Emerald hack: Pokémon Tourmaline (v0.2.1 Released 04/22/2025)

[Dusclops93]

Bug report: Game freezes when Chespin evolves. Sorry if there's a solution that I've missed. Can't move forward on the game. Otherwise enjoying gameplay.

 

[RenElite]

I'd would like to drop some two cents from the Hardcore and Insane difficulty. While I would be fine for the money decrease and pokemon center fee, the exp gain shouldn't be decreased. If anything it screams lazy in the difficulty department, as instead of focusing on good teambuilding for the AI, you just force grinding towards the players which is literally just designed to waste your player's time. It doesn't feature any skill required unlike creating teams that would require strategy and actual SKILL to beat. Remember, grinding is not a skill, and the difficulty should come from the opponents teams, not negating player exp. There's no game that would be better to look at than Pokemon Unbound, which features an Expert and Insane mode which pushes players to think instead of grinding, and would be a good benchmark for this games difficulty modes.

 

[WildLizAppeared]

Bug: game freezes when a shiny pokemon (shiny Spearow in this case) is encountered.

 

[WolfendI]

Hey i have a bug with the music,

and i'm not in fast forward

Also when my pokemon evolve it get stuck at the end i don't know if it does it with other pokemon but it does with Tepig

 

[Porkupine]

When I go to the sand temple on route 87, I exit from a green temple on route 78 and I can't go back. Is this a bug or a feature.
I could go back to cobalt city to beat the gym, but after that there's a dark cave and I don't have flash.

Hey i have a bug with the music,

and i'm not in fast forward

Also when my pokemon evolve it get stuck at the end i don't know if it does it with other pokemon but it does with Tepig

My Tepig evolved with no problem. For me the game did freeze on certain occasions which I think is related to using the speed up button. It usually started lagging and if I left it alone, it sometimes started again.

 

[tdilos]

Bug report: Game freezes when Chespin evolves. Sorry if there's a solution that I've missed. Can't move forward on the game. Otherwise enjoying gameplay.

Bug: game freezes when a shiny pokemon (shiny Spearow in this case) is encountered.

Also when my pokemon evolve it get stuck at the end i don't know if it does it with other pokemon but it does with Tepig

I am unable to reproduce these on my end. It could be due to emulator speedup, that has a tendency to glitch the game. Or it could be the Emerald file you applied the patch to. Make sure you patched a clean copy of Emerald (U) (TrashMan).

When I go to the sand temple on route 87, I exit from a green temple on route 78 and I can't go back. Is this a bug or a feature.

That's a warp error that will be fixed in v0.2. For now if you're still playing on v0.1, just avoid the sand temple.

Hey i have a bug with the music, and i'm not in fast forward

I've run into this a few times, still trying to figure out what might be causing it. For now you should be able to fix it by saving and resetting the game.

 

[tdilos]

can a discord be made?

That would certainly make it easier to follow release updates.

I'll look into making a discord once the next version is out. Stay tuned.

I'd would like to drop some two cents from the Hardcore and Insane difficulty. While I would be fine for the money decrease and pokemon center fee, the exp gain shouldn't be decreased. If anything it screams lazy in the difficulty department, as instead of focusing on good teambuilding for the AI, you just force grinding towards the players which is literally just designed to waste your player's time. It doesn't feature any skill required unlike creating teams that would require strategy and actual SKILL to beat. Remember, grinding is not a skill, and the difficulty should come from the opponents teams, not negating player exp. There's no game that would be better to look at than Pokemon Unbound, which features an Expert and Insane mode which pushes players to think instead of grinding, and would be a good benchmark for this games difficulty modes.

The point of the exp nerf is to force the player to fight at a level disadvantage for most of the game. You're not supposed to do an excessive amount of grinding. Think of it like the level changes in BW2's challenge mode, except instead of boosting the enemy levels, you're nerfing the player's.

That said, I'm still fine-tuning the specifics for the higher difficulties, and I haven't playtested them much myself. If someone wants to run through those and give me detailed feedback, especially what levels they are at various points, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[tdilos]

New release coming soon! This version will go up to the 6th gym and include several new features like hidden grottos and a quest menu.

