Lurker > MalcolmMasher

Wouldn't it be better to have freedom for 100 years and then have it POSSIBLY "become government" than to just keep the crappy government we have now?

The human race began with no governments, and yet governments exist. Clearly they provide some advantage. I suspect that a large part of that advantage was the ability to force other, less organized people to become second class citizens within your own society. And if someone waved a magic wand and erased all national allegiances... well, that'd still be true.

So my answer is "no". I don't want to imply that the world's current political situation is a peaceful equilibrium, because it isn't. But my opinion is that if we were to start again from scratch, we'd wind up with a situation that was not really any better or worse, and yet a great deal of blood would be shed along the way.

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You make your first mistake in claiming that law requires government. It does not.

Okay, I don't follow this step. If me and my community agree that some hypothetical judge is capable of resolving our disputes and that his decisions are binding, then we've just made him into (part of) our local government. That is what gives him the authority to determine the law; we have agreed that he governs us in the matter.

Whereas, if me and my community do not agree to abide by the will of Judge Hypothetical, meaning that there is no communal government, then he has no power and cannot effectively determine the law.

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Is Hector in?

Yes, but less so. There are like 10 people per game as "SpotPass" characters, who are downloadable for free, and Hector is on FE7's SpotPass team. So you could recruit him that way. (Lyn is also on that team, so you could recruit her for free, too. Once it becomes available at all.)

How does the DLC for this game work?

Buying a DLC chapter lets you play through that chapter for EXP/whatnot and gives you a bonus or two. In this case, aside from the obvious "recruit Lyn" I hear you also get the "flyer ignores arrow vulnerability" skill from this chapter. And although you could recruit SpotPass Lyn for free, DLC Lyn is probably going to join with a skill that she couldn't normally acquire.

As for a short scenario, I get the impression that the chapter won't really be tailored around Lyn (sets of DLC share the same map IIRC) but she'll presumably have some dialogue within it.

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My second sentence was intended to fulfill your funny requirement, albeit through a lack of competition. That is all the effort you get from me.

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I nominate Illusionist as Marche's class. Show Babus that he lacks Prominence and destroy his precious fruits.

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Wanglicious, regarding Shingen and Kenshin: I battled Shingen and ended up recruiting both of them. I assume that the one you don't fight is an automatic join; the one you do join probably has the standard recruitment requirements.

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One of my traditional FE "challenges" is a no reset run. Make a mistake? Deal with it. Someone dies? Carry on without. Lose your Lord? Playthrough failed.

I've also done what I think of as a prepromoted unit run, although that's not quite accurate; usually I also allow myself to use Thieves/Dancers/Lords as long as they aren't promoted. Note that in FE9, Laguz are also legit - they count as promoted units for experience purposes, after all.

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Might and Magic 9

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In-universe, you don't get to reset the game either, and you don't know emergencies until they're too late

In-universe, the tactician knows an emergency when he looks at the battlefield. I mean, I am assuming that even in-universe, the army's tactician is actually going "Okay, I've taken a look at what we're up against. I want these guys in the attack team, and this is the plan." I'll grant you that this would not account for things like Wyvern Lords out of the Fog of War, but it handles "I'm just one Speedwings short of doubling this boss" just fine.

Whoa, I was actually back on topic for a moment there. Dizzying.

You can't both be not giving people experience and be having the rest of your army's abilities matter.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Is your argument that EXP is a gameplay abstraction which has no business in the "realistic" interpretation being discussed?

The series almost always handles this off-screen anyway

I'm pretty sure that FE5 has breaks between some of its chapters, because that would be logical. And I'm pretty sure that they don't reduce Fatigue, because that would be merciful. So the evidence suggests that FE characters can only truly rest when they know their comrades are fighting for their lives somewhere else. <_< On a more serious note, I'm perfectly willing to assume that a longer break from combat is more restful than a short one.

BEXP isn't in any game with rankings <_<

Brother man, I am bringing up points related to games I have never even played and casually assuming that you're familiar with any background material or game mechanic that is even vaguely pertinent. You'd better believe I'm willing to assume that you can understand how massive, targeted BEXP dumps are an extreme form of the "overlevel a small team" strategy which is viable, even recommended, in just about every FE... but not optimal in ranking runs.

I prefer to use a specific team, being forced to deploy random scrubs I don't want to use isn't exactly fun.

