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Fire Emblem Fan Game Concept (Currently untitled)


Topaz Light
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So, I kinda feel like I've posted a big thing about a Fire Emblem fangame project idea before, but as I'm slowly fleshing out more and more just what I want to do with this, I felt I'd make a topic here to gauge interest and get feedback on some of these ideas. This project will be made in FEXNA when that comes out. If not, I'll have to find some other way to make it work.

The world the game is set in is somewhat different from a lot of Fire Emblem games, in that it's actually a somewhat post-apocalyptic world. Technology a little ahead of what exists today (although still mostly fantastical in flavor) did exist in the past, but most of it- as well as the knowledge required to use, build, and repair it- was lost during a great war seven hundred years ago... It might be better to just post the little blurb I wrote about the world backstory.

[spoiler=Probably not how it'll be written in-game but all the important stuff is there]Long ago, dragons ruled the land. With their vast knowledge and mighty bodies, they formed great civilizations and crafted enormous, advanced cities. While humankind was able to coexist peacefully with dragons for a time, it wasn’t long before relations between the two races began to foul. Humans grew envious and fearful of the dragons’ great power and advanced technology, while dragons came to view humankind as freeloaders; inferior in every way, and nothing but a drag on society. Perhaps inevitably, the tensions between the two peoples rose to a boiling point, and at last exploded into violence and war.

Sorely outmatched and outgunned, it seemed at first that there was no hope for humankind. In what seemed to be no time at all, what had once been an organized military force had been reduced to scattered guerilla fighters and haggard, defeated refugees. At the moment when humanity’s light of hope was at its most dim, a young hero appeared, he and his band armed with blessed weapons and magic spells uniquely advantaged against humanity’s seemingly-indomitable adversaries. Even with such mighty tools at their disposal, humankind’s battle against the dragons was still a steep uphill climb, but miraculously, they were able to reach the top, standing toe to toe with dragons on the battlefield and turning the tables on their mighty oppressors. Smacked in their faces with the reality of their newfound disadvantage, and coming to understand the gravity of their sins, the leaders of the dragons commanded their forces to cease fire, and parleyed with humans in hopes of establishing a peaceful relationship between their two peoples. Due in no small part to the immense toll the war had taken on all involved parties, the dragons were successful in securing peace, and for several years, all was calm. Humans and dragons worked hand in hand- albeit hesitantly- to repair a world broken by the savagery of war.
However, this burgeoning peace was not to last. While the majority of both humans and dragons were more than happy to put the terrors of war behind them and vow to henceforth settle their disagreements and conflicts of interest through more civilized venues, there was a vocal group of anti-dragon extremists among the humans who incited riots and skirmishes in attempts to rekindle the war and see their hated enemies wiped off the face of the land completely. Their opportunity came when the human leader who had accepted the dragons’ peace treaty passed away. The new leader of humankind aligned far closer to the extremists’ viewpoints, and ordered humanity’s forces to take up arms and attack the dragons. The comparatively-quick reproduction and physical maturation of humankind had blessed them with speedier recovery from the war’s terrors than the dragon combatants, and a sudden attack from a larger-than-anticipated force caught the dragons off-balance. Pushed further and further back, with no hope of winning against the brutal onslaught, the dragons turned and fled to a remote part of the continent, sealing themselves away. As for the great hero who had spearheaded the human war effort? It was said that he forsook his sword, and vanished without a word.
As the years went by, the dragons, the war, and the heroes and villains of the darkest time the continent had yet known passed into myth and legend. The stark, broken shadows of the once-great civilization of the dragons that pierced the horizon served as the only reminders of that bygone era. In time, man rebuilt and spread his dominion across the land and onto the islands beyond.
Seven long centuries have passed since those dark days ended.

