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Lamia

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Posts posted by Lamia

  1. If someone wants to offer help for free, that's their call. I'm sick of working for less than minimum wage for something I spend hours on only to have it go nowhere, and that seems to be what most want. Most spriters of quality I know spend at least 5 hours on just a mug, and even in the land of "minimum wage is not a living wage" America 5 hours of work nets to 35 dollars. And pretty sure most contract artists do more than minumum wage. It's harsh, but we gotta feed ourselves, too. Too often I just feel that people treat artists more like robots that crank out art than human beings with their own life and own needs. Maybe I'm just too jaded but this is what it feels like in reality.

    aha, I can see where you're coming from with this; I'm an artist and I feel the same way

    and although I draw and produce lots and lots of free stuff, it does feel like a thankless, mostly payless job in entertainment, and for something as niche as fire emblem stuff I can see how it could be very much worse, so passion has to play into it too, and as someone before mentioned, seeing what you do go to waste has gotta be a killer

    thankfully, for my own projects, I can do absolutely everything myself (maps, event coding, graphics, mugshots, writing, etc) so I feel I'm lucky in this respect, not to say I'm better than anyone else or anything.

  2. Did I ever give you a link to all the binary uploads and research I've backed up over the years? I had mentioned it in some commentary I had for your demo you posted a while back, but I don't think I ever got around to sending it.

    don't think so

  3. hey guys I have some more stuff for you

    I figured out a couple useful patches and junk from the binary folks' research, so I renamed the patches to something readable

    binary tools (10MB) https://drive.google.com/open?id=15LJQ1k5x-jS6EERUgdH83_HwTn7IW1wE

    note that I haven't renamed everything I found in the old archive (I tend to not use patches experimentally if I can't read what they do, and some stuff I didn't bother with, aka laziness)

    most of these patches and stuff are simple tools and changes, so they won't conflict with one another or j2e's patch; if they do, they'll probably require some repointing... I also haven't used each of these tools, so I can't vouch for the usefulness or working order of such, but if I mark them as 'safe', they're just fine to insert for any patch as far as I know

    I've likely repointed things here and there for some that I've used, and since I can't remember exactly all I've done, USE THESE WITH CAUTION AND MAKE BACKUPS.

    [spoiler=FE4 Binary Tools]battleanimation

    various notes for coding battle animations

    CRTdisplay

    displays critical hit ratio during realtime battle, replacing the LEV (level)

    - NOTE: may cause criticals to always activate and wrath to not work; I fixed it but I need to figure out what I did again...

    expformulachange

    I think these are notes on how to change the experience given for killing certain classes (didn't use, not sure how it works)

    fe4-5music

    adds the five battle themes from FE5, replacing the codes 9B - 9F with Attack, Defend, Boss, vs. Leidrick, and vs. Beldo

    use it with the battle music editor like me

    FE4gfx

    a lot of various graphics and data made by various people ready for insertion to FE4

    *fe45_comp*

    graphics compressor AND decompressor, highly valuable.

    FE45gfx

    a lot of portraits, some from other FEs, some custom improvements and the like, etcetera

    FE45newrealanime

    some sprite data of FE5 sprites for inserting to FE4

    FEcompress

    graphics compressor, not sure if it's much different from the other, but more is always better

    introtext

    decompressed intro graphics

    lord-patchesnotes

    a lot of patches and notes from a user named 'Lord' who has a fair bit of documentation on various things, basic and advanced

    NPC - realtime

    forces NPC battles into realtime animation

    - safe to use

    playerautoequip

    supposed to make it so that the player can also cheat like the enemy and auto-equip weapons if attacked at a range they can't reach

    - I haven't used it and it may cause data conflicts/not work/other problems

    rangefix

    I think it removes the 'immobile' movement that the game forces on units that use long range weapons and staves, but as a tradeoff you can't see the range

    - I haven't used this so I don't know if it works

    strengthmagicweapon

    allows you to make physical weapons do magical damage, or magical weapons do physical damage, and causes damage from and to the appropriate stats (was useful in my hack)

    - add 10 (hex) to the weapon type in the item editor to utilize the opposite damage type

    - this patch has some coding that may mess up how the emulator displays the game; a problem which my hack has, as far as I know, in ZSNES at least, using an older version or unchecking 'use new gfx eng' will prevent such oddities

    swordskills

    sword skill patches, all of which allows any weapon type to use the sword skills

    A: enables sword skills usable by anyone

    B: A + flare replaces light sword

    ๐Ÿ˜„ A + aether replaces light sword

    weaponDrank

    adds a D rank for weapons, pretty simple, holy blood will also raise the rank from it properly

