Lord Glenn

...I completely forgot about that battle scene (and subsequent spell effect that Misk made). Also, at least I don't have to carry on Anna by myself now. XD

While that doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand, here are your answers: 1) Paint. 2) Make your own or get them off of existing sprites.

I wouldn't say "really hard." I'd say that it takes some investment to do so, since you don't know what foes are coming and you don't have the Bands either. But, you can still use her and do well. I did and I didn't have many problems going through the meat of the game. And I'm hardly the best FE player in existence.

Gamble is worthless for the most part. It's only real use is on a unit that ends up having absurdly high Hit/Accuracy, and the doubling of critical rates isn't really worth only having around 50 Hit in battle. You don't have to use the Gamble command on Kieran, though. He can still attack regularly. If you want to dump some skills on him early, then I'd say to go and nuke it right now. But, otherwise, keeping it on him won't hurt until you absolutely need to get rid of it.

It's entirely likely by the time that I picked up FE9 (about a year after it came out) that I had read something about the possible connection, but when I actually played through and got to the chapter with him as the boss, the resemblance to Renning in the opening of Chapter 4 and his general, unnatural craziness made it a dead giveaway anyway. (Plus, Elincia's conversation only added to giving it away...)

I suppose you do make a good point on that. Of the enemies that do have skills after you get the Nihil Scroll, only 2 or 3 of them would be worth having Nihil on for. Nihil in its concept is a good skill, but, yeah, it's definitely worthless given the practicality of using it.

1. No. You can only add new skills to characters or remove old ones off of them. If you want someone to take Soren's Adept skill, you can't. You'll have to give that character the Adept Scroll that you'll inevitably pick up along the way. I can only think of a few restrictions (Mounted units not being able to Shove), but it's nothing major to worry about. 2. The Occult Scrolls that you'll find give a promoted class their Mastery Skill. For the most part, they're mediocre or extremely useful. I've never found Shade, Provoke, Gamble, and Corrode very useful, at least in the times that I've played FE9. Nihil, Adept, Vantage, Wrath, and Resolve are definitely good. 3. It all depends on your playing style. There will inevitably be a few characters that are well below the pack when you get them, but will show promise if you give them a chance. You'll just have to get to this one as you go through the game. 4. Ike, most, if not all, of the Paladins. 5. Use as you see fit, I guess. I generally spend it on the two healers, just to at least keep them up with the pack. I'll dump some on characters that could use some catching up as well or just to get a level up right before the start of the chapter if they're close enough. 6. Get Ike to 20/12+ by the end of Chapter 27. (Preferably higher if he hasn't maxed Str, Spd, Skl, and Def)

NoA not making the games aside, I'd most definitely have to go along with the "new characters" vote. Sequels/prequels are great and all, but we haven't had an "original" set of characters since FE9 now. I think it's time for a game in a completely new setting. (And crossovers would NOT work well in the FE universe, much to some people's dismay.) While I might not go to the lengths that Celice would, if I happened to come across where they were working on a new game (and/or translating it), I'd at least sneak a peek (and some pictures) of what they were working on. I don't think I'd like to possibly get caught for theft if they realized that the stuff was stolen.

First off, I forgot to come back and comment on the update to Hilde. Just glancing at it, I can't see anything that stands out to me that would need fixed. *thumbsup* On Minerva, the detail is as amazing, if not more than, as Hilde's mug. Her facial expression definitely captures what I've at least heard about her personality. (XD) The only things that "bug" me about the mug are her headband (I guess you can call it that) and her hair. More specifically, without some kind of border (which I realize is hard to do with that much detail crammed into that small of a space), at places, it looks like the headband is just kind of there, as a part of her forehead. The shading due to the light source is great, but the transition between the forehead and headband seems a bit iffy, IMO. As for the hair, this is less a complaint and more of a highly subjective opinion, but I can't say that I really like the overly detailed aspect of her hair. Yes, with FE9(kind of)/10/DS, sprites have gotten much more detail included within them, so I can see why the vast amount of detail is represented there. However, to me, it just doesn't look like her hair is flowing at all. It looks kind of like she hasn't showered in a week or so, and all of her strands of hair are kind of separated. They're not smooth and flowing like someone that's recently straighted their hair or something. (For example, if you look at Blackavar's (wonderful) Ishtar sprite, you can see the level of detail in the hair, but yet it still makes the hair flow remarkably well.)

