Fire Emblem 6: Sword of Seals - The Divine War: Ontrack for a 2014 Release

[izanagi61]

Her GROWTHS aren't the problem (unless that's been changed which is admittedly probable)

'Let's buff Zephiel's speed by five, but lower his speed by five to compensate, thus having no effect on gameplay but leaving the impression that Zephiel's skill as a fighter is entirely reliant upon his weapon.' Brilliant.

...Why not? (Unless you mean better at hitting)

I once had a Hector with a higher speed than he had strength. Does that mean it's normal?

Although I doubt anyone will pick this up, could you at least THINK about your suggestions?

IIrc he made exxacus a droppable item in the last patch, usable by roy and guineviere. but its so slow compared to the durandal and sword of seals, so thats why i said that. if its not droppable, i retract my statement

yes i mean hitting. he changed the axes to the FE7 versions, so they have better accuracy than lances. my bad for not being clear on that.

i'm not saying he has to do much . just higher bases in the stats mentioned. it wouldn't be a big deal if this was a normal FE6. but he made the enemies stronger so having 4 luck is bad. if was like 9 or something, i wouldn't care as much. i'm just tired of getting criticaled by normal enemies.

again, my bad. when i previewed the message, it sounded fine. i'll give more detail next time.

Edited February 2, 2012 by izanagi61

[Onmi]

For the record, still here, do have a new computer. The reason the hack hasn't picked up any progress in so long is because I found no way to fix the Fa problem, I'm still terrible at pointing data when adding new classes (It really doesn't help that FE6 has the least support of the three games) and FEXP still can't string maps together if my memory isn't playing tricks on me.

I still intend to finish this, but before I start again I want to make sure I'm doing it right. I think for now I'll work on simply balancing the stats, enemies, and growths.

Don't expect an update soon since my minds all foggy, but I'll definitely try to release something. I think I'll keep a small hack with just the former (and changed promotion time for Roy) just so there's something for people. Though it displeases me to release something like that.

EDIT: Okay I really didn't want to do this, at this point however I'm at a desperate point so here goes.

I can't sprite at all, no talent for the visual arts in any sense of the imagination. If I was to move the project over to FEXP, I would need blink sprites for the FE6 portraits, and an Old Lyn sprite (Actually I'll most likely need the latter anyway)

I have more problems, I'm not asking for help just yet, Lets get some proof of concept in here before I start asking people to waste their time for me

Edited February 2, 2012 by Onmi

[izanagi61]

okay cool. as long as you're still working on it.

[izanagi61]

idk if you saw this, but theres a new haliberdier sprite, as well as an axe dragon rider. these are things you might wabt to take into consideration with 3.0

[Onmi]

idk if you saw this, but theres a new haliberdier sprite, as well as an axe dragon rider. these are things you might wabt to take into consideration with 3.0

I'll definitely be considering those. right now I'm reworking a preview of the first chapter in FEXP (minus portraits and all that mess because... yeah)

For the record, even if I redo a map as extensively as I'm redoing the first chapter here, all maps shall still retain their 'basic' plot. So the basic plot of chapter 1 is 'Pheare is under siege and Roy has returned with his body guards'

How this will actually work is a surprise however.

Scratch that, I finished the outline but it wouldn't work as a hack (I think, definitely not FE6)

Also, I really need to learn how to Repoint Data. (I know how but I always muck it up)

RAMBLINGS

How would a Siege-Defense map in FE6 work? since IIRC the only type of victory condition in the FE6 engine is 'Capture the throne' so is it simply impossible to set up a Siege-Defense map? See I was playing through the game again, taking notes, getting a feel of everything, when I got a little annoyed that the conclusion to the Ostia arc is essentially "And Etruria rides in without you even getting a chance to defend yourself"

Now Etruria has to ride in on their white chargers because at this point of the game your army is no match for Narshen, but at least a map about the defense of Ostia would go a long way to Showing rather than TELLING the utter hopelessness of the situation. Unlike other siege maps there isn't any treasure to be had, It would take place at the gates of the city and the outside field (it can't take place in the castle because the scene with Narshen happens in the center of Ostia, and it can't take place on that map because you JUST got done fighting on it) Then I got an idea for how it could be done

The idea is simple enough and has been done a million times, Endure. Except in this case you have Roy already sitting on the throne, ready to end the map at any time. The idea of the map isn't to defeat the enemy force it's to last as long as you think you can last. Obviously if Roy leaves the throne he can't signal the retreat if the going gets tough. You have rather tough enemies streaming in (and this is FE6, I still don't know how to make it so the Reinforcements don't move on the turn they spawn) Your rewards for the battle are Experience and the feeling of actually fighting to buy time. There's no timer except when you're ready to call it quits.

