Wayward Winds

...Way to ramp up the anticipation, Astra. So, anyone who has been RNG cursed gets the opportunity to pick up a whole new team worth of recruits if I'm reading things right. The entire other route team in Ch. 15, three new characters in Ch. 16 (two from the get go if I remember the FEE3 vid. right) and now Thyra in Ch. 16. Obviously I'm guessing for Ch. numbers at the moment. But I'm guessing that after this mass influx, recruitment drops to a trickle? Because that must be the character roster pretty much filled up. ...Not to mention 13 is the unlucky number. (...And I wouldn't put it past Astra for finding a way to jinx things for lv. 13 promotions). ...I'm sorry if my argument came over as unrealistical and aggressive (although frankly your counter argument was pretty aggressive as well); that was my rationalisation for why I leave promoting until as late as possible. Other people have other opinions, which is normal - different playstyles. Whereas I'll stick to a specific team and throw flyers and a few choice others against near anything, relying on superior evasion and doubling to see me through, others will switch characters around from map to map and have generally lower levels but more tactical variety when choosing to deploy. Really, I should have just stuck out of the argument, seeing as it doesn't actually affect my own playstyle. So the rest of this 'rationalisation' is under spoiler tags to avoid more unnecessary clutter. On the subject of the anti-turtling, and the subsequent design... discussion, I'll only add my view. Turtling is fine providing it's not overused. I suspect that what Astra's probably trying to avoid is the possibility of people turtling for 20 - 30 turns straight until all the reinforcements are done, and then emerging to mop up whatever happens to be left. I haven't a problem here, because that sort of playstyle is taking the idea of defensive play a bit too far, and just leads to dull, repetitive gameplay. However, turtling is a good thing, when it's used in moderation.

As you've said (or at least implied), this is a problem with most FE games, official ones included. I'll give an honest opinion - if you want variety, then perhaps check out the joke hacks? Project Z and Maiden Quest being two examples; they tend to vary up the map challenges quite a bit. But most serious hacks will have trouble justifying why we've suddenly got a chain of deals going on, or why you absolutely must loot all the chests, or why you've got never ending streams of unkillable zombies closing in from the rear. Maybe once or twice, but after that it starts either getting ridiculous for other reasons, or turns into a troll hack. ...Although I'll admit, the 'escape' Do5 chapters are usually just disguised 'capture throne/gate' chapters, especially because that's always exactly where the boss is parked! On the plus side, remember Musain? Particularly Ch. 8A, 8Ax and 9? I'd hardly call those 'standard' chapters. But would you use those units for much longer? I've done perfectly well with reaching lv. 20 then promoting, but then I have a fixed team that will only get changed if someone better comes along (Ilanice is currently on my drop list for her appalling strength, but everyone else is doing pretty well because I've focused on them - and have virtually unused Garath, Chase, Fieully, Marius etc. sitting back in the reserves. Seeing as I reset on losing someone, my reserves aren't really needed). Think about it, if you promote early you'll get an immediate stat boost that may make things slightly easier for the moment, but come the endgame you may well regret locking yourself out of five (or ten if this was vanilla FE) levels worth of stats. Promoting at level ten automatically stops a unit from gaining about a quarter of their potential power! Not to mention that promoted units gain exp even slower, so after that stat boost it then becomes harder to gain subsequent boosts. ...If you do plan on using those units simply as filler until something useful comes along, then I suppose promoting earlier will help. Bit of a waste of a promotion item though... Okay, rant over. I acknowledge that some people will indeed promote as soon as possible anyway, but opening the option in Do5 to promote sooner is probably not going to help people much with difficulty. This is not FE8, where nearly anything would work because difficulty was flipping low anyway! Point 1; Check a few pages back, Astra outright stated that he was going to add in new houses and outright asked what we'd like to see in them. Flavour on culture and the like was the most common thing suggested, so that point should be fixed for the next patch. That's where you find most of your flavour in FE anyway; in the houses. ...Personally, I prefer Do5's characters to vanilla FE ones, simply because there's a lot more variety than 'idealistic lord', 'loyal knight', 'naïve farmboy' and 'man with a grudge'. Also, we haven't got many Support conversations to rummage through yet, and they usually help deepen characters even in vanilla FE. Also, visual dissonance? I didn't really notice anything, and I'm not going to argue with the points already made, but... take a look at the latest version of Elibian Nights. Priscilla and Vaida are in a completely different style than the rest of the cast, and Raven looks a bit off as well. That would be visual dissonance. By comparison Do5 is pretty consistent. ...And we'll be returning to Aukema next. I expect most of those 'unfinished plot threads' will be addressed there, seeing as that's where most of them turned up. For a couple of vanilla FE examples, see Ursula of FE7 popping up in Ch. 7x, then dropping off the face of Elibe until about Ch. 23ish, and Saleh repeatedly showing up in early FE8, but only popping up properly in Ch. 12 Eirika (?) or Ch. 15 Ephraim. Not that this excuses Do5 completely, but we never went close to Aukema's important locales, and it's hard to develop Aukema's plot when we aren't even in Aukema. ...Now, back to difficulty - the only real issues I had once the first few chapters were cleared and your units start gaining stat advantages would be; >Halberdiers always seem to have a base 20% chance to crit- Ouch! >Paladins can't really be doubled by anyone, although at least I can thunder nuke 'em with Amelia, then stab 'em with Seren/Kolbane... >The boss of 6X is an Assassin carrying a Harvester (Rune Sword) when you have no healer... >...and the mass of Glass weapons in Onduris puts a serious drain on your healers - although I've already said this last one works well as a local thing. Now, rather than just saying 'get better at FE', I'm going to offer some specific hints. Inside spoilers, so people don't have to read them. ...Really, that lot's mostly just common sense.

