randomizer Fire Emblem Echoes Randomizer Tool

[evin]

I know that at this point the FE15 modding/hacking community is basically dead after the no reinforcement patches were released. Regardless, this game has a huge soft spot in my heart. It got me through a miserable summer job as a camp counselor, and I'll always be grateful for that.

One thing that I'm in the stages of starting to code out is a randomizer for the game. There's still a lot to figure out in terms of writing something to patch the romfs, but at the early stages of this, I just wanted to make something that generates random classes so that I can play the game with random classes. I figured that the fastest way to do this run without writing a full-blown C++ application (which I still want to do if there's interest), is to make use of cheat codes as well as write some JavaScript to make a web-based tool so that everyone else could take advantage of! Spoiler alert, JavaScript and web development is outside of my standard programming expertise, so I apologize if my code doesn't run well on some browsers. With the JS that I wrote as well as some exploration and discovery of in-game mechanics, I've done a pretty good job of figuring out the rules for a randomized Echoes run, and some of the possible issues that a run would present. Here are my four big takeaways from discovering some game mechanics:

1. A lot of the enemy/Amiibo classes work WAY better than expected and a decent number actually look pretty natural. I also tested the Amiibo, and all of their classes look akin to the playable legacy classes in Fates (eg. Great Lord, Vanguard, etc.) where it was like your character is wearing Marth's/Robin's/Lucina's/Ike's outfit.

2. The sprite system for this game is so cool! The game seems to use this head-and-socket system for classes where your character's head is put onto the class body (the "socket") to genericize the process instead of making custom sprites and throwing a generic sprite when you can't pull one. So that means characters who you would never expect to see specific sprites for (ex. Sonya as a Baron, Python as an Arcanist, Deen as a Hero) still generate sprites due to how the head-and-socket system works. 

3. Spell lists stay the same for the most part. Some classes suffer some minor compatibility issues (ex. Can't learn White Magic as a Balor), but for the most part spells stays the same.

4. Alm is not compatible with randomization. For some reason, Alm basically loses all playability when he classes into something other than Unknown, Fighter, Hero, and Conqueror. He is unable to break boxes and as a result he can't navigate most dungeons. So, for most runs, you should opt to keep Alm in his normal class progression. It sucks, but luckily Celica doesn't have that problem.

Anyway, here's a link to the tool: Click Here!

You can also find a full writeup with the prereqs and some suggested runs here. (CFW and NTR cheats are required to randomize it with the method I'm using. The specific NTR Cheat is the "All Class Selectable by Class Change" option that will allow you to class people into their appropriate random class)

I still have yet to do a full playthrough to confirm that the game doesn't crash during any story events. I've started a run, and as of now, nothing has crashed, so I think that's a pretty good sign, but I'll update you if anything happens. I imagine that the probability the game itself crashes is minimal, since all the randomized classes exist within the game, but it's certainly possible. Only thing I could imagine happening is that something weird might happen with cutscenes with Alm and Celica. I'll definitely post an update when I make it to that point! Anyway, when I get closer to actually making something to randomize the system, I'll post it.

 

Hopefully some people will make use of this tool! Either way, really happy to be a part of this community and feel like I'm contributing something.

[eclipse]

And wrong subforum.  I'll move it to where it belongs.

[Callie]

Ty. I still don't know how to randomize the rom. I know how to randomize FE:Fate via messing RomFS.

I read all information from the link above which you gave.

Could u guide me a little more ?

[evin]

5 hours ago, Hong Nhi said:

Ty. I still don't know how to randomize the rom. I know how to randomize FE:Fate via messing RomFS.

I read all information from the link above which you gave.

Could u guide me a little more ?

Yeah sure thing. The basic summary of this post is that no one has built something yet that directly hacks FE15 to be randomized like how people have for Fates or the 3DS Pokemon games; I want to eventually write something like that at some point, but in the meantime I hacked together a method to do a randomized run using cheats & this JS tool to generate random class progressions and take advantage of hacked Mila Altars to class characters into their random classes.

Also, I'm now re-reading my post and realizing that it rambles a lot so I'm sorry if it was hard to read. I'm an engineering student, so writing isn't exactly my strength.

 

So in summary, if you want to do a randomized run using this tool here are the basic steps:

1. You can think of a ruleset to play by (I have some in the README I uploaded here. Vanilla Iron Man might be a good first run since it's simple and doesn't change a ton.)  

2. Scroll down on the tool to the "Randomize a Party" section. Use the tool to set restrictions on what kind of classes you want in the class pool (ex. Allowing enemy classes), and then click "Randomize Both Parties" once you're ready.

3. From there, you can save the list to a PDF via print to PDF or copy-and-paste.

4. Start FE15 as normal on Alm's side until you hit the first Mila Altar. 

5. Then, on a homebrew system running Luma3DS or a similar CFW that has the NTR cheat library, enable the "All Class Selectable by Class Change" cheat, and change everyone's class to their tier 1 starting class as dictated by the randomized class set.

6. Save the game, and reboot without cheats (A lot of games on CFW randomly crash with ARM exceptions when you run cheats).

7. Play through as normal, until it's time to change the character's class again or you recruit a new character who needs to be randomized. Either way, you'll need to use the Mila Altar hack to change classes again, so follow steps 5 and 6 to change classes to the randomzied class, and then go back to playing.

 

I know that overall this is far from perfect, but for the time being this should allow you to play Echoes randomized with minimal hiccups until something gets made.

[Callie]

Sorry for delete all ur texts in your quote. I understand now 🙂 . 

17 hours ago, evin said:

I know that overall this is far from perfect, but for the time being this should allow you to play Echoes randomized with minimal hiccups until something gets made.

Nah. It's good though. It is what I usually do in Excel. Hlookup,vlookup.random v...v.... :=)) Manual way to randomize Fire Emblem Awakening. Cause I haven't find FE:Awakening Radomizer yet.

[evin]

12 hours ago, Hong Nhi said:

Sorry for delete all ur texts in your quote. I understand now 🙂 . 

No worries, glad it makes sense!

12 hours ago, Hong Nhi said:

Nah. It's good though. It is what I usually do in Excel. Hlookup,vlookup.random v...v.... :=)) Manual way to randomize Fire Emblem Awakening. Cause I haven't find FE:Awakening Radomizer yet.

Yeah lmao I did the same thing as well, I first made an excel document with a Visual Basic script to randomize, and then thought 'huh, some people might actually want to do the same thing that I'm doing right now. Why not make a web app?'  Also, AFAIK there isn't a proper FE13 randomizer yet, but I think some people like Faerghast have had people design pseudo-randomized runs for them, so it's random in the sense that the player doesn't know what's going to happen when they play it, but the other guy who hacked in the starting skills/classes knows exactly what's going on and setup the run in a scripted manner.

[Callie]

1 hour ago, evin said:

yeah lmao I did the same thing as well, I first made an excel document with a Visual Basic script to randomize, and then thought 'huh, some people might actually want to do the same thing that I'm doing right now. Why not make a web app?'

haha =)) same thoght. I think we have a same taste to make the game more enjoyable to us.

 

1 hour ago, evin said:

Also, AFAIK there isn't a proper FE13 randomizer yet, but I think some people like Faerghast have had people design pseudo-randomized runs for them, so it's random in the sense that the player doesn't know what's going to happen when they play it, but the other guy who hacked in the starting skills/classes knows exactly what's going on and setup the run in a scripted manner.

Yes. I watched Faerghast FE:Awakening Randomized Walkthroughs till end. I think the same. I think it is good, though. 🙂 .I think it like "Pick My Edit" or also called "PME" walkthoughs which Mangs usually posted.