[Mechanics that you want]

I think gender roles are very on topic, as long as you can actually tie it into what you want in the next game. What mechanic could possibly include gender roles outside of story telling, that isn't discriminatory? The difference between Joshua and Marisa shouldn't be that Marisa can't ever be as strong as Joshua, or that she should come with less base STR, but that their characters should reflect who they are, and are therefore different. That doesn't mean confining themselves to the gender roles, because those are something that you can deviate from. If you're upset that the only difference is a "sprite", you're taking away the characters of the two. I don't particularly know Marisa, but the differences between Isadora and Marcus, Rutger and Fir, Echidna and Dieck, Titania and Oscar, Mist and Rhys, Lute and Saleh, and whoever else shouldn't be that men are stronger than women, or women are faster than men, or anything else, it should be that their characters reflect their gender roles. Which, in most cases, they do. Titania seems to be a much more feminine character than Oscar, and Marisa is socially awkward in large part because she isn't comfortable with her gender(iirc, I don't really remember too perfectly). "Gender roles" have very little to do with things in a Fire Emblem series, aside from character development.

[Sometimes you just have to let people know you're in a Dark place.]

I don't know you, at all, so I hope I don't come off as insensitive for giving advice when I may not be fully aware of what everything meant.

In any case, I think a big problem for some people, like yourself, is that you're comfortable with the pain. It sounds to me like you need to recognize the things that aren't making you happy, and get the hell away from them. I'm online, or playing video games, or watching TV far too much myself, so I may not be the best example, but when I had serious issues happen in my life I had to take a break from all that. And I know that's hard because it's your escape, but it's still necessary. It sounds like you think your family is pretty worthless and incapable of helping you, and you're probably right. Some people are just fucking terrible, and I'm really sorry that you got stuck with people like them, but the only way to distance yourself from them is to start your own life, independent of them. And that's hard too, but you have to do it. You have to be the one who gets yourself a job, or into a school you like, or even just move away from them. Even if it's a slow process, you HAVE to start it. It sounds like you don't have a role model figure in your life, and I know how that goes, so when you start having problems that you've never had to deal with before, it can seem overwhelming. But you seem like a smart enough person, you can figure it out, even if it's difficult, or you mess up from time to time. It sounds to me like you live under your family's thumb, to no fault of your own, but you have to stop being comfortable enough there to let it continue. Video games, TV, and the internet are awesome releases and escapes, but they're no solution, and anything that isn't a solution is just wasting time that you could be spending fixing the things that are really bothering you.

In any case, good luck with everything, and I hope just letting stuff out helps you, and you find what will help you get out of this.

[Its too bad there's still no archer lord]

Which would be pretty cool, really. Archers should be really good for once...

Being able to kill bosses without any risk of death at all, completely discarding the use of any strategy whatsoever, in a strategy game, would be pretty cool? How?

There is merit in rare 1-3 range tomes (as seen in TRS and in 1-2 range spells in Berwick Saga), but thrown spears and axes capable of going that far would just be ridiculous. It could be explained by some sort of magic effect on them, but that just seems unnecessary; better to keep that range away from melee weapons under all conditions.

I'm more inclined to agree with your first point. Anytime a player wants to boss abuse in an FE game or otherwise cheaply kill a boss, they'll find a way. Remember the guy who broke all his enemies' weapons?

Why would enemy only weapons to make bosses more versatile, and less easily trivialized be ridiculous or unnecessary? I'm not being sarcastic or anything, just asking. Bosses with only melee range capabilities are generally jokes, or at the least worse and less versatile than bosses without. I, personally, think bosses should not be so easily trivialized as "use an archer".

[FE9 Tier list v3]

At the same time, Ena/Nasir are still able to damage Ashnard and given all the resources you could give to Ike, Ena/Nasir can do it decently effectively. It'll take a couple turns longer, sure, but it's actually viable.

So, it sounds like Ike is (at least) 2 turning Berserk Ashnard. How many turns does it take Ena? I don't think second best is 'viable" if it takes an extra 8 turns, or something along those lines.

