FEBuilder GBA glitch troubleshooting

[TheKingBahamut]

I'm very new to the process of ROMhacking and fangames, and have only just started using FEBuilder GBA a handful of weeks ago. I'm really enjoying working with it, and it has helped me learn to enjoy a type of game making that I struggled with mightily for years. However, I have been running into a handful of issues with certain parts of the program that I don't know how to work around, and could use some advice from people who are a little more familiar with the program and how it functions. Normally I like to try and sort out issues I run into on my own, but I genuinely have no idea why some of this stuff is happening and feel like I need outside assistance with some of it.

Issue number 1: Text box glitches

This is one of the most common problems I've run into, and one of the ones I understand the least (images of examples below). Every so often, a dialogue bubble will refuse to display properly, resulting in text being absent and making the graphics look jank as hell. I initially thought this was the result of the speech bubble overlapping with a character sprite on the map, but have dismissed that idea on account of it not making sense. I'm also unsure if it has anything to do with the size of the speech bubble, the position of the portrait speaking, or what else.

Issue number 2: Other portrait jank

I'm convinced that the Move command in the text menu has a mind of its own. I've had instances where I attempted to move a character portrait off the screen, only for it to act weird, claim it has erased the character upon moving them, only to either not move the character or not erase them, causing a portrait freak-out. Again, I am completely at a loss for what the issue even is here. Also, I have one instance where two character portraits being erased causes one other character's portrait to decide it wants to turn black like it's about to erase as well, despite there being no instruction for this to happen anywhere in the conversation. (Screenshot of this below)

Issue number 3: Unit movement jank

I have one instance in one of the maps where two wyvern riders and a wyvern lord fly into the map as reinforcements, and for some reason, the wyvern lord moves ten times more slowly as the others in his group. The units movement is all handled by the Unit Placer in this instance, so I can't individually alter the speed at which the wyvern lord moves.

Issue number 4: Boss unit palettes

I have altered the classes of a couple of the earlygame bosses (I'm using Sacred Stones as a base ftr; in the base game the first boss is a Fighter, in my hack he's a Brigand), and in every instance where the bosses' class differs from what it's "supposed to be", the character's unit palette doesn't appear in the game even though I have set the unit palette to the correct class in the palette editor. This is not the case for the second boss of mine, who shares his class (Knight) with the corresponding boss from the original game. Not a game-breaking issue, but still annoying.

Issue number 5: Issues with unit movement during cutscenes

I have one instance in the first chapter of my hack where a cutscene triggers toward the end of the map that causes playable characters to move to different spots from where they ended their turn. When this happens, the sprite of the character who just took their last action stays on the field, running in place (essentially creating a clone of said unit), which while it doesn't majorly affect the gameplay, looks unpolished and really silly. This also happens at the end of another chapter, where the end of chapter story sequence takes place entirely on the map itself, with no portraits-over-background cutscene. This might be something that I can fix by just erasing playable units before the cutscene triggers, but I hesitate to do so as I'm concerned about the game "forgetting" unit EXP gains/level ups as a result of this.

On a similar note, the mid-chapter cutscene I mentioned causes the boss of that map to spawn in, and he when he does, he immediately teleports away from the space I set him down on over to the space where the player cursor last was. Again, not something that massively affects the gameplay, but it looks bad.

One last thing I'll mention to make diagnosis a little easier: I have not updated FEBuilder to its latest version since installing it due to the screwy way that the program handles updates (I.E., making you download a zip file instead of just applying the latest patch to the program immediately, which makes me afraid that I'm going to either have to reinstall FEBuilder, or something else will go wrong and make me lose a bunch of progress on this hack). If any of the issues I've spoken of here are fixed in updates to the program, please feel free to let me know.

Thank you very much.

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, TheKingBahamut said:

I'm very new to the process of ROMhacking and fangames, and have only just started using FEBuilder GBA a handful of weeks ago. I'm really enjoying working with it, and it has helped me learn to enjoy a type of game making that I struggled with mightily for years. However, I have been running into a handful of issues with certain parts of the program that I don't know how to work around, and could use some advice from people who are a little more familiar with the program and how it functions. Normally I like to try and sort out issues I run into on my own, but I genuinely have no idea why some of this stuff is happening and feel like I need outside assistance with some of it.

Issue number 1: Text box glitches

This is one of the most common problems I've run into, and one of the ones I understand the least (images of examples below). Every so often, a dialogue bubble will refuse to display properly, resulting in text being absent and making the graphics look jank as hell. I initially thought this was the result of the speech bubble overlapping with a character sprite on the map, but have dismissed that idea on account of it not making sense. I'm also unsure if it has anything to do with the size of the speech bubble, the position of the portrait speaking, or what else.

First off wow, Serenes automatically splits up quotes if you press enter twice. What the hell!? How long has that been a feature? That's super useful. I was going to go in and do bold replies to all these points in your quotes but now everything looks all neat and lovely. This is a huge development. No more copy pasting and deleting half of posts to make my point clear.

