The Ultimate Turnoff - What You Don't Want to See in a Hack

[Ninja Caterpie]

Misuse of "\n", "\l", and "\p" in a script.

Seriously, only use "\n" and then a "\l" if necessary in-between "\p"s. If you take a good look at the scripts in the original games, they never go any farther than that. I'm sick of seeing people use multiple "\l"s in a row, or even (god forbid) several "\n"s in succession. It looks incredibly unprofessional and it causes my enjoyment of playing a hack suffer as it becomes boring to scroll through these long textboxes. Because of the unlimited space for text provided by this error, you are more tempted to create run-on sentences if you can type for as long as you want. But if you are limited to a certain space, you have to choose your words wisely (like a haiku), making the game more aesthetically and linguistically appealing.

And with that, I have just figured out how to create the perfect ranting old lady (like Oldbag in Phoenix Wright)

 

[Surf]

I have a few pet peeves with new hacks.

1. Terrible Grammer; how hard is it to run your text through a spell checker.
2. Generic Hacks; hacks like Zel's Shiny Gold and DJG's Red Rangers that have just leeched off their popularity. There hacks are there ideas people, think of our own.
There is a hack in the scrapbox which I have offered to script for because it is new, orginised and nearly completly new!
3. Quiters; alright I guess I can't hold people completly to being quiters but they have good reason, like their ROM crashed or something came up.

I'm Mac_Mini and that's my two cents.


Edit:
Adding to my list;
1. n00b's who know nothing about hacking but hack anyway.(Example below)

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

3. Quiters; alright I guess I can't hold people completly to being quiters but they have good reason, like their ROM crashed or something came up.

Something coming up is alright, if that's a major something.

But a ROM Crash? That's still inexcusable. Especially if they start a brand new hack. >_>

My whole computer was reformatted without a backup when I was up to the third gym. I had to redownload everything and remake everything. :\ A ROM crashing is still not a good enough reason to quit. Even losing all your files isn't, if you're a good, dedicated hacker.

 

[Tropical Sunlight]

What I hate is.... Games that are too hard fom the beginning. Like you get a Charmander lvl. 5 and you must go through a forest, a cave, etc. Let people train first.

 

[~Poke~]

What turns me off is really bad spelling or net-talk. Also, I seem to have a phobia of hacks of FR/LG.

People are scared to try new things because they're afraid they might fail. So instead, they copy other ideas that they know is already popular so they'll make sure people like their hack. This needs to stop.

Hey, in both my hacks I tried (what I would consider) something new. The first one attracted a fair crowd, but I really didn't like it, so I gave it to someone else. The second one, which I'm still working on (the red link in my siggy) is my attempt to fuse Pokemon with one of my favourite games that is not well known. It has attracted ONE post. One. I'm thinking that it's pointless, and if I went with the usual "lets go to johto and catch lugia!" thing it would have been more successful.

 

[Surf]

Hey, in both my hacks I tried (what I would consider) something new. The first one attracted a fair crowd, but I really didn't like it, so I gave it to someone else. The second one, which I'm still working on (the red link in my siggy) is my attempt to fuse Pokemon with one of my favourite games that is not well known. It has attracted ONE post. One. I'm thinking that it's pointless, and if I went with the usual "lets go to johto and catch lugia!" thing it would have been more successful.

Who cares what other people think!
If the story that you've made is one that you like and will keep you motivated then go for it!
Look at Omega, no new posts and I was the last too post so I can't update.
Just keep throwing out cool updates and people will come.
Who cares if only one person replied, I would rather have one post from a respectable hacker than from a million n00bs.

Just remember that you are the one that your hacking for, not anyone else.
If your just hacking for popularity then quit. Now.
Always remember that you hack too enjoy yourself, not too make anyone else happy.
And if they like you game then they will come and play it.
Never give up!

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Hey, in both my hacks I tried (what I would consider) something new. The first one attracted a fair crowd, but I really didn't like it, so I gave it to someone else. The second one, which I'm still working on (the red link in my siggy) is my attempt to fuse Pokemon with one of my favourite games that is not well known. It has attracted ONE post. One. I'm thinking that it's pointless, and if I went with the usual "lets go to johto and catch lugia!" thing it would have been more successful.

Meh, so what? Popularity is moot when a good hack is a good hack. Prove it's good. Prove it's original. Stay with it and, once it gets popular, it'll get popular.

 

[Liquid Shadow]

You don't hack for popularity. You hack for fun and for your own pleasure. At least thats what I think. I wouldn't really care that much how many people post. I mean, sure if not many people pose you might get a LITTLE discouraged, but you're doing it for fun. I personally wouldn't like my hack to get TOO popular if I ever do make one. I mean yea, popularity, but you don't hack for popularity.

