Nightmare problems

[Inui]

I just lost 20+ hours of work on an FE7 hack thanks to this shit garbage problem. I managed to edit FE6 after many times of Nightmare destroying it, but I found out what caused it, and it was changing weapon levels. Any weapon level changes caused weapon rank ups during animations or promotions to freeze the game. I don't know why something so minor would do that. A lot of other shit destroyed (and I say "destroyed" because you once you save, the damage can never be fixed) the ROM, including changes to bosses stats, especially Idoun.

Now, with my FE7 hack, things were going very well for a while. I could even change weapon ranks and didn't have the same freezing issues as I did with FE6. Yay! Then I try my first promotion during battle prep, which was Legault to Assassin before starting Chapter 24 Linus. The game reset itself. Okay...easy enough to get around by promoting him during the actual battle. I thought it may have been the game being mad at a Fell Contract existing.

Then I get to Merlinus's promotion before Chapter 25. The game resets itself during it. There is no way around this. I have no idea what could have caused it. All of my changes were to stats, growths, weapon levels, enemy growths, enemy weapons, and Tactics rank requirements. I didn't make any significant changes.

Why can't I find a listing of glitches this program has? Clearly there are things that should not be touched. There needs to be warnings so people don't destroy their ROMs. Surely the creator is aware of these glitches, no? I just feel really fucked over here. Does anyone have a list of things that destroys ROMs with Nightmare?

[Klokinator]

Just out of curiosity, did you edit the rom at all with FEditor too? And are you using NM1 or 2 currently?

[Inui]

No. Only Nightmare.

2.

[Klokinator]

Keeping in mind that Nightmare 2 is a -free- program that the creator put many many many hard devoted hours of his life into, he may not have known about some of these bugs, or he may have forgotten them, or any number of things may have happened. There's a bunch of docs in the download of NM2 itself and while none of them are comprehensive bug notes, it's likely he may simply not know about them. Also, NM2 was discontinued in favor of working on NM3, and while I have yet to see any progress on that, if he ever picked it back up it'd probably be far more complete.

Also, FE6 hacking is shitty in general. I just discovered that myself.

[Inui]

Everything I did in the FE7 hack, I already did in the FE6 one and confirmed no failures. It's bullshit that such a simple thing as changing weapon levels could destroy it and it not being listed. That's one of the first things any hacker would change.

Free or not, the program has destroyed countless hours of work on me at this point over minor changes. It's a complete failure and I'm pissed. There were no warnings.

[dondon151]

make your own ROM editing tools then

seriously, who relies on the work of others?

Edited June 25, 2013 by dondon151

[Klokinator]

Hacking in general sucks and is unpredictable that's why I prefer FEXP

I had many hacks die on me because of silly things like that. Always keep backups. Also, are you saying that weapon level changes in FE7 broke the game? I can almost guarantee that isn't the error because I've changed weapon levels and so have hundreds of other hackers with no negative repurcussions. If you mean FE6, then it's a possibility.

[eCut]

Just as a general thing, you should always keep a bunch of back-ups when hacking for this very reason.

Edit:
Klok beat me to it. :E

Edited June 25, 2013 by eCut

[Inui]

I tested all the known problems I had with FE6 hacking before I began the FE7 one. None of the FE6 problems carried over. I figured FE7 was safe. ~_~

[Book of Ereshkigal]

With hacking you shouldn't really assume anything. Backups. Use backups always. I don't even do anything and I keep multiple backups of regular stuff XD

Edited June 25, 2013 by L95

[shadowofchaos]

Hacking in general sucks and is unpredictable that's why I prefer FEXP

*Takes another shot*

I'm gonna die from Yoohoo at this rate.

As a word of advice, Inui, Nightmare's "glitches" as you put it seem to be primarily due to your lack of documentation and backups.

As a computer scientist, I realize that not everyone is trained to have the mindset of a programmer, but blaming it primarily on the program itself with a lack of knowledge about the subject will not get you the help you want.