Are you ending all conversation with [A]? I haven't encountered this much, but I did get it once where I didn't see why it was happening at all. Just seemed like one particular line of text I was trying to write was cursed. Having the text bubble point to offscreen while the character on screen was a cheap workaround though. The arrow still pointed towards the character, the only issue was the characters mouth not moving.

10 hours ago, TheKingBahamut said:

Issue number 2: Other portrait jank

I'm convinced that the Move command in the text menu has a mind of its own. I've had instances where I attempted to move a character portrait off the screen, only for it to act weird, claim it has erased the character upon moving them, only to either not move the character or not erase them, causing a portrait freak-out. Again, I am completely at a loss for what the issue even is here. Also, I have one instance where two character portraits being erased causes one other character's portrait to decide it wants to turn black like it's about to erase as well, despite there being no instruction for this to happen anywhere in the conversation. (Screenshot of this below)

Moving off screen requires erasing the portait when they reach the edge. If they're not vanishing then I'd make sure to put down a second erase portrait at (edge of screen position) command.

10 hours ago, TheKingBahamut said:

Issue number 3: Unit movement jank

I have one instance in one of the maps where two wyvern riders and a wyvern lord fly into the map as reinforcements, and for some reason, the wyvern lord moves ten times more slowly as the others in his group. The units movement is all handled by the Unit Placer in this instance, so I can't individually alter the speed at which the wyvern lord moves.

Hmm. Strange that he'd be moving more slowly than the other units of his group. There is a command for the moving with control over the speed. I suggest putting the wyvern lord in a separate troop to his underlings and then spawning and moving him at the same time. Although finding why he moves slower is probably more important. Is this the default wyvern lord class or did you make a new one? It could be that it's a wyvern with a general's movement data, hence moving slower.

10 hours ago, TheKingBahamut said:

Issue number 4: Boss unit palettes

I have altered the classes of a couple of the earlygame bosses (I'm using Sacred Stones as a base ftr; in the base game the first boss is a Fighter, in my hack he's a Brigand), and in every instance where the bosses' class differs from what it's "supposed to be", the character's unit palette doesn't appear in the game even though I have set the unit palette to the correct class in the palette editor. This is not the case for the second boss of mine, who shares his class (Knight) with the corresponding boss from the original game. Not a game-breaking issue, but still annoying.

I've just went and tested this myself and I see no issue with O'Neill's palette turning him into a brigand. His default palette even looks fine for both Fighter and Brigand classes. You shouldn't have to make any real edits here aside from his class. Think you could provide a screenshot?

10 hours ago, TheKingBahamut said:

Issue number 5: Issues with unit movement during cutscenes

I have one instance in the first chapter of my hack where a cutscene triggers toward the end of the map that causes playable characters to move to different spots from where they ended their turn. When this happens, the sprite of the character who just took their last action stays on the field, running in place (essentially creating a clone of said unit), which while it doesn't majorly affect the gameplay, looks unpolished and really silly. This also happens at the end of another chapter, where the end of chapter story sequence takes place entirely on the map itself, with no portraits-over-background cutscene. This might be something that I can fix by just erasing playable units before the cutscene triggers, but I hesitate to do so as I'm concerned about the game "forgetting" unit EXP gains/level ups as a result of this.

Yep, this is a known issue that hassled me for a while too. Can't remember why it appears though, it only ever happened to me in the final chapter of my game. The command you're going to want to use is 

400D0000A5900708    //Force stop the unit currently moving(ASMC ClearMOVEUNITs)
Before the unit who clones themself moves.

10 hours ago, TheKingBahamut said:

On a similar note, the mid-chapter cutscene I mentioned causes the boss of that map to spawn in, and he when he does, he immediately teleports away from the space I set him down on over to the space where the player cursor last was. Again, not something that massively affects the gameplay, but it looks bad.

One last thing I'll mention to make diagnosis a little easier: I have not updated FEBuilder to its latest version since installing it due to the screwy way that the program handles updates (I.E., making you download a zip file instead of just applying the latest patch to the program immediately, which makes me afraid that I'm going to either have to reinstall FEBuilder, or something else will go wrong and make me lose a bunch of progress on this hack). If any of the issues I've spoken of here are fixed in updates to the program, please feel free to let me know.

You shouldn't lose any progress in your hack so long as the game is saved. The program builds the rom itself. So as long as the rom is on your computer you can edit it. You can even edit other people's fan games and check to see how they did things so long as you have the rom. If you're really worried though you can always make a UPS file. These are the instructions to turn a vanilla FE8 rom into your rom hack. I'm not sure what you're talking about in regards to redownloading zip files though. I just hit update and the program updates itself.

Lastly the most useful piece of advice I can give you here is to join the FIreEmblemBuilder discord. The link for it can be found in the program itself by clicking the help section. That'll take you to the discord where the person who created the program frequents. They speak Japanese, but they're pretty willing to help out and there are other users there too who speak English. Any time I've had an issue they've been able to fix it. Fire Emblem Universe is also more of a hub for hacking than ol'Serenes here.

 

[Peebles]

I have the same problem and I have no idea how to fix it. I tried your method, changing up the text, and even using a different source. Nothing worked though