Help needed with Fire Emblem 8 module editing.

[Halvos]

I am trying to give a unit the summoning ability, how ever there are only three entries in the summoning module, all of which are taken.

I want to add a new entry so I can give my character the summoning ability without over lapping or taking someone else's away.

I am also trying to to add a chapter, again with out removing, rewriting, or over lapping an existing chapter.

[Klokinator]

I've never actually tried this before, but I wonder if you can repoint and expand that data. I don't imagine it'd be very hard. I need this for my own hack, so I'll get back to you in the future if I pull it off successfully.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Klokinator

[Gamewhorde]

I've read that FE8 hacking is trickier than others, that's why I'm starting off with FE7. Perhaps you would have better luck with FE7 hacking?

[Halvos]

I've read that FE8 hacking is trickier than others, that's why I'm starting off with FE7. Perhaps you would have better luck with FE7 hacking?

Telling me to give up does not help.

[Gamewhorde]

I'm not saying give up! More like... switch to something that's easier

[Gamewhorde]

Then again I'm a noob to hacking so take my advice with a grain of salt (or a lot of salt)

[CT075]

i'm not entirely sure that adding a chapter is possible

you'd need to repoint the chapter data array, find multiple spare entries in the "Event Reference" table (which is a lot harder than it sounds considering that it is a pointer table to a lot more than just event data), then (this is the only actually difficult part) get it to play nicely with the world map

[Halvos]

i'm not entirely sure that adding a chapter is possible

you'd need to repoint the chapter data array, find multiple spare entries in the "Event Reference" table (which is a lot harder than it sounds considering that it is a pointer table to a lot more than just event data), then (this is the only actually difficult part) get it to play nicely with the world map

How many is multiple because I found two debug maps (I think I can use these, I'm willing to try anyway.) I found an empty space, and the link arena since no one uses that anyway.

Also I hope to make the chapter an X chapter that's not added to the main map anyway.

[CT075]

i mean

if you think you have an idea of what to do, you may as well try it

[Halvos]

I've never actually tried this before, but I wonder if you can repoint and expand that data. I don't imagine it'd be very hard. I need this for my own hack, so I'll get back to you in the future if I pull it off successfully.

So I figured out that by opening the Summon character editor.nmm as a text file.

(right click, hit open, choose to open from list, unselect always open files of this type with this program, choose notepad, open.)

you can change the first three into a four and gain a new entry slot, I haven't seen any negative repercussions of doing this but that does not mean they are not there.

Edited October 16, 2014 by glass124

[Elieson]

/me is pretty sure that you're not actually pointing to actual space in the game when you do that

[CT075]

it will add the entry but i wouldn't recommend doing that willy nilly all over the place

you're far more likely to overwrite something important than to luck out and have nothing happen

[Halvos]

it will add the entry but i wouldn't recommend doing that willy nilly all over the place

you're far more likely to overwrite something important than to luck out and have nothing happen

If you got a better way I'd love to hear it.

[CT075]

repoint and expand, like klok suggested

Edited October 16, 2014 by CT075

[Klokinator]

So, today I discovered I have the incredibly superpowered ability to become invisible...

[Halvos]

So I figured out that by opening the Summon character editor.nmm as a text file.

(right click, hit open, choose to open from list, unselect always open files of this type with this program, choose notepad, open.)

you can change the first three into a four and gain a new entry slot, I haven't seen any negative repercussions of doing this but that does not mean they are not there.

Whelp this didn't work anyway, the entry is there but it doesn't work the way it's meant to.

Anyone know if expanding and repointing works yet?

[Klokinator]

I said it probably would, and cam said for sure it would. In that case, it will.

Do you know how to repoint?

Edit: Blazer says it best.

Note on Repointing: Be sure to add 0x08000000 to the offset and use little endian. I consider this a basic of hex editing, but if you haven't learned it yet or need a quick refresher, 12345678 -> 12 34 56 78 -> 78 56 34 12 is how little endian works (you reverse the order of the bytes, not the digits of the bytes); e.g. for offset 0xD45A40 you would write 08 D4 5A 40 in reverse, being 40 5A D4 08.

Edited October 17, 2014 by Klokinator

[Halvos]

I said it probably would, and cam said for sure it would. In that case, it will.

Do you know how to repoint?

Edit: Blazer says it best.

I've read it on the tutorial about ten times and to be frank, I still don't get it.

[CT075]

tbh when you said you just edited the nmm label file and it worked i'd assumed that you'd tested semi-extensively and that you'd succeeded

i did some more thinking, and if straight expansion both a) doesn't break the ROM and b) doesn't do anything, repointing is probably not going to help you at all. you'd just be creating extra data entries that correspond to nothing in particular; there's no reason to assume that the base game would ever reference this new data (especially considering how specialized summons are - they're per-person, and it's not obvious which character slot corresponds to which summon entry). to make the new summons work properly you'd probably have to figure out how it's determined which summon entry is used based on character slot, then find a way to add a new entry to that check. if you're lucky, it'll be in some kind of easily-modifiable data structure like a straight map or something (i would assume it's some kind of {charID : summonTableID} dictionary if they even went far enough as to generalize it). if you're less lucky, it'll be hardcoded and you'll have to add another branch to the switch statement manually.