Pokémon Nova Sun & Umbra Moon: Fully-featured, challenging Sun/Moon ROMhacks!

[Dio_Vento]

Project Pokémon OP
GBATemp OP
PokéCommunity OP
Reddit /r/3dshacks OP

ROM hack of: Sun and Moon (3DS)

 

Pokémon Nova Sun and Umbra Moon are mods for Pokémon Sun and Moon. Like my Rutile Ruby and Star Sapphire hacks, their main purpose is to provide a more challenging game experience while not artificially limiting the player. The premier feature of Nova Sun and Umbra Moon is the ground-up redesign of Pokémon Trainers in the world to increase the game's challenge. Every trainer in the game has been edited, and the level curve expects use of the Experience Share, which means that the player levels up very quickly. Every Pokémon in Trainers' teams has a hold item and a proper moveset. The end-game of the main story features trainers with Levels in the mid-nineties.

Nova Sun and Umbra Moon's secondary focus is inspired by Super Smash Bros. Melee's "20XX Hack Pack" which enables features for competitive players to practice and grind. In Nova Sun and Umbra Moon's Legit Build, everything obtainable is 100% legal and legitimate for real online battles or trades. In all Builds, some features are designed to make preparing competitive teams much less of a hassle. Competitive hold items are much more available, a 6IV Ditto is available through an in-game trade (holding a Destiny Knot), Eggs hatch in one cycle, and Level 100 Memento Blissey battles are available in the Battle Buffet once the main story has been beaten.

(As discussed, link removed as it directs to page that host files from ROMs. Please upload files accepted by the forum, thanks )

[Dio_Vento]

READ THIS POST BEFORE YOU COMMENT "THE DRAG AND DROP DOESN'T WORK FOR ME"

 

HOW TO UPDATE from Nova Sun & Umbra Moon v1.4 (or lower) to v1.5+:

If you're updating the Drag & Drop pack of Nova Sun or Umbra Moon to v1.5+ from a previous version, you need to delete the old files. v1.5+ places the ROM hack files in a different SD card location, and no longer requires code.bin. Delete THESE files/folders from your SD card before copying v1.5+ to the SD Card.

• SD:\luma\titles\0004000000164800
• SD:\luma\titles\0004000000175E00
• SD:\luma\code_sections\0004000000164800.bin
• SD:\luma\code_sections\0004000000175E00.bin
• SD:\SaltySD\Nova_Sun
• SD:\SaltySD\Umbra_Moon

You also NEED to update Luma3DS if you're on a version lower than 7.0.

Drag & Drop packages of Nova Sun & Umbra Moon v1.5+ support (and require) Pokémon Sun & Moon v1.2.

 

FAQ

 

"HELP! The game freezes when I talk to a shopkeeper!"

• This happens when you have a version mismatch on the Shop.cro file
• If you're using a Drag & Drop install of the game, make sure Sun or Moon are updated to v1.2. If you're getting shop freezes while Sun or Moon are updated to v1.2, update the ROM hack by redownloading the Drag & Drop package and follow the instructions for updating from NS/UM v1.4- to v1.5+.
• If you're using a *.3ds or *.cia install, make sure Sun or Moon are not updated at all. Uninstall updates from "Data Management" on the 3DS. You can also apply the Drag and Drop package over the NS/UM CIA; if you do this, you can update Sun/Moon and continue to play NS/UM.

 

"I want to randomize the game and still use the Drag & Drop pack!"

• PK3DS currently requires a complete ROM file system to be present to function. This means you need to follow these instructions to play a randomized game through Drag & Drop.
• Download the Drag & Drop pack of the Lite Build of NS/UM and copy the /luma/ folder to your SD card. Follow all instructions included with the Drag & Drop
• Download the Distribution Pack for NS/UM and follow the instructions as if you want to build a CIA of the Expanded Build.
• When you reach the part where you can randomize your wild encounters, say Yes and use PK3DS to randomize them.
• Once you've randomized your Wild Encounters, copy /Extracted_ROM/romfs/a/0/8/2 and /Extracted_ROM/romfs/a/0/8/3 to the /luma/titles/16DIGITTITLEID/romfs/a/0/8 folder on your SD card. If there is no "8" folder inside romfs/a/0, create one.
• Booting Sun or Moon should load Nova Sun or Umbra Moon with randomized wild encounters.

