Hello members, I’m sure some of you have seen that I finally completed this project in Normal and Hard Mode; I’ll add a Lunatic mode but I’m not sure how I could do it well, so I would like to have some advice from you
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A while ago, there was a thread on what constitutes as a good Easy/Normal Mode; OP made their game with Hard Mode in mind, so they asked what the purpose of Normal Mode should be.
https://feuniverse.us/t/what-makes-a-good-easy-normal-mode/25317
I answered that ideally, Normal Mode should be used introduce areas where players can learn and exploit the mechanics. It should purposefully have wiggle room that can allow alternative strategies so that the players feel like they gamed the system, when in reality that was all intended. The issue then, arises, on how to build the walls of challenge on a standard foundation. Plenty of games, official and fanmade, not just in Fire Emblem, have the problem of simply raising stats and levels and calling it a day. Sometimes, this can backfire and cause unintended issues. For example, in FE6, Rutger starts off as an enemy, so his stats naturally increase, making him an invaluable asset in Hard Mode runs. Meanwhile in Pokémon Black and White 2, the way the experience formula worked meant that Challenge Mode was actually easier than Easy Mode; constantly facing foes of higher levels meant that you were far less likely to be underleveled unless you constantly swapped out Pokémon. Even if you have the stats perfectly tweaked, some people just aren’t interested in playing the game again, but with just a little extra tedium. Since you already made Hard Mode, I presume that you already have a good idea on what obstacles you want to place and what scenarios should exist that challenge the player. That being said, I would like to propose some ideas:
-Quantity is sometimes a quality all by itself. Have you considered alternative enemy formations? Switch things around. Maybe swap around a few classes and weapons if you feel like it.
-Provide alternative scenarios, not just harder scenarios. If you really want an incentive to attract people, don’t be afraid to create new situations or chapters FE8 is simply * chef’s kiss * when it comes to this. Ephraim Mode is considered by many to be harder than Eirika Mode, but you didn’t really know that when you first played. Instead, it just gave you two different routes that ultimately converge. At the same time, it also provided different perspectives into the story, which together form a relatively more complex understanding of the heroes and Lyon. Now, this can be a bit tricky, especially when it comes to FE6 reworks. Some people try to have Roy and co. go through Ilia and Sacae, and I can kind of see why. But instead of sweating bullets on trying to write together a whole new plot, why not just edit individual chapters at a time? Change up the geography or make it so that a character appears earlier. Make sure that Lunatic Mode is really an Arranged Mode that provides room for the players to put their skills to the test.
-Plot out your vision and stick to it. At the end of the day, not everyone will see eye to eye. Some people pick up FE8 and play one side and then never play it again. But often at times, games (especially fangames) tend to do worse if they try to appease to a fastidious audience that 90% of the time doesn’t understand how game design works. Focus on one thing that you want to experiment on, and then work from there.
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There’s no one right way to make a good lunatic mode! Many games have tried different things, and different techniques can result in differing success rates depending on the context of the game their in. I’ll mention some techniques I like:
- Changing Enemy Weapons: About two months ago I played a game of Path of Radiance where I inflated enemy growths by 30% (excluding HP, Def, and Res). In the beginning it was quite tough, but once I hit the mid-game it was barely harder than vanilla. Part of that reason is that enemy level doesn’t scale appropriately with the player, but another big component is that some enemies are still using iron weapons as late as chapter 19. Enemies in Fire Emblem seldom double you, so they become significantly more threating with more powerful, accurate weapons.
- Stat Inflation: Fire Emblem is undoubtably harder when enemies have better stats. While I would hazard against insane stat inflation like in Awakening Lunatic and Three Houses Maddening, some stat inflation (particulary in Attack and Skill) can make enemies more difficult to deal with, and force the player to execute more advanced strategies, lest they get overwhelmed on enemy phase. With that in mind: Be very careful with how you scale speed and bulk. Enemies that are dodgy, or take 3-4 rounds of combat to kill (
or Naga forbid both) are not fun to deal with. Speed in particular is a dangerous stat to buff, because if you raise to the point where a certain player unit can no longer double, that enemy has effectively doubled in bulk for that player unit. - Enemy Aggression/Formations: In Three Houses Maddening in most chapters, enemies are typically “grouped” in contingents of about three or so adjacent enemies, whose ranges do not overlap. When you bait one enemy, the rest of the group follows, but that hardly matters, since you can bait them one at a time, then gang up on them the following turn. For someone who is starting out with Fire Emblem, this can still be enjoyable. If you like lunatic difficulties, this is extremely boring, slow, and tedious. Rearranging enemies so their ranges overlap can make them way more threating without needing to alter anything else. Furthermore, large groups of aggressive, strong enemies can render “bait and switch” non-viable, as there are simply too many strong enemies to just sit around and kill one at a time. A good example for this IMO is Chapter 1 of FE12 on Lunatic. There are 7 aggressive enemies, all with silver weapons, that in all likelihood two-shot your entire team (and dodging them is more-or-less out of the question, since FE12 enemies get a 10 point hit boost). You cannot slowly take them out, you have to fight them proactively. However, for an easier difficulty, you can lower their numbers, spread out the enemies more, or remove their group AI.
- Removing Easy/Cheese Options: In FE12, all difficulties below Lunatic give you a warp staff in Chapter 14. DSFE warp is very broken, as it has no maximum range. However, on Lunatic, the warp staff is replaced by a fortify staff. Also, in FE14 Conquest Chapter 26, enemy status staff users are given a skill that lets them use staves without expending uses, so that you cannot wait out statuses. These changes can be controversial, as they remove legitimate means for players to engage with the game, but if you want to force your players to engage with your maps’ challenges on it’s highest difficulty (as I do for my hack) consider this a possibility.
- Unique Ideas/Miscellaneous: There are plenty of other things you could also try! You could increase the tightness of your economy by reducing certain monetary rewards. You can give enemies infinite status staff or siege weapon durability to encourage/force the player to take forward positions and take out key targets instead of waiting out their effects. You can make reinforcements spawn earlier, with greater numbers, or in more threating classes.
As I said at the top, there is no one right way to make a Lunatic mode. Consider what you want it to have, pick what you like, and playtest it and make sure it’s fun!
Happy Hacking!
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add cool items and switch up the classes for the enemies
don’t copy fe12
that’s it
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