To Become an Elitist [Playlogs FE1-5] [currently playing: Thracia 776]

[Saint Rubenio]

3 hours ago, ping said:

By overestimating Quan's bulk, who was chipped down to... I think it was 21 HP at the start of the enemy phase. I can't help but assume that he's a Duessel, an Armour Knight on a horse, because of his nature as a hard-hitting, not-(reliably-)doubling character, but his HP/Def honestly isn't all that outstanding. Holyn is only behind by 1 Def (with the same max HP) compared to Quan.

Bad unit feel lmao

3 hours ago, ping said:

Because, speaking of, they're running around.

You know, I never did think about it but it might truly be worth just ignoring Lacky.

3 hours ago, ping said:

But let's focus on nice things for now: Another boss kill for Azel, although it's only worth 50 XP. Again, my GBAFE brain insists that things should work like GBAFE, for Saint Elimine's sake! In this case: that killing a General boss with an unpromoted Mage should be worth a full level!

I mean, to be honest, that's the way it should be just period. I don't think there are many FEs where the boss kill doesn't give you at least some extra EXP. It just feels right.

3 hours ago, ping said:

: "Gah... My... castle..."

This is a funny death quote. I know bosses lamenting the loss of their wealth, power, etc. over their actual death is common, but this guy's just sad about his house specifically. I don't know, there's something weirdly amusing about that to me. It's like this dude wanted to lament the loss of his great something, but then remembered he's a nobody who has nothing great, so he just cried about the one thing he has: A castle. Not even a particularly good one, he just has a castle. But hey, it's his castle!

3 hours ago, ping said:

 

The solution is always to conquer another castle. If Sigurd would run out of toilet paper in the morning, his solution would be to seize the neighboring castle.

Naturally. The neighboring castle might have the money he needs to buy more toilet paper!

[Jotari]

Those two turns you speculated shaving off might be worth it. The time frame to save the Bargain Ring village is extremely tight. And it's honestly an amazing item, as it basically let's it's holder use any of the items in the Pawn Shop for free.

I think I had something else to say, but I got distracted making this.

 

 

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, to be honest, that's the way it should be just period. I don't think there are many FEs where the boss kill doesn't give you at least some extra EXP. It just feels right.

You really wanna have all of the dozen or so bosses on a map give bonus exp? Even though they already give more EXP due to their higher level?

[ping]

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

19 speed Sigurd? At level 17? Jesus Christ.

+3.4 Spd, that is. Other than that, Sigurd is fairly average, with +2 Skl, but slightly below average bulk (-1.2 HP, -0.8 Def).

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Isn't that the "right" way to do it, at least in GBAFE? Since bosses give a fixed EXP bonus, regardless of which unit is killing them. Getting 35 EXP on Seth (when a normal kill would be 5 EXP) is a bigger deal than 100 EXP on Franz (when a normal kill would be 30 EXP). Not sure how exactly it works in FE4, to be fair.

The "right" way is to feed the kill to your trainees, of course

For SacSto, you're probably right, but for BlaBla, I'm not as certain. Marcus still benefits from level-ups, of course, but unlike Seth, you do eventually get characters that are better at fighting than he is. I think I'd rather have 100 XP on Sain/Kent/a Pegasus/Heath. (that said, the last time I played FE7 was as a ranked run, so my perception might still be skewed by that)

In BinBla, things are certainly as they Should Be, with Marcus being best used to set up kills for growth units, my signature notwithstanding.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Yeah, I generally think the Return Band is best on your Return Staff user. Since self-Returning is a terminal action, but using the Return Staff is not, a unit can "double down" and return another unit, and themself, on the same turn. Another Return candidate is Erinys - in my experience, it's easier to get her to level 20 than Lachesis. So you can have not just a mounted Return staffer, but one who flies over the rivers and forests of Silesse as well. IMO it's not the best on Sigurd, since Seizing is also a terminal action. He can't Seize and self-return on the same turn.

As for Azelle, it's fine on him, for the time being. I'd view it, though, as a source of an additional 10K gold. If that lets him afford the Magic Ring, or the Speed Ring - maybe the Paragon Bamd for a round of Arena'ing - all the better.

Good points. I like the concept of staff-using Pegasus Knights (in case anybody wonders who Erinys is most likely going to marry...), so Erinys sounds quite interesting. Come to think of it - I'll have to think about who to pass the Return staff to. Fee won't have a staff rank yet. Nanna is the first kid that comes to mind, I'd say...

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"Thief Sword" is too confusing, since it doesn't belong on a Thief. Since it grants the Steal skill, it really ought to be called the "Steal Sword". No way that could be confusing!

Since "skill" is already used for the skill stat, we should try to avoid calling Steal/Adept/Accost/... "skills", too. Very confusing. I think referring to somebody's special abilities as their "strengths" sounds sensible. "Steal strength" or "Critical strength" roll off the tongue easily, I find.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Bad unit feel lmao

Honestly, kinda, yeah. Quan feels very unremarkable for a prepromote, with middling offensive power because he doesn't double consistently (and when he does, you don't expect it and he might die) and can't tank particularly well.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Naturally. The neighboring castle might have the money he needs to buy more toilet paper!

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Not the worst idea. The neighboring castle almost certainly has toilet paper, and they're a shorter drive away from the supermarket.

And if necessary, he can sell the bathroom towels at the pawn shop so that he can afford it. There really is absolutely no flaw with this plan, come to think of it.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Those two turns you speculated shaving off might be worth it. The time frame to save the Bargain Ring village is extremely tight. And it's honestly an amazing item, as it basically let's it's holder use any of the items in the Pawn Shop for free.

I haven't reached the next castle yet because my brain still defaults to "OK, Quan can recruit Beowulf and then canter far enough back from th-- SHIT", but I can give a little spoiler and say that the combination of Dance, Adept, Critical, and Holyn advancing the random number string is still enough to save the top left village, even with a turn to spare.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I think I had something else to say, but I got distracted making this.

Wonderful. It's odd to see Sigurd without his horse, but I guess he had to leave it at the castle for maximum sneakiness.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Those two turns you speculated shaving off might be worth it. The time frame to save the Bargain Ring village is extremely tight. And it's honestly an amazing item, as it basically let's it's holder use any of the items in the Pawn Shop for free.

I think I had something else to say, but I got distracted making this.

 

 

Sigurd? Sigurd! SIGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRDDDD

- Oifey when Sigurd dies to the very first group of brigands in the game, something that can objectively happen.

59 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

You really wanna have all of the dozen or so bosses on a map give bonus exp? Even though they already give more EXP due to their higher level?

FE4's gameplay is kind of a blur for me, I won't lie. Didn't realize the ramifications this'd have.

18 minutes ago, ping said:

For SacSto, you're probably right, but for BlaBla, I'm not as certain. Marcus still benefits from level-ups, of course, but unlike Seth, you do eventually get characters that are better at fighting than he is. I think I'd rather have 100 XP on Sain/Kent/a Pegasus/Heath. (that said, the last time I played FE7 was as a ranked run, so my perception might still be skewed by that)

In BinBla, things are certainly as they Should Be, with Marcus being best used to set up kills for growth units, my signature notwithstanding.

Both B. Blade and B. Blade give Marcus piss all for experience when killing earlygame bosses. It's Stones that... somehow screwed with the EXP gains and now Seth is the most broken unit in the series.

And yes, Old Marcus is best Marcus.

19 minutes ago, ping said:

Honestly, kinda, yeah. Quan feels very unremarkable for a prepromote, with middling offensive power because he doesn't double consistently (and when he does, you don't expect it and he might die) and can't tank particularly well.

That's about what I recall of him, yes. Finn can pull meme miracle strats, but Quan just sort of exists. Horse in Horse Emblem good, Adept in Pursuit Emblem bad. FE4's balance is a harsh mistress.

19 minutes ago, ping said:

And if necessary, he can sell the bathroom towels at the pawn shop so that he can afford it. There really is absolutely no flaw with this plan, come to think of it.

Only if he dies. Which he can. Bad unit.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

You really wanna have all of the dozen or so bosses on a map give bonus exp? Even though they already give more EXP due to their higher level?

