Screenshot The ROLLING REQUEST THREAD(Currently doing: A Hiatus)

[TheMoniker]

Huh, I thought Angus was the better one through and through, but that 25% speed growth...

Also, I don't think you ever posted June's growths?

No, I did, back in Chapter 2... didn't I?

It's Awful time in...

The CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION!

What army? We killed them all!

Judith: Richter, that officer said something odd. Why would he call you a traitor?

Richter: I don’t know… Something is wrong here. This is more than a mere assassination…

Judith: But if so… if you’re being deemed a traitor… What did you “do”?

Richter: I cannot begin to guess. But if Cedric is framing me, we have to find him.

This isn't going to turn out well.

Richter: Of course. Please speak, Father.

Niccolo: If Cedric is behind this, then surely the other nobles know of it.

Yeah, we can't expect to have a civil conversation with a dead guy.

Niccolo: Perhaps we could find clues pointing to his involvement.

And so, our course is set! We're going to kill PROBABLY EVIL GUY!

Richter: Hmm…it’s a long shot, but you’re right. I don’t fancy wading through marshlands… But if that’s what it takes to clear my name, then I’ll bear it. Ready our men, Judith. We leave at dawn.

Hey, Victoria!

Judith: Ah, you’re that mercenary…

Victoria: Victoria. And I seem to be without an employer. Wouldn’t you know it, I was watching the flanks, and Rogier goes and bites it in the meantime.

You might be laying the sarcasm on a bit thick there.

Victoria: What a…say! You wouldn’t have need of a mercenary, would you?

Judith: You know, I believe we do. What are the current rates?

Victoria: Well…

And cut to the promised politics update!

A general wanders into the bar!

It's... Vera? She's a general? Huh.

Jake: Yes, my lady.

Vera: How?

Jake: His new commander. She’s still green, but clearly talented.

Vera: She would have to be. Do you know anything about her?

Jake: I asked a few questions. The full details are in the report, but the short version is,

How did they get all this info!? It's not like they had Facebook to buy her information from!

Vera: Hmm…an unlikely hero. But these are unusual times.

Jake: Who’s to say?

Vera: Well, never mind that, you’ve done an excellent job. Don’t go too far though, I’m sure I’ll be needing you again soon.

Back to the castle, which is looking kind of empty right now. Shouldn't there be guards?

Lordly lady: Are we at war?

Cedric: It would appear so.

Oh yes, they were ONLY going to murder him! Entirely unprovoked!

Lordly lady: Your snideness is not appreciated, Vera.

Well, she's right.

Vera: I apologize. Nevertheless, the point remains. Is it really so surprising that he would react this way? To an army kicking down his door, demanding his head?

And he obviously is innocent! There's no evidence beyond circumstantial speculation to convict him!

Vera: Unless he suspects a trap.

Okay, you know what. I'm calling it now. Vera is good, pink-haired lady is evil, and we KNOW Cedric is evil.

Lordly lady: He knows me better than that.

Vera: Of course he does, my lady. My mistake.

We don't even know Richter did it! This lady might have a pretty face, but she's DEFINITELY evil.

Lordly lady: End it fast, before word of this leaks out to Nicaea.

Cedric: As you will, empress, so shall it be.

NEXT TIME: We get to attack Cedric's castle!

Edited August 12, 2015 by TheMoniker

[Blaze The Great]

I just realized that I kinda have no idea what's going on...time to read the older updates!

[Darrman]

Politicians and their fancy words. which ones translate to raise the taxes?

[TheMoniker]

I just realized that I kinda have no idea what's going on...time to read the older updates!

For anyone else who needs an update, Judith and her other dudes were worried about all the bandits, so they left to go to Richter to ask him for troops to help. Meanwhile, Cedric(?) assassinated the king, blamed it on Richter for obviously faulty reasons, and is now using it as an excuse to go to war against him. Now, let's do...

The CHAPTER 5 PRELUDE!

So, Cedric must be the traitor... yeah, I believe it.

Actually, we have multiple strong reasons. How ugly he is, his attack on Richter's castle, his face, his attempt to conquer our territory, his physical appearance, his lies, how my eyes feel when I look at him...

N: Cedric’s lands remind Judith and friends of their own home several years ago. They find no resistance as they pass through, and some of the residents even offer their aid.

What? Do they SERIOUSLY hate Richter that much?

And here's the enemy force. Doesn't look too bad.

Weird guy: They’re at the edge of our territory.

Cedric: Excellent, Hans. Are the troops ready?

Hans: All in position. Should we fail, are the reinforcements on the way?

Cedric: They are. I trust, however, that they will not be necessary.

Reinforcements? Guess I'd best be prepared.

Hans: Of course, milord. I swear on my honor, I will bring you the dastards head.

Cedric: Excellent. I shall leave you to it then, Captain.

?

Cedric: My daughter will not come to harm.

His daughter! And Hans would ask about her... this is kind of interesting! Is it going to amount to anything?

Hans: Very good. My wife and son are already enroute to Athan. You… will take care of them, won’t you?

Cedric: Yes, but surely this rabble is no match for you?

Hans: By no means, sire!

Maybe not THIS chapter...

And here's Richter, once again just strolling onto the battlefield. He's probably all "BOY, I SURE HOPE THERE'S NO ARCHERS AROUND!" Seriously, if talking wasn't a free action, mr Green Eliwood here would be dead already!

Richter: What do you mean?

