Emerald hack: Altered Emerald (386+ patch with new maps and 7th gen battle engine/evos)

Not sure if I'm playing an outdated version or something, but is there any reason why Shroomish can't learn Bullet Seed and Scyther can't learn Cut? Just seems odd

TWOWS said:

Not sure if I'm playing an outdated version or something, but is there any reason why Shroomish can't learn Bullet Seed and Scyther can't learn Cut? Just seems odd

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Scyther's been changed intentionally, it just does too much damage with cut, at too high a base speed, with no downside. Fury cutter is weaker but makes for more interesting battles. I changed shroomish to encourage people to use things beside their starter in the first gym. Turns out people like their starters (what a surprise!) and will use them regardless, so stuff like this probs just makes the game worse. I've reverted it on a n e w patch

patch notes:
You now receive strength after beating lavaridge gym, and the guy in rusturf tunnel gives you a different item instead.
-------------If anyone misses out on strength because of this update, hit me up and I'll fix your game for you-----------------
You no longer need to learn how to use the acro bike to go from mauville to route 103, instead you can get there with either bike. This means some changes to route 103 and route 110

Starters who lost their "torrent/blaze/overgrow" style abilities have a 50% chance to have them back. The new starters now have a 50% chance to have their old ability too. Fixed some spooky ghost blocks again, you can now buy white herbs and mental herbs in lavaridge town, and there might have been a really huge bug that got fixed, but I'm pretty much sure it was only present on my copy lmao

Visual bugs that I know of, but haven't fixed just yet:
route 115 top of mountain glows in the dark
route 120 has some rocks that reflect clouds in them
the town map looks odd when you zoom in on rote 113

luuma said:

Scyther's been changed intentionally, it just does too much damage with cut, at too high a base speed, with no downside. Fury cutter is weaker but makes for more interesting battles. I changed shroomish to encourage people to use things beside their starter in the first gym. Turns out people like their starters (what a surprise!) and will use them regardless, so stuff like this probs just makes the game worse. Gonna revert it in like 5 mins

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The distribution of mons is fantastic, I'm just about to take on the Magma Hideout now and so far I'm really enjoying this hack. Few notes however:

-Some trainer mons only have struggle (Basically all magnemites, a few woopers and the gym trainer in fortree with a murkrow spring to mind)
-The tar pit, this thing is a complete mess. I couldn't work out how to get out whatsoever so I had to faint my mons to teleport back to mauville.
-Whilst I love the map changes some routes and towns feel cluttered and or difficult to navigate, mauville is a key example. Hoenn's such a vast and dynamic region that makes it exploring it so fun, making these tight walk ways really lessens this effect. In this case less really is more.
-The hack would really benefit with some Gen IV/Gen V moves added to give mons better stabs/coverage
-Certain debuffs to moves, why? EQ only having 5pp, boomburst having it's power and max pp nerfed etc? I get you're encouraging diversity with your mons and moves but some of these edits are slightly puzzling.
-I don't have a problem with extensive HM use, if anything I encourage it but if the moves themselves aren't viable to carry with you all game it becomes a chore to have to carry a HM slave around with you. Bar the edits you've made to HM's that are now priority, I'd suggest making them at least 60BP, even if you have to edit or remove their secondary effects to not break them entirely.
-Not that much of an issue but I'd love some of the NPC's to reflect the new plot and changes to the region with their dialogue. Would really add to the whole sequel vibe.

Overall though I'm really enjoying the changes and as someone who would consider Emerald their favourite game in the series I can't wait to see this hack and grow and get even better.

TWOWS said:

The distribution of mons is fantastic, I'm just about to take on the Magma Hideout now and so far I'm really enjoying this hack. Few notes however:

-Some trainer mons only have struggle (Basically all magnemites, a few woopers and the gym trainer in fortree with a murkrow spring to mind)
-The tar pit, this thing is a complete mess. I couldn't work out how to get out whatsoever so I had to faint my mons to teleport back to mauville.
-Whilst I love the map changes some routes and towns feel cluttered and or difficult to navigate, mauville is a key example. Hoenn's such a vast and dynamic region that makes it exploring it so fun, making these tight walk ways really lessens this effect. In this case less really is more.
-The hack would really benefit with some Gen IV/Gen V moves added to give mons better stabs/coverage
-Certain debuffs to moves, why? EQ only having 5pp, boomburst having it's power and max pp nerfed etc? I get you're encouraging diversity with your mons and moves but some of these edits are slightly puzzling.
-I don't have a problem with extensive HM use, if anything I encourage it but if the moves themselves aren't viable to carry with you all game it becomes a chore to have to carry a HM slave around with you. Bar the edits you've made to HM's that are now priority, I'd suggest making them at least 60BP, even if you have to edit or remove their secondary effects to not break them entirely.
-Not that much of an issue but I'd love some of the NPC's to reflect the new plot and changes to the region with their dialogue. Would really add to the whole sequel vibe.

