FE8 Mad Mode

Update as of 08/21/2017: Updated to 2.4.

Here’s a project I’ve been working on as of late. It’s a rebalance/mod hack of FE8 where the intent is to make the game a wee bit more challenging while retaining the same old FE8 goodness. Seth is still very good but is no longer broken, monsters are actually a threat, and most everyone is useable with clear advantages and disadvantages.

Versions 2.0 onward incorporate circles’ Skills System and is now built with buildfiles.

Link to the latest version (v2.4) is here.

Changelog and the detailed changes spreadsheet are included in the file.

Some screenshots:

http://imgur.com/jdYtoxK.png

http://imgur.com/02bnPjG.png

http://imgur.com/zFaoUFK.png

http://imgur.com/T7z8trX.png

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Could you make the readme a google doc or something? I cant read it because its a windows office file and I don’t have a subscription, unless there is some obvious alternative way to read it I’m missing.

I believe you can view the file by uploading it to google drive.

Updated to v2.1, see OP for link.

Played on v2.1 up to chapter 7 so far.

While Seth is still helpful, he cannot be solely relied on like before. Nerfing his exp growth especially (or is it just the exp from bosses nerfed?) was a good choice. Regardless, you’ve done well with Seth.

The increase in prices for weapons works so far for the unlimited weapon use. I’ll try and keep an eye on its balance in the future.

Haven’t had any issues with units spawning in with high stats with large stat penalties yet like some others have mentioned.

Bugs encountered:

-Heal staff displayed as range of 2, but prompt does not appear at range of 2
-Seth’s skill may either not be working or be taking his own hp into account, as in the prologue chapter he was not receiving the attack bonus against full hp brigands (could have added wrong.)
-Bronze weapons (at the very least the bronze lance) seem to nullify crits from both parties in a fight, not sure if this is intentional.
-Vanessa’s rescuing without penalties skill doesn’t work, as she still gets penalties.
-When rescuing, if you try and see the description of things in the unit’s menu (like stats) the text is all garbled. Hardly a big deal however.

If you’d like me to test/reaffirm, or provide screenshots/saves displaying any issues, feel free to let me know. Will try and help where I can. Having fun with it so far.

Will be fixed for v2.2.

Yeah not so sure on if it works perfectly blame circles and friends :wink:

Any screenshots should be nice!

The savior bug was my fault (again) and the github version of the skill system should have it fixed by now

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Thank you, that’s one thing down for v2.2.

Ruin seems busted

Staff exp seems a little too much. Maybe halfway between vanilla and this? Had a level 20 moulder before the route split.

Had a few crashes on chapter 7 but resetting and resuming solved each one with no progress loss, so no biggie.

In the middle of Ephraim’s first chapter, will update when I encounter more bugs or have more comments about balance.

Update: When Duessel is recruited, he retains 0 mov, making it… rather difficult to recruit Cormag.

On a seperate note, why did you decide to go with the name ‘mad mode’ out of curiosity?

Ruin’s just a killer tome in this, the “Negates enemy resistance” text is just a remnant from Luna. If you add +2 to Seth’s resistance from his Chivalry skill, you’ll see that the math checks out.

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Fixed up the issues @Cryse brought up for v2.3. Please see the OP.

Continued into chapter 17 now that the stat issue is cleared, and ran into a new bug. Two of the player’s units start in the northwestern mountain, on same tiles as two enemy fliers.

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May be unable to continue playing and testing the hack for a few weeks, so I’ll address all the notes and bugs I’ve saved up until now.

-First of all, assuming it was intentional, making Gheb immune to ranged damage was a smart move. Actually having to fight him with colossus was pretty scary, and made for a good boss.

-In Ephraim’s chapter where he recruits Duessel, the boss Beran has no incentive to be killed as he does not drop anything. While killing him might end the chapter early (can’t remember), perhaps an item would do well as an additional draw to not turtle and encourage risk vs reward.

