|
TheMcD posted:I mean, Eirika has a 45% strength growth here. That's on par with Neimi (OK, possibly not so impressive) and Ross (maybe a bit more impressive as a comparison - albeit not with what we've seen out of Ross so far). It *shouldn't* be an issue. Both of those leave a lot to be desired and Eirika is a Lord so she's mandatory. It's why nerfs to her feels worse. Especially since her defenses are paper-thin, at least before promotion.
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2020 03:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 16:12 |
|
|
This hack seems really interesting, I'm excited to see what the core gameplay design actually is once we get out of early game. Maybe that'll make some of the class and stat changes make more sense. I like the Seth rework and a lot of the weapon changes though.theshim posted:Colm is just...worse, for some reason??? I guess the hack designer is one of those types that sees thieves as utility classes only and escorting them to their targets should be part of the challenge. Unless Rennac shows up and is some sort of combat god and they just hate Colm for some reason.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2020 11:47
|
|
Update V - Monster Mash Alright, time for the first monster chapter.   It's gone a lot more vertical than before, and has three branches for us to take care of: The two paths to the boss, and the Ross Training Zone on the right.  I tagged in Artur for Colm, since there's nothing to steal here. And with that, let's take a look at him.    Artur - Monk: STATS: LV: 3 (+1) HP: 21 (+2) MAG: 6 SKL: 7 (+1) SPD: 8 LCK: 5 (+3) DEF: 3 (+1) RES: 7 (+1) MOV: 5 CON: 6 GROWTHS: HP: 60% (+5%) MAG: 40% (-10%) SKL: 50% SPD: 50% (+10%) LCK: 25% DEF: 20% (+5%) RES: 50% (-5%) Lightning: Rank E. Range 1-2. Weight 6. Might 4. Hit 100 (+5). Crit 15 (+10). 50 uses (+15). Artur seems to have gotten a bit of help on defense and with his horrible luck. He's also trading magic for speed, which can be helpful, especially given what is happening with light magic. Light magic has been given full permission to become The Crit Magic, and as such, even the lowly Lightning gets 15 crit. Spoilers: Yes, I know what you're thinking, and yes, that means that Purge now has 20 crit. I'm looking forward to running into that.  Neimi hails Satan with her level. At least it's speed.  Artur starts off by double critting this monster.  Garcia keeps working on his accuracy.  And Moulder gets in on the leveling as well. I think I missed one of his levels in an earlier update, but it was garbage anyway.  And with that, we set up and see what comes our way.  Artur double crits again and murders the gently caress out of this zombie. Alas, his streak ends after that.  Nothing much else, but we get our reinforcements - two skeletons to the right and two zombies in the bottom left. Those skeleton reinforcements are of particular interest to me, because as you might remember from the map, I have plans for them.  Ross is going to set up and fight these skeletons, particularly the iron lance guys, with Franz and Neimi for support for the iron sword ones. Everybody else will move down south and slog through the zombies.  Artur gets a mediocre level.  Gilliam becomes even more impenetrable to these monsters.  L'Arachel makes her appearance and bails as usual.  More reinforcements. It's gonna get crowded.  We set up the Ross Training Zone and everybody else moves up. Can't help but feel that Vanessa placement might have been a bit overeager though.  At least she makes us proud of having given her that Dragon Tear.  Ross starts his training.  Even more reinforcements. And yeah, that Vanessa placement looks a bit rough now. Good thing she can just bail and get healed by Moulder.  Gilliam gets ready to move to that area over to the right on his own to clear it out, since he's basically invulnerable to anything but the eyes.  Another Ross level on the next enemy phase.  Reinforcements keep coming. We're probably bogged down here for a bit. Well, except for Gilliam.  Another Ross level.  Garcia gets more fit for monster clubbing while fighting the zombie horde on the left.  Gilliam does his thing. The reinforcements stop on this turn, so we should be able to push forward soon.  Another Ross level.  Gilliam keeps being more Gilliam.  At this point, Garcia, Vanessa and Artur have largely cleared out the zombies. Franz also starts moving out since Ross can deal with the remaining enemies on his own.  Another Ross level. Only one to go!  And Moulder levels up too for good measure. I didn't even notice he was this fast.  So now everybody starts moving forward while Vanessa javelins the snag, and Gilliam has the right side completely cleared out now and will be moving forward as well.  Two turns later, Vanessa has Ross in tow and everbody else is ready to move.  