What kind of hack Ideas do you have?

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Given that some of us in the community have little to no experience in actually making a hack. I’ve always wondered what ideas have been floating around in the heads of us non-hack makers. So much like my weapon ideas thread I’ve chosen to ask this very question now.

As before I’ve got at least one semi decent idea for a hack but no idea in the slightest on actually creating characters, writing a story, making maps, balancing units, writting supports or anything of the like.

Seeing as many different hacks have experimented with new monster types and even had new strains of monsters such as Sun God’s Wrath with its Treants and Sacred Trilogy with its new Lichen a few hacks using haunted/spirit weapons even the angel and succubi why has no one thought of making a hack where the players army is comprised completely of monster units?

Even the idea of player monster units has been toyed with a few times, Project Kenko had Bob and Ivan a bonewalker and Revenant that promote into a zombified halberdier and ranger respectively and Storge has that one demon guy who’s name escapes me as well as a possessed sword and a shaman with a pet bael and Call of the Armor has a recruitable gorgon and another monster unit i can’t remember right now. So i ask, why has nobody had these ideas before?

I even have some solutions to issues like using mimics as thieves and, depending on how the story is written, recruiting new units from either the faced units/boss of the previous map as a zombie.

Anyway, what kind of hack’s have some of you wanted to see but don’t have the ability to make?

Edit: as with my weapon ideas thread i hope some of the ideas shared here can give inspiration to the more able hack makers who want to make a project but can’t think of a good core idea to work with.

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Randomized maps / encounters

I think there’s a lot of potential here, but I haven’t had the chance to try anything with it.

Pick starting party theme (eg. Mage-heavy, Def-heavy, Long-range focused, etc.)
Encounter enemies
Defeat them, Get loot
Pick new recruitable from 3 options
Pick relic that boosts an aspect of all your units
Or pick a strong recruitable
& proceed to next battle, scaled up to be slightly stronger
& have a boss battle at the end, as one of X possible bosses

Idk just an idea

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This is a rejected idea, if you don’t mind.
The enemies all have a Portrait and a name.
In other words, not every unit is a mob nameless soldier.
They will all be randomly assigned a name and face.

// You can also say that units that you haven’t made ally with will appear as enemies.

And if you weaken the enemy, you can brainwash and make it ally.
If there are people you want, weaken them, capture them, brainwash them, and add them to your party.

If you don’t want any of the units you’ve recruited, you can sacrifice them to the evil god for gold and other valuable items.
The evil god will make random requests, such as wanting to eat a warrior or a priest, and you will get bonuses for fulfilling those requests.

Dismissed units (those that have been eaten or killed by the evil god) will appear again as new enemies.
At this time, their classes and skills are also randomly changed.

For example, if a unit has high magic power but appears as a warrior, it is useless, so you can feed it to the evil gods and wait for it to reincarnate and appear as a wizard.

Why did I reject this idea?
Because it’s too much trouble to make.

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It is a cruel expression to capture enemies and brainwash them into becoming your friends, or to dedicate unwanted units to the evil gods.
However, something similar to this has already been done in Pokémon and FEH.
Those are just a little safer expressions, avoiding direct expressions.
Essentially, what they are doing is the same.

In the plot, the evil god was going to be Lopto, the Loptous from FE4.

Lopto, an evil dragon of the Earth Dragon Tribe, was banished to another world for his hazily evil deeds.
Meanwhile, the dark priest, who was studying heretical dark magic, had escaped from his pursuers and fled deep into the forest.
As he is driven deep into the forest, Lopto happens to be beamed there.
The dark priest worshipped Lopto as a god for saving him from danger.

Lopto learns that in order to return to the original world, he must destroy the four temple jewels (MacGuffins) in this world and gain their power.
Therefore, Lopto plans to destroy the four jewels by using the Dark Priest to have him attack the countries.
To do this, he gives him the art of brainwashing and the Dark Bible.

Eventually, with the destruction of the nations and the destruction and power of the temple jewels, Lopto returns to his world.
At this time, the Dark Priest is either abandoned or dies as a sacrifice.

Returning to his original world, Lopto meets his friend.
"I heard you were banished, but have you returned yet?
"By the way, there’s this strange person named Galle who’s been coming to this dragon village.
“You like that sort of thing, don’t you? Would you like to meet him?”

And so the story continues to FE4.

One problem is that it is very difficult to draw conversation scenes because the main character works differently as a bad guy.
I think the Start Event and End Event scenarios will be quite difficult because they are attacking for their own good, not for justice.
Partly because of them, this idea was frozen.

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I got a simple rom hack idea for you. Anyone play Forde Emblem and Puzon Emblem where almost all of the characters are just Forde and Puzon. Now how about Glass Emblem. This is just like the other two hacks but everyone is now Glass the boss from Chapter 2 in the Blazing Blade. How about that.

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Oops! All character name here

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Witch hunt setting.

MC will be a survivor from one such witch hunt, on the run from and fighting against kingdom/church, and trying to find the reason for the injustice against her kind.

