Emerald hack: Pokémon Frontier Adventure (Lastest Version: V1.4a | Feb 6, 2021)

[Mkol103]

Pokémon Frontier Adventure

Premise

Pokémon Frontier Adventure is a romhack that seeks to consolidate the side activities of the main game and put a spotlight on them while improving the core battling experience with the Pokémon Emerald Battle Engine Upgrade.

Features

• Use your skills to collect all 7 Gold Symbols of the Battle Frontier, utilizing Pokémon and mechanics from Gens I-VII.
• Become a Master Coordinator in the Contest Hall, mixing berries and dazzling audiences with your Pokémon.
• Spend your off-time at the Game Corner, trying to win enough BP to cover that next big purchase without any battling.
• Save up enough BP to buy stronger Pokémon and items. Use them to win enough to earn decorations for your Secret Base!

Screenshots

Credits

• Pret - Emerald Decomp & Various bugfixes for Vanilla Emerald
• ROM Hacking Hideout Organization and DizzyEgg - Pokémon Emerald Battle Engine Upgrade
• Lunos - Amazing tutorials, Porymap, Fill in the Pokédex scripting command, 2-in-1 Bike, Adding EVs to trainers tutorial, Let Pokémon forget HMS
• Avara - Amazing scripting tutorials
• TheXaman - HGSS Pokédex & Run Anywhere
• Ghoulslash - Custom Pokémon scripting command + Snow Fix + Hidden Nature code
• JAIZU - Naming Capitalization Hack & Fire Red Bag Noises
• Hiroshi Sotomura - Fixing RNG + Removing Extra Save confirmation
• PokemonCrazy - Showing IVs and EVs in the summary screen
• Zeturic - Summary Screen wrapping
• Paccy - Reusable TMs
• eatthepear - Gen IV Sitrus Berry Code
• Ryuhouji - I reference his Battle Frontier code in making my own and I borrowed their hp bar mod from his hack. Thanks for making your hack open-source!
• PillowSledder - Scott Graphic (Petuh 2.0 for allowing me to use it)
• Phazonruler - Kanto HGSS Trainer Midi
• Darkmind - BW Trainer Midi
• Pedro Goralski - Colosseum Midi
• Fox T.A.K.A - DPPt Gym Leader Theme
• WiserVisor - Sequencing and inserting new Midis (HGSS, DPPt Trainer, BW)
• Buffel Salt - New move tutor script and data.
• 4444 - New Pokemon learnset data.
• Smogon - Inspiring the tiering of Pokémon for the game
• Others I might be forgetting (Please let me know if you spot something I forgot to give credit to!)

Bugs

• Any bug already associated with the Pokémon Emerald Battle Engine Upgrade.
• If an opponent Mega-Evolves a Pokémon in the Battle Factory, and then you trade for that Pokémon, it will remain Mega-Evolved instead of reverting to normal.
• Fling only works on a basic level where using an Iron ball deals a lot of damage, any other item deals normal damage, and no item deals 0. It cannot be used to poison/burn/flinch. It will remove the item from the Pokémon, but it will still say the item exists in the summary screen.
• It seems like, randomly, if a Pokemon with frisk is sent out, the game will get confused and think the OTHER Pokemon is the frisker. Same thing happens with Wishiwashi's ability.
• I have a report of someone bugging out the Battle Palace so that they can't challenge it. If it happens to you, all I can do is apologize.

Download

If you have any feedback or thoughts, please don't hesitate to let me know! Thanks for playing! Patch onto a US Emerald Rom. Please use a new save when updating, and read the changelog before playing any new version.
Latest Changes:

Spoiler:

V1.4a

• Glitch fixed where buying a Lilligant would give you a Pyroar.

V1.4

• All Pokémon have their entire Gen VII learnset (level-up, TM, tutor) available at the Move Relearner. Tutors and TMs still exist but are cheaper.

V1.3g

• Fixed Cloud Nine Bug.
• Integrated minor changes from the RHH branch.
• Potentially Fixed Defog.

