[From hack to indie] Path of the Midnight Sun

[aboose]

The buff won't be retroactive though, will it? We'll probably have to start new games to receive that buff.

Not that I'm complaining, just clarifying.

[Ancora]

[spoiler=Character feedback/request]

If you don't mind, please buff the aid of Cattleya - she needs to be able to rescue physically weak mages as she should be physically stronger, right?

Schwarz might need a base skill buff by maybe 1-2 points. For me he keeps missing and fails the last clean sweep :( Well, maybe his growth is good but I'm not always fortunate.

Cristoph might need a base defense buff because he is somehow squishy, it doesn't help that his dodging skills aren't on par with say, Cattleya so I tend to bench him as his tankiness can only come from growths and I often have to rescue him to avoid him getting killed by soldiers.

And um ... Where are the Armored Units? I sort of need a tank >.> and I don't want to run the risk of Fa dying.

Oh, and can someone check Sae'rah's (I'm sure I didn't spell this correctly) aid and con stats. I'm sure they're quite low - maybe increase them a bit? :D

[spoiler=Response to BIG SPOILERS]Is it possible to make warp swords a form of physical magic where she gets the sword to warp slash a foe without carrying it? I just can't see Faratrass carrying a sword :/

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

[spoiler=Response to BIG SPOILERS]Is it possible to make warp swords a form of physical magic where she gets the sword to warp slash a foe without carrying it? I just can't see Faratrass carrying a sword :/

It's not up to you whether you can't see it, it's up to the creator.

Edited May 29, 2014 by GabrielKnight

[Ancora]

It's not up to you whether you can't see it, it's up to the creator.

I know and I apologize for that behavior - thanks for making me aware of this selfishness I've displayed.

[steroidz]

I haven't finished yet, but I am loving it so far! Great job!

With Cattleya, I'd recommend giving her at least 2 points of speed, and one of con. Also, I believe that Menmus would benefit from a slight speed boost. 5 is really pitiful to start.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I haven't finished yet, but I am loving it so far! Great job!

With Cattleya, I'd recommend giving her at least 2 points of speed, and one of con. Also, I believe that Menmus would benefit from a slight speed boost. 5 is really pitiful to start.

real talk, i didn't think i could recruit Menmus because he had a boss flag, and because he had 5 speed.

[Alastor15243]

how do you do spoilers? I think this question I have might count as a spoiler.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Alastor15243

[Book of Ereshkigal]

[spoiler=your title here (yes, the equal sign is needed)] your text here[/spoiler]

[spoiler=your title here (yes, the equal sign is needed)] your text here

Edited May 29, 2014 by L95

[Xtremekiwi]

[spoiler=Suggestion for tower/ruins (if you implement it)] I would like to see the tower/ruins house some regular enemies (cavs, mercs, Killing edge max skill swordmasters etc.) because I find it kind of sad when you can only fight gorgons, wights and gargoyles. I want some variety! Of course, this suggestion is only if you actually implement the tower/ruins, because if you don't, well, I have nothing else to say.

[Percivalé]

If I recall correctly, Alfred said he is going to buff Cattelya slightly and a slight buff is all she needs. She's pretty good, otherwise.

yes but her personality itself better fits a merc/hero, not a myrm

I am the Myrm Expert

[Alastor15243]

[spoiler=Recruitment method spoilers possibly for chapter 2] Oh shoot. Was Cattleya supposed to be recruited in the same chapter as Menmus? I had assumed that you were supposed to let that other general live so that Cattleya wouldn't be more inclined to believe that Faratrass is the demon king, and then she'd show up in a later chapter, this time recruitable, and if you had killed that other general, she would have been certain that Faratrass was the demon king and would never join you. Did I screw up?