-Duessel appears to still be unable to move, granted this is from a save from v2.21, though resetting the chapter should’ve updated him no?

Regardless I’ve attempted to band-aid fix it on my end to no avail. As his movement is non-existent, any action replay/codebreaker (etc) codes cannot apply a bonus to his movement. I also tried fiddling around in both the chapter and unit/class modules in nightmare, but couldn’t find anything pertaining to the mov stat.

If there is nothing I can do and it is fixed in the new version, then let me know and I’ll speed back through the game best as I can to this spot.

-An odd bug from v2.1 that I never got around to submitting, was that Ross could use Reginleif and doing so would grant him a lance rank.

As another side note, if possible I’d be curious to know what your exact goals with the hack are? I assume it’s to provide a more balanced/updated version of sacred stones. I just want to make sure I have an accurate idea so that any feedback I provide is relevant to you.

@Lurker245 Fixed as of v 2.31.

@Cryse The Duessel move bug should now be fixed. Reset your save.

v2.4 released.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/l4lmaaokag4rmqt/FE8MMv2.4.zip

Had some time recently to progress a bit in this. A few notes/bugs. All from v2.4

-Expertise (Duessel’s skill) doesn’t work. Tested a few times and he still takes full crit damage.

-In the chapter ‘Turning Traitor’ while the slaying weapons from the cavalier near the boss offer some incentive to try and fight the boss rather than surviving the chapter, I think an addition of a droppable stat increase item would work well. As it stands it’s much easier to try and survive, and the slayer weapons themselves aren’t enough of a draw, at least in my opinion.

-Is the Shamshir not having any drawbacks intentional? I feel like it’s a little overpowered since there is no stat drop. Makes the killing edge worthless.

-While I haven’t gotten to recruit Innes yet, in the changelog I see he’s been given Galeforce. Sounds overly strong compared to other personal skills like Lute’s for example, which is essentially useless.

-In ‘Fluorspar’s Oath’ there are two Lance Cavaliers that have only swords, and cannot attack because of this.

I like how the monsters have skills now, and am very glad you removed the fog on ‘Phantom Ship’ as it would’ve been extremely difficult without it. The hack causes the difficulty to bump up closer to the other FE games which I really appreciate, I found myself having to think a lot more during chapters which I enjoyed greatly.

While it is not a big deal once you learn by trying the weapons, it’d be nice if any other effects the weapon gives was listed in the description (-3 to def and res for example).

Also some personal opinions, it would be nice to have the staff animations removed so you could still see staff unit’s combat animations, and if a boss character doesn’t move it’d be handy to have it reflected in their movement. Just small QOL changes that I would like to see, though I could understand if such things were not your priority with this hack.

—Update

-Hit values for some weapons don’t seem to be displaying correctly https://imgur.com/a/PnBAn

-After killing one enemy, Myrrh’s level value glitches out https://imgur.com/Dur2MmI

-Vigarde, Caellach, and Valtar are pretty easy to cheese/farm due to them having weapons that are 2 range exclusive.

-Could just be me, but Amelia seems to gain more exp than she should as a halberdier

-Due to changed stats or promotion gains, Marisa has 11 con as a swordmaster while Joshua has 10, which if anything should be the reverse, or at least equal.

-Amelia’s Halberdier palette could benefit from a slightly darker yellow. At the very least as it is now, something about the colors look a little off.

I also noticed the bug with Myrrh, though I can confirm that she still gains exp and levels as normal, and the UI eventually unfucks itself after a few levels but then refucks itself after several more.

Also noted another bug: if you don’t get Eirika/Ephraim to Lv. 10 before the route split then whichever one you don’t choose misses out on their Lv. 10 skill, or at least Ephraim does.

Nice…I’m going to download this patch right now, cool.

That bug with duessel having 0 MOV. Could you elaborate on how that was fixed? I’m not very savvy with modding, and have somehow found myself with the same bug at some point in modding the game.

As for the mod itself I’ll give your mod a play through. I’ll give some feedback in time.