[Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn - Reverse Recruitment]
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn has always been my favorite game from a gameplay perspective. And since I didn’t really mind the faults/inconsistencies with the story, it is a game I keep coming back to. However, the balancing of the game is quite strange, and at some point I’ll want to start a balancing patch. RD is not the most hacked game and since there’s not as much in the form of resources compared to FE7 etc, I thought I’d start this by learning the hex editting one step at a time. So that’s where this patch comes in. The premise of the Reverse Recruitment is rather simple, and also fun for the drafting community, since there probably hasn’t been one of those yet. It’s also a great way for me to learn the inner workings of RD one step at a time, since you have to apply the same basic action to pretty much every character; swapping them with another. However, script dialogue, base convo’s that recruit people, talk conversations te get people to join and other events all pop up sooner or later and complicate the process of inserting a new character. It’s always one thing at a time though, which gives me a great way of easing myself into the depths of the game’s code. And thus we arrive at this topic, where I’ll be posting updates sporadically since I have a job and busy life (and the weather is just too good to stay inside atm). I would really appreciate it if people would give me feedback on what can be done better, point out bugs and tell if characters need buffs or nerfs. I hope you all enjoy, and thank you for playing!
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[Patches]
Patch 4.0 for the entire gameis here! You can download the patch file here: Patches - Google Drive
Just go into the folder labeled “Patches” and download the patch file, xdelta is very easy to use.
*IMPORTANT: There might be some bugs here and there, which are being worked on. Please let me know in the discord channel “bug reports” if you encounter any! There is also a “known issues” document that has listed some current minor problems.
[How to patch]
The patch is made through xdelta, and patches can be applied to ISO files with it’s patcher program, which can easily be found through a quick google search or in the drive. The only thing you’ll need besides the patch file is a RFEP file, which is the European Radiant Dawn ISO. I cannot provide it here
[Discord]
If you want to discuss the game on other platforms, a Discord link can be clicked here: Gritnea Tower; Vicious Sal's FE10 hacking scene The Discord also has channels for suggestions, bug reports etc so please do come on over!
[Excel character swap sheet]
You can find the link with the character excel sheet below, you can also find some notes about the excel sheet below, which go into the thought process of making the sheet.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18dYBbU1PJIsWkgLBgw23kt9oQxH52wTM/view?usp=sharing
*Small Note, the game has had some minor tweaks compared to the Excel sheet. So not everything is 100% accurate.
[Notes]
1] Ok, so there are some things that had to happen to make this a workable Reverse Recruitment. Mostly because there are three herons in this game and if you at some point get two in the same army, the game turns into a one-turn curbstomp. To work around this you’ll notice that sometimes units that join at the same time are in a different order than the “recruitment page” on the main site. For example, Nasir and Gareth join at the same time, so you could swap Leonardo with Gareth and Edward with Nasir or vice versa.
2] The Black Knight is not a unit that is allied for the entire game, so he also does not partake in the list and is regarded as a free unit as long as he is part of your army. He is however sporting a new set of armor.
3] When you remove the herons and the Black Knight from the list, you are left with 69 playable characters. So unit number 35 does not switch places since that unit is smack dab in the middle. The units who is exactly in the middle is, in this case, Ike! Having Ike stay as the main character makes it a lot easier since this does not require me to alter seizing ability and things like godslaying skills.
4] Regarding the herons, they swap with each other. Leanne takes Rafiel’s Place. Rafiel takes Reyson’s place and Reyson takes Leanne’s place. Good luck with new positioning and vigor strategies!
5] The Light mage and Light Sage classes now promote into Chancellor, since Micaiah arrives in Tier 3. They all keep the chancellor model and as seen in the excel sheet Lehran has altered growths and promotion gains. The same goes for Sanaki. Sanaki starts as a Thundersage, almost ready to promote. She turns into her regular Empress class.
5] The worst unit in the game swaps with the best one, Lyre swaps with Haar. Which is rather amusing. Fiona swaps with Tibarn, both have saviour which is nice. There are some fun things to find out.
6] Elincia arrives later, so she has altered growths and bases, since she does not have a Tier two model and all falcoknights are already in use so I can’t immediately throw her model over them.
[FAQ]
Q: “How exactly do I play this?”
A: You’ll need a working emulator (dolphin is recommended), a fresh FE10 (EU) ISO, and a program used to patch the file (to the ISO) I have provided. xDelta works fine. Patch the ISO file using that program.*
Q: “What are you trying to accomplish with this hack?”
A: Mostly this Hack is a challenge to myself. I have thought about impproving Radiant dawn for years and now I’m finally taking the steps to learn how to do that. Besides this, a Reverse Recruitment hack would be a nice new way to play the game for casual gamers, but also for drafters. This is possible with most Fire Emlem games at the moment, but not with the GC/Wii games.
Q: “The game offers almost the exact same items as before, why do I get a Brave Sword when i need laguz items?!”
A: Adjusting items to suit your new units is something that has been added. Currently units get some items that will benefit them directly, like laguz stones, but also some more indirect advantages. Expect the Cards to be valuable in the early stages of the game when you need to be able to attack without taking a counterattack. I welcome any and all feedback regarding items. I do not want to bombard the player with laguz stones, so things like shine barriers and pure waters are items i would like to play around with.
Do note that as of part 4, shops and stores more or less have no significant changes. As your army is large enough to not warrant any further changes. The items listed often are sufficient for what you need.
Q: “What difficulty should I play?”
A: Normal mode.
Q: “Why are the cutscenes so weird?”
A: The game wants to load the normal characters, but can’t so a lot of weird movements happen and it’s like ghosts are talking. It has no gameplay impact and cannot be changed.
Q: “Any general tips?”
A: You will be getting only a few Olivi Grasses and Stones in the beginning of the game at the moment, but you will also be getting two blood tides, night tide and white tide, so positioning is key!
Q: “I will be getting Royals in part one, this game will be a cakewalk!”
A: I would not count on it, most laguz are balanced in such a way that while they may be strong and have high Hp, their defenses are lowered quite a bit. This also means growths are adjusted, which means BEXP might be more useful for them now, instead of just giving HP, Skill and Luck. High level early laguz hardly gain exp however, so be sure to not overly rely on them.
[Credits]
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LordMewtwo73 for his invaluable help when I was stuck. His fresh eyes have seen errors that I had missed multiple times. His knowledge was of great value!
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The contributors to the FE10 hacking notes topic. The combined knowledge is key to gettng started.
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HeartlessSeph, for creating an FE10DATA.cms editor, which greatly reduced the amount of work that had to be done!