Ross is set up to bait out a zombie and gain his last level of the map. I'll get to decide on what to promote him to next map.  Franz gets another good level on wiping out the zombie Ross damaged. He's looking like a Waterside Renvall promotion target right about now.  Vanessa keeps getting stronger on enemy phase while clearing out the area around the village that Lute is in.  See? All cleared out.  Oh. loving reinforcements. I guess Gilliam can take all those skeletons on, and Franz can clear out the zombies.  We also start plinking at the boss because hey, free EXP.  Some of the skeletons try their luck with Artur, but they don't do well.   Franz picks up Lute, and that means it's time to look at our other new unit!    Lute - Mage: STATS: LV: 5 (+4) HP: 20 (+3) MAG: 9 (+3) SKL: 8 (+2) SPD: 8 (+1) LCK: 8 DEF: 2 RES: 8 (+3) MOV: 5 CON: 6 (+3) GROWTHS: HP: 50% (+5%) MAG: 55% (-10%) SKL: 30% SPD: 45% LCK: 45% DEF: 25% (+15%) RES: 35% (-5%) Fire: Rank E. Range 1-2. Weight 4. Might 5. Hit 90. Crit 0. 50 uses (+10). Thunder: Rank D. Range 1-2. Weight 6. Might 7 (-1). Hit 80. Crit 5. 50 uses (+15). Alright, looks like we have our first major level boost. Lute gained four whole levels (even if they were mostly bad levels, looking at the stats she gained), and as such should require a fair bit less babying to get up to speed because, well, she's already fully up to speed. Not to mention she's bulked up quite a bit and now no longer gets weighed down by loving Fire like a literal child. As for anima magic, doesn't look like it's changed a lot yet. I mean, Thunder got very slightly weakened, I guess to maybe reign in its status as the best anima tome in general. Anyway, nothing much else happens that turn.  Gilliam status: Pretty good. Though we do need to send Vanessa in to help out with the eye, because it's dealing decent damage.  We give the kill on the boss to Lute because why not.  And finally, Artur and Garcia help out in cleaning out the last group of enemies.  One more decent level to play us out.  And that's it for this chapter! Next time, another two new units, and things get a bit tougher in parts.
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 13:21
|
|
|
Have they changed promotions or will he be a Pirate like all good boys should be?
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 18:05
|
|
|
Gonna be mad disappointed if they didn't unlock super trainees by default. (And hopefully make them less poo poo.) Also no HP?!?! What is this garbage trash level, run over!!
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 18:40
|
|
|
Super Trainee Level 1 is unlocked by default, but Super Trainee Level 2 does not exist anymore, from what I can tell. Instead, it offers a different promotion choice. And I might as well already tell you this since you'll ask anyway and I don't think holding out is a lot of fun especially since I probably won't use them (except for one, maybe): Super Trainee Level 1 Ross can promote to either Hero, or General. General Ross is tempting, but no, I'm definitely going for Berserker with him. Super Trainee Level 1 Amelia can promote to either Paladin, or Wyvern Lord. Flier Amelia is very tempting, but I think Paladin is the better choice for what I have planned. I'll get into why once we make that first promotion choice. And I'm definitely going Cavalier over Super Trainee because horse and extra weapon type. Super Trainee Level 1 Ewan can promote to either Sage, or Summoner. Since Ewan already had access to four classes, he gets nothing new here. I think I'm planning for Sage Ewan, so I might use this just to show it off.
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 19:04
|
|
|
TheMcD posted:Super Trainee Level 1 is unlocked by default, but Super Trainee Level 2 does not exist anymore, from what I can tell. Instead, it offers a different promotion choice. And I might as well already tell you this since you'll ask anyway and I don't think holding out is a lot of fun especially since I probably won't use them (except for one, maybe): Wait, but if you have weapon ranks for a weapon you keep those even if a class doesn't natively wield those. So wouldn't summoner just be objectively better since he'll have all 4 magic weapon types with either promotion? Or does he lose his one interesting ginmick?
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 19:27
|
|
FoolyCharged posted:Wait, but if you have weapon ranks for a weapon you keep those even if a class doesn't natively wield those. So wouldn't summoner just be objectively better since he'll have all 4 magic weapon types with either promotion? Or does he lose his one interesting ginmick? Super Trainee Level 1 only goes from D Anima to C Anima for weapon ranks here. Don't remember how it was in vanilla. My terminology might also be off, since what I refer to as "Super Trainee Level 2" is what the Internet seems to refer to as "Super Trainee" and the middle level is just "another trainee stage" or something.
