Chapter 54: Chapter Creation Finishing Touches
Before we’re totally finished we should fix up some of the stuff in the Chapter Data Editor. It’ll help out with our chapter creation—we already have the maps and events, so now it’s onto the other stuff.
I’ve already been through what all this does, but anyhow… the triggerable map changes byte should be the one for your chapter and it should match the byte in the Tile Map Changes part of your events.
If the Preparations Screen is turned off and you try and load battle preps (ENDB), it won’t work. If it’s ON and you don’t load battle preps, idk what’ll happen, but it could screw up as well. Just make sure that the events match the setting in the CDE. If you used ENDB/GotoPrepScreen at the end of your opening scene, the game will try and go to the battle preps, but only if it is enabled. And, of course, if preparation screens are on, remember to have an event on turn 1 with the BlackOff code (for FE7, anyhow…).
Make sure your weather and battle tileset match your map/what you want them to be. Change the map music around as well if you want.
Just showing some more music you can change. It’s better to use the “Chapter Opening BGM” thing instead of your own event code to load the music at the beginning of the chapter. (I use 0xC3 “Nothing” in this screenshot, but I actually have custom music inserted over it, so it actually does play a song, mind you…)
Changing your chapter name/number text is a good idea. Again, make sure your event data reference byte is right, and if you don’t want a worldmap chapter prologue scene, set that byte to 0x00. Also, take care of the augury text if needed (on later chapters in Eliwood’s mode Hannah or whatever her name is will appear and the augury option will be turned on).
More augury text and the portrait and the price, obvious stuff. The Preparation Screen Ch. No. only has to be worried about if you have battle preps on. It’s what it displays as the chapter at the top.
See where it says “Chapter 10”? That’s what I’m referring to.
Anyway, the Merlinus co-ordinates are easy, as is the Winning Road byte. The chapter title display fade-out is somewhat important because it dictates how your chapter starts off. If it’s ‘fade to black’, you need to use the black off code to fade out of the black and onto the map, IIRC. *alternatively you could TRY the FADU or REMA code, but I can’t say it’ll work*
Just a few more things we might want to take care of. You’ll probably need to change your objective/goal text, and possibly the goal window information. If you are doing a defend or timed chapter of some sort, a turn count would be nice. For the protect character marker, see the original chapter on Chapter Data editing. The tile marker would be used in like an escape chapter to specify where the unit should escape to. XP
Now save any changes in the Chapter Data Editor and exit. Assemble your events (I say how in like the first chapter on Event Assembly—you just input the text, output the ROM, hit the game you are assembling for on the right, and hit “Assemble”) and fix any problems there are. Test your events out as well. There are many, many places you could make errors in, even if the Event Assembler doesn’t report an error in your events. (It only reports stuff that it can’t properly interpret—it doesn’t say whether the event will turn out like you actually want it to in-game, it doesn’t know that much.)
Here are some things to check if you’re having errors:
Names of definitions. If you use say “IronLance” and it doesn’t work, that’s because the weapon is defined as “IronSpear”. The EA is case-sensitive. IIRC sometimes weapons like “Armorslayer” are spelled “Armourslayer” (although I could be wrong about this specific case).
If you aren’t sure what a macro, definition, or code is, look it up. If you aren’t sure what a code does, see if I explain it, and if it’s one of the few codes I didn’t cover, ask a question about it on a forum or something.
If the game says that certain things aren’t word-aligned, look at where the error starts. That is if it says “Opening_scene:” and everything beyond isn’t word-aligned, then look BEFORE that for something that might somehow mis-align it. The code ALIGN 4 should help realign stuff afterwards, by the way.
If you can’t load even up to the main menu, it’s very possible that your chapter name is too long or something. Try changing it.
If the game screen goes black after starting the chapter, you may need the BlackOff code. Otherwise, try changing the Chapter Title Display thing in the Chapter Data Editor (I will reference this as the CDE from now on).
Always double-check your pointers in Nightmare and the such. Don’t forget about adding 0x08000000 to your offset.
If it says “X is an invalid name” it’s likely because you didn’t actually make a scenic event, but you made the base event for it (an event that points to said event).
If it says some code isn’t supported, check the format. This is likely to happen in Unit Data if you forget a byte or make a typo or something.
Remember, use FADI code to fade into black, run some ‘background events’—stuff the players don’t need to/shouldn’t see happen, and then use FADU to fade out to either the map, a dialog background, or CG.
If battle preparations aren’t loading, check the Battle Preps byte in the CDE, or check to see if you used ENDB (for FE7) or GotoPrepScreen (for FE7 and FE8, maybe FE6, idk for sure).
It IS possible that the EA isn’t working properly somewhere. Make sure it’s not your own mistake first and then report it and see if a problem is the EA’s fault. The EA is pretty well done, but it’s easy to make a small error somewhere.
When asking for help on events, post your script! Knowing how to ask questions is imperative. Post a script, a patch, and a savestate. That way people have the information to help you. Sometimes screenshots and videos are useful too.
Don’t forget CODE 0x00, ENDA, or UNIT Empty at the end of a group/label/event. CODE 0x00 is for the main framework events (turn, character, location, misc, and ballista events), ENDA is for scenic events, and UNIT Empty is for units, if you forgot.
If your map isn’t loading, there are various reasons why it may not load. It’s probably a pointer problem though. If it loads but looks weird, either your map is corrupted or you are using the wrong tileset. See the map chapter(s) for more information.
Sometimes if you forget the ‘BlackOff’ code units may not load or move properly. There are many weird glitches that come along with not using this code, for whatever reason, so beware.
There are many, many codes and macros that can be used. See if one of them can fit whatever you need. If it happens in the original game, it can probably happen in your hack too, so sometimes analyzing other events by disassembling is useful.
That’s all I have to say to help you for now. With that, I hope your custom chapters are success!