    - don't forget to change the nightmare module ranks and every single class/item to reflect this change

    weaponweightpatches

    makes it so strength = build, meaning weight reduction

    - there are also some other calculations you can use, along with magical weapons using magic as weight reduction

    classchangelv1

    promoting returns units to level 1

    - I haven't used this patch

    criticalshake

    changes how the screen shakes in realtime battles for criticals, the readme has an address you can modify to play with it I think

    - safe to use

    fe4-5statscreen

    adjusts how the character/class names and icon is shown on the statscreen: class icon in the corner then the name, with the class name under it, personally I think FE5's looks better too

    - safe to use

    npcenemydeath

    lets enemy units scream on death

    - have not used

    portraitcolorsfull

    this patch is also in my portrait insertion guide, but I'll put it here too

    it makes it so the full palette can be used for portraits, rather than one color cut off

    - safe to use

    Notes:

    compressedspriteaddresses.txt - the address locations of compressed graphics for portraits, map sprites, battling map sprites, and battle animations; contains some from FE5 too

    gfxlocations.txt - miscellaneous compressed graphics locations, including menu text, intro stuff, title screen, village backgrounds, battle animation sprites for weapons, magic, and backgrounds, etcetera... including the Nintendo logo

    item sprite addresses:

    198925 - item animation tile headers
    198A1F - item animation tile pointers

    use this above info to possibly insert your own

    think that's it, enjoy, hopefully the 3 people that hack this game will find it useful

    and of course, if you need help don't hesitate to ask here or the questions board

  4. I think the 'priority' setting for a track can be set to where it doesn't cause a fade-out when a battle starts so that could be somewhere to start (though I dunno much gbafe stuff so can't be sure)

    I dunno if that actually works though

  5. I also vouch for events being harder than actual programming

    try event coding in FE4 where there is seemingly innocuous reference data of varying lengths in places way off in another part of the ROM and sometimes don't even have a starting code for similar events

  6. oh wait I think I know the problem, there was something I forgot to mention

    in FE4, one of the colors of the palette on statscreens is used as part of the outline, in order to blend into the background better

    there was a patch for this, my bad, facepalm. this will fix it

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xPfW7mfw2D5Yjernw16f3JFZAd3c8ZlS

    ย 

    The Readme

    ้ก”ใ‚ฐใƒฉใƒ•ใ‚ฃใƒƒใ‚ฏใฎๅ…ฑ้€šใƒ‘ใƒฌใƒƒใƒˆใ‚’่งฃ้™คใ—ใ€15่‰ฒ็›ฎ(0E)ใ‚’ไฝฟ็”จใงใใ‚‹ใ‚ˆใ†ใซใ—ใพใ™ใ€‚

    1-432ๆฐใฎๆ›ธใ่พผใฟใ‚ˆใ‚Š

    432 ๅๅ‰๏ผšๅ‰542 ๏ผš04/10/02 16:03:55 ID:???
    ใƒˆใƒฉ๏ผ—ใ‹ใ‚‰่–ๆˆฆใธ้ก”ใ‚ฐใƒฉ็งปๆคใ—ใฆใ‚‹ไบบใธ

    ๅ…ฑ้€šใƒ‘ใƒฌใƒƒใƒˆ(0E้ƒจๅˆ†)ใฎ่งฃ้™คๆ–นๆณ•

    9A383: F0ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€โ†’ใ€€D0
    B8574๏ผš9F D7 55 7Fใ€€ โ†’ใ€€EA EA EA EA
    BD980๏ผš8D 5C 02ใ€€ใ€€ใ€€ โ†’ใ€€EA EA EA
    16CCD5๏ผš8D FC 01ใ€€ใ€€ โ†’ใ€€EA EA EA
    16CD04๏ผš8D FC 01ใ€€ใ€€ โ†’ใ€€EA EA EA

    ใ“ใ‚Œใงๅ…จใฆใฎ็”ป้ขใงๅ…ฑ้€šใƒ‘ใƒฌใƒƒใƒˆใฏไฝฟ็”จใ•ใ‚Œใชใใชใ‚Š
    ใ‚ฐใƒฉใƒ•ใ‚ฃใƒƒใ‚ฏๅ€‹ๅˆฅใง0E้ƒจๅˆ†ใฎ่‰ฒๆŒ‡ๅฎšใŒใงใใ‚‹ใ‚ˆใ†ใซใชใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚
    ๅ„ๅ…ฑ้€šใƒ‘ใƒฌใƒƒใƒˆใฎใ‚ขใƒ‰ใƒฌใ‚นใ‚’็™บ่ฆ‹ใ•ใ‚ŒใŸ็ฅžใจๆŽฒ่ผ‰ใ—ใฆใใ ใ•ใฃใŸ็ฅžใซๆ„Ÿ่ฌใ—ใพใ™ใ€‚

    as the above description says, those are the addresses that are changed in the patch, you can do it with the patch or just manually if you want to, either way it will have no effect on anything else in the ROM so you can use it on any of them