I said viable, not efficient, which is what you claimed it was. And don't say "Who the fuck is saying," like I'm incapable of understanding the conversation, or the game. YOU were the one arguing that you don't need to train Ike, because and again, to quote you:

Ike isn't required to be built up for an efficiency playthrough.

Aku Chi's raised some points that makes me skeptical Ena can even come fucking close to what Ike can do. If you can figure out how big of a difference a trained Ike saves in one god damn chapter compared to Ena, that seems relevant to your whole argument that you don't need to raise Ike for an efficient playthrough. Don't talk like I'm an idiot, YOU were the one arguing it's viable to use Ena, not me, all I did was ask how big the difference was between her and Ike. If it's not "anywhere remotely near the efficiency of Ike", then why the hell did you continue to argue as if some one would use her instead of Ike?

[FE9 Tier list v3]

So, it sounds like Ike is (at least) 2 turning Berserk Ashnard. How many turns does it take Ena? I don't think second best is 'viable" if it takes an extra 8 turns, or something along those lines.

[FE9 Tier list v3]

Even without turncounts, some characters are better or worse than others. So you're not rushing to beat the chapter, so what? It's not like being able to move some extra squares, being more reliable on the 2HKO, or anything becomes meaningless all of a sudden just because 'we can take extra turns'. That's like saying the Cubs are just as good as the Yankees just because the game doesn't auto-end after a five point spread (because you have more innings and who knows what will happen then, so the game should just be called at 5 point leads!).

This is a really bad comparison. Except for a draw, a baseball game ends after 9 innings, each time. If every map ended after 10 turns, obviously turncount and how good you are at rescuing and moving and other shit wouldn't matter as much, but not all chapters are defend chapters. A much fairer comparison is golf: Where there's a set goal, that you can take as long as you would like in order to complete each hole/chapter. If I could putt really well, but it took me an average of 8 strokes a hole, would I be better than some one who couldn't putt very well, but did each hole twice as fast? Being faster at one facet of the game that helps me complete the objectives of the game does not necessarily make me better at completing the objectives. The objectives aren't to crit often, or to dodge a lot, or have great supports, or to putt. They're to rout, seize, kill boss, defend, arrive, escape, and to put the ball in the hole. Obviously critting often, dodging a lot, or having great supports, or whatever else helps. I completely agree, so does every one else. The thing is, those are all things you use in order to complete the objective. They are tools. Just like movement is. Turncounts are a good way to quantify how much those tools really help you, and who gives you the best tools needed in order to complete a chapter.

Will bishops move up? Will Paladins move down outside of a LTC list? Very possibly. Why? Because the values are different.

I don't particularly care about the specifics of that hypothetical tier list, I was trying to illustrate what the logic of "turncounts don't matter for comparison's sake" implies.

You are no longer focused on completing the chapter as fast as possible (which heavily rewards movement and punishes low movement), but that doesn't mean a paladin will drop of necessity (good weapon typing, well-rounded stats, great mastery, high movement, and so-forth).

Why shouldn't we care about movement, or try to quantify how good movement is? Why shouldn't I care about how fast I can clear a chapter? Good weapon typing, well rounded stats, a great mastery, and high movement are awesome. I can also say paladins are good, not just because of those things, but because of what those things accomplish. Good weapon typing and well-rounded stats let them kill things faster and more reliably, or more simply: In less turns. High movement lets me get places in less turns. Sol lets me expose Paladins to more enemies, so that I can kill them in fewer turns. Nobody's dismissing the things you're talking about, they're quantifying them.

So yes, there will be changes in the list... because the values are different. That doesn't mean, suddenly, that Gatrie is some god-king (no axes, low movement, too slow)

I would be willing to bet that I could very reliably do more with Gatrie than I could with almost any other character in a world where turncounts don't matter, because of his pure durability. The fact that he has no axes, low movement, and is slow are all important things. How do we quantify how big of a difference each of those makes? Well, he doesn't move as fast, so we lose turns waiting for him. He doesn't have axes, so he doesn't hit as hard as other people, and so we lose turns because he doesn't always kill enemies that others would. He's slow, so he doesn't reliably double, which means enemies will live longer, and we will have to take extra turns killing them. Do you see what all of these things have in common?

those are valid reasons to say Ike > Ena in the last chapter without touching on turncounts.

