The Skill System and You: Maximizing Your Usage of FE8's Most Prolific Bundle of Wizardry

Tutorials
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Chapter 1: Configuration

The simplest way to change the Skill System to fit your needs is through the configuration definitions. These can be found in Engine Hacks/Config.event (save for one, but we’ll touch on that later). This file is split into 2 sections; Hack Installation and Skill Behaviour.

Hack Installation

Hack installation definitions will control, as the name suggests, the installation of different hacks. Every hack that is not required for the Skill System to function properly is configurable from here. These can generally be subdivided into 2 categories, Quality of Life hacks and External hacks. External hacks interface with some part of the Skill System and its necessary hacks in order to function, and are generally just included for compatibility (there are a few exceptions, which will be covered when we come to them). Quality of Life hacks do not conflict or interface with any piece of the Skill System, but are general small improvements.

External Hacks are as follows:

  • Dragon Veins by Colorz and Circles; also installs Heal Tiles by Snakey

  • Freeze by Colorz

  • Character/Chapter Specific Battle Themes by Camdar and Circles

  • Stat Screen Palette by Allegiance by Circles

  • Strength/Magic Split by Tequila, Kirb, RobertFPY, Pikmin1211, and Snakey

  • Anima Triangle by Snakey

  • Modular EXP by Snakey

  • Portrait Selection by Snakey

  • Stairs by Snakey

  • Raid by Snakey

  • Escape-Arrive by Sme

  • Leadership Stars by Zeta

  • Biorhythm by Sme

  • Reaver Split by Sme

  • Cannot Crit by Sme

  • AdvWeaponLocks by Venno, ported by Sme

  • Status Weapons by Sme

  • Narrow Font by Scraiza

  • Personal Info by Runa

Quality of Life hacks are as follows:

  • Battle Stats with Animations Off by Tequila
  • Casual Mode by Circles
  • Contemporary Talk & Support by Circles
  • Danger Zone by Circles
  • Display Weapon Rank on Level Up by Tequila, rewritten by Stan
  • Add Traps ASMC by Circles
  • Rescue Unit ASMC by Circles
  • Send to Convoy ASMC by Circles
  • Event Writer by Circles
  • HP Bars by Circles, additions by Tequila
  • Improved Sound Mixer by ipatix, ported by Circles
  • L-Toggle Animations by Circles
  • Menu Semi-Transparency by Circles
  • Prologue Supply by Circles
  • Movement Arrow Hack by Circles
  • Negative Weapon Wt/Crit Display by Circles, rewritten by Stan
  • Chapter Names as Text by Circles

Dragon Veins and Biorhythm have skills directly related to them, and without installing them these skills will have no function. However, they are not necessary for functions otherwise. You can also toggle Effectiveness Rework, which will cause skill system internals to change their function to compensate. Similarly, you can toggle Expanded Modular Save, which will instead use an old suspend expansion to save skills through suspend. This one will break old saves if toggled.

Skill Behaviour

This section is dedicated to definitions that control, as the name suggests, the behaviour of different skills. These do not install anything extra, but at most install something in place of something else.

Skill Behaviour toggles are as follows:

  • Whether Galeforce should autoselect the unit after it triggers.
  • Whether Lethality should work like it does in vanilla GBAFE.
  • Whether the Canto ability flag should work as well as the skill.
  • Whether enemies should take advantage of Steal+ or always act like just Steal.
  • Whether debuffs should be allowed to take stats negative.
    • Note that negative stats do not play well in most scenarios, so it is recommended you keep this set.
  • Whether Shadowgift should check Staff ranks when looking for highest magic rank.
  • Whether Lumina should check Staff ranks when looking for highest magic rank.
  • Whether Poison Strike and Grisly Wound will deal damage if none was dealt during battle.
  • Whether Capture should be a skill or a global command.
  • Whether Dragon Veins should be a skill or a global command.
  • Whether the Charge mechanic should be enabled.
    • The only skill that currently uses Charge is Moonbow, and this makes it instead use a Skill% proc.
  • Whether the Triangle Attack skill should be enabled.
    • This skill is currently non-functional, so it is recommended to keep it disabled.
  • Whether Bargain stacks with Silver Cards.
  • Whether the Dance check should use the vanilla check in addition to the skill check.
  • Whether the Supply check should use the vanilla check in addition to the skill check.
  • Whether the Summon check should use the vanilla check in addition to the skill check.

There are smaller, more technical configurations you can perform with various skills elsewhere, but we will touch on those when we reach that area.

Finally, the last config option is located in Custom Definitions.event, __DEBUG__. If this is enabled, you will get the Debug startup menu and the ability to Edit Skills on units via the unit menu. This is useful for, as the name suggests, debugging, but generally is not something you want to keep on long-term.

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