Ideal Fire Emblem game set-up

[Lord Glenn]

(Wall of text below. Read at your own caution. There is no "tl;dr" summary because it would add a quarter of the current length to the huge wall as it is and I'm lazy.)

This is something that I've given tons of thought to in the past, especially prior to FE10's release in Japan when scans of Famitsu and other magazines would filter in at a trickle. (And, Twilkitri brings up some points that make me think of a few things that I think at least MageKnight404 would agree with.)

While I've never actually played FE5, I always have been interested in the capturing aspect of the game. In war, you don't come across weapon shops that have a ton of supplies vary often, if much at all. Scrounging for supplies off of enemies makes a large deal of common sense, at least to me. Stemming off of this, I think that Armories need to have stock restrictions set in place: It's completely unrealistic to be able to buy 20 Iron Axes off of a weapon vendor. The vendor needs to keep some stock for other customers, and who's to say that they even have that many to begin with?

As part of an idea for a (canceled) FE hack of FE7, I had suggested to the project staff about looking into seeing if there was some way to implement a growth rate for Con, since it only makes sense that someone is going to get beefier as they're swinging massive tools of war around the place. I guess Build in FE5 kind of covers this, but it could probably use some updating, since the stat has basically fallen into uselessness with the advent of Strength determining AS in FE9/10. (I haven't touched 11 yet, so I don't really know or care what it changed in that aspect.)

I think FE4's generation system is gimmicky. (Call me a heretic if you like.) It (kind of) worked once, and while most people clamor that they want to see it return, I think it might do more harm than good, at least without serious tweaks from its setip in FE4. Yes, it was "innovative" at the time, but since then, it's been done by a bunch of franchises, so it's lost its appeal, IMO. If anything, I'd rather see something like the book system of FE3 than the generation system of FE4. Holy Blood is broken as a concept in FE4, too. I kind of like how FE Binary (IIRC) made it a bit more realistic in letting Minor Blood characters use the weapons at half-effectiveness, but as it stands most characters with Holy Blood were overly powerful to begin with.

One thing that's fallen from grace, IMO, are the Gaiden Chapters. Yes, they may rear their heads every once in a while, but (at least) in FE6 and FE7, they actually felt useful. It gave you something extra to work for, and made the games better overall. If you missed one or a couple, get them on your next playthrough. FE6 did them especially well, in terms of relation to the story. They just need to have more interesting requirements instead of "Clear in x turns." Something even as simple as "Keep this village from being pillaged until the bandits leave." And then, the villagers give you some kind of sidequest that takes you to the Gaiden. And, from there, it could even be something like Chapter Y -> Gaiden Y -> Chapter Z, where you start in a different location in Z because you went a different route because of the Gaiden. It would add some dynamic aspects to the game.

Going back to FE6, of all of the games in the series that I've played enough to comment on, I've slowly started to realize how well tied the story was at times. Sure, it jumped around a bit, but for the most part, it actually felt like you were fighting this huge war against Bern and slowly turning the tide. And, part of that is because of the next point, or at least I feel.

Of FE6, 7, 8, and 9, FE6 handled split routes the best. There is no "I'll go one way, you go the other" mentality like in FE8. There is no "Ch. 6 Map A or Ch. 6 Map B" stuff for only one chapter every once in a while. It was, "Either this way or that, for a couple of maps until you hit the "connection point". You went one way until there was no where else to go with it. It wasn't a quick job.

As others have said, FE9/10 have had the most intuitive base system so far. I think that there are some changes that could be made to make it more efficient from a strategy stand point. Reduce the character's inventory slots back to 5, like in the GBA titles. Having even 4/4 or 7 made it a bit too easy to bring what situations called for. With only 5 total slots, you have to be more careful. I would like to nix or at least tone down the skills, however. Not to FE8's pathetic amount, but there are just so many skills that are utterly worthless. Tone the number down to an FE4-ish level, and run with that. I'm not a fan of Mastery Skills, either, since they end up making the game easier as well, considering enough enemies don't have them.

I'm not a fan of a bunch of the things that FE10 brought around, either. Third tiers? Don't care for 'em. Strikes? Meh. I never cared for Laguz anyway. Treasure hidden on most maps? Definitely no. Data transfer... no. (Abundance of returning characters... let's not get into that one.) Forging? Well, I can see some advantages to it, but it needs to be improved significantly. Biorhythm being useful? Meh. It was an interesting concept that they screwed up in FE9 and turned me off since then. (FE9) Bonus EXP? This might be an exception. Equipping Staves? Hell yes. It's something that I've always had a problem with until now.