I don't go into the game knowing who I'm going to use. I mean, that's part of the FE experience, to me; every playthrough is different. Sometimes, units with bad averages get good stat growth anyway. But in order to have a playthrough where some random scrub gets lucky, you must first have a playthrough where some random scrub gets EXP. That's one of the strengths of the EXP rank. It encourages you to change things up a bit. To actually get some mileage out of the the vast, chaotic party that is part of a typical Fire Emblem game, instead of using the same team every time.

It actually kind of annoys me when the game gives me a random scrub and _doesn't_ force me to deploy them; I'd like to give them a chance, but that doesn't mean I want to burn a unit slot on it. (People that are in practice beyond redemption, such as topical Sophia, are another issue entirely.)

it's not asking me to collect awesome stuff and just let it sit in the convoy because it's considered bad strategy to want to actually use your resources

Point of order! It's not bad strategy to use your resources. But it is good strategy to conserve your resources. That way, you still have the resources! If you're so good at making do without that you never actually need to use 'em, then that's damn good strategy. A firm foundation for the new royal treasury!

Nonetheless, it looks like we're not going to be able to reach an agreement on the "I like having to strive to meet multiple objectives simultaneously" versus "I like being able to concentrate on one objective" front.

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Turns are the best metric since they're the only really solidly quantifiable thing to judge by (EXP doesn't even mean anything on its own, same with funds)

But as you're implicitly conceding here, EXP and Funds are entirely quantifiable. It's arbitrary to use them as a standard, but anything other than "beat the game / did not beat the game" is some degree of arbitrary, it's just a question of how many lines we want to draw and where.

The best part is that other factors are pretty much included anyway - if your strategy in one chapter prevented your units from leveling up so much that it slows you down in another, that will end up being reflected in the final turn count

It seems to me that you're saying non-turncount rankings are useless because either they can be converted into turncount, in which case the player should have done so, or they cannot be converted into turncount, in which case they are meaningless. In other words, you're saying that non-turncount rankings are useless because rankings that aren't turncount are useless. I trust you can see why I have an issue with that argument.

If we're equal in skill, then you're not going to maintaining parity, because I'll have used that Speedwings intelligently too, and its bonus will be in play longer, giving me more time to make use of it.

If we're equal in skill and following my assumptions, then we are maintaining parity, because you (like me) would recognize that the immediate benefit from the Speedwings (assumed to be insignificant) is outweighed by the potential benefit of the Speedwings (unknown, possibly significant). In other words, the intelligent approach in this hypothetical is actually to sit on this item.

I fail to see how this is a particularly interesting or enjoyable challenge <_<

I am a born pack rat, and I assure you that I get the warm fuzzies when I see all the stat boosters my supply convoy is lugging around by endgame. I'm not saying I don't believe you, ya dig? I'm just sayin' that you are missing out. >_>

Having to hoard gems in order to maximize FE7 Funds is dumb, though. No disagreement there! I mean, I'm okay with hoarding on general principle as well as to maximize resource fluidity, but gems are literally useless until sold.

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If you pull that off, it's because you're just plain better at the game than I am anyway (or you had great luck with the RNG/I had bad luck), and you'd have finished in fewer turns if you had used those resources.

Not all advantages will be reflected by turncount, though, and I certainly don't like the implication that no other metric has significance. Is it impossible to improve on a LTC strategy in Talons Alight because any success is a 7-turn? Surely not!

The main thing for me is just that it feels like it doesn't make a lot of sense from either a gameplay or a character perspective.

By playing for Funds, you're giving up short-term advantages in return for long-term flexibility, both in and out of universe. Perhaps you give the first Speedwings to Alan while I hold it in reserve; later we find that Lance is one Speedwings short of some important ORKO. I can still get that KO, and if I was able to maintain parity in other departments despite my weaker Alan, then my skills are demonstrably superior.

Now, in order to maximize Funds, you have to never use that Speedwings. Out of universe, that's fine, because it means you have beaten the Never Use That Speedwings Challenge. In-universe, who is to say that you know ahead of time when the final battle will be, and what you'll need to win it? It's best to hold your resources until emergencies, so that when emergencies inevitably happen, you are prepared.

