TheNiddo

Hrm.... Assuming let's say Andrei gets a base stat buff of +1 Con and +1 Speed (Two things you've mentioned as possibilities so I'll use that as the base here). In a way that "removes" the -2 speed penalty he's currently getting from his unique weapon. If he doesn't get his base speed buff I'd say knock a single point off of its weight so he ends up at the same point, and then make it a weaker brave sword. It would help him a lot in Val's mode: he has the strength to 2SK a lot of things but doesn't have the speed or defence to take the hit between rounds frequently. Getting two attacks in from the start would keep him a lot safer in Val Mode, and let him try to get his footing quickly in Ash Mode before other sword users pop up. Going by a Militant Edge's stats of 5MT/90HIT/0CRIT/5WT/46USES, maybe make the new Flamberge something like 4MT/95HIT/5CRIT/10WT/60USES? If you wanted to get really fancy could also make it give Andrei +2 Res or something just so he doesn't crumple if 2 mages look at him early on. I'm not a mod designer by any means, but I would think something around that level would let him be more reliable, without invalidating other characters or being something he had to cling to for the entire game. Though I do admit I'm not sure if he would then overshadow Val or not. Granted, Val gets her fancy rapier so maybe that's enough to keep her competitive with him?

Ya in Chapter 11, I more or less had the same thing happen with Drake. Wanted to make sure I visited all of the houses, didn't want to run into the boss, went the long way, Drake was dragging everyone down and somebody got hit so I had to heal them and then I got bum rushed. They got to me too quickly so I couldn't keep pressing onwards because would have just triggered more units. I can't remember, are their any flying units in the Elite group? If their are, switching them out for 5 movement units might work: you don't have to stop to fight the Elites that way, its still a group you want to avoid if possible, but you don't get tagged by fliers quickly and stuck fighting them until the other Elites catch up. The changes I suggested to Andrei were less about straight up buffing him and more about trying to lower the chances of him getting screwed. It's a bit tricky to buff him without making Val obsolete, but then there are the problem of the other sword users you get pretty quickly after you get him back. Something I can spitball out about that is maybe give him even more Con? Out of all of those sword users he has the highest Con, but he's only beating Jace, Ordanze, and Laraya by 1. I actually ended up giving him a Body Ring before I promoted him. Perhaps just buff his Con up by 2 so he can use some decent swords without any speed penalties? That could work as his niche: doesn't have the greatest speed when compared to the others but he's not weighed down by most of the swords in the game? Compared to other axe users: Kane would have the same amount of Con but is an all rounder who trades some skill for some defence and access to two weapons from the start. Vincent would be tied until promotion where he takes the advantage and has better strength, speed, and def on average. Hawke would have 1 less con until promotion but has better strength, speed. Marco still has a Con advantage along with strength and defence. Another possibility would be to buff his unique sword a bit. Basically have it be "without his unique sword he's slightly worse but has access to ranged weaponry upon promotion when compared to other sword users, with his unique sword he's slightly better overall"? Gives a reason to use the weapon repairing staff as well.

So, really enjoying the mod so far. Feels like an actual FE game to me. Up to chapter 18 at the moment. Been getting a bit stat screwed: Drake is level 17 and has a grand total of 5 speed. Andrei is fairly speed screwed and a bit defence screwed as well (Even WITH the Speed and Defence boosting items). Hawke is speed screwed and defence screwed (11 speed and 6 defence before I promoted him at level 20 whyyyyy) All observations are of course, in Normal Mode. Chapter 8: It was a fairly difficult chapter. Fair for the most part, but it took a lot of trial and error. Ultimately had to lean heavily on my pre-promotes to get past it. I think it would be better however if in the previous chapters you could either bring everyone or only had to leave one person behind. You have to leave 2 behind, and you're going to want to bring Josie. Rayden you can leave behind most of the time, but that leaves one more slot you gotta leave behind. That's most likely going to be Linda who then becomes dead weight the moment the ballista runs out of shots. I was originally going to say that the last chapter in Val's mode should have more characters slots as well, but upon finishing it I could see why that wasn't the case. Chapter 11: Oh boy this chapter. The one time I didn't have fun with this mod. Maybe its because a lot of my characters are a bit on the screwed side. But those Elite units were just too much. I spent a good 2 hours trying to survive their onslaught without triggering units on the lower half of the map. I had to constantly try different combinations of positioning and weapon trading/juggling and rescuing and even then there were 2 or 3 turns where I only got past them because the enemies missed 65% chances 3 times in one turn. And that was after I started abusing RNG burning with unit movement ranges. The biggest problem by far were the Elite Archers. Getting too many double attacks and dealing too much damage per hit for my units to weather. A few of the mages gave me some headaches as well (I think one had a non-base level weapon IIRC?) Toning down the archers just a tad (like a point of strength and speed) would help a lot I feel. Make that section less of a nightmare if you get stat screwed. Chapter 14 gave me a heart attack on that last turn, lol. I thought that boss was going to get an actual action, so I was madly trying to get everyone out of the way, but in a way that the other enemies didn't kill them. Character balance opinions: I think Andrei needs some love. He's in an awkward spot between main lord and supporting character, so you kinda want to use him all the way to endgame. But then his stat spread (even if he's not screwed like mine) is rather subpar for long periods of time it seems like outside of hitting his strength cap quickly. Not quite sure what to do about him, maybe take 10% off his HP growth, split that 10% between Defence and Speed to try to lower the chance of those two categories getting screwed over? Maybe tack on an extra point of defence to his starting stats? (He was the one who died the most for me in Val's mode), often by 1 or 2 hit points. Val feels very much like Erika. Not that it's a bad thing, just something I noticed. Keiran is awesome. Liked having a Wyvren Rider early on. Wanted to use Kane and Isaac but just had no room for them in Ash's mode. Edward feels like dead weight. I normally try to use a thief regularly. He got benched hard. Just has no way to stand out combat wise. Really like having Ash as a lord. Always liked the idea of having a dark magic using as a lord. Stat wise both he and Alicia are doing quite well thank goodness.

With the number of problems that seemed to have popped up, merging the two patches would likely be a good idea. Can still have separated download options, just provide a combined one as well.

I've been having some problems trying to get this to work while getting a translation patch to work as well. First, I downloaded the three parts: a fresh copy of FE6, this patch, and this translation patch http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=41095&page=1 I'm using Multipatch. First I patch the Numbers patch to the ROM first as explained in the OP. No problems there. When I try to then patch the translation patch on top of the now patched ROM, I get a crc32 issue. To make sure that everything downloaded correctly, I tried applying just that translation patch to the ROM and it worked fine. The numbers patch is .ips and the translation patch is .ups