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 19:53
|
|
|
Derp, it was the second level that got all three schools of attack magic.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 19:56
|
|
|
The new options for the trainees are interesting but I found they weren't particularly tempting - Ross' best class is still Berserker, and I really dislike Generals in this hack for a couple of reasons (though most of it is their awful speed and res caps). Dragon Lord Amelia is probably the most tempting new option, although I tend to just not use her, and there's already a plethora of excellent fliers available (I think I'd have been much more tempted if she could go Wyvern Knight instead). I think Sage is probably Ewan's best class in a vacuum but I don't actually think it's a good idea, because he and Knoll are still the only two characters with access to Summoner and Druid, and with the changes those are both excellent classes with unique niches. You don't necessarily need either, but Lute, Artur and Moulder are just as good if not better than Ewan as Sages anyway, so the opportunity cost of Sage Ewan is higher.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 20:48
|
|
|
I mean you already get like what, 3 opportunities to get Sage? Plus the best Sage is Lute because her Sage sprite is both cool and cute.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2020 21:20
|
|
Update VI - The Boss Box Begins Alright, this map is where you'll start actually possibly running into some trouble.  But before that, we have a promotion decision to make.  There's a few routes I could go with Ross, but ultimately, I want him to be a Berserker. We can go over why once it actually becomes more relevant.  I guess the gain to CON is useful here. The patch notes say that this promotion should have gained an extra point in SPD and RES over what we actually got, so meh.  Moulder and Neimi sit this one out in favor of Lute and Natasha. Poor Neimi... I'll probably have to give her some tower grinding if I ever want her to go anywhere. Also, as a side note, I've been passing around the Star Seal to whoever I think could benefit from it the most. Previously, it was on Ross for his training, now it's on Vanessa. Now, on to the map.   And before we get going, a look at our new unit!    Natasha - Cleric: STATS: LV: 3 (+2) HP: 21 (+3) MAG: 3 (+1) SKL: 5 (+1) SPD: 8 LCK: 7 (+1) DEF: 3 (+1) RES: 8 (+2) MOV: 5 CON: 4 GROWTHS: HP: 50% MAG: 60% SKL: 25% SPD: 45% (+5%) LCK: 60% DEF: 20% (+5%) RES: 50% (-5%) Mend: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1. Weight 4. 25 uses (+5). Heals 20 HP + MAG / 2. Use gives 20 EXP (+8). Oh hey, something that doesn't have 50 uses. I guess a 50 use Mend would be kinda nuts. Anyway, Natasha has been leveled up a bit to make raising her less of a pain in the rear end, and her using her staff gives nearly double the EXP that it used to, so that's going to help a lot as well. I'm still not sure if Natasha or Moulder will be my primary healer. Disregarding for a moment that L'Arachel will be the primary healer, anyway. Either way, I believe whoever of the two it is will be sticking along a lot as a Bishop regardless.  Seth goes to the first village, and would you look at that? Another Dragon Tear.  This one's going on Franz. That should turn him into even more of a wrecking ball than he already is.  We set up in some sort of half-assed defensive formating to let the enemies come to us, because there's a fair share of them.  Nothing much on enemy phase, but on player phase, we have four cavs ready to strike, alongside an archer, and the nearby fighters will be ready to get involved when we meet the cavs in combat.  Ross takes out the archer to clear the way for Vanessa to get involved, and Garcia and Lute combine to take out a cav, netting Lute this solid level.  Franz takes out another cav and gets faster and sturdier. Sturdy is good.  Gilliam and Artur take out another cav.  Seth plugs the hole in the line, and Vanessa picks up this helpful item. Spoilers: It's going on Lute later. She's got, like, no defense. But first, we need to get through this enemy phase.  Franz kills a guy.  Franz kills another guy.  Franz dies. GG. Resets: 2  Alright, second attempt. This time, we set up more defensively, allowing us to fight the moving enemies without bringing the fighters into the mix as well. Also, the reinforcements from the left corners come on this next turn, and I want to have everybody together to deal with that as well. Also, just to notice, there's single cav reinforcements coming from where the two cavs each were at the beginning, so that's something additional we get to deal with trickling in.  Franz levels up worse this time around, but doesn't kill the cav he's fighting, so he's safe for now, which I prefer.  As such, the situation on next player phase is a lot better than "dead Franz". However, we do have four brigands coming down on us next enemy phase, so we need to deal with that pretty quick. Eirika should be able to deal with one group pretty well, and Franz gets to go and deal with the other group after getting healed up.  Lute levels on taking out a cav.  Artur takes one out as well and gets a far better level.  And we leave the situation like this. As long as the brigands don't mess us up, we should be good for now.  Eirika is trying to set a world record in Not Getting Strength, and she's doing great!  Franz is doing great in taking out his brigands (albeit while getting hit by both of them like the loving putz with a deathwish he seems to be), while Eirika really struggles even dealing damage to one of them. Mind, still being at base strength might do that, but still...  Basically everybody gangs up on Ross, but he lives, so it's fine. We can mop up on player phase.  And mop up we do. Ross retreats to get healed while Franz returns to the fray. Eirika still has some work to do. We largely set up defensively and let those last two cavs come to us and to let Eirika clean up her second brigand.  A job she kinda loving sucks at, to be honest. It's a brigand! Why is he so tough?  I guess we need the rapier for this job then.  Vanessa is going to wreck a lot of poo poo.  We clean up the remaining cavs. Also, you'll notice a bit of a line developing for Natasha to heal. Oh well, we have time, we're not playing for rank.  Gilliam and Franz set up in forests to bait out the fighter. The two Gilliam fights are almost dead, the two Franz fights are dead. Good work all around.  