Fire Emblem - Ancient Tomes (a hopeful FEXNA project)

[Crazy Li]

I might be getting a little ahead of myself here but I know two things: I desperately want to make my own FE-like game and FEXNA is gonna be the ideal way to do it.

I know it's gonna be a long time before I can reasonably expect to have access to the engine and thus get started for real... but in the meantime, I'm trying to get prepared and lay a lot of the ground work. My sprite thread was supposed to be a means of practice to get some graphics ready for the eventual project. So let's at least tell you a little about my ideas. I take a lot of Tellius because it added many great things (IMO) to the series.

-Bronze weapons: Having a lower tier weapon on beginner enemies should make the game easier at the start... also prevents surprise enemy crits on the first map :p

-Knives: I like the concept of thieves using these instead of swords and it's interesting to have a melee group outside the triangle.

-Skills: I'm taking a lot of the Tellius skills and putting them in here. Let's face it, every FE has characters that suck statistically. This game will be no exception... but I plan to have the statistically inferior characters come with skills that help make up for their weaknesses.

-Str/Mag being separate: This is essential for reasons I won't get into now... but Str also plays a role in determining if you get an AS penalty from the weapon you have equipped.

-Fire/Wind/Thunder being fleshed out: Ok, so this really doesn't have much to do with Tellius, but rather console FEs in general. It was the GBA that mashed them into one Anima group and took away a large chunk of the spells. I like balance, so all of them have the same number of spells and the same tiering and everything.

-Bowguns: That's right... weapons that bow-users can use at melee as well as range. Str ignore may or may not happen depending on how easy it is.

-Laguz: They may not be called that or be exactly the same... but I do want the general concept and for them to mechanically function as close to the way they do in RD as possible

But surely I wish to make my own modifications, right? It's not all borrowing...

-No forced mounts: All of the mounted classes have been dropped in favor of a mounting system where any unit (or perhaps only specific units) can get on an unmounted horse/pegasis/wyvern and dismount at any time. Enemies can do this too and defeating the unit on the mount leaves the mount behind... somewhat like ballista operation

-Class re-balance: Warriors now equip lances instead of bows to balance the melee triangle

-Ice magic: I'm considering adding this branch of magic to go with the other ones just because it bothers me that there's an Ice affinity but no magic for it

I also wish to play with the way Affinity works... it never really seemed to play a role that I could tell in the games, but I had an idea for it. It will have small effects upon magic/elemental damage. If a mage uses a spell of the same element as their affinity, they gain +1 Mt to that attack. If a unit is receiving damage of the same element as their affinity, the attack loses 1 Mt. If the attack is the opposite element as the defender's affinity, it gains a point of Mt. So a Fire mage using Fire on an Ice affinity unit would stand to gain 2 extra points of damage. Using Ice instead would not be as good of an idea.

The protagonist of this game is a Spy. This is essentially a protagonist version of a Thief. She has all of the Thief class stuff, but with stats/growths that are more suitable to a protagonist. You might think of her playing like a cross between a thief and Lyndis. Being a knife user, I had to put more emphasis on knives than the Tellius games did, inventing a few new ones to match themes of the other melee weapons and making a special one that only she can use. It's functionally similar to the Rapier.

I've been running tests within FEXP (since that's all I got) to get a feel for the balance of the numbers I have down... making sure my player stats, enemy stats, weapon stats, etc... all work together well. I made a small preview video of this, but be warned that the graphics and dialog are very rough at the moment, since I'm just trying to throw stuff in there to test.

[Klokinator]

Big recommendation, though it won't work for FEXP but will for rom hacking/fexna... make sure to use Yeti's map tool to make some good outdoor maps. The map in your video is pretty tile spammy and not amazing.

I see a lot of effort in the game though. Fills me with hope! that agonizingly slow text speed tho

Edited January 25, 2015 by Klokinator

[Crazy Li]

Big recommendation, though it won't work for FEXP but will for rom hacking/fexna... make sure to use Yeti's map tool to make some good outdoor maps. The map in your video is pretty tile spammy and not amazing.

I see a lot of effort in the game though. Fills me with hope! that agonizingly slow text speed tho

Haha... maps are just testing since it's XP. I'll learn to make real maps when the time comes. I tried a LITTLE harder on the first map then the 2nd but I know neither are very good. I'll be sure to make use of Yeti's tool as a basis and maybe clean after that and study advice until I get stuff that really looks nice. Thanks for the tip though.

And yeah, I didn't think to change the text settings, so it was just the default >.>

Most of the point of the video was to show that I actually look to try and yanno... do stuff. It may not be super spectacular, but I added stuff like the knives and the proper affinities so they can be used... added more weapons to the database with proper stats and functionality... made sure Bronze weapons have no crit... made it so the end of the first map automatically goes to the next map with level/EXP/stat carryover.

