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Fire Emblem: The Queen's Lament Demo


CopyBotJ
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Download (Demo 1.00)

This is a short, sweet six chapter demo for a hack some friends and I are working on.

The demo tells the story of Prince Rokevin of Fheg and his good friend, Prince Augustus of Ascana, repelling a surprise attack from the neighboring kingdom of Nasith. The completed hack will tell of Rokevin's journey, with some brief interludes to Augustus', as they try to find the source of the war that swiftly covers the continent.

[spoiler=Screenshots]

OwnIG31.png

[spoiler=Gameplay]We've taken opportunity to rebalance many things about traditional GBA FE gameplay. The project was originally inspired by the Tellius setting and we've taken several cues from it, like adding an anima magic triangle based of effective damage. Wind tomes do more damage against Thunder mages and sages, Thunder tomes do more damage against Fire mages and sages, etc. A lot of work has also been put into differentiating all types of magic. While Wind, Fire, and Thunder tomes have similar attributes to those in PoR/RD, Light and Dark magic have been given their own niches; all Light magic gives the user stat bonuses, while all Dark magic have special status effects, like poison and sleep.

We've also made soldiers into a playable class (though there are no playable soldiers in the demo) that resemble high def myrmidons and promote into Halberdiers with the standard +15 crit bonus, along with Snipers. Speaking of Snipers, all bows now have improved range. Most bows are 2-3, but longbows are 2-5 and shortbows are 1-2 (We like to think this makes archers less useless, tell us what you think!). There are countless little changes as well: Most classes have had their bases buffed, Knights can now use axes, and Cavaliers have been split into Sword, Lance, Axe, and Bow Cavaliers that promote into Gold or Silver Paladins that use their RD weapons.

[spoiler=Misc Stuff]

Hard mode has been partially applied, hard mode bonuses have been adjusted for each chapter and Chapter 1 is slightly different, but it has not been fully worked out or tested.

Supports have not been implemented, though there is a placeholder for them.

Steph has some problems if you support her or rescue her.

If you have any questions or criticisms, please feel free to post them, we'd love to hear your feedback. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy the demo!

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hey you posted this! good to see.

My hack group and I took a swing at this last night.

The writing is pretty goofy, Rokevin seems kinda bratty but I like his boyish and lazy personality.

I also like what you did experimenting with magic balancing, it was really risky for sure. I need to play it myself to get a deeper look into it tho.

I'm sure you know about the mug colors and the inconsistency there, but if you guys don't feel like changing it, then its cool haha. I like Rokevin's name and mug.

I couldn't see the rest of chapter 5 or 6 because i had to sleep. But from what I see is that its a neat little hack with fun writing (though it could be a lot better and concise in some places) and there are definite risks you took. Which is nice to see. I hope progress goes smooth here.

The speedy myrm in chapter 3 could be a lot less fast!

Again, thanks for posting here.

Edited by GhastStation
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i'm offended i got lumped in with "various FEU members" after providing you with personal support for that utility patch

This looks really cool, will check it out once I get some free time!

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I played along with Ghasts hack group last night. Our quest for our horse buthole was long and tedious. Eventually we forgot and never found him. Somebody is probably riding Rokevins buthole and there is nothing we can do about it. But that's ok.

On the other hand I like the creativity here. It's plainly obvious that there was some decent thought put into this hack minus how silly it was at times. Also that "creepy dude" not so creepy when the game tells me it's creepy.

That lord on that horse. Prince of thieves man. Getting off that horse and jacking theif keys. What a beast. I can see the conversation back at the thieves hideout right now.

Thief 1: Man we got some good shit today I got a Steel axe man!

Thief 2: Um... Yeah a horseman jacked my key.

Thief 3: Get out I want you out of the house by the end of the night.

Anyway. This hack was really good for some serious laughs at most times because of how ridiculous it was and of course our quest for the great buthole. We were really looking forward to the parade of the princes buthole. Oh well.

The lord... Yeah. The lord... Um... Yeah... Those stats man. The lord was so stronk please nerf. That luck was through the roof and making me go crazy. Too good. I realize after meeting Rokevin I am not half the man I thought I was. I hope to be just like him someday and have a buthole as nice and shiny as his.

Thanks for bringing the magic triangle I actually really liked that. Overall I enjoyed watching the hack being played. Work on that dialogue though it could be a little more serious. Great effort. Can't wait to see the next part of the game so the prince can finally be reunited with his buthole.

One more little thing. I really like the fact that you turned one of the monsters dark magic from FE8 into a wind spell. It worked really well. I know that's a small thing but i'm glad you did it.

Edited by Orange Scarlet
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Remember to give feedback. Especially on the magic because that's all my numbers

i'm offended i got lumped in with "various FEU members" after providing you with personal support for that utility patch

But this is 1.00, before we asked you for help Thank you for helping us though.

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Things that stick out to me immediately:

·Rokevin reminds me of what FE7 might be like if you played as Erik instead of Eliwood: it's a surprisingly fresh take having the lord actually be a spoiled/entitled brat(?).

·However, he falls completely flat in gameplay, which I get if he's supposed to be hilariously bad, but he needs /at least/ one worthy trait. He got a lot of HP/luck level-ups, so I guess he specialises in luck, but that's one point of avoid per level-up, more or less. Either improve his growths or give him respectable bases. The rapier buff is welcome, but it's not enough. As it is now, Rokevin's weakness quickly becomes less hilarious and more frustrating with each passing phase.