Judith: Look at this, Richter! This is what I had to live through as a child!

Richter: You must have suffered under Cedric. I’m terribly sorry, I wish I had known… Would you tell me, if you don’t mind?

Judith: I’m surprised that you don’t know. After all, your father’s the one who saved us.

Richter: I want to hear it from you. About you. And your friends.

Time to learn about how EVIL Cedric is!

Judith: To be honest, we weren’t as bad off as the others.

And of course. Taxes.

Okay, I could make another snide comment, but I think it'd be better if I actually talked about this. I read a lot of books, and in many of the stories I've read, whenever there's some evil ruler that needs to be taken down, the reason he's so evil and oppressive is more often than not "high taxes". When you've read it enough times, it starts to feel more like an excuse than anything. In real life, how prosperous or "good" a country is is NOT inversely related to the income tax. And there ARE other ways to paint a country evil, such as oppression of free speech or the press, starting wars solely out of a desire to conquer, murdering several million people from religious groups you don't like and then brainwashing the populace into thinking it's just... Most times in stories, I'm not even informed of what said ruler is using the taxes FOR. I mean, if they're decking their castle in MORE AND MORE GOLD, okay. But what if they're helping fund public works projects or charity? It's hard to judge the people's suffering when we don't actually SEE it, and only have other characters tell us how much they suffered.

Okay, I've said enough. Back to the game.

Okay, that's better, actually. Letting his own soldiers take what they wanted from his own citizens? Yeah, I can believe the guy's evil, if pyrrhicly and stupidly so.

Judith: And then… you know the rest.

Richter: Yes, I was there to provide relief when the looting was at its worst.

Wait, then how is he still ruling?

Judith: So you see, there’s no lost love between us. I hope we can stop him.

Richter: I hope we don’t have to. I’d like to talk to him first, find out what he’s really up to.

At least our ruler isn't all "MURDER MURDER MURDER".

Richter: Rest assured, if he is guilty, he will be brought to justice!

END DIALOGUE

Let's not waste any more time discussing the story. Time to get to the best part, the gameplay!

Angus and Willow are the highest level right now, so I think they can afford to stay back for a mission. I'll include them next time.

Formation!

Reddier: Richter and his forces are in sight! How will we respond?

Hans: Are the reinforcements here?

Reddier: Almost, sir. They should arrive within the hour!

Yeah, we've definitely got dudes coming.

Hans: Good! We shall delay them until then. Now, back to your post! We’ve a traitor to take down.

I do appreciate how the generics do have some personality, though Cedric's army(and ours) doesn't give off the impression of being well-organized.

Hans: …I believe that the little princeling got a taste for power above his station. It’s hardly uncommon.

Reddier: But he…

Hans: Enough. If you wish to turn from the battle, I shall not stop you. But my lord commands me to fight. I will not fail him.

Victoria!

Judith: I take it the wages were agreeable?

Victoria: Mmm… No, but I owe you one for freeing me from my contract. Besides, I’ve made do with less.

Judith: Well, I’m glad to have you! Considering the terrain, a flier will come in handy.

Victoria: Oh, speaking of that, as I was surveying the battlefield

So those are our reinforcements! I was expecting cavaliers that would spawn at our starting position. This is actually better!

Victoria: I think we’re due for some company.

Judith: Thanks for the heads up! We’d best be on our guard.

This doesn't look too complicated! We'll just run up to that little island, then split into one big and one small group to clear out the rest of the map.

Victoria is with us, still level 3 and needing training. She'll be our main project for this chapter.

Our enemies aren't pathetic anymore, but I'm fairly certain we're gaining stats faster than they are.

Hans here seems to be fulfilling some sort of "Camus" archetype. Note the lack of any sort of 2-range weapon. He won't be difficult.

We also have one droppable, just in case you've been forgetting to pick up tomes for Rose.

NEXT TIME: All the plans I've lined up here go through without a hitch! Little tension is had!

[entrall spearmen]

I'm starting to realise something in rom hacks. Now I haven't attempted one (so i dont know how easy or hard it is to do) but a concern of mine is the mounted units. Mounted male units have a con + aid = 25 and female = 20. To see a peg knight that has a male mount unit con and aid total to me is just weird. Like they secretly were a male to begin with. (But wouldn't that be in conflict to how peg riders ride their Pegasus?)

[Darrman]

Beatrice? If my memory doesn't fail me, that's that mage in Tacthack all those months ago! Get vengeance on Mageservant and her upstaging you!

I can't think of a serious comment, but hopefully you'll be fine. I assume playing this is a nice breather from GhebFE! Don't get me wrong, I still like watching you suffer.

[Artix]

Wait...shit, hang on...gotta blow the dust off... Okay, is this my password? No, but I can reset it and...

Okay, so hi! Someone pointed out the LP to us and while I have to strain my old eyes with these tiny screenshots, you're doing an okay job! There's a bunch of stuff we wanted to comment on but there's like three pages of quotes that I have to pull from to get it all together so watch this space. I promise I'll have some dev commentary at some point today.

[Sadisticorc]

Wait...shit, hang on...gotta blow the dust off... Okay, is this my password? No, but I can reset it and...

Okay, so hi! Someone pointed out the LP to us and while I have to strain my old eyes with these tiny screenshots, you're doing an okay job! There's a bunch of stuff we wanted to comment on but there's like three pages of quotes that I have to pull from to get it all together so watch this space. I promise I'll have some dev commentary at some point today.

