It is patchday again - link in the OP - and a seriously big one this time. This is the major Act 1 and 2 restructure. Dealing with issues such as:
- redesigning C4 and C5 to no longer be such a hump for some players
- alleviating earlygame crit avoid and accuracy issues
- reshaping the economy around a functional prep store that doesn’t just sell overpriced irons
On an FEUcord stream, Bpat basically suggested slightly increasing every weapon’s hit and every unit’s luck and, well, that’s basically what I’ve ended up doing. Special thanks also due to Alex, Xilirite and Rivian, for influential recent test playthroughs. This hack would not be what it is without the insight of fresh eyes.
This is a slightly experimental patch, and while in theory nothing should break… well, that’s the theory. I haven’t been able to stress-test it from the ground up the same way I have with previous patches, so although I’ve checked some things, I can’t quite guarantee it will play flawlessly from point A to point B.
When you’re using the same cheated file to warp around the ROM testing things, it can get a little weird.
Unfortunately, there is a serious bug in the prior patch. Which is to say, that despite two installed patches, it seems like the game really just doesn’t want to handle HP above 63 and overflows past that point. I had tested units with 80 HP. I had not set them to have that HP, saved, restarted and reloaded, and that’s apparently where the issues started. Well, the test file’s Roxelana had 64 HP, which overflowed precisely to 0, so upon taking a move she simply blinked out of existence.
Which is bad.
I’ve left the patches in just in case they’re working for other people, rebalanced the units that cap-rammed HP in the past and reverted class HP caps to 60. Now, on average, units only start to exceed 60 HP at Act 3 levels. Even my Roxelana had been given an Angelic Robe. If you don’t have a unit with >60 (probably >63) HP in the current patch, you’re fine. But just in case this has happened to you, and if this error happens, uh… it looks like the only way to get it to behave is to basically open the debugger through FEBuilder and manually reduce the unit’s max HP to 60… or to never restart a chapter and just use savestates. They’re both pretty unpalatable solutions, and hopefully nobody has to use them. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Necessity is the mother of invention, though. Units were becoming problematically chunky, and the fact that a lot of units hit 60 HP long before 20/20 - when it looks like a more usual endgame level is probably around 15/15 (units by the end of C14 are at around 15/6-10) - is a handy way to discourage lowmanning. Most units fell within the 55-70 range by 20/20, and that isn’t looking like what endgame levels will be at this point.
Oh, and I’ve changed the rating from 13+ to 15+. Probably out of an overabundance of caution, but the increasing theme of prejudice throughout Act 2 likely nudged it into that territory. I don’t think any of it’s particularly out of place for the IP - there’s actual genocide in four of the vanilla games! - but still.
Work on Act 3 continues, but I’ve started to feel a degree of burnout, so I’ll probably take it easy for a bit. A March release is still looking pretty likely, I just think I need to refresh my ideas a bit. Oh, and if you’re tier-list-inclined, I threw this together. Obviously, full spoilers both in that and in the patchnotes below.
v. 0.7 Patchnotes
Item Rework
Not exhaustive, rather a summary of the key changes.
- Iron, Slim, Silver weapons gain +5 Hit
- Steel weapons gain +10 Hit
- Throwing weapons gain +15 Hit, +3 Wt
- Various weight adjustments
- Rewrote and normalised effective weapon stats (mostly increased)
- Fixed oversight where Slim and Steel weapons were not universally E-rank
- Seraph Knight now gives D-rank swords on promotion
- Prep armory now sells Steel and Throwing weapons (+ Luna, Ash Recurve, Mend)
- Map store inventory overhauled
- Changed Sharp Fang’s description to specify that it pierces defence
This isn’t an exhaustive list of changes, but in general hit rates were made better and internal logic made more consistent. E-rank is now more of a hole to be dug out of. Steel weapons were not highly valued by many playtesters largely owing to accuracy issues and the competition provided by improved slim weapons, so have been buffed a little more. Throwing weapons were made more accurate because they’re not good weapons in DoW; they aren’t mulching five enemies on EP, they’re there because your melee unit is two tiles away, so it just feels bad if the desperation move mises.