Depending on how long I'm waiting to be able to start on the real game, I might do some additional fiddling and expanding.

[Topaz Light]

I also wish to play with the way Affinity works... it never really seemed to play a role that I could tell in the games, but I had an idea for it. It will have small effects upon magic/elemental damage. If a mage uses a spell of the same element as their affinity, they gain +1 Mt to that attack. If a unit is receiving damage of the same element as their affinity, the attack loses 1 Mt. If the attack is the opposite element as the defender's affinity, it gains a point of Mt. So a Fire mage using Fire on an Ice affinity unit would stand to gain 2 extra points of damage. Using Ice instead would not be as good of an idea.

Affinity's function in the official games is determining what bonuses units give and receive from Supports, but this sounds like a nice way to expand on that, I think!

It really seems like you're thinking a lot about and working hard on this project; I'm looking forward to it!

The heroine's pointed ears also hint that there may be more to her than is at first apparent... but I'm sure that that's something that'll be expanded upon in due time during the story.

[Crazy Li]

Affinity's function in the official games is determining what bonuses units give and receive from Supports, but this sounds like a nice way to expand on that, I think!

It really seems like you're thinking a lot about and working hard on this project; I'm looking forward to it!

The heroine's pointed ears also hint that there may be more to her than is at first apparent... but I'm sure that that's something that'll be expanded upon in due time during the story.

Actually, I do know that affinity is connected to supports... but the old game support system is so bleh that I never really paid attention to it... hence affinity never played a noticeable role for me.

Glad to see people are interested though. That makes me wanna work even harder on it :o

And about the ears... I had a friend ask me about that as well. It definitely will be addressed in the game at some point, but not gonna go into any spoilers about it

[Crazy Li]

For anyone who likes data, this Google doc contains info on the characters that appeared in that video. I will probably add profiles for future map characters as well. Of course, these are just early test numbers and the information is as subject to change as the graphics I'm using for them.

[linke0000000]

Looks really cool to me! Good luck!

[AwesomeSauce]

It looks really interesting, as well as creative. I'm sure it will turn out great! Also, thief Lord. Incredible idea.

Edited January 29, 2015 by AwesomeSauce

[Crazy Li]

Well Path of Radiance decided we could have non-royal "lords" who weren't really lords. Radiant Dawn said it could one-up that by making our main character a mage of all things. So when I looked through the roster of characters being contributed to this project, I asked myself which would be the most interesting lead character while still being a character that could take up that role. I arrived at one of the thieves :D

The downside to this is the low attack power and weak weaponry might make her end up seeming as bad as Eliwood xp

Edited January 29, 2015 by Crazy Li

[AwesomeSauce]

Perhaps a lengendary weapon and/or promotion that might give her better attack might be a good idea. Or she could have such high skill/speed that she could essentially be like a Myrmidon. Either way, I'm sure you could find a way to make her a more useful unit.

[Crazy Li]

Oh don't worry. The weakness is an illusion. She has growths similar to Lyndis and gets something useful upon promotion that will make up for any struggles she might have prior to that.

[AwesomeSauce]

Cool! You sound like you already have this whole thing planned out! I'd definitely lend my hand if you need any support! Although there's not much to what I can do, except try.

Edited January 30, 2015 by AwesomeSauce

[Crazy Li]

I wouldn't say I have the whole thing planned out... but I definitely know what I'm doing with the protag and I know how the plot starts out and basic ideas for the conflicts faced.

[Crazy Li]

Story Time!

The nation of Zigard is the largest and most prosperous on the continent, located in the northwest of the continent. Zigard is broken down into five major regions. Each of these are governed by a noble house and the five houses come together to vote on/discuss issues that effect Zigard as a whole. Otherwise, they're given freedom to do whatever they want in their respective area of governance. This is a system that had worked for over five hundred years without conflict.

Traditionally, the ruling house is headed by the oldest living male family member. That is, until five years ago when the head of House Wellington in the region of Bransir passed away with no male heirs. Lord Wellington was only succeeded by two daughters and the eldest, Isabelle, assumed responsibilities as the house's head. The idea of a woman representing Bransir does not sit well with everyone and rumors have begun to surface suggesting that there are those who would seek to strip Lady Isabelle of her seat.