I already have some ideas written down (including the ending) but implementation will probably never happen because creating stuff is hard…

Some ideas i wrote down include:

  • MC will have access to a “save” magic. 3 Times per chapter you can save your progress

  • Weapon triangle will be relegated to skills. Instead, weapons types will have different abilities. For example, Swords can counter at range if speed is high enough (think Berwick counter slice), while Lances will have better range access than other melee weapons at the cost of damage and Axes will have high risk high reward combat arts (not rng related)

  • Same with magic. Example Fire magic can burn down forest terrain, while wind magic can give units flying movements. The magic system shall be greatly expanded to distinguish it from being physical weapons that target res. High level magic might require cast/charge time. Support stuff will be split across the different elements so no more staves.

  • A quest system ala berwick, but more streamlined

  • No evul dragon of doom that ruin 90% of FE stories. Although dragons exist yes.

  • For inventory management i am thinking something akin to fates, but instead of debuffs for high tier weapons limited use per chapter instead.

  • More focus on skills and combat arts. No trigger skills tho.

  • Crit damage reduced to 1.5x, however crit classes (Swordmasters, Berserkers, etc.) and crit weapons (killer weapons) will deal the ‘normal’ 3x crit damage.

  • Revamped support system where supports are integrated into the story and more group talks rather than 1-on-1. Gameplay wise support skills instead of passive bonuses. For example Armors can guard supported units while Archers can give an extra Attack.

  • 6 standard move ala Jugdral/Tellius.

  • For Armor units i have a couple ideas, that doesn’t include giving them standard mov. One such idea is giving them acess to different shields (not just Def+), like a mirror shield that can reflect magic attacks in exchange for decreased physical defense, or a absorb shield that absorbs damage and heals adjacent allies for damage taken, or a zone shield that makes adjacent spaces inaccessible to enemies, etc. Another is making them the only class that can equip multiple accessories. Make them go through terrain unimpeded. Giving them standard mov is something i don’t wanna do.

Those are some of the ideas i have written down that will probably never see the light of the day in a game/hack. I have been playing around a bit with SRPG studio, but didn’t really create anything impressive. I wanna try creating a cool map first. Hopefully until next FEE3 i would’ve created one map xD.

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Funnily enough, I actually have an idea that’s rather similar to this particular aspect. A short hack where there are absolutely no generic units at all, in any faction. All enemy and ally units have unique names and faces, just like player units. They even have unique death quotes and relationships with each other.

The idea is that Fire Emblem normally treats the player’s army like a group of unique individuals, but most enemies and NPCs are considered to be faceless non-people. In real life, though, everyone is a unique individual. This idea takes away the player’s ability to pretend their adversaries aren’t people just like their allies are.

The plan involves the inclusion of Thracia 776’s Capture mechanic along varying map objectives, so it’s possible to avoid actually killing enemy characters… but it would be quite challenging to clear the game without taking a single life. If you do accomplish this, though, there would be a special ending to the game.

The core thrust of the idea is that everyone is human and it’s possible to complete the story without any casualties. This would be pretty complicated to make, but I am very fond of the idea.

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Some scattered ideas I’m probably never gonna get to

  • A hack set during a plague/infection of some kind, and is focused around the protagonist’s group trying to escape a forced quarantine of the city they’re in, or otherwise rise up. The infection would cause debilitating effects like permanent poison or not being able to move every turn, but also give reality-shattering benefits.

  • A hack centered around the entire starting cast being trainee units, who are all actually gods thrown down by a newcomer who defeated them all in instant. They must rise back up the ranks to immortality. A light parody of Chinese cultivation novels.

  • Maybe it’s self-indulgent to discuss this, but one of my ideas for a Storge sequel would center around Saloninus (the possessed sword), having hired mercenaries to help him accomplish his desired goal. The deal would be that whoever is holding Saloninus becomes the “lord” and is the one who can seize and would yield a game over when defeated. It’d again center on a central hub but you would return to it after each enigmatic mission you venture on, and the game could progress non-linearly.

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it seems the world just wasn’t ready for an FE set in 2021…

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I like the idea of a lost war hack. Where you go as long as you can surviving, until finally there’s an impossible last stand map where the condition simply says “Die.”

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One of my ideas was to make a game inspired by Shin Megami Tensei. The game would probably take place in a post apocalyptic future, though it could also be in some kind of simulated world like in SMT Nine.

  • You would have an Avatar/My Unit character whose stats/class can be customized. They would work with a group of soldiers (or something like that) whose job is to keep the citizens safe from demons who roam the streets. However, there would also be 2-4 other groups with ambitions of their own that the player has the opportunity to join.
  • There would be an alignment system where your choices will alter which maps you go to, who you ally with, and maybe even what kind of lore you get from the story. Think of it like a 3x3 tic-tac-toe board with each square representing a playable human with their own alignment. The center would be neutral, represented by the avatar. The left side would represent Law (security, harsh punishments), the right Chaos (freedom, little regulation). The top would be Light (generally more diplomatic), while the bottom is Dark (uses more violent means). There would be a total of 5 endings (Light/Dark Law, Light/Dark Chaos, and Neutral).
  • Obviously, it wouldn’t be SMT without demon recruitment and fusion. Throughout the different maps would be demons/monsters to recruit, with a variety of choices to convince them to join you. This would involve paying them, answering questions, being part of the right alignment, etc. As for fusion, it would be based on “Tiers.” Think of it like promotion, with some demons having better stats than others. Demons probably won’t gain many stats from leveling up, so fusion is important to keep your army strong.