If you have "tested" all the known problems, provide us with screenshots, patches, and your methods because taking your word for it isn't something ROM hackers usually do.

Edited June 25, 2013 by shadowofchaos

[Book of Ereshkigal]

But klok what about FEXNA

And even if they did test all of them there is always the chance for something unexpected, never assume you know all the glitches that come with editing something.

[CT075]

there's some doc on the routine in question (i don't remember if i logged the solution but it's in the DoF thread somewhere if you care to look)

[AstraLunaSol]

yeah that happened to me as well, so it is a nightmare error huh

i think rey found the error somewhere, no idea where it is anymore

i'll look through my docs to see if i can find it later

it just has to do with a couple bytes being edited and it fucked up promotions

dunno what the cause is but there is a fix

Edited June 26, 2013 by AstraLunaSol

[shadowofchaos]

yeah that happened to me as well, so it is a nightmare error huh

i think rey found the error somewhere, no idea where it is anymore

i'll look through my docs to see if i can find it later

it just has to do with a couple bytes being edited and it fucked up promotions

dunno what the cause is but there is a fix

Yes, I found it.

But the thing is, looking through your stuff, it was one byte that got changed. ONE FREAKING BYTE, IIRC.

If Nightmare causes it, why the hell hasn't it been rampant to anyone who changes weapon levels with it?

[AstraLunaSol]

No idea dude, but it sounds like the same problem I had.

I'm not on my hacking comp so I'll have to look though docs to see if I have it.

If I don't then hnng.

[Crimson Red]

Deep breath. Relax. You can do this.

How did the "data" get destroyed? Is it still there, but is it just that the game is unplayable and that's why you "lost" that progress? If so, don't fret. You can try to copy/paste the data back into a working copy. If the changes are there, they can be salvaged bit by bit, though it may take time. Back-ups always help with these. If you have a back-up before the issue and after the issue, you can use NUPS patch creator and patch diff to see what might've changed that isn't what you expected or something. I have several GBs of back-ups, they're super useful. Saved me multiple times from having to restart a like, 50+ map hack several times.

[Celice]

Deep breath. Relax. You can do this.

How did the "data" get destroyed? Is it still there, but is it just that the game is unplayable and that's why you "lost" that progress? If so, don't fret. You can try to copy/paste the data back into a working copy. If the changes are there, they can be salvaged bit by bit, though it may take time. Back-ups always help with these. If you have a back-up before the issue and after the issue, you can use NUPS patch creator and patch diff to see what might've changed that isn't what you expected or something. I have several GBs of back-ups, they're super useful. Saved me multiple times from having to restart a like, 50+ map hack several times.

That's exactly what I would advise. As long as the program you were using wasn't rearranging where data is stored in the ROM, you should be able to just copy and reinsert ranges of modified data from your corrupted project into a clean ROM. As long as you were keeping aware of what, exactly, it is you were editing. If you are absolutely sure that editing weapon levels is the culprit, you can avoid that data range and copy everything else.

Remember, the original Nightmare program was essentially just a graphical frontend for a hex editor. I haven't used Nightmare 2, but if it's the same (and that is what you're using), there should be a few documents included with the nightmare modules which explain what data means what, and at what ranges this data can be found. You can refer to this and manually edit the weapon level data with a hex editor. That would prevent Nightmare from causing any issues, if that's really the case.

If you are absolutely sure editing weapon levels via Nightmare is causing the corruption, at least.

[Crimson Red]

I wouldn't use Nightmare 2 unless you're confident in your ability to make it work, tbh. Most of the modules were made for/have been tested for the original Nightmare and while its interface might not be as sleek it does its jobs with few worries (besides potential human-associated errors such as editing the same ROM in Nightmare and another program).

[Agro]

I honestly can't see the advantage in using Nightmare 2, the UI is kind of ugly anyhow