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Pandan

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    Fire Emblem The Seven Keys

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Xlelius said:

    Player choices. Calling everything is this hack a "risk", was a poor choice of words. While I understand that some things are excessive and I will need to tone those down, I do very much want to emphasize choice for the player. If there is a chest on the map, that does not mean you'll always get what is inside. I intentionally place more chests than keys, and the contents of the chest are never required, only "nice to have". The same is true for Villages and other miscellaneous side objectives. These are designed this way so a player has to choose and that choice is never "wrong". You don't "lose" the contents of the other chest because you never had them. For example, in Ch17, there is a a very large group of enemy reinforcements that appears part way into the chapter. A few of them are very strong. You can opt to ignore them, complete the chapter without fighting any of them, and you don't lose anything. You can also opt to fight them, at great risk, for exp and to potentially obtain a legendary weapon. 

    You simply will not be able to obtain everything in 1 run. This isn't meant to hurt or insult the player, but to give the player a more individualized experience. One player might get a Brave Sword, another might get the Restore Staff. While you might think the Brave Sword is useless, somebody else might think the Brave Sword is a fantastic weapon option for Amos or James who can't wield legendary weapons. Choices you make in some chapters effect later chapters. You won't know this at the time. You might have no idea what triggers certain events that other players may never see. This is the experience you get with Seven Keys. 

    Problem is that players will assume something is wrong because the vanilla games seldom give you more chests than keys, or more villages than you could feasibly visit, for example. I'd argue it is unintuitive to show more resources to the player than they could feasibly get - it feels more like an oversight than intentional because the player has no way of knowing what's inside without save stating or opening up the ROM. Of course, if the game is explicit in that "you can only get one of these" (like helix vs. dome fossil) that feels a bit more fair.

    When one choice is a restore staff on a map with status staves, it isn't really "nice to have", either. 

    What do you suggest the player counter the status staff with? It's unfair to make the player's ability to get through a map without waiting out the status staves based on whether or not they opened the "right" chest in the situation. 

    A better way to individualize the experience is to focus on units and letting the player have more units to work with to vary up their runs vs. items they can miss if they get a chest that is less helpful to them IMO. 

    Hope that's helpful.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    On 4/1/2021 at 8:56 AM, CompteSecours said:

    Hello, i'm trying this fan game.

    I'm just at chapter 1-2, but i found something weird.

    I talked with Lera to a merchant, then shoved Vagelis and I obtained a bow named "Boogjacht" ( S-Rank, 18 Mt, +5Res). I guess this is a bug, so i'm just letting you know !

    It is not a glitch. If you visit the house, you'll learn the merchants dropped something - it is a range event and is not a glitch. Enjoy and please stay safe.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    On 6/16/2020 at 3:56 AM, YourBoyRoy said:

    Hey mate, just tried this out and I'm on chapter 1-4 atm. Though I'm still in the beginning, it's working great so far - portraits and sprites are solid, the new classes and inverse promotions are integrated well, interesting maps and conditions (although escape in 1-1 would've been better Thracia-style tbh, as it's really more like seize as is), and cool music (props for using Ape Escape!).

    I do have a couple of issues which I believe you might have noted under bugs. The freeze at the end of 1-3's cutscenes occurred and when I reloaded a save state before taking out Ghirken, it always froze even after skipping the scenes. Choosing suspend also froze the game. I could only continue by loading the auto-suspend after resetting the game; that definitely needs to be fixed. Otherwise, the game jitters a bit in scenes, like echoed selection sfx occasionally when clicking through dialogue. The music also seems to rise and fall in pitch quite a lot, making me feel vaguely woozy when it happens 😖. Maybe that's on me but I've had no problem with mainline series sounds.

    Lastly, one small nitpick. When pressing the right shoulder button on the character stat screen to show info, it starts on the title which tells you that pressing select will display growths. This is great, but you can't press left to check unit name info when on the title so you have to press down to move to stats then press left. A minor bother but yeah, a fix would be cool 😉

    EDIT: Oh yeah, I also got an S rank bow (boog-something) from a generic mage who was only carrying a fire tome iirc, in chapter 1-2. Was this intentional? The boss mentioned a powerful bow, but maybe that was referring to the longbow enemy. Also, after doing the second escape chapter, I was happy not everyone had to escape first; damn that was hard lol.

    Thanks for the feedback! All of these bugs should be fixed on the latest version on Dropbox.

