Ruby hack: Pokemon Good Ruby

[ZepherDF]

If you want to know, you can read about it Here

Thanks!

I had played other hack roms before and was able to use cheats normally.

That was the first time I couldn't. I even thought that the base rom was not Ruby.

 

[Trainer 766]

neat.

 

[SPazzzi95]

Not sure if this is a bug. But the Pokedex entries don't show the Footprints.

 

[DoesntKnowHowToPlay]

That's deliberate, since there aren't actually footprints for later gen mons and I don't care to make any. This is only Sylveon now but in dev I was unsure about including others.

 

[SPazzzi95]

Ah, gotcha

 

[ricomanuel32]

is Quiver Dance in the game? Want to use a Surskit but would need to know if it has that available to it. And is Delcatty buffed?

 

[Theaskerofroms]

Can you change your pokemons gender? I'm asking this because I found a shiny male snover that I want to turn into a frosslass but because it's male it can evolve :(

 

[Jaizu]

Playing the game, is being fun so far. It would be nice if you can add the notes links to the main thread so people dont miss them (https://github.com/Doesnty/goodruby/tree/master/notes)

 

[Deokishisu]

Having a ton of fun with this. Your hacks are always very high quality and I've enjoyed playing them in the past. I do have a few suggestions for this one, though.

The lack of an auto-run toggle is jarring from a QoL perspective. I happen to be playing this mostly on my phone and having to have two fingers on the screen to navigate at run speeds is cumbersome. Would really appreciate the option. I haven't gotten Surf or Dive yet, but allowing to "run" while doing those activities would also be an improvement (and if it obeys autorun as well, even better). FRLG+ did this, feel free to copy from it if you want.

Another quality of life improvement that would be welcome is pressing select to swap Pokemon in the party menu.

I forgot that RS didn't have the Move Items menu option in the PC like later games in Gen 3 did. If you could at least add an option to remove items from PC Pokemon to the bag after selecting them with the hand, that would be great. Lots of wild held items pile up during my playthrough.

Another thing I'm not really a fan of is the default RSE fishing minigame. Could playing the minigame through to the end give better odds at rarer slots and if you fail the minigame (or straight up don't play it and press A immediately) you still get an encounter but with worse odds? I feel like that would be a good compromise between RSE's system and just gutting it completely.

I know this is an old af pokeruby repo, but porting Everstone breeding from pokeemerald would be a welcome change as well. Lets you skirt shelling out for the egg move tutor/nature changer if you'd rather just breed brand new mons. Breeding also lets you avoid having to waste Ability Capsules (which I haven't seen in-game yet but did see in the code while looking for the HA chance).

Something that would be cool is putting Ditto in an earlier version of Altering Cave, since it makes thematic sense and it could be available before the Day Care (depending on which version you put it in) if the player goes out of their way to explore. I've only seen one variation, but have looked at the code and am looking forward to looping back to explore deeper and catch more Pokemon there. Earlier Ditto makes breeding more viable, because late breeding means more grinding to get the baby up to speed.

I also would love to see the OW effects for abilities ported from Emerald. At the very least Compound Eyes, as it makes getting items from wild Pokemon easier, and Flame Body/Magma Armor for hatching eggs faster.

I think Azurill's alternate evolution by level at 25 comes too late. Azurill is incredibly frail, so it will be dying a lot, and doesn't get a move to take advantage of Huge Power until Slam. The lack of reliability and the fact that it is always fainting means there is no way you will get it happy enough to evolve before 25. Meanwhile, Marill evolves into Azumarill at 18. I would suggest moving Azurill's evolution down to something like 17 and making Marill evolve into Azumarill later. Azumarill is a powerhouse with the physical/special split in play, so I don't think spending more time with a Marill is a big loss.