[Percivalé]

[spoiler=recruitment spoilers]I believe you ARE supposed to kill the general. I did and that makes her show up afterwards. You have to just stay away from her until the chapter ends

[Alastor15243]

[spoiler=recruitment spoilers]I believe you ARE supposed to kill the general. I did and that makes her show up afterwards. You have to just stay away from her until the chapter ends

Well damn that's confusing. The dialogue really implied that my way was the correct way...

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

yes but her personality itself better fits a merc/hero, not a myrm

I am the Myrm Expert

A unit's personality should fit that character, not a class. That kind of thinking leads to boring uniformity.

[Ziose0]

haha...if that's confusing...wait until you have to try to recruit Sae-rah....(still confused on how)

nevermind...Alfred just reeeally makes you check out everything XD

Edited May 29, 2014 by Ziose0

[Percivalé]

A unit's personality should fit that character, not a class. That kind of thinking leads to boring uniformity.

I'M JOKING but come on man, I don't think this way about any other class anyway. myrms mean a lot to me. maybe if she got interesting supports or something idk

AT LEAST SOMETHING to separate her personality from Menmas ? Since they both seem to have similar if not the same personalities and man that's no fun

edit: btw yeah I do really appreciate the recruitment methods in this game, they're unique and refreshing. I always appreciate things like that

Edited May 29, 2014 by Quote

[steroidz]

I don't know if this has been brought up yet (I haven't read through every post) but are you working on Shiori and Fa's path simultaneously, or doing one and then the other? I'd recommend doing one before the other, that way you can release an update sooner. Also, how long is the game going to be when it's finished?

[Alfred Kamon]

I agree, the red text is a fantastic idea and well executed.

I think I've spoiled myself with this rom hack! I want more FE but there aren't many with as great quality as this one.

Thank you very much!

Yeah I liked the way it was used in tutorials for easy mode, so I decided to use it in a similar way.

Agreed. So Kamon. Get on with it. :D We're satisfied but you'd have to feed us more later.

As I recently wrote in the first page:

"I'm slowly working on the new chapters in this period (my priority is to study for my exams right now).

Version 2.0 will contain these new chapters: 9A/9B, 10A/10B, 11A/11B, 12A/12B, 13A/13B, 14A/14B, 15 and 16.

That's a lot of them and I'll need some time to finish them all.

At least one year.

So I suppose that v.2.0 will be released in Spring 2015."

I was the person that watched Vayatir play: since I haven't played the hack for myself, I'll just throw in my two cents on the non-gameplay stuff.

First, the nitpicks:

• Phoebe's modern slang feels very out of place: the rest of the character dialogue does a pretty good job of feeling like it would fit in a proper FE game, making her anachronistic speech particularly jarring.
• Probably more of a subjective thing, but some of the song choices didn't fit well with the GBA sound (the boss themes come to mind, as much as I love Bravely Default's soundtrack). In particular, the GBA does not seem to like guitars.
• There should be an earlier warning prompt from Schwarz about the insta-gameover house in Chapter 5. It's somewhat dirty to have it be possible to reach that house beforehand and have to start over the chapter through no fault of the player, especially when visiting the first house is what opens a blind spot among the soldiers for you to progress in the first place. Also the chapter music was pretty extreme for zigzagging around a town and delivering baked goods. :P
• Chapter 4 is pretty confusing the first time through. You're on a time limit to reach Fa, but Shiori keeps saying to stay away instead, and for good reason: capped monsters that will eat you so hard that your ancestors will have bite marks. Given that this is a hack, odds are one's first instinct is to immediately save state reload if they can't hightail out of the monsters' range. There's no clear indication that those guys Shiori warns you about are actually immobile without first putting your neck on the line.
• Fa's change of heart regarding human/innocent bloodshed in Chapter 6 is pretty abrupt and extreme, especially considering she seems to tone it back down immediately afterward.
• Skype's screen sharing was starting to lag pretty hard at this point, so I might be missing some important lines, but the reveal about Shiori's vision in the Interlude seems like a bit of a plot hole/contrivance. Shiori opens her eyes numerous times despite being blind (girl has a flair for the dramatic I suppose), but when she loses her magic sight, she apparently never opens her eyes until Fa tells her to.

