Shadow Dragon All Character Hack?

[Crixler]

One of my least favorite things about Shadow Dragon is that there are many characters that you can only get if others are sacrificed. There are several problems with this. First and foremost, it bugs the crap out of me. I'm a bit OCD with my characters, and I've gotta catch 'em all. Like Pokemon.

Additionally, all of these characters reappear in FE12. None of them are dead, and it's implied that they all worked with Marth in FE11 (with the exception of Nagi).

So that implies that Shadow Dragon's silly sacrificial requirements aren't even canon.

So I'm wondering if anyone's made a hack for Shadow Dragon that makes the sidequests unlock though some means other than sacrificial victims.

If this has not yet been done, how difficult would it be to do?

I have no experience with hacking FE games, but I might be willing to learn if it isn't anything too intensive.

[VincentASM]

It's definitely doable and probably easy, so long as your new conditions aren't radical.

However, I don't think many people hack the DS games, so you might be stuck for a while.

But anyway, what conditions are you after? How about just automatic (the easiest)? After all, FE12's sidequests might as well be automatic X D

[Crixler]

I'm not sure, I'm thinking maybe having 2 possible conditions, one being the current ones, and the other being beating the previous map in a certain number of turns. Similar to the FE12 conditions, kinda. Or if having 2 conditions like that is difficult, then probably just the turn method, or even truly automatic.

What I'm not as sure about would be the forced sacrifice at the end of the prologue. I think ideally, that would be left in, with the sacrificed character returning later on in another chapter. If I'm not mistaken, it's not explicitly stated ingame that they are killed, right? They could have been taken prisoner. I'm not sure what chapter would be appropriate for them to reappear in, though.

Edit: Oh, I just watched a video of Prologue 4. I forgot that the troops are ordered to kill the one you sacrifice. Still, it doesn't actually show it happen. When the character reappears, they could say something explaining how they survived. The soldiers with Jiol are part of the troops led by Camus, right? I could imagine the decoy's survival having something to do with Camus.

Edit 2: I probably wouldn't do anything about Samson and Arran. Unless someone has an idea of how it could happen in a way that would make sense story-wise. Has anyone ever made any hacks for FE1/3B1 that allow you to get both in a way that makes sense?

Edited February 17, 2013 by Crixler

[Kon]

I'm not a hacker myself, but for the Arran/Samson thing, maybe you could have one of them join up in an earlier chapter and pick up the other at his village, that way you don't have to worry about losing one for the other. They could even have a convo with each other about the feud between their two villages at the end of the chapter.

[Crixler]

I'm not a hacker myself, but for the Arran/Samson thing, maybe you could have one of them join up in an earlier chapter and pick up the other at his village, that way you don't have to worry about losing one for the other. They could even have a convo with each other about the feud between their two villages at the end of the chapter.

I'd prefer if the other one were to join later, as opposed to earlier. Otherwise you wouldn't have a choice between the villages anymore. I'd prefer to preserve that. I do like the idea of a conversation between them about the feud, though.

I also probably wouldn't be altering the whole Tiki & Gotoh vs Nagi choice.

Edit: Or maybe I would. If so, it would probably changed so that you get Gotoh either way, but still have to choose between Tiki & Nagi. Unless you use the Aum Staff, of course.

Edit 2: Are there any guides that could help get me started with this or anything? I looked around, but didn't see anything that seems to be about this sort of thing.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Crixler

[VincentASM]

"Nobody" hacks the DS FEs, so there aren't any guides about this sort of thing. The closest thing is probably the Nightmare modules and documentation written by Blazer (see FEShrine), but I'm pretty sure he doesn't delve into script editing.

If you can grab me a save from Chapter 6, with no enemies left, and right before seizing, I'll see if I can mess around with the sidequest conditions.

TBH, I'm kind of busy, so I don't really want to work on anything that's even mildly complicated, which means I won't be touching the sacrifice or Nagi/Gotoh. I will say it's easy to automatically force Chapter 24x.

As for hacking tips, I'd grab a competent hex editor (I'd recommend Windhex32 for now) and any relevant Nightmare modules and just fiddle around with the modules for now.

[Crixler]

"Nobody" hacks the DS FEs, so there aren't any guides about this sort of thing. The closest thing is probably the Nightmare modules and documentation written by Blazer (see FEShrine), but I'm pretty sure he doesn't delve into script editing.

If you can grab me a save from Chapter 6, with no enemies left, and right before seizing, I'll see if I can mess around with the sidequest conditions.

TBH, I'm kind of busy, so I don't really want to work on anything that's even mildly complicated, which means I won't be touching the sacrifice or Nagi/Gotoh. I will say it's easy to automatically force Chapter 24x.

As for hacking tips, I'd grab a competent hex editor (I'd recommend Windhex32 for now) and any relevant Nightmare modules and just fiddle around with the modules for now.

Hmm, alright. I'll try messing with the modules a bit more.

And I'll work on getting that save file made.