I'm looking for a few volunteers to playtest an incomplete build for me while I finish polishing it up. PM me if you're interested.

 

[Safr]

New release coming soon! This version will go up to the 6th gym and include several new features like hidden grottos and a quest menu.

I'm looking for a few volunteers to playtest an incomplete build for me while I finish polishing it up. PM me if you're interested.

View attachment 167740

This is peak. I hope old save file still usable

 

[RenElite]

The point of the exp nerf is to force the player to fight at a level disadvantage for most of the game. You're not supposed to do an excessive amount of grinding. Think of it like the level changes in BW2's challenge mode, except instead of boosting the enemy levels, you're nerfing the player's.

That said, I'm still fine-tuning the specifics for the higher difficulties, and I haven't playtested them much myself. If someone wants to run through those and give me detailed feedback, especially what levels they are at various points, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I would say its a questionable way to make the game difficult. The difficulty of the battles shouldn't be because you're nerfing the exp, it should be because of the team building of important trainers. If anything it's quite, for the lack of a better word, lazy way to make the game difficult. Like I said, you have multiple ROM hacks as a benchmarking tool for the higher difficulties. It's just unfun, especially in the early game where Level advantages are important. I am also baffled by this decision because you have the power of the Emerald Decomp at your disposal which can help with the AI.

 

[tdilos]

This is peak. I hope old save file still usable

Unfortunately they won't be. I had to add/move a bunch of flags to implement new features, trainers, etc. which will break old save files. There are a few new areas/changes in the first part of the game, so the experience will be slightly different if you've already played through v0.1.

I will try to make this version compatible with the next one which will go up to the elite four, but again no guarantees that it will be. It's hard to predict how many flags I need for a new area before I actually make it.
¯\_( ´･_･`)_/¯

I would say its a questionable way to make the game difficult. The difficulty of the battles shouldn't be because you're nerfing the exp, it should be because of the team building of important trainers. If anything it's quite, for the lack of a better word, lazy way to make the game difficult. Like I said, you have multiple ROM hacks as a benchmarking tool for the higher difficulties. It's just unfun, especially in the early game where Level advantages are important. I am also baffled by this decision because you have the power of the Emerald Decomp at your disposal which can help with the AI.

Well I'm already using AI flags on Normal difficulty, and I don't want to throw endgame level enemy teams/movesets at the player right from the start. That's just not the kind of game I want to make. I wanted to experiment with how to increase the difficulty while keeping a more or less vanilla feel to the game. An exp nerf is one idea I've seen tossed around and implemented in several engines but not in a complete game AFAIK. It has the advantage of being easy to change and I'm hoping to fine-tune it in future updates. Maybe you consider that "lazy" but for me it's just efficient. I'm one guy doing 99% of the work here.

I will say that the higher difficulties, Insane especially, are not intended to be fun for everyone. They're supposed to be punishing and unforgiving. With enough mistakes, the player might even end up in a situation where their save file is essentially uncompletable. Here's my rule of thumb guide for which difficulty you should pick:

Normal: for people who want something close to a regular Pokemon game
Hardcore: for people who want an extra challenge and don't mind being handicapped in various ways
Insane: for people who really want to torture themselves and face the possibility of a total game over scenario

 

[RenElite]

Unfortunately they won't be. I had to add/move a bunch of flags to implement new features, trainers, etc. which will break old save files. There are a few new areas/changes in the first part of the game, so the experience will be slightly different if you've already played through v0.1.

I will try to make this version compatible with the next one which will go up to the elite four, but again no guarantees that it will be. It's hard to predict how many flags I need for a new area before I actually make it.
¯\_( ´･_･`)_/¯


Well I'm already using AI flags on Normal difficulty, and I don't want to throw endgame level enemy teams/movesets at the player right from the start. That's just not the kind of game I want to make. I wanted to experiment with how to increase the difficulty while keeping a more or less vanilla feel to the game. An exp nerf is one idea I've seen tossed around and implemented in several engines but not in a complete game AFAIK. It has the advantage of being easy to change and I'm hoping to fine-tune it in future updates. Maybe you consider that "lazy" but for me it's just efficient. I'm one guy doing 99% of the work here.