Um.

Why is Ike better than Ena? Ike has greater movement,

So he gets to places in fewer turns.

doesn't require the band, Ena needs a load of Bexp to even be really usable,

Why does she need those resources? She can kill Ashnard at or near base iirc. You can wait for her transformation gauge to fill, then beat the boss slowly. Unless you'd like to kill him faster. As in, in less turns.

Ike deals far more damage on average to the boss,

Right, which helps him kill things in less turns.

It's a measure of how good you are at rushing to the endboss of a chapter and killing it.

Why is how well some one completes the objective of the game a bad way of judging how good a character is at helping complete the objectives of the game?

A character who is outright horrible but shaves 5 turns off just because they allow a rescue-drop another unit in one chapter can be placed above a solid, usable, but unremarkable unit just because of that one instance.

I personally think the ability to fly and drop some body can be a lot more important than being able to kill random brigands, soldiers, and mercs. I also think if you can beat a chapter faster and easier, you must be better at it than some one else. I wish there was a way to quantify this, like, turns or something.

Turn-count tier lists are horrible because they require the player to use a specific strategy for the list to be valid. They do not gauge how useful the units actually are, just how well they are when those specific tactics are used. For crying out loud, you were debating which character was better based on ONE FREAKING TURN! Only someone obsessed with the fastest strategies would even find a degree of value in that, and if he didn't use those strategies, it's all worthless!

I actually agree with some parts of this. I don't particularly care about a one turn difference, or exact strategies. A unit that can do a specific strategy really reliably, that's awesome and whatnot, but I don't think a character's usefulness is tied up in their ability to do one very set in stone strategy, particularly if it involves other revolving pieces, but then, I don't particularly debate tiers, and sometimes you are talking about the most tiny degrees of seperation between two units. There was some big turn counting earlier about Jill vs. Marcia. The reality is is that they are ridiculously close to the same usefulness, and those one turn differences are all that seperate them. That's not any one saying "One turn is a big deal!" it's them saying "Well, the difference is just one turn, but one person is ONE TURN better", or something along those lines.

Plus, dude, not every one thinks along the lines of an optimal playthrough, and there's been a lot of debate over that, and most people don't want to judge units based on one specific playthrough that is absolutely fastest.

[FE9 Tier list v3]

... What? So you think that, just because someone decides to not attempt a least-turn-count run, suddenly that means that all resource distributions are viable? What a [part of sentence deleted out of a sense of basic human dignity]! Oh hey! Wanna give the dusts to Boyd? Well why not? We're taking more turns anyways! Since we threw out that stupid notion of 'lowest turn count' suddenly EVERYTHING is viable and it is not like there aren't some things that are obviously better than others and we should ignore it because, hey, no LTC! That is retarded.

I don't think you're understanding. The point isn't that some one who doesn't do a low turn count run is stupid, or retarded, or whatever. The point is that if you DONT factor turncount in, you stop really judging how well a character can help contribute to clearing the objectives, and start figuring out how they can survive. You can literally turtle your way through half the game with little to no problem. In a world where you don't judge by turncounts, paladins suck, and generals and bishops would be king: After all, it doesn't matter if Gatrie moves two spaces less each turn to get to the seize point, or that we have to heal him every turn, since as long as he lives, he did the job. If turncounts don't matter, it shouldn't matter if it takes Gatrie twice as long to kill something as say, Ike. They both can kill the thing, they both live, they both must be equal. I know that that's not the way some one who doesn't do low turn count runs thinks, but it's the reality of the logic. I also agree that there are some thing that are obviously better than others, like giving that Spirit Dust to Soren instead of Boyd. How exactly do you quantify that if you throw turns out the window? I know that as some one who doesn't do every run in as few turns as possible, I can still recognize when things are better. It just so happens (and not coincidentally) that the things that are better contribute to lower turncounts. Know how I know Ike is better than Ena for final? Ike saves turns. Not because I'm interested in getting the fewest turns possible, but because being able to complete the chapter objectives faster is a good way to measure how good you are at completing the chapter objectives.