And now on to the gushing:

• The chapter set-ups were great, particularly Chapter 5 improving on FE9's idea of a stealth level (aforementioned house aside).
• Though some of the characterization was a bit plain (which I can excuse for now given that I haven't seen any supports or the like yet), the characters that were colorful were particularly enjoyable. BLOOD FOR VALONTUOJA! VODKA FOR THE CHILDREN!
• I was impressed how Shiori fluidly goes from "crutch of magical nuking" to someone that most likely needs some backup/healing items come Chapters 7 and 8.
• You made an Archer into a unit that's actually worth using you brilliant sonofabitch.
• The new animations are all pretty damn good. I particularly liked the minor touch with Andre's Wonder Pupil class no longer losing balance when launching an attack.
• The fact that certain classes are no longer bound to specific weapon choices was pretty cool, as well as how the AI is no longer bound to only using male sprites (though that's only really applicable to the Cavaliers at the moment).
• The recruitment conversation between Fa and Menmus was the cutest fucking thing and it actually made me feel sad because she was trying so hard to make her ex-soldiers not die in doubt of their cause but he just couldn't raise his weapon against her despite her attempts to the contrary and aaaaaaaaaaa otp

[spoiler=general comments on the hack]First of all, thank you very much for the comment. ;)

About the nitpicks:

> Many people like Phoebe's pattern speech because it's so unexpected and it sounds funny. That was intended. No need to be that serious about it, hehe. Also, I'm using modern English even if the setting is medieval. Eek, I wouldn't even be able to write in medieval language.

> Will take note for that house in ch.5. Thanks for the suggestion!

> Shiori in chapter 4 tells you to "pay attention", not to "stay away". Also it's pretty obvious that those monsters won't move, hehe. I'm not THAT MUCH sadistic XD

> Hmm... about Faratrass' change of heart at the beginning of the sixth chapter: a few days before her lack of resolution almost had her killed and allowed the Demon King to break the seal. She's trying to swallow her own feelings because she knows that she can't make any mistakes now. She's self-conscious of her condition: if she fails, the Demon King will resurrect. She has no choice but to kill all those Lazuleans coldly. It's a tragic situation, don't think that she just turned into some extreme and nonsensical assassin or anything like that.

> Shiori was keeping her eyes closed on purpose, but Faratrass noticed that something was wrong with her.

About the compliments:

I'm glad you liked those things. ^^ Especially the archer bit, I tried my best to make Rya a good character gameplay-wise.

Fa and Menmus will have some sweet support convos, don't worry

[spoiler=THAT REALLY BIG SPOILER]I should have figured Faratrass would be able to use warp magic. After all, it would allow her to damage enemies with large RES. I hope she can promote soon, she's at level 19 in my game!

[spoiler=main lords promotion]They'll promote at the beginning of chapter 15. I know it's a bit late, but story wise it's important that they promote on ch.15. It'll be a friggin' epic moment with some really nice gameplay. I planned it one year ago and I'm looking forward to it~

Also your Faratrass is overlevelled.

Hey Alfred, I really love this hack. It's amazing, I love the music, characters and all of that. Keep up this awesome work.

Thank you very much! (Y)

Hey, got the hack working, gotta say, great work so far! PLEASE tell me that Hellios has good growth rates, his class is way too awesome for him to not be used the whole game.

Also, bit of a glitch/oversight I found during chapter 2. That dialogue that happens the first time Faratrass attacks an enemy, featuring that generic male soldier, happens even if you're fighting one of the female units, in this case a cavalier. I added a picture to demonstrate.

Hellios is super good and you should be using him the whole time! Definitely one of the units that everybody likes to use. I'm so happy that I made him that appealing.