Number of boss enemies per chapter in Genealogy of the Holy War

Prologue: 2

Chapter 1: 3(excluding Jamke and Elliot)

Chapter 2: 8 (excluding Fury)

Chapter 3: 6

Chapter 4: 7 (excluding Andrey)

Chapter 5: 6 (excluding Aida)

Chapter 6: 5

Chapter 7: 9

Chapter 8: 9 (excluding Altena)

Chapter 9: 6 (excluding Hannibal)

Chapter 10: 6 (counting Julius and Ishtar as one)

Endgame: 15 (excluding the Deadlords)

So only the endgame actually hits the dozen mark and many chapters are closer to half a dozen  in terms of number of bosses. And, all in all, each of the two generations have about as many bosses as a typical Fire Emblem game, diluted only by the mass of bosses just thrown at you in the end game.

[ping]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Both B. Blade and B. Blade give Marcus piss all for experience when killing earlygame bosses. It's Stones that... somehow screwed with the EXP gains and now Seth is the most broken unit in the series.

And yes, Old Marcus is best Marcus.

I think the way this works is like this, if I'm not misreading the formla on the main page:

• XP formula has a summand that sees to the level difference between a character killing an enemy and, well, the enemy being killed.
• This summand is negative if your character has a higher level (with some "class power" shenanigans potentially changing the effective level)
• BlaBla halves this summand if it's negative, but only on normal difficulty
• SacSto halves this summand if it's negative, no matter the difficulty

So basically, overleveled units in general gain more XP in ENM, HNM, and all SacSto modes, compared to EHM, HHM, and both BinBla modes. However, all GBAFE games have a flat +40 XP bonus to boss kill XP, so in theory, Marcus should still gain, like, 45 XP for early boss kills. I honestly don't remember if that holds up, though, or if there's some more conditions that the main page doesn't list.

If Genealogy would do something similar, the main problem would be that Sigurd would snowball even harder. It would truly be a Seth Situation at that point - S. is the best bosskiller, therefore he gains more XP than anybody else unless you go out of your way to avoid that, therefore he becomes even better at killing bosses and everybody else can just eat his dust. Well, Sigurd already functions like that (like, mine is 5-10 levels ahead of everybody except for Lex, and that's because Lex already cleared the arena), but it'd only get worse if Seth gained another two or three levels per map via increased boss XP.

[ping]

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Heirhein --> Anphony

Spoiler

: "There had better be a good explanation for your behavior, Macbeth!"
: "Er, um... My humblest apologies, Your Majesty! Forgive me, I beg of you! I've already sent the order for Waltz's sellsword unit to move in at once."

: "Hrmph. There's the order to move in. Guess we don't 'ave much of a choice now. Bet he's gonna send us in, then 'ave his men turn tail right when we need 'em. I'm stayin' put till I see how this all plays out. Oi, Beowulf, how 'bout you?"
: "Yeah, I ain't up for this at all, Waltz. That Macbeth swine really rubs me the wrong way. I'm this close to just walkin' off the job."
: "You're a free man, beowulf. If a job isn't right for you, you're free to quit it. That's the funny thing about mercenaries, innit? Today's pals are tomorrow's foes."
: "Amen to that. Hopefully we're not gonna end up enemies someday. Wouldn't have a hope in hell against you, would I?"
: "Heh... Ain't met anybody in the whole world who can take me!"

The hint that Beowulf is recruitable seems obvious, but I don't know if the rest of Waltz's dialogue is supposed to hint at any AI behaviour.

There is a small oddity with the three horsies who are blocking the way north from Heirhein. The first turn after Anphony turning hostile, they move north despite Quan being in their range, but they do aggro as one would expect on the following turn.

But first: New recruits!

: "What's going on, sir? What's that din outside?"
: "Well, well! The bard's still here, are you? You oughta get outta here. We've got bandits headed our way."
: "Bandits? Isn't the Agustrian army doing something about them?"
: "The army? Hah! That's rich, boy! The army's too busy with their little civil war to deal with our problems. Clearly that's more important than our safety. Actually, that's not all... Rumor is, the Lord of Anphony himself is pullin' the bandits' strings here."
: "Oh, you've gotta be kidding. That's it. That guy's gotta go. I'll go sort out the bandits, okay? Now, how big a reward'll be waiting here for me when I get back?"
: "Still full of hot air, are ya? Just get outta here, wise guy. Nobody here's got the time to listen to you blowing your own horn."

: "Sylvia?! Damn! Er... I mean... you found me!"
: "Yeah, I found ya! You've had your fun with me, so you#re just dumpin' me without so much as a goodbye?"
: "Hey, careful with that tongue of yours! We barely just met here a week ago! We've only been out for dinner for... What, two or three times? You're a dancer. I'm a bard... There's not much else to it."
: "But... But you called me adorable! That... that really meant a lot to me..."
: "Er... Sometimes I just say things and don't really mean them... Oh come on! Enough with the tears! Things'll probably get more than a bit rough out there, though. Think you'll be okay?"
: "Yeah! I like it rough!"
: "Geez... She was crying her eyes out just a few seconds ago. It's like she never really grew up..."
: "Huh?"
: "Er, nothing! Let's get going."

What a pleasant pair of human beings.

[HP 90% | Str 10% | Mag 30% | Skl 40% | Spd 90% | Lck 20% | Def 20% | Res 10%]
Skills: Adept, Critical
Weapon Level: Fire (C), Thunder (C), Wind (*), Light (C)
Major Forseti blood

To get the negative out of the way: with two proc skills, Lewyn's ability to one-round is very inconsistent. Adept has an (AS+20)% chance of firing (34% for Lewyn), and crit chance is Skl% with no mitigation. The result is a chance of roughly 42% that Lewyn will deal extra damage to (and probably kill) an enemy that he doesn't one-shot to begin with, which is just about as volatile as it gets.

I know that Lewyn is going to get Forseti eventually, which combined with his huge Spd growth and good Skl growth will crank up those numbers. Until then, his combat seems... fine, but annoying. Azel might not quite have his stats, especially with Elwind being stronger and lighter than his Thunder tome, but at least he'll reliably hit twice for very respectable damage. However, I guess if Lewyn manages to steal Arden's lunch money...

[HP 50% | Str 10% | Mag 30% | Skl 10% | Spd 10% | Lck 30% | Def 10% | Res 40%]
Skills: Adept, Dance, Miracle
Weapon Level: Swords (C)
Minor Bragi blood

Dancer/10.

Genealogy has unconditional 4-way dances, so Sylvia is extremely powerful whenever her movement stat allows it. Combat-wise... I mean, she technically has the same Mag growth as Lewyn, but with a base of 0, no Pursuit, and questionable bulk, she really wouldn't be able to do a lot, even if there's a situation where a Dance wouldn't be very helpful, or where she could do something on enemy phase.

Sylvia is probably (hopefully) going to be our one bachelorette. Because her daughter's replacement gains the Charm skill (the +10 hit/avo aura that Lachesis also has) and her son's gets Paragon, they seem like the strongest substitute characters you can get, although I've also read that giving the Leg Ring from dancer to dancer is very useful, too.

____

With a bit of RNG reshuffling, Lewyn one-rounds the closest Brigand and Sylvia sends him further towards the northwest village.

__

Waltz and Beowulf, at the northern edge of the map, also get moving. Luckily, towards the main group and not towards Lewyn.

Waltz is going to be a pain, because the Forest Knight has Adept as its class skill, which he has a 32% chance of hitting. He's also going to finally give us the Paragon Band, so I assume that my next playing session will start with a lot of arenaing.

The same turn, we also get a little spoiler of another recruit that will enter the field soon (as in, next update):

: "Oh, that must be Agusty Castle! I'd say we're due for a break. Hopefully we'll be able to find a lead on Prince Lewyn's whereabouts in town.

She must be talking about some other Lewyn, not the bard with absolutely zero signs of (figurative) noble blood in his veins.

Very importantly, conquering Heirhein unlocks a conversation between Quan and Finn, which I immediately trigger:

: "Finn, these Agustrians are proving to be far worthier opponents than the thugs of Verdane, wouldn't you say? For stronger enemies, what could be more fitting than a stronger weapon? Let's see how you fare with this."
: "Is that... a brave lance?! Are you sure you want to entrust me with such a rarity?"
: "Of course. You are House Leonster's most promising young knight. You are our future, and I'd sooner see you live this day. Arming you properly is the best I can do to help for now, so yes. Take this spear."
: "What an honor, milord! Thank you."

