[April Fools] Is this the biggest advancement in hacking since the rebirth of stan?!? it will not dissapoint you!

FIRST OF ALL I WANT TO SAY: This is NOT a playable demo. Now let us continue with the newz.

This is literally me today:

Hello guys, I have big news, probably life-changing for most if not all of you.

As we all know we are only in this community because it’s the next best thing, what we all truly want is to hack Pokémon, but Pokémon games are literally unhackable, there is no documentation and if you attempt to change the rom dumps in any way one of Game Freak’s ninjas instantly executes you, making the whole process somewhat harder.

Do not fear though, I am here to fix this, instead of just hacking regular old Fire Emblem we can get a step closer to Pokémon, I present to you guys: Volcano Badge.

Volcano Badge is exactly what you expect (probably not): a project for an extensive engine hack or Fire Emblem 8 that aims to translate Pokémon mechanics into a tactical rpg, it won’t just include abilities, moves and stats, it will also include useless shit like friendship, visual gender differences, effort values and shiny Pokémon that nobody will ever find because they aren’t even going to think about playing this shit.

I have been working on this project for about 30 years now, I was working on it before Sacred Stones was out, I was working on it before I had an internect connection, I was working on it before I was born.

Here you can get a taste of what Volcano Badge is all about, and how much people have been asking for it:

If you want to contribute to this project with art, ideas, code or just encouragement, I have only one question to ask you: why would you do that to yourself?

I promise you I am not secretly a Game Freak ninja and you will not die by my hand if you contact me demonstrating interest for this project.

According to a discussion I had over in the r/fe discord, I should note the changes in a readme, so here we go:
First of all, sorry if I repeat or miss some stuff, there is so many changes to list, some of these are yet to be implemented, but you get the idea

  • RNG seed is modified based in the frame a chapter is started at, so the first chapter will be a bit different for every player
  • Units are now Pokémon
  • Every unit has a class card
  • Level Up graphics have been changed a bit, the whole screen is going to be replaced eventually so just ignore it for now
  • Pokémon have a gender
  • Pokémon have a very low chance to be shiny, which only modifies their color and gives them a star in the stat screen, to give you an idea of how low this chance is: this actually happened to me during my testing, on my first try, and that made me question if my math was right or there was some broken thing with my rolls, and I went and did tests and collected data for hours, added it all up in a spreadsheet, the math checks out
  • Units will have moves instead of using weapons
  • Pokémon have up to two types, which can lower or increase damage taken from attacks
  • Using an attack of the same type as the Pokémon increases damage
  • They will also be able to have a held item
  • Max level has been raised to 100
  • Level will be calculated based on exp and growth type, instead of just being a number
  • Pokémon have a nature that modifies their stats
    • Natures affect either two stats or none, they can lower one stat by 10% and raise one stat by 10%
  • Pokémon have one ability, from a selection of up to 3 different ones based on species
  • Pokémon have 6 IVs/DVs, one for each battle stat, which affect stats
  • Pokémon is pretty popular but I wonder if anybody is going to take the time to read all of this
  • Pokémon also have EVs, which are gained by participating in battles and also affect stats
  • Pokémon don’t gain stats based on random rolls and growths, they have a base and follow these formulas
    • HP = ((2*Base+IV+EV/4)*level/100)+level+10
    • Other Stats = (((2*Base+IV+EV/4)*level/100)+5)*nature
  • There are no units, only “classes”, class is unit number*class number
  • Pokémon have happiness, which increases or decreases based on what happens to the Pokémon and has next to no uses, but gets cute icon in the stat screen
  • Pokémon, instead of promoting, can evolve through different methods, such as leveling up or getting an item used on them
  • Pokémon can learn moves by leveling up
  • Pokémon ninjas that will cut you down if you try to hack Pokémon
  • HP bars during battle are now based on % of HP, instead of total HP
  • Every old ailment, item, class, tileset, ability… will be removed from the game
  • Pokémon have a base movement stat, following the next formula and rules:
    • Movement = log(BaseSpeed2)^2 + log(IV+(EV/4))/2 + BaseSpeednature/100
    • This should mean a lot of Pokémon will have different movements, and you will see Pokémon change their movement when they evolve or gain EVs
      • Bulbasaur, with it’s 45 base speed, only has 4 movement, but (unless it has a speed reducing nature) can reach 5 with some luck and/or effort
        • Ivysaur, having 60 base speed, CAN have 4 movement, but it is rare, most of them will have 5, and can even get up to 6 with a speed boosting nature
          • Venasaur has 80 base speed, which gives him at least 5 movement, but you are way more likely to see it have 6, and can reach 7 with a speed boosting nature
            • Deoxys speed is the fastest Pokémon, and can have 8 to 10 movement
              • Shuckle, tied for slowest Pokémon, is pretty likely to have 1 movement, but can get up to an amazing 2 if everything is right
    • Unlike for every other stat, Speed modifiers give or reduce movement by 1, max possible movement is 15, lowest possible movement is 1
  • Pokémon have different movements costs on different terrain, based on their types
  • Pokémon con move and act in any order during their turn, but can only move once
  • Pokémon can’t use items
  • Each round of combat consists of all Pokémon of each team moving once, Pokémon move from fastest to slowest, but never twice in a round
  • Using an item ends the current Pokémon’s turn, and an item can’t be used after acting (but it can be used after moving)
  • And probably many, many more changes I have failed to mention
  • It’s Pokémon, you know Pokémon, probably, more than likely you do

And remember your pentagon, kids, celerity beats balance… Let us be transported to the Land of C&Ds and DMCAs…

19 Likes

Looking forward to this in 2020.

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I was told I should post a lot more screenshots so I made a gif which is just a lot of screenshots together in one file

Feel free to check if the stats match with one of those fancy pokemon stat calculators

Some more things:
space for level 100, and also the heart being full

evs affecting stats (and the heart when almost full)

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Rare footage of the title screen

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lord almighty it actually happened. ooooh no this is bad

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Oh god that hurts my soul it’s so bad.

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So why is it posted today of all days … seems suspicious

Ngl even if bait this is pretty legit

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This is the most Qutstanding thing I’ve ever seen.

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You know, i unironically hope that this is actually going to be a thing because this sure looks cool as hell.

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I’d play it.

I want to finish this with a few things, first of all, to everyone that wished this wasn’t a joke, the joke was this is actually real, this is a thing that’s happening, it will get a proper thread soon but the repo might not be set up yet because I’m moving.

I also want to show this to close April Fools:

of course, this is the beloved classic Pokémon Saphire, which we all know suffers from text line length issues, this is my attempt at making the problem milder.

It adds 4 extra tiles for characters which I think helps a ton.

You can download the EA installer here:

Shouldn’t matter if your Pokémon Saphire rom is clean or not seeing as there is no other stuff for it that I know of.

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the proyecct is deyd?

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As I’ve explained many times, this was started as something I can work on whenever I don’t have anything else I want to work on, so as long as I keep myself busy it won’t really get anywhere, the estimated arrival time was always “never”.

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