  7. I never played it but it seems like despite mapmaking tools for FEs being made, all the japanese hacks for every game tend to consist of just reskins and fake difficulty (I have yet to see one with custom maps)

    well I guess one positive thing is that there are more of them? (I guess)

  8. hi folks, I'm gonna teach you how to insert portraits into FE4

    so here's a step by step guide, pay attention class


    1. First thing you need is a portrait, and the size of Jugdral saga portraits are 48x64. For this tutorial I'll use a picture of my furry kitten OC, Lamia.

    MI983sv.png

    EDIT: Consult this post later on in this topic about a palette fix required for portraits as a very important first step:

    http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=43520#entry2683698


    2. In order to format it correctly for insertion and to make the mouth movement accurate, this is what it needs to look like:

    pGjIFrv.png

    It's much the same as GBA portrait insertion, although that's automated now

    Here's a guideline to where the mouth is replaced:

    r125xFU.png

    Follow these above examples in order to prepare it for inserting. Once you have it correctly set up, save the portrait as a .BMP image type, as a later step requires it.


    3. Download this makeshift ROM file (don't worry it's not an actual game, just a placeholder thing to help portrait setup): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sRawpsb7M0UJHDd7DjQ5Qs4MI9JTCpo1

    The above ROM is set to be just the right size to fit your portrait.

    Grab your favorite SNES graphics editor (YY-CHR, Tile Layer Pro, etcetera) and check for the Import Bitmap feature, choosing your portrait. The editor should be set to SNES, 4BPP.

    Once it's in, make sure you actually DO have 16 colors, and that the FIRST color in the palette is the background (black in this image). Don't worry about correcting the colors in the editor, since you'll need to adjust the palette of it in the ROM itself.

    If all 16 colors are registered but the background is using the wrong color (this happens to me in TLP), save it as an SMC and use YY-CHR's color-swapper tool for a quick fix.

    If you have trouble getting all 16 colors in (like, one or two are missing) then convert the BMP to a 16-color format with something like a GIF editor/animator like GIF Movie Gear. It will save BMP files to the minimum amount of colors, while preserving said colors unlike MSPaint.

    Once you have it set up, save your portrait as an SMC file (SNES ROM). This will make it ready to compress.


    4. Speaking of the compressor, this is what you need: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oGKii9yT5Y3weA__l-dqPEZS-frGF3wp

    Contained within is a compressor for FE4 (and also FE3 but I don't have data on that) along with a readme. You don't need to have your portrait in the same folder as the program.

    If you have your SMC file of your portrait ready, all you have to do is drag your portrait's ROM onto the 'old' or 'new' FE4 compressor. I think the only difference really is that the newer one uses slightly less space, but I kept both of them in the zip in case of errors and whatnot.

    This will create a yourrom.BIN in the same folder as the file you dragged onto it. This BIN contains your compressed portrait data.


    5. Refer to this data I stole from the FE4Binary collection:
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yFCE-AASWIUxg0zlSO3mQhuRxFjWcZdM

    This contains all of the addresses of portrait data in the (headered) ROM. The numbers counting up are the reference, which is then used in the Portrait Pointer Editor in Nightmare. 00 is Sigurd, for example.

    The first address is the location of the compressed data. Sigurd's portrait is at A67B5. Now, open your portrait's BIN file in your hex editor of choice and copy all of the data. Find a portrait you want to replace (Sigurd in this guide), make sure you don't overwrite the next portrait, and replace one portrait's data with your own.

    Now, save the ROM, and open it up in your emulator to check if it loaded properly.

    S81E5ck.png



    6. If you're successful, now's the time to change the palette. The second number in the portrait data list is the palette; Sigurd's is at CAA00. With this, all you have to do is figure out what is colored by what, and change it to the appropriate 256-color byte pair. Each single color uses 2 bytes.

    I personally use GBA Color Picker in order to match the colors as close as I can. To make a certain color in the palette more visible, I recommend setting one color to FF00, which turns it into a bright red, making it way easier to detect and find out what color it needs to be. Additionally, make sure that when adding your colors, the two bytes are switched around in the ROM.


