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[From hack to indie] Path of the Midnight Sun


Alfred Kamon
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Cue the ending, where you control the Demon King and his infinite horde of monsters to exterminate those puny humans...

Wait, what do you mean that's the "good" ending?!?

[spoiler=The ending]Shhh Ahsley, don't tell everybody that the true protagonist of the game is the Demon King!

In the end everybody dies, and Faratrass becomes a demon and lives forever in eternal darkness.

Just kidding.

I'm assuming you're going to give us a knight and mercenary in the upcoming chapters. I think it would make most sense to give the knight access to swords and lances since we don't have a lot of lance users and every one is used to generals with axes. It would also be pretty cool if the merc was female since those are so rare. Even better if she had great stats make her one of the better heroes in the series. I also have a question about Cattleya. Apparently she's been really struggling as a unit and you've done your best to fix it with stat adjustment and such but to little effect. Myrmidons in general seem to have a hard time in general in the GBA games unless they crit constantly or are going up against axe users that aren't armored. Do you think there is any hope for her? I'd hate for her number one asset to be the flower on her head.

Hmmm, once promoted Cattleya becomes one of the best units in the game, thanks to her access to both tomes and swords (Spellfencers will be a thing!).

Also remember that Cattleya is way bulkier than your average myrmidon. I don't get why everybody thinks that Cattleya sucks. It's mainly because in the first patch it's full of enemies with high def (skeletons and knights) or with high HP and atk (bandits, zombies) and she didn't have any occasion to shine. She'll do her best in the second patch, where enemies gain lots of speed in exhange of some HP and defenses. Being able to target both Def and Res will also help Cattleya become more versatile and useful.

So basically, faster units like Schwarz and Cattleya (or even Letruffe) will prove themselves worthy in v.2.0.

What kinds of chapter goals would you like to see in v.2.0?

Edited by Alfred Kamon
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Well it's rather hard to suggest any unusual goals without knowing what the story will be, but I can offer a couple of concepts to give you ideas.

One thing I've been toying with is the use of eventing to imitate more advanced movement than just "move towards enemy/chest". Take a specific unit, set its AI so it will won't actively move on its own, and set up a set of movement commands; one for each turn via eventing. e.g. turn 1: Unit X moves to A5. Turn 2: Unit X moves to B9. Make sure each movement is no more than the legitimate movement range for the class.

It's fiddly, but two possible mission types you could get from it would be:

1) Escort. Keep unit X (green) alive as he tries to reach a target point. Perhaps a friendly warrior, perhaps a supply wagon.

2) Interception. Unit X (red) happens to be an informant looking to report our position/weaknesses to the enemy. Or he's got some artefact that we want. Chase him, catch him and kill him before he leaves the map!

A couple of things to note: Unit X isn't going to actively move so he can't be AI manipulated. He should be set so he will attack adjacent enemies (also allows an escortee to chug a vulnerary if he gets wounded). And care must be taken in the escort case to make sure his path isn't likely to get completely blocked with enemies.

...In a similar fashion, an interception should probably have a weak Unit X, so that the player doesn't need to block his path. It might muck up the eventing.

Lastly, should it be an escort mission, you'd probably want to give Unit X a high constitution, or some smart alec player might try and "rescue" him.

Like I said, this is a concept I'm playing around with. It might well be more trouble than it's worth.

Edited by Wayward Winds
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^ I've already been playing with that idea last year. I originally wanted chapter 9B to be an "infiltrate prison" chapter where the guards moved like that. However, there's something you have to consider, something that even I don't know how to fix: if in your script unit X would go to A5, then it WILL go to A5. And what if there already is a unit there? Well, you'll have two units on the same tile, thus breaking the game. As far as I know there aren't checks for whether a tile is occupied or not, and even if there was, that would mean having an absurd amount of possible routes for unit X. Scripting that would be impossible or, at least, very very obnoxious.

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Could ot be possible to have something like "Move X units to these certain squares before x turns", kind of like an escape chapter. Correct me if im wrong, but shiori 5x is slightly different?

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Well, I suppose so, although technically you could let Severa die (not that anyone would). I'm not entirely keen on the escort option anyway, given that they often go horribly wrong in games and draw a lot of ire. Mind you, sometimes they're enjoyable. There's always the Elibean Nights approach for that; a somewhat weak character who joins you for just one chapter and gives a game over if killed.

I wonder if there's a way to implement the interception idea though; that would be quite an interesting objective amongst all the standard FE "Seize", Rout", "Defeat Boss" and "Survive" battles. Sure we intercept thieves before they get their grubby little mitts into every chest they can find, but it's never used in conjunction with the story...