Obligatory outrage that Quan was carrying this around all this time, while being severely hamstrung by his inability to double stuff. I suppose with Ethlyn currently carrying the Gae Bolg hidden in her sleave this entire time, these two deserve each other.

I'm worried that if I won't treat the Brave Lance as Finn's personal weapon, Ruben will steal every ace of clubs from my packs of cards and replace them with nines of heart. So, congratulations to your newfound ability to quadruple, Finn, and condolences to Erinys, who will have to try make do without it. Maybe Finn can borrow it to her for some arena runs, at least.

Here, I'm trying to be a bit aggressive about killing Waltz. Other than him and Beowulf, this group of enemies is not too threatening, so I'd love to cut off the snake's head quickly.

: "You seem like decent folk, but a job's a job. Too bad."

Well, that could've gone better. Or worse, had Waltz procced Adept, of course.

Annoyingly, Beowulf doesn't seem beholden to following Waltz. From here, I was experimenting a bit about how to best go about the next few turns, resulting in a few deaths:

__

Yeah, no.

I did try again, after burning a few RNs to let Ayra survive (but I didn't get an Astra proc), but...

21 hours ago, ping said:

my brain still defaults to "OK, Quan can recruit Beowulf and then canter far enough back from th-- SHIT"

__

Further victims of the experimental approach. It seems that I forgot to screenshot a Noish death on top of these, too - he accost/crit two or three of the generic Cavs, which eventually led to him getting chipped to death.

However, I do end up with a solution that kinda works. With the addition of random Cantering on top of the random target selection of the AI, I can't defintely tell how good the chances of success really were, but here goes.

__

Chip down Waltz with Quan and Sigurd, with Quan retreating all the way back afterwards. If he attacks as the first action of the turn, Waltz won't proc Adept.

: "Th-this can't be... You got me..."

Afterwards, have Finn Brave Lance Waltz to death. Hitting two 78s in a row isn't exactly reliable, of course, and failing this (and a subsequent Adept proc by Waltz) is what caused Finn's death above.

And finally set a formation and hope. Finn can't quite canter out of Beowulf's range, unfortunately, so Lex (with the Iron Axe equipped) is there to hopefully be a more enticing target for him. The generic Free Knights can't get through Lex's defense, so he's in no danger and hopefully Beowulf won't be blocked from attacking him by cantering Free Knights.

__

This enemy phase is also a pretty lucrative one for Finn, getting a couple nice one-rounds while gaining double XP.

: "Don't take this personally, yeah? We've all gotta make a living..."

And Beowulf does go for Lex. Very nice.

The same turn, Lewyn concludes his little cycle of brigand-killing. Too bad for him that he didn't manage to nail down that villager for a promised reward.

Now, thanks to Lewyn and Sylvia's combined efforts, there's a total of 10 villages and a monetary reward of 40k gold, factoring in the burnt down houses. There's also an Armorslayer and a Bargain Ring to be had from two of the villages.

I assume that there will be time before seizing the final castle to collect the villages with whoever can use the money and items the most. I think Erinys will grab some, maybe even including the Bargain Ring, so that she can use both Speed and Paragon ring for the arena. The Armorslayer definitely seems like she could make good use of it. Other than that, Aideen seems like a logical character to grab both money and the Bargain Ring, her being a stafflocked unit who doesn't have a sugar daddy yet.

But back to where there's still some action to be had. Noish has 10500 gold to his name, making him an ideal candidate to donate 10000 of that to our new recruit.

: "Hey, you! Wanna hire my blade? 10,000 gold. Take it or leave it. ...Right, deal. You ain't gonna be disappointed."

...very to-the-point. You're not even going to mention your grandma and her headaches in her back?

[HP 80% | Str 40% | Mag 0% | Skl 40% | Spd 30% | Lck 20% | Def 30% | Res 5%]
Skills: Pursuit, Accost
Weapon Level: Swords (B)

Beowulf is basically an improved version of Alec and Noish. He out-offenses Alec by virtue of higher Str (Alec has an average of 11.1 at Lv.9 and only 30% growth) and Noish by virtue of Pursuit. Defensively, he's basically Noish minus 10% Def growth, which still puts him slightly ahead of Alec.

So considering that his base level is also completely appropriate for his joining time, Beowulf seems pretty good, as far as non-Sigurd characters go. High movement, good offense, decent defense. Kinda the Hardin to this game's christmas cavaliers, except that they're all rathe overshadowed by the big S.

I've gone over it already, but Beowulf will marry Raquesis, for more physical prowess on both of her kids, including the Pursuit skill.

__

Clean-up, clean-up...

...and eventually the approach of the group of Knights defending Anphony.

__

There's not a ton to be said - very tanky enemies, but not overly strong offensively. They have really high HP, too, going so far that Azel is a few points short of one-rounding them. Which is maybe a bit embarrassing for him, because Jamke did manage to one-round an enemy thanks to Accost.

Eventually, Sigurd starts working on Macbath, whose stats I completely forgot to screenshot.

: "I-it can't be! Grannvale's here already? Damn it all! What are those useless mercenaries doing out there?! Ugh... Fine, I'll fight them myself!"

...There we go. Very physically tanky. Nice to have Azel nearby.

__

And there goes Macbeth. Unfortunately, Azel wasn't close enough to attack from another tile, which delays the seize for a turn, but I don't think there's any time pressure right this second.

(And it seems that I also forgot to screenshot Macbeth's death quote. Whoops! According to the wiki.org, it's a simple, "Ugh... why me?")

Meanwhile, Lewyn and Sylvia slowly cross the forests towards Sigurd. I believe I'll have to return Lewyn to Evans to recruit Erinys - hopefully, I'll have enough time for that. If not, well, Holyn will have to play punching bag for a bit.

And also, Arden has been slowly marching towards the Peninsula or Pursuits during this update. He's almost made it!

And finally, Dew, who has been robbing a bit of money here and there, drops 8000 gold on Midir so that he can afford the Paragon Ring. This honestly isn't super important, since Midir was only 2000 gold short and the first two Arena fights don't give that much XP anyway, but hey, doesn't hurt, either.

After seizing, Sigurd is visited by two green riders once again. Will he be promoted to Super-Paladin?

: "Sire, we have a visitor. Lord Filat of Belhalla seeks an audience."

: "Lord Sigurd, the Agustrian conflict has escalated into full-scale war, I see. How does this battle look at the moment?"
: "We're faring well so far, somehow, but this hasn't been easy by any means."
: "Incidentally, Lord Sigurd, I regret to say that I come bearing bad news..."
: "What happened?"
: "Nasty rumors have emerged of late in the royal court... and they concern you. The rumors claim that, in concert with Quan of Leonster and Eldigan of Nordion, you are conspiring against the crown. This, it is said, is wy you are harboring the prince of Isaach in your ranks."
: What?! That's absurd! Who in the world could've started such nonsense..."
: "Chancellor Reptor and Duke Langbalt."
: "I see... I should have known, knowing their disdain for my father. Yet, to take that grudge so far..."
: "Those two are ruled by their envy of your father's immense power as Prince Kurth's advisor, I'd say. They likely believe a Chalphy-controlled prince will strip them of their influence once he takes the throne. Fear and jealousy dominate their lives... Don't let your guard down against them."
: "Thank you, sir. I appreciate the warning. By the way, sir... Pray tell, how goes the Isaachian campaign? Is there an end in sight?"
: "It seems there is indeed, from what we've heard. We expect the triumphant return of the prince and your father any day now."
: "Thank the gods Prince Kurth is safe. Losing him to this war would have dealt such a blow to Grannvale's future..."

Foreshadowing! Also, bad memory on Sigurd's part. Filat was the guy officially making him a Paladin, a very important day in Sigurd's life, I'm sure. Well, or maybe this is supposed to be a generic portrait.

