ROM Hack WCDPatcher

[TM2-Megatron]

When you do get back into it, I've since thought of one more major feature that it might be worth adding. Wonder Cards can potentially have the ability to be redistributed by players who've received them to their friends; either an infinite or finite number of times (like mixing records in the GBA games for the Eon Ticket, etc)... although to date, only the Secret Key has used this ability at all. It would be very easy to implement redistribution in the patcher, though... like the Platinum compatbility option, it could take the form of a drop down menu where you could either choose "No Change", "Unlimited Distribution", or enter your own value if you only want a finite number of redistributions (I believe the maximum value possible in this category is 254, since FF is the flag for an unlimited distribution). This is where the value is located in the Wonder Card and actual distro ROM, respectively (I'm not sure how you've gone about making the hex changes so far, whether to the WC prior to integration or the ROM as a whole after integration; so I just included both):

Wonder Card (with a no distributions flag):

Distro ROM (no distribution allowed, 16 distributions, and infinite distributions):

 

[MicShadow]

I have usually implemented the change into the wondercard prior to loading it into the distro.

I first read the wondercard and distro into memory.
Then make wondercard patches
Then copy the wondercard header info into the correct places of the distro. Then add it all together.

Anyway, last night i did some more work on the patcher, implementing my own (some parts borrowed, legally) ds rom CRC implementation.

And now I should be able to do this easy.

Anyway, is this just between friends, not the global distribution limit of the distro?

 

[TM2-Megatron]

This is between friends, yeah. Like mixing records in the GBA generation to give your friend an event obtained item like the Eon Ticket.

 

[MicShadow]

Anyway the new version is out 1.4

Download here

 

[TM2-Megatron]

That's great! It does pretty much everything somebody might want to do in patching a Wonder Card.

I'm not sure whether you plan to add icon changing or not (it doesn't really seem that necessary; but it could be more of a fun feature for some people), but if you do then I'd also change the wording for the friend distribution legend. While entering 0 is actually no change for 99.9% of all the WCs released to date, it does actually result in a change if you're patching the Secret Key WC (which has a redistribution limit of 5).

 

[MicShadow]

I see your point. Do you reckon removing the description text and adding a checkbox to signify a true 'no change' option?

 

[TM2-Megatron]

I see your point. Do you reckon removing the description text and adding a checkbox to signify a true 'no change' option?

Yeah, that would work.

 

[AlexMoron]

Also, there's an extra "return" in the description box that doesn't need to be there.

 

[MicShadow]

Alright i uploaded the version with the no change, and extra return fixed (lol). Link is same as last, just updated

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Perfect

If only there were a way to do some kind of fan-organzed event giveaway... using Pokesav, you can generate a PCD file for pretty much anything you want; there's a lot of potential for some fun in that.

 

[MicShadow]

Ha ha I agree, much fun could be had with such events

If there was enough cool people around here, id host one myself.

Anyway, in terms of the patcher, I think its pretty much complete with what I set out to do with it. So unless any bugs appear, I think ill leave this project as complete.
Thanks a hell of lot you guys for helping me develop this. Especially Rockman GFF, TM2-Megatron and AlexMoron. Couldn't of done it without you guys

 

[AlexMoron]

Fan-organized events is exactly why I'm in love with this program! Thanks to MicShadow (and all of us who were interested enough in this to help out testing it), I'm now one step closer to accomplishing this! The next step, of course, is learning how to make a legit enough Pokemon to make into a wonder card. If anyone finds anything or wants to learn themselves, be sure to share it here!

Thanks again for everything, MicShadow! I'm especially glad you kept at this instead of abandoning a great project.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

I've been browsing the Pokesav (now Project Pokemon) forums about the specific subject of making legal-looking Pokemon... the subject is still pretty new to me, but I think the two major ways a Pokemon might be identified as a hack are the IV/PID relationship, and trash bytes (or lack thereof). I'm still doing some looking into the whole thing, though.

I've examined a lot of the legit Wonder Cards up to Project Pokemon, and it appears as if the stats (IVs, PID) for the vast majority of Pokemon given away are randomly generated by the game itself when you pick up the Pokemon from the delivery guy. Pokesav reads the PID as "1", and the IVs all as "0" when it's meant for a random generation. For certain events, though, it seems like they will define certain things. The "Strongest Dragonite" and similar Japanese events have a predefined PID, but the IVs are still meant to be randomly generated by the game. With a set PID, though, there are only so many combinations of IVs you can get (the PIDs they chose for these ones probably result in above average IVs, hence the "Strongest" aspect of the giveaways).

 

[Zowayix]

With a set PID, though, there are only so many combinations of IVs you can get (the PIDs they chose for these ones probably result in above average IVs, hence the "Strongest" aspect of the giveaways).

Actually, no. Recent research has found that unlike most pokemon, there is no relationship whatsoever between PID and IVs for Mystery Gift pokemon.
So a Mystery Gift could have any IVs at all, and still be fully legal.

(Note: Legal means able to be generated by the game, but not necessarily actually generated by the game)

 

[TM2-Megatron]

With a set PID, though, there are only so many combinations of IVs you can get (the PIDs they chose for these ones probably result in above average IVs, hence the "Strongest" aspect of the giveaways).

Actually, no. Recent research has found that unlike most pokemon, there is no relationship whatsoever between PID and IVs for Mystery Gift pokemon.
So a Mystery Gift could have any IVs at all, and still be fully legal.

hm, I hadn't read that. I wonder why Nintendo would bother setting a predetermined PID for certain events and not others, then.

There was some kind of relationship between them for Generation 3 mystery gifts, though... but I'm not sure there are any programs to generate PIDs based on that relationship.

 

[bagszi]

Thanks, Finally that's works! I only had a console application before this, but the new 2009 events was not working with that one.
Now I have all the events to distribute. Hungary is not a nintendo country, so only our Pokémon club sends events for Hungarian fans.

Thanks from Hungary.

Also intrested about, if someone know a way to distribute Member card, Oak's letter and other items?

 

[MicShadow]

Thanks, Finally that's works! I only had a console application before this, but the new 2009 events was not working with that one.
Now I have all the events to distribute. Hungary is not a nintendo country, so only our Pokémon club sends events for Hungarian fans.

Thanks from Hungary.

Also intrested about, if someone know a way to distribute Member card, Oak's letter and other items?

Yes, just use the Pokesav to edit wondercards, to use whatever item you want

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Also intrested about, if someone know a way to distribute Member card, Oak's letter and other items?

Wonder Cards for these 2 items have been distributed in Japan, and are available for download from the Project Pokemon database, in the Japanese Items section:

http://projectpokemon.org/games/eventdownloadsitemsjap.php

The Japanese WCs can be integrated using this utility just like any North American ones can.

 

[wchill]

Heh, I just downloaded them using a Japanese Platinum ROM and stored them in files with Pokesav.
No need to deal with the new gay ass site anymore.

 

[MicShadow]

Just to let any users know, 1.4 had a relatively small feature missing. It now allows you to receive a wondercard twice. It does this by adding a random number to the wondercard header.

1.41 has this feature and is on the front page and here

Thanks to pokefan92 for the heads up

p.s by twice i mean exactly the same wondercard twice