Overall though I'm really enjoying the changes and as someone who would consider Emerald their favourite game in the series I can't wait to see this hack and grow and get even better.

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The tar pit's fixed now! Try it out again! The pointers of certain map just occasionally decide to change for a quick laugh.

I've thought about gen 4 moves. The ones I want to put in are all the status ones, which to my knowledge have barely ever been implemented. I think I'm gonna pop feint pulse up to 75 power for special dark types, and maybe add in a TM for special ground types. most special rock types get ancientpower, which is now a much more reasonable option as your stab move.
Instead of adding gen 4 moves in I just buffed old ones. Which pokemon do you think need more coverage?

rerouting the game through mauville early on is just about the biggest mistake i ever made, but I'm gonna have another crack at it. it's been through like 3 iterations already, the bastard.

Rock smash and flash to 40 bp? Lowering defense every time is pretty good to be honest.
I can cope with cut being buffed!

eq was busted in gen 3 and the fact you get it as a reusable tm means you just whack it on everything in your party that learns it and. I tried out reducing its accuracy and its power, both of those changes feel bad, and i think the pp change gives the move a weakness without chucking out all its charm. Nonetheless I'm going to make boomburst stronger (for the vine) please tell me if it goes overboard!

This critique is great, gonna go fix those trainers now.

luuma said:

The tar pit's fixed now! Try it out again! The pointers of certain map just occasionally decide to change for a quick laugh.

I've though about gen 4 moves. The ones I want to put in are all the status ones, which to my knowledge are barely ever implemented. I think I'm gonna pop feint pulse up to 75 power for special dark types, and maybe add in a TM for special ground types
Instead of adding them in I just buffed old moves. Which pokemon do you think need more coverage?

rerouting the game through mauville early on is just about the biggest mistake i ever made, but I'm gonna have another crack at it. it's been through like 3 iterations already

Rock smash and flash to 40 bp? Lowering defense every time is pretty good to be honest.
I can cope with cut being buffed.

eq was busted in gen 3 and the fact you get it as a reusable tm means you just whack it on everything in your party that learns it and. I tried out reducing its accuracy and its power, both of those changes feel bad, and i think the pp change gives the move a weakness without chucking out all its charm. Nonetheless I'm going to make boomburst stronger (for the vine) please tell me if it goes overboard.

This critique is great, gonna go fix those trainers now.

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I'll sure to patch the new version when I get the chance. Buffing flash to 40BP sounds great, for Rock Smash maybe edit the effect to boost the users attack? Like a Gen 3 power up punch. As for EQ maybe lower its power to 90BP and 10PP? That way in keeps in line with similar BP moves like flamethrower etc (that extra 5BP is justified by the lack of secondary effect). If you implement that however I'd consider lowering Dig's BP to adjust to the curve, maybe 60BP with a chance to flinch?

Now I think about it that whole area east of Mauville could use some work (Forest Rapids all the way up to before Lilycove). The flow of it feels awkward and the lack of places to heal/buy items etc makes it a chore to navigate, however this might be fixed with the editing of the tar pit. The edits you've made to some routes look and feel great to work through, I loved the overpasses on Route 102 and the Canyon area past the Desert for example. I think the main issue I experienced with this section is it feels a little overwhelming, too much going on you know?

TWOWS said:

I'll sure to patch the new version when I get the chance. Buffing flash to 40BP sounds great, for Rock Smash maybe edit the effect to boost the users attack? Like a Gen 3 power up punch. As for EQ maybe lower its power to 90BP and 10PP? That way in keeps in line with similar BP moves like flamethrower etc (that extra 5BP is justified by the lack of secondary effect). If you implement that however I'd consider lowering Dig's BP to adjust to the curve, maybe 60BP with a chance to flinch?

Now I think about it that whole area east of Mauville could use some work (Forest Rapids all the way up to before Lilycove). The flow of it feels awkward and the lack of places to heal/buy items etc makes it a chore to navigate, however this might be fixed with the editing of the tar pit. The edits you've made to some routes look and feel great to work through, I loved the overpasses on Route 102 and the Canyon area past the Desert for example. I think the main issue I experienced with this section is it feels a little overwhelming, too much going on you know?