While I can understand your reasoning for wanting to extend the sprites (since I'm like that, except with dealing with color limitations), I have to say that I disagree with you. Now, I know that I can't force you to change the way you sprite, but I'll point out the issues anyway: 1) Extending the sprites down usually only works well for half-bodies and full-bodies. Your sprites are like a cross of a normal portrait and a half-body, so they look weird to begin with. 2) Extending the sprites only makes the flaws with the portraits even more apparent in your works. For one, there are huge problems with proportions in at least 90% of your custom sprites. Head size, body size, lack of shoulder width, etc. Secondly, it further highlights shading problems that all of your custom sprites have on them. Nothing is shaded in the correct Fire Emblem style, which conflicts with the fact that it seems as though you're trying to sprite in that style (in general terms of design and creation). Spriting in a generally full-custom setting is great and all, but it doesn't exactly work that well if it isn't executed with the style's semantics upheld. Shading wrong and proportion anomalies just make the works less appealing. A sprite might have been done from scratch and look much worse than a splice with custom parts edited on, regardless of the amount of effort that was put in. Sure, everything equates to practice, which is never a bad thing, given the old adage that practice makes perfect. But, as it stands, I much prefer your splice of Cameron, Darin, and Erik with the custom face to all of the other works you've posted, since it most lines up with the existing Fire Emblem style. Your sprite that uses Lyn's ponytail with the custom body likely would trump the armored splice if the custom body conformed to the existing "rules" that sprites should generally follow if they're spriting in the FE style. As for the two latest sprites, I think you're on the right track as to where to go with them, but there are still issues that are inherent across the board with all of your works. As an example, I think the hair design on the maroon-haired female is actually quite good. As someone partially alluded to, the hair's shading is the problem with it. They described it as needing to be wavy, when, in actuality, it needs to be altered to match the hair shading style that Fire Emblem uses, since that's the style that's being aimed for. You need to go and reference existing portraits and study the shading and design styles that they use. From them, you should be able to start to pick up the correct proportions and shading styles that Fire Emblem uses. (And, as for the whole colors in the vest/shirt thing, I think that the poster is meaning for you to add a shade to both of them, since they're both shaded incorrectly. I'm personally not sure if adding another shade to both will fix the problem, since it's more a problem in fundamental shading techniques, but one can always try.)

It has to be something at least related to the calendar, not only because of the Dec 2 thing, but also because it's not displaying the fact that my birthday falls today, yet the board is displaying today's date correctly... What that is, I have no idea, since I can't understand why it would suddenly think that posts were coming in on December 2nd.

That seems a lot like a Paladin (FE7) with slightly altered stat caps and, frankly, a really powerful skill (assuming that enemy skills aren't like a needle in a haystack). -------- As for a class... I have so many to choose from. >_> Looking at them, quite a few of them need updated concepts, since they're all primarily older ideas. However, two of the better ones on my old list are the Oracle and the Avenger. The Oracle is (in the list that I'm drawing it from) a third tier unit that is a special promotion from the base Mage class. Select Mages (based on character bios and personalities) would first promote into Battlemages, units that retain their base specialization of Anima, gain the ability to use Maces, a subcategory of the Axe discipline, and Staves. From Battlemages, these units would become Oracles, gaining higher caps and a skill, Balance. Due to the Oracle's calming inner nature, Balance reduces adverse effects, such as WTD and effective bonus damage, to the unit done by enemies. The Avenger is (again) a third tier (you can tell that this was done forever ago, since I'm not fond of third tier units now with the advent of FE10) that is the promotion from the base Drake Rider class (an alternative to Wyverns and Pegasi). Drake Riders use Lances and Avengers add Bows, a specialization of Anima, and a skill (Flamberge) to its arsenal. Flamberge is the attractive portion to the class, as everything else has been suggested before. Flamberge automatically targets the foe's weaker defensive stat (though, it isn't always automatic, as a foe can cancel it based on their Luck as a percent), regardless of whether the Avenger is using Lances, Bows, or Anima magic. In effect, it makes stronger weapons more useful, yes, but WTA/WTD and such still come into play.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, guys. (Even though you're ~3 hours early still.) It's even more amusing that we live in the same state (albeit on opposite sides, but still...). XD

Your custom sprites have problems with shading and proportion. (For instance, Vincent's foot is as long as (or almost as long as) his entire right arm, which is completely unrealistic. Similarly, Nikolas Hipwell's face is far too small in proportion to the rest of his body (a frequent problem that I've noted with your sprites) as compared to faces that come directly from the games.) On the shading aspect (especially visible with Vincent), you shade far too pillowy on your custom works. You should look at the shading of existing sprites and try to replicate that. That said, the last two are interesting uses of the FE8 Prototype face sprites, though I can't say I really care for them that much. Of the four, Vincent is the most impressive, since it's a full body from line art.

