Warning! Large wall of text incoming!
Follow all links for tool downloads. If there is a password it is usually
HackRomTools
Advance-Map is one of the most important tools a hacker can have. Not only does it allow you to edit any map in the game (including world map, connections, etc) but it is how you create script, OW (person), and signpost events for custom scripts in the game using
XSE. (But we'll get to that in a second) A-Map has a very small learning curve, and is probably the easiest tool you could possibly use.
2.How does scripting works in Pokemon Rom Hacking?
As mentioned before A-Map is used to create scripting events. There are certain commands you need to use in XSE (download above) to do certain things, like make a message box. Honestly it is a little harder than A-Map to learn, and probably the hardest to fully master since it's the closest you'll get to actual programming (besides ASM assembly, but you don't need to worry about that at ALL yet). The best tutorial for getting started can be found
here.
3.Can you add pokemon from above gen 3? If you can How do you do it?
The short answer is yes, but this is where things get a little trickier. You would have to expand the amount of pokemon in the game using something like
PGE and then coding every pokemon manually but at your skill level it might be better to use a ROM base where everything has already been added for you (
here is a good one for FireRed; applying rom bases are exactly the same as applying a game patch)
4.Can you add features from above gen 3? If you can How do you do it?
Well this is where things get really sketchy. You haven't really specified
what you want to add, so I can only give general advice. Some things could probably be done in XSE with some willpower and sleepless nights, but for most things, like new items, battle scripts, gameplay modifications, etc. you will either A) figure out if it's already been done or B) learn ASM and code it yourself. ASM is about 15 times harder than XSE, because you are coding in assembly, which is literally only 2 steps up from raw binary. There aren't even any real "commands"; ll you can literally do is add, sub, mul, div values and read/write to RAM. But luckily you can take a look at
this resource thread and see if what you need is already made, or if you really need something done make a separate thread about it and somebody
might help you out or make it for you. No guarantees these days, though, unfortunately.
5.How to change Character Appearance(Including the character you play)
Ah, finally, a simple(-ish) solution! The first thing you gotta do is make sure your sprites are properly formatted for insertion. Make sure your sprite only uses up to 15 colors (plus the background) then follow
this tutorial to index it into something usable by the Gameboy Advance. So now that's out of the way, let's keep going. There are multiple steps you have to do in order to edit every aspect of the player and other characters, but let's start with something simple, OW sprites! (Stands for Overworld Sprites; the ones that walk around when you're not in a battle or something.) Download
OW Manager and you can edit literally any OW and insert new image/palette. Just use the templates in the program and it should be self explanatory. Just be sure to apply the
dynamic OW palette patch to avoid headaches (FireRed only)
Next there is the trainer images. Download
Nameless Sprite Editor and use the "trainer sprites" button to edit each trainer image, including the male/female player. Finally it's backsprites. In Nameless Sprite Editor, press navigate -> BPRE (or whatever your ROM is) -> Backsprites and you can edit all animated backsprites for battle. All done!
P.S. if you only want a single character not boy AND girl then use
this tool and disable gender choice in the tool. Then you only have to edit the sprites of the boy.
6.How to make our rom hack into ups/ips
Use
lunar ips and press "Create Patch." First window that pops up select an UNMODIFIED FireRed/Emerald ROM then the next window choose your modified ROM. IPS complete!
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Hope this helps, since this took me like an hour to write. Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck!
