Ideas For Chapters

[Kinata]

Sometimes in an FE game, you'll face an interesting chapter with a cool theme that makes use of unusual tactics or has optional rewards (like items or bonus experience) that are really interesting and hard to get. Usually, that's not the case.

I want to hear your ideas for potential creative and interesting chapters. Here's one of mine:

Dark Corridor:

This Rout chapter has a very long and thin map. On one end is your team, and on the other end is a Summoner boss named Natano. Now in this game, let's suppose each Summoner is able to summon a different class of units (also, summoned units can't act until next turn). Natano happens to be capable of summoning other Summoners, who in turn summon more Summoners and etc. Their AI is that they will summon if there is room, but will otherwise attack your units. Between you and him are lines of strong enemies like Generals, and between these lines are unorganized bunches of enemies. While your plowing through those enemies, Natano "multiplies," and there will be tons of Summoners by the time you get to him. To win, your units will have to form a line across the corridor and smash forward so that they have no more room to grow. This is a Gaiden chapter that you can access by having enough units to be able to win the battle. Your reward for this Gaiden chapter is the S rank dark tome that Natano drops.

I have more ideas, but I want to hear some of yours first.

[Lux Aeterna]

This looks fun, so let's see what I can come up with... This chapter will be a bit unrealistic, but it's an idea, so yeah.

Frozen Tides:

The idea is that this map is incredibly close to the coastline. Your team arrived by boat, so you're right next to it, on this snowy wasteland. Now, here's the catch: it's the full moon, so every time, the water will wash in a certain distance. For any units that are within this distance, they lose 1 / 4 attack/magic, 1 / 4 speed, and take chip damage of 5 hp. They can't go lower than those stat losses, and they regain three in attack/magic and speed every turn they aren't hit by the water.

There would be nomadic troopers just out of reach of the water, with longbows (and silver swords). After the team defeats the nomadic troopers, they would seem somewhat battered, so they would likely rush out of the tide to heal--which is when some sword masters and sages come into attack.

Assuming the team has survived at this point, there are two ways to complete this chapter, which would take a person on a different route. One route is simply to cross the bridge and escape north. The other is to keep going straight and defeat the boss--which gets the arrow immunity shield, and at the end of the chapter, loots the caravan, which nets 10000g. Lastly, it puts them on a different, better route.

So yeah. Hope you guys like it.

[whase]

seems interesting, though would totally destroy solo PTs (unless you have huge amounts of shine barriers) (EDIT: talking about OP here)

how about this,

there are multiple roads to go, each starting with a door and roof to make you unable to see what's there, each room leads to a multiple choice doors to other rooms with roofs. the more doors you open, the more of the other doors will magically disappear and be walls. that way you will always end up going towards the boss, but every time you play you can take another route. every room has different enemies and treasures. ranges between loldiers to summoners and between pure water to brave axes. (though everyone would just take a look on SF what the best road to go is...)

Edited March 25, 2011 by whase

[13th]

Revenge of the Fallen

This Rout chapter is a large field map, with various villages and houses around. You start on the far west side, and from the east comes an army of monsters and people, with a frontline of 4 Maelduins and 6 Nomadic Troopers, armed with Silver weapons and longbows. Its got few forests to hide in, and the field is open, so no chokes. Then if you survive that, You can proceed to wave 2, 10 Cyclopes, armed with Killer Axes. After that, 6 Berserkers will come from the west, and 6 Swordmasters from the east, all armed with Killer Weapons. After this wave, the boss, a Sage with Excalibur, will come south with 3 Druids, 2 Bishops, and another sage, each of these with Luna/Aura/Elfire.

[whase]

okay, how about this:

a purple and a red army are to the west and east of a battlefield. the blue team (your army) is coming from the north and has as goal to flee towards the south. red and purple will both attack each other and you (seeing everyone as opponent, choosing the one to attack by normal AI). all armies are about the same strength, you can either wait north beating very few enemies 'till one army slaughtered the other, waiting a whole lot of turns, or just rush through.

[CT075]

Anyone mind if I steal these ideas for a hack I'm part of?

I dunno, I've always liked the idea of having your main army appear midway through a chapter. Like, you start out with two or three units, then after a few turns the est of your force shows up and the prepscreen appears.

Or you could be in a ship-to-ship battle, where there are ballista and everything. I personally really enjoyed the Pirate Ship and that other chapter in FE8, though they could have been executed a little better. Maybe have it like a real ship battle, with ballistae and fliers doing battle before any real fighting begins.

[Kinata]

Anyone mind if I steal these ideas for a hack I'm part of?

