Question to all devs and rom hacker

[Noctosphere]

What kind of hack can we expect to see with Legends Arceus?
So far, I'm only aware of two types of rom hacking with recent games, sometime combined
Harder mode
All Pokemon availables in the same game

But in this game, all Pokemon are already available in the same game, right?
So except a harder mode, is there anything else that could be made out of its engine?

 

[FAST6191]

Whatever people want to make. The Switch is completely hacked at this point, by default even (no split like we might have seen on the 3ds or 360), and there are similarly advanced tools for debugging (not as nice as some emulators but still good).

Pokemon has traditionally seen more tools made that allow people without hacking skills to edit the games, this does seem to lead to a lot of people doing some kind of "I changed the starter" and when the ability to set what pokemon appear in a given area appears then you will get the all pokemon in the game type hacks.

Most likely the earlier hacks will be stats based, map changing based, maybe some text tweaks and fiddling within the existing parameters, possibly a few graphical hacks as people twist whatever ripping options are available get twisted back around. Sound hacks also likely in this but as sounds on modern consoles are a glorified zip file with known formats that is not quite as impressive as it used to be. You might get some people working within said parameters (I did see a very nice boss rush type deal there before in a hack, and you could hardcode what is effectively a nuzlocke challenge this way too). From there you will tend to then see people hardcode cheats, and follow what instructions are doing what to the addresses those cheats have so you get into early assembly hacks. Off to the races from there really, though when this might be could vary dramatically as one person with some skills (and while I am not necessarily the most charitable above regarding "I changed the starter" I have seen some very skilled people playing in pokemon hacking circles in the past, and going by the language and methods used largely self taught and self discovered) can advance things very far, very fast. Somewhere in all that what the pokemon hacking world knows as scripting (that is to say changing say walking patterns of AI, or what triggers when you stand on a certain tile) and everything else knows as events and behaviours will probably also get looked at.

I could detail an approach you could consider if you wanted to make it all happen faster (I have basically no interest in the Switch and even less in modern pokemon), and some of the modern programming languages make life far nicer than those that might have had to consider visual basic back in the day (if you have had to install odd things to play with tools to fiddle with GB/GBC/GBA pokemon games then probably was that). I am not sure what good it will do for you though.

 

[Noctosphere]

Whatever people want to make. The Switch is completely hacked at this point, by default even (no split like we might have seen on the 3ds or 360), and there are similarly advanced tools for debugging (not as nice as some emulators but still good).

Pokemon has traditionally seen more tools made that allow people without hacking skills to edit the games, this does seem to lead to a lot of people doing some kind of "I changed the starter" and when the ability to set what pokemon appear in a given area appears then you will get the all pokemon in the game type hacks.

Most likely the earlier hacks will be stats based, map changing based, maybe some text tweaks and fiddling within the existing parameters, possibly a few graphical hacks as people twist whatever ripping options are available get twisted back around. Sound hacks also likely in this but as sounds on modern consoles are a glorified zip file with known formats that is not quite as impressive as it used to be. You might get some people working within said parameters (I did see a very nice boss rush type deal there before in a hack, and you could hardcode what is effectively a nuzlocke challenge this way too). From there you will tend to then see people hardcode cheats, and follow what instructions are doing what to the addresses those cheats have so you get into early assembly hacks. Off to the races from there really, though when this might be could vary dramatically as one person with some skills (and while I am not necessarily the most charitable above regarding "I changed the starter" I have seen some very skilled people playing in pokemon hacking circles in the past, and going by the language and methods used largely self taught and self discovered) can advance things very far, very fast. Somewhere in all that what the pokemon hacking world knows as scripting (that is to say changing say walking patterns of AI, or what triggers when you stand on a certain tile) and everything else knows as events and behaviours will probably also get looked at.

I could detail an approach you could consider if you wanted to make it all happen faster (I have basically no interest in the Switch and even less in modern pokemon), and some of the modern programming languages make life far nicer than those that might have had to consider visual basic back in the day (if you have had to install odd things to play with tools to fiddle with GB/GBC/GBA pokemon games then probably was that). I am not sure what good it will do for you though.

thanks, but I guess, like all pokemon games except pre-DS (GBA/GBC/GB), we won't see new stories with new mapping and new environment, right?
However, about what you said about the "I changed the starters", well, I do expect to see hacks where there are other starters with new final Hissui form, do you?

 

[FAST6191]

There is no reason why you would not see such a thing. It just needs someone to do it and it is probably not that complex as these things go (you are still effectively sticking within the parameters the game already knows -- it is when you start going way outside that and doing your own thing that it gets really hard). When nice user friendly tools appear or if such hacks appear before such tools are other matters entirely.
Or if you prefer a skilled hacker, for which there are several around, could at least have the groundwork for it all ironed out by the weekend (as in 2 days from now). Doing all the new art and designing something that is fun to play will probably take a bit longer (same as anybody can load up a FPS map editor but not anybody will have the results be something that basically becomes its own game).

The "I changed the starters" is an in joke as it were among those that curate lists of hacks. All hacks are valuable in their own way but if you are trying to get a list of things going on that change the game radically, translate things, fix key bugs and otherwise improve the game then having 200+ of those and people spamming up your forums announcing/asking for help with/... dilutes down your list somewhat, and a lot of the time can be achieved by the end user with 2 minutes on a program or selecting from a list with a cheat. Still it is well within reason to have such a thing -- find where the pokemon you are given are kept, take snaps before and after getting your first (sort any ASLR and pointers as well so might take a few more goes). Whatever wrote to that area will also have come somewhere from either a file in the program (this would be the scripting thing mentioned above if you are using pokemon hacker parlance) or part of the game's own code, as you would be presumably changing one pokemon identifier for another then that should be easy enough, maybe you have to do whatever the modern equivalent of EV, IV, nature and whatever else are if those are hardcoded in some way but you might be lucky and have it be randomly generated by the game.

 

[Draxzelex]

We'll see whatever people can come up with if its within their expectations and time.