Wayward Winds

Assuming they both submit, 15?!? Looks like Ragefest IV will end in December, with Markyjoe a gibbering wreck in a straitjacket... Oh well, them's the breaks... No FELover on the list?

I dropped him fairly quick (around chapter 14), because of the standard armour knight issue of footspeed. I got fed up with him trailing the pack and barely getting any combat... I'm more a plan of rapid deployment anyway, so I favour fliers and paladins. Still, from what I did see of him, he seemed pretty good on the accuracy + double hit front (yes, he was good at doubling for me). For a knight at least.

So, uh, is there a possibility that Eliwood can seize the toilet? You didn't miss a theoretical true final boss, right? Looking forward to seeing what crazy curveballs you have to dodge return-to-sender in the next submission.

For the record, my v1.3 rom is 17.7MB (or 18,092kb), so around half a meg smaller, and that's not broken either. How the heck does that happen? Different patching programs? ...I hate the fact that I only have about 30min a day I can play on this, hence how I've only just got to Ch. 19x. And I've just seen Val's horse. One thing (among many) I've liked all the way through this has been the battle sprite palettes. The Tiomare Knights in particular. And then I get Val to promote, and... no beating around the bush; I can't help but snigger every time she goes into battle. Did they dip the horse in carpet dye or something? Other than that, kudos on the ending to Ch. 19. Let's just say a certain portrait gave me the shivers every time I looked at it...

Hey, progress! Mugs look a bit large to be FE7 though. You haven't quietly ported Do5 to FEXNA or something, have you?

I remember having this discussion with Alfred Kamon back when I was proofreading Midnight Sun. I personally don't swear, will substitute with similar but "safe" words (e.g. frikking heck), or at worst will use a made up catchall swear word just as characters on Red Dwarf use "Smeg" or characters in Infinite Space use "Grus" (seen me type "brot"? That's the one I use.) As far as FE hacking goes, I'd say to steer clear of it in the vast majority of cases, as it usually just results in the character sounding childish or otherwise immature. That said, there are two instances where I basically let swear words through my profanity barrier in Midnight Sun; the first where Rya, normally the most uptight and serious character in the hack gets absolutely drunk off her rear end (there being nothing to drink but alcohol), and I deemed a single "f*ck" was so out of character that it would ram home just how sozzled she was... ...And the other where Schwarz spots a wanted poster with his face on it, and reacts appropriately. (With a "Sh*t! Run, RUN!") Every other instance, I vetoed and suggested editing it out. In general, it's best in my opinion to avoid swearing, but in specific situations (when you want someone to appear out of character as above, or if a character has been caught so off guard that a short curse is the only natural response), then you may be able to get away with it.

Phoebe? That's ms. "Who's screaming like a monkey?", empress of Magnolia. In other words, the red haired one here:

That's a good question actually. I'd assume Lazulis isn't going to have this ship fully manned given the fiery inferno it's destined to become, but I can think of three possibilities (got to warn the player, unless you want this chapter to be akin to something dreamed up for a ragefest!).Ordered from simplest to best "uh oh" impact: 1) The fireship appears, uncrewed because who ever was supposed to set it on a collision course has already abandoned ship. Shiori gets a bad feeling about the ship and notes it is approaching too fast to be a mere boarding attempt. 2) The fireship appears, with some crew visible onboard. You get a brief conversation from these enemies along the lines of "We're ready; everyone overboard!", followed by them moving to the edge of the ship/actually into the water and despawning. Cue Shiori noticing them abandoning ship and realising there must be a reason. 3) The fireship appears, unmanned. As with option 1), Shiori gets a bad feeling and suggests someone with wings goes to have a look. When either Menmus or Schwarz gets onto the ship, they find the napalm, freak out and alert Shiori. Alternatively, have a couple of passive AI Magnolian fliers do the scouting through eventing. Options 2) and 3) are rife with opportunities for humour! I'd advise against having an enemy on the other (safe) enemy ship just announcing the napalm, because from a story point of view it makes no sense for Shiori's gang to abandon the ship they're on without knowledge of the napalm/suspicion of the other ship, and I doubt they can hear what the enemy is saying. Although obviously you may well have a better idea for how to handle the subject.