As for the present-day story, I don't have a whole lot of details down that I feel would be wise to reveal at this time (y'know, spoilers and all), but I've decided that the story will involve more player choices and branching routes than- to my knowledge- the series has had before. While the overall direction of the plot and the ending can't really be drastically changed, there are a lot of venues for the player to decide how they want to get to the ending.
Additionally, I feel now would be a good time to bring up that I do plan to include a second generation in the game. However, it will definitely be along the lines of Genealogy of the Holy War's second generation, with a time skip to a party containing only child and otherwise new characters. The number of first generation characters who can potentially rejoin you will definitely be significantly more than Genealogy's one, but it will be some time before they start becoming recruitable. And yes, the plot is being written with this generation split in mind, so it will be meaningful and make sense in the story.
Aaaand I guess now would be a good time for more excerpts from my project documents! Again, this is probably stuff I've posted somewhere before, buuuut it's going here too since it's still relevant:
Inheritance:
Each character has a child character associated with them, and if a character is married by the end of the first generation, then their child (and, of course, their spouse’s) will be recruitable in the second generation. Each child character also has a substitute, who will be recruitable in their place if the parent associated with the given child character does not marry during the first generation. Depending on who their fixed parent married, a child character’s equipment, stats, skills, appearance, and sometimes even starting class will be affected. Additionally, there will be intergenerational sidequests that must be started in the first generation but cannot be finished until the second.
Each first-generation character, regardless of gender, has a child character attached to them. If they marry in the first generation, their child will then be recruitable in the second. The child character will inherit stats and skills from both of their parents, as well as the hair color of their non-fixed parent. In some cases, certain non-fixed parent choices can even affect the class of a child character. Parents will also pass down any items they have to a child who can use them, with priority given to the non-fixed child if both children are viable. In the rare cases that the parents can rejoin the party in the second generation, if that parent passed down their items, they will be given a new inventory in the second generation. Default inventories are also prepared for children who do not inherit any weapons. Item durability is fully restored upon reaching the second generation, and in the case that a unit still ends up with under 20 uses worth of weapons and magic in their inventory, they will be given an Iron weapon or basic tome or staff based on their class if they have room to carry it.
And finally, here are some additional miscellaneous gameplay ideas I had, written sort of in the style of a game manual talking about them:
Reclassing & Class Masters
Masters of various classes exist, scattered throughout the world. If they are found and visited, they will teach their craft to the visitor, changing their class. Each master will only teach their class to one student from the player’s army, and each character can only learn from one master per playthrough. There may even be a few classes that can only be added to the player’s army by having a character learn that class from a master…
Smithies & Forging
During the game, you may run across Smithies. At Smithies, you can forge stronger weapons and tomes, as well as repair existing ones. You may either modify an existing weapon or tome in the visitor’s inventory, or create a new weapon or tome from scratch using a normal weapon as a base. Note that if you craft a new weapon or tome from scratch, you will have to pay for the new weapon in addition to the modifications. When repairing a weapon or tome, the cost is the same as purchasing back the number of uses lost. Note that some weapons may be incompatible with one or both of these features.
After choosing the weapon or tome you want to modify, the following parameters can be adjusted, within limitations: Name, Might, Hit Rate, Critical Bonus, Weight, Weapon Rank, and Color. The greater the degree to which you modify each attribute, the more the modifications will cost. Name and Color can be modified for free, and Weapon Rank can be decreased by one rank for a steep fee.
Arenas
In an Arena, you can bet gold on your unit’s success in combat, for a chance to win back more than you bet if they succeed. Three options are available: Battle, Gauntlet, and High Stakes.
(Note: In Casual mode, falling in any Arena battle leaves your unit with 1 HP rather than dead)
Battle sends your unit up against a random opponent of roughly equal strength. You can press the B button to retreat from the fight if things aren’t looking good for your champion. Retreat, however, is considered the same as a loss, and you will not get your wager back. Victory earns you twice your wager back, for a net gain the same as the amount of money that you initially bet.
Gauntlet allows your unit to challenge the Arena’s Gauntlet of Champions, a progression of eight successively stronger warriors. Each unit’s progress through the Gauntlet will be stored individually, and there are separate Gauntlets for Bow-specialized units, and units who are proficient in melee combat. A unit equally proficient in both melee and ranged combat may choose to challenge the opponent from either for each battle, but cannot go back and challenge the other occupant of a given rank once they have moved past it. Gauntlet wagers work the same way as Battle wagers. However, defeat in battle during a Gauntlet challenge does not result in death, instead leaving your unit with 1 HP. Perhaps some Champions of the Gauntlet would lend their swords to a warrior who could best them in combat…?
High Stakes is similar to Battle, but the winnings are ten to one, and you cannot retreat from battle. A very risky proposition, but the payout is huge if you win!
As a miscellaneous tidbit that doesn't really have anywhere else to go, I'd like to do something like FESNES-style animations, but with the art style/proportions of the GameBoy Advance games' battle sprites. This is really more of a "best case scenario"-type desire, and not something I necessarily think is likely to have happen, but I'll certainly be working towards it.
EDIT 1: So the spoiler tags on the last two text dumps broke and only concealed the first "paragraph" of each bit of text, despite showing the whole thing as being inside the "Spoiler" box. Because this amounted to decreasing the text by only a couple lines worth and making the layout a tiny bit confusing, they're gone now. If anybody has any idea what the problem is and how to fix it, I'll put them back into spoiler tags, but until then, this is how they'll be.
EDIT 2: I forgot when I was copy-pasting the "Concept" bit that it included massive spoilers for the first generation plot so that's gone now. But hey, at least the second generation mechanics and etc. are still there!
Edited by Topaz Light
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I'd like to warn you ahead of time that the majority of the mechanics you're desiring to implement will take strenuous extra coding effort to implement, and this seems like a project that will get well above its head if you don't have the resources and resolve to power through with it.

