Hack Series: Pokémon Photonic Sun & Prismatic Moon

Kholdy322 · Aug 25, 2018

Cool, I'm surprised to see so many of my suggestions made it in. :) I'm gonna play it now and give you further feedback. I'm especially interested in Flareon now since it's probably one of my favorite Pokemon.

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 13, 2018

Hey! Decided to try this after finishing Wilting Y. I'm not very far in yet but at the first Pokemon Center the game froze when I talked to the PokeMart employee. Do you know what the problem might be?

Buffel Saft · Sep 13, 2018

Rayquaza Master 384 said:
Hey! Decided to try this after finishing Wilting Y. I'm not very far in yet but at the first Pokemon Center the game froze when I talked to the PokeMart employee. Do you know what the problem might be?

If you're playing Photonic Sun rebalanced, then the problem is that I forgot to replace the broken Shop.cro file on Google Drive for that version; I've just fixed that now (sorry!). If you're playing a different version I'll need to know which one so I can do some testing.

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 13, 2018

Buffel Saft said:
If you're playing Photonic Sun rebalanced, then the problem is that I forgot to replace the broken Shop.cro file on Google Drive for that version; I've just fixed that now (sorry!). If you're playing a different version I'll need to know which one so I can do some testing.

Yes, that's the one I was playing! Forgot to mention that part. Thank you!

Buffel Saft · Sep 13, 2018

Rayquaza Master 384 said:
Yes, that's the one I was playing! Forgot to mention that part. Thank you!

No problem, let me know if that doesn't fix the freezing.

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 14, 2018

Buffel Saft said:
No problem, let me know if that doesn't fix the freezing.

It seems like the same issue is still occurring. Any idea what else the problem could be?

Buffel Saft · Sep 14, 2018

Rayquaza Master 384 said:
It seems like the same issue is still occurring. Any idea what else the problem could be?

I've just done a fresh install from the copy on Drive to test it, and I can't get the mart to freeze on my console. Have you got the official update installed? I'm not too sure what else could be causing that, seeing as only the shop.cro and maybe the code.bin file should have any effect on the marts. You could try deleting and reinstalling the hack if you haven't already.

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 14, 2018

Buffel Saft said:
I've just done a fresh install from the copy on Drive to test it, and I can't get the mart to freeze on my console. Have you got the official update installed? I'm not too sure what else could be causing that, seeing as only the shop.cro and maybe the code.bin file should have any effect on the marts. You could try deleting and reinstalling the hack if you haven't already.

Oh, I'll see about the official update then. I'd need to update my 3DS for it but I assume since I've got all my custom firmware right on the main menu that shouldn't be a problem?

EDIT: Installed the update and it works fine now, thanks!

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 15, 2018

Just a note, the documentation doesn't list Ekans as an encounter from the ambush spots on Route 2 but I found one that way. The other ambush encounters seem to be as should be though.

Buffel Saft · Sep 15, 2018

Rayquaza Master 384 said:
Just a note, the documentation doesn't list Ekans as an encounter from the ambush spots on Route 2 but I found one that way. The other ambush encounters seem to be as should be though.

Turns out that Ekans is a static encounter, so it'll only show up there once. I didn't know where it was used so I didn't edit it.

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 15, 2018

Buffel Saft said:
Turns out that Ekans is a static encounter, so it'll only show up there once. I didn't know where it was used so I didn't edit it.

Oh, that makes sense. I did notice that none of the subsequent encounters in the ambush spots were Ekans. So it's sort of equivalent then to the Grubbin for the first encounter of Route 1?

Buffel Saft · Sep 16, 2018

Rayquaza Master 384 said:
Oh, that makes sense. I did notice that none of the subsequent encounters in the ambush spots were Ekans. So it's sort of equivalent then to the Grubbin for the first encounter of Route 1?

Yeah, exactly like that. I have no idea why Game Freak likes those events so much recently, they don't seem at all necessary.

Rayquaza Master 384 · Sep 19, 2018

This is sort of a minor thing but I noticed that the levels of the opponents in the Trainer School seven mysteries arc are unchanged. It's a side thing though so it's understandable if it wasn't one of your main concerns.