 

"HELP! I want to use a cheat menu or NTR plugin, but (insert tool here) breaks with this mod!"

• It's not up to me to fix these sorts of tools.
• The reason these tools will sometimes break with Nova Sun / Umbra Moon is that they aren't capable of handling Luma3DS's LayeredFS implementation.
• If you want to complain to someone about incompatibility, complain to the developers of the cheat menu or plugin that their tool doesn't support Luma3DS LayeredFS.

 

"HELP! I get a black screen when I click Sun/Moon when using the Drag & Drop pack!"

• Make sure you have properly removed any SaltySD-based hacks (including older builds of Nova Sun/Umbra Moon) from your 3DS SD card as detailed at the top of this post.
• Try deleting the files from SD:/luma/titles and re-copying them over to the SD. Plug your SD into your computer instead of using FTP or MicroSD Management for best results.
• Update your Luma3DS install to the latest stable version and make sure "Enable Game Patching" is enabled. It's possible Luma3DS's "hourly" builds could break something important for the LayeredFS feature.
• Make sure your 3DS firmware is on version 11.0 or greater (this is a requirement to run Pokémon Sun & Moon).
• Make sure you have the Sun/Moon v1.2 update installed.

 

"HELP! I am having trouble building a CIA/*.3DS of this!"

• Because computers are different from user to user, I cannot provide personal troubleshooting for the Distribution Pack used to build *.cia/*.3ds files or HANS packs.
• If you're using custom firmware on your 3DS, I recommend using the Drag & Drop package if you're having any difficulties whatsoever with building a CIA.
• The files included in the Distribution Pack can be used to build a CIA or 3DS file with any method (romfs builder, Asia81's PackHack, the included 3dstoolkit by evandixon...).

 

"WHICH BUILD HAS LEGENDARIES!?"

• This ROM hack does not add Legendary Pokémon to the wild. This is a design choice made for the following reasons:
• 3DS ROM hackers currently (and for the foreseeable future) can't alter the game script to add events, so adding Legendary Pokémon would just be sticking them in random grass patches as low-percentage encounters. That's ugly, feels hacky, and removes the reason Legendary Pokémon are cool in the first place.
• Nova Sun and Umbra Moon are not balanced around the player using 650+ BST monstrosities. If I added Legendary Pokémon to the grass, they'd turn the supposedly challenging game into a cakewalk. If I balanced the game *around* Legendary Pokémon, you'd basically be required to either use them or grind and overlevel your team.
• Hacked Legendary Pokémon cannot be converted to legitimate Pokémon by altering their data to make them "hatched from an egg". This means using Legendary Pokémon as a post-game reward is absolutely and completely pointless.
• And finally: I personally believe the game is more fun without them, and I want to present the most fun (in my opinion) way to play Pokémon in my ROM hacks.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Dio_Vento

[Dio_Vento]

Reserved.

[BurningFoot]

In the vanilla game certain pokemon(minior and komala ) and anything not legitimately findable in the wild have base call rates of 0 was that changed for these hacks?

[chedarface]

Super excited for this, Dio! I set aside all of 2/26 for this, but now I get to start a bit early  Thanks for all your hard work!

[smiletime123]

Sounds just as amazing as RR/SS! Can't wait to play through this.  Keep up the amazing work! 

[Dio_Vento]

On 2/25/2017 at 5:44 PM, BurningFoot said:

In the vanilla game certain pokemon(minior and komala ) and anything not legitimately findable in the wild have base call rates of 0 was that changed for these hacks?

It'll be changed in the first update.

[Garblon]

@Dio_Vento , what level of decryption do I use when building the cia version? The instructions aren't specific enough...

[Dio_Vento]

I used Deep but it might work with Shallow

[Garblon]

Just now, Dio_Vento said:

I used Deep but it might work with Shallow

I tried using deep when I used a copy that I didn't dump, but it failed when extracting the files with the help of the bat. I'll try using a dumped copy this time though.