[Fire Emblem: Dream of Five]

Pretty sure Chester recruits Crowe, and Renair recruits Lumi.

Furet recruits Lumi. I also don't remember Renair recruiting any one but Chester, and the male soldier.

And I had my Kolbane with every stat higher that Renair's at the end of Ch6, hence our difference of opinions of him.

But that's not really a claim that one IS better than the other. Obviously the RNG might favor your Kolbane, but I had a Kolbane who could never double, that doesn't mean he's actually slow, it means I got a string of bad luck.

[FE9 Tier list v3]

That is impossible to know. Even from the perspective of a LTC tier, there will be units who will become more capable by using Wrath (Swordsmasters and sages) or are durable enough to constantly use its effect without fear of death and having it contribute in other ways (a paladin using wrath and a 1-2 range weapon for better ranged killing power and such).

Um. It is possible to know. What can we do with Wrath that we cannot do otherwise? Any bosses can we kill a turn earlier, units in the way we can clear out more reliably? Anything?

This isn't a sarcastic comment, I don't know the ins and outs of FE9, but I would like to see a response on the discussion of what Wrath could hypothetically give you on other units outside of Ike. I have a feeling that Ike getting Wrath is probably the best bet, but it could be otherwise. And I also think it's more relevant/important than other stuff being discussed. =X

[Its too bad there's still no archer lord]

Archers with 1-2 range wouldn't necessarily be any more broken than any other physical unit with 1-2 range.

But honestly, just about any durable unit with effective and easily available 1-2 range could probably be considered broken anyway.

Yeah, they kinda are. And if the bow did any kind of significant damage (read: More than iron) it would probably be more "broken" than hand axes or javelin.

[Its too bad there's still no archer lord]

Or you could, again, make range 2 combat important and not totally dominated by thrown weapons and magic. I think FE12 did well with this, actually, with enemies that can pose a real threat in melee on the harder difficulties and making thrown weapons less effective so archers aren't instantly outclassed by them.

Magic users don't dominate, because of their crappy durability against ranged physical weapons, which are generally more abundant. I agree that javelins and hand axes being so dominant is dumb, however.

Or you could do both.

That really takes away the unique quality of the bow using classes. I'm also not particularly interested in units that can break the game in half, thanks. =/

[Mechanics that you want]

Edit: Just saw RFoF's post, deleting what I said.

[Fe4 help for a novice player]

You clearly didn't read the part on which I said Marcus needs more exp to level, and by doing that he's stealing all the exp to himself. No matter how "good" he is, he isn't an one man army, and the other units surpass him way before getting promoted.

That's really not true, and you're speaking as if the early game where Marcus is the best unit hands down, and mid game where Marcus is most likely the best unit don't exist.

[Difficult & Tedious Graphics Request]

Going to need to talk to you on AIM/whatever to get it better than this, and the close range version will have to be cropped differently

The little slide will have to be timed with the platforms sliding ingame

Badass soldier using Thoron? Yes please.

[Fe4 help for a novice player]

Are you counting pre-promotes on their order of appearance? For example, only Harken, Vaida, Jaffar, Pent and Louise are useful in FE7.

Marcus, Pent, Hawkeye, Geitz, Harken, Vaida, Jaffar, Louise, Isadora, Renault, Karel, Karla, and Wallace are the prepromotes of FE7.

Useful prepromotes of those listed are: Marcus, Pent, Hawkeye, Geitz, Harken, Vaida, Jaffar, Louise, Isadora.

Bad prepromotes of those listed are: Renault, Karel, Karla, and Wallace.