Oh cool more dev commentaries. Those are always interesting, and tend to gel well with moniker's commentary.

(inb4 pink haired lady is pulling the strings)

[Blaze The Great]

Wait...shit, hang on...gotta blow the dust off... Okay, is this my password? No, but I can reset it and...

Okay, so hi! Someone pointed out the LP to us and while I have to strain my old eyes with these tiny screenshots, you're doing an okay job! There's a bunch of stuff we wanted to comment on but there's like three pages of quotes that I have to pull from to get it all together so watch this space. I promise I'll have some dev commentary at some point today.

I presume that you are the Artix who did the FE LPS on SA. If so, good work; I've read both of your LPS multiple times.

[FPzero]

I can also dust off my account and give dev commentary. I'm the one who did a lot of map designs and most of the eventing. Artix and co. did most of the plot writing/salvaging after our first writers returned a script we didn't like.

[Artix]

I presume that you are the Artix who did the FE LPS on SA. If so, good work; I've read both of your LPS multiple times.

It's not something I like to scream from the rooftops or anything, but yes. Appreciate the compliment. Anyway, I guess starting from the top:

Prologue

- I really like that you found our R-text, we tried to give everyone their own little flavor. Only so much you can do with a generic bandit boss so why not spice it up and say he just wanted a turtleneck?

- Nick was originally a L15 priest instead of a bishop, but Chapter 3 was enough of a difficulty spike that we had to class him up. The original plan was to toss out a Guiding Ring in like, Chapter 6 and you could make the call on whether you wanted to promote him yourself.

Chapter 1

- Rain was changed to be cosmetic so that we could use it for atmospheric purposes. Snow does still slow you down, but we don't have any of that until Act 2.

- Bandit University is one of our awful in-jokes. At some point you were going to go there during a gaiden chapter but it got cut.

- Willow. Where do I even start with Willow? So, before we even started work on the hack proper, we put together a proof of concept map. Had a bunch of different terrain, doors, chests, reinforcements; basically a bunch of shit to prove we could make something from scratch and not have it horribly crash the game. Anyway, we gave you a few units and one of them was Wil. I don't know how or why we managed this, but we somehow made Wil spawn as a female archer, which ultimately stuck when we couldn't come up with anything better for an archer after thinking about it for ~30 seconds.

- And speaking of archers, we didn't give any explicit buffs to archers because it kinda felt forced. I mean, why should archers be the only class to have ridiculous bases and growths? Instead we tried to make their specialized use easier to do. So she starts with a Longbow and we cut its weight so that it doesn't horribly weigh her down, and we also made them more accessible throughout the game.

- Paula is a wonderful character that we have way too much fun writing. Of course I say that, but I like most of our characters. Willow, somewhat ironically, is one of the few that are actually really difficult to write for because we just don't have a good voice for her. (incidentally, you can also have Nick go to the village and talk to Paula for a unique conversation)

Chapter 2

- Not a whole lot to say here, I guess. Rose used to be hilariously overpowered, but we nerfed her speed. You can still see it if she procs her speed growth once or twice early, she pretty much becomes unstoppable because of the low res on enemies.

I'll get the rest of it later/tomorrow.

E: Also you should really update to the newest patch if you haven't, I know 1.1 was posted in the thread.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Artix

[TheMoniker]

I'm starting to realise something in rom hacks. Now I haven't attempted one (so i dont know how easy or hard it is to do) but a concern of mine is the mounted units. Mounted male units have a con + aid = 25 and female = 20. To see a peg knight that has a male mount unit con and aid total to me is just weird. Like they secretly were a male to begin with. (But wouldn't that be in conflict to how peg riders ride their Pegasus?)

Maybe you're overthinking it. It was probably done to make females better.

Beatrice? If my memory doesn't fail me, that's that mage in Tacthack all those months ago! Get vengeance on Mageservant and her upstaging you!

I can't think of a serious comment, but hopefully you'll be fine. I assume playing this is a nice breather from GhebFE! Don't get me wrong, I still like watching you suffer.

Yup, playing this is far easier than GhebFE. More fun, too. Though, honestly, that's not saying much...

Wait...shit, hang on...gotta blow the dust off... Okay, is this my password? No, but I can reset it and...

Okay, so hi! Someone pointed out the LP to us and while I have to strain my old eyes with these tiny screenshots, you're doing an okay job! There's a bunch of stuff we wanted to comment on but there's like three pages of quotes that I have to pull from to get it all together so watch this space. I promise I'll have some dev commentary at some point today.

Nice to see you! I always like to read dev commentaries. Also, I actually would make the screenshots bigger if I could, but the VBA's default screenshot taker only takes them in tiny baby form, and I'm afraid I'll screw something up horribly if I use a program. I should see if there's some way to resize them a bit bigger...

I presume that you are the Artix who did the FE LPS on SA. If so, good work; I've read both of your LPS multiple times.

Yeah, I liked those LPs too. Stumpling across them in the LP archives was another thing that inspired me to seek out FE forums, and eventually I found this place.

I can also dust off my account and give dev commentary. I'm the one who did a lot of map designs and most of the eventing. Artix and co. did most of the plot writing/salvaging after our first writers returned a script we didn't like.

Good to see you too! I'm kinda curious now, can you say what the original script was like?