At this point I get curious and take a look at the enemy wyverns, and they look pretty tough. Good thing it's only two.  Also, they can't fly over these walls here, so they can't just surprise you like that. With that, Gilliam and Franz move out to start fighting those mercenaries. Everybody else piles in behind them.  Natasha gets her first level. More magic!  Next player phase, Franz levels on killing the merc he was assigned.  Lute and Vanessa take care of the merc up top, since Gilliam has come down with a case of The Miss. Instead he's luring out the archer. Everybody else again moves up behind. This enemy phase, two pegs and two cavs spawn in from the right, just in case you thought they were done with reinforcements. Of course not. We'll probably have to deal with them before we can safely recruit Joshua.  As Lute kills the archer, it should be noted that a lot of enemies drop weapons as well. So we get a lot of iron weapons kinda just thrown at us to toss into the convoy eventually. That's a lot better than the 5 gold the others usually drop! Now, since we're getting close to him, let's take a look at Joshua.    Joshua - Myrmidon: STATS: LV: 7 (+2) HP: 25 (+1) STR: 8 SKL: 14 (+1) SPD: 14 LCK: 7 DEF: 6 (+1) RES: 4 (+2) MOV: 5 CON: 7 (-1) GROWTHS: HP: 65% (-15%) STR: 45% (+10%) SKL: 50% (-5%) SPD: 55% LCK: 30% DEF: 25% (+5%) RES: 25% (+5%) Killing Edge: Rank C. Rank 1. Weight 7. Might 8 (-1). Hit 75. Crit 30. 50 uses (+30). Joshua didn't exactly get a lot of stats in the two levels he's gained in here, and that loss in CON isn't great as well, that'll hurt him more with a lot of the better swords available. However, I guess you can just give him whatever Killing Edges you have available and just let him wreck with those, he doesn't get weighed down by them, and the 50 uses now make one Edge go a lot further.  Also, apparently I misremembered, as I set Gilliam with an iron axe onto a forest in range of Joshua. Looks like I want to get the recruiting done with before the reinforcements roll in.  Joshua can't exactly pose much of a threat to Gilliam.  And there we go, we got ourselves a Joshua!  We let Gilliam take point and see what happens.  For one, the wyverns show up, but they don't look all that scary against Gilliam.  But we kinda do need to deal with a lot of these enemies, because bless his heart, Gilliam isn't quite capable of doubling and killing.  He's working on it, though!  Artur might hit double digits on the offensive stats soon, which is nice.  Ross is also working towards that, albeit still missing skill.  We set up a kind of half-assed defensive formation with Eirika having to take a hit because that tile above Gilliam is actually a "fence", not a "wall", so the pegs can fly over it. Thankfully I checked, or else Natasha would've probably taken the hit.  And with it being a crit, I don't think Natasha would have survived it.  And on our next player phase, our defensive formation looks kinda weak. But hey, nobody died. We can figure out the rest later.  And figure it out we did! Nobody's close to dying that can be reached by enemies, and we plugged the gaps in our line. Now we can wait out the last few cavs and pegs, then deal with the boss.  Ross gets a great level on the next player phase - essentially perfect since he'll cap strength anyway.  And there we go. Everything cleaned out. Most enemies just suicided on enemy phase (Franz can double the pegs, which is nice), and two needed some extra convincing on player phase.  Now, we move Gilliam and Franz into enemy range. And... nothing happens. Yeah, the rest of these units just doesn't move. This is a thing this hack does as well - some enemies just won't move. This creates what I called "The Boss Box", which is also a thing this hack does occasionally - a boss that doesn't move, surrounded by enemies that don't move. Now, this is a sound tactical concept in theory, but what kind of hurts it is that there are no 1-3 range weapons that the boss could use to snipe units that attack the box enemies from range. Then it'd turn into an actual potential dilemma where you might have to rescuedrop to get units to safety and carefully approach the box. As is, we can just kill the regular units from range, then attack the boss with impunity. Especially since the soldiers here don't have javelins and can be sniped freely. And so that's what we're doing.   We also pick up some items from the villages. So like I said in the map, the villages are really safe. The only brigand spawns spawn behind you and are practically forced to move straight through your units to get to the villages, so you'd have to try incredibly hard to get them to loot them.  Garcia levels while taking out the soldiers. And with the soldiers largely taken out...  We let Ross wait in front of the boss. I think he's got this. Speaking of the boss, let's look at him.   +8 HP, +1 STR, +1 SKL, +2 SPD, +1 LCK and +3 RES compared to his hard mode counterpart. Beefy, but not unkillable. And while he does have his Physic buddy back there, Franz is going to take care of that problem next turn. Also... Javelin: Rank D (formerly E). Range 1-2. Weight 10 (-1). Might 5 (-1). Hit 65. Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). So, Javelins got slightly weaker, slightly lighter, but the big thing again is the 50 uses. Loading somebody overpowered up with Javelins and just letting them murder everything is still totally viable. Alas, Saar is not overpowered.  And so, Ross and Saar take a few turns whacking each other around - or rather, Saar misses a bunch while Ross always hits and occasionally crits.  And Ross hits double digits on everything except resistance at level 4 with that. Nice.  And we get a Guiding Ring on top of that!  That'll be it for this time. Next time, we get to run around with Ephraim for a bit! TheMcD fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Dec 9, 2020 |
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2020 14:32
|
|
|
I'm not sure why they redid the sprites for every weapon and item either, when you get right down to it, but okay, why not.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2020 20:09
|
|
|
My question is why they keep raising people's levels but giving them such terrible level-ups.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2020 21:57
|
|
|
TheMcD posted:Super Trainee Level 2 does not exist anymore wtf hack bad Keldulas posted:My question is why they keep raising people's levels but giving them such terrible level-ups. At least in Joshua's case i'm guessing because his vanilla stats are pretty bonkers for level 5.
