[From hack to indie] Path of the Midnight Sun

[Heckray]

Pic of the day:

Gameplay of 10B is officially done.

I'll work on Faratrass' route after this.

I think I'll release v.1.8 in October with chapters up to 11A/11B. Otherwise you'll have to wait for 2016 for v.2.0...

AWESOME!

im just see new units. mmm skills are very interesting things of the units hehehe. keep it up!

[Alfred Kamon]

10B is done, currently working on 9A.

Added a poll.

Also thinking on having fire mages, bolt mages, and wind mages, with Andre being a thunder mage, and Diana a wind mage.

This will also reflect on their promotions, blaze/bolt/gale sages, and blaze/bolt/gale fencers.

There are enough animations for all of the tomes too at this point-- just need an S-rank fire spell which is better than Bolganone, actually (since FE8 lacks a Forblaze animation, which can't be imported from FE6-7); and an S-rank Thunder spell

here's a sketch:

Animation - Ingame name - Rank

FIRE strong vs. zombies, baels, beasts

Fire - Fire - D

Elfire - Holy Fire - C

Sword of Seals' flames - Explosion - B

Meteor - Meteor - B

Flametongue - Flamethrower - A

Bolganone - Minefield - S

THUNDER (Andre) strong vs. wyverns, ballistas/other mechanical foes, dragons

Thunder - Thunder - D

DS Thunder - ? - C

Arcthunder - Kirin - B

Bolting - Thunderstorm - B

Thoron - Thoron - A

? - ? - S

WIND (Diana) strong vs. any flying unit except wyverns

Wind - Auster - D

Aircalibur - Sirocco - C

Shaver - Norte - B

Tornado - Cyclone - B

DS Excalibur - Levanther - A

Excalibur - Maestro - S

ANIMA (Fire+Thunder+Wind+Ice) (Phoebe)

all of the above

Fimbulvetr - A

Ragnarok - S

Mind that it's still a WIP and it's not yet certain that it'll be implemented.

[SilverHairedFreak25]

If you're looking for names for the missing thunder spells, I have a couple suggestions.

C- Surge

S- Thordain

As for animations though, I can't help you there.

[Wayward Winds]

Wait, Phoebe gets all of them and ice? Is she going to be the Athos archetype? I guess the empress of Magnolia isn't just a funny personality...

As for thunder spell names, the only thing I can think of is Tempest, but that's just a bit on the generic side (not to mention the name of a skill in Path of Radiance).

[Kaede Ryusaki]

If you're looking for names for the missing thunder spells, I have a couple suggestions.

C- Surge

S- Thordain

As for animations though, I can't help you there.

Thordain sounds like a portmanteau of Thoron and ordain. I hope it is, that would be really great.

[Upside-DownFish]

I'd imagine Phoebe would be similar to Sanaki in that she has access to many magic types, but no staves.

[Alfred Kamon]

So, while doing 9A, I also did the map for 11B.

The concept of the chapter is simple: you start in the ship in the middle. After some turns, you get attacked by a ship on the right. Soon after, you see other 2 ships approaching, one from the left and one from below. The one from below, however, is full of NAPALM and will collide with your ship in no time. Whelp! You've to bring your units in the two ships on the sides or else they'll find themselves unable to move, in the middle of the sea, getting flanked by enemy flying reinforcements.

Also, thanks for the Thordain suggestion! Will use for sure, in case I implement the feature.

And yes, Phoebe is the Athos of this game. And she'll join relatively soon too! In ch.16.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Alfred Kamon

[Upside-DownFish]

Sounds nifty, definitely something you don't see every day in a ROM hack.

[Irony]

So, while doing 9A, I also did the map for 11B.

The concept of the chapter is simple: you start in the ship in the middle. After some turns, you get attacked by a ship on the right. Soon after, you see other 2 ships approaching, one from the left and one from below. The one from below, however, is full of NAPALM and will collide with your ship in no time. Whelp! You've to bring your units in the two ships on the sides or else they'll find themselves unable to move, in the middle of the sea, getting flanked by enemy flying reinforcements.

Also, thanks for the Thordain suggestion! Will use for sure, in case I implement the feature.

And yes, Phoebe is the Athos of this game. And she'll join relatively soon too! In ch.16.

This looks like this would be a fun map. IS, please take note of this.

[SilverHairedFreak25]

Whelp! You've to bring your units in the two ships on the sides or else they'll find themselves unable to move, in the middle of the sea, getting flanked by enemy flying reinforcements.

Pirate!Djambo, Menmus, or Schwarz. Checkmate.

[Wayward Winds]

For a nation built around anti-war laws, Lazulis has some nasty strategies. What the brot gave them the idea to use fireships? There's no local equivalent of the Spanish Armada... is there?