I will say that the higher difficulties, Insane especially, are not intended to be fun for everyone. They're supposed to be punishing and unforgiving. With enough mistakes, the player might even end up in a situation where their save file is essentially uncompletable. Here's my rule of thumb guide for which difficulty you should pick:

Normal: for people who want something close to a regular Pokemon game
Hardcore: for people who want an extra challenge and don't mind being handicapped in various ways
Insane: for people who really want to torture themselves and face the possibility of a total game over scenario

I have multiple experience in ROM hacks/fan games with unfair difficulty, but they didnt need to put endgame movesets and mons to be difficult, all they did is utilize mons (sometimes even Route 1 mons) well with the right team building. They didn't need to punish the EXP Curve because that is a method only made by fan games made in the early 2010's, which are frowned upon nowadays as AI updates and powerful battle engines have already been released. Idk, maybe its you who thinks this is good, but I would like to say that no one will play the harder difficulties because of your game design decision, as it was only designed to waste the players time, not actual strategy. Hope it sinks in to you that grinding doesn't equate to player skill, especially if you're forcing the player to do so just to be on par with the AI especially in the early game. Last, if its not fine tuned, why release a mode that isn't even balanced? Lmao.

 

[Safr]

Unfortunately they won't be. I had to add/move a bunch of flags to implement new features, trainers, etc. which will break old save files. There are a few new areas/changes in the first part of the game, so the experience will be slightly different if you've already played through v0.1.

I will try to make this version compatible with the next one which will go up to the elite four, but again no guarantees that it will be. It's hard to predict how many flags I need for a new area before I actually make it.
¯\_( ´･_･`)_/¯

Nah it's okay. That mean i can re experience the adventure 👍🏻😊

 

[Wirawr]

Unfortunately they won't be. I had to add/move a bunch of flags to implement new features, trainers, etc. which will break old save files. There are a few new areas/changes in the first part of the game, so the experience will be slightly different if you've already played through v0.1.

I will try to make this version compatible with the next one which will go up to the elite four, but again no guarantees that it will be. It's hard to predict how many flags I need for a new area before I actually make it.
¯\_( ´･_･`)_/¯


Well I'm already using AI flags on Normal difficulty, and I don't want to throw endgame level enemy teams/movesets at the player right from the start. That's just not the kind of game I want to make. I wanted to experiment with how to increase the difficulty while keeping a more or less vanilla feel to the game. An exp nerf is one idea I've seen tossed around and implemented in several engines but not in a complete game AFAIK. It has the advantage of being easy to change and I'm hoping to fine-tune it in future updates. Maybe you consider that "lazy" but for me it's just efficient. I'm one guy doing 99% of the work here.

I will say that the higher difficulties, Insane especially, are not intended to be fun for everyone. They're supposed to be punishing and unforgiving. With enough mistakes, the player might even end up in a situation where their save file is essentially uncompletable. Here's my rule of thumb guide for which difficulty you should pick:

Normal: for people who want something close to a regular Pokemon game
Hardcore: for people who want an extra challenge and don't mind being handicapped in various ways
Insane: for people who really want to torture themselves and face the possibility of a total game over scenario

What is the difference between difficulty options, i mean is one of difficulty not allow us to use item like that or maybe have perfect iv mon as enemy trainer?

Edit: already try the difficulties and turn out that is the case, you should put difficulty explanation on the front page of this thread

Suggestion: put more original Pokémon in early route so more player excited to use it, if it on middle and route of the game there no incentive to catch because the player party already strong and training new Pokémon take time

 

[Safr]

Unfortunately they won't be. I had to add/move a bunch of flags to implement new features, trainers, etc. which will break old save files. There are a few new areas/changes in the first part of the game, so the experience will be slightly different if you've already played through v0.1.