: "Indeed. Before the war started, we were trying to hasten him to search for a wife."
: "If I may, is there a problem?"
: "Indeed... The story behind this has been well known in the royal court for a long time now. Regrettably, His Highness struggles to move on from a long-lost love."
: "Really? Why did he never marry this person?"
: "Well... Perhaps I ought to tell you the complete tale. This happened some twenty years ago. Prince Kurth had an affair with the duchess of Velthomer, a truly lovely woman as I recall. Duke Victor of Velthomer was... Well, he was a philanderer of the worst degree, and had countless lovers. The prince, of course, is nothing like him. he wished only to support the duchess at first, but the two soon fell deeply in love. Victor was distraught, needless to say. He penned a letter denouncing the pair, then he took his own life. The duchess could bair to stay no longer. She fled Grannvale and was never seen again. As I recall, her name was Sigyn."
: "...Wow. That's horrible. So she was the mother of Lord Arvis..."
: "Indeed. I can scarcely imagine what this was like for him... Losing both parents at only the age of seven..."
: "Mm. And yet, I feel so sorry for the prince. Not to mention, for Sigyn as well..."
: "Oh! My apologies. I'm sure a soldier of your caliber has better things to worry about than court gossip. Please, don't worry about the story. You have a war with Agustria to win, after all! Farewell, Lord Sigurd. We look forward to the day that you, too, return to the fatherland in triumph."

How nice of Filat to clarify that Kurth is the good kind of homewrecker, not the bad kind.

More notably, Sigurd should now know that Deirdre is Arvis's half-sister. The third village on the previous map gave him (or Quan, but still) the name of Deirdre's mother, which just so happens to be the same name as that of Arvis's. And as it happens, Deirdre's mother reappeared in her village shortly before Deirdre's birth without telling anybody of the father, or about anything that she did while away. Hmmm. What could this mean?

To reiterate, I don't so much have a problem with the player having all this information. It's that so should Sigurd, but it seems that he just won't connect the dots, which is a bit annoying. Oh well.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Sigurd	  18.15*  48  20   0  20  19  12  14   3  28500  +232  [1]
Quan	  11.42*  41  19   0  14  13   7  12   3  26030  +152  [1]
Noish	  6.68	  34  12   0   9  10   4   9   0  500    +31   [1]
Alec	  6.63	  35  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  7500   +91   [1]

Beowulf	  9.81	  38  14   0  11  11   3  10   0  12000  +81   [1]
Lex	  17.44	  49  18   1  11  13  10  17   0  36840  +780  [*]
Finn	  11.98	  38  14   0  11  15  10  11   1  24430  +453  [1]
Midir	  10.53	  38  11   0  10  11   5   8   1  26000  +154  [1]

Arden	  6.97	  37  15   0   6   4   3  14   0  16275  +28   [2]
Ayra	  9.90	  37  12   1  20  20   4   8   1  21740  +122  [1]
Holyn	  12.66	  40  14   0  17  17   1  11   1  14500  +66   [4]
Jamke	  9.43	  39  11   0  16  14   6  10   1  25400  +85   [1]

Dew	  5.78	  30   6   0   9  16  12   2   0  0      +85   [1]
Raquesis  4.64	  26   7   8   9  13   5   7   9  10000  +264  [1]
Azel	  10.20	  35   1  13  11  15   4   3   8  44500  +216  [1]
Lewyn	  6.85	  34   1  12  12  16   7   5   9  8000   +85   [1]

Deirdre   5.20	  28   0  15  10  12   6   4  17  4000   +86   [1]
Ethlyn    13.63	  35   7  10  15  17  11   7   6  3270   +379  [1]
Aideen	  8.90	  33   1  15  10   9  14   1  10  6400   +90   --
Sylvia	  1.90	  28   3   0   4  12   6   1   5  5000   +90   [1]

 

 

[Saint Rubenio]

17 hours ago, ping said:

I think the way this works is like this, if I'm not misreading the formla on the main page:

• XP formula has a summand that sees to the level difference between a character killing an enemy and, well, the enemy being killed.
• This summand is negative if your character has a higher level (with some "class power" shenanigans potentially changing the effective level)
• BlaBla halves this summand if it's negative, but only on normal difficulty
• SacSto halves this summand if it's negative, no matter the difficulty

So basically, overleveled units in general gain more XP in ENM, HNM, and all SacSto modes, compared to EHM, HHM, and both BinBla modes. However, all GBAFE games have a flat +40 XP bonus to boss kill XP, so in theory, Marcus should still gain, like, 45 XP for early boss kills. I honestly don't remember if that holds up, though, or if there's some more conditions that the main page doesn't list.

If Genealogy would do something similar, the main problem would be that Sigurd would snowball even harder. It would truly be a Seth Situation at that point - S. is the best bosskiller, therefore he gains more XP than anybody else unless you go out of your way to avoid that, therefore he becomes even better at killing bosses and everybody else can just eat his dust. Well, Sigurd already functions like that (like, mine is 5-10 levels ahead of everybody except for Lex, and that's because Lex already cleared the arena), but it'd only get worse if Seth gained another two or three levels per map via increased boss XP.

Yeah, true. The less anyone resembles Seth, the better.

18 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Hrmph. There's the order to move in. Guess we don't 'ave much of a choice now. Bet he's gonna send us in, then 'ave his men turn tail right when we need 'em. I'm stayin' put till I see how this all plays out. Oi, Beowulf, how 'bout you?"
: "Yeah, I ain't up for this at all, Waltz. That Macbeth swine really rubs me the wrong way. I'm this close to just walkin' off the job."
: "You're a free man, beowulf. If a job isn't right for you, you're free to quit it. That's the funny thing about mercenaries, innit? Today's pals are tomorrow's foes."
: "Amen to that. Hopefully we're not gonna end up enemies someday. Wouldn't have a hope in hell against you, would I?"
: "Heh... Ain't met anybody in the whole world who can take me!"

The hint that Beowulf is recruitable seems obvious, but I don't know if the rest of Waltz's dialogue is supposed to hint at any AI behaviour.

I find it curious how this almost seems to hint at Waltz himself also being recruitable. But nah, his awesome hat is just not as cool as Beowulf's... uh, whatever it is he has that makes him cool?

47 minutes ago, ping said:

Sylvia is probably (hopefully) going to be our one bachelorette. Because her daughter's replacement gains the Charm skill (the +10 hit/avo aura that Lachesis also has) and her son's gets Paragon, they seem like the strongest substitute characters you can get, although I've also read that giving the Leg Ring from dancer to dancer is very useful, too.

Yes, Sylvia's substitutes are unironically better than the kids. Especially her son's sub, who comes with a good staff only he gets. The main kid, meanwhile, is super annoying to make into anything good.

49 minutes ago, ping said:

Obligatory outrage that Quan was carrying this around all this time, while being severely hamstrung by his inability to double stuff. I suppose with Ethlyn currently carrying the Gae Bolg hidden in her sleave this entire time, these two deserve each other.

I'm worried that if I won't treat the Brave Lance as Finn's personal weapon, Ruben will steal every ace of clubs from my packs of cards and replace them with nines of heart. So, congratulations to your newfound ability to quadruple, Finn, and condolences to Erinys, who will have to try make do without it. Maybe Finn can borrow it to her for some arena runs, at least.

I'm not that militant a fan of Finn. I will, however, champion the cause of fucking peggy sues over any day. So yeah, fuck Erinys, she can have a bench.

And surely you jest. I would never do that to your cards. instead, I'd steal your packs and replace them with Spanish packs. You should thank me, they're way cooler.

51 minutes ago, ping said:

__

Further victims of the experimental approach. It seems that I forgot to screenshot a Noish death on top of these, too - he accost/crit two or three of the generic Cavs, which eventually led to him getting chipped to death.

However, I do end up with a solution that kinda works. With the addition of random Cantering on top of the random target selection of the AI, I can't defintely tell how good the chances of success really were, but here goes.

I thought this was difficult to make happen lmao, so much for FE4's OP Miracle

52 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Hey, you! Wanna hire my blade? 10,000 gold. Take it or leave it. ...Right, deal. You ain't gonna be disappointed."

...very to-the-point. You're not even going to mention your grandma and her headaches in her back?

We can't all be as blessed with creativity as that guy.

53 minutes ago, ping said:

And there goes Macbeth. Unfortunately, Azel wasn't close enough to attack from another tile, which delays the seize for a turn, but I don't think there's any time pressure right this second.

(And it seems that I also forgot to screenshot Macbeth's death quote. Whoops! According to the wiki.org, it's a simple, "Ugh... why me?")

Have I mentioned yet the fun fact that Macbeth is one of three bosses in the entire game to have a fully unique portrait? 'Cause he totally is. The list does not include Chagall, something that never fails to amuse me.

