Chit-Chat: ROM Hacking Daily Chit Chat

[wolfboyft]

Not that I would be interested in continuing with a rom file either anymore.. But that's pretty much the only option there is (unless I wasted lots and lots of time porting everything over to pokecrystal).

Come to #pret on Freenode. The resident geniuses might be able to help you automatically disassemble your edited ROM according to pokecrystal/gold and then have your extra stuff on top. It's worth asking.

 

[Logan]

Having seen that XD: GoD hack in the sideshow I'm so excited to try out some gamecube hacking, those games were my favourite and I'd love to manipulate them into something awesome. Anyone else delved into hacking those?

 

[KoBRe LaiR]

Wow, I can't believe that the rom hacking community on PC has grown alot over the past years. I remember when it first started it only had one forum section and then gained a subforum, look at it now!

 

[Flowerchild]

Well this place seems a little dead :|
How are all your hacks coming along?

 

[Zervais]

NDS ROM Hacking

GBA hacking has been around for a very long time and it's one of the easiest ways to create your own game. A lot of research has gone into it and now GBA games can have mega-evolution, an expanded Pokedex, and nearly anything your heart desires in a Pokémon game. However is it time to move forward and set our sights on editing DS games?

I created this thread for you all to discuss how you can begin to edit these more advanced ROMS, what sort of tools are available, and why you might choose to take a leap into the future.

How hard can it really be?

I'm curious to know if I, myself, should try it.

 

[Deokishisu]

Well this place seems a little dead :|
How are all your hacks coming along?

Eh. Not a lot of time to work on mine and I work slowly and sporadically anyway, so the same.

 

[Logan]

Eh. Not a lot of time to work on mine and I work slowly and sporadically anyway, so the same.

100%, anytime I do think I may have time to hack I get waylaid or other plans seem to appear.

 

[Blah]

GBA hacking has been around for a very long time and it's one of the easiest ways to create your own game. A lot of research has gone into it and now GBA games can have mega-evolution, an expanded Pokedex, and nearly anything your heart desires in a Pokémon game. However is it time to move forward and set our sights on editing DS games?

I created this thread for you all to discuss how you can begin to edit these more advanced ROMS, what sort of tools are available, and why you might choose to take a leap into the future.

How hard can it really be?

I'm curious to know if I, myself, should try it.

The hardware is well documented at GBATEK, the downside is just the lack of tools. That means most of the work you have to do is going to be low level. I know there exist a DS hacking community out there, it's not very popular in PC/with pokemon I believe.

 

[Deokishisu]

Here's a topic I think we could sink our collective teeth into.

Why does it seem like post count and activity in the ROMHacking sections have gone down significantly in the past year to two years? I try to visit everyday, but there are no new posts in the interesting/worthwhile sections (R&D, certain tool/tutorial threads, some of the main ROMHacking Hub), or if they are, they're mostly worthless or whining about being unable to insert something. If you don't follow any hacks, or follow very few, there's almost no reason to log in and look around everyday. If you checked in every two weeks, you wouldn't miss anything important.

Why is this? I remember a time when new innovations were coming out once or twice a month, people would be talking with each other and commenting up a storm, making suggestions and critiquing each other. Nowadays, it seems that most hacks are samey (with few exceptions that have a sense of quality to them), the R&D subforum might as well be dead (this is the subforum I log in for), and worthwhile discussion is no where to be found. Actual activity is localized to the Beginner's Lounge (yet another problem with having the Scrapbox back, it kills activity in the important subforums) and is mostly worthless to the average reader, who wants news, new innovations, some hack updates, and lively discussion on topics that they could chime in on.

Not only this, but we've been retreading ground in almost a cycle. How many times do we have to see a "What do(n't) you like to see in a hack?" or a "How did you start Hacking?" or "POST YOUR FAVORITE HACKS GUISE" thread before they need to become stickies? No one seems to be encouraging any meaningful discussion, and the only group of people that are communicating are other veteran/mainstay hackers, and we mostly feel like we have to do that through the irc, as the forums seem dead and slow.

What can be done to alleviate this? Thoughts?

 

[72485rahul]

--------------------

Yeah! The only reason I log in to PC is to see something new in the ROM Hacking Forums. But it always remains the same. It's kinda dead.

 

[Crizzle]

No one seems to be encouraging any meaningful discussion, and the only group of people that are communicating are other veteran/mainstay hackers, and we mostly feel like we have to do that through the irc, as the forums seem dead and slow.

What can be done to alleviate this? Thoughts?

I don't think anything can be done to alleviate this. At least not any intentional direct action by one person that can change it. It's the actions of a large group of people that would have to change, which is harder to predict or influence. These forums could return to their former state, but it would take something "big" top happen to re-energize posters.

What's interesting is that these forums attract tons of guest attention but member activity is relatively slow other than maybe the help related threads. It's hard to call it dead but also hard to call it really active.

