FEIV (v0.a released)

[SquareRootOfPi]

Since Eve is a woman now, are you going to make a new child character for her?

Yes, she will have some children. I may or may not retcon some FE5 characters in being her children, we'll see when that bridge is crossed.

In unrelated news, I am getting some playtesting done and if everything goes well there may be a stream for it tomorrow! It will likely be sometime around 3 PM to 5 PM EST tomorrow, depending on how things work out. If the schedule changes I will post further news about it, otherwise I will post a link to the stream in question a bit before it goes up. Keep an eye out???

[SquareRootOfPi]

The stream is up! Catch it at http://www.hitbox.tv/Blastinus. We'll be playtesting 2-2 and 2-3.

Stream's over for a bit, 2-2 was covered so far. 2-3 will hopefully be covered in a few hours. Thanks to everyone who has tuned in so far!

Edited September 6, 2015 by SquareRootOfPi

[ghast]

stream was fun to watch!

[SquareRootOfPi]

The stream will be back up in a few minutes to cover 2-3! Same bat-channel: http://www.hitbox.tv/Blastinus

It's done! If you came by, I hope you enjoyed the stream.

Edited September 6, 2015 by SquareRootOfPi

[Book of Ereshkigal]

So, my internet was (and still is lol) trash and I couldn't load the stream, anyone who watched, anything interesting?

Edited September 7, 2015 by L95

[Pixelman]

So, my internet was (and still is lol) trash and I couldn't load the stream, anyone who watched, anything interesting?

Lex got owned

Edited September 7, 2015 by PixelmanFE

[Clarinets]

Suddenly, I have a Fire Emblem game I'm more excited for than English FE: Fates.

And it's a ROM hack.

Brilliant job on everything. Also, is Lex a Great Knight?

[SquareRootOfPi]

Suddenly, I have a Fire Emblem game I'm more excited for than English FE: Fates.

And it's a ROM hack.

Brilliant job on everything. Also, is Lex a Great Knight?

Lex is supposed to be an Axe Knight, but the animation is still under construction so I'm just using the Great Knight graphics (which will be the promotion for Axe Knights) as a placeholder. Any other Great Knights in any pictures are also Axe Knights for that same reason.

So, my internet was (and still is lol) trash and I couldn't load the stream, anyone who watched, anything interesting?

Lex got owned

This is pretty accurate. But on more serious note, it was mainly a playtest of new chapters and a few new toys (unfortunately, the streamer didn't show off the more interesting stuff.) I may as well show them off now:

The first item is an item to replace Sigurd's silver sword. At the moment, it's just a fairly strong sword that will carry him through the early game, but it will eventually have some kind of useful ability he can call upon later on.

The second item is a utility sword for Dew, and also introduces a balancing mechanic for mounts: Small swords. The Main Gauche is a sword that gives +5 defense, and it's slightly weaker than an Iron Sword. The description is not crystal clear on it either, but it is unusable by mounted units. It'll help give Dew some survivability since he is weak enough to be one-shotted by fighters in Verdane.

Finally, this is the first of a line of items that grant skills to units. This one is particularly suited for units that won't see much combat. The description is pretty wordy, so I might simplify the stat modifiers. If you're not aware what the two skills do, they're a doozy combined:

Miracle is the existing skill you've seen in many games, except now it has a guaranteed activation rate if you have more than 1 HP. Thus, it will save any unit from a lethal attack, leaving them at 1 HP.

Toughness is the new Big Shield. It reduces all incoming damage to 1... as long as you have full health.

Hopefully you can appreciate how useful having both skills on a single unit can be! Edain is a particularly strong candidate for it, since she also has an innate Renewal.

Anyway, that's it for now! I'll see you all again in October.

[Clarinets]

Lex is supposed to be an Axe Knight, but the animation is still under construction so I'm just using the Great Knight graphics (which will be the promotion for Axe Knights) as a placeholder. Any other Great Knights in any pictures are also Axe Knights for that same reason.

Ok. I figured that was the case, but I just wanted to make sure. Also, that Aegis Circlet is really cool.

[Kuroki]

welp, I just read all 18 pages and I must partially agree with supershyguy, I want this equally or more than Fates. Now I just need to figure out how to stalk this thread.

I have terrible luck with roms but this shure seems worth it to me. I'll back it up on EVERYTHING.

Also as mentioned before, Pi, you are a beautiful spriter and you're hacking skills seem to defy what most people ever thought was capable in a Fire Emblem Hack, I honestly have a hard time believing that this is a hack instead of you just developing an FE game with some game-maker. That's what at least I've seen along with the pokemon fan-games.

Also I hope to be able to read some good supports when it's done, I personally don't care for the whole picking parents out in a eugenics kind of way, I just go with who I think would be cute together seeing I'm unlike most people in the FE community and I'm mostly into Fire Emblem because of the story of each game.

Though I must say all of the things you're adding seems like it'd make it alot more fun, having to keep my eye out for new abilities and what not.

I'm very interested in seeing what you do regarding your new characters added in, what their backgrounds and personalities are like and how their supports work out.

