Balcerzak's FE4 AAAA attempts

[Balcerzak]

Well, Fionorde Quester's current attempt and Paperblade's recently completed one finally forced me to get off my ass and move this out of the planning stages (where it had been quietly slumbering since about September, after I completed my blind LP) and into the actuality. I've given a fair bit of thought to my planned pairings, and I've done some basic legwork, like preparing myself a spreadsheet to tally my progress. Some months ago I watched that speed run series on niconico, and while I haven't been back to visit it since, maybe some of the tactics leaked into my play a little. One can only hope, right?

Anyway, this post will be sort of the caretaker post, where everything will be linked, coordinated, and crosslinked. Individual chapters will be in the posts to come, and there may be varying levels of (textual) commentary.

For the moment I've decided that because FE4 really drags its feet in terms of gamespeed that I will be speeding all my videos up for display. I still have the masters though, so can remix things if public opinion warrants (vote in the poll!) [Also keeping them so that if youtube ever gives me back unlimited length privileges...]

Without further ado, the link to the playlist:

No Commentary.

Commentary.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Edited April 7, 2011 by Balcerzak

[FionordeQuester]

I voted that the enemy and player phase speeds should be faster, but not by hitting the fast forward button. I mean by editing out pointless stuff like watching a villain burn a village a little more each turn.

[Balcerzak]

Prologue:

Notes:

0:22: Alec weaking this is key, as it means Ardan can 2HKO and doesn't have to chase it back to base.

1:20: Noish goes to weaken the village Bandit to save money. It may have been a better idea for Ardan to hack away for XP, but I'm curious if earlier Elite Ring outweighs this...

1:27: You'll note I'm sending both Social Knights west, while Sigurd goes solo down the south (at least until Lenster Knights arrive).

2:22: If Noish attacks before Azel or after Lex he will Charge the Bandit to death, which is not what is intended here...

4:18: If wrongly positioned here, Sigurd will die.

6:14: Jungy seized, turn 6.

6:37: Midir grabs that Speed Ring, because he'll need it.

7:34: Charge was unexpected, but save 500g. Save this for Ethlin, so she can start to build up a bankroll for her expensive staff habit.

8:10: Sigurd waits for

8:17: I'd initially hoped the archer to go after Azel, but Cuan's Continue nixed that plan.

10:12: This positioning of Azel and Cuan took some experimenting before they both managed to live.

11:33: I send Finn up here because he's the only one who can reach that village Azel forewent for CEXP.

11:42: Lex blocks so Finn can't get attacked. I don't remember why he didn't attack, I guess I was hoping in vain they might enemy phase vs Azel...

13:10: Seize Evans on turn 11.

Tactics: 11/399

Stats:

Name: Lv.XP MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Equip
Sigurd:   9.61 40 16  1 13 13  7 11  3 
Noish:    5.47 34 11  0  7  8  5 10  0 
Alec:     4.36 34 10  0 10 12  4  7  0 
Ardan:    3.94 36 13  0  5  4  3 13  0
Azel:     3.87 31  0 12  7 11  2  3  6 
Lex:      6.70 35 11  0 10 12  8  9  0 
Cuan:     5.44 36 16  0 11 10  5 11  3 
Fin:      2.46 32  9  0  9 11  8  7  0 
Ethlin:   2.34 28  5  8 11 13  8  4  7 
Midir:    3.27 33 10  0  7 10  3  7  0 (Speed Ring)

Edited February 15, 2011 by Balcerzak

[FionordeQuester]

It seems good so far, but, here are some criticisms...

1) Why are you sending Alec and Noish more or less away from the action? By giving all of the southern enemies to Sigurd, you're robbing them of valuable experience, experience which, by the way, is vital for getting Noish enough Strength to survive Arena fights like Emmile and Dulles. If he doesn't have at least 13 for Emmile, and 14 for Dulles, his chances of winning are slim to none.

Also, if you're worried about getting Ardan enough Gold to get the Elite Ring, remember, he's going to get a Pursuit Ring in Chapter 2. He most likely won't have enough Speed to really take advantage of it, so there's always the option of selling that for 20,000 Gold. Between that, and Ardan generally doing well enough in the Arena, that should hopefully be enough for getting an Elite Ring for Ardan.

