Alondite

So I've been playing around with the Weapon Triangle in FEBuilder, and I've come to notice something that I wasn't aware of before that is kind of throwing a wrench into the plans for a hack I'm working on. Despite being able to modify the specific bonuses for each weapon matchup, in the game it seems to ignore whatever data is entered and simply apply the inverse of whatever bonus is applied to the attack type. Say the damage bonus for a Sword vs Axe is set to +3, regardless of what is entered in the field for Axe vs Sword, the Axe will get -3 damage, or the inverse of the sword bonus. So my question is, is there a way around this? I don't like the hard-counter nature of the weapon triangle and find that it makes strategy more linear than it aught to be, so I wanted to give each weapon a bonus that it receives regardless of the enemy's weapon type, with each bonus serving as a sort of "soft counter" for another weapon type. For example, I want to give a boost to avoid when wielding a sword, lances a boost to defense, and axes a boost to attack all regardless of weapon matchups. In this way, the higher evasiveness provided by swords is a soft counter to the damage boost from axes (damage doesn't matter if you miss), the damage boost from axes overcomes the defense boost provided by lances, and the defense boost from lances reduces damage by a larger percentage against the lower-damaging swords. It adds wrinkles to weapon strategy without being a linear, hard RPS system. I'd considered simply giving each weapon a universal stat bonus inherent to each type, which would work for Str and Def, but I'd prefer not messing with Speed since it's such a volatile stat which makes giving an avoid bonus problematic. I could always use Skill instead, but eh.

I absolutely think it should return. Fire Emblem is a strategy game, and adding something as relatively simple as a magic triangle for players to consider when making moves only makes the game better. In fact, I'd like magic to get the same loving treatment that physical weapons get. Why are there not critical magic spells? Or spells that reverse the weapon triangle? There are so many more physical weapons than there are magic, and it makes mages, and magic as a whole feel like a bit of an afterthought. But forget long range magic. That adds nothing to the game other than cheesing, poor difficulty design, and baiting and sponging which isn't interesting in the slightest. However, I'm not in support of mages having universal magic access, i.e. able to use all types. Give me specific Fire, Wind, Thunder, etc. mages. Ditto for Dark and Light, each with specific strengths and weaknesses. Obviously some classes can have multiple specialties, like with physical units, but this should be the exception, rather than the rule (and placing lower weapon level caps on non-specialized magic is probably a good idea to maintain the design space and reduce redundancy). I'd also like to see Phys/Mag mixed characters who can actually do both well. Magic is a rather special form of attacking relative to just stabbing someone, but the game really treats it like any other attack apart from the stats it uses. Effective damage, status effects, or completely unique effects (applying a magic element to an ally's physical weapon, for example) are all things that should be explored with magic. There's so much untapped potential that could make the game more strategically interesting, and could make magic and mage units more interesting as a whole. In general, I'd like to see more mages, both playable and as enemies. The Resistance stat is in need of some more value. Honestly there are a million things I can think of to make magic more interesting, and a magic triangle is certainly part of that.

Wow, this is awesome! I've been playing around with it a bit and really love how quick and easy it makes doing so many things. I'm not an expert hacker, and the GUI makes things a lot easier, but I've had a few issues that I can't seem to resolve. The Chapter Unit Placer is one of my favorite features, but a few units seem to be missing. I've poked around a bit with FE7 just to learn how to use it, but can't seem to find the enemy army for Eliwood Chapter 12 (it's just empty, though the enemy army for Hector's mode is there), for example. It's also been awhile since I'v played FE7 so I don't really remember exactly how she joins, but should Priscilla's Chapter Unit data be in Chapter 14? Because I can't find that either (I found it in 15, but it's with the Player Army). I can't find Raven or Lucius in Chapter 16, or Fiora in Chapter 18. That's as far as I've gotten, so there may be others, but can anyone explain what is going on here? Is data for certain characters stored elsewhere? EDIT I figured it out. I just found the unit address in the event editor, plugged it into the address in the unit placer, hit reload, and it loaded whatever units I happened to be looking for. Still can't figure out where the Eliwood enemy arrangement for chapter 12 is, though.

So I'm aware that this is a private beta, but I'd be willing to contribute to the project financially for the opportunity to use the software, and to expedite its release. I know that a lot of work is going into this, and I feel like some support should be given for all of the time and effort spent on it.

Ah, thank you very much! I'm glad it was such a simple fix. I was just going to make "attack only" versions of each class (I still might, so that player Thieves can steal), but this is definitely a better solution. So now I just set them to "Lockpick usable" and they'll steal from chests?

In FE7, Is there a way to make Thieves and Assassins loot chests, but not steal from players? I tried removing the "Steal" skill from the class (temporary fix), but now it seems like Thieves set to go for chests won't do so (looting linked to Steal skill?). I only ask because Thieves fill a niche in my enemy design (very very fast, and little else) and I use them frequently as enemies, particularly on dark levels (think a spy/assassin-type unit). The problem is that they just keep stealing stuff and don't bother to attack until there is nothing left to steal. Any ideas?

