What do you want out of an original ROM hack?

[Sme]

@Aegius

What are you sick of seeing in hacks?

1. People using skills for the sake of using skills, as if the more skills you put in your hack the better it is. The issue is compounded by the fact that someone that thinks to give the player as many skills as possible is a great idea does not adequately understand how to balance their game, so you end up with a horribly unbalanced end product as the creator has given out skills effectively at random.

2. The idea that the bigger a map is, the better; a lot of hacks have unnecessarily large maps, which lead to slow and unfun gameplay as well as effectively revoking the viability of any classes with a low move stat. It is both easier to create and more fun to play a map that accomplishes the same thing the large map set out to do but on a map 1/4 the size (unless you’re a masochist and/or think FE4 is a well-designed game); it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it’s not frustrating or tedious to play through.

3. Difficulty options that cater to the hack creator’s preferences and not to a general audience’s preferences. Too many hacks have Normal modes that play like Lunatic modes; not to say you shouldn’t have that difficulty option, but it shouldn’t be the lowest difficulty option offered. All that only having high difficulty does for you, in the long run, is potentially turn off more people of a general Fire Emblem audience from your hack.

@Aegius

What do you wish there was more of?

Short, self-contained hacks that accomplish what they set out to accomplish in a handful of chapters. So many hacks want to be sprawling epics across 30+ chapters, but not only is that a ridiculous amount of work to implement that will take you years to accomplish, but you’ll also inevitably have great inconsistencies in quality from the beginning of the project to the end, should you reach the end. So many hacks die before they’re finished because the finish line is set so far away from the starting line. Give yourself realistic goals, tell a smaller story in a shorter amount of gameplay, don’t commit to a 4-year project right off the bat that you may not even be a fan of yourself by the time you’re a year in but feel obligated to finish. This is how we get so many dead projects, just be realistic with your goals and make shorter hacks.

@Aegius

Do you see any trending weak-points throughout multiple hacks?

See answer to question 1.

@Aegius

What has your favorite hack been?

Recently, Fire Emblem: Vision Quest; it has the tightest gameplay I’ve experienced in a long time, it avoids the issues mentioned in response to question 1, all-around a solid experience.

@Aegius

Would you be interested in a hack that directly ties into FE lore, but doesn’t directly contain characters/locations from the series thus far?

Unsure of what this question means; technically every hack that uses Fire Emblem mechanics and would be doing this? Are there even any hacks that wouldn’t be considered as this?

@Aegius

In what order do you value the following aspects:

1. Writing/dialogue
2. Overall narrative
3. Character intrigue
4. Map/level design
5. Combat and combat balance/progression
6. Gameplay (think of this as a combination of map design and combat/combat balance, how satisfying the game is to play in a minute-to-minute sense)
7. Animations

1. Gameplay - This is one of the primary things that keeps the player playing your game. If your gameplay is bad, even if your story is amazing, they’re not going to subject themselves to it when they could just go and play another game. Keep in mind the story is entirely skippable, so it’s possible to play your game experiencing only the gameplay.
2. Overall narrative - This is slightly less important than gameplay, as it is ostensibly entirely skippable, but is also the main thing that provides context driving you to continue with the gameplay. Ideally, these two are intrinsically intertwined and work to serve the purpose of improving the other.
3. Map/level design - Tertiary to the above, good level design is a necessity to the gameplay and when done correctly a boon to the story. If your level design is bad, your gameplay is bad; if it doesn’t integrate well with the story, it weakens your story.
4. Writing/dialogue - If this is not done well, your narrative cannot be conveyed effectively. As such, it is very important to making sure your story is expressed to the player.
5. Combat and combat balance/progression - If combat is bad or unfun, the gameplay will suffer. Although this cannot directly affect the story as map design may, it definitely does impact the gameplay and is as such still important.
6. Character intrigue - This is something that should not need to be a focus if your dialogue and writing are quality and your overall narrative is well-designed; character intrigue should come naturally from a combination of the two. If this is poor, it is just a symptom of the other two being poor.
7. Animations - While interesting to look at, animations are ostensibly optional, as they can be turned off at any time, and are not a necessity to gameplay or storytelling. Even still, bad or ugly animations or battle palettes still detract from the overall experience.

Side note,

@Aegius

I recently began working on a new hack for the FE7

As based on the questions you have asked your hack is not just a slight edit of FE7, you would probably be better off building it from FE8, as it has considerably more research, documentation, and support compared to FE7. Either way, I’m interested to see what you come up with.