These are for tileset palette makers, specifically. I see a lot of palette mess-ups since a lot of people don’t know how the colors are really related. GBAFE (especially FE8) likes to muddy the palettes up by switching around shades. I’m going to start posting what I believe to be the true ordering of different palettes, so that future palette makers aren’t completely lost and have something to go by.
These aren’t 100%, and colors may be shifted around depending on the shade used. Templates are going to be based on their most original source for the most accuracy, usually either FE5 or FE6. The point is to show ordering and shade relations, not necessarily to show what colors need to be adhered by. I do generally suggest looking at the differences between each shade in these example palettes, just to get a feel for how the shades are ramped in relation to each other.
All of these go in order from darkest being 1 and lightest shade being the highest number. Letters correspond to different areas of shading (which usually shouldn’t be mixed unless in certain circumstances). I give some tips after each palette as to generally how they should be approached.
Grass palette setup (palette 2 on vanilla fields tileset). This palette is the exact same for any tileset that uses grass. For grass, usually the “a” shades are the main grass colors, with b shades being more red/brownish and not used as often. Make sure the “neutral” non-alphabetic shades are a decent blend of a and b. Especially shade 6. That one in particular can make or break a grass palette all on its own.
Water/cliff palette (palette 1 in vanilla fields tileset). Again, exact same for any tileset that uses water or cliffs (with few exceptions). The way GBAFE sprites their cliffs may render some of the grass and cliff colors a bit of a mess. Try to blend them in a little when making palettes. Overall, I highly recommend going low contrast on water and cliff colors, since this is where GBAFE definitely shows its low-contrast based textures. I believe that 5c may end up being the fifth dark grass shade below 1b in GBA tilesets (leaving 4 shades behind for cliffs), but I’m not sure. Use your own judgment to see what works.
Dirt palette (palette 3 in vanilla fields tileset). This palette only works for dirt palettes that are mixed with water. Used primarily for paths, roads, and sand tiles. 1a seems deceptively like a water color, but it’s only used for cliff outlines and waterfalls. My suggestion for this one is to blend 1a in with the water colors, but enough so it still fits with the cliffs.
Building palette (palette 0 in vanilla fields tileset). This will be the same for every single building palette, no matter the tileset. It’s quite a mess. 6a and 2b are the same, as well as 8a and 4b. It’s a palette you’re going to have to finagle with a bit to get it to look good. My suggestion for grass colors are to leave a large amount of contrast between the two.
And finally, the mountain palette (palette 4 in fields tileset). The exact same in all tilesets with mountains. Pretty straightforward. 7b is only used in the snags, nowhere in the mountains themselves. Ignore that shade, for the most part. 1c is only used in the downed snag for the water. Overall, my suggestion is to keep the two (or 3 in FE5) darkest mountain shades close to each other rather than having the texture on the far side of the mountains stick out.