I will try to make this version compatible with the next one which will go up to the elite four, but again no guarantees that it will be. It's hard to predict how many flags I need for a new area before I actually make it.
¯\_( ´･_･`)_/¯


Well I'm already using AI flags on Normal difficulty, and I don't want to throw endgame level enemy teams/movesets at the player right from the start. That's just not the kind of game I want to make. I wanted to experiment with how to increase the difficulty while keeping a more or less vanilla feel to the game. An exp nerf is one idea I've seen tossed around and implemented in several engines but not in a complete game AFAIK. It has the advantage of being easy to change and I'm hoping to fine-tune it in future updates. Maybe you consider that "lazy" but for me it's just efficient. I'm one guy doing 99% of the work here.

I will say that the higher difficulties, Insane especially, are not intended to be fun for everyone. They're supposed to be punishing and unforgiving. With enough mistakes, the player might even end up in a situation where their save file is essentially uncompletable. Here's my rule of thumb guide for which difficulty you should pick:

Normal: for people who want something close to a regular Pokemon game
Hardcore: for people who want an extra challenge and don't mind being handicapped in various ways
Insane: for people who really want to torture themselves and face the possibility of a total game over scenario

Replaying the game again in anticipation of the update. I don't know if it possible or not but i think you should use more custom tileset to make the world more fresh because most tilesset is original from the game frlg and emerald if I'm not wrong. Other than that i think i love the female character protagonist outfit more because the outfit give more character the male character seems like swap color of red although it's not the case

 

[tdilos]

What is the difference between difficulty options, i mean is one of difficulty not allow us to use item like that or maybe have perfect iv mon as enemy trainer?

Edit: already try the difficulties and turn out that is the case, you should put difficulty explanation on the front page of this thread

There is now a FAQ in the OP that includes an explanation of difficulties. I have more ideas I want to try in the future, so keep an eye on it for updates.

Suggestion: put more original Pokémon in early route so more player excited to use it, if it on middle and route of the game there no incentive to catch because the player party already strong and training new Pokémon take time

The next part of the game will be more "open" (think Johto after Morty), so the player can in theory catch most new Pokemon before the 4th gym.

Replaying the game again in anticipation of the update. I don't know if it possible or not but i think you should use more custom tileset to make the world more fresh because most tilesset is original from the game frlg and emerald if I'm not wrong.

There will be more custom tiles in the next part of the game. Personally I like most of the default gen 3 tiles which is why I've mostly stuck to palette changes so far. I never cared for Gamefreak's washed out grass colors.

Other than that i think i love the female character protagonist outfit more because the outfit give more character the male character seems like swap color of red although it's not the case

I might change him down the road, but overall I'm satisfied with how he currently looks. I'm not very good at spriting, so I doubt I could make any significant improvements. If a talented spriter would like to redesign him, I'm open to including it (with credit of course!).

 

[꧁༺Yuzu༻꧂]

This hack looks amazing, so I started it after discovering it today! I'm playing it in hardcore mode because I'm hardcore! >:0
haha
I just have one question. For the most part, the dialogue for the intro from Professor Birch is unchanged except for key terms which seem to just be replacing other stuff from a vanilla Emerald. Is there any plan to alter it? It's more of a minor nitpick, but if this is a sequel, it makes more sense to change it up, even if the formula for them is pretty cookie-cutter from generation to generation in the official Gamefreak games. I was also surprised to see the intro movie was cut out, tho it makes sense with it being a different game with different characters and settings. It's not an issue just thought I'd point it out. I shrugged it off and started the game.
The mainnn thing I wanted to say though, is that I found this neat. My birthday was exactly a week ago and being greeted with this was sweet 😊🎂
I went in mostly blind, just skimming thru the post and the replies for relevant information such as the version number, bugs, glitches, and future plans. So if this was mentioned already, I was unaware. Really cool ^_^
Also don't listen to that negative Nancy. Thank you for all your hard work, and to everyone else working on this as well! I admire your passion and dedication and it can be very inspiring!
While I think it's a fair criticism from them, their way of going about it is completely out of line, and I don't agree with that. It's your game to do whatever you want, and choosing which feedbacks to apply and which ones not to! There are hundreds of rom hacks, and official games they can play if they don't like it :3 or don't wanna play on easy mode
I was initially gonna wait for v0.2, but I at least wanted to test it out now, especially if it's gonna be a while before the next update. But I'm still super duper looking forward to it and it'll give me the opportunity to choose a new starter with my future save file 😁
I hope you take care of your health and the development of the game goes smoothly! 🙏🏼💜

