Relentless Halberdier

First splice ever. This is way more fun than I anticipated. I need to do this more often.

Introduction: Hey guys. First off, there may already be a thread for this somewhere on the forums, but I checked the first 5 pages of this subforum and couldn't find anything like it, so I figured it'd be safe to post. This is essentially a thread for people to find detailed challenge runs that they can attempt in Fire Emblem: Awakening, as well as post their own challenges for other people to attempt. It is my personal belief that Lunatic and Lunatic+ are poorly balanced, and so challenge runs are really the only way for players to get more replay value out of the game after completing it on Hard. I'll add all the challenges you guys suggest to this post for ease of use. If you want, you can post in this thread to let us know how many challenges you've completed, and how well you did on them. Guidelines: None, other than a specific format for posting Challenge Runs, which can be found below: Challenges: Challenge Name: Super Shepherd Bros. Basic Concept Summary: You are only allowed to use characters that are canonically considered members of the Shepherds. If a character dies, you are not allowed to restart the map, so you have a very limited number of characters to last you throughout the entire game. Every death counts. If either your Avatar or Chrom dies, you lose one life. You have three lives total. Difficulty Setting: Hard/Classic. Number of Continues: Three. Resets Allowed: None. Risen Encounters Allowed: No. Pair-Up Allowed: Yes. Characters Allowed: Female or Male Avatar, Chrom, Sully, Stahl, Vaike, Lissa, Frederick, Sumia, Miriel, Kellam, Ricken, Maribelle. Choose one character to be your '13th Shepherd'. This character can be any non-Spotpass character who is not originally a member of the Shepherds, such as Virion. This character can be used normally, but if this character dies, it costs you one of your lives, and you are still not allowed to reset to save them. Support Restrictions: All Supports allowed. DLC Allowed: None. Bonus Box Allowed: None. Event Tiles Allowed: All event tile types allowed. Items Allowed: All. Miscellaneous Restrictions: None. Notes: This is a good challenge run to start with. Very doable, but by no means a cake walk. Creator: RiskyPLUS. Challenge Rating: * *

Boo. Yeah, sorry about that. Despite the name, the 'updated' demo was actually super, super old. Anyway, most of you probably already knew this from the way I vanished, but I sorta ran out of steam on Divinitas. I'm not sure what it was that made me lose the will to continue. Even now, I really want to just boot up the program and start making progress again, but I can't bring myself to do it. Maybe it's just laziness. In any case, I decided I may as well upload the most recent version of Divinitas just so everyone can see what I was trying to do with it. It's an unfinished mess, due to my abrupt departure, but maybe some people will appreciate it anyway. I've updated the original post with a link to it. And here it is for anyone who can't be bothered to go back to the first page: http://www.mediafire.com/?23uddb8a2zl26qb Unfinished Bits/Issues: The actual dialogue box will not show up for certain cutscenes in chapter 2 and onwards. The tutorial is unfinished and cuts out abruptly, but this doesn't cause any in-game issues other than being slightly jarring. Reynald Greene never got a portrait, so it just shows the default villager portrait. The 'skip tutorial' option takes you to a visually broken version of the game. This is because I needed to finish the 'play tutorial' version, then copy-paste the finished product into the 'skip tutorial' version before removing all the tutorial bits. As I never finished the tutorial, I had no way of doing this. For now, just select 'play tutorial', it's a much more interesting version of the first chapter anyway. The 'safeguards' against players going against the tutorial's advice weren't coded in, so intentionally disobeying the tutorial will result in the tutorial messages playing out-of-order. So obviously, don't download this if you want a polished game. This is for anyone who was interested in the Divinitas project, and wants to see how far it came before it fades into obscurity. Thanks for the support, and sorry for not being able to take it further.

I know I'm super late to the party, but I'm just now playing this for the first time and it's awesome. Getting the 'Jumping the Shark' achievement and the meta-dialogue that followed solidified my love for it.

His idle pose looks a bit like, uh... You know how Professor Farnsworth walks? Like that. It's improving, though.

These are really nice so far. My only criticism is that the Shaman seems a bit stiff, but I can understand that because it's custom. (I think it is, anyway?) All the re-do's are good, though. And they're especially easy to import because you can just place them right over their originals on the sprite sheet - then they'd even be animated with the exact same timing. (In FEXP, anyway, not sure how proper ROMhacking works there.) If you ever get the time, do you think you could work on a female archer sheet that shares her appearance with your female assassin, or vice versa? I plan to have a class called Scouts in my game who use bows and daggers, so this would be super helpful. Nevermind if you're not taking requests, though.