In terms of weapon stats, I do have to say that FE7 has the most balanced overall, with a few exceptions (Luna, etc.). With some tweaks and modifications to accommodate newer semantics for stats and the like, I think weapon stats would be more balanced than they've been as of late.

Continuing on the subject of weapons, while they say never to fix what isn't broken, I'm definitely for revamping and expanding the FE Formula™. Yes, there's always the issue of space within the data, so huge, diverse lists of weaponry and items aren't exactly economical in most cases. However, as disk space gets increasingly larger over time, I'm sure that there will inevitably be enough room at some point for a much larger list of weapons and items. Granted, some of what I'm about to suggest may completely invalidate points I've made earlier (such as inventory size), but most of these ideas are ones that can't be done in current titles in the series or at least haven't been attempted yet.

Weaponry: The standard Swords, Axes, Lances, Bows set up works nice and fine, yes. The weapon triangle is one of the things that makes Fire Emblem what it is. I propose an expansion of the existing concepts. For starters, simply increasing the total number of weapons in each category. Yes, you can say that some groups have enough as it is (such as Swords having 25 in FE7), but this allows the game to become more of an RPG (well, more an MMO, given the vast number of weapons to choose from, but still). Daggers/Knives are meh to me, as they could be integrated into Swords. Keeping them separate works too.

Along with the increase in weapons in each type comes diversity of weapons. For instance, within Swords, replacing the concept of the Blades would be a new "Blade"-like sword which focused more on defending rather than all out physical strength. Within Lances, you get the addition of Scythes or similar weapons, which place more of a focus on dealing critical hits rather than hitting or causing more base damage. Within Axes, you get Maces, which allow the users to partially ignore some of the foe's Defense. Within Bows, we can keep the concept of Crossbows, but extremely revamping them from their overpowered status in FE10. On top of this comes more unique effects applied to weapons. For instance, moving an enemy a square backwards when they get hit by your unit that's using a Pike. Or an imbued sword that causes a foe's Defense to be halved until the beginning of the next corresponding phase that they're hit in (i.e. Player -> Player, Enemy -> Enemy). Heck, even something like giving a weapon the ability to never miss (which sounds broken, but can easily be fixed by making it heavy, weak, and/or giving it vastly limited uses) is something new that could be done.

Along with this comes a concept that I developed long ago as a new feature for a (defunct) (map/stat) RP: Parrying. It only makes sense that a unit isn't going to just stand somewhere and wait to get hit by an enemy that's attacking them. They're going to give everything they have to at least block the attack. As such, Swords, Lances, and Axes (and Staves) all would have a parrying stat (percentage) built in to them. Those defending swords I mentioned above? Those have improved Parrying values compared to the rest of the swords. Each weapon has it's own percentage tied to it. Most would be standard for the weapon set, but some would deviate here and there to account for other things built in on the weapon. It at least makes battles more unpredictable and adds a further element of realism to the series.

Magic/Staves: This is where things get more interesting, in my opinion. While I like the current setup that is employed in regards to magic (more FE10's double triangle than any of the others (and, no, it's not FE4's, since FE4's is WTF in design)), so much more can be accomplished with it. For instance, I actually liked the idea of having a neutral magic like Light was in FE9. This is something that I wish they'd bring back, at least in some shape or form. I think something needs to be rectified for AS for magic users, though. One theory about having to rely on Con or Str for AS was that the spell took a physical toll on the user. Make some kind of new "stat" that keeps track of the mental strain that the spell takes instead then. Certain units will have higher mental tolerances because of their experience or schooling or whatever. Back to neutral magic, many people in the fandom have suggested including something like Earth Magic as a neutral equivalent, however, as has been pointed out to them, Earth (as its concept in earlier FE games) has been broken up between Light and Dark in the different games. As such, I go for something simple: Non-elemental. Give it any name that you want, but this is the easiest and most simple way of describing it. Magic of this type generally has effects (new ones, too) tacked on to each spell to give them some usefulness. I'll get to the effects in a minute or two. It would be great for every magic wielding class to use this variant of magic, since it isn't limited to a specific discipline. However, you either have to arbitrarily assign a weapon level or find someway to implement the weapon level with respect to the user's current weapon levels of other magic types, and then it just gets confusing.

