Fire Emblem and the Seven Seals (Engine inquiries)

[GiGi]

So, I've always wanted to make my own FE game for some years now (about 7 or so) and a few years back I was into rom hacking. Long story short, I lost a lot of my contents back then including working form of my FE8 patch. A few years later I finally recover a few animations and mugs however, after putting such a project down for some time coupled with the fact that a lot of progress was loss I no longer feel compelled to resume my FE8 hack.

...but, I seen the debut of FEXp back in the days and loved the freedom and capabilities of creating a FE game on that engine. I didn't pick it up at the time because I was midway in between finishing my GBAhack....eventually I put down FEhacking (after the loss of progress) for 4 years, my college years, and now I'm back.

So why am I here:

I've been browsing the web for fexp help for a few weeks now and it's pretty scarce, I'ma be honest. Klok's tutorial was great, but it left out most the things that it would take a long time to figure out on my own, like the counter intuitive aspects of fexp (which there are a lot). I would reeeeeeeally, really, really, like to know the limitations of Fexp, and what problems rpg maker presents for creating a FE game. because I'd hate to be stuck midway in development.

Fire Emblem and the Seven Seals
brief overview/summary :

So FE&SS takes place on the continent of Cambria, which was once unified under a single government, a monarchy where the Canilupus family held the throne as the ruling family, unifying the 6 kingdoms, 23 states and the freeworld of Cambria. The idea was that there will be peace in the unity of Cambria, however, the implementation of central government resulted in a lot of poverty and corruption in and outside of the capital. Not only that, but there were rising tensions between the Vorticellas and the Ostian houses. two of the most powerful families of cambria, which lead to many civil disagreements and confrontations.

Four families occupy Chitadela, home of the throne; the House of Thallium, the Vorticellas, The Ostians and of course the Canilupus clan. Before the game starts Aergent Canilupus, King of Cambria banishes the Ostians from the captial cutting ties with Ostian royalist and limiting their political influence. Shortly after, the Vorticellas establish a coup, where Vigo Vorticella, the Kings leftenant and primary war adviser, assassinates Aergent. The game begins during the genocide of the Canilupus clan, where we play as Earig Canilupus, son of Aergent.

Some Important Houses and Families of Cambria:

Vorticellas: The Vorticellas are a smart group consisting of the most notable tacticians on and off the battlefield. Considered to be cursed, the Vorticellan family suffers from an influx of female offspring for the preceding and current generations. unofficial records suggests that the vorticellas under the age of 21 are 87% female. The irony and said cause of the curse was the shear amount of incest and corruption within the Vorticellan family as well as the patriarchism and prohibition of female soldiers and participation in politics.

Ostians: the oldest family of cambria. Natives of Ostia where said to have migrated from far west to the Cambrian continent. The Ostian family doesn't consist of any singular royal bloodline, however nobility is appointed to those who accomplished important accolades, such as battles won, acquired funds, and established partnerships. Ostia has the most diverse population in which the only way one can truly Identify as an Ostian an artificial birthmark called the lions sigil is burned into the skin of all born under a constituent of Ostia.

House of Thallium: AKA the Iron Clan. This family consist of the second largest "organized" population following the Ostians, however possesses the most revered military of the civilized world. House of thallium leads Cambria in weapon forging, war inventions and possessions. Of the 4 families occupying Chitadela, Thallium consist of the least representatives in the kings council as it's rumored that their people cannot be trusted.

Arymac the Arymacs are a wild bunch people who occupy roughly 27% of Cambria (most areas identified as inhabitable). not much is known about their way of life however it's rumored that they terrorize small villages, pilfer goods from supporting states, intercept transport into the capital and practice treacherous activities such as bestiality and pedophilia.

The Canilupus Clan Also called the chimera clan. The Canilupus clan was the fastest growing family in Cambria, they defeated 24 clans over the course of ~30 years, including the feared House of Satyr. Following the defeat of the Satyr the Ostian emissary formed a pact with the Canilupus clan and the remaining Satyrs to unify Cambria.

The Satyrs was the largest most powerful clan in Cambria until the emergence of the Canilupus. The Canilupus clan overcame the Satyrs when the Satyrs attempted to lay siege on the House of thallium. Using unconventional methods the Canilupus clan proceeded overrun strongholds and infiltrate Satyr owned cities and villages. During and after the fall of Satyr most of the Satyran people bred with the Canilupus clan. Offspring of the Canilupus x Satyr relations are called "Chimera Kids". One of the old Satyran cities was renamed Chitadela and housed the new throne of Cambria. The non-chimera Satyran population in the capital are identified as Ostian, and those outside of chitadela and Ostia either reside in low end villages or migrated north to the house of Ethreal.

