GWAF is making a Pokemon rom hack

[mikey]

Professor Rowan says your pokemon has evolved already when you speak to him

you know I think the weird black spots are caused by the game having too much information on the overworld- inside areas don't have the spots

[mikey]

so I think to help balance the game the first thing you can do is remove one or two types (I recommend rock/dark, obviously), so that the total number of types in the game is 15 or 16, both of which are round numbers that people would like.
Ice should be super effective against water.
Normal could be super effective against psychic for balance reasons, though it's not really there flavorfully.

One of the main complaints about 4th gen is the lack of early fire types, and I think you could add a bit of variety to the early pokemon in general if you think it's a good idea.

[BlackDragonSlayer]

@removing types

N O
what do you have against tyranitar

[mikey]

it should/could be dragon type

[Dudeman]

Don't remove types, they were introduced for a reason and there's no problem with them. Dark is super effective against Psychic for balance reasons. That's why it was introduced.
Dunno how I feel about Ice being super effective against Water, but it's an interesting idea.

[mikey]

There are 17 types in the game, one ought to go at least.  I realize dark helps against psychic, but you can balance beyond that or remove rock type
Sheesh

[WaluigiTime64]

tbh i prefer the number 17 over 15 and 16

[mikey]

You would.

[WaluigiTime64]

Ok so I haven't actually been keeping up with the development of this project, but looking through the posts a few things kinda bother me. For the record, my ROM-hacking experience only really includes Super Mario World and a bit of Gen 3 Pokemon, so feel free to take anything I say with a grain of salt.

Question 1: What is the purpose of this ROM-hack?
So apparently you'll be making "edits to the map and story", but what does that entail? Is it going to be a massive overhaul with a new plot and characters, or just a basic edit of things to make them more convenient? Please consider your target audience when deciding between these choices, because the latter option has a considerably smaller range. I completely understand if this is a test-run before something larger.

Question 2: Who is your target audience?
Ok yeah probably should've asked this first. If it's just for NSM I really don't know what to say but if you're releasing it elsewhere then please make sure there's enough unique to your hack to be marketable (even though you don't really "advertise" these things, it's still important). Your target audience is also important in deciding how many of the fundamental elements of Pokemon you should change. If you are going to make heavy edits, it would be nice to inform people who don't know.

Question 3: Is your story already planned out?
If so it would be good to let a few of us assess it. It would also give me peace of mind to know that you aren't just making edits to Pokemon without having everything else ready in your mind or written down somewhere (which is the better option really).

Question 4: Have you managed everything you need for this hack?
Say if you need new textures (which is good for one with a new plot), are you able to make them yourself? Do you need to ask someone? Is someone available to do so? I believe I can trust you with music, but if there's any other assets you need make sure you can get them. This one is generally more lenient than the other three.

While this project is in stage Alpha no map or story edits will be made. Almost all edits will be on the Pokemon. I'm not sure about everything I'll need yet it terms of testing but I'll let you know.

What this quote tells me is that you have time to consider all of these things, if you haven't considered them already. I'm very interested in your response.

[mikey]

I assume the purpose is to remove the perceived flaws from gen 4, which would probably make it the best gen in the series.  If that is the case, maybe have health bars drop faster

He could Also just be doing this for fun, I know I'm having fun testing

[Trainer Ave]

First off, I'm really glad people have managed to get the hack working. That was something I was worried about.

@Waluigi
I do have a (almost) completed story in mind. Give me a little time and I'll release the info. The game will not be taking place in Sinnoh. However, due to the nature of the tools I am using, I very likely will not be able to completely alter the region layout though town and route layouts will all be changed. This hack will have a bunch of new characters.
My target audience is to anyone who may be a bit bored of the general formula that the Pokemon games have had from Gen 2-6. Until the hack reaches beta 1.5.0 (at which point all map and story edits will be complete) I will only be releasing the hack here. If you're looking for a general age demographic then I'd say 16+. (Though a younger person would still be able to play the game without problems).
As of right now I believe I have all the tools necessary for making this hack. (Except an abundance of time.)

@Noc
Ignore anything NPCs say as of right now. They will all be replaced anyways.
The black spots may be due to problems with your emulator. I have yet to experience this and I have yet to see anyone else mention them. Try a different emulator and see if the problem persists.
I do not have the ability to add or remove types other than to go to each individual move/Pokemon and change it.
I do not have the ability to alter type effectiveness.
If I had either of these abilities the only thing I would do is add the Fairy type.
Also don't worry about having access to Pokemon. Starting with Beta 1.5.0 I will begin altering what Pokemon can appear in each area. Remember one of my goals is to be able to obtain every Pokemon from Bulbasaur to Arceus.

[mikey]

Then I would strongly recommend stripping dark type away from everything and replacing it, since it gets rid of the ghost/dark issue as well

I couldn't figure out how to replace the .narc files, is that possibly what's causing the spots?

[WaluigiTime64]

Ok cool. Can't wait to see the concepts.

The game will not be taking place in Sinnoh.

If it's not taking place in a region we've seen so far, just remember that typically "new region = new Pokemon", although really that falls into a whole new category of difficult. If you're not confident in your ability to make new Pokemon then it's probably better to just stick with what's there. New pokemon could solve or cause balance issues, so unless you care enough (which really you shouldn't unless you have that all planned out and think you're capable of it) just don't bother. It might help some people to only see familiar Pokemon anyway.

Hacking RPGs takes a lot of planning so don't be to surprised to see me constantly asking if you have various things prepared. I believe you have everything under control, but I'll ask regardless.

[Trainer Ave]

@Noc
I will not be stripping the dark type from the game. The Ghost/Dark Pokemon however will have a counterbalance (I'm thinking either a new ability or a new item.) If worse comes to worst I'll make spiritomb pure ghost and sableye pure dark but I really don't want to do that.


If you couldn't replace the .narc files then you only got the settings changed in the randomizer which isn't much. You don't have the full hack.

If you couldn't find the poketool folder odds are that you don't have the correct base rom. Make sure it's the USA version of Platinum. If it is look again.

[mikey]

could you post screenshots of the path