Will you be writing them out or would someone else? By the sounds of it you have a plan for that but I'm curious. Doubt you will ever read my little comment but still......

I also never played the original so I may not know who is added unless you say so, I'm honestly most interested in those characters because you seem to be a creative genius already. With your abilities I wouldn't be surprised if you would ever become an actual developer (if you wanted to at least).

You seem to be a diligent worker too, yeah, you go on hiatus but it seems like you aren't giving up on it either, I appreciate that sooooo much, it seems like most hackers stop before they even get really started. I don't think I've ever seen any fully hacked games other than some shameless paint-overs (which were still fun).

I have a feeling once this game is finished seeing it's highly unlikely for it to get an actual remake anytime soon or even English translation, I think you could really reach out to the people like me who aren't the most comfortable with the original version but still want to play it.

This one seems to be upping the difficulty to match it, or over, but in a way I'm already familiar with...... isn't there a fatigue bar in it or am I getting that confused with other one of the 1-5 era?

anyway I will stop my mindless rambling (I honestly never know when to stop typing), seeing it's within a month I hope this isn't considered necro- posting.

[Clarinets]

Also I hope to be able to read some good supports when it's done, I personally don't care for the whole picking parents out in a eugenics kind of way, I just go with who I think would be cute together seeing I'm unlike most people in the FE community and I'm mostly into Fire Emblem because of the story of each game.

I agree. The only reason I don't marry Anna anymore in Awakening is because it would leave poor Morgan to grow up without a child.

Also, I read the Luna description on Holyn and it seems kind of under-powered. Is it really only for the first use?

[X-Naut]

I agree. The only reason I don't marry Anna anymore in Awakening is because it would leave poor Morgan to grow up without a child.

Also, I read the Luna description on Holyn and it seems kind of under-powered. Is it really only for the first use?

Speed is already the most important stat beyond being able to live a hit, it does not need the ability to inflate skill proc chances.

[Clarinets]

Maybe he could use skill the calculate the Luna chance, like in the actual FE4 (I think). I don't know, it just seems kind of weak compared to skills like Toughness and Bloodthirst. And Sword Dance, Thief, Miracle, etc...

[SquareRootOfPi]

Suddenly, I have a Fire Emblem game I'm more excited for than English FE: Fates.

And it's a ROM hack.

welp, I just read all 18 pages and I must partially agree with supershyguy, I want this equally or more than Fates. Now I just need to figure out how to stalk this thread.

I have terrible luck with roms but this shure seems worth it to me. I'll back it up on EVERYTHING.

Also as mentioned before, Pi, you are a beautiful spriter and you're hacking skills seem to defy what most people ever thought was capable in a Fire Emblem Hack, I honestly have a hard time believing that this is a hack instead of you just developing an FE game with some game-maker. That's what at least I've seen along with the pokemon fan-games.

Also I hope to be able to read some good supports when it's done, I personally don't care for the whole picking parents out in a eugenics kind of way, I just go with who I think would be cute together seeing I'm unlike most people in the FE community and I'm mostly into Fire Emblem because of the story of each game.

I forgot to mention this last time, so thanks for all the kind words and I look forward to seeing how the release matches up to the expectations I've built for it.

I'm very interested in seeing what you do regarding your new characters added in, what their backgrounds and personalities are like and how their supports work out.

Will you be writing them out or would someone else? By the sounds of it you have a plan for that but I'm curious. Doubt you will ever read my little comment but still......

I also never played the original so I may not know who is added unless you say so, I'm honestly most interested in those characters because you seem to be a creative genius already. With your abilities I wouldn't be surprised if you would ever become an actual developer (if you wanted to at least).

The new characters I'm adding in (or planning on adding in) are mainly designed to fill gameplay niches, but hopefully I can make them fit in the existing story without too much trouble. A few of the supports will be based on existing dialogue from the game; the game has a few conversations that give items and stats so it's appropriate to move them as supports. (Some of the conversations also depend on marriage status, which makes it even more convenient!) I'll likely be handling the rest of them as well since I have to explain why certain supports give certain items/stat-ups.

Also, I read the Luna description on Holyn and it seems kind of under-powered. Is it really only for the first use?

Maybe he could use skill the calculate the Luna chance, like in the actual FE4 (I think). I don't know, it just seems kind of weak compared to skills like Toughness and Bloodthirst. And Sword Dance, Thief, Miracle, etc...

Keep in mind that instead of having Luna randomly activate, you are getting a guaranteed use of it for one fight of your choice. The only downside is that you need to keep Holyn stocked with full use weapons. This would be a pain to do in vanilla FE7, since that would require buying a stock of fresh weapons, but in this hack you have access to repairs making the cost of getting full use weapons negligeable (The only real cost is a limited number of uses per chapter.) You can also have allies carry extra full use weapons if you want extra uses of Luna. This discussion might be moot eventually, Holyn is not well balanced in the current version (he's fairly weak right now) so he may get some additional skills. Keep an eye out???

Luna and Bloodthirst have their own advantages and disadvantages; Luna is better when the defense stat is high, Bloodthirst is better if the enemy has low HP. Bloodthirst is lower maintenance (read easier to activate) so it does have a lower bonus most of the time.