55 minutes ago, ping said:

Filat was the guy officially making him a Paladin, a very important day in Sigurd's life, I'm sure. Well, or maybe this is supposed to be a generic portrait.

Well, it's used by a bossman much, much later in the game, so...

56 minutes ago, ping said:

More notably, Sigurd should now know that Deirdre is Arvis's half-sister. The third village on the previous map gave him (or Quan, but still) the name of Deirdre's mother, which just so happens to be the same name as that of Arvis's. And as it happens, Deirdre's mother reappeared in her village shortly before Deirdre's birth without telling anybody of the father, or about anything that she did while away. Hmmm. What could this mean?

To reiterate, I don't so much have a problem with the player having all this information. It's that so should Sigurd, but it seems that he just won't connect the dots, which is a bit annoying. Oh well.

Sigurd being a dumbass is, if nothing else, a consistent plot point.

[Jotari]

I like Waltz. Even though he's working for a dude openly plundering his own citizens, at least Waltz has the good graces to not hold a grudge or be resentful or anything. He's much better than the later mercenary captain Javarro (which is a name that was probably meant to be Javert), who tries to murder his own adopted son for daring to walk out on the company for moral reasons.

Also cut Sigurd a break, there's probably more than one woman named Cigyun in the world.

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Have I mentioned yet the fun fact that Macbeth is one of three bosses in the entire game to have a fully unique portrait? 'Cause he totally is. The list does not include Chagall, something that never fails to amuse me.

You mean among the minor bosses, right? Because I'm pretty sure the likes of Alvis and Julius don't share portraits with anyone (though there apparently is another emperor walking strutting around by the name of Zeus!). I'm guessing the other two of your mentioned three with be Ovo and Lamia, if she doesn't count as totally-not-young-Hilda

 

Edited March 1 by Jotari

[Saint Rubenio]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

You mean among the minor bosses, right? Because I'm pretty sure the likes of Alvis and Julius don't share portraits with anyone (though there apparently is another emperor walking strutting around by the name of Zeus!). I'm guessing the other two of your mentioned three with be Ovo and Lamia, if she doesn't count as totally-not-young-Hilda

Yeah, should've clarified. And yes, it's Ovo, Lamia and Macbeth. I just find it rather amazing that decidedly-major'ish-villain Chagall wasn't good enough.

[Interdimensional Observer]

22 hours ago, ping said:

I like the concept of staff-using Pegasus Knights (in case anybody wonders who Erinys is most likely going to marry...)

I don't remember getting much use out of Falcostaffs in Genealogy. But then my lone playthrough went with the Canon Husband for Erinys.

While I like Elincia (despite her availability issues), Awakening and Fates chilled me on the idea of staff-using Falcoknights. In Awakening, fliers are great as Pair Up backpacks for ferrying units over terrain, but Awakening's extreme mindless enemy-phasing makes me really dislike their bow weakness. Although, Falcons make the best Rescue users for moving allies ahead, being that they're the most mobile units around. In Fates, a flying healer I rarely thought necessary, and Falco's combat potential was too lackluster for me.

1 hour ago, ping said:

although I've also read that giving the Leg Ring from dancer to dancer is very useful, too.

You'd probably be fine giving Seliph the Leg to start, and then having Pattycakes hand the cash for it to the sub. Let the thief do their one job in FE4.

Honestly, with Lex, Claud, Azel, and Lewyn all tied down, I don't even think priest boy has a good father option left. And Lynn is as parent-apathetic as it gets. 

1 hour ago, ping said:

How nice of Filat to clarify that Kurth is the good kind of homewrecker, not the bad kind.

Reminder that Lancelot exists, the homewrecking is entirely legitimated by centuries-old medieval fantasy. -Although it is the cause of Camelot's fall, so it was not intended to be a good thing. ...And it kinda is the cause of Jugdral's downfall, if also its salvation (FYI, Galahad the Absolutely Perfect son of Lancelot in at least one version of Arthurian legend, was conceived on a woman magically disguised to look like Guinevere. So the child of pseudo-homewrecking. Not entirely unlike Arthur, actually.)

1 hour ago, ping said:

It's that so should Sigurd, but it seems that he just won't connect the dots, which is a bit annoying. Oh well.

Though some of the information was tucked away in a burnable village, correct? I don't think such info can be assumed as getting passed on to the main character, being technically missable.

[ping]

13 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I find it curious how this almost seems to hint at Waltz himself also being recruitable. But nah, his awesome hat is just not as cool as Beowulf's... uh, whatever it is he has that makes him cool?

He looks more similar to Eldigan? Would also explain why Raquesis warms up to him more quickly than anybody else. ...Her other love talk is with smol Eldigan Dew. Well.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm not that militant a fan of Finn. I will, however, champion the cause of fucking peggy sues over any day. So yeah, fuck Erinys, she can have a bench.

Sorry, but Genealogy has the rare speciment of staff-using pegasi. Apart from Elincia (with her godawful availability in both Tellius games), that is something I never get to play with otherwise. Staff-using pegasi with magic swords is complete unique, even.

26 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And surely you jest. I would never do that to your cards. instead, I'd steal your packs and replace them with Spanish packs. You should thank me, they're way cooler.

There's (several variants of) German packs, too. Although I have to admit that I have a much easier time playing with French cards. Never been a big fan of the Anglo-American aesthetic, though.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I thought this was difficult to make happen lmao, so much for FE4's OP Miracle

Waltz has 30 Atk. Finn has 38 HP and 11 Def. If the situation was reversed, I would be gushing about these perfect numbers.

19 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I like Waltz. Even though he's working for a dude openly plundering his own citizens, at least Waltz has the good graces to not hold a grudge or be resentful or anything. He's much better than the later mercenary captain Javarro (which is a name that was probably meant to be Javert), who tries to murder his own adopted son for daring to walk out on the company for moral reasons.

I don't remember Javarro, but yeah, Waltz is pretty cool for a one-scene wonder.

7 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't remember getting much use out of Falcostaffs in Genealogy. But then my lone playthrough went with the Canon Husband for Erinys.

In theory, rescue seems fantastic on a flyer. In practice, it obviously depends on the map, and I can imagine that just putting that staff on a horseback healer like Ethlyn or Nanna, in order to shlep the respective dancer with the main group, might be just as good most of the time.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Though some of the information was tucked away in a burnable village, correct? I don't think such info can be assumed as getting passed on to the main character, being technically missable.

I would counter that the info should also not be assumed as not being passed to the main character, and that information this crucial to the Evil Plan of Doom should either be given to Sigurd in an after-seize or after-chapter dialogue, or not be given to anybody in his group at all. Have some Evil McEvilface exposition it to Manfroy ("it seems that ...the girl is with the dumbass Paladin's child"), if the player is supposed to know more than Sigurd. I don't think it really would've fit into the narrative for this particular piece of info, but Ethlyn or Quan learning about something that Sigurd absolutely needs to know after they returned to Leonster also could've been a nice dramatic way of not delivering that something to Sigurd.

[RPGuy96]

2 hours ago, ping said:

I'm worried that if I won't treat the Brave Lance as Finn's personal weapon, Ruben will steal every ace of clubs from my packs of cards and replace them with nines of heart. So, congratulations to your newfound ability to quadruple, Finn, and condolences to Erinys, who will have to try make do without it. Maybe Finn can borrow it to her for some arena runs, at least.

This is very far from optimal, as the first mate will tell you, but I do like Finn keeping it for Thracia reasons.  He doesn't have to dismount in this game!

2 hours ago, ping said:

More notably, Sigurd should now know that Deirdre is Arvis's half-sister. The third village on the previous map gave him (or Quan, but still) the name of Deirdre's mother, which just so happens to be the same name as that of Arvis's. And as it happens, Deirdre's mother reappeared in her village shortly before Deirdre's birth without telling anybody of the father, or about anything that she did while away. Hmmm. What could this mean?