In addition, as you can see in the video, you put Sigurd in extreme peril by sending him to the south. You're also hurting him in the fact that you can't as easily manipulate the RN system to give him good level ups as you could with Alec and Noish, in my attempt, where they were out in the thick of things fighting.

2) After having Ethlin heal Sigurd, why didn't you have her stay right next to Sigurd as he was fighting DiMaggio, rather than having her move that one extra space west? Sigurd was already struggling to survive, so having her next to him would've boosted those chances of surviving. If it's a matter of where Midir comes out, then having Ethlin being east of Sigurd probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.

3) I wish you had used less risky strategies for the very last group of enemies, especially with Azel.

4) Why is Fin getting the last village?

5) Just a nitpick here, but you killed DiMaggio with Sigurd's Silver Sword. Now, the Silver Sword isn't a valuable enough weapon to try to build up kills on, so if possible, you'll want to kill things with a weaker weapon instead of that, because Sigurd's Silver Sword is expensive to repair, which means it's something else cutting in the way of getting the Elite Ring.

6) Why are your comments here instead of on the Youtube description, like they are in Dondon's videos?

That being said, there were some things I did like...

1) That was clever how you cleared out all of the enemies in one go like that by luring them all away from clogging up the bridge. Risky, but clever.

2) Even though I don't agree with sending Alec and Noish away from Evans instead of them helping Sigurd, I liked how you at least used them for weakening the village bandit enough to have Ardan kill him without sacrificing Gold in the process.

3) I find the video being sped up to 3x speed makes the whole thing seem much less tiring than it would be without it being sped up. I think I'll do that to later videos I make.

Edited February 15, 2011 by FionordeQuester

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 1:

[spoiler=Highlights]1:52: If Azel didn't grow the right amount of mag, he would have been ended by the Shark, as it is he manages to pass.

2:55: Ethlin needs a sword power boost to get past the Lance Knight, even with Crit Hax.

4:32: Finn needs a lance power boost to get past the Emile.

5:18: Finn goes for the clear.

6:23: I have no idea how Ethlin dodged so many 18% here (11 dodges, 1 struck), but I'm thankful.

7:29: Azel goes for the clear.

7:46: Cuan grabs Finn's old iron.

8:06: I love Continue, just as you think Cuan is going to die, he executes a juke and catches Emile off-guard

8:25: Cuan goes for the clear.

9:10: Ardan needs power up, buy Shop's Slim Sword.

10:13: +2 strength from base allows Ardan to cleanly 2HKO Emile with Slim.

10:33: God I love critical. It looks like Noish is about to get owned, but then the tables are turned.

11:16: Noish also cleanly 2HKOs Emile.

12:03: Sigurd goes for the clear.

12:28: Alec needs the Chalphy family sword to take the Axe Armor. He could have cleared it pretty much whenever, bu Lex sacrifices himself so that Alec gets a +Str level (and also so that Ethlin has someone to heal turn 1 and 2.

Item Changes:

Sigurd has: Silver Sword, Javelin

Cuan has: Iron Lance, Javelin

Fin has: Steel Lance

Alec has: Iron Sword, Steel Sword, Iron Lance

Noish has: Steel Sword, Iron Lance

Ardan has: Iron Sword, Slim Sword (I probably should have sold Slim to Pawn Shop so Dew could grab it mid-chapter, but alas).

I figured the Steel Axe was a waste of time/money for Lex, since upcoming Hero Axe. Then again, what else does Lex spend money on? I guess he'll buy Beowulf...

Nobody repaired any weapons (except Ethlin repairing the Steel Sword after breaking it in Arena) because they didn't need to, though some weapons got close.

[spoiler=Post-Arena Stats]

Name: Arena Lv.XP MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Equip
Sigurd:   A★  11.75 42 17  1 15 13  8 12  3 
Noish:    A7   7.61 34 13  1  7  8  6 10  0 
Alec:     A6   6.12 35 11  0 11 13  4  8  1
Ardan:    A7   6.26 36 15  0  5  4  3 15  0
Azel:     A★   6.75 34  0 14  7 12  2  3  6 
Lex:      A4   8.18 36 13  0 11 12  8 10  0 
Cuan:     A★   8.12 38 18  0 11 11  6 13  3
Fin:      A★   5.54 34 10  0 10 13 10  7  0 
Ethlin:   A7   4.84 30  6  8 11 13  8  4  7 
Midir:    A6   5.13 34 11  0  7 12  4  8  0 (Speed Ring)

Notes:

1:34: In retrospect, I shouldn't have had Finn this far forward, he doesn't need the kills.