Hajate Clan the Hajate dynasty home of the secret scrolls, is a kingship which values honor and stability. The Hajate along with the Ostians where huge supporters of the unification of Cambria, however the Hajate disliked the idea of allowing Canilupus to inherit the throne. Being that the Canilupus clan was nominated with the momentum and expansion from defeating the Satyrs to claim the throne, the Hajate clan stepped aside and negotiated various favorable conditions, one of which excuses the Hajate clan from involvement in foreign affairs.

Replublic of Stralla a Mysterious bunch of people with a diverse population. the territory of Stralla includes a portion of continental land that lays on the western edge of Cambria and a series of small Islands that stretches around cambria in the western sea. Stralla is said to be home of the pirates and theifs as pirates of stralla contributes the most wealth to their economy. Their relationship with the counsel is currently unknown.

The northerners : House of Dragons & House of Ethreal
not much is to be said.... Ethreal holds the fire Emblem, and the house of dragons is home to the best magic of cambria. ...It's rumored that dragons still roam the north, and northern people can live amongst them.....but no one's seen a dragon in years....right?

Gameplay & Goals:

We play as Earig Canilupus, son of Aergent & heir to the throne. Prince Earig is a rebellious and adventurous boy who spent most of his time sneaking out of chitadela and romping with the youth of the Satyran village, Estus. initially he had no interest in power or inheriting the throne however as the genocide of his people is at hand, he is forced to take responsibility and plot a way to reclaim the throne. This is a story about the complexity of conflicting aspirations within Earig and the group of soldiers that become a part our campaign. Each character has their own motives and purposes for joining Earig, as well as offer Earig and the player knowledge and enlightenment on life and it's meaning.

This game will function like your traditional FE game for the most part, with the main priority of development focused on overall enjoyment rather than visuals and difficulty. Players will have to make decisions which will ultimately alter the future and how difficult or easy certain chapters and missions will be. Unlike most FE games this game is open to the idea of death within the main party. Sacrifices might have to be made for survival or ease in the later game so every unit is not indispensable, however, understand that everything revolving around whether a character lives or dies is completely up to the players. There will be no correct way to beat the game.

Unfair gameplay, such as luck based difficulty will not be implemented and as hard objective and decisions will almost always be rewarded... for example allowing a certain unit to die might be the only way a better unit will join in the future, therefor acquiring all characters in single playthrough, will be impossible.

Revamped Class System

Without Spoiling too much about the game, I will discuss a lil bit about the revamped class system. There will be 7 seals, each with historical context and different descriptions. when a unit reaches level 10 or higher they can use a compatible seal to promote. The class that they'll promote to will depend on the seal used to promote the respective class. This way the player must strategize and make decisions on which seals they'll save and or use for whatever character, based on their stats and growth rates. Also this simple formula will lead to customization beyond any Fire Emblem game or hack as two FESS saves will probably not be similar. -hopefully

Seals:
Iron seal
Desert Seal
Light Seal
Master Seal
Command/Skill Seal
Ocean Seal
Earth Seal
???
???
???
-----Descriptions of seals will be updated in the future.

Now one of the reasons I really wanted to work with Fexp is the implementation of skills.... I've been playing around with fexp for a few weeks now....and I'm still in the dark with its capabilities... but here are some skills I want to implement. Some of which I won't reveal due to me not wanting to spoil everything.

SKILLS!

Skill(s) I've gotten to work:
Comet - Attack twice with reduced power (@ 75%) activation rate: skill + Speed
Skills I know can work & or can script:
Bull Rush - Gain attck & Def bonuses for moving 5+ spaces away
Acceleration - Gain speed and evasiveness bonuses for moving 5+ spaces away
Leverage - If enemy hitrate is above character hitrate, both hit rates become the characters hit rate.
Venom Edge - Attacks poisons enemy units.
Skills I think can work but dunno how 2 script yet:
Kasuri-Gama - Axes have a range of 2 spaces at -10 hit%
Immunity - Cannot get poisoned, put to sleep or paralyzed
Practicality - Delivers a random status ailment, per attack.
**Momentum/joust - deliver a single (even w/ brave weapons) close range attack that cannot be countered @ -30% hit, followed by the canto effect.
Skills I believe are possible to script eventually:
Infiltrator - can Drop allies 2 spaces away
Invader - Can move after being dropped
Companion - If you are 1 space away from anyone with the master skill, Damage calculation is applied to you instead if they're attacked by an enemy unit.
Master - If you are 1 space away from a character with the Companion Skill, you get 1 extra attack at the beginning of the attack phase if you're the attacking unit.
I Tried, I failed IDK WTF todo... Is it Possible?
****Phase - Move through enemy units

So yeah guys that's it, I really would like to know the limitations of Fexp, what is possible and what is not... please don't suggest I wait for Fexna, Ive seen someone get told that 3 years ago lol...unless you know for a fact yeti will release the beta to the public before the months end or something.

