Pondering an FEXNA Remake

[Refa]

Dude, that was cancelled a long time ago (for being overambitious at the time or something, I can't quite remember), unless he started up another FE4 project which I somehow missed.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Yeah, pretty sure he just dropped the FE4 one lol.

Tho, what about that FE1 remake

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

me want legend of marth

[Tryhard]

marth is dead, long live alm

I'm throwing in another vote for keeping Zeke, though having the pegasus sisters taken out would probably be a good idea. I can't stand Est being actually good

Also I'm not sure what this "frozen party" thing you're talking about is. (Oh, Celica's party being frozen at the end? I see.)

EDIT: Basically, it's just that Celica and her party and locked in place when you go to the last part of her Part 4. Then you're locked into Alm's party and you go through the last few maps with Celica's party slowly taking damage every X steps.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Tryhard

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

If you do make a Gaiden remake, you can use some sprites I made.

Also, why is Matilda's name spelled Machilda?

Edited February 9, 2014 by GabrielKnight

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

Edit: oops, thought someone else posted

Edited February 9, 2014 by GabrielKnight

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I actually made a bunch of FE2 mugs a loooong while back, the only ones that are remotely good are Nuibaba and Sonia

Edited February 9, 2014 by L95

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

I actually made a bunch of FE2 mugs a loooong while back, the only ones that are remotely good are Nuibaba and Sonia

We made some for the same guy, I think!

[Arch]

Their place in the story was that Est was kidnapped by Geyse's pirates.

I guess I can sorta see removing the Pegasus Trio, since it's kinda weird that they'd wind up on Valencia(Unless Geyse's pirates operate in Akaneia as well). I'd say no to removing Zeke, though that's just a personal thing. As long as he shows up in some form, I guess, I don't mind if he isn't playable.

Also, holy s*** Arch, you have a lot of projects you're working on. O_O

Okay, so I'll just answer this concretely: due to demand, Zeke will definitely be appearing as a cameo character. He won't join, there are enough mounts and Mycen (another powerful ass mounted character) joins just a bit later anyways.

And also, you haven't even seen half of my projects . Tons of abandoned docs on my google drive.

Also, why is Matilda's name spelled Machilda?

Blame Serenes? I fixed it.

[CT075]

Why not finish the fe4 remake first?

that has been pronounced dead for literally years

[Refa]

I don't get how FE2 has too many mounts. Looking at Alm's route;

-There are the Villagers, but considering you've stated you'd be changing how they works (which I don't agree with but w/e) and the optimal promotions for them isn't even Cavalier (it's Mercenary), they don't count.

-Clea, you get here in the middle of Chapter 1. Not particularly great.

-Cleive, you get him right before the end of Chapter 1. Falls off later on, kind of like Noah.

-Matilda, you get her early on in Chapter 2. Basically the best.

-Zeke, you get him right before the end of Chapter 4. Actually the best.

-Maisen, he's the game's Gotoh. Shouldn't even factor into the discussion of FE2 having too many mounts.

Looking at Celica's route:

-Pegasus Sisters cou...oh, you're taking them out. Nevermind.

-Atlas is the same as the other villagers.

So you have 1,2,3 mounts for most of the game on Alm's side, with Zeke and Maisen joining incredibly late and counting for just as much as Vaida and Athos. And you have 0 on Celica's route. How is this too much? :\

Edited February 10, 2014 by Refa

[Arch]

I took out Zeke so that I could add one to Celica's route. Pegasus sisters are replaced with two OCs; a Peg and a Falco both for Celica.

Also, another idea I've been kicking around: maybe replacing the learned magic system with Awakening-style level-up skills for all units? (Instead of class determining which skills, I'd do them on a per-unit basis). What do people think about that? One of my main issues with the system (especially if we're adding tomes anyways) is that it leaves out all of the non-magic units, so it'd be good in my mind to replace it with something more universal.

There's also the idea of a hybrid between the two. Mages learn spells (no weight, minor HP costs), and tomes/staves are legitimately rare items with low durability. Physical units learn a max of four minor skills (versus the up-to-12 spells a mage from each school of magic can learn), but are dependent on weapons to attack.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Arch

[Refa]

Question- Gaiden had enemies that spawned at certain points and moved for every couple of steps you took on the map. Overall, I felt it was a much better way of having skirmishes than the FE8/FE13 pulled off, but would that be possible to do in FE: XNA?