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2020 22:25
|
|
|
theshim posted:I'm not sure why they redid the sprites for every weapon and item either, when you get right down to it, but okay, why not. Are they meant to look like a different FE game?
|
|
#
?
Dec 2, 2020 22:33
|
|
|
I dunno about everything else, but the vulnerary sprite looks vaguely familiar at least.
|
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2020 00:12
|
|
|
I think the BossBoxtm is there to make rushing the boss to avoid dealing with the regular enemies more difficult, I don't recall if these are kill boss chapters but that's what comes to mind. It would make a lot more sense for this to be a thing after you get Warp, and I don't see how you'd do that sort of thing easily here without it, so ???
vcvcvc12 fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 3, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2020 05:37
|
|
Update VII - Breaking News: Ephraim Still Good Alright, let's see what Ephraim is up to.   This map doesn't seem to have gotten much of an upgrade in difficulty, but I guess since the units haven't had the opportunity to profit from the extra EXP from the extra enemies, you can't really kick it up that much. Now, let's take a look at our units.    Ephraim - Lord: STATS: LV: 8 (+4) HP: 25 (+2) STR: 10 (+2) SKL: 11 (+2) SPD: 12 (+1) LCK: 9 (+1) DEF: 8 (+1) RES: 5 (+3) MOV: 5 CON: 8 GROWTHS: HP: 65% (-15%) STR: 55% SKL: 50% (-5%) SPD: 45% LCK: 55% (+5%) DEF: 35% RES: 25% Noble Lance: Rank Prf (Ephraim only). Range 1. Weight 8. Might 10. Hit 90 (+10). Crit 15 (+5). 50 uses. (+5) Effective against cavalry and armor. So, Ephraim got slightly worse with his growths, and his auto-levels have slightly worse luck with much better resistance. I'd say it's a wash, which means he's still regular old Ephraim. Which means he's still a wrecking ball. And his Prf weapon got even better, which is also a boost.    Kyle - Cavalier: STATS: LV: 8 (+3) HP: 28 (+3) STR: 10 (+2) SKL: 7 (+1) SPD: 9 (+2) LCK: 6 DEF: 11 (+2) RES: 2 (+1) MOV: 7 CON: 9 (-1) GROWTHS: HP: 80% (-10%) STR: 55% (+5%) SKL: 50% (+10%) SPD: 40% LCK: 25% (+5%) DEF: 40% (+15%) RES: 20% Steel Lance: Rank D. Range 1. Weight 10 (-3). Might 9 (-1). Hit 75 (+5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+20). Kyle seems to be boosted towards being more like what you imagine a green cav to be like - boosts to strength and particularly towards defense. He did get a bit lighter though, which isn't that handy, but it more than evens out with the steel lance getting much lighter.    Forde - Cavalier: STATS: LV: 8 (+2) HP: 26 (+2) STR: 8 (+1) SKL: 9 (+1) SPD: 11 (+3) LCK: 7 DEF: 9 (+1) RES: 5 (+3) MOV: 7 CON: 9 GROWTHS: HP: 70% (-10%) STR: 40% SKL: 50% (+5%) SPD: 55% (+10%) LCK: 40% (+5%) DEF: 25% (+5%) RES: 40% (+15%) Forde has seen a big boost to his speed and his resistance. Will it help him be not disappointing all the time? We'll have to see. 55% speed growth is pretty crazy, to be honest. It'll help a lot with the raised Paladin speed cap.    Orson - Paladin: STATS: LV: 10 (+7) HP: 40 (+6) STR: 15 SKL: 13 SPD: 16 (+5) LCK: 4 DEF: 14 (+1) RES: 12 (+5) MOV: 9 (+1) CON: 12 GROWTHS: HP: 80% STR: 55% SKL: 45% SPD: 40% LCK: 25% DEF: 45% RES: 30% CAPS: HP: 60 STR: 24 (-1) SKL: 26 SPD: 28 (+4) LCK: 30 DEF: 24 (-1) RES: 28 (+3) SKILL: Crusade: - Equipped weapon's Might x2 against Mages, Magic Beasts, Zombies, Skeletons and Dragon Zombies - Terrain magic RES bonus x2 - +5 crit Silver Sword: Rank C (formerly A). Range 1. Weight 8. Might 11 (-2). Hit 75 (-5). Crit 0. 50 uses (+30). So, Orson. The chapter really could have been made more perilous since the player could always lean on Orson, who's gotten a great boost to speed that makes him even better. Not that I'll be doing that - I have him on designated chest opener duty with his 9 move. Also, note the new Paladin caps. More speed is really important here, and Paladins getting 9 move is also pretty great. In my first playthrough, I had Franz, Kyle, Forde and Amelia all as Paladins.  In the early going, the cavs do a lot of the work since we've got a fair amount of axe users mucking about. Note, we're going to be burning through a lot of our vulneraries here. There's going to be a lot of attrition going on, and we'll need to heal a lot.  Ephraim gets his first action taking out a soldier.  As we move down towards the knight to get that key, it becomes noticeable that Forde's speed boost compared to Kyle has Forde doubling where Kyle doesn't. But since we're largely moving slow again, it's not that big a deal.  Ephraim still opens cans like no other.  And then, because I'm a dipshit, I get to toss an iron lance because of full inventory. Oh well, we still have Orson's 50 use silver sword and silver lance to go around that everyone can use because the weapon rank change.  Somebody's going to face weapon triangle disadvantage here on enemy phase, but I'm sure it'll be fine, these guys aren't super deadly.  And in fact nothing at all happened. Forde had two enemies miss, and Kyle took no damage from the myrmidon.  Kyle levels up on the cleanup.  Kyle and Forde again set up for some incoming enemies.  Forde gains a very Forde level.  And in the end, this got fairly hairy. If Forde had not missed a counter on the cav, I think the one cav in the corner was only one tile short of getting a shot at a kill. I did not consider this possibility at all.  Ephraim just gets better by killing an archer. Also, the archers are the ones that hold the chest keys. Orson gets to grab that, but sticks around to maybe be an unarmed target for enemies.  Alas, the enemies don't bite. Though they then attack Ephraim, who just wrecks them.  Forde sets up to save us some time by taking out the other archer from across the wall with his javelin, so we get the chest key quicker.  