·Rokevin's appearance doesn't do him any favors either. His animation makes his name invoke Roy, and his hair color and armor make me think of Ephraim. The animation is understandable given that you have few animations to work with, but you may want to consider giving him a custom animation (even if it's just a re-skin of the Roy one) and a better hair color in the future. On the plus side, you nailed the snooty look.

·In ch1, the map is seemingly the same location as the prologue but with the camera panned down. It's kind of funny how you can't cross the bridge just north of you to get to the boss because it's out of the camera's range, but you should make the enemies say they destroyed the bridge or something lampshading the fact that you arbitrarily can no longer cross it.

·Also in ch1, Rokevin is a lord so he can still cross rivers. He has a straight path to the rapier-weak boss... which is kind of balanced by how terrible of a unit he is, but I digress. I guess that the recruitable knight and cleric encourage you to take the lower path, but you can always make them run away as soon as they come out of the village. Make them start as NPCs and be talkable or spawn when you visit the village?

·Maxim is top hero for putting up with Roky. Side-chapter where Maxim is a one-man army pls. I'd be the #1 fan. [shot]

·Augustus has the same problem of being a terrible unit, which is a little strange when the part of his chapter where he starts seems specifically designed to accommodate him (all the axereavers in that one place and nowhere else). Like Roky, he needs something to redeem him gameplay-wise.

The general impression is good and I'll play through more than 1.5 chapters soon (even though I already watched someone else play the full demo). Keep at it yo!

Edited by Alusq
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hey you posted this! good to see.

No problem man, great to be here. And I'm glad you like the magic, Lis and I worked hard on that.

Anyways, James does have to stay as he is and it's been my dream to have a boss that could double most of your party, so Travis will stay as he is though he gets a new weapon in the next patch.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "concise in some places"? Is the writing too long at certain points?

Also some Bloodlines feedback might be coming your way soon.

i'm offended i got lumped in with "various FEU members" after providing you with personal support for that utility patch

This looks really cool, will check it out once I get some free time!

Sorry, I put you right in the credits when you made that fix for us but I just used the old readme because the hard mode patch isn't ready yet. Think of yourself as a hard mode bonus.

It looks interesting so far

Thanks!

Thanks for bringing the magic triangle I actually really liked that. Overall I enjoyed watching the hack being played. Work on that dialogue though it could be a little more serious. Great effort. Can't wait to see the next part of the game so the prince can finally be reunited with his buthole.

Serious? You named the horse buthole Thanks, we've put a lot of work into this hack.

The general impression is good and I'll play through more than 1.5 chapters soon (even though I already watched someone else play the full demo). Keep at it yo!

Always appreciate feedback, thanks. Some quick answers for you

Oh yeah, Rokevin is a brat. All the way.

Sorry, but Rokevin has to stay bad. He can't fight well without his horse. Just think of every mission like an escort mission, those are always a blast!

Hah, you nailed what Rokevin is. The original hack idea was for a shitty lord like Roy to be combined with the brashness of Ephraim. And I'll talk to the team about Rokevin's animation, we have two very talented animators.

Completely unintentional, but I'll see what I can do about the bridge.

LTC straits, yo. I did notice that, but between WTD against Marvin and the merc in the forest, I wouldn't say it's a viable option. About Dan and Beatrice, I didn't want the player to be able to miss the starting healer, so they join on your side.

We'll consider it :)

Augustus is a terrible unit? I certainly wasn't expecting to ever hear that. Maybe you got unlucky?

Again, thanks for the critique, it helps a lot.

Edited by CopyBotJ
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I played along with Ghasts hack group last night. Our quest for our horse buthole was long and tedious. Eventually we forgot and never found him. Somebody is probably riding Rokevins buthole and there is nothing we can do about it. But that's ok.

Holy shit! You're still alive!?

Anyways, looking forward to playing this. From the screenshots, All I can tell you is portrait colors. Generally, it's best to stick to either FE6/7 colors, or FE8 colors.

Character development seems like it's slow from what you said about the lord being a bratty character. The new Magic Triangle seems awesome. Looking forward to seeing this hack become popular

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Anyways, looking forward to playing this. From the screenshots, All I can tell you is portrait colors. Generally, it's best to stick to either FE6/7 colors, or FE8 colors.

they have been told this already lol

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played through it, do you want me to leave the cnc here or PM you?

Feel free to post it here if you want, though PM stuff you feel new players shouldn't know.

Anyways, looking forward to playing this. From the screenshots, All I can tell you is portrait colors. Generally, it's best to stick to either FE6/7 colors, or FE8 colors.

Character development seems like it's slow from what you said about the lord being a bratty character. The new Magic Triangle seems awesome. Looking forward to seeing this hack become popular

Some things are so integral to the spirit of a project that they just can't be dropped, and James being FE8 colors while everyone else is colored FE6/FE7 style is one of them.

Magic is certainly getting special attention in this hack and I hope our changes make it more interesting to use. Thank you for your kind words.

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Seconding what CopyBot said; feedback is very appreciated in the thread, except for 'secret' stuff that a new player shouldn't have access to knowing such as where the hidden treasure is whaaaaaat I didn't say anything.

EDIT: Oh yeah I suppose I should mention that I helped make this. Hi there everyone! I made a character in the demo (they can be seen in the screenshots above), and a couple more as well for when the full release is ready.

Edited by LetsGoForIt
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Fheg lol i still can't get over that

prologue- I think the intro is fine until shaggy and cid the kid come out. After that point, the opening cutscene seems to get drawn out for too long. I think to myself "why are these bandits just sitting there waiting for them to talk?"