I appreciate the information, Dai. Thing is, I'm not really aiming for historical accuracy with this. The history of this setting is completely different, so much so that having falchions and katana's and whatnot isn't even that accurate - the human race is more or less united here, and so their craftsmanship wouldn't vary so wildly. Instead, you'd probably have such foreign weapons being crafted by other races entirely, and then the names of those weapons would be in languages unknown to humans. So the falchion equivalent might be called a Schlarrzta because it was made by Drakaine, or something. The recognizable weapon names didn't have much to do with lore or history - it was more for my benefit, so I could easily know what kind of weapon was where in the list. I intended to change the designs and names of the weapons eventually, just wanted to sort out the balance and variety between the types out first. I'll still try and use your information constructively though.

So, I started experimenting with adding extra command menu options. I've added in a new mechanic where every unit will have their own unique skill (not like standard FE skills) that becomes useable when your Divinity counter reaches 10. (Divinity goes up by 1 with every enemy unit you kill.) Setting the framework was really simple - all I have to do now is code in the effects of each character's Divinity skill and the mechanic would be fully implemented. That's the hardest part though - it seems like it would involve coding in at least one entirely original script, which is probably beyond me at this point. Good to know the basis for it is there if I ever do want to fiddle with it further, though. Anyway, to-do list before I can release the demo: 1. Finish tutorial (almost done). 2. Fix mini faces (need to trick the game into rendering them at 1x, like I have with character faces, panorama's, eyes, mouths, etc). 3. Format text (need to make sure all the text fits in the text box now that the font width is different). 4. Make/find RD mugs for Reynald and the first dungeon boss. 5. Adjust battle screen UI to look better at new resolution. 6. Make weapon names display in new, slimmer font at 1x zoom in the combat screen (so I can actually fit the full names in, rather than having to shorten 'iron longsword' to 'irn lngswrd'). 7. Do Reynald's tent dialogue. And some things I MIGHT add before the demo release, but probably after instead: 1. Add in new weapon types and triangles. (Fairly likely) 2. Automated name tags in dialogue scenes. (Fairly likely) 3. Implement 3x attacks. (Unlikely) 4. Implement shove function. (Fairly likely) 5. Implement Divinity skills. (Unlikely) 6. Modify how moving works on the adventure map. (Fairly likely) 7. Make something interesting happen once you open those chests in the first dungeon (too boring right now to walk all the way back). (Fairly likely) So it might take a liiiittle longer than I expected, but we'll get there soon enough. EDIT: Which looks best guys? I personally think the top one looks best, but using that style means I have to have a GBA sprite and an RD sprite for every character, which will set me back a long way in the future. Bear in mind the other parts of the unit window - weapon icons, affinity icons, stat details, etc - are also gonna become high-res later, I'm just doing it piece-by-piece.

Holy balls, dude. I feel really bad now because that is friggin' AMAZING, but I probably won't be able to actually have it in the game unless anyone intentionally sets the zoom back to x1, which will revert all the RD-style changes (I think?). The reason I had both GBA mugs and RD mugs was because I was preparing the RD mugs for the eventual overhaul, while using the GBA ones in the meantime. So now that I've found a way to integrate the RD mugs without further issue, all the GBA mugs are now gonna be put aside. I'll try and find a way to put this in somehow, though, 'cus it's that good. Maybe I could have GBA mugs be the mini faces? Thanks. It's actually taken from a different game called BlazBlue, I just recolored it. But yeah, I think it looks pretty fitting. Good to hear, man. I'm thinking the new demo will be up either today or tomorrow.

Indeed. Also, progress report! This is how the dialogue scenes look right now. Took a while to figure out how I could make the characters darken when they aren't speaking - then longer still to turn that into a gradual fade rather than an instant change. But it's all done now. There are only two issues I still need to work on: 1. The end of text arrow, which I've changed before so won't be very difficult. 2. Increasing the scroll speed to compensate for the larger text. This is a bit tricky now, due to how I've edited the script (everything is now technically zoomed in 2x, I'm just specifying certain things for the engine to render in 1x). Once I do those two things, I just have to polish the text formatting a little for the new layout, finish up the tutorial I'm making, and then I can post the new demo. EDIT: Got some complaints about the font, so I've replaced it with the one I was using in the prototype of the upscaled version of the game. Please tell me which you guys think is best:

