DBers were ALREADY stronger at higher levels than the other units. The issue was keeping them up to speed with the units that not only start higher, but have longer chapters and more EXP to funnel into their units. For an example, compare the prologues of parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Let's use say Leonardo. Let's assume that we let Leonardo kill every unit in the DB's chapters that are possible. Leonardo will not be the same level that Nephenee would be if she killed every unit in part 2 and 3. Ike would not be the same level etc. I don't want to have to dump resources into units with my only reward to be green numbers that don't really matter in because units that didn't require these resources function just as well. And if the units that are from the DB are the best endgame units in the sense that it's worth dumping resources-- and not many as your insist on across the game, then the higher level units just sound... Bad. I'd rather have a leveling curve where when part 4 rolls around the GMs aren't much higher in level than the DBs. None of this master sealing early and getting amazing promotion bonuses... Just... A standard leveling curve. Especially because the super promotion bonuses balanced around the notion of being 14/1 instead of 20/1 are more easily abused and encourage funneling EXP more than before. I'm going to hit 20/1 because I NOW that I'm getting 6 levels that the game clearly isn't designed around. It's a bad thing because it stomps on other units terf. Though I don't think it might be in this case. I'll admit that there needs to be more Thunder sages that can SS rank, but that might require some limitations on the magics. Maybe make it so sages can only learn the magic type they beat. So: Soren and Bastian only get: Wind and Thunder Calill and Tormod only get: Fire and Wind Ilyana only gets: Thunder and Fire Then allow SS ranks on either for the mages. Thus now you have 3 mages that can SS rank thunder, 4 Wind, and 3 Fire. If we throw Sanaki in there, that makes it at least four for each of them. Also, don't forget that Sanaki cannot heal, so that's something that sets her apart in the sense of being a combat mage.

With reclass, I'd say he stays good forever. I mean you can easily turn him into a Bishop and still get use from him that way.

You're still not understanding what I'm saying. But you know what? Talk is cheap. Tell you want, finish it, I'll play through it and I'll document my point and I'll give you the results so you can see what I mean.