It's not something I like to scream from the rooftops or anything, but yes. Appreciate the compliment. Anyway, I guess starting from the top:

Prologue

- I really like that you found our R-text, we tried to give everyone their own little flavor. Only so much you can do with a generic bandit boss so why not spice it up and say he just wanted a turtleneck?

I always check EVERYTHING. Sometimes it can be rewarding.

- Nick was originally a L15 priest instead of a bishop, but Chapter 3 was enough of a difficulty spike that we had to class him up. The original plan was to toss out a Guiding Ring in like, Chapter 6 and you could make the call on whether you wanted to promote him yourself.

Priest crutch character... interesting.

Chapter 1

- Rain was changed to be cosmetic so that we could use it for atmospheric purposes. Snow does still slow you down, but we don't have any of that until Act 2.

Yes. GOOD DECISION. I hate slowdown weather effects, though they're usually a bit more tolerable when there's some indoor ground to help break it up.

- Bandit University is one of our awful in-jokes. At some point you were going to go there during a gaiden chapter but it got cut.

Sounds interesting, if... really weird...

- Willow. Where do I even start with Willow? So, before we even started work on the hack proper, we put together a proof of concept map. Had a bunch of different terrain, doors, chests, reinforcements; basically a bunch of shit to prove we could make something from scratch and not have it horribly crash the game. Anyway, we gave you a few units and one of them was Wil. I don't know how or why we managed this, but we somehow made Wil spawn as a female archer, which ultimately stuck when we couldn't come up with anything better for an archer after thinking about it for ~30 seconds.

Sounds like a great creative process. I mean, the end result was a good unit for me, I can't complain.

- And speaking of archers, we didn't give any explicit buffs to archers because it kinda felt forced. I mean, why should archers be the only class to have ridiculous bases and growths? Instead we tried to make their specialized use easier to do. So she starts with a Longbow and we cut its weight so that it doesn't horribly weigh her down, and we also made them more accessible throughout the game.

Yeah, giving them just 2 range when everyone else already has some sort of 2 range is just pointless. 3 range let's them actually be the support they were designed to be.

- Paula is a wonderful character that we have way too much fun writing. Of course I say that, but I like most of our characters. Willow, somewhat ironically, is one of the few that are actually really difficult to write for because we just don't have a good voice for her. (incidentally, you can also have Nick go to the village and talk to Paula for a unique conversation)

Darn, I don't like missing custom conversations... oh well, too late to go back and get it now.

Chapter 2

- Not a whole lot to say here, I guess. Rose used to be hilariously overpowered, but we nerfed her speed. You can still see it if she procs her speed growth once or twice early, she pretty much becomes unstoppable because of the low res on enemies.

I'll get the rest of it later/tomorrow.

E: Also you should really update to the newest patch if you haven't, I know 1.1 was posted in the thread.

Darn it! I'm using 1.03... better get on that.

Comments in bold.

Awful Emblem: Episode 6: Chapter 5: Path to Probably Evil Dude

This, this is how I LIKE my chapters to start.

Let's do this nice and early.

Old dude: then we can afford to part with it.

This is what I'm gonna do when if Canada invades. "COLLEGE TUITIONS ARE SO HIGH! TAKE MY WEAPONS!"

Looks like we have a big cluster of enemies on this island! If we can control it, then the rest of the chapter should be easy.

Smash. These pegs have like 15 HP.

They don't move. Which means they'll be easy to smash!

Darnit, Martin! If you're gonna get 3 stats, at least make them 3 GOOD stats!

The island's been cleared out pretty easy... and the enemies on the rest of the map are scattered. This won't be difficult.

I'M SO EVIL

The game attempts to punish me for the senseless murder, but luckily Rowan is having none of it.

Oh no! NOT RAIN!

Never mind, still aesthetic only.

Victoria and Rowan both disappoint. Particularly Rowan... stupid luck-only level...

At least we have this... yay...

Oh look. They're the only ones left.

Never mind! Cavaliers!

And then, the promised magical squad arrives!

Niccolo tanks them out for us.

Defense is good?

Hectora's gone with Martin over to the other way to the castle. Together, they're killing all the guards!

That's a bit better, Victoria.

Average.

Well, the area is cleared out! Let's get our reward!

"Well equipped"

"Doesn't have a 2-range weapon"

I'm not sure I understand.

Blacksmith: I’m just a blacksmith, I can’t fight alongside you. All I can do is give you this and send my prayers with you. Give Cedric the boot, friends. All of Delphus is counting on you.

Wow, talk about a -50% approval rating.

Remember, Hans's weapon is a lancereaver, so we were probably intended to have a REAVER FIGHT! However, doing that would mean engaging at 1 range, so it probably won't happen.

Crap! Suddenly, 5 dudes and Judith and Martin are all alone!

Judith on the fort, Martin in the forests. Here's to hoping they live!

One turn later, they're still alive. It's cool. We're good.

Judith, I honestly don't think you're worthy of the title "Hectora" any longer. You've been nothing but a massive disappointment.

Hans is all that's left, and I think we're done with reinforcements. Let's get him!

It would be easier to "have at me", Hans, if you had any weapon with which to counterattack a hand axe... at all.

This guy dodges for like 2 turns straight, but eventually I manage to hit him.

I try to give Clover the kill, but NOPE.

So June does it instead.

It's so sad, but also his own fault for being an idiot!

Ugh. We had SUCH bad levels this chapter...

Let's not linger.

Soldier #456: The gate has fallen!

Cedric: What?!