Maybe you can have the the archer/cav come out of the village on turn 2?

aside from that i think the writing is quirky.

roky's bases, i get what you're trying to do what with him being /that/ bad. But I check his growths, for 'limitless' potential he sure could use some speed bumps in bases and growths.

also cid's base con is the same as roky. lol kids a meathead

did you consider giving armor brigands 4 move like their knight counter parts?

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c1- dialogue is pretty straight forward and the plot seems pretty simple atm. Sam is kind of useless, he suffers from the shitty early game archer syndrome.

The gameplay of the chapter was pretty 'eeh'. You can go at a snails pace and you don't really have to worry about anything. The knight/cleric being in a tough spot had potential, but it didn't last that long considering how i had two horsemen able to save them quick. Nothing really remarkable, but eh. Chapter 1.I don't really know what you can do to not make it like that though tbh.

The transition from the fields to the castle could be a bit smoother. its like really sudden, try a longer STAL, slower FADI/DU.

also for polish, giving the money to maxim after roky bails seems like a more logical series of events.

c2- roky lol what a brat 'maaaax'. funny writing, not really fitting the rest of the cast's speech but i figure that was your angle.

holy road, diversify the road. its just one tile over and over.

this myrm has 18 speed, its chapter 2. Why is he so fast lol that's insane. Like yeah he's still killable but he can still double anyone with the steel sword. not sure what you were trying to do there.

probably could size down this map, there seems to be a whole lot of not a lot going on here. sizing it down, or just giving the player more things to do might be a good idea. Maybe having them save a village before a bandit comes and wrecks it or something. As a player I still don't have any incentive to actually move fast.

the ending cutscene is a solid 4 lines, you just recruited 3 characters! give them some personality !

c3- sally is a playable unit or a generic?... she has a class card for a portrait ahha

i get the vibe that this hack is just a parody of fire emblem. "oh you're a thief? k just steal shit then kbye" the writing is pretty self aware. But you gotta watch out for that kind of writing, unless your jokes and references are actually funny, you end up looking like the Zhack who tried way too hard to be funny.

this map is meeeega huge haha wow. I think this could be sized down.

wind magic map animation has elizabeth facing the front of the player as opposed to facing the enemy.

magic changes-

- okay so the magic triangle. I think that elizabeth should explain the triangle to Roky somehow, in case some one neglects to visit that house and doesn't get the memo.

I also think in the future it would be good to make a map sprites that differentiate between the mage classes, right now its constant R-menuing which slows down pace.The magic triangle seems to be making sense though. The only serious problem with the triangle is that I straight up didn't care about it. liz starts in a spot where her wind magic can't really get utilized well. The thunder mages only slightly have a disadvantage to her as well. And you know who can still eat the thunder mages? Steph and maxim, and legit anyone else on my team. Hell, even my thief can do decent chip damage to them. And fire mages on the bottom left got totally destroyed by bromios and isolde, who by the way are just so much better than my other units.

Their unit placement isn't really helping them out either, which I get kind of makes sense since only two people go there, but its just a cake walk with bromios and isolde, who i'm pretty sure didn't level up much at all so i can't even say i had lucky level ups.

So you have this anima triangle mechanic that you want to show, but you don't really do a great job showing it. The thunder mages get stomped because of this map design. Its really, really maze like and claustrophobic and enemies/ allies all grouped together makes for a cluster fuck basically. My mounted units can go anywhere they want and make it back to fighting melee units in one turn.

Then, you have monks, who despite the buffs you give them, are still paaaaants bad units. Why? Because the passive boosts they give the respective unit is useless. Lighting boosts strength, skill and speed. But why? You could achieve the same thing by just giving the lightning tome +1 mt and -1 wt. What I'm saying is that these current passive boosts are arbitrary. What you should be doing, is having them passively increase stats unrelated to offense. Like Def, Res or Luck. Heck, maybe even HP.

Did you reduce the monk's bases? Because even with the passive boosts, 3 magic and 2 base stats in the others makes them paper.

And if you wanted to make light magic better utilized, reduce the weight of light magic in general. Lightning is still 6 wt, which is just obscene in vanilla and it makes light magic obsolete, this is why light magic was trash in gbafe. And maybe you had plans for light magic later, but atm the weapon stats look pretty similar to vanilla light magic.

as for dark magic, giving the shamans a better def base and giving dark poison properties is, well. Idk really, there was like 1 shaman which I curbstomped so I'm not sure if your current adjustments are gonna be meaningful in the long run.

I think if you wanted to go split paths, consider making one path geared towards bulky enemies, and another towards lightweight speed ones.

I still didn't really need to think on my toes yet. and again, I have no incentive to push forward at a faster pace.

c4

Uumm... You might want to rethink your level design...

Fh7gha2.png

See the problem? The enemy clerics are trying to fight me. And they don't actually fight, so they stand there. Which lines up every other enemy to just stand around and wait. I did this for like 9 turns before I exploited the boss, nabbed his energy ring and ended the chapter :\

I mean, yeah. I'm missing a lot of exp but this is a critical design flaw and looks really, really silly. Also the patch ends in a chapter so I really didn't feel any use in killing these guys for exp.

There isn't a lot of incentive to go looking for treasure, because I didn't even know if I was supposed to. Is there any hint that there's treasure up there? Oh well, whatever it was, I didn't much need it for this chapter lol.

The longbow guys, I have no idea what the point of making them their own class is. Just give them the guard AI, it accomplishes the same thing. I like the idea of a 'turret' like class, but i ended up just baiting him with steph and healing over and over whenever she got hit. Or I just avoided it completely, because tbh you can just move folks out of their range and the threat is over.