 

[꧁༺Yuzu༻꧂]

Sorry for the double post so quickly, but I found some grammar stuff 😅
"seeing you what you record" should be "seeing what you record" lol
I'm sure a lot of ppl have caught it, but I didn't see it mentioned here. No one wants to be that guy that comes off as a grammar nazi and ass Cx But Idc personallyy~
But the brain is good at automatically omitting stuff like this when you read. So it's understandable

 

[tdilos]

Sorry for the double post so quickly, but I found some grammar stuff 😅
"seeing you what you record" should be "seeing what you record" lol
I'm sure a lot of ppl have caught it, but I didn't see it mentioned here. No one wants to be that guy that comes off as a grammar nazi and ass Cx But Idc personallyy~
But the brain is good at automatically omitting stuff like this when you read. So it's understandable

I appreciate the grammar nazism. There's a lot of text in the game, so I'm bound to make mistakes :)

I just have one question. For the most part, the dialogue for the intro from Professor Birch is unchanged except for key terms which seem to just be replacing other stuff from a vanilla Emerald. Is there any plan to alter it? It's more of a minor nitpick, but if this is a sequel, it makes more sense to change it up, even if the formula for them is pretty cookie-cutter from generation to generation in the official Gamefreak games. I was also surprised to see the intro movie was cut out, tho it makes sense with it being a different game with different characters and settings. It's not an issue just thought I'd point it out. I shrugged it off and started the game.

Being a sequel and also because Issho doesn't have a "true" professor, I decided to leave Birch in the new game intro. To me it's no different than GSC reusing Oak. As for the dialogue, it's like you said. It's pretty much the same in every game. I didn't see a reason to change it aside from a few lines.

I took out the intro movie with Rayquaza simply because it has nothing to do with my story. It would be nice to have a custom intro, but I don't have the spriting skills to do it justice. Maybe I'll add one some day. Who knows.

 

[꧁༺Yuzu༻꧂]

I appreciate the grammar nazism. There's a lot of text in the game, so I'm bound to make mistakes :)


Being a sequel and also because Issho doesn't have a "true" professor, I decided to leave Birch in the new game intro. To me it's no different than GSC reusing Oak. As for the dialogue, it's like you said. It's pretty much the same in every game. I didn't see a reason to change it aside from a few lines.

I took out the intro movie with Rayquaza simply because it has nothing to do with my story. It would be nice to have a custom intro, but I don't have the spriting skills to do it justice. Maybe I'll add one some day. Who knows.

Okay, cool!(: that is true and fair. Thanks for your explanation. And anytime on the grammar. Anything else I find, I'll be sure to share on here!

Yeah that would be awesome to have one, but if not, it's totally fine and doesn't change the gameplay at all lol

Alsoo, came back because I wanted to share this totally epic & clutch moment




I got super lucky here, wasn't expecting to face someone this early on with such high level Pokémon!