I think I'm going to do some experimentation at some point...

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Maybe a chapter with fog of war ( okay, maybe no fog of war...), and it's like in chapter 5 where getting seen results in a game over. It can be something like "Sabotage", and you have to get to certain things and interact with them, like visiting houses, and a little cut scene can play. It could have a turn limit, and you have to escape once you're done, sort of like 5x.

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Could ot be possible to have something like "Move X units to these certain squares before x turns", kind of like an escape chapter. Correct me if im wrong, but shiori 5x is slightly different?

Yeah, that chapter uses a different script.

Or we could let Alfred do his own thing.

I will do my own thing in any case, haha.

I just wanted to see what people are expecting to see, and get some extra inspiration eventually. I will never do a copy/paste of someone else's idea, that's just not like me.

Goal: there could be a chapter where a couple of ally units(green) are temporarily''possessed'' by the Demon King and you must complete the chapter without killing them. :)

That's not a bad concept.

Maybe a chapter with fog of war ( okay, maybe no fog of war...), and it's like in chapter 5 where getting seen results in a game over. It can be something like "Sabotage", and you have to get to certain things and interact with them, like visiting houses, and a little cut scene can play. It could have a turn limit, and you have to escape once you're done, sort of like 5x.

I like the idea of Sabotage, but it seems very frustrating to play, especially due to the FoW.

Edited by Alfred Kamon
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Hmmm. . .

How 'bout a map where your team is split in two, and to advance one team's map, another team has to occupy certain tiles (which are guarded by enemies)? Granted, this is probably a pain in the ass to program, but. . .

Edited by eclipse
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Okay, dropping the whole "movement through eventing" and suggesting something simpler...

How about a pseudo-investigation mission. There are a number of ruins/other distinctive locations across a fairly open map. You know there's something important in one of them, but you don't know where. Perhaps the enemy is (storywise at least) poking around them, and you want to know what they're up to. Most ruins contain clues to which one your objective is in (e.g. a riddle), allowing you to gradually narrow down the possibilities.

Meanwhile, the longer you take, the stronger the enemies that turn up - in equipment terms mostly. By say the 15th turn, it's mostly killer weapons and Berserk staves (for human enemies) or a lot of Gorgons with Stone. In other words, level grinding is risky. For added tension, try fog of war.

Note: in theory the above could be cleared by trial and error/accident. If you wanted to add more challenge you could imitate FEA's Laurent gaiden and have ruins/whatever appear via tile changes only when certain previous ruins have been visited, but I think that's getting a little complicated and overly risky to the player (the excessive risk should only start when the player has clearly taken so long that they must be trying to level grind, not just because they're hitting a few wrong targets).

So uh, kind of a puzzle chapter like MS ch. 5, but with actual combat and no movement restrictions.

Edited by Wayward Winds
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What about an escape chapter with a time limit where the chapter afterwards only allows you to use those units that escaped. (IE, you needed to run somewhere quickly, and only those that get there "in time" can participate. Everyone else is fine but misses out on the fight. (Ideally, you could have them show up several turns in A LA how nearby enemies reinforce each other in etrian odyssey). If that is too hard to program, make a chapter where you get a reward based on who is near the seize point when the hero seizes.

As for sharing a space, This is possible, but nothing especialy bad happens as far as i know. The tas actually uses a glitch in vanilla to cause it. (how to activate it in the vanilla game is explained at http://tasvideos.org/3214S.htmlunder "moving 2 units on the same square")

Edited by sirmola
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Hmmm. . .

How 'bout a map where your team is split in two, and to advance one team's map, another team has to occupy certain tiles (which are guarded by enemies)? Granted, this is probably a pain in the ass to program, but. . .

That's a great idea. I wanted to do that for chapter 16, when the two groups reunite. And, I also wanted two completely different maps to interact in a single chapter-- a bit tricky to hack, and it'll surely take me a lot of work and time (not that the other chapters won't require that), but for the (presumably) last chapter of v.2.0, I can go through the effort.

How about a map with a teleporter/switch maze?

That's something I was thinking about as well, but I'm unsure whether to include that in the main story or not. It will probably be one of the trials in the Tower of Trials.

Okay, dropping the whole "movement through eventing" and suggesting something simpler...

How about a pseudo-investigation mission. There are a number of ruins/other distinctive locations across a fairly open map. You know there's something important in one of them, but you don't know where. Perhaps the enemy is (storywise at least) poking around them, and you want to know what they're up to. Most ruins contain clues to which one your objective is in (e.g. a riddle), allowing you to gradually narrow down the possibilities.