For a nation built around anti-war laws, Lazulis has some nasty strategies. What the brot gave them the idea to use fireships? There's no local equivalent of the Spanish Armada... is there? ...Or maybe they've used some cross-reality telescope and spotted Robin dealing with Walhart's navy. Still seems like overkill just for Shiori and her entourage. It'll be interesting to see how you choose to represent the ship blowing up on FE8 graphics...

Wait, Phoebe gets all of them and ice? Is she going to be the Athos archetype? I guess the empress of Magnolia isn't just a funny personality... As for thunder spell names, the only thing I can think of is Tempest, but that's just a bit on the generic side (not to mention the name of a skill in Path of Radiance).

[Quietly sneaks Brendan into fanfic] "That's not a hangover. I saw enough of them when Valpurga was just starting out drinking to know what one looks like." (Told you Valpurga was going to be useful!)

Hmm. Wonder who that General is (assuming the knight is Valpurga). And we've got a new mage as well!

...That can be risky, depends on how much the hack has changed between versions. I did that once when I was proof reading Midnight Sun. Let's just say things got weird.Meanwhile, back on the topic of Requiem; there's an inconsistency in the chapter objectives for Ch. 14. On the map it displays as survive 8 turns, but if you look at the status screen, it says you need to survive for 10 turns. ...At least you don't need to survive an entire 8th turn; I rushed off to get those chests and was not in the best of situations come turn 8, player phase. Then I pressed end turn having got my troops in the best defensive position I could, and... map ended. Phew! Stat checking Valentine, Andrei, Isaac and Kane. Andrei's been hit by the bug: his resistance has gone from 1 to 33. No other stats have changed on any of them. Incidentally, I believe Andrei is the only character out of that bunch that I didn't deploy back in Ch. 8.

Another minor oversight; the nomad enemies have been renamed cavaliers but still bear the old description (that specifically mentions Sacae). And now I'll go back to trying to "survive???" Ch. 7 (that's optimistic, when even the chapter objective is dubious of our chances...)

...I can't zoom out in either of my internet browsers. ...What web browser are you using?

Moving on slowly but surely; not a lot of free time, so I've just hit Ch. 5. [spoiler=Florence...]To tell the truth, the Florence scenes are really resonating with me since I went through the same thing with my mother back in December; it's not a good way to know, but I can confirm that some people really do react like that. Although in my case I quickly dropped from that into braindead numbness. On a less morbid note, I get part of the page, but I can't scroll tabs to the right. I can see as far as halfway through the Laraya tab, so seeing as the Supports are listed in a tab beyond that, I can't get to 'em (yeah, I know I don't need to worry about it until I hit Ch. 9, I'm just curious about them). I'm still astonished you completed this thing before you let the cat out of the bag. It would have been a real shame if that cat had been left to suffocate given how good the whole thing is at drawing you in.

Well, I must say this has been a pleasant surprise. I'm only up to Ch. 2, but it's been very enjoyable so far. I don't think the difficulty needs to be dropped; it's good at forcing to change your strategy. Prologue: don't rush ahead, let the greenies help out our you'll be overrun. Ch. 1; might be a good idea to ignore the first two chests to begin with and concentrate on a) stopping that thief once he hands that flamberge, and b) getting those two prepromotes to meet up with you so that fighting the elite enemies isn't quite so risky. ...Apparently Andrei is public enemy number 1, because he seems to be the opposition's primary target even when, for example, an archer has a clear shot at Kieran. The prologue's boss nearly lost to the green cavaliers before Andrei just managed to catch up and get the last blow. I'm kindof baffled why the nearby enemy archer refused to use the ballista he was camped on, but a greenie who stole his place was fine with it. Looking at the Ch. 2 enemy formation, should boss Clive be marked as a member of the Ganelon bandits? Anyway, good job so far!