    The Boogjacht is alluded to in the brown house near the starting position. It is neither a glitch nor the archer that the boss refers to at the start of the map.

    Unsure about the issues with the stat screen, and additionally, only Storch needs to seize to end the map. You don't need to bring everyone along.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Racer said:

    Hey, I found a few bugs that happened somehow during the ending of the game

      Hide contents

     

    bCsU2Cl.png

    After the endings I couldn't access the epilogue. After the text bubble, nothing shows up and its permanently stuck. I'm not sure if this is intended or not? I tried skipping the final scenes after you defeat Festan and that lead to a black screen.

    rBdoEmH.png

    Also in both chapter 4-6 and 4-E I was unable to edit the unit formation in the map. Everything was working perfectly fine before the last two chapters. This is in Hard Mode if that helps

     

    These bugs are now fixed in updated on the dropbox, thanks for flagging!

     

     

    On 6/12/2020 at 1:45 AM, Thorgrun said:

    So below I will list pros and cons of the game that I personally found, and ill list any bugs I find along the way. 🙂 

    Things I Enjoyed:

    - Most character portraits look pretty good 🙂
    - I really like the added classes.
    - Skills system is sweet! 
    - Map design is well done, so far I haven't been locked down with huge maps.
    - You have some new quests or in chapter events i quite enjoyed. lol SAVE THE CHICKENS!!! 😄
    - I like over all how many chapters there are, def not a short game. 

    Things I Didn't Like:

    - Story-line could use some fine tuning... 
    -  Zoya's portrait, her head is tilted up a bit too much, looks like shes staring angrily at the sky lol. xD yet her hair is positioned as if she were normally looking to the side. Just looks wrong, couldn't even use her it just bugged me too much.
    - I don't like Storch... As a unit he is great, but his personality sucks lol.
    - 

    Story-line:

    - You censor way too much, replacing common phrases with childish ones. It is absolutely hilarious to see a rough and tough brigand who steals from and kills people say "Oh darn it, who the heck are you?!" xD Like.... Oh my! Those manners! Honestly though it kinda takes away from the story, i'm not saying you need to cuss, but if you wanna censor language then try using different phrases all together, rather than using the same phrases over and over. On my next playthrough i'm going to count how many times I've seen the phrase "what the heck".. I know its at least 20 and i'm only halfway through the game. 
    - Another thing that takes away from the story is some of the characters attitudes. Marlen for example, i know hes only 15 or 16 but come on, your on a battlefield, stop fawning over omelettes! xD  I'm on Chapter 2-6 and it doesn't seem to be maturing, Storch is still indifferent mostly... Grow up Storch, ya can't sit around and relax all your life... >.>
    -  

    Bugs:

    - I find in some chapters the enemy turn seems to lag a bit, does not flow as smooth between enemy unit turns. 
    - Kitazowa says "bastards" in his death quote, yet every other time you have people saying "dastards", not sure if this was intentional. I actually liked it though, it felt like a real response. I certainly wouldn't be yelling out "YOU DASTARDS!!"  when I die either lol.  

    As this review is getting long, ill just post this one now. Ill do another for the last half of the game later. 🙂
    OHHH I wanted to ask, are Arena's removed in your hack? I have yet to come across one... Maybe I was rushing... 

    Thanks for the review! The language thing was def intentional because I felt cussing and most naughty words don't really suit FE, but I can understand if it feels odd reading it. VQ is def meant to be more surreal and not taken very literally.

    There are arenas but not very many - there's one in 2-5 and another in 4-6.

    Appreciate all the kind and thoughtful feedback. I'm making some tweaks and will be releasing a more major update down the line.

     

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    32 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

    I've just downloaded the patch and am excited to give this game a whirl. I am glad to meet a fellow hater of 1-ranged bows.

    If I promote a unit before level 15, can they still get their level 15 skill?

    EDIT: The game froze after the first cutscene before chapter 2 for me.

    The patch is updated on the dropbox and this should be fixed. Apologies for the rocky start!

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    On 11/30/2019 at 10:23 AM, phriendlybear said:

    Caught someone streaming this rom mod last night, I'm a fan for sure. The modified classes (mage knights, sword peg, bow fighters), recruiting red units but they turn green instead of blue is a cool idea, the portraits are solid, the dialogue ranges from nobles speaking in their noble tongues to Gelts "You stepped into my range? Idiot." LOL i'm really excited to play the completed story, so keep up the good work!

    Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.

    As an update here, we are getting close to finishing the first 'complete' build of the game, v1. I expect this will be ready sometime this year. 41 chapters, 58 characters. Looking forward to getting the release out!

    Please keep the feedback coming.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted · Edited by Pandan

    On 10/3/2019 at 8:01 AM, Goddess Serra said:

    I downloaded it like yesterday from FEU and it's great! I'm currently stuck on 1-7 though because Gunnar just doesn't want to appear. I've waited on his tiles with pretty much my entire army and there's no sign of him. I was going to replay the chapter again anyway since I lost the Light Brand so I can try and see if anything changes the second time.

    EDIT: I replayed the map, got everything and still no Gunnar (also, is the tile with an arrow next to Zard meant to do anything?), I even checked your stream on YouTube but you don't seem to be doing anything special. I downloaded the fix you uploaded from the link on FEU but it says you have to apply it to a clean rom? Do I have to replay the game until now or is there some way of recovering my save file for the new patch? I can confirm there is no way of proceeding past 1-7 because the game goes on a loop at the end (apparently because Gunnar was not recruited).

    Hey there! Sorry about this issue. There is a new patch in the dropbox that fixes this issue.

    Basically, I made a boo boo with the ending events of 1-7. Gunnar also didn't show up if you initiated the Lera/Marlen talk conversation. Both these, and a few other fixes, are accounted for.

    You will need to apply a patch to a clean rom, but you can use the same save. In your emulator, you should be able to "load an alternative save", and you can use the .sav file from your old patch and have it work.

    Let me know if that works for you. Sorry for the troubles!

    @familyplayer the dropbox link is now fixed in the first post - thanks!

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    On 5/8/2019 at 6:40 PM, plzfe said:

    Hey, I've played the first 5 chapters today and I'm enjoying my time so far. I'm not sure if you care but, I wanted to let you know that some of the idioms you've used (spinning your wheels; white collar banditry) wouldn't really make sense in a medieval setting since they things they are referencing haven't been invented yet. Great hack though. I'm liking the more player phase focus it has.

    Thanks for playing! These are good callouts. As part of the next update, I'm revising the writing and dialogue to fix things like that and make the tone more consistent overall.

    On 5/9/2019 at 8:34 AM, jkrellfish12 said:

    Hey Pandan. I relate to your backstory a lot. I’ve played every fire emblem game I could get my hands on including every hack. Yours is great!

    The only issues I have with the gameplay is some of the characters’ growths. Some seem imbalanced for their class, and while I’m sure this is to keep characters from being OP, I would personally rather have balanced characters within their respective classes and harder enemies, than the imbalanced ones (But that’s just a personal thing). I also think some of the characters in the new patch should have better growths or bases to incentivize using them, because since I already had high leveled characters of similar classes there was no reason I would use theM whether I wanted to or not. I think the enemies are a good difficulty for the stats of the characters. I think the thief girl’s growths could be better (or bases) to make her more useful, without being OP. I also haven’t wanted to use either of the wyvern knights. There is a problem with the sword peg class that won’t let it get past 10. It’s using a trainee class, likely. I like the maps, and really like some of the beginning chapters. Also, I definitely missed out on a few chests throughout the game. I think sometimes there is a glitch. 

    I think some of the story events are rushed, or sudden, but I like it a lot still. It’s definitely new and fresh, and I like the political system. 

    Overall, I’ve really enjoyed your hack! I played through it all, and if you have any questions about my experience, I’ll gladly answer. Just wanted to comment on it, because I liked it so much. It’s obvious you’ve put a lot of work into it. Keep it up! And thanks! 🙂

    P.s. I know my comments were rly general, but I hope they are helpful.

    Thanks! Glad you've enjoyed it.

    Could you expand a bit more on what you mean by unbalanced?

    The Sword Peg is a glitch that I've fixed - unfortunately, when i updated the skill system, class levels reverted, and the sword peg slot is the same as one of the trainees, hence why she caps at level 10. A few of the other characters had their growths tweaked, namely Ruslan and Vagelis, to help make them a bit more viable long term. 

    Feedback is always helpful! Thanks again for sharing.

    I'm hoping to get a new release with 23/30 chapters done soon. I had a few computer issues which set me back a bit, but I'm hoping to get the next part done w/ updates in the coming months. Stay tuned.