(Also, thanks for the fast reply!)

[pokemonfanboos34]

Hi i need some help everytime i try to use Setup it won't open the Extracted_Rom romfs file for some reason and i can't get it to work please help

[Monarkh]

Can anyone give me a link to a working Expanded version of Umbra Moon to play on Citra please? I can't get it to work by myself  .

[Dio_Vento]

On 2/25/2017 at 5:44 PM, BurningFoot said:

In the vanilla game certain pokemon(minior and komala ) and anything not legitimately findable in the wild have base call rates of 0 was that changed for these hacks?

Fixed in Hotfix 01, which is available in the OP of this thread now.

[Saternoir]

Just a question, is Luma Nightly really needed for SaltySD or I can perform it with just the stable Luma?

[Dio_Vento]

Stable Luma is fine, and with stable Luma all you have to do is drag and drop and enable "external .code"

[Saternoir]

Oh ok, thanks!

[jasenyoface]

Get out of here!  

Thank you all so much!

[Unown Lord]

I followed the SaltySD instructions and yet the game is still unchanged (judging from Kukui's dialogue). I enabled external code, so what else might be missing?

Edited March 4, 2017 by Unown Lord

[Alphraic]

On 3/4/2017 at 5:11 PM, Unown Lord said:

I followed the SaltySD instructions and yet the game is still unchanged (judging from Kukui's dialogue). I enabled external code, so what else might be missing?

Im using the hans method as I updated my N3DS like an idiot and I also cant get it to work judging from, Kukui dialogue 

 

Edited March 5, 2017 by Alphraic
Be

[theSLAYER]

@Unown Lord and @Alphraic

I'll say displaying the contents of your SD card (preferable the full string that shows the Sd directory + the folder where the files are places)
will help anyone understand the situation better, and in turn be able to help you better.

It's hard to discern the problem, with so little information provided.

@Unown Lord
1. if the saltysd folder not being in root, bad things can happen
2. if the luma folder wasn't pasted over (which means the code.bin is missing)
3. make sure you updated your pokemon to 1.1
Also, I think if you're not using latest luma stable build (or using a nightly) the folder configuration for code_Sections may have changed

@Alphraic
Before anything, I'll like to confirm if you're using O3DS or N3DS.

[Alphraic]

2 hours ago, theSLAYER said:

Before anything, I'll like to confirm if you're using O3DS or N3DS. 

N3DS XL

[Charzor]

Hi, i have a N3DS with only homebrew, i only want to confirm the info, with only HBL there is no changes in the markets even with a N3DS? thanks!

[rainrer]

Hi guys,

I'm getting a white screen after the Pokemon title screen and the house (with Pokemon Umbra Moon), using the 
.CIA/.3DS Installation (CFW) method. I have tried it with the hotfix and without the hotfix. Pokemon Nova Sun works perfectly though. Does anyone have any idea how to solve the issue?

Thanks a lot.

[Dio_Vento]

ROM hack has been updated to v1.2. Hotfix has been removed from OP since it is now rolled into the hack distribution files.

[evandixon]

I tried starting a new game using v1.2 of Umbra Moon (the CIA version on a New 3DS using Luma 6.6 on sysNAND).  Things seemed to work until after the intro cutscene, where it showed the Nova Sun logo, then crashed with the black "An error has occured" error screen.  Any ideas about what went wrong?

I can try rebuilding it tomorrow, but I kinda doubt that would make a difference since I originally built it with a clean decrypted ROM, having extracted the distro pack to a new directory.

[Edit] I tried again with no success.  To be more specific, the crash is after the white-out from the map after "Three months later...".  I'm going to try v1.1 in a bit.

[Edit 2] Same result with 1.1

[Edit 3] I got around the issue by just using the saltySD version.  Because of the Pokemon Sun logo and it being sunny in the intro (and this is Umbra Moon), I suspect (but have not proven) that the cause is the wrong code.bin being included.  After all, when I copied the saltySD pack into the distro pack (I think I forgot to mention that), the code.bin was the only file I didn't replace, to avoid saltySD code running.

Edited March 14, 2017 by evandixon