Fire Emblem: Decay of the Fangs [First 11 chapters]

[Mariobro3828]

Hack reinstated. No screenshots to prevent people just looking at the shots and judging the game before even playing it/not even playing it. Essentially, I want this to be a game that people play because someone recommended it to them or they heard it was good. That is my goal.

Here's the patch:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20463170/Decay_of_...ngs%20latest.7z

Here's a nice secret FAQ if you're having trouble recruiting/finding something.

[spoiler=The DotF secret faq:]

Prologue:

No secrets

Chapter 1:

Ubaldo recruited by visiting top left red village

Keagan recruited by visiting bottom left village. Different convos will occur if you visit the village with Chadwick or someone else

Keagan is also recruitable by waiting until turn 8. His village will explode and he will come running out, cursing the squirrels. I do not know if it is possible to beat the chatper before this point and not get Keagan, but if it is I will change it to earlier, because Keagan is a required character.

1000 Gold in top right village

Vulnerary (and funny convo) in bottom right village.

Chatper 2:

Steel Lance in lone village.

Chapter 3:

Mikhail recruitable by Jonas

Reid recruitable by Chadwick or Hannah

Right village has Longbow. Visit with Reid or different characters for different convos

Left village has....I forgot...just visit it dammit, it's not that hard.

Chapter 4:

Batta recruitable by Luke and Keagan

Anni recruitable by Mikhail, Chadwick and Hannah

Lots of chests...forgot all the contents but they're not exactly secret so just get them.

SIDEQUEST ALERT!: To get 4x, kill the boss of chapter 4 in 20 turns. Not complete the chapter (seizing) just kill him, and you have all the time you need to get the treasures afterwards.

Though, be hasty in getting treasures, as thieves eventually show.

NOTE: Getting chapter 4x is crucial to getting chapter 8x, a very awesome sub chapter. 8x is also essential to unlocking a very awesome (and OMG it's him!) character later in the game. You want this character. Trust me.

Chapter 4x:

You can complete the chapter by standing still if you wish...the enemies will not attack unless you move outside the walled in square. There is no consequence to not moving outside the square...other than not getting the chests and not getting experience. You will still get 8x (if you do the condition on chapter 6.)

The chests contain the tome Eclipse and a White Gem. They're worth the effort.

Chapter 5:

New character Ryan in village. He has a gem on him, so he's worth recruiting...that and he's just right there.

If you decide to cheat and stat alter and kill William, you'll get a funny game over message. Look on my youtube channel for a demonstration.

If Arnold is still alive at the end, you'll get an interesting convo from him.

HUGE NOTE: Give all of Anthony's items to the convoy. You'll thank me later.

Chapter 6:

Henrietta recruitable with Matt or Anni. Yeah, a little harder to figure out, but dems da cuts. Just be happy you have this guide.

HUGE NOTE: Visit the top left house with Luke! If you do not visit this house with Luke, you will not get 8x!

Chpater 7:

There's a secret item here. Not telling you where. I told Blazer, and if you're reading this Blazer, you shouldn't tell anyone either. It should be a bonus for watching your LP.

Chest contains something for promotion I believe, and a myrmidon has a rune blade. Noice!

Do not be intimidated by the enemies...you get help around turn 5 or 6.

Vivi (creepy as hell) recruitable by Luke, Chadwick or Paul. She is Nino's replacement and though I've of course changed her stats (nerfed obviously) she's still a force to be reckoned with. I'd use her if you haven't been using Keagan.

Tom recruitable by Paul, Ryan or Chadwick. Like Ryan, he is also based off of a real person.

Easter egg convos: Keagan x Chadwick, Paul x Chadwick, Luke x Chadwick, Mark x Chadwick. They're all grateful to have broken out...will except Mark. That guy gives me the chills...so badass.

Chapter 8:

Not really any secrets here, but the chests have some nice items. Bring Paul, there be booty to plunder...yarr. (Yeah I know he's not a pirate, get off my case)

SIDEQUEST ALERT!: If you got 4x, visite the house in chapter 6 with luke, and Luke is still alive, you will get an unconditional sidequest here.

Chapter 8x:

DO NOT MOVE ANY CHARACTERS BESIDES LUKE! THE CHAPTER WILL END IF YOU MOVE ANY OF THEM PAST THE EAST FORT! AND I MEAN IT WILL END IN LUKE PUSSYING OUT!