...Or maybe they've used some cross-reality telescope and spotted Robin dealing with Walhart's navy. Still seems like overkill just for Shiori and her entourage.

It'll be interesting to see how you choose to represent the ship blowing up on FE8 graphics...

[ryan5152001]

So, while doing 9A, I also did the map for 11B.

The concept of the chapter is simple: you start in the ship in the middle. After some turns, you get attacked by a ship on the right. Soon after, you see other 2 ships approaching, one from the left and one from below. The one from below, however, is full of NAPALM and will collide with your ship in no time. Whelp! You've to bring your units in the two ships on the sides or else they'll find themselves unable to move, in the middle of the sea, getting flanked by enemy flying reinforcements.

Will we be getting warning that the ship will explode, or do we have to put the cursor over the ship, see "Napalm", and take a guess?

[Book of Ereshkigal]

This looks like this would be a fun map. IS, please take note of this.

[spoiler=Fates spoiler]Fates has a chapter somewhat similar to this, there are two boats attacking your boat, and they ram into you and then move away. (though instead of your units being left in the water, they move with the boat, which now that I think about it, is somewhat of an interesting thing, in a technical sense...)

Edited July 15, 2015 by eclipse

[eclipse]

(snip)

Spoilers, yo. Not everyone wants 'em.

[Wayward Winds]

Will we be getting warning that the ship will explode, or do we have to put the cursor over the ship, see "Napalm", and take a guess?

That's a good question actually. I'd assume Lazulis isn't going to have this ship fully manned given the fiery inferno it's destined to become, but I can think of three possibilities (got to warn the player, unless you want this chapter to be akin to something dreamed up for a ragefest!).

Ordered from simplest to best "uh oh" impact:

1) The fireship appears, uncrewed because who ever was supposed to set it on a collision course has already abandoned ship. Shiori gets a bad feeling about the ship and notes it is approaching too fast to be a mere boarding attempt.

2) The fireship appears, with some crew visible onboard. You get a brief conversation from these enemies along the lines of "We're ready; everyone overboard!", followed by them moving to the edge of the ship/actually into the water and despawning. Cue Shiori noticing them abandoning ship and realising there must be a reason.

3) The fireship appears, unmanned. As with option 1), Shiori gets a bad feeling and suggests someone with wings goes to have a look. When either Menmus or Schwarz gets onto the ship, they find the napalm, freak out and alert Shiori. Alternatively, have a couple of passive AI Magnolian fliers do the scouting through eventing.

Options 2) and 3) are rife with opportunities for humour!

I'd advise against having an enemy on the other (safe) enemy ship just announcing the napalm, because from a story point of view it makes no sense for Shiori's gang to abandon the ship they're on without knowledge of the napalm/suspicion of the other ship, and I doubt they can hear what the enemy is saying. Although obviously you may well have a better idea for how to handle the subject.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Wayward Winds

[Alfred Kamon]

Pirate!Djambo, Menmus, or Schwarz. Checkmate.

Mogalls with Wind/Thunder magic, and a Wicked Flier boss*. Checkmate.

*Wicked Flier's skill: Deathwind (Gains effectiveness against fliers)

As for the class itself, it's basically a shaman on a wyvern? L95 made this a while ago:

For a nation built around anti-war laws, Lazulis has some nasty strategies. What the brot gave them the idea to use fireships? There's no local equivalent of the Spanish Armada... is there?

...Or maybe they've used some cross-reality telescope and spotted Robin dealing with Walhart's navy. Still seems like overkill just for Shiori and her entourage.

It'll be interesting to see how you choose to represent the ship blowing up on FE8 graphics...

Oh, there's a misunderstanding here.

Those ships don't belong to Lazulis. They belong to the cult.

So you'll be fighting cultists and monsters in this map.

As for the graphics, I can't do miracles but I'll try with some sort of hand-made Quintessence Effect (earthquake + fade to red + sounds).

Will we be getting warning that the ship will explode, or do we have to put the cursor over the ship, see "Napalm", and take a guess?

You'll get a warning 1 or 2 turns before it detonates.

That's a good question actually. I'd assume Lazulis isn't going to have this ship fully manned given the fiery inferno it's destined to become, but I can think of three possibilities (got to warn the player, unless you want this chapter to be akin to something dreamed up for a ragefest!).

Ordered from simplest to best "uh oh" impact:

1) The fireship appears, uncrewed because who ever was supposed to set it on a collision course has already abandoned ship. Shiori gets a bad feeling about the ship and notes it is approaching too fast to be a mere boarding attempt.

2) The fireship appears, with some crew visible onboard. You get a brief conversation from these enemies along the lines of "We're ready; everyone overboard!", followed by them moving to the edge of the ship/actually into the water and despawning. Cue Shiori noticing them abandoning ship and realising there must be a reason.