As for tome effects, this is where the door gets blown wide open. Just within the Non-elemental set, you could have so many distinct possibilites, and it only extends to the other types as well. For instance, one non-elemental spell that I came up with for an RP was basically a "full-reaver" type of spell. Regardless of what spell you were up against (except the same spell), you would always have WTA over the foe. However, so it wasn't completely broken as a spell, the user doesn't get the WTA bonuses. The foe recieves the WTD penalties, but it makes it less severe of a gap. Within each discipline of existing magic, you can have things like the ability to lower a foe's AS by a certain value (in Wind (or Water/Ice if you extend Anima to more types)), or even multi-targeting spells, based on whether you hit the first target (Chain Lightning-influenced, if you've ever played Diablo II). The possibilities are much greater with spells for unique effects that are tacked on. There's more to expand on, but Staves get some limelight time first.

I already mentioned that Staves should most definitely be equipable, like in FE10. But now, add in more creative staves. Sure, there's (limited) attacking staves, that spurt out a magical spell as their effect. Those have been done before (though I do personally like the idea). But, what about reactive staves? Staves where you get to choose what they do in a certain situation. For instance, you can heal one target for Mag+10 like the Heal Staff, or you could cure a different target like the Recover Staff, all on one staff. Add in combinational effects like being able to heal and attack (with separate use counters) and things could get quite interesting. You could also expand the Barrier Staff's concept to other stats and make combination stat increasing staves (+4 Def and +4 Res on the same staff instead of the usual +7 to one stat, for instance) or even make a staff that gives an effect like Renewal in FE9 for a few turns.

Now for the good stuff. Tying both Magic and Staves together is what I will now call expanded targeting. Twilkitri made reference to it with what he called MAP attacks. For instance, have a spell that targets one unit, but does "splash damage" to all of the units in the 4 adjacent squares. Or have a spell that allows the user to target two units within a Range 1-2 field (either around the impact square of the spell or around the caster, depending on the spell) and hit them both with something or even heal both targets in one turn. This even leads into spells that target all units on the field (more likely allies with healing spells than enemies with offensive spells). For instance, a healing staff that heals all allies for Mag+0. No more need for that (useless) Fortify staff! This is so much better. Expanding the possible targetting options can allow for so much more flexibility in setting up strategies and even making gameplay that much more reactive and enjoyable.

Items: Not much here, other than some changes and expanding. For instance, if we have an item that fully heals all HP, why isn't there a situational item that can heal any status ailment, that way we don't have to wait out the duration or always bring Restore Staves with us? I think some of the games have been on the right track with "accessory" items that grant a passive effect for having them equipped. That concept just needs to be broadened. Include some kind of item that increases a unit's Crit stat by a slight amount or halves effective damage or something interesting. And, there's always shields, like in TRS (+Def, +Res, +Def/+Res, with stat requirements, so you just don't give a Level 1/-- unit the best shield possible to let them baby themselves up to a higher level cheaply).

Classes are getting boring. Sure, FE10 gave us third tier units that were different from what we've been seeing for a long time. And, yes, the basic classes are FE staples. Regardless, that doesn't make them any less boring. I think there needs to be a push for some more unique classes, or even recreating current ones to fill certain roles. Why should Generals be the only units that are like tanks in terms of Defense? Paladins have armor and shields. So do Heroes. Giving classes fundamental "jobs" might take away some from the ability to just run in and smite things, but it might provide something different than what we've had arguably since the beginning of the series. This one is up to individuals how to interpret, as the bounds are really only imagination and technical limitations. If you come up with an inventive new class, that's wonderful. It's a start to breaking up the same traffic jam that we've had in basically every game. Inventive skills (if you so choose to include them) are also applicable here as well. For example, the Smith class that Twilkitri mentioned in his post. It's certainly inventive, and it would give a reason to get rid of the useless Hammerne staff.

Supports can work like they have in FE9 and FE10. Base conversations once the units have been on the field long enough. You don't have to worry about the problems of accidentally getting support points like you do in the GBA titles. However, I'd like supports to play more of an active role in battles than just passive bonuses. If you really have that great of a bond with someone, you're going to fight by their side and do everything in your power to protect them and help them out. You're not just going to give moral bonuses like the current support bonuses do.