Okay, I forgot about this.  Sigurd should be able to figure out the Evil Guy's Evil Plan, even if Deirdre doesn't want to talk about her mother's situation before she moved to the Spirit Forest.  Deirdre should also have figured this out, if she's privy to this conversation OR her mom told her about her past life.  Note that the narrative is still telling the player (and Sigurd) that Reptor and Langbalt are the Grannvale villains, not Arvis - but by this point an attentive player and an attentive Sigurd should be able to at least guess some things about the Cult and Arvis and Deirdre.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Lex	  17.44	  49  18   1  11  13  10  17   0  36840  +780  [*]

So close to promo! He doesn't get anything useful from promoting, but I always love a Fire Emblem promotion.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Honestly, with Lex, Claud, Azel, and Lewyn all tied down, I don't even think priest boy has a good father option left. And Lynn is as parent-apathetic as it gets. 

I did Sylvia x Lewyn once, and passed down the Paragon Band and Holsety to Corple so he could get 90 XP a pop for Physic-ing and promote quickly (relatively speaking) in order to use his dad's tome.  It was...exactly as annoying and ultimately useless as you'd expect.

[ping]

...oh shoot, Paragon is 40k, not 20k like the other rings.

That makes the list of potential Paragon runs in the arena a tad lower. Finn, obviously, because he got the drop. Azel, who can actually clear the arena without the Speed Ring. Sigurd, who can sell some shit to get to 40k. Technically Midir, but he's have to do the first three fights first and then sell the Speed Ring, and he needs that to beat the final opponent, so that would make the whole thing a lot less worth it. Midir is looking like a much better candidate to grab money from the villages now, actually.

36 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

This is very far from optimal, as the first mate will tell you, but I do like Finn keeping it for Thracia reasons.  He doesn't have to dismount in this game!

Well, Ruben made the fatal mistake of admitting that he is not a frothing Finn fanboy, so...

I'm still considering the story-friendly version, but the sheer number of characters that would really like the Brave Sword is giving me pause, since I would add Erinys (or Erin, as Project Naga calls her) and Fee to the list by denying them the Brave Lance.

37 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Okay, I forgot about this.  Sigurd should be able to figure out the Evil Guy's Evil Plan, even if Deirdre doesn't want to talk about her mother's situation before she moved to the Spirit Forest.  Deirdre should also have figured this out, if she's privy to this conversation OR her mom told her about her past life.  Note that the narrative is still telling the player (and Sigurd) that Reptor and Langbalt are the Grannvale villains, not Arvis - but by this point an attentive player and an attentive Sigurd should be able to at least guess some things about the Cult and Arvis and Deirdre.

Yeah, Arvis, in this moment, looks more like a pawn in the Bene Loptyrit's grand plan of breeding the Kwisatz Haderach, not like somebody who's actually in on their plans. His first impression is that of a bit of a prick (his initial comment of "wow Sigurd really sucks" and Azel being terrified of him), but I don't think that an unspoiled player would file him under "villain" already.

51 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

So close to promo! He doesn't get anything useful from promoting, but I always love a Fire Emblem promotion.

Numbers go up. That's why we play Fire Emblem

[RPGuy96]

1 hour ago, ping said:

Well, Ruben made the fatal mistake of admitting that he is not a frothing Finn fanboy, so...

I'm still considering the story-friendly version, but the sheer number of characters that would really like the Brave Sword is giving me pause, since I would add Erinys (or Erin, as Project Naga calls her) and Fee to the list by denying them the Brave Lance.

Alas.  Well, at least get Finn promoted (should be easy with the Arena to go, Paragon Band, and Brave Lance) and give him the Silver Lance - I don't think anyone else wants it, especially if Erin steals Finn's Brave Lance.  It'll help out slightly early in Gen 2.

(Erin > Erinys > Fury as far as names go, the game is very Gaelic, never mind fellow Greeks Lachesis and Ares...)

1 hour ago, ping said:

Yeah, Arvis, in this moment, looks more like a pawn in the Bene Loptyrit's grand plan of breeding the Kwisatz Haderach, not like somebody who's actually in on their plans. His first impression is that of a bit of a prick (his initial comment of "wow Sigurd really sucks" and Azel being terrified of him), but I don't think that an unspoiled player would file him under "villain" already.

Yes, Arvis mostly looks like a pawn (and we can revisit that thought later).  I agree with Ruben that things going over Sigurd's head is entirely consistent with his character, but even then you would think he'd be more interested in his wife's family.  I'm not sure if the right headcanon is that Deidre is hiding it from him and he's just oblivious to the other hints, or he's too in love with her and conquering random castles to care.  It would be nice if some information to that effect motivated Quan and Ethlin in Chapter 5, but they don't really need the extra reason, they've already ditched their homeland to help Sigurd once.  They just didn't have to cross a desert to show up in the Prologue.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Numbers go up. That's why we play Fire Emblem

Indeed!

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 2/29/2024 at 1:08 PM, BrightBow said:

You really wanna have all of the dozen or so bosses on a map give bonus exp? Even though they already give more EXP due to their higher level?

Unironically, yeah. At least, in a potential remake. Then balance it out so the Arena is only 5 rounds, instead of 7. I broadly like the FE4 Arena model, but its tedium is hard to deny.

On 2/29/2024 at 2:51 PM, Jotari said:

So only the endgame actually hits the dozen mark and many chapters are closer to half a dozen  in terms of number of bosses. And, all in all, each of the two generations have about as many bosses as a typical Fire Emblem game, diluted only by the mass of bosses just thrown at you in the end game.

Hey now, you haven't forgotten about the countless one-star no-portrait "Commander" units, now, have you?

...Actually, that could be a neat way to do it. Rather than a flat "bosskill bonus", you'd get extra EXP for each Authority star that the boss had. So, +20 for *, +40 for **, and so on. Since EXP from any combat caps at 100, killing a ***** general would become a guaranteed full level, on any unit.

7 hours ago, ping said:

In theory, rescue seems fantastic on a flyer. In practice, it obviously depends on the map, and I can imagine that just putting that staff on a horseback healer like Ethlyn or Nanna, in order to shlep the respective dancer with the main group, might be just as good most of the time.

Not sure if I'm misreading this, but - you can't use the Rescue staff on Falcoknights or Troubadours in this game. It's an A-rank Staff, and they're stuck at C-rank. You can raise Nanna or Fee's rank, if Claud is their father, but only up to B-rank. The only mounted units who can use Rescue are your Master Knights.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yes, Sylvia's substitutes are unironically better than the kids. Especially her son's sub, who comes with a good staff only he gets. The main kid, meanwhile, is super annoying to make into anything good.

Tired: Charlot using the Berserk Staff to make Arion kill his own troops.

Hired: Charlot pawning the Berserk Staff to gain 15K Gold, and then buying Recover.

Wired: Ced buying the Berserk Staff for 30K to do what Charlot didn't have the guts to.

Inspired: What I just said, but it's Hawke instead.

Also, the "Barrier Blade" is essentially a mini-Mystletainn. With all the siege tomes and status staves in the last two maps, getting a passive resistance boost is kind of a big deal, actually.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, should've clarified. And yes, it's Ovo, Lamia and Macbeth. I just find it rather amazing that decidedly-major'ish-villain Chagall wasn't good enough.

And of all people, the one Chagall winds up sharing a portrait with is Muhammad (pbuh).

9 hours ago, ping said:

And finally, Dew, who has been robbing a bit of money here and there, drops 8000 gold on Midir so that he can afford the Paragon Ring. This honestly isn't super important, since Midir was only 2000 gold short and the first two Arena fights don't give that much XP anyway, but hey, doesn't hurt, either.

Affording the Paragon Ring? With 20K gold?

...Boy, have I got some bad news for you-

9 hours ago, ping said:

I'm worried that if I won't treat the Brave Lance as Finn's personal weapon, Ruben will steal every ace of clubs from my packs of cards and replace them with nines of heart. So, congratulations to your newfound ability to quadruple, Finn, and condolences to Erinys, who will have to try make do without it.

Hmph. You'd be wise to keep an eye on your Jacks of Diamonds. That's all I'll say.

9 hours ago, ping said:

I think Erinys will grab some, maybe even including the Bargain Ring, so that she can use both Speed and Paragon ring for the arena. The Armorslayer definitely seems like she could make good use of it

...Oh, alright. I guess all is forgiven, after all. Actually a pretty solid plan, I would say. She starts 14 levels away from promotion, but if she's gaining 5 or 6 levels each in this chapter amd the next, then she can close the gap just by Arena'ing in chapter 4.

