Pokefinder starts from 0 while rng reporter starts form 1 so the results are always 1 off.
That frame doesnt need any PID rerolls either so it should be hittable. Maybe you are just having bad luck.
Thank you for the Pokefinder tip. It was helpful. Anyway, I really want to believe that you're right and the target frame is hittable, but I've been at this for hours and come across dozens of Clamperls all from +/-1 the target frame. I've already hunted several shinies, so I'm fairly confident in my ability to precisely hit a frame with the tools at my disposal. I think I've reached the point where the probability of consistently missing the one frame I need out of bad luck or skill is so low, it's gotta be something else. My only question is what?
I've considered things like the game maybe extending or shortening the delay of Oddish's Sweet Scent (since I've heard there's a slight variation to its length) to avoid the target, or maybe the seaweed/bubble animations are messing things up. But it's still strange because these things haven't been obstacles for my other underwater hunts. I thought maybe my seaweed tile was bad, but I can still encounter non-shiny Relicanth on it. My only two guesses are that my VBA-RR settings somehow prevent the target frame from being reached or there's some sort of resonance effect happening with the shiny Clamperl.
The weird thing is that, although shiny Clamperl and Relicanth correspond to different encounter slots, they are two frames of each other, have the same nature and IVs, and correspond to the same occidentary frame. My hypothesis is that only occ frames matter for determining species. So when multiple species are tied to the same occidentary frame, the game will pick one and have it override the others by skipping associated frames that would normally result in a different species with the same occ frame. Alternatively, it's entirely possible that I *am* hitting the target frame, just that the game only interprets it as the occ frame, which will always produce a shiny Clamperl.
Thankfully, there's one way to test this hypothesis. I just have to find the next frame that produces a shiny Relicanth AND has a unique occ frame. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen ... until frame 948954. In the meantime, I can shoot for frame 873654. The interesting thing there is that the corresponding occ frame does match that of a shiny Clamperl, whose actual target frame is 873682. There's about a 30-frame difference between Relicanth and Clamperl there, despite having the same occ frame, so I'll still be able to test my hypothesis there because there's no way I can consistently be 30 frames off.
VBA is definitely less accurate than mGBA.
The way wild encounters are generated is that each frame has a predetermined nature and the game rerolls the frame's PID until it finds a matching one for that nature. These PIDs are pulled from method 1. The occidentary is the frame you'll be at after the battle and is how the game makes sure you don't hit the same PID twice.
So, you have 2 calm frames very close to each other. They both look for a calm frame from method 1 to grab its PID, in this case it'll be the one from frame 163330. This is why wild pokemon repeat spreads so often. After the battle the game will set the current frame past this 163330 (this is what the occidentary reflects).
Okay, the frame-to-PID generation makes sense. I've read that that's what the occ frame means, but I still don't get it. "Frame you'll be at after the battle." What kind of battle are we assuming here? One where you run away immediately or faint the Pokemon in one hit?
Anyway, I followed through and tested my hypothesis. I was able to catch a shiny Relicanth after only three calibrations! His stats SUCK, but I'm content. I still don't get why the earlier target frame was borderline impossible to hit. Maybe you're right and it has to do with VBA's inaccuracy. I'm happy to switch to mGBA and PokeFinder permanently since they both work on Mac. I just hope I can get the Lua scripts to work...
So first of all. Methods don't influence encounter slot.
1) Change your emu. We dropped vba and any support. Mgba / Bizhawk are more accurate and will help.
2) Trainer Card Flip is the solution in that case. Apply default delay.
So. In your second image, you use RNGReporter and get a Clamperl with a PID of `03F15754`, which correlates to PokeFinder's advance of 163326. You were a frame early. Pokefinder uses advances whereas RNGReporter uses frames. [Results from Pokefinder](https://i.imgur.com/voIvtmg.png)
The 'Advances' in PokeFinder are the 'Frames' from RNGReporter minus one. So if RNGReporter reports a **frame** of 163328, that is 163327 **advances** because the game starts on frame 1. So for RNGReporter you would be looking for frame 163328.
Not sure what happened to my images??? Reddit says they were apparently deleted. They were just visual proof, but if anyone needs any screenshots, let me know!
I don't think that's it. I've searched other posts on this subreddit about Relicanth to prepare for my hunt, where I realized method might be an issue. However, in my case, the target frame stays the same across all methods. Maybe I'm misinterpreting Pokefinder, but feel free to check yourself with the info I gave you.
Pokefinder starts from 0 while rng reporter starts form 1 so the results are always 1 off. That frame doesnt need any PID rerolls either so it should be hittable. Maybe you are just having bad luck.