I'd say a pair of cats, received about two years back. ...although, one of them... worries me (see signature).

(Some would argue for Celes as well, but in truth FF6 was created to not have a "main" protaganist. YMMV how well that worked...) Warrior of Light - 25 Firion - 23 Onion Knight - 25 Cecil - 25 Bartz - 25 Terra - 25 Locke - 25 Cloud - 22 (-1) Zack - 26 Vincent Valentine - 26 Squall - 26 (+1) Zidane - 25 Tidus - 25 Vaan - 25 Lightning - 24 Noctis - 25

...Shouldn't there be a poll for this? Ninian. Apart from the fact she's important to the story, she (or rather Nils) joins early enough not to immediately become a big agro magnet and can feasibly be trained without too much risk. By the time the others join, a lv. 1 dancer/bard is a liability that gets dropped for someone who can actually not die from a funny look. Not to mention those status rings add flexibility. Then it's Tethys, and then Elphin/Lalum bring up the rear - although Lalum's heart/Elphin's bird never cease to make me snigger.

...Personally I think this list is overly large as it is. That said, we're missing Vanitas, Maleficient and Pete (out of the Disney villains, those two are the most noticeable seeing as they don't stick to their own worlds). Vanitas is the only one I feel should definitely be included though. Sora 50 Rikku 51 Kairi 51 Mickey 50 Donald 50 Goofy 50 Roxas 50 Terra 50 Aqua 50 Ventus 50 Xehanort 47 Young Xenhort 50 Ansem The Wise 50 Ansem Seeker Of Darkness 50 Xenmas 50 Namine 50 Xion 50 Yen Sid 50 Axel 50 Xigbar 50 Xaldin 50 Vexen 50 Saix 50 Lexaeus 50 Zexion 50 Demyx 48 (-2) Luxord 50 Marluxia 50 Larxene 49 (That's for the timed water clone mash, you jerk.)

Same boat as Ezio - university student with a distinct lack of spare cash. So, beyond the occaisonal donation to charity shops (although I don't use them as an alternative to the rubbish tip as some people do), no. ...As for the whom, Oxfam and a local animal charity are the two most common places to donate to.

Well, if you're using the justification of: ...I immediately think of Karen. Same battle sprite as Melissa with highly obvious ponytail... and yet her portrait completely lacks one. Considering there's the unique 'Amelia female mage sprite' with its ridiculously long hair, and the generic short haired 'Nino female enemy mage sprite' both in play, that strikes me as a little... odd. Something to think about? (As the bottom most item on the priority list?)

"...Where are your manners?" To be fair Saskia, your character description does include the words 'urchin' and 'unrepentant looter'. If you aren't willing to mend your ways, then take a leaf out of Crowe's book and just don't care what people think of you. ...She's not even officially in a public release yet, and she's still had a major portrait revamp? I do prefer the new one, but I can't help but look at it and think 'Amelia'. ...Chester had better promote to Rogue then, because Assassins can't steal and Saskia would automatically become the sole steal capable unit. Assuming Tricksters can steal.

Chrom 102 Marth 180 Lyn 16 Hector 53 Ike 118 Lucina 27 (+1) Ephraim 132 (-2)

...The two months thing is more 'how long 'till Xmas holidays' than 'how long will it take to properly learn the game'. I mentioned university a couple of times through the game; frankly, with assignments being lumped on me from every which way, Mafia's too much of a distraction. I could follow the 'one post a day' route, but even then it creeps too much into my thoughts over the day. Plus I'd miss all the important developments. So yeah, I'll probably try to sign up again, but only once uni isn't competing for my time.

...Considering I was confused as anything most of the way through, that's a surprising analysis. The confusion was starting to clear up on D4... then I got myself executed. Memo to self- lessons to learn: 1) Don't claim the moment I'm out of shots - I've got a sneaky suspicion that was a major contributing cause of the disastrous Refa/Scorri duel of D3. 2) Wonder more on why someone keeps criticising me yet never once throws their vote my way. 3) Do RVS properly, ie; keep that 'logic' out of it. That bumble did get proper discussion jump started at least, but 'stoopid no0b' only works once! 4) Don't even take chances regarding the rules!!! ...And a load of other stuff. Regardless though, I'm going to limit myself to lurk-watching Mafia for at least a couple of months.