Speaking of the "plateau", it's a great place for Erinys to be, once the final phase starts. There will be a ton of cavalry coming from the northeast corner. But Erinys can use hit-and-run tactics to damage them, then flee back behind the safety of the ledge. She's probably not one-rounding (except Troubadours, maybe?), but hey, it's free damage and EXP.

[BrightBow]

10 hours ago, ping said:

: "You're a free man, beowulf. If a job isn't right for you, you're free to quit it. That's the funny thing about mercenaries, innit? Today's pals are tomorrow's foes."

Sure, but it's still a dick move to find yourself a new employer during a battle.
 

10 hours ago, ping said:

What a pleasant pair of human beings.

Although the "I like it rough" line is apparently only used because of it's infamy in the old translation. No idea what a more appropriate translation would be.
 

10 hours ago, ping said:

To get the negative out of the way: with two proc skills, Lewyn's ability to one-round is very inconsistent. Adept has an (AS+20)% chance of firing (34% for Lewyn), and crit chance is Skl% with no mitigation. The result is a chance of roughly 42% that Lewyn will deal extra damage to (and probably kill) an enemy that he doesn't one-shot to begin with, which is just about as volatile as it gets.

I know that Lewyn is going to get Forseti eventually, which combined with his huge Spd growth and good Skl growth will crank up those numbers. Until then, his combat seems... fine, but annoying. Azel might not quite have his stats, especially with Elwind being stronger and lighter than his Thunder tome, but at least he'll reliably hit twice for very respectable damage. However, I guess if Lewyn manages to steal Arden's lunch money...

Levin also has more movement than Azel. And while this unreliability is not ideal on the field, it does mean he can always brute force the arena. With his speed, it's not like he has to worry about all the Pursuit users that always stop Azel in his tracks. Sage is also another uber class, so it has insane gains. It also gives staffs, which is more useful than Azel getting swords.
He also doesn't need to worry about sharing his Elwind since Azel can't use it anyway.
 

10 hours ago, ping said:

I'm worried that if I won't treat the Brave Lance as Finn's personal weapon, Ruben will steal every ace of clubs from my packs of cards and replace them with nines of heart. So, congratulations to your newfound ability to quadruple, Finn, and condolences to Erinys, who will have to try make do without it. Maybe Finn can borrow it to her for some arena runs, at least.

Although Finn can simply use a Silver Lance (assuming he promotes before leaving). Pegasus Knights got B in Lances, so Fee can't inherit that one.
Of course she could use also inherit a good sword or two. But there is much more competition for those.
 

10 hours ago, ping said:

: "Nasty rumors have emerged of late in the royal court... and they concern you. The rumors claim that, in concert with Quan of Leonster and Eldigan of Nordion, you are conspiring against the crown. This, it is said, is wy you are harboring the prince of Isaach in your ranks."
: What?! That's absurd! Who in the world could've started such nonsense..."

So is Shanan being with Sigurd supposed to be a secret or did he actually report it to the king like Oifey suggested?
Filat most certainly doesn't phrase that fact as if it was something Sigurd is accused of having done. The accusation is about the intend behind it.
 

10 hours ago, ping said:

: "Well... Perhaps I ought to tell you the complete tale. This happened some twenty years ago.

Going by looks I wouldn't have pinned down Kurth as being older than Sigurd, but I suppose he clearly is if he has an adult daughter.
 

10 hours ago, ping said:

How nice of Filat to clarify that Kurth is the good kind of homewrecker, not the bad kind.

Well, not like there was not much of a home left to wreck. Just ask Azel.

I do actually like that in Kaga's games you sometimes you have women who had multiple partners and it's not something that's held against them.

By contrast just look at Corrin tell Solei to "Please treasure yourself more" and whatnot. The attitude towards sexuality in modern Fire Emblem is honestly a lot more Victorian than the crotch, boob and ass windows in the armor designs would suggest. Women better protect their virtue until marriage or they are not good for anything.
And of course literally everyone always nicely proposes with a ring and shit. And they always wait until marriage before they order the stork to drop by a baby.
I mean, for crying out loud, they write the exact same scenario dozens of times in every single game. So many opportunities to do something interesting and they waste it to repeat the same trite bullcrap over and over again.

Even with the barebone writing in this game, there are actually some very non-puritan scenarios here. For one thing, with Alec and Sylvia they basically had a one-night stand and now they are stuck with a kid. Beowulf also breaks up with Lachesis. Or at least it very much sounds like it. The wording isn't very direct there.

And of course down the line we are going to see adopted families too. Since I guess family isn't all about blood or some shit? Crazy.

Edited March 2 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, should've clarified. And yes, it's Ovo, Lamia and Macbeth. I just find it rather amazing that decidedly-major'ish-villain Chagall wasn't good enough.

I do wonder, if we ever get a remake, who will keep their face and who will get the redesign. And Chagall, as the most major character without a unique face, is at the top of that list. On one hand I think, because he's more noteworthy Chagall is definitely more associated with the design, and it does work for him having this sort of dopey incompetent look. On the other hand, given he is a more major character, they might want to give him a new less generic looking design over all.

One boss is be very surprised if they don't change is Clement, the next one now. Three characters share this obviously a Lopt Sect portrait but only one of them is actually a Lopt member.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Hey now, you haven't forgotten about the countless one-star no-portrait "Commander" units, now, have you?

Forgetting them, no. Going out there and counting just how many of them there are? Hell no! Though on the subject of the faceless commanders, I really really hope they have the dedication to fan service to replace the commander attacking Leinster in Chapter 7 with Wolf or Barath.

[ping]

9 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

(Erin > Erinys > Fury as far as names go, the game is very Gaelic, never mind fellow Greeks Lachesis and Ares...)

I like Erinys, personally. Fury just doesn't work despite the mythological background (unless her sisters are named Angry and Violent), but Erinyes just shifts from Roman to Greek name while keeping the reference intact and sounding like a name that parents would give to a baby girl. My only issue is that I keep forgetting if it's Erinys or Erynis

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Not sure if I'm misreading this, but - you can't use the Rescue staff on Falcoknights or Troubadours in this game. It's an A-rank Staff, and they're stuck at C-rank. You can raise Nanna or Fee's rank, if Claud is their father, but only up to B-rank. The only mounted units who can use Rescue are your Master Knights.

No, just an example of me vaguely knowing stuff about the game, but not the details. That is too bad, but I suppose it makes sene that Rescue is the most expert of the three transportation spells with how they work in Genealogy.

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Although the "I like it rough" line is apparently only used because of it's infamy in the old translation. No idea what a more appropriate translation would be.

Well, here's to hoping that the other meme line isn't there anymore. -.-

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Levin also has more movement than Azel. And while this unreliability is not ideal on the field, it does mean he can always brute force the arena. With his speed, it's not like he has to worry about all the Pursuit users that always stop Azel in his tracks. Sage is also another uber class, so it has insane gains. It also gives staffs, which is more useful than Azel getting swords.
He also doesn't need to worry about sharing his Elwind since Azel can't use it anyway.

Although the horse on Azel's promotion is a pretty big boon to weigh against Lewyn's advantages. But yeah, Lewyn with the Pursuit Ring will blow Azel out of the water in terms of raw combat.

Azel does get (B) ranks in Thunder and Wind after promotion, so he will have some interest in Lewyn's Elwind tome then. But we'll see.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

So is Shanan being with Sigurd supposed to be a secret or did he actually report it to the king like Oifey suggested?
Filat most certainly doesn't phrase that fact as if it was something Sigurd is accused of having done. The accusation is about the intend behind it.

The way I read it is that Sigurd did neither. He didn't officially inform the king (with the implication that this would put Shanan in danger), but there's absolutely zero indication that he would make an effort of keeping Shanan hidden, either. Which really makes this the anti-Goldilocks solution, looking as suspicious as possible without actually being sneaky.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Going by looks I wouldn't have pinned down Kurth as being older than Sigurd, but I suppose he clearly is if he has an adult daughter.

Sigurd being in his fourties, obsessing over a teenage girl, would certainly give his character a very different spin.

But yeah, since I didn't remember that Deirdre was Kurth's daughter, I went into this playthough thinking of Kurth as a man in his twenties.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I do actually like that in Kaga's games you sometimes you have women who had multiple partners and it's not something that's held against them.

