General questions concerning save editing, pokemon 'creating' business..

[Sinaja]

I've been reading for the past couple hours on these forums regarding save editing and everything associated with it. I've read all the stickies, even searched the seemingly-knowledgable posters (such as codemonkey85) for their posts so I could absorb everything that is accepted by this community. However, some things seem to go either unmentioned or are just generally accepted without much simplification for an amateur reader.

Being someone who literally just bought a Nintendo DS with an 'M3 Simply' flashcard about six hours ago, I began to toy with the idea of getting every pokemon ever on a save (or at least, the ones that me and my fiance want). EDIT: Please do not discuss pirated material on the forums, thanks!

I've been reading everything on this section of this forum but honestly, all the information is overwhelming to take at once. I was hoping for a general FAQ with simple idiot answers to simple idiot questions but I suppose the intricacy of all the hex editing and save file tampering calls for more specific issues.

That being said, I have some basic compatability and end-goal questions. These questions are all out of pure ignorance and caution, if you're going to scold me for my uneducation then I suppose I deserve it. A lot of these questions may seem completely stupid to someone who is well-informed and for that, I apologize. First off:

1) Is there anything necessary for me to literally create 'legal' pokemon besides an appropriate program (I have codemonkey85's Pokemon generator and Ciro's pokemon make) to create and merge the .pkm to the .sav? Due to my ignorance of the whole homebrew firmware/emulation/general hacking of NDS', I don't know what else it would call for. Could I just edit my Pokemon Platinum .sav with codemonkey85's program and have the pokemon appear in my game the next time I boot up the save?

2) To my understanding, there are no popular/reliable HGSS hacking tools. I am still foggy on what is being accepted by the pokemon games as natural, so I'm wondering: am I theoretically able to create any pokemon (using the aforementioned generators/makers) for Pokemon Platinum, trade them to a Pokemon Pearl save, then have them traded to a Pokemon SoulSilver save and subsequently traded onto a Pokemon HeartGold save?

3) I keep reading about all these programs that people have to be necessary for hacking and editing. I'm not really interested in tampering with stats, abilities, EV, IV or anything of the sort; will the two programs I have mentioned be enough for me to do what I want or will I need several programs to execute certain procedures in order to achieve that?

4) This seems like a stupid question even to me, but whatever: are there any prerequisites to be achieved ingame before I can begin hacking or editing said save? I don't know how complicated it would be to change a save to have a National Dex before you've done the first gym (as I don't know the components of the value that defines it), so would that be an issue before tampering with a save?

Thanks. I'll keep reading and edit my post if I find the answer to one of my questions.

Edited July 14, 2010 by codemonkey85

[Bassman]

1) I use Pokesave for Platinum for all my save transfers between the DS and my PC. You can save Pokemon from there to a .plk file which can be edited with Pokegen. You may need to download this

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HQBUHIM1

in case you get a message saying you can't load storage Pokemon

2) I have been using Platinum for my PC saves and trading Pokemon direct from HG or SS.

3) You will probably be OK with Pokegen and your Save editor. Using Pokesav may require the program in 1) as an extra.

4) You can start editing as soon as you have access to a save. It won't matter if the Pokemon are not in the Local Pokedex. Unrecognised Pokemon will be sorted when you get the National.

[codemonkey85]

These questions are all out of pure ignorance and caution, if you're going to scold me for my uneducation then I suppose I deserve it. A lot of these questions may seem completely stupid to someone who is well-informed and for that, I apologize.

I personally would never fault someone for simply not knowing or understanding something. If you really did read through the forums and you have questions, we're not gonna burn you at the stake.

1) Is there anything necessary for me to literally create 'legal' pokemon besides an appropriate program (I have codemonkey85's Pokemon generator and Ciro's pokemon make) to create and merge the .pkm to the .sav? Due to my ignorance of the whole homebrew firmware/emulation/general hacking of NDS', I don't know what else it would call for. Could I just edit my Pokemon Platinum .sav with codemonkey85's program and have the pokemon appear in my game the next time I boot up the save?

First of all, my generator program is not 100% complete. For the purposes of generating a common Pokémon that you can encounter in DPPt, it should be fine; however, no matter what you do to create a Pokémon, you should check it against Sabresite's Legality Checker program.

Beyond that, you don't need anything other than your preferred generator tool.

2) To my understanding, there are no popular/reliable HGSS hacking tools. I am still foggy on what is being accepted by the pokemon games as natural, so I'm wondering: am I theoretically able to create any pokemon (using the aforementioned generators/makers) for Pokemon Platinum, trade them to a Pokemon Pearl save, then have them traded to a Pokemon SoulSilver save and subsequently traded onto a Pokemon HeartGold save?

Any Pokémon that is legal for DPPt will also be legal in HGSS, of course.

3) I keep reading about all these programs that people have to be necessary for hacking and editing. I'm not really interested in tampering with stats, abilities, EV, IV or anything of the sort; will the two programs I have mentioned be enough for me to do what I want or will I need several programs to execute certain procedures in order to achieve that?

As I said before, as long as you check your PKM files with Sabresite's Legality Checker, you need nothing else.

4) This seems like a stupid question even to me, but whatever: are there any prerequisites to be achieved ingame before I can begin hacking or editing said save? I don't know how complicated it would be to change a save to have a National Dex before you've done the first gym (as I don't know the components of the value that defines it), so would that be an issue before tampering with a save?

No prerequisites are "necessary", but bear in mind that unforseen consequences will always be possible when you break the game's sequence. Plus, we don't have a perfect map of the DS save files, so there's no telling what as of yet uknown values might or might not be generated / important throughout the game's progression.

[Sinaja]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your responses.

I managed to get a hold of Pokegen by CODR and [i'm sorry I forget his name]'s Legality checker which let me import my save and do virtually everything I wanted without tampering with much. It was extremely simplified once I got used to the procedure of creating a Pokemon. The only issue I've noticed is that interacting with said Pokemon in HG/SS while walking fails to show the name of the Pokemon and instead replaces the name field with just "Pokemon", thus saying "Your pokemon is feeling tired" or whatever. Other than that, I'm extremely pleased.

Kudos to CODR and that other guy (sorry again for forgetting your name). I'd donate via paypal if they had a link up.

[Codr]

The only issue I've noticed is that interacting with said Pokemon in HG/SS while walking fails to show the name of the Pokemon and instead replaces the name field with just "Pokemon", thus saying "Your pokemon is feeling tired" or whatever.

You mean when you turn toward it and press A? The name it uses in those messages is the same that's displayed on the summary page, so I'm not sure how that could be going wrong for you without the summary also being wrong. Also, the message that appears is a result of the Pokemon's happiness value. (I'm not 100% sure if anything else affects it.)

I'd donate via paypal if they had a link up.

I'd put a button up for that, but I'm not sure if it's legal. To be honest, we're probably violating copyright laws already by using the icons and other images that we do.