While much happens in Zigard, it is not the only nation, of course. To the far south exists the laguz territory. These nations are more loosely tied together and are mostly tribal. On the southwest peninsula the various bird tribes make their homes. In the southeast, the beast tribes roam. Due south, far off the coast of the continent itself there is said to be an island where dragons live, though it is not known whether or not this island actually exists. Far to the east of Zigard lies strange lands inhibited by those with a very different culture and an almost mystical nature about them. Though still beorc, the people of the nation Seyda have a very different feel about them than those in Zigard. In legends passed down amongst the people of Seyda there are tales of mystical lands even further east... but none have ever seen proof of these fabled lands themselves.

Of course, there are many more places to learn about, but we'll save that for the game's journey.

The majority of the story will take place in Zigard and will likely bare a similar-yet-different feel to most other FE stories. Usually the FE dynamic is being the leader of (or at least somehow connected to the leader of) some small, underdog nation that has to fight against a larger aggressor. While that's not quite the case this time, I believe that there will be moments that will leave the player feeling like they're in a very similar type of situation.

[Lord Wolfram]

Well I come up with Solution for your Thief problem.

Make new Class.

Give to class Name thief.

And than code animation for new class.

this is your last resort.

[Crazy Li]

I'm not particularly worried about animation problems for the real project since FEXNA won't have those issues.

Edited February 1, 2015 by Crazy Li

[Crazy Li]

Here's a little tidbit that I was planning on that I'm not sure is a good idea or not... I was gonna change how the Attack Speed formula worked. For the most part, I plan on sticking to the GBA formulas, but this one I was considering playing with.

The GBA games compare the weapon's weight with your characters CON. Basically, if it's too large for your body, it weighs you down and you suffer a speed penalty. In games were Strength is universally prevalent, they tend to compare to STR instead. If you're too weak to wield it efficiently, you get slowed down.

What this means is that in the GBA games, a small character will never be able to do anything about suffering a penalty from heavy weapons. They can't improve (except maybe by 1 on promotion). In other games, as their STR increases with level, they might overcome the penalty.

I wasn't sure which of these made more sense, or which I preferred, so I thought I should combine them. If WWt > (STR+CON)/2, AS = Spd - (WWt - (STR+CON)/2)). This means being small still makes it difficult to hold heavy stuff, but isn't eternally dooming. Characters can be strong for their sizes. This plays most heavily into one character in particular who's a little girl using axes. She has practically no CON, but with enough STR gain won't be a sitting duck any longer.

[thetiger39]

In my opinion just do con by class. Myrmidons/peg knights can use swords/lances of all types but cannot use blades/greatlances without heavy speed penalties while the slower armors/fighters can use poleaxes,greatlances,blades with very little penalties.

[Crazy Li]

I don't want this thread to rot forever, but not much I can do when the maker is probably a good ways off :p

I guess I'll post a planned list of skills. Perhaps not the final cut, but what I've got at the moment... it's mostly just me going through the entire series and picking out ones I thought worked well

Iron Wall - Chance to nullify damage (Skill%)

Wrath - Always Critical when HP is below half

Adept - Activates a second attack (Speed%)

Mug - Chance to steal gold on hit (Skill%)

Steal - Steals enemy's unequipped weapon or item

Awareness - Negates enemy criticals

Vantage - User attacks first even on enemy's turn (Speed%)

Charisma - Hit rate and Avoid +5 to all allies within a 3 tile radius

Renewal - Recover 30% HP at the start of user's turn

Dance - Allows adjacent target to move again (not sure if this is being considered a skill or not)

Luna - Negates enemy's defense (Skill%)

Sol - Recover HP equal to damage done to enemy (Skill%)

Astra - Attacks 5 times consecutively (Skill/2%)

Cancel - Negates enemy's counter attack (Speed%)

Nihil - Negates enemy's battle skills

Resolve - Skill & Speed x 1.5 when HP is below half

Pass - User can move through enemy occupied tiles (if I can figure out how to make that one work xP)

Gamble - Hit rate -5, Critical +10

Disarm - Unequips enemy weapon (Skill/2%)

Miracle - Character survives with 1 HP after receiving a fatal blow (Luck%)

Lethality - Instantly KOs enemy (Skill/2%)

Outdoor Fighter - Hit rate and Avoid +10 when fighting outdoors

Indoor Fighter - Hit rate and Avoid +10 when fighting indoors

Armsthrift - Attack does not reduce weapon usage (Luck*2%)

Locktouch - Opens doors and chests without the need of keys

Acrobat - All traversable terrain costs 1 movement point to cross

Vengeance - Deals (user's Max HP - Current HP/2) extra damage (Skill*2)%

Some of the command skills are only going to be relevant if re-classing is a thing... which I'm not sure if I'll go that route or not yet. Re-classing isn't easy to do right. Awakening showed me just how broken the system can be.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Crazy Li