MarkyJoe1990

So I finally came back to play this from the beginning. Some of it's designs were enlightening, others weren't. Let's start with the good. - I do feel the units are better balanced than before. Example: I questioned whether Sophia, even with her massive boosts would be worth the trouble to train up, and she was. I HAD to rely on her for the last few chapters because she was by far the strongest unit on my team. I also had her dual wielding Apocalapse and Aureola, which came in extremely handy when I found that I had pretty much no one else to give Aureola to. I just wish I managed to get those boots on the dessert chapter. - Due to the rebalancing of weapons, I was enlightened on some of the creative designs of the original game. Example: Combining poison weapons with a tome that reduces HP to 1 (And actually hits!) is quite brilliant in it's deviousness. Certainly would make for a good ragefest submission gimmick, that's for sure. - For the first time ever, I was shown that archers CAN be a good class. In games like Fire Emblem Awakening, the ideal strategy is to throw in your most survivable unit with a 1-2 range weapon into a large group of enemies and spread damage amongst them, and it's because of this emphasis on enemy phase damage that unit positioning and player phase in general becomes meaningless. This hack however (and perhaps FE6 in general) makes player phase the most important part of the game. The enemies have enough skill and strength that you want to reduce the amount of attacks you take on enemy phase as much as possible, and having a unit that can attack indirectly AND has the speed and power to make their one attack on player phase meaningful was an enormous boon. I even kept Wolt for the entire game. This is the first time I've ever used an archer for gameplay related reasons. Now for the bad... - This hack aims for a steady difficulty curve, but I found the most challenging part of the game to be Ilia, which is just before the end-game. - In the late/end-game, the enemy dodge rates are immense. I'm okay with thinking my strategies over really hard in order to win, but the constant prominence of the RNG solidified my decision to not replay this hack despite it's merits. - Personal Experience, but... despite Lot allegedly being the best late-game axe user according to the posts I read, he REALLY fell behind. It took THREE skill books to get that Skill stat. - The last two chapters are too much of a luck/stat war. You pretty much absolutely CANNOT win without the help of the divine weapons, and even WITH them, some of the enemies lack the weakness to it, which not only doesn't make any sense (They're dragons... and why are some of them divine dragons? This creates plot holes in the story), but it makes the stat war even worse. By that point, you're better off using the light brand at range to deal a fixed 10 damage rather than use the divine weapons. It certainly helps save uses, but hell if it's meaningful when only Roy can feasibly do anything to the final boss without getting the stuffing kicked out of him. - More on the last two chapters, I'm convinced that the final chapter is either impossible, or requires a heavily optimized team in order to win. My Roy maxed nearly all of his stats (Defense, Luck, and HP weren't maxed), and he could only deal 10 damage to the initial divine dragons you throw at us, and they have NINE MOVE. how the heck is this possible? By this point, I started using save states and RNG rigging to get critical hits. This isn't challenge. It's a luck and stats war. - While you managed to mostly fix the game's issues with stat and growth balancing, it probably would've been a good idea to change the events as well since the game still has some incredibly boring chapters. Pretty much all the gaiden chapters are bloated bait 'n switch fests, and we still get ambush reinforcements. While I don't mind playing prediction games and guessing where these ambushes will occur (The game often gives hints either through cutscenes or visually with the map's design), sometimes there is absolutely no indication as to where they will pop up, even if you KNOW they are going to happen (Murdock's chapter is a prime example. Pretty much a guessing game all throughout, and with a time limit no less). Now for the more minor complaints. - Lilina requires a rescue staff in order to recruit, since she has no safe spot to sit in while she's in her prison. - According to my friend JadeWyvernRider, there is a village in the Sacae route that is completely impossible to save. It is destroyed on the first turn, and it's unreachable even with a warp staff because the chapter is Fog of War. - Killer Weapons are awful now. I don't know how high enemy luck stats usually are, but even my swordmaster has trouble getting around 25+ crit. Perhaps that is intentional. I don't know. - I don't know if this is the original game or not, but giving heroes runeswords is the most annoying thing ever. I recall a certain Ilia chapter that starts with one of these, and it took Wolt's long bow, Fir's Killing Edge, and Lilina's Forblaze to take him out on the first turn. These guys SUCK. I think that's all I have to say at the moment. I'll report back if I remember anything else, but... yeah, I don't really think I wanna replay the hack. I didn't enjoy the late/end-game enough.

I have about an hour's worth of footage showing my first attempt. It needs cutting down, and even then, I asked the author if he still wants me to upload the footage knowing that I found it dull.

I just played the submission. This has got to be one of the most dull things I've ever played. 50 turns of defense mission, eh? More like 50 turns of bloated map (it's 45x34 tiles), reinforcements (both enemy and ally), and getting bullshitted with snipers with longbows that ignore defense, heroes that deal too much damage, and... ugh... I've only attempted it twice, but just the thought of a third attempt makes me feel depressed and bored. I'm not accepting this submission.

I recently got an e-mail... My response?

Be my guest. Of course. Here's the patch for those of you daring enough to give it a shot. I'm going to give everyone a pre-emptive and say that due to the randomized nature of auto leveling for ally units, you might find this heavily luck based and impossible in some playthroughs, and fairly doable in others. Here's the patch.

So. I finished my next chapter for this hack, but it's too damn hard. So I'm gonna nerf it. Anyone badass enough to take on the unnerfed version? Mayhaps a little LP for my entertainment~? *troll face*

I've updated the sheet to be more concise and precise. Hope it helps.

A new map I'm working on. Speculate away.

Perhaps we should make a separate board for these? And maybe we could also include a directory for all the Let's Plays?

