» Technological Limitations/Barriers

Something we all should be aware of is our technological limitations and barriers that prevent us from getting wrapped up in something impossible.

- Creating new map tiles is something I'd plan against. Make due with what you have.
- Modifying animations is a chore and I'd advise against planning for that.
- Custom animations are impossible.
- Custom spell animations are impossible.
- Modifying spell animations (like taking out a part) is advised against seeing as nobody has figured it out yet.
- No changing the world map, one hacker almost went insane trying to figure this out. It's just too complex.
- No new gameplay elements aside from what Nintenlord has done, it's just too hard to do.

More to come as I remember them.

Hmm... I see, it will be helpful to have this in hand, explict like that. *Pastes a copy of that list in the front page of the "FEA Game" Handbook*

I know that this has been since long the greatest worry of the hackers, that our imagination ran too free and wild, so I really appreciate your effort of writting all of your worries down. I will try making sure those will be followed as close as possible.



And abut the map, though... Since I only learned to hack FE6 and 7, I will have to ask you that; How about chainging the icons? Like, castle icons, city icons? ...and I am guessing we couldn't change it graphicaly as well. Could we at least take the continent's name out of it? XP


...from all of the limitations, that one is by far, the most limitating one. ...do I have enough bacon to pin this topic up, perhaps?

[EDIT]Nevermind, apparently I forgot to read the small lines in the contract... >.> Ahh, well, perhaps I could donate Arch enough bacon to pin this up on his own?

We can't modify the map? Like, not even change the names of places? Because I was highly doubtful that we could create an entirely new map, but I figured we could at least use the old one to suit our needs. >.>

We can change names we just can't change the map itself. I'm not sure about locations, I haven't looked into it but the actual map is unchangable.

So we can edit the script on the map? Like change Jehanna's name into whatever country we may need?

Yes, ANY text in the game can be changed. However there's another technological limitation. The huffman compression only has so much space so if you go over the amount of text in the original FE8 then it will leave stuff out which is not good.

Hmm... Well, I am, not sure if this was mentioned elsewhere, but... Considering we have that map limitation in our hands, I was to suggest; Perhaps, could we do the game, even without maps? The game still keeps the possibility of insierting a battle after the next one, and with well placed shops, and using all the space with random battles for story battles, it could work, and be quite a sizeable FE game at that. ...just a suggestion, but... I personaly don't find the map very useful, no. It's a nice adition, but if we can't work with it, I don't see so much use for it.


Oppinions, people?

If we don't need/aren't able to implement the free movement between locations that Stones had, I don't see any use for a map other then to illustrate motion cutscenes like in FE7, which I'm not sure we could do, but I'll leave it to one of the Hackers to give the final word on that.

It's most definitely doable.

A question here; would it be possible to replace map tiles? Say, take out some of the "plains" tiles, and replace them with different tiles that have the same effect? Or is it the changing itself rather then the altering its effects that makes it troublesome?

If we could remove some useless tiles it would be great, seeing as how I think the serpent could use some...

The idea of having us use no map is certainly interesting, but...

Magvel is vague enough that we could still do it... There's no borders or names or any of that on the actual map to worry about.

We should use Nintenlord's new Anti-Huffman, in my opinion. No problems have shown up so far, and it doesn't have the problem of text-space.
To safeguard against having to do everything over, we could have the text as a seperate patch, in case something goes wrong.

Here's the deal with tilesets. The entire tileset uses a single palette which means that we are restricted to 16 colors per tileset, so we couldn't take out "some" of the plains tiles without effecting all of them. It would be better to make a completely new tileset but that's something better off avoided. Look around at the tiles that are in FE8, you might find something you can use.

Okay, since we're going with moi's story, here's the map:

Renais: Qidash, Sodamesh, various city-states with Semitic-sounding names like Azret, Migrah and so on, you get the hint. I suppose that the huge castle in the middle is the Qidashi capital, Qishumarekh. Sodamesh is due south of this metropolis. Israel-Assyria-Sumeria, it's the ancient Middle East in a nutshell.

Carcino: Aom Piyash and it's vassals (Thaan Ruai, Nangdan, Hwaan Si and other names that sound vaguely Thai). Here people dress in elegant clothes and drink expensive wine. The Piyashi are regarded as cowardly but very civilised and good at producing machinery.

Area around 18: Some other small country, I suppose, squeezed between the might of Qidash and Jaka Wastes.

Jehanna: Jaka Wastes, a vast grassland inhabited by nomads, Sacae-style, who live in moving tent towns, hunt big game from horseback by means of spears and bows, and practice shamanism. The castle nutmbered 24 is the closest thing to a city; it's were religious ceremonies and festivals are held every fifth year to celebrate the creation of the world. Not so much Mongolian and Siouan.

If this is a shitty idea, feel free to contradict me.

Rausten: Dunno, anyone have any ideas?

Frelia: Why, of course Frelia is Caer. The northern parts of the country is the remnants of the great Basilean Empire; to the south is the Plains of Ruins, where old ruins supposedly built by a nonhuman race have stood the test of time for the gods knows how long. These are the Romans and the Greek converted into something else.

Grado: In the west, whatever you people want. More countries, I suppose. The central part of Grado, down to the absolute south, is Lihohcokol, a union of city-states headed by a leader known as the Mekke. The place is the all-purpose nonwestern country, complete with human sacrifice on top of stepped pyramids, priest-kings, and people with exotic appearance. The bastard son of the Creek confederacy and the Aztecs. The east of Grado is dominated by whatever you think will do.

Islands outside Grado: Formely the center of the long-gone Watershed Empire, whose last emperor, a lunatic, tried to sink the entire world. Nowadays, these islands are called the Madlands and function like a great asylum. People who've gotten mad from spiral whirlpools from all over the world are sent to these rocky islands out in the middle of the ocean, and, if the rumours are true, they have organised some kind of kingdom.

Countries so far: Caer, Basilopolis, Qidash, Sodamesh, Aom Piyash and allies, Lihohcokol, Jaka, the Madlands. Come up with more if you wish. If you don't, I'll do it myself.

Here's some suggestions:
Rausten Castle: Shrine of Ako. The road leading southwest is the Path of the Sharrah. (though 3 stops aren't on the map)

Rausten: Sharalah, a state, and seeing what it houses you can pretty much guess that it's theocratic. Everyone there is either a priest, or is somehow connected to the "church". A new high priest is elected upon the death of the old one. There's your vatican. =P

East Grado: Currently under control of Kadasha because...

Area around 12: The city of Ako. This is the beginning of the Path of the Sharrah.

And now, just a few vague spaces:

11 Penisula: Storm Point. Can you guess what they have there?

Island west of Frelia: Convergence Point. This where the Caeri set up portal into other universes and perform any such experiments.



Countries so far: Caer, Basilopolis, Qidash, Sodamesh, Aom Piyash and allies, Lihohcokol, Jaka, the Madlands, Sharalah and Ako.