aninymouse

Sent you a PM. Hopefully it was of some help. Gotta say, modding Gen 4 was a lot of work but a lot of fun. You definitely have a lot more freedom than in Gen 5 atm... way more research into it.

Yes, In-Game Trade Editors almost always let you change what you can give up.

It's the national dex number in hex, just with the values flipped. 00 01 is Bulbasaur FF 01 is Pansage etc.

Well, no offense, but I'm not interested in doing "Black & White 3." It does sound like a cool idea, and I'm sure you'd do great leading a project like that. I just want to focus on improving the game in ways I know I can manage; I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, so to speak. I'm not a big fan of mixing and matching starters from different generations, unless there's a good reason to do so. If it were up to me to pick different starters, I would want 3 Pokemon that make sense together. There's also the problem of the images always showing Snivy, Tepig & Oshawott, since nobody can figure out how to change those images. Thus, it will look cheesy. Having a Spanish version would be exciting! I think it's a little early for that, however, since I'm just getting started.

Well, they're your programs and you can do with them what you like. I suppose having one program with many versions is preferable if only because it should be easy to tell if your version is up-to-date, like PPRE is/was.

Sounds like some good ideas to me. Why don't we discuss ideas sometime? :]

Which games are we talking about here? In RBY, adding new types is a cinch. Same for GSC. It's definitely possible to add new types in RSEFRLG but I'm not sure if you have to over wright ??? or not. In DPPtHGSS, no one's ever added in new types yet besides over writing old types. BWB2W2... no progress whatsoever. Can't even find the type effectiveness info.

Are you asking if you can help with making new Pokemon forms? If so, I'd be happy to partner up with you :] I'd love to put some alternate forms in the Hidden Hollows, but since those are Pokemon events, it can get a bit tricky.

That's something I'm trying to find out on the weekends. So far as I know, no one's edited the type chart in BW. Andibad might know but who knows how to get a hold of him...

You'll definitely be able to catch and evolve everything yourself. I'll add as many proper locations and events for legendaries as I can manage. Might have to talk to some people about that one; I've never done it in Gen 5, yet. I think what I'll do is I'll make a "clean" version for people who hate changes to Pokemon themselves, or who want to battle with regular Gen 5 games. What do you mean "add a new way?" I'm one who uses whatever means necessary to create a finished product. For most things, though, I just use hex editors since that way I know the exact changes being made (in case of errors in programs). I do enjoy using tools when they're available and trustworthy, however, if only because looking at endless seas of hexadecimal gives me a headache after a while.

These tools only really work with BW1. They aren't meant to work with BW2.