Oh, I should've explained that more. -def just means less defense in comparison to other shields. Same applies to penalties for other subtypes. Also, the -dmg on the war shields should be a -def. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll edit it. Progress report: Everything is amazing right now. Game looks great, and my coding versatility has basically tripled all because I discovered one forum topic. I'm currently making a really (if I do say so myself) well-coded tutorial sequence. It probably won't be worth anything to Serenes Forest goers, because you guys already know how to play Fire Emblem, but I've had a few friends try my game and ask for a better tutorial, so. It's also helping me practice eventing, which is nice. I've discovered some neat tricks, like making events trigger when you select a unit, enemy or ally, or even just when you put your cursor over them without clicking anything. Also found out how to script battles and rig the RNG, which is especially fun. New demo should be up in a matter of days.

As long as I don't run into any problems that I haven't anticipated, nope, I don't. GBA battle sprites and UI sprites are still used though.

The 'effective against' weapon subtypes are weird, granted, especially when there are two of them in a single type. I couldn't really think of anything better that was different enough to justify an individual subtype, though. I'm open to suggestions. Also, thanks to a breakthrough, I'm now in the process of conclusively making the game display in a higher resolution using Radiant Dawn character art, now with absolutely no effort required to make the rest of the game look good in the old GBA format. So the dialogue scenes will be Radiant Dawn style, and the rest of the game will be GBA style.

Who knew it would take so long to format a new level up table? Here it is, in any case. Complete with trademark brownification. Credit to SuicuneSol/Sui-Kun, of course.

I-- ... Oh god. Oh god, please no! Okay, might rethink the crossbows thing. At least for now. As for the 'which classes can use large weapons', they would mostly be reserved for one or two custom classes (juggernauts, super high attack, super low defense) and promoted generals. It'd probably be the rarest type of weapon, because when I say 'large' I mean reeeeally large. In other words, only people who have superhuman strength get to wield them. Though you'll be interested to know, the sprite sheet you gave me permission to use is gonna be used for a large-weapon wielding character. Thanks, man!

Thanks a ton, Sui! I ALMOST forgot to credit you for the UI in the original post, frantically scrambled to correct that when I noticed you were browsing the thread. My memory is so bad. No, I agree, those are basically just leftovers at this point. I fully intended to replace them when possible. Replacing them with something made by you would be an added bonus for the consistency in style. I tried to find a way to prevent this, but the way FEXP formats the combat UI makes it pretty difficult. It's not impossible by any means, I think I know how I could fix it, but it'd take a fair amount of effort and time so I'll probably leave it for later. I know a lot of people think this, and you're right, but I swear it'll make sense when more of the game is done. Have you shown him? He'd probably like the upgraded version so he can use that as the basis for any further modification that may or may not occur. I don't think he'd mind that you edited it though, he seems pretty chill. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In other news, I've started to consider overhauling the equipment system. This is what I'm thinking right now: So essentially, you've got six main weapon types - swords, axes, lances, small swords, large weapons and shields. Each of these types is split into four subtypes which will all go up in tiers. So you can have an iron hatchet, a steel pike, a devan greatsword, etc etc. I've got a list of about 8 tiers that are exclusive to my setting (by that I mean, the materials are original and plot-relevant in some cases). But besides the tiered subtypes of these weapons, you'll also have uniques on the side that aren't tiered, like in FE. And, of course, some legendary weapons. This might seem needlessly bloated, but when you consider that the level cap in Divinitas is now increased to 50, with one promotion tier meaning units can level up 99 times, it makes a more expansive weapon system more viable. It might be unrealistic, but I want this game to last a pretty long time when it's finished. Also, for anyone wondering: no, magic will no longer be split into elements. It doesn't work that way in this setting, is all - elemental magic will still be included in the game (albeit rarely), but it's considered completely seperate from arcane magic. Oh, and you don't mix and match shield-type weapons with other weapons. Shield weapons work like any other weapon type, but with more emphasis on defensive boosts than offensive ones. You'll still get an offensive weapon to use with the shield when you equip one, but the stats of the weapon will depend on the tier of the shield. Though you'll always have less offensive power when you're using a shield compared to a proper weapon. In other words, when you equip a shield, you're equipping both the shield and the generic weapon it comes packaged with. Thoughts?

