Thoughts on Fixed Mode

[Uscari]

I really like Fixed Mode. I have beaten PoR 7 times, and 4 of those times was with fixed mode.

From what I've read, this was the only FE game up until Engage to have a fixed leveling mode.

That's crazy to me, I think this should be an option in every single Fire Emblem game. Being able to actually see how units perform when meeting their averages, and the guarantee of not being stat screwed is amazing. It's such a great way to play, honestly if I had to choose between fixed and random, I'd go with fixed.

To me, there's plenty of replayability in just being able to try out different team compositions and see how units perform without any buff or penalty one way or the other.

Don't get me wrong, when you keep using most of the same units you used in a previous run, having random growths to add some variety is great, but not having a baseline game mode to spring from into that is just odd to me.

I will say for this game I'm not such a big fan of the equipment and class alterations, I'm fine with having NG+ items like the rings to influence growths (I don't tend to use them), but I'm not a fan of losing strength because I'm using an iron axe or because I'm fighting a raven. That kind of thing is impossible to keep track of and hurts the integrity of the mode.

What are your thoughts on fixed mode?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Uscari said:

That's crazy to me, I think this should be an option in every single Fire Emblem game. Being able to actually see how units perform when meeting their averages, and the guarantee of not being stat screwed is amazing. It's such a great way to play, honestly if I had to choose between fixed and random, I'd go with fixed.

Yeah, pretty much agreed all-around! Fixed Mode is probably my favorite innovation that Path of Radiance brought to the table, and it's a shame that if never returned. Not even for Radiant Dawn.

Given that we often evaluate units on an "average stats" basis, having a mode where units are held to these can be instructive fir their general utility. I can't be confident that I'm rating Mia accurately, if she just got five Strength levels-up in a row. I also think the "class bands", and the Knight Ward, combine great with this system... even if the boosts the bands offer could be a bit more impactful. 

[Eltosian Kadath]

7 hours ago, Uscari said:

 

That's crazy to me, I think this should be an option in every single Fire Emblem game. Being able to actually see how units perform when meeting their averages, and the guarantee of not being stat screwed is amazing. It's such a great way to play, honestly if I had to choose between fixed and random, I'd go with fixed.

There were a pair of classic GBA mods for FE6 and FE7 that made the games effectively be in fixed growth mode (everyone's stats set to their averages at that level). I want to say they were called Tony Mode mods, but I don't remember the exact reasons why, and finding working links to the patches for them now may be a bit tricky.

 

[whase]

I agree, fixed mode is great. I hope their inclusion in Engage means we get to see it more often. I'm not sure what to think of all the minor buffs and debuffs to growths though. On the one hand I enjoy planning these things out. But since the growths are invisible in the game itself, it means you need to look them up and that's not great game design. Like how most horse-riding classes in Three Houses give a penalty to speed growth, I would have liked to know that on my first playthrough.

I played an FE8 hack I found on these forums that has a fixed mode, and shows growth rates. I would love to see that introduced in an actual FE game. Except including ways to alter those growth rates (bands, reclassing, etc.)

[Shadow Mir]

I hate fixed mode. As much as the randomness of level ups can be aggravating, I have pretty much embraced it. Fixed mode just doesn't feel like Fire Emblem at all. It does NOT help that it is a NIGHTMARE to figure out how it works.

[Uscari]

23 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I hate fixed mode. As much as the randomness of level ups can be aggravating, I have pretty much embraced it. Fixed mode just doesn't feel like Fire Emblem at all. It does NOT help that it is a NIGHTMARE to figure out how it works.

I will admit there is an undeniable thrill to having no idea how your next level up will go. Even in the long term it is enjoyable to be on the emotional roller coaster of suffering bad levels for your favorite units, hoping that if you stick it out they eventually redeem themselves, or the opposite, where a unit starts amazing but has a fall from grace.

Having said that, my limited understanding of Fire Emblem aside, I'll just say that for PoR, that feeling is not so intrinsic to the experience that it feels like a different game without it. There are so many other things about PoR aside from the leveling system that makes it feel unique.