I'm not totally opposed to adding in new "versions" of old Pokemon. After all, it was discovered that you can add alternate forms to any Pokemon in BW. I do think, however, that adding in new types for just a few scant Pokemon is kind of lame. "Cyber" Pokemon... never mind that Porygon's story makes little sense, why create a new type just for those 3 Pokemon? They're known for changing their type, anyway, with Conversion. The very nature of something being "Cyber" is for it to be immaterial - a simulation existing only in computer technology. Just like things on your computer screen can never become corporeal, "Cyber" Pokemon wouldn't be real Pokemon, either. Thinking of Porygon as a plastic robot makes a lot more sense. "Crystal" types just seem like a way to divide up the Rock type. There are no Crystal Onix in the games, mind you. Pokemon like Gigalith, Sableye, Starmie, Dialga, etc. all attribute their gemstones to the Rock type through the move Power Gem. And even though there are more "Crystal-like" Pokemon than any other group you mentioned, what good is a type with only 1 attack? What other attack could be Crystal-type? It'd be very shallow. If anything, adding gemstones to the attributes of Rock-types helps differentiate them from Ground-types. What kinds of physical attributes would a "Cosmic" Pokemon have? Something being "Cosmic" or not only has to do with where it is found, not so much what it's made of. Pokemon aren't "Desert-type" or "Forest-type," so why should there be "Cosmic-type" Pokemon? There's no real-world creatures to base such a type off of, anyway, so where do you go from there? "Light" types, to me, never made much sense since the way of goodness is not to seek battle but to seek peace. Pokemon of the "Light" would probably be opposed to wanton battling. While "Shadow" Pokemon seem to be captive of an evil outside force, creating a "Light" type requires acknowledgement of a higher power of good, i.e. God. What's the motivation, then? Evangelize wild Pokemon? What's the goal beyond that? It's clear that Pokemon, as a fantasy story of myths and diversions, is not quite ready to tackle the fundamental questions of existence lest it cease being a fun way to spend free time and become a pseudo-religion. Now, "Shadow" Pokemon are an easy-to-understand lot: Pokemon that have been corrupted by something bad. While some Pokemon might be inherently bad-natured, like Dark-types, "Shadow" Pokemon convey a further corruption by an outside force, usually outside the control of the Pokemon themselves. While we, as players, live in a world choked with evil and corruption, it is easy for us to identify with characters being corrupted and controlled. It's the nature of evil, and it doesn't really need a face - evil is alive and well in all of humanity. It is Good that is sublime, specific, exclusive and even holy. Anyone can be evil. Thus, "Shadow" Pokemon make a lot more sense. After all, it has thus far been humans that have created the "Shadow" Pokemon, not the Pokemon themselves. But what set of guidelines are there for the kind, sort, extent or authority behind mankind's goodly values? There must always be a higher power, or else "Light" is just a different-colored "Shadow." If you or I define what is "Light" apart from God, what happens when you or I disagree on what "Light" is? See the dilemma? TL;DR No, sorry. I don't think your suggestions for new types will work in my version. However, I have long pondered if there was any room for other, new types to be added. If anything, I think Ground & Rock could stand to be merged into the "Earth-type." Really, there doesn't seem to be any room for new types, since there isn't really any kind of life on Earth that isn't represented in some form already in Pokemon.

This seems like a pretty cool idea, honestly. I don't think I've ever heard of a storyline like this before, at least not in Pokemon. Just imagining a world like that... those people would be in anguish, possibly in panic. However, the problem with changing the types of Leaders or Elites is that, for it to make any kind of sense, you'd have to do lots and LOTS of intensive map and texture and scripting work. If you hacked this from Generation 3 games, then sure, I could see this happening. The problems arise when you realize that there are perhaps only a handful of people with the know-how, skill and sheer will and free time to code that kind of stuff in Generation 5, a generation of which precious little is widely known. I'd say your concept is excellent, but that the only realistic way of ever doing it right would be to hack Generations 1, 2, or 3 instead.

