Chit-Chat: ROM Hacking Daily Chit Chat

It was a great decision imo. Creating a Beginners Lounge for people with questions that will make everything pretty organized. wish this was implemented long ago lel

To be honest, I haven't played any Pokemon hacks in a while, to address the discussion topic listed above in a few places.

Shadowraze said:

Ughh planning....

I spend like couple of hours planning for myhack before but I never got around it really.

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This is my usual approach. But I still have ideas kicking and screaming inside of that tiny cavity I politely call my brain.

There are a whole list of things I want to do with a hack I'm working on. First, though, I think I'm going to move my work from Emerald to either FR or LG, since it seems like that one is what there's the most work done for. I don't much like the idea of experimenting, to be honest. Which is part of the reason why I had to cancel a hack I was planning for a different game a few months ago.

Phazon Elemental said:

To be honest, I haven't played any Pokemon hacks in a while, to address the discussion topic listed above in a few places.

This is my usual approach. But I still have ideas kicking and screaming inside of that tiny cavity I politely call my brain.

There are a whole list of things I want to do with a hack I'm working on. First, though, I think I'm going to move my work from Emerald to either FR or LG, since it seems like that one is what there's the most work done for. I don't much like the idea of experimenting, to be honest. Which is part of the reason why I had to cancel a hack I was planning for a different game a few months ago.

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On my first weeks in hacking I was like that lel.

Port it to FR almost no ones hack at LG since most of the tools and tuts are for FR. :3

Shadowraze said:

Port it to FR almost no ones hack at LG since most of the tools and tuts are for FR. :3

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Yeah, I've noticed as much. I'd imagine they'd be pretty similar in terms of coding, but I guess it's also just as likely that they are pretty much nothing like each other. Better to go with the easier approach.

Plus, there's not a lot that I need to do -- mostly change a few TMs around, change some teams (to this point I'd only made the gym leaders' teams) and change a few pokemon -- not really a lot of actual NEW content.

destinedjagold said:

Mapping is the only thing that slows my progress down. It's utterly boring and consumes so much time. Ugh... >.>
It also drains my motivation to hack...

I seriously prefer scripting, where I will be creating the events/scenes in my head to the game. :3

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Granted, I've done neither in a while I was always the opposite way round :< I used to find scripting (or more, bug-testing the scripts) the most tedious part - the amount of times I also ended up corrupting/breaking something from scripting going crazy was annoying too.

Tiling/mapping is more about making a pretty picture and ahhh ^__^ happyhappy.

Mapping seems like it'd take a long time and I'm not really looking forward to that part. At least I already have a few ideas in my head.

Maybe I should dump some of this stuff to document form and drop it here.

destinedjagold said:

Mapping is the only thing that slows my progress down. It's utterly boring and consumes so much time. Ugh... >.>
It also drains my motivation to hack...

I seriously prefer scripting, where I will be creating the events/scenes in my head to the game. :3

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Pretty much the same as me, scripting is the best part in hacking imo.

Spherical Ice said:

Speaking of which, how many of you have played Vega or its sequels? They're really great in emulating the Gen 3 feel while still being new (well, as new as a ROM hack of Pokemon gets) games.

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I played Vega. The wild pokemon battle music was awesome, even the haunted mansion. I usually don't like Fakemons, but the Fakemons were too good that I was planning to create a team solely of fakemons in that hack. I could not understand Japanese but still managed to play till the third gym and because of not knowing Japanese I couldn't progress further and decide to quit it. Hopefully, a english translation comes someday.

Shadowraze said:

Pretty much the same as me, scripting is the best part in hacking imo.

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I love scripting, especially seeing the end results. But nothing beats mapping for me!

Mapping and putting tilesets together have always been my favourite aspects of hacking. There has always been something special to me about about not only creating the look of a world, but designing it as well. Walking through a newly created map for the first time is always a great feeling.

Magic said:

Granted, I've done neither in a while I was always the opposite way round :< I used to find scripting (or more, bug-testing the scripts) the most tedious part - the amount of times I also ended up corrupting/breaking something from scripting going crazy was annoying too.

Tiling/mapping is more about making a pretty picture and ahhh ^__^ happyhappy.

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Shinx said:

I love scripting, especially seeing the end results. But nothing beats mapping for me!

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The three of us are now blood brothers.

Just realized this thread existed. lol

Mapping was my first endeavor into hacking, and I've more or less got it down to a science. I follow an exact formula every time. Still, it's really fun to see each map finished... but it's only once the scripting is also done that it really comes to life. I'm struggling to hold myself back from mapping more of my game before the scripting catches up. lol

Spherical Ice said:

haha that's good

Anyway, what do you guys think about the dichotomy of "natural" mapping and Game Freak-styled (i mean good lmoa) mapping? In my opinion "natural" maps are just trying to be artistic without considering the principles of level design or navigation, and often results in a mess of trees and bushes and no clear sense of direction.

