Awkward Zombie

A true and meaningful number is spat out at the end. It's just that the number isn't what you think it is. It's not that the number presented is wrong, so much as that number isn't exactly your hit chance, it's the number that the game rolls to find what your "true hit" is.

Say if you have 50 hit; the game rolls that 50 twice, and should the average be 50 or below, it's a hit, and if the average is above 50, it's a miss. The 50 isn't your hit chance, it's the "hit decider" (couldn't come up with a better name, but hopefully that makes sense), while the number that's averaged from the 50's is your hit chance.

Also, regardless of the situation, all of those variables are used to decide the visible "hit decider", rather then the given hit chance. It honestly strikes me as the game designers over complicating the situation, when they could do the more straight forward single RN system.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13239183440B34964700 Alfric's Fire Emblem Liveblog Encyclopedia!

The straight forward single RN makes the game harder than it already is. It wasn't an out of nowhere decision. 6 games of the series*

used the single RN, and these game where. And these where Nintendo Hard.

here's the thing though: you can make a game easier without lying to the player. All you need to do is modify the hit chance algorithm to spit out 30% instead of 40%. Using the same algorithm they already have and then plotting it on an inverse bell curve*

should be enough to shift the numbers where they need to be.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

The lie itself help the player. The AI isn't picky when choosing a target. As long the hit chance is not 0, they will give a shot. Meanwhile, the player likely won't bother unless the chances are high, as every move is precious for them. The lie "reward" the player with better odds then they have thought, making their strategy work smoother then otherwise.

For example, At a hit chance of 90%, the player will likely just assume they are going to hit and be less prepared for a failure. But, in the end, 10% chance of miss is not that low, specially when there is dozens of turns, and many attacks every turn. As such, the player is likely to be caught unaware. So, a '90%' meaning actually 98% helps such situation don't happen as often.

To put simply, the lie reward who are bad in statistic*

. Yeah, rewarding bad play may seems unfair, but it is not like the game is punishing good play in turn. And really bad play is already being punished with the double roll, anyway.

edited 25th Jul '12 11:51:16 AM by Heatth

The way I read it, they are rewarding good play. Someone who only attacks if he has a 90% chance of success is doing a great job and shouldn't be punished with a single unlucky roll. Especially in a game like this, where any bad roll can result in a permanent loss of a valuable character.

Not to mention that without the accuracy boost for anything above 50%, no one in his right mind would use axes.

That makes sense.

In FE, you have to be strategic anyways.

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

These things you say, they are funny.

edited 25th Jul '12 4:19:36 PM by hnd03

So. Let's all pause for a moment to smell what the Rock was, is, and forever will be... cooking.—Cave Johnson

Uh, in what sense? English is not my native language, so I still have trouble actually constructing phrases, I guess they sound awkward. Sorry 'bout that.

In that the AI is incredibly suicidal and occasionally, braindead.

• "My Hit is 75 and her Evade is 95? That comes out to a..."
• -gets out abacus-
• "Negative 20% chance to hit? Hell yeah I'm going for it!"

I'm not actually sure what the AI's exact priorities are, but two things seem to be rated very high

• No chance of counterattack (Clerics, Archers at pointblank)
• Most damage/most chance to kill (Basically anyone with low defenses and HP)

The first one is pretty sensible, but the second one will often ignore statistics. They won't care if there is a 0% chance to hit, they will go for it as long as the damage would be very high or a KO.

edited 25th Jul '12 5:14:54 PM by hnd03

So. Let's all pause for a moment to smell what the Rock was, is, and forever will be... cooking.—Cave Johnson

Don't they also go for Lords?

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

I think so.

So. Let's all pause for a moment to smell what the Rock was, is, and forever will be... cooking.—Cave Johnson

In Genealogy the AI does avoid attacking with 0% hit. Which kinda surprised me when I was playing, really. You can get such a situation in the second map by getting your thief in some woods, which will make the AI to just circle around him and block his path. But, to say the truth, I don't remember them being as "smart" in the GBA games.

But, yeah, the Artificial Stupidity can lead to some hilarious exploits. In Blazing Swords, my favorite "strategy" in the first maps is strip Marcus from his arms. The AI will insist in attacking him, as he can't counterattack, allowing my other units to butcher them. Similarly, in the latter maps, I send the supposedly in need of protection Merlinus and Ninian*

to the front. In higher levels they have incredibly good evade*

the only stats that matter to them are evade related, so they have high grow rate on these ones

so they can go untouched by most minions.

Fire Emblem can be a really fun game.

Reminds me of the FAQ for MegaMek, which explained that MM uses a standard Java random number generator, which supposedly best emulates real dice, but the relevant section of the FAQ was titled "Are the dice conspiring against me?" which amused me.

edited 26th Jul '12 7:50:07 AM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

I remember in Java 1.4 or so, a friend plotted the RNG's results on the x,y and they tended to cluster toward (0,0).

Either he was just doing his graphing wrong (likely), or the actual RNG wasn't all that great.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

Unearthed

^^As it turns out, MegaMek has three choices of RNG, though I think it defaults to the Java one.

^Well, some call Earth "Terra", but still...

edited 30th Jul '12 8:32:03 AM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Funny joke, but kinda wrong headed. Logical now, but not following the train of logic that leads to the other planets as elemental representatives.

"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."

Mars is fire because it is red, of course. No idea about the others, though.

In my language at last, "terra" still also means "earth".

But, anyway, it is only logical to not associate a element to Earth, even if said element is earth. It would give it unnecessary "focus", even if it wasn't the intention. People would perceive earth as an special element.

Also, it is kinda of name the same, anyway. The element of 'earth' is usually meant to represent "soild", "rocks" and such, not our planet itself.

Mostly it has to do with the fact that the Earth is constructed of the elements earth, fire, air, and water, and as such cannot be representative or patron for anyone of them. The elements must then be governed by outside bodies.

"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."

What game is that from?

Likes many underrated webcomics

The original joke is from Golden Sun.

"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."

Man, and here I thought the gag was going to be a joke on how Marids, Ifrits, etc are all put under the purview of Djinn.

Maybe I'm just asking for Genius Bonus-es where there are none...

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I played maybe an hour or two of Golden Sun several years back and I got the joke immediately. >_>

I never even played the games, but I read a Nintendo Power article about them. And I got the joke.

As Narrated By David Hattenborough [sic]

You know, because they're wearing a lot of hats. This one was rather clever, though, hats off.