Soldier #456: Richter’s army is inside! What are your orders?

Cedric: Get everyone in position immediately! And call my daughter to the throne room.

Soldier #456: At once, my lord!

Well, that was less dialogue than expected!

NEXT TIME: The battle to kill MR. HIGH TAXES begins!

[Artix]

Chapter 3

- So this chapter is a mess. To this day, we have conversations about "Is Chapter 3 still too hard?" which is usually met with "This is the fourth time you've asked that and we've toned it down every time, IT'S FINE NOW." In all honesty though, with a tweak that's in the current dev build (switching when June and Martin join) I think we finally got the balance right. And while I doubt you'll ever play this on hard mode, I have actually made changes, and this is the one chapter I'm actually super proud of even if it's not THAT much harder.

- ...well shit, you're not supposed to know these guys are under Cedric's command yet. We'll have to fix that.

- Stupid dev jokes: the knight that takes Jack away has a Rex Hasta. You'll never see him and he'll never fight with it, but he totally has it.

- Rescue going to down to D is something was inspire in part by Awakening. Even before we classed him up to bishop, we gave you Nick as a high-level staff user. What's the point in that if we don't give you a couple cool toys to play around with?

- Nothing happens if you leave Tristan alive, he just runs off when Richter arrives with reinforcements.

Chapter 4

- The Flight Lance is one of the new items, and you're not wrong; it is almost literally an Iron Lance but it doesn't weigh pegs down. And...that's entirely the point, really. There's a whole line of Flight Lances, and their purpose is to make Pegs be able to pack somewhat of a punch without also running around with literally 0 AS. Consider the pegs in FE7 that use Steel Lances and basically serve no purpose other than to hit you once, die, and let another one come in because a Steel Lance has fucking 13 Wt for a 4-5 Con peg.

- Okay, the male aid formula. I don't know why this throws off so many people because a lot of people see it and seem to think "Okay, they must have originally been male characters or something." When in reality, it's just...no, the female aid formula is really fucking dumb. They have 5 less Aid than an equivalent male unit because...? Seriously, can ANYONE fill in that blank without "because IntSys said so and we're sticking with it"? Like, you can check this for yourself. Go into Nightmare, and one of the character flags you can give someone is "female". Do you know what it changes? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, except knocking five off of their aid score if they're mounted.

- Frank can also be recruited with Ferris, and I'm pretty sure Angus has a unique recruitment with Frank. Don't quote me on the latter.

- I don't even know why we made Vera a general anymore. She's actually an assassin, we drew up a new sprite and everything for her last night.

- Something that I don't know if we ever really made clear is that Richter is actually a bastard child, which is why he isn't really the prince. Cassandra (the pink haired lady) is the emperor's niece, so she was the next legitimate heir for the throne.

Chapter 5

- OH BOY more politics that we evidently didn't fully explain. So as Judith mentions, Cedric originally ruled the lands that included her village but he was kind of a corrupt asshole about things. Eventually things got bad enough that the emperor had to step in, so he was stripped of his titles and basically shipped off to a small, ugly part of the empire that no one really likes. Sort of the equivalent of "well we can't fire you, but we can change your office and your job responsibilities until you decide you've had enough and you quit on your own."

Also if you want to get larger screenshots, you can use a program called Irfanview to upsize them, it's super easy to use. PM if you have any questions about it.

[X-Naut]

WRT male/female mounted Aid, I can see the differences staying but I feel like it should be class-based as opposed to gender base. Like, give all members of the Troubadour/Pegasus/Nomad lines female Aid because of their lighter-built mounts, and all members of the Cavalier/Wyvern lines the male formula. Then you can maintain the Aid differences for logical purposes as opposed to sexist purposes.

And no Moniker, I don't recall seeing June's growths anywhere. If you have posted them, please provide a link to said post.

[FPzero]

In Chapter 4, we went a little crazy with recruitment options. Angus has unique conversations with Judith, Niccolo and Frank. Frank has unique conversations with Judith, Angus and Ferris of all people. The Ferris x Frank recruitment is pretty much everyone's favorite recruitment of this group. After that chapter and the eventing nightmare it caused to get all the if then statements working properly, we vowed to never do that many alternate recruitments again.

[NobodiePichu]

high taxes obviously = evil, cause government is not suppose to have money to do things, there suppose to let the economy run and fix itself, cause that makes sense. tooooooooaaaaatttttts.

plans for th us invasion are going smoothly, a possible leak might need to be. . . taken care of.

in honesty though evil rulers who are evil cause 'lol high taxes' are dumb. evil rulers who basically extort there populace (which im guessing is usually the intention) are slightly more evil.

[entrall spearmen]

So I leave for a bit. See something related to my comment in the dev commentary and get called sexist? I never once said "I demand ot fixed now" I was just stating a fact. And the fact is in traditional fe 6-8 the male female aid and con sysyem is a thing. I was giving my 2 cents in it (I'm canadian btw) and saying its in the core mechanics of it. To see it being used differently in rom hacks is, again not being sexist, weird to me. Also the when I said I thought they were male first was just comedic relief

[Artix]

Easy there killer, nobody said you were sexist. All I said that was that it always seems strange to me that the immediate reaction to a female unit having the male aid formula is "They're actually male/were initially male" instead of "The female aid formula is dumb and arbitrary anyway." And you'll have to forgive me for taking you seriously because I have seen that argument in an unironic form more than a few times.

