How do you play drafts?

[Kiriane]

I noticed there's no real consensus on this, or at least I've never seen one. Do you guys RNG manipulate, use savestates, or anything other than what would normally be permitted by the console? (I'm assuming...or hoping...that nobody actually TASes drafts.)

[Lilmik11]

Nope. Most of the time, I just try to plan ahead what I'm going to do for each chapter. Sometimes resets are necessery, but not for impossible things like 1% crits.

[Florete]

RNG abuse is generally discouraged or outright banned but, you know, it's the honor system. Save states and Battle Save, to my knowledge, are usually allowed to the extent you don't abuse it.

I don't think using Tool-Assist would help a draft since drafts are turn-based while a TAS is real time, but I've never tried myself, so...

[General Horace]

I don't manipulate the RNG at all for stuff like level ups, but I do restart chapters if I mess something up that will lose me a turn.

I only use states in stuff like the H5 draft, and would if I did an FE6 draft so I would actually hit the bosses every once and a while if I didn't have Rutgar.

[Junkhead]

Savestates are pretty much fundamental for FE4-6 drafts. I use savestates in those and FE10 (Battle saves).

FE7 & 8 are easy to risk over since the chapters are shorter and the RNG doesn't suck.

[dondon151]

It's not surprising, however, that most draft players tend to consistently get results that are above average.

[Ciarre]

Battle saves <3 And save points in SD.

[Naglfar]

It's not surprising, however, that most draft players tend to consistently get results that are above average.

Not so consistently stuff that implies RNG abuse, from what I've seen...

[Emeraldfox]

I just play like I usually do.

[eclipse]

I'll use the SD saves to make sure that the RNG doesn't shaft me unnecessarily in the hit/miss department. Having Marth get hit by stuff with hit rates of 8% followed by 35% sucks.

As for my stats. . .sometimes they're good, sometimes they're hilariously bad. I think the worst screwage I've seen was Silvercrow's Hector, who was 10 points short of his average Strength or something ridiculous like that.

[Rewjeo]

In the event I ever got much into drafting, I expect I'd use save states periodically. Not to manipulate the RNG, but I like to fly by the seat of my pants rather than plan it all out before hand, so it's nice to be able to go back two turns and try a different strategy from there instead of constantly resetting.

[Naglfar]

In the event I ever got much into drafting, I expect I'd use save states periodically. Not to manipulate the RNG, but I like to fly by the seat of my pants rather than plan it all out before hand, so it's nice to be able to go back two turns and try a different strategy from there instead of constantly resetting.

Exactly this. I'll do this until somebody explains to me how you can plan out an entire chapter beforehand.

[Kiriane]

Well, if you've played through the game enough times, you know roughly where and when things will show up. That's usually enough information to plan out a whole chapter. If it doesn't work after a couple of tries, you're at the very least not building enough flexibility/error margin into the plan.

As for myself. I use savestates, but only where a regular save would have provided the same functionality. That means no mid-turn savestates of FE4, no mid-chapter savestates in 776. The exception is when I'm testing a potentially workable strategy, after which I'd go back and replay from the correct save point. As for abusing, I only did it once at a chapter beginning: achievable using regular resets, but less annoying on me.

Horace, when you say "Pretty much fundamental", could you provide specifics? For instance, "it's confounded impossible to Sigurd solo the Prologue without savestates". Which it might well be, as I've tried a half dozen times, although not very seriously.

[Integrity]

In the event I ever got much into drafting, I expect I'd use save states periodically. Not to manipulate the RNG, but I like to fly by the seat of my pants rather than plan it all out before hand, so it's nice to be able to go back two turns and try a different strategy from there instead of constantly resetting.

Pretty much nailed it. I freeball everything I do. Yeah, I know enough about the chapter that I could plan ahead and probably shave turns, but I prefer to just go with the flow. Even if that means lightly less than optimal clears.

[Paperblade]

Not so consistently stuff that implies RNG abuse, from what I've seen...

Every FE10 draft I've seen half the players are like "HM SURPRISINGLY MY MICAIAH IS SUPER SPEED BLESSED AND GAINED 10 SPEED IN 19 LEVELS DESPITE HAVING LIKE A 35% GROWTH"

And I'm like "really"

[Excellen Browning]

Every FE10 draft I've seen half the players are like "HM SURPRISINGLY MY MICAIAH IS SUPER SPEED BLESSED AND GAINED 10 SPEED IN 19 LEVELS DESPITE HAVING LIKE A 35% GROWTH"

And I'm like "really"

Not to mention the 5? turn prologue clear that can only be achieved by Micaiah critting that first bandit (which has a ~3% chance of happening IIRC)

[HongLei]

Nope, I rarely if ever use rng abuse, and only the "autosave" function savestate of my emulator, (saves after every few minutes) in case of a problem, so I go back maybe a few turns if massive getting hit by low rates and missing with high rates happens.

[Florete]

Not to mention the 5? turn prologue clear that can only be achieved by Micaiah critting that first bandit (which has a ~3% chance of happening IIRC)

That's the 4 turn clear. 5 turns doesn't require the crit. And I've only seen that happen in a draft once, the Haar draft where RNG abuse was outright stated to be allowed.

Edited September 27, 2011 by Red Fox of Fire

[chococoke]

The only time I ever RNG abused was to get a level up of speed for Marcus in one of my FE7 HHM drafts, because base speed Marcus is frustratingly borderline on doubling a lot of enemies. Plus, if Marcus is +1/+2 on his speed average, he literally rapes the game.

[Dark Sage]

I'm still in the middle of a couple of drafts but so far, I have not used save states, not even in FE4. If I mess up and someone dies as a result, I play the chapter back from the beginning.

[Integrity]

You can save mid-chapter in FE4. Why would you play it back from the beginning?

[arvilino]

I don't use savestates for drafts. I use a DS or GBA to play the games for drafts so I'm not tempted to attempt forcing very unreliable strategies(like sub 5% crits or really low avoid chances) to work.

You can save mid-chapter in FE4. Why would you play it back from the beginning?

I'd imagine they don't play it back from the beggining but they might use multiple savestates to go back to different points in a chapter(e.g. make a new, seperate save state at the begginning of each turn) in case they chapter saved in an unwinnable or close to unwinnable situation.

[Anouleth]

Personally, I dislike RNG abuse. For FE8, I don't play it on an emulator in the first place; I play it on a real cartridge, which removes the temptation to RNG abuse.

The only time I ever RNG abused was to get a level up of speed for Marcus in one of my FE7 HHM drafts, because base speed Marcus is frustratingly borderline on doubling a lot of enemies. Plus, if Marcus is +1/+2 on his speed average, he literally rapes the game.

You mean that he takes a copy of Fire Emblem and actually, forcefully has sex with it without consent? That's actually pretty disgusting! I'd be abusing to prevent that!