And, with supports, I lead into combo attacks. This stems from the Super Robot Wars series, as Twilkitri noted in his post. Though, I'm adapting it with some old spriting concepts. At most, battles become a 3 vs. 3 affair and things get vastly complicated. (Trust me, making 3v3 Battle Scenes are not fun with figuring out which attack values correspond to which unit...) Units that are engaging powerful enemies can "team up" in a Triangle Attack-esque formation, but instead of performing a Triangle Attack, the units all engage the foe and will take turns attacking them. It's much more simple in cases of 2v1 or 3v1, though 2v2 is still easy enough to visualize. Supports factor much better into this, that way you can units playing off of each other and seting up even more strategical possibilities. (Though also making this entire thing so completely confusing that it likely would kill the average FE player.) Best visual representation of this? MageKnight404's battle dialogue between his two OCs, Chris and Jenny, and another OC, Fredrick. Alternatively, if you were to look at his Photobucket and see the healing scene with Shion and Lucia from his Worlds Collide RP, it'd be another represenation of the whole combo attack idea.

Edited December 3, 2008 by Lord Glenn

[Icon of Sin]

Eh I'll throw in my 2 cents too I guess, with some inspiration from LG.

I played FE 3-10, so I have know my fair share of mechanics used in all Fire Emblem and which I think should be scrapped. I also spent some time in the FE 11 section of the site to get some info.

IMO the best system of classes was the FE 10 one, but I don't mean 3rd tiers. Basically I mean that there's a sword specialist, a mounted knight on a horse who acts as an all-rounder, a clerical magician based on support, etc.

What I do think should be better on that system is:

No promotion items

FE 1, 3 and 11 Catapults

Complete the promotion paths: Bandit->Berserker, (something)->Assassin

A few old classes, namely the Mage Knights and Barons

A few custom classes are nice to have

Branched promotions, though they do need some balance (Ranger vs. Sniper anyone?). I actually had a RP project a long ago which started from the FE 8 class changing tree and I ended up having a Knight -> Baron, using Lances and a magic type + staves, but with weaker physical stats than the General.

Capture definitely needs to come back. I always found it odd that, aside from FE 5 and, to a lesser extent, FE 9 and 10, there was no option to actually steal weapons from enemies.

FE 11 brought, at least for secret shops, a maximum number of items for sale. This is definitely good, as you can't produce your own metals yourself. I do think you should also be able to remelt weapons ( for example, I could sell my 13 uses left Steel Sword to repair my 17 uses left one, effectively making something good as new ). In a way, it's kinda like repairing, anothe rfeature I enjoyed in FE 4.

Con as a whole is not really a stat I want to see a growth, mostly because I feel it should only be used for rescues and captures, not for As calculations and stealing. I do, however, want to see a small movement growth like in FE 5, mostly as a gamble.

Don't bring back scrolls, star orb shards or Holy Blood. They're definitely too broken. I did like the Afa's Drops, if only because you only had one, which meant you could give it to your favorite. They didn't have a broken side effect either ( critical protection or unbreakable weapons ).

Personnal weapons should come back in more quantity, but maybe not as broken as a few in FE 5. 2x attack is fine in my book, but when you have 2 skills, bonus critical and 60 uses on top of that, it gets over the top. Only one of them at a time.

Gaidens...I have a mixed feeling about it. It pretty much depends on the story. FE 9's story felt more straightforward than in FE 7 where you had to discover the past of Nils and Ninian. If they do bring it, make it for storyline reasons.

Split routes are fine in my book. I liked FE 5's split road quite a lot, since it forced you to either take the front against the main force, including the genius tactician that will increase the morale of the enemy so high you'll be forced to retreat, or to take the lighter route, which is more about not being seen.

Now as I just brought in my last paragraph, I do want Leadership stars, and I do want several armies per maps. I do think the Leadership stars have an hybrid effect from FE 4 to FE 5: they only affect the units the Leader is commanding, on all the map instead of a 3 square radius.

The base system felt a bit odd in Tellius for a few reasons. For example: 4-4 in FE 10. You'd come there as Ike and co. trying to defend Tormod and pals in an ambush. However, you could go back to base WITH them, which IMO makes no sense. Basically, once you leave the base, you can't come back. I do think a merchant should also come with you. Since I do think there should be shops outside, make items at the tent cost more. What should he sell? Weapons you can buy at this point, always in limited quantity ( I'm tempted to actually say 1 ), with a restock that varies along with weapon levels: 1 for E, 2 for D, etc.

