So FE8, unlike FE7, actually stores data for forcing characters to participate in chapters in an array (0x9ED64C) already. This (fairly small) array consists of the character being forced, the mode, and the chapter. Nightmare module
Also, there is a short list of four bytes, 02 19 0B 1E , immediately after this array. I suspect these are the characters that will display in cutscenes even if they are “killed” in gameplay.
EDIT: Spoke too soon about where the “Wounded at…” endings are located - table in charge of those is located at A3D2C0. Nightmare module
The weird numbering of the options seem to be because “Wounded and left the party” was dummied out from FE7 (although a little assembly could easily insert more options for this text.)
[CEE7A0 in FE7.]
Interesting! Storing character locks in such a way is so much easier to edit. Man, FE8 hacking is looking literally better and better every day. I wish we’d been focusing on it for years, it seems to have improved on FE7 in every way. Does it even have any downsides?
(Well, downsides other than “We hadn’t focused on it for years so documentation and resources for it are obviously more sparse”)
The only real down sides I can think of are dealing with the world map, maybe having less chapters for a full length hack, it being a bit more tricky to do gaiden chapters because of the world map, some patches, and some ASM. Then you also have things like some spells, animations, tilesets, sounds, and map sprites other games have at base(though FE8 has some as well). If the lagdou/valni chapters could be converted to remove the escape/retreat command and allow for saving on the unit selection menu that would probably fix a bunch of problems since then you get 18 chapters you can really do whatever you want with.
Otherwise any other problems I can think of were pretty much solved already, granted this was only done very recently. Hacking FE8 in 2011 wasn’t really all that bad IMO, and after all the advancements made these past few months, it’s certainly improved by an incredible amount.
The research topic wouldn’t lead me to believe it’s something that’s been doable for years… By bypass the world map, do you mean just never load it at all? How? I’ve certainly never heard of such a thing being possible. Usually if you try and jump to the next chapter without the world map like you would in FE7, you aren’t able to since the locations of the chapters are tied into their position on the world map, so the game freezes.
