Chapter 46: Chapter Data Editor

Finally, this chapter. The chapter on the chapter data editor, the only Nightmare Module that Blazer hasn’t covered.

Open Nightmare, your FE ROM, and the chapter data editor. We’re going to do this.

Chapter Reference Pointer… eww. I wouldn’t worry about it. So far no one has (publicly) shown that this is useful to anyone.

Object Set 1, Object Set 2, Tile Configuration, and Palette are all important and all related. They are properties of the map’s tileset (see definitions for what a tileset is). For a map to work properly, these settings have to be right. If you make a field map, you have you use the field object sets and tile configuration. The palette can be changed, but it can only be changed to a palette that is labeled as ‘Fields’. For example, palette 0x1E is fields, and palette 0x17 is Fortress&Fields. They are TOTALLY DIFFERENT. You can only use something marked as ‘Fields’ and solely fields.

To know which tileset settings you use, you have to look at the name of the tileset you used to make your map. If you used tileset 0A000B0C, then you set object set 1 to 0x0A, object set 2 to 0x00, palette to 0x0B, and tile config to 0x0C. If you take a look, all of those bytes are marked with “Plains&Castle”, so they should work together. Keep this information in mind as it is important for when you make your map (although I’ll probably repeat myself and tell you what it is again anyway).

The map is a byte that reference the Event Table that says what map to use. You can change this to any other map if you want, but remember to change the other settings as well to match whatever map you change it to.

The tile animations are for changing tiles like water tiles. If water tiles were still they’d be slightly less cool, so we have tile animations to make them move. It’s kinda obvious what to put for what map.

Triggerable Map Changes are for tiles that can change into other tiles. For example, when you open a chest, it changes from a closed chest tile to an open chest tile. Same thing with doors and breakable walls. The data for these changes is at an offset in the Event Table, and this byte references the Event Table.

Vision Distance is for Fog of War (fow). If it’s ‘0’, it’s assumed there is no fog of war.

Preparations Screen can be disabled or enabled, but ultimately if you do not set up the events to match the settings, the Preparation Screen will not load regardless of what the byte is (your game might crash though).

Weather is kind of obvious, except some values don’t exactly work right. Thus I only suggest using the Snow, Rain, or if you’re in a firey area, Fiery Glow weather effects.

The battle tileset is for which battle backgrounds/tiles to use. For a foggy map or a night map you’d use different tiles, of course. This changes that. If you’re not sure what to use, set it to something that sounds right, and then test it out until you get what you want.

The Phase music choices are the map themes for the different phases. I wouldn’t touch the Secondary Player/Enemy phase things, mainly because I don’t see a need for them, I don’t know what they do, and I don’t recall them even being used (they probably are used SOMWEHRE, idk where though).

The Worldmap Chapter Prologue music is for when you start a chapter and you’re on the world map and it goes over recent events and stuff.

The opening music is kinda obvious, it’s just the music that starts when you begin the chapter and the first scene starts.

Destructible Walls HP is just how much HP the walls have before they get broken down.

The tactics stuff is tactics stuff. I really don’t give a crap about tactics and all, but if you want to change it, it’s there for you.

The EM/HM Chapter Number Text is the chapter with the # in front of it, which you see on the main menu. The ‘Chapter Name’ text pointers are the ones with just the name that you see in like the Status Menu and stuff.

The Event Data Reference is a byte that references the event table and tells the game which events to use. Same thing applies to Worldmap events (labeled “Worldmap Chapter Prologue Scene”).

The Pre-Augury text is what the fortune teller says before you pay. After that is the actual augury text (and it can change for each mode, of course) and then there’s the Post-Augury Text, which is what is said after the augury is all said and done.

The Augury Portrait is just what portrait to load for the Augury… either that old lady or Nils, typically.

Augury price… obvious.

The chapter no. thing is for the battle preparations. It says at the top what chapter you’re playing. Unless you reorder the chapters (like say, make chapter 7x into chapter 8, and so on) then you probably won’t need to deal with this.

The Merlinus Co-ordinate is where Merlinus’ tent starts off. It’s in the chapter data editor because you don’t get to reposition Merlinus during battle preparations.

Enemy count for Winning Road is so obvious…

When the chapter begins, the game either fades to black, or fades to the map. This is important when you are making your events, but we aren’t to that point yet, so I’ll leave it be.

The status objective text is for the status menu. The text is a little bit longer and a little bit more descriptive than the Goal text pointer, which is usually just two words, like “Seize throne” or “Defeat enemy”. By the way, this just changes the text, not the actual goal. The actual goal is a part of events.

You can also choose what information the game should display in the corner. If you don’t want anything, 0x00 is fine.

If there’s a turn limit during your chapter, you can display it. If you need to defend for 13 turns, type 14.

If you have good memory you may recall that Natalie in FE7 has a blue symbol because she is a character that is supposed to be protected. You can give this symbol to any unit in the chapter. It’s kind of cool, I guess. This is the “Protect Character Marker” dropdown that I’m talking about.

Lastly, in chapter 28 (Eliwood) or so I believe, when you’re getting Durandal, there is an arrow that points to a certain tile you are supposed to wait on. You can set this arrow to be anywhere by giving it some co-ordinates on the map.

Well, that wasn’t so scary, except for the fact that I had to type almost 3 pages of explanations and stuff. The chapter data editor is most important when you’re doing events—you have to change the goal text, sometimes do special attributes (character marker, tile marker), the augury text, chapter numbers/text, set the events, and most commonly set the map settings to the right ones.