Names in Red are subject to immediate change

Edited July 17, 2015 by GiGi

[Klokinator]

In short, FEXP is wildly inferior to FEXNA and something something there was supposed to be like a summer beta (Maybe it was late summer?), but in any case if you want to make an FEXP game feel free. I'm not really going to add anything to my old guide, since I not only haven't used FEXP in 2-3 years, but I wrote down everything I knew at the time so anything missing simply wasn't fully understood enough for me to include in the guide.

As for other notes, what's up with the Dessert Seal? D-does the power of hakey cakey make your units promote?!

Edited July 17, 2015 by Klokinator

[Matt Snow]

Hey man I was reading over this and alot of it sounds really cool. I especially like how you can't get all the players in a single playthrough, I really liked that idea in FE11 but I felt that it was not well implemented at all. Also most of the skills seem really cool, though some of them are a bit unbalanced, like the "Kasuri-Gama" maybe you should make the hit decrease lower?

Sadly I know literally nothing about FEXP so I can't help you with anything, but I wish you luck, this seems like it could be really fun.

[GiGi]

In short, FEXP is wildly inferior to FEXNA and something something there was supposed to be like a summer beta (Maybe it was late summer?), but in any case if you want to make an FEXP game feel free. I'm not really going to add anything to my old guide, since I not only haven't used FEXP in 2-3 years, but I wrote down everything I knew at the time so anything missing simply wasn't fully understood enough for me to include in the guide.

As for other notes, what's up with the Dessert Seal? D-does the power of hakey cakey make your units promote?!

thanks for the response

The dessert seal was created by the lack of proof reading, It can promote you Units to bakers apparently...

If indeed the Fexna beta is released in this timespan somehow, I will definitely definitely drop Fexp and start over, but I will be messing around with fexp for the time being ....so that I'm not sitting down on the idea for another 4-5 years....

Hey man I was reading over this and alot of it sounds really cool. I especially like how you can't get all the players in a single playthrough, I really liked that idea in FE11 but I felt that it was not well implemented at all. Also most of the skills seem really cool, though some of them are a bit unbalanced, like the "Kasuri-Gama" maybe you should make the hit decrease lower?

Sadly I know literally nothing about FEXP so I can't help you with anything, but I wish you luck, this seems like it could be really fun.

First off thanks for your feedback, second in regards to skills, eventually some of them will be re-balanced inevitably, however for the most part certain skills as good as they seem will not be as OP when considering the Units than acquire them. I might need to drop the hitrate on Kasuri-Gama like you suggested in the longrun however as it is now, the class that will receive the skill will be a low damaging speedy class, with a low base axe-level.

Other skills that might look too beneficial as well, such as momentum, and Master will never be optimal to use all of the time, as I plan to make them a bit situational...

and lastly I will continue to do research on what people like and didn't like about shadow dragons recruit system, and also try to hint benefits or cues to when you should prioritize the survival of a character. I will also try not to be cheesy with the whole "hey, you lost a shitty berserker, you get a replacement beserker next chapter" as well as not be entirely random... everything will make sense especially if you pay attention to details and Lore.

[Klokinator]

Strongly doubt it will be 4-5 years. At worst maybe 1. It should come sooner than that, though.

[Happiest]

Yeah, I was going to do my game with FEXP too, but I'll wait for FEXNA... And learn some C#. It's good to know it may be released soon.

And, about your game, it's pretty good! Your ideas seem very unique, and the plot is interesting! However, all some skills seem very OP. I'm looking forward for it!

[NICKT™]

Strongly doubt it will be 4-5 years. At worst maybe 1. It should come sooner than that, though.

Don't say things like that, mate, you're gonna make me even more impatient. ;3

[GiGi]

So, heres a mug and lance animation for prince Earig, just to get things rolling a lil bit...

^^The speeds for various parts of this animation is butchered** IDK how to upload these outside appropriately.

I have a bunch more animations and mugs done (at least as completed as these two are).. but I'll wait a bit before posting them raw....they need some touching up.

So, yeah Klock convinced me to wait a bit for Fexna, ...a non supported Fexp is super time consuming. So I'll be brushing up on C# and work on some graphics in the mean time rather than tackling the meat of any FE game engine for now...Hopefully Fexna is released before I'm done, if not I begin learning ruby & working in fexp in the meantime....so again if anyone knows anything about Fexp please feel free to contribute some insight.

The classes, skills, stats growth rates add-ons, characters & plot are all pretty much completed ...in concept lol.