To me, as a newbie to the whole franchise and genre of tactical RPG, fixed levels is very familiar to me. That's how almost all RPG leveling normally works. Not only is leveling attributes often not random, but you have surgical control over how to shape your characters. Fire Emblem is unique for me in that it is the only RPG where I have almost no control over how my characters are built statistically, and that the creativity in this game revolves around team composition, and not individual character customization.

Even the ability to change your growths by using certain weapons or attacking certain enemies kind of reminds me of the Elder Scrolls games where you get better at something by doing certain things. I'm not a huge fan of that in this context but it's not something terribly foreign to me. What's foreign to me is feeding a ton of experience to a unit, they don't level any stats, and then they die permanently. Once again this is something I like about Fire Emblem, but as someone new to the franchise it's nice to have a leveling system that is more familiar to me, where I can count on my experience yielding predictable results I can plan around. 

I think fixed mode is actually pretty intuitive, but it's explained and implemented in a way that's confusing to most people because it's built around a game where your stat numbers are relatively low. In most RPGs, you wouldn't have attribute caps at 30, 40, or 80, they'd be 300, 40000, maybe even 800000. "Growth Points" would not be necessary because you'd yield actual stat increases every single level, rather than have an invisible tally that eventually leads to a stat increase.

It would help if you had some menu for tracking the progress of growth points, or even having some kind of option in the character menu where you can swap to "decimal view" to see how close each of your attributes are to leveling.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I enjoy fixed mode. Random stats versus fixed stats each have their own appeal to me, therefore I like the option to choose either. I have friends for whom the random stat growths are a big turnoff; fixed mode helps make the games more appealing to them. But obviously random growths have a long history in the series, and I wouldn't propose getting rid of them.

One thing I like about fixed mode is it's sometimes nice to experiment with a rarely-used unit and have them turn out how they "should". I only rarely use Rolf, but when I did use him (on fixed mode), I knew he was turning out the way he should, so I would get an objective feel on how good he is at each point in the game. By comparison, if I pick out a character I rarely use in another FE, and s/he gets seriously RNG-screwed (or blessed), I feel like I haven't actually learned much about them as a unit.

[Uscari]

On 8/3/2023 at 12:49 AM, Dark Holy Elf said:

I enjoy fixed mode. Random stats versus fixed stats each have their own appeal to me, therefore I like the option to choose either. I have friends for whom the random stat growths are a big turnoff; fixed mode helps make the games more appealing to them. But obviously random growths have a long history in the series, and I wouldn't propose getting rid of them.

One thing I like about fixed mode is it's sometimes nice to experiment with a rarely-used unit and have them turn out how they "should". I only rarely use Rolf, but when I did use him (on fixed mode), I knew he was turning out the way he should, so I would get an objective feel on how good he is at each point in the game. By comparison, if I pick out a character I rarely use in another FE, and s/he gets seriously RNG-screwed (or blessed), I feel like I haven't actually learned much about them as a unit.

I definitely agree that being able to predict how units will perform at each stage of the game is very interesting and makes considerations of team composition more rewarding.

Like, is Brom fast enough that Berserkers and Archers don't double him?

Can Tormod with 2 spirit dusts and his A support with Reyson 1-round Dragon's using Bolting/Rexbolt?

Can Kieran reliably 1-round Wyvern Lords using a Silver Bow?

Does Titania have sufficient Res/HP to pull Elthunder mages and survive a crit, where other Paladins can't? Does she have enough Luck that she doesn't get crit to begin with?

Can Stefan with 2 Ashera Icons avoid getting crit by generic enemies?

Can Ike with Resolve and his Soren A support 1-round all enemies on the final map?

Just fun little observations and distinct niches you can conclude for characters even with seemingly miniscule differences in stats. You don't really learn this stuff in random mode.

[Cosmos]

What exactly does fixed mode do? I know how random mode works but not fixed. It does something about your growths?

[samthedigital]

21 hours ago, Cosmos said:

What exactly does fixed mode do? I know how random mode works but not fixed. It does something about your growths?

https://serenesforest.net/path-of-radiance/general/fixed-mode/