On reflection, considering three maps previous there was an arena... gah.

Man FE6 engine, why do you have to suck so much compared to the FE7 engine?

Edited February 5, 2012 by Onmi

[Onmi]

Good News, Bad News and Neutral News

The good news is while looking at my (poorly sorted) backups, I have found a rom that has the (Old) Halberdier sprite, Monk Sprite, Rogue Sprite and I think Assassin Sprite. So in that case I'm pretty set up to pick up where I left off.

The Neutral news is I have no idea if adding more sprites would cause the rom to break, though I'll certainly try.

The Bad news is I have no idea how I fixed the storage bug way back when! checking my old topics on this forum I apparently re-patched the Anti-Huffman patch, but that didn't work on an (already broken) rom. We'll see what happens, lets just hope it doesn't break. Also, there are still no tutorials, modules or guides to adding Map/Movement sprites to FE6, and I HATE how unpolished the game looks otherwise

---

Now first things first. The first patched released will simply alter stats, promotions, consider this 0.25 Because it's a quarter of what I want to do, but at the very least it will help balance the game the way I want it before moving onto the things that will utterly break the game.

The second patch will focus on changing the enemy formations/ adding events to the maps, this means it's time for me to learn how to repoint data again (Have I mentioned I suck at this? I suck at this. I assume I need to do this cause last time I just tried adding/removing events willy nilly I broke the game even though the maps were coded fine.

The third patch will focus on expanding the class table/cleaning up the sprites and class balance, adding icons to the game, new portraits, all that stuff that goes towards polishing the base FE6 experience so new classes don't turn invisible while moving etc. Definitely going to need help with this part.

The fourth patch will be entirely new stuff, new maps, new events, reworked maps, basically everything that changes from the base FE6 experience.

Do note that Patch 3 and 4 will be separate 'versions' of the game. So one will just be "FE6 with additional fun toys" while the other will be "FE6 with new events, changed events, new supports"

Now obviously I can't promise this stuff for the unfortunate reason that FE6 simply doesn't have the same hacking modules FE7 and 8 have.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to give 'FE4' Growths to the children of FE6 characters (and release variations on the patch based on the variations of parents. It's not difficult just tedious) along side boosting non-children characters (After all, don't want to have everyone just using the kids when there are so many other choices)

Apparently I underestimated the tediousness.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Onmi

[izanagi61]

just wondering, but cant you use FE7 rom for part 4? it has more modules and from what i noticed, it seems alot more flexible when it comes to BIG changes.

[Onmi]

just wondering, but cant you use FE7 rom for part 4? it has more modules and from what i noticed, it seems alot more flexible when it comes to BIG changes.

I could, I mostly wanted to give FE6 a lot of love and polish. In fact I'll probably find what I want to do for Part 4 be next to impossible with the current FE6 tools. I really wanted to do something amazing on the FE6 engine however, even knowing how poor it is compared to the FE7 one.

Little status update. Wolt's affinity was changed to Light, because Roy's supports cover the full spectrum except Light, and personally I don't see how anyone in Wolt's support chain actually needs the Ice Affinity. Then again I have to admit that's my personal play-style, if someone wants to make a good reason why it should remain Ice (or what attribute it should be) I'm more than happy to comply and listen

I'm trying to get the right feel of base stats added without making it too overpowering.

Wolt starts at Level 2 now with 7 STR, 7 SKL, 7 SPD, 2 LUK, 4 DEF, 0 RES. Which means he's hitting for 11 on the Fighters (same as Alan) which is enough to soften them up for Roy

Roys new bases are 6 STR, 6 SKL, 8 SPD, 4 LUK, 5 DEF, 1 RES. Which means he can ORKO all of the (unedited at the time) Fighters on the map, and 3RKO the boss (from full HP with no healing, so it's more like 4RKO or 5RKO)

(THESE BASES ARE TEMPORARY WHILE I CALCULATE AVERAGES BASED OFF NEW GROWTHS)

Keep in mind these are vanilla enemies and they will be changed, both to give variation from "Axes, Axes everywhere, why the hell does Bors have a spear?" (Though I'm still trying to contact Arch about that Sword Armor animation he made) and to make it more difficult. but still that's for later, no map editing so we don't wind up with broken Fa's like last time.

