Emerald hack: Pokémon Inclement Emerald: A Decomp Difficulty Hack [Version 1.13]

[Buffel Saft]

Oh no it never makes it to the battle screen it just stays on the overworld with the text stuck on "A Pokemon was feeding on the (berries)!" No battle transition.

Ah ok, definitely an issue with the berry code then. I'll take a look, thanks!

All in due time! After all... The future is here thanks to Decomps!

Yeah, so glad I made the switch. Couldn't have done even half of this hack in binary!

 

[Outwitter]

So, Inclement Emerald has finally been released, huh?
Congratulations Buffel! I will probably wait for a couple of bugfixes and then start my playthrough.
Keep up the good work, mate!

 

[Buffel Saft]

So, Inclement Emerald has finally been released, huh?
Congratulations Buffel! I will probably wait for a couple of bugfixes and then start my playthrough.
Keep up the good work, mate!

Yep it's finally here! Thanks! I should have v1.1 up shortly, just need to fix the AI and the berry encounter issue.

 

[Buffel Saft]

I've just released version 1.1; this should fix all the reported issues (except maybe the berry freeze). Changes:

• Updated Rare Candy to match gen 8; can now be used on a level 100 mon to evolve them, if possible
• Added a new item, Training Band, that boosts Exp. gain by 5x if the holder is a lower level than the highest level in the party. Can be bought in Slateport Market, and should fix the grinding issue!
• Fixed AI not being aware of Veil abilities
• Fixed AI not being aware of Chloroplast
• Fixed AI not handling Dazzling/Queenly Majesty in double battles
• Fixed Snorlax's level up moves
• Fixed Carracosta, Deino, Zweilous, Gourgeist, Gogoat and Mightyena's base stats

Berry encounters causing a freeze might be fixed, but the freeze only happens sometimes so more testing is needed. If you run into a tree that freezes please let me know (and maybe save before interacting with berry trees until the fix is confirmed).

 

[EntityKai]

Please make discord server

 

[Buffel Saft]

Please make discord server

Guess I could give that a try this time, will look into it tomorrow.

 

[zapperil]

Does stone-evolved Pokemon still learn moves or is it the same as the regular Pokemon game where some of them stop learning moves ?

 

[matrongumball]

wow, this is amazing. would love a mode that disables evs entirely for yourself + your opponents, if you could add that. I think radical red has a mode like that. Would that be difficult to add? As a layman I assume youd have to make every Pokémon give 0 evs, but idk I guess it's probably more involved than that

 

[Gespenst0104]

My Luxray is still pure Electric type, despite the docs saying it should be Electric/Dark.

 

[hackstar]

More challenge hacks are always nice especially the decomp hacks. But waiting for the standard version as I don't agree with some of the new changes.
Also I agree with @matrongumball 's suggestion that it could be cool to see a mode that disables evs.

 

[Ludiloc0]

What is the Shiny Chance for this hack? Is it the regular 1/8192, 1/4096 or has it been boosted?

 

[Z-nogyroP]

oh i just realized there's documentation lmfao. with that in mind (in addition to the reported pure electric luxray) i also wanted to note that garbodor and tsareena do not currently appear to have their correct types as listed in the documentation.

a couple other thoughts, which i'm sure i'll add to as i actually start to play today:

- farfetch'd still seems pretty underpowered? i don't know that it needs more offensively (super luck + leek = guaranteed crits which is nice) but it's suuuper fragile still, and could probably use a slight buff to bulk
- volbeat doesn't seem like it can actually use its electric STAB given its sp. attack is still awful; access to lunge, wild charge, and thunder punch (and maybe also a bit more attack, since both it and illumise seem pretty tame) would be appreciated
- on that note, does illumise get quiver dance from the tutor? it seems like it should, to parallel tail glow
- swalot's abilities are still overall unimpressive - in my own hack i gave it innards out and corrosion, either of which i think would be a big boon
- if you need ideas for what to do with delcatty, i've always personally enjoyed the route of making it pure fairy-type with pixilate instead of normalize, since there are no pixilate users that lean physical except mega altaria!
- is chloroplast not boosting weather ball a technical limitation? because personally i think it would be a really good niche, especially since its distribution is so limited.
- i think vivillon could stand to be buffed since butterfree pretty much took its niche as a compound eyes hurricane quiver dance sweeper
- it'd be nice if the fletchling line actually got a decent fire move earlier; maybe do as SWSH did and make flame charge the move fletchinder learns when it evolves, and replace flame charge in its current level-up set with flame wheel or blaze kick or heat wave or something?
- wormadam seems pretty weak still... have you considered giving it adaptability as a secondary ability, since i think that fits pretty well for flavour and it doesn't really benefit from its current abilities?