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Personally, I think it's entirely possible to have both natural mapping, and great playability. Yeah, a lot of "natural" maps look like someone just sneezed trees and grass all over the screen, but not all. If you haven't seen any of my recent maps, I think they're a pretty good example.

Phazon Elemental said:

Mapping seems like it'd take a long time and I'm not really looking forward to that part. At least I already have a few ideas in my head.

Maybe I should dump some of this stuff to document form and drop it here.

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Mapping isn't that difficult for me, thankfully. It does take a while to decide where to begin, but once that's settled, everything else comes naturally. :]

I don't have the greatest of creativity so I struggle with mapping sometimes. xD

Shadowraze said:

I don't have the greatest of creativity so I struggle with mapping sometimes. xD

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Same. I have a bad habit of scripting ahead of my maps and thinking "Oh I'll just map the area later" and then when it comes to wanting to insert the scripts to test them I sometimes rush the map-making to accommodate. Definitely not the best way to do things as 80% of the time the maps come out looking a bit bland. I also struggle with the balance of 'natural' mapping and making it easy to navigate at the same time!

That's true, Satoshi!

I've been thinking about getting back into hacking lately. With this big boon in activity, and the beginner's forum resurfacing, it kind of makes me want to get back into it.

I don't think mapping would be a problem, but anything that involved key knowledge or specifics would take a while to trigger :( simple scripting would probably be fine though.

The thing is, every time I come back I seem to be more ambitious - and when your skill level doesn't reflect what you're aiming for it can get a bit annoying and frustrating ;-;.

Give it a few weeks and I might bite the bullet though :< is anyone else currently -off- hacking?

Magic said:

Give it a few weeks and I might bite the bullet though :< is anyone else currently -off- hacking?

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I am...sorta. I came back because I had an idea for a hack and I wanted it to be great, so I thought that by examining other hacks and, at the same time, helping others in areas where they might need work (usually in the form of opinions, I'm not completely sure my hacking skills now are what they used to be, given that it's been years since I've hacked seriously). Plus, with all of the resources, new tutorials, and the like that are available, it's easier to get into hacking than ever.



Actually, on that point...I do want to talk about something that kept me from coming back for a long time. Even before I had this hack idea, I would glance at the hacks forum every now and again, and I would feel a little sad. Sad because I'd always hoped that there would be more non-GF styled hacks, but even today I see things like "You are a X, a kid living in Y town. You aspire to collect the badges of the Z region, while combating the evil W team." With variations here or there. And this isn't a bad thing in itself, I've seen some rather impressive hacks come out of this.

Though it still makes me feel as if there is so much untapped potential that can and should come out of Pokemon rom hacking. I've watched as the capabilities of hacking have evolved and, similarly, how the hacks have. Yet, the more time that passes, the more I wonder "Why aren't there more non-Pokemon hacks" or "Why aren't there more gym-less or team-less hacks out there?" I can completely understand an up and comer thinking learning that they can make their own game and then immediately jumping for the GF formula, but I find it staggering how few hacks actually try to be either of those (and, that I know of, no complete ones exist).

Though, for me, it would be ideal that less Pokemon-based Pokemon hacks would be created thanks to the games' malleable nature (in terms of hacking), I would even like to see more gym-less or team-less hacks in the case of those that are about Pokemon, for the sole reason that I think it bottlenecks creativity when people limit themselves to those two ideas. Not to say you couldn't have a non-linear adventure type hack with gyms, indeed you could, but having them as mandatory points to advance would make that difficult. In fact, many times I read through stories and wonder why there are teams or gyms at all, and why the hack didn't just opt for more free-form antagonists or some other form of boss battles, ones that, in the grand scheme, didn't seem like mandatory side attractions to the story.

One hack that I think takes this idea and does wonderful things with it is Pokemon Ruby Destiny - Rescue Rangers. Though I didn't notice when I was younger, that was quite the unique hack. Not only did it boast a party system for most of its playthrough (which is something that pretty much unique to it, I don't think you can find it in other hacks), but it also managed to have quests and a lot of side features without being completely nonlinear (and, at the same time, not being too linear and opening up as the player progressed).

It's that sort of non-standard concept that I would like to see more of. Whether that will actually happen or not...I'm not sure. After all, I see a lot of Rom Hacking forum dwellers saying things like "Once I get done with X hack, I'll play this,"...and I see it a lot. Heck, I look at the counter for how many people are viewing the forum sometimes and just awe in wonder. As a result, it would seem that I'm an incredibly small minority in this, so I guess all I can say is that this is my 2 cents on...the state of Pokemon hacks. I might be asking for too much, or maybe even expecting too much, but I'll at least remain hopeful.