Nintenlord. Have you considered the idea of making NUPS associate UPS files, and making it so that clicking on a .ups file opens up your program, automatically assuming the player wants to patch that file? Lunar IPS does it, and it's a really handy feature.

New episode of Decay of the Fangs. Chapter 6

Why isn't it bad design that you lost because of something that may be out of your control? Come on, dude. Do you think I don't understand basic game design? I know the value of failure because I like to play games that are hard, like Castlevania. In Mario, you're playing relatively short levels that sometimes have checkpoints. The punishment for losing isn't nearly as stupidly severe as losing a dude in Fire Emblem. The point I'm trying to make is that permadeath in Fire Emblem is an outdated, needlessly cruel punishment for mistakes, and in a game where inconsistency has a huge impact on the way combat plays out such as Fire Emblem, I feel it hurts more than it gives.

..... >______> So long as the chapter design is solid, the only big problem with permadeath is that it's extremely punishing to the player, and that's a big problem that becomes even worse when you're playing chapters that are particularly long; hours of careful thinking and progress? All gone because Myrmidon guy bit the bullet. Extremely demotivating. I once stopped playing FE7 Eliwood Hard Mode for months because Lucius died to Lloyd in that fog of war chapter, all because I didn't think the boss would actually move (I played only normal mode prior), and it took a while just to get that point in the chapter (because I sucked at the time, but I digress). I feel the REAL question here is "What's wrong with a LACK of permadeath?" People seem to think that if there's no permadeath, there's no reason to give a crap about your strategy, but that is completely untrue. The threat of permadeath is losing a unit, but without permadeath, you can scale the difficulty to create the threat of total defeat. Both are ways to lose, and both can breed tension. The former breeds tension by making the player hope those 30%s miss, and the latter gives tension because "ohmygod ohmygod I only have three units left, will I be able to beat the rest of the forces!? Were Jame's and Giftul's suicides effective enough?" Personally, I find the latter less frustrating. I've only played a little bit of FFT, but doesn't it have permadeath? I have a friend who's really big on that game.

Uuuuuuugh. We're really doing this, huh? Okay, I'll start by answering your first question (the spoilered one) To answer the rest of your stuff... listen, I know what I'm doing. I wouldn't have implemented the mechanic if I didn't think it worked. I have some friends who hate Fire Emblem because of the frustration of permadeath, and I happen to think the feature is dated. I'd rather give the player the fear of flat out losing over the fear of losing some bloke they liked. I also feel the lack of permadeath fits the light hearted nature of the hack. I have a question though. What SRPGs have you played that lacked permadeath, Alfred?

You might wanna mark that last sentence as a spoiler. >_____> Anyway. I completely disagree about the permadeath thing. Backstory time! My removal of permadeath was inspired by the Disgaea series. Particularly Disgaea 4. I went and played through the game under the self imposed challenge that I would grind only when I felt it was absolutely necessary. The game got extremely hard in the last few chapters to the point where losing units was pretty much inevitable. Instead of making me lazy however, I had to very carefully consider what sacrifices I would have to make, and whether those sacrafices would be enough to earn me victory. Will it be worth it to lose my mage in order to damage this entire row of super strong enemies? Should I send my fighter on a suicide mission in order to buy my other units time to heal up? I don't feel it's correct to say that lack of permadeath makes you lazy. Losing units STILL is bad. Each one lost means less fire power to fight the enemies with, and it also means that unit won't be gaining more experience until the next chapter, so you might have to use the next chapter to get them back up to snuff, which can sometimes prove to be difficult, especially if the chapter has multiple desired sub-objectives. Lack of permadeath isn't uncommon in Strategy RPGs, and while Fire Emblem uses permadeath to make itself stand out, I have never liked the mechanic, especially when implemented in a game where enemies can land an unlucky 1% critical hit and ruin whatever cautious playing you had done prior. It's frustrating and demotivating, and it only gets worse when playing on longer maps.

Number three was recently fixed, so if you downloaded this on the day it was released or perhaps a little later, you may still experience the issue. I'll fix Yurino's thingy. As I will with Ereshkigal. EDIT: Fixed the first two. If the third one is still an issue, I guess I didn't fix it and will do so.

First release is ready! Check the first post!

Oh my god. Guys. The worst RNG happened just now.

There we are. A bit more streamlined map design.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Second Release Screenshot(s): Currently existing chapters: 01: Archerville - Archer-heavy map that... isn't very well designed, mainly because it was crafted in a single day. 02: Berserker Hills - If you ever hated fighting wyverns and berserkers, I just want you to know that I've created your personal hell. I finally got past Fire Mumblem's first beta release threshold, which means I've paved the way for the other members of the project to start making chapter contributions. Having done so much work on the project (Maps, Events, Writing, ASM, even some portraits, etc.), it's a relief knowing that a lot of the pressure has been taken off of me. However, I still feel a craving to level design and keep my skills refined. That's where this project comes in. This project's going to be minimalistic on dialogue and focus mainly on gameplay, and perhaps utilize some experimental gameplay ideas. I'll also most likely let the player play the chapters in any order they please, though, I might scale the enemies/difficulty based on how many chapters have been completed so far. Feel free to toss out level design suggestions as I go along.

I looked at the death quote editor and noticed that I accidentally removed Derkin's death quote. That was probably the thing that ends the chapter. I'll get to fixing it since... work isn't for another hour anyway and I think I can go fast enough. EDIT: Fixed it. Hopefully. Hehe~ Thanks~

You were supposed to be able to go to outdated map 2. I'll have to fix it when I get back from work.

There ya go, Brendor. Included the sources.

It just so happens that I do. Updated first post.