Meanwhile, the longer you take, the stronger the enemies that turn up - in equipment terms mostly. By say the 15th turn, it's mostly killer weapons and Berserk staves (for human enemies) or a lot of Gorgons with Stone. In other words, level grinding is risky. For added tension, try fog of war.

Note: in theory the above could be cleared by trial and error/accident. If you wanted to add more challenge you could imitate FEA's Laurent gaiden and have ruins/whatever appear via tile changes only when certain previous ruins have been visited, but I think that's getting a little complicated and overly risky to the player (the excessive risk should only start when the player has clearly taken so long that they must be trying to level grind, not just because they're hitting a few wrong targets).

So uh, kind of a puzzle chapter like MS ch. 5, but with actual combat and no movement restrictions.

That's very interesting, thank you for the inspiration.

That could very well be a trial in the ToT, where the checkpoints get randomized every time you replay the map. I think it's doable, I just need to disassemble the randomizer for the kid's dialogue in vanilla FE8 chapter 6.

What about an escape chapter with a time limit where the chapter afterwards only allows you to use those units that escaped. (IE, you needed to run somewhere quickly, and only those that get there "in time" can participate. Everyone else is fine but misses out on the fight. (Ideally, you could have them show up several turns in A LA how nearby enemies reinforce each other in etrian odyssey). If that is too hard to program, make a chapter where you get a reward based on who is near the seize point when the hero seizes.

As for sharing a space, This is possible, but nothing especialy bad happens as far as i know. The tas actually uses a glitch in vanilla to cause it. (how to activate it in the vanilla game is explained at http://tasvideos.org/3214S.htmlunder "moving 2 units on the same square")

Though I really love Etrian Odyssey, I don't think that would work in a FE game.

The other part about the reward for those who're within Area (X,Y) may be interesting, though.

Also, while I know that doesn't break the game, it's still something unpleasant and glitchy, and I don't want it to be in MS at all, of course.

Whose supports/relationships are you looking forward to?

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(You haven't got a list of who will be able to support who, have you? I'm assuming you don't.))

Something involving pervy Puledra.

Also, remember how I said Djambo's manner of talk (specifically how he referred to women) during his introduction would likely not go down well with Rya? Could be something to try, especially if she then (in later supports) tries to educate him in how regular folk behave and speak (and possibly gives up).

Also, this is rather shaky ground, but Cristoph is ripe for potential. Pair him up with Faratrass and see him try and admonish her for for her role in the DK's "religion of evil", or outright try to convert her to "save her from the fires of damnation".

On even more shaky ground, is there an aethist in the party? Schwarz seems a good bet to me. Anyway, pair an aethist up with Cristoph and watch the theological debates commence!

Edited by Wayward Winds
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A support between Djambo/Garion and Letruffe could be interesting. Maybe they could argue about their respective forms of crime, only to reach common ground?

Also, I second Iron Rose on his point. That would certainly be a breath of fresh air.

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Some non-heterosexual supports/relationships would be a nice plus.

All the homo. Needs some Fa x Shoiri.

May I suggest a big gimmick map where you need to make Fa And Shoiri on each Side of the map and they must talk to each other to complete the map. You could also do a "protect x green unit til they flee" map

Edit: do Weiss x Menmus or Menmus x Schwartz or Schwartz x Weiss for a "mount" relationship

Edited by B.Mage
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Brokeback Emblem?

...Cristoph supports should be amusing with Fa, anyone not religious, or well... anyone not kinda crazy... Or hell, have him support with someone just as nuts/amusing. XD

I second the idea of some development of the reason behind Rya's colored eyes. Schwarz could have some fun, pony hater/pony racist related supports too. :)

Garion could use some sort of fleshing out/development... like what is his story? Why does he rob when he seems so honorable? Is there someone who reminds him of someone/he interacted with/robbed in the past? Anybody who hates bandits? :o

---

On the idea of escort missions... It does become irritating when the escort mission is a struggle/auto gameover without lots of work on the player's part. One idea would be to make the escort have multiple endings, much like the chapter 2(?) Battle where you can kill or recruit characters... so you could have more viable characters potentially available if we don't eliminate them... just to troll us XD

...or you could have a valuable/rare item/weapon given to the player by the escorted unit if they survive. But ONLY if they survive.

Other thoughts would be multiple possible escorted characters, ie some sort of convoy but only a game-over if the most important of them is killed... or you let too many get killed... Varying levels of reward could be recieved afterwards depending on who is left over.

Edited by TheErrantShepherd
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