and some general thoughts:

- difficulty hacks aren't my taste very often but this one looks very well put together; if i offer critique later on things i think could be toned down keep in mind that that's just my personal preference
- the poke vial is genius. i really don't know what else to say, i love the idea behind it
- dammit you beat me to a bunch of pokemon changes i thought i was unique for having in my own hack! electric surge electrode and stunfisk, grassy surge gogoat and trevenant, slush rush empoleon... once my own hack comes out i swear these are coincidence lmfao
- the ability to pick which region you want your starter from is the most graceful way i've ever seen a hack implement a bigger variety of starters
- are there ways to get hidden abilities without using dream balls or ability patches?
- i'm very excited for all the new areas, and they should also make nuzlocking a lot more fun (even if this looks a little hellish to nuzlocke!)
- is nature changing implemented by actually modifying the pokemon's ID, or is there another method? if it's the former, i might be wary, because that could potentially mess with shinies
- speaking of, what's the shiny rate?

very looking forward to playing, and will keep you posted!

edit: okay, started playing!

- the nature changer is adorable. i love him. super clever way of doing that, feels like it really fits with the rest of the game
- that said, is there any way to grind oran berries besides growing and harvesting them? i've been trying to use thief on wild gulpin, but half of them have sticky hold...
- crabrawler is stated to evolve via ice stone, but it doesn't? according to the source code it evolves by levelling at some map, but ice stone makes more sense personally.
- if you regain a berry through harvest, it doesn't seem to register that said berry was regained at the end of the battle, which is a bit saddening
- i really love the new areas you've added! they help a lot with making the pokemon variety feel less overwhelming.

 

[LughSamildanach]

Wow, this seems like the perfect emerald I've always wanted, aside from maybe following pokemon. Can't wait to give this a go. Thanks!

 

[Jk Howling]

Love the addition of the training band for catching up lower level mons, but I still feel like a trainer of some sort would be appreciated for grinding entire teams up, esp for boss fights. I was around 32 after fighting all available trainers when I reached Wattson, and your recommendation was around 36-40. I aimed for 37 (so Gogoat'd learn Stomping Tantrum, my starter'd evolve, etc.) and jeez, grinding a team of six on-par mons 5+ levels apiece took at least 2 hours, maybe longer ;w; The grinding itself isn't even particularly hard at that point, just very time consuming due to the extremely low exp output wilds have.

Also, have you considered lowering Litwick's evolution level? 41 is really high for a base stage mon (sighs at Unova), and Lampent doesn't seem too overpowered to be able to evolve earlier. Plus, you don't seem to be able to get a Dusk Stone til Fallarbor anyways, which seems to be around the low-mid 40's. Maybe around level 30-35 would work for it? Assuming I didn't miss a stray itemball one somewhere, that is.

I noticed was Shiinotic and its prevo don't learn literally any fairy moves until 44 (Moonblast). Would probably appreciate something like Disarming Voice and/or Draining Kiss? Maybe Dazzling Gleam? Somethin would be nice at least.

I'm not sure what's up with the Daycare egg, but I didn't get Togepi the first time despite the docs stating the first one would always be Togepi. It could've been because the first time I talked to her, I didn't have party space? Not sure.

And finally, would it maybe be possible to create custom overworld sprites for the Team Aqua/Magma admins? I haven't made overworld sprites for gen 3 before but I'd be happy to help or give it a shot, if there aren't any existing free to use ones already. It's just their current ones are identical to the grunts, and it makes for some really annoying situations, like how I just wiped to Tabitha because I thought she was just a grunt and wasn't expecting a busted af team.

 

[Sakura]

so im trying to get feebas egg from the person in the daycare, but after the first egg they wont gimme another one, and changing the day doesnt work, what am i supposed to do

 

[Buffel Saft]

Does stone-evolved Pokemon still learn moves or is it the same as the regular Pokemon game where some of them stop learning moves ?

They still learn moves, just at higher levels than their unevolved forms.

I'm interested in seeing how the improved AI feels. I liked Eternal X as well so I will give this a shot.

The AI's better than Game Freak's most of the time but still has the odd dumb moment. Hope you have fun with it!

wow, this is amazing. would love a mode that disables evs entirely for yourself + your opponents, if you could add that. I think radical red has a mode like that. Would that be difficult to add? As a layman I assume youd have to make every Pokémon give 0 evs, but idk I guess it's probably more involved than that

Thanks! That shouldn't be too hard, I think the best option would be to ignore EVs when calculating stats. That way I don't have to remove all the vitamins and the EV training NPC based on a setting, and it could be toggled on and off.