EDIT Also I didn't know that you were planning on remaking FE5, wowsers. That'll be a toughy (is that even how you spell it, fuck if I know) because there's no room for improvement.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Refa

[Agro]

Jake always has plans, but rarely any fruit

Edited February 10, 2014 by Agro

[Tamanoir]

Question- Gaiden had enemies that spawned at certain points and moved for every couple of steps you took on the map. Overall, I felt it was a much better way of having skirmishes than the FE8/FE13 pulled off, but would that be possible to do in FE: XNA?

EDIT Also I didn't know that you were planning on remaking FE5, wowsers. That'll be a toughy (is that even how you spell it, fuck if I know) because there's no room for improvement.

Making ennemy able to have a surprise attack would be cool too (Reverse order) would be cool too.

So, their will be Str/Mag Split. Great !

Did you thought of how to handle the Unique Ring (particulary ANgel Ring) ?

Also... Wow, you have lots of projects, and they all seems to be of great quality. Good Luck for them !

[Tryhard]

Just some rambling from me...

Characters and Promotions - Most of the characters have really bad growth rates. I think you always gain at least one stat (usually HP), but I'm not sure. On promotion, if a character's stats are below those of the promoted class bases, they will gain that many stat points there. If they're above it, they won't gain anything. A lot of the characters had to use this in order to actually gain stats because the growths rates were not good, so if you were going to change this, I would suggest raising growth rates and giving fixed promotion gains like normal. Though all of the characters tend to have at least some use in FE2, so you end up using a good majority of them at least.

Secrets - There were quite a few items that were secrets - usually involving invisible walls. Nomah himself is pretty much over in a secret area that is very cryptic to figure out legitly. There was also extremely low drop rates for specific items, but they were usually very powerful (Star, Moonlight and Sun Lances, only from drops).

World map - The world map was always better than FE8/13 since you can actually be attacked dynamically on it. Occasionally, in Chapters 3 and 4, the game would generate enemy squads and send them your way. They would get a turn to move every so often. They could attack you directly for them to begin by getting a free turn, and if you did attack another squad, they could also join in the fight if they were able to move to help. I believe they could also merge squads, as well. The one thing about this is there wasn't any bosses in these squads, but that's to be expected. You could go back to areas you've already been to, as long as they were on your parties "side" of the map. I really liked the world map, I don't think you would really need to change much in my opinion. I'm not sure if I missed something, but are you keeping in the free movement around the villages? That was great, IMO. You said "visitable villages", so I assume so.

Battle maps - No complaints from me for changing these, they were often quite sparse and uninteresting. They were definitely my least favourite part. I'd suggesting trying to keep the original layout but populating them better, and not reusing maps so much (of course).

The rings - Most of them are ridiculously broken. Angel Ring immediately sets users Luck to 40, and doubles (!) all level up gains. Speed Ring sets users Speed to 40 and gives +5 Movement. Magic Ring increases magic range by 5. And the Prayer Ring gives guaranteed criticals when under 1/2 HP. Oh, and they all heal 5HP/turn as well. If you're going to keep them, I think I don't even need to say nerf them heavily.

Weight and AS - Weight for weapons simply took away from your AS, because no con etc. You only needed 1 speed more than the enemy to double. Physical avoid was just the terrain bonus + speed - weapon weight. gravestones OP

Magic - Skill did not affect magical accuracy at all, so spells relied on their hit rates alone. Magical Avoid was seperate from Physical Avoid, and was determined by Speed + Luck. Magic avoid does not take into consideration any terrain bonus you would normally gain from physical attacks. I like the idea of learnt magic, the HP draining worked decently enough, but perhaps the spells were a little too powerful. Warp for 8HP? That was extremely good.

Endgame - At the end of Celica's Chapter 4, she meets Judah at the top of Doma's Tower and you can't control her party after that. If I remember correctly, that's a requirement for unlocking the path forward at the mountain place for Alm. After Alm kills Rudolph, he reaches Rigel Castle and takes a passage to Doma's Tower to meet up with Cellica. The last area does involve Celica's party slowly taking damage every X steps, as they are already in the final fight. Merging the party seems like a good idea, as I have no idea how Alm manages to get from Rigel Castle to Doma's Tower just through a "passage" some guy shows him, so it might be worth merging them to take on Rudolph then going to follow Judah to the tower, though you'll have to change the story around a little bit for that. You may want Cellica's party to get seperated from Alm's in another way.