Orson gets the first chest, and would you look at that, another Dragon Tear!  Forde gets preference in taking on mages, with decent resistance and the only ranged weapon in the group so far.  And then, like a dipshit, I move Ephraim down so much that he gets in range of three magic users and kinda gets hosed up a bit.  So for now, we set up in a way to stay away from those pesky shamans, because those can do some decent damage.  Ephraim gets everything he needs on taking out a mage.  Orson catches up with the main crew, and I give the Dragon Tear to Forde because I feel like it.  We keep moving forward. The fighters and soldiers here all have ranged weapons.  Forde, despite doping, is still Forde, it seems.  Orson moves in and draws a fair amount of fire, including a shaman. Ephraim takes a hit in taking out the shaman, leaving him in a slightly precarious situation.  Thankfully, Orson can still rescue just fine.  Orson then picks up the second treasure with Ephraim in tow...  ...while the cavs get to work on cleaning out the chaff.  And so eventually we're left with a shaman and the boss.  Kyle burns through his entire vulnerary on this chapter.  And Forde deals with the shaman, so let's look at the boss.   +13 HP, +2 STR, +5 SKL, +3 SPD, -5 LCK, +3 DEF and +1 RES compared to vanilla hard mode. Looks like this hack really likes its bosses with at least 40 HP.  The speed basically makes Kyle a non-starter.  But in the end, Ephraim is all you need. So we just let him pop a vulnerary and sit in front of the boss.  Forde gets another Forde level after taking a javelin shot at the boss.  And on the third round of combat, Ephraim gets bored and crits the poo poo out of Zonta.  And one more blah level to play us out.  Let's just get out of here.  Next time, we head to the earlygame chapter renowned for being a pain in the rear end. Will this hack change that, or even make it worse? We will see...
|
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 20:49
|
|
|
C rank silver weapons is the weirdest choice. I just don't get it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 22:31
|
|
|
oooof dropping dragon's tears on Forde? You play a dangerous game my friend
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 01:03
|
|
|
That map doesn't strike me as an improvement. Haha all those buffs on Forde and that's still how he's gonna play it, huh. Blaze Dragon posted:C rank silver weapons is the weirdest choice. I just don't get it. Honestly A for silver is kind of weird to begin with when brave weapons are just B rank originally. It's probably reasonable if they've added more weapons with interesting effects to the higher tiers? But i guess we'll see as the game progresses.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 06:45
|
|
|
Here's the general idea of weapon ranks in this hack: E Rank: Iron, Slim, Poison. Also the legendary weapons are E rank so you can't gently caress yourself out of using some with promotion choices. D Rank: Steel, level 1 ranged (jav, hand axe). C Rank: Silver, Killer, effective (halberd, horseslayer, armorslayer) B Rank: Great (high weight, high might), Reaver (all reavers got buffed), Brave, level 2 ranged (tomahawk, spear) A Rank: Class weapons (can only be used by a specific class, these include The Good poo poo) Things are a bit different with magic, obviously, but this should give you the general idea. S Rank weapons basically don't exist, or they are class locked to classes that get S Rank in that weapon, which means they could be A Rank and nothing would change. EDIT: Generally, you can think of unit weapon ranks as such. Unpromoted units get C Rank. Promoted units with three weapon types get B Rank (So Sages get B Rank in anima, light and dark magic.). Promoted units with two weapon types get A Rank (So Paladins get A Rank in swords and lances.). Promoted units with one weapon type get S Rank. (So Bishops get S Rank in light magic.) Staves don't count as a weapon type here. TheMcD fucked around with this message at 10:19 on Dec 10, 2020 |
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 10:11
|
|
|
I guess the idea is to make the boring basic weapons available to all classes when combined with the new max weapon ranks, and to lock the more flashy stuff to more specialized units? But then i would definitely put Brave weapons at least at A. Still, it's not a bad idea
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 20:34
|
|
|
Putting Legendary Weapons at E kind of also undermines the attempt at balance
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 20:42
|
|
|
A and S ranks are actually pretty rare in this hack (remember there's no weapon exp at all, it's fixed per class). There's a rough rule of thumb where a class who can only use a single weapon type gets S rank, if they use two weapon types they'll get an A in one of them, and three is all Bs. Then unpromoted characters have C ranks, or trainees have D. The only exception I know of to this is that staff ranks are handled a bit differently and a lot of promoted classes who aren't staff specialists get stuck with a C. I agree that the way the legendary weapons are handled is pretty weird, though, and undermines a lot of what the rest of this system is trying to go for. That said, if they were S rank you'd probably get screwed out of using most of them. (Also, there is an exception - Siegmund and Sieglinde are S rank for some reason, which means that unlike vanilla the lords can't use them until after promotion...) Also, it kind of bugs me that they got rid of the 'Prf' label, when that would have been a perfect way to mark the class-locked weapons that come along later. Instead, you kind of have to guess and just realise "oh, right, this says it's a B rank but it's actually only for XYZ class". It's not the worst thing in the world but ugh, why?