3) The fireship appears, unmanned. As with option 1), Shiori gets a bad feeling and suggests someone with wings goes to have a look. When either Menmus or Schwarz gets onto the ship, they find the napalm, freak out and alert Shiori. Alternatively, have a couple of passive AI Magnolian fliers do the scouting through eventing.

Options 2) and 3) are rife with opportunities for humour!

I'd advise against having an enemy on the other (safe) enemy ship just announcing the napalm, because from a story point of view it makes no sense for Shiori's gang to abandon the ship they're on without knowledge of the napalm/suspicion of the other ship, and I doubt they can hear what the enemy is saying. Although obviously you may well have a better idea for how to handle the subject.

I was going for (3) actually, haha! I had planned to have Ally generic Magnolian pegasi help you with the rescuing, too.

They will be lvl.20, meaning they can't gain exp, and they won't be able to promote. They'll disappear by the end of the chapter (leaving everything in their inventory to you).

Great insight on the different possible solutions, Ashley. But yeah, I'm glad you thought about that third possibility too. I wanted to go with that.

Also, just tested this in-game and the tile changes work like a charm! Be ready to play chapters like this in Shiori's route. They can be hard as hell and long, but they sure represent a fresh breath of air to the series.

Fa's route will be more traditional, with 'rout the enemies' and 'seize' missions.

V.1.5 will be released next month, while V.2.0 before the end of the year. As I said in an earlier post, I changed my mind and decided that v.2.0 will include chapters up to ch.11A/11B; v.3.0 will have 12A/B~16A/B, and v.4.0 will end this project.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Alfred Kamon

[Blue Druid]

Mogalls with Wind/Thunder magic, and a Wicked Flier boss*. Checkmate.

*Wicked Flier's skill: Deathwind (Gains effectiveness against fliers)

As for the class itself, it's basically a shaman on a wyvern? L95 made this a while ago:

O_o Wow, nice! I'm assuming you have a battle anim too? Also was this made before Fates' Revenant Knight?

[Alfred Kamon]

O_o Wow, nice! I'm assuming you have a battle anim too? Also was this made before Fates' Revenant Knight?

This was made last year. What is a revenant knight? Use spoiler tags if you answer.

Also no, I don't have an animation for this yet... if you want to make one, go ahead. It'd be highly appreciated! It uses magic and lances.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Alfred Kamon

[B.Mage]

This was made last year. What is a revenant knight? Use spoiler tags if you answer.

Also no, I don't have an animation for this yet... if you want to make one, go ahead. It'd be highly appreciated! It uses magic and lances.

Revernant Knight is a promoted class from the Wyvern class, the opposite of Wyvern Lord.. It uses Axe and Magic. It's Camila's default class

Who is Phoebe again?

[Wayward Winds]

Phoebe? That's ms. "Who's screaming like a monkey?", empress of Magnolia.

In other words, the red haired one here:

Edited July 15, 2015 by Wayward Winds

[SilverHairedFreak25]

Phoebe? That's ms. "Who's screaming like a monkey?", empress of Magnolia.

In other words, the red haired one here:

Chillest Noble in all of FE. Definitely will be using her.

[Blue Druid]

This was made last year. What is a revenant knight? Use spoiler tags if you answer.

Also no, I don't have an animation for this yet... if you want to make one, go ahead. It'd be highly appreciated! It uses magic and lances.

Well, I've been a tad busy lately... I'd love to do it, but I'm afraid I don't really have the time . I'm already busy making a couple of animations myself. I'm sorry, but I could only start it in a month or so, if that's fine with you.

[Alfred Kamon]

Revernant Knight is a promoted class from the Wyvern class, the opposite of Wyvern Lord.. It uses Axe and Magic. It's Camila's default class

Oh cool. Yeah, I'll have something really similar in MS then, Wyvern Lord with swords/axes/lances and Wicked Flier that loses the use of Axes and gains control over Dark.

Well, I've been a tad busy lately... I'd love to do it, but I'm afraid I don't really have the time . I'm already busy making a couple of animations myself. I'm sorry, but I could only start it in a month or so, if that's fine with you.

Yes, that's perfectly fine! If you say you'll be doing it, I trust you. This also means I won't ask anybody else, after all. Take your time, I'll be waiting for it. ^^ And thank you very much!

[Irony]

Also- did you name Lazulis after Lazulis Island from the Last Story? Or is it coincidences?

[Alfred Kamon]

Also- did you name Lazulis after Lazulis Island from the Last Story? Or is it coincidences?

No, that's a reference. I loved that game, and I liked the name "Lazulis", so I used it.

Also wow, so many people going with Shiori.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Alfred Kamon