Fire Emblem Idea: Custom Difficulty Levels

[Fiery Diamond]

I am a Fire Emblem fan. Since I live in the United States, and frown upon the use of emulators, I've only played those released here (and own all 4, obviously!). One thing I was thinking about was difficulty levels in the Fire Emblem games - they aren't all the same.

Let me explain. I'll use PoR and RD as examples to illustrate my point. There are several different factors that change with difficulty level. Let's start with Normal mode, using it as the basis for everything. In Normal mode, there is a specific Exp ratio (in other words, a lvl 5 ally who attacks a lvl 5 enemy will get a set, nonvariable amount of exp; he will get a different amount, still nonvariable, for killing it; he will get yet another set of amounts for attacking or killing an enemy of a different level, like lvl 8, which would also be different from what he would get from a lvl 2. All of it is based on the relative level of ally and enemy), a specific number of enemies (for each level), specific level of enemy tactics (some enemies may charge, some only charge when you enter their range, some don't move at all, etc.), specific level of enemies, and a specific number of allied units you can deploy {I don't recall if this last factor changes in PoR or RD, but it does in the handheld games}.

Let's compare PoR and RD easy modes, and then compare PoR and RD hard modes.

{table]factor| PoR easy| RD easy| PoR hard| RD hard
Exp ratio| more exp| more exp| less exp| less exp
Number of enemies| fewer| fewer| more| (didn't get very far; either same or more)
Enemy tactics|easier| easier| harder| harder
Enemy level| higher| lower| same| higher[/table]

As you can see, they are similar, but not the same. This got me thinking: wouldn't it be cool if the player could choose all these things? Custom difficulty levels! A sample custom difficulty level might be: more exp, more enemies, easier enemy tactics, higher level enemies. (In case you're wondering, that would be my ideal difficulty setting.)

Thoughts?
(Please don't just say: "They won't do it." I'm aware that it would be highly unlikely for the makers to do this, even if we got some petition going. Not that that's necessarily a bad idea, but I don't really have any idea how to start one and actually get signatures.)

-Fiery Diamond
Edit: stupid tables...

[Icewalker]

Eh, I dunno. There are far better player-functional modifications that could be made to the Fire Emblem games I think.

Awesome games by the way. Although I didn't like Path of Radiance...it wasn't cool, like the gameboy ones. They were so stylish, whereas PoR, you get the uber-upgraded awesome guy and he...walks up and hits them. Instead of flipping into the air, pulling his sword from his shield sheath, landing on them with it, then flipping back while resheathing it into his original position. And that is a normal attack, let alone a critical. (Hero is an awesome class, by the way)


I think the best thing they could have in Fire Emblem, preferably the gameboy ones: level editor.

In fact, campaign editor. It wouldn't be too hard, if you think about it. The way it is put together is very simple and structured, with enough time you could throw together your own epic campaign, complete with speech between characters at vital junctions.

[Quxelopqr]

I agree on PoR not being as good as the gamboy ones (your reasoning is good as well, my brother and I turned the battle animations off since it just wasted time and they actually looked cooler standing on the grid fighting), but I think it wasn't as good because 75% of the characters in the game sucked. I cite everyone in the dawn brigade (with the exceptions of Micaiah Sothe and Nolon) along with most of the knights of the country Elincia's from. When you got the characters from the first game it was like you won without trying. Then the last boss was practically beaten with only the 4 Laguz kings and Ike (with a healer helping if necessary).

Enough on my rant, custom difficulty could be cool, but even sweeter would be custom characters. I'd absolutely love to make an archer/thief/mage and a mercenary, name them after my brother and I, and use them instead of some of the more useless characters (or perhaps letting us rename characters since actual vocal speech isn't really used).

[Geno9999]

I prefer the idea of making your own maps over custom difficulty, BUT that is a good idea. I'm thinking a long the lines of this;
EXP: high/medium/low
Enemy lvl: high/medium/low
Gold winnings: high/medium/low
There would be pre-made settings of course. (E.g. easy; high,low,high)

Edit: The custom characters idea is really cool, but you could only pull that really well if it was for a custom campaign. (heh, heh, heh, a Swordmaster/light mage...:smallbiggrin:)

[Mando Knight]

I prefer the idea of making your own maps over custom difficulty, BUT that is a good idea. I'm thinking a long the lines of this;
EXP: high/medium/low
Enemy lvl: high/medium/low
Gold winnings: high/medium/low
There would be pre-made settings of course. (E.g. easy; high,low,high)

Edit: The custom characters idea is really cool, but you could only pull that really well if it was for a custom campaign. (heh, heh, heh, a Swordmaster/light mage...:smallbiggrin:)

Swordmaster/light mage? You mean Mist with gimped Magic and Resistance rather than Strength and Defense? Would you really want Mia to class change and... whoops, she just gained Light Magic and Staff proficiency, and is unable to raise her Sword level to SS to wield Alondite/Vague Katti? No thank you.

Also, I think that the EXP gains should be tied to the enemy level/effective difficulty, so that the only way of getting higher EXP from enemies would be to raise their levels or give them nasty weapons (Vague Katti, Alondite, Urvan... just to name a few RD weapons...:smallamused:)