Chrom's marriage priority + notes on supports

[VincentASM]

Continued from this topic.

New topic for new info. Sorry SoC if I'm stealing your thunder.

After hours and hours of research, I believe I can finally explain some details on the support system and Chrom's Chapter 11 marriage priority with good accuracy.

Chrom's marriage priority

Before, shadowofchaos discovered that the actual priority used by the game is: Olivia > Sumia > Sully > Maribelle > Avatar. This occurs whenever those characters have equal support levels (or points) with Chrom. Otherwise whoever has the highest support level wins (i.e A > B > C).

This list is still accurate, but I'll just make one amendment to that list--Olivia not only has the highest priority with Chrom, but she trumps all the other girls even if they have gained more points than her (at least until somebody ranks up to C). However, this is only true if Olivia has gained half the amount of support points required for a C support--otherwise, she's the lowest on the list.

Before I can move on, I need to explain how the support system works.

The support system

To rank up supports, you need to gain a certain number of support points--the exact amount depends on the character pair and the support level. Some pairs may require more points than others; higher support levels may require more points than lower ones.

Here's a points chart for Chrom and his marriage candiates:

Support lv. C   B   A   S
Sumia       18  36  36  36
Sully       27  36  36  45
Maribelle   27  36  36  45
Avatar      36  36  45  45
Olivia      36  36  45  --

Here's how many points each action awards:

Dual Strike, Dual Guard, Dance, Staff, Support Boost but NOT support partner: +2

Damage (or kill) enemy with Support partner (eg. Pair Up): +6

Seed of Trust, Event tile and Barracks support boost: +9

Here's where things get a bit complicated...

Support point gain (per pair) is capped at 27 points per battle. For certain pairs, you cannot rank up a support through one battle alone (eg. if 36 points are required). BUT Seeds of Trust and Event tiles are not subject to the cap. So if a pair requires 36 points to rank up, they can rank up in one battle if they use one Seed of Trust.

Support points are rounded to the nearest multiple of 9 (including 0) at the end of each battle. If your support points are 4 or less (eg. from Dual Guards), this will be reduced to 0. On the other side of the spectrum, if a pair requires 27 points, they may rank up by just gaining 23 points, since it gets rounded up to 27.

Finally, support points gained in a chapter are lost if the unit falls, except points from Event titles or Seeds of Trust.

Chrom's marriage priority (Part 2)

Originally, I said that the priority list is consulted whenever the candidates share equal support levels... or points. Due to the way the support system works, in truth there are only a few values used for comparison, since support points are rounded to the nearest multiple of 9 at the end of each chapter--and the end of Chapter 11 is no different.

So the game doesn't compare Sumia at 14 points and Sully at 17 points, but instead Sumia at 18 and Sully at 18. In this situation, Sumia would win, because she's higher priority--despite having fewer points than Sully.

Furthermore, when there are different caps involved (eg. Sumia caps at 18 at C, while Avatar caps at 36), the game compares the difference from the cap. In the example I listed, Sumia would therefore have a 18 point lead over the Avatar and thus a significant advantage.

Finally--I almost forgot--I should mention that for a girl to qualify as a marriage candidate, they must have gained 5 or more support points from base. This effectively moves them to the next valid support point (i.e 5 to the nearest 9 is 9). If none of the girls qualify, Chrom marries the Maiden.

Footnote

I tried my best to be as accurate as possible, but it's not impossible that I made some mistakes or misassumptions.

Yes, I had too much free time.

Edited May 27, 2013 by VincentASM
Minor correction + forgot to add something

[shadowofchaos]

Great. Now, to come up with a way to accurately show this visually through screenshots and videos.

...Oh boy.

[shadykid]

now find the support points for all the other supports

[Perlia]

Great. Now, to come up with a way to accurately show this visually through screenshots and videos....Oh boy.

I... May have wanted to doodle up stuff and make a Google Presentation/Prezi for this.

[VincentASM]

now find the support points for all the other supports

I was wondering if anybody would suggest that.

Sadly, I'm not *that* bored X D

But just for reference, since I had the numbers already... Miriel x Vaike C and Lissa x Lon'qu C both require 36 points, while female Avatar x Lissa requires 27.

A quick way to figure out the points required is to load pairs with Seeds of Trust. If you've noticed, the points required are always multiples of 9 and Seeds of Trust add 9 points. Plus Seeds of Trust become greyed out once you can no longer gain support points (but watch out because the game doesn't refresh the cap during a battle, so if you need 36 points to rank up and you gained 18 from battles, you can still use 4 Seeds of Trust before they're greyed out).

[Faye]

If Olivia has the highest priority, why is Sumia the canon girl? 8U I don't get it.

[Shadow Stalker X]

I was wondering if anybody would suggest that.

Sadly, I'm not *that* bored X D

But just for reference, since I had the numbers already... Miriel x Vaike C and Lissa x Lon'qu C both require 36 points, while female Avatar x Lissa requires 27.

A quick way to figure out the points required is to load pairs with Seeds of Trust. If you've noticed, the points required are always multiples of 9 and Seeds of Trust add 9 points. Plus Seeds of Trust become greyed out once you can no longer gain support points (but watch out because the game doesn't refresh the cap during a battle, so if you need 36 points to rank up and you gained 18 from battles, you can still use 4 Seeds of Trust before they're greyed out).

It wouldn't be difficult to make finding the support amounts required for the different sets a community based project, since something like that is already being done for the DLC and support convos. An easy way I'm seeing to do this is grab a bunch of Seeds of Trust from the Summer and Hot Spring Scramble maps, and use them on Fort Steiger map skirmishes. With the way the map starts up, you can park a unit in the door of the throne room to deal with the enemies, and have the support pair use the Seeds without the numbers being affected by external sources (You can also have Chrom there if you need access to the convoy for more Seeds).

[VincentASM]

I was thinking that would be the only reasonable way, due to the massive number of combinations (and not to mention levels).

The only thing I'm worried about is if there's enough interest to keep the project going.

But anyway, I'll probably open the doors after a couple of days have passed and nobody's found anything wrong with my results : P

[Acacia Sgt]

If Olivia has the highest priority, why is Sumia the canon girl? 8U I don't get it.

Olivia only has highest priority once she has gained enough support points. It's most likely just compensation for the fact that she joins in the very chapter Chrom gets married once it's over, so they make a special situation it so that it's actually possible to marry her, or at least, easier to pull off.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Acacia Sgt