Hack Series: Pokéluv - A Balanced, Randomized Experience (FireRed/Emerald) [UPDATE]

[Akiak]

So one change I'd like to make is to change the majority of the battles to double battles, this is for two reasons:

1) I personally prefer doubles, I think it's more interesting and allows a wider variety of strategies

2) It allows a much wider pool of Pokemon to be viable, especially with my hack's modifications in place

Pokemon such as Pichu are difficult to use in singles, but can be actually quite useful in a doubles environment due to high speed, Speed Boost, Charm, Fake Tears and Follow Me.

Atm I've already made an initial selection of which trainers to change to double battles (roughly 70% of all trainers that have more than one Pokemon) but now need to change the AI values to make them more capable. Unfortunately changing the specific byte that makes a trainer a capable doubles opponent requires hex editing, so it's a little time consuming.

I was hoping it would be a little easier but alas. As such I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to do it, as the amount of time I can dedicate to this project is dwindling.

So if anyone wants to help out, DM me! I can walk you through what needs to be done, it's very simple really.

If not, no worries. I originally started this project purely for myself and my brother to play with, I wasn't even planning on releasing anything for a long time.

 

[Akiak]

So once again I managed to find a workaround and have updated the PokeluvEfinal patch.

Aside from greatly increasing the amount of double battles, I also took the opportunity to raise the levels just by a tad, and (hopefully) improved the AI across the board.

If for some reason you don't like the changes and you want the old version with no trainer modifications, I'll just leave that one here: View attachment PokeluvEfinalOld.ips

I'm pretty happy with the current state of the hack, there's only a handful of very minor changes and fixes that I want to make, which I may or may not get around to at some point soon.

Then there's also giving the FireRed version the same double battle treatment as Emerald...

Anyways that's it for now, enjoy :)

 

[Akiak]

Added all the attack changes to the OP, also looking back I noticed that the only two Pokemon with type changes are Geodude (Rock) and Azurill (Normal/Water). Thought there were more but I guess I was wrong.

The only other change I'm considering at the moment would be to basically change some of the internal files of the Reasonable Randomizer and upload my own version of it here. This would allow me to remove Legendaries from the random starters, and also improve the random selection to include more NFE's

I still haven't gotten very far in my own playthrough so still not sure how many NFE's appear in the late-game.

Another simple solution is to just uncheck the 'Retain Strength' checkboxes in the randomizer, which basically means that Wallace is just as likely to have a Milotic as he is a Horsea. Personally I think this makes the difficulty variation a little too extreme though.

 

[SevenChurches]

I still haven't gotten very far in my own playthrough so still not sure how many NFE's appear in the late-game.

Another simple solution is to just uncheck the 'Retain Strength' checkboxes in the randomizer, which basically means that Wallace is just as likely to have a Milotic as he is a Horsea. Personally I think this makes the difficulty variation a little too extreme though.

From my Emerald playthrough, I encountered Vibrava pretty early, route 103. I'm pretty sure Kirlia was at route 102. I noticed they appear pretty early in the game because of the randomizer.

 

[Akiak]

From my Emerald playthrough, I encountered Vibrava pretty early, route 103. I'm pretty sure Kirlia was at route 102. I noticed they appear pretty early in the game because of the randomizer.

You were using the old settings though right? With the sliders set to 20 and 10

Yeah I mean that's fine I think, mainly I just want to make sure the late-game trainers such as the E4 have a decent amount of NFE's

 

[Cene]

Hey, sooo i'm kinda new to this things. Randomizer is not working at all, can you make a little "walkthrough" to help me out?

 

[Akiak]

Hey, sooo i'm kinda new to this things. Randomizer is not working at all, can you make a little "walkthrough" to help me out?

1) Obtain a ROM (.gba file) of Pokemon FireRed (BPRE 1.0) or Pokemon Emerald
2) Download PokeluvFRfull.ips (for FireRed) or PokeluvEfull.ips (for Emerald)
3) Download Lunar IPS if you're on Windows, MultiPatch if you're on Mac
4) Apply the .ips patch to the ROM using one of these tools
5) Download the randomizer from here: https://code.google.com/archive/p/pokemon-reasonable-randomizer/downloads
6) Open randomizer.jar
7) A window will open. Click on File in the top left, then Open, and find and open your patched ROM
8) Change all the settings in the randomizer according to the screenshot in the OP
9) Click on File in the top left again, then Save
10) You're done! You may not get any kind of confirmation message from the randomizer, but the ROM has been randomized, so now just open it in your preferred emulator and you're good to go :)

 

[looneyman1]

Looking at the stats of some pokemon I see some pretty unusual and downright illogical changes to be honest. Sceptile's speed gets a hard nerf along with both of Blaziken's attack stats? And does Run Away do anything special nw because frankly I see no reason why Linoon gets it over the Shadow Tag ability when it evolves.

