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Valkyria Chronicles PC |OT| May the bloodline live forever

185px-Aged_gentleman.png


I HOPE YOU END UP IN ONE OF THOSE GRAVES OLD MAN

I have done about 10 Skirmishes and yet he won't offer me retreat.
I even bought Sniper Support to get him to shut up.
Now he has nothing to offer me he says.....he must be senile.
He gave me retreat the first time!

Also, I got Vyse and Jann in my initial batch of recruits!

The random number generator apparently loves me.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Well evidently not broken enough for Expert skirmish mode. My whole squad just got stomped by an Imperial scout and shocktrooper...

Ruhm is still broken on Expert skirmish missions. As hard as they are, doing them with and without is night and day.
 

Sectus

Member
I usually don't mind fanservicey stuff in games, but I kinda wish they had designed Selvaria a bit differently. For instance, the second cutscene in chapter 15
which is fairly dramatic with Maximilian giving Selvaria the order to sacrifice herself, gets a bit less dramatic when the final shot of the cutscene is a closeup of Selvaria's large boobs bouncing up and down as she sits down.

Then again, this is a game with a flying pig so I shouldn't really be surprised that the game is a bit ridiculous in some ways.
 
Also, what's everybody's opinion on mid-operation saving? As a FE vet, I feel like it's cheating, but some of these fights go on forever, and the slow animations and zoom in/out transitions don't help. I think I'll try and limit myself to one, maybe two saves per operation, unless it gets a hell of a lot harder later.

If they didn't want you to save mid-mission, they wouldn't have given you the option.
 

Chariot

Member
Ugh, didn't have enough XP to buy the Retreat order and now it's not coming up again, so that's awesome. Also, I managed to get Ramona killed in chapter FIVE. Somehow I've managed to become really awful at this game.
You son of a Imp.

I usually don't mind fanservicey stuff in games, but I kinda wish they had designed Selvaria a bit differently. For instance, the second cutscene in chapter 15
which is fairly dramatic with Maximilian giving Selvaria the order to sacrifice herself, gets a bit less dramatic when the final shot of the cutscene is a closeup of Selvaria's large boobs bouncing up and down as she sits down.

Then again, this is a game with a flying pig so I shouldn't really be surprised that the game is a bit ridiculous in some ways.
Yeah, I found that also very irritating and absolute unnecessary. Who was there at this point in the story and thought "Hm, yeah, I think this scene is missing bouncing boobs."

I don't save during missions I consider it cheating.
Everyone should play as they see fit.
Albeit I fail to see where the cheating is in saving.
 
Everyone should play as they see fit.
Albeit I fail to see where the cheating is in saving.

It's like save-stating on emulators.
I kinda consider it cheating as well, but what can I say. Perhaps I'm just suck at the game and/or don't have that much time to spend (restarting the mission from the beginning).
 

Sectus

Member
I found a good way to handle the mine field in the first mission during chapter 15.

I move an engineer in to disarm mines, but she gets shot down after disarming a couple. I move Jann in to rescue my engineer, and that's when I get a brilliant idea, why don't I have Jann "disarm" the mines?

First mine, Jann goes flying and take a bit of damage. Second mine, Jann goes flying and lands exactly on the camp flag so I can capture it immediately.

Jann truly is the real hero of the game.
819496C9192A484B6A35FC95B0E7087A32FEBC14
 

Falk

that puzzling face
It's like save-stating on emulators.
I kinda consider it cheating as well, but what can I say. Perhaps I'm just suck at the game and/or don't have that much time to spend (restarting the mission from the beginning).

The difference is, speaking purely from a game design perspective, having saves vs checkpoints vs nothing is an intended feature and difficulty balancing takes that into consideration. This is true of virtually any genre of video game.

Save states never are a part of design documents.

That being said I get the impression that VC was designed around not relying on mid-battle saves, even if some of the missions are decidedly long.
 
The difference is, speaking purely from a game design perspective, having saves vs checkpoints vs nothing is an intended feature and difficulty balancing takes that into consideration. This is true of virtually any genre of video game.

Save states never are a part of design documents.

That being said I get the impression that VC was designed around not relying on mid-battle saves, even if some of the missions are decidedly long.

Ah, indeed.
Now I remember it, most strategy game like this have mid battle save system. Fire Emblem, Super Robot Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Ah, indeed.
Now I remember it, most strategy game like this have mid battle save system. Fire Emblem, Super Robot Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc.

