testing and nt and I'll know where to pick off

That's Solide btw.

Topics are easier to work with, so this isn't necessarily for others to see (so if it's tl;dr, don't complain), just to have more orderly responses. Anyway, a few things.

First, and most importantly, you do realize that this is never going to be implemented in debates, right? People wouldn't agree to assuming that no restarts are used, and, even if they did, it'd just make debates frivolous without any real purpose. Not to mention the normal FE player does not play without restarts. You obviously do realize that, so anyway, on to the technical items.

The difference is indeed quite minute. Something such as 1 HP vs. WTA is obvious, as the difference is large. Yes, it requires "testing," but you're taking the definition of testing way too literally. What I mean to say, in its simplest form, is this: if the difference between two things is incredibly small, the that difference must be small. It's fairly hard not to notice a big difference.

50 HP vs. 3 Str. That's a big difference.
50 HP vs. 30 Str.

Now it's not quite so obvious. The difference is smaller, since both sides have big advantages. It's still greater than the difference that we're discussing, however.

For smaller and smaller differences, the issue becomes more and more difficult to see without further insights. Go down to the nitty gritty; 1 AS vs. 1 Atk. Which matters more? You'd have to look at enemy stats. .6 AS vs. .6 Atk. Which matters more? You'd have to look beyond the stats, you'd have to look at enemy deviations, player deviations, etc.

As you get to smaller and and smaller advantages and disadvantages, you have to do more and more testing and analysis.

In this case, it's almost impossible to tell which is greater--the disadvantage of a Lord forcing you to restart your game or the disadvantage of a Lord that's not used forcing you to hurt Tactics (meaning it's an advantage to use that Lord). There are infinitely many questions that immediately arise. And, invariably, the determining factor will be "which Lord has the better stats?" or other advantages. It's not going to change tier lists, and it certainly isn't going to change practical debates.

Then, aside from Lords, this change in "restarts" --> "no restarts" displaces nothing else.

After thinking more on the subject, I also have a qualm with considering restarting as a form of abuse. You cite it as "exploiting the system." Isn't buying things with the Silver Card to increase your Funds Rank also a form of exploiting the system? The game doesn't give you those Funds freely (if it had intended for you to do it that way, then it would have provided the Silver Card in Normal Mode, as well; as it is, the Silver Card is only in Hard Mode, making a Normal Mode Ranking--Funds--much harder than its counterpart in Hard Mode, which makes no sense).

Isn't using the best characters via exterior knowledge also exploiting the system? The game doesn't give you the characters' growths; those were obviously determined by outside sources. All characters have an equal chance of being used, therefore.

There's also a reason why we don't consider RNG abuse or Support abuse. If Character Y has lower stats (or slower Supports) than Character X, Character Y needs to be abused more, which adds a separate factor of "tedium in abusing" that is entirely frivolous. So we cut out the intermediate step and go straight to direct comparisons. It's that simple.

For restart "abuse," it's a similar concept. If one character makes me restart more than another, that's a disasdvantage to that character. The only way it makes any difference at all might possibly be with Lords, but their values are changed so minutely that it doesn't even matter.

For yet another advantage of using the Lord other than what was mentioned: you get another unit. The Main Lord occupies a spot that no one else can occupy. There is indeed a significant advantage to using him, therefore, in addition to what was named.

Another variable, yet again. It's near impossible, and indeed impractical, to place any worth whatsoever on this "no restarts" idea. It's an interesting idea, and I hadn't considered it before, but it just adds a layer to debates that's not only unnecessary but immaterial.

Finally, you left out a lot of the conversation at the end. Not that it matters. I also don't remember the "I respect your opinion" thing since I signed off right after the second time I said I was going to go play FE10, which isn't there either, >_>

This post has been edited by Solide on Nov 19 2007, 07:48 AM

Solid only completes half of the games he plays

*flees*

Debaeting FE >>> palaying FE.

Also, I completed 6, 7, and the NM version of 10. >_> You're right about 2, 4, 8, and 9, though.

This post has been edited by Solide on Nov 19 2007, 12:09 PM

Debaeting FE >>> palaying FE.

Hell no.

Anyway, on topic...

I'm agreeing with Solid here. wtf@not restarting. The survival rank would be the most difficult one, lol. And I'm sure every one of us can make a silly mistake/get RNG screwed thus ending in the death of a character.

The rest is tl;dr

This post has been edited by Jeigan on Nov 19 2007, 12:51 PM

Post something readable please