 

[Akiak]

Looking at the stats of some pokemon I see some pretty unusual and downright illogical changes to be honest. Sceptile's speed gets a hard nerf along with both of Blaziken's attack stats? And does Run Away do anything special nw because frankly I see no reason why Linoon gets it over the Shadow Tag ability when it evolves.

Sceptile's bulk was improved a fair bit, its speed is just what I felt like giving it, maybe I was a bit harsh? I could see an argument for buffing it to 80 ish... but I do think its counter-balanced by the bulk buffs

Blaziken was hit pretty hard I agree lol, I could consider a small buff to its Attack... There just wasn't anything about its design that suggested a particularly high Attack stat to me (Sp. Atk is probably not gonna change tho)

Keep in mind that the objective was to "level the playing field" as much as possible between all Pokemon. This of course means some nerfs to stronger mons, although I did try to preserve some very high stats in some cases where I felt like it was a defining trait of the mon (Machamp, Alakazam)

Shadow Tag was given to Zigzagoon to give it a little something over Linoone; Linoone already has plenty of stuff going for it over Zigzagoon.

Thoughts like these are always welcome tho, if I do get around to making an update (not super likely considering I have to update 6 different files... but who knows) I'll consider all of these changes.

 

[looneyman1]

Sceptile's bulk was improved a fair bit, its speed is just what I felt like giving it, maybe I was a bit harsh? I could see an argument for buffing it to 80 ish... but I do think its counter-balanced by the bulk buffs

Blaziken was hit pretty hard I agree lol, I could consider a small buff to its Attack... There just wasn't anything about its design that suggested a particularly high Attack stat to me (Sp. Atk is probably not gonna change tho)

Keep in mind that the objective was to "level the playing field" as much as possible between all Pokemon. This of course means some nerfs to stronger mons, although I did try to preserve some very high stats in some cases where I felt like it was a defining trait of the mon (Machamp, Alakazam)

Shadow Tag was given to Zigzagoon to give it a little something over Linoone; Linoone already has plenty of stuff going for it over Zigzagoon.

Thoughts like these are always welcome tho, if I do get around to making an update (not super likely considering I have to update 6 different files... but who knows) I'll consider all of these changes.

Yeah 80s sounds fair given what you're going for with Sceptile. But yeah I wanted to ask about Linoon in particular since Run Away just ends up being highly questionable unless it has actual use in an enviornment like th ebattle frontier for example or even in standard AI trainers because normally Run Away is utterly useless. It just seems questionable to even allow it being an option. I was able to use a poochyena with Run Away to escape wild zigzagoon with Shadow Tag so that was interesting but I have no idea if that will be consistant in like a gm battle or anything.

 

[Akiak]

Yeah 80s sounds fair given what you're going for with Sceptile. But yeah I wanted to ask about Linoon in particular since Run Away just ends up being highly questionable unless it has actual use in an enviornment like th ebattle frontier for example or even in standard AI trainers because normally Run Away is utterly useless. It just seems questionable to even allow it being an option. I was able to use a poochyena with Run Away to escape wild zigzagoon with Shadow Tag so that was interesting but I have no idea if that will be consistant in like a gm battle or anything.

Ah that's fair, well I don't have much of a reason for having Run Away on Linoone, I just thought it was fitting for it.

Also there's lots of reeaaaally fast mons in this hack... Run Away also lets you run away from those ;)

 

[looneyman1]

I get what you mean, but I usually use repels so Run Away isnt an issue in that regard. I figured I would ask about it since its generally just a shame to use Lineoon solely for Pickup considering it has very good offense potential being one of the fastest headbutt users for one and being a great setup for sabotage play if you use Trick to change hold items around. Personally Linoon would perhaps be better using Limber sort of like Persian in order to keep it from losing speed from paralysis, or even Guts to work as a parallel to how it gets Quick Feet as a hidden ability (which would then turn paralysis into an advantage despite the loss of speed). But thats my opinion, its your game at the end of the day

 

[Akiak]

I get what you mean, but I usually use repels so Run Away isnt an issue in that regard. I figured I would ask about it since its generally just a shame to use Lineoon solely for Pickup considering it has very good offense potential being one of the fastest headbutt users for one and being a great setup for sabotage play if you use Trick to change hold items around. Personally Linoon would perhaps be better using Limber sort of like Persian in order to keep it from losing speed from paralysis, or even Guts to work as a parallel to how it gets Quick Feet as a hidden ability (which would then turn paralysis into an advantage despite the loss of speed). But thats my opinion, its your game at the end of the day

Interesting, I'll consider it! Would be cool if Run Away allowed you to switch out against opposing Shadow Tag...