There are only 7 people in the Royal group. Technically only 6, as those are the ones that have passed into the group through post count. Until that numbers gets significantly larger, I see no reason whatsoever to make a new level for higher post counts. If people aren't readily hitting Royal, why make something even higher up?

That's true, but it doesn't make the continent as we know it any more interesting, which is still one of the main problems.

In my opinion, I would greatly prefer that IS stay as far away from Magvel as possible. FE8 didn't overly impress me for various reasons which have been mainly mentioned already, and I think that they set the plight of the continent up well enough in the very beginning of the game that I can't honestly think of what they could even make a prequel about. Granted, though, with what they had in FE6 at the time, I probably wouldn't have been able to think up a prequel to it either... I'd much prefer that IS stick to making new games in new locales with new characters. I hated how they handled FE10, seeing as they spent so much time showing off new characters in scans and such (most of the Part 1 cast), with the occasional returning character from FE9 showing up. It got my hopes up that this was going to be a new tale set years after Ike had finished his quest off having little to do with FE9 aside from the previous conflict (and plot points) and the continent/location. Something kind of along the lines of (dare I make the comparison) Tales of Symphonia 2 to ToS. Same world, cameos and references, etc. But, I was gravely disappointed as more and more information was leaked out in scans and the game had basically become what I had feared it would be, a direct sequel that was like a second part to the previous game. (At least NoA had the balls to reveal the returning characters along with the new characters so it didn't seem like it was an entirely new game in the same location.)

Some people don't HAVE pawn shops and the like that stock stuff like "rare finds". If they do, they're generally over-priced beyond all belief. (Case in point: A local store near me had a Greatest Hits copy of Final Fantasy VII up for $66, which is completely ridiculous.) Or, even if there is a pawn shop, you'd be lucky to actually find something that you're after, as it'd take someone impulsively selling something shortly before you'd get there to be able to find it, because I'm sure that someone would likely snap it up before you.

@Blue Fox of Water - If we make it punishable, then it becomes yet another rule added to the list. And, considering the reaction to the couple of things that were just recently established, I don't see that going over so well. Minimodding fits nicely with the acceptable, general rule that is Rule 8. All it takes is common sense to realize positive posting habits, of which not stepping in to do the staff's job is one of them. If everyone was permitted to handle moderation, there wouldn't be a need for moderators or administrators. @Death - First off, the two new staff members need little to no transition time. We've both been staff members for 2 years prior to becoming staff over here. Musashi had been a member here prior to becoming staff, while I frequently lurked. So, if any transition time were necessary, it'd be for me and only for getting up to date on the rules and such. Secondly, there's nothing that says that there needs to be an explicitly stated "You can't do X" rule in the Rules. A lot of the rules that are listed are generalized to allow for flexibility if the need arises. Think of it as something similar to the U.S. Supreme Court interpreting the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, things don't occur in an instant. We take time to deliberate things before we do them. You don't want to jump guns blazing into a firefight without thinking of a plan first. The same applies to well-run communities as well. Input from each person on the staff helps to determine a good course of action. @Cynthia - The problem is that your comparison example isn't SF. SF is what it is, and Jyosua and Vincent have chosen to run it this way. While I concur on your points of "babysitting," I prefer the way that SF has been run so far. In my eyes (and, as I've said several times so far), the members have not shown that they can stick within my so-called "positive posting habits," given the number of reported posts I've seen in just over a week. As for modbaiting, I've never seen it or frankly even heard of the term until you posted it. Based on the description, it would take an extremely immature memberbase to stoop to something that "low" and disrespectful, something that I certainly don't see here at SF. As for the last point, posts simply quoting posts to close a thread are spam within themselves and should be dealt with as such. There's no need to jump on someone's throat. (And, adding to that fact is that it's a staff decision to close a thread, not a member's.)

