Staff of Ages (SoAXNA v0.1 out now!)

[InvdrZim13]

Don't worry, they don't exactly look like "generic ugly ass FE boss"-material.

I've never tried to hack FE in the past, but that situation still reminds me all too much of myself.

Oh good.

I'm just weird and have to go back and fix things when someone brings up an issue.

Some of the maps changed so I have to go back and redo those now anyway.

[Primefusion]

Alright, just finished playing through the demo. I've put my thoughts in spoilers.

[spoiler=Story/Writing]

I feel like the first chapter moves at a break neck pace, writing wise. We get told there's people doing bad things and the queen tries to do good things, but she's kind of incompetent. And then she's dead. Who exactly is Seneca? We get like no introduction to him. Apparently he knows the royal family, but we're not told how. It's just boom he's in the village, boom he's in the castle, boom he's a usurper. All I know about him is that he's an ass. The queen's death packs no weight either, because of this.
You gotta make me care! I can't even take Seneca seriously with his 23% hit rate vs. the queen
Belle gets a little introduction, but not much. Oona just shows up.

Owen's whole gang is just "They're looking for Belle". Nothing about who they are, and the only connection to the royal family I got was because of their societal status. Introduce these people!

The other chapters' suffered storywise because I lacked any sort of connection to the people or plot. You need to real us in, instead of pushing us into the deep end.

Also, a general note on cutscenes: The transitions are really abrupt. The camera jumps around, and the map is pretty glitchy for a moment while things get loaded in (noticed this especially in the prologue, but it might be elsewhere too).
Pauses and proper fading are your bread and butter when it comes to scene creation.

[spoiler=Gameplay]

The prologue is a tough sell for me, with only one attacker. It's quite a bit of turtle n' heal. I recommend trying to add another unit to attack with. Or maybe give Oona a magic rank and a crappy limited use tome so she can chip when she doesn't need to heal.

Ch1: Once Eagle came on, I just romped the map with him. The mages chipped, and I think Elijah attacked like 1, maybe 2 dudes.

Ch2: There's a lot of turtling in the beginning, which is a real downer. And the map feels cramped for anyone not named Belle.

Ch3: Romped it with Eagle. This is dude is seriously OP. He needs to calm down. Also, all the armorslayers made me want to avoid using Darius. I'd cut back a little on them.

Sorry for being harsh. I actually don't play very many hacks, so the ones I do post on I genuinely care about. Tough love? Who knows.
This can definitely go places, it just needs that ole' TLC.

[InvdrZim13]

Story/Writing

Definitely agree with the first point, I'm talking with the writers about redoing some of that stuff.

For the cutscenes: Yeah I know about the skipping, I've been meaning to fix these things but I haven't had a chance yet. I'll try to get to it when I have the chance but I'm not sure when that'll be.

The prologue in particular needs a bunch of changes since it was the first event stuff for FE8 I wrote back when I had no idea what I was doing (not that I'm an eventing master now but I know more than I did then)

Gameplay

Yeah we've got to play around with balancing things out more for the prologue.

Ch1: Actually has a new map and we've got to redo all the units anyway, so that'll probably get fixed.

Ch2: I think this map is also getting a redesign too, which hopefully can help with the cramped feeling, once we edit more stuff.

Ch3: My Eagles have never been that good He might be a candidate for a nerf then. And I agree that I went a bit overboard with the armorslayers, but Darius kind of eats physical attacks, so maybe the map needs more magic units instead.

Sorry for being harsh. I actually don't play very many hacks, so the ones I do post on I genuinely care about. Tough love? Who knows.

This can definitely go places, it just needs that ole' TLC.

No worries, this is the kind of criticism we're looking for!

Thanks for trying it out/giving us feedback!

[Primefusion]

Ch3: My Eagles have never been that good

If you're talking about growths, that's not really the issue. He was barely level 3 at the end of chapter 3 for me. But, he's got sturdy bases and is in a pretty overpowered class (a tier 1 class that can use 2 weapon types and has a bunch of movement? Talk about pinnacle of power).

[InvdrZim13]

If you're talking about growths, that's not really the issue. He was barely level 3 at the end of chapter 3 for me. But, he's got sturdy bases and is in a pretty overpowered class (a tier 1 class that can use 2 weapon types and has a bunch of movement? Talk about pinnacle of power).

I meant his bases, they might need to go down a bit.