About the Type Effectiveness Chart While I may in fact leave it alone since there is usually not a huge demand for such changes, I can't deny that there are a few glaring flaws in the current Type Chart that has remained unchanged since Gold & Silver. I'll provide some ideas that I have been pondered for a while. While I may use all these ideas, I may use none of these or only a few. Nevertheless:| Perceived Issues With Current Chart *Poison is horribly weak offensively - While Poison gets decent neutral coverage, it is definitely only used as STAB or if it is the only option. Since it only hits Grass super-effectively and Steel-types are immune to it (who doesn't use Steel-types?), it just plain sucks. Even Normal is better offensively. *Water is unbalanced offensively - Discounting Water Absorb, Storm Drain and Dry Skin, the only types that resist a type with offensive Base Powers from 95 to 150 are Grass, Dragon & Water. The problem with this is that most Water-types carry attacks that tear Grass-types & Dragon-types apart. *Dragon is broken offensively - Only Steel resists it, and every Dragon has at least one attack to get past said Steel-types. There are no true counters to several Dragons - something that only Uber Legends can usually claim. The problem is twofold: Dragons naturally have larger-than-average base stat totals, and Dragons ALL have access to TWO massive attacks with 120 and 140 BP, each hitting on opposite ends of the damage spectrum! Truly, Outrage & Draco Meteor together have overpowered this type. Even Steel-types tremble before Haxorus. *Ice is horrendous defensively - Ice is such a horrible type to have on a Pokemon that any Pokemon with the Ice type is always worse because of it. Only rarely can Ice-types be used competitively in any but the lowest tiers. Four weaknesses hurt, but more than that is the total dearth of resistances. There's nothing to make up for it! Some argue that this is because Ice is so powerful offensively, however, only defensive properties are intrinsic. *Electric attacks prove a principle - For instance, though Electric-type attacks have powerful BP and neutral coverage, the immunity of Ground is usually enough to balance it out. That is, until Thundurus Therian Forme came along and proved that, with enough muscle, the lack of types resisting Electric can lead to massive imbalance. Now, I realize that the number of Electric-types approaching the power level of Thundurus is very few, but that doesn't mean that Electric isn't potentially unbalanced. Look at Dragon: it wasn't until Outrage AND Draco Meteor showed up that people started to think of Dragons as overpowered. And so, the question becomes, "Do we balance the chart for the chart's sake, or do we take into account all factors?" I think the answer would be the latter, so I'm not sure if it's worth changing or not. *Type attributes just don't make any sense - Granted, this is trivial. Many aspects of the Steel-type seem to be utter nonsense, though they aren't necessarily broken or unbalanced. Why would Fighting-type attacks be super-effective? But then you have to realize that if you start trying to fashion the type chart after real life physics and biology... a lot of the type chart doesn't make any sense. If Ghost-types are immune to physical assaults like punching and kicking, then why would a bug poking it with its pincers be any different? Why can a Ghost be poisoned at all? The list goes on. You really have to draw a line in the sand and say to yourself, "This is a video game, nothing here is real, nothing here has to make any sense." Otherwise, the type chart just becomes a jumbled mess. Make a small handful of changes, and the game will play very similar to the Pokemon we all know and love; Make too many drastic changes, and you end up with a different game that only resembles Pokemon. The same delineation has to be made with altering Base Stats, too: change one or two Pokemon and the player can justify it; totally re-write the Base Stats of Pokemon and the player feels like a stranger in a land of doppelgangers. Other Factors Other types have strengths & weaknesses, but they are definitely more manageable. Grass-type attacks are perhaps the only other issue.

Hey, all! My name's Aninymouse and I've been dabbling in Pokemon ROM hacking for quite some time. Though I've edited all the way from Gen 2 to the present, I've never yet seen a project come to completion and release. However, this time I plan on finishing what I've started. I don't have any fancy graphics to show you yet, or even any YouTube videos, but I'm going to show you my vision for my version of Pokemon Black 2 & Pokemon White 2. The goal of True White 2 & Ideal Black 2 is to simply offer a more robust experience overall, while retaining the basic gameplay of Black 2 & White 2 that we all enjoy. Think about prominent projects of the past, like "Perfect Platinum"; this project will have a similar scope. Below, I'll outline my initial desires for this hack. Things might get added on later if I learn more tricks or get some help! CHANGES >Pokemon >>Availability - My goal is to have the only version exclusives to be Black or White Kyurem. All 649 Pokemon should be here. >>Types & Stats - Some Pokemon will be of different types. Base stats will most likely stay the same unless I have a good reason to change them. >>Abilities - Many Pokemon will have different abilities, some will more easily be found with better ones. >>Moves - Each Pokemon family will have at least one new attack to use. Some moves will be improved or altered. >>Hidden Hollow & Dream World - Expect these Pokemon to sometimes be very surprising. >>Evolutions - All Pokemon can evolve without trading. You won't be left out in the cold if you have trouble finding other players! >>Wild Held Items - Many rare items will be at your disposal. >>Miscellaneous - Some gender ratios and other information will be altered. >Towns & Maps - Many shops will carry a wider variety of items to use. >Storyline - While the bulk of the story will remain unchanged for now, some dialogue will be changed. >>Trainers - Trainers will generally have more Pokemon, and of higher levels and higher difficulty. >>Gym Leaders - The Leaders will definitely be much more rewarding. Far too easy on Normal Mode in B2W2. >>Pokemon World Tournament - Most teams here will recieve tweaks to keep things interesting. Regional divisions will remain reasonably easy to allow for BP grinding, while the World Leaders, Champion League, and Type Masters divisions will all be fairly challenging! >Other Changes >>Items - TMs and other items might change location to ease pokemon raising, or what have you. >>TM & HM - Several relatively useless TMs may change; for instance: Ally Switch, Incinerate, etc. >>Types - I think two to five changes to the "Type Chart" will vastly improve competitive balance and spice things up! >>Challenge & Assist - I'm wanting to research ways that Challenge & Assist Mode Keys can be allowed from the start without infrared. If RAM editing & AR codes are the only way, well, so be it. This is just my starting list. Feel free to suggest changes! I love hearing other people's ideas! If you'd like to partner up and get involved in a growing project, just contact me on the forums or email me at aninymouse@hotmail.com. Obviously, I'd like to use the USA version of the game for this, but until October there are a lot of things that can be done on the Japanese version in the meantime!