Next we have these really shitty guards, what's even the point of them being there? Does this castle not give a fuck about protecting itself? They end up just killing themselves by my turn 2 :\. I'd take them out entirely or make them a bit more self-sustaining. They are just there to get killed.

And now we move onto the boss. Who is also just silly. I ended up clearing a path through my choke point, using maxim to deal a solid 17 damage on him, then got steph to kill him. Effectively ending the chapter... for some reason.

Story wise, the chapter ending when he dies makes no sense. That hero up top, the two halberdiers can literally dumpster my whole team. its silly how he's just like 'dohoho got me lol kbye' when in reality the halberdiers alone can rip my team to shreds. I get that there's an intimidation factor you're trying to do, but it makes for not so great story telling when the boss is like 'fuck it' and peaces out because he lost.

Is this another instance of self-aware story writing? Making fun of the whole 'killed the boss so even though other enemies are here and could presumably still kill me, they leave anyways.' because if that's the case, then the dude should straight up die because that's what happens in vanilla :P

also, I killed theo to get the boss. I have a buttload of sword users already.

c5-

was this chapter happening after or during chapter 4. Because if it happened during, then yeah. Story wise it is okay. But otherwise its like, 'seriously where are the of the guards of this castle.' or 'what is even the point of defending this castle/ what am i guarding this place for? enemies are still inside.' (though maybe i missed something in the writing that clarified this.

anyway, c5. Augustus is uh, well at least in this chapter, he's trash, man- forgettable bases for a lord, but at least his thief properties are fresh. His growths are impressive (i looked in nightmare), but he has poor 'spotlight' in this chapter. The knights take so long to kill, and every other enemy just has high defense and can break augustus in half pretty quick. His actual ability to steal isn't really utilized in any impressive way either, the chests are placed so far away from the chapter goal so I just got those thieves to snag them instead and killed them for the red gem. The steel axe and javelin are hella unimpressive chest loots for being located so far away from the throne. You should place those way more concisely and en route to the boss to save the player wasting turns getting there.

Lutger or whatever's name is just plain awful for this chapter. Why is everyone equipped with an axe reaver?... Is it to give augustus an advantage against them? Well if that's the case, then make the knights just be axe knights. Because as it is now, Lutger can't do anything useful for the whole beginning of the chapter. It would also make Augustus be more useful for combat, since axes may weigh down the knights more. its also just weird design to have the unique weapon of a reaver be a common thing here.

I like the male peg knight, but again, as a unit he's nothing special. So basically you have Augustus, Lutger and peg knight man basically not-chipping-but-not-dealing-decent damage, and then Lorelei, who is amazing. Lorelei is really fucking cool and probably a favorite character for players of the hack. But honestly I just started abusing her because this chapter was going at a snail's pace.

I was pretty tired so i didn't really look into the ending cutscene, but Edgy McBlackman is lol. Idk if I'm supposed to take him seriously, considering his mooks (two of which i dumpstered already) act like he's some bad dude.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Characters- A lot of one dimensional dudes here. Cid (my dad!) and Sam (I'm sleepy!) are just eh writing wise. Isolde is cool, I like her pep talks to Bromios and Steph. But even so, Roky doesn't even talk to them at the end of the chapter. So all i know about Bromios is 'fighter that looks like a bandit' and steph 'looks high as fuck'.

Dan and the cleric are really just 'dan and the cleric'.

Elizabeth, lutger and the others came late, so idk if they develop later. But as for your early early game units, character development is much desired.

Roky- lol. Okay this guy is funny. I like the fact that he's a total brat and is the centerpiece to the whole self aware biz this hack is about. I can buy his story too, his uncle or whatever is ilke ' yo you gotta grow a pair so do this, be a man and then take over the kingdom.' I had really lucky level ups with him, but he's still probably the worst lord in fire emblem history, statwise.

Augustus is also pretty brutal for the same reasons. Though his potential is way better, i like his uniqueness as a lord. So hopefully his utility gets better down the line.

writing- If the comedy angle is what you're going for, then you're gonna need to deliver consistently. Comedy hacks tend to do one thing- be self aware. But the same 'lolfunny 4th wall breaking lolfunny' jokes and average writing for hacks like these can make the whole comedy angle go South very fast, so you gotta watch out for that and have your hack not fall into that trend!

I hope characters get better written in the future, ending cutscenes are really good for developing characters and whatnot.

closing-

some characters were cool, others not so much.

a lot of units ended up being trash, and if their character background was meh, then they became insta forgettable.

roky and augustus are unique lords, and it takes a certain perspective to enjoy them. So opinions are gonna fly about them.

Design wise, a lot of beginner mistakes here. But that's okay, a lot of risks you took with this. Which is commendable.

a 6 chapter hack is still pretty solid for a first patch. Keep up, hopefully you can improve for the next patch ~

Edited by GhastStation
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NOTE: These are personal opinions, and do not reflect the opinions of the project staff at large (only my own), so take them with a grain of salt.

You named your horse "myhumps"? What is it with people naming their horse so funky?

Samuel... should not be suffering from being an early-game archer. He's got high STR and DEF, in addition to bows being buffed already. He makes a good off-tank to supplement Dan, and should really be shining on chapters 4 and 5 especially. Are you remembering to attack at 3 range instead of 2?

Travis (the 18 speed Myrmidon) is meant to be a surprise to the player, and is supposed to double most (if not all) of the (non-Maxim) army.