FEXNA is extremely open-ended, being, well, a proper engine and all, but it is still designed to imitate FEGBA in most ways. Blame Yeti for that.

As such, you'd better know what you're doing before attempting stuff like this. I'm possibly the tester who does the most tinkering, and let me make it very clear that screwing with the fundamentals of FEXNA isn't easy. It's not terribly hard if you know what you're doing, and where to do it, but that's the problem.

I can't speak for when the engine is released, of course, but either way, I'd strongly recommend you make sure you can handle everything that needs to go into such an ambitious project before you start on it. Unfinished projects are discouraging, after all.

Good luck with your endeavors, though. ...Uh, in, like, 6-12 months or something, whenever this thing goes public. I swear, whenever it seems like it may be nearing that time, it isn't. Hope your patience can endure.

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I like your idea for a master.

I would suggest using nightmare modules to hack a GBA rom. Perhaps try implementing one new feature at a time?

I imagine that the event needed to change a character's standard class to master class would work like a promotional item. The chosen character would visit the master house and it would trigger a class change event. I do not know how good you are with code, but anything is possible! Keep your chin up and try to start thinking about how you can implement these ideas with the resources that you have now.

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I like your idea for a master.

I would suggest using nightmare modules to hack a GBA rom. Perhaps try implementing one new feature at a time?

I imagine that the event needed to change a character's standard class to master class would work like a promotional item. The chosen character would visit the master house and it would trigger a class change event. I do not know how good you are with code, but anything is possible! Keep your chin up and try to start thinking about how you can implement these ideas with the resources that you have now.

Thanks!

I actually considered doing that, but there are a number of features I definitely want to include that would be varying degrees of not-really-feasible using a GBAFE base without heavy ASM modifications. Which is why my plan was to use FEXNA, which, while not totally user-friendly to certain engine modifications, is ultimately- from what I hear- a lot more conducive to them being made.

And, that's... sort of how it works? The idea is that there are "Masters" of certain classes- say, a really experience Halberdier- who you can send someone to visit, and they can "teach" the character their class. Using the Halberdier example... let's say, a Mercenary, would become a Soldier, while a Hero would become a Halberdier. The class change itself is mechanically very similar to reclassing in DSFE or Fates; the character retains their level, promotion tier, and any shared weapon ranks with their new class, but their stats are adjusted based on the difference between the bases of their original class and the bases of their new class. Reclassing this way might have the character retain the ability to change between their old class and the one they just learned, DSFE-style, but I'm still up in the air about how exactly Reclassing is going to work.

And, thanks for the encouragement!

EDIT: Oh oops you meant "how it would work" as in "how it would be programmed," didn't you? My bad.

Edited by Topaz Light
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I understand the concepts and know basic terms used in coding, but I am easily confused by numbers and equations. I guess what I am doing is brainstorming with you a little bit, to help you turn these concepts into things that you can try to do. The first feature that I would try to implement is the "master" class because it seems simpler, compared to the other features that you listed. There is already an event in the game that changes a unit's class, so the code is already there. It is just about tying that event to visiting a house, instead of using an item.

Do you see what I am getting at?

Edited by Shaman
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I understand the concepts and know basic terms used in coding, but I am easily confused by numbers and equations. I guess what I am doing is brainstorming with you a little bit, to help you turn these concepts into things that you can try to do. The first feature that I would try to implement is the "master" class because it seems simpler, compared to the other features that you listed. There is already an event in the game that changes a unit's class, so the code is already there. It is just about tying that event to visiting a house, instead of using an item.

Do you see what I am getting at?

Ahhh, yeah. The fixed storyline promotions in all three GBA games probably mean that there is a built-in way to trigger a class change during an event rather than with an item, but I'd need to see how feasible it'd be have it "promote" the character into a different class that wasn't part of their base class line. I'm sure you could do it by just having the game modify the variable that stores the character's class, but that would look kinda bare-bones in terms of presentation (they would just suddenly "snap" to being the new class, instead of having a promotion animation for it.)

Thanks!

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