I think the Game Corner mons might be too expensive for what they are. Jigglypuff is available after obtaining Surf for free, for example. In your place, I think I would reduce (perhaps even halve) the price to buy coins and increase the Meowth and Spheal prices so that they're not basically free. The RSE Game Corner doesn't really have a 100% reliable savescumming method, and you admit with the Mauville old man replacement that certain things are pointless. I would argue the Game Corner minigames are pointless and that it should just be treated as a moneysink. As it is now, the moneysink feels too steep for the value you get back.

The new maps are welcome additions, but a bit plain. If you're open for someone else to do a pass on them to improve them aesthetically without going so overboard they look out of place in Hoenn, I'd be willing to give them a shot after I finish my playthrough. I assume that if I extract the layouts and put them in a modern pokeruby that they would load up in porymap?

I like the increased Pokemon variety, but wish there was a bit more in early game. The baby Pokemon are available, and I'd like to see them (other than Azurill who already is) distributed early. Igglybuff would fit in on the routes around Petalburg Woods or even in Granite Cave as Jigglypuff, for example.

Could Lombre get Cut? It's a Grass-type with hands/claws that could probably Cut. It'd be a good HM slave if it got it, since it gets Surf and Rock Smash as well.

When it comes to the documentation, the Altering Cave encounters aren't listed in the wilds.txt document. I'd also like to see a mention of Hidden Abilities being a 10% chance and that starters are impossible to reset for their hidden ability.

---

Just some random things I liked and want to mention:

I'm excited enough to try out the changes to many mons that I'm catching every new Pokemon in each area before moving on. Every Pokemon is a potential team member, and I've trialed a quite a few, which is a great feeling.

The difficulty feels harder, but still fair. I'm a bit overleveled for where I'm at because I'm only raising four Pokemon at this point. I just beat Wattson and have Grovyle, Kadabra, Azumarill, and Swellow. I wasn't going to use Swellow, but I stumbled onto a shiny Taillow and obviously that is going in the party. The only time I've wiped was Wattson, and that's because I wasn't prepared for the Volt Switch/U-Turn combo plus Magneton being a boss. I'm thinking about replacing Grovyle with Tropius once I get there, and am considering adding a Volbeat to the team for Electric coverage (love the type change to Volbeat). Grovyle seems too strong for mid-game, but I'm sure it'll fall off as Sceptile at some point.

I also caught Pokerus around Rustboro so, with that and the shiny, I've been incredibly lucky this playthrough.

I really liked the Oceanic Museum Maxie fight. Was totally unprepared and the Fire Fang coverage was harrowing for my team comp at the time.

I think the May battle under Cycling Road might have been too easy. It was very forgettable. I had a harder time with some of the Pokefans due to their held items turning 2KOs into 3KOs.

The path from Verdanturf back to Oldale is great. Eliminates some of the backtracking woes for getting to Norman. I can't wait to see how to get to the grass patches on the other side of the ledge. I'm assuming I'll have to Surf up from Route 103.

Giving early access to the New Mauville entrance and putting encounters there was such a great idea.

The color variation is cool but sometimes a bit extreme. I have an almost blue and almost red Poochyena, for example. On the other hand, the range for some Pokemon's color shifts seem too narrow and are barely distinguishable. The feature is great overall but for individual Pokemon can be hit-or-miss.

---

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with this and am excited to continue. Figured I'd leave some feedback before getting back to it. Thanks for the great work you've done.

EDIT: Found a bug. Tackle's description overflows the Move Reminder's textbox:

So does Magical Leaf and Mud Sport. If the narrow font is in pokeruby, I would suggest using that for the descriptions in these screens. Also, an indication of whether a move is physical or special here would be nice.

EDIT2: Layering issue with the island here on Route 109.

 

[ianuyeno]

Hello, folks. This is a long-overdue project I've been slowly working on, Pokemon Good Ruby.

This is, on paper, a fairly standard 386+ hack of Ruby. Mechanics are updated to gen 7 standards where possible, including physical+special split and new moves. It also features all evolutionary relatives of the first 386 mons, a dab of rebalancing, some added challenge, and a bunch of small changes to spice things up.