Chapter Changes
Act 1 General:
- Legionaries (6 → 3), Ecorcheurs (8 → 5) and Insurgents (2 → 1) have luck reduced.
- Fixed issue where the Prologue, C1 and C4 didn’t actually activate Flag 3, meaning their turncounts weren’t logged in the record
If you wanted a developer par time like old FPSes used to have, here you go. But apparently it doesn’t track chapters unless you have the flag in.
Prologue:
- Deserter 89 (Jaro’s ironclads and pirate) gain +2 luck
The guardsmen had a crit chance on Jaro’s pirate, leading to an occasional issue where they would kill him and not allow him to destroy the southeastern village, which doesn’t actually have a provision to be visited (or allow him to fulfil his main purpose, acting as a source of time pressure). This fixes that.
3: Chevauchee
- Central armour/monk squad AI changed from ‘attack if in 2 moves’ to ‘attack in range’
- One armour now has and drops a hammer
- Gisela no longer has a halberd (still has a longsword)
In the previous version of C3, if the player committed to a full central push, the central squad of enemies would jump on them at basically the same time as about four swordsmen. It was manageable, but felt punitive, especially in a hack that generally and deliberately rewards bold directness. Giving them more conservative AI should break up the one real stumbling block of the chapter. One guy dropping a hammer reduces early reliance on the hanger to deal with armour, especially pertinent in the next chapter.
4: The Cause
- Reinforcement waves staggered; fewer, larger waves, fewer units overall
- Recovery mode removed from all units
- Thief AI (not sappers) changed to Move Only
- New break point added to guardhouses
- Replaced sapper thief venin swords with iron swords
- Broken wall HP lowered to 15
- Shading errors fixed
- Nei now only has a ridersbane, which he now drops
- Turn ticker now displays correct count
C4 is an odd chapter. It’s more than manageable if you hold the line at the chokepoints and strike out to kill enemy ranged units, but the way reinforcements arrived made this unintuitive to many players. The point was made to me by Xilirite that the reinforcements not being staggered meant that openings not only had to push through the front lines, but to account for those following in behind.
The presence of a throne also lead to erratic enemy and NPC behaviour. In particular, Ramond’s tendency to retreat after taking a couple of hits was a source of frustration rather than the intended respite. Additionally, changing the thief AI to Move Only should stop them prioritising stealing vulneraries over acting predictably.
Nei was a little overtuned, and now he has a weapon that’s weaker against you but should help in the player’s hands. Breaks sometimes taking multiple strikes or stronger weapons wasn’t really interesting, and adding one more to the guardhouses helps avoid a situation where you’re locked in. The venin swords were mostly just annoying.
5: Gloom of Night
- Added trees to cut off the northern path through the forest
- Changed Guard force; replaced 2/4 bowmen with melee units
- Sidegraded two skeleton archers to ash recurves
- Added reminder text to use the torch staff
C5 had two priority areas: reducing the exclusion zones for fliers, and funnelling players towards the safety of the road. These changes will hopefully accomplish this.
6: Show of Strength
- Changed Carmilla’s initial reaver from hand axe to steel axe
The foolproof method of blocking off the villages is to have a guy wait in front of a sentinel that can’t kill them on enemy phase, since they can only be engaged in melee from one tile. One of Carmilla’s goons had a hand axe, though, meaning he could thoroughly fuck that planning up, particularly given the very swingy nature of his low-accuracy doubling.
7: Plain of Scales
- Reduced Debreszen’s luck and speed
Rivian pointed out that the generics had a hard time reliably scratching the boss they were meant to swarm. They were right. It should be easier, now.