I would axe the forge though. Mostly because there's more custom weapons.

5 items for character seems enough.

As for skills, my main problem from the Tellius FE is that enemies barely had them. I do think a few of them should be class based, like in TRS and FE 4-5, and maybe the rest should be gained when levelled up. A few skills would need to be toned down (Shooting Star), and some completely removed (Roar, Stun, Deadeye). Manuals should also come back.

Much like LG, I approve of the FE 9 Bonus experience system ( With the other, it's too easy to patch weak growths ) and the Staff equipment ( Here I think they should have their own Mt, instead of a generic 1. They should also be able to break. )

Now weapons... I say keep the Knives, and much like FE 10, give them a higher critical hit. Knives are mostly used to strike vital parts like the throat and heart, so I could definitely see that. Alternatively, you could add some sort of "backstab" skill, which enables you to strike without being notice and do extra damage. Should this skill be used, maybe Stealth maps should come more often.

Other weapon types would be good. I had that planned for my scrapped RP, but it was actually just like FE 10's Wind Edges, Greatlances and Poleaxes. What LG said sounds actually quite good and, in a way, would basically continue on the trend started by Knives. Perhaps we're going to call them Slashing/Piercing/Smashing weapons in the future, with the addition of Bows for Missile.

I also saw something in FE 9 and 10: Armor added weight to a character. Now, why not defense? Sure, perhaps we should change the base speed and defense of each class, but it's something that could add to charactercustomization? Want a speedier General? Trade that full plate mail for a simple breast plate.

As for magic, this needs to be customized ASAP, since all magics feel more or less alike, except maybe Luna and Eclipse. I'll use the FE 10 system as a base. Definitely add the element of Water/Ice, which should take the place of Wind in FE 10. Wind should be slightly less powerful as a result, but is the only magic with an effectiveness: flyers. Thunder should gain +1 might each tome, but shouldn't change any place else. Fire doesn't change at all. Light should probably be like it was in FE 7 and 8: weak and heavy, but accurate and criticals a lot. Dark should be the unknown and corrupt. Base tome that poisons? Hell yeah. Hp to 1? Definitely good, and I say make a short and long range version of that. Negates magic resistance? In between FE 7 and FE 8 in accuracy, and erase the critical. HP Drain? Definitely. Devil tome? Sure. Finally a tome that has a completely random effect ( the Engima tome? ) which ranges from any status effect and any condition I just mentionned in the last few lines? Well I'd say we have a pretty interesting legendary dark magic weapon!

Non elemental magic is also quite interesting, which should also have its own quirks. As LG mentionned a Diablo reference, I'll make another one and call it the "Magic" element ( or Arcane like it is in Diablo 3 ). This definitely should be the secondary type of magic for ALL mages, should they get one on promotion. IMO it should also be randomized, so that it acts a bit like the opposite weapon of the one you're specializing in already.

AoE effects, especially for 3-10 range spells, though what LG mentionned about crossing magic and staves is also good, should definitely be implemented. What is more fun to bombard a single unit with a boiling hot meteorite? Destroy a cross formation in one hit with one. This should be slightly based on FE 9 and 10's Onager. This kind of magic could also alter the terrain. Fire and lightning burn vegetation, while water magic could create a puddle and dark magic could twist nature itself. Of course, it would also add more strategy. What good is to eradicate a group of enemies when your MVP could die if you casted a massive blizzard right on him?

For items, LG forgot the Panacea, a rare cure all item of FE 10, but this should be implemented more, even though only Silence would be cured considering units in Berserk, Sleep and Stone status can't be controlled. I already explained my points on armor, which I find somewhat equivalent to his shields, but I'd like the equivalent of a Knight Ward on other type of units. Something for infantry, archery, magicians and flyers too.

The combo attack system related to supports...as I see it, is an evolution of the Triangle attack we all know, expect with a support. Since we could get as much as 5 different people as supports in FE 6-9, I'd say it would fit the FE 10 system more, which also means this: limit the options. While I did like the ability to support X with anyone else, the character development suffered a tremendous blow and as a result, FE 10 characters have about as much personnality as FE 1-3 characters. Besides it's always fun to read useless tidbits of information, but a few of them were quite funny.

I guess that's basically it...