Part of the reason I’m hesitant to actually work on it is because route splits are a huge pain to make. Plus, trying to figure out what monsters to include as well as what “family” they belong to boggles my mind, and that doesn’t even factor in how fusion would work. But maybe one day I’ll sit down and actually try to do some more planning, who knows.

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There’s actually an idea there, as far a fusions go, why not tie it into the promotion items acting as "demon family"s soul with different promotions tied only to that item while they all function as a master seal so every “demon” could use any item.
Also only allowing players to obtain those items by sacrificing the demons at a certain location.

As for figuring out alignments i think looking closer at Code of the Black Knights can help with the condition setting flags.

You could theoretically even use the tower of valni to acts as the compendium to “re-recruit” demons to get more varied units.

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I recently had an idea for a gimmick sort of hack where each map is shaped like a letter of the alphabet. Some letters like E could be an open-ended 3-point seize, while an exclamation point or lowercase “i” would make use of the terrain. It’s a little bit silly, but it could be a good exercise in creative map design while adhering to a restriction.

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Modern Day Zombie Apocalypse setting, with sparse resources, simple weapon crafting/forging mechanics, infection mechanics, different weapon types, ironman focused gameplay, cover mechanics, stuff like that. I think its entirely possible to do in Lex Talionis, i would just need a butt load of assets, a story, and the time to do it. I wanna get a bit more experience with LT first and a more normal fantasy type setting that doesn’t require as many assets.

Something akin to Paradox Map games like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, aswell as Total War, Dynasty Warriors Empires, and so on. Using all the different FE continents, you choose a character to play as, and build armies of Generics, with your Commanders being Units from all the different games if you clash on the world map a skirmish happens that could be based on maps from FE. You conquer different towns, build outposts in strategic locations, do diplomacy with other nations, and upgrade your settlements. Entirely possible in LT. Hardest parts would be the settlement system, giving the AI nations a proper AI that actually works on the world map and builds stuff in the settlements, aswell as implementing Multiplayer, since i think that would make the game way more fun. Would probably require some actual Python knowledge aswell

Roguelike emblem, basically fully randomized adventures with random characters, equipment, maps, etc. Add all maps FE has to offer, make all continents visitable, add some custom maps and sprites to fill the gaps. This would basically be like an Adventure mode for the previous idea. Again, entirely possible with LT, i just don’t know enough about coding to make the randomness happen.

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This idea is based on the Hanjuku Hero(NES, SNES, …).
Hanjuku Hero is a strategy game with strong comedy elements made by Square.

All the generals have their own names.
In this game, the names of generals are pooled, and generals who are not in your army appear as enemies.

If a strong general in your army dies, he may be reincarnated as a strong enemy, which will put you at a greater disadvantage.
If you have better personnel, you can defeat them and hope that they will reincarnate as your allies.
And it is important to surround yourself with strong generals as much as possible and not let them die.

However, there are many problems with adopting this system for FE.
First of all, it conflicts completely with the Support system.
When you LOAD an enemy, you have to add a process to assign UniIDs to units that are not in your army.
Also, since there is a limit to the number of units that can join your army, you would also need to provide a system for players to get rid of units they don’t want.

The core thrust of the idea is that everyone is human and it’s possible to complete the story without any casualties. This would be pretty complicated to make, but I am very fond of the idea.

Games that don’t kill enemies is what we are trying to achieve a bit in Kaitou.
In Kaitou, if you capture and release an enemy without killing it, you get a bonus of Exp+40, Kaitou score+2+1.
// Kaitou score will be one of the items of player evaluation after the game is over.

Therefore, it asks the player to Capture enemies as much as possible, and take items and release.
This is because Kaitou is not an organization that aims to kill, but to steal treasure.
This is also achieved in the game system.

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I really want to make a hack based on critical strike, but i would need to make an animation for all 71 classes

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Random Idea that came to mind and could maybe be fun to do if you know what you are doing (which is not my case LOL):
You play as a prince that treats others badly, one day he gets visited by a person who says he’s in danger, he ignores the person but in the following morning hhe discovers his castle is undee atack and he became some sort of lycanthrope (who atks with claw weapons considered as unique swords). He goes through the usual FE line of plot, but the gaiden chapters are played within the hearts of petrified characters that are then recruited, in these chapters, we get character development from the prince, then in the final gaiden, he fights his own darkness (promotes in the end to a promoted lycant. With a cape idk) with the map music being “the other promise” from KH2 (the prince’s theme would be that character from KH2’s normal theme). Well that’s basically it thank you for reading my TED talk.

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Manakete Lord, that’s all I have to say considering it’s a work in Progress. But I just want the breath weapons not them being a hybrid unit like Corrin and Al whose sword half was more important than the dragon side.

Like maybe they’re the son/daughter of the dragon god/goddess who awakens 1000 years later to a war with their friends (the Legendary Heroes) descendants.