Nine to Four by my count. In reality, Louise isn't a good unit despite you listing her, but that has a lot more to do with being bow-locked than being a prepromote or a bad sniper. She's better than Wil or Rebecca.

[Mechanics that you want]

I can't imagine mounted units ever being obsolete just from one terrible matchup, as long as the enemies aren't everywhere. And such a terrible matchup as being OHKOed tends to impact strategies far more than a matchup that just determines a few points of damage or accuracy.

What would probably work best to implement this could be to have a skill that gives characters an effective bonus against mounted foes with any weapon (much like FE10's trio of Laguz Foe skills), and just have the skill be used primarily or entirely by generic enemies. FE games need more tactical skills for generic enemies in general; it adds much more to think about.

If every generic enemy had a halberd/horseslayer like effect on mounted units, with every weapon, mounted units would pretty much lose their niche, which is what I was getting at. Having a lot of movement is great for rushing ahead of the your army, or at the least leading your army. That niche is pretty nonexistant if the mounted unit gets 1-2 shot by everything, and therefore needs to avoid every enemy. The problem with their usual implementation is that they can rush forward and usually clear out large amounts of the map on their own, or with a heal every turn or two, and leave the rest of your army behind. The idea of giving them less accuracy, damage, defense, and avoid against foot units was to attempt to change it so that they could still in some cases move ahead of the group, but would have a much more difficult time taking out huge chunks of enemies with the rest of the army behind. I don't know if my idea would do that, and I thought of it on the spot so it probably wouldn't. Meh. But, I don't think getting 1-2 shot by everything makes for interesting gameplay, it makes for hiding your units behind units who can take more hits. I do agree wholeheartedly that generic enemies need more skills, but I'd find myself just avoiding combat with cavs at all times, or not bringing them at all, if every one had an equivalent to Halberd/Horseslayer all the time.

[Mechanics that you want]

How about more horseslayers/pikes? I mean, that's how cavalry wtfpwning everyone in real life was stopped. There could even be a pikeman class of some sort that has a bonus against cavalry so you have to be careful with them. A horse, logically, should be an advantage, but currently there is practically no negative to having one.

That's not a bad idea at all, but I wonder if it wouldn't make cavs almost completely obsolete. IIRC, most horseslayers one shot cavs in the FE7x demo. Of course, this could be different in a game by game scenario, but I was thinking of FE7x. In any case, cavs would probably sit behind your other units, which takes away what they were doing well. You could give foot units, or some foot units like a pikeman (Or, Halberdiers?) some different sort of advantage over cavalry, like an additional weapon triangle advantage? It could make them much weaker against foot units, and makes your foot units a good counter to an enemy section of cavalry/nomads. I'm sure mounted units would always still have a niche, in that they could still rush ahead, but they'd have a harder time rushing forward and clearing things out on their own if they're facing WTD at all times. 'Course, I'm just thinking out loud, this might be a terrible idea, and I could be overlooking something.

[Fire Emblem: Dream of Five]

Well...there are some things that Anouleth's LP pointed out that made...well...let me just take some quotes from it.

Renair sections

"For a woman of common birth, she has an extraordinarily fruity name. Maybe she turns out to be an exotic dessert? "I was almost taking it seriously and then I remembered that her full name is Renair audre Draiche."

"If anyone should be embarassed, it's you, Renair "I 3HKO Bandits and don't double" audre Draiche. Furetchen did most of the work and you know it."" I'm not surprised you've gotten no distinction, since somehow you're still level 1 after "years of service". Did you just get Furetchen to kill everything?" "God, this is so easy!" *hides behind Furetchen as he soloes the level*

I don't have any huge issues with this entirly...i think its just more of me not liking Renair at all.

I don't think any of those are actual issues. Her name's a little funny, and she starts off as a level 1 lord that starts off a bit weak? Most lords are like that, and unlike a lot of other lords, Renair seems to pan out into a good unit fairly quickly. Anouleth was probably just making jokes, not actual critiques.

[Mechanics that you want]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to deal with this? Mounted units being superior all the time I mean.