Edited December 3, 2008 by Captain Falcon

[Lord Glenn]

(I haven't played far enough into FE10 to have seen the Panacea yet. >_>)

You bring up two points that I forgot to consider.

First point: Yes, I forgot about status ailments that prevent controlling the character. Perhaps a way to rectify that would be to make the all-restore item act similar to the Potions and Fairies in the Legend of Zelda games: On the Player Phase following the phase that you were hit with the ailment, a use of the item will automatically drop off, and it will auto-cure the character. (Conveniently, make it some kind of cure that works by aroma, so that the question of using the item while asleep or petrified (etc.) doesn't arise.)

Second point: Something that I completely forgot to mention: We need more status ailments (both positive and negative). An example, that goes along with the AS reduction magic effect from my (uber huge) post, would be something like a status called Frostbite, which is actually the thing that causes the AS reduction (if the spell hits). With the overly vast options to the open mind (for instance, your idea of random status effects on the one tome - which is something I readily approve of, as I had a skill for a class in my old RP data that acted very similar), it's entirely possibly to come up with new status effects and effects for weapons/items. (Honestly, basically any skill that you could come up with (that isn't massively broken) could probably be integrated into a status or weapon effect.)

(Also, you mentioning FE10's failure of a support setup does make me want to add an addendum to my previous post: I was referring only to the "build up just by bringing to the battlefield" aspect of the system, not the crappy "can support with any one unit of the entire cast, but the supports are overly generic and not plot building at all" aspect.)

I do like the idea of forcing the secondary magic type of promoted units to be just simply "Magic/Arcane". That actually might be a viable solution to my "Non-elemental" conundrum, though it rules out the possibility of using it before promotion (which would be nice, given that the spells are tailored from E to A (no S rank, sorry)).

[Ike-Mike]

And, with supports, I lead into combo attacks

While combo attacks were a very nice mechanic in Yggdra Union and SRW, I think it'd be too convoluted for a Fire Emblem.

What Fire Emblem should take from SRW though is the way SRW treats split paths. Instead of 1 to 2 opportunites to take another path like in Sword of Seals or Thracia there should be split paths every few chapters. I know mix and matching a new route every time would make me want to replay the game more than trying to achieve a higher rank.

While I did like the ability to support X with anyone else, the character development suffered a tremendous blow and as a result, FE 10 characters have about as much personnality as FE 1-3 characters.

But it gave more variation to the GAMEPLAY.

I'll let you figure that one out.

What I'd also like to see is Monshou's and PoR's bond system but with bigger bonuses and/or higher range. A puny crit bonus you get when standing next to each other is not something I'd take advantage of.

[dondon151]

I really didn't like movement growth and movement stars in FE5... Movement growth is way too abusable and movement stars activate so infrequently that they're rather pointless (well, maybe not for staff users).

I'd actually prefer a whole lot less randomization in FE. I'm fine with random stat growths as is, but I've also had the idea of stacking base growths on random growths so that a character will always grow viably, but he has a chance of growing better. Like I said earlier, I'd also like to see build growth if it isn't randomized (e.g. grows like weapon levels).

Another idea is to modify the hit/miss mechanic; for example, a unit has a certain chance to hit for full damage, then an RN gradient where he will hit for gradually decreasing damage, and a certain chance to miss for no damage.

What LG said about combo attacks I don't necessarily agree with, but I've always found it strange that one unit surrounded by enemy units will suffer no combat penalties. If something to counteract this is implemented, it would certainly discourage one from sending his most broken unit to solo an army, or something of that sort.

[irtikliwT]

I've heard that in the latest SRW, units take a small evade penalty for each time they dodge an attack until they get hit by something (or something along those lines). I could see liking a similar system coming into FE in some manner.

With regards to randomised growths... TRSBS, unless I've completely misinterpreted the book which is highly possible, traces out the average growth of each character in each stat, and each character has in addition to their growth rate a variance amount, and their stats are enforced to be between the average for that level +/- the variance. So if they went up a level and didn't go up in a stat, but that would drop them outside the range, they'll go up anyway; but also if they were going to go up and go above the range, they won't go up anyway. Personally, I don't know what I think of that system (regardless of how off I am about how it works)...

[Gemini-Saga]

This Points are Interesting at least, somebody should right to Nintendo and give this Ideas :P

About Skills just Nerf the Masters Skills or use them like FE9 with Occult Scroll...