For now the edits have been limited to the kids from FE7's couples, oh and Cecilia who's been buffed to a more appropriate 'Mage General'

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Swapping the AS system from the GBA system to the PoR system. I don't think I'll do this because then all of a sudden Alan is Doubling enemies with his insane attack and your wondering why Lance bothered to show up for work that day.

Roy's new army levels

Marcus Lv.4 Promoted

His stats wont be much higher, this is more for Story purposes, he did once serve under Eliwood, so there's a good chance that he gained a few levels, but a few of those levels would Knock Off in 20 years.

Alan Lv.3

Lance Lv.3

They've both been knights not particularly tied to one job for a while (Lance is only new to Pheare not to Knighthood)

Wolt Lv.2

Bors Lv.2

They are both personal guards, which means they should be higher leveled that their respective charges, but not someone who see's a lot of action.

Roy Lv.1

Outside of training and the arts, Roy hasn't really gotten a chance to fight. Hence he starts at level 1, but with the largest potential growths and good base stats.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

i don't know, higher levels means less personal growth room.

but its your hack.

[Anouleth]

I could, I mostly wanted to give FE6 a lot of love and polish. In fact I'll probably find what I want to do for Part 4 be next to impossible with the current FE6 tools. I really wanted to do something amazing on the FE6 engine however, even knowing how poor it is compared to the FE7 one.

Little status update. Wolt's affinity was changed to Light, because Roy's supports cover the full spectrum except Light, and personally I don't see how anyone in Wolt's support chain actually needs the Ice Affinity. Then again I have to admit that's my personal play-style, if someone wants to make a good reason why it should remain Ice (or what attribute it should be) I'm more than happy to comply and listen

Ice is a fine affinity but it's not really that useful for Wolt, since he shouldn't be taking hits. I can definitely see some of the others in his list caring about it, though. Defensive boosts are always welcome.

I'm trying to get the right feel of base stats added without making it too overpowering.

Wolt starts at Level 2 now with 7 STR, 7 SKL, 7 SPD, 2 LUK, 4 DEF, 0 RES. Which means he's hitting for 11 on the Fighters (same as Alan) which is enough to soften them up for Roy

Roys new bases are 6 STR, 6 SKL, 8 SPD, 4 LUK, 5 DEF, 1 RES. Which means he can ORKO all of the (unedited at the time) Fighters on the map, and 3RKO the boss (from full HP with no healing, so it's more like 4RKO or 5RKO)

(THESE BASES ARE TEMPORARY WHILE I CALCULATE AVERAGES BASED OFF NEW GROWTHS)

Keep in mind these are vanilla enemies and they will be changed, both to give variation from "Axes, Axes everywhere, why the hell does Bors have a spear?" (Though I'm still trying to contact Arch about that Sword Armor animation he made) and to make it more difficult. but still that's for later, no map editing so we don't wind up with broken Fa's like last time.

You seem to be talking about NM enemies. HM enemies will not be doubled by 8AS. You need something like 10AS to double earlygame Fighters in HM.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Swapping the AS system from the GBA system to the PoR system. I don't think I'll do this because then all of a sudden Alan is Doubling enemies with his insane attack and your wondering why Lance bothered to show up for work that day.

So in order to reduce the power of higher-strength units, you're going to make strength more valuable?

[deranger]

So in order to reduce the power of higher-strength units, you're going to make strength more valuable?

He phrased this oddly but I think he says he's sticking to the GBA system (despite what he wrote in the first sentence).

[izanagi61]

i feel slow for asking but what's AS? i know i should know having beaten ever fire emblem that hit the states, but i'm drawing a blank. by the sound of it, it seems to affect double attacks.

[deranger]

Attack Speed.

[izanagi61]

i knew it. i just thought it meant something else. oh well. anyways, my lilina didn't get luna driver. and the pirates still have sea swords. i think i'm using an old patch. anyone got the latest, leat buggy patch?

EDIT: ok i'm sure i have an old patch, cause my durandal is still infinite.

Edited February 7, 2012 by izanagi61

[Onmi]

i don't know, higher levels means less personal growth room.

but its your hack.

I'm just adding there averages to their stats, and it's only going to be for these guys... Okay and Oujay and Wendy... and Fir, seriously the hell were they thinking giving you Characters THAT low leveled at that time?