I'm also concerned with Darius when there aren't threatening armorslayer enemies on the map, since he's basically a wall of death and I don't want him to end up like Kevin from TLP

Edited February 17, 2016 by InvdrZim13

[Baldrick]

Darius is doubled by the myrms/mercs, and by any fighters that proc 8 speed. Along with the mages, they make up a large percentage of the enemies, so at least for this chapter he's far from invincible. In any case, it'd probably be better to mix up the variety of swords a bit more.

[InvdrZim13]

Darius is doubled by the myrms/mercs, and by any fighters that proc 8 speed. Along with the mages, they make up a large percentage of the enemies, so at least for this chapter he's far from invincible. In any case, it'd probably be better to mix up the variety of swords a bit more.

Problem is the myrms/mercs can't damage him with iron weapons, they might need steel, and he doesn't take that much damage from the fighters either.

The mages can threaten him but I don't want to make them too much of a pain for the rest of the army to deal with.

Eagle/fixing everything else is kind of a bigger priority though, so Darius will get worked on later.

Edited February 17, 2016 by InvdrZim13

[InvdrZim13]

So just a quick update, preliminary talks with the writers/a few other people it's looking like some pretty significant changes are going to be happening to what we have so far story wise.

... Which means the demo is going to be redone to a degree (with a couple extra chapters by the looks of things).

I swear we'll get past chapter 3 eventually.

[Diffuse]

Look at the bright side; those will probably be some DAMN POLISHED first four chapters when you're finally done.

[InvdrZim13]

Look at the bright side; those will probably be some DAMN POLISHED first four chapters when you're finally done.

It might be 4 chapters, it might be more.

Either way by the end it'll be more polished than Bender's ass

Edited February 18, 2016 by InvdrZim13

[Diffuse]

You know, I haven't actually tried the demo, since it sounds like it's soon going to end up kind of outdated anyway. And because I'm not nearly confident enough in my FE skills to be giving any meaningful feedback about gameplay

But maybe I should just give it a whirl, since it's only four chapters anyway.

And then we'll see if my experience with (and appreciation of) high-brow modernist literature is worth anything when it comes to giving feedback on videogame writing

Edited February 18, 2016 by VmmVaa

[InvdrZim13]

You know, I haven't actually tried the demo, since it sounds like it's soon going to end up kind of outdated anyway. And because I'm not nearly confident enough in my FE skills to be giving any meaningful feedback about gameplay

But maybe I should just give it a whirl, since it's only three chapters anyway.

And then we'll see if my experience with (and appreciation of) high-brow modernist literature is worth anything when it comes to giving feedback on videogame writing

It's actually 4 chapters tho

Even though it's probably out of date already since we're working on changing things up.

[Diffuse]

It's actually 4 chapters tho

Crap. I swear I noticed my error and edited my previous post the second after I posted it, but I see that I wasn't fast enough. The presence of prologues have a nasty habit of tripping up my chapter counts.

Update: Okay I've finished the demo. Definitely see the seeds for something great. While its true that things feels very rushed writing-wise, I (contrary to Primefusion up there) feel that the fact that we know jack squat about Seneca in some ways work in his favour. He doesn't immediately seem to fit any existing FE archetypes (when was the last time we had a swordmaster as a major villain?), and made me acively wonder what his motives and background might be, which is a plus. The other characters definitely needs a more thorough backstory though, but you already seem to be working on that.

Also, Mustang's battle quote lacks a comma. HOW COULD YOU?!

And by the way, are the mugs in the current hack final?

Edited February 19, 2016 by VmmVaa

[magemane]

I hope this hack has female berzerkers and female heros

[Diffuse]

I hope this hack has female berzerkers and female heros

Seeing as the demo DOES feature a female mercenary, I'd be really surprised (and gravely disappointed) if the final product doesn't have female heroes at least.

[InvdrZim13]

I hope this hack has female berzerkers and female heros

Seeing as the demo DOES feature a female mercenary, I'd be really surprised (and gravely disappointed) if the final product doesn't have female heroes at least.

^That

[InvdrZim13]

Update: Okay I've finished the demo. Definitely see the seeds for something great. While its true that things feels very rushed writing-wise, I (contrary to Primefusion up there) feel that the fact that we know jack squat about Seneca in some ways work in his favour. He doesn't immediately seem to fit any existing FE archetypes (when was the last time we had a swordmaster as a major villain?), and made me acively wonder what his motives and background might be, which is a plus. The other characters definitely needs a more thorough backstory though, but you already seem to be working on that.

Also, Mustang's battle quote lacks a comma. HOW COULD YOU?!

And by the way, are the mugs in the current hack final?

We're working on developing all the characters better (including Seneca).