 

[looneyman1]

tell me about it, its currently a missed oppritunity by Gamefreak especially.

 

[Akiak]

SMALL UPDATE

Rebalanced the following mons:

Also nerfed Splash, just slightly :(

All files in the OP have been updated.

Shoutouts to the excellent HexManiacAdvance for making the process super quick and easy.

 

[Akiak]

SMALL UPDATE #2

Rebalanced the following mons:

All files in the OP have been updated.

If you have started a save on an older version of PokeluvFRfull or PokeluvEfull you can use one of the following patches to apply all the new changes without having to re-randomize:
View attachment SmallUpdateFR.ips
View attachment SmallUpdateE.ips

I'm pretty happy with the current state of the hack, so this may be the final update. Feedback is always welcome though :)

Also feel free to post your teams in here if you're currently playing! Would be cool to see what people are using :)

 

[Akiak]

SMALL UPDATE #3

Rebalanced the following mons:

All files in the OP have been updated.

This should be the final update. If you have already started a playthrough on a previous version of PokeluvFRfull or PokeluvEfull and want to update your game without having to re-randomize, just apply one of the following patches:
View attachment SmallUpdate3FR.ips
View attachment SmallUpdate3E.ips

Regarding Rare Candies, I just wanted to mention that they aren't intended as a mechanic, more as a sort-of "cheat code" that you can choose to use or not. I initially just wanted to remove all evolutions, but then decided for several reasons that I might as well give players that little extra flexibility. If I were to nuzlocke this I probably would just ban all evolution items altogether.

 

[Akiak]

BIG UPDATE

- Reverted the level curve back to default
- Potions & other items can no longer be used in battle (except Berries and X-Items, held items still allowed) (optional patch to re-enable)
- Critical hit mechanics updated to Gen VI
- Overworld poison survival on 1 HP
- FireRed version now contains all the same features as the Emerald version (more double battles, better AI, etc)

All relevant files in the OP have been updated.

To make the game more challenging for yourself, I recommend imposing some limitations such as:

Spoiler:

1) Randomizing according to the instructions in the OP
2) If a Pokemon faints it can no longer be used
3) You can only catch the first encounter on any route/area (excluding duplicates and shinies)
4) Don't overlevel the next gym leader (or the final E4 member before the Champion)
5) Don't use any items in-battle (held items still allowed)
6) Don't use any evolutionary items (Rare Candies, Stones etc.)

If you implement all of the above, the game is very challenging, but not impossible. Feel free to play the game however you like though.

 

[Akiak]

BIG UPDATE #2

- Restored custom trainer movesets (no more exclusively level-up movesets). This should improve the experience for both non-randomized and randomized playthroughs.
- Revamped Battle Tent/Battle Frontier sets, mainly to account for Physical/Special split as well as some exclusive Pokeluv additions.
- Restored item use in battle for the sake of simplicity (the RestoreItems patch now simply gives opposing trainers their items back)
- Fixed buggy sprite positions in Emerald
- Steel no longer resists Ghost

All relevant files in the OP have been updated.

Happy new year! Also I am looking for help making some final feature implementations (no programming knowledge required). Hit me up if you're interested.

 

[Akiak]

PROGRESS UPDATE

So at the moment, if you keep the 'Advanced Movesets' option unchecked on the randomizer, certain trainers (such as boss battles, gym leaders, E4 etc.) will get movesets consisting of 4 random moves chosen from the Pokemon's level-up set, TM learnset, tutor moves and egg moves. This is kinda fun in a way, but a bit inconsistent (you could get a Venusaur with Sunny Day, Flash, Substitute and Endure).

So I modified the randomizer's source files to use the Advanced Movesets option, which now has several movesets for all 386 Pokemon.

However, I haven't been able to figure out how to compile the source code into an executable .jar file. If you're curious about the details, here you go.

Anyways, that's the only feature left that I really want to add. I'm quite happy with the hack otherwise.

My discord by the way is Akiak#4655. You can find me in the Emerald Final discord server, among other places.