Is an open world feasible?

[yerpsnerp]

I was trying to think of an original or unused idea for a romhack and I thought maybe an open world could be possible? I thought of using some sort of generic fantasy setting because it could fit with the open world idea. Here is a world I made in Dwarf Fortress that can be used as the region.

If you don't know what a certain thing on the map represents then just ask but it's kinda self explanatory

This is the incomplete list of features/to do list I would refer to for work
-Modern mechanics of course
-All Pokemon available
-Fakemon, some based on mythical creatures
-Certain Pokemon like Tropius are changed to make them viable in battle
-Pokedex entries are edited to fit in with the old fantasy setting (No mention of cyberspace in Porygon's entry)
-Mega Evolution (very hard to obtain, good luck finding the ring!)
-Three races, Dwarf, Human, Elf and each has different starters to give (Might not work too well)
-No gyms but tournaments instead with different rules and styles
-Every tournament can be fought in any order and scale in difficulty (Could it work?)

This is just a stupid idea I wanted to refine. I wanted to go big and bold to get me more interested in rom hacking and that's what I came up with. It might not even end up based on a fantasy setting in the end.

 

[Anthroyd]

Yes, an open world hack is possible. The only issue I see is scaling the trainers to match the player's progress. Each trainer would have to have a bunch of different "forms" and there are only so many trainers to work with.

Scripting wise, it would be as simple as any other hack.

 

[Green Pidgeot]

Yes, but trainers would usually not wwnt to take on certain Gyms, etc, immediately. So it might be similar. The races would need more difference, or it's just starter choice! Tournaments like the anime League in that setting might be strange, unless it's Japan or similar to martial arss. Good luck!

Maybe if trainers can wandr around 3 or 4 cities at a time?

 

[bimby929]

What rombase where you thinking of?

 

[Trev]

You'd actually have better luck doing this in Essentials than you would in a ROM hack. Essentials has formulas for level scaling, which would be a necessity in an open-world Pokemon game, and there's no ROM hacking equivalent at the moment. Essentials also doesn't have the same limitations as ROM hacking so you'd be able to do things like your tournament, etc.

 

[NewDenverCity]

level scaling hacks are possible tho
as is hacking the wild pokemon routine
so really, yes it is, and without too much trouble if you know ASM/C and have a clear idea of what you're going to do.

 

[BluRose]

level scaling hacks are possible tho
as is hacking the wild pokemon routine
so really, yes it is, and without too much trouble if you know ASM/C and have a clear idea of what you're going to do.

tbh c seems a little overkill for this

just a poquito though

i do actually remember fbi wanting to do something like that for his hack
wonder what ever happened there ahaha

 

[Deokishisu]

I could see having something similar to the older Final Fantasies with a world map connecting actual features of the world together working, but truly open world would be difficult to do well in the Pokemon framework. The screen is small, so if you have a whole lotta nothing on screen, your players will get disoriented. People think open world means wide-open, large maps with nothing in them, but that simply does not translate into the Pokemon games in any significant capacity. On top of that, creating content for an open world setting is difficult, as either everything is going to be disjoint (messing with the ability to have a cohesive story) or things are going to have to happen at particular times and places anyway (so why have an open world if you're forced to do plot in specific locations).

 

[longlostsoldier]

If by open world you mean 'can roam to any map in almost any order', and 'pokemon and trainers scale', that's definitely doable. Use 'No HMs' hack plus JPANhack which has a function to set pokemon to the same level as your team. You won't even have to learn ASM.

 

[Dyskinesia]

You'd actually have better luck doing this in Essentials than you would in a ROM hack. Essentials has formulas for level scaling, which would be a necessity in an open-world Pokemon game, and there's no ROM hacking equivalent at the moment. Essentials also doesn't have the same limitations as ROM hacking so you'd be able to do things like your tournament, etc.

Level scaling is incredibly doable in a ROM hack. ROM hacks can also do the tournaments and stuff too lol.