Felt like a pseudo gym leader to be honest 😅 Good thing I was... mostly prepared. And their first was an electric type so having Woobat up front worked out! I knew I could bait out the electric type move, and switch into my good boi Chespin. All I really had that could work was one move. Had to go for broke and do a full fight or flight. Hit every rollout, and it got down to the wire. If Rotom hadn't hurt itself in confusion from using uproar, before my final attack, Chespin would have been knocked out.. Barely clinched it out against Rotom, but then the 2 level jump on the final Pokémon.. I thought it was a blackout for sure. So glad I got the quick claw by some miracle, the fifth and final rollout was enough to one-hit K.O. Porygon before it could touch me!(:
Phew, this had me on the Ceruledge of my seat. XD (I like Ceruledge lol)

I should really train some more hahaha
It really tests you when you don't have access to the bag in tough fights like this, but I love it! Challenge accepted 😈


UPDATE: (so that I'm not double posting)

So Gulpin has the ability Plastic Body here. Can anyone tell me what exactly that does? It says it "protects from elements" which I would assume means weather like hail and sandstorms. But it ends with "comma but" Does that mean it is more vulnerable to certain types, or like maybe to physical or special hits? Or maybe takes more damage in general.

And also I was gonna ask if you'd be willin to make it possible to see IVs (and mayybe EVs) from the Pokémon's status screen. But I saw it's planned for the next update potentially?
Down to personal preference here now... I know some people make it an NPC, like they've done in older official Pokémon games where they first added that in. But personally for me that's outdated and I use this word sparingly, but I hate that. Imho we should just be able to see it from within the party. Especially with gym leaders and evil team members all have perfect IVs in every stat. I want to be able to see mine so I can at least get something to stand on equal footing, or close to. Plus the level caps make it harder to bridge that gap.
For instance, if I'm hurting for a Pokémon with decent IVs, with an empty party except for my main one in front, I'd love to be able to check them as I'm catching or maybe after my party is full, etc. And repeat that process a few times, rather than being forced to take those 5 / 6 and individually check them thru some NPC I have to fly to (and please don't make it super late game I beg 😭😂 if at all)
Would also be nice if higher IVs have a decent chance to show up, in multiple stats, so it's not like some 1 in 5000 to get something with 4 or 5 perfect IVs.
Thanks for any consideration in regards to this and for hearing me out!

One more thing that pertains to battling, would you consider adding in mechanics to check details of moves during a fight? I'm sure it would be helpful for many people! You may already be planning that, but just wanted to ask, to show that it's wanted and would be appreciated (as would everything I mention)

Very final request/query.
So Woobat is now Echo/Flying, which I understand. I really liked it as a Psychic type tho, but idk how I feel about it being Echo/Psychic. If it's already made that way, then so be it, nd that's fine. But if Swoobat is Echo/Flying as I am guessing, could you at least still give it access to all of its Psychic moves / level up learnset? Or not take them away.
It's cool to have the newer typing and all. But I don't think making it the sound typing has to automatically mean it no longer has a single trait of Psychic types. It should still have those abilities and psychic powers.
Just like Noivern is made into the dragon/sound type, it can still fly and use flying moves and stuff. Pokémon like Tyranitar who lose a typing to gain another upon evolution.. It can still use Earthquake. Decidueye still has access to flying type moves even though it becomes Ghost type. Like, it's still an owl. Noctowl is Normal/Flying (which to this day makes no sense to me tbh, it should be Psychic/Flying but I guess they already had Xatu in GSC) and it has psychic powers
Stuff like that. Hopefully this is able to get my message across 😅 I'm hyperfocusing a bit.
But Woobat and Swoobat are two of my favorite Pokémon ever since playin BW, I'm just glad it's in here at all and given enough attention to change its typing and give it newer moves.
Lots of big asks and things, I know. I promise I don't mean to impose on you. It's your game, and therefore your choice on how you take or use what I say. Players/consumers in the romhacking and fangame communities in general, are extremely spoiled these days. And that's a whole other discussion for another time lol. So I'll take whatever is put out. It's definitely very good and well-made already so I'm not worried at all!
Either way, thank you (: Really enjoying this game.
Hopefully this will be my first and last edit of this reply haha
And oh one thing I forgot to add. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new Dragon Eeveelution! Very beautiful and unique design! A lot of eeveelutions in fangames and romhacks look half-baked honestly. Even as someone who is a sucker for new eeveelutions and wishes they were in more good romhacks. Since I've got Swoobat already, I'll definitely go for the dragon one in this run, and get the other in a future version!