Do you like what I see? That’s all you’ll see of it… for now.

Yes, reviewing how your own hack looks and works is a good idea. But a good hack doesn’t just start from my own assessment of my game – it depends on what others say about it.

So I’ve been stalking the “Let’s Play” videos on YouTube. Found this guy:

(I hope he realised he needs to fix that save error. Methinks I need to make it more obvious. And another thing: I realise it’s a year old.)

I also stumbled across this video of Brown from the same person. Orangeylicious!

And if you’ve played rijonAdventures, you will have seen “Zeke” within the game as the fourth Elite Four member!

Zeke is meant to be more of the “geek” character, and as such, if you know what’s printed on his shirt, you’re in-the-know and you’re awesome. I planned to make him a bit more of a geek by giving him a BlackBerry phone, but I realised I liked this idea better.

Anyone who’s battled him already will know he has no specific choice on Pokémon types. I really need to put him in more parts of the game, I guess. I was meaning to post this artwork eventually.

… and that’s all for today. :P

Lots of map updates. I’ll go through the first: I decided to throw out the original design of Origal Maze for something a bit bigger in scale. It’s still retaining that name (though I’m considering using route numbers) but it’s very, very different.

The second screenshot shows that I’ve changed the west of a certain route. But, I’ll leave that for later.

Oh, and finally, here’s a train station.

I honest have not tested this idea and I’m not even sure it’s going to work at all. Nevertheless, the Advance games present something curious and unused: the sprite behaviour 0x0B. You might wonder what’s so interesting about it, and let’s explain it. 0x0B, whenever the screen fades (often from exiting a menu – I haven’t actually checked if the XSE “fadescreen” command triggers it as well) the first person shifts from the hero to whatever sprite has this behaviour set to them provided that they’re on the screen.

Also, remember that “camera” command (“special 0×113″)? I believe that all it really does is, similar to what 0x0B does, shifts what the “camera” focuses on (to an invisible sprite, turning the hero into an NPC with the index 0xFF) and when people execute an applymovement command to 0x7F (which controls this original sprite) the screen moves too. (Question: does 0x7F exist only when the camera is activated?) And because sprite 0x7F can be treated like any other sprite, you can apply something as funky as a movesprite command to it. (Don’t attempt to hide 0x7F when the camera is activated, nor attempt to hide 0xFF when the player is in control of the camera. Something… funny will happen.)

Using the movesprite command on 0x7F as I mentioned above, in conjunction with the applymovement command 0x7F, you could effectively pan the camera along the level. 3D Zelda-style area overviews, anyone?

By the way, since the playable character has no script assigned to him/her, the game will crash when whatever’s being controlled attempts to talk to the player. I gotta wonder if there’s actually a way to give 0xFF a script.

Using RNG, I’ve thought up a similar system. It might actually be the same as this one; I’ll never know since the hack never released. My system (which I actually wrote on paper but now the sheet’s disappeared) involves changing weather depending on certain variables to another weather condition. For example, if it’s sunny in a map at the moment, then there may be a small chance that the sky will become cloudy (and then, the area will seemingly dim) when the player enters another map. When the player enters another map, there’s a chance that it will start raining, or it will become clear again. (Perhaps the chance that it starts raining will be somewhat high.) Enter another map, and the rain will either clear instantaneously (low chance), the rain will stop and the map will return to a cloudy state (high chance), or, for the worst possible condition, a thunderstorm will occur (low, low chance).

Perhaps if structured out, the script would look like, though my sheet of paper did it better so this might not work:

Variables values reserved:
1 = normal, 2 = cloudy, 3 = rain, 4 = thunderstorm, 5 = light fog, 6 = thick fog, 7 = diagonal fog
(5, 6, and 7 will not be used in this sample structure.)

Perhaps I’ll keep in mind that, upon switching to a different map where ever the script is loaded:
- If its currently sunny, 2/20 that it will be cloudy,  17/20 that it will remain sunny, and 1/20 determining that it will suddenly start raining.
- If it’s cloudy, 5/20 chance that it will suddenly become sunny again, 2/10 that it will remain cloudy,  and 10/20 chance that it will suddenly rain. 3/20 chance that the player will be slapped with a thunderstorm.
- If it’s currently raining, make a 3/20 chance that a thunderstorm will start, 7/20 that it will continue raining, 2/20 that the rain will cut out, and 8/20 that the rain will stop but the area remains cloudy.
- Finally, if a thunderstorm has popped up, leave a 13/20 chance that it will reduce into rain again, 3/20 that it’ll quickly become cloudy,  and a 4/20 chance that it will continue as-is.

Due to how the script is formatted, if the player enters a map where the script isn’t already implemented, the conditions in the maps prior will remain. So, if I entered a house in the town where the script was, when I exit, the RNG magic will start again.

Main script

- Check variable for weather condition set between maps
– If variable = 1, go to RNG script 1 (sets conditions when normal)
– If variable = 2, go to RNG script 2 (sets conditions when cloudy)
– If variable = 3, go to RNG script 3 (sets conditions when raining)
– If variable = 4, go to RNG script 4 (sets conditions during thunderstorm)

RNG script 1

- Start RNG, set to 20 (is this meant to be an integer value?) and store into LASTRESULT.
– Copy LASTRESULT to variable.
– (Following the chances set above) If RNG returns 0 (treat as hex?), go to script that sets weather to cloudy.
– If RNG returns 1, set to cloudy.
– If RNG returns 2, run script that ends script without doing anything.
– If RNG returns 3, do nothing.
– If RNG returns 4, do nothing.
(the rest of the script would be rinse and repeat of RNGs and such, so it’s cut for brevity)

Wow, I just gave other hackers a tip. Maybe though, if I decide to actually embrace variables, this script could be made much more efficient than it is here. If anyone wants to give me tips, by all means comment.

Rachel and Chad are two Gym Leaders of… South Rijon. That’s right; you heard right – South Rijon has Gym Leaders. The reward for defeating them is a secret right now, but unlike Gold/Silver, where you end up battling Gym Leaders at toned-down levels, South Rijon’s Gym Leaders are going to be challenging. When I say challenging, I mean Level 60+ challenging.

Oh, and the final challenge (South Rijon’s champion)? Expect a fight where the highest-levelled Pokémon is an astoundingly high Level 100. (The regret here is that you may, unless you cheat or find a random supply of Rare Candy, never actually be able to finish the game.) Who’s the hotshot with such a crazy, blasphemy-of-a-high levelled Pokémon?

That’s for another day.

Future updates will be posted here. Like this update I’m posting right now.

Lakes Entrance, South Rijon

Have you seen the new town in South Rijon? This is the first town you’ll come to.

Lakes Entrance is actually based a bit off the Victorian town of the same name. As such, it’s a town that’s far from the city and being the first town of South Rijon, it’s also a tourist area. (I forgot to put a Hotel in.) It’s got a beach and is known for Krabby fishing, too. (The real Lakes Entrance is popular because it’s abundant with crabs, mind you the crustacean kind, though they, unlike Krabby, are fished out, cooked and eaten.)

What more is there to South Rijon? I’ll reveal some information later on about it. Maybe.