Mid-save on tactical combat games seem to be more of a western thing. XCOM, Jagged Alliance, etc. And indeed in those games the whole save scumming vs PRNG seeding issue became its own prolonged topic of discussion and even an acknowledged feature, with Enemy Within actually having an option to turn it on or off.
 
The difference is, speaking purely from a game design perspective, having saves vs checkpoints vs nothing is an intended feature and difficulty balancing takes that into consideration. This is true of virtually any genre of video game.

Save states never are a part of design documents.

That being said I get the impression that VC was designed around not relying on mid-battle saves, even if some of the missions are decidedly long.

Well some of the missions are built around scripted events which can easily screw your mission up after an hour or more, so if you don't have a mid-mission save have fun starting it over from the beginning. Chapter 7 is a notable example of this, you're close to being done and then suddenly it's possible for your whole squad to die in a turn with no warning.
 
It's like save-stating on emulators.
I kinda consider it cheating as well, but what can I say. Perhaps I'm just suck at the game and/or don't have that much time to spend (restarting the mission from the beginning).
Unless you are using it to save scum, how is it cheating? The game feels designed with mid battle saves if anything given the length of battles.

Well some of the missions are built around scripted events which can easily screw your mission up after an hour or more, so if you don't have a mid-mission save have fun starting it over from the beginning. Chapter 7 is a notable example of this, you're close to being done and then suddenly it's possible for your whole squad to die in a turn with no warning.
The idea that you need to restart hour+ long battles if you fail or you're cheating is pretty absurd. It's only cheating if you are abusing it.
 
I played through the game on PS3 without ever realizing you could save mid-battle. Game also didn't really feel like it was made with this feature in mind, there are some longer and some very short battles. If I knew it was possible to save-scum I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.
 

Sectus

Member
Mid-save on tactical combat games seem to be more of a western thing. XCOM, Jagged Alliance, etc. And indeed in those games the whole save scumming vs PRNG seeding issue became its own prolonged topic of discussion and even an acknowledged feature, with Enemy Within actually having an option to turn it on or off.

Jagged Alliance 2 had a difficulty option to turn off saving during combat. X-Com 1/2 allowed you to save and load during combat, but it was deliberately fiddly because the load button wasn't available during combat so you had to quit out first.

I definitely get the impression these games were made with the mindset you weren't supposed to save/load during combat every time something went wrong.

I personally prefer never saving during combat as I like being forced to improvise when things go wrong, but I think the option should be there for the people who like having saves to fall back to.
 

cpooi

Member
Would it be possible to mod in higher res shadows?

Character shadows are embarrassingly low res, though I'm thankful they blur the hell out of the edges.
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Well I was speaking for myself really I don't particularly care if anyone else does it. I usually set some limitations on myself with some games since I feel some things are cheap. (I don't use bombs in shmups.)
 

Sectus

Member
I think it's an interesting design topic about how to best implement it. It's a different genre, but I think Devil May Cry series handles that aspect very well. You have consumables which makes the game much easier, but the game gives you a higher rank if you don't use them. I think they could have done that in VC. Let the player save scum as much as they want, but the more saves you have, the more it'll affect your rank. They could have re-designed the rank system around variables like this, instead of having it be solely about turns passed.
 
I'll also add that having mid-battle saves defeats the purpose of character perma death. I had some characters die in my playthrough of VC because I just didn't want to repeat a long mission that was in general a good run.

Same with Fire Emblem where you have a really good run in a looong mission, several characters level up, you find good loot but then something unexpected happens near the end and one of your characters dies. Now you have to consider wether to repeat all of this or make that character a sacrifice.

There is absolutely zero reason to eat a loss if you have mid-battle saves because you're not going to let anyone die, period. Just reload that save and repeat until results are satisfactory.
 

Durante

Member
I think it's essential for VC to have in-battle saves simply because later missions can take over an hour if you're playing carefully.

In general, I'm for letting everyone save at any time in pretty much any genre. If you abuse it, that's on you.
 
Posing my question again:
are R&D Upgrades for tanks/weapons tied only to Story advancement?

Or do skirmishes, XP gain, EX-missions etc unlock the RnD too?
 

Chariot

Member
Maybe that would be a nice idea for a possible next game. Giving the player the option of a no-save difficulty level that grants an achievement if you beat the game without the ability to save mid-battle. I mean, people can of course still ignore it, but that little extra challenge would surely be nice for those who like to play that way, while the others still can save and load happily. Essentially a Ironman mode
 

Chariot

Member
But that means that
shamrock only gets its full upgrades towards the end of the story :(
.