I agree, although in this particular case it stood out to me that Kurth was consoling Sigyn about her husband sleeping around... leading to her doing the same thing. It has some vibes of "the only moral extramarital affair is my extramarital affair", if you only read what Semi-Generic Old Guy is narrating, even though Velthomer sr. did it first and apparently on the regular.

(Which makes him the big hypocrite, of course, by treating his wife's affair as the most shocking thing in the world. This is definitely not a "both sides are equally in the wrong" situation, with Kurth and Sigyn's affair being "understandable but they probably shouldn't have" at worst)

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, ping said:

I like Erinys, personally. Fury just doesn't work despite the mythological background (unless her sisters are named Angry and Violent), but Erinyes just shifts from Roman to Greek name while keeping the reference intact and sounding like a name that parents would give to a baby girl. My only issue is that I keep forgetting if it's Erinys or Erynis

No, just an example of me vaguely knowing stuff about the game, but not the details. That is too bad, but I suppose it makes sene that Rescue is the most expert of the three transportation spells with how they work in Genealogy.

Well, here's to hoping that the other meme line isn't there anymore. -.-

Although the horse on Azel's promotion is a pretty big boon to weigh against Lewyn's advantages. But yeah, Lewyn with the Pursuit Ring will blow Azel out of the water in terms of raw combat.

Azel does get (B) ranks in Thunder and Wind after promotion, so he will have some interest in Lewyn's Elwind tome then. But we'll see.

The way I read it is that Sigurd did neither. He didn't officially inform the king (with the implication that this would put Shanan in danger), but there's absolutely zero indication that he would make an effort of keeping Shanan hidden, either. Which really makes this the anti-Goldilocks solution, looking as suspicious as possible without actually being sneaky.

Sigurd being in his fourties, obsessing over a teenage girl, would certainly give his character a very different spin.

But yeah, since I didn't remember that Deirdre was Kurth's daughter, I went into this playthough thinking of Kurth as a man in his twenties.

I agree, although in this particular case it stood out to me that Kurth was consoling Sigyn about her husband sleeping around... leading to her doing the same thing. It has some vibes of "the only moral extramarital affair is my extramarital affair", if you only read what Semi-Generic Old Guy is narrating, even though Velthomer sr. did it first and apparently on the regular.

(Which makes him the big hypocrite, of course, by treating his wife's affair as the most shocking thing in the world. This is definitely not a "both sides are equally in the wrong" situation, with Kurth and Sigyn's affair being "understandable but they probably shouldn't have" at worst)

I like what Filat represents in that he's basically just a court gossip. Which a huge part of what the nobility was (and still is via our modern celebrity bullshit). The truth is we don't really know what the situation is. For all we know Victor could have been thrilled his wife was sleeping with the future king and pimped her out precisely to get close to the royal family and his letter of denouncement is bullshit. But that's me putting my conspiracy theoriest hat on. The information Kaga gives us is the information were expected to believe is true. Still I can't ant fault a woman form straying from her marriage vows I a society without divorce when her husband acts like that! Still though they probably did have good times that led her to hook with him. It would have been a pretty radical thing for Victor to marry some random village girl from Barbarian land too.

[Saint Rubenio]

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Tired: Charlot using the Berserk Staff to make Arion kill his own troops.

Hired: Charlot pawning the Berserk Staff to gain 15K Gold, and then buying Recover.

Wired: Ced buying the Berserk Staff for 30K to do what Charlot didn't have the guts to.

Lame.

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Inspired: What I just said, but it's Hawke instead.

I retract my previous statement.

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

I do wonder, if we ever get a remake, who will keep their face and who will get the redesign. And Chagall, as the most major character without a unique face, is at the top of that list. On one hand I think, because he's more noteworthy Chagall is definitely more associated with the design, and it does work for him having this sort of dopey incompetent look. On the other hand, given he is a more major character, they might want to give him a new less generic looking design over all.

One boss is be very surprised if they don't change is Clement, the next one now. Three characters share this obviously a Lopt Sect portrait but only one of them is actually a Lopt member.

To be honest, Chagall's design doesn't look that generic to me. It's the last portrait I would've reused in the way they did.

And yeah, I'd expect Clement would get a more serious look, given his more subdued personality.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

6 hours ago, ping said:

Sigurd being in his fourties, obsessing over a teenage girl, would certainly give his character a very different spin.

Boomer Sigurd leaves his castle because Gandalf kidnapped not just Edain, but all the Coors Light as well.

Actually, the true "Boomer" in Gen 1 is Arvis. Everyone is like "invasion this", and "ressurecting the dark god that" - but

Spoiler

He just wants to grill, dammit!

...Am I still allowed to make these jokes?

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

Forgetting them, no. Going out there and counting just how many of them there are? Hell no! Though on the subject of the faceless commanders, I really really hope they have the dedication to fan service to replace the commander attacking Leinster in Chapter 7 with Wolf or Barath.

Isn't Wolf supposed to be leading Hardin's forces? Or protecting the Desert Stronghold? Or... um... existing in Hatari? Busy man, that Wolffe.

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

I do wonder, if we ever get a remake, who will keep their face and who will get the redesign.

Hey, somebody ought to make a thread addressing that very topic! A brilliant idea, if I do say so myself.

12 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Sure, but it's still a dick move to find yourself a new employer during a battle.

Macbeth, with his dying breaths, leaves Beowulf a 1-star review on Mercr.

12 hours ago, BrightBow said:

For one thing, with Alec and Sylvia they basically had a one-night stand and now they are stuck with a kid.

Well, two-night stand. Since Silvia gives birth to Leen and Coirpre, and I don't believe they're ever described as twins. Incidentally, this means that a good portion of the kids must've been conceived after Belhalla - which means, their fathers must've survived. Really puts a damper on making any of the deaths explicit.

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

One boss is be very surprised if they don't change is Clement, the next one now. Three characters share this obviously a Lopt Sect portrait but only one of them is actually a Lopt member.

Truthfully, I've never read Clement's design as "Lopt Cultist", but rather "generic magic user". It's not like Sandima, whose face is shrouded in darkness. That said, I do think they should swap out the design for Bramsel, since he's a General.

6 hours ago, ping said:

Azel does get (B) ranks in Thunder and Wind after promotion, so he will have some interest in Lewyn's Elwind tome then. But we'll see.

While Azelle can use Elwind after promotion (and should IMO - it's the best tome available to him, and Lewyn gets Forseti, so why would he need it anymore?), it's worth remembering that he cannot pass it down. The one exception is if Ced is his son, but that's a rare pairing. If not passed down, it can be bought in chapter 9. The only way to get Elwind back earlier is if Lewyn hooks up with Tailtiu. Then Arthur can inherit the tome, as can Tinne (assuming you got Tailtiu to promotion).

Edited March 2 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Typos.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Isn't Wolf supposed to be leading Hardin's forces? Or protecting the Desert Stronghold? Or... um... existing in Hatari? Busy man, that Wolffe.

No, he's meant to be the final enemy of the Chapter 7 Arena, coincidentally the same chapter in which the nameless commander Thracia named Wolf attacks Leinster. A very busy fellow indeed!

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Hey, somebody ought to make a thread addressing that very topic! A brilliant idea, if I do say so myself.

I already did, you never commented on it >.>

 

[BrightBow]

23 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm not that militant a fan of Finn. I will, however, champion the cause of fucking peggy sues over any day. So yeah, fuck Erinys, she can have a bench.

What's your problem with her? Just having the name Fury is honestly really awesome.
 

On 3/1/2024 at 6:15 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I find it curious how this almost seems to hint at Waltz himself also being recruitable. But nah, his awesome hat is just not as cool as Beowulf's... uh, whatever it is he has that makes him cool?

He has the ability to steal money from people simply by talking to them. Even Dew can't do that.
 

23 hours ago, ping said:

He looks more similar to Eldigan? Would also explain why Raquesis warms up to him more quickly than anybody else. ...Her other love talk is with smol Eldigan Dew. Well.

And Noish. Who is also smol Eldigan, I suppose.
 

23 hours ago, ping said:

Sorry, but Genealogy has the rare speciment of staff-using pegasi. Apart from Elincia (with her godawful availability in both Tellius games), that is something I never get to play with otherwise. Staff-using pegasi with magic swords is complete unique, even.

Well, PoR has the Sonic Sword.
But Elincia also starts with D swords, so that's not ideal.