2:48: Lex grabs Kinbois' Hand Axe. It's very useful because it has less power than the Iron Axe, which let him set up kills for Dew. Also, range flexibility is win.

3:00: Just out of Ayra's range.

3:05: Probably shouldn't have had Ethlin this far west, as she heals Midayle next turn, but I was afraid she might aggro enemies.

3:27: Finn saves some $ for Ethlin to eventually grab.

3:35: This is a very safe formation for both Dew and Etain.

5:03: Ayra will not attack Midayle on a forest, though she would have killed him if he wasn't. This way she preferentially argets Alec, who has Awareness, negating her Astra.

5:16: Seize Genoa on turn 4.

6:04: Warp conversation.

6:07: Recruit Ayra.

6:27: I should have perhaps left Finn behind for Healing XP for Ethlin...

9:00: Achievement unlocked, 100% Cross Knight Survival, Eltoshan Victory.

10:40: I was testing which route was quicker. The answer is absolutely Ardan's route.

11:28: Etain and Midayle begin to get some adjacents. Also, with Authority Stars and WTA I was pretty confident in Noish's dodging abilities, though he came closer to death than I was really comfortable with.

12:27: Midayle and Etain relationship boost!

12:56: I was hoping with Sigurd's Authority Cuan might hit on enemy phase, but alas.

13:03: Red Knight needs food badly!

13:52: Return conversation.

14:35: And the reason behind Noish's earlier placement becomes clear, adjacents! Ayra gets a better level here rather than the one she could kill for certain.

14:47: Seize Marpha on turn 10.

Notes:

0:08: The reason why Ardan and Azel tag-along...

0:20: Probably should have sent Alec to the village in hindsight, but I'll address that later.

0:28: Dew heals via Arena magic. Stops at 0:50

1:22: Dew Gives to Aideen, financing her growing Staff addiction.

1:28: Ayra heals via Arena magic. Stops at 2:08 or so.

3:00: Sigurd is just shy of a 1RKO with the Javelin, so I use that to set kills up for others.

3:42: Unfortunatly(?) this +Str level stops that use for Sigurd.

4:12: Set up Ayra and Noish to start bonding.

4:30: I forgot that Dew's Avo is too good and no Barbarians want to attack him on a forest. This is not terrible as Lex gets amazing stat ups on the levels he gets because of this.

4:39: In which I realize Awareness does not negate Continue... shit. Well, he survives.

5:42: Alec misses some free Jamka XP. :(

5:46: Etain recruits.

5:52: Sigurd Etain useless convo, because I can.

6:20: Dierdre appears.

6:33: In which I forget until much later that Ethlin is a jealous bitch and proceeds to steal Midayle's love for Etain (Just kidding! I love you Ethlin. ) Unfortunately this wastes tons of adjacents over the next few turns.

6:39: Useless Ayra Cuan convo, because I can.

6:53: Sigurd gives away his stacks of cash.

8:37: Javelin!Sigurd no longer doubles, and lures in some nice targets.

9:35: Hero Axe get.

9:46: I should have had Etain warp someone here for XP. Oops. By the time I realized this, I didn't want to mess up the RN string that led to successful completion.

12:14: This miss does not cost a turn, even if Dierdre could reach the square Ethlin could Return her from, she'd arrive in castle greyed out.

12:55: I should have remembered Warp would have let Midayle still act, and just kept bringing him out.

[spoiler=Highlights]1:14: Dew grabs a Slim Sword to enable him to make headway.

1:30: Noish goes to clear. Takes some fancy weapon switching and glorious crits.

2:08: Ayra goes to clear.

3:02: Alec goes to clear. Takes some fancy weapon switching at the end.

3:57: Jamka goes to clear.

4:15: Lex goes to clear.

4:44: Ardan sacrifices himself to the RN god.

5:00: Midayle upgrades to Killer Bow goodness.

5:23: Midayle goes to clear.

6:16: Dew vs Axe Armor is hilariously lopsided. If I used the Iron Sword the whole time though a 4% hit rate would have hit him on 3 separate occasions. :o I did switch at the end so that Dew had some Slim left for Emile.

