Topaz Light

This seems like a sorta good way to deal with it, although I'd probably have it work something like... Every 2 WExp gained while mounted adds 1 WExp to the dismounted rank for that weapon, and vice versa. Maybe not that exact ratio but something like that. So there is still a penalty, but you don't lose all your weapon rank progress when dismounting. Besides, it makes a certain degree of sense to me that they'd gain a certain amount of general expertise in a weapon type just from using it at all, even if the majority of their learning was in how to use it on horseback/on foot specifically. But I'm not a weaponologist or anything so take that with a grain of salt. ...Unless we're talking Genealogy-style weapon ranks, in which case yeah, taking the weapon rank down one level or something would be a good way to do it probably.

It occurs to me that it'd be kinda interesting to be able to set who needs to Seize by map as part of the completion requirement rather than setting a specific lead character who always has to seize. And I'd honestly be surprised if there wasn't a way to toggle whether or not a given character's death will result in Game Over.

Yeah, caves/shrines and graveyards are really your best bet for grinding. Bear in mind, though, that due to Gaiden's low growth rates and mechanic for promotion bonuses, it's actually advised to promote earlier rather than later. You probably knew this already, though. Also, I'm not sure who you mean by "bearded armor knight"? The only one who's coming to mind is Valbar/Valbo, but he's clean shaven.

But you did do something wrong. Using "you can't stop people from using your shit" as a defense is like saying "you can't stop someone from running over you in their car when you're on foot". Just because the victim can't physically force the perpetrator not to do the bad thing doesn't make the bad thing any less bad. Copyright/trademark or no, it's not acceptable to just use someone else's work without so much as a "how do you do". People poured their time, energy and passion into making those sprites, and besides, artists are already treated poorly enough by a good chunk of potential employers. They certainly don't need more people like you making things worse.

In regards to the hair color stuff, it's worth noting that most all of the SpotPass and DLC characters' battle models (which, with 1 (3?) exception(s) are mostly constructed from the same resources available during Avatar creation) have hair colors that aren't from among the Avatar's 20 preset options, so that's (probably?) a point towards fully custom hair colors being possible without jumping through too many hoops. How they'd display on the portraits, though, I've no idea.

This is a very neat project! I'm very much looking forward to getting to make my own Fire Emblem game with an engine that's as user-friendly as RPG Maker. Speaking of that... I do hope this hasn't been asked before, but in the final version, will creating new class animations and spell animations work more or less the same way as creating skill animations in the RPG Maker engines, or will there be a different process for it? From the screenshots I saw, it didn't appear to differ too greatly from that setup.

Ah, happy birthday, Mr. Miyamoto! I know he won't see this, but thanks for all the great games!

Play FE1, FE11 or FE3 Book 1 before FE3 Book 2 or FE12. Play FE4 before FE5, FE7 before FE6 and FE9 before FE10. Aside from that, it doesn't really matter which order you play them in as far as story goes. As for beginner-friendly FEs, those would most likely be 7, 8 and 13.

Jumping on the train of being in favor of a game with a female "Marth"-type Lord. (That is, one who is unambiguously the main character throughout the entirety of the story.) And have that Lord use something other than swords as her main weapon. Dark magic would be nice, considering there's not been a single Lord who could use it in their own game as far as I know, but really anything that's not a sword would be fine by me. Also give her a hair color other than blue. I would also appreciate a male Dancer. Or a female Bard. Just remove gender-locking on classes in general, really. More build variation among playable characters, especially women. There is a bit, but not nearly as much as there could be. More ethnic variation, too, and more important, major characters who aren't the game's "vaguely European" ethnicity. And don't do what Awakening did and assign the most prominent non-"white" ethnicity to the least sympathetic enemy nation. Play around with other classes for the main villain, also. Generals and Druids/Sorcerors (and clones thereof) and Manaketes are neat and all, but I'd like to see more things that diverge from that, like Ashnard's class being based on Wyvern Lords. Bring back Light magic and Monks 2015 I'd suggest a magic Jagen but that would probably be broken in a number of ways, among which the fact that it'd probably decrease incentive to even bother with unpromoted healers if the Jagen came with a good enough Staff rank and Magic stat. I know Tellius had a pair of them, (Mia and Edward,) but I'd kinda like to see another "first Myrmidon" who was just a legitimately friendly, upbeat person without any real secret or angsty past to speak of. More incidental party members (i.e: not the main lord or the maybe half-dozen, tops, other plot-important characters who usually join you) who are, or have meaningful ties to, people, places and things that are significant to the story and/or world in some way. And more giving these characters interesting things to do (recruiting other characters, getting special battle quotes, getting special scenes and items from visiting villages, etc.) many chapters after they join the party. Remember in Thracia 776 how we had Orsin, that Fighter who was actually really good? That was fun, let's do that again. Other things that were fun and that we should do again are recruitable base Brigands (FEs 5 & 6) and Soldiers (FEs 2, 9 and 10). I know it's only been in one game so far, but I'd really rather not see Awakening's portrayal of Dark magic and Dark magic users become a trend. I wouldn't necessarily mind seeing a few more Dark users like that in the future, but they shouldn't be the only base Dark users you can recruit. I'd like for there to be more Raighs, Sophias, Canases, and Knolls to balance out the Tharjas and Henries, I suppose, if there are to be more of the latter going forward. Since included Sophia and Knoll in that list I feel I should specify that I mean in terms of personality, not unit performance. I want there to be another character like Jaffar or Duessel, who's holds a significant position among the opposing forces, but who defects to the player's side during the main story. I'm kind of a sucker for "enemy turned friend" characters, especially when they were someone important before defecting to the heroes' side. Back on the topic of Lords, Blazing Sword's whole "three main Lords" thing, with each getting their own "Story", was actually a really neat idea and one that I feel ought to have been explored more than it was in just that game. And I'd actually kinda like to see Arch Knights/Nomads/Tellius' brand of Bow Knights make a return... Some sort of base-tier mounted Bow-using class. Axe Knights would be cool to see again, as well. Not really sure how I feel about splitting Cavaliers into Sword and Lance Knights, though.

