A few basic questions from a newbie hacker

[Edge of Azure]

I'm just starting out editing FE6 with Nightmare and I have a couple of questions that I hope you folks can answer!

1). How do I edit a character's level?

One thing I hope to do is change Marcus from a Paladin to a Cavalier and, at least for the class, it works perfectly fine. However, even when I set his level to 10, it still has him as a Level 1. I'm unsure as to what exactly needs to be done in order to get it to change.

2). How do I edit Terrain?

The only editors I have found are for FE7 & 8 and I would really like to tone down Thrones a bit.

[Baldrick]

For 1, if you haven't already, use the Army Editor to change Marcus' level in Chapter 1. As for 2, if there's no module, you may need to use a hex editor.

[VincentASM]

For terrain, I would recommend analysing how FE7/8 handles it, then do as WeaponsOfMassBaldrick suggested and get dirty with a hex editor. Chances are FE6's terrain data will be similar to FE7/8's, since they all run from a similar engine.

If you open up a .nmm file in Notepad or something, it will show you the knowledge everyone has imparted, like the hex address to begin, the size of each block of data, etc.

Of course, if you've new to hacking and haven't messed with these files before, it can be confusing where to begin. In which case, you can start by posting the contents of the FE7/8 terrain .nmm file and we can give you advice.

Edited October 4, 2014 by VincentASM

[Edge of Azure]

Thanks for the help so far, the Army Editor worked perfect! I hate to admit, I'm not exactly sure how to get the .nmm file, so any help on that front would be great.

[VincentASM]

You have Nightmare and the Nightmare modules right?

I believe the .nmm files are just the modules. So anything that isn't a .txt (Notepad) file.

Drag them into Notepad or another text editor and you should see some magic : )

[Edge of Azure]

I put the Module into Notepad, but unfortunately, I'm unable to paste the text here and I can't seem to find an option to simply attach the file... Sorry, I don't frequent here super often, so I'm still a bit green about the forums XD Do you know of a way I could post it? Thank you for all the help, I really appreciate it.

[Aleph]

I think Blazer wrote down the tutorial I gave him on finding terrain stats somewhere (after which he followed the steps repeatedly and made the module that is likely the one you found), but either way it involved a debugger.

However, once we found the terrain data, it was in a fairly obvious format, so perhaps you could put some numbers together that represent your estimate of how they are stored and then do a search...which will still require a hex editor. You're going to be doing real hacking either way*, which is fine because otherwise you're not really a hacker, are you?

* Unless you wimp out and wait for someone else to do it

Edited October 4, 2014 by Aleph