You couldn't get Elizabeth to work well? The upper-right corner of the map was pretty much designed to be her playground where she could go nuts; again, this is all assuming that you didn't just steamroll everything with Maxim (which is admittedly very tempting). The monks, by the way, are legitimately that awful; they have crappy base-stats and the only reason that Lucius or Artur are good is because of their bonus bases (interestingly, this makes them extremely good in Randomizer hacks since their personal bases can make any class good, lol).

Chapter 5 (that's the desert map)... what the heck are you doing Ghast? While the AI for the clerics is obviously in need of a bit of fixing, the map should NOT be looking like that. Using Elizabeth or Celeste to block the center path (Theo the Myrmidon won't attack either of them) while the rest of the army chokes the left and right points makes it a lot easier and fun for everyone involved, and doesn't cause you to kill the Navarre Archetype, lol. In addition, the story scenes explain that Avitus (the Fire Mage boss) was a distraction so that the units in Chapter 6 could get to work; once he's done his job he basically just GTFOs and lets the heroes wonder what happened.

Chapter 6 is, admittedly, a bit of a long hallway. I also wonder about the enemy's decision to bring Axereavers to battle (which makes poor Ludger sit on his horse doing nothing for most of the chapter).

I'm glad that you like Isolde, at least!

The concerns regarding characterization, personality, and the like will be fixed (or at least improved) once Supports are fully implemented (currently all they do is Statboosts-on-a-Stick; very Radiant Dawn-esque "Hello! Watch your back in this battle" at the moment).

All the same, thank you for the feedback!

Edited by LetsGoForIt
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Ummmmmm what?

NOTE: These are personal opinions, and do not reflect the opinions of the project staff at large (only my own), so take them with a grain of salt.

You named your horse "myhumps"? What is it with people naming their horse so funky?

Samuel... should not be suffering from being an early-game archer. He's got high STR and DEF, in addition to bows being buffed already. He makes a good off-tank to supplement Dan, and should really be shining on chapters 4 and 5 especially. Are you remembering to attack at 3 range instead of 2?

Travis (the 18 speed Myrmidon) is meant to be a surprise to the player, and is supposed to double most (if not all) of the (non-Maxim) army.

You couldn't get Elizabeth to work well? The upper-right corner of the map was pretty much designed to be her playground where she could go nuts; again, this is all assuming that you didn't just steamroll everything with Maxim (which is admittedly very tempting). The monks, by the way, are legitimately that awful; they have crappy base-stats and the only reason that Lucius or Artur are good is because of their bonus bases (interestingly, this makes them extremely good in Randomizer hacks since their personal bases can make any class good, lol).

That bolded line makes no sense to me, you're acknowledging that they have terrible stats, but give no reason as to why you left them that way or how it makes the game better? What did you try to say with this? Also, and I can't believe I'm typing this, you know you can change class bases in Nightmare right?

Chapter 5 (that's the desert map)... what the heck are you doing Ghast? While the AI for the clerics is obviously in need of a bit of fixing, the map should NOT be looking like that. Using Elizabeth or Celeste to block the center path (Theo the Myrmidon won't attack either of them) while the rest of the army chokes the left and right points makes it a lot easier and fun for everyone involved, and doesn't cause you to kill the Navarre Archetype, lol. In addition, the story scenes explain that Avitus (the Fire Mage boss) was a distraction so that the units in Chapter 6 could get to work; once he's done his job he basically just GTFOs and lets the heroes wonder what happened.

This, again, makes no sense. Ghast played the chapter and made it looked like that, it DOES look like that. The fact that you don't want it/didn't intend for it to look like that is another story. The fact is, people are going to play your chapter the easiest way they can find, since this is a tactics game. Your job as the games maker is to make that fun for the player. What Ghast did here is "break" the chapter and find an easy way to beat it. It's not your job to tell him he's playing wrong, it's your job to make it so that you can't "break" the chapter like that.

Chapter 6 is, admittedly, a bit of a long hallway. I also wonder about the enemy's decision to bring Axereavers to battle (which makes poor Ludger sit on his horse doing nothing for most of the chapter).

What is this supposed to mean??? You're part of the group making this hack right? Why would YOU be wondering about this?

I'm glad that you like Isolde, at least!

The concerns regarding characterization, personality, and the like will be fixed (or at least improved) once Supports are fully implemented (currently all they do is Statboosts-on-a-Stick; very Radiant Dawn-esque "Hello! Watch your back in this battle" at the moment).

I don't think this last line addresses Ghasts main concern with the story, for example he mentions that in chapter 2 you get 3 new characters and the ending scene is only 3 lines. What he's trying to say (at least, what I got from his post) was that you should take some time in the ending scene to show us some more about these three new characters that we just got, you don't have to rush to the next chapter, it's ok to tell us a bit about our characters.

All the same, thank you for the feedback!

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NOTE: These are personal opinions, and do not reflect the opinions of the project staff at large (only my own), so take them with a grain of salt.

You named your horse "myhumps"? What is it with people naming their horse so funky?

It was in the spirit of the hack kikikikik

Samuel... should not be suffering from being an early-game archer. He's got high STR and DEF, in addition to bows being buffed already. He makes a good off-tank to supplement Dan, and should really be shining on chapters 4 and 5 especially. Are you remembering to attack at 3 range instead of 2?

actually you're right. He's pretty decent of a unit. perhaps it was just a bias against early game archers not named Buck :P but yes, the extended range for archers was interesting

Travis (the 18 speed Myrmidon) is meant to be a surprise to the player, and is supposed to double most (if not all) of the (non-Maxim) army.

there are better, more thought out ways to go about surprising the player, imo.