Lastly, dat enemy gold knight.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Tryhard

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

The rates were fine, because it's the game's average. The game was built around having low rates like that, even the games enemies are around the same capabilities.

I really like some of the animations from Gaiden. Foldable bow? Yes, huge side mount ballista on a horse? Yes yes. Perhaps someone would be willing to make them? (I can do the ballista horse). I think these would go great with the badassery that is the GBA Generals (chain weapons, yes yes yes.)

Edited February 10, 2014 by GabrielKnight

[Tryhard]

The rates were fine, because it's the game's average. The game was built around having low rates like that, even the games enemies are around the same capabilities.

Exactly, I didn't say that it was a bad thing, just that if he wanted to change the system, you would have to take into consideration on how the stats worked in Gaiden.

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

Oh, sorry, I should have read your passage again!

But yes, I do agree some major stat rehauling is called for.

Also, will heroes replace Demon Slayers? Are Falcoknights still going to be effective against monsters?

Edited February 10, 2014 by GabrielKnight

[RJWalker]

The maps were probably open and empty because there was always the possibility that the enemy force would be joined by another squad from the world map. Still, better maps need to happen.

I actually liked how the final part was setup with Celica's party fighting Duma and being driven back until Alm's party joins up with her.

[Klokinator]

Jake starts and cancels projects because, uh, what's the delicate way of saying romhacking sucks?

[Arch]

Endgame - At the end of Celica's Chapter 4, she meets Judah at the top of Doma's Tower and you can't control her party after that. If I remember correctly, that's a requirement for unlocking the path forward at the mountain place for Alm. After Alm kills Rudolph, he reaches Rigel Castle and takes a passage to Doma's Tower to meet up with Cellica. The last area does involve Celica's party slowly taking damage every X steps, as they are already in the final fight. Merging the party seems like a good idea, as I have no idea how Alm manages to get from Rigel Castle to Doma's Tower just through a "passage" some guy shows him, so it might be worth merging them to take on Rudolph then going to follow Judah to the tower, though you'll have to change the story around a little bit for that. You may want Cellica's party to get seperated from Alm's in another way.

Okay, that progression makes a little more sense now. I was thinking of having them merge for the Rigel section, and Celica's party splits off to chase the remnants (Judah and the other sect members) while Alm stays to secure the kingdom. I might change the finale a bit, though (since I'm planning to fill it out with more meaningful maps). Perhaps Celica's party would meet Judah at the base of the tower. Alm gets the word and rushes to Celica's aid. We could do something similar to the "taking damage for steps" mechanic with the first map, and merge the parties for the last four maps (and for any endgame content, of course).

[Tryhard]

Okay, that progression makes a little more sense now. I was thinking of having them merge for the Rigel section, and Celica's party splits off to chase the remnants (Judah and the other sect members) while Alm stays to secure the kingdom. I might change the finale a bit, though (since I'm planning to fill it out with more meaningful maps). Perhaps Celica's party would meet Judah at the base of the tower. Alm gets the word and rushes to Celica's aid. We could do something similar to the "taking damage for steps" mechanic with the first map, and merge the parties for the last four maps (and for any endgame content, of course).

Whichever you would prefer. I honestly have to go back and play the game myself, the end is a little hazy to me and I'll take any excuse to go back to playing it again, honestly.

Perhaps I could try to write down some stuff for you, if you had anything in particular in mind? Just let me know.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Tryhard

[NobodiePichu]

Damn, i really want this to happen now. . . I'm behind this all the way arch, though i really have to go and play gaiden all the way through now. . .

though i would advise trying to stick to a constant graphical style for sprites, as although i enjoy elebian nights the graphical differences in many of the characters felt off putting.

[i'd really love to help in this however I can by the way. . . ]

Edited February 11, 2014 by ShinyPichu

[Book of Ereshkigal]

The reason Alm couldn't progress until Celica is captured by Judah is because Judah had an endless horde of Draco Zombies trapping Alm in the mountans.