Anyways, this is what I hate MOST in a hack:

z0mg! I has Advancemap! I am teh L337 Haxx0r now!
z0mg! I finally learned how to use A-text. I am teh best haxx0r ever!
z0mg! Two people posted! This hack is gonna be a hit!!!
And, last.. Bad grammer. I can take it to some extent, like in Pokemon Liquid Crystal the grammar is good with some mistakes (which is NOT Linkandzelda's fault) But when you see things in a hack like:
"Hey u u wants a good pokemon? Ok here you go!" Which is bad grammar and at the same time a horrible script.

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

What NeoNemesis said is right. Who wants a popular hack when all you get is noobs coming and asking for more betas and when the next one will come out and everything. :\ Not me. I'd prefer to let my awesome, to-be-HOTY-winner hack develop and let pro people come and talk properly instead of a million and one generic comments. :\

 

[Surf]

What NeoNemesis said is right. Who wants a popular hack when all you get is noobs coming and asking for more betas and when the next one will come out and everything. :\ Not me. I'd prefer to let my awesome, to-be-HOTY-winner hack develop and let pro people come and talk properly instead of a million and one generic comments. :\

Exactly.
I would rather have someone like Ipro or Thrace or Cierra or Blazichu post 1 time and only have 1 post than 9281465438 posts by n00bs who only care about getting to play your game.
All they do is ask and ask until it's out then they want more.
Some of them even steal the hack itself :surprised:

 

[darkmewham2]

Not nagging at Thunder Emblem, but the police are like "You can't go past here, you don't have a Pokedex!" and I'm like, wtf. What the heck does a Pokedex have to do with going on a route with nothing but a little icy patch of grass with Pokemon the level of all the others out there? I still wonder what is up with that Pokedex...

 

[ckret2]

Not nagging at Thunder Emblem, but the police are like "You can't go past here, you don't have a Pokedex!" and I'm like, wtf. What the heck does a Pokedex have to do with going on a route with nothing but a little icy patch of grass with Pokemon the level of all the others out there? I still wonder what is up with that Pokedex...

Agreed. Any form of the Broken Bridge trope drives me crazy. That also goes for the canon games, when certain locations are blocked off for no reason until you get a badge or beat a certain bad guy. (I'm looking at you two, Cerulean City Police Officer and Saffron Silph Co. Rocket Grunt. You in particular, Grunt--shouldn't you be MORE vigilant if you've just learned that your Boss was beaten in Celadon, not falling asleep at your post?)

Also, needlessly sinuous mapping. When you have a north-south route that's twenty tiles high but you have to walk a total of eighty tiles to reach the bottom, you've got a problem. Not if it's supposed to be a maze, like in the Cerulean Cave, but just a normal route, and almost all the routes in the hack are like this. Not only is it bad mapping, but it's mapping that wastes way too much of my time.

 

[Evair]

I hate scratches in a pokemon hack

 

[Musician of Literature]

What Pisses me off in a Hack

The thing that makes me blow my top and not want to play hacks is the usage of inappropriate language. You know that there are kids that want to play these and you shouldn't get them involved by the use of a revamped ROM.

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

What I dislike in a rom hack is when people change one little thing and claim that they're awesome for it. No, what makes you an awesome rom hacker is when you do something that wasn't done 10000000 times before.

I also dislike remakes of other games. I don't mind themed games, but remakes show a lack of creativity, with the important exception of scripting (actually, themed games can be very creative on how someone uses a parody).

 

[Novus]

My biggest turnoff in a game is loads of spelling mistakes which I think ruins the flow of the game. Also, I hate playing with loads of tile errors and poorly made fakemon.

 

[Conan Edogawa]

I hate games that are rushed or poorly done. People should take their time and work hard on their plans. spelling mistakes and other errors are very annoying. Why not take the extra time to make it look and play better?

 

[machomuu]

I don't like hacks that hacks that use all the legendaries just because they can or think it would be "cool".

I also don't like hacks that use Ash as their champion because they think Red is Ash.

And I hate hacks that add a billion features that are impossible and they never thought of a way to implement them (that's what I love about ToxicPurple, ckret knows how he going to do what most (including me) would deem "impossible".)

 

[soyeahimbored]

Some of the main things I dislike in a hack are spelling errors or grammatical errors.

I am not the best tile creator so when I see "meh" tiles they usually are liked by me, but when they are no longer making sense nor connecting to what is around it then we have a problem.

Fakemon. I have yet to see a rom with GOOD fakemon in it.

 

[Maruno]

And I hate hacks that add a billion features that are impossible and they never thought of a way to implement them (that's what I love about ToxicPurple, ckret knows how he going to do what most (including me) would deem "impossible".)

To be more precise, you hate people saying they're going to put in features they probably have no idea how to implement (or would simply be impossible given the tech). Obviously if you were looking at a hack that actually had the "billion impossible features", it'd be rather impressive. ;)