I'd fix it but I'll just wait till I have our new story stuff ready to get put in lol

uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh... I think all of them are still subject to tweaking and edits.

[Diffuse]

We're working on developing all the characters better (including Seneca).

I'd fix it but I'll just wait till I have our new story stuff ready to get put in lol

uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh... I think all of them are still subject to tweaking and edits.

That's good to hear. I guess what I was trying to say about Seneca was that I think you should keep the element of mystery, and take advantage of the fact that unlike " cranky old dark magic user" or "heavily armoured enemy king/duke/marquess/whatever", there's not really any preconceptions about "sword-wielding dude in a jacket".

Yeah don't worry. I didn't actually notice it while playing the patch, but I saw it on one of the screenshots on the front page. There's also a typo in Axel's description

That's nice to hear. Because Axel's beard makes me think of oddly coloured shaving cream

[InvdrZim13]

That's good to hear. I guess what I was trying to say about Seneca was that I think you should keep the element of mystery, and take advantage of the fact that unlike " cranky old dark magic user" or "heavily armoured enemy king/duke/marquess/whatever", there's not really any preconceptions about "sword-wielding dude in a jacket".

Yeah don't worry. I didn't actually notice it while playing the patch, but I saw it on one of the screenshots on the front page. There's also a typo in Axel's description

That's nice to hear. Because Axel's beard makes me think of oddly coloured shaving cream

Well... uh, Seneca is only the main villain for part 1, after that it kinda goes back to evil wizard king trying to do bad shit (but hopefully will be written far better than how I summarized it lol)

I'll fix it later

Yeah pretty much everything is subject to redesign right now, I don't think anything will be final for awhile.

[Diffuse]

Well... uh, Seneca is only the main villain for part 1, after that it kinda goes back to evil wizard king trying to do bad shit (but hopefully will be written far better than how I summarized it lol)

I didn't exactly expect him to be the main villain, if that's what you think. It was more that I found it interesting how the game kicks of the plot. Unlike most FEs, which utilizes an invasion as the initial source of conflict, here we have the royalty's response to the rising tension with a neighbouring country causing internal dissatisfaction, which enables some enigmatic dude to stage a coup, with hints of another, more personal, motive behind it. By the time the prologue even starts you have managed to:

• Show normal citizens actually reacting to the tense political situation, rather than just sitting in their houses and handing out free stuff to whoever barges in
• Highlight that Fortuita isn't a magically harmonious place where everybody constantly agrees with the lords
• Introduced a villain by actually showing him DO shit (as opposed to letting the player know about bad thing he intends to do)
• Established a sense of upheaval, which follows the player through the next few chapters due to the constantly changing parties (which also helps show that the events at the start of the game are something that affects many people)
• Raise questions about peoples motives and connections, that the player will want answered

In short, I guess the thing I liked about the situation with Seneca was the the initial source of conflict is something internal, since that significantly alters the story and setting's introductory phase

evil wizard king

The evil wizard's a king this time around? Then I guess he won't have to manipulate one, which immediately makes him stand out from the rest of the Evil Wizard Club

Edited February 21, 2016 by VmmVaa

[InvdrZim13]

Sure saves him a bunch of time with getting people to do his bidding.

[InvdrZim13]

Oh shit it's been literally months since I updated this.

Well school's finally out for me, so I can focus on working on this way more now.

No new build ready yet, but it should be done by FEE3 if not sooner.

In the meantime, here's a thing:

The guide menu is being repurposed into a Lore/Info area (which, once I figure it out, will unlock as the game progresses).

[Diffuse]

Oh shit it's been literally months since I updated this.

Well school's finally out for me, so I can focus on working on this way more now.

I can't help but notice the suspicious overlap between "time Staff of Ages goes without updates" and "time around the american release of Fates".

On a more relevant note, I like the idea of a lore-compendium. It sounds like a good way to keep track of worldbuilding and whatnot within the otherwise relatively linear constraints of your typical Fire Emblem game.

Edited May 3, 2016 by VmmVaa

[InvdrZim13]

I can't help but notice the suspicious overlap between "time Staff of Ages goes without updates" and "time around the american release of Fates".

On a more relevant note, I like the idea of a lore-compendium. It sounds like a good way to keep track of worldbuilding and whatnot within the otherwise relatively linear constraints of your typical Fire Emblem game.

It was a combination of Fates and classes tbh

Yeah Midnight Sun does it and I thought it was a good idea because who even uses the guide.

[InvdrZim13]

And in other news: Some of the portraits have been updated

New Elijah

New Axel

New Darius