Honestly, nothing is set in stone at this point. have to see how it all works out after all.

Ice is a fine affinity but it's not really that useful for Wolt, since he shouldn't be taking hits. I can definitely see some of the others in his list caring about it, though. Defensive boosts are always welcome.

You seem to be talking about NM enemies. HM enemies will not be doubled by 8AS. You need something like 10AS to double earlygame Fighters in HM.

So in order to reduce the power of higher-strength units, you're going to make strength more valuable?

I am talking about NM enemies, HM is something else entirely first things first I have to Balance everything to Normal Mode before I start looking at Hard Mode enemies.

I was saying that I could swap to the PoR system, but that I'll most likely stick to the GBA system.

---

So what's going on right now? I'm trying to figure out the best balance of Growths/Bases. FE6's main way of screwing over the player is... well to be frank, bad units. of course the main challenge is making sure it's not too easy. since many a person will be bored just steamrolling the enemy.

I've gone and swapped (most) of the weapon stats to their FE7 versions. that simple change makes the Axe Fighters on Chapter 1 that much more deadly.

Now here's something to consider, Tomes, or more importantly "Why can't any of your shamans actually wield the Dark tomes without being weighed down?" now there are two ways to combat this. Reduce the weight of each tome, or increase the Con of each Shaman. Doesn't seem like much but it plays into rescuing as well as AS. Above all else there's no reason the Magi classes should be weighed down by books. especially since that removes their combat effectiveness.

I've decided to go around and remove the 'Est' Archetype characters. I know it's one of Fire Emblems mainstays but recruiting low level characters is- for lack of a better term- pointless. Either you Arena Abuse them up or simply forgo them for their much higher leveled counterparts. This is especially bad for Wendy, Sophia, Lilina, Oujay, Fir, Su- oh wow their are a lot in FE6. I know it means much less space to grow, but it also means you aren't babying anyone, which always killed the pace of the games to me.

i knew it. i just thought it meant something else. oh well. anyways, my lilina didn't get luna driver. and the pirates still have sea swords. i think i'm using an old patch. anyone got the latest, leat buggy patch?

EDIT: ok i'm sure i have an old patch, cause my durandal is still infinite.

Izanagi, the patches are all bugged one way or the other. So I would recommend not playing it until I release the newest patch.

And finally to top it all off, my experience with trying to fix the old storage bug (I somehow fixed before but the same steps don't work)

God why do I even bother hacking FE6?

[izanagi61]

i thought the only bug the latest patch had was the fa bug. i wasn't going to use her anyway, and if i had to, i'd just turn the animation off. i'll still play it, solely for guinivere and and gale. but heres hoping this patch is after the you fixed the super bishops.

[Onmi]

So I finally found out what caused the Fa bug, the bane of my very existence it seems is FEditor Adv. Or it seems to be anyway, I'm running a few more tests, but it seems the idea to hack FE6 and add animations/modify the storyline has been fucked right up the ass unless someone is supporting FEditor Adv.

I'll probably be moving the project over to FE7 or 8, probably the latter due to Manakete support, but sadly that marks the end of all meaningful contribution I had towards FE6, I set out with the best of intentions only to learn I was pretty much restricted to a Stat Hack. It also marks the end of timely updates because I am no map maker, So creating all the maps is going to take a long time. I'm no spriter, either, and I wouldn't ask anyone to waste time on something that didn't have something substantial behind it.

In then end I leave off with this, I love FE6. It's what got me into Fire Emblem in the first place, I love Elibe, I loved the big war feel of the game, it was by no means perfect, and definitely lacked the polish of the later games. In a sense it's the exact opposite of FE5, where as FE5 was coming out on tested hardware but literally on the last wheezing gasps of the consoles life, FE6 came out on untested hardware carrying a reorganized game design. one that would be greatly improved with FE7 and FE8. I wanted to give FE6 a good polish, I couldn't beat hard coded limits like the support point cap or non-paired endings. But I could damn well try to make it the best it could be.

I don't blame the people who made the tools, I don't blame the people who tested the tools, because honestly this isn't anyone's fault. I still intend to continue the project whether that be in FE7 or FE8, because I still wanna show FE6 the love it should have gotten.

I guess... sorry for all the bugs I put you through.

[Crimson Red]

Well, two things.

1) You've learned a lot.

2) It's not over with FE7 or FE8, so use what you've learned.