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 21:13
|
|
|
Explopyro posted:A and S ranks are actually pretty rare in this hack (remember there's no weapon exp at all, it's fixed per class). There's a rough rule of thumb where a class who can only use a single weapon type gets S rank, if they use two weapon types they'll get an A in one of them, and three is all Bs. Then unpromoted characters have C ranks, or trainees have D. The only exception I know of to this is that staff ranks are handled a bit differently and a lot of promoted classes who aren't staff specialists get stuck with a C. Honestly a lot of the design so far seems intended to make things...not more difficult so much as more work. The maps are already turning into marathons and we're only six chapters in, and the overload of class-specific stuff to keep track of just makes me feel like the game is more work than it is fun. But then again, I'm not the one playing the game, and it's entirely possible I'd have a different opinion were I to do so myself.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 21:19
|
|
|
Oh there's still class locked weapons? Then the new weapon rank system makes 0 sense. I thought that was what the new A rank was for
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 21:22
|
|
|
It actually tells you which weapons are specific to each class if you go into the help menu, there's a whole section of "what does this vague skill name do" for each of the skills it's added, and part of the description for those skills includes the class weapons. So having Prf on various weapons would have at least made it obvious at a glance "oh, this is one of those" (as it stands now, a class-locked weapon might be labelled B but another class that has B in that weapon can't use it, which is just bad design). A lot of these class weapons are pretty interesting, it's not the worst system in the world and there's fun to be had here. But I definitely referred to outside documentation while playing this.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 21:30
|
|
|
Vanilla FE already did class-locked weapons (shamshir/wo dao) so it's nothing new. As long as the description says who it's for, i think it's fine.Nihilarian posted:Putting Legendary Weapons at E kind of also undermines the attempt at balance I don't think it really does that much for the balance. In vanilla FE8 you probably have an S for your main weapon type by the time it's relevant unless you specifically decide not to. This just means you can throw around unusual weapons without having to use the entire game (or grinding maps) to set it up (Nidhogg Gerik, Audhulma Neimi).
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2020 02:53
|
|
|
Apparently a part 2 came out to this hack that involves a time skip? 
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2020 00:19
|
|
Bogart posted:Apparently a part 2 came out to this hack that involves a time skip? It's not really a "part 2". Basically, what it is is a patch that changes the Tower of Valni from the 1st postgame dungeon to a new, super difficult 3rd postgame dungeon you're supposed to do after doing the Ruins, and you just transfer your save from one ROM to the other. That new 3rd dungeon has some new story stuff and takes place a fair amount later than the main campaign. We'll get to it eventually.