Edited September 22, 2015 by SquareRootOfPi

[Clarinets]

Well, I forgot that you added in the repair system so I think it's pretty good now.

[SquareRootOfPi]

Greetings everyone! I hope you all had a spooky Halloween! If not, watch this spooky video and get caught up on the latest developments with FEIV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-V6HzLPqIk&feature=youtu.be

As a reminder from the last update, I mentioned that the first release was slated for 2016, and that by today, I would have a clear idea on the amount of content ready for it. I can say now that the first release will contain 10 chapters, which covers everything up the the end of the Agustria storyline, a nice capstone for a first release. (If you're curious, the current build I have has 7 chapters complete, and 3 drafted out.)

Because we're slowly approaching the first release, I have a bit less to talk about this time compared to the other updates; I've been mostly doing under the hood work that's doesn't make for exciting screenshots or videos. The only notable thing to discuss is Substitute Parents, or perhaps it would be more accurate to call them Parent Substitutes. The update's spooky video gives a basic example of how it works.

In a nutshell, this is a concept similar to what Shadow Dragon did with dead characters. Whenever a character dies, they will be replaced by a generic unit to keep the army roster filled. This is to help balance chapters, since Fire Emblem 4's generation mechanic puts a strong emphasis on keeping parents alive. Parent substitutes are not intended to be a reward for letting units die, though, so naturally they will generally be weaker than the character they're replacing (although the real punishment is that they can't be supported). Unlike in the video, the substitute's base class will not necessarily be the same, but they will get minimal benefits from a class switch; For example, they won't be able to use weapons the original character could, and they won't change into a class that's better than the original class (so foot units will not be replaced by mounted units, and non-flying units will not be replaced by flying units.)

Anyway, that's it for this update! Thanks for reading. There will probably be no future updates until the release date approaches, since from this point on all I'll be focusing on is polishing the content for the release, which includes finalizing all the chapter events, getting portraits in (there are a lot of portraits that still need to be done!), writing a bunch of dialogue (this includes both the main story and miscellaneous incidental events), editing and preparing all the music for insertion, and some... secret flourishes???

[saifors]

So... you added zombies? I don't know if that's silly, funny or brilliant, it may be all 3.

Well I'll be looking forward to that release date :)

[Amiratasiru]

Erm, I don't mean this in any offensive intent, but why do the map tiles look so bland? Like if you're using a mountain tile it's one type of mountain. I'm assuming these are just placeholders until the official patch is out?

[Lord Wolfram]

Wow this truly is a scary update. I really like this idea. Also the events tell me that my favorite Lord Sigurd is experiencing weird things. heh It made me more interested in everything as you're giving Sigurd a lot more interesting life.

Keep up the good work.

Good Halloween update.

[Ansem]

The music is so great omg

[Lord Wolfram]

Yeah, from where is that music? I wanna use that music myself. Love the attack theme...

[SEVA]

The attack theme is the boss theme from Mystic Quest Legend. (I refuse to call the game FF:MQ)

I agree that it's pretty awesome. You can find several good MIDIs of it over at VGMusic.com. No idea what any of the rest of the music is though!

[Czar_Yoshi]

There was also a FE6 theme in there (second map, when only one enemy is left), I think.

[SquareRootOfPi]

Two of the songs are originals: The player phase theme and the Cross Knights battle theme. You'll actually hear the Cross Knights theme in the final release!

I can't find it online on youtube, but the enemy phase theme the 7th track from the Kamen Rider Decade OST.

The enemy battle theme is a cut of this song.

The NPC phase theme is a cut of this song.

The end of chapter song is a cut of this song but slowed down.

The victorious theme near the end of the video is just the original victorious theme from the game.

Erm, I don't mean this in any offensive intent, but why do the map tiles look so bland? Like if you're using a mountain tile it's one type of mountain. I'm assuming these are just placeholders until the official patch is out?

Yes, they're all placeholders until I get the gameplay down first.

[SquareRootOfPi]

Good news, everyone! I've just finished the gameplay events of all the chapters for the first public patch, so there will be a stream for playtesting. It's currently set to happen this weekend, specifically around Saturday, February 13th, 6 PM EST. The stream will be graciously hosted by Blastinus and his possible partner in crime, Onmi, and it will be the final playtest stream until the first public release. I still need to actually playtest the last chapter myself before passing the test build off but I'm confident I can finish it off tonight, and I don't really want to delay this announcement any more (this was supposed to happen on Monday but certain... amusing bugs cropped up that delayed it until now.)

The stream itself will consist of 3, that's right, 3(!!!) whole chapters covering most of the content from Chapter 3 in the original game. If you haven't played the game before, you may be wary of story spoilers but be assured I have been far too lazy to actually insert any of the story details yet, so it'll be purely gameplay with extremely vague allusions to story events. There's also a bunch of stuff I've added in that you can witness for the very first time, as well as some stream unique cameos I will be personally adding. And don't worry, I'll be making a reminder post on the day of the stream (about 1-2 hours before it starts) with a link to it as well. See you there!