[TheMoniker]

Chapter 3

- So this chapter is a mess. To this day, we have conversations about "Is Chapter 3 still too hard?" which is usually met with "This is the fourth time you've asked that and we've toned it down every time, IT'S FINE NOW." In all honesty though, with a tweak that's in the current dev build (switching when June and Martin join) I think we finally got the balance right. And while I doubt you'll ever play this on hard mode, I have actually made changes, and this is the one chapter I'm actually super proud of even if it's not THAT much harder.

Personally, I think Chapter 3 is the best and most fun chapter so far, if not the best one in the entire hack. But maybe I'm biased because I love defense missions.

- ...well shit, you're not supposed to know these guys are under Cedric's command yet. We'll have to fix that.

- Stupid dev jokes: the knight that takes Jack away has a Rex Hasta. You'll never see him and he'll never fight with it, but he totally has it.

Ha.

- Rescue going to down to D is something was inspire in part by Awakening. Even before we classed him up to bishop, we gave you Nick as a high-level staff user. What's the point in that if we don't give you a couple cool toys to play around with?

- Nothing happens if you leave Tristan alive, he just runs off when Richter arrives with reinforcements.

Chapter 4

- The Flight Lance is one of the new items, and you're not wrong; it is almost literally an Iron Lance but it doesn't weigh pegs down. And...that's entirely the point, really. There's a whole line of Flight Lances, and their purpose is to make Pegs be able to pack somewhat of a punch without also running around with literally 0 AS. Consider the pegs in FE7 that use Steel Lances and basically serve no purpose other than to hit you once, die, and let another one come in because a Steel Lance has fucking 13 Wt for a 4-5 Con peg.

Yeah, I definitely think it's a good decision. Most FE games have pegs either with little attack or little speed.

- Okay, the male aid formula. I don't know why this throws off so many people because a lot of people see it and seem to think "Okay, they must have originally been male characters or something." When in reality, it's just...no, the female aid formula is really fucking dumb. They have 5 less Aid than an equivalent male unit because...? Seriously, can ANYONE fill in that blank without "because IntSys said so and we're sticking with it"? Like, you can check this for yourself. Go into Nightmare, and one of the character flags you can give someone is "female". Do you know what it changes? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, except knocking five off of their aid score if they're mounted.

Seems pointless to me, just like you're saying.

- Frank can also be recruited with Ferris, and I'm pretty sure Angus has a unique recruitment with Frank. Don't quote me on the latter.

- I don't even know why we made Vera a general anymore. She's actually an assassin, we drew up a new sprite and everything for her last night.

- Something that I don't know if we ever really made clear is that Richter is actually a bastard child, which is why he isn't really the prince. Cassandra (the pink haired lady) is the emperor's niece, so she was the next legitimate heir for the throne.

Yeah, this was never adequately expressed in-story, it makes some stuff kinda confusing.

Chapter 5

- OH BOY more politics that we evidently didn't fully explain. So as Judith mentions, Cedric originally ruled the lands that included her village but he was kind of a corrupt asshole about things. Eventually things got bad enough that the emperor had to step in, so he was stripped of his titles and basically shipped off to a small, ugly part of the empire that no one really likes. Sort of the equivalent of "well we can't fire you, but we can change your office and your job responsibilities until you decide you've had enough and you quit on your own."

Also if you want to get larger screenshots, you can use a program called Irfanview to upsize them, it's super easy to use. PM if you have any questions about it.

Alright, I'll look into it.

Responses in bold.

And no Moniker, I don't recall seeing June's growths anywhere. If you have posted them, please provide a link to said post.

*checks*

Dangit, you're right! I'll go back and edit them in later.

In Chapter 4, we went a little crazy with recruitment options. Angus has unique conversations with Judith, Niccolo and Frank. Frank has unique conversations with Judith, Angus and Ferris of all people. The Ferris x Frank recruitment is pretty much everyone's favorite recruitment of this group. After that chapter and the eventing nightmare it caused to get all the if then statements working properly, we vowed to never do that many alternate recruitments again.

Man, that's a ton! You know, I haven't actually been good about getting all the recruitment conversations, at all, which I normally try to do. I'm gonna try to do a better job from here on out.

high taxes obviously = evil, cause government is not suppose to have money to do things, there suppose to let the economy run and fix itself, cause that makes sense. tooooooooaaaaatttttts.

plans for th us invasion are going smoothly, a possible leak might need to be. . . taken care of.

in honesty though evil rulers who are evil cause 'lol high taxes' are dumb. evil rulers who basically extort there populace (which im guessing is usually the intention) are slightly more evil.

Did you ever read that one overrated book series? Eragon? I read it when I was younger and thought it was good because I had TERRIBLE taste, but looking back on it I could honestly go on an entire rant about it. It's related because the only reason the main villain could possibly be portrayed as evil was because of high taxes. That's it, that's all we ever learned. Every single other thing he did was justified at the very worst. The villains in this hack definitely have more reasons to be portrayed as evil other than that, Eragon is just an extreme example.

So I leave for a bit. See something related to my comment in the dev commentary and get called sexist? I never once said "I demand ot fixed now" I was just stating a fact. And the fact is in traditional fe 6-8 the male female aid and con sysyem is a thing. I was giving my 2 cents in it (I'm canadian btw) and saying its in the core mechanics of it. To see it being used differently in rom hacks is, again not being sexist, weird to me. Also the when I said I thought they were male first was just comedic relief

I was gonna say what Artix said, but he did it before me.

