1 HG/SS Pokemon's Appearance, Another Pokemon's Name/Stats

[Abacus]

Greetings to everyone!

I'm pretty much looking for exactly what I put in my title. In my particular case, I find that the slim and elegant Dragonair looks much more appealing than its pudgy orange evolution. It's a dear wish of mine to be able to evolve my Dragonair only to find that it looks exactly the same, albeit with a different name, higher stats and a more diverse movepool.

I've no doubt that it's possible to make a Dragonite look like a Dragonair, a Ninetales look like an Arcanine, or an Arceus take the appearance of a Bidoof. In battle, in the pokemon selection menu, and following you in the overworld.

Would any kind souls tell me what programs to download and what steps to take in order to do this? My only experience editing pokemon ROMs thus far is with Pokesav, so the more tutorials you could link to, the better.

Thanks a ton!

Edit: Failing that, might any good Samaritans tell me how to replace Dragonair's base stats with Dragonite's, so that they get the same stat growths? I can take care of names/movesets with Pokesav if need be. The only thorn in my side then would be the game attempting to evolve me every time that I level up. Any solutions for this besides holding an Everstone 24/7?

[aninymouse]

1) To alter the overworld sprites, you need Poketex and the HGSS offset .txt file. Poketex is found in the R&D forum sticky. Google to find the .txt.

Put the .txt file in the same folder as the program and rename it "list.txt". Open the rom in the program. Check YouTube for in-depth tutorials. You'll have the option of making a modified Dragonair OW sprite or just using the same one over Dragonite. One other thing: it only works with the Japanese rom for HGSS, so you could use a file system program (look below) to extract the edited a/0/8/1 and reinsert it into an English version rom of your choice. Or not, if you like playing the Japanese version.

2) To alter the stats, you need PPRE. Found in the R&D forum.

Hit "Choose Rom," pick your file, hit "Set Rom," wait, hit "Pokemon," and then just go down the list to Dragonite. Change what you want and hit "Save." Close that window and hit "Write Rom" or "Create Patch," depending on what you want to do. Of course, before you use PPRE, make sure to run the latest Rudolph Child's Play patch on the rom if you're going to use a USA or EU rom.

3) To alter the battle sprites & the party/box icons, you need PokeDSPic & NitroExplorer2, CrystalTile2, or any other file system program. I think they're in the R&D forum, but if not, they're on page 1 of any search engine.

Use the file system program of your choice to extract a/0/0/4 and rename it "4.narc". Open PokeDSPic, select the narc, scroll to Dragonair's first back sprite entry and hit "Save PNG". Do the same with the first front sprite. Open the PNG in Paint or Photoshop, make any edits you might desire for your Dragonair "evolution," and save the PNG (skip this if the regular sprite is fine). Repeat for the the other image. In PokeDSPic, go to Dragonite's first Back sprite entry and hit "Open PNG". Hit "File," then "Write to narc". Repeat for the front sprite. Make sure you replace all 4 of Dragonite's sprites in this way: 2 back, 2 front. Use the File system program to reinsert 4.narc into a/0/0/4. Do it the same way for the paty/box icons using the appropriate program that comes in the zip file. Those are located at a/0/2/0.

4) And although I haven't tried it (yet), I think PPTXT is the only program that can change a Pokemon's name. R&D forum, page 1.

[Abacus]

Thanks for the swift response!

Tinkering around with the overworld sprite, battle sprite and pokemon name all seem a tad bit too complicated for me. I decided to try your option #2 - use PPRE to give Dragonair the same base stats as Dragonite and no 2nd stage evolution, so as to essentially use a buffed-up 'nair instead of a heavily-modded 'nite. Less work for essentially the same result

I tried everything that you suggested here and Oxnite suggested here, all to to avail. I created a new .nds rom with the modifications I wanted, then when I went to try it out nothing had changed. No buffed-up Dragonair. A few thoughts on the matter:

First of all, I just want to make sure that I'm using the newest program. PPRE beta 0.14 IS the newest Windows version out there, no? For what it's worth, I'm running the newest Rudolph patch.

Secondly, after I've made my desired changes, what's the difference between "Write Rom" and "Create Patch?" I've found that I need to create a new rom before I can even try to make a patch, and I've tried playing this new rom without the PPRE-created patch, with the patch installed via PPRE, and with the patch installed via a copy of xDelta GUI that I had downloaded independently.

It's definitely worth noting that the rom I used wasn't "clean" - I had prior installed a "hard mode" mod that bumped up the difficulty. The .dsv save file I loaded to test out if the changes had worked was a .dsv file that had been played on the "hard mode" from the very beginning. I did rename the file to match the name of the newly-created, PPRE-modded rom (and it loaded just fine), but I suspect the first mod is where the problem lies.

Is there any way to keep my original mod while also adding in the PPRE changes I'd like to make? Do I have to either dump my current game and start fresh with a clean rom, or keep on playing with a bulbous, Barney-The-Dinosaur looking 'mon on my team? Can I have my cake and eat it too?

Edit: I downloaded a clean rom, installed Rudolph's patch, tried the same modifications, and they still didn't work. Looks to me like the other mod might not have been the problem after all. Is there a list of common reasons for changes made in PPRE not carrying over?

Edited January 30, 2011 by Abacus

[aninymouse]

If you're not using a clean rom and you just want to use PPRE, just select the file with PPRE, edit Dragonair, save your changes, and click write rom. Then see if it worked. MAKE SURE you give each edit a unique name. PPRE hates it when you try to name all your edits the same thing. If you messed with a Dragonair's base stats, the changes won't show up immediately unless you level the pokemon up or deposit it in a box. Just carrying it around in your party will just read from your save game data, not the base stats.

I forgot to address the evolution thing.

The R&D forum has a program called 4th Gen Evo Editor. Extract your a/0/3/4, select the appropriate options from the program menu, edit Dragonair's evolution and make sure to hit save before you switch to a different Pokemon. PPRE works the same way; you have to save before switching to a new view. Make sure to hit "Close," since this program will continue to run in the background, otherwise. Reinsert 4.narc into a/0/3/4. Done.

Let it be known that a lot of the simple things can be directly hex edited if you have even a vague idea of the offset in the rom, but I can't recommend that to beginners.

[Abacus]

Finally got it, man. Thanks a bunch; much appreciated.

[Roihu]

You... came here from /vp/, didn't you?

[Abacus]

Not to revive/derail an already resolved thread, but yes. I did indeed ask around /vp/ for the best place to mod my roms, and well, here I am. But please don't associate me with the depraved cesspit that is 4chan.

[Roihu]

Haha... don't be so judgmental.

I saw that thread and I'm like, "That dude just needs to know one word: PPRE."

No idea what happened after I posted that, but apparently, you found it.