Right so, talk to all player characters with Luke before battling him for a gift from each. Useful.

Talk to Hector if you wish. He doesn't give anything, but he's badass so he deserves to be talked to.

Talk to the cavalier in the left corner below Anthony. He actually gives you something. All other NPCS besides him and Hector say something generic.

HUGE NOTE: You remember that awesome character I told you about that you'll get later? Well you won't get him if you don't kill the boss of this sub chapter (trying not use names). Instead, you'll just get the boss of this chapter later, and he'll be a crappy pre-promote. It's like the Wallace/Geitz chapter split later, cept instead of one being better than that other, one towers over the other and makes the other his bitch in every stat possible. So kill!

Chapter 9:

Another funny village convo. Forget what you get. Just visit it.

There should be a lone Morph on the Black Fang's side of the map. Talk to him with Arnold, you might get something later because of it.

Chapter 10:

Amia recritable by Reid (should be obvious why) and Hannah.

Norris (badass soldier who can PROMOTE!) recruitable by Anni and Chadwick.

Eddie recruitable by Leif or Henrietta (yeah, limited cause you have Luke).

The house in the west might be important to visit for a future event...not sure.

SIDEQUEST ALERT!: Use Paul in this chapter to unlock a sidequest. Really simple. So just do it!

Chapter 10x:

All White Fang members can be talked to by Chadwick for a brief history. Lots of DotF lore here, so if you like the story, I'd get the info.

Finish the chapter by killing only X enemy units and Paul will receive a Fell Contract in the present. X to be determined!

Edited May 15, 2011 by Mariobro3828

[Chaotic_Soma]

I have to say that I just watched your prologue video and I happen to be intrigued -BUT- a few questions?

I notice that you have stated that you want to tie up some loose ends in the FE7 lore?

Will you be:

A) Taking FE6 into account, which you realise is the continuation?

B) Is there a chance that you will be taking Elibien Nights into accord as well? I know that it is a hack as well but their stories are so well written that it feels cannon.

One thing I have noticed straight off the bat, you have Jaffar die right?

You realise he is the father to 2 twins, Nino being the mother. The twins are even in FE6.

Also I hope you stick to the characters cannon personalities, don't make them do/say things that aren't their style, it'd just be weird.

When it comes to that matter take into account support conversations~!

If you have done your research then I wish you all of luck!

I hope you do a good job and do the FE6&7 line proud!

Edited February 10, 2011 by Chaotic_Soma

[Mariobro3828]

I must say first, the writer for this hack, HHS, is much more well versed in Elibian canon than I am, but that's one of the reasons he is the writer.

We're trying our best to take FE6 into account. While it may not extend to the twins, that was completely necessary for our storyline. That, and Jaffar dying was already made when we decided to follow the flow of FE6 and FE7 canon (over 2 years ago) so we will not be going back to erase that detail. Other than that, I assure you, no one else who is related to FE6 or makes an appearance in FE6 will die. (Though Eliwood may procure a sickness ;) )

Sorry, we will not be taking Elibien Nights into account.

Don't worry, we're keeping canon personalities intact. It wouldn't feel right if we didn't. This isn't Fire Mumblem. :P

One thing that you might notice is that there is a bit of cursing which people might argue for canon personalities, that is not canon. Well, they may not have cursed in the original games, but Nintendo is bound by limitations, and once those limitations are lifted....well we tried to imagine a personality like Hector's, when angry, not cursing. And we just couldn't. So I'm sorry to the people who feel that cursing is not canon, but that is our stance, and no amount of arguing will change it.

I've done a good amount of research, but I'm still no match for our writer, of whom the main character is based off of (his name is Chuck). We come up with ideas together, but out of us two, he's almost always been the validity detector. We're doing our best! :)

Lastly, some helpful information to those who are curious:

While this game doesn't have a Lyn Mode per se, it is divided into two parts, with there being a 3 year time gap in between the two parts.

Part 1: The Fangs campaign to stay alive, and somewhat of a struggle against Eliwood and Hector.

Part 2: The main storyline. Things get a lot darker and a lot harder here. I think you're really going to enjoy this part when it's released.