V1.3f

• Text now auto-advances in battle like normal AND can be forced to advance by the player by pressing a button (ala Pokemon BW)
• Stat changes now no longer animate with animations off
• Mega Evolution animation is now shortened when animations are off
• Battle Factory trainers are now as smart as any other trainer even from the first round
• Mew will be obedient in battle

V1.3e

• Status effects work like in Gen VII, not Gen VI
• Switching AI changed so that the opponent won't switch if all their options are bad
• Bug fixes taken from the Emerald Decomp

V1.3d

• New AI element added (AI favors not-super-effective moves a lot less and will switch more if they lack good options + Opponents facing a Pokemon they have a type disadvantage to AND no S.E. moves will switch a lot more often)
• AI tweaks (Defog is now a lot less favored if the field has no field effects, Pokemon will now rarely ever heal at full HP)
• New Last Trainer theme (Gym Theme DPPT by fox T.A.K.A)
• Colosseum theme tweaked (8-bit lead no longer cuts out when navigating the menu and sounds nicer)
• Tweaked some Frontier Pokemon to have different moves/abilities (Zangoose & Ambipom)
• Getting the items at the beginning is shortened.
• Betting Lady now defaults to a no-inverse battle, the battle starts quicker after the text box, and she always uses lvl 100 Pokemon.
• Mystery Gifts available in the Pokémon Center

V1.3c

• Pokémon Colosseum's battle theme is now in the game
• Fixed error in Birch's intro speech in the reception hall
• The Random Battle Lady and the famous trainers restore your items after using them in battle like in the Battle Facilities

V1.3b

• Trying to buy a Pokémon you can't afford will no longer give you the Pokémon anyway
• More Decaps

V1.3a

• Latios and Latias buying error completely fixed.
• Latiosite recieved when buying A-Rank mega stones.
• Decaps & Bug fixes.

V1.3

• 20 new greetings, win quotes, and lose quotes for NPCS
• Aqua/Magma Theme has been replaced with the BW Battle Theme (Midi by Darkmind)
• The final trainer battle in a frontier challenge will play a Gym Leader Theme instead of a Trainer Theme
• Frontier Brains who have a Pokémon who can Mega-Evolve in their Gold Symbol Battle now get Mega Stones
• Frontier Brains's movesets slightly altered to account for Physical/Special Split
• Pokémon Sprite Animations now coincide with the battle animation setting as they used to
• Animations always play when fighting a Frontier Brain, Famous Trainer, or the Special Guest

• Tucker is now a contestant for contests. He uses his Latias in the master rank

• Ability Switcher has been added. They live in the house north-west of the Battle Tower
• Famous Trainers Channel is no longer random.
• Earning stars now works differently. There are 3 stars in total to earn: 1 from getting all symbols, 1 from mastering all contest categories and getting paintings, and 1 from beating all famous trainers.
• You can no longer nickname Pokemon from the party menu. There is a name rater in the house with the Ability Switcher
• The IV-checker house has been removed
• Changed Shop Charizard's moveset
• Battle Factory Mienshao's Fling has been replaced by U-Turn (This is because Flinging a King's Rock doesn't flinch)
• New default frame
• Trainer Card no longer has badge icons
• Pokedex now properly tracks whether a Pokemon is caught or only seen. The Pokedex still comes completed and completely accessible, but a little icon denotes which Pokemon you actually own.
• Trainer Card tracks number of caught Pokemon instead of BP (Because BP is in the save screen/Frontier Pass)
• Weather should change immediately if a day passes and the player is outside (before, they would have to walk around or enter/exit a building)
• The order of furniture given by the special guest is slightly changed. This is because the first desk and the first mat didn't support dolls/cushions.
• Rug in the player's room is slightly larger and pink

• Talking to the betting lady will now prevent the game from crashing when talking to someone else afterward.
• Frontier Brains now say their correct Win/Lose Quotes
• When fighting 2 trainers at once, the second trainer now says a Win/Lose quote instead of a greeting.
• Fixed typo when battling Lucy, when talking to a move tutor, and in generic trainer dialogues
• Buying a Latios now gets you a Latios instead of a Latias
• Added Lopunnite to possible Mega Stones
• Frontier Maniac bug from the original should be fixed (A certain message about Lucy would never appear due to a typo in the code)
• Losing to a non-Frontier Trainer doesn't display a message about losing money
• Using the Move Relearner takes the correct amount of points now
• Fixed Tile Error on the overworld
• Alolan Marowak now correctly activates Thick Club
• Changed some learnsets to remove unfinished moves (Hyperspace Fury, Photon Gyser) [NOTE: You can still learn these moves via move tutor. Refrain from doing so]
• Encounter themes for Famous Trainers and Special Guest changed to be more appropriate
• More Decaps

Download here!