You couldn't get Elizabeth to work well? The upper-right corner of the map was pretty much designed to be her playground where she could go nuts; again, this is all assuming that you didn't just steamroll everything with Maxim (which is admittedly very tempting). The monks, by the way, are legitimately that awful; they have crappy base-stats and the only reason that Lucius or Artur are good is because of their bonus bases (interestingly, this makes them extremely good in Randomizer hacks since their personal bases can make any class good, lol).

no, I could get her to work well, I just didn't need to at all. Again, my other units could smack around those mages without her. I think I used Elizabeth to fight the mages like once just to finish one off. I didn't need to steam roll everything with maxim, but having take care of a pesky unit of two is what i typically use jeigans for. Esp. in hacks, where the use of a jeigan typically has no punishment considering hack length

Chapter 5 (that's the desert map)... what the heck are you doing Ghast? breaking the chapter. While the AI for the clerics is obviously in need of a bit of fixing, the map should NOT be looking like that you should probably just get rid of clerics altogether, because the choke points can just make them living walls no matter the AI, if you play smart even if they didn't have the janky behavior that they try to attack you. Using Elizabeth or Celeste to block the center path (Theo the Myrmidon won't attack either of them) while the rest of the army chokes the left and right points makes it a lot easier and fun for everyone involved honestly, having roky of all people block off the center made the rest of the chapter super baby level, any other strats would probably require more thought, and doesn't cause you to kill the Navarre Archetype, lol i didn't need to kill him, but i did because I found no value in a myrm at the time. Also it was the Energy Ring, or a killing edge at the time, so eh. In addition, the story scenes explain that Avitus (the Fire Mage boss) was a distraction so that the units in Chapter 6 could get to work; once he's done his job he basically just GTFOs and lets the heroes wonder what happened. i still don't find this very logical! Why would a presumably main villain not finish the job when he can? Why let the heroes survive?

Chapter 6 is, admittedly, a bit of a long hallway. I also wonder about the enemy's decision to bring Axereavers to battle (which makes poor Ludger sit on his horse doing nothing for most of the chapter).

lol

I'm glad that you like Isolde, at least!

The concerns regarding characterization, personality, and the like will be fixed (or at least improved) once Supports are fully implemented (currently all they do is Statboosts-on-a-Stick; very Radiant Dawn-esque "Hello! Watch your back in this battle" at the moment).

not really concerned about supports, more about character intros. They still need an initial reason to be cared for!

All the same, thank you for the feedback!

@matt, go to sleep you grumpy Chilean!!

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Ummmmmm what?

-snipped-

As I stated before in my original post, the included information was of my own opinion, and NOT indicative of the opinions of the rest of the staff involved. I myself am not involved in the hacking process (I do some of the writing, a couple of sprites, and playtesting instead), so again it is not 'my job' to tell people how to play OR to tell people 'what we expect'; I have merely given/recounted my own experiences as I've gone through the playtesting.

The Lead Hacker (CopyBotJ) is currently writing up a response, so look forward to that everyone!

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mhmm, i should just mention that I'm no expert myself. I also could be wrong in some instances. But I hope that some of my feedback could be put to good use anyway. Or not, you don't /need/ to accept feedback! Just trying to help.

Edited by GhastStation
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Oh man Ghast, that's a lot. Thanks! Let me address a few (okay it turned into a lot) of your concerns, but rest assured that I and the team read all of them and are taking them under very careful consideration.

-Chapter 1-

Concerning the intro, being terse is not our lead writer's specialty. We'll go through and cut the fat, but I don't think it's too long. Not like the enemies don't wait around during the player phase anyways.

No, I think I will give the armor brigands 4 move. Good idea!

-Chapter 2-

That sound you heard a couple minutes ago was the entire dev team screaming "How could Samuel not be useful?". I always find that the problem with starting archers is that they're fast but not fast enough to double, and generally weak and fragile. Samuel focuses on str and def, so I like to think he inverts the normal "shitty starting archer".

Oh yeah, I've been meaning to redo Chapters 2 and 3 after the demo, I agree that they move slow. Maybe they won't change for the demo hard mode release, but I want to tinker with them in the future. And thanks the event advice!

-Chapter 3-

With Travis, I wanted a weak boss that could double all your units. A problem was encountered with his custom weapon, though, so we won't able to give him it in this patch. But then CT075 fixed that for us, so expect something different next time!

About the ending and character development in general, we were planning on letting the characters be fleshed out in supports like normal FE, but after playing Bloodlines I've reconsidered that, to a degree. I'll talk to the lead writer about it.

-Chapter 4-

About your parody concern, that's not us trying to make the hack a parody, it's Rokevin being rather blunt.

You seem to dislike the general map size or layout for Chapters 2, 3, and 4. I'll work to fix this, though I don't know if 4 will change that much.

Elizabeth giving a earnest lecture on the magic triangle to a confused/bored unit sounds cute, I'll think about it.

I'm quite confused about Lis starting in a bad spot, how would you do it? Because the northeastern part of the map was specifically built for her. I get that you could do it with other units, but I don't see why you wouldn't, because it effectively makes Elizabeth useless otherwise, but I also don't want to force players to use Elizabeth there.

Isolde being good is intentional, she's the Ogma after all. Bromios should be debuffed a bit though, I've heard that concern elsewhere and I may be a bit biased towards fighters, considering how EH they are in GBAFEs.

About the Chapter being maze-like and the cavalry being able to move around easy, do you now think the map is too small? I am a bit confused, please clarify.