[Crimson Red]

B) Is there a chance that you will be taking Elibien Nights into accord as well? I know that it is a hack as well but their stories are so well written that it feels cannon.

I lol'd

I see a lot of new screenshots, including a battle against Marcus, which is tempting me to play (despite the fact that the portraits are still... below-average... *is scared to say it*).

Also Eliwood and Hector look pissed XD

[Nanami Touko]

mang, a lot of those portraits need intensive amounts of work. Some of them just need some touch ups, while others are terrifying :E

Like Leif. The back of his neck is missing.

The battle palettes need work as well. The colors are pretty bad :x

The story looks alright, and the fact that you have events and maps Kinda down is promising. And world map events. G'luck.

But, dude, seriously, fix those mugs and those battle palettes, or get someone to do it for you. They're taking what could be an awesome hack, and making it mediocre.

[Mariobro3828]

Beh, the portraits will always just be a problem because we've touched them up countless times, but always get the same response. If they're still not up to standards at this point then I guess they're beyond our ability. Nothing we can do there. :\ Unless of course someone is willing to help touch them up, but I dunno if that's asking too much or not.

[Nanami Touko]

If I get the time, I wouldn't mind helping, per se, but I'm not that reliable, since I always have something else I'm working on.

And you can still fix the battle palettes. Just make sure to use colors from the sprites in the palette, since it looks like you're using MS paint defaults, or something. If those ARE colors from the sprites, well... You may need to get new colors for your sprites XD

[Mariobro3828]

If you're willing to help, we'd be grateful for any help we can get.

As far as the palettes go, I can see some that you would have a problem with (Mike really needs touching up, Matt's promotion needs a lot of work) but which ones specifically? I don't seem to have the eye to detect which ones look out of place besides the blatantly obvious ones (which aren't in the screenshots or video or chapters prologue - 2 for that matter) ....

[HHS]

I have to say that I just watched your prologue video and I happen to be intrigued -BUT- a few questions?

I notice that you have stated that you want to tie up some loose ends in the FE7 lore?

Will you be:

A) Taking FE6 into account, which you realise is the continuation?

B) Is there a chance that you will be taking Elibien Nights into accord as well? I know that it is a hack as well but their stories are so well written that it feels cannon.

One thing I have noticed straight off the bat, you have Jaffar die right?

You realise he is the father to 2 twins, Nino being the mother. The twins are even in FE6.

Also I hope you stick to the characters cannon personalities, don't make them do/say things that aren't their style, it'd just be weird.

When it comes to that matter take into account support conversations~!

If you have done your research then I wish you all of luck!

I hope you do a good job and do the FE6&7 line proud!

I'm involved with the project and I'm going to sort some things out.

While killing Jaffar off was done before my involvement, I'm going to have to defend that it can work within the canon without time paradox.

"Jaffar vanished in the final moments of the last battle. He still avoids the bounty hunters who seek out the famed Angel of Death. "

Jaffar's natural ending has him disappearing at the final battle and running off to be hunted. No bounty hunters find him and the search for the angel of death continues... because no bounty hunter found him. Now, this ending suggests little about him and Nino though Rei and Lugh are still born. What does this imply? Nino was baby making at the ripe age of 14, prior to the end of the game.

But wait! What about if they have an A support and settle down in Pherae before Jaffar disappears... well there you have it. Jaffar and Nino get back first through Jaffar's sneaky assassin boat and pick a house. Then Jaffar is brutally annihilated. The game never says their time together was long...

In other news this takes place between 6 and some things are mentioned like Uther's funeral and returning Armads but no time paradoxes have happened. Oswin and Marcus don't die... Though some events will actually account for setting Sealed Sword into motion.

[Nanami Touko]

If you're willing to help, we'd be grateful for any help we can get.

As far as the palettes go, I can see some that you would have a problem with (Mike really needs touching up, Matt's promotion needs a lot of work) but which ones specifically? I don't seem to have the eye to detect which ones look out of place besides the blatantly obvious ones (which aren't in the screenshots or video or chapters prologue - 2 for that matter) ....

Alright. I'd rather remake them, since there's not much I can do to fix the already made ones :E Or I should say, it would take a lot more work to fix the already made ones, then it would take to remake them.

