Nihon complete hack - seeking advice

[km_852]

I'm new to the ROM hacking community and trying to figure out if what I want to do is even possible.
Base line, I want to expand the starter list to a nearly free choice of all the base-evolutions to add more flexibility for single pokemon runs, change older gen stats back to what they were in that pokemon's initial release gen (I'm aware this will jank the balancing and I'm curious to see what it ends up like), and I would like to build the other 3 Nihon regions into whatever game I'm hacking.
There are plenty of other tweaks I want to throw in like cleaning up story and leveling issues re gen 2 when you get to Kanto, adding side questing and new sim elements to raising your pokemon, etc, but I know that's way outside my depth for a while.

Questions I have specifically:
Is it possible to take assets like sprites, stats, move info, or even the start screen and menus from gen 1 & 2 and port them into Gen 3? (I just happen to like the look of the simpler menus better personally)

I assume via all the hacks of it that Fire is my best bet for my idea as far as the flexibility I want to add, but is there a different version I should look at instead? (I also love the look of Fire/Leaf and the color assets they use)

Is there even room for all 4 region maps, etc in a Fire ROM, even if animations are removed from most sprites?

I'm looking to bounce ideas off folks with more experience. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

 

[Asith]

I'm new to the ROM hacking community and trying to figure out if what I want to do is even possible.
Base line, I want to expand the starter list to a nearly free choice of all the base-evolutions to add more flexibility for single pokemon runs, change older gen stats back to what they were in that pokemon's initial release gen

This is definitely possible

There are plenty of other tweaks I want to throw in like cleaning up story and leveling issues re gen 2 when you get to Kanto, adding side questing and new sim elements to raising your pokemon, etc, but I know that's way outside my depth for a while.

Questions I have specifically:
Is it possible to take assets like sprites, stats, move info, or even the start screen and menus from gen 1 & 2 and port them into Gen 3? (I just happen to like the look of the simpler menus better personally)

Yes and no. Can you just rip them from one and throw them onto the other? Not quite. Can you port them over if you're willing to do a little bit of editing and adjusting? Absolutely! There's no technical limitations here since you're downgrading, in essence. You should just think of these as images/sprites and not ported assets. Then it becomes the same as replacing images with custom images, which there are heaps of tutorials about. You'd have a bit of trouble in places where text is drawn on (eg: pokemon summary screens), since then you'd have to change the image and the locations where text go, but it's certainly still possible.

I assume via all the hacks of it that Fire is my best bet for my idea as far as the flexibility I want to add, but is there a different version I should look at instead? (I also love the look of Fire/Leaf and the color assets they use)

Is there even room for all 4 region maps, etc in a Fire ROM, even if animations are removed from most sprites?

I would recommend FireRed, yes. As for 4 maps... that's a bit of a stretch imo. Even if you expanded your rom and deleted a lot of data, that's still trying to squeeze 4 games into 1. You'd be left with each region having less room for its own content and world building. However, the even bigger concern there isn't space limitation, but your limitation. Building 4 regions is a massive task and I would never recommend a beginner do something that crazy. You'd get burnt out and end up with an unfinished project. I strongly recommend you start with a scope smaller than that - something you can actually finish in a few months, feel proud about, and learn from. Slaving away to add 4 regions as your first project will make you hate rom hacking.

I'd also recommend you search up the differences between binary rom hacking and decomp rom hacking. Both are perfectly valid approaches, but one may help you reach your specific goals easier. Deciding on one should ideally be your first step

 

[km_852]

Thank you for your input and advice!
I had to laugh at "end up with an unfinished project" cause that's just my existence, not via overexertion but cause autism is a bitch when you switch hyper-focuses and don't get back to a project as a result for several years. lol.
That said, I do plan on starting small with editing the start screen and changing how many starters one can chose from just in Fire. Get the basics of scripting under my belt first and then tackle maybe mapping Johto into Fire? I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle dividing things up, but as a result, I'm mapping everything out very extensively to figure out what I want to do and the knitty-gritty of how those objectives would realistically translate into game mechanics and interface changes.

I'm currently working my way through Anthroyd's tutorial videos on youtube and figuring out how to get the needed software on my linux machine so it's certainly slow going for now.

 

[Incudust]

good luck km, i wish i could help but i am just discovering pokemon hacking myself, and am at the watch tutorials and try to comprehend what the hell is going on stage.