Those alternate difficulty labels are so much cooler (not to mention a bit more Fire Emblem-y looking) than the ones they actually used, wow. Anyway, I actually made an observation of my own, which is that a lot of the geography on the "Distant Continents" on the world map is actually copied from northern, er... New Archanea? The continent's never given a name. You can see pretty much the entirety of Ferox on the distant continent, though, minus the Longfort and with a big plains/desert-y area added in the south. Some of the mountain formations are also moved around a bit compared to the main map.

Ah, that's fantastic, actually. I've been wanting to make a hack with a large-scale storyline (and a cast to match) and I was hoping there'd be room for it all in the in-game character list. If I'll only need to use two character slots per generic faction, that opens up a lot of space for named characters. Thanks!

As a matter of fact, I knew all of this. It's still nice that they made one for Fire Emblem, though!

Well, preferably all of them, of course. What I'd like to see, actually, is some remake compilations, for the Archanea-Valentia saga (1~3+BSFE), the Jugdral saga (4+5) and the Elibe saga (6+7). That's not likely to actually happen, but I think it'd be really neat, especially if they (Archanea+Valentia particularly) added proper support conversations (kept faithful to preestablished elements, of course, even stuff that's only talked about in supplementary material). As for that, I think the Archanea+Valentia saga remake should include the complete version of FE1, (rather than FE3's abridged version) plus the sidequests Shadow Dragon added... but with their unlock requirements revised to something that doesn't encourage playing poorly. As for whether or not MU should return, well... Awakening pretty much acknowledges Kris' presence as canon, so I guess there's no going back on that. Maybe fine-tune the story aspects of it a little bit, though?

This has probably been asked and answered before, but perusing the character editor shows that there are a dozen or so entries for each generic enemy faction. (Quite a lot of some of them, too; I think there were something like 35 Bandit entries). What are these used for? Or rather, how are generic enemies set up such that so many character slots are necessary? Additionally, would it be possible to trim down the number of slots used by making only as many sets of entries as there would ever be generic factions on a map at one time, and setting their names and descriptions to reference lists to determine what text to display based on variables that would be changed each chapter in accordance with the various generic factions that would be present?

Quick Draw When attacked, automatically switches equipped weapon to counter the opponent if necessary. (i.e: Archer attacks a Fighter who's currently equipped with an Iron Axe, Fighter switches to Hand Axe to be able to strike back) Recklessness* Raises Dual Strike rate to 100%, but decreases Dual Guard rate to 0%, when aiding another unit in battle. Guardian* Raises Dual Guard rate to 50%, but decreases Dual Strike rate to 0%, when aiding another unit in battle. (*Putting both Recklessness and Guardian on one unit causes them to cancel each other out and reverts Dual Strike and Guard rates to normal.) Spellmaster Grants additional effectiveness bonuses based on the magic tome equipped. (Fire slays Beast units, Thunder slays Dragon units.) Has no effect on other weapon types. Nihil Prevents either unit from landing a critical hit or activating their skills (Aptitude is not affected), and nullifies any effectiveness bonus either unit's weapon may have against their opponent. Bane Drops the target's HP to one if the damage that would be dealt otherwise would be nonlethal. Does not prevent a killing blow. Activation rate = Skill/2 Mercy Select "Mercy" command below Attack to enter battle with an enemy with the user's attack power halved. The user's attacks will always leave the target with at least one HP. Protege Doubles EXP gained from assisting a unit in battle. Devotion Doubles Dual Strike and Guard activation rates when assisting a unit in critical condition (1/4 HP or lower). Leadership When leading a Pair, the unit's partner also receives statistical bonuses.