It's not a misunderstanding. The objective of any tier list is the same. I've entered discussions on FE tier lists in the past, it's only this particular FE that I don't feel breaks down into tiers clealy. Blazing Sword, for example, has a nice ratings system that makes it easy to identify what classifies as "good play," and what characters then facilitate that. As I said, I've already discussed FE tiers before, and at length. It has nothing to do with acclimating to the community. I also understand that Smash tiers are done under an imposition of rules upon the system. However, the rules are fixed, and consistent from match to match. The rules are also clearly defined and established among the community. Smash tiers are not meant to answer "who is the best character," they aim to show who currently performs the best. Smash tiers are made from tournament results, which are entirely objective. An average is the most-likely singular outcome, but the odds of the outcome being any outcome other than the average are still greater than those of it being the average. Growths definitely count for something, but I actually believe the growth percentage itself, rather than the average, is more meaningful in this case because it's a fixed number. Yes, yes, I know "average stats are a function of growths." Yes, and they are also a function of bases and level. I think it's cleaner to look at bases and growths individually. I'm a research scientist, I like clean data because you can do more with it without it dynamically affecting the rest of the data. For example, I like to plug my FE stats into Excel to do various things. On a similar note, growths in FE:A are so high, and so similar among characters (compared to other FEs) that I feel they are trivialized somewhat; the overall balance is far better than in previous games. I think bases and starting items are more useful barometer. Well, in order to define a character's usefulness, you need to first define what it means to be useful. In FE, particularly this one, there are multiple ways to be useful. You then need to decide which uses are more valuable. I think it would be cleaner to break characters down into how they would best be used first, and then rank them accordingly. A global tier list could be pieced together after that. You misunderstand my intentions. I don't want to throw a wrench into the conversation, I want to find ways to improve it. I love talking numbers and debating things, and I love Fire Emblem. It goes without saying that I like to debate and quantify Fire Emblem. However, after looking over this thread I'm seeing a lot of abstract reasoning and unclear terms. I think it would be more effective if we first created a well-defined framework and language within which to operate. What is a character's purpose? How is a character's purpose defined? Is their purpose a useful one? How good are they at serving their purpose? What are our rules? Why are we implementing said rules? That's only the beginning. I know that stuff isn't as interesting, and it might seem overkill, but it could really help keep everyone on the same page with a clear objective.

Yeah...not exactly. I've been a regular contributor to the Super Smash Bros tiers for almost a decade now, I understand how tiers work. However, the more rules you have to impose upon a system for your conclusion to be correct, the weaker your conclusion. Awakening allows limitless grinding with no penalty for doing so. Characters don't have to compete for exp, you're not graded on completion time, and you can spend as much money as you'd like with no penalty. If there's no penalty for making any and all characters combat ready, then why not do it? There are not clearly-defined ways in which to gauge and compare the abilities of characters within the system because there are not clearly-defined ways in which to measure your overall success (no rankings). The only way to make a tier list relevant for this game is to impose arbitrary rules on the system, which weakens the integrity of the tier list because it's only true under those specific conditions. That, and constructing a tier list around a system governed almost entirely by a RNG seems futile and pointless to me. The conditions you assume to be true (like character stats) while constructing the list will invariably be false in practice, making the whole list largely irrelevant.

I finished Lunatic some time ago, though haven't yet started my Lunatic+ run. I wish all of these convenient ways to grind were around when I finished Lunatic (EXPonential growth, Golden Gaffe...I'm looking at you). I had to do it the hard way, and it was a nightmare. I had to resort to using my 4-6 top characters exclusively to make better use of my funds and not have to worry about protecting so many people, and basically playing a defensive "bait and punish" type of game. What really sucks is when all of the enemies decide to bum-rush you. In those cases I had to use the terrain to funnel the enemies in like it was the battle of Thermopylae, and even then had to abuse skills (like [weapon] breaker). It was a frustratingly difficult, but immensely satisfying challenge.

I feel like there are way to many arbitrary limitations in place to make this tier list meaningful. Not only that, but the sheer number of options and possibilities in this game seriously undermine any attempt to create a stable tier list. Now if you're going to turn this into a "Fire Emblem Nuzlocke Challenge," then we absolutely could create some sort of tier list. However, that would require more specific and expansive player-imposed rules.

I get to the last bit about running the created files (FE_0.wpt) in WiiSO, but it tells me that it's not a Wii disk and nothing happens. *EDIT* I think something was wrong with my key.bin. I've made a new one and everything seems to be working now.

I'd love to hack Radiant Dawn, and I've ripped the iso from my disk, except I have no idea where to go from here. Can't open the iso in Nightmare, so I'm guessing that it needs to be decompressed...but I have no idea how to do so. I have WiiED, but it won't open. I get flash of a command prompt whenever I attempt to open it, but it disappears so I can't do anything with it.