Time for Moniker to get tired of typing up clever intros in...

The CHAPTER 6 PRELUDE!

We're not even going to try tactics? We're just going all CHAARRRRGGGGGE?

Didn't you look at the chapter title? There isn't a doubt!

N: These thoughts cloud his mind as battle draws near.

Here's the castle we're gonna be attacking. Does its defense consist entirely of knights?

Oh, hey. That must be Beatrice.

Cedric’s daughter: Can I convince you to let me stay?

Cedric: No, I cannot afford to surrender. You are far more to me than a title or deed will ever be. Now go!

Cedric’s daughter: …All right. Good-bye, Father.

Cedric: Farewell, and be safe.

*Beatrice leaves*

Cedric: Myrina, please watch over her.

I'm not sure what to think of this. His interactions with his daughter here contrast 100% with... literally every other thing he's done.

They exit, and tons more troops file in. For some reason, Cedric is hanging out on a treasure chest, not the throne.

Here's us!

Richter: I’d like to resolve this without further bloodshed… I hope Cedric will lend me his ear.

Quick question: Do we have siege engines? No? No? I didn't think so.

Richter: I suppose… But we must at least try.

We're gonna be good protagonists, giving the enemy a chance to back down! Great!

What, you're just gonna call for him? Not send out a diplomat or request an audience? He's all the way across the map! There's no WAY he'll hear yo-

Oh. Somehow, he not only heard us from all the way across the castle, he ALSO teleported across to greet us!

Cedric: He had a family, you know. What will I tell them now?

Judith: Lord Cedric, you stand accused of invading Thessalonian territory, as well as attempted assassination.

What!? This isn't a negotiation! This is a "surrender and/or we'll kill you"!

Cedric: …Well, I suppose you’re not here for tea, then. Right, have it your way!

END DIALOGUE

Well, our BRILLIANT negotiation efforts failed. Who knew the guy would rather fight than die? Luckily, we were so honorable we let him escape back to his throne rather than nab him while he was there, a decision which will inevitable cost lots of lives on the enemy side when we could have potentially forced them to surrender!

YAAAAAAAY! WE'RE SUCH... GREAT... PROTAGONISTS!

...Am I being too bitter? I'm being too bitter. Sorry. Honestly, after certain hacks I've played/am playing(COUGH COUGH, GHEBFE, COUGH COUGH), this isn't that bad of a story.

Here's the team! Again, I've brought out lower-level units. June and Ferris are getting left out, sadly.

I don't want to hesitate with this. Our pegasus knight just got twice as good.

Formation.

We could have ended it even more quickly by capturing Ce-no, I'm not gonna rub it in, we're fine.

Okay, rating maps on aesthetics isn't my strong suit because I tend to care more about gameplay. But, I honestly think this one seriously needs some more tile variation. Maybe change either Cedric's area, or the other 90% of the map that uses the same floor tiles.

The generics are as weak as ever.

Hey! Our fighters can use this, definitely.

I kind of have to wonder if we'll get a thief. I mean, there's enough keys that we don't NEED one, but still.

Here he is, Cedric! The main villain, and the guy who's been the driving force behind the entire plot so far! Are we really going to kill him now? I guess we'll find out...

NEXT TIME: Patch upgrade!

[Blaze The Great]

Who needs tactics when you've got...?........why can't we have SA emojis?

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

yeah this story is not really impressing me, i mean its not suppose too right?

[poorlywritten]

Hi, I'm one of the writers and coders on Awful Emblem. So here's the thing with the current playable demo, it's actually just Act 1 of a larger story. Think Lyn mode, where while it technically plays into the later story, it's more there to ease you in. A lot of the issues with the writing come from the fact that the whole thing was rewritten over the course of a couple weeks for last year's FEE3. We are taking a lot of the feedback we're getting here into account because before this point no one had given us feedback on the writing. Turns out most people playing romhacks seem to care more about the actual gameplay usually, who knew? It is slated for major rewrites again, especially now that we have a much more solid voice for all of our characters. But to get back on point, the Act 1 story is not meant to be a mindblowing tour de force of writing. It's there to introduce you to the characters that you're going to be using in the story we're actually going to tell. Also, the whole taxes thing is a remnant of the original plot, which is something we're looking into not necessarily removing, but writing in such a way where it's more clear that they aren't getting used for good things and are instead just lining some coffers. Hell, we regularly go back and rewrite shit on the fly if we realize it just doesn't work. It's just that a lot of this early stuff got lost in a rush to get this out the door.

[X-Naut]

It's a shame this chapter wasn't called "The Kingbreaker"; that would've been a clever pun.

[Artix]

yeah this story is not really impressing me, i mean its not suppose too right?

On top of what Novel has already said, you chose the one chapter where things start picking up and putting things in motion for the end of the act. :v I'm not saying it will impress, but if it's going to, it will start here. Once Moniker finishes Chapter 9 there's a lot I'd like to say about why we wrote some things the way we did and what we were going for, but I can at least explain a bit about what happened with the original script after 6.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Artix

[TheMoniker]

Who needs tactics when you've got...?........why can't we have SA emojis?

Let us all lament the lack of good emojis...