Hm, [schwarz mode] that's SEXIST! Only males can have beards now?

so i'm on chapter 8 not finished yet BUT

[spoiler=buttmad]come on man why did you have to make the myrm one of the worst units in the game, with a meh personality too?? you can do better than that! in the update i better get more badass myrms because cattleya is a fucking pansy. she isn't worthy of the myrm title. sucks because my Always Use Myrmidons policy kinda got me fucked over in the end.

i'm not really that mad but i do expect better myrms from you in the future

oh also schwarz says "payed" in chapter 6 when it should be "paid"

also there's a weird glitch in 5x that someone else has probably mentioned but if not I'll try to explain it because it's kinda hard to explain

edit: pssst

Yeah, use Ramov if you want. It's not that I have any copyright on that name. it's just an anagram of Morva

[spoiler=Cattleya]As I've already said many times, I'll better her stats.

Personality-wise, she's just a very calm, sometimes authoritative person. And she's in love with a dead man (Tirado).

The buff won't be retroactive though, will it? We'll probably have to start new games to receive that buff.

Not that I'm complaining, just clarifying.

It won't, I fear. Sorry.

I haven't finished yet, but I am loving it so far! Great job!

With Cattleya, I'd recommend giving her at least 2 points of speed, and one of con. Also, I believe that Menmus would benefit from a slight speed boost. 5 is really pitiful to start.

Thanks!

I'm not going to give extra Con to Cattleya. She's a female myrm, 6 con is ok. Also, you get a lot of Dark Flesh in the game, just feed her with some of it.

Judging by the screens, Menmus is pretty good the way he is. He's supposed to be tanky, not fast.

...I should give some better stats to Garion, though.

[spoiler=Suggestion for tower/ruins (if you implement it)] I would like to see the tower/ruins house some regular enemies (cavs, mercs, Killing edge max skill swordmasters etc.) because I find it kind of sad when you can only fight gorgons, wights and gargoyles. I want some variety! Of course, this suggestion is only if you actually implement the tower/ruins, because if you don't, well, I have nothing else to say.

[spoiler=Tower of Trials]You'll battle mostly (or perhaps *only*) humans in the Tower of Trials.

And you may find Risen with monsters in the skirmishes.

Well damn that's confusing. The dialogue really implied that my way was the correct way...

It didn't, you're just thinking too hard. ;o

[spoiler=chapter 2]"She will join the battlefield if things get difficult." "What does that mean?" "If I die, probably".

Q: How do I make that character appear on the battlefiled?

A: By killing the corporal.

The red text is pretty straightforward. ;o

You also get a Topaz if you kill him.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Alfred Kamon

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Also, how long is the game going to be when it's finished?

Pretty much anyone who makes a hack doesn't know this (unless they're already very close to being done)

[Alfred Kamon]

Pretty much anyone who makes a hack doesn't know this (unless they're already very close to being done)

Actually, I know. 20 chapters + some extra stuff, with the route split between chapters 9 and 14. Like the original Sacred Stones.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Alfred Kamon

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Actually, I know. 20 chapters + some extra stuff, with the route split between chapters 9 and 14. Like the original Sacred Stones.

...I actually just misread his post, I thought he said how long until it would be finished XD

Edited May 29, 2014 by L95

[steroidz]

...I actually just misread his post, I thought he said how long until it would be finished XD

Haha i was gonna say, most hackers should have at least an idea of how long it will be :)

And I know rule #1 is to never ask when the next patch is ready, as it always seems to infuriate hackers (with due reason, or course).

[tuvarkz]

By the way, Kamon, you planning on adressing the fact a lot of different character's stats are quite susceptible to RNG blessing or skewing? Other than Cattleya, rebalancing the stat growths for different characters to have the stats you want them to have, it would make them much more consistent.

[B.Mage]

Ew forced promotion

can I suggest tweaking shoiri down a few levels like lvl 15-18 so that way people will use her more?

also you never answered my question about faratrass :(

[UltimateGamers03]

I downloaded it but idk how to patch it :(