There are plenty of things you can axe from 3rd gen to free up memory, if you know how:
-Mystery Gift
-ALL contest data, Pokéblocks, useless berries, and the like
-Secret base data
-Mail items
-Look at all of the items by index number (Bulbapedia article). Over half of them are useless.
-Box data (no one will be able to fill up all 14 unless they catch multiple of the same species)
-Game Corner
-Anything else you never see in a non-sideshow hack
I'm sure you can think of many more.
I don't see why I need to "axe" any of these, since Jambo51 has already figured out a way to expand the Pokedex flags without using more memory. Not to mention I would like to use Pokemon Contests in a future hack, and removing useless items would be more tedious than keeping them in, since it would require re-pointing the table and removing blank items that hackers could potentially use to create custom items. It makes absolutely no sense to remove them (and I've already used up about 30 of them for my custom items related to form changing, along with the new evolutionary stones introduced in D/P, and my custom stones, the Razor Stone, the Royal Stone, the Omega Stone, the Magnet Stone, and the Porygon Stone). And I will
definitely be needing a Game Corner in my future hack Pokemon DarkViolet, so there is no way I'm going to remove that.
Few things for Chaos Rush:
1. Do you have any plans for (or will you support) an item modernization project? This would basically axe a lot of the useless items and combine items that do the same thing (Poké Doll and Fluffy Tail) into one. It could also repoint the index numbers so you end up with a smaller list and a more friendly room for expansion. I'd like to start something like this for ROM bases. Or if it's too complicated, maybe just axe useless items like mails.
As I said earlier, removing useless items make no sense because it removes opportunities for hackers to easily create custom items.
2. In fact, do you plan on getting rid of ANYTHING besides the Pokémon Contest data? I mean, if you look at completed ROM hacks and what people actually use in them, there's huge chunks of data that's just never used.
No, because I am planning on using Pokemon Contests in my hack(s). And I'm not going to remove something that was available in the original Ruby rom, why would I take away features, that makes no sense. You can't assume that no one is going to use them, for instance, you said I should remove the Game Corner, but I am planning on having a Game Corner in my own hack(s).
3. My spriting skills are horrid but I am good at recruiting people. For your sprite modernization project, would you like me to scour for spriters here, Bulbagarden and Serebii and try to recruit people to help you?
Maybe. The thing is, my standards are ridiculously high, and I refuse to have anything below professional quality. And everytime someone tries to help, there's always something unsatisfactory about their sprite (sorry, people that have helped). I still appreciate the effort, but I don't see anything wrong with wanting to have high-quality sprites. Not that I'm gloating about my own skill or anything, but I've been spriting since 2006, and I created
ALL of the custom graphics in Pokemon DarkViolet, so I think it's safe to say that I'm an excellent graphic artist:
Oh, and look at my avatar. I love it.
4. What are you doing with the free space between Celebi and Treecko?
Absolutely nothing. I'm keeping them there, so that hackers can use them for whatever. For instance, I'm planning on using them for mugshots. Also, if you remember in Pokemon DarkViolet, I had the fossil sprites appear in the Pewter Museum, despite being an Emerald hack. I used the ?? slots between Celebi and Treecko, and I will be needing them again when I restart DarkViolet on Ruby.
5. Is adding fakemon problematic in Emerald if you replace existing space? I know you said that the animated graphics crash when you add later generation Pokémon, but you didn't specify what would happen if you simply replaced two-frame sprites of existing Pokémon.
It was only problematic because there are multiple tables relating to the animations, and none of them have been found. They crash because the slots for the added Pokemon simply don't exist in the table, which could easily be solved by finding the tables and expanding them. It is not problematic at all if you replace an existing Pokemon, because they already have an existing slot in the animation tables.
6. (see 5) What if I were to use the space between Treecko and Celebi? And the index numbers for the Unown forms (if I'm okay with a screwed up Pokédex)? Would that work just as well?
The index numbers between Celebi and Treecko is being left untouched, so their functionality remains the same that it would be in any other Gen III rom. And while I'm not sure how the Unown index numbers work, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to actually use them, as they all have blank base stats. You're supposed to use the first Unown (index #201), and Game Freak had their own method of choosing which letter is appears as, which I think Jambo51 found out how it was controlled in FireRed.
7. Are cries stored the same illogical, messy way in Emerald as they are in Ruby? Have you looked into this at all? If so, what have you learned (comparing Ruby to Emerald)?
Yeah, they are all stored in the illogical messy way in all Gen III roms. My guess is that Kecleon was the first Gen III Pokemon created, hence why its the first cry in the table.