 

[Blah]

Here's a topic I think we could sink our collective teeth into.

Why does it seem like post count and activity in the ROMHacking sections have gone down significantly in the past year to two years? I try to visit everyday, but there are no new posts in the interesting/worthwhile sections (R&D, certain tool/tutorial threads, some of the main ROMHacking Hub), or if they are, they're mostly worthless or whining about being unable to insert something. If you don't follow any hacks, or follow very few, there's almost no reason to log in and look around everyday. If you checked in every two weeks, you wouldn't miss anything important.

Why is this? I remember a time when new innovations were coming out once or twice a month, people would be talking with each other and commenting up a storm, making suggestions and critiquing each other. Nowadays, it seems that most hacks are samey (with few exceptions that have a sense of quality to them), the R&D subforum might as well be dead (this is the subforum I log in for), and worthwhile discussion is no where to be found. Actual activity is localized to the Beginner's Lounge (yet another problem with having the Scrapbox back, it kills activity in the important subforums) and is mostly worthless to the average reader, who wants news, new innovations, some hack updates, and lively discussion on topics that they could chime in on.

Not only this, but we've been retreading ground in almost a cycle. How many times do we have to see a "What do(n't) you like to see in a hack?" or a "How did you start Hacking?" or "POST YOUR FAVORITE HACKS GUISE" thread before they need to become stickies? No one seems to be encouraging any meaningful discussion, and the only group of people that are communicating are other veteran/mainstay hackers, and we mostly feel like we have to do that through the irc, as the forums seem dead and slow.

What can be done to alleviate this? Thoughts?

The beginner's lounge is basically a big simple questions forum. It's just not exactly the first place you should look if you are trying to pursue meaningful conversations about ROM hacking. Don't get me wrong, a help section is definitely healthy and promotes beginner growth.

Remedying activity is probably going to happen. The lack of activity just makes it decay faster. You can probably count the actively posting users with your fingers, if you wanted to. For me, I feel like there's nothing new to do for these folks here. I was talking to knizz a couple months back, and he said something that I thought was interesting. He said that Generation III is too figured out now, we already know enough about it to the point that extrapolating and making the basic hack is too easy. It doesn't require any investment or skill anymore. There's no reason to push yourself to learn how to hex edit or learn ASM or learn C or learn anything other than open XSE, A-map and maybe some trainer editor. You can settle for mediocre and propel your hack slightly further by utilizing public routines and research. It's never been easier to make a good ROM hack, and it's never been easier to learn how to make a great ROM hack either. It's just more work to make that great ROM hack, and ain't nobody got brain or time for that it seems.

There's no really new "ideas" to share anyways. Want to do HMs? It's already been looked at. Want Megas? Done. Want some weather stuff? Done. Want some Abilities? Check the resource thread. So much of it is already done for you that there really is no reason to have more than those 3-4 folks producing stuff. The rest can just piggyback and leech their work for their own hacks. Long gone are the days in which people actually bothered to open a hex editor and do some actual hacking. Why should they anymore? It's entirely going to be a situation by situation basis in which you actually need to get your hands dirty, and those situations can be avoided entirely. Maybe instead of just mass producing resources we should make more tutorials instead.

R&D is dead because there's 3 guys actually producing anything and the rest of everyone is doing nothing. Sometimes that's because they aren't interested, but mostly it's because they don't know how to help. I'm personally demotivated from working around there because of the lack of contributors. Literally 1-2 people come up to help and they are only capable of helping with crafting tables and such. It's hard to find people who can actually code to help you out because learning how to code for the GBA is hard for these young 14-16 year olds to figure out. It's really not. It's just slightly intimidating at the start, but as you go it's extremely simple. I thought we'd get a bit more of a boom after my tutorial, but that's already on the 3rd page now. I'm not holding my breath. It's just not worth anyone's time to read for 20 minutes and practice for an hour every couple days.

I'm always available on here or on the IRC channel for anyone who's looking for meaningful conversation. Sharing knowledge is a great thing made greater when your partner shares back.

 

[Anthroyd]

Hi there,

I've noticed (aka everyone's noticed) that people like to ask the same questions over and over. People have the same problems over and over and decide it's best to skip using the search function and create a new thread about their issue, waiting for a response that has already been given. I don't check the Beginner's Lounge the Quick Questions thread much, but I see similar questions every time I do happen to check.

I plan to make a video covering as many "typical" questions as possible. This way we can consolidate some 20 thread topics into a single thread. Hopefully something like this could be stickied, countering that "I don't feel like using the search function" problem.

Thinking back on some of the "typical" questions or ROM issues that y'all've seen in the past 18 years, what are some that pop into your mind? I'll be doing some research myself, but it would be helpful if y'all could boost the speed of the process. Thanks.