Some noteworthy little touches:
* Individual Pokemon have palette variations, similar to the Stadium games, dependent on their personality value.
* Team Aqua and Team Magma swap places for the Mt. Chimney section of the game, so you don't have to fight two Fire specialists in a row.
* Surf encounters have been removed. There is still too much water, but now you can cross it in relative peace.
* Regi doors are open at the start of the game, so you can use them before the very end of the game.
* Some new areas have been added and old ones extended for the Kanto and Johto legendaries. A couple more have been added for convenience or other reasons.
* Refreshment-based healing items are easier to obtain in bulk, but cannot be used in battle to compensate.
* The TM list has been expanded to 92 TMs and 7 HMs. Dive's field function has been delegated to an item.
* A new tutor in Fallarbor can teach your mon Egg Moves if you have another Pokemon that knows the move you want to teach.
* A new NPC in Lavaridge can train your Pokemon to work past their natures.

This hack is somewhat difficult by design. Enemy trainers do not use items from the bag in battle, but they compensate with meaner teams. Pokemon balance is a finnicky thing; while I do play with Set Mode and without using items myself, I also know my enemies in and out, and am okay with taking losses in battle. If you intend to nuzlocke this, be warned that I have a track record of making hacks harder than I set out to.

Fabricated Anticipated Questions

Spoiler:

Q: Why is this on Ruby and not Emerald?
A: When I started, a few years ago, Pokeruby was further along than Pokeemerald. The reverse is true now, but I don't care to port. I'm not terribly fond of some of Emerald's additions.

Q: Can I use this as a base for my project?
A: Please do not. You are free to borrow concepts, or even sections of script/code (if you can wrap your head around my organization), but please use Pokeemerald if you want to start a hack similar to this one, there are proper resources available. This hack is also many commits behind current Pokeruby, so you won't be able to use convenient tools like Porymap (I made a minimalist personal alternative).

Q: Where do I get Strength?
A: When you need it for main story progression, it will be readily available.
More specifically:

Spoiler:

It's in Magma Hideout, in Maxie's room.

Q: How do I get through the bottom part of Granite Cave?
A: The mach bike is required, but you do not need to use it to cross the final, most precarious section. You can save yourself figuring out the braille puzzle if you can pull it off, though.
The answer to the braille puzzle:

Spoiler:

Go to the braille wall on the upper floor. Move right as far as possible, step up twice, then use Cut from the menu.

Q: What's with the Regis?
A: Their chambers are open immediately, but the braille puzzles have changed. A new event is at the Sealed Chamber itself.
To preserve the sense of mystery, I am not giving specifics on this.

Q: Why don't you add dexnav/Z moves/mega pokemon/dynamaxing?
A: I don't want to. Dexnav might be a thing if I feel like it....the other three have serious balance and flavor implications though and I'm not particularly fond of any of them.

Known issues:

• Contests aren't finished. You can run them, but they'll be boring vanilla opponents, and the Berry Blender is only partly overhauled.
• Post-game is under construction. Kyogre, Deoxys and one of Latias or Latios are unobtainable.
• World map still needs to be updated; this will happen when I'm done adding new lairs for the legendaries.
• Attacks don't automatically re-target in Doubles. It's possible other weirdness happens there as well; the hack's focus is on Singles.

The most recent version of the hack can be downloaded here: https://github.com/Doesnty/goodruby/releases

As usual for most romhacks, use LunarIPS to patch it onto a clean Ruby ROM. Make sure you can save without savestates before proceeding with the game, as well. The hack comes with patches for each of Ruby's revisions; you probably have 1.0, but if that patch breaks, try the others.

The patch is fairly large for a romhack of this nature, on account of being on decomp. Everything is nudged around, so most tools will not work with it, and cheat codes may fail.

I couldn't get the HM 04 Strenght in the cave after using hock smash. Could you help me?

 

[BreadLoaf3314]

Hello, folks. This is a long-overdue project I've been slowly working on, Pokemon Good Ruby.