 

[Timofai]

Awesome! I should check out this hack!

 

[jastolze007]

This is really good! Congrats on the release.

Bugs I've noticed:
- Defog act weird. It seems to have Mirror Move's effect and doesn't clear the field or lower evasion.
- Charge Beam acts as the move "Powder", at least when Vikavolt used it on me, and it did no damage.
- Mandibuzz has the wrong party sprite. (Has Meinfoo's sprite)
- Mega Pidgeot, and possibly other megas, don't have an ability.

I'll report back other glitches as I go along. There was another move that acts weird that I can't remember.

 

[Mkol103]

Yup, I noticed that too! The thing is that all the battle stuff comes directly from the Battle Engine upgrade, so I can't do much about it. The next update of this romhack will use a newer version of the battle engine, which will hopefully fix some glitches. I will look into the abilities and party sprite thing, because I think I should be able to fix those up on my own if they haven't already been dealt with. Thanks again for playing!

EDIT: OK, so I think the issue with the mega evolved Pokemon not having abilities is fixable. Essentially, assuming you don't know, Pokemon have 3 slots for abilities in their base data: ability 1, ability 2, and hidden ability. What I'm guessing happens in that when a pokemon mega-evolves, it reads from the same slot. Because Mega Pokmon don't have hidden abilities, it returns NULL. If there isn't a fix to this, then I can make an ad-hoc one.

EDIT2: Turns out Mienfoo shows up instead of Mandibuzz because the Devs used the wrong image. I have a basic fix that might work, but if not, it shouldn't be that big of a deal until the rhh dev team can get a fix out.

 

[Mkol103]

New Major Features from Version 1.00 to Version 1.03b:

• The Battle Arena is now fully functional.
• A new default pool of Pokémon are used when Birch gives you your starters.
• Battle Factory Pokémon now use the specified abilities instead of using their default ones.
• A new HGSS-style Pokédex replaces the old one.
• TMs can now be bought from the Exchange Corner.
• Every day, there is a chance of rain or snow.
• Other miscellaneous features detailed in the changelog.

 

[Mkol103]

New updates has a few small fixes, but it also contains something I've been trying to add for a long time now:

Secret Bases.​

On the island, there are 2 secret bases to pick between. They shouldn't be too difficult to find. Have fun decorating them to your hearts' content (assuming you can pay for all the decorations, of course).

Also, I made the homepage prettier.

As always, let me know if there's anything you want me to prioritize for the next update!

EDIT: 1.04a fixed a small error.

 

[jastolze007]

As always, let me know if there's anything you want me to prioritize for the next update.

Could you add the EV Reducing berries as a 1 BP prize for a pack of 3 or so? And then add a way to re-raise the EV's? That probably requires a lot of changing but it could be a great feature for future releases?

Maybe if that doesn't sound good, add an EV resetter and Ability/Nature swapper?

I think being able to customize our team in every possible way is important. Maybe also add more potential Pokemon as a prize? Maybe add a section for any Pokemon at random with no EV's?

 

[Mkol103]

No problem. An EV setter was always planned, but I never gave it much priority before. Now that I know for sure someone wants it, I'll add an NPC in the Pokémon Center who can set two of a Pokémon's EVs to max for 1 BP in the next patch. As for nature setting, this will probably be a little more difficult just because it's more tedious to implement. I'll probably get to it later. I was also considering having every Pokémon you purchase come with an ability capsule, but I wasn't too sure about this (ability capsules also don't allow a Pokémon to get their hidden ability). What do you think about this idea?

 

[jastolze007]

No problem. An EV setter was always planned, but I never gave it much priority before. Now that I know for sure someone wants it, I'll add an NPC in the Pokémon Center who can set two of a Pokémon's EVs to max for 1 BP in the next patch. As for nature setting, this will probably be a little more difficult just because it's more tedious to implement. I'll probably get to it later. I was also considering having every Pokémon you purchase come with an ability capsule, but I wasn't too sure about this (ability capsules also don't allow a Pokémon to get their hidden ability). What do you think about this idea?

I like that idea. I figured changing the nature would be difficult. What about a random pokemon option from the service counter for like 10 BP? That way you could get a better PKMN or one with lower base stats. Regardless, I'm enjoying this hack a lot!