|
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2020 00:30
|
|
|
Having played it, FWIW, I think the hack is a better experience overall if you pretend that second patch doesn't exist, and just stop at the end of the first one. It's certainly a thing. I really enjoyed the hack up to that point, but I found that patch's new content utterly miserable.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2020 01:54
|
|
Update VIII - Here Actually Not Be Any Dragons Alright. This chapter is usually a stumbling block in the regular game. How does it fare here?   Well, it's a lot different. Not a lot to see so far, but I'm liking what there is to see. Not surrounded from the start, villagers can be accessed so the time limit for the reward can be worked around.  We'll start by sending Seth forward to suck up all the scary stuff that lurks in the fog. Eventually, that won't be viable anymore, so I'll milk it a bit here.  Everybody else moves up a bit behind him. Nobody here we can attack, anyway.  Vanessa greets one of the cavs that show up.  And Franz greets the other one.  Surprise! Eclipse guy somewhere in the fog!  Also, this guy has Physic! And he actually moves so he can actually make use of it! Man, the enemy gets a lot of toys here.  Vanessa gets ready to snipe the village and get back again lest there be some sort of archer hiding around there, and we spot the Eclipse guy. Also, while we're here: Flux: Rank E (formerly D). Range 1-2. Weight 8. Might 9 (+2). Hit 80. Crit 0. 50 uses. Eclipse: Rank C (formerly B). Range 3-10. Weight 20 (+8). Might N/A. Hit 55 (+25). Crit 0. 5 uses. Halves target's HP. Uncounterable. Cannot double. Jeez, that's a big hit buff for Eclipse, and Flux got a good bit stronger.  OK, now you're just being an rear end in a top hat, Eirika. 45% growth!  Colm was the only one with range to hit this cav, so I checked. Then I remembered he was Colm.  I moved Colm out to get some more sight radius. He then got attacked by a cav and then the Eclipse guy in that order. Which is good, because if the Eclipse guy hit and attacked first, he would've died. Oh well.  Vanessa gets the Orion's Bolt from the village, which means the reward changed.  Natasha heals Ross for 1 HP instead of healing Colm. Oh well.  She gets an acceptable level out of it.  Garcia makes sure we don't have to deal with this Physic guy any longer.  And Artur gets speedier in taking out that last cav.  The crew moves along after largely dealing with two knights. Seth is going to move forward and make sure the civilians are safe next turn.  And in doing so runs smack dab into some myrmidons. Oh well, those guys are dead now.  We then proceed to form a conga line along the bridges. Also, I sure hope that Vanessa doesn't die. This might've been a mistake.  Turns out she was fine, myrmidons did like 2 damage. But now the spider showed up.  I elect to scout out if there's another spider anywhere in lieu of attacking it, letting it attack on enemy phase.  I didn't even check the stats, but hey, it worked out fine.  We set up to meet this enemy group in battle, and... nothing happens. These random groups of enemies that just do not move sprinkled in really keep you on your toes.  Ross is kinda nuts, not gonna lie. Can't take a spell worth a lick, but that's about it.  Vanessa is speed.  I move Gilliam out a bit further, wondering if that's a mistake. He then gets attacked by a fighter, takes 4 damage, and kills with a crit in return. I think he'll be fine. Besides, he doesn't get attacked by a lot.  Another enemy phase later and we suddenly have a whole lot to deal with.  Lute gets a level in the dealing with it...  ...and by the end of the turn, it has been dealt with.  Eirika gives me a big scare on enemy phase, but there's nobody else there to attack her, so she's safe.  Colm moves up and we get to see the boss, protected by four non-moving knights with javelins.   Novala gets +10 HP, -1 MAG (wtf), +1 SKL, +3 SPD, -1 LCK (really?) and +4 DEF compared to his vanilla hard mode counterpart. Methinks somebody was frustrated by vanilla chapter 6 and couldn't give him straight buffs. See also: The fact that this map is actually easier than vanilla.  #BigBrainMove right here: Move Vanessa over into the fog, use a vulnerary so the line of sight updates, see a fighter I don't want her to face, and Canto to safety, letting Franz move in and deal with the fighter instead.  And get another level. Franz is apparently speed as well, not just Vanessa.  Natasha levels again while healing. Liking that magic growth.  The ring of forest tiles around the Boss Box is very handy, letting us hand axe and javelin the knights with relative impunity. The knights are on forests as well, but we have better hit rates in general.  After breaking the box, we let Artur take some stabs at the boss. Not great, but hey, he can't die without me really loving up. Maybe he can get some lucky crits. Basically everybody else gets really wrecked by Novala. But since he doesn't have a healing tile, slowly whittling him down is an option. I guess my statement about the boss not getting big buffs was a bit premature.  Artur levels in the whittling process.  And then I feed the kill to Eirika, loving daring her to not get strength again.  She obliges, and goes above and beyond by not getting anything else beyond HP. Great job, Eirika. I can't wait until I get to replace you with your far superior brother.  And that's the chapter! Fairly short this time, but hey, a short chapter 6 is a good chapter 6. Now, what's our reward?  Another Dragon Tear! Noice.  So, next time, Waterside Renvall, where there's a very surprising absence! See you then! TheMcD fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Mar 10, 2022 |
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2020 12:15
|
|
|
That Eclipse may tank your AS but 55 hit Eclipse sounds genuinely terrifying to deal with.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2020 14:14
|
|
|
The worst royal baby.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2020 14:22
|
|
|
I'm surprised you didn't give a Dragon Tear to either of the lords, almost exactly because of situations like Eirika's terrible luck with Str. The odds aren't much better, granted, but. I also feel like Eclipse got more of a buff then a nerf here, if only because it's a long-range tome anyways - you wouldn't want to use it in situations where its weight would be troublesome anyways.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 01:56
|
|
|
This Erica hurts me
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 09:23
|
|
|
Seraphic Neoman posted:This Erica hurts me For what, 2 HP?
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 09:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 16:12 |
|
|
NO DAMAG, actually.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 10:34
|
|