I'll consider what you said about light magic, but surely you know that increasing speed by one isn't equal to decreasing weight by one? But yeah, light magic will lose some weight, we haven't quite molded that all out yet. Great plans though! And monks being bad? I actually buffed them, magic units are silly poor in GBAFE. However, I didn't want to make their bases too high, considering magic units can easily prey on melee units' lack of res. I'll see how buffing them goes. About the shaman, you must've gotten pretty lucky, he's been a hassle for the rest of the playtesters.

The brigand that appear to destroy the houses are your incentive to move fast. Maybe I'll make them appear a turn earlier.

-Chapter 5-

Rokevin is the best choke point. Cleric AI is a bit silly though, I'll look for a solution.

The thing that informs you of treasure is the houses, but they're pretty far away. I think I've figured out a way to make it more clear though, we'll see.

I didn't just give them the guard AI because a lot of playtesters got freaked out by the longbow archer who could seemingly attack half the map. And yeah, their threat is over when you move out of their range, but you're still feeling pressure to not move in their range, no? They provide more of a support role than an offensive one.

The poor guards are to signify that Ascana is on the losing side of a battle, same as the ones in the castle. They are just there to get killed.

I'll make Avitus tougher. The reason the chapter ends when he dies is that I wanted to reward the player if they beat him early, but clearly he isn't tough enough to justify that. Plus, armies tend to fall apart when their leader is defeated, pretty demoralizing.

-Chapter 6-

During, you go from Rokevin's perspective during the battle to Augustus' perspective.

One of Augustus' shareholders really wanted him to start at level 1, but he's changed his mind now. And I agree that the map is a bit of a mess for Augustus right now, considering he has so much to do. We'll work on fixing that, it's been bothering me for a while now. I'll also work on making the characters in general more useful, but the map design limited that a bit.

James is bad dude supreme, don't cross him. Nasith's military force is less than impressive right now, but not for long.

-Overall-

We figured most characters would be expanded on in supports, like vanilla FE, but just because it's a problem there doesn't mean we can't fix it here. We'll think of some good solutions, like the end of chapter thing you mentioned later.

Again, we're not trying to create a self-aware hack, I don't really understand where that impression came from. It's mostly coincidences and Rokevin being a bit dense.

I understand that some characters are forgettable, but we never set out with the intention that all characters would be important or appear repeatedly. We'll work on making the characters less forgettable though.

Again, thanks for all this! It's really helpful to hear feedback, especially one so comprehensive. We'll work on improving everything that we can!

Edit: Also, I hope my review of Bloodlines was equally helpful. I really liked all the talk events, so we're considering adding more here.

Edited by CopyBotJ
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Oh man Ghast, that's a lot. Thanks! Let me address a few (okay it turned into a lot) of your concerns, but rest assured that I and the team read all of them and are taking them under very careful consideration.

-Chapter 1-

Concerning the intro, being terse is not our lead writer's specialty. We'll go through and cut the fat, but I don't think it's too long. Not like the enemies don't wait around during the player phase anyways.

yeah, that's why its not a major gripe, its a good general tip

No, I think I will give the armor brigands 4 move. Good idea!

-Chapter 2-

That sound you heard a couple minutes ago was the entire dev team screaming "How could Samuel not be useful?". I always find that the problem with starting archers is that they're fast but not fast enough to double, and generally weak and fragile. Samuel focuses on str and def, so I like to think he inverts the normal "shitty starting archer".

lol yeah, he's decent actually

Oh yeah, I've been meaning to redo Chapters 2 and 3 after the demo, I agree that they move slow. Maybe they won't change for the demo hard mode release, but I want to tinker with them in the future. And thanks the event advice!

-Chapter 3-

With Travis, I wanted a weak boss that could double all your units. A problem was encountered with his custom weapon, though, so we won't able to give him it in this patch. But then CT075 fixed that for us, so expect something different next time!

a lot of hacks use a really nerfed version of a brave weapon, like a 'quick sword' ( i think dream of five does this) or something, if the boss had that, he could double. And you could make him a slow mercenary or something.

About the ending and character development in general, we were planning on letting the characters be fleshed out in supports like normal FE, but after playing Bloodlines I've reconsidered that, to a degree. I'll talk to the lead writer about it.

characterisation is a huge driving force for fire emblem, if characters lack that screen time, they become very forgettable very fast

-Chapter 4-

About your parody concern, that's not us trying to make the hack a parody, it's Rokevin being rather blunt.

i was just keeping an open mind incase that was what you were going for. Hacks that are geared to try to make the player laugh tend to use self-awareness so yeah. just an open mind there

You seem to dislike the general map size or layout for Chapters 2, 3, and 4. I'll work to fix this, though I don't know if 4 will change that much.

i prefer concise map size for early game. Decent story pacing and quick chapters is the most engaging thing to introduce me to a hack, then more detailed and complex, bigger chapters for later. I also in general design my chapters around the amount of units i have as well. Large chapters for 6 units or so is a hit or miss, depending on your classes. like if you have mounted units then size can vary. but a lot of foot units, especially a lord being a foot unit might be a thought to consider when deciding on chapter size.

Elizabeth giving a earnest lecture on the magic triangle to a confused/bored unit sounds cute, I'll think about it.

I'm quite confused about Lis starting in a bad spot, how would you do it? Because the northeastern part of the map was specifically built for her. I get that you could do it with other units, but I don't see why you wouldn't, because it effectively makes Elizabeth useless otherwise I can do it because i can choose to either protect her and spend time planning around having her get spotlight or just not spend extra time there and get maxim or steph to slay em instead. But its the player who decides, there are probably people who used elizabeth for that reason you intended. , but I also don't want to force players to use Elizabeth there.