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Power up punch's effect is actually already in the game, over the top of Mega Punch! I'd rather it had the niche and made more thematic sense. I tried earthquake at 90 power, thinking it would be a good change. Trust me, the second you see it in-game with only 90 power, your heart just breaks! I think the PP nerf hurts the move but keeps the important parts intact.

Just tweaked forest rapids and route 123 to make it nice and wide for next update, the suggestion for a shop and healer is a good one. I reckon the stop-off point should be just outside Mt. Pyre, what are your thoughts?


EDIT: everything is fixed except route 135 and the canyon are inexplicably intertwined and always look the same in game regardless of whether their map headers look even remotely similar or anything. each time I change the header of one of them it makes the other one look identical. Does anyone know how to fix this? it's map offset 0.57 and 0.60, and both of these headers point to vastly different map footers in vastly different parts of the rom
I've tried inserting the map in a completely brand new offset in an entirely new set of map headers but it still happens. I've also tried saving the map file, removing it from the rom, re-adding it to the rom in a different spot and it still happens
I want to eliminate this meme before I release it because god it's so freaking annOYING

Does anyone know what's going wrong??

Hi luuma
Still loving your hack after playing for 30+ hours, but I have a problem ...
Seems like I have to start over again if I want to play the new update (I'm still using the first release), because the save files aren't compatible ...
But still, I think it's worth it because the new version seem to have a lot of improvements.
Also, I don't know if you know it, but when you talk to the doll in may's room, the game freezes (this happens in the old and new versions).
I hope you continue the good work :)

Skyro005 said:

Hi luuma
Still loving your hack after playing for 30+ hours, but I have a problem ...
Seems like I have to start over again if I want to play the new update (I'm still using the first release), because the save files aren't compatible ...
But still, I think it's worth it because the new version seem to have a lot of improvements.
Also, I don't know if you know it, but when you talk to the doll in may's room, the game freezes (this happens in the old and new versions).
I hope you continue the good work :)

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What are you playing on? pc?? phone? The save files themselves are actually compatible, as long as you're in a safe spot (which means route 101 or littleroot town) but you'll have to do some messing around. I know on VBA it's really easy, you just click "load", then look for the right .SAV file.

I... haven't fixed the doll in may's room in this patch. I'm really sorry. I'll add that to the big post at the start!

PATCH NOTES:
-shut off the route next to route 111 until I can fix a pointer somewhere
-made some paths wider and easier to walk through on route 119, forest rapids, route 120, route 121 and route 123
-added a POKeMART on route 118, stocking helpful items, lum berries, and a stick.
-Some changes to moves. egg bomb now 85% accurate, 30% chance to bun. Boomburst now 140 power, charge now 60 power, Fissure now 60 power, needle arm now 45% chance to flinch, Poison fang now 60 power, flash and rock smash now 40 power, fire smpin/clamp/sand tomb now 70 power

Hey! I just recently downloaded the ROM and I'm glad to say I'm loving every bit of it. I only just recently realized (literally today) that I was playing the OLDEST version of the game and came here looking for help. I've downloaded the patches and such, and have two questions.

1. I've gotten all the way up to just before fighting Norman. Will implementing the patch this late in my playthrough mess anything up?
2. I can't fight Norman anyway; I skipped Brawly early on because he was giving me a hard time and was planning on coming back to take him on after I took on Wattson. Well, I beat Wattson, and.. got caught up in your game and continued all the way up to where I am now. I saw that you said that Mr. Briney disappears after we fight Flannery, so I can't go back to Dewford without fighting Norman (I'm assuming Surf is given to us after him like in vanilla r/s/e), but I can't fight Norman without 5 badges, and.. you see what I'm getting at.

Is there anything I can do? Am I going to have to restart my game? I REALLY don't want to; I love my team so far and everything I've done and so on, but.. if restarting is what I have to do, then I'll do it.

Thank you in advance, and again, I love this hack!

*EDIT* Realize now that the old version and the new are different files altogether, will have to restart anyways. WHOOPS!

prohibitivemind said:

Realize now that the old version and the new are different files altogether, will have to restart anyways. WHOOPS!