For the Armored Knight/Footsoldier Knight thing... Well, it's my personal opinion that you should keep the armored Knights as having the "Knight" name, if you're going to be keeping the names consistent with the official translations otherwise. As for what to call the dismounted Cavaliers/fliers... Hmm... Squire, Fencer, Infantryman (probably won't fit, maybe just Infantry?) and Swordfighter/Swordsman (since the class that had that name in Japanese is officially Mercenary/Myrmidon (which are you going with, by the way?)) come to mind immediately as options, although some of them are a bit contextually-odd. I kinda think Fencer or Squire would fit best, though. Alternatively, you could just remove the change in class name and call them both "Cavalier", although that would definitely be a divergence from the source material. Of course, you could always call the armored Knights "Armo(u)r Lance", like they call the lance-weilding variants in Radiant Dawn, but that would sound really weird without there being other weapon-using variations. EDIT: It just occurred to me that Guard is also a possible name to assign to either class. It fits the purpose of the Armor Knight class arguably better than the official translation "Knight" does, and it also... doesn't sound... completely out of place for dismounted Cavaliers? I dunno, just a suggestion.

I actually have two Avatars, so for each one... Turks would get Mage/Myrmidon/Priest. Valentine would get Pegasus Knight/Dark Mage/Troubadour. Of course, this selection I made is more based off what I imagine would fit them than it is based on what would be practical for gameplay.

It seems what you're really looking for is an emulator that works on Mac OS X, since there's no operating system that can run ROMs by itself. I'm afraid I can't really help you find one, but that's what you'd need. So long as you have a functional emulator, any ROM, patched or otherwise, should work on any OS, so long as the ROM itself is functional. EDIT: Also, there is a handy-dandy little "Edit" button in the lower right-hand corner of your posts. I'd suggest you give that a try when you want to fix or add something to your post instead of making another one.

I personally felt that the story, in theory, wasn't necessarily bad; it was the execution that was lacking. To me it feels like the story that was used in the final game was an incomplete draft. There are little things, like Gangrel and Walhart's MaMU supports, that indicate that plans existed for everything to be interconnected better, for the story to have more depth and for the antagonists to be more interesting and meaningful, but it seems to me that what ultimately happened is that they ended up designing the story as it's presented in-game around a basic plot summary someone wrote, and then added in extra chapters (most noticeable in the Valm arc) just to pad it out. I'm also really not a fan of the Risen, because as they are they don't really serve much of a purpose in the plot other than as essentially an extension of Grima's will, and chapter 13 is the only chapter that uses them as the main enemy force that doesn't end up feeling like the devs were just using them as an excuse to not have to write a (remotely interesting) plot for that chapter. Although, in their defense, there have been plenty of Fire Emblem bosses that didn't have much character to them at all, (Imil from Path of Radiance's Chapter 6 comes to mind immediately, but I'm sure there are plenty of others). People have already torn into the gameplay flaws, so I won't go into those here.

I don't think this was actually my first playthrough, but make what you will of the fact that I once ended up at Chapter 9 of FE7 with only Lyn, Wallace and two (maybe three) other units alive. So yeah, I was pretty bad.

I think the only time I've allowed a death was when Athos fell in the final chapter of FE7. I figured that it'd be acceptable not to restart, since he dies after the chapter anyway and I'd be able to finish it without him. Aside from that, the only times I've let people stay dead were on purpose, in sidequest runs of Shadow Dragon. I always try to go for 100% survival wherever possible.

Ahh, gotcha! So that part should be easy enough. And, thinking about it, I already knew that it's possible to set conditional branches based on the tactician's affinity and gender, since it is actually done in vanilla FE7, albeit in fairly low-key ways. Thanks!

So I've been thinking about making a Fire Emblem 7 hack, and I wanted to try to implement a "My Unit"-type function, or something similar. Now, it's not quite the same as what 12 and 13 have done. My idea was to set it up so that your gender and either the affinity or the birth month (depending on whether I want to have 7 or 12 options, respectively) determines the character build you get. I know that this will require me to dedicate either 14 or 24 characters slots to possible custom characters, however, there are a few other things I'm wondering about. Would it, even in theory, be possible to get the Tactician's name, as decided by the player, to be displayed on status screens and in battle, etc.? Would it be possible to set up conditional branches based on the player's birth month and gender selections to determine which character to add to the party for the custom character?

Quote Also an unused Dance skill icon. So nothing ground-breaking yet, but we just got started (and I'm the only one of the forums with access to all the files since everything comes to 1 GB). This in particular is really interesting to me. I can't help but wonder if there's any tangible character data to go with Leopold, Tracy and/or Andrea... I'm not sure that there will be, but I'm kinda hoping. Anyway, thank you all for answering! Sorry if this wasn't something that deserves its own thread and admittedly I didn't really think to check ROM hacking first, which was foolish of me.

...Well, look at that. I guess I did. Oops.