Just PM me with character descriptions (physical descriptions, and make them detailed, please) and if I get to them, I get to them.

I didn't watch the videos, but, in the screen shots, Chuck needs to be fixed, as he has some kind of weird black splotch on his palette, and whoever's fighting against Glass needs to have their palette redone. It's terrifyingly bad on the eyes @~@

Edited February 10, 2011 by seph1212

[Feaw]

Hack looks pretty good, really promising.

I can help with battle sprite palettes as well.

And, I could also throw in a map or two, since the current ones aren't all that great.

But the hack's still good, I like it. The story, I'm sure, will get more interesting and things, and it's just completely custom... well, cept for some characters but hey.

[Crimson Red]

@Mariobro, my 2 cents, if you can't get either a very reliable person or multiple people to help you, I think it's better to accept no help at all: having some decent portraits mixed in with some not-so-good portraits that are on two different levels will stick out and make the graphic quality inconsistent, which, IMO, is even worse than having all not-so-good portraits.

The only ones that NEED work are Leif, Paul, and the guy in the cell with Paul. XP

[Nanami Touko]

The only ones that NEED work are Leif, Paul, and the guy in the cell with Paul. XP

:E

I highly disagree with you, Blazer. Pretty much all the sprites in the screenshots up top, 'cept for the original FE7 ones, NEED some work.

An' if you really wanna argue sprites with an actual spriter, well...

I'll just sit here an' watch:

Edited February 11, 2011 by seph1212

[Crimson Red]

Okay, I'm wrong, but you're not right, either. =P None of them *need* work, because they are all hack-insertable, which is all that is required of a hack. You're free to argue that by changing the circumstances of which the word 'need' is used in, but I'll just sit somewhere else and not watch. =P

An' if you really wanna argue sprites with an actual spriter, well...

LOL ROFL LOL hahahahaha you just made my day kid, thanks Seph. ^_^

highly disagree

*restrains grammar freak impulse*

[Nanami Touko]

Okay, I'm wrong, but you're not right, either. =P None of them *need* work, because they are all hack-insertable, which is all that is required of a hack. You're free to argue that by changing the circumstances of which the word 'need' is used in, but I'll just sit somewhere else and not watch. =P

Yeah, they need work. Sorry, bro. They all definitely NEED work.

[Mariobro3828]

Objective vs. very subjective. The argument at hand is pointless and has no conclusive solution.

So Seph wants the portraits to freshen up. We'll do what we can, however that is not our top priority. For the most part, we find most of our portraits to be acceptable, save for maybe a few here and there. You can argue all day that our standards are not acceptable but this is again a very subjective matter, an argument that is likely to never be resolved and leaves too much to the abstract. Such are most arguments on such viewpoint based matters. Yes I agree with you that Leif needs to be freshened up, as well as Paul, Matt, Smith and possibly Anthony as well. I will also agree with your claim that some of the palettes are MS paint based, which is actually true. That's probably the biggest WIP status of my hack, the battle palettes, and I will see to it that they get freshened up in due time. As for the portraits, there will always be opposition. I've seen too many examples to bear including my own. To the standards of some, unless the portraits are of god-like quality (which takes many many hours of dedication for even the most experienced of spriters) there will always be opposition as to how those portraits "need" work. Using those standards, I've seen very few portraits posted that were deemed by the community "not in 'need' of work." Thus, the time required for someone like me to achieve such a masterpiece would probably be exponentially higher, probably spanning the entire time I've spent working on this hack (which is well over 100 hours) PER portrait. If that isn't time inefficient, I don't know what is, especially considering our objective. What is our objective? I direct you to the first post in this thread, to the first few paragraphs. We had envisioned a storyline that we wished so badly could be a game. We rejoiced when we heard the means for compiling such a game was accessible even to those who had little to no knowledge of thumb and arm based assembly, or even computer hacking for that matter (though don't mistake me, a good sense of logic is of course required). And so we undertook it. Our objective was to convey the storyline we had thought up through the medium of Fire Emblem gameplay, and thus our top priorities are the GAMEPLAY and the STORYLINE. Yes, we are trying to make our portraits look good and I think HHS has done a great job at the ones he has remade so far. However, due to time constraints (we are both out of high school) we do not have the time to spend every waking moment tending to the requests of demanding that we spend more time than the countless hours we already have working on the graphics, when we could be advancing the project instead of beating a dead horse. If the graphics make the game unplayable for you then so be it, publicity was never one of our objectives. Some of you may argue that this thread contradicts that, but I assure you I did this under recommendation, and the fact that there are people who can look past the sprites not being perfect and focus on the main aspect of the game, which is the gameplay and the storyline. Either way, we will fix what is blatantly obvious right now, but other then that we will continue to make progress and advance the hack. As I mentioned earlier, we're grateful for any help we can get, but be warned, whether we accept submissions or not is completely up to us. Also, if you are wanting to sprite for this hack, I've decided that we'd need you to be reliable, as in cooperative, won't completely destroy our works, and on time.