I was impressed overall with Quantum of Solace. I'm granting the series some leeway, since they're basically reinventing Bond right now (as Casino Royale is chronologically the first Bond story in the entire timeline). As such, I can live without any of the fancy gadgets (though, MI6 had some pretty awesome stuff at their disposal, just in the office) and the puns/wit that we're used to seeing with Bond because he hasn't really manifested them yet as a character. I do like the way Daniel Craig portrays Bond, though. (Well, given the limitations of the script he has to work with.) I thought that Bond as a bit "emo" in personality during Royale and the first 2/3s or so of Solace, but, Craig has to do what Bond is written to be like. I hope they speed up his progression into the witty, chauvinistic Bond that most of us grew up with. As for Solace itself, I thought that there were a couple of bad flaws with the movie. I didn't like how the action sequences, especially in the beginning were shot. They were far too frantic and it was entirely way too easy to lose focus of just what was going on in the scenes. Early on in the movie, there are a bunch of plot points and characters that either seemed to come out of nowhere with little to no explanation or were brought up and summarily dropped shortly afterwards. (While, in the case of the latter, it's obviously for content for the sequel(s).) Solace most certainly isn't my favorite Bond movie (that would go to either GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough, Goldfinger, or For Your Eyes Only), but it was worth the price of a ticket at the theater. (As for Craig reprising his role, I do believe that he is under contract to do at least a total of four movies, so he has at least two left to film, possibly more if they want him to do so and he accepts.)

Personally, I see no need for a rule. At most, it's a common sense guideline that people should be following. I doubt that my fellow staff members or myself want to have to spend time enforcing punishments for minimodding that could easily be avoided with smart posting habits (as noted in my post) by all of the members. (This actually generalizes to other posts as well, not just minimodding posts.)

Size of the forum doesn't matter in regards to the availability of its staff members. Even if there were 98 members and two staff members to moderate them all, the staff members might still not be on when something happens that requires attention. It still boils down to a matter of patience and discipline while waiting for a staff member to handle the issue. (And, frankly, the number of reported post PMs in my Inbox begs to differ with your statement that 8 staff members is too many for SF. If your implied statement was true, I'd have 1/5 of the number of PMs that I do have. And I've only been here a little over a week.)

Honestly, I've played the original Chrono Trigger, but this actually piqued my interest slightly, if only because of its relevance to the series. (I'm one of the "nerds" that tends to like interactions between big story points within a series or franchise.) Granted, there's no way I'm going to buy it when it's still $40 (especially since it'll be a full playthrough with no New Game+ goodies to help get to the new content), but I was extremely skeptical about the game prior to watching the video with the secret boss. (Yes, I spoiled myself, but by the time I get the game, I'll probably forget.) Also, I fail to see how adding new content doesn't qualify as "revamp". (They also completely redid the script, which I think does qualify it as at least a slight revamp.) It's not completely the same as the original game, now is it? (Personally, though, I would have much prefered some kind of "challenge" setting, that changes the dungeon layouts or the chest locations or stuff like that. Square knows that fans of the original are going to buy this as well as people new to the game, so they could have at least appeased their current fanbase by giving them something slightly different to play through. Furthermore, given the graphical power of the DS, you would have thought that they could have at least given some more detail to the sprites in the game. Yes, retro is in as a style right now, but that doesn't excuse basically porting a decade+ old game with graphics and all.)

Ok, I get that this place is supposed to be laid back, but seriously? (And, note, I've only skimmed over the posts on pages 2 and the first 3/4s of 3.) 1) A thread can have a few off-topic posts. It's not going to kill you to have a discussion led slightly astray, as long as no one has a problem with it. If someone has a problem with it, then ask a Moderator to split the posts out to a new thread. If the Moderator agrees that this is the best course of action, then the posts can get moved. On the other hand, if the entire thread has gone widely out of swing, then something might need to actually be done to rope people back in (more on that in a minute). 2) Moderators and Administrators are the leaders of the community. In general discussions, we and the members are all peers, except when we need to perform some sort of bureaucratic duty. As such, it is of my opinion that members should stay out of things that should be handled by the staff. If you see something that goes against the rules, that's what we have the Report button for. All of the staff members get a message about the post(s), so if it doesn't look like the post has been touched, then either wait longer, as a staff member might not have seen it yet, or you can probably assume that no one deemed it worthy of moderation. Stemming from this, that means if someone sees something, then don't reply to it or flamebait the poster or troll the topic or anything else. Just keep the discussion on track. Replying to the post only causes more trouble and more work for the staff to handle. Seriously, there's only eight of us, and we're not always going to be online. If you can't behave yourselves until someone does log on, then take a break or something. (Also, Death, for your information, two staff members were "hired" about 10 days ago - myself and Musashi. It doesn't help your case if it seems like you haven't been keeping up with current events on the boards.)

It doesn't matter, since it's not being done anyway. ----------- I approve of the screens, though something is bugging me about Aran's face sprite (of which, I'd need to look at the actual sprite). This reminds me that I need to finish up a few sprites still that I've been putting off for a while...