So while having my mind wander in a lot of FE mechanics, I was thinking hard about how would a legit physical 1-2 Sword be implemented in a hack, not knives/daggers but the actual traditional swords, same way as Javelins and Handaxes as the ‘basic’ 1-2 Range weapons of the triangle.
The only thing that I could think of was indeed the iconic ‘Whip Swords’ that we see sometimes in media, behave like a sword in close quarters but can extend itself in bladed segments for ranged attacks.
Now while this could work, obviously IF it were made it so that it behaves like “Lances/Javelins” animations, there would need to be a heap of new custom animations necessary, ones that would even need to be separate from the vanilla magic sword ones. That is what I was thinking so far, up until I got an epiphany: “What if we DON’T need to create custom anims, and can just improvise with magic sword ones?”
And so this is were I got this idea that would love to share it with you guys:
(Vanilla FE8 Female Swordmaster Frame)
Basically speaking, it would resemble the oldschool RPGs (mostly the ‘first person’ ones), where we just see the ‘swing’ animations of party member’s attacks (white slashes, vertical swings, etc): in this case, it would work as a Magic Animation were a white ‘whoosh’ swing would be show following the red line in the image example above, from the tip of the sword to the ground in a U shape, to simulate a whip swing.
Pretty great improvisation for a visual representation, compatible with all magic sword animations, and can make it so that it works just like Javelins mechanically speaking (normal animation melee, the animation above for ranged, plus they also have their own ‘indirect magic attack’ anyway), so that we could finally have a starter physical, basic 1-2 Sword without resorting to only Light Brands & the like.
This is only a design concept if anyone likes this idea and would be up to create it, because me myself I’m still a noob in hacking & animations lol. Plus I’m not sure if it is actually good for FE? Or if there is already animations and/or item icons that could already work? Why I made this post first, at least to know.
Cheers.
Oh by that I meant a very simple singular item icon that resembles a Whip Sword in it’s ‘segmented form’, since this is supposed to be a basic physical 1-2 weapon just like vanilla Javelins & Handaxes.
Basically the ‘first’ 1-2 Range sword before the player start getting Light Brands & the rest of magic ones.
My bad if it was not made it clear in the main post.
Ah, I see, I thought this was for a full 1-2 range physical swords.
Personally I don’t like physical 1-2 range swords since it makes them less unique but this is a good Idea for projects that want physical 1-2 range swords.
Speaking honest, I do consider that normal magical swords somewhat offer more interaction with the game mechanics than making them physical ranged tools as well (as they can sometimes interact with the Trinity of Magic) and can offer special case scenarios (targetting Res on high Def enemies, making use of Mag stats if there is a Str/Mag split, etc.)
On the subject of animations though, most hacks that I’ve seen employ physical ranged swords feature either the axe-throw animations (f.e. Boomerangs in OC Emblem) or use a magic animation as a quick substitute (f.e. Light).
Regardless, if you consider that you can make such a change work (which some hacks have made it work) and want an animation that ties into it, go for it.
While I agree with you, lots of hacks use Skillsystems, of which the latest version has a forced Str/Mag Split, so unless you would make the Light Brand/Wind Sword/Runesword a physical weapon, they would be worthless and won’t deal much damage since several of your Sword users would need to have an actual Magic base and growth to make use of them… which would be growths wasted on a stat they can only make use of with 3 weapons. And those who don’t have any good magic are screwed and can’t make any use of magic swords, so I think ranged physical swords are a good alternative.
I do think magic swords and generally magic weapons are cool, I just don’t think they are ever useful due to the lack of magic for physical units most of the time.
But within such games, it is somewhat frequent that some units end up being designed in a way that they could be the specific users for such magical weapons, as well as sometimes feature classes that are a mixture of both magic and physical weapons.
This way you can focus on who you want to make use of specific tools better - just like adding the Bolt Axe into a game: most of your axe users will hardly ever use it, with only one class being entirely designed around “magic” and axes (War Priest), (although the flying dark wyvern also comes to mind).
That is the thing of magical swords that is entirely on the hands of the hackmaker - they’re as useful as you want them to be, and by providing a Mag growth to certain characters that wouldn’t make use of them otherwise, you are leaning the player towards a specific playstyle, as well as giving them a niche (one that would be lost if ranged swords were purely physical).