Whatever you do, good luck with that. You seem like you are putting a good initiative into things and have a strong will to survive in an environment that crushes most hackers. If you keep this up, good things will probably happen to you. I don't have time to help you myself but I will point you to a little tutorial I wrote that might help you, or give you headaches, or both. So yeah, good luck.

[izanagi61]

ok so i just played chapter 12. it has super bishops. i'm sadface. and i'm even more sadface because there'll be no update anytime soon. can someone, anyone, PM me a patch without the super bishops? i've played too far, and i'll be damned if i'll play regular FE6.

EDIT: i cant believe i forgot to say this earlier. i'm a terrible person. so selfish. anyways best of luck on the new project. i just hope i'm still around when you finish ( when not if, cause i believe in you )

Edited February 9, 2012 by izanagi61

[Onmi]

I've updated the OP, in case you hadn't noticed, figured I better make the swap official and give it some thorough documentation. Right now I'm busy inserting the new battle animations and map animations, and then working on the Chapter 1 map/events. As well as still learning what I can and can-not do with the FE8 engine.

[izanagi61]

thank you very much. i had almost given up hope about a patch when you said you lost your data. btw i voted and i have some comments. are you going to buff hector if the option to fight narshen and brunya? it seems a little suicidal thats all.i dont think the children should have FE4 growths. it seems like alot of work and it'll imbalance the game as you said. although some chars might it need. like lugh and wolt. lilina, shin and sue seems to be superior in almost all aspects. ( or maybe my lugh and wolt just came out bad idk ) either way it seems like a cool idea, just dont make the kids OP. i like the support change, but try to make the affinities of the people replaced the same as the replacers, that way we can get the same possible support stats.

EDIT: just read the first post. i assumed you added a patch. lol i'm dumb.

Edited February 11, 2012 by izanagi61

[Onmi]

thank you very much. i had almost given up hope about a patch when you said you lost your data. btw i voted and i have some comments. are you going to buff hector if the option to fight narshen and brunya? it seems a little suicidal thats all.i dont think the children should have FE4 growths. it seems like alot of work and it'll imbalance the game as you said. although some chars might it need. like lugh and wolt. lilina, shin and sue seems to be superior in almost all aspects. ( or maybe my lugh and wolt just came out bad idk ) either way it seems like a cool idea, just dont make the kids OP. i like the support change, but try to make the affinities of the people replaced the same as the replacers, that way we can get the same possible support stats.

I will definitly give Hector a nice boost to what his stats would be in Chapter 15, after all he's fighting two of Berns best fighters, even if he has the aid of a Throne. Though personally I like the Prison option better, but I had both and felt it better to offer both.

Actually I already calculated the FE4 growths, and I planned to rebalance the growths for everyone in any case, though yes this will lead to certain overpowerings (Oh hi Roy with Lyn mother having growths)

I will try to keep the affinities the same, Eliwoods an Anima so he would replace Lance and Hector is Lightning so for Lilina that only leaves Gonzales to be swapped out, Lyn is a Wind so I'm having her replace Marcus(For Roy, Who's Ice Affinity, but Wolt already is Ice anyway and most people wont use Marcus beyond the opening chapters... or will they) and Bors for Lilina (Both Wind affinity),And Guinevere I can make whatever I damn well please. But I'll go about trying to keep the affinities all open. But I'm not going to change Eliwood from an Anima to a Fire just so he can replace Alan, after all why would he change?

And don't worry Izanagi, a patch will come when it comes, I'm not going to abandon this project. It's just going to take longer.

[shellin]

Good hack, but I have no idea how to get past chapter 8 without Lilina dying after the first 2 turns. Any advice?

[Onmi]

Good hack, but I have no idea how to get past chapter 8 without Lilina dying after the first 2 turns. Any advice?

I don't have an editable copy anymore, but Baiting with Merlinus is supposed to work. It's supposed to be that she's not in any danger, you must have an older version of that hack.

---

Speaking of work on the hack, I've just finished Roy/Cecilia, Roy/Guinevere, and am working on the Roy/Eliwood support. I've also got Mappy open and realized I'm a terrible mapper, though I'm getting slightly better. Mostly because the resolution of my computer makes all the blocks tiny. so I can't tell the difference when selecting them

[Hotashi]

Still alive...? Still have to put down that I beat your old incomplete hack. We patient now, we patient!

Glad that you're continuing with the hack even with FE6s shortcomings... soon as something playable comes up I'll be there.