If Enemy have them on FE 10 it would to frustant to get Killed at least Twice a Turn >_<

[Saaji]

I really like many of the ideas mentioned in the topic so far, I'll give my two cents now.

Weapons there should be a lot more in each category, and like Lord Glenn mention we can include 'different' weapons under the existing triangle. The weapon triangle could have another triangle within it like Magic.

So we have Swords>Axes>Lances>Sword we can have a sub category sword within the sword types. Knives/Short Swords, Standard swords/sabers > Great Swords/"Blades" Then we can have so some classes specialize in using certain type of swords, like thieves gain an accuracy bonus when using knives over sabers and blades, and heck we can say they suffer a minor penalty for using blades not anything too big.. but it would make sense a thief wouldn't be capable of using giant swords as efficiently

Also the introduction of combat staffs would be interesting, now they'd be the weakest of the weapon types for sure but it would give priests some hope of survival and make em a bit easier to raise also.

Skills should be made more common, and probably powered down a little bit and make less costly, and make enemies appear with them more often.

As for supports I really like the way FE9 handled them, though I would like to see a mix of that and Fe10. Allow us to support anyone with anyone but they're would be support support options that would give you long winded conversations between characters. Though for those that don't have really strong ties or wont grow them give them unique conversation just nothing life changing thats all. Like for Example Zihark supports Gatrie and they don't become best of friends but perhaps we learn a small little tidbit here and there bout the two.

I enjoyed the three class system, though I think it would only work in a long fire emblem, or one with large maps and tons of enemies. So we'd need to have the maps close to the size of FE4 but with around twice the enemy count, and we could up playable character count up a bit. Though only if we character decent character development actually.

Now I'd like to see a small bit of customization in our lord, lets say we get to decide his primary weapon for a change you know chose between swords,axes,and lances. And with that his specialization in the weapon type that I mention earlier or he could chose none and just not receive any bonus or penalties.

Lastly I would like the classes to be balanced out a bit more. Make so it's a 50/50(or close to to it) fight between between a Sword master and General[i see them as the extreme opposites in weapon classes]

[Seph]

The following:

- FE4's holy blood bonuses and holy weapons, no matter how powerful they are.

- The lover system from FE4 with FE9's support system (sounds kind of weird).

- FE9 and 10's base.

- FE4 maps.

- FE8 overworld map.

- FE4 enemies but with better stats, similar to FE6.

- FE4's amazing story.

- FE8's branched promotion.

- FE10's third tier promotion.

- FE5's capture.

- FE4, 9 and 10's skill system.

- FE4, 9 and 10's stats (like Strength and Magic both being in).

- FE4's music.

- FE6's route split.

- FE10's whole weapon system (anima triangle within magic triangle) but with FE4's holy weapons.

- Ditch the laguz and biorhythm.

- Rescue.

[General Spoon]

Needs these (and some more):

-FE4's map sizes

-FE10's number of maps

-FE8's overworld map thing

-FE8's branching promotions

-FE10's three tier system

-Wind, fire, and thunder magic

-Holy Weapons (like in FE4)

-FE4's Castle Towns

-FE5's Capturing

-Rescuing

-Great story/plot

-FE4's roads that actually do something

-Nomads

-FE9's support system

[Gemini-Saga]

FE4 system is so Overrated that afraids me X_X

FE4 was good in it's own way... but I don't think we can se another FE with that System without looking to a Clone :\

[ZephyrD]

This is an idea Reikken had and he hacked FE7 to add this and I like it personally.

He made each Skill give THREE hit and each Luck give ONE hit. Now naturally weapon HIT would be decreased. Adding more dependent on the character than the weapon. Skill is often considered the most worthless stat, mostly because it does very little, a sword user is very unlikely to miss even with low skill, axes (depending on the game) have shit for hit regardless of your skill.

Edited December 5, 2008 by ZephyrShakuraus

[Saaji]

This is an idea Reikken had and he hacked FE7 to add this and I like it personally.

He made each Skill give THREE hit and each Luck give ONE hit. Now naturally weapon HIT would be decreased. Adding more dependent on the character than the weapon. Skill is often considered the most worthless stat, mostly because it does very little, a sword user is very unlikely to miss even with low skill, axes (depending on the game) have shit for hit regardless of your skill.

I think that's a great idea. That would change things drastically if it was applied retroactively...