Actually, I don't know about everyone else, but I'd like it if someone used some of my ideas in a hack.

Anyway,

Magical Threats:

Your army starts in the center of the huge map on which this Defend battle takes place. You are being attacked by five separate armies all working together to murder you within 15 turns. Each army is made of units specializing in one of the types of magic (fire, wind, thunder, light, dark). The five armies are equally spaced around you and have about the same number of units. Each army is about the size of a regular enemy army (like 30 units each) and are led by a powerful boss wielding the S rank tome of their type. You get all 5 tomes if you manage to kill all of the bosses, but that is nearly impossible. Many enemies are wielding long range tomes and hostile staves (the light army in particular of course). Also, the light boss has a special 1-use staff (maybe the Again staff, but with 1 use), and a physic as well. To get the special staff, you will have to steal it, but to prevent the boss from using it, you will have to distract him by severely damaging one bishop each turn and thus forcing the boss to use his physic to heal said bishop (the bosses move first, so none of the other bishops will heal him before the boss).

Edited March 26, 2011 by Kinata

[Lux Aeterna]

Anyone mind if I steal these ideas for a hack I'm part of?

By all means~

[Renall]

I dunno, I've always liked the idea of having your main army appear midway through a chapter. Like, you start out with two or three units, then after a few turns the est of your force shows up and the prepscreen appears.

This almost happens in a few places. I think it could be expanded. I always liked the idea of, say, a small number of units engaging in commando operations in an otherwise inacessible part of the map, while the rest of the army fights or even provides a distraction elsewhere.

There's that one mission in Thracia 776 where most of your army is down at the bottom of the map facing off against a huge army and Leaf and a small number of units are stuck up at the castle. Technically you can clear it in one turn by escaping, if you want to just abandon your friends.

Or you could be in a ship-to-ship battle, where there are ballista and everything. I personally really enjoyed the Pirate Ship and that other chapter in FE8, though they could have been executed a little better. Maybe have it like a real ship battle, with ballistae and fliers doing battle before any real fighting begins.

Protect the integrity of your mast! Use axe units to repair it! Wait, this is a terrible plan. A ship-to-ship battle would be cool though, if they made it a bit more dramatic. Why not start with the ships far apart such that only siege magic and mounted guns (ballista, cannons, whatever) can fire, and have the ships pull up alongsides in a few turns and extend planks? Maybe add a way to swing out on a rope before the ships have fully engaged, risking the enemy forces to get the early drop on them with melee units.

Anyway, while I don't have a specific map design idea, I did have a concept for a game mode: Push. Basically a territory control mode of sorts, similar to a Seize/Arrive hybrid, but without requiring the lord character reach a specific point and requiring some degree of time investment.

Remember 3-13 in Radiant Dawn? Picture that lined-off area up top, only instead of losing instantly when it's entered, the map has several (sometimes two, one for you/the enemy, sometimes more to represent strategic objectives) of those areas color-coded to the side that controls them, or yellow for neutral/uncaptured ones. Each "Push Zone" has two ratings: Force and Duration. To capture, say, a Force-3 Duration-2 zone, you need to have at least 3 troops sitting in the zone at the beginning of 2 phases. If the enemy has forces in the zone, but not enough to reach the Force threshold, you can capture the zone anyway right out from under them. If it's even, neither side can make capture progress.

You could use this to have multifaceted offensive objectives (instead of seizing one fort, you need to split up and take two) and even make defense maps more interesting (rather than protect a single square or area, you could have multiple places that need to be covered, but the Duration is long enough to give you time to retake them if they're lost). It could also be applied to bonus objectives. For example, in a city map where the enemy is charging in toward the open gates with cavalry from outside while also attacking a defensible breach with foot units. The gatehouse is a Push Zone (Force-2 Duration-1). Start a turn with two characters inside, and they'll operate the mechanism to close the city gates, forcing the cavalry to go around to the same entrance as their allies. Make it a bit out of the way, so it's a question of whether you want to pull two characters from defense to make it easier on you; alternately, offer advantages if you forgo the bonus (like a special item that's almost impossible to get in time if you close the gate).

The size of the zone can also be scaled, so it makes it a bit more interesting if you have small zones that cap quickly or one huge zone on a map that must be captured but which is so big it'll be filled with troops from both sides blocking the capture until one is defeated, with the potential for reinforcements pouring in to try to fill the gap.

[chococoke]

I'd love something simple, such as influencing the story by killing one of two bosses. Whichever one you kill decides what happens after the chapter, etc.

[Renall]

I'd love something simple, such as influencing the story by killing one of two bosses. Whichever one you kill decides what happens after the chapter, etc.