tl;dr version: We're doing what we can for the sprites, but that is not our top priority, we will continue to focus on gameplay.

[HHS]

Honestly, spriting is easy mode. A lot of our sprites are over 6 years old and made while we were still kids. Ex. Matt, Paul, Leif. I can redo them in seconds but it's more important when making a mod to have a lot of characters than focus on each one immensely all at once. I can reopen the editor and replace a portrait in seconds whereas I'm event blocked if I don't have a face for a scene. Anyone working on a hack would agree that spriting (believe it or not) is the easiest part of hacking and deserves the least amount of attention initially.

For example, you didn't like Matt? Easy... I timed myself and made this. Literally 5 minutes and 6 seconds:

If I wanted to pretty it up and make it more original it wouldn't take much more than another 10. But It's important that I make more characters than obsess over details.

After stumbling and prepping for a job interview I had another minute so I came up with Paul:

See how easy this is?

Edited February 11, 2011 by HHS

[Nanami Touko]

Anyone working on a hack would agree that spriting (believe it or not) is the easiest part of hacking and deserves the least amount of attention initially.

You have NO IDEA how many people I could find who would disagree with you on this.

For example, you didn't like Matt? Easy... I timed myself and made this. Literally 5 minutes and 6 seconds:

If I wanted to pretty it up and make it more original it wouldn't take much more than another 10. But It's important that I make more characters than obsess over details.

After stumbling and prepping for a job interview I had another minute so I came up with Paul:

See how easy this is?

Matt is okay. His cloak is a little flat, and his neck could stand to be larger. Otherwise, decent splice, much better than the original ;3

As for Paul... Blagh. The outline of his cloak near where it touches his hair is all jagged, and looks weird. And his hair... Well, for one, it's messed up in the shading near the back, and his head is also too small in the back. His ear is over sized and jagged, and the hair directly to the left of his ear is completely out of place.

See how this isn't actually easy?

I'll stop derailing your topic any further, unless you want to continue this.

Mariobro, after Feb. 17th, I would be happy to make sprites for your hack on a constant basis. I'm in the gender swap comp right now, and what I'm doing for it is taking up all my spriting time. Again, after the 17th, just let me know if you need anything done, and I'll see what I can do for you.

Edited February 11, 2011 by seph1212

[Blademaster!]

Anyone working on a hack would agree that spriting (believe it or not) is the easiest part of hacking and deserves the least amount of attention initially.

You have NO IDEA how many people I could find who would disagree with you on this.

Spriting, Map making, and editing certain things in nightmare are the easiest things to do when it comes to any hack. The only things that you could argue are easier to do is transferring animations and mugs, and certain things about transferring animations can still be difficult for some people to do. This statement in particular "(spriting) deserves the least amount of attention initially" is true, since spriting does not change gameplay for the most part.

Seriously, spriting and map making are just like FE5; both have a lot of fake difficulty that makes it seem hard.

[Nanami Touko]

Seriously, spriting and map making are just like FE5; both have a lot of fake difficulty that makes it seem hard.

Kid, stop talking right now before you make yourself sound any more like an idiot.

You have no idea how much effort people put into their sprites, and NO IDEA how hard it is to make a good quality sprite. Don't act like you do. It's harder to make a good sprite than it is to do event hacking. You can say it isn't difficult all you want, but your sprites suck, so, your word isn't worth much there, bud.

Map making is also harder. Feaw, SL, Hero of Time, and AstaLunaSol will agree with me on this, if you seriously want to argue this.

And, dude, did you just call FE5's difficulty fake?... Just... Just get out.