6:56: Dierdre goes to clear.

7:50: Seize Verdane on turn 29.

Name: Arena Lv.XP MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES Money Equip
Sigurd:   A★  14.24 45 20  1 15 14  9 12  4     0  (Skill Ring)
Noish:    A★   9.58 36 14  1  9  9  6 11  0 17520
Alec:     A★   8.97 36 12  0 11 14  5  8  1 16855
Ardan:    A7   6.51 36 15  0  5  4  3 15  0 22610
Azel:     A★   7.33 34  0 15  7 12  2  3  6 23500
Lex:      A★  14.54 40 15  0 15 14 10 16  0 23335
Cuan:     A★   9.64 40 18  0 12 11  6 14  4 23570
Fin:      A★   7.11 36 12  0 12 13 12  8  0 22540
Ethlin:   A7  10.56 32  8  8 12 14  8  9  7 23510
Midir:    A★   8.22 37 12  0  7 14  4  8  0 18480  (Speed Ring)
Aideen:   A1  10.40 31  3 14  8 11 16  2 10 37475
Dew:      A7   8.62 32  8  1  9 17 15  4  1 13890
Aira:     A★   7.79 33 12  0 19 19  3  8  1 20500
Jamka:    A★   9.06 39 12  0 14 14  5 10  0 25000
Dierdre:  A★  11.74 33  1 19 11 13  7  3 22 38430 (Magic Ring, Circlet)

Turns: 40/399

XP: 94/1000

Fionorde: I'll address your comments in a bit. That's a lot more detailed than anything I was hoping for, and makes the feedback post I was going to give you seem bland in comparison. I shall have to perhaps spice it up a bit.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Balcerzak

[Narga_Rocks]

I voted for faster enemy phases since I think that you sped up the video rather than the emulator, and the emulator fast forward function is (I think) considerably faster. I voted for slower player phases since I like having more time to look at who is going where, what weapons they are using to attack, how the stat comparisons look on the combat, etc. Basically, normal speed player phases and fast forward enemy phases.

[FionordeQuester]

That's a lot more detailed than anything I was hoping for, and makes the feedback post I was going to give you seem bland in comparison.

Really? Huh, I was wondering why you would occasionally pop in the thread, only to not say anything afterwards.

[Tables]

I can't comment on the run in particular (laptop still dislikes YT) but it sounds good, and I'll certainly be watching this. Something to consider is that you're going very fast, one of my runs was about 5 turns behind you right now and I still finished in about 380 turns without even going for turns. It's much more important to get that exp, although I guess getting it on later chapters with respawning enemies makes more sense...

[FionordeQuester]

Well, yeah. But, don't worry, I don't believe he's doing anything to sacrifice Experience for time. All of these turncounts, both on my run and his, are possible without sacrificing much experience.

Now, it is perfectly possible to let Kinbois go back to his castle to summon more enemies, however, that would take more time than it's worth really.

EDIT: By the way, if you're going to be watching his run, could you watch mine to?

Edited February 15, 2011 by FionordeQuester

[Tables]

As I said, I can't watch any runs... I can't use YT at all.

Cylon Sabotage

[FionordeQuester]

Huh?

I can't comment on the run in particular (laptop still dislikes YT) but it sounds good, and I'll certainly be watching this.

I'm guessing you didn't mean the bolded part to be taken literally?

[Balcerzak]

I voted that the enemy and player phase speeds should be faster, but not by hitting the fast forward button. I mean by editing out pointless stuff like watching a villain burn a village a little more each turn.

I personally think that chopping and pasting segments is heavy handed. I'd rather just adjust overall video speed. I can preserve more of a sense of video continuity.

1) Why are you sending Alec and Noish more or less away from the action? By giving all of the southern enemies to Sigurd, you're robbing them of valuable experience, experience which, by the way, is vital for getting Noish enough Strength to survive Arena fights like Emmile and Dulles. If he doesn't have at least 13 for Emmile, and 14 for Dulles, his chances of winning are slim to none.

I send Alec and Noish West to try to save as much of that central village as possible. They're not entirely starved of action either, getting about one combat per phase, which albeit less than if they get in some good enemy phase action with Sigurd's group, isn't a game breaker. It was cutting things a little close at the initial Arena abuse phase, with Noish exactly 2HKO on Emile etc., and initially unable to beat Dulles. However, proper play involves Warp/Returning them back to home base for staff EXP as the chapter is wrapping up, so they get another shot at things with the full weight of Ch1 XP under their belts too, which meant I wasn't as worried.