What is NG like? Extra difficulty with same units and xp?
No, it's the same difficulty for the story, but you have two additional difficulties for Skirmishes and there are things that you can only access in NG+ (The last order of the aged gentleman and a character that only joins once you beat the game). You keep everything you acquired, levels, exp, dct, people, weapons, upgrades, orders, access to everything at HQ, everything. And while you start over with the story, you only have to beat the battles again, it unlocks whole chapters instead of single scenes.
 
NG seems to just be for people who are completionists, and who want to play Hard / Expert skirmishes.
Like me. :D

No, it's the same difficulty for the story, but you have two additional difficulties for Skirmishes and there are things that you can only access in NG+ (The last order of the aged gentleman and a character that only joins once you beat the game). You keep everything you acquired, levels, exp, dct, people, weapons, upgrades, orders, access to everything at HQ, everything. And while you start over with the story, you only have to beat the battles again, it unlocks whole chapters instead of single scenes.

Yeah, definitely beating this game twice and going for only A level wins the second time through. :p
 

Durante

Member
The Hard EX skirmishes are fun because it's the one part in the game where you feel like you actually need those "OP" strategies / end-game upgrades.
 

Chariot

Member
Yeah, definitely beating this game twice and going for only A level wins the second time through. :p
You get the neat [possible spoilers due mission names!] statistics tab where you can see your ranks. On the next page you can also see how many soldiers you savage killed. In the second playthrough you may also play a storymission as often as you like. So don't worry if you botch it.
 
装甲悪鬼村正;139202527 said:
I'll also add that having mid-battle saves defeats the purpose of character perma death. I had some characters die in my playthrough of VC because I just didn't want to repeat a long mission that was in general a good run.

Same with Fire Emblem where you have a really good run in a looong mission, several characters level up, you find good loot but then something unexpected happens near the end and one of your characters dies. Now you have to consider wether to repeat all of this or make that character a sacrifice.

There is absolutely zero reason to eat a loss if you have mid-battle saves because you're not going to let anyone die, period. Just reload that save and repeat until results are satisfactory.
Perma death doesn't really have much of a purpose in VC anyway. I just played through the entire game this week and never had one permadeath, not even counting any reloads.
 

dawid

Member
Read somewhere that you could complete Skirmish #2 in one round and get A-rank. But its gotta be near impossible at 60fps right? Anyone managed it?
 

xBladeM6x

Member
Perma death doesn't really have much of a purpose in VC anyway. I just played through the entire game this week and never had one permadeath, not even counting any reloads.

Especially if you cheese it properly, and only send Alicia, Rosie, or Largo into places where you're sure they might go down since they can't die.

Read somewhere that you could complete Skirmish #2 in one round and get A-rank. But its gotta be near impossible at 60fps right? Anyone managed it?

Yes, can be done @ 60 FPS easily, and in less than 2 mins.
But it's no fun that way. Lol
 
I have never had a perma-death occur due to 3 rounds of waiting between medic save. Rather, the whole retreat/perma deatht hing occured for me when a unit was downed and then subsequently "touched" by an opposing unit... thereby triggering the death.

Even then I never actually had these deaths count, because I failed the mission 1 phase later anyway. If people are getting downed constantly, that usually means I am going to fail the mission anyway.
 

Vashzaron

Member
So I edited my save to get normally unobtainable units... you know what I went for of course.

Chapter 14 Spoilers(? I mean there's a glimpse of "it" in the intro if you pay attention.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfoP1wZrWQ

If the Valkyria's die or try to crouch or do something they don't have an animation for the game will simply softlock, I wonder if there's a way to fix that now on PC somehow. (Because of that I should of set their HP to absurd limits but eh wouldn't have that dramatic ending in the video otherwise. Lol)

I'll prob release a guide on how to do this later. It requires a lot of hex editing tho, especially if you don't want to replace characters. Or/And I'll just release my already edited save of having
Valkyria Alicia / Valkyria Selvaria (DLC) / Selvaria (DLC)

This is all for fun of course, if you want to do this for cheating purposes.... eh.
 

Chariot

Member
So I edited my save to get normally unobtainable units... you know what I went for of course.