    7. After toiling around with that, along with all the testing and reloading, you should slowly see your portrait come to life within the game itself.


    8. Eureka! Enjoy your inserted portrait.

    edBxclK.png

  9. Was there a decomp included with the Twilkitri source files for the patch he put together? If not, have you looked into J2E's old translation work? You may find something helpful there.

    I don't think I saw one but I managed to decompress it anyway

    fe4text2.png

    although it's kind of pointless to just rip this text since FE5 uses the same exact set (plus more) and it's uncompressed

    still, compressing it again with your own text could be handy

  10. I... have no idea, because by default all items are tradeable, so idk how I'd do a check for not tradeable. Well, I guess I could just try to code something in whenever an item is normally selected for trading, but it'd be kinda tough.

    So I guess it'd be possible but it'd be a long/hard hack.

    would there be a way to work something from the tutorial events that prevent trading certain items? or is that too different from what would be possible

    don't mean to ask too many questions

  11. would it be possible for you to add a binary option for item data (one of the unused 'weapon abilities') that will prevent the item from being traded (along with possibly a popup text to explain why it's untradeable but that's optional)

    even though I should still be working on my main hack this would be useful for an idea I have for a future FE7 hack

  12. dialogue text graphics in FE4 are located from $128200 - 14B340, view them in GB mode in the editor of your choice (I use tile layer pro)

    [spoiler=sample]fe4text1.png

    menu text is compressed but according to this https://www.dropbox.com/s/xem5ayipcwla5pw/fe4enc.txt

    it is located from $C2B - 1B7B

    now only if someone around here could write a decompressor (for more than just text use), I found a re-compressor but not a de-

    and also menu text is all in shift-JIS

  13. I've added an important feature in my hack that requires high versions of ZSNES to disable the 'Use New GFX Engine' setting in the options, else there is visual glitching on the emulator (not the ROM)

    the glitches also happen in the latest version of SNES9X but I'm not familiar enough with the emulator to know how to fix it

    hopefully it's not too much a hassle for you guys (the feature is easily undone if it causes more problems)

  14. as most of you probably don't know (since you don't play it or hacks of it) I'm working on an FE4 one, here's some random recent progress screenshots

    FE4akanesim_00072.pngFE4akanesim_00075.pngFE4akanesim_00076.pngFE4akanesim_00077.png

    I'm doing my best to improve upon the original game by having more interesting map layouts, classes, items, and other stuff

    one thing that's (arguably) easier to do in this game is program in new magic animations, I even created a whole new element (water) which works pretty well, and I've changed just about all of them

    as for a simple explanation of the story of my hack, it's simply a bunch of folks that get together to play an online virtual reality RPG conveniently called Fire Emblem (if you've ever read half prince, it's like that, love that manhua)

    however, something starts going wrong and lamia lazily investigates it

    since there's limited data for FE4, event changes are minimal and/or repurposed so far, and obviously I do not know how to add more chapters or if there's even space for it (I don't know how to expand this ROM without breaking it, SMC is a little different if I recall, but if anyone does lemme know)

    oh yeah, most importantly, there's a weight-reduction system in place, working on half strength or magic depending on the weapon type equipped, keep it in mind

    things to do:

    - finish programming in remaining new magic animations

    - hire someone to convert portraits that I draw into sprited mugshots (I really can't sprite that well)

    - work on chapter 4 map

    - BALANCE!

    - delve deeper into the japanese research and patches (have uncovered quite a lot in my travels which at least five or six of their patches have been applied)

  15. I'm not quite bold enough to try writing completely custom events for a chapter until I can figure out a couple more things like the location of extra chapter data pointers, but I've sorta figured out a few things and have overwritten one or two, but never directly changed much

    I'm hoping that I can work a couple things out by the final chapter since there's important plans for it (it will be pretty epic)

  16. About to give it a spin! Been waiting to play this hack ever since I came across it on YouTube a while back ago. You and Shin really inspired me ot start hacking FE4 for my personal enjoyment.

    Maybe one day FE4 and FE5 will have an English speaking hacking community, ha ha!

    wouldn't that be nice, we could finally start working on what the japanese have done like 3-4 years ago

  17. Um, I can't beat chapter 1 now, because Lorena decided to not pursue Elliot.

    You should probably fix that.

    second chapter you mean? did he run right past them

    think it's happened to me before, I can fix that

    edit: patch updated, it will adjust his group's spawn points

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