Also, if you're worried about getting Ardan enough Gold to get the Elite Ring, remember, he's going to get a Pursuit Ring in Chapter 2. He most likely won't have enough Speed to really take advantage of it, so there's always the option of selling that for 20,000 Gold. Between that, and Ardan generally doing well enough in the Arena, that should hopefully be enough for getting an Elite Ring for Ardan.

I'm honestly not sure the best use of the Pursuit Ring, as I didn't grab it in my previous playthrough. Ardan does have swords, which means his AS is (barely) positive, which usually guarantees doubling Lances and always doubling Axes. The other person I'd see getting the most use out of it in Gen 1 would be pre-promotion Dew, as his combat struggles, and most of the other non-pursuit people (e.g. Noish) can manage fairly well on their own. Cuan disappears too soon after, Levin rapes regardless... maybe Tilyu would benefit... but she comes low on cash.

In addition, as you can see in the video, you put Sigurd in extreme peril by sending him to the south. You're also hurting him in the fact that you can't as easily manipulate the RN system to give him good level ups as you could with Alec and Noish, in my attempt, where they were out in the thick of things fighting.

Can't deny any of this. He definitely did cut things a little close, and I didn't pay much attention to the specific stat-ups he gets, because Sigurd is (together with Cuan) essentially Gen 1's early Juggernaut, and pretty much needs no care to continue to murder.

2) After having Ethlin heal Sigurd, why didn't you have her stay right next to Sigurd as he was fighting DiMaggio, rather than having her move that one extra space west? Sigurd was already struggling to survive, so having her next to him would've boosted those chances of surviving. If it's a matter of where Midir comes out, then having Ethlin being east of Sigurd probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Lover, Sibling, Authoriy, and Charisma all have radius of 3 squares don't they? The only thing directly adjacent raises is Crit chance, unless I misremember, and Sigurd didn't need to rely on a crit at this point, though I guess if it helped him having to avoid trying to take the counter. Eh... I just wanted flexibility in pushing her range as far as she could go to try to get up and heal the middle troops ASAP.

3) I wish you had used less risky strategies for the very last group of enemies, especially with Azel.

4) Why is Fin getting the last village?

Eh, my policy is be risky at first, if it fails fall back and be cautious. Since I record what actions I'm doing in advance I can perfectly reproduce an entire run from the very beginning of the Chapter and ignore accidental deaths in the time honored, though painful way when I'm finished with the dry run and ready for the professional one, where I'm not fumbling to make decisions.

Fin got the village because I needed Ethlin to heal Azel (and later Cuan), so her positioning was restricted. Azel didn't have the necessary move to reach, and everybody else was engaging in combat. He doesn't need the money, but I would have felt bad letting it go to waste.

5) Just a nitpick here, but you killed DiMaggio with Sigurd's Silver Sword. Now, the Silver Sword isn't a valuable enough weapon to try to build up kills on, so if possible, you'll want to kill things with a weaker weapon instead of that, because Sigurd's Silver Sword is expensive to repair, which means it's something else cutting in the way of getting the Elite Ring.

6) Why are your comments here instead of on the Youtube description, like they are in Dondon's videos?

Sigurd never had money problems in my casual playthrough, though I suppose he's going to be getting a lot less rings than he did this time around. He doesn't need Elite to hit 30, the only thing he needs it for is by Chapter 5 so he can pass it down to Celice, along with the Leg Ring, and maybe the Knight Ring. And while I am often conservative (read stingy) with expensive weapons in other instances, I don't mind trying out the SSS, maybe it will get enough kills? :shrug:

I forgot to put them on Youtube. I was pretty much typing them up as I watch my own Youtube's as a refresher, and to make sure nothing borked. I can easily fix that, but it looks like general consensus has it that fiddling with phase speeds is still in order, so I may just scrap the current incarnations of the videos anyway. That's part of why I was looking for feedback.

I voted for faster enemy phases since I think that you sped up the video rather than the emulator, and the emulator fast forward function is (I think) considerably faster. I voted for slower player phases since I like having more time to look at who is going where, what weapons they are using to attack, how the stat comparisons look on the combat, etc. Basically, normal speed player phases and fast forward enemy phases.