By playing for EXP, you are again maximizing endgame power, by ensuring that your team gains as many levels as possible. In theory, anyway - I agree that deployment limitations and suchlike mean that theory does not always apply to practice, here. You also get some flexibility and whatnot, by having more viable characters to choose from. But a better reason in-universe is that you're supposed to be commanding an army, not picking statblocks from a list. You might only bring a third of the party to deal with the Evil Overlord, but the other two-thirds still need to be ready to hold off his Army of Darkness. Leave some poor kid green the entire war just because the only thing she brings to battle is courage, and she might be going home on a shield. Meanwhile, your top fighters are not tireless, and having them in the thick of battle all day every day is just asking for trouble. Just because only one game has S Drinks doesn't mean no one in the others feels fatigue!

All that said, it is my belief that the primary justification of the EXP Ranking is "discourages people from relying on a small, overlevelled team", and to be perfectly honest I am OK with that. I personally find strategies like "dump a hojillion BEXP on this unit, have them solo chapters" to be repugnant.

And then FE5 has the most coherent system since all it asks of you is to do things that make sense (recruit everyone and get low turn counts), though it has the glaring flaw that to get the best rank you'll have to warp skip a ton of maps.

But those limited criteria are exactly my issue with it! Particularly since I tend to view "recruit all units and keep them alive" as an implicit goal of any non-Shadow Dragon playthrough. (If I ever play FE5... well, I'll recruit everyone at least once. After that I may consider making an exception or two.) That leaves FE5's ranking system with one true goal, and a FE5 ranking run as absurdly overspecialized. In a FE7 ranking run, you're challenged to utilize your resources to achieve multiple conflicting goals as best as possible, to come up with a plan that can fulfill all the requirements and not merely one. In FE5, you're striving single-minded after a solitary goal. Which allows you to achieve laserlike focus, sure, but such single-minded obsession does not interest me.

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I quite like the FE7 ranking style. Yes, it encourages you to do counterproductive things. That's the point! The "Play Through The Game Normally, No Obligations" challenge is not, in fact, a challenge. And while a low turn count run has to figure out how to clear chapters quickly at the expense of all else, a ranking run has to determine how to clear chapters quickly without expending all else. How to get the treasure, kill the baddies, and save the day, all without leaning too hard on overlevelled units and while keeping an eye out for opportunities to give weaker troops their fifteen minutes of fame.

As for arbitrary, well. If you and I both beat a playthrough and our results are similar by most metrics, but I still have twenty thousand gold left over and you're flat broke, then couldn't we say that I have shown superior tactical skill by using less to achieve just as much?

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The next arena after Wendy joins is in Chapter 11 (on Echidna's route only). As Panthera observes, sending Wendy into the arena is risky, so I recommend that anyone who wishes to do so support abuse first. FE6's arena does not take away support bonuses, and entering an "even fight" with something like +3 Atk, +15 Hit and +7 Avoid from A Bors alone can make a world of difference.

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4/10.

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FE3 is a two-part remake of and sequel to FE1. FE2 is a side story taking place in the same world as FE1/3. FE5 takes place during FE4. FE7 is a prequel to FE6. FE10 is a sequel to FE9. FE8 is indeed the odd one out!

What the HELL, FE6?

You didn't mention the horde of bandit reinforcements with two berserkers for backup? I mean, sure, they have uniformly bad accuracy, but all they need is one good hit and -splat-.

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7. I might feel otherwise if I had played 8 first, but I didn't.

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110/110. Booya! In fairness, for at least a dozen answers I was just running through every skill I could remember in the skillset. Mostly Yin-Yang Magic.

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Not really. Because the pro-choice people believe everyone should have to pay for it.

Some of them do, I'm sure. But wouldn't you agree that a simple "the government should make no law prohibiting abortion" is a pro-choice position?

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And for some reason, only Ike and Naesala could hurt him. Boooooo.

Nasir, too. But all your normal dudes are out of luck, which I agree is dumb. Especially since Ashnard has a solid number of converations. (Even gets one with Reyson! Good luck seeing that without having to reset.)

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Just type in "= equation goes here". So if you want Cell A1 to display the product of Cell B1 and Cell C1, click on A1 and then type in " =B1*C1". Except without the quotation marks, of course.

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I'm not trying to say anything at all about this specific incident. If you would prefer a response which requires less interpretation, I will repost the context and then provide a lengthy but, I hope, clear reply.

...because I sure don't want ordinary citizens to be able to shoot me legally merely because they think I might attack them.

But you're okay with the cops being able to do that?