On a mildy off-topic note, when I opened the rom to do this, this happened:

http://i.imgur.com/3bzZ4EI.png

Is there any way to fix that? It doesn't happen for me with FE12. :|

Thanks!

[VincentASM]

Whoa, never seen that before.

What emulator are you using? If it's NO$GBA, it's known to have minor bugs here and there.

[Crimson Red]

I prefer HxD for hex editing and since I don't include any info on script editing you'd have to figure it out on your own (sadly I don't have time to do this kind of thing, much like Vincent). Good luck though

[Crixler]

Whoa, never seen that before.

What emulator are you using? If it's NO$GBA, it's known to have minor bugs here and there.

I'm using DeSmuME. I finished the prologue, and am at the start of chapter 1, and haven't seen that happen again since. So I guess it might just be at that one part.

Alright, I've got HxD now, and I'm taking a look in the game's script folder.

Treading new ground is cool, I suppose. XD

Edit:

In data\script\bmap006.cmb,

"ForceGetCountAllPlayerUnit.ValueGet.ŠO“`‚É.s‚..FlagRegist.ValueRegist.MapLoad.IsInvisiblePlay.SetInvisible.mikata.DisposMoment.first.UnitSetDontPosChange.MapFree.FlagGet.bmap101.SetChapter.AddChapter"

I'm assuming that's what would need to be edited in order to make it load 6x through a different means. Too bad I have no idea what "ŠO“`‚É.s‚.." means. If the random symbols aren't some sort of secret code for the value it's comparing against, then the required value might be stored in a different file. :|

Considering the fact that every sidequest/paralogue/x chapter except for 24x requires 15 or fewer characters, I imagine that's a likely scenario. Let's see if 24x has something different in it's conditions listed...

"IID_FALCHION.AllianceCheckItem.PID_TIKI.ForceUnitCheckPID.ŠO“`•ªŠò‚¹‚¸.SubInfoClear.UnitRemoveAllwithoutHero.UnitGetHero.UnitSetPos.ScrollCenterMoment.FadeInDual.FadeWait.UnitMoveAlpha.CastleSet.MS024_ED1.MS024_ED2.UnitSetBelongAll.FlagRegist..݌ɃŒƒCƒsƒA.ValueRegistSet..݌Ƀhƒ‰ƒSƒ“ƒ\.[ƒh..݌Ƀhƒ‰ƒSƒ“ƒ‰ƒ“ƒX..݌ɗ³‚Ì.‚..݌ɖ‚‚悯..݌ɓVŽg‚̈ß..ÝŒÉ.p.‘.MapLoad.IsInvisiblePlay.SetInvisible.mikata.DisposMoment.first.UnitSetDontPosChange.MapFree.AddChapter.bmap105.SetChapter"

Yup, 24x checks specifically for Tiki and Falchion. Which isn't at all surprising. But again, I don't see any readable reference values or anything. Hmm.

This is from Prologue IV:

"FlagClr.ForceGetCount.%d.MS204_EV8_6.UnitStackPush.MS204_EV1.UnitStackPop.FadeOutDualWait.z01.e02.PID_GOHDON.ScrollCenterMomentByPID.MS204_EV2_1.MS204_EV2_2.PID_EVENT1"

So Norne also uses the ForceGetCount command. It doesn't mention "AllPlayerUnit" this time, though. This time, it mentions what I'm assuming is an event file right afterward, though. Maybe that could be a lead?

Edited February 17, 2013 by Crixler

[Nanami Touko]

On a mildy off-topic note, when I opened the rom to do this, this happened:

http://i.imgur.com/3bzZ4EI.png

Is there any way to fix that? It doesn't happen for me with FE12. :|

Thanks!

Oh, yeah, this error shows up in the newest version of DeSmuME. I downloaded a buncha versions and 0.9.6 seems to work fine with FE11.

[Crimson Red]

You might want to report that to the maker of Desmume so they can fix it, if possible.

Also IIRC the... "event codes" and their actual parameters are stored separately, if that makes sense. First of all, you're looking purely at the ASCII version of the hex, and that prevents you from seeing the values in between; you have to use a combination of both the ASCII text and the hex values to get an idea of what's going on, whilst looking for patterns, doing trial and error, and using basic logic skills.

Furthermore, as I said, the actual parameters are stored elsewhere. You'll have to look a little further/harder, I think, and if you haven't already, you'll likely need to decompress some files.

Idk how much hacking experience you have, but if you're really determined to do this, you should probably learn a little more about hacking first, I think. XP

[Nanami Touko]

Last I checked, someone's already mentioned it. They just haven't made an update yet.

[Crixler]

Ah, alright. I might try out the older version of DeSmuME then.

And yeah, I figured the actual parameters were probably stored elsewhere. I'll start digging deeper, I suppose! And thanks for the tip about looking at the hex values as well. I guess that means I should be looking for "0E" somewhere.

My hacking experience is virtually nonexistent XD I've done some modding for Knights of the Old Republic, Age of Empires III, etc, in the past. But never anything like this.