The emulator I'm using doesn't seem to have a built-in turbo feature, so I was just making my best guess at something that might be reasonable to start off with. Since everybody seems to also be interested in audio commentary, that absolutely necessitates slowing down the player phase as well so I can keep up. I'll run a few more experiments over the next few days. I was fully expecting to need to redo this, as the current one was just a rough first effort. That said, the regular enemy phase music is amazingly catchy at this speed, while the arena music sounds like ass.

I can't comment on the run in particular (laptop still dislikes YT) but it sounds good, and I'll certainly be watching this. Something to consider is that you're going very fast, one of my runs was about 5 turns behind you right now and I still finished in about 380 turns without even going for turns. It's much more important to get that exp, although I guess getting it on later chapters with respawning enemies makes more sense...

Yeah, I'm aware, and I planned to slow down when I got much closer to the full cast of characters. While I'm not sure about boss retreats, for mounted bosses I'll at least consider it. Foot bosses? Fat chance in most instances. I mean, maybe at Orgahill while Dew is trekking to the Blaggi Tower or something, and there's nothing to do... I fully expect though, from what I saw of the nico videos, that as long as I practice very good attention to Arena, and baby some of the problem cases, that XP shouldn't be as troublesome a hurdle as it initially seems.

Also, take a gander at the EXP tab of this spreadsheet (the other tabs are fine to view too, but not immediately relevant). I used earned XP per chapter in my unranked run (found on EXP_Unranked) to create a sort of per-chapter weighting based on enemy density and possible-to-earn XP, and used this accordingly together with how much XP needs to be earned in each generation to provide hopefully realistic checkpoints. Checkpoints that are much, much better than the hilariously bad checkpoints I set up for Seize points on the Tactics tab, though I'll be the first to admit they may still be inadequate. If my current research is to be believed, though, things seem to be proceeding roughly according to plan. Unexpected hurdles are always still possible.

[Narga_Rocks]

I'm honestly not sure the best use of the Pursuit Ring, as I didn't grab it in my previous playthrough. Ardan does have swords, which means his AS is (barely) positive, which usually guarantees doubling Lances and always doubling Axes. The other person I'd see getting the most use out of it in Gen 1 would be pre-promotion Dew, as his combat struggles, and most of the other non-pursuit people (e.g. Noish) can manage fairly well on their own. Cuan disappears too soon after, Levin rapes regardless... maybe Tilyu would benefit... but she comes low on cash.

Cuan disappears, yes, but he needs as much exp as possible. Pursuit makes it easier. But then again, if you aren't ORKOing then that's more exp total, so...

Lover, Sibling, Authoriy, and Charisma all have radius of 3 squares don't they? The only thing directly adjacent raises is Crit chance, unless I misremember, and Sigurd didn't need to rely on a crit at this point, though I guess if it helped him having to avoid trying to take the counter. Eh... I just wanted flexibility in pushing her range as far as she could go to try to get up and heal the middle troops ASAP.

Sibling only does the crit, it doesn't help hit and avo. Sibling needs to be adjacent, but with crit not being necessary it wouldn't really make a difference.

Lover, Authority, and Charisma are all 3 range, yes. Well, the hit/avo parts. The crit of Lover is adjacent, but you knew that already.

[Tables]

Huh?

I can't comment on the run in particular (laptop still dislikes YT) but it sounds good, and I'll certainly be watching this.

I'm guessing you didn't mean the bolded part to be taken literally?

Bad wording on my part. I meant watching as in watching the thread. So, yes and no to being literal...

[Anouleth]

The emulator I'm using doesn't seem to have a built-in turbo feature, so I was just making my best guess at something that might be reasonable to start off with. Since everybody seems to also be interested in audio commentary, that absolutely necessitates slowing down the player phase as well so I can keep up. I'll run a few more experiments over the next few days. I was fully expecting to need to redo this, as the current one was just a rough first effort. That said, the regular enemy phase music is amazingly catchy at this speed, while the arena music sounds like ass.

I have only recently started playing FE4, but I agree that the Verdane Army theme is pretty awesome.

[billymills]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I think the arena is glitched as to give extremely poor level ups if the battles take too long (pause the battle then select continue to get around this).

I'm not sure if it's a facet of the arena or a glitch though.