Hi, I'm one of the writers and coders on Awful Emblem. So here's the thing with the current playable demo, it's actually just Act 1 of a larger story. Think Lyn mode, where while it technically plays into the later story, it's more there to ease you in. A lot of the issues with the writing come from the fact that the whole thing was rewritten over the course of a couple weeks for last year's FEE3. We are taking a lot of the feedback we're getting here into account because before this point no one had given us feedback on the writing. Turns out most people playing romhacks seem to care more about the actual gameplay usually, who knew? It is slated for major rewrites again, especially now that we have a much more solid voice for all of our characters. But to get back on point, the Act 1 story is not meant to be a mindblowing tour de force of writing. It's there to introduce you to the characters that you're going to be using in the story we're actually going to tell. Also, the whole taxes thing is a remnant of the original plot, which is something we're looking into not necessarily removing, but writing in such a way where it's more clear that they aren't getting used for good things and are instead just lining some coffers. Hell, we regularly go back and rewrite shit on the fly if we realize it just doesn't work. It's just that a lot of this early stuff got lost in a rush to get this out the door.

Okay, I get it. Lyn Mode in normal FE7 never had particularly great writing either. And the gameplay has been pretty good so far.

On top of what Novel has already said, you chose the one chapter where things start picking up and putting things in motion for the end of the act. :v I'm not saying it will impress, but if it's going to, it will start here. Once Moniker finishes Chapter 9 there's a lot I'd like to say about why we wrote some things the way we did and what we were going for, but I can at least explain a bit about what happened with the original script after 6.

Okay. I'll be waiting for it!

Awful Emblem: Episode 7: Chapter 6: Part 1: Upgrades and Thieves

We start with the AXE ADVANCE.

Clover kills a soldier and gets this excellent level.

Reinforcements? Already? Really? Okay.

Get some strength!

I have Judith attack an enemy, but I forget to check equipment first! Dangit!

Angus stomps the soldiers, and gets a weakness-covering level.

We open the chest, and-wait, a thief!?

How the heck did you get in THERE? Was it a theft attempt gone HORRIBLY HORRIBLY WRONG?

????

Anyways, this exact moment was when I upgraded to V1.1. When I reloaded the conversation, it started glitching out. Luckily, it was graphical only.

Can you spot ALL THREE glitches?

Glitchy thief: I’m an expert in all manners of acquisition!

Of course you can come with us! We need a thief! But then, what about Jack? You know? Purple-haired thief? Or was his name something else...

Judging by her female-ness, she should be our non-combatant stealer-only thief... but she has SEVEN strength! That's very high for a female thief! I will definitely use her, just like literally everyone else!

So, let's look at all the new features of the V1.1 Patch! To begin, Judith has a new and awesome map animation that shows her hair.

Also, all female generics now have their own unique cards!

The lumber axe has a modified sprite! stats still the same though...

The Sagaris ALSO has a modified sprite, which looks totally cool!

And Niccolo had his Light tome replaced with a Lumen, which he can't use! Dangit! It looks really cool, too... Stupid bugs(though, this one is totally my fault). It's hardly something to restart the game over for, though.

Rose got a bad level! ...Oh, wait, that wasn't part of the new patch! Dangit, Rose!

That's all the immediately noticeable changes. Also, apparently, June and Martin's join time were switched in the earlier chapters, which is good.

Charge forth, Judith the awesome-sprited!

Seriously, that actually looks really good.

Willow's still being the best unit on the team. I haven't even had to use the longbow.

Get in there, Kate! Get the sweet loot!

Great!

Okay!

All that's left is Cedric's squad and the knights guarding the doors.

Let's start looting!

Oh, wait, some losers come out. Too late to join their allies, they're doomed to die alone...

There's also a thief.

MUG THE THIEF

Knights down!

Wow, this thief is good!

Defenses!

Well, this isn't a good start to your training, Kate...

Okay, we're all ready to attack Cedric!

AFTER we lure out some enemies, of course.

I have Rose kill a mage for minor profit.

And Victoria kills the other for moderate profit.

Let's get in there, team!

Oh, what? Why is Richter here? Shouldn't he be in the back, where he can't be randomly killed? Is Judith carrying him like Lyn carried me in FE7?

SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.

Cedric: The Kingslayer himself deigns to join us.

Oh, right. He still doesn't know...

Cedric: Me? You’re confused, my dear friend. Everyone’s talking about it at the capital, you know.

He REALLY loves rubbing this in! This doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would care about anyone, yet apparently he does care about his daughter...

Richter: No…you treacherous snake! How could you!

Cedric: Still denying it, are you? Just give it up, Richter! Even if you kill me, there’s nowhere to run.

Cedric: Weren’t you listening, girl? Even after hearing that, you still wish to stand behind this man?

Judith: As if I would believe a word that came out of your mouth!

Yeah, MR. HIGH TAXES!

Judith, you're still a bad negotiator! If he stands down, he'll STILL be dragged to Athans in chains!

Looks like all attempts at "diplomacy" have failed. Cedric has assumed his position on the throne. It's time to kill him!

NEXT TIME: ALL MY UNITS MISS

GROWTHS:

Kate:

HP: 75%

Strength: 40%

Skill: 55%

Speed: 40%

Luck: 35%

Defense: 30%

Resistance: 20%

Total: 295%

So, 40% speed growth on a thief is actually really bad. However, 40% strength growth, 30/20 def/res growths are actually quite high for a thief! She's the OPPOSITE of the stereotype she's supposed to be! Is Jack or what's-his-name going to be the "standard" thief?

I went back and edited June's growths in.

Edited August 18, 2015 by TheMoniker