This is, on paper, a fairly standard 386+ hack of Ruby. Mechanics are updated to gen 7 standards where possible, including physical+special split and new moves. It also features all evolutionary relatives of the first 386 mons, a dab of rebalancing, some added challenge, and a bunch of small changes to spice things up.

Some noteworthy little touches:
* Individual Pokemon have palette variations, similar to the Stadium games, dependent on their personality value.
* Team Aqua and Team Magma swap places for the Mt. Chimney section of the game, so you don't have to fight two Fire specialists in a row.
* Surf encounters have been removed. There is still too much water, but now you can cross it in relative peace.
* Regi doors are open at the start of the game, so you can use them before the very end of the game.
* Some new areas have been added and old ones extended for the Kanto and Johto legendaries. A couple more have been added for convenience or other reasons.
* Refreshment-based healing items are easier to obtain in bulk, but cannot be used in battle to compensate.
* The TM list has been expanded to 92 TMs and 7 HMs. Dive's field function has been delegated to an item.
* A new tutor in Fallarbor can teach your mon Egg Moves if you have another Pokemon that knows the move you want to teach.
* A new NPC in Lavaridge can train your Pokemon to work past their natures.

This hack is somewhat difficult by design. Enemy trainers do not use items from the bag in battle, but they compensate with meaner teams. Pokemon balance is a finnicky thing; while I do play with Set Mode and without using items myself, I also know my enemies in and out, and am okay with taking losses in battle. If you intend to nuzlocke this, be warned that I have a track record of making hacks harder than I set out to.

Fabricated Anticipated Questions

Spoiler:

Q: Why is this on Ruby and not Emerald?
A: When I started, a few years ago, Pokeruby was further along than Pokeemerald. The reverse is true now, but I don't care to port. I'm not terribly fond of some of Emerald's additions.

Q: Can I use this as a base for my project?
A: Please do not. You are free to borrow concepts, or even sections of script/code (if you can wrap your head around my organization), but please use Pokeemerald if you want to start a hack similar to this one, there are proper resources available. This hack is also many commits behind current Pokeruby, so you won't be able to use convenient tools like Porymap (I made a minimalist personal alternative).

Q: Where do I get Strength?
A: When you need it for main story progression, it will be readily available.
More specifically:

Spoiler:

It's in Magma Hideout, in Maxie's room.

Q: How do I get through the bottom part of Granite Cave?
A: The mach bike is required, but you do not need to use it to cross the final, most precarious section. You can save yourself figuring out the braille puzzle if you can pull it off, though.
The answer to the braille puzzle:

Spoiler:

Go to the braille wall on the upper floor. Move right as far as possible, step up twice, then use Cut from the menu.

Q: What's with the Regis?
A: Their chambers are open immediately, but the braille puzzles have changed. A new event is at the Sealed Chamber itself.
To preserve the sense of mystery, I am not giving specifics on this.

Q: Why don't you add dexnav/Z moves/mega pokemon/dynamaxing?
A: I don't want to. Dexnav might be a thing if I feel like it....the other three have serious balance and flavor implications though and I'm not particularly fond of any of them.

Known issues:

• Contests aren't finished. You can run them, but they'll be boring vanilla opponents, and the Berry Blender is only partly overhauled.
• Post-game is under construction. Kyogre, Deoxys and one of Latias or Latios are unobtainable.
• World map still needs to be updated; this will happen when I'm done adding new lairs for the legendaries.
• Attacks don't automatically re-target in Doubles. It's possible other weirdness happens there as well; the hack's focus is on Singles.

The most recent version of the hack can be downloaded here: https://github.com/Doesnty/goodruby/releases

As usual for most romhacks, use LunarIPS to patch it onto a clean Ruby ROM. Make sure you can save without savestates before proceeding with the game, as well. The hack comes with patches for each of Ruby's revisions; you probably have 1.0, but if that patch breaks, try the others.

The patch is fairly large for a romhack of this nature, on account of being on decomp. Everything is nudged around, so most tools will not work with it, and cheat codes may fail.

I'm specifically looking for a Spinarak with Sniper, is the Sniper Ability in the game?