I gotta say, Gen 5 map editing has me impressed just by itself, assuming the maps work. Can't wait to see what you're capable of. I'd caution against redoing your hack for BW2, if only because it's such a monumental task to start over from scratch. It would probably be a better game, but then again, since BW2 are brand new, you'd have to research a lot of the changes yourself. That can be daunting. Either way, I look forward to this.

Can you explain your question a bit better? What do you mean by "systems"? Are you trying to just edit the in-game text files or are you doing a translation patch or what?

You'd have to be very careful. You can't just import BW1's level-up moves narc over to BW2 because of the new forms and Pokewood files at the end. Horrible errors could happen. What you'd need to do is just make the changes you want to the Pokemon you want and then insert each individual pokemon back into the narc one-by-one. So, basically, hex editing is the best method by far. It's very time consuming but there is little chance for any game-breaking errors as long as you A) know how to read & convert hexidecimal to decimal and back, and B) don't try to give Pokemon more than 22 attacks.

Honestly, what I was doing back in Gen 4 was to put Gen 5 Pokemon in over some of the older Pokemon. I was never editing the palette files, however. Instead, I'd seek out not-fully-evolved Pokemon with similar color schemes to what I wanted (Shuppet & Galvantula, for instance). I'd simply put a Galvantula sprite into the ripped file for Shuppet and edit the transparent pixels by hand (since any pixels outside the palette or too close to the transparent color would become transparent). It involved changing the image parameters to restrict the sprite files to 16 colors, I believe, or whatever the color limit was for Gen 4. I never really finished my project, since I saw in Gen 5 so many of the improvements I wanted to make to HGSS that were ready-built into the game, instead of needing to be hacked in. Thus, I never even got to the playtesting phase. However, I know that the process starts by ripping the existing sprites from the narc file (use kiwi.ds or a similar program - I think Alpha made a similar tool and had it up on this site). From there, you make any sprite edits you want (for instance, I made a sprite set for Slaking where he wasn't just sitting there picking his nose) and then import the edited sprites back into the narc file. Also, Kazo has a lot of tutorials on this on Youtube!

Man, this certainly is unique. You've put a lot of hard work into this

The palette is a separate hex file. CrystalTile2 is useful for this (and most things). There definitely are tools out there for HGSS sprite editing, however. I used to have a trove of such hacking tools but I've since deleted all my Gen 4 stuff... sorry. Try google.

I don't think the personal.narc editors of BW1 will ever work, because of the extra tutor information at the end of each Pokemon, if nothing else. All the offsets would be wrong even in an extracted narc file.

Yeah, I remember this being a big snag for making drastic changes to sprites, since they'd sink through the floor, sometimes. Ultimately, it was why I gave up inserting Gen 5 pokemon into HG/SS. It's frustrating that the file format didn't carry over from DPPt...

Cool! Honestly, I had given up on making custom B & W because of the snag with TMs. Maybe I'll pick it back up later, now. Shoulda guessed it was in the arm9; most of the info not in narc files that one would desire to edit is in the arm9.

Yes. It's a known bug that causes conflicts with the scripts, and will likely never be fixed. There is a workaround that works some of he time, but of course hex editing those routes yourself is the safest method.