8: Full Circle
Again based on a suggestion of Rivian’s. There wasn’t really a point to the penultimate rooms being blocked off from each other - it’s just busy work in getting your rogue across - so the hallway between them has been opened up.
10: Ill-Met by Moonlight
- Adjusted starting position of first squad
- Added line on PP1 to clarify their AI
C10 was problematically signposted, with at least a couple of players torn between pushing through the centre and splitting off down the right, which you don’t have the manpower for. This should add clarity; going the direct route to Dzeneta is like punching through Fargus’ elite pirates. Except that they have good stats, but a vulnerable underbelly.
I was thinking of adding more meat to the reinforcements when they do arrive, but ultimately forgot to do so before pushing out the patch. Oops!
Unit Changes
General
- Establishes cap of 60 HP on all classes
For reasons above. The patches weren’t working, but I think deflating the amount of blood in every unit is a good thing anyway.
Roxelana
Roxelana was aimed to be a straightforwardly good unit, where even a below-par version was worth a slot. Kept in check by mediocre speed, a lack of reliable 1-2 range and terrible resistance, but has pretty much everything else you can ask for. A couple more slaying weapons seeded into Act 1 should alleviate overreliance on the Hanger.
Pavel
People seem to find Pavel easy and satisfying to train up. The intent behind Pavel is that you either put the effort into him early and get a fairly good combatant when a thief is required, or you get credible alternative thieves towards the turn of Act 1 who are below-par fighters that can still hold their own.
Felice
Felice seems like she’s in a good place. People who use her have liked her, and she’s useful in the short-term, too.
Radu
- +1 Speed, Luck, Defence
- +5% Lck growth
Radu gives reliable results and stays strong throughout the game, though his mediocre initial speed tails off badly. I’m aware that +5% Luck growth is a laughably meaningless rebalance, but hey.
Petras
- +1 Lck, +10% Lck growth
- +5% Spd growth
Renate
Petras vs. Renate is a question that not even I know the answer to, but by lategame levels he was just so, so far outpaced. This should help close the gap. I’m very happy with where the ironclads are, and most playtesters I’ve seen have used one or the other long-term.
Hesterine
With everyone else getting a luck boost, Hesterine - whose stat profile is partly built around notably high luck - gets a push. I’ve heard her described as underwhelming, but I’m not particularly afraid of a horseman needing to be dug out of a hole.
Jaro
- -20% HP growth
- +10% Luck growth
Jaro’s HP was comically high, which was kind of the point of his lategame profile, so he’s obviously hit hard by the HP cap reassertion. But his lategame luck was abysmal. With the recent buffs, he’s basically in the niche of being an earlygame powerhouse, which was always the aim anyway.
Kadri
Sander
Helje
Are you getting as tired of reading ‘+2 Luck’ as I am of writing it? Again, units who were defined by high luck already needing some space to differentiate themselves from the pack - and given their reliance on avoid, were nerfed by the hit buffs anyway. It seems like people are pretty happy with all three units so far. Kadri’s short-term use is obvious but she’s rewarding in the long-term as well, I’ve seen Sander called both flagrantly overpowered and flagrantly underpowered, while Helje… is Vanessa, either going to be exceptional or deeply undercooked depending on how much the individual player uses flier utility.
Goran
- -20% HP growth
- +2 Luck
- +5% Str/Spd/Lck growth
As far as I’m aware, nobody has ever trained Goran. I’m at peace with this.
Kirsten
As the only marksman with speed worth a damn, but still with more than good enough strength and skill, I think it’s kind of just inevitable that she ends up the strongest if trained. I’m not concerned by it, though.
Alarik
Alarik’s base luck was absolutely putrid. It’s a deliberate weakness of his, sure, but he floated well below the baseline. Otherwise, he serves his purpose well.
Chasimir
Another unit with scandalously low luck before. Now it’s merely bad, which is fine; he shouldn’t be taking many (physical) hits, anyway.