Mariobro wants to focus on the story in his hack. No problem. I can respect that. I wont argue that anymore.

But I wont sit by while someone with barely any experience in mapping and spriting calls spriting easy, while us good spriters spend 3+ hours making a sprite look good, and good mappers spend 3+ hours making excellent maps.

Edited February 11, 2011 by seph1212

[shadowofchaos]

Spriting, Map making, and editing certain things in nightmare are the easiest things to do when it comes to any hack.

GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No.

DO NOT make me destroy you on that. GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

This is why people like Arch ask for mugs and maps from seasoned spriters/mappers.

Edited February 11, 2011 by shadowofchaos

[Celice]

I didn't know so many bad thoughts could actually exist >.<

Each aspect of creating a game, alone, takes times. Graphics usually take the longest when doing them by hand. Maps just as tedious. Inserting data is just mundane labor that requires nothing--that's why almost all the existing Fire Emblem hacks are shit and not worth anything. And then a few people have ego trips that gets in their way of actually understanding this different--and also their ability to judge what's good and bad (it's usually biased that their crap is good and defendable).

The best thing is to just ignore them, because they're not worth it. You're dealing with an extreme minority already, who don't reflect active viewpoints.

[shadowofchaos]

Well, back on topic.

Seph is more of a spriter, so well, that's what he notices. That's his personal focus point. But knowing him, it's not that he's criticizing Mariobro for the lack of sprite "prowess" if you will, knowing him for a while now, he's actually VERY MUCH trying to help. Mariobro put pretty much a lot of thought into this, considering he's even spent time making World Map events (and wrote a tutorial at that on FEU) for said hack. This pretty much attracts attention from spriters who wish to improve upon it.

As for what Blademaster stated, I only laughed, simply because of some... personal views on his hack, and I apologize for that. HOWEVER, my point is, his statement is as a result of his own experience. Those "easy aspects" he states, is because only he hasn't seen how much time people like Seph, MK404, and those at FEND spend on improving themselves in the art aspects of a hack. The "good enough maps" that he made himself, are, what lead him to that "easy" statement. And though I probably would have ignored his post otherwise, I personally don't think it's "easy" after the maps and sprites our group has made and the hours that our little Skype discussion group have done improving upon those graphics aspects.

tl;dr (and basically, I was freewriting, forgive me for anything that didn't make sense above) the only reason why he stated it was "easy" was because of his lack of experience putting that much time into his maps and sprites.

And one more thing (UNCLE REFERENCE). Trent/Seph is blunt. He won't hesitate to say he doesn't like you. And considering his "attacks" have only been to one person on this topic, He is VERY MUCH just trying to help you (Mariobro) on the graphics department.

Edited February 11, 2011 by shadowofchaos

[Nanami Touko]

Well, back on topic.

Seph is more of a spriter, so well, that's what he notices. That's his personal focus point. But knowing him, it's not that he's criticizing Mariobro for the lack of sprite "prowess" if you will, knowing him for a while now, he's actually VERY MUCH trying to help. Mariobro put pretty much a lot of thought into this, considering he's even spent time making World Map events (and wrote a tutorial at that on FEU) for said hack. This pretty much attracts attention from spriters who wish to improve upon it.

Pretty much that.

Mario Bro's got a pretty interesting story, and his maps are good. The fact that he has events and world map events down pat is awesome, because he can do whatever he wants with the hack.

I'm an extremely blunt person, so I tend to always come off as rude and offensive, but, I seriously just want the sprites to look good in this, since I see way too many hacks with potential that communities ignore because the graphics aren't up to par with everything else. That's not really fair to Mariobro, since he's obviously put a lot of time into this plot and the events/maps/world map events.

If I've come off as offensive to Mariobro, Celice, HHS, or even Blazer, I apologize.

I wont apologize to Blademaster, though, since his comment is stemming from lack of knowledge on the subjects of mapping and spriting. He's generalizing from what he's learned, and what he's learned isn't much.

Edited February 11, 2011 by seph1212

[Mariobro3828]

I appreciate the thoughts and I took no offense at any point. I'll pm with additional info.

And this is why phones fail at forums. Please excuse my double post, if you are a mod viewing this, could you kindly delete this?

Edited February 12, 2011 by Tangerine