Probably. That isn't the Port Kiris version though; that's what happens when you transfer a save from FE8. The Port Kiris version joins at lv. 10, 38 max HP, and has a Silver Lance and two tonics in his inventory. I haven't got a picture of his stat page, so I can't say any more. Strange how one character slot seems to have two portraits attached to it though. ...I was going to sneak him into my next batch of stat screenshots for whenever the next patch comes out and see who noticed, but that idea's toast now.

...Come to think of it, in a just-prior-to-public-release version of Midnight Sun, before Alfred blocked off access to Port Kirin, trying to enter there would cause a rather interesting unit to spawn in your party... ... ...Yep, that's the same portrait all right. (Why the Brot are spoiler tags not working for this?!?)

So weather effects are possible in FE8 then? I wonder why it never showed up in vanilla FE8 then? Anyway, I've got the track tested and such, and it works quite well (in FE7). Here it is, along with a couple of others. https://www.mediafire.com/?gs3cgzs3lliveml Tracks: Unsealed (Tactics Ogre) Sylph (Tales of Phantasia) You Will Know Our Names! (Xenoblade) Each one has the original midi, and my edited type 0 midi that is ready for insertion via Sappy (looping properly). ...Come to think of it, I forgot to truncate the edited You Will Know Our Names midi - if you do like it, just pick a point a little after the ] cue and truncate from there to the end of the song. Although that one was 8 tracks to begin with, all I did was insert the loop markers. There's plenty of other tracks I could suggest, but I think I'll stop there.

Isn't it possible to remove the movement reductions via Nightmare though? Sure, you have to do it for every class individually, but it can help you add fitting rain for that sad map without hindering gameplay. It's in the Last Promise, so there must be a midi of it somewhere. As for tracks I'd like to see, there's "Unsealed" from Tactics Ogre. Starts out really creepy, then shifts to something that embodies an eldritch abomination on the attack. I've got a midi version I've reduced to eight tracks but never tested; I'll see if it works in FE7 then link the file (and original) for a gander. Other tracks? I'll have to think of some.

...Or in the next update Alfred will have modified the sprites so we can see little spellbooks clutched in their tentacles...

I can't identify anywhere near all of them (or even half), but the ones I can recognise are...[Number in the sound room] / [Name in the sound room] = [Original name] / [Originally from...] 02 / Main Theme = Heian Alien / Touhou 12 (Undefined Fantastic Object) 04 / First Steps = Battle Theme / Unlimited Saga 11 / This is my Tension = The Unforgiven / Final Fantasy 6 12 / This is my Resolve = Final Battle / Lufia (found in Lufia 1, Lufia 2 and Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals) 13 / This is my Crisis! = Patchouli's Knowledge / Touhou 6 (Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) 25 / Go, Go! Attack! = Go! Go! Go! / Lunar - Silver Star (Final Boss Music against Ghaleon) 26 / Defense = Sinister Shadows / Kingdom Hearts 2 27 / Clash of Interests = That Person's Name is / Bravely Default 34 / Curing = World Map P2 / Phantasy Star 3 36 / Diplomacy = Troops March on / Final Fantasy 6 37 / Desperate Situation = Depths of the Soul / Final Fantasy 11 42 / Laughter = Route 19 / Pokemon Black and White 2 49 / Danger Approaches = Only a Plank Between One and Perdition / Final Fantasy 8 Edit: Removed #40 seeing as I got it wrong. Look below for that one.

So, regarding upcoming character Valpurga... ...Is this all still applicable? Or at least, the drunkard part? I've got a certain part of a certain planned fanfic that may or may not involve booze. Seems a perfect place to use her (or at least reference her; I'm not so foolish to give her a major role when I know next to nothing about her). ...Come to think of it, were you by any chance playing Etrian Odyssey at that point? I've been playing the demo for Millenium Girl, and I've just bumped into Raquna...

Hence why in my case, I'll choose to focus on a few mooks. They could be Hoikadians who happen to be... Or I could try a Lazulean squad watching Shiori's battalion bearing down on them, a Magnolian soldier tagging along with Fa/Shiori and having trouble with a certain pony lover, or one of Tartaros' cutpurses picking the wrong target and having a distictly bad day. There's plenty you can do with one shot generics.