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Not necessarily. Assuming the saves are compatible, you could simply load your old save file into the newer rom. This can usually be accomplished by renaming the old .sav file to match the name of the newer rom exactly. Or if you're using vba, use the load battery option and select the older .sav.

solidsmeagol said:

Not necessarily. Assuming the saves are compatible, you could simply load your old save file into the newer rom. This can usually be accomplished by renaming the old .sav file to match the name of the newer rom exactly. Or if you're using vba, use the load battery option and select the older .sav.

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oof. I'd do this, but I still have the standing problem of the whole "Not enough Badges to fight Norman, but no way to reach Dewford without Surf, etc etc"

Either I'm blind, stupid, or it's not there, but I can't find the Water Stone on Route 114.

A awesome hack ! This is the best hack i ever played.

Uhm, where in slateport can i make aurora/eon ticket work? Thanks. Nice hack btw

ruspamintuan said:

Uhm, where in slateport can i make aurora/eon ticket work? Thanks. Nice hack btw

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Sneak around the back of the port! (Where you go to use the Ferry, or where Capt. Stern is interviewed, etc. etc,] in the top-right part of the city. You'll have to do a little looking around to find the entrance to the back.

*SPOILERS BELOW!!*

[edited: a large amount of this is because i was playing an older version. whoops.]
general stuff abt the game, just tryin' to help point out mistakes for polishing and such. i in no way am trying to be rude or trying to make fun of anything or any errors! I love this hack and just want to help see it prosper!
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-Crunch still lowers Special Defense instead of Defense, in spite of dealing Physical damage.

-Steelix's movepool is a little... lackluster? I know you're very adamant about the changes to the Pokemon in this game and don't want to change anything too drastically, and they're all amazing in their own ways (You've made some of my favorite Pokemon viable!! <3 ) but might I suggest a Steel/Dragon typing, or maybe a new ability? Hustle has a huge chance of showing up now since you've made the Hidden Abilities common, and... well, it hurts to watch moves that are normally 100% accurate whiff, and don't even get me started on Iron Tail, Rock Tomb... Hustle adds a 20% decrease! TWENTY PERCENT! IT HURTS! You can argue the 50% boost to base physical damage is worth the trade-off, and early in the game it may be, but once you get past Mauville it turns from a nuisance to a serious liability.
So maybe Steel/Dragon, or keep the Steel/Ground typing, iunno. The Steel/Dragon typing would give it a serious boost against Poison types, and I can see from your point of view how that wouldn't quite be a good idea. It gets rid of one of Dragon's few weaknesses in this ROM. But the typing then makes it weak to Ice and Dragon, etc etc, and while it loses STAB Earthquake, it could make do with STAB Outrage, maybe? Just a thought. Or keep its original typing but give it some more moves and a bit of a better ability? some thoughts:

-GEN3 version of Anchor Shot; Lockdown: 80/100/10, Steel type, prevents fleeing? "The user throws itself onto the opponent, weighing it down. Prevents fleeing/switching out."

-Mold Breaker, Heatproof, Intimidate, Aftermath, Sheer Force, or Full Metal Body(Clear Body, respectively) for Steelix? These abilities would certainly make Steelix more of a force to be reckoned, and some of the abilities could even work for Onix. Just a thought!

-Steel Wing doesn't seem to be used much aside from Skarmory. Maybe change it to a Psychic-type, Physical move? Allow more use of Physical Psychic mons like Claydol, Hypno, and such? Perhaps this game's version of Psycho-Cut; 70/90/25, with high-crit ratio. Maybe name it Mind Drive or Psych Jostle.

-Make Explosion/Selfdestruct change with the type of Pokemon? if possible? Make it more viable as a last resort of sorts, bonus for STAB and such? (I.E. Electrode's would be ELTRC, but Claydol's would be a 50/50 chance of being Psychic or Ground.)

-Hyper Fang isn't used often either. The only Pokemon I can think of that uses it is Raticate and Rattata, and i've only seen one Raticate in battle. Maybe change it, too, to something else? A Physical Grass or Ghost type move that's not exceptionally special, but fills the damage-dealing role (and also may flinch.) If Grass, mayhaps 'Bramble Swipe' at 70/100/20. "The user attacks with thorny vines. May cause flinching."
If Ghost, then 'Panic Trigger' at 70/100/20. "The user throws itself at the opponent, triggering a panic reflex. May cause flinching."

-In the battle with Sydney, his Shedinja tends to get fucked over by his Tyrannitar's Sand Stream. If T-Tar's come out before it, and he sends in Shedinja, it gets KO'd before it can even make a move. Right now for me that's a blessing(I'm a little underleveled), but I feel like that's not how you intended the battle to go. You seemed really proud of your changes to Sheddy and it's kind of a shame for it to not get to strut its new digs, so to speak.