[dondon151]

It has to do with exhausting the RNs.

[Mekkah]

That said, the regular enemy phase music is amazingly catchy at this speed

Forget that, almost all the music is hilarious when sped up.

[Balcerzak]

I've been playing, because playing is more fun that remixing videos and editting clip speeds, and recording commentary. Chapter 2 is now done, droppable items went pretty much as discussed in Fionorde's thread. In retrospect, I made several blunders in various stages, but I was forced to keep them due to not wanting to screw up the RN stream after I'd gotten some pretty desirable results later on. (If I were smart, I could have maxed Diadora's level here, but as it is, I'll have to top her off in Ch3, probably with Sylvia's assistance.)

Also, speaking of the RN stream, I discovered some interesting oddities as far the enemy AI behaviour changing based on whether or not you've saved and reloaded the game on any given turn, or whether you're just blazing through. I will try to make a short video demonstrating that conclusively as well, as it's an interesting tidbit.

I might have left the Elite Ring on Ethlin a little too long, as I underestimated just how much XP she could get, but eh, this means she's autopilot for Ch3, just chilling and performing utility tasks.

I haven't figured out inheritance issues for Leaf yet, so I'm probably going to put off Ch3 for quite some time, allowing me to catch up on video creation. I'll probably make two sets of videos, after all. One being the no-brain, simply 3x speed set, no commentary. The other set having three levels of variable speed (enemy phase at... 4x?, player phase at 2x?, and Arena phase at something silly like 8x?) and some hopefully useful commentary.

[FionordeQuester]

Personally, if you want my suggestion, Leaf can make do with the Light Sword and the Pursuit Ring. Just try to have Ethlin get as many kills on her Light Sword as you possibly can, and, if you can, try to have her promote before the end of Chapter 2 that way she can get lots of money for the Pursuit Ring in the Arena.

[Balcerzak]

Also, speaking of the RN stream, I discovered some interesting oddities as far the enemy AI behaviour changing based on whether or not you've saved and reloaded the game on any given turn, or whether you're just blazing through. I will try to make a short video demonstrating that conclusively as well, as it's an interesting tidbit.

Two of said videos, from different portions of Chapter 2. They caused me no end of difficulties in figuring out what the hell was wrong with my notes (which aren't I guess necessarily stellar quality).

Personally, if you want my suggestion, Leaf can make do with the Light Sword and the Pursuit Ring. Just try to have Ethlin get as many kills on her Light Sword as you possibly can, and, if you can, try to have her promote before the end of Chapter 2 that way she can get lots of money for the Pursuit Ring in the Arena.

lol. The Light Brand has all of like 3 kills on it at the moment, and she's definitely already promoted.

Pursuit Ring is always best sent to Leaf, no questions asked? Even if that takes it out of play for the rest of Gen 1?

[Psych]

Arena Phases are fine at the current speed, I think. The only time I'd like them faster would be for someone like Dew who's chipping 1's or Sylvia or Fin with Prayer and Sylvia takes forever and a half.

[FionordeQuester]

Pursuit Ring is always best sent to Leaf, no questions asked? Even if that takes it out of play for the rest of Gen 1?

Who else could possibly have a use for it? Noish? Ardan? Noish isn't so horrendously weak that he needs to have it just for promotion, and as for Ardan, his speed is so low that he probably won't be able to take advantage of it against anyone he would truly need it for. Dew could probably take advantage of it if he wanted to, but that would leave him hard pressed to use the Elite Ring.

The only person in the 2nd Generation that I would imagine really needing it other than Leaf is Patty, but she's someone you're going to have trouble raising no matter what, and Leaf's contributions as a Master Knight are FAR too valuable to NOT promote him as quickly as you can.

And you know what I've decided? I think I'll redo Chapter 1 after all. I've got a radical new idea that I want to try out...

Edited February 23, 2011 by FionordeQuester

[Psych]

If Bal is doing Levin Tiltyu, maybe give it to Tinny, since she can't use Tron before promo so won't be doing much. Lex Tiltyu, maybe Arthur in that case.

[Balcerzak]

Oh, right. I must not have already mentioned my intended pairings.

Ayra x Noish

Midir x Aideen

Lex x Sylvia

Claude x Fury

Beowulf x Lachesis

Holyn x Bridget

Levin x Tiltyu