    Optimal Order of Operations for Creating a Fan game

    in Questions

    Posted

    Having started an FE romhack with limited knowledge, my approach was as follows.

    1. Come up with a concept/story that I liked, and map it out chapter by chapter in terms of events, the type of battle, and the cast/characters - all quite loose and high level to see if things make sense.

    2. Draft up enough of the script to see if this is actually worth pursuing and if you're enjoying it.

    3. Lay out how you want to do the classes, weapons, skills, etc. - all the nuts and bolts needed so that assembling the rest won't require back and forth - get everything set up first so that it's easy to make when you're in that mode.

    4. Create a chapter, test it. Repeat. Only focus on gameplay to start. Once gameplay is good, then add in the dialogue from the script.

    5. Repeat until game is complete (or at a point where you want to make a release) then go back and add flourish / improvements. 

    This is largely what I've done over the past few months and its been a helpful approach for me.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    Hey all - team and I are making a lot of progress, I'm going to start updating the first post with periodic progress reports (and new screenshots) to show how much we have left to do. Here's the most recent one as of today:

    **Progress Report as of 4/8/19**

    * Text inserted for 29/30 chapters, final chapter and endings remain (supports to come after v1 release)
    * All maps completed (some will be reworked w/ playtester feedback)
    * 21/90 custom mugs complete, all have concept art created
    * All palettes created and inserted

    If you're interested in helping out w/ art and/or playtesting, let me know. Thinking of doing a private beta run ahead of a public v1 release.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    On 12/26/2018 at 11:04 PM, Pwntagonist said:

    Just played up to Chapter 9 today.

    Obviously I could point out a lot of polish issues but I think you probably already know about a lot of them so I will cut this short. If nothing else, you need to fix Chapter 8. There are two issues: the first is that if you start the chapter, save at the preparations screen, and then restart, you can infinitely gain the items you get at the start of the chapter for free (Steel sword, steel axe, steel bow, and Larisa's special lance). You can fix this by either giving me the items after I exit the preparations screen or at the end of the previous chapter. The second issue is that somehow I triggered the ending event by just stepping on some random tile in Chapter 8. This is kind of a big deal, I shouldn't have to explain why.

    If I were you I would play through the whole hack and note down any little issue you see, then go back and fix all of them at once.

    Other than those things, I really enjoy the gameplay of this hack for the most part. It's probably the most I've enjoyed gameplay from a "regular" hack (aka not a contest hack) in a very long time. You do a good job keeping the enemies buffed up as I progress, and I was surprised by how often you pushed me to approach. The enemy placement in general was not braindead, but also not obnoxious. I also greatly appreciate you giving me lots of tools to deal with the challenges. I would take a lot of issue with the quantity of FoW maps in this hack, but you give me a pretty powerful thief, a torch, and a torch staff with multiple units who can use it really early on. Also, I am especially fond of the Warp staff, that item always makes the game a lot more fun and I think you recognized that it could be put to good use with how large some of these maps are.

    Thanks for playing and sharing the feedback, glad you enjoyed it overall. And you're right, there are loads of polish issues I am working through in prep for the next release, which I hope to get out before the spring here in the US.

    RE: Chapter 8, which tile caused this? I caught the unlimited item thing, but I didn't notice the random tile. I've been going through as you've said, but it is hard for one person to catch everything, so I appreciate the report.

    Glad you like the gameplay - good to hear the level curve isn't too punishing. Which chapters in particular stood out to you as good or bad? 

    Admittedly, I am a huge fan of FoW, but also know it isn't super well-liked. Glad the resources make it more bearable. Most of the FoW chapters are frontloaded, there are only 2-3 more planned for the rest of the game after the 3 in Part I.

    Glad you like the warp staff too, I received some feedback that it is too OP, but think it opens up some more interesting strats early on and allows you to move faster or compensate for mistakes that get made.

    Keep the feedback coming, really appreciate you taking the time to play and share your thoughts.

    [FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)

    in Fan Projects

    Posted

    1 minute ago, (s)ad touch said:

    at the moment, you should probably be focusing on the gameplay, not ludo-narrative dissonance. the brigands are boring to fight, they should be made more interesting. this chapter, i think the steel axe brigand by the south bridge should have a droppable hand axe. this would make him a bit harder to take down, and would provide a nice reward. some other enemies should have hand axes too, but don't go overboard. maybe 2 or 3 overall for this map.

    Fair point, will take a look at this again. 

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