If a person is forced into a situation where they have two choices, "ready your firearm in case you need to defend yourself or others" and "retreat", "retreat" is generally preferable because it is less likely to result in the loss of human life. So the first option should only be chosen when there is a very, very good reason to choose it. "I am a police officer and it is my job to deal with this" may not be a sufficient reason by itself, but it is a good start. In addition, although both hypothetical individuals have had to meet some kind of standard in order to hold the status we assume they have, I have no problems assuming that higher performance is required of someone who wants a badge than someone who merely wants a gun.

In short, given a choice between "anyone armed that thinks you are dangerous can shoot you" and "any police officer that thinks you are dangerous can shoot you", I would prefer the latter by a significant margin.

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What. Nothing gives citizens the right to lynch someone.

And the difference between a lynching and a hanging is whether or not the justice system is in control, correct?

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...because I sure don't want ordinary citizens to be able to shoot me legally merely because they think I might attack them.

But you're okay with the cops being able to do that?

I don't want ordinary citizens to be able to hang me simply because a majority of them think I'm guilty of some crime. I'm OK with a judge and jury having that power. (A massive oversimplification of the justice system, I admit.)

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Ashe, Basch. That way Ashe can cast spells, Basch can hit things, and Balthier can steal. Or whatever.

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So when we get Shinon he has 32 HP, 9 Str, 13 Spd, 9 Def. Whereas, say, Devdan starts out with 36 HP, 14 Str, 13 Spd, 11 Def. In fairness, we might have gotten Shinon a few levels early on, but if we're actually trying to use these units then Devdan has certainly gained a few himself, so let's call that a wash. End result: Devdan is beating Shinon handily, statwise. Devdan.

Now sure, Shinon's growth rates are excellent and he starts out three levels lower. Given time, he'll pull ahead in Speed (even if Devdan gets some help), while catching up in Defense and substantially narrowing the Hp/Str gaps. But the difference between the two scrubs when you start training them is surely larger than the gap when you're done. And if you consider being locked to bows a disadvantage (I certainly do!) then, well...

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So, since a couple people suggested making customized weapons for people, how do you advise doing that? What stats are good to increase?

Max out Might (at +5) and Hit (at +25). Crit isn't really worthwhile, and at the point you're at in the game, -Weight probably isn't relevant to anyone. The Hit isn't amazingly important either, as a rule, but if you're rolling in dough then why not?

Tomes showcase the issues with FE9 forging; check out the price tag on a +5 Mt Light forge sometime. So, stick with forging the relatively cheap Thunder tomes for your Sages, and Soren would probably appreciate it if you could trim some Weight off too.

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Amendment: Forgot that Soldiers can also equip the Knight Ward. And promoted versions of those classes, of course.

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Rhyming with "Bait Myth". I'm sure that's wrong, I just don't care.

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So, the Knight Ward that Astrid had when she joined? It is awesome, remember to keep it around. (Only Cavaliers and Knights can equip it, though.)

I think the "MVP" is the character who scored the most kills in the chapter.

Max out Kieran/Rhys. And after that, Marcia is probably funnier than Oscar and you already got Kieran/Marcia C anyway, so...

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There are two ways to do Prisoner Release, the sneaky way and the smashy way. If you want to try the sneaky way, here is how FE9 handles stealth mechanics. If, at the start of the enemy turn, any of your units or the prisoners are within attack range of any of the enemy Soldiers, then the alarm is raised and you've failed at stealth (but can still win the chapter normally). Otherwise, everything is cool. You can even kill the boss without raising the alarm, as long as you do it without letting the Soldiers "see" you.

If you never set off the alarm, you get a bunch of Bonus EXP. Of course, if you set off the alarm and then kill everything, you get a bunch of EXP the traditional way and the chapter is less of a headache. Your call.

Also, since I don't believe the game tells you this, in an Escape chapter you earn Bonus EXP for every character who escapes besides Ike. So when possible, have Ike escape last. (Actually I think there is a "see what I've done that earned Bonus EXP" toggle in the Options menu, so you might want to switch that to "why does this even default to 'no' " if you haven't already.)

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Chapter 8 has Mia and chapter 5 doesn't, so this is automatically wrong.

Earlygame Shinon beats Mia, not to mention Gatrie who is a Knight in a Defense chapter. I would agree that 8 is harder, but that's because they took away two of your best fighters and gave you someone who struggles to not be the worst.

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I think I'm one of the few people that actually like defense chapters...

I like defense chapters, but I don't like FE9 Chapter 8. It's just Ch5 again with a worse party.

Should I just have him stick with wind then?