 

[Deokishisu]

Hi there,

I've noticed (aka everyone's noticed) that people like to ask the same questions over and over. People have the same problems over and over and decide it's best to skip using the search function and create a new thread about their issue, waiting for a response that has already been given. I don't check the Beginner's Lounge the Quick Questions thread much, but I see similar questions every time I do happen to check.

I plan to make a video covering as many "typical" questions as possible. This way we can consolidate some 20 thread topics into a single thread. Hopefully something like this could be stickied, countering that "I don't feel like using the search function" problem.

Thinking back on some of the "typical" questions or ROM issues that y'all've seen in the past 18 years, what are some that pop into your mind? I'll be doing some research myself, but it would be helpful if y'all could boost the speed of the process. Thanks.

If we had a series of specific help threads with the useful questions and answers archived/linked to in their first posts (like I suggested when they brought back the Scrapbox in the first place), we wouldn't have the problem of the Beginner's Lounge be a wretched hive of scum and noobery. I don't think a video is going to keep people from asking the same things over and over, your thread will just become a new place for them to ask irrelevant questions.

 

[Anthroyd]

If we had a series of specific help threads with the useful questions and answers archived/linked to in their first posts (like I suggested when they brought back the Scrapbox in the first place), we wouldn't have the problem of the Beginner's Lounge be a wretched hive of scum and noobery. I don't think a video is going to keep people from asking the same things over and over, your thread will just become a new place for them to ask irrelevant questions.

I don't understand this: "If we had a series of specific help threads . . . we wouldn't have the problem of the Beginner's Lounge be a wretched hive of scum and noobery."
Before stating this: "I don't think a video is going to keep people from asking the same things over and over, ..."

You're saying if we did indeed have an archive of these useful question threads stickied to the top of the Beginner's Lounge, then we would have less of an influx of repeat questions. After that you're saying a video that accomplishes this same task only in a different format wouldn't affect the influx of repeat questions.

I agree that an archive would be a good thing, which is why I think a video that "archives" these repeat questions would also be a good thing. I just don't understand your contradiction between the two. Please explain need clarity.

 

[bte234]

I really want to join a Pokémon hack project

 

[Christos]

I really want to join a Pokémon hack project

Even though it's open to applications, I'd suggest checking out the Community ROM Hack's planning section and contributing by posting in the threads there, you don't have to be a member of the team to help out!

 

[Crizzle]

So, hack awards huh? Sounds great...

 

[Tcoppy]

Since it sounds like comments on the hack awards go here, I might as well share some concerns I have about the award idea.

I think the idea is great instead of doing HOTY because of the complaints people were having in the last few years claiming judges have biases and have been saying "*insert* should have won" and all that other "fun stuff". Doing the awards this way is great because more people can feel like they've made a difference when picking out hacks that should earn awards.

However, I feel like that there should at least be some restrictions, especially if this is the replacement from now on, such as:

A.) Not having hoty winners be allowed: I might sound like a jerk, but hacks that already have won this title have already gotten recognition and spotlight. Should we keep feeding that towards them or give other hacks a chance to get spotlight and show them some more love?

and:

B.) Having hacks be picked if they have shown any progress within the year: If this is going to be the new annual thing, I feel like right now, people could write in any hack, no matter how old it is. If older hacks get chosen more than newer ones, the newer ones may not have the chance to grow and get the love they might deserve.

I would elaborate more about these concerns, but I'm fairly busy and I think I got the main points I wanted to get out.

I'm definitely going to participate, I just think the idea needs to be ironed out more if this is going to be an annual thing.

 

[Deokishisu]

This is a poorly thought out idea. HotY is not only a tradition, but its setup is the only way to minimize brigading by unscrupulous members and ensure that the hacks are judged by the people most fit to judge a hack's quality. That is, veterans of our community who have been around the block a few times and know what's up.

This free-for-all system will be rife with abuse and allow the hackers that spread their hacks across reddit and other forums to crowdsource votes from people who aren't even involved in our community, or haven't played enough hacks to know what's good or not, and have just joined for the brigade vote.

In other words, we all know to disregard any accolades that a hack receives from this year, as they are invalid and can't vouch for a hack's quality.

We had judges so that HotY could maintain some integrity. There is no integrity now. I mean, look at this guy:

Pokemon adventure red is the best in everything specially beta 12

Should we truly take this member's opinion at face value (even if he or she revises their post so that it follows the form)? This is no longer a "Best Hack Overall" contest; it is a popularity contest.

Very disappointed in the staff for doing it this way. With how long most of you have been here, you should've known better.

EDIT: Summoning the mods, because I really really want to know the justification for this decision and to have some sort of dialogue about this.

Spoiler:

I choose you, Christos!

I choose you, hashtag! (and your awesome accent)

I choose you, Lost Heart!

I choose you, Spherical Ice!