Nope, sorry. I actually really dislike MOBA's, the communities scare me. Also, I've updated the original post a bit, filled in the characters section with backstories and images. Updated screenshots, to-do list, etc etc. If anyone is interested, I still need an original GBA-style mug for Caelen, and another for Reynald. Please PM me if you're interested in trying your hand at either of these characters and I'll give you all the details you need.

Already posted this once, but it got eaten up when the forum went down. Basically, I started working on increasing the resolution at which FEXP displays and altering the code and graphical assets to make it look good in 640x480. Here's how the dialogue scenes look right now: (Barthe's sprite is a recolored version of Phoenix's Bogdan sprite, for which permission has been given.) The problem is that most of the things in that picture are illusions rather than procedurally generated components of the UI. The name tags, for example, don't just pop up automatically whenever they detect a character is speaking. I make them show up manually because I'm honestly just not familiar enough with Ruby to code in an automated function for it. I spent a lot of time trying to do so, and also experimented with making the actual map combat display properly in this resolution as well, but I've come to the conclusion that I probably won't be good enough to make such significant modifications until I've had a lot more time with FEXP. Because of this, I've decided to rollback to the latest version of Divinitas that still displays in the original resolution. I'm gonna keep this new Radiant Dawn-ified version as a guideline for what the game will EVENTUALLY look like, but for the first draft, I'm sticking with the GBA style. This also means I'm gonna be able to go ahead and start making more chapters rather than just messing around with the engine, so expect a lot more updates from now on. Despite the fact that I don't intend to be using them for a while, I'm still gonna be working on making more Radiant Dawn style character splices in my spare time. Most will be made by me, but Phoenix is kindly letting me use recolored versions of some of his sprites as well, as is the case with Barthe. Here are the ones I have ready so far: Also, I would like to discourage anyone who hasn't already played Divinitas from downloading the current demo. It's pretty outdated. Instead, please give me a day or two to really polish the crap out of what I've done so far and then upload a new version. After I'm 100% satisfied with how the first two chapters are, I'll start working on new ones.

Thanks again, Solaris! Don't worry about the basicness, they need to be bare-bones in order to fit such vague factions. I'm more or less set now, I think. If anyone thinks they can do better than the emblems already posted, then I'd still be VERY interested to see the results. Otherwise, this request has basically been fulfilled. Thanks everyone.

They are indeed still green. The flag thing could work, for anyone who wants to try their hand at that. A plain red flag or perhaps just a plain skull would also be really nice for the generic enemy faction. I'll be honest, I'm basically just using RisingSolaris' emblems at this point. Not that yours are worse, Ubel, Solaris' are just a bit closer to what I envisioned. Thanks to both of you for the effort in any case!

Very nice Solaris, many thanks! Is there any chance you could put something black in the middle, though? A glowing orb, maybe? I could probably do it myself but it might not match your style, and I'd like to see if you have any better ideas for what could go in that space. A thought occured to me just now - do you guys think it would be necessary to have an emblem for Guests, as well? I can't really think of something fitting for a group that could potentially include anyone, but... Hmm.

I was thinking of either using him for a fist-fighter character that hasn't been introduced as of yet, or for Barthe. I'll PM you a link to my project thread and you can give me your opinion on using the mug for Barthe, if you like.

These are pretty solid, man. Do you think I might be able to use this sprite for a character in my game, with credit to you?: I think that's probably your best mug, by far. And would you mind if I used the idea to display the battle sprite under the weapon levels? I'd still have to find a way to code it in effectively but I think it's a pretty sweet addition to the character sheets.

Wow, these are actually really good so far. Thanks guys! I decided to quickly shoop them onto the UI to see how they'd look. Ubel's: Rising's: I won't say whose I like better because that would be a dick move, but I have to say, Solaris, your Saligia emblem really strikes me. I dunno what it is, but it just looks right. I'm almost definitely gonna use that. The size you guys are doing them at right now would have been my preference, really. Big enough to contain some detail but not so big that they start pushing up against the borders of the emblem box. I did, yeah, though when I said 'aura' I meant kind of a wispy outlinearound the sprite. If there's a squarish background effect to it, it'll look a bit odd because there's already a background texture to the emblem box, and the emblem's background would be obscuring it.

Oh, thank you for reminding me about this, I forgot to note: There are absolutely no color restrictions. This is being made on FEXP, so the same graphical limitations do not apply. And I don't have any desire to impose restrictions myself, so no, use any and however many colors you want. And I would like them to be pixel sprites just so they fit in with the rest of the game's graphics.