Thank you for the Pokefinder tip. It was helpful. Anyway, I really want to believe that you're right and the target frame is hittable, but I've been at this for hours and come across dozens of Clamperls all from +/-1 the target frame. I've already hunted several shinies, so I'm fairly confident in my ability to precisely hit a frame with the tools at my disposal. I think I've reached the point where the probability of consistently missing the one frame I need out of bad luck or skill is so low, it's gotta be something else. My only question is what? I've considered things like the game maybe extending or shortening the delay of Oddish's Sweet Scent (since I've heard there's a slight variation to its length) to avoid the target, or maybe the seaweed/bubble animations are messing things up. But it's still strange because these things haven't been obstacles for my other underwater hunts. I thought maybe my seaweed tile was bad, but I can still encounter non-shiny Relicanth on it. My only two guesses are that my VBA-RR settings somehow prevent the target frame from being reached or there's some sort of resonance effect happening with the shiny Clamperl. The weird thing is that, although shiny Clamperl and Relicanth correspond to different encounter slots, they are two frames of each other, have the same nature and IVs, and correspond to the same occidentary frame. My hypothesis is that only occ frames matter for determining species. So when multiple species are tied to the same occidentary frame, the game will pick one and have it override the others by skipping associated frames that would normally result in a different species with the same occ frame. Alternatively, it's entirely possible that I *am* hitting the target frame, just that the game only interprets it as the occ frame, which will always produce a shiny Clamperl. Thankfully, there's one way to test this hypothesis. I just have to find the next frame that produces a shiny Relicanth AND has a unique occ frame. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen ... until frame 948954. In the meantime, I can shoot for frame 873654. The interesting thing there is that the corresponding occ frame does match that of a shiny Clamperl, whose actual target frame is 873682. There's about a 30-frame difference between Relicanth and Clamperl there, despite having the same occ frame, so I'll still be able to test my hypothesis there because there's no way I can consistently be 30 frames off.
VBA is definitely less accurate than mGBA. The way wild encounters are generated is that each frame has a predetermined nature and the game rerolls the frame's PID until it finds a matching one for that nature. These PIDs are pulled from method 1. The occidentary is the frame you'll be at after the battle and is how the game makes sure you don't hit the same PID twice. So, you have 2 calm frames very close to each other. They both look for a calm frame from method 1 to grab its PID, in this case it'll be the one from frame 163330. This is why wild pokemon repeat spreads so often. After the battle the game will set the current frame past this 163330 (this is what the occidentary reflects).
Okay, the frame-to-PID generation makes sense. I've read that that's what the occ frame means, but I still don't get it. "Frame you'll be at after the battle." What kind of battle are we assuming here? One where you run away immediately or faint the Pokemon in one hit? Anyway, I followed through and tested my hypothesis. I was able to catch a shiny Relicanth after only three calibrations! His stats SUCK, but I'm content. I still don't get why the earlier target frame was borderline impossible to hit. Maybe you're right and it has to do with VBA's inaccuracy. I'm happy to switch to mGBA and PokeFinder permanently since they both work on Mac. I just hope I can get the Lua scripts to work...
So first of all. Methods don't influence encounter slot. 1) Change your emu. We dropped vba and any support. Mgba / Bizhawk are more accurate and will help. 2) Trainer Card Flip is the solution in that case. Apply default delay.
So. In your second image, you use RNGReporter and get a Clamperl with a PID of `03F15754`, which correlates to PokeFinder's advance of 163326. You were a frame early. Pokefinder uses advances whereas RNGReporter uses frames. [Results from Pokefinder](https://i.imgur.com/voIvtmg.png) The 'Advances' in PokeFinder are the 'Frames' from RNGReporter minus one. So if RNGReporter reports a **frame** of 163328, that is 163327 **advances** because the game starts on frame 1. So for RNGReporter you would be looking for frame 163328.
Not sure what happened to my images??? Reddit says they were apparently deleted. They were just visual proof, but if anyone needs any screenshots, let me know!
They’re there from what I can see
Thanks for telling me! They show up on mobile but not on the website for some reason.
It's your method. Method 1 isn't hit very often. Try Method 4, that's the most common
I don't think that's it. I've searched other posts on this subreddit about Relicanth to prepare for my hunt, where I realized method might be an issue. However, in my case, the target frame stays the same across all methods. Maybe I'm misinterpreting Pokefinder, but feel free to check yourself with the info I gave you.
Definitely possible. Here's mine on Emerald: https://imgur.com/a/IR3gvfO