Time for a progress update:
I’m going to get this out of the way: I’m not going to participate in FEE3. I don’t feel confident enough submitting this project in it’s current state. I’d rather take my time and do all the needed polishing than rush this out just so that I have something to submit.
As for the balancing I mentioned I was going to do, it’s going well but is more time-consuming than I first expected. This has to do with some additional changes I’m making. Not only have I decreased the enemy levels, but also increased the hit rate of most weapons by roughly 20. Now this might seem like a small thing at first, but when I started playtesting the reality of it hit me in the face: some of my maps were borderline unbeatable without some RNG abuse. I felt like I had exposed myself, but on the other hand it was a good way to discover some problems in my maps. As such I’ve been reworking them in order to make them beatable without having to rely on manipulating RNG, and this has been the time-consuming part for me. For this reason new content has been on the back burner for the time being.
I’ve also considered adding more characters. My initial plan was to have a smaller roster and enough deployment slots so that you don’t need to bench characters, especially early on. However, the drawbacks of this approach have become more apparent to me. First of all, if someone decides not to reset after a unit dies, they’re forced to tackle the upcoming maps with fewer units. If you lose unit(s) early on, things are not going to get any easier in the long run. While you get more units throughout this hack, getting to that point where you get more units becomes harder, perhaps even unnecessarily so. This can be rather discouraging for the player.
Another reason for this idea would be that even some of the more harder hacks do provide replacements. I don’t think there are that many in this hack in it’s current iteration. More characters also means that should someone replay this hack, they can try out different characters.
Lastly, there are some class changes for existing characters I’ve been experimenting with, namely Seiris as a female fighter. I wanted a female axe user, and since the hero class was the first thing I could think of, I made Seiris a mercenary. It wasn’t until a short while ago that I realised she could very well be a fighter instead. You see, not only would she have axess - pardon the pun - to axes right off the bat, she would still have hero as a promotion option. I see this as an absolute win.
I think that’s all for now. If you’ve got thoughts and opinions on anything I mentioned, feel free to comment.
TL;DR: I won’t be attending FEE3. I have increased the hit rates for most weapons and now I need to rework my maps to be more fair. I’m thinking of adding more characters in order to add variety as well as a safety net. I’m also considering changing Seiris from a mercenary to a fighter.