I don't see how having the option to move more and canto is not a good thing. Especially with canto being a less costly skill slapped on the mounted units. Unless you plan on putting beast slaying weapons around all over the place, it's still an advantage. I never said they did. I said they had *enough*. Factored in with the fact that Fiona could be recovering roughly 15-20+ hp per turn and she has earth affinity and Fiona's def and res are fine. Her def and res are poor for her class, but that's an issue with quite a few units in this game. Leonardo's res cap is horrible for his growths. Aran's strength, skill and defense caps are terrible for his growths. his isn't something that's just a Fiona thing either. And in the case of RD, it can be helpful for BEXP levels because they always force 3 stat ups, so capping early isn't exactly a bad thing. Especially when a standard level might result in only 1 stat going up. Silver Knight female caps are not that bad. They aren't impressive, but they aren't terrible either. But this doesn't answer my question: is Zihark supposed to be around level 20/5 or not by endgame of part 1? Because he's looking pretty scrubby then in comparison to Fiona. This would mean that Zihark is pretty bad as he's not going to be able to compete with her at all in part 3. Sure, he can try to swipe some kills in 3-6, but he's still going to sag behind especially when Fiona can apparently compete because of super promotion bonuses. If 10-14/10/1 Fiona can compete with --/20/1 Zihark, there's a problem. It's not a small price to pay when the other units fork over 2k and suddenly, they are Zihark but better. That's assuming you don't even make the unit hit 20 and just straight up level up. They get a super level when they get to 21. Zihark doesn't. And assuming you balanced the DB, they shouldn't be hard to use in the first place-- which means that the units that you choose to use will actively have more EXP funneled into them. Zihark's greatness will be overshadowed in the sense that he's leveling slower and wouldn't be much better than say... Edward-- if at all with the stat revamps. The issue with Vanilla was that the DB DID have better stats over the other units for the most part with the exception of Meg and Leonardo when they were leveled up. The issue was having enough EXP to level up. There wasn't, and there were too many "good enough" units that could pass what you needed to worry about leveling the DB. It's not conflicting. It's a question about Zihark's actual level which changes the entire outcome of how this is viewed. Let's roll with your example: Heck, we'll use average stats Fiona versus Zihark and give Zihark 2 levels for his appearance. We'll say he leveled up once for both parts of chapter 6. Fiona has +5 hp, +6 luck, +7 def, +4 res give or take. Is Fiona better than him? Certainly on a defensive level, and her skills pretty much solidify that. Zihark is lower in level, yes, but both can be focused on being used rather than giving any of them resources that a unit that is planning to be used SHOULDN'T receive. Neither unit needs to pay any price. They merely are two different units with two different stat structures and growths. One is a tank, the other is a more offensive fighter. If Zihark is expected to be 20/5 at the end of part 1, Zihark is in deep trouble. Fiona will crush him stat wise and gets super promotion bonuses, sure you might say "I'm giving them to Edward so Zihark gets the bonus as well," but Zihark's growths are... Certainly not Edward's. So Zihark's price to pay is being outshone literally 4 chapters after he joins-- possibly sooner if you really do decide to promote Edward at 16-- as that's normally the level Edward was for me at the start of endgame part 1 if I'm planning on using him, and then I promoted him after the boss was killed. But since he's supposed to be better, it might be sooner. The issue is that she's fighting for a deployment slot. Why would a person want to deploy a character that's worse than other characters when they could continue using the characters that are raising? With support bonuses, this gets even worse. No one wants to support Fiona because she is weaker, she's gone for 1-8, and then 1-E, a person should have a rank A support which means breaking up their support for her. Unless you plan on having someone get really bad because of their growths, it doesn't make sense to use Fiona if everyone else can pull their weight and she can't. That was the issue with Vanilla. There were too many units that would be good with resources and too many units that were good without them to even bother with the units that needed extra attention. But Edward is forced for the first chapters. He's also your best unit in the prologue and will possibly level twice in it, which helps him. The next chapter he is literally one of two frontliners. Edward is never actually a bad unit by the time deployment slots can be competed for. He's just never your best one. Soren is not really good ever. Nor is Nephenee. No. They don't need to be incredibly useful when they first show up... Until there is a point where they are competing for deployment slots. At that point, people need to be decent. 1RKOing levels of power is not the same as "equal with all of your units" Which just begs the question, why not make everyone have decent stats and niches in this case? There are far more classes in this one, and the caps usually force characters to be a certain strength anyways, so there's no reason to make levels and bases super arbitrary and impossible to tell how a unit is going to be without a guide. I don't know if high bases mean low growths or low leveled means high growths for a little bit of levels... Nothing. Jill shouldn't be around the same level as Fiona in terms of stats if she's higher leveled. What's the purpose? I don't understand it, because it's almost the same as vanilla. You made it sound as though you were going to make literally everyone deployable that you chose for each path. But you could do that in Vanilla. You really could. Just focus less on having Sothe kill things and more on... Everyone else. Realistically, there's enough EXP to go around assuming you don't have a problem with giving people BEXP. And paragon pretty much guarantees a level up every time you kill someone. That's at least enough to get 3 units to about 20/8. It just seems like it'd be easier to make a leveling curve that has the DB characters promote naturally at the end of part 1, and then level extremely quickly off of laguz. Which was always the case outside of failure units like Sanaki and Kurthnaga. I'd still give it a shot because it sounds like a different playthrough, I was just curious about the shaky nature of the DB because of the scenario around them.

Sure, I just felt that the movement that get is worth having inferior caps to say Sentinels. Worse? Definitely, but canto is that powerful of an ability that they deserve to not have super stats. The issue with Gold Knights is that they don't have enough speed and they don't have enough of the other stats to compensate. Silver females had *enough* speed to do things, but not enough. I suppose, I just felt the issue if Fiona herself. If she joined when Nolan had, it wouldn't be so bad. I haven't played Part 1, so we'll see how it works in practice. I'm not sure I understand the first part. Sort of? Is Zihark only expected to gain 2 levels over the course of the game from where he joins? If yes, then then she's fine (I'd argue Zihark is in trouble then. He will have speed and adept over her really as swords have less might than lances so he'll be doing about the same damage to her per hit, and less when fighting at WTD ). If no, then she's not fine. Yeah, it seems I did. It seems we both did. I was saying that Rhys has a strength while Mist really didn't outside of 1 movement and being able to take a hit (but neither should be attacked is what I was saying). High magic for him works. That's some crazy movement. Does she have the most? I see. Yeah, that makes sense. Less third tiers going around too.