I'd need to play that chapter again, not sure how i'd do it tbh, i'd probably use her for the bottom path though. its way more open and if i designed it i could have lizzie and a small force go there and deal with a group of dedicated mages there, along with steph or something. idk.

Isolde being good is intentional, she's the Ogma after all. Bromios should be debuffed a bit though, I've heard that concern elsewhere and I may be a bit biased towards fighters, considering how EH they are in GBAFEs.

About the Chapter being maze-like and the cavalry being able to move around easy, do you now think the map is too small? I am a bit confused, please clarify.

i only meant that its quite crowded (not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation) in my opinion around the north-east. So I can have my mounted units go up north, kill the mages, then at the next turn, spend no time killing the other enemies coming from the left with my mounts again. that's something you can't really avoid though, and it makes steph and cid kinda useful in these chapters so its def. not a complaint.

I'll consider what you said about light magic, but surely you know that increasing speed by one isn't equal to decreasing weight by one? yes. But yeah, light magic will lose some weight, we haven't quite molded that all out yet. Great plans though! And monks being bad? I actually buffed them, magic units are silly poor in GBAFE. However, I didn't want to make their bases too high, considering magic units can easily prey on melee units' lack of res. I'll see how buffing them goes. About the shaman, you must've gotten pretty lucky, he's been a hassle for the rest of the playtesters. whenever there's a pesky unit that is around the same level as the rest of them, i just get my jeigan to handle it. i still managed to steal the angelic robe though

The brigand that appear to destroy the houses are your incentive to move fast. Maybe I'll make them appear a turn earlier.

-Chapter 5-

Rokevin is the best choke point. Cleric AI is a bit silly though, I'll look for a solution. like i said, you can just not have them in the chapter, bcause even without the stupid 'attack even though i can't fight' AI, you can still exploit them. I could just attack a unit in range, end my turn, and try to get the cleric to move into the open space between me and the enemy i just attacked. exploiting archers can do the same thing, i can lure them, then have them constantly attacking dan or something while the rest of the enemies are just lined up not doing anything.

The thing that informs you of treasure is the houses, but they're pretty far away. I think I've figured out a way to make it more clear though, we'll see.

I didn't just give them the guard AI because a lot of playtesters got freaked out by the longbow archer who could seemingly attack half the map. And yeah, their threat is over when you move out of their range, but you're still feeling pressure to not move in their range, no? They provide more of a support role than an offensive one.

i mean, if they don't move at all even if no one is in range, that should be a strong indication that they have guard AI. alternatively, you can make a new map sprite that's like a turret, to really sell the whole stationary bowmen thing.

The poor guards are to signify that Ascana is on the losing side of a battle, same as the ones in the castle. They are just there to get killed.

you should have them be a chapter goal, if they get rescued, then you get a bonus item or something. story wise you could say something like 'we were the last line of defense, we were goners, thank you for saving us blablabla.

I'll make Avitus tougher. The reason the chapter ends when he dies is that I wanted to reward the player if they beat him early, but clearly he isn't tough enough to justify that he is, but my jeigan is just straight up better than a chapter 5 boss lol. Plus, armies tend to fall apart when their leader is defeated, pretty demoralizing. i know but its a big stretch story wise to go with that whole "leader is defeated, lets bail", when your halberdiers would in reality just be told to trash them instead and the heroes would die. Avitus doesn't really seem demorilized that he lost either, he just sounds like a dumb leader lol. If avitus did lose, what's stopping him from telling the halberdiers to fuck my shit? Is it because its 'all part of the big plan? to distract the heroes?' in that case, wouldn't killing the threat by entirely more convenient for King James anyways?

Look at Eubans or whatever in vanilla- when he gets killed, that one soldier is like "commander so-and-so is dead! retreat!" those soldiers were demoralized because their most powerful fighter just got dumpstered, so what hope would generic soldiers have?

In this scenario however, avitus isn't the most powerful unit here, they can still easily win if they wanted to. I'd take out those halberdiers entirely if i were you, it just makes for questionable story writing.

-Chapter 6-

During, you go from Rokevin's perspective during the battle to Augustus' perspective.

One of Augustus' shareholders really wanted him to start at level 1, but he's changed his mind now. And I agree that the map is a bit of a mess for Augustus right now, considering he has so much to do. We'll work on fixing that, it's been bothering me for a while now. I'll also work on making the characters in general more useful, but the map design limited that a bit. give augustus axe cavs to kill. rapier + softer defense would be their death sentence.

James is bad dude supreme, don't cross him. Nasith's military force is less than impressive right now, but not for long. those halberdiers basically walking nukes in your hack lol

-Overall-

We figured most characters would be expanded on in supports, like vanilla FE, but just because it's a problem there doesn't mean we can't fix it here. We'll think of some good solutions, like the end of chapter thing you mentioned later.

Again, we're not trying to create a self-aware hack, I don't really understand where that impression came from. It's mostly coincidences and Rokevin being a bit dense.

I understand that some characters are forgettable, but we never set out with the intention that all characters would be important or appear repeatedly. We'll work on making the characters less forgettable though.

Again, thanks for all this! It's really helpful to hear feedback, especially one so comprehensive. We'll work on improving everything that we can!

Edit: Also, I hope my review of Bloodlines was equally helpful. I really liked all the talk events, so we're considering adding more here.

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