I've been trying out some ideas in 7x, like low level class skills for all classes with the cavalry skill being Canto so they don't really gain anything there (also differentiates classes more, the difference between a Merc and a Myrm isn't just stat spread and promotion), and removing terrain avoid bonuses from mounted units/making flying units lose 2 mov and Canto when rescuing, but I'm wondering what other people would do

You're definitely on the right track. Having a mount is just a clear plus all the time in current FEs that non-mounted units miss out on. To offset that, they need some kind of penalty that comes with a mount, or they need something they're missing from foot units. Flying units losing two move and canto when rescuing is good, but it just gives them the same mobility of a foot unit. They're still absolutely better, because they're still better whenever they're not rescuing, and they rescue just as well as a foot soldier. I don't know all the FE7x skills, but I would think the best way to deal with it is to give other classes more utility to offset canto/more mobility. I remember the ability cover( I think?), which I thought was an absolutely awesome mechanic for knights, and I think that's an awesome design move right there, and more skills like that are the way to go. Terrain bonuses, and a little extra crit are definitely nice, but I don't think they'll make me move away from cavs>mercs/soldiers/fighters for just about every map. Basically, each class, to be perfectly balanced (Which may not be possible with the FE system) would need its own niche. Berserkers probably aren't as good as Paladins, but because of peakwalk they have certain maps where they are almost certainly more useful than paladins. That's good design. Some terrain penalty might be enough to make me think twice about bringing a mounted unit over a foot unit if FE7x has some strategically important terrain. That could be the niche of the mounted unit: Great on open terrain, bad with certain other maps. I'd think you would have to do a bit more, since there generally aren't many maps covered in forests/forts/pillars, but that's definitely the right idea. Make mounted units particularly bad at something.

Sorry if that was long winded and filled with obvious information, or seemed overly critical. I haven't slept in a while. But I've always kinda wondered the same thing. I've also wondered why mounts need 2 extra move over every one else instead of just one, but that's probably just me.

[[OUTDATED] Elibian Nights]

Well, it's sad to hear about all these glitches. I hoped that there wouldn't be so many problems. I'm sorry, guys. I'll try to get a patch with Zealot's tale playable up tomorrow, maybe Shaver fixed, but that's about all I'll likely be doing for v4.0ish.

I've already started production of Elibian Nights v5. What's special about that? Well, I've basically scrapped the entire EN ROM and I'm starting over, rebuilding from the ground up to make use of the many organizational tricks I've learned while developing the project over the past several months. It'll be internally cleaner, more thoroughly built, and the final product will hopefully be bug-free.

No need to apologize. This is an awesome hack, and an awesome patch. I feel almost bad telling you about bugs, like I'm asking you to fix shit, when you've already given me a couple hours of brand new unique awesome game with a heavy dose of nostalgia on the side. =X Good luck with v5,

[[OUTDATED] Elibian Nights]

Ah, I thought it was 1X. Figures. =X thanks though!

[[OUTDATED] Elibian Nights]

Just noticed this, but Natalie doesn't reset if replaying Tale 1.

Also, you can only talk to Damas once after unlocking the Dastards! achievement.

How'd you get the Dastards! achievement anyways? I'm confused on this one. If it's not spoiling too much to ask. =P

[[OUTDATED] Elibian Nights]

AND i recuited Jaffer and defended pent, which didn't get me the angel of life achivement

That's not how you get the angel of life achievement.

Jaffar has to die after being recruited, and then you have to complete the mission.

Although it said it gave me the achievement when I did this, in the achievement section it wasn't unlocked. But this happened to.... something else to. The Matthew achievement maybe? Can't remember.

[[OUTDATED] Elibian Nights]

On the achievement page, Renault just started moving. He also has all the items I left on him from Pent's tale. He also crit Arch in the face

[[OUTDATED] Elibian Nights]

So, I got past my previous issue. No clue how, but it just decided to work. Anyways, when Karel confronts Karla the first time he says "I will have stand triumphant over the entire family." just a small grammatical error.