Chapter 14 Spoilers(? I mean there's a glimpse of "it" in the intro if you pay attention.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfoP1wZrWQ

If the Valkyria's die or try to crouch or do something they don't have an animation for the game will simply softlock, I wonder if there's a way to fix that now on PC somehow. (Because of that I should of set their HP to absurd limits but eh wouldn't have that dramatic ending in the video otherwise. Lol)

I'll prob release a guide on how to do this later. It requires a lot of hex editing tho, especially if you don't want to replace characters. Or/And I'll just release my already edited save of having
Valkyria Alicia / Valkyria Selvaria (DLC) / Selvaria (DLC)

This is all for fun of course, if you want to do this for cheating purposes.... eh.
So wait, can you create new missions with this too? Or is there a mission where the layout of units look like this?
 
So I edited my save to get normally unobtainable units... you know what I went for of course.

Chapter 14 Spoilers(? I mean there's a glimpse of "it" in the intro if you pay attention.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOfoP1wZrWQ

If the Valkyria's die or try to crouch or do something they don't have an animation for the game will simply softlock, I wonder if there's a way to fix that now on PC somehow. (Because of that I should of set their HP to absurd limits but eh wouldn't have that dramatic ending in the video otherwise. Lol)

I'll prob release a guide on how to do this later. It requires a lot of hex editing tho, especially if you don't want to replace characters. Or/And I'll just release my already edited save of having
Valkyria Alicia / Valkyria Selvaria (DLC) / Selvaria (DLC)

This is all for fun of course, if you want to do this for cheating purposes.... eh.

Valkyria Alicia is not unobtainable. Otherwise why would her Valkyria form have voice work? You have to reach Scout level 20, which you can get by grinding Skirmishes until your head explodes, and then let an enemy shoot Alicia until she's at less than 1/2 HP. This triggers her 4th Potential, which is Valkyria.
 

Chariot

Member
Valkyria Alicia is not unobtainable. Otherwise why would her Valkyria form have voice work? You have to reach Scout level 20, which you can get by grinding Skirmishes until your head explodes, and then let an enemy shoot Alicia until she's at less than 1/2 HP. This triggers her 4th Potential, which is Valkyria.
She does not turn into a Valkyria though, she just takes less damage.
 

Vashzaron

Member
I really want someone to figure out how to add custom maps. If it's even possible.

Well, custom enemy units and positiong is possible too, since PS3 even. Whole new maps on PC now... maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To6DBtNUqFI < PS3

Busard who made that layout is the reason I was able to do edit in these units in the first place, since the save file system on PS3 to PC is almost exactly the same except the header and the fact that it's gone from little endian > big endian. He basically gave me all the values for stuff and all I had to do was find them in my own save file keeping the endian conversion in mind. Skipping the process of "oh man where the hell does the game keep unit information and oh man what does THIS value do." I asked permission for him if I could make a guide on how to do it (replace your own units, replacing enemy units sorry but I won't be doing that lol.) using his information, waiting on that.

So wait, can you create new missions with this too? Or is there a mission where the layout of units look like this?

Skirmish 9, Hard mode.

Valkyria Alicia is not unobtainable. Otherwise why would her Valkyria form have voice work? You have to reach Scout level 20, which you can get by grinding Skirmishes until your head explodes, and then let an enemy shoot Alicia until she's at less than 1/2 HP. This triggers her 4th Potential, which is Valkyria.

I know your joking but the only reason she says anything is because I manipulated her Valkyria potential slot with Ultimate Defense, the game uses the slots on deciding on what line to use and in Valkyria Alicia's case is forced mute if a cut-in happens. (By the way She's also T-posed in that cut-in, but doesn't look so bad unless it zooms out lol.)
 

Knurek

Member
Read somewhere that you could complete Skirmish #2 in one round and get A-rank. But its gotta be near impossible at 60fps right? Anyone managed it?

I just did that yesterday, definitely possible.
(Just do a Shock rush instead of Scout rush - there's too much of a reaction fire going on for Scout to survive).
 

wmlk

Member
I think it's essential for VC to have in-battle saves simply because later missions can take over an hour if you're playing carefully.

In general, I'm for letting everyone save at any time in pretty much any genre. If you abuse it, that's on you.

You're insulting my manhood.
 

soultron

Banned
I'm playing at 144 FPS right now and the Eidelweiss couldn't make it up the ramp in the Ch3 battle for some reason. Does changing the framerate affect physics calculations in this game?

EDIT: just saw confirmation of my issue in the OP. Guess it's back to 60 FPS for me!
 
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