Football (Fifa type). And, though I know we were told 'one', rugby as well. I don't mind the rest of the sports area (even if it's generally not my cup of tea; hockey, squash and tennis/badminton are the exceptions that I actually like), but these two I detest. Even watching them's a chore. I think part of the problem was a particularly obsessive PE/games teacher back at school. He was the 'drill sergeant nasty' type of teacher who would make your life absolute hell if you didn't like the things he did. I wasn't too annoyed by football/rugby initially, but he forever ruined any enjoyment I may have eventually had. ..It didn't help matters that he chose the absolute coldest, wettest days of the year to force them upon us.

...Uh, one idiot of 'Team Britain' wasn't Mafia. Well, I'm apologising right now. Being modkilled at that point wasn't a guaranteed defeat - Bard's potential bus being an option I mentioned post-death to Eclipse - but it certainly didn't help! And I'll also apologise for thinking Bard was probably lying about being a bus driver. Well done SB, you flew right under my radar, because my last suspicions were Bard and Shin as scum (lynch voting chain). So, yeah, not the best starting game ever seen. I'm guessing the 'idiot' didn't get lynched/nightkilled because he clearly didn't have a clue? Because I can't see any other reason I survived to D4.

Well it serves me right for me being a pegasus knight obsessive, but Thany/Shanna is now at 11 strength at level 20+7. If it wasn't for Silver and Killer Lances she'd have been dumped long ago. This being as I storm Edessa, which leads to the appalling situation of Juno matching her hitting power! On other fronts Lilina has a lousy 4 defence at 20+5 and may as well be made of wet toilet paper, and Sophia has 7 speed at lv. 18 and likes getting doubled by Knights. But both of them will blast enemies back to the Scouring if given the chance. Otherwise, I've been pretty lucky on the stat front. No, the real problems of FE6 for me would be status stave accuracy being determined by Res! So just one berserk staff can lock me up for three turns while Lilina eats the shots.

...So what happened to change everyone's mind on Ike? Chrom 112 Marth 180 Lyn 18 Hector 73 Ike 147 Lucina 42 (+1) Ephraim 136 (-2) ...Next time I might try my luck and go after Marth.

Time to give myself nightmares again... ...Or not, because that's the weirdest nightmare I've ever seen. Apparently being pessimistic worked! Come along Tana...

?!? Uh... Happiness stems from comfort and security. Ow, my brain hurts. It's too early for deep philosophy!

Whoops. I thought that was a relatively generic post that didn't give actual information on this game. Oh well, not complaining. It's Eclipse's game.

Well, guess you'll be using 'however' a great deal more now! (shot for making bad jokes) 40) No longer allowed to post more than three lines per post in the Dream of Five topic; otherwise I'm tempted to talk garbage.

...And obviously I did not act last night. My ability decayed, remember? Had I still been able to, I'd probably have finally targetted Elieson. We've got past the stage I could have relied on others going for the obvious targets. Anyway, updating voting trends; Votals Day 1 Bearclaw (3): Wayward Winds, Polydeuces, SB Polydeuces (5): Refa, Marth, Bard, Shin, Bearclaw scorri (2): BBM, kirsche Kirsche (1): Scorri Votals Day 2 kirsche (7): Marth, Refa, scorri, Bearclaw, Bard, Wayward Winds, Shin Bearclaw (1): kirsche Not voting: SB Votals Day 3 Shin (1): SB Elieson (1): Wayward Winds Refa (3): Bard, Scorri, Shin Bard (1): Elie scorri (1): Refa We've consistently had Shin and Bard voting on the lynch wagon, although that is only two proper days to draw conclusions from, seeing as we all know Kirsche was the only logical choice on D2. Elieson though happened to break Bear's lynch wagon chain voting. Not sure whether that means anything conclusive... 2hr lecture time for me, so you've got a break from me bumbling around.

...Mafia having a strongman would make sense. It supports Shin's wierd doctor claim, and it would also allow Scorri to have targetted BBM on N1 and yet still have him killed off. But that wouldn't explain SB's 'all of my targets are still alive'. How many smegging roleblockers can one game have?!? And on the other hand, it also makes a Doctor useless against nightkills until said strongman is removed. That almost makes the game a little unbalanced IMO, unless we got lucky in our lynching/BBM's oracle skill. Would Eclipse have made that decision? ...I'm going to stop there. Trying to second guess the game mod. is an exercise in futility. ...And yes, I forgot about that mechanic. I think I'm going to hold off playing another game after this one until I've lurk-watched a few others; my knowledge is stupidly lacking here! Elieson, you're up on the claim front!

Hey, but there's progress anyway. Just from that image we can see character portraits have been resized - Illanice is no longer a midget compared to Amelia... in fact, the only abnormal height is Annelise, who's still the tallest (which was intentional). Just keep going at whatever pace you feel like. Quality shouldn't be rushed anyway.

30) Not allowed to use 'logic' in Mafia games. It gets me labelled as SCUM. 31) Not allowed to play Mafia, period (comes into effect after current game).

Agnostic #2, reporting in! I'm on the fence, therefore all religions detest me!