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What is your most disliked aspect of ROM hacking?

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss

Will finish GS Chronicles, I swear!
523
Posts
10
Years
    • Testing...

    You spend hours compiling scripts, code, inserting maps, sprites, tiles. Then you realize you need to test your own game from the begging to to the end. It gets worse when your project has a lot of content to test.

    That's why I love beta testers. I have no patience to test even my own stuff.
     
    supershadow64ds

    supershadow64ds

    Confused Noob Programmer
    25
    Posts
    12
    Years
    • Seen Nov 14, 2023
    Having extremely creative ideas and plans, drawing out regions and plotting it down, then realizing it'd be a lot more fun to play than put together.
     
    Roni

    Roni

    19,142
    Posts
    11
    Years
    • I'll answer from the perspective of an outsider looking in: the players who don't understand how tedious it is to make a romhack and constantly bugs the creators for updates.

    "Hey when's this gonna be finished??"

    "What's taking so long!? We need the new beta now"

    Thankfully it isn't that rampant anymore, but I just wish everyone would understand that it takes time (a LOT of time) to finish a full game. Even more so when 9 times out of 10 it's just one dude doing everything.
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
    SʅaʋZaɕк

    SʅaʋZaɕк

    ZackyMohammad24
    22
    Posts
    8
    Years
    • Scripting.
    I'm not really good when it comes to learning something complicated, even until now i couldn't create simple script without script document.
     
    emeraldgaming4

    emeraldgaming4

    67
    Posts
    5
    Years
    • not a hacker, but as an outsider i often get annoyed at the sort of paler colors used in hacks (like in liquid crystal), but i don't think that necessarily makes a game bad (because, for example, dark rising uses that type of tileset and idk why but it felt like it fit a lot more into the game).
     
    emeraldgaming4

    emeraldgaming4

    67
    Posts
    5
    Years
    • and i know it's a lot of work for these people doing each tile, so i'm not trying to put anyone down that does that because a lot of the time romhacks are made of a one-man (or woman) team.
     
    STikER

    STikER

    275
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Tedious and repetitive actions, like adding numerous new Pokémon or items one by one. You just get bored of it and it feels unsatisfying.
     
    Roni

    Roni

    19,142
    Posts
    11
    Years
    • STikER said:
    Tedious and repetitive actions, like adding numerous new Pokémon or items one by one. You just get bored of it and it feels unsatisfying.
    Click to expand...

    Probably the main reason why so many hacks are left unfinished. I personally wouldn't have the discipline to do edit 10+ trainers on 20+ routes.
     
    Gavoca

    Gavoca

    361
    Posts
    3
    Years
    • He/Him
    • Seen Dec 24, 2023
    Maybe Scripting also...... i have my scripter(AKA my brother) so i don't do the script....
     
    Major Agnostic

    Major Agnostic

    Pokemon Crystal Ultimate Developer
    60
    Posts
    8
    Years
    • Seen Jun 8, 2023
    What I like the least is spritework. Beyond not being artistically inclined, I just can't be bothered to use those pixel editing software. I'd rather ask someone who's better at it to just get it done quickly and neatly and give them the credit; win-win.
     
    DaleFails

    DaleFails

    Pokémon: Giovanni Origins developer
    207
    Posts
    12
    Years
    • Seen today
    I'll start with my favourite part - mapping! I know how to insert tiles and make some nice looking palettes and have a good sense of good looking and playable maps.

    My biggest hatred and what's ultimately kills my hacks is the tedious testing and bug squashing. If things worked first time, if tools didn't corrupt data / ROMs so much it would be much nicer.

    That was my problem 10 or so years ago. I'm hoping now that I'm older and have a proper high end set up that I won't encounter so many problems!
     
    Roni

    Roni

    19,142
    Posts
    11
    Years
    • DaleH771 said:
    I'll start with my favourite part - mapping! I know how to insert tiles and make some nice looking palettes and have a good sense of good looking and playable maps.

    My biggest hatred and what's ultimately kills my hacks is the tedious testing and bug squashing. If things worked first time, if tools didn't corrupt data / ROMs so much it would be much nicer.

    That was my problem 10 or so years ago. I'm hoping now that I'm older and have a proper high end set up that I won't encounter so many problems!
    Click to expand...

    you look for your own bugs? you just have to say "looking for beta testers" on your post and you'll get a flurry of folks willing to do it for you. i can understand if you mean the job itself of fixing them tho.
     
    DaleFails

    DaleFails

    Pokémon: Giovanni Origins developer
    207
    Posts
    12
    Years
    • Seen today
    Roni said:
    you look for your own bugs? you just have to say "looking for beta testers" on your post and you'll get a flurry of folks willing to do it for you. i can understand if you mean the job itself of fixing them tho.
    Click to expand...

    Yeah, I like to play test it as I go through making changes.

    Since the above post of mine I've got myself back into scripting and with XSE and the amounts of resources around, scripting has gotten so much easier. It's made ROM hacking far more enjoyable than it was ten years ago!
     

    Meister_anon~Master_o f_None

    853
    Posts
    3
    Years
    • Seen Nov 9, 2023
    It's definitely bug testing, all the constant patching, finding things that don't work that should, repatching again, making multiple files with multiple saves, to compare and repeat the same set of events multiple times.

    With good tiles everything else is relatively easy and quick by comparison.
     
    __fred__40

    __fred__40

    fred
    277
    Posts
    4
    Years
    • For me it used to be making tilesets and "building" tilemaps, that was just ... not for me, I couldn't do and I sucked at it, no matter how hard I tried
    But now thanks to the CFRU and HMA I don't have to worry about that anymore.
    As for the rest goes there's nothing that I really dislike, there are a lot of things I don't understand (ASM, pixel art, music editing) but instead of feeling bad about my lack of knowledge, I get excited trying to learn these stuff:)
     
    ShinyTillDawn

    ShinyTillDawn

    135
    Posts
    4
    Years
    • Seen Apr 26, 2024
    Finding software that is not considered malware. Also different ROM editors that aren't compatible with each other (like Gen 3 Tools and ROMs that have used CFRU).
     
    Zygoat

    Zygoat

    Mimikyu enjoyer
    57
    Posts
    5
    Years
    • To be honest, all of it. It's extremely hard to get into and Pokémon Essentials has closed the gap in quality and accuracy to the games considerably. Combine that with Essentials' way more user-friendly methods of doing things, and it's safe to say I'm done with hacking and never coming back. I could barely do anything with hacking without the game eventually becoming unplayable. The only advantage hacks have over fangames now is that they can be played on your phone with emulators
     

    Meister_anon~Master_o f_None

    853
    Posts
    3
    Years
    • Seen Nov 9, 2023
    just chiming in romhacking isn't that difficult comparatively especially with recent tools, like HMA.
    The only hard part is when it comes to battle scripting or asm or using C, but that's only required if you're adding new mechanics,
    or making major changes to existing ones.

    And like anything else, can be learned with time and effort.




    but to be on topic, I guess I'd say sometimes not being able to enjoy your own hack as much as others because of perspective, and how much work put in.
     
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