Interesting. Silver Paladin Females had good caps in the original. It was just the rest that didn't. The issue is that Astrid and Fiona were both horrible. That's fine in the sense of some units. The issue with Fiona is that she has 5 "forced" chapters before she reaches the "bring your best guys" part. Even worse? She can't walk on water so she's forced to be in a tiny corner of the map for one of her four chapters. Her availability is garbage. I don't want to invest in her at all. I want to USE her and feel that she's good from the start and contributing without any effort placed into her. Like healers, or units like Titania. Leaving her unpromoted really doesn't do much for her outside of making her a money sink to keep her up to speed. The rest of the DB sounds like it would be pretty optional. Sort of how it was in the original. I'd honestly just make her stronger. The issue is that her stats are lame for the level she is, her affinity is nothing new, as we already have an earth affinity swordmaster, and he actually has supports, and having a growth unit that joins you so late is just lame. Unless everyone else has terrible stats, comparatively, there's no real point. The issue is that the original basically has Mia as the most easy to use, Zihark as the one with the best natural skill, and Edward is the growth one. Lucia really doesn't have much of a place unless you want a third/fourth swordmaster. You could also opt to have more thunder mages and make the nullify skill appear much later. Honestly, Mist needs more work than Rhys, because at least Rhys has wonderful Physic staff range. Mist has "I don't get OHKOed but your healer shouldn't be attacked anyways because they suck at counter-attacking" syndrome. I'd start by flipping her magic and strength growths and bases respectively. Then flop her defense and res growths (leave the bases alone) That's the problem with these healer/ physical attacker types. They give them terrible growth in strength and okay magic growth which results in them being worse than a mage healer because at least mages can attack reasonably well. Instead, make her an okay fighter in general and a mediocre healer. So long as you give her that, she can frontline respectably and still be worth using for heals because she's better at healing than using a healing item as she gains EXP for it and has more uses than a healing item. I'd probably up her base level and speed though. Level 5 or 6 sounds good, and I'd give her 20 speed. Decent but nothing special for her team. Are you going to make master crown's necessary to reach 3rd tier?

Gordin. No one else is even remotely as bad as him. Gordin needs forged weapons for like... Forever to be particularly useful.

Interesting. Although, I have to say, Edward looks powerful as hell. Honestly, I'd just make Fiona a tier 2 unit and call it a day. Fiona's problem isn't just her bases and growths, it's her level, with her bases and her growths and how long she's around to actually fight. She should just be Tier 2 and like level --/10. You get her for so few chapters, that she may as well be a god in them. After all, she has no supports, and will be competing with royals, so she needs to be awesome to even be in the same league. Micaiah gets my approval though. She's actually an offensive machine. Especially with that dark affinity. She gets +3 attack at the start of the game. Certainly enough to overcome that nasty problem of being at WTD against mages. However, I DO have a question, are seals going to be more common? Because if not, I'd rather just have the leveling curve be such that the DB promotes easier on natural levels than anything else.

I kinda agree with this. However, on the last part... I think people are kind of looking at it in the wrong way. The issue is dev time versus player enjoyment. Most things that are added in a game nowadays are optional content, but the issue is if they are worth keeping the optional content based on how much people seem to enjoy the features versus the time that it takes to implement. It's clear based on supports that these things are highly sought after by players, and it doesn't take a terrible amount of time for the devs to work with-- and even allows them to have an excuse to make new features, so the devs continue to work with this and seem to integrate supports more and more into the gameplay as you can see with Awakening making supports EVERYTHING-- despite being optional, they are more encouraged than I can think than any other Fire Emblem to date. People aren't getting tunnel vision for it, they just don't think it'll be particularly enjoyable enough to have warranted the dev time for it. I mean, did anyone even ASK for such an outrageous feature? An example of fans liking things would be like say Bioware RPG romances. They clearly take additional time for the devs, and are clearly optional, but players really enjoy these little subplots, so Bioware continues to give them to fans because they realize that it DOES attract certain group dynamics and doesn't hurt them enough -- if at all to not include it. Here with Fates, I think people are at a: sure, it's optional, but is it worth it?

Immoral. I've seen this happen in real life. I don't talk to her anymore.

I see. How about the "Trapper Award?" Like the best person that got Marc in a "oh ****! I can't win this." This isn't to be confused with instant game overs or anything, but simply a point where the chapter has been played to an impossible to salvage state. Sort of how with Sqawl's, he got to a point where he was like "I can't win this." I believe this happened in Ephraim's submission awhile back as well.

So what were the actual awards? I don't remember ever seeing those.

Sumia. The support is actually pretty cute, and I feel like Sumia works with Robin the best out of all of her supports... Besides maybe Henry. And it helps Cynthia seems less completely stupid for falling for the "Fake Chrom" trick. Also, Cynthia gets to actually be a good older sibling in the Morgan support.

My Chrom married Maribelle. But my Maribelle got defense blessed and had like 13 defense when Lucina was born, so Lucina just had higher magic really.

Sage. Lissa's iffy base strength combined with her strength growth isn't having her kill anything with her physical attacks anytime soon. She'd have to have like... 80% strength growth for me to even consider going War Cleric. Plus, even with pair up bonuses, you're better going for the bonus magic than the extra strength.

It'd be kinda cool if you went through the Pelgia arc, and then the Walhart arc, and then based off of decisions you made as Chrom would ultimately determine what type of lands the children lived in. So now you don't even need time traveling, it's just the third arc. Honestly, I kind of like the existence of Robin, because I like the idea of a tactician, I just think that Robin should have been more like Mark rather than well... Robin.