I'd pick something to focus on, yeah. Since the three anima schools all have their own weapon rank, spreading out your usage means you wind up getting nowhere in any of them. Feel free to swap around when you see enemies with a type weakness, of course.

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Gameplay tip. Somewhere in the Unit List is a list of which units can talk to which units. When the game isn't kindly hinting who recruits who, poke around in the Unit List and see if it tells you there. (There are some recruitment... hiccups, let's say... despite this feature. But it doesn't hurt to check the thing.)

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I'm just popping in here to say that if you have FF12 play itself, it plays itself according to the instructions that you issue. If the AI throws a potion on a low HP unit because I set it to use potions on allies below 30%, then I'm still the one responsible for any given potion use. The AI's just automating the process.

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I recommend Kain. He'll probably struggle to pull his weight until you find a Storm Gear (a helmet that casts a wind spell when used), but then he can just spam that in random encounters and save up his magic for tough robots and bosses. Even though he's supposed to be anti-mech, his damaging techs also work on "evil" enemies. I think the same is true of Hugh, but Hugh's best damaging tech and his armor are significantly worse than Kain's.

Anna is the other real choice; she has good stats and her slicers hit multiple targets. In fact, you might want to use her for now and only switch to Kain once you actually find a Storm Gear to spam, I think the game has more than one but I do not recall where any of them are. (Or give the first one to Amy so that -she- has something do do and then switch to Kain once you find another, maybe? Eh.) Shir and Hugh are probably best off using Storm Gear forever, meaning they'd be Kain with worse armor and no big damage tech.

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Mrh?

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The nukes caused grievous amounts of civilian casualties. They also forced Japan to surrender quickly and on America's terms, averted a ground invasion which would have been a bloodbath for Americans and Japanese alike, and made the point to the entire world that any country which attacked America was going to regret that decision. The decision to use them was correct, although unpleasant, and I respect Truman for making that call.

I am not ENTIRELY convinced we would have ever gotten involved in a conventional war with Russia

Didn't Russia supply aircraft to the North Koreans during the Korean War? With no nukes, I would expect them to be more overt than that.

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An all-time great President? Tricky. Uhh... broker a lasting peace in the Middle East? That'd be worthy of major props. I would also accept getting Congress to cooperate on increased taxes, reduced spending, and a general buckling-down in preparation for years of paying off our debts. Which is probably more likely, but still a 'fat chance' kind of thing.

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In fairness, it is not "let one baby die", it is "kill one baby".

That said, ending global suffering (and saving uncountably many babies, in addition to nontrivial quality of life improvements and suchlike) is clearly the superior position from a rational perspective.

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I find it hard to disagree with the topic title. Glitz Pit even has Bowser!

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I like Rusty Bucket Bay. Good music, challenging level. But sometimes it does cross the line and go from "challenging" to "not fun anymore". I can see why some people might dislike it for that reason.

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If I remember correctly, War of the Lions added a scene where Agrias gives Ovelia a knife. So the circumstantial evidence supports Ovelia Stabbed First.

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You know, except for the stuff where Ramza clearly develops and progresses as a character, like learning to face trials and responsibilities head on

Yes, he really does a good job in Chapter 4 of living up to the duty that his noble status requires of him. Except not. Family is important to Ramza, but he doesn't care about the duties of his station, and we see that back in Ch1. So what is there to keep him in Ivalice?

Lategame Ramza clearly looks out for his sister as a top priority, and other people in general as a strictly secondary concern. Consider what he does and doesn't do with the Germonik Scriptures. At the end of the game, if he and Alma are alive, then they have just barely escaped being killed by the Lucavi through a holy miracle, plot hole or what have you. It is entirely in character for Ramza to say "I'm going to protect Alma, the rest of the world can go hang". He's already done it more than once.

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My word, how could I fail to see that Ch1 Ramza and Ch4 Ramza are completely different people! I suppose the sprite should have been a dead giveaway, really.

Or maybe they're the same guy at different times, and we can reasonably expect them to have some things in common.

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I dunno. It always strikes me as strange that Ramza would just disappear without a trace, never to be seen again. Doesn't seem like his style.

It seems to me like what he tried to do after Chapter 1.

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There's no consensus. My own perspective is that Ramza is alive, because I think it's more likely that the game pulls a fake-out death followed by a "they're really alive" than for it to kill them and then fake them being alive. (How are they still alive? Zodiac Stones, presumably.)

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