Laszlo
- +1 Lv, +2 HP, +1 Str/Spd/Lck/Def
- -15% HP growth
- New Prf, Harpoon (45 uses, 7 Mt, 90 Hit, 8 Wt, 1-2 range)
- Can actually be promoted now
It says a lot that nobody noticed that Laszlo was bugged not to be promotable, including me. No matter how you shake it, Laszlo is not going to be a good unit while staying true to his philosophy, and that’s just fine by me. But there’s a lot of wiggle room to make him more usable, as well as to more effectively contribute on his opening chapter for those that don’t ever deploy him again.
I don’t generally use units like Laszlo, but a big exception is Ross, and a significant reason why Ross doesn’t make me want to claw my eyes out is the existence of the hatchet. Hand axes are great in FE8; javelins are godawful in DoW. This change means Laszlo can make far more meaningful contributions on arrival, even if he’s still destined for the bench if you don’t take a shine to him.
Kestut
Kestut is no Laszlo, and has been working basically as intended since first release.
Saszkia
FE7rebalance.txt
Elisenda
Wasn’t bad from the off, but preserves stat profile relative to Chasimir, the obvious competition.
Ochulo
- -20% HP growth
- Evil Eye received +2 Might, +10 Hit
- Crimson Eye received +10 Hit
- Catalyst promotion buffed by +2 Con (total of +3 for 7 Con)
- Fixed an oversight where his movement was crippled in C9: Bleak Seasons
The one guy who has ever used Ochulo to my knowledge reported that he felt underwhelming even when trained up. He deliberately isn’t exactly a worldbeater, but there’s still meant to be some degree of payoff, largely through his unique utility (being a flying mage, having what is basically FE7 Luna).
I am not afraid of Ochulo ever becoming a unit that dominates the meta, but I don’t want him to be, you know, above mediocre. He’s effectively Elisenda’s freebie. That said, for a lasting buff, may as well boost what are effectively his Prfs.
Last patch, I forgot to knock down Catalyst movement from 5 to 6. Upon reflection, the fact that he can’t use staves, unlike almost all other magi - along with the fact you basically need to glue Defiance to him - means he may as well lean into the niche of being mobile.
The familiars on C4: Gloom of Night have been reduced by a level to counterbalance the weapon buffs; those on C9: Bleak Seasons reduced by two.
Andrea
Their luck has literally doubled to still be among the worst in the game. Luck is just, unfortunately, kind of one of those numbers where you need a baseline of just to function, so characterisation had to take a nap.
Tiimo
- -20% HP growth
- +1 Str
- +2 Spd
- Axe rank reduced from B to C
He’s just a little guy. It’s his birthday. Also his weapon rank was higher than it was meant to be for some reason.
Karolas
- +1 Lv, +1 Str/Skl/Spd/Def/Res
It’s always a really hard balance between ‘this unit is pointless on arrival’ and ‘this unit invalidates the unit of the same type I already trained’. Karolas was functional on join, and for a bit after that, but lacked a real pull to ever deploy after that. He’s slightly too prominent in-story to just be relegated to backup material. A gentle boost to bases should help.
Clio
- -25% HP growth
- +5% Str/Def growth
A gentle nerf to a stat she easily blazed past 60 on anyway, slight boosts to her other strong points. Clio was obscenely strong back when the XP formula was inadvertently still in the game, and has been hamstrung significantly by the XP formula, uh, ‘functioning’. I think she’s in a good place now.
Deadeye
Deadeye slots in nicely on arrival as-is. This just future-proofs his Luck a bit.
Catsidhe
- Manakete reclassified to promoted class
Cat’s the hardest character to know how well she’s balanced, there isn’t really an easy or obvious frame of reference for her, but in the current patch she was levelling up insanely fast. Without much care, mine was level 9 by the end of her join chapter. I’ve decided to leave the relative power at 2 for now, but making it a promoted class should slow her ascent down.