 

[Mkol103]

I like that idea, but I think that it should be relatively painless to set EVs, so the tradeoff is kinda ineffective. Something I'm gonna look into in the future is balancing prices. Like, one good streak at a facility can net you around 15 BP if you do well, but if you continually do poorly, then it takes a lot longer to make that much. I hope the pricings work for the moment (I was thinking of making setting EVs be 2 BP).

 

[jastolze007]

I like that idea, but I think that it should be relatively painless to set EVs, so the tradeoff is kinda ineffective. Something I'm gonna look into in the future is balancing prices. Like, one good streak at a facility can net you around 15 BP if you do well, but if you continually do poorly, then it takes a lot longer to make that much. I hope the pricings work for the moment (I was thinking of making setting EVs be 2 BP).

Maybe another trade off would be to use the default movesets with the Pokemon that was random? That way it's not as strong as one with strategic movesets.

I'd personally like to try to earn every fully evolved Pokemon via battle points, so random Pokes make it possible. I think there are about ~450 fully evolved pokemon via Gen VII, so I obviously can't store them all lol

 

[Mkol103]

I see, I see. The thing is that not every Pokémon is available. About 210 Pokémon are available to use just because I based everything on Smogon's tier list. So, the weaker fully evolved Pokémon don't show up (Like, you won't see Ledian or something). This is just to make it easier on myself, and I don't know how many people are gunning to use someone like Stantler. I don't know how much of a priority adding weaker Pokémon will be just because the focus is battling, and it will be a huge undertaking to essentially double the cast.

I like your idea about giving a wider breadth of Pokemon but with a random moveset. I'll keep it in mind definitely.

 

[Mkol103]

Newest update adds an NPC which can set a Pokémon's EVs alongside some minor bug fixes. I'm gonna wait a bit until the next update (V1.1) in order to make sure it's a more substantial update.

Goals include:

• Add new Pokémon that can be bought, given to you by Birch, or fought against in a facility.
• Some kind of contest, be it bug-catching, fishing, etc.
• New TMs from later Gens will be added instead of the 50 from Gen III.
• More Secret Bases. Let me know which Secret Base layouts you prefer.
• Balance prices.
• Allow the player to toggle inverse battle (still figuring out how this would work with balancing).
• Additional bug fixes.
• Anything else somebody asks me to include. I'll try my best >:D

 

[FeraligatrMaster]

I don't know if you've planned this, but how about a way to alter your Pokemon's IV's? Especially the option to set your Speed to 0 (for Trick Room and Gyro Ball) or your Attack to 0 (to minimize Foul Play damage).

And how about adding any Pokemon from Gen 8?

 

[Mkol103]

I can totally do IVs. I actually forgot about stuff like trick room/gyro ball, so I never thought to prioritize it.
I can't do Gen VIII Pokémon. All stuff related to battling (Pokémon, moves, abilities) is handled by the people maintaining the Pokémon Emerald Battle Engine Upgrade. Once Gen VIII Pokémon get added officially, I'll probably add them here, but that will probably take a while and I have nothing to do with it.

 

[SkiddyBard317]

Hi, I have some questions:

- Where do you get TMs?

- Is there any way to set EVs besides 252 builds?

 

[Mkol103]

-TMS can be bought in the exchange corner. It's the second vendor on the left (the one who sells decorations and mega-stones)
-Not yet. Also, don't yet bother with EVs because it's broken on launch. Currently fixing it.

 

[SkiddyBard317]

Ok, cool. Btw, is there a way to see what pokemon is in what tier list?

 

[Mkol103]

Not yet, but I can't believe I never thought to add it. I mean, if you really wanted to know ASAP, it approximently goes like this:
C-rank |NU + NUBL
B-rank | RU + RUBL
A-rank | UU + UUBL
S-rank | OU
(based on Smogon's USUM tier list.)

I'll probably add an NPC later to let people know this in-game.

 

[Mkol103]

UPDATE V1.05a:

• EV setting didn't work properly. Now it does.
• Nature setting is now implemented. Credit to Ghoulslash for his nature mint hack which this is based on. If you set a Pokemon's EVs, you'll get to set their nature for free.

I know I said that I would wait to make a new substantial update; this is just a hotfix.