My Luxray is still pure Electric type, despite the docs saying it should be Electric/Dark.

Sorry about that, seems there are still some mistakes in the base stats file. Will get a fix up shortly.

More challenge hacks are always nice especially the decomp hacks. But waiting for the standard version as I don't agree with some of the new changes.
Also I agree with @matrongumball 's suggestion that it could be cool to see a mode that disables evs.

Fair enough, that's exactly what the standard version is for! I know not everyone is a fan of the Pokémon changes. Will look into the no EVs mode too!

What is the Shiny Chance for this hack? Is it the regular 1/8192, 1/4096 or has it been boosted?

It's still the regular 1/8192, there were some issues with boosting the chance last time I tried. Think that might be resolved now though, I'll look into raising it in future versions.

oh i just realized there's documentation lmfao. with that in mind (in addition to the reported pure electric luxray) i also wanted to note that garbodor and tsareena do not currently appear to have their correct types as listed in the documentation.

a couple other thoughts, which i'm sure i'll add to as i actually start to play today:

- farfetch'd still seems pretty underpowered? i don't know that it needs more offensively (super luck + leek = guaranteed crits which is nice) but it's suuuper fragile still, and could probably use a slight buff to bulk
Sure, I could give +10 to HP an defenses or something, it'd help a bit.
- volbeat doesn't seem like it can actually use its electric STAB given its sp. attack is still awful; access to lunge, wild charge, and thunder punch (and maybe also a bit more attack, since both it and illumise seem pretty tame) would be appreciated
It's already got Lunge and Thunder Punch (though Lunge is a pain to get), but sure I can add Wild Charge too.
- on that note, does illumise get quiver dance from the tutor? it seems like it should, to parallel tail glow
It does!
- swalot's abilities are still overall unimpressive - in my own hack i gave it innards out and corrosion, either of which i think would be a big boon
Corrosion sounds good; Swalot's one of those mons that's hard to buff without min-maxing its stats, which I'd rather not do if possible.
- if you need ideas for what to do with delcatty, i've always personally enjoyed the route of making it pure fairy-type with pixilate instead of normalize, since there are no pixilate users that lean physical except mega altaria!
I kind of want to keep it a Normal type just because Normalize is unique to it, but there's not much that can be done with it in that case. Will consider going the Fairy-type route with it.
- is chloroplast not boosting weather ball a technical limitation? because personally i think it would be a really good niche, especially since its distribution is so limited.
That was a balance and flavour decision; I thought Mega Sceptile with always-sunny Growth and no charge Solar Beam was strong enough without also giving it a 100 BP fire move, and flavour-wise the idea behind the ability is that the Pokémon stores the energy it needs to use those moves, but doesn't change the weather so it shouldn't affect Weather Ball.
- i think vivillon could stand to be buffed since butterfree pretty much took its niche as a compound eyes hurricane quiver dance sweeper
Yeah it's tricky to balance the two now that they do the same thing, will look into it.
- it'd be nice if the fletchling line actually got a decent fire move earlier; maybe do as SWSH did and make flame charge the move fletchinder learns when it evolves, and replace flame charge in its current level-up set with flame wheel or blaze kick or heat wave or something?
That sounds good, didn't realise SWSH had done that. Ember as an evo move is pretty pathetic!
- wormadam seems pretty weak still... have you considered giving it adaptability as a secondary ability, since i think that fits pretty well for flavour and it doesn't really benefit from its current abilities?
That seems fitting, might be good as a hidden ability on it.
and some general thoughts:

- difficulty hacks aren't my taste very often but this one looks very well put together; if i offer critique later on things i think could be toned down keep in mind that that's just my personal preference
- the poke vial is genius. i really don't know what else to say, i love the idea behind it
Wish I could take credit for that but, I lifted the idea from Temtem's Tem Vial. I thought the same thing when I saw it in Temtem and just had to put it in the hack!
- dammit you beat me to a bunch of pokemon changes i thought i was unique for having in my own hack! electric surge electrode and stunfisk, grassy surge gogoat and trevenant, slush rush empoleon... once my own hack comes out i swear these are coincidence lmfao
Haha, it's pretty easy for that to happen I think; if the changes are fitting someone else is bound to have the same idea.
- the ability to pick which region you want your starter from is the most graceful way i've ever seen a hack implement a bigger variety of starters
Thanks! I didn't want to jam 21 options into the same place and that seemed like the best way to fit it into the existing story.
- are there ways to get hidden abilities without using dream balls or ability patches?
No, those are the only ways for now.
- i'm very excited for all the new areas, and they should also make nuzlocking a lot more fun (even if this looks a little hellish to nuzlocke!)
Nuzlockes shouldn't be too bad on normal I hope, or at least not much worse than a Drayano hack! The new areas do give you a better chance at having an advantage in your next gym battle.
- is nature changing implemented by actually modifying the pokemon's ID, or is there another method? if it's the former, i might be wary, because that could potentially mess with shinies
Nature is now a separate field in the Pokémon structure, so the ID doesn't get changed. The original nature is tied to the ID as usual, so it's technically still there after a change, it just doesn't do anything.
- speaking of, what's the shiny rate?
Unchanged for now: 1/8192.
very looking forward to playing, and will keep you posted!

Responses in bold!

Wow, this seems like the perfect emerald I've always wanted, aside from maybe following pokemon. Can't wait to give this a go. Thanks!

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it!

Love the addition of the training band for catching up lower level mons, but I still feel like a trainer of some sort would be appreciated for grinding entire teams up, esp for boss fights. I was around 32 after fighting all available trainers when I reached Wattson, and your recommendation was around 36-40. I aimed for 37 (so Gogoat'd learn Stomping Tantrum, my starter'd evolve, etc.) and jeez, grinding a team of six on-par mons 5+ levels apiece took at least 2 hours, maybe longer ;w; The grinding itself isn't even particularly hard at that point, just very time consuming due to the extremely low exp output wilds have.
Sure, I think the daycare would be a good spot for something like that anyway, and it seems that's right where you need it! Wattson would be rough with a second stage starter.
Also, have you considered lowering Litwick's evolution level? 41 is really high for a base stage mon (sighs at Unova), and Lampent doesn't seem too overpowered to be able to evolve earlier. Plus, you don't seem to be able to get a Dusk Stone til Fallarbor anyways, which seems to be around the low-mid 40's. Maybe around level 30-35 would work for it? Assuming I didn't miss a stray itemball one somewhere, that is.
There's an item ball Dusk Stone in the second Trick House puzzle IIRC. Early game Litwick's tricky to balance just because Chandelure is so strong; I'm not sure if it should be available earlier, even though its prevos kinda suck. i'll think about it!
I noticed was Shiinotic and its prevo don't learn literally any fairy moves until 44 (Moonblast). Would probably appreciate something like Disarming Voice and/or Draining Kiss? Maybe Dazzling Gleam? Somethin would be nice at least.
Wait, the glow-in-the-dark fairy mushroom doesn't learn Dazzling Gleam naturally? That definitely needs fixing. It should get Draining Kiss already from the tutor after Wattson.
I'm not sure what's up with the Daycare egg, but I didn't get Togepi the first time despite the docs stating the first one would always be Togepi. It could've been because the first time I talked to her, I didn't have party space? Not sure.
I'll check it out, might be setting a flag in the wrong place or something.
And finally, would it maybe be possible to create custom overworld sprites for the Team Aqua/Magma admins? I haven't made overworld sprites for gen 3 before but I'd be happy to help or give it a shot, if there aren't any existing free to use ones already. It's just their current ones are identical to the grunts, and it makes for some really annoying situations, like how I just wiped to Tabitha because I thought she was just a grunt and wasn't expecting a busted af team.
Definitely, I'd like to have custom overworlds for all the trainer classes at some point. It'd also be nice if Bird Keepers and Ace Trainers didn't look the same in the overworld.

Responses in bold!

so im trying to get feebas egg from the person in the daycare, but after the first egg they wont gimme another one, and changing the day doesnt work, what am i supposed to do

What emulator/platform are you playing on? You could try changing the day to two or three days ahead just to make sure the time change is enough to reset the daily events.

 

[Sakura]

im using Vba

 

[Buffel Saft]

im using Vba

That could be the problem, there's a reason the patching guide says not to use it 😅. VBA just doesn't work well with decomp hacks. I'd suggest switching to mGBA

 

[Hyulens168]

I got a doubt, in the game documentation Luxray appears as an electric/dark type, but in the game Itself It only appears as an electric type, which one is It?

 

[Buffel Saft]

I got a doubt, in the game documentation Luxray appears as an electric/dark type, but in the game Itself It only appears as an electric type, which one is It?

That's a bug! I'll be uploading a fix for that and a few other things shortly. It's supposed to be Electric/Dark type.