-Feint Pulse is still Feint Attack? Maybe it's the version i'm playing, I don't know.

-Rare Candies for grinding aren't showing up in E4-- unless this is postgame-only.

-Did you change Snatch? I don't remember it stealing EVERYTHING, only healing things. Either way, it was definitely a nasty surprise on Pheobe's Shadow Tag Sableye.

-Delibird's POKeDEX ENTRY typo; "exlposives." instead of "explosives."

-I don't know what you did to Parasect, but that thing is a fuckin' special tank now and I love it. Spore-Nightmare-Curse is so lethal and it's amazing.

-Skill Swap+Truant Claydol is unstoppable.

-Parasect's POKeDEX ENTRY grammar; "it says cheerily" instead of "it says cheerily,"

-Skarmory's POKeDEX entry grammar; "have you ever held a kitana" instead of "Have you ever held a kitana?" (unless it's a joke that im missing. oops)

-Whismur POKeDEX entry grammar: "through its ear canals and so" instead of "through its ear canals, and so,"

-not saying anything about Azurill's because it's hilarious and the comma instead of a period implies you were cut-off mid sentence for some reason which is absolutely, again, hilarious

-Torkoal making farting noises when expelling smoke instead of train noises is amazing.

-Spinda's POKeDEX entry capitalization: first "Spinda" in entry is not capitalized, while the others are.

-Barboach is a parasitic Pokemon? didn't know that, but.

-Claydol's POKeDEX entry, grammar/capitaization: "while hovering in midair Its arms" instead of "while hovering in midair, its arms", "Wikipedia" is not capitalized.

-sadly these are the only pokemon i have in the dex currently (i have others but. there arent any errors there. ill be sure to catch more and let you know if there's anything else.)

-!ERROR's stats are crazy? Super-high attack but abysmally low stats in every other field. Was this intentional?

-The Gym Leader battles are amazingly well done, really, everyone's battles are.

-Something up with EXP.? It seems like Pokemon get a lot less if more participate in a battle. I know this is technically just the original amount of exp being divided among the participating mons equally, but I don't remember it being like this. I assume this was intentional to provide more of a challenge, especially toward the end.

-Some Pokemon have really low catch rates. Yanma, for some reason, really fuckin' refuses to stay in an Ultra Ball, even at 1HP and asleep.

-Along with that, encounter rates as well? Many Pokemon do not show up, even if said to appear on certain routes. I've seen this mostly with the first two routes in the game and on Route 113.

-Is there a Soothe Bell available anywhere? Would make Pokedex completion easier at the least, I feel.

all in all this hack is absolutely amazing and i love it and i've recommended it to just about all of my friends.

additionally: i've been doing spritework lately, and would like to know if you'd like me to offer some of my skills? i don't want any money, trust me, i just want to help make this hack as immersive and polished as possible and want to help in any way!
what i mean is, like-- Spritework on Pokemon, like Alolan Forms-- i.e. Charizard looking more draconic and having smaller wings(due to it now being fire/dragon instead of fire/flying), Parasect looking a little more frail and dead with spores and "ghost fog" around it(grass/ghost instead of grass/bug), so on and so forth! I'm more than willing to edit all the frames of the type-changed Pokemon so that they'll be animated, so as to not take away from the immersion! (and you bet your ass i'll make shinies for em' too) And I'll be more than willing to do spritework on anything else you have in mind!

Message me if you're interested, and I'll give you my contact info and i'll show you some of my works so you can decide!

Thank you!!

Thanks for the reply. Anyways, does anyone know where are the other tickets located? I have eon and aurora ticket as of now. Thanks!!

ruspamintuan said:

Thanks for the reply. Anyways, does anyone know where are the other tickets located? I have eon and aurora ticket as of now. Thanks!!

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Tickets are in Mt. Pyre (Ho-oh/Lugia), Birch's Lab (Deoxys), Granite Cave (Mew), and Route 119 (you need Cut, Latias/Latios)!

did i patch the hard mode version correctly? i just faced brawley he had a lv 20 meditite lv 20 hitmonchan lv 21 hariyama. took him down fairly easily, havent really done any grass training just making sure i have the right one lol

I have some doubts
Could I use cut even riding a bike? My parascect can't.
And what about celebi? Has any specific grass?
I don't find the man who accept the tickets after cought Mew.
And I think that birth's Lab secret room have a bug, after enter, the char move up unless down.

Great work.
I'd loved This game