How about blindsiding you with a killable boss, and if you kill him, his replacement officer is way more competent and the enemies you face in later chapters are much better-organized?

[47948201]

One of the more reasonably plausible ideas I've had involves the player's team entering a mine wherein several NPCs are gathering minerals. The player must defend these NPCs as they move from mineral field to mineral field, deeper into enemy territory. Not all of them need to survive, but a certain amount of minerals will clear the chapter.

Also, one I tried to pull off a while ago has the player fighting on the back of a massive turtle-like monster (possibly with natural hazards such as spines) or a group of dragons, where units must cross from one dragon to another either from their main bodies or across the wings. Of course, it would be a terrible idea to end your turn on a dragon's wing (unless they're a specially-colored "soaring dragon"?)

Um... I'll see what else I can remember. Most of my chapter ideas are pretty generic =/

EDIT: Oh, right, for the turtle-monster one, after you beat the boss on its head, your ally's pegasi fly you down to the ground, where you need to route a ton of enemies. Fortunately, the turtle-monster thing is still there, and its legs take the form of peaks; each turn, a group of spaces will either turn dark or get a monster foot on it, instantly killing any unit left there after the shadowy warning passes.

Edited March 29, 2011 by 326

[UserShadow7989]

Anyone mind if I steal these ideas for a hack I'm part of?

I wouldn't mind. Would each of us get a note in the credits at the end/in the text document?

A few scenarios I have bouncing around in my head is a zombie invasion deal. You're in a small town/city with a bunch of NPCs. If an NPC is killed by a Revenant or the Revenant enters a house, another Revenant appears (the house is destroyed in the later case). The goal is to maximize the use of the alley ways (choke points) to block off the path of Revenants while visiting houses (sealing them up and gaining you swag) and herding the NPCs to an escape point. The goal is to either survive until the local army can reach you, or kill/capture the summoner.

The second is a group of townspeople defending themselves from an invasion of Bandits/Zombies/Soldiers/Bananas. Several allied NPCs wait on the roof tops and fire arrows and magic toward the invaders. your goal is to bait the enemies into each NPC's range and block off their way through. Your own Archer even gains access to a Bastilla or two to help out.

Third is a sort of hunter and hunted deal. While fighting in a dense jungle (Fog of War in effect), the group are stuck with what seems to be a basic Route mission. However, 4 or 5 turns in, the enemy's numbers start to dwindle without any seeming interference from your units. You see text bits of soldiers screaming and (presumably) getting killed. After a while, the enemy boss or the player will stumble upon the cause. A powerful unit hostile to both sides, being a high powered monster, a Berserker who lost his mind, or even a rampaging mamkute, with great vision but slow/hindered by terrain move.

The goal becomes luring the lumbering being towards the opposing units and letting it tear through their lines instead of yours. Perhaps you have a unit that can calm it down/remove it from battle? A friend to all living things cleric for the monster angle could send it away, or a thought-lost relative for the berserker/mamkute (perhaps meaning you can recruit him/her further down the line?), or even a particularly cute girl if the thing turns out to be a lecher.

Fourth is exploring a booby trapped series catacombs, looking for a legendary item. There are no enemies in the traditional sense, but a series of destructable booby-traps. Theives can move without trigger most traps, while some have to be attacked like walls to eliminate. Hidden arrow launchers, pit traps, flame throwers, slopes that only allow movement one way, switches that reveal new paths or treasures or enables/disables traps... If the no enemy deal is a bit much, phantoms of deceased explores can appear (opportunity to place someone dead and plot relevant here, perhaps a dead relative for character development. Maybe dead allies show up to help?), or monsters, or even ambitious tomb raiders who aren't happy to find someone else there can work.

Edited April 7, 2011 by UserShadow7989

[CT075]

I wouldn't mind. Would each of us get a note in the credits at the end/in the text document?

If I do (and I probably won't for hardware limitation reasons, not that these are bad), I'd probably credit the idea somewhere in the readme, but not in the hack itself unless I can get off my arse long enough to GBAGE the credits together.

[whase]

another idea:

a river with a harbor on either side of it. your team south, enemy North. 2 ships going back and forth. ballistae on both ships and harbors.

keep units behind to protect your castle, yet send enough forces over to the other side to capture the enemy's castle.

or:

ship battle. but the planks between the 2 ships are falling, and new ones are being added. when a plank disappears from under you, or one of the many green units helping you on these big ships, you fall in the water like any disappearing tiles map. (or maybe when you fall in the water you just get removed from the map, not dead, just absent like units you didn't pick for battle(maybe units returning on your ship after a few turns for climbing back up?))