Buffel Saft · Sep 19, 2018

Rayquaza Master 384 said:
This is sort of a minor thing but I noticed that the levels of the opponents in the Trainer School seven mysteries arc are unchanged. It's a side thing though so it's understandable if it wasn't one of your main concerns.

Thanks for letting me know about that; I didn't even know it was a thing until just now. I'll get that fixed later today.

EDIT: fix is up now; I've left the Gastly and Drifloon's levels as is but given them some egg moves, and edited Youth Athlete Deedra's team.

Seraaz · Sep 25, 2018

First of all the hack looks great, nice work! Thank you!

Is there a convenient way to play it on citra or a guide on how to make a 3ds or CIA file out of the hack?

Buffel Saft · Sep 26, 2018

Seraaz said:
First of all the hack looks great, nice work! Thank you!

Is there a convenient way to play it on citra or a guide on how to make a 3ds or CIA file out of the hack?

Thanks!

I think this guide looks like the most convenient way to play mods on citra. I haven't tried it myself so I don't know how up to date it is (or if it even still works), but it seems to bypass the need to unpack and rebuild a cia/ROM file, which is the most tedious part of making a hack cia.

If that doesn't work the general process for making a cia of the hack is as follows:

Get a cia/3ds file
Unpack it using Asia81's 3ds toolkit (use version 9, people have had trouble with the latest release)
Copy the "a" folder and any cro files from the hack to the romfs folder in the unpacked ROM; overwrite files when prompted
Similarly, copy the code.bin file to the exefs folder
Use the toolkit to rebuild the unpacked ROM into a 3DS file for citra

You may also need to do something with the official update for the game, as the hack won't run on a 3DS without it installed. I don't know how citra handles game updates, but if it doesn't support them the update can be merged into the ROM in the same way as the hack.

Hope that helps! There should be guides around for most of those steps, but I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have regardless.

Seraaz · Sep 26, 2018

Buffel Saft said:
Thanks!

I think this guide looks like the most convenient way to play mods on citra. I haven't tried it myself so I don't know how up to date it is (or if it even still works), but it seems to bypass the need to unpack and rebuild a cia/ROM file, which is the most tedious part of making a hack cia.

If that doesn't work the general process for making a cia of the hack is as follows:

Get a cia/3ds file

Unpack it using Asia81's 3ds toolkit (use version 9, people have had trouble with the latest release)

Copy the "a" folder and any cro files from the hack to the romfs folder in the unpacked ROM; overwrite files when prompted

Similarly, copy the code.bin file to the exefs folder

Use the toolkit to rebuild the unpacked ROM into a 3DS file for citra

You may also need to do something with the official update for the game, as the hack won't run on a 3DS without it installed. I don't know how citra handles game updates, but if it doesn't support them the update can be merged into the ROM in the same way as the hack.

Hope that helps! There should be guides around for most of those steps, but I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have regardless.

With your help (and quite some trial and error) I was able to make it work. Thank you so much for your assistance! So far I am enjoying your romhack a lot!

Buffel Saft · Sep 26, 2018

Seraaz said:
With your help (and quite some trial and error) I was able to make it work. Thank you so much for your assistance! So far I am enjoying your romhack a lot!

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy the rest of it too!

Seraaz · Sep 30, 2018

One thing I have noticed however, the shop stocks do not seem to be changed correctly. According to the documents I should be able to buy the EV items in Hauo'oli city but they are not there. The second clerk only sells the usual x-attack and stuff. Same goes for the route 2 mart which should sell all sorts of pokeballs but actually only sells Super potion, Heal Ball, Nest Ball and Luxury Ball. All the other items he sells are the usual X-items

Are the items sold only bound to shop.cro file? I definitely replaced it

Buffel Saft · Oct 1, 2018

Seraaz said:
One thing I have noticed however, the shop stocks do not seem to be changed correctly. According to the documents I should be able to buy the EV items in Hauo'oli city but they are not there. The second clerk only sells the usual x-attack and stuff. Same goes for the route 2 mart which should sell all sorts of pokeballs but actually only sells Super potion, Heal Ball, Nest Ball and Luxury Ball. All the other items he sells are the usual X-items

Are the items sold only bound to shop.cro file? I definitely replaced it

Yeah it's